Paul Robeson was a famous African American athlete, singer, actor and advocate for the civil
rights of people around the world. He rose to prominence in a time when segregation was legal in America and black people were being lynched by white mobs, especially in the South.
Born on April 9, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey, Paul Robeson was the youngest of five children. His father was a runaway slave who went on to graduate from Lincoln University, and his mother came from a family of Quakers who worked for the abolition of slavery. His family was familiar with hardship and the determination to rise above it. His own life was no less challenging.
In 1915, Paul won a four-year academic scholarship to Rutgers University. In spite of open violence and racism expressed by teammates, Robeson won 15 varsity letters in sports (baseball, basketball, track) and was twice named to the All American Football Team. He received the Phi Beta Kappa key in his junior year, belonged to the Cap & Skull Honor Society and was the Valedictorian of his graduating class in 1919. However, it wasn't until 1995, nineteen years after his death, that Paul Robeson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
At Columbia Law School (1919 to 1923), Paul met and married DR.Eslanda Cordoza Goode, who was to become the first black woman to head a pathology
laboratory. He took a job with a law firm, but left when a white secretary refused to take dictation from him. He decided to leave the practice of law and use his artistic talents in theater and music to promote African American history and culture.
On stage in London, Robeson earned international critical acclaim for his lead role in Othello, winning the Donaldson Award for Best Acting Perfo...
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...ghts for all people. This accusation nearly ended his career. Eighty of his concerts were canceled, and in 1949 two outdoor concerts in Peekskill, N.Y. were attacked by white mobs while state police stood by complacently. In response, Robeson declared, "I going to sing wherever the people want me to sing... and I won't be frightened by crosses burning in Peekskill or anywhere else."
In 1950, the U.S. government revoked Robeson's passport, leading to an eight-year battle to secure it and to travel again. During those years, Robeson studied Chinese, met with Albert Einstein to discuss the prospects for world peace, published his autobiography, Here I Stand and sang at Carnegie Hall. In 1960, Robeson made his last overseas concert tour. Suffering from ill health, Paul Robeson retired from public life in 1963. He died on January 23, 1976 at age 77, in Philadelphia.
There are a variety of areas in the science field that African Americans have participated. There were Chemists, Biochemists, Biologists, Physicists, and many others. There were people like Herman Branson who was an assistant professor of chemistry and physics at Howard University who help prepare many young students for the science field. Dr. Branson became a full professor of physics and was made chairman of the physics department of Howard University from 1941 to 1968. He had research interests in mathematical biology and protein structure.
Du Bois graduated from Fisk in 1888, and entered Harvard as a junior. During college he preferred the company of Black students and Black Bostonians. He graduated from Harvard in 1890. Yet he felt that he needed further preparation and study in order to be able to apply "philosophy to an historical interpretation of race relations." He decided to spend another two years at the University of Berlin on a Slater Fund Fellowship.
Jesse Jackson had a hard but ultimately successful early life. He was born on October 8, 1941 to Helen Burns and her married neighbor, Noah Robinson. Jesse was taunted as a child for being "a nobody who had no daddy” (notablebiographies.com). While Jesse was originally named Jesse Louis Burns, at age fifteen he took on the name of his stepfather, Charles Jackson, who had adopted him earlier. Jesse attended Sterling High School in South Carolina, where he “was elected president of his class, the honor society, and the student council, was named state officer of the Future Teachers of America, finished tenth in his class, and lettered in football, basketball, and baseball (Ryan, encyclopedia.com). Jesse’s athletic success in high school earned him a football scholarship to the University of Illinois, which he left South Carolina to attend in 1959. Then, during his freshmen year there, Jesse became displeased with football and the way he was treated on campus, and transferred to the “predominantly black Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina in Greensboro and received a B.A. in sociology in 1964” (Ency...
