Greetings YP’s!

          Jersey is getting hit with another snow storm… Geez can we get enough? (Lol) Time for your Black History Moment for today! I present Josephine Baker.. This spectacular and tumultuous life began June 3, 1906, when Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis to Carrie McDonald. The identity of her father has been debated ever since.         Part of the genius of Baker was her ability to adapt to her circumstances, a trait she demonstrated at an early age. Living on the streets of St. Louis, a school dropout at the age of nine, she quite literally used her environment to her advantage, dancing on street corners for small change. This attracted the attention of some local vaudeville show producers, a connection that eventually led to her leaving her first of four husbands — a Pullman porter named William Howard Baker — and moving to New York and Broadway.

          By then, Baker had grown into a striking young woman, and she quickly became part of the Broadway scene. In Read more »

Greetings YPs,

          Here is your daily dose of history! ~Whitney Moore Young~ A civil rights leader who urged African Americans to work within the system, Whitney Moore Young, as executive director of the National Urban League from 1961 to 1971, played a leading role in persuading America’s corporate elite to provide better opportunities for African Americans. Young worked with President Lyndon Johnson on civil rights and anti-poverty programs during the 1960s, while calling for a “domestic Marshall Plan” (similar to U.S. aid to revive Europe after World War II). He was one of the leaders of the 1963 March on Washington and in 1964 he organized the Community Action Assembly to fight poverty in African-American communities. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 1969. Two years later at the age of 49, Young drowned in Lagos, Nigeria while participating in an annual African-American dialogue on relations between the two continents.

Peace and Blessings,

YPReiG

Snowy Greetings YP’s!

          I apologize for the Friday Delay…This Winter storm in Jersey is pushing back my progress…No worries I have a double dose of Great African-Americans for ya! You can never have too much knowledge right? I present Fannie Lou Hamer and Matthew Alexander Henson..Fannie Lou Hamer was born October 6, 1917 in the Mississippi Delta. Inspired by the fighting spirit of her mother, Fannie Lou Hamer became widely known as the “Spirit” of the Civil Rights movement. In the early 1960’s a Black man or woman could lose their life trying to register to vote in some towns in Mississippi. But even at the risk of her life, Fannie Lou Hamer registered to vote. Because she encouraged others to do so, Fannie Lou Hamer was evicted from the farm where she lived and her husband was fired. Although neither her husband nor Fannie Lou could find work, they continued to organize people to register to vote. She helped found the Read more »

     Good afternoon to all my YP’s! Day four of Black History Month, and I must say the more I research the more intrigued I become with all the acheivements made by our ancestors. Here is another Great African-American I bet you didn’t know about. 

     Mr.James Weldon Johnson: As a precursor, participant, and historian of the Harlem Renaissance, James Weldon Johnson had as much to do with the rise of that cultural movement as any one person.  Indeed, he was the epitome of the classic Renaissance man himself–poet, composer, author, government official, teacher, and influential civil rights activist. Read more »

Imagination! Who can sing thy force?

Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?

Soaring through air to find the bright abode,

Th’ empyreal palace of the thund’ring God,

We on thy pinions can surpass the wind,

And leave the rolling universe behind:

From star to star the mental optics rove,

Measure the skies, and range the realms above.

There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,

Or with new worlds amaze th’ unbounded soul.

- Phillis Wheatley

(Inscribed on Phillis Wheatley’s Memorial)

Morning YPs!

         Day 3 of Black History Month! While doing research yesterday, I came across so many of the great contributions people of color have given to our country, Not just African-American, Asian, Latino, even Pacific Islander… Its amazing how we study history in HS and college and fail to recognize all the discoveries of our people.. I look back to all our accomplishments and I’m in awe..Have a wonderful day YPs be productive, and Remain Focused! Phillis Wheatley~ Read more »

Peace and Blessings YP’s

          Time for another Black History moment: Mary McLeod Bethune. On this second day of February, let us not forget the women who paved the way for our generation! Born on July 10, 1875 in Mayesville, South Carolina, Mary McLeod Bethune ranks high among great women in America. The last of seventeen children of sharecroppers, Mary Bethune lifted herself from the cotton field to the White House as an adviser to the President of the United States. Her greatest accomplishment, however, was almost single-handily building Bethune-Cookman College  in 1923. With only one dollar and fifty cents, nerve and determination, she set out to build a school for the Blacks who were working in the railroad labor camps in Florida. Slowly the school emerged from old crate boxes and odd rooms of old houses near the Daytona Beach City Dump. Bethune served as the school’s president until 1942. Today Bethune-Cookman graduates thousands. In 1935, she received the NAACP Springarn Medal as a symbol of distinguished achievement. Also in 1935, President Roosevelt appointed her national director of the National Youth Administration’s Division of Negro Affairs. She died on May 18, 1955 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Her legacy lives on!

YPReiG, Young Professionals Guest Writer

YPs it’s Black History Month and a time to reflect and pay homage to those that paved the way to allow my generation and beyond, opportunities to prosper and be successful with less limitations.  YPReiG will be a regular contributor to YPBlogSpot and she has decided to profile and highlight some of the most influential figures that played pivotal roles in leveling out the playing field for African Americans in the United States with her Great African Americans in History feature she will do on YPBlogSpot.  Enjoy, be educated, and make history everyday!

         HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH! YP’s its February so you know what time it is!  Let us ALL celebrate not only in February but 365 days a year!  I will be posting Great African Americans in History each day for the month of February so be on the lookout for the awesome snippets each day! 

          Let’s start off today the 1st day of the month with one of my favorites:  No single title does credit to the prodigious talents of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois.  Born on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, he has been labeled an Read more »