Despite Phyllis Wheatley’s fame, we know surprisingly little about her early life. She was taken from her home in Africa when she was seven or eight, and sold to the Wheatley family in Boston.

The family taught her to read and write, and encouraged her to write poetry as soon as they witnessed her talent for it. In 1773, Phyllis published her first poem, making her the first African American to be published. She was only 12 at the time.   


Her work was praised by high-ranking members of society, including, perhaps most notably, George Washington. Her writing made her famous throughout the colonies. Not long after her poems were first published, the family that owned Wheatley emancipated her.

Unfortunately, her life took a turn from there, especially after the deaths of many of the Wheatleys who had helped support her. She was stricken with poverty. The fame she earned from her writing did little to sustain her husband and children. She fell ill and died at the age of 31. 

PHYLLIS WHEATLEY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillis_Wheatley

Will Smith wins first ever Rap Grammy

One day I went around at work and asked a bunch of 18 to 21 year olds if they knew what Will Smith’s first profession was. Everyone of them said Actor. When I said no I was argued down even when I showed them his discography.

Will Smith was and still is a Rapper. Over the years he has done more acting, but he still can work a mic.

In 1988 WIll Smith and Jazzy Jeff who were known as DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, won the first ever Rap Grammy. Back then the rap portion of the show was not televised, so it was not shown. They won for the song Parents Just don’t understand.

WILL SMITH
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Smith

Mildred and Richard Loving left their home state of Virginia to get married. They were warned by Virginia state officials that getting married would be a violation of state law, as Richard was white and Mildred was not. When they returned home, Mildred was promptly arrested. When she was finally released, the couple was referred to the American Civil Liberties Union by Robert Kennedy. The ACLU, seeing an opportunity to end anti-miscegenation laws, jumped at the chance.
After making their way through local and state courts, Loving v Virginia was put before the Supreme Court, and the bans on interracial marriage were deemed unconstitutional. It was a landmark victory for couples of different races, and the Lovings are often heralded as being the catalysts for making it happen. The last law formally prohibiting interracial marriage was overturned in Alabama in 2000. The Lovings were featured in a 2016 biopic, Loving , starring Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton.

Jack Johnson became the first African American man to hold the World Heavyweight Champion boxing title in 1908. He held onto the belt until 1915.

JACK JOHNSON
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Johnson_(boxer)

Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till came to Bryants Grocery store to buy candy in August 1955. White shopkeeper Carolyn Bryant accused the black youth of flirting with her, and shortly thereafter, Till was abducted by Bryant’s husband and his half brother. Till’s tortured body was later found in the Tallahatchie River. The two men were tried and acquitted but later sold their murder confession to Look magazine. Till’s death received international attention and is widely credited with sparking the American Civil Rights Movement.”

In 2017 Carolyn Bryant confessed that she lied about what happened that day. Some 60 years after Emmett’s death.

EMMETT TILL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till

The 6888th Battalion was an all black female unit of military that delivered mail to the World War II troops across England


In February 1945, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion was established to deliver mail to American troops, government personnel, and volunteers abroad in England. At the time, many packages and letters were poorly addressed or sent to individuals with common names and little further direction. Members of the service weren’t getting their mail, which had an outsized impact on morale.

Officials estimated that, with the disarray of the postal warehouse, it would take around six months for the harrowing backlog to be sorted and delivered.

African-American women were granted the opportunity to travel to serve overseas in late 1944, and the 6888th Battalion was full of eager, well-trained recruits. Led by Major Charity Edna Adams, the women of the “Six Triple Eight” spent time in Oglethorpe, Georgia preparing for service—jumping over trenches, identifying enemy crafts, and marching. Mail delivery in a war zone did not come not without danger, and the women of the Battalion faced several close calls, injuries, and even some instances of death.

Though the reaction to this battalion was mixed, the Six Triple Eight was outstandingly efficient. The battalion worked in long shifts seven days a week and created a brand new tracking system for the mail they received. Rather than accomplishing the sorting of mail in the projected six months, the recruits blew through the task in three.

The 6888th Batallian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6888th_Central_Postal_Directory_Battalion

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A virtual one-man band, Prince sculpted and created the Minneapolis Sound through his keyboards, screeching, almost pleading vocals and erotic live shows.

Named after his father's jazz band, the Prince Rogers Band, Prince Rogers Nelson had music in his blood from birth.   Prince is said to be a perfectionist who is highly protective of his music. He writes, composes and produces the majority of his music himself and plays most of the instruments on his albums.

Prince holds the record for longest pop-album, Emancipation (1996), which is exactly 3 hours long. He changed his name to the unpronounceable glyph O(+> from 1993 to 2000.

PRINCE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_(musician)

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Fannie Lou Hamer began civil rights activism in 1962, continuing until her health declined nine years later. She was known for her use of spiritual hymnals and quotes and her resilience in leading the civil rights movement for black women in Mississippi.

She was extorted, threatened, harassed, shot at, and assaulted by racists, including police, while trying to register for and exercise her right to vote. She later helped and encouraged thousands of African-Americans in Mississippi to become registered voters and helped hundreds of disenfranchised people in her area through her work in programs like the Freedom Farm Cooperative.

She unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1964 and the Mississippi State Senate in 1971. In 1970 she led legal action against the government of Sunflower County, Mississippi for continued illegal segregation.

Hamer died on March 14, 1977, aged 59, in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Her memorial service was widely attended and her eulogy was delivered by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young. She was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.

FANNIE LOU HAMER
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Lou_Hamer

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Nine months before Rosa Parks, There was a Young Woman names Claudette Colvin


On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to relinquish her seat on a public bus. Parks' protest sparked the Montgomery bus protests and galvanized the Civil Rights Movement. Yet she was not the first African American individual in Montgomery to stand up against injustice in such a manner.

 On March 2, 1955, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin was riding home on a city bus after a long day at school. A white passenger boarded, and the bus driver ordered Claudette to give up her seat. Claudette refused. As she later told Newsweek "I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the other. I was glued to my seat.”

Colvin was arrested for her civil disobedience and briefly put in jail. The NAACP and other civil rights groups considered rallying around Colvin's case in their campaign against Alabama's segregation laws before focusing efforts on Rosa Parks' protest nine months later. Nevertheless, Colvin was one of four plaintiffs in the landmark Browder v. Gayle case of 1956, which ruled that the segregation laws of Montgomery and Alabama state were unconstitutional. 

Claudette Colvin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudette_Colvin

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In 1863, Tubman led a regiment in the Raid on Combahee Ferry. Tubman planned and carried out the attack, which freed some 750 enslaved people and laid waste to the Confederates’ encampment. A few weeks later, the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, an all-Black volunteer regiment, executed a similar raid up the river in Darien, Georgia. 


Harriet Tubman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman

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