Shrine of the Black Madonna Black History Month Study Guide 2020

Event: Jeopardy Bowl Date: March 1, 2020 Time: After Sunday Service For: All to Participate

Compiled by the Kunle Family

Black History Month Study Guide Ancient African History This category is about Ancient African History

The following is a list of nations, you are welcome to do additional research. main reference:https://www.history.com/news/7-influential-african-empires

The Kingdom of Kush was an ancient kingdom in Nubia, located at the Sudanese and southern Egyptian Nile Valley. The Kushite era of rule in Nubia was established after the Late Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt. Kush was centered at Napata during its early phase.This ancient Nubian empire reached its peak in the second millennium B.C., when it ruled over a vast swath of territory along the Nile River in what is now Sudan. Almost all that is known about Kush comes from Egyptian sources, which indicate that it was an economic center that operated a lucrative market in ivory, incense, iron and especially gold. The kingdom was both a trading partner and a military rival of Egypt—it even ruled Egypt as the 25th Dynasty—and it adopted many of its neighbor’s customs.

The Land of Punt was an ancient kingdom. A trading partner of Egypt, it was known for producing and exporting gold, aromatic resins, blackwood, ebony, ivory and wild animals. The region is known from ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to it. It is possible that it corresponds to Opone on the Horn of Africa, as later known by the ancient Greeks,while some biblical scholars have identified it with the biblical land of Put or Havilah. Historical accounts of the kingdom date to around 2500 B.C., when it appears in Egyptian records as a “Land of the Gods” rich in ebony, gold, myrrh and exotic animals such as apes and leopards. The Egyptians are known to have sent huge caravans and flotillas on trade missions to Punt—most notably during the 15th century B.C. reign of Queen Hatshepsut

Carthage was a Phoenician state that included, during the 7th–3rd centuries BC, its wider sphere of influence known as the Carthaginian Empire. The empire extended over much of the coast of Northwest Africa as well as encompassing substantial parts of coastal Iberia and the islands of the western Mediterranean Sea. Best known as ancient Rome’s rival in the Punic Wars, Carthage was a North African commercial hub that flourished for over 500 years. The city-state began its life in the 8th or 9th century B.C. as a Phoenician settlement in what is now Tunisia, but it later grew into a sprawling seafaring empire that dominated trade in textiles, gold, silver and copper. At its peak, its capital city boasted nearly half a million inhabitants and included a protected harbor outfitted with docking bays for 220 ships. Carthage’s influence eventually extended from North Africa to Spain and parts of the Mediterranean, but its thirst for expansion led to increased friction with the burgeoning Roman Republic. Beginning in 264 B.C., the ancient superpowers clashed in the three bloody Punic Wars, the last of which ended in 146 B.C. with the near-total destruction of Carthage. Today, almost all that remains of the once- mighty empire is a series of ruins in the city of Tunis.

Kingdom of Aksum, also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was an ancient kingdom centered in what is now Eritrea and the Tigray Region of northern Ethiopia.

Surprisingly little is known about Aksum’s origins, but by the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D. it was a trading juggernaut whose gold and ivory made it a vital link between ancient Europe and the Far East. The kingdom had a written script known as Ge’ez—one of the first to emerge in Africa

In the fourth century, Aksum became one of the first empires in the world to adopt Christianity, which led to a political and military alliance with the Byzantines. The empire later went into decline sometime around the 7th or 8th century, but its religious legacy still exists today in the form of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church

The Mali Empire was an empire in West Africa from c. 1235 to 1670. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Musa Keita. The Manding languages were spoken in the empire

The founding of the Mali Empire dates to the 1200s, when a ruler named Sundiata Keita—sometimes called the “Lion King”—led a revolt against a Sosso king and united his subjects into a new state. Under Keita and his successors, the empire tightened its grip over a large portion of West Africa and grew rich on trade. Its most important cities were Djenné and Timbuktu, both of which were renowned for their elaborate adobe mosques and Islamic schools. One such institution, Timbuktu’s Sankore University, included a library with an estimated 700,000 manuscripts. The Mali Empire eventually disintegrated in the 16th century, but at its peak it was one of the jewels of the African continent and was known the world over for its wealth and luxury. One legendary tale about the kingdom’s riches concerns the ruler Mansa Musa, who made a stopover in Egypt during a 14th century pilgrimage to Mecca. According to contemporary sources, Musa dished out so much gold during the visit that he caused its value to plummet in Egyptian markets for several years.

