rOBERT SENGSTACKE ABBOTT   

● Born just five years after the end of the Civil War (November 24,
1870), Robert Sengstacke Abbott founded a weekly newspaper, ​The
Chicago Defender​, one of the most important black newspapers in
history, in 1905. Without Abbott, there would be no Essence, no Jet
(and its Beauty of the Week), no Black Enterprise, no The Source, no
The Undefeated.

● The success of ​The Chicago Defender​ made Abbott one of the nation’s
most prominent post-slavery black millionaires.

● An alum of ​Hampton University​ (then named Hampton Institute),

Abbott was a catalyst for the Great Migration at the turn of the 20th
century, when 6 million African-Americans from the rural South
moved to ​urban cities​ in the West, Northeast and Midwest, with
100,000 settling in ​Chicago​.

● The Defender ​was initially banned in the South due to its

encouragement of African-Americans to abandon the area and head
North, but the Georgia native used a network of black railroad porters
(who would eventually become the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters) to distribute the paper in Southern states.

● After the influx of blacks in the Midwest following the Great

Migration, Abbott and ​The Defender​ turned their attention to other
issues afflicting blacks in the early 20th century, including Jim Crow
segregation, the presidency of Woodrow Wilson and the deadly 1919
Chicago riots that mirrored recent-day demonstrations seen in
Baltimore and ​Ferguson, Missouri​.

The facts above are excerpts from ​http://www.theundefeated.com

 Richard allen
● Richard Allen is considered the founder of the African Methodist
Episcopal (AME) Church in America. That church, now with a
membership of more than 2.5 million people and 6,000 churches,
was the country’s first independent black denomination.

● Allen discovered religion after hearing a Methodist preacher at a

secret gathering of slaves in Delaware. In his biography, ​The Life
Experiences and Gospel Labors of the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen​, he
wrote, “I was awakened and brought to see myself, poor, wretched
and undone, and without the mercy of God must be lost.”

● Former slave.​ Born into servitude in 1760 in Philadelphia, “Negro

Richard” earned $2,000 to buy his ​freedom​ and that of his brother in
1780. Richard Allen, the name he chose as a freedman, came of age
during the American Revolution, just as the antislavery movement
and denominational Christianity were gaining prominence.

● Abolitionist.​ Allen focused his sermons on the freedom of slaves,

cessation of colonization, education of youths and temperance. He
created denominational groups to care for and educate the poor. His
home and Bethel AME were stops on the ​Underground Railroad.

● Educator. ​Recognizing that former slaves and freedmen needed

education, he opened a day school for black children and a night
school for adults. Allen published articles in Freedom’s Journal
attacking slavery, colonialism and organizations that advocated the
migration of blacks back to Africa.

The facts above are excerpts from ​http://www.theundefeated.com

 MAya Angelou  

● Maya Angelou ​was an American poet, singer, and memoirist.

● Despite horrific periods in her life, ​Angelou rose​. At 8 years old,

she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. After being convicted,
Angelou’s abuser was found beaten to death.

● The once garrulous girl from Stamps, Arkansas, silenced herself

for nearly five years, believing that her voice had killed the man
because she identified him to her family. Instead, she
memorized poetry during her silence, rearranging cadences and
reciting Shakespearean sonnets in her head.

● With the help of a teacher, Angelou was able to speak again. She
used ​literature​ to recover from trauma.

● Later, she joined the Harlem Writers Guild and with help from
friend and fellow author James Baldwin, went on to write I
Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969 — the first in what
would become a ​seven-volume, best-selling autobiographical
series​.

● Angelou was also a fearless and determined civil rights activist,

serving as the northern coordinator for Martin Luther King Jr.’s
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and working with
Malcolm X to establish the Organization of Afro-American
Unity.

● Life tried hard to break Angelou, but in the face of it all, still she
rose.

The facts above are excerpts from ​http://www.theundefeated.com

 Ella “fundi” baker
● Proof that visibility is not necessary to make an impact, Ella Baker is one
of history’s lesser-known civil rights heroes, yet one of the most
important.

● Born on Dec. 13, 1903, in Norfolk, Virginia, Baker cultivated her passion
and desire for ​social justice​ at a young age. Her grandmother, who was a
slave, once told her a story of being whipped for refusing to marry a man
of her slave owner’s choosing,
fueling Baker’s desire for systematic change and justice for her people.

● In 1957, Baker moved to Atlanta to help King form the Southern

Christian Leadership Conference, through which she facilitated protests,
built campaigns and ran a voter registration campaign called the
Crusade for Citizenship.

● Baker did grow frustrated at the lack of gender equality within the
group, and came close to quitting in 1960. But then, on Feb. 1, four black
college students sat at a lunch counter at ​Woolworth’s​ in Greensboro,
North Carolina. After being denied service, they were asked to leave.
Instead, they refused to leave and a movement was born.

● Inspired by the courageous sit-ins, Baker laid the framework for the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). SNCC became
one of the most important organizations in American civil rights history
because of its commitment to effecting change through ​Freedom Rides
and its particular emphasis on the importance of voting rights for
African-Americans.

