African American History - A Journey Through Time

1. Introductions \ Thanksgiving

Pastor Rev. Dr. Daren K. Miller, and Evangelist Tasha. T. Miller, Elect Lady)

Sister Deidra

Congregation, leaders

Thank

2. Prayer

Heavenly Father! Thank You for using me in Your ministry! Thank You for guiding me thus far and granting me Your grace! Even now Lord You know the purpose for which I have come to You. Father! Fill me with grace, anointing and power so that I can share with your people; that we all may be edified and our learnings. I'm unworthy Lord! But make me worthy by cleansing me and filling me with Your Holy Spirit. Amen

A Journey Through O

How Did We Get Here!

“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” ()

(Slide 2) Our journey begins in the early 1600’s. To satisfy the labor needs of the rapidly growing North American colonies, white European settlers turned in the early 17th century from indentured servants (mostly poorer Europeans) to a cheaper, more plentiful labor source: enslaved Africans.

After the American Revolution, many colonists (particularly in the North, where slavery was relatively unimportant to the economy) began to link the oppression of black slaves to their own oppression by the British. Though leaders such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson—both slaveholders from Virginia—took cautious steps towards limiting slavery in the newly independent nation, the Constitution tacitly acknowledged the institution, guaranteeing the right to repossess any “person held to service or labor” (an obvious euphemism for slavery).

(Slide 3) Many northern states had abolished slavery by the end of the 18th century, but the institution was absolutely vital to the South, where blacks constituted a large minority of the population and the economy relied on the production of crops like tobacco and cotton. Congress outlawed the import of new slaves in 1808, but the slave population in the U.S. nearly tripled over the next 50 years, and by 1860 it had reached nearly 4 million, with more than half living in the cotton–producing states of the South.

(Slide 4-5) In the 80 years between the American Revolution and the Civil War, the North and South developed along distinct and opposing lines economically, politically, and culturally. The South took a very different economic course than the North. After the Revolutionary War, tobacco income plummeted, cotton brought the stagnant southern economy back to life. While the North became an industrial and manufacturing powerhouse deeply affected by social reform movements like abolitionism and women’s rights, the South became a cotton kingdom, founded on slavery, whose inhabitants generally abstained from or opposed such reformist tendencies.

HOW DO WE GET AWAY!

(Slide 7) The era of rebellion has begun. The United States was just starting to small squirmashes but in Britain the uprise was on the move.

(Slide 8) Nat Turner, black American slave who led the only effective, sustained slave rebellion in U.S. history. Spreading terror throughout the white South, his action set off a new wave of oppressive legislation prohibiting the education, movement, and assembly of slaves and stiffened proslavery, anti-abolitionist convictions that persisted in that region until the American Civil War (1861–65). Nat Turner’s rebellion put an end to the white Southern myth that slaves were either contented with their lot or too servile to mount an armed revolt. In Southampton county black people came to measure time from “Nat’s Fray,” or “Old Nat’s War.” For many years in black churches throughout the country, the name Jerusalem referred not only to the Bible but also covertly to the place where the rebel slave had met his death.

(Slide 9-10) - The Abolitionist (A-bo-lis-tion-nist) movement in the United States of America was an effort to end slavery in a nation that valued personal freedom and believed “all men are created equal.” Over time, abolitionists grew more strident in their demands, and slave owners entrenched in response, fueling regional divisiveness that ultimately led to the American Civil War. The abolitionists were the small minority of Americans who advocated immediate emancipation of the slaves and equal rights for African-Americans. Most came from the cities and factory towns of the Northeast and Old Northwest, but a significant number came from the upper South, such as the Kentucky Whig Cassius Clay and the missionary John Fee. Their ranks included successful businessmen, like Arthur and Lewis Tappan of New York; ministers, like the Reverend Elijah Lovejoy of East Alton, Illinois, and Rabbi David Einhorn of Baltimore; and even former slaveholders, such as James Birney of Alabama and Angelina and Sarah Grimke of South Carolina.

Nat Turner’s rebellion put an end to the white Southern myth that slaves were either contented with their lot or too servile to mount an armed revolt. In Southampton county black people came to measure time from “Nat’s Fray,” or “Old Nat’s War.” For many years in black churches throughout the country, the name Jerusalem referred not only to the Bible but also covertly to the place where the rebel slave had met his death.