The Songhai Empire was a state that dominated the western Sahel in the 15th and 16th century. At its peak, it was one of the largest states in African history. The state is known by its historiographical name, derived from its leading ethnic group and ruling elite, the Songhai.

Shrine History All jeopardy questions will be taken from historical placards in Fellowship Hall. Please review them prior to the jeopardy game so your knowledge will be fresh. Other Pan African Heroes This category is about African Heroes outside of the United States

You are welcome to do additional research, main reference: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decolonisation_of_Africa#Ghana

Thomas Sankara, served as the President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987 through a military coup led by his friend and ally Blaise Compaore. Sankara was responsible for renaming his country from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, formulated foreign policies that concentrated on anti-imperialism, and various initiatives that favored the advancement of Burkinabes.

Patrice Lumumba was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first Prime Minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo from June until September 1960. He played a significant role in the transformation of the Congo from a colony of Belgium into an independent republic.

Agathe Uwilingiyimana, sometimes known as Madame Agathe, was a Rwandan political figure. She served as Prime Minister of Rwanda from 18 July 1993 until her assassination on 7 April 1994, during the opening stages of the Rwandan genocide. She was Rwanda's first and so far only female prime minister.

Thomas Joseph Odhiambo Mboya was a Kenyan trade unionist, educationist, Pan Africanist, author, independence activist, Cabinet Minister and one of the founding fathers of the Republic of Kenya.Born in 1930 assasinated in 1969

Eduardo Mondlane, served as the founding President of the Mozambican Liberation Front from 1962, the year that FRELIMO was founded in Tanzania, until his assassination in 1969. He was an anthropologist by profession but worked as a history and sociology professor at Syracuse University.

Haile Selassie, I was Crown Prince and Regent of the Ethiopian Empire from 1916 to 1928, and then King and Regent from 1928 to 1930, and finally Emperor from 1930 to 1974. He is a defining figure in modern Ethiopian history.

Kwame Nkrumah PC, was a Ghanaian politician and revolutionary. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957.

Samora Machel, a Mozambican military commander, politician and revolutionary. A socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the country's independence in 1975. Nelson Mandela, a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader, and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, after 27 years of imprisonment for political and revolutionary events. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election.

Sy Sow is a Malian politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1995 and was the first female governor in Mali.

Post-Civil Rights Era This category is about Post-Civil Rights Era Heroes

You are welcome to do additional research on all below who appear in this category:

Ciara Taylor is a founding member of Dream Defenders, a community organizing collective that fights for social justice and boldly challenges the status quo. During her time at Dream Defenders, Taylor was the political director and then the director of political consciousness. She now works with Code Pink to raise awareness of the many consequences of the US invasion of Iraq and campaign to end war around the world.

Maya Wiley has a long career fighting for a more just society at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Open Society Institute. She eventually went on to form the Center for Social Inclusion, which aims to dismantle the structural barriers to racial equality in society.

Shaun King is relentless in his pursuit for a more fair society. King regularly exposes and directs his enormous following to the injustices of the criminal justice system and police violence in particular. He is a journalist, social justice advocate, and educator.

Melanie Campbell runs the Black Women’s Roundtable, which uses to “public policy forums, leadership training, and civic engagement and issue education campaigns” to empower black women with the skills and resources they need to tackle social issues within their communities.

Lateefah Simon heads the Akonadi Foundation, an organization that goes after the structural inequalities at the heart of US society. There, she works to expand opportunities for communities of color, improve media representation of people of color, and foster intersectionality.

