"…I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and the root of the problem. He was an eloquent spokesman for his point of view and no one can honestly doubt that Malcolm had a great concern for the problems we face as a race."
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a telegram to Betty Shabazz after the murder of Malcolm X.
GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER
Agricultural Scientist
(1860-1943)
If an honest history of the deep South is ever written, Dr. George Washington Carver will stand out as one of the truly great men of his time.
Born of slave parents in 1860 in Diamond, Missouri, Dr. Carver almost single-handedly revolutionized southern agriculture. From his small laboratory on the campus of Tuskegee Institute flowed hundreds of discoveries and products from the once neglected peanut. From the peanut Dr. Carver discovered meal, instant and dry coffee, bleach, tar remover, wood filler, metal polish, paper, ink, shaving cream, rubbing oil, linoleum, synthetic rubber, and plastics. From the soybean he obtained flour, breakfast food, and milk.
It is highly doubtful if any person has done as much for southern agriculture as Dr. Carver. Dr. Carver died in 1943 and was buried next to Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute.
On July 17, 1960 the George Washington Carver National Monument was dedicated at Dr. Carver's birth site. This was the first U.S. federal monument dedicated to a African-American.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil-Rights Leader
(1929 - 1968)
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.~
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 at his family home in Atlanta, Georgia. King was an eloquent Baptist minister and leader of the civil-rights movement in America from the Mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968. King promoted non-violent means to achieve civil-rights reform and was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
King's grandfather was a Baptist preacher. His father was pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church. King earned his own Bachelor of Divinity degree from Crozier Theological Seminary in 1951 and earned his Doctor of Philosophy from Boston University in 1955.
While at seminary King became acquainted with Mohandas Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolent social protest. On a trip to India in 1959 King met with followers of Gandhi. During these discussions he became more convinced than ever that nonviolent resistance was the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom.
As a pastor of a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama, King lead a Black bus boycott. He and ninety others were arrested and indicted under the provisions of a law making it illegal to conspire to obstruct the operation of a business. King and several others were found guilty, but appealed their case. As the bus boycott dragged on, King was gaining a national reputation. The ultimate success of the Montgomery bus boycott made King a national hero.
Dr. King's 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail" inspired a growing national civil rights movement. In Birmingham, the goal was to completely end the system of segregation in every aspect of public life (stores, no separate bathrooms and drinking fountains, etc.) and in job discrimination. Also in 1963, King led a massive march on Washington DC where he delivered his now famous, "I Have A Dream" speech. King's tactics of active nonviolence (sit-ins, protest marches) had put civil-rights squarely on the national agenda.
On April 4, 1968, King was shot by James Earl Ray while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was only 39 at the time of his death. Dr. King was turning his attention to a nationwide campaign to help the poor at the time of his assassination. He had never wavered in his insistence that nonviolence must remain the central tactic of the civil-rights movement, nor in his faith that everyone in America would some day attain equal justice.
FOUR LITTLE GIRLS
IN THE EARLY MORNING OF SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1963, (ON CHURCH YOUTH DAY), KKK MEMBERS PLANTED 19 STICKS OF DYNAMITE IN THE BASEMENT OF THE CHURCH. - AT ABOUT 10:25 AM, WHEN 80 CHILDREN WERE WALKING INTO THE BASEMENT ASSEMBLY ROOM FOR CLOSING PRAYERS, THE BOMB EXPLODED. 4-GIRLS WERE KILLED.
ADDIE MEA COLLINS (AGE-14)
DENISE MCNAIR (11)
CAROLE ROBERTSON (14)
AND CYNTHIA WESLEY (14)
22-OTHERS WERE INJURED. OUTRAGED AT THE BOMBING, RIOTS BROKE OUT ACROSS BIRMINGHAM, WITH 2-MORE AFRICAN AMERICAN YOUTHS DEAD BY THE END OF DAY.
JOHNNIE ROBERTSON (AGE-16), SHOT BY THE POLICE,
AND VIRGIL WARE (13), KILLED BY 2 WHITES.
