The first Black woman to own an art gallery in the USA, Augusta Savage (Feb. 29, 1892 – Mar. 26, 1962), created epic sculptures, like The Harp, and precious hand-sized pieces, like Portrait of a Baby. Savage was destined & determined to become a sculptor despite tremendous resistance ranging from the most immediate–family–to powerful international art institutions’ deliberate exclusion.
Love Letter to Lani (Guinier)
Dear Lani,
You believed in me way back
Back when I didn’t see
Myself the way you did
Sure I knew I wasn’t stupid
But I didn’t see what you did
African intellectuals who served as leaders of anti-colonial movements have largely been recognized for their contributions to the African revolution. The same cannot be said about their counterparts who did not venture out of academia, even though the role of their scholarship in shaping African nationalism and its postcolonial manifestations is inexorably instructive. Ali Al’amin Mazrui stands among the finest African intellectuals who theorized about African nationalism and its possibilities and challenges.
Amiri Baraka was born Everett Leroy Jones in Newark, New Jersey on October 7, 1934. He attended Rutgers University and Howard University before enlisting in the US Air Force, which he left after three years. In his mid twenties, he took an interest in poetry and jazz, which ultimately led him to join the Beat Movement in New York City’s Greenwich Village.
Claudia Jones was a central Caribbean-American Black socialist feminist and journalist in Black leftist politics. Born in Trinidad in 1915, she immigrated to the United States as a young girl and was raised in Harlem, New York. Throughout her life, she was a fearless advocate for the rights of Black people, women, and the working clas
Malcolm X was a human rights activist committed to the liberation of Black people, particularly here in the United States.
Dorothy Irene Height (1912-2010), Civil Rights and Women’s Rights Activist, member of Delta Sigma Theta, and long-term president of the National Council of Negro Women (1958-1990).
Ethel Hedgeman Lyle was born February 10, 1887 in St, Louis, Missouri. A true visionary, she founded Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority as the first Black sorority. She was an educator and community organizer, who committed her life to the uplift and empowerment of Black people – especially Black women.
Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. His father died when he was nine, and he was raised by Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, who taught him about African patriots who fought colonialism.
Charlotta Bass was a fearless human rights activist in Los Angeles. One of her tools was journalism as publisher and editor of the California Eagle newspaper, once the largest and oldest Black newspaper on the West coast.
