1900

In this century African Americans found struggles every way they turned. But some of those folks found ways to overcome the challenges and shine. They created stunning examples of what could be.

Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker (3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.

She was born in St Louis, Missouri, as Freda Josephine McDonald where she had a very rough beginning. She dropped out of school at age 12 and had two failed marriages at ages 13 and 15.  Then she joined a vaudeville troupe that took her to New York City. She later became part of a show, Shuffle Along in the chorus line. This would be one of the first steps to her success.

She used comedy to make herself stand out in the chorus line, and later launch a career that sent her overseas because prejudice limited what she could accomplish in the United States. In Paris she became a success which led to a career that spanned all over Europe.  Some have called her the first Beyonce in that she starred in theater and movies in France and became a standout star.

She did not limit her life to performance, during World War II she became a spy for the French Resistance and later received a medal for her work. In the 1950s became active in the Civil Rights Movement traveling throughout the southern part of the United States. Ever the humanitarian, she also adopted 12 children from around the world and raise them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker

Michelle Obama

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married to former President Barack Obama.

Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, Obama is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. In her early legal career, she worked at the law firm Sidley Austin where she met Barack Obama. She subsequently worked in nonprofits and as the associate dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago as well as the vice president for Community and External Affairs of Affairs of the University of Chicago Medical Center. Michelle married Barack in 1992, and together they have two daughters.

After the White House, she and husband wrote books about their experiences and produced programming for Netflix.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Obama

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court’s first African-American justice. Prior to his judicial service, he was an attorney who fought for civil rights, leading the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Marshall coordinated the assault on racial segregation in schools. He won 29 of the 32 civil rights cases he argued before the Supreme Court, culminating in the Court’s landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which rejected the separate but equal doctrine and held segregation in public education to be unconstitutional. 

He was born in Baltimore, MD and attended the Colored High and Training School in Baltimore, graduating in 1925 with honors. He then went to Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the oldest college for African Americans in the United States.   Upon his graduation with honors in 1930 with a bachelor’s degree in American literature and philosophy, he went to the all-white University of Maryland Law School—applied to Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., and was admitted.

At the age of 82 he announced his retirement in June of 1991 and began it in October because of his health issues. In January 1993 he died of heart failure. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurgood_Marshall

1900

In this century African Americans found struggles every way they turned. But some of those folks found ways to overcome the challenges and shine. They created stunning examples of what could be.

Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker (3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.

She was born in St Louis, Missouri, as Freda Josephine McDonald where she had a very rough beginning. She dropped out of school at age 12 and had two failed marriages at ages 13 and 15.  Then she joined a vaudeville troupe that took her to New York City. She later became part of a show, Shuffle Along in the chorus line. This would be one of the first steps to her success.

She used comedy to make herself stand out in the chorus line, and later launch a career that sent her overseas because prejudice limited what she could accomplish in the United States. In Paris she became a success which led to a career that spanned all over Europe.  Some have called her the first Beyonce in that she starred in theater and movies in France and became a standout star.

She did not limit her life to performance, during World War II she became a spy for the French Resistance and later received a medal for her work. In the 1950s became active in the Civil Rights Movement traveling throughout the southern part of the United States. Ever the humanitarian, she also adopted 12 children from around the world and raise them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker

Michelle Obama

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married to former President Barack Obama.

Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, Obama is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. In her early legal career, she worked at the law firm Sidley Austin where she met Barack Obama. She subsequently worked in nonprofits and as the associate dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago as well as the vice president for Community and External Affairs of Affairs of the University of Chicago Medical Center. Michelle married Barack in 1992, and together they have two daughters.

After the White House, she and husband wrote books about their experiences and produced programming for Netflix.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Obama

1900

In this century African Americans found struggles every way they turned. But some of those folks found ways to overcome the challenges and shine. They created stunning examples of what could be.

Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker (3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.

She was born in St Louis, Missouri, as Freda Josephine McDonald where she had a very rough beginning. She dropped out of school at age 12 and had two failed marriages at ages 13 and 15.  Then she joined a vaudeville troupe that took her to New York City. She later became part of a show, Shuffle Along in the chorus line. This would be one of the first steps to her success.

She used comedy to make herself stand out in the chorus line, and later launch a career that sent her overseas because prejudice limited what she could accomplish in the United States. In Paris she became a success which led to a career that spanned all over Europe.  Some have called her the first Beyonce in that she starred in theater and movies in France and became a standout star.

She did not limit her life to performance, during World War II she became a spy for the French Resistance and later received a medal for her work. In the 1950s became active in the Civil Rights Movement traveling throughout the southern part of the United States. Ever the humanitarian, she also adopted 12 children from around the world and raise them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker

1900

In this century African Americans moved their feet and changed lives for all Americans. We have made significant accomplishments and changed the way we as a people were seen and how our struggle was told.

Barack Hussein Obama II

Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president of the United States. He was born in August of 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law.

He married Michelle Robinson.

As the President, Obama passed a health care bill into law that gave more protection for more Americans. He is currently building his Presidential Library in Chicago in a predominately African American neighborhood.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was an American jazz and swing music singer. She was born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She also sang stories that gave insight into African American life, such as Strange Fruit. This song protests the lynching of African Americans. She won four Grammy’s posthumously. Holiday died of cirrhosis on July 17, 1959, at age 44.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Holiday

James Baldwin

James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various mediums, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, was published in 1953; decades later, Time magazine included the novel on its list of the 100 best English-language novels released from 1923 to 2005. His first essay collection, Notes of a Native Son, was published in 1955.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baldwin

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement on August 6, 1965, and Congress later amended the Act five times to expand its protections. Designed to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Act sought to secure the right to vote for racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88–352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964) is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex,^[a] and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requirements, racial segregation in schools and public accommodations, and employment discrimination. The act “remains one of the most significant legislative achievements in American history”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964