ONTD Political

Info Post: Black History Month Week 3

7:41 pm - 02/19/2012
Notable Black People You Should Have Been Taught About But Probably Weren't

Warnings, Notes, and Disclaimers
SPECIFIC TRIGGER WARNINGS: Racism, disparing racial terms, etc.
IMAGE CONTENT: Black people
NOTES: Sorry about the lack of Info Post last weekend, it was my mom's birthday, I was tired, the Grammy's were on, and the Mass Effect 3 demo was launched early soooo yeah, it wasn't gonna happen.
DISCLAIMER: The N-word is featured in the article in uncensored 6-letter format.



Frederick Douglass


Homer Plessy

Waits for someone to ask why there's a white guy in this post...

Homer Plessey was the man in the middle of the 1896 Supreme Court ruling that confirmed the rule of "separate but equal" in U.S. law. Plessey was a light-skinned Creole of European and African descent. He was arrested and jailed in 1892 for sitting in a Louisiana railroad car designated for white people only. Plessy had purposely violated an 1890 state law, called the Separate Car law, which required that passengers on Louisiana trains be segregated by race. Plessy claimed in court that the Separate Car law violated the 13th and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution, but Louisiana Judge John Howard Ferguson found him guilty anyhow. By 1896 the case had gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the legality of Judge Ferguson's ruling by an 8-1 majority. The finding confirmed the doctrine of "separate but equal" -- the notion that segregation was legal as long as both blacks and whites had equal facilities. The case helped formalize legal segregation in the United States until it was finally outlawed by the Supreme Court in 1954 in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. | | Plessy v. Furguson

Dred Scott

Dred Scott was born a slave in Southampton County, Va. in 1795. Industrious and intelligent, he was employed as a farmhand, stevedore, craftsman, and general handyman. In 1819 his original owner moved to Huntsville, Ala., and later to St. Louis, Mo. In 1832 he died, and Scott was sold for $500 to a surgeon in the U.S. Army who took Scott to the free state of Illinois in 1834 and on to Wisconsin Territory. Later the doctor returned with Scott to Missouri.

When the surgeon died, Scott passed to John Sanford. During these years he had married and had two daughters. Scott had tried unsuccessfully to escape from slavery and later to buy his freedom. In 1846 he filed suit in the Missouri state courts for his freedom on the grounds that residence in a free territory had liberated him.

Scott's suit finally came before the U.S. Supreme Court. On March 6, 1857, in Dred Scott v. John Sanford, after much debate the Supreme Court ruled against Scott 7 to 2, with Chief Justice Roger B. Taney giving the majority opinion. According to Taney, Scott could not sue Sanford because he was not a U.S. citizen. The justice argued that Scott was not a citizen because he was both a black man and a slave. Taney's remarks that black men "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect" came as a severe blow to abolitionists.

This crucial decision electrified the country, for Taney had ruled that African Americans were not citizens of the United States and that an act of Congress (the Missouri Compromise of 1820) was unconstitutional. He also had redefined the relationship between the states and the Federal government, making possible the expansion of slavery into the territories. Southerners rejoiced at the verdict; abolitionists denounced it and even went as far as discrediting the legitimacy of the Court itself.

A few months after the decision, on May 26, 1857, Scott's owner freed him. Scott continued to live in St. Louis until his death on Sept. 17, 1858. Although African Americans would not become citizens of the United States until the ratification of the 14th Amendment (1868), Scott's bid for freedom remained the most momentous judicial event of the century. | Source | Dred Scott Decision

Sojourner Truth

[Sojourner Truth] was the self-given name, from 1843 onward, of Isabella Baumfree, an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, Ulster County, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son, she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man. Her best-known extemporaneous speech on racial inequalities, Ain't I a Woman?, was delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. During the Civil War, Truth helped recruit black troops for the Union Army; after the war, Truth tried unsuccessfully to secure land grants from the federal government for former slaves. | Source | Truth's Expanded Profile | Truth's Detailed Biography

