Myles Love

Dr. Carter G. Woodson was born of slaves in New Canton, Virginia. Mainly self-taught, he mastered the fundamentals of common school subjects by the time he was seventeen. At age 20, he entered Douglas High School in Huntington, West Virginia where he earned his teaching diploma after two years (he later returned as principal). He subsequently obtained his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in History from Harvard, becoming the second African-American to receive this degree. 

In his career as an educator, Dr. Woodson became convinced that the role of his people in history was either ignored or misinterpreted. As a result of this conviction, Dr. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History to conduct research into the history of African people throughout the world. It is worth noting that he did not believe in “Negro history” as a separate discipline but instead viewed so-called “Negro history” as a missing segment of world history, and he devoted his life to reconstructing this segment. 

One year later, in 1916, he published the influential Journal of Negro History, which has not missed an issue to this day. In 1921, he established Associated Publishers to provide a forum for publication of valuable books on African history not then acceptable to most publishers. In addition, he authored numerous scholarly works and publications. 

In 1926, Dr. Woodson inaugurated Negro History Week. The chosen week included February 12th (Abraham Lincoln’s birthday) and February 14th (Frederick Douglass’s birthday). In cases where only one of these days fell within the week, Frederick Douglass’s birthday had priority. It is worth noting that Dr. Woodson realized that Negro History Week would be no longer necessary once this segment of World history was integrated into the curriculum and taught with respect and sensitivity. 

In the 1960’s the name was changed to Black History Week to reflect the increasing racial awareness of African-Americans. In 1976, the celebrations were extended to include the entire month of February.

Courtesy of blackhistorypages.net

Mae Jemison blasted into orbit aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, September 12, 1992, the world’s first woman of color to go into space and the city of Chicago’s first astronaut in U.S. history.

Jemison attended Stanford University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering, and fulfilled the requirements for an A.B. in African and Afro-American studies. She completed her medical doctorate at Cornell University. Jemison was a General Practitioner in Los Angeles with the INA/Ross Loos Medical Group, and then spent 2 ½ years as Area Peace Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa.

Jemison formed The Jemison Group, Inc., a technology design and consulting company. Projects have included consulting on the design and implementation of solar thermal electricity generation systems for developing countries and remote areas and the use of satellite-based telecommunications to facilitate health care delivery in West Africa. As Director of the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries and Professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College, Jemison works on sustainable development. The institute is organizing a S.E.E.ing the Future (Science, Engineering and Education) Institute for the National Science Foundation, a project to consider the role of public funding in science and technology research in the future. Jemison also created The Earth We Share*. Jemison also serves as Bayer Corporation’s national science literacy advocate.

Honors and awards include induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame; selection as one of the People magazines’ 1993 “World’s 50 Most Beautiful People”; Johnson Publications Black Achievement Trailblazers Award; the Kilby Science Award; National Medical Association Hall of Fame; selection as a Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth College; and numerous honorary doctorates. She was the host and technical consultant of the “World of Wonder” series on the Discovery channel, appeared in an episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation, and was the subject of the PBS documentary The New Explorers.

Courtesy of the Dorothy Jemison Foundation website

Cornel West is a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual.  He is the Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University.  He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton.  He has taught at Union Theological Seminary, Yale, Harvard and the University of Paris.  He has written 19 books and edited 13 books.  He is best known for his classic Race Matters, Democracy Matters, and his new memoir, Brother West:  Living and Loving Out Loud.  He appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, Colbert Report, CNN and C-Span as well as on his dear Brother, Tavis Smiley’s PBS TV Show.  He can be heard weekly on Tavis Smiley’s NPI radio program. The Smiley and West radio show is a highly acclaimed progressive program.  He made his film debut in the Matrix – and was the commentator (with Ken Wilbur) on the official trilogy released in 2004.  He also has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films including Examined Life, Call & Response, Sidewalk andStand.  Last, he has made three spoken word albums including Never Forget, collaborating with Prince, Jill Scott, Andre 3000, Talib Kweli, KRS-One and the late Gerald Levert.  His recent spoken word interludes were featured on Terence Blanchard’sChoices (which won the Grand Prix in France for the best Jazz Album of the year of 2009), The Cornel West Theory’s Second Rome and the Raheem DeVaughn’s Love & War: Masterpeace.  In short, Cornel West has a passion to communicate to a vast variety of publics in order to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. – a legacy of telling the truth and bearing witness to love and justice.

Courtesy of the Official Website of Dr. Cornel West. http://www.cornelwest.com