Black History Month

Anna Louise James

Anna Louise James was born on January 19th 1886. Her father was a slave in Virginia who escaped to Old Saybrrok, Connecticut where Anna Louise lived. She was the first African-American Female to be a Pharmacist and also graduated from Brooklyn College of Pharmacy in 1908. She even took over operating a pharmacy after her brother-in-law Peter who was the original owner got drafted into World War 1. The pharmacy was operating until 1967. When Anna Louise died in 1977 the pharmacy was shut down and didn’t reopen until 1984 and over the years the store changed owners while still keeping the James Legacy. The Pharmacy was even featured in one of the AT&T commercials in the 1990’s and was also featured in a documentary with Katharine Hepburn. The Pharmacy is now an Ice Cream Shop.

Malcolm X

Malcolm X formally known as Malcolm Little was born on May 19th 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska until he and his Family were forced to move to Lansing, Michigan after the Ku Klux Klan made threats against them. He was an African American leader in the Civil Rights Movement (A Human Rights Activist), Minister and supporter of Black Nationalism, And a Vocal spokesman for the Nation of Islam. He also opposed Martin Luther King’s pacifism and urged Black Americans to protect themselves from White Aggression in a violent way. In 1931 his father was murdered by a white supremacist group called the Black Legionaries. Malcolm X dropped out of school even though he was very intelligent and when he was 21 he got arrested for dealing drugs and larceny, he was nicknamed “Detroit Red” at the time. While in prison he studied the teachings of Elijah Muhammad who was the head of the Black Muslims. Eventually, Malcolm got released from prison six years later and became the minister of Mosque No. 7 in Harlem. And by 1960 the Nation of Islam went from 400 members to 40,000 members. After Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech “I Have a Dream” in 1963, Malcolm responded “Who ever heard of angry revolutionists all harmonizing ‘We Shall Overcome’ while tripping and swaying along arm-in-arm with the very people they were supposed to be angrily revolting against?” Eventually, Malcolm X got assassinated by a Black Muslim at an Organization of Afro-American Unity Rally on February 21st 1965.

Betty Shabazz

Betty Shabazz originally named Betty Dean Sanders was born on May 28th 1934 in Detroit, Michigan. She is an African-American educator and a civil rights advocate and she is the Wife of Malcolm X. She didn’t experience racism until she and her family moved to Alabama and it was so bad that she moved to New York City where she met Malcolm X and became a nurse and joined the Nation of Islam. It was later revealed that Betty was actually born in Pinehurst, Georgia but the Authorities in Georgia and Michigan have not been able to locate her birth certificate. It was also told that Betty’s biological mother, Ollie Mae abused Betty so badly that Betty got adopted by Lorenzo Malloy and his wife, Helen Malloy when she was just 11 years old. When Betty graduated High School she went to college to study at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and majored in Education to become a Teacher and that’s when the racism clicked in. Because you see even though her foster parents worked in Black Groups they never really told her about racism. While at Alabama she was bullied mercilessly just by the color of her skin. There was even one instance where Black students had to wait until every white person in a store had been helped before a staff would serve them. The more Betty was bullied obviously the more frustrated she became (as with any person being bullied or picked on) and her studies suffered to the point where she quit majoring in education to majoring in nursing. After that the Dean of Nursing, Lillian Harvey encouraged her to continue studying at Brooklyn State College in New York City in 1953. Years later she got approached by people part of Nation of Islam Betty and when they asked her to join she rejected at first because she was a methodist and that she was afraid that her foster parents would disown her. Eventually Betty married Malcolm X on January 14th 1958 in Lansing, Michigan. The two later had six children Attallah, Qubilah, IIyasah, Gamilah, and the twins Malikah and Malaak. After Malcolm left the Nation of Islam on March 8th 1964 Betty last name changed from X to Shabazz and the couple became Sunni Muslims. After Malcolm’s assassination In late 1969 Betty enrolled at Jersey City State College to complete the degree in education she left behind when she became a nurse. In 1972 Betty enrolled in the University of Massachusetts and joined the New York Alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta in April 1974. In January 1976, Betty became associate professor of health sciences with a concentration in nursing at New York's Medgar Evers College. On June 1st 1997 her 12 year old grandson Malcolm set a fire in Betty’s apartment where she suffered burns over 80% of her body and died three weeks later from her injuries.

W.E.B Du Bois

W.E.B Du Bois his full name being William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on February 23rd 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He is an African-American sociologist, socialist, historian, civil rights activist, author, writer and editor. He studied at Harvard University in 1895. He was an early champion of using data to solve social issues for the Black community and his writing. Just two years after William’s birth his father, Alfred left. William became the first person in his family to go to High School and he also wrote articles such as “The New York Globe” and “The Freeman” in 1883. William initially attended Fisk University in Nashville Tennessee and while there he became an editor for the Herald, the student magazine. After graduation that’s when William attended Harvard starting in 1888. In 1896 he went to the University of Pennsylvania and published a book called “The Philadelphia Negro” in 1899. William then concluded that the Black Community’s greatest challenges were poverty, crime, lack of education and distrust of those outside the community. William then got a job at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1897 and broke down several studies on Black Southern households in Farmville, Virginia that uncovered how slavery still affected the personal lives of African Americans. William died on August 27th 1963.

So now you may have a few questions:

How were the Black Celebrities able to accomplish many things and win so many awards while facing discrimination and racism? Because they didn’t let racism stop them from doing what they want to do and they worked hard not just by studying but by believing in themselves and holding on to hope and determination.

Why is there a frequent use of the n word when people should know that the n word specifically targets black people in a negative light? Because in our generation everyone including famous rappers and singers thinks that the n word is just a funny word and that it doesn’t mean anything to them probably.

Which Black Celebrity do you look up to the most? Honestly I can’t choose one because each of them worked hard and achieved great things in their own way but if I HAVE to choose it’ll be W.E.D Du Bois because he actually studied why black people are hated.

Why are there so many Police Brutalities involving deaths of Black people? That I cannot answer.

Why are African Americans targeted more than Asians and Latinos combined? That I also cannot answer.

So that concludes my Black History Month article which Black Celebrity that I mentioned fascinated you the most? And why?