Nat Turner

Nat Turner, born into slavery October 2, 1800, on a Southampton County plantation, became a preacher who claimed he;d been chosen by God to lead slaves from bondage. On August 21, 1831, he led a violent, disorganized insurrection. He hid for six weeks but was eventually caught and later hanged. The incident ended the emancipation movement in that region and led to even harsher laws against slaves. | Soure + full biography | Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion

Harriet Tubman

On March 7, 1849, Edward Brodess died on his farm at Bucktown at the age of 47, leaving Tubman and her family at risk of being sold to settle Brodess's debts. In the late fall of 1849 Tubman took her own liberty. She tapped into an Underground Railroad that was already functioning well on the Eastern Shore: traveling by night, using the North Star and instructions from white and black helpers, she found her way to Philadelphia. She sought work as a domestic, saving her money to help the rest of her family escape. From 1850 to 1860, Tubman conducted between eleven and thirteen escape missions, bringing away approximately seventy individuals, including her brothers, parents, and other family and friends, while also giving instructions to approximately fifty more who found their way to freedom independently.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 left most refugee slaves vulnerable to recapture, and many fled to the safety and protection of Canada. Indeed, Tubman brought many of her charges to St. Catharines, Ontario, where they settled into a growing community of freedom seekers. Her dangerous missions won the admiration of black and white abolitionists throughout the North who provided her with funds to continue her activities. | Source + detailed biography| Full Profile


Hank Aaron

Born into humble circumstances on February 5, 1934, in Mobile, Alabama, Henry Louis 'Hank' Aaron ascended the ranks of the Negro Leagues to become a major league baseball icon. Aaron played 23 years as an outfielder for the Atlanta Braves, during which time he broke many of baseball's most distinguished records, including most career home runs (755)--a record that stood for more than two decades. | Source

Muhammed Ali


Herb Carnegie




Shani Davis


Magic Johnson

If I have to explain who this is, you should be ashamed of yourself.
Expanded Biography | Magic Johnson and HIV, 20 Years Later | Magic Johnson and AIDS Activism

Michael Jordan

He was the greatest basketball player ever, or something like that, but his greatest lifetime achievments include being ageless and making bald sexy. | Source: me | Full Biography

Willie O'Ree

Hockey was about 10 years late when it came to integration. All the other professional sports, including tennis, bowling, golf, baseball, football, and boxing were racially integrated by 1950. Hockey was the holdout. It was the whitest sport. There were no black players, coaches, team owners, or sportswriters. O'Ree was the first black hockey player in the NHL's 50-year history, and he'd be the last for another 25 years. | Source + some edits by me

Tiger Woods

Made one of the most prolific achievements on this whole list by getting the masses interested pro golf. | Full Biography | PGA Tour Profile

Venus and Serena Williams

The Williams sisters are two professional American tennis players: Venus Williams born 1980, seven-time Grand Slam title winner (singles), and Serena Williams born 1981, thirteen-time Grand Slam title winner (singles), both of whom were coached from an early age by their father Richard Williams. | Williams Sisters | Serena Williams | Venus Williams

Civil Rights Leaders

Ralph Abernathy

Civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy was the best friend and close assistant of Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968). He followed King as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The organization used nonviolent means to fight for civil rights for African Americans. | Source + complete biography

Ella Baker

Baker was a driving force in the creation of the country's premier civil rights organizations. After graduating as valedictorian from North Carolina's Shaw University in 1927, Baker moved to New York City, where she encountered dire poverty, the result of the depression. She was a founding member of the Young Negroes Cooperative League, whose members pooled funds to buy products and services at reduced cost.

Baker joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1935 as a field secretary and later served as a national director. She scaled back her national responsibilities with the group in 1946 and worked at the local level to improve and integrate New York City's schools.

In 1957 Baker and several Southern black ministers and activists established the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a major force in organizing the civil rights movement. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. served as the group's first president and Baker as the director. She mainly worked behind the scenes, while King assumed the role as spokesman. Baker left the group in 1960, when she helped students organize the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at her alma mater, Shaw University. The committee gave young blacks a more organized voice in the civil rights movement. | Source

Angela Davis



Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Please refer to this post

Coretta Scott King

Civil rights activist. Born on April 27, 1927 in Marion, Alabama. Although best known as the wife of 1960s civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King established a distinguished career in activism in her own right. Working side-by-side with her husband throughout the 1950s and 1960s, King took part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and worked to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Her memoir, My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr., was published n 1969.

