Black History Month: February 27th
Rebel In Law
On this day in 1872 Charlotte Ray became the first black woman lawyer. She was both a teacher and a student at Howard University while teaching there she registered in the Law Department; aware of the school’s questionable policy on admitting women, she applied under the name of “C.E. Ray” and was admitted. In the law school she specialized in commercial law.
Soon after her admission to the bar, she was forced to give up her practice due to poor business, and by 1879 had returned to New York where she worked as a teacher. After 1895 Ray became active in the National Association of Colored Women.
In March of 2006, The Northeastern University School of Law chapter of Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity International chose to honor Ray by naming their newly-chartered chapter after her, in recognition of her place as the first female, African-American attorney.
Black History Month: February 26th
The Greatest
On this day in 1964, the Kentucky boxer known to all as Cassius Clay, changed his name to Muhammad Ali as he accepted Islam and rejected Christianity. “I believe in the religion of Islam. I believe in Allah and in peace…I’m not a Christian anymore.”
Muhammad Ali would go on to become a three-time World Heavyweight Champion, who is widely considered one of the greatest heavyweight championship boxers of all time. As an amateur, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
In 1967, Ali refused to be inducted into the U.S. military based on his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War. He was arrested and found guilty on draft evasion charges, stripped of his boxing title, and his boxing license was suspended. He was not imprisoned, but did not fight again for nearly four years while his appeal worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was successful.
Ali was involved in several historic boxing matches against Joe Frazier and George Foreman. He suffered only five losses while amassing 56 wins. In 1999, Ali was crowned “Sportsman of the Century” by Sports Illustrated.
Black History Month: February 25th
My Hero
Martin Luther King Jr. an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon.
A Baptist minister that was ordained on February 25th 1948, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. King’s efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history.
In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.
By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986.
Black History Month: February 24th
Lieutenant General
Frank E. Petersen Jr. became the first black general in the United States Marine Corps. He was also the first African-American Marine Corps aviator.
Peterson retired from the Marine Corps in 1988 after 38 years of service. At the time of his retirement he was by date of aviator designation the senior ranking aviator in the U.S. Marine Corps and the United States Navy with respective titles of “Silver Hawk” and “Gray Eagle”. His date of designation as an aviator also precedes all other aviators in the U.S. Air Force and Army.
Petersen served two combat tours in two conflicts: Korea (1953) and Vietnam (1968). His first tactical assignment was with Marine Fighter Squadron 212 during the Korean conflict. He flew over 350 combat missions with over 4,000 hours in various fighter/attack aircraft.
Black History Month: February 23rd
The Father of Pan-Africanism
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on this date. W.E.B. Du Bois was an American civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, historian, author, and editor. He attempted virtually every possible solution to the problem of twentieth-century racism, scholarship, propaganda, integration, national self-determination, human rights, cultural and economic separatism, politics, international communism, expatriation, third world solidarity.
Du Bois wrote many books and his most significant works are The Philadelphia Negro, The Souls of Black Folk, John Brown, Black Reconstruction, and Black Folk, Then and Now. His book The Negro influenced the work of several pioneer Africanist scholars, such as Drusilla Dunjee Houston and William Leo Hansberry.
Du Bois is viewed by many as a modern day prophet highlighted by his “Credo” a prose-poem written in 1900.
I believe in God who made of one blood all races that dwell on earth. I believe that all men, black and brown and white, are brothers, varying, through Time and Opportunity, in form and gift and feature, but differing in no essential particular, and alike in soul and in the possibility of infinite development.
Especially do I believe in the Negro Race; in the beauty of its genius, the sweetness of its soul, and its strength in that meekness which shall yet inherit this turbulent earth.
I believe in pride of race and lineage and self; in pride of self so deep as to scorn injustice to other selves; in pride of lineage so great as to despise no man’s father; in pride of race so chivalrous as neither to offer bastardy to the weak nor beg wedlock of the strong, knowing that men may be brothers in Christ, even though they be not brothers-in-law.
I believe in Service — humble reverent service, from the blackening of boots to the whitening of souls; for Work is Heaven, Idleness Hell, and Wage is the “Well done!” of the Master who summoned all that labor and are heavy laden, making no distinction between the black sweating cotton-hands of Georgia and the First Families of Virginia, since all distinction not based on deed is devilish and not divine.
I believe in the Devil and his angels, who want only work to narrow the opportunity of struggling human beings, especially if they be black; who spit in the faces of the fallen, strike them that cannot strike again, believe the worst and work to prove it, hating the image which their Maker stamped on a brother’s soul.
I believe in the Prince of Peace. I believe that War is Murder. I believe that armies and navies are at bottom the tinsel and braggadocio of oppression and wrong; and I believe that the wicked conquest of weaker and darker nations by nations whiter and stronger but foreshadows the death of that strength.
I believe in Liberty for all men; the space to stretch their arms and their souls; the right to breathe and the right to vote, the freedom to choose their friends, enjoy the sunshine and ride on the railroads, uncursed by color; thinking, dreaming, working as they will in a kingdom of God and love.
I believe in the training of children black even as white; the leading out of little souls into the green pastures and beside the still waters, not for pelf or peace, but for Life lit by some large vision of beauty and goodness and truth; lest we forget, and the sons of the fathers, like Esau, for mere meat barter their birthright in a mighty nation.
Finally, I believe in Patience — patience with the weakness of the Weak and the strength of the Strong, the prejudice of the ignorant and the ignorance of the Blind; patience with the tardy triumph of Joy and the mad chastening of Sorrow — patience with God.
Black History Month: February 22nd
Happy Birthday
On this day 33 years ago the world was introduced to Calvin Casey III who is the President & Chief Executive Officer of Sports Grind Entertainment. Sports Grind Entertainment, LLC was founded by Calvin Casey in 2003. He’s a native of San Antonio and graduate of Roosevelt High School.
He lead the movement and pushed for the Sports Grind Radio Show to debut on September 13, 2004 on KLUP a non-sports station in San Antonio. His drive pushed the show onto the airwaves of the Ticket 760 a 24/7 sports radio station in 2007.
Black History Month: February 21st
Creator Of Modern Warfare
Otis Boykin on February 21, 1965 patented the Electrical Resistor. U.S. 2,972,726 Which is the electrical device used in all guided missiles and IBM computers, plus 26 other electronic devices including a control unit for an artificial heart stimulator (pacemaker).
He began his career as a laboratory assistant testing automatic controls for aircraft. One of Boykin’s first achievements was a type of resistor used in computers, radios, television sets, and a variety of electronic devices.
Some of his other inventions included a variable resistor used in guided missiles, small component thick-film resistors for computers. The innovations in resistor design reduced the cost of producing electronic controls for radio and television, for both military and commercial applications. Other inventions by Otis Boykin also included a burglarproof cash register and chemical air filter.
Black History Month: February 20th
The Lion of Anacostia
In 1895 abolitionist Frederick Douglass died on this date in Washington, DC. Douglas was born into slavery and is best known for his role in bringing the harsh realities of slavery to the attention of white Americans, at the same time being a living example of the fallacy of claims that black Americans were intellectually inferior to whites. He was an American abolitionist, women’s suffragist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer.
He was a firm believer in the equality of all people, whether black, female, Native American, or recent immigrant. He was fond of saying, “I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.”
Black History Month: February 19th
1st
Vonetta Flowers became the first black gold medalist in the history of the Winter Olympic Games. She and partner Jull Brakken won the inagural women’s two-person bobsled event.
Black History Month: February 18th
Beloved
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed black characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved. Morrison was born on this day.
Black History Month: February 17th
NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team
On this day Jim Brown was born. Brown made his mark as an American former professional football player and as an actor. He is best known for his exceptional and record-setting nine-year career as a running back for the NFL Cleveland Browns from 1957 to 1965.
Brown founded the Amer-I-Can Program where he works with kids caught up in the gang scene in Los Angeles, California and Cleveland through this Amer-I-Can program. It is a life management skills organization that operates in inner cities and prisons.
In 2002, he was named by The Sporting News as the greatest professional football player ever. He is considered to be one of the greatest professional athletes the U.S. has ever produced.
Black History Month: February 16
Think Of One Think Of The Other
Smokin’ Joe Frazier was an Olympic and World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, active from the mid 1960s to the early 1980s. Frazier was a popular champion, reprising himself in cameo roles in several Hollywood films, and professionally is perhaps most famous for his trilogy of Heavyweight Championship fights with Muhammad Ali.
Frazier had a bullying fighting style, depending on bobbing, weaving and power punching. He is perhaps most famous for his vicious left hooks.
Muhammad Ali was a three-time World Heavyweight Champion, who is widely considered one of the greatest heavyweight championship boxers of all time. He won a gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. After turning professional, he went on to become the first boxer to win the lineal heavyweight championship three times.
Ali was involved in several historic boxing matches. Notable among these are three with rival Joe Frazier. Ali was well known for his unorthodox fighting style, which he described as “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”, and employing techniques such as the rope-a-dope.
Black History Month: February 15th
Unforgettable
Nat King Cole was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, his popular musical fame can associated to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres. He recorded over 30 studio albums and 10 compilations as well as being the first black American to host a television variety show. His popularity has maintained since his death on February 15, 1965.
He is widely considered one of the most important musical personalities in United States history.
Black History Month: February 14th
Honor Our Soldiers Past & Present
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American pilots in the U.S. armed forces. Beginning in 1941, select groups of extensively tested and rigorously trained African-Americans were trained at The Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
The Tuskegee Airmen went on to fight in World War II as the 332nd Fighter Group of the US Army Air Corps. They were particularly successful in their missions as bomber escorts in Europe.
Black History Month: February 13th
Diversity Is Important
On February 13, 1970, Joseph L. Searles III became the first black floor member and floor broker in the New York Stock Exchange. He worked as a floor partner in the firm of Neburger, Loeb and Company.
Black History Month: February 12th
Oldest Civil Rights Organization
On this day back in 1909 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in New York City by a group of black and white citizens committed to social justice.
NAACP is the nation’s largest and strongest civil rights organization with its main objective being to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of United States and eliminate race prejudice. The NAACP seeks remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes.
Black History Month: February 11th
Chief Petty Officer
Alex Haley was one of America’s greatest biographers, scriptwriter and author who became famous with the publication of the novel ROOTS, which covered seven American generations as they are taken slaves to the United States. The book was adapted to television series, and woke up an interest in genealogy, particularly among African-Americans.
Haley once said that Roots was not so much history as it was a study of mythmaking.
“What Roots gets at in whatever form, is that it touches the pulse of how alike we human beings are when you get down to the bottom, beneath these man-imposed differences.”
Haley also penned other spenid books like The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
Black History Month: February 10th
30th United States Secretary Of Commerce
Ronald H. Brown, attorney and political leader, was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee on this day, becoming the first Black in U.S. history to be elected head of a major national political party and a playing a pivotal role in the Clinton presidential campaign.
Brown went on to be appointed U.S. Commerce secretary in the Clinton administration, the first Black in that post as well. Tragically he died in 1996 when he and 32 others died in a plane crash while on a diplomatic mission in Croatia.
Black History Month: February 9th
"Don't look back, something might be gaining on you."
On this day Satchel Paige was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971, the first player to be inducted from the Negro leagues. He pitched in both the Negro leagues and in Major League Baseball and the oldest rookie to play Major League Baseball at the age of 42 debuting for the Cleveland Indians. He played with the St. Louis Browns until age 47 and represented them in the Major League All-Star Game in both 1952 and 1953. His professional playing career lasted from 1926 until 1966.
Black History Month: February 8th
The Queen Of TV
On this day, daytime and TV icon Oprah Winfrey becomes the first African American woman to host a nationally syndicated talk show in 1986. Her talk show has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history. It’s lead her to be ranked the richest African American of the 20th century and beyond and was once the world’s only black billionaire.
Winfrey experienced considerable hardship during her childhood, including being raped at the age of nine and becoming pregnant at 14; her son died in infancy. Winfrey later landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. After boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.
The rest the say is history.
Black History Month: February 7th
Father of Black History
Carter G. Woodson created Negro History week on on this date back in 1926, in 1976 it became Black History Month.
Woodson was a historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. He was one of the first scholars to value and study Black History. He recognized and acted upon the importance of a people having an awareness and knowledge of their contributions to humanity and left behind an impressive legacy.
Black History Month: February 6th
Hall Of Famer
On this date tennis great and leader of social causes Arthur Ashe died from complications from AIDS he contracted from a blood transfusion. A sad day indeed but one we can look back and celebrate a veteran of the U.S. Army, AIDS activist, founder for the Institute for Urban Health, Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year and winner of three time grand slam titles.
Arthur, was an active civil rights supporter was a member of a delegation of that visited South Africa to helped with political change in the country as it approached racial integration. He was arrested on January 11, 1985, for protesting outside the South African embassy in Washington, D.C. during an anti-apartheid rally and on September 9, 1992, outside the White House for protesting on the crackdown on Haitian refugees.
Ashe also famously said “Success is a journey, not a destination.”
Black History Month: February 5th
Hall Of Famer
On this day Hank Aaron, one of baseballs elite on and off, was born. The man they called “Hammerin’ Hank” career spanned the from the years 1954 through 1976, played for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves in the National League, and his last two years (1975–76) with the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League.
His most notable achievement was setting the MLB record for most career home runs with 755, which he held for 33 years until being surpassed by San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds on August 7, 2007.
He is the only player to hit 30 or more home runs in a season at least fifteen times. He is also one of only four players to have at least seventeen seasons with 150 or more hits. Aaron made the All-Star team every year from 1955 until 1975 and won three Gold Glove Awards. Aaron holds the MLB records for the most career runs batted in (2,297), the most career extra base hits (1,477), and the most career total bases (6,856). Aaron is also in the top five for career hits with 3,771 (third) and runs with 2,174, which is tied for fourth with Babe Ruth).
In 1957, he won the National League Most Valuable Player Award and helped the Milwaukee franchise to a World Series victory.
Black History Month: February 4th
Rosa Parks 1913-2005
On this day civil rights activist Rosa Parks, whom the U.S. Congress later called the “Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement”, was born.
On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks, age 42, refused to obey bus driver James Blake’s order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger and her actions eventually fueled the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Parks act of defiance became an important symbol of the modern Civil Rights Movement and Parks became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation.
