Black History: Storied Lives
January 1 - February 28, 2006
In honor of Black History Month, the Evans Library proudly presents the display "Black History: Storied Lives", a look at individuals from African-American communities across the United States who have made remarkable contributions in the areas of education, civil rights, science, business, religion, entertainment, and so much more. The library display and this site highlight only a few of these "storied lives". Some names and stories are familiar and others not so familiar; some stories are worthy of a smile and others worthy of a tear. Regardless of its contribution, each and every storied life will inspire.
Matthew Henson ~ George Washington Carver ~ Bessie Smith ~ Whitney Moore Young ~ Benjamin O. Davis ~ Ernest E. Just ~ Dr. Allison Davis ~ Nat King Cole ~ Madame C.J. Walker ~ Sonny Terry ~ W. C. Handy ~ Bessie Coleman ~ Sister Rosetta Tharpe ~ Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable ~ A. Philip Randolph ~ Percy Lavon Julian ~ Charles R. Drew ~ Jim Beckworth ~ Mahalia Jackson ~ Wilma Rudolph ~ Robert C. Maynard ~ Barbara Jordan ~ Rita Dove ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.~ Ruby Bridges ~ Zora Neale Hurston ~ Mary Jane McLeod Bethune ~ James Baldwin ~ Harry T. Moore ~ Harriet Moore ~ Dick Gregory ~ Rosa Parks ~ Harriet Tubman ~ Capt. Della H. Raney ~ Julius Montgomery ~ Gwendolyn Brooks ~ Mary Church Terrell ~ Dr. Dorothy I Height ~ Dorie Miller ~ Willie Howard Mays, Jr ~ Jesse Owens ~ Coretta Scott King
"Every February, Americans celebrate Black History Month. This tribute dates back to 1926 and is credited to a Harvard scholar named Carter G. Woodson. The son of former slaves, Woodson dedicated his life to ensuring that black history was accurately documented and disseminated.
In an effort to bring national attention to the contributions of black Americans, Woodson organized the first annual Negro History Week in 1926. He chose the second week of February in honor of the birthdays of pivotal black supporters Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
From Jackie Robinson to Tiger Woods, Harriet Tubman to Barack Obama, Black History Month pays tribute to inspirational African Americans from the past, as well as those who will continue to make history well into the future."
"We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the
history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice."
- Carter Godwin Woodson on founding Negro History Week, 1926
"...learning to accept insult, to compromise on principle, to mislead your fellow man, or to betray your people, is to lose your
-James Henry Woodson, a slave (Carter G. Woodson's father). Carter credits his father with influencing the course of his life.
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be
self-evident: that all men are created equal.' "
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?"
"This country cannot be the country we want it to be if its story is told by only one group of citizens. Our goal is to give all
Americans front-door access to the truth."
- Robert C. Maynard, co-founder of the Institute for Journalism Education
"We are...asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial... You can afford to stay out of
school for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-ups, don't ride the bus at all on Monday.
Please stay off the buses Monday."
- Message on 35,000 handbills mimeographed by the Women's Political Council for distribution to all black schools following the arrest of Rosa Parks
Following her arrest, Rosa Parks is fingerprinted.
"Montgomery's segregation laws were complex: blacks were required to pay their fare to the driver, then get off and reboard through the back door. Sometimes the bus would drive off before the paid-up customers made it to the back entrance. If the white section was full and another white customer entered, blacks were required to give up their seats and move farther to the back; a black person was not even allowed to sit across the aisle from whites. These humiliations were compounded by the fact that two-thirds of the bus riders in Montgomery were black."
- Rita Dove, former U.S. poet laureate, winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Quote source: http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/parks01.html
Library Resources on Display:
|The Trumpet of Conscience||Martin Luther King||JC599.U5 K5|
|Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics||Bell Hooks||E185.86 .H742 1990|
|We All Got History: The Memory Books of Amos Webber||Nick Salvatore||E185.97 .W44 S25 1996|
|The Potomac Chronicle: Public Policy & Civil Rights from Kennedy to Reagan||Harold C. Fleming||E185.61 .F55 1997|
|Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Site & Preservation District: General Management Plan, Development Concept Plan & Environmental Assessment||United States. National Park Service||I 29.2:M 36|
|Non-Violence and Aggression: A Study of Gandhi's Moral Equivalent of War||H. J. N. Horsburgh||HM278 .H6|
|Before His Time: The Untold Story of Harry T. Moore, America's First Civil Rights Martyr||Ben Green||E185.97 .M79 G74 1999|
|Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership||Howard Gardner||HM141 .G35 1996|
|Black Miami in the Twentieth Century||Marvin Dunn||F319 .M6 D86 1997|
|Thomas & Beulah: Poems||Rita Dove||PS3554 .O884 T47 1986|
|Fighters for a New World: John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Robert F. Kennedy||Thilo Koch||E841 .K613|
|Report of the Department of Justice Task Force to Review the FBI Martin Luther King, Jr., Security and Assassination Investigations||United States Task Force to Review the FBI Martin Luther King, Jr., Security and Assassination Investigations||J 1.2:K 58|
|The Negro in Twentieth Century America: A Reader on the Struggle for Civil Rights||Edited by John Hope Franklin and Isidore Starr||E185.61 .N43 1967|
|The Final Assassination Report: Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations, U.S. House of Representatives||United States. Congress. House. Select Committee on Assassinations||E842.9 .U54 1979|
|Who's Who Among African Americans||Ready Reference||E185.97 .W44 S25 1996|
Internet Sites related to "Black History: Storied Lives"
|The King Center||http://thekingcenter.org/|
|The African-American Registry||http://www.aaregistry.com/|
|Milestones in Black History||http://www.usa-people-search.com/content-milestones-in-black-history.aspx|
|African American Achievers||http://africanamericans.com/Achievers.htm|
|Black Studies - CCNY||http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/prospective/socialsci/blackstudies/|
Stamp on Black History
Postage stamps of historical Black Americans
|We Shall Overcome: Historical Places of the Civil Rights Movement||http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/ma2.htm|
|"With an Even Hand" Brown v. Board at Fifty||http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/brown-aftermath.html|
|They Changed the World: 1955 - 1956: The Story of the Montgomery Boycott||http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/|
|Thomson-Gale: Black History - Biographies||http://www.gale.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/|
Whether long ago or more recently, these "storied lives" have made a remarkably positive impact on society. Each of these individuals has earned a place of honor not only in black history but in all civilized history. Their stories and those of their successors will continue to be written for future generations.
A supplemental brochure listing the library's resources is available to patrons.
This site is presented by the Florida Institute of Technology Evans Library Instructional Programs Team.
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