Black History

For many years, school curricula have limited their scope to the same Black figures throughout history. While lectures on the legacies of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman are all important, some educators (and their students) are eager to learn more about underrepresented trailblazers like Lewis Latimer, Marsha P. Johnson, and Max Robinson.

In the mid-1800’s, William Lloyd Garrison was perhaps the most vocal and militant white anti-slavery activist in the nation. His activities resulted in him spending time in jail, having a $5,000 bounty placed on his head and having some abolitionists shun him because he was so radical.

Whitney Moore Young, Jr. was a pioneering social worker who redefined the role of that profession, and its importance to the civil rights cause.

With no money and no benefactor, Marcus Garvey still set out on a mission to build the largest black mass movement in the history of the Western hemisphere. Amazingly, he succeeded.

After the Civil War ended, Sojourner Truth worked tirelessly to aid the newly-freed southern slaves, and she even attempted to petition congress to give the ex-slaves land in the “new West."

It is my pleasure to introduce/re-introduce a man who played a pivotal part in the historical development of Seattle. My great grandfather, Mr. Powell S. Barnett.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected astronaut Jeanette Epps to join the crew of the International Space Station in 2018. Epps will become the first Black crewmember to represent the U.S. on the station.

Simeon Booker was a trailblazing Black journalist, who covered the Civil Rights Movement for the iconic African American magazines EBONY and Jet. Booker was the first Black person to work as a full-time Washington Post reporter.

During grade school growing up in Chicago, Joan Higginbotham said, she always enjoyed math and science. That led to her love for electronics as a young, inquisitive girl.

As a young girl growing in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a small town of 44,000 and 130 miles west Boston, Stephanie Wilson said she spent her nights looking up into the sky wondering what was out there.