Following her husband's assassination in 1968, she continued their work, founding the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, GA. She served as the center's president and chief executive officer from its inception. | Source + full biography

Bayard Ruskin

[Ruskin] was an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, pacifism and non-violence, and gay rights. In the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), Rustin practiced nonviolence. He was a leading activist of the early 1947–1955 civil-rights movement, helping to initiate a 1947 Freedom Ride to challenge with civil disobedience racial segregation on interstate busing. He recognized Martin Luther King, Jr.'s leadership, and helped to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to strengthen King's leadership; Rustin promoted the philosophy of nonviolence and the practices of nonviolent resistance, which he had observed while working with Gandhi's movement in India. Rustin became a leading strategist of the civil rights movement from 1955–1968. He was the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which was headed by A. Philip Randolph, the leading African-American labor-union president and socialist. | Source

Malcolm X

To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. Detractors accused him of preaching racism, black supremacy, antisemitism, and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history. Malcolm X's father died—killed by white supremacists, it was rumored—when he was young, and at least one of his uncles was lynched. When he was thirteen, his mother was placed in a mental hospital, and he was placed in a series of foster homes.Source
*Note: His mother suffered a mental breakdown after witnessing her husband's murder. "When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, a party of hooded Klu Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home... Brandishing their shotguns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come out" (Malcolm X).

Medgar Evers



Rosa Parks

You should know who this woman is.
Facts About Rosa | Achievement Academy | Bio

Little Rock Nine

The Little Rock Nine were the nine African-American students involved in the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School. Their entrance into the school in 1957 sparked a nationwide crisis when Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, in defiance of a federal court order, called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the Nine from entering. President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by federalizing the National Guard and sending in units of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort the Nine into the school on September 25, 1957. The military presence remained for the duration of the school year. | Source

You may wonder what ever became of that hollering white woman in the above photo...

Learn more about Hazel Massery

Marcus Garvey

He founded the Black Star Line, part of the Back-to-Africa movement. | Full Biography

Dorothy Height




Huey P. Newton

Born in 1942, Huey P. Newton helped establish the Black Panther Party, becoming a leading figure in the black power movement of the 1960s. Along with friend Bobby Seale, the two formed the political organization, striving to create social programs for blacks in need. During the Party's existence, members clashed with the police several times. Newton died after being shot on the street in 1989. | Source | blackpanther.org

Bobby Seale

Bobby Seale was one of a generation of young African American radicals who broke away from the usually nonviolent civil rights movement to preach a doctrine of militant black empowerment, helping found the Black Panthers in 1966. In the 1970s, as the Black Panthers faded from public view, Seale took on a quieter role, working to improve social services in black neighborhoods and other causes. | Source

C.K. Steele


Jesse Jackson

You should know who this is.

Kweisi Mfume

As a congressman, Mfume became one of the most well-known African American politicians in Washington, D.C. Believing that he could achieve more for civil rights by working for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Mfume eventually left Congress to become president of the organization. | Source

Al Sharpton



Octavia Butler

Black American science fiction writer. | Bibliography

Clive Campbell

The father of hip-hop.
DJ Kool Herc

Bill Cosby


Dorothy Dandridge

She was the first black actress to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Pam Grier

Cinema's first female action star. | Bio

Alex Haley

He wrote the book Roots and coauthored The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

Toni Morrison

The first black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Lit. that has written an entire catalog of flawless fiction, yet who is most famous for her worst one.

Alice Walker

An American author and poet who won the Pulitzer for The Color Purple.

Langston Hughes

An American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. | Biography | Further Reading

Zora Neale Hurston


Hattie McDaniel

Stepin Fetchit



Berry Gordy, Jr.