Ta-Nehisi Coates a journalist, essayist and author, Coates writes for the Atlantic, where he focuses on cultural and political issues. Well before the incidents in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y., which both elevated the discourse over race, Coates offered deep insights into racial disparities in America. In a June 2014 piece titled “The Case for Reparations,” Coates explored how slavery and segregation, along with federally backed housing policies, had prevented African Americans from attaining wealth. Last month, “Reparations” was awarded the George Polk Award for commentary.

Benjamin Crump, Crump has represented the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Tamir Rice — the 12-year-old boy shot and killed by a police officer in Cleveland. Whenever there is a high- profile allegation of police abuse, or a black person is killed under controversial circumstances, more often than not these days it seems Crump is there — holding news conferences, speaking on behalf of victims’ families, demanding accountability.

Patrisse Cullors, Cullors founded the group Dignity and Power Now in 2012 to battle for law enforcement reform in Los Angeles County. Cullors started the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag after George Zimmerman was found not guilty in 2013 of criminal charges for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin.

Fania Davis, The 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., stoked a lifetime of activism for Davis. Two of her close friends were killed in what became one of the most horrific events of the civil rights movement. Davis, the sister of political activist Angela Davis, who had close ties to the Black Panther Party, is the founder of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth. She’s used the organization as a platform to work with Oakland public schools to reduce suspensions for minority students and the city’s juvenile justice system to form new diversion programs.

Bryan Stevenson is an American lawyer, social justice activist, founder/executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a clinical professor at New York University School of Law.

Black Wealth

This category is about Black Millionaires & Billionaires

You are welcome to do additional research on all below who appear in this category, main reference: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_billionaires#1990–present

Aliko Dangote GCON is a Nigerian billionaire businessman, and the owner of the Dangote Group, which has interests in commodities in Nigeria and other African countries. As of January 2020, he had an estimated net worth of US$10 billion.

Michael Jeffrey Jordan, also known by his initials MJ, is an American former professional basketball player and the principal owner of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association. He played 15 seasons in the NBA, winning six championships with the Chicago Bulls. Has an estimated net worth of 1.9 billion.

Shawn Corey Carter, known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur, and record executive. He is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time. And he has a estimated net worth of US$ 1 billion.

David L. Steward is an American billionaire businessman. He is chairman and founder of World Wide Technology, Inc., one of the largest African-American-owned businesses in America. Steward is one of five black billionaires in America, being 745th in the Forbes Billionaires 2019 list. And he has an estimated net worth of 3.9 billion.

Oprah Gail Winfrey is an American media executive, actress, talk show host, television producer, and philanthropist. And has an estimated net worth of 2.7 billion. She has been the longest standing billionaire since 2003.

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Beyoncé performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child. Nad has an estimated networth of 479$ Million

Folorunso Alakija is a Nigerian billionaire businesswoman. She is involved in the fashion, oil, real estate and printing industries. She has an estimated net worth of 1 billion.

Robert Frederick Smith is an American billionaire businessman, philanthropist, chemical engineer, and investment banker. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. In 2018, Smith was ranked by Forbes as the 163rd richest person in America. And has an estimated net worth of 3.9 billion.

Robert Louis Johnson is an American entrepreneur, media magnate, executive, philanthropist, and investor. He is the co-founder of BET, which was acquired by Viacom in 2001. He also founded RLJ Companies, a holding company that invests in various business sectors. Was the first black billionaire.

1900s: In 1900, Booker T. Washington created the National Negro Business League and Maggie Lena Walker became the first American woman and first Black American woman to establish a bank in 1903.

Greenwood, Tulsa in Oklahoma was an example of a prosperous Black neighborhood in the early 20th century and was one of the richest Black neighborhoods in the country. Known as “Black Wall Street”, Black attorneys and doctors were highly concentrated in the area, as were successful Black grocers, hotels and restaurants.[13] In 1921, "Black Wall Street" was destroyed in the Tulsa race riot, when white residents of Tulsa attacked it on the ground and by plane, dropping firebombs. Ten thousand black people were left homeless.