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
(1856-1915)
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an african american political leader, educator, presidential advisor, and author. He was one of the dominant figures in african american history in the United States from 1890 to 1915.
Washington was born into slavery in Franklin County, Virginia. At the age of 9, he was freed from slavery and moved with his family to West Virginia, where he learned to read and write while working at manual labor jobs. At the age of sixteen, he went to Hampton, Virginia to Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, now Hampton University, to train as a teacher. In 1881, he was named as the first leader of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He was granted an honorary Masters of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1896 and an honorary Doctorate degree from Dartmouth College in 1901.
Washington received national prominence for his famous Atlanta Address of 1895, attracting the attention of politicians and the public as a popular spokesperson for African American citizens. Although labeled by some activists as an "accommodator", his work cooperating with white people and enlisting the support of wealthy philanthropists helped raise funds to establish and operate dozens of small community schools and institutions of higher education for the betterment of black persons throughout the South.
In addition to the substantial contributions in the field of education, Dr. Washington did much to improve the overall friendship and working relationship between the races in the United States. His autobiography, Up From Slavery, first published in 1901, is still widely read.
THURGOOD MARSHALL
Assoc. Justice, U.S. Supreme Court.
(1908-1993)
Born July 2, 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland, he graduated from Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania.
He served as counsel and chief counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and argued the groundbreaking case of Brown vs. Board of Education before the United States Supreme Court which effectively made segregration of the races in public schools illegal.
In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson appointed him to the Supreme Court, replacing the retiring Justice Tom Clark of Texas. He was the first black to serve on the Court and was, in most reports, an almost larger-than-life figure there.
He stepped down from the Court in July 1991 due to failing health and died of heart failure on January 24, 1993 at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland.
He was buried in Section 5 of Arlington National Cemetery, near the graves of fellow Justices, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., William O. Douglas, William J. Brennan and Potter Stewart.
MALCOLM X
AND
MARTIN L. KING JR.
BENJAMIN BANNEKER
Mathematician, Inventor, Essayist, and Astronomer
(1731-1806)
Born on November 9, 1731 near Elliott City, Maryland, Benjamin Banneker was one of America's greatest intellectuals and scientists.
Benjamin Banneker was an essayist, inventor, mathematician, and astronomer. Because of his dark skin and great intellect he was called the "sable genius."
Benjamin Banneker was a self-taught mathematician and astronomer. While still a youth he made a wooden clock which kept accurate time past the date that Banneker died. This clock is believed to be the first clock wholly made in America.
In 1791, he served on a project to make a survey for the District of Columbia, helping to design the layout for our Nation's capital.
Deeply interested in natural phenomena, Banneker started publishing an almanac in 1791 and continued its publication until 1802. He published a treatise on bees, did a mathematical study on the cycle of the seventeen-year locust, and became a pamphleteer for the anti-slavery movement. He was internationally known for his accomplishments and became an advisor to President Thomas Jefferson. He died on his farm on October 9, 1906.
MARCUS GARVEY
Leader and Philosopher
(1887-1940)
Among Black leaders Marcus Garvey was unique. Born August 17, 1887 in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, Marcus Mosiah Garvey's popularity was universal.
His program for the return of African people to their motherland shook the foundations of three empires. All subsequent Black power movements have owed a debt to his example.
In building his Universal Negro Improvement Association he sought "To improve the condition of the race with the view of establishing a nation in Africa where Blacks will be given the opportunity to develop by themselves."
In his famous Philosophies and Opinions, Marcus Garvey wrote, "Where is the Black man's government? Where is his president, his country and his ambassadors, his army, his navy, his men of big affairs?"
Founded in 1914, the UNIA grew in just five years to include to include over six million followers. He built newspapers, schools, churches, a shipping company, printing operations, food and clothing stores.
In 1919, Marcus launched the Black Star Shipping Lines. His program was one of Black self-determination and independence and set the theme for all Black development today. He died in London, England on June 10, 1940.
