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One of my favorite quotes from Malcolm X is "I am not educated, nor am I an expert in any particular field...but I am sincere and my sincerity is my credential."
Outspoken, honest and seemingly fearless, Malcolm X instilled pride in African-Americans through his personal story of transcendence, his speeches and his published works. Although his philosophy was different the Martin Luther King, their desires were the same: equality for
African-Americans. When I think of Malcolm X, I instantly think about the power of evolution.
Throughout X's life, he endured many tragedies--the murder of his father and being placed
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May 9
1800:Abolitionist John Brown is born.
1867:Abolitionist and feminist Sojourner Truth delivers a speech at the first meeting of the American Equal Rights Association.
May 10
1837:Pickney Benton Stewart Pinchback, a lieutenant governor of Louisiana during the Reconstruction Era is born.
1919:One of the riots associated with the Red Summer of 1919 occurs in Charleston. Two African-Americans are killed.
1950:Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to appear of the cover of Life magazine.
May 11
Louis Farrakhan, a leader in the Nation of Islam is born.
May 12
1950:Oscar DePriest, the first African-American to serve in the United States Congress, dies.
1968:Participants in
Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain. Why is legacy so important?
Clarence Still, a local New Jersey historian and descendant of abolitionist William Still, spent his lifetime answering this question.
In 1989, Still worked diligently to stop real estate developers from tearing down the Peter Mott House, a station on the Underground Railroad. Then the home was no more than a crumbling wooden structure that was in the way of development. But for Still, it was an important part of telling the story of African-American resistance to slavery in the 18th Century.
Today, the home
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May 2
1844: Inventor Elijah McCoy, also known as the "Real McCoy," is born in Ontario, Canada. An inventor, McCoy owned patents to fifty inventions
that enhanced the running of many engine-operated machines.
1920: The National Negro Baseball League plays its first game in Indianapolis.
May 3
1845: Macon B. Allen becomes the first African-American allowed to practice law in the United States after he passed the Massachusetts bar. In 1873, Allen was appointed to a judgeship in South Carolina.
May 4
1891: Provident Hospital, the first integrated hospital in the United States is founded by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. Located in Chicago, Provident Hospital becomes
Today is the last day of National Poetry Month and I've decided to end with a discussion of one of my favorite poems, "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Published six years before W.E.B. Du Bois coined the term "double consciousness," Dunbar's poem evokes the feelings of African-Americans desiring true citizenship in a country that was consistently creating barriers that would hinder their inclusion in society. My favorite lines of the poem are "With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,/And mouth
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