1930s-1990s In the period of 1939-1964, Black businesses grossed sales in the millions. Black American entrepreneurs sought defense contracts–allowing them to produce materials to be used in the war– during World War II. Although only a few received contracts, this marked the first time a large-scale consumer, the U.S. government, bought products from Black businesses.[14] A $4 million defense contract was given to The McKissick Brothers Construction Company to build an airbase at Tuskegee Institute to train the Black 99th Pursuit Squadron. The company employed approximately 2,000 Black employees. Black businesses expanded by continuing to seek defense contracts. One example was electrical engineering company Jackson and Tull, which received contracts from NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense in 1974.

Equal Justice Initiative This category is a misc. Category about things having to do or relating to the Equal Justice Initiative

The following is a list of cases involving the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) that will appear in this category, ALL QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS CATEGORY MAY BE WORTH 400pts

Anthony Hinton is an American man who was wrongly convicted of the 1985 murders of two fast food restaurant managers in Birmingham, Alabama, sentenced to death, and held on the state's death row for 28 years. He was exonerated 2015.

Raymond Santana, 14; and Kevin Richardson, 14; Antron McCray, 15; Yusef Salaam, 15; and Korey Wise 16 are members of the central park five. These were a group of black boys the police interrogated and falsley convicted of raping a woman in central park.

Walter "Johnny D." McMillian was an African-American pulpwood worker from Monroeville, Alabama, who was wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He was one of the first cases defended by Bryan Stephenson to be exonerated from death row in 1993.

Graham v. Florida, in 2010, 560 U.S. 48, was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States holding that juvenile offenders cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for non- homicide offenses.

The Equal Justice Initiative, is a non-profit organization, begun 1989, based in Montgomery, Alabama, that provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly convicted of crimes, poor prisoners without effective representation, and others who may have been denied a fair trial.

Baking/Cooking References: -www.famous-black-inventors.net -http://www.bsmith.com/about-b -blackamericaweb.com -Wikipedia

Joseph Lee was successful in all of his businesses there were still some things that he felt could run smoother. More specifically, Joseph felt as though duties would be easier if he had something that would tear up bread into crumbles for him. This is what led to him creating an invention that he had patented by 1895. However, he did eventually sell the rights over to one of the reputable bread companies during his time. This was no big deal to Joseph because he had other inventions already in the making. In fact, by 1895 he had invented a bread making machine that was patented. Furthermore, this invention is something that we still use this very day despite the fact that it has undergone quite a few modifications.

Alfred L. Cralle lived September 4, 1866 – May 6, 1919. He was an African-American businessman and inventor of the "Ice Cream Mold and Disher". Cralle was born in Kenbridge, Virginia in 1866 just after the end of the American Civil War. He attended local schools and worked with his father in the carpentry trade as a young man, becoming interested in mechanics.

George Crum was an American chef. He worked as a hunter, guide, and cook in the Adirondack mountains, and became renowned for his culinary skills after being hired at Moon’s Lake House on Saratoga Lake, near Saratoga Springs, New York. George’s specialities included wild game, especially venison and duck, and he often experimented in the kitchen. During the 1850s, while working at Moon's Lake House in the midst of a dinner rush, he tried slicing the potatoes extra thin and dropping the slices into the deep hot fat of the frying pan.

Barbara Elaine Smith was born August 24, 1949. B. Smith is an American restaurateur, model, author, businesswoman and television host. She has written 3 books, including one with her husband.

She began her career as a fashion model, gracing the covers of 15 magazines and becoming the one of the first African-American women on Mademoiselle’s cover in July 1976.

For nearly a decade, Smith hosted the nationally syndicated/cable television show B. Smith with Style that aired on NBC stations in more than 90% of U.S. households and in 40 countries. She and Gasby produced four specials for TV One, the lifestyle cable network for African-Americans.