ROSEWOOD MASSACRE (1923)
THE DISTURBING PICTURES BELOW ARE THOSE THAT SHOW VERY LITTLE OF WHAT TOOK PLACE AT THE “ROSEWOOD MASSACREâ€, IN 1923. A WHITE, MARRIED WOMAN STAGGERED OUT TO THE MIDDLE OF TOWN SCREAMING THAT A BLACK (N_____) HAD BEAT AND RAPED HER. BLACKS WERE BEATEN, SHOT, LYNCED, BURNED ALIVE, MURDERED, AND FORCED TO FLEE FROM A COMMUNITY IN WHICH THEY OWNED THE LAND AND MANY OF THE BUSINESSES. IT TOOK OVER 75 YEARS FOR THE TRUTH TO COME OUT. THE TRUTH BEING THAT THE WHITE WOMAN WAS HAVING AN AFFAIR WITH A WHITE MAN AND HE IS THE ONE THAT ASSULTED HER.
CHARLES DREW
Physician and Pioneer of blood transfusion techniques
(1904-1950)
Charles Drew (1904-1950) was born on June 3, 1904 in Washington, D.C. Charles Drew excelled in academics and sports during his graduate studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Charles Drew was also a honor student at McGill University Medical School in Montreal, where he specialized in physiological anatomy. Charles Drew researched blood plasma and transfusions in New York City. It was during his work at Columbia University where he made his discoveries relating to the preservation of blood. By separating the liquid red blood cells from the near solid plasma and freezing the two separately, he found that blood could be preserved and reconstituted at a later date.
Charles Drew's system for the storing of blood plasma (blood bank) revolutionized the medical profession. Dr. Drew also established the American Red Cross blood bank, of which he was the first director, and he organized the world's first blood bank drive, nicknamed "Blood for Britain". His official title for the blood drive was Medical Director of the first Plasma Division for Blood Transfusion, supplying blood plasma to the British during World War II. The British military used his process extensively during World War II, establishing mobile blood banks to aid in the treatment of wounded soldiers at the front lines. In 1941, the American Red Cross decided to set up blood donor stations to collect plasma for the U.S. armed forces.
After the war, Charles Drew took up the Chair of Surgery at Howard University, Washington, D.C. He received the Spingarn Medal in 1944 for his contributions to medical science.
Charles R. Drew died at the age of 46 from injuries suffered in a car accident in North Carolina. Newspaper accounts said that the nearest hospital refused to admit Dr. Drew because of his race, and that vital time was lost in taking him further away to a black hospital. However, this conflicts with the account of Dr. John Ford, another black physician who was traveling with Dr. Drew at the time of the accident: "We all received the very best of care. The doctors started treating us immediately.... I can truthfully say that no efforts were spared in the treatment of Dr. Drew, and, contrary to popular myth, the fact that he was a Negro did not in any way limit the care that was given to him." The nature of Dr. Drew's injuries excluded a blood transfusion; it would have killed a man in his condition faster.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Journalist, Activist, Ambassador
(1817-1895)
When Frederick A. Douglass was born in 1817 on a Maryland plantation, his given name was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. Frederick Douglass constantly fought against his slave condition and was constantly in trouble with the overseer. When he escaped on September 3, 1838, and he settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, he changed his name to Frederick Douglass.
In 1845, against the advice of his friends, Douglass decided to write an account of his life, fully aware of the possibility that this would mark him as the Bailey runaway slave. The autobiography was called The Narrative Of The Life and Times Of Frederick Douglass.
In 1845, Douglass founded and edited the North Star newspaper. When the Civil War broke out, Frederick Douglass urged President Lincoln to free and arm the slaves.
He was also a great spokesman for universal suffrage, women's rights, and world peace. In 1848 Douglass participated in the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York.
In 1872 he ran for vice president on the Equal Rights Party ticket. In 1889 he was appointed minister to Haiti. He died on February 20, 1895.
THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY
Armed with sincerity, the words of revolu- tionaries such as Malcolm X and Mao Tse- Tung, law books, and rifles, The Black Panther Party fed the hungry, protected the weak from racist police, and presented a new para- digm of Black political and social activism. Founded in October 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in Oakland, Ca., the party grew to at least 5,000 members nation- wide, with chapters in more than half of Ame- rica and an international branch in Algeria.
