Fred Hampton was an American civil rights leader, deputy chairman of the Black Panther Party Illinois chapter, and founder of the City of Chicago’s first Rainbow Coalition.
Black History Month
Garrett Morgan was an African-American inventor, businessman, and community leader who is credited with inventing an improved sewing machine and traffic signal, a hair-straightening product, and a respiratory device that would later provide the blueprint for World War I gas masks.
Gloria Richardson Dandridge was the first woman in the United States to lead a civil rights movement outside of the Deep South as co-founder of the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC).
Benjamin Banneker was a mathematician, astronomer, landowner, and author of a commercially successful series of almanacs.
Mary Bowser operated as a Union spy in the White House of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Aside from being the only place in town with an espresso machine, Magic Capital Grille is doing something else that no other restaurant in Colon is doing. They are celebrating Black History Month.
Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller was the first African American psychiatrist and a pioneer in the study of Alzheimer’s disease.
A.M. Darke is first person to create an open-source platform dedicated to black hair.
Black hair has long been undervalued, and poorly represented. Not only in gaming or other types of simulations, but also with toys available, non-toxic hair care products by big name companies, and television. Proper representation can help eliminate prejudice and restore a sense of cultural pride.
Elizabeth Freeman, best known as “Mum Bett,” was the first Black woman to sue and win her freedom in the state of Massachusetts.
This is the story of Tom Molineaux, America’s first international boxing superstar.
WSV’s Madison “Mocha” Hunter shares a powerful piece she penned titled “Fannie Lou Hamer: Appropriating Nikki Giovanni’s Rosa Parks.”
Maggie Lena Walker was the first woman to found a bank.
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams III was the first surgeon to successfully perform open heart surgery in 1893.
WSV’s Aundrea Sayrie writes, “Birthed out of a need to preserve the history that had too long been purposely manipulated, Black History Month has always been accompanied by controversy. However, it provides a unique opportunity to center Blackness outside of the context of conflict or conflict resolution. Due to erasure through whitewashing and omission there is a ton of Black history that is not taught in schools, so it is also a time for enlightenment, acknowledgement, and engaging conversations between strangers and friends.”
WSV’s Aundrea Sayrie writes about Aviator Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman, the first Black female pilot in U.S. History.
WSV’s Aundrea Sayrie writes about the man behind the March on Washington, Civil Rights icon Bayard Rustin. This event and plenty more surrounding Martin Luther King, Jr.’s achievements fail to recognize his right-hand man. It was Rustin who had strategically organized the march in only eight weeks.
WSV’s Eddie Leboeuf writes about the “strength” and “incredible legacy” of Black American abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth.
WSV columnist Aundrea Sayrie details the background of Carter Godwin Woodson, known as the “Father of Black History,” as well as how the month-long celebration of Black contributions and achievement came to be.