In 2012, Smith was inducted into the American Chef Corps. She ran three B. Smith restaurants: on Theatre Row in Manhattan; in Sag Harbor, New York; and in Washington DC. But then her life changed.

In 1890, a former slave named Nancy Green was hired to be the spokesperson for Aunt Jemima brand food products. Nancy Green was born into slavery in 1834 in Montgomery County, Kentucky. In 1889 the creators of Aunt Jemima, Charles Rutt and Charles Underwood, sold the company to R.T Davis, who soon found Nancy Green in Chicago. The previous owners had already agreed upon her ‘look’ of a bandana and apron. Davis combined the Aunt Jemima look with a catchy tune from the Vaudeville circuit to make the Aunt Jemima brand.

Green’s identity was first uncovered at the Worlds’ Columbian Exposition in 1893. There were so many people interested in the Aunt Jemima exhibit, police were called for crowd control. Green served pancakes to thousands of people. People loved her warm personality and friendly demeanor, not to mention her cooking. Green was given an award for showmanship at the exposition. As a result of her dedication, Aunt Jemima received 50,000 orders for pancake mix. Not only did flour sales soar, but Green received a lifetime contract to serve as spokesperson. She was a living legend of the brand until she died in a car accident in September 1923.

After Green’s passing, the owner of Aunt Jemima, R.T. Davis, experienced financial issues and the brand was sold to Quaker Oats two years later.

As for the image of Aunt Jemima, Nancy Green was followed by Anna Robinson, who’s image was changed to a painted portrait on the packaging of the mix. Next was Chicago blues singer and actress Edith Wilson. She was the first Aunt Jemima to appear in television commercials. After Wilson there was Ethel Ernestine Harper, a former school teacher and actress. The fourth Aunt Jemima was Rosie Hall who was an advertising employee at Quaker Oats until she discovered their need for a new Aunt Jemima. After she died, Hall’s grave was declared a historical landmark. Next, there was Aylene Lewis. She made her first appearance of Aunt Jemima in 1955 at the Aunt Jemima restaurant at Disneyland. The last woman known to appear as Aunt Jemima publicly was Ann Short Harrington. Harrington would make television appearances as the brand spokesperson in the New York area.

Wallace "Wally" Amos, Jr. was born July 1, 1936. He is an American TV personality, entrepreneur, and author from Tallahassee, Florida. He is the founder of the Famous Amos chocolate-chip cookie, the Cookie Kahuna, and Aunt Della’s Cookies gourmet cookie brands He also was the host of the adult reading program, Learn to Read.

Female Civil Rights Activist References: -Wikipedia

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks lived from February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005. She was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has called her "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks rejected bus driver James F. Blake's order to relinquish her seat in the "colored section" to a white passenger, after the whites-only section was filled. Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation, but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) believed that she was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws. Parks' prominence in the community and her willingness to become a controversial figure inspired the black community to boycott the Montgomery buses for over a year, the first major direct action campaign of the post-war civil rights movement. Her case became bogged down in the state courts, but the federal Montgomery bus lawsuit Browder v. Gayle succeeded in November 1956.

Parks' act of defiance and the Montgomery bus boycott became important symbols of the movement. She became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation. She organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including Edgar Nixon, president of the local chapter of the NAACP; and Martin Luther King Jr., a new minister in Montgomery who gained national prominence in the civil rights movement and went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

At the time, Parks was secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. She had recently attended the Highlander Folk School, a Tennessee center for training activists for workers' rights and racial equality. She acted as a private citizen "tired of giving in". Although widely honored in later years, she also suffered for her act; she was fired from her job as a seamstress in a local department store, and received death threats for years afterwards.

Shortly after the boycott, she moved to Detroit, where she briefly found similar work. From 1965 to 1988, she served as secretary and receptionist to John Conyers, an African-American US Representative. She was also active in the Black Power movement and the support of political prisoners in the US.