Its "survival programs"-such as food giveaways, free health clinics and free breakfast programs for children, were popular fixtures in Black neighborhoods in the early 1970s, but for the white power structure and the vast majority of the white public, the Panthers represented only anti-government militancy; a view which engen- dered the wrath of the police and FBI and led to the murder of several Party members by law enforcement. Some were little more than teens when they were killed, like 20-year-old Illinois state leader Fred Hampton, who was gunned down with fellow panther Mark Clarke, in an early morning raid of the group's Chicago head- quarters on Dec. 4, 1969. the attack, aided by the help of an infiltrator, was masterminded by the city's police force and the FBI powerful counter intelligence program (CONTEL-PRO).
W.E.B. DUBOIS
Author, Educator, Intellectual
(1868-1963)
No single title does credit to the prodigious talents of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois. Born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, he has been labeled an educator, author, historian, sociologist, philosopher, poet, leader and radical.
In 1903 his famous book Souls of Black Folks was published. Perhaps his greatest fame came from his debate with Booker T. Washington over the type of education needed by African Americans. Booker T. Washington stressed vocational education, whereas DuBois insisted on training in the liberal arts and in the humanities.
He was one of the founders of the NAACP and editor of its famous journal The Crisis. He was also the first Black to receive a doctoral degree from Harvard University. In 1919 he initiated the Pan African Conferences in Paris.
On behalf of the NAACP at the United Nations, he tried to get a firm anti-colonial commitment from the United States in 1945 and in 1947 presented a protest against the Jim Crow laws.
His theme in his later years was always economic democracy and the channeling of Black Power through a unified Black society. He died on October 27,1963 in Accra, Ghana where he had established his new home.
NELSON ROLIHLAHLA MANDELA
Activist, Attorney, President of the ANC, and Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
(1918-present)
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe. When his father died, Mandela and was groomed for becoming chief of his local tribe, however Mandela would never be able to make this commitment.
Mandela was educated at University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand and qualified in law in 1942. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party's apartheid policies after 1948.
In 1952 Mandela and Tambo, (his close friend), opened the first Black Law firm in South Africa. The Transvaal Law Society tried to have it closed down, but this action was blocked by the South African Supreme Court.
Mandela went on trial for treason in 1956-1961 and was acquitted in 1961.
After the banning of the ANC in 1960, Nelson Mandela argued for the setting up of a military wing within the ANC. In June 1961, the ANC executive considered his proposal on the use of violent tactics and agreed that those members who wished to involve themselves in Mandela's campaign would not be stopped from doing so by the ANC. This led to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to five years' imprisonment with hard labour. In 1963, when many fellow leaders of the ANC and the Umkhonto we Sizwe were arrested, Mandela was brought to stand trial with them for plotting to overthrow the government by violence. His statement from the dock received considerable international publicity. On June 12, 1964, eight of the accused, including Mandela, were sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1964 to 1982, he was incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town; thereafter, he was at Pollsmoor Prison, nearby on the mainland.
During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela's reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom.
Nelson Mandela was released on February 11, 1990. After his release, he plunged himself wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National Chairperson.
In 1993 Nelson Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with F.W. De Klerk.
EL-HAJJ MALIK
EL-SHABAZZ
“WE KNOW HIM THEN, FOR WHAT HE WAS AND IS -A PRINCE -OUR OWN BLACK SHINING PRINCE! -WHO DIDN’T HESITATE TO DIE, BECAUSE HE LOVED US SO.â€
WORDS SPOKEN BY OSSIE DAVIS, WHEN HE DELIVERED THE EULOGY FOR MALCOLM X.
MAY OSSIE REST IN PEACE ALSO.
PAUL ROBESON
athlete, actor, singer, cultural scholar, author, and political activist.