The facts above are excerpts from ​http://www.theundefeated.com

 Shirley Chisholm
● In 1968, Chisholm became the first black woman elected to the U.S.
Congress, representing New York’s 12th District for seven terms from
1969 to 1983.

● As both a New York state legislator and a congresswoman, Chisholm

championed the rights of the least of us, fighting for improved
education; health and social services, including unemployment
benefits for domestic workers; providing disadvantaged students the
chance to enter college while receiving intensive remedial education;
the food stamp program; and the Special Supplemental Nutrition
Program for Women, Infants and Children program.

● Chisholm noted that she faced more discrimination because of gender

than race during her New York legislative career, while
acknowledging the additional struggle that black women encounter
specifically because of their race. All those Chisholm hired for her
congressional office were women; half of them were black.
“Tremendous amounts of talent are lost to our society just because
that talent wears a skirt,” she said.

● In 1972, Chisholm 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.
Before Obama’s “Yes We Can” slogan there was Chisholm’s
“Unbought and Unbossed.”

The facts above are excerpts from ​http://www.theundefeated.com

 W.E.B. Du Bois
● In the introduction to The Souls of Black Folk, published in 1903,
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois wrote that “the problem of the
Twentieth Century is the ​problem of color line​.” Though this
prophetic remark is perhaps his most indelible, in a career spanning
over a half-century until his death in 1963, Du Bois possessed the
most perpetual voice on race in American history.

● In Black Reconstruction in America, published in 1935, Du Bois

observed that working-class whites receive the psychological ​wage of
whiteness​. “It must be remembered that the white group of laborers,”
he penned, “while they received a low wage, were compensated in
part by a sort of public and psychological wage.”

● Du Bois also wrote incisively on ​the black condition​, including the

observation that blacks have a double consciousness. “It is a peculiar
sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at
one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the
tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever
feels his two-ness, — an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts,
two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body,
whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”

● This is the legacy of Du Bois — a veritable library of works that were

essential reading the moment he finished them because they spoke to
the issues of the day and yet speak just as loudly now.

The facts above are excerpts from ​http://www.theundefeated.com

 Duke ellington
● Just as soul music and Motown provided the aspirational soundtrack
for the 1960s civil rights movement, swing music furnished the
upwardly-mobile score for the mid-1900s Harlem Renaissance. And
of all the formidable bandleaders of the era, Edward “Duke” Ellington
towered over the competition like a musical Everest.

● An economical pianist and canny orchestra leader, music seemed to

pour from the D.C.-born wunderkind. Composing original songs at a
furious clip, Ellington wrote more than 1,000 tunes, many of which
are considered part of the Great American Songbook, including
“​Don’t Get Around Much Anymore​,” “​Satin Doll​,” “​I’m Beginning to
See the Light​,” and more.

● He was a pivotal player in jazz music’s metamorphosis into swing, the

evolutionary 1930s style that placed more emphasis on syncopated
rhythms and hard-driving bass.

● His original songs rank among the first examples of “crossover” pop.
It’s indisputable that Ellington performances such as “​Take the ‘A’
Train​” “​In A Sentimental Mood​” and “​It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It
Ain’t Got That Swing)​” perfectly captured the essence of the black
experience, but his facile reconciliation of street-smart rhythm,
tuxedo-clad melody and impressionistic lyricism was also irresistible
to white audiences.

● Play word association with phrases such as “swing” and “big band
music,” and Ellington’s name will likely leap first to many people’s
minds. In death as in life, he is the embodiment of jazz.

The facts above are excerpts from ​http://www.theundefeated.com

 Katherine johnson
● The significance of NASA being able to send John Glenn around the
earth three successful times is well-documented, well-reported on and
appropriately looked at as one of the more important gains in air and
space. The critical nugget that always was missing was the unseen black
female force that helped him get there.

● Katherine Johnson, 98, was a physicist and mathematician who helped

launch the first use of digital electronic computers at NASA, the
independent federal government agency that handles aerospace
research, aeronautics and the civilian space program. Her wisdom with
numbers and accuracy was so highly regarded that her sign-off was
paramount for NASA to modernize itself with digital computers.

● Be clear, Johnson wasn’t alone — many black women were hired by

NASA in the early 1950s to work in the Guidance and Navigation
Department. But it was Johnson who was plucked out of the pool to
work with an all-male flight research team. It was Johnson who helped
calculate the orbit for the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the moon. And it was
Johnson who co-authored 26 scientific papers, which NASA still links to
via its archives.

● Her story was told in grand Hollywood fashion. Oscar-nominated actor

and Golden Globe winner Taraji P. Henson brought her life to the big
screen in the critically acclaimed ​Hidden Figures​, and Henson boldly
helped to tell a story that so many of us never knew existed.

