“When you get, give. When you learn, teach.” —Maya Angelou

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” —Frederick Douglass

“Truth is powerful and it prevails.” —Sojourner Truth

“The time is always right to do what is right.” —Martin Luther King Jr.

Jacob Armstead Lawrence ( 1917- 2000)

He was an African American painter whose work focused on African American history and contemporary life in the United States. Lawrence is noted for his narrative painting style; he loved using art to tell stories. His most famous collection is the “Migration Series” which contains 60 paintings depicting life and the struggles of everyday people.

Jean - Michel Basquiat ( 1912 - 2006)

He is best known as the street-smart graffiti artist who rose from New York's punk scene. He gained notoriety during the late 1970s as part of the graffiti duo known as SAMO, which combined elements of the hip-hop, punk, and street art movements in Downtown Manhattan.

Gordon Parks ( 1912 - 2006)

He was a self-taught artist who became the first African American photographer for Life and Vogue magazines. His photojournalism during the 1940s to the 1970s reveals important aspects of American culture, and he became known for focusing on issues of civil rights, poverty, race relations, and urban life.

First, let's look at Garrett Morgan! He was born on March 4, 1877, in Paris Kentucky. In 1895, Morgan moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and got a job as a sewing machine repairman. Twelve years later he opened his own business, and it was so successful it led to him owning a tailoring shop, a personal-grooming product company, and a newspaper called the Cleveland Call. Many of his inventions helped to improve the public safety of Americans. Two of his most important inventions are an early type of gas mask and he patented the first traffic signal in the United States after seeing an accident between a car and a buggy.. His gas mask was invented after a group of miners were trapped in a shaft under lake Erie. This spearheaded the United States Army to use a redesigned version of his mask in World War I. Morgan died on August 27, 1963. These two inventions were the foundation of what we use today. Imagine if we did not have traffic signals, there would be a lot more car accidents.

Mary Van Brittan Brown ( 1922 - 1999) is a nurse that became an inventor. In 1966, she and her husband Albert Brown who was an electronics technician invented a video home security system because she was concerned about the safety of her family. Her invention had three peepholes at different heights on the door, the camera, monitors, and a two-way microphone. The most important part was an alarm button that was pressed to notify the police. Her invention is still used by small businesses, small offices, single-family homes, and multi-unit dwellings such as apartments and condominiums. The Browns’ patent was later referenced by thirteen other inventors including some as recently as 2013.

Lonnie Johnson ( 1949 - ) is an inventor and an aerospace engineer for NASA, but you probably will remember him for inventing the Super Soaker and the Nerf Gun. He invented the Super Soaker water gun in 1989, which has been among the world's bestselling toys ever since. He also invented the Nerf Gun when he patented "a pneumatic launcher for a toy projectile" which means he used compressed air.

Most of these people you may not have heard of, but you see their inventions every day.

We are here to share information about the Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of military pilots that fought in WW2. They were fighter and bomber pilots. They started flying in 1941. People doubted them because they were black and people believed that African-Americans could not be pilots.

They earned respect after they flew their last combat mission on April 26, 1945. They proved that Black people could be elite pilots. After the wars, the airmen would go into long careers in the military. Davis, one of the members, became the first Black general in the U.S. Air Force.

Did you know that Katherine Johnson was the first African-American woman to work as a scientist for NASA? Did you know that NASA wasn’t always called NASA? It was NACA which stood for The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.

A fun fact about Katherine Johnson - she attended high school at the age of 10 and started West Virginia State University at the age of 15 from 1933 to 1937.

Another fact - Alan Shephard asked Katherine to calculate the flight path of his mission because he didn’t trust the computer’s calculation. His mission was to fly around the world.

Katherine Johnson was born August 26, 1918 and sadly passed away at the age of 101 on February 24, 2020.

Katherine’s first husband was James Francis Goble. She had 3 children. Katherine was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama. She is a great inspiration for all boys and girls.

Robinson had always been involved in athletics in high school and then later in college. In 1944 he joined one of the African American baseball leagues, called the “Negro Leagues”. There was a movement within baseball to attempt to integrate the sport and the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey, was looking for a potential team member that had honor and integrity and had an excellent background. In 1946 he became a member of the all-white team called the Montreal Royals, which was a branch of the Brooklyn Dodgers. This was a moment in history, as he was the first African American baseball player on a white team.

Jackie Robinson was the first Black American to join baseball’s major league in 1947 as a prominent member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson’s belief in equality gave him the chance to bring the message to America and the world that race should not be a consideration for anything.

George Washington Carver was born in slavery but went on to win worldwide

respect for his work as a scientist. By finding new ways process peanuts, soybeans,

and sweet potatoes, he helped to make them important crops in the southern United

States.

Carver was born in about 1861 in Missouri. At about age 12 he left home. He

received a bachelor’s degree in agriculture in 1894 and a master’s degree in 1896.

Carver then became head of the agriculture department at the Tuskegee Institute

in Alabama. There he stayed for the rest of his career.

Before Carver’s time, Southern farmers grew very few crops other than cotton, a

plant that wore out the soil. Carver tried to get them to switch to peanuts and

soybeans. These plants were legumes. They added nitrogen, a fertilizer, to the soil

and also could be made into nutritious foods.

With his laboratory work, Carver tried to make sure that farmers who grew these

crops would be able to sell them. He developed 300 products from peanuts. He

also took an interest in sweet potatoes and developed more than 100 products

based on the plant.

Carver’s efforts won him numerous honors and improved life throughout the

South. Carver died in Tuskegee on January 5, 1943. He was buried on the

Tuskegee campus.

Trumpet player and singer Louis Armstrong was one of the world’s greatest jazz musicians. He helped raise jazz to the level of a fine art, and he influenced nearly all jazz horn players who came after him.

Louis Daniel Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901, in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a boy he earned some money by singing in the streets. He learned to play cornet in the school band.

Armstrong got his first big break in 1922 when cornetist King Oliver invited him to Chicago to join his band. Armstrong later joined Fletcher Henderson’s big band in New York City for a year, and his music developed beyond the traditional New Orleans style.

When Armstrong returned to Chicago, he created his most important early works: the Armstrong Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings. By this time Armstrong was playing the trumpet. By 1929 he was famous, and he toured America and Europe as a trumpet soloist accompanied by big bands. He started performing popular songs in addition to jazz. He also began to sing lyrics in a low, rough voice that was very distinctive.

After 1935 Armstrong appeared in movies and on radio and television. In 1940 he formed Louis Armstrong’s All-Stars, a Dixieland band with six musicians. For most of the rest of his life, he toured with this group. He produced such hit recordings as “Mack the Knife” and “Hello, Dolly!” and several outstanding albums. He died on July 6, 1971, in New York City.