on THIS DAY...

2/25/1870

 HIRAM  RHOADES  REVELS was sworn in as the first Black member of the United States Senate.

BLACK HISTORY QUIZ - THE ANSWER

DR. SUSAN SMITH McKINNEY STEWARD,  was  the first Black woman to  earn a medical doctorate in New York State.

BIRTH of a Community CREATOR

W.E.B. DuBOIS, Scholar, Sociologist, Educator, Historian, Editor, Author, and Civil Rights Activist, was born WILLIAM EDWARD BURGHARDT DuBOIS on this day 2/23/1868 in Great Barrington, Mass.

DuBois was an excellent student. He graduated valedictorian of his high school in 1884. He received a B.A. from Fisk University four years later, a second B.A. from Harvard University two years later in 1890.

In 1895, DuBois became the first Black person to earn a Ph.D at Harvard University. His doctoral thesis, "The Suppression of the African Slave Trade in America," became the first book published by Harvard University Press a year later.

In 1903 , his collection of essays , "The Souls of Black Folk," challenged the civil rights strategies of Black leaders of the day. As a result, in 1905 he helped create the "Niagara Movement," which presented an organizational challenge to White racism, and racial injustice. This led him to being a co-founder of the NAACP.

DuBois wrote numerous books, essays, and articles on the condition and progress of Black people in the United States. He was not happy with the dominance of White racism in American society and the role it played in keeping Black people  subjugated to second-class citizenship. His disillusionment over the power of White racism and what he felt was a compromising approach by Black leaders to the problem led him to become unpopular with many Blacks and Whites.

In 1950, DuBois became a Communist, believing that it offered the only hope for working class people  around the world, and the only major challenge to White racism.

In 1961, DuBois gave up his citizenship, and left the United States permanently.  He died in Accra, Ghana in 1963 on the eve of the largest Civil Rights demonstration in U.S. history, the MARCH ON WASHINGTON.

PROFILES in COURAGE

                  SAMUEL DeWITT PROCTOR   1921-1997  Theologian, Educator, Humanitarian

A mentor and friend to several ministers, including Rev Martin Luther King, Jr and Rev Jesse Jackson.

BLACK HISTORY QUIZ- THE ANSWER

MARY ELIZA CHURCH TERRELL, a Civil Rights Advocate, told her life story in the book "A Colored Woman in a White World."

BIRTH of a community CREATOR

NINA SIMONE, Singer. Songwriter, Pianist, arranger and Civil Rights Activist, was born EUNICE KATHLEEN WAYMON on this day 2/21/1933 in Tryon, North Carolina.

SIMONE was on of the most gifted vocalists of all times, and a powerful performer, who took a song and made it hers. Her cover of jazz, blues, soul, classical, R&B, pop and gospel tunes were not limited by any previous boundaries that may have been established.

Her passion and feelings on racial equality and social injustice were addressed in her music in songs like "Four Women," "Young, Gifted and Black," and "Mississippi Goddam."

NINA SIMONE was a TRUE DIVA and a Black iconic performer who spread her vibrations throughout the world for over 5 decades.

BLACK HISTORY quiz- the ANSWER

MARY McLEOD BETHUNE was the 15th of 17 children born of former slaves who grew up to become a college president.