(Slide 11) - Sojourner Truth left to make her way traveling and preaching about abolition in 1843. Sojourner spoke about abolition, women's rights, prison reform, and preached to the Michigan Legislature against capital punishment. In 1850, William Lloyd Garrison privately published her book, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave. In May 1851 she attended the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio where she delivered her famous speech: “Ain't I a Woman.” In 1865, while working at the Freedman's Hospital in Washington,D.C., she rode in the streetcars to help force desegregation

Truth left to make her way traveling and preaching about abolition in 1843. Sojourner spoke about abolition, women's rights, prison reform, and preached to the Michigan Legislature against capital punishment. In 1850, William Lloyd Garrison privately published her book, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave. In May 1851 she attended the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio where she delivered her famous speech: “Ain't I a Woman.” In 1865, while working at the Freedman's Hospital in Washington,D.C., she rode in the streetcars to help force desegregation

Most abolitionists were members of the country's second generation, who had no personal memories of the American Revolution. One of their goals was to realize the highest moral ideals of the Revolutionary generation.

(Slide 12) - Harriet Tubman While Sojourner Truth, Douglass, Delaney and others wrote and spoke to end slavery, a former slave named Harriet Tubman, was actively leading slaves to freedom. After escaping from bondage herself, she made repeated trips into Dixie to help others. Tubman was an agent of the Underground Railroad, a system of “safe houses” and way stations that secretly helped runaways. The trip might begin by hiding in the home, barn or other location owned by a Southerner opposed to slavery, and continuing from place to place until reaching safe haven in a free state or Canada

(Slide 13) - Frederick Douglass—a former slave who had been known as Frederick Bailey while in slavery and who was the most famous black man among the abolitionists. Douglas broke with William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper, The Liberator, after returning from a visit to Great Britain, and founded a black abolitionist paper, The North Star. The title was a reference to the directions given to runaway slaves trying to reach the Northern states and Canada: Follow the North Star. Garrison had earlier convinced the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society to hire Douglass as an agent, touring with Garrison and telling audiences about his experiences in slavery. In England, however, Douglass had experienced a level of independence he’d never known in America and likely wanted greater independence for his actions here.

(Slide 14) - The Dred Scott case, also known as Dred Scott v. Sanford, was a decade-long fight for freedom by a black slave named Dred Scott. The case persisted through several courts and ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court, whose decision incensed abolitionists, gave momentum to the anti-slavery movement and served as a stepping stone to the Civil War.

(Slide 15) - The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified just months after the end of the American Civil War, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude—except as a punishment for a crime—in the entire United States. As passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865, the full text of the 13th Amendment reads:

FREE BUT STILL BOUND!

(Slide 17) - No account of black history in America is complete without an examination of the rivalry between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, which in the late 19th to early 20th centuries changed the course of the quest for equality in American society, and in the process helped give birth to the modern civil rights movement. Though Washington and Du Bois were born in the same era, both highly accomplished scholars and committed to the cause of civil rights for blacks in America, it was their differences in background and method that would have the greatest impact on the future.

Washington believed that it was economic independence and the ability to show themselves as productive members of society that would eventually lead blacks to true equality and that they should for the time being set aside any demands for civil rights.

By the early 20th century, Washington and Du Bois were the two most influential black men in the country. Washington's conciliatory approach to civil rights had made him adept at fundraising for his Tuskegee Institute, as well as for other black organizations, and had also endeared him to the white establishment, including President Theodore Roosevelt, who often consulted him regarding all matters black.

In contrast to Washington, Du Bois maintained that education and civil rights were the only way to equality and that conceding their pursuit would simply serve to reinforce the notion of blacks as second-class citizens. Following a series of articles in which the two men expounded on their ideologies, their differences finally came to a head when, in 1903, Du Bois published a work titled The Souls of Black Folks, in which he directly criticized Washington and his approach and went on to demand full civil rights for blacks.

(Slide 18) - The (NAACP) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as a bi-racial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey and Ida B. Wells

(Slide 19) - The Harlem Renaissance was the development of the Harlem neighborhood in New York City as a black cultural mecca in the early 20th Century and the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted. Lasting roughly from the 1910s through the mid-1930s, the period is considered a golden age in African American culture, manifesting in literature, music, stage performance and art.

(Slide 20) - Military Impact - African Americans served bravely and with distinction in every theater of World War II, while simultaneously struggling for their own civil rights from “the world’s greatest democracy.” Although the United States Armed Forces were officially segregated until 1948, WWII laid the foundation for post-war integration of the military. In 1941 fewer than 4,000 African Americans were serving in the military and only twelve African Americans had become officers. By 1945, more than 1.2 million African Americans would be serving in uniform on the Home Front, in Europe, and the Pacific (including thousands of African American women in the Women’s auxiliaries)

(Slide 21) - Tuskegee Airmen - In January 1941 the War Department formed the all-black 99th Pursuit Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Corps to be trained using single-engine planes at the segregated Tuskegee Army Air Field at Tuskegee, Alabama. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the black press, and others had been lobbying hard for the government to allow African Americans to become military pilots. However, neither the NAACP nor the most-involved black newspapers approved the solution of creating separate black units; they believed that approach simply perpetuated segregation and discrimination. Nevertheless, largely at the behest of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, a separate unit was created. The Tuskegee base opened on July 19, and the first class graduated the following March. Lieut. Col. Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., became the squadron’s commander.

