Black excellence rules all year round, but the 28 days of February are always a special chance to highlight the best of the best when it comes to African-Americans. I was so excited about this year’s installment of Black History Month because of the positive momentum that Black folks were riding into February.
After all, we were fresh off of the historical announcement that California Sen. Kamala Harris would be running for president. She declared her candidacy in Oakland, a city that gave birth to the Black Panthers. And, for good measure, she made that announcement just days after holding a rally with her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, aka the AKAs, in South Carolina. Oh, and did we mention Harris made her announcement on the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday?
Of course, I’d be lying if I said I expected everything to be all good going into February. After all, this is still America and NewsOne still covers all aspects of the Black experience so history alone would tell you to proceed with caution in just about every arena imaginable — especially optimism.
But this is a new year and I’ll be damned, I thought, if I let all of the negativity consume my awareness, even if it is my job to follow a news cycle that’s dominated by racists and racism.
So here we are, highlighting the best of Black History Month, which always seems to fly by regardless of the limited number of days in February, even in a leap year. And, what should be to no one’s surprise, there was plenty to choose from to showcase on this timeline.
The bad always comes with the good (or however that saying goes), and this list simply focuses on the good things that happened in February for and about Black people. And while not all of it may immediately strike you as being a good thing, believe me, it is, in one way or another.
So, without further ado, please keep scrolling down to see NewsOne’s very best of Black History Month 2019.
1. Cory Booker announces he’s running for president
2. Celebrating Langston Hughes’ sweet 116th
3. Woman helps Chicago’s homeless
4. Young black entrepreneurs represent!
5. Skee-Wee!
6. Diversifying Hollywood, one person at a time
7. Twitter celebrates the life of Kristoff St. John
8. Twitter remembers Trayvon on his birthday
9. Superbowl ratings down because of Kaep
10. Stacey Abrams sets Trump straight after his State of the Union address
11. Black excellence at the Grammys
12. Dapper like Dan!
13. Baltimore gets a new police commissioner… for now
14. HBCUs stand up!
15. The fight to keep Jason Van Dyke in prison
16. #Free21Savage
17. Jason Van Dyke gets jail justice
18. Kaep wins again
19. Preserving Black national landmarks becomes a priority
20. Who run it?
21. Buying Black at white companies
22. Happy Barack Obama Day!
23. Sidney Poitier turns 92
24. New Black history textbook gets published
25. Celebrating the life of Malcolm X
26. R. Kelly is charged with sex crimes
27. A Black woman announces R. Kelly’s indictment
28. R. Kelly is arrested
29. Candace Owens flirts with losing her job
30. Queen Latifah comes through for her hometown
31. College basketball players knee for the national anthem
32. R. Kelly seems to be broke
33. Black youth literacy is soaring
34. Black woman sues Trump
35. The launch of NewsOne’s ‘The One Story’ video about Black immigrants in the U.S.
36. Michael Cohen’s tells Congress that Trump is racist
37. Chicago will have its first Black woman mayor
38. Cory Booker introduces common sense weed bill
39. Solange collaborates with Black Planet
40. The Urban One Honors comes on TV
41. Oh, and my alma mater won on the last day of Black History Month
Go Hampton!