● In 2015, then-President Barack Obama awarded Johnson the

Presidential Medal of Freedom​ for her pioneering work that led black
women to work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The facts above are excerpts from ​http://www.theundefeated.com

 Malcolm x
● Malcolm X was royalty. He was the American Dream whether America
wanted him to be or not. Born Malcolm Little, ​Malcolm X overcame
drug addiction and a life of crime to become one of the country’s
foremost civil rights leaders​ and champions of black pride in the 20th
century.

● In 1957, Malcolm X founded the Nation of Islam newspaper

Muhammad Speaks​. The paper remains one of his lasting legacies as it
was the medium for him to spread his revolutionary message. His
philosophies on black pride, black beauty and black power spread widely
across the country — for a time in ​the 1960s​ it was the most widely read
black newspaper in the United States, ​boasting a circulation​ in the
100,000s.

● Malcolm X’s theories​ became the blueprint for the ​black power
movements of the ’60s and ’70s​. Malcolm X also receives credit for
cultivating the notion that “​black is beautiful​.”

● By 1963, Malcolm X had become the ​second-most sought after​ speaker

in the United States and was interviewed by Mike Wallace ​of ​CBS News​.
His Unity Rally in that same year was one of the biggest civil rights
gatherings at the time.

● Malcolm X took a more diplomatic stance with regard to race relations

after leaving the Nation of Islam in 1964. Previously he’d been known
for segregationist views and acceptance of violence in the quest for
equality. He began though to preach peaceful resistance, and the
benefits of integration and unity.

● He was ​assassinated in New York City in 1965​. He was 39.

The facts above are excerpts from ​http://www.theundefeated.com

 Jackie Robinson
● Jack Roosevelt Robinson was an American professional ​baseball
player who became the first ​African American​ to play in ​Major League
Baseball​ (MLB) in the modern era.

● When considering Jackie Robinson, think about the basics, about the
justification for Jim Crow, which existed not because whites did not
want to live among blacks, just as the reason for ​segregation​ in
baseball wasn’t because white players and fans did not want to
compete against blacks or watch them play.

● The justification lies in the basics, in the bones, that fundamental

belief that African-Americans were sociologically and scientifically
incapable of joining white society.

● Blacks were enjoyed without having to remove the invisible wall of

segregation as a national belief system or even consider the logic of its
construction.

● The African-American athlete is the most influential and important

black employee in American history. ​Robinson leads the list​ and
always will because of the colossal stakes of his failure.

● In the 1960s, he helped establish the ​Freedom National Bank​, an

African-American-owned financial institution based in ​Harlem​, New
York. After his death in 1972, in recognition of his achievements on
and off the field, Robinson was posthumously awarded the
Congressional Gold Medal​ and ​Presidential Medal of Freedom​.

The facts above are excerpts from ​http://www.theundefeated.com

 Sojourner truth  

● Sojourner Truth, an escaped slave who lost her family, her first love
and children to the peculiar institution, turned her pain and Christian
faith into triumph by helping others — especially women — recognize
their worth.

● She was a prominent and frequent speaker on ​women’s rights​ and

abolition.

● Born Isabella Baumfree in New York around 1797, she was the ninth
child born into an enslaved family. Dutch was her first language.

● She gave herself the name “Sojourner Truth” in 1843 after becoming a
Methodist and soon began a life of preaching and lecturing.

● Truth pursued political equality for all women and spoke against
other abolitionists for not pursuing ​civil rights for all black men and
women​.

● During the Civil War, she helped recruit black troops for the Union
Army, which granted her the opportunity to speak with President
Abraham Lincoln​.

● Truth died in 1883 at her home in Battle Creek, Michigan. Four

decades later, the constitutional amendment extending the vote to
women was ratified.

The facts above are excerpts from ​http://www.theundefeated.com

 Madame cj walker
● At first, it was all about hair and an ointment guaranteed to heal scalp
infections. Sarah Breedlove – the poor washerwoman who would
become millionaire ​entrepreneur​ Madam C. J. Walker – was trying to
cure dandruff and banish her bald spots when she mixed her first batch
of petrolatum and medicinal sulfur.

● But what began as a solution to a pesky personal problem quickly

became a means to a greater end. With the sale of each 2-ounce tin of
Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower, she discovered that her most powerful
gift was motivating other women.

● As she traveled throughout the United States, the Caribbean and Central
America, teaching her Walker System and training sales agents, she
shared her personal story: her birth on the same plantation where her
parents had been enslaved, her struggles as a young widow, her
desperate poverty. If she could transform herself, so could they.

● In place of washtubs and cotton fields, Walker offered them beauty

culture, education, financial freedom and confidence.

● The more money Walker made, the more generous she became —
$1,000 to her local black YMCA in Indianapolis, $5,000 to the NAACP’s
anti-lynching fund. Scholarships for students at Tuskegee and Daytona
Normal and Industrial institutes. Music lessons for young black
musicians.

● As a philanthropist and a pioneer of today’s multibillion-dollar ​hair care

industry​, she used her wealth and influence to empower others. One
could say she was woke a hundred years ago.

The facts above are excerpts from ​http://www.theundefeated.com