Black History Month: Influential Individuals

Dr. Mae Jemison is an engineer, physician, and NASA astronaut who became the first Black woman to travel into space in 1992.

Photograph: NASA Image and Video Library, S92-40463 (July 1992)

Robert Smalls served in the U.S. House of Representatives for South Carolina from 1884-1887. Born into slavery, he commandeered a Confederate transport ship in Charleston harbor in 1862 and sailed it through the blockade into U.S.-controlled waters.

Photograph: Library of Congress, LC-DIG-cwpbh-03683

Ida B. Wells was an investigative journalist whose extensive reporting on segregation, inequality, and lynching made her the target of violence and threats from White racists. She wrote, spoke, and organized for civil rights for African Americans and women throughout her life, and earned a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for her work in journalism.

Photograph: Mary Garrity, c. 1893; restored by Adam Cuerden

In 2017, Amanda Gorman became the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate, and rose to national renown after reading her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration of President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.

Photograph: DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II

Maya Angelou's memoirs, poetry, essays, plays, and numerous other writings are internationally acclaimed and often explore subjects such as identity, racism, coming of age, and trauma. Her lasting influence on American culture includes being credited for increasing Black feminist writing and setting a new precedent for African American autobiography.

Photograph: "2012_in_photos_082" by Elon University (https://www.flickr.com/photos/38539612@N02/8294466464/), used under CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) / background removed

Shirley Chisholm's trailblazing life included several firsts: in 1968, she became the first Black woman elected to Congress; four years later, she was the first Black candidate for a major-party nomination for President and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. During her political career, she advocated to improve education, health care, and social services; combat discrimination against women; support land rights for indigenous people; oppose American involvement in the Vietnam War; pass the Equal Rights Amendment; and improve treatment of refugees. Following her service in Congress, she returned to her career in education.

Photograph: Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsc-01264
 

Tarana Burke is a nonprofit leader and activist who founded the Me Too Movement when she began using the phrase "Me Too" in 2006 to raise awareness of the pervasiveness of sexual abuse and assault against women. After the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations in 2017, the movement Burke had nurtured for more than a decade exploded into widespread public consciousness as a way for people who have experienced sexual assault — particularly young and vulnerable women — to express power and solidarity through strength in numbers.

Photograph: "TW2018_20181128_2MA2849_1920" by TED Conference (https://www.flickr.com/photos/tedconference/44281895720), used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/) / background removed

Audre Lorde—who, we're delighted to note, held a master's degree in library science and worked as a public librarian—was a poet, writer, and civil rights leader who advocated for equity and civil rights for oppressed groups, spoke out passionately and vehemently against oppression, and celebrated intersectional identity. Her writing, which explores race, class, sex, disability, sexuality, and injustice in many forms, earned her numerous awards and an appointment as New York's Poet laureate.

Photograph: "Audre Lorde" by K. Kendall on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/42401725@N00/2733757260), used under CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) / background removed

After beginning her career in journalism and public relations, Ava DuVernay made her first short film in 2005. Less than a decade later, she became the first Black woman to win the U.S. Directing Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for Middle of Nowhere--for which she also wrote the script. She went on to direct Selma, 13th, and a Wrinkle in Time, and was the executive producer, co-writer, and director for the Emmy-winning series When They See Us, which tells the story of five Black and Latino teenagers who were falsely accused, prosecuted, and punished by police and city officials for the assault and rape of a white woman in Central Park in 1989.

Photograph: "Ava DuVernay - 13th" by Peabody Awards on Flickr (https://flickr.com/photos/79383703@N08/34953195136) from Stephanie Moreno/Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications for Peabody Awards/University of Georgia, used under CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/) / background removed

Representative John Lewis was a leader in the civil rights movement who chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, helped organize the 1963 March on Washington and led the first of three marches from Selma to Montgomery. Some twenty years later, he was elected to Congress and served 17 terms until his death in 2020. Among his many honors and awards, Lewis was the first recipient of Miami University's Freedom Summer of '64 award. 