Ruby Nell Bridges Hall was born September 8, 1954. She is an American civil rights activist. She was the first African-American child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis on 14 November 1960. She is the subject of a 1964 painting, The Problem We All Live With by Norman Rockwell.

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne lived from June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010. She was an American singer, dancer, actress, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned over 70 years, appearing in film, television, and theater. Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of 16 and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood.

Fannie Lou Hamer Townsend lived from October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977. She was an American voting and women's rights activist, community organizer, and a leader in the civil rights movement. She was the co- founder and vice-chair of the Freedom Democratic Party, which she represented at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Hamer also organized Mississippi's Freedom Summer along with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She was also a co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus, an organization created to recruit, train, and support women of all races who wish to seek election to government office.

Shirley Anita Chisholm lived from November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005. She was an American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress, and she represented New York's 12th congressional district for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1972, she became the first black candidate for a major party's nomination for President of the United States, and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, as well as the first woman to appear in a United States presidential debate.

Ella Josephine Baker lived from December 13, 1903 – December 13, 1986. She was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist. She was a largely behind-the-scenes organizer whose career spanned more than five decades. In New York City and the South, she worked alongside some of the most noted civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King Jr. She also mentored many emerging activists, such as Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, Rosa Parks, and Bob Moses, whom she first mentored as leaders in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Sports References: -Wikipedia.com

Kobe Bean Bryant (/ˈkoʊbiː/ KOH-bee; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. As a shooting guard, Bryant entered the National Basketball Association (NBA) directly from high school, and played his entire 20-season professional career in the league with the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant won many accolades: five NBA championships, 18-time All-Star, 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team, 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), two-time NBA Finals MVP winner. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he led the NBA in scoring during two seasons, ranks fourth on the league's all-time regular season scoring and all-time postseason scoring lists.

Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981), known professionally as Joe Louis, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. He reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1937 to 1949, and is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. Nicknamed the "Brown Bomber", Louis' championship reign lasted 140 consecutive months, during which he participated in 26 championship fights. The 27th fight, against Ezzard Charles in 1950, was a challenge for Charles' heavyweight title and so is not included in Louis' reign. He was victorious in 25 consecutive title defenses. In 2005, Louis was ranked as the best heavyweight of all time by the International Boxing Research Organization, and was ranked number one on The Ring magazine's list of the "100 greatest punchers of all time".

Althea Neale Gibson (August 25, 1927 – September 28, 2003) was an American tennis player and professional golfer, and one of the first Black athletes to cross the color line of international tennis. In 1956, she became the first African American to win a Grand Slam title (the French Championships). The following year she won both Wimbledon and the US Nationals (precursor of the US Open), then won both again in 1958, and was voted Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in both years. In all, she won 11 Grand Slam tournaments, including five singles titles, five doubles titles, and one mixed doubles title. Gibson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame. "She is one of the greatest players who ever lived," said Bob Ryland, a tennis contemporary and former coach of Venus and Serena Williams. " In the early 1960s she also became the first Black player to compete on the Women's Professional Golf Tour.

Jack Roosevelt Robinson lived from January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972. He was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. When the Dodgers signed Robinson, they heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

Wilton Norman Chamberlain lived from August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999. He was an American basketball player who played as a center and is considered one of the greatest players in history.He played for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played for the University of Kansas and also for the Harlem Globetrotters before playing in the NBA. Chamberlain stood 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) tall, and weighed 250 pounds (110 kg) as a rookie[3] before bulking up to 275 and eventually to over 300 pounds (140 kg) with the Lakers.

Chamberlain holds numerous NBA records in scoring, rebounding, and durability categories. He is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season. He won seven scoring, eleven rebounding, nine field goal percentage titles and led the league in assists once.[2] Chamberlain is the only player in NBA history to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a season, which he accomplished seven times. He is also the only player to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game over the entire course of his NBA career. Although he suffered a long string of losses in the playoffs, Chamberlain had a successful career, winning two NBA championships, earning four regular- season Most Valuable Player awards, the Rookie of the Year award, one NBA Finals MVP award, and was selected to 13 All-Star Games and ten All-NBA First and Second teams. He was subsequently enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, elected into the NBA's 35th Anniversary Team of 1980, and in 1996 he was chosen as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History.

Florence Delorez Griffith Joyner born Florence Delorez Griffith; lived from December 21, 1959 – September 21, 1998. She was mainly known as Flo-Jo. She was an American track and field athlete. She is considered the fastest woman of all time based on the fact that the world records she set in 1988 for both the 100 m and 200 m still stand. During the late 1980s she became a popular figure in international track and field because of her record-setting performances and flashy personal style.

Griffith-Joyner was born and raised in California. She was athletic from a young age and began running track meets as a child. While attending California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), she continued to compete in track and field. While still in college, Griffith-Joyner qualified for the 100 m 1980 Olympics, although she did not actually compete due to the U.S. boycott. She made her Olympic debut four years later, winning a silver medal in the 200 meter distance at the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles. At the 1988 U.S. Olympic trials, Griffith set a new world record in the 100 meter sprint. She went on to win three gold medals at the 1988 Olympics. After her retirement from athletics, Griffith-Joyner remained a pop culture figure through endorsement deals, acting, and designing.

Musicians and Poets References: -https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.history.com/.amp/topics/roaring-twenties/harlem-renaissance -https://www.biography.com/writer/langston-hughes -https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillis_Wheatley -https://www.biography.com/writer/james-weldon-johnson -https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.biography.com/.amp/musician/marian-anderson

The Harlem Renaissance was the development of the Harlem neighborhood in New York City as a black cultural mecca in the early 20th Century and the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted. Lasting roughly from the 1910s through the mid-1930s, the period is considered a golden age in African American culture, manifesting in literature, music, stage performance and art.

Great Migration The northern Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem was meant to be an upper-class white neighborhood in the 1880s, but rapid overdevelopment led to empty buildings and desperate landlords seeking to fill them.

In 1915 and 1916, natural disasters in the south put black workers and sharecroppers out of work. Additionally, during and after World War I, immigration to the United States fell, and northern recruiters headed south to entice black workers to their companies.

By 1920, some 300,000 African Americans from the South had moved north, and Harlem was one of the most popular destinations for these families.

This considerable population shift resulted in a Black Pride movement with leaders like Du Bois working to ensure that black Americans got the credit they deserved for cultural areas of life.

James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His parents, James Hughes and Carrie Langston, separated soon after his birth, and his father moved to Mexico.

Hughes graduated from high school in 1920 and spent the following year in Mexico with his father. Around this time, Hughes' poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" was published in The Crisis magazine and was highly praised.

In 1921 Hughes returned to the United States and enrolled at Columbia University where he studied briefly, and during which time he quickly became a part of Harlem's burgeoning cultural movement, what is commonly known as the Harlem Renaissance.

After his graduation from Lincoln in 1929, Hughes published his first novel, Not Without Laughter. The book was commercially successful enough to convince Hughes that he could make a living as a writer.

During the 1930s, Hughes would frequently travel the United States on lecture tours, and also abroad to the Soviet Union, Japan, and Haiti. He continued to write and publish poetry and prose during this time, and in 1934 he published his first collection of short stories, The Ways of White Folks.

'Let America Be America Again'

In July 1936 he published one of his most celebrated poems, "Let America Be America Again" in Esquire, which examined the unrealized hopes and dreams of the country's lower class and disadvantaged, expressing a sense of hope that the American Dream would one day arrive.

In 1951 Hughes published one of his most celebrated poems, "Harlem (What happens to a dream deferred?')," discussing how the American Dream falls short for African Americans:

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— Like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags Like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Phillis Wheatley, also spelled Phyllis and Wheatly (c. 1753 – December 5, 1784) was the first African-American woman to publish a book of poetry. Born in West Africa, she was sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America. She was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston, who taught her to read and write and encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent.

