KL Forslund
Black History Month
Updated: Feb 2, 2022
Back in high school, one of my English teachers had posters of many of the famous writers. Hemingway, Dickens, and more ringing the upper walls of the room. To my recollection, most of them were men and white. They all shared a common style, so I’m sure that’s how the set was sold. It was the late eighties and the world was not perfect.
What we know now is there’s a lot of people who got left out of history, not just writers. In February, friends of mine have posted up links and names for Black History Month. I haven’t read them all, but here they are, plus a few more I knew about. I’ve got some reading to do.
Barbara Hillary
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/us/barbara-hillary-dead.html
Bob Marley
Colin Kapernick
https://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp-kaepernick-kneel-boyer-20180916-story.html
Fredi Washington
Gerald Lawson
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/lawson-gerald-jerry-anderson-1940-2011/
Dr. Hadiyah- Nicole Green
https://blackculturenews.com/2020/02/dr-green-the-first-person-to-cure-cancer-using-nanoparticles
https://www.essence.com/feature/hello-from-the-other-side-hadiyah-nicole-green-essence/
Harry T. Moore
https://www.pbs.org/harrymoore/harry/mbio.html
Reverend Dr. Henry Highland Garnet
https://time.com/5124917/black-history-month-henry-highland-garnet/
https://www.nyhistory.org/web/africanfreeschool/bios/henry-highland-garnet.html
James Zwerg
https://spartacus-educational.com/USAzwerg.htm
https://theundefeated.com/features/thank-you-freedom-rider/
Sgt. 1st Class Janina Simmons
https://www.army.mil/article/221268/one_of_fort_jacksons_finest
Julian F. Abele
https://www.curbed.com/2017/12/6/16743328/julian-abele-black-architect-of-duke-university
https://spotlight.duke.edu/abele/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/out-of-the-shadows-85569503/
Kalief Browder
https://www.themarshallproject.org/records/1501-kalief-browder
Langston Hughes
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/langston-hughes
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/23/sojourner
Lonnie Johnson
https://blackculturenews.com/2020/01/lonnie-johnson-super-soaker-creator-awarded-72-9m-from-hasbro
https://www.lonniejohnson.com/
Malcom X
Marie Van Brittan Brown
https://libertywritersglobal.com/meet-black-woman-who-invented-the-home-security-system-in-1966/
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/brown-marie-van-brittan-1922-1999/
Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mb5yap/mary-beatrice-davidson-kenner-sanitary-belt
Dr. Maya Angelou
Nina Simone
https://www.albumism.com/celebrations/happy-birthday-nina-simone
http://www.ninasimone.com/bio/
Octavia Butler
Polly Jackson
Robert Smalls
https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/21764
Sandra Bland
https://www.essence.com/op-ed/what-it-means-to-say-her-name/
Sidney Poitier
https://www.biography.com/actor/sidney-poitier
Rev. William Washington Browne
https://www.blackbusiness.com/2016/02/first-ever-black-owned-bank-founder-once-a-slave.html?m=1
Sarranounia Mangou
Toni Morrison
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/books/toni-morrison-dead.html
https://www.tonimorrisonsociety.org/
https://www.biography.com/writer/toni-morrison
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/toni-morrison
This list isn’t definitive or ranked (I sorted by first name). Some lives were cut tragically short. Each should be known as well as Hemingway and Thomas Jefferson. It’s hard to fit everybody’s poster on a classroom wall, but until everybody is at least represented, we’ll need months dedicated to raising our awareness of those left out.
Happy Black History Month.