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Tribute to Black History

African Americans have contributed much to build the United States of America into what it is.  They have given their blood, sweat, passion, intelligence, and yes also their strength to an America that often refuses to recognize such contributions.  Such contributions span the limits of human activity.  Below we list some of these 'forgotten' Americans who just happened to also be of African descent. 

We have decided to focus on less known individuals rather than stress the often cited like; Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, etc. Those cited below, also deserve recognition. Their individual contributions to America and the world, were no less monumental, and for that reason, deserve to be honored and never forgotten.  Their lives should serve as an inspiration to youth, as examples of  what can be accomplished even amid great injustice and tribulation.

Children's Rhymes

By what sends

the white kids

I ain't sent:

I know I can't

be President.

What don't bug

them white kids

sure bugs me:

We know everybody

ain't free.

Lies written down

for white folks

ain't for us a-tall:

Liberty And Justice--

Huh!--For All?

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes

(1902-1967)

Poet

One of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, which was the African American artistic movement in the 1920s that celebrated black life and culture.

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/hughes

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams

(1856-1931)

Doctor

A pioneer in open-heart surgery.

http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/williams.html

Ernest Everett Just

(1883-1941)

Scientist

Contributions on the physiology of development

http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/just.html

Otis Boykin

(1920-1982)

Inventor

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.

http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/boykin.html

Elijah McCoy

(1844-1929)

Inventor

His first invention was a lubricator for steam engines, U.S. 129,843, which issued on July 12, 1872. The invention allowed machines to remain in motion to be oiled; his new oiling device revolutionized the industrial machine industry. Elijah McCoy established his own firm and was responsible for a total of 57 patents. The term "real McCoy" refers to the oiling device used for industrial machinery.

http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/mccoy.html

Matthew Alexander Henson

(1866-1955)

Explorer

American hero whose long term partnership with Robert E. Peary allowed them to discover the North Pole in 1909.

http://www.matthewhenson.com/index4.htm

Jean Baptiste Point du Sable

(1700’s)

Pioneer settler of Chicago, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, an African American from Sainte-Domingue (Haiti), built the first permanent settlement at the mouth of the river just east of the present Michigan Avenue Bridge on the north bank.

http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/dusable.html

Frederick M. Jones

(1892-1961)

Inventor

Designed a series of devices for the developing movie industry, which adapted silent movie projectors to use talking movie stock. He also developed an apparatus for the movie box-office that delivers tickets and returns change to customers. In 1935 he invented the first automatic refrigeration system for long-haul trucks, the "Thermo-King."

http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/jones.html

W.E.B. du Bois

(1868-1963)   

Writer, teacher, activist

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once wrote of him,  "history cannot ignore W.E.B. DuBois because history has to reflect truth and Dr. DuBois was a tireless explorer and a gifted discoverer of social truths. His singular greatness lay in his quest for truth about his own people. There were very few scholars who concerned themselves with honest study of the black man and he sought to fill this immense void. The degree to which he succeeded disclosed the great dimensions of the man."

http://www.duboislc.org/html/DuBoisBio.html

Malcolm X

(1925-1965)

Minister, Activist

http://www.cmgww.com/historic/malcolm/about/bio2.htm

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

(1929-1968)

Minister, Activist

http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/

Writings and Quotes

http://members.aol.com/klove01/martinsp.htm

"A time comes when silence is betrayal."

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period  of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

Martin Luther King Jr.

MORE INFORMATION on African American History.

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/BHM/AfroAm.html

African-American Quotations

Martin Luther King Features

Muhammad Ali Features

Black Scientists and Inventors

Negro League Baseball

Icing the Stereotypes: Black Hockey Players

African-American Literature

The Harlem Renaissance

Blacks in the Military

The History of Black History

Encyclopedia: Civil Rights

Timeline: Civil Rights

For Kids: Civil Rights Heroes

The March on Washington

Important Cities in Black History

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

Timeline: Slavery in America

Historical Essays on Black America

Notable Speeches by African Americans

[ Dum vivimus vivamus ]* 

"...It is wrong to encourage a man or a people in evil doing; it is wrong to aid and abet a national crime simply because it is unpopular not to do so... We have no right to sit silently  by while the inevitable seeds are sown for a harvest of disaster to our children, black and white. 

...By every civilized and peaceful method we must strive for the rights which the world accords men, clinging unwaveringly to those great words which the sons of the Fathers would fain forget: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' "

 W.E.B. DuBois, from The Souls of Black Folk

*While we live, let us live

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Posted  February 19, 2006

URL:  www.thecitizenfsr.org                     SM 2000-2011

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