(Slide 22) - Sports Impact - Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1919 to a family of sharecroppers. Jackie was the first baseball player to break. Major League Baseball’s color barrier that segregated the sport for more than 50 years. At UCLA, Jackie became the first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track. Financial difficulties, he was forced to leave college and eventually decided to enlist in the U.S. Army/ After two years in the army, he had progressed to second lieutenant. In 1945, Jackie played one season in the Negro Baseball League. The Major Leagues had not had an African-American player since 1889, when baseball became segregated. When Jackie first put on a Brooklyn Dodger uniform, he pioneered the integration of professional athletics in America. By breaking the color barrier in baseball, the nation’s preeminent sport, he courageously challenged the deeply rooted custom of racial segregation in both the North and the South. In 1962 Jackie was inducted into the hall of fame.

Jackie was the first baseball player to break .Major League Baseball’s color barrier that segregated the sport for more than 50 years

(Slide 23) - Education Impact - Brown v. Board of Education of Topekawas a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement, and helped establish the precedent that “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not, in fact, equal at all.

At UCLA, Jackie became the first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track.

The Rise of Public Persecution - Civil Rights Movement

(Slide 24) - As blacks begin to have an impact on our involvement informing organizations, entertainment, sports, education, and the military, the back lash of taking back our land rose. Leading to conflict and public persecution.

Financial difficulties, he was forced to leave college and eventually decided to enlist in the U.S. Army

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. ()

After two years in the army, he had progressed to second lieutenant

(Slide 25) - The Civil Rights Movement was a struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for blacks to gain equal rights under the law in the United States. The Civil War had officially abolished slavery, but it didn’t end discrimination against blacks—they continued to endure the devastating effects of racism, especially in the South. By the mid-20th century, African Americans had had more than enough of prejudice and violence against them. They, along with many whites, mobilized and began an unprecedented fight for equality that spanned two decades.

(Slide 26) - While visiting family in Money, Mississippi, 14-year-old Emmett Till, an African American from Chicago, is brutally murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman four days earlier. The Emmett Till murder trial brought to light the brutality of Jim Crow segregation in the South and was an early impetus of the African-American civil rights movement. In 2017, Tim Tyson, author of the book The Blood of Emmett Till, revealed that Carolyn Bryant recanted her testimony, admitting that Till had never touched, threatened or harassed her. “Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him,” she said.

In 1945, Jackie played one season in the Negro Baseball League

(Slide 27) - March 1955, Claudette Colvin (15 year old) refused to give up her bus seat. December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks took a stand by also refusing to give her seat to a white passenger on a bus.

The Emmett Till murder trial brought to light the brutality of Jim Crow segregation in the South and was an early impetus of the African-American civil rights movement.

The Major Leagues had not had an African-American player since 1889, when baseball became segregated

When Jackie first donned a Brooklyn Dodger uniform, he pioneered the integration of professional athletics in America. By breaking the color barrier in baseball, the nation’s preeminent sport, he courageously challenged the deeply rooted custom of racial segregation in both the North and the South.

In 2017, Tim Tyson, author of the book The Blood of Emmett Till, revealed that Carolyn Bryant recanted her testimony, admitting that Till had never touched, threatened or harassed her. “Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him,” she said

(Slide 28) - Under escort from the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, nine black students enter all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Three weeks earlier, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had surrounded the school with National Guard troops to prevent its federal court-ordered racial integration. After a tense standoff, President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent 1,000 army paratroopers to Little Rock to enforce the court order

The Greensboro sit-in was a civil rights protest that started in 1960, when young African American students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to leave after being denied service. The sit-in movement soon spread to college towns throughout the South

Freedom Riders were groups of white and African American civil rights activists who participated in Freedom Rides, bus trips through the American South in 1961 to protest segregated bus terminals. Freedom Riders tried to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters at bus stations in Alabama, South Carolina and other Southern states. The groups were confronted by arresting police officers—as well as horrific violence from white protestors—along their routes, but also drew international attention to the civil rights movement.

In Oxford, Mississippi, James H. Meredith, an African American, is escorted onto the University of Mississippi campus by U.S. Marshals, setting off a deadly riot. Two men were killed before the racial violence was quelled by more than 3,000 federal soldiers. The next day, Meredith successfully enrolled and began to attend classes amid continuing disruption.

