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Black History Month - Page 6

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: FANNIE LOU HAMER

By Alaa Elassar, CNN Most of the civil rights movement’s leaders were Black male preachers with impressive degrees and big churches. Fannie Lou Hamer was a poor, uneducated Black woman who showed that a person didn’t need fancy credentials to inspire others. She was so charismatic that even the President of the United States took notice. Hamer was the youngest of 20 children born to a sharecropping family in Mississippi. She had a powerful speaking and gospel singing voice, and when activists launched voter registration drives in the mid-1960s, they recruited her to help out. She paid a price for

Black History Month: PAUL ROBESON

By Alaa Elassar, CNN Paul Robeson was a true Renaissance man – an athlete, actor, author, lawyer, singer and activist whose talent was undeniable and whose outspokenness almost killed his career. An All-American football star at Rutgers University, where he was class valedictorian, Robeson earned a law degree at Columbia and worked for a New York City law firm until he quit in protest over its racism. In the 1920s, he turned to the theater, where his commanding presence landed him lead roles in Eugene O’Neill’s “All God’s Chillun Got Wings” and “The Emperor Jones.” He later sang “Ol’ Man

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY

By Nicole Chavez, CNN Constance Baker Motley graduated from her Connecticut high school with honors, but her parents, immigrants from the Caribbean, couldn’t afford to pay for college. So Motley, a youth activist who spoke at community events, made her own good fortune. A philanthropist heard one of her speeches and was so impressed he paid for her to attend NYU and Columbia Law School. And a brilliant legal career was born. Motley became the lead trial attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and began arguing desegregation and fair housing cases across the country. The person at the NAACP

SSU National Freedom Day observance kicks off Black History Month in covid conscious way

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by:Destin Howard, February 1st marks the start of Black History Month but is it also recognized as National Freedom Day, which Savannah State University’s founding president Major Richard R. Wright, Sr. had a significant role in establishing. February 1st marks the start of Black History Month but is it also recognized as National Freedom Day, which Savannah State University’s founding president Major Richard R. Wright, Sr. had a significant role in establishing.February 1st marks the start of Black History Month but is it also recognized as National Freedom Day, which Savannah State University’s founding president Major Richard R. Wright, Sr.

Black History Month: Charles Richard Drew

By Sydney Walton, CNN Anyone who has ever had a blood transfusion owes a debt to Charles Richard Drew, whose immense contributions to the medical field made him one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. Drew helped develop America’s first large-scale blood banking program in the 1940s, earning him accolades as “the father of the blood bank.” Drew won a sports scholarship for football and track and field at Amherst College, where a biology professor piqued his interest in medicine. At the time, racial segregation limited the options for medical training for African Americans, leading Drew to

Biden to visit Pentagon and pay tribute to Black service members

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By Kate Sullivan, CNN President Joe Biden on Wednesday will make his first trip to the Pentagon since taking office and will speak to the significance of having the first African American in the nation’s history serving as secretary of defense, according to the White House. The trip comes as Biden forges ahead with his agenda while his predecessor former President Donald Trump faces an impeachment trial in the Senate. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other senior military and civilian leadership during the visit. The President and vice president will then

How a freed slave triumphed over a White lynch mob in the Jim Crow South

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By Faith Karimi, CNN On the night of January 21, 1897, a mob of White men armed with pistols and shotguns surrounded the home of freed slave George Dinning in southern Kentucky. They falsely accused him of stealing livestock from a neighboring farm and unleashed a hail of bullets into his house, wounding him in the arm and forehead. Terrified for his wife and children, Dinning fired back, killing one of his assailants. In a remarkable story filled with dramatic twists and unusual alliances, Dinning eventually became perhaps the first Black man in the country to win damages against a

Eunice Hunton Carter: She brought down a fabled Mafia boss

By Harmeet Kaur, CNN Eunice Hunton Carter was a social worker and prosecutor whose investigative work in New York City in the 1930s led to what was then the largest prosecution of organized crime in US history. When notorious mob boss Charles “Lucky” Luciano met his downfall, the credit went to the young prosecutor Thomas Dewey, who eventually ran for president. But it was Carter, an assistant district attorney on his team, who laid the foundation for the case. Carter was born in Atlanta, the granddaughter of enslaved people. In 1932, she became the first Black woman to graduate from

Racine is home to one of a handful of Black-owned bookstores in Wisconsin

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By RACHEL KUBIK RACINE, Wisconsin (The Journal Times) — While bookstores around the country are closing as more people are reading online and on devices such as Kindles and Nooks, Wisconsin still has a number of them. In Black History Month 2021, there continue to be only a few Black-owned bookstores in Wisconsin. Racine is lucky enough to have one. Mahogany Gallery, located at 1422 Washington Ave. in Uptown, is an art exhibition area, cultural center and creative space. It’s also a shop selling nearly everything in the room; products include locally made art, apparel, body products, mugs and books.

Black Lives Matter ad condemns White supremacy ahead of Trump impeachment trial

By Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN A new Black Lives Matter ad is calling for an end to White supremacy using footage of the January 6 Capitol riots and historic Ku Klux Klan rallies to pressure lawmakers to impeach and convict former President Donald Trump. The ad, released exclusively to CNN, comes as the Senate prepares to begin its second impeachment trial of Trump on Tuesday. Black Lives Matter organizers blamed Trump for inciting the Capitol insurrection and emboldening White supremacists with offensive rhetoric and divisive policies throughout his presidency. The ad shows harrowing clips of Trump supporters breaking glass windows

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