Photograph: Miami University/Jeff Sabo, 2018, background removed and levels adjusted

Fannie Lou Hamer was extorted, threatened, harassed, shot at, and assaulted by racists—including members of the police, which left her permanently disabled—while trying to register for and exercise her right to vote, and yet she never wavered in her pursuit of civil rights. As a leader in the civil rights movement, she helped organize Freedom Summer of '64, founded the Freedom Farm Cooperative, and co-founded the Freedom Democratic Party and National Women's Political Caucus. Hamer weaved confidence, Biblical knowledge, and comedy into an oratorical style that reflected her experiences as a poor sharecropper who had to leave school at age 12, giving rise to effective and stirring addresses like the famous "Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired" speech she gave along with Malcolm X in 1964.

Photograph: Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ds-07134. background removed and levels adjusted

W. E. B. Du Bois's groundbreaking career bridged sociology, history, civil rights activism, and Pan-Africanism, with prolific scholarly output that contributed significantly to early scientific sociology. A lifelong advocate of civil rights, he co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1910 and attended the conference at which the United Nations was established as part of a three-person delegation from the NAACP to advocate for racial equality and against colonialism. Persecuted during the McCarthy era for his socialist political leanings, Du Bois spent the last two years of his life in Ghana.

Photograph: from the New York Public Library (https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-70ec-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99), background removed and levels adjusted

Malcolm X was an outspoken advocate for Black empowerment and human rights whose fervent pursuit of racial justice contrasted with the commitment to nonviolence of the mainstream civil rights movement. After renouncing the Nation of Islam, for which was a former spokesperson, he was assassinated in 1965. Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted for the murder, though two maintained their innocence and were exonerated in 2021. A widely influential figure in African American history, he is credited with raising the self-esteem of Black Americans, reconnecting African Americans with African heritage, and inspiring the Black Power movement, Black Arts Movement, and slogan "Black is beautiful." Additionally, his work as a Muslim minister is viewed as largely responsible for the spread of Islam in the Black community in the United States.

Photograph: Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-119478. background removed

Malcolm X was an outspoken advocate for Black empowerment and human rights whose fervent pursuit of racial justice contrasted with the commitment to nonviolence of the mainstream civil rights movement. After renouncing the Nation of Islam, for which was a former spokesperson, he was assassinated in 1965. Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted for the murder, though two maintained their innocence and were exonerated in 2021. A widely influential figure in African American history, he is credited with raising the self-esteem of Black Americans, reconnecting African Americans with African heritage, and inspiring the Black Power movement, Black Arts Movement, and slogan "Black is beautiful." Additionally, his work as a Muslim minister is viewed as largely responsible for the spread of Islam in the Black community in the United States.

Photograph: Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-119478. background removed

Born in New York City to parents who immigrated from Jamaica, Colin Powell's decorated, 47-year military and political career including rising to the rank of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—the highest military position in the United States Department of Defense—and serving as Secretary of State under President George W. Bush. He was the first Black individual to hold these offices.

Photograph: United States Department of Defense, 1989

Alicia Garza is a civil rights activist and writer who co-founded the Black Lives Matter movement and advocates for students and domestic workers, ending police brutality, anti-racism, and ending violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people of color. She founded and leads the Black Futures Lab, which helps Black communities build political power, and is the Special Projects Director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

Photograph: Citizen University, The Movement Moment - panel at CitizenUCon16 on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF9AxqX5yYg), used under CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0) / background removed

N. K. Jemisin made history when she earned the Hugo Award for Best Novel for three consecutive years with her Broken Earth trilogy, making her the first author to earn the award three years in a row, the first to win Best Novel for all three novels of a trilogy, and the first Black writer to win the category overall. She is currently adapting the novels for the screen after brokering a deal with Sony'sTriStar Pictures.

Photograph by Laura Hanifin, copyright 2015, used under CC-BY-ND 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/)
 

Coretta Scott King took up leadership for the struggle for racial equality after her husband, Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated in 1968. She founded The King Center, and then continued to advocate for civil rights, successfully lobbied to make her late husband's birthday a national holiday, and later broadened her scope to support LGBTQ rights and oppose apartheid.

Photograph: "Coretta Scott King From 30th anniversary M.L.K. march on Washington 1993" by "Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com" on Flickr (https://flickr.com/photos/36277035@N06/5113077864), used under CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

Patricia Hill Collins earned national acclaim with her 1990 book Black Feminist Thought, which focuses on issues involving race, gender, and social inequality within the Black community. After a 23-year career at the University of Cincinnati, where she was head of the Department of African-American Studies, she joined the University of Maryland as a Distinguished University Professor of Sociology. Collins was also the 100th president of the American Sociological Association and the first Black woman to hold the position.