(Slide 29) - The Birmingham church bombing occurred on September 15, 1963, when a bomb exploded before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama—a church with a predominantly black congregation that also served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Four young girls were killed and many other people injured. Outrage over the incident and the violent clash between protesters and police that followed helped draw national attention to the hard-fought, often-dangerous struggle for civil rights for African Americans.

In 1962 Jackie was inducted into the hall of fame.

(Slide 30) - All these actions served as the catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. The Black Voice - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. King emerges as the leader of the Civil Rights Movement.

(Slide 31) - In 1960, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was again arrested and received strong encouragement as a result of a telephone call to Coretta from John F. Kennedy.

(Slide 32) - Rev. Dr. King spoke to 250,000 civil rights supporters during the “March on Washington” August 28, 1963.

(Slide 33) - Dr. King made his famous “I have a dream” speech.

(Slide 34) - The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was then signed into law by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. In subsequent years, Congress expanded the act and passed additional civil rights legislation such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

(Slide 34) - Even after we unify around one voice, persecution continues.

The remains of three civil rights workers whose disappearance on June 21 garnered national attention are found buried in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, both white New Yorkers, had traveled to heavily segregated Mississippi in 1964 to help organize civil rights efforts on behalf of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The third man, James Chaney, was a local African American man who had joined CORE in 1963. The disappearance of the three young men led to a massive FBI investigation that was code-named MIBURN, for “Mississippi Burning.”

(Slide 34) - The remains of three civil rights workers whose disappearance on June 21 garnered national attention are found buried in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, both white New Yorkers, had traveled to heavily segregated Mississippi in 1964 to help organize civil rights efforts on behalf of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The third man, James Chaney, was a local African American man who had joined CORE in 1963. The disappearance of the three young men led to a massive FBI investigation that was code-named MIBURN, for “Mississippi Burning.”

The Selma to Montgomery march was part of a series of civil rights protests that occurred in 1965 in Alabama, a Southern state with deeply entrenched racist policies. In March of that year, in an effort to register black voters in the South, protesters marching the 54-mile route from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were confronted with deadly violence from local authorities and white vigilante groups. As the world watched, the protesters—under the protection of federalized National Guard troops—finally achieved their goal, walking around the clock for three days to reach Montgomery, Alabama. The historic march, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s participation in it, raised awareness of the difficulties faced by black voters, and the need for a national Voting Rights Act

(Slide 35) - Malcolm’s father was brutally murdered by the white supremacist Black Legion, and Michigan authorities refused to prosecute those responsible. In contrast with civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X advocated self-defense and the liberation of African Americans “by any means necessary.” In the early 1960s, he began to develop a more outspoken philosophy than that of Elijah Muhammad, whom he felt did not sufficiently support the civil rights movement. He was assassinated February 21, 1965, Audubon Ballroom.

In contrast with civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X advocated self-defense and the liberation of African Americans “by any means necessary.”

In the early 1960s, he began to develop a more outspoken philosophy than that of Elijah Muhammad, whom he felt did not sufficiently support the civil rights movement.

(Slide 36) - A sign of hope - At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.

(Slide 37-38) - On March 29, 1968, King went to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of the black sanitary public works employees, who were represented by AFSCME Local 1733. The workers had been on strike since March 12 for higher wages and better treatment. In one incident, black street repairmen received pay for two hours when they were sent home because of bad weather, but white employees were paid for the full day. King was booked in Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel (owned by Walter Bailey) in Memphis. Abernathy, who was present at the assassination, testified to the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations that King and his entourage stayed at Room 306 so often that it was known as the "King-Abernathy suite." According to Jesse Jackson, who was present, King's last words on the balcony before his assassination were spoken to musician Ben Branch, who was scheduled to perform that night at an event King was attending: "Ben, make sure you play 'Take My Hand, Precious Lord' in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty."

(Slide 38) - On March 29, 1968, King went to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of the black sanitary public works employees, who were represented by AFSCME Local 1733. The workers had been on strike since March 12 for higher wages and better treatment. In one incident, black street repairmen received pay for two hours when they were sent home because of bad weather, but white employees were paid for the full day. King was booked in Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel (owned by Walter Bailey) in Memphis. Abernathy, who was present at the assassination, testified to the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations that King and his entourage stayed at Room 306 so often that it was known as the "King-Abernathy suite." According to Jesse Jackson, who was present, King's last words on the balcony before his assassination were spoken to musician Ben Branch, who was scheduled to perform that night at an event King was attending: "Ben, make sure you play 'Take My Hand, Precious Lