Celebrate 44

1970 in the African-American psyche felt like many years prior: two steps forward and one step back. The struggle for equality was still underway as evidenced by Angela Davis’ arrest. But 1970 marked many firsts for African-Americans, including the first Black Pulitzer Prize winner, Charles Gordone, and the first Black contestant in the Miss American […]

In 1966, the Black Panther Party was founded, Kwanzaa created, and Edward Brooke became the first Black U.S. Senator. See more Black History from 1966 below! And see our Black History GAME CHANGERS for 2012 HERE!

As a noted surgeon and scientist, Charles Drew was responsible for creating the technology to store blood for long periods of time. His lifelong concern for the necessary transport and storage of blood and plasma made him a pioneer in his field and a valued scientist in world history. Drew saved thousands of soldiers’ lives […]

Before the battle for Civil Rights was waged in the South, it was fought in the North. And foremost among those northern Black leaders who spearheaded the charge for equality was Adam Clayton Powell Jr. As a local leader in pre-World War Two Harlem, Powell fought successfully to end discrimination in hiring and in public […]

Despite the rough nature of his sport, Muhammad Ali was one of the smoothest persons ever to walk the Earth. His poetic verse and well-considered metaphors came out a time during the 1960s when boxers were better known for punching than speaking. But Muhammad Ali did speak, and spoke intelligently – in a loud, boisterous […]

American music has always been, at base, African-American music. Gospel, minstrelsy, vaudeville, jazz, blues, rhythm & blues and rock n’ roll — it’s all basically Black, no matter the color of the artist who performs it. But until the 1960s, Black people did not much control their culture, much less profit from it. That all […]

Bill Cosby is a man of many “firsts.” Cosby was the first Black comedian to conquer white American audiences. He was the first African- American to take a starring role in a network television series in the 1960s, “I Spy”; and the first to star in and produce a #1 TV show in the 1980s, […]

Ralph Ellison was the first novelist to portray the Black experience as a critical part of the American experience. His seminal novel, “Invisible Man,” was his only major work, but his letters, articles and fiction work established him as one of the most important writers in history. “Invisible Man” encapsulated the feelings of Black men […]

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a dynamic theology student and pastor who entered the battle for civil rights somewhat reluctantly, thrust into the fray during the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. But the young Dr. King’s moral courage, deep understanding and rhetorical abilities made his local and national leadership inevitable. In the face of […]