Photograph: Valter Campanato/Agência Brasil, used under CC BY 3.0 BR (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/br)

James Baldwin weaved masculinity, sexuality, race, and class into fictional narratives that explore the major political movements and social change in mid-20th-century America. Time Magazine includes his first novel, Go Tell It On The Mountain, in its list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923-2005.

Photograph by Allan Warren, 1969, used under CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

Roxane Gay is a professor, writer, editor, and social commentator. Her New York Times best-selling essay collection, Bad Feminist, addresses cultural and social issues and earned widespread acclaim. She is currently a visiting professor at Yale, a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times, the founder of Tiny Hardcore Press, essays editor for The Rumpus, co-editor of PANK (a nonprofit literary arts collective), and editor for Gay Mag in partnership with Medium.

Photograph: "TW15_052815__MA_0012_7901_9576" by TED Conference / Marla Aufmuth on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/tedconference/17587834264), used under CC BY-NC 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/)

Rising to fame for her portrayal of Nyota Uhura in Star Trek, Nichelle Nichols blazed the trail for Black women in American television with her prominent role in a major television series. She created vital representation for Black communities, as Martin Luther King Jr. told her: "For the first time on television, we will be seen as we should be seen every day: as intelligent, quality, beautiful people who can sing, dance, and can go to space, who are professors, lawyers..." After Star Trek, she put her stardom to use for NASA, serving as a recruiter for astronauts from diverse backgrounds for nearly 30 years. Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to go to space, has cited Nichols and her influence as Lieutenant Uhura as her inspiration for wanting to become an astronaut.

Photograph: "Nichelle Nichols" by Gage Skidmore on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/8853272714), used under CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)

Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins is a social historian, activist, and scholar of suffrage, education, healthcare reform, and equality and inclusion for women. She became the first Black woman to lead the League of Women Voters when she was elected as its 15th national president, and served as the chair of its Education Fund. Jefferson-Jenkins advocated for election and campaign finance reform, emphasized local elections, and increased overall voter turnout. A 1974 graduate of Western College for Women, Jefferson-Jenkins was awarded the Freedom Summer of '64 Award from Miami University and delivered Miami's spring 2021 commencement address.

Photograph: Miami University / Jeff Sabo, 2020

Angela Davis is a political activist, philosopher, scholar, and author who was born in Birmingham, Alabama. She has written extensively on class, feminism, race, and the US prison system, and is a prominent figure in the prison abolition movement. Davis is currently a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Photograph: "Angela Davis" by Oregon State University on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/oregonstateuniversity/50595423266), used under CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)

Best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes innovated in the literary art form of jazz poetry and was a poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He portrayed the lives of working-class Black Americans as full of struggle, joy, laughter, and music, and instilled pride in African American identity.

Photograph: Library of Congress, LC-DIG-fsa-8d39489

Marian Wright Edelman has advocated for children and disadvantaged Americans her entire professional life. The founder and president emerita of the Children's Defense Fund, she influenced leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Hilary Clinton and was the first Black woman to be admitted to the Mississippi Bar when she began practicing law in 1964. She was also the first Black woman elected to the Yale board of trustees.

Photograph: "TW2018_20181128_2MA4687_1920" by TED Conference / Marla Aufmuth on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/tedconference/46098241461), used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/)

Bayard Rustin was a civil rights leader who helped organize the March on Washington, Freedom Riders, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which strengthened Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership and commitment to nonviolence. He advocated for gay rights, labor unionization, and human rights throughout the world.

Photograph: Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsc-01272

While playing professional football for the San Fransisco 49ers, Colin Kaepernick raised awareness of police violence when he knelt during the playing of the U.S. national anthem at the beginning of games in 2016. He became a free agent for the following season and has gone unsigned ever since, leading to allegations of politically motivated blackballing for which he won a settlement in 2019. Kaepernick is active in social justice advocacy and youth empowerment initiatives and contributes philanthropically to organizations working in oppressed communities.

Photograph: "Colin Kaepernick" by Mike Morbeck on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikemorbeck/11060149136), used under CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/) / background removed