Period of influence:American Revolution

On a 1773 trip to London with her master's son, seeking publication of her work, she was aided in meeting prominent people who became patrons. The publication in London of her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral on September 1, 1773, brought her fame both in England and the American colonies. Figures such as George Washington praised her work. A few years later, African-American poet Jupiter Hammon praised her work in a poem of his own.

Many colonists found it difficult to believe that an African slave was writing "excellent" poetry. Wheatley had to defend her authorship of her poetry in court in 1772. She was examined by a group of Boston luminaries, including John Erving, Reverend Charles Chauncey, John Hancock, Thomas Hutchinson, the governor of Massachusetts; and his lieutenant governor Andrew Oliver. They concluded she had written the poems ascribed to her and signed an attestation, which was included in the preface of her book of collected works: Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, published in London in 1773. Publishers in Boston had declined to publish it, but her work was of great interest to influential people in London.

There, Selina, Countess of Huntingdon and the Earl of Dartmouth acted as patrons to help Wheatley gain publication. Her poetry received comment in The London Magazine in 1773, which published as a "specimen" of her work her poem 'Hymn to the Morning', and said: "these poems display no astonishing works of genius, but when we consider them as the productions of a young, untutored African, who wrote them after six months careful study of the English language, we cannot but suppress our admiration for talents so vigorous and lively." Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was printed in 11 editions until 1816.

Wheatley was emancipated (set free) by the Wheatleys shortly after the publication of her book.

James Weldon Johnson was born in Jacksonville, Florida, on June 17, 1871, the son of a freeborn Virginian father and a Bahamian mother, and was raised without a sense of limitations amid a society focused on segregating African Americans. After graduating from Atlanta University, Johnson was hired as a principal in a grammar school. While serving in this position, in 1895, he founded The Daily American newspaper. In 1897, Johnson became the first African American to pass the bar exam in Florida.

Not long after, in 1900, James and his brother, John, wrote the song "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which would later become the official anthem of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. (The Johnson brothers would go on to write more than 200 songs for the Broadway musical stage.) Johnson then moved to New York and studied literature at Columbia University, where he met other African-American artists.

Jazz Greats The music that percolated in and then boomed out of Harlem in the 1920s was jazz, often played at speakeasies offering illegal liquor. Jazz became a great draw for not only Harlem residents, but outside white audiences also. Some of the most celebrated names in American music regularly performed in Harlem—Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Fats Waller and Cab Calloway, often accompanied by elaborate floor shows. Tap dancers like John Bubbles and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson were also popular.

WERD was the first radio station owned and programmed by African Americans. The station was established in Atlanta, Georgia on October 3, 1949, broadcasting on 860 AM (now used by WAEC).

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014. She was an American poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

Marian Anderson was born on February 27, 1897, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Singer Marian Anderson displayed vocal talent as a child, but her family could not afford to pay for formal training. Members of her church congregation raised funds for her to attend a music school.

Over her two years of studying with Boghetti, Anderson won a chance to sing at the Lewisohn Stadium in New York after entering a contest organized by the New York Philharmonic Society. Other opportunities soon followed. In 1928, she performed at Carnegie Hall for the first time and eventually embarked on a tour through Europe thanks to a Julius Rosenwald scholarship.

Despite Anderson's success, not all of America was ready to receive her talent. In 1939, her manager tried to set up a performance for her at Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall. But the owners of the hall, the Daughters of the American Revolution, informed Anderson and her manager that no dates were available. That was far from the truth. The real reason for turning Anderson away lay in a policy put in place by the D.A.R. that committed the hall to being a place strictly for white performers.

When word leaked out to the public about what had happened, an uproar ensued, led in part by Eleanor Roosevelt, who invited Anderson to perform instead at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. In front of a crowd of more than 75,000, Anderson offered up a riveting performance that was broadcast live for millions of radio listeners.

In 1955 she became the first African American singer to perform as a member of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.