...He had been a witness to see that African American people were getting treated wrong because of their skin color; he felt that it was not the right thing to do because everyone should get treated equally. Following his path of hard work and making a difference there were Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. he paved the way for us black people to be equal in everything we have jobs, schooling, and our freedom, it has changed American history because African Americans have a came a long way from being slaves, beaten, and humiliated because of their skin. It has an impact on us because now if we see that we say something because we know that it is not right and really cruel. The lesson of this is to show that we all could take a stand no matter and not with violence all it takes is motivation, determination, and confidence to stand up for what you believe in.
The Civil Rights Movement is one of the most important events of the history of the United States. Although many people contributed to this movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., is widely regarded as the leader of the movement for racial equality. Growing up in the Deep South, King saw the injustices of segregation first hand. King’s studies of Mahatma Ghandi teachings influenced his views on effective ways of protesting and achieving equality. Martin Luther King’s view on nonviolence and equality and his enormous effect on the citizens of America makes him the most influential person of the twentieth century.
His struggles paralleled some of the struggles of black people in his time period. He had a college education, theology education, his wife did as well. During the Great Depression, his wife became ill from practicing Social Work which was the reason she died. There were medical bills left and he was able to borrow money from his life insurance.
Martin Luther King was one of the greatest civil right activists in American history. Martin Luther King impacted American society in many ways and one of the most important things he did for America was weakening racism in America. At the time when he was living, colored people living America were treated differently with white people. For example colored people needed a pass to go through certain places, they could not go to the same school as white people and it was much harder for colored people to get a job compare to white people. Martin Luther king thought these were wrong. He also thought these were against American dream. For him American dream meant every people having equal rights, opportunity and freedom. What was happening in America were completely against these. To fix this problem, Martin Luther King moved around the country and did nonviolent protest and organized a peaceful marching which attracted national attention showing brutality of police that were trying to stop the march. Martin Luther King also delivered a lot of speeches that inspired many people all over the world and one of his speeches include “I have a Dream.” One of the most famous speeches in America. In this speech he clearly explain his own opinion of how he think everyone should be treated
...of the Civil War and thereafter. He was the most influential of all the black leaders throughout the mid 19th century.
and a leader of the civil rights movement in the United States. He helped found
At 22, after two-thirds of a year at Berea College in West Virginia, he returned to the coalmines and studied Latin and Greek between trips to the mineshafts. He then went on to the University of Chicago, where he received bachelors and master's degrees, and Harvard University, where he became the second black to receive a doctorate in history.
After the war, he returned to Tuskegee and completed his degree in Commercial Industries and Tailoring and graduated Cum ...
Carter G. Woodson The “ Father of Black History” as we know today, Dr. Carter G. Woodson was born on December 19, 1875 to James and Anne Eliza Woodson in New Canton, Virginia. Woodson was the first child of nine children of James and Anne Eliza who were newly freed slaves. Carter’s supported his family at a very young age by working in a coal mine. At the age of seventeen, Carter and his family moved to Fayette, Virginia, where he worked in a coal mine.
...anged those around him and changed the way people lived their lives. Robinson was someone who worked for a cause not only for himself, but also for his fellow Negroes, and his country. His work for civil rights not only came when he had to provoke a change for his advancement, but even after he had advanced, he did not forget his fellow Negroes. His acts in the 1950's, 1960's and shortly in the 1970's has helped and influenced America to end segregation and racism in the world.
...le. He worked through the struggles and difficulties to make sure that his goals were accomplished. The actions he took allowed African Americans to gather hope and lead a change in our world.
Americans needed Martin Luther King Jr., but above all, America needed him. With his constant pursuit for equality, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. helped bridge the gap between African Americans and whites. His nonviolent methods of protest helped create an awareness of the inequalities that African Americans had to endure. King helped America realize that it needed to change in order to truly prosper. Martin Luther King had the best philosophy for riding America of segregation, he used nonviolent methods to get Americans to realize that segregation needed to be stopped and he united both African Americans and whites together to fight for equality and a better nation.