(1898-1976)
Paul Robeson was the epitome of the 20th-century Renaissance man. He was an exceptional athlete, actor, singer, cultural scholar, author, and political activist. His talents made him a revered man of his time, yet his radical political beliefs all but erased him from popular history. Today, more than one hundred years after his birth, Robeson is just beginning to receive the credit he is due.
Paul Leroy Robeson was born on April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey. He was the youngest son of five children born to Presbyterian minister Reverend William Drew Robeson (1845-1918) and former schoolteacher Maria Louisa Bustill Robeson (1853-1904). He was the grandson of slaves and the son of a minister who escaped slavery and became one of Rutgers University's most famous and accomplished alumni.
In 1915, Robeson was awarded a four-year academic scholarship to Rutgers University. He was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society and Rutgers' Cap & Skull Honor Society. He was valedictorian of his graduating class in 1919. Rutgers awarded Robeson honorary Master of Arts degree in 1932 and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters on his 75th birthday in 1973.
In addition to his academic achievements, Robeson had an outstanding athletic career as the first Black football player at the University winning 15 varsity letters in baseball, football, basketball, and track and field. He was named to the All American Football Team twice in spite of open racism and violence expressed by his teammates. In 1995, he was inducted posthumously into the College Football Hall of Fame.
In 1923, Robeson earned a law degree from the Columbia Law School. There, he met his wife Eslanda Cordoza Goode, the first black woman to head a pathology laboratory. Robeson took a job with a law firm after graduation, but left the firm and the practice of law when a white secretary refused to take dictation from him. He decided to use his artistic talents in theater and music to promote African and African-American history and culture.
What followed was a brilliant career as an actor and concert singer which spanned nearly four decades. Robeson made his concert debut in 1925 with a highly successful program of Black music. He went on to such stage successes in Show Boat, Porgy and Bess and Othello, which was hailed by some critics as the play's greatest interpretation. He starred in 13 films between the 1920s and the early 1940s, but decided to stop making movies until there were better opportunities for blacks.
Paul Robeson used his deep baritone voice to promote black spirituals, to share the cultures with other countries, and to support the social movements of his time. He sang for peace and justice in 25 languages throughout the United States, Africa, Asia Europe, and the Soviet Union.
Robeson became known as a citizen of the world, as comfortable with the people of Moscow and Nairobi as with the people of Harlem. Wherever he traveled, Robeson championed the cause of the common person. Among his friends, he counted future African Leader Jomo Kenyatta, India's Nehru, anarchist Emma Goldman and writers James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway.
During the McCarthy Era of the 1950s, every attempt was made to silence and discredit Paul Robeson because of his political views and dedication to civil rights. In 1958, he embarked on a successful three-year tour of Europe and Australia. Unfortunately, illness ended his professional career in 1961. He lived the remainder of his years as a private citizen in his sister's home in Philadelphia. He died on January 23, 1976 at the age of 77.
For his steadfast commitment to his social conscience, Paul Robeson - activist, scholar, artist, athlete - was shunted from the center of America's cultural stage to its wings. For a generation, his memory was obscured and his achievements forgotten, but the centennial of his 1989 birth has sparked new debate about his place in our history. The spotlight that one again shines on this Rutgers alumnus illuminates a rich legacy - a man of fierce dignity striving against immense adversity.
DR. CARTER GODWIN WOODSON
"FATHER OF BLACK HISTORYâ€
Author, editor, publisher, and historian.
(1875-1950)
~~Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.~~
These are the words of Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, distinguished Black author, editor, publisher, and historian (December 1875 - April 1950). Carter G. Woodson believed that Blacks should know their past in order to participate intelligently in the affairs in our country. He strongly believed that Black history - which others have tried so diligently to erase - is a firm foundation for young Black Americans to build on in order to become productive citizens of our society.
Known as the "Father of Black History," Carter G. Woodson holds an outstanding position in early 20th century American history. Woodson authored numerous scholarly books on the positive contributions of Blacks to the development of America. He also published many magazine articles analyzing the contributions and role of Black Americans. He reached out to schools and the general public through the establishment of several key organizations and founded Negro History Week (precursor to Black History Month). His message was that Blacks should be proud of their heritage and that other Americans should also understand it.
