Black History Month

Black History Month

Black History Month began as "Negro History Week," which was created in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, a noted African American historian, scholar, educator, and publisher. It became a month-long celebration in 1976. The month of February was chosen to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

Black History Month, also known as African-American History Month in America, is an annual observance in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom for remembrance

African-American Educator, Entrepreneur & Inventor

Annie Malone   One of the nation's wealthiest African Americans was Annie Malone, founder and owner.   

Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone (August 9, 1869—May 10, 1957) was an African-American  businesswoman, educator,  inventor and philanthropist. Annie was two years younger than Madam C. J. Walker. She had launched her hair care business four years before Sarah Breedlove (later known as Madam C. J. Walker). In the early 1900s Madam Walker worked as a "Poro Agent" for Annie for about one year.

Wangari Maathai

Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, of the Green Belt Movement, the organization she founded in Kenya.  Maathai began promoting the planting of trees to reverse deforestation and provide firewood for African women in 1976.  Nearly three decades later, in 2004, she was given the Nobel Prize for her work. She died in 2011.  

 The first African-American woman in space

Mae C. Jemison

Astronaut Physician 

Dr. Mae Carol Jemison became the first black woman to travel into outer space on 12 September 1992, on an 8-day orbit aboard the spacecraft Endeavour. Raised in Chicago, she went to Stanford at the age of 16 and graduated in 1977. She then earned her medical degree from Cornell University and became a physician in 1981. She practiced medicine in Los Angeles and served in the Peace Corps in Africa before being approved for astronaut training with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1987. She spent the next six years at NASA, ending up on mission STS-47 aboard the shuttle Endeavour in 1992. After leaving NASA in 1993 she founded the Jemison Group, a research and consulting firm, and became active in several educational programs. She also wrote a memoir for young readers, Find Where the Wind Goes (2001).

Madam C. J. Walker

Sarah Breedlove (December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919), known as Madam C. J. Walker, was an African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a political and social activist. Eulogized as the first female self-made millionaire in America, she invented the world's first hair-straightening formula. ..

 

Charles Drew    Physician 

Dr. Charles Drew is the father of the modern blood bank. In 1940 he published a paper showing that when plasma is separated from the rest of human blood, it can be stored for much longer periods of time. This discovery allowed the creation of blood banks, where donated plasma could be kept until urgently needed. Drew became the medical director of the first Red Cross blood bank in 1941, and his discovery saved uncounted lives during World War II. Drew spent much of his later career teaching at Howard University in Washington, D.C.,; he also became chief of staff and medical director at nearby Freedman’s Hospital. He died after a 1950.

Courtesy of:  www.who2.com