A record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label. | Biography



Robert Johnson


Praise Saint Oprah

Sir Sidney Poitier

An actor, director, and producer, he forever altered the racial perceptions long held by both motion picture audiences and executives, rising to superstar status in an industry forever dominated on both sides of the camera by whites while becoming the first African-American ever to take home an Oscar for Best Actor. | Source | IMDB

Richard Pryor


P. Diddy

In 2011, Forbes estimated his net worth at $500 million, making him the richest figure in hip hop. | Biography

Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons is the third richest figure in hip-hop, having a net-worth estimate of $340 million as of April 2011. Russell Simmons has been vegan since 1998 and advocates the adoption of practicing Ahimsa and veganism citing animal rights along with the environmental and health benefits.

Simmons is also a long-time supporter for gay rights. He encourages marriage equality. In 2011, when Lowe's withdrew funding from the show All-American Muslim, Simmons promised to pay the Learning Channel for any revenue lost. | Source

Nina Simone

Will Smith
The go-to black man in white media.


Michael Jackson
The first black pop star, the King of Pop, and arguably one of the greatest pop artists to have ever lived. Double-crossed Paul McCartney. Not the first black artist to appear on MTV.

Whitney Houston

Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded female act of all-time. | Biography

Tyler Perry


Debi Thomas
Debra Janine "Debi" Thomas M.D. (born March 25, 1967) is an American figure skater and physician. She is the 1986 World champion and 1988 Olympic bronze medalist, having taken part in the Battle of the Carmens at those games. She was the first African-American to hold U.S. National titles in ladies' singles figure skating. Thomas was a pre-med student at Stanford University during this time although it was unusual for a top U.S. skater to go to college at the same time as competing. | Source

Halle Berry


The Wayans Family

The Wayans family is a family including many directors, screenwriters, comedians and actors. Their parents are Howell and Elvira Wayans. There are ten siblings in the first generation, with many children of their own. | The family | The Most Powerful Family in Hollywood

Government Officials

James Armistead
Born into slavery, James Armistead volunteered to join the U.S. Army to fight in the American Revolution. He served under Marquis de Lafayette, who employed Armistead as a spy to infiltrate the British forces. He did so successfully, becoming was a valuable highly solider. Despite his incredible service, he returned to his owner after the war. Upon receiving freedom, he bought land and farmed. | Biography

Condoleezza Rice


She is fluent in English, Spanish, French and Russian. She was a child piano prodigy. Was a competetive figure skater. Skipped grades in school. Graduated HS at 15. | Source

Dr. Daurene Lewis

Among her ancestors is Rose Fortune, a Philadelphian who became the first female police officer in North America. Daurene has proudly upheld her family’s legacy of hard work and tremendous accomplishment. She’s already had several careers, including becoming the first black mayor in Nova Scotia and the first female black mayor in North America. As she says, “Idle is a four-letter word.” | Source

President Barack Obama

Oh come on now... | The White House | Biography | Wiki | BarackObama.com

Queen Michelle Obama

First Lady's Official Website | Mrs. O - A First Lady Fashion Site

Colin Powell


Clarence Thomas

Clarence Thomas was born on June 23, 1948 in Pinpoint, Georgia. He served in the administrations of Reagan and George H.W. Bush. The retirement of African American Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall led George W. Bush to nominate Thomas as his replacement and he was narrowly confirmed in 1991. Thomas is a conservative justice and has come down against Roe v. Wade and school desegregation. | Source

Robert Smalls

Smalls was an enslaved African American who, during and after the American Civil War, became a ship's pilot, sea captain, and politician. He freed himself and his family from slavery on May 13, 1862, by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, the Planter, in Charleston harbor, and sailing it to freedom.

He was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, and eventually became a politician, serving in the South Carolina State legislature and the United States House of Representatives. During his career, Smalls authored state legislation that gave South Carolina the first free and compulsory public school system in the United States, founded the Republican Party of South Carolina, and convinced President Lincoln to accept African-American soldiers into the Union army. He is notable as the last Republican to represent South Carolina's 5th congressional district until 2010. | Source

Thurgood Marshall


Before becoming a judge, Marshall was a lawyer who was best remembered for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education. | Source | Brown v. Board of Education

Daniel "Chappie" James


Religious Leaders

Louis Farrakhan

Louis Farrakhan was born Louis Eugene Walcott on May 11, 1933, in the Bronx, New York. He joined the Nation of Islam in 1955 and in 1978 led a breakaway group of the Nation of Islam which preserved the original teachings of Elijah Muhammad. In the 1980s, Farrakhan was criticized for making anti-Semitic remarks; he denies being anti-Semitic. In 1995, he led the Million Man March on Washington D.C. | Source

Peter Williams, Sr.

Scholars, Educators, and Entrepreneurs

Dr. Maya Angelou


Mary McLeod Bethune



Dr. Ben Carson

Ben Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 18, 1951. His mother, though undereducated herself, pushed her sons to read and to believe in themselves. Carson went from a poor student to an honors one, going on to medical school and becoming Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital at age 33. He became famous for his ground-breaking work separating conjoined twins. | Bio

Ken Chenault
American business executive. He has been the CEO and Chairman of American Express since 2001. He is the third African-American CEO of a Fortune 500 company. | Source

W.E.B. DuBois

was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, and editor. Born in western Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a tolerant community and experienced little racism as a child. After graduating from Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate, he became a professor of history, sociology, and economics at Atlanta University. Du Bois was one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. | Source

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

He was the first African American to receive the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship. He has received numerous honorary degrees and awards for his teaching, research, and development of academic institutions to study black culture. In 2002, Gates was selected to give the Jefferson Lecture, in recognition of his "distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities". | Bio

Ernest Everest Just


Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington, born in 1856, was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915. Representative of the last generation of black leaders born in slavery, he spoke on behalf of blacks living in the South. | Source

Cornel West

Thank you ladypolitik, all I can focus on is his scarf now...

West is an American philosopher, author, critic, actor, civil rights activist and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America. He currently teaches at Princeton University. West is known for his combination of political and moral insight and criticism and his contribution to the post-1960s civil rights movement. The bulk of his work focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society and the means by which people act and react to their "radical conditionedness." West draws intellectual contributions from such diverse traditions as the African American Baptist Church, pragmatism and transcendentalism. | Source

Carter G. Woodson

Known as the “Father of Black History,” Woodson was the son of former slaves, and understood how important gaining a proper education is when striving to secure and make the most out of one’s divine right of freedom. Although he did not begin his formal education until he was 20 years old, his dedication to study enabled him to earn a high school diploma in West Virginia and bachelor and master’s degrees from the University of Chicago in just a few years.
In 1912, Woodson became the second African American to earn a PhD at Harvard University. | Source

Alain Leroy Locke
Locke was an American writer, philosopher, educator, and patron of the arts. He is best known for his writings on and about the Harlem Renaissance. He is regarded as the "Father of the Harlem Renaissance". | Source

Scientists and Inventors

Benjamin Banneker
Banneker was a free African American astronomer, mathematician, surveyor, almanac author and farmer. |

Patricia Bath


Edward Alexander Bouchet

Benjamin Bradley
Benjamin Bradley is credited with developing a working steam engine for a sloop-of-war in the 1840's. Bradley was unable to patent his work under United States law, which forbade a slave from patenting his steam engine inventions. However, he was able to purchase his freedom with the proceeds of his work. | Source | Wiki

George Washington Carver



Lloyd Augustus Hall

Samuel Elmer Imes

Dr. Mae Jemison

She became the first black woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992. After her medical education and a brief general practice, Jemison served in the Peace Corps from 1985 to 1987. She resigned from NASA in 1993 to form a company researching the application of technology to daily life. She is a dancer, and holds 9 honorary doctorates in science, engineering, letters, and the humanities. | Source

Percy Lavon Julian


Elijah J. McCoy

Sarah Breedlove "Madame C.J." Walker


Dr. Daniel Hale Williams

Roger Arliner Young


Additional Links</i>
List of African-American Firsts
Notable Black People

Mod Notes
Coming in March... LGBTQIA Megapost, Human Trafficking, Domestic Violence, and Israel/Palestine.

I've also fucking HAD IT with formatting this damn post!

I wish I could spotlight everyone but the character limit prevents that, so please list any additional people that deserve to be spotlighted in the comments!
ericadawn16 20th-Feb-2012 04:38 am (UTC)
Lewis Howard Latimer who made the lightbulb viable.
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