Carter G. Woodson was born in New Canton, Buckingham County, Virginia, to former slaves Anne Eliza (Riddle) and James Henry Woodson. Although his parents could neither read nor write, Carter G. Woodson credits his father for influencing the course of his life. His father, he later wrote, insisted that "learning to accept insult, to compromise on principle, to mislead your fellow man, or to betray your people, is to lose your soul."
His father supported the family on his earnings as a carpenter. As one of a large and poor family, young Carter G. Woodson was brought up without the "ordinary comforts of life." He was not able to attend school during much of its five-month term because helping on the farm took priority over a formal education. Determined not to be defeated by this setback, Carter was able "largely by self-instruction to master the fundamentals of common school subjects by the time he was seventeen." Ambitious for more education, Carter and his brother Robert Henry moved to Huntington, West Virginia, where they hoped to attend the Douglass High School. However, Carter was forced to earn his living as a miner in Fayette County coal fields and was able to devote only a few months each year to his schooling. In 1895, a twenty-year-old Carter entered Douglass High School, where he received his diploma in less than two years.
From 1897 to 1900, Carter G. Woodson began teaching in Winona, Fayette County. In 1900, he returned to Huntington to become the principal of Douglass H.S.; he finally received his Bachelor of Literature degree from Berea College, Kentucky. From 1903 to 1907, he was a school supervisor in the Philippines. Later he traveled throughout Europe and Asia and studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris. In 1908, he received his M.A. from the University of Chicago, and in 1912, he received his Ph.D. in history from Harvard University.
During his lifetime, Dr. Woodson developed an important philosophy of history. History, he insisted, was not the mere gathering of facts. The object of historical study is to arrive at a reasonable interpretation of the facts. History is more than political and military records of peoples and nations. It must include some description of the social conditions of the period being studied.
Woodson's work endures in the institutions and activities he founded and promoted. In 1915, he and several friends in Chicago established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. The following year, the Journal of Negro History appeared, one of the oldest learned journals in the United States. In 1926, he developed Negro History Week and in 1937 published the first issue of the Negro History Bulletin.
Dr. Woodson often said that he hoped the time would come when Negro History Week would be unnecessary; when all Americans would willingly recognize the contributions of Black Americans as a legitimate and integral part of the history of this country. Dr. Woodson's outstanding historical research influenced others to carry on his work. Among these have been such noted historians as John Hope Franklin, Charles Wesley, and Benjamin Quarles. Whether it's called Black history, Negro history, Afro-American history, or African American history, his philosophy has made the study of Black history a legitimate and acceptable area of intellectual inquiry. Dr. Woodson's concept has given a profound sense of dignity to all Black Americans.
Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa (c.1745-1797)
Olaudah Equiano was born in a village in Nigeria. At the age of 11 he was abducted and sold into slavery. He was eventually sold to a British Naval Officer and worked as a seaman who renamed him as Gustavus Vassa.
During the Seven Year War (1756-1763), Equiano served as a powder carrier with the Royal Navy.
In 1776 Equiano bought his freedom and he continued to make a living at sea and also became significantly involved in the movement for the abolition of slavery.
In 1789 he published his autobiography. He died on 31st March 1797.
~ BOOKER T. WASHINGTON ~
~ SUCCESS ~
“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life
as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed†BTW
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON'S School on Wheels
~~~"Thank you Sistah Friend"~~~
ALEX HALEY
THE WATTS RIOTS
THE
UNDERGROUND
RAILROAD
HARRIET ROSS
TUBMAN"MOSES"
THE SLAVE TRADE
SHAKA ZULU
BOB MARLEY
"OUR FAMILY IN FRANCE"
“OUR FAMILY IN AFRICA“
“OUR FAMILY IN JAMAICA“
“OUR FAMILY IN HOLLAND“
“OUR FAMILY IN BRITAIN“
“OUR FAMILY IN EGYPT“
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X [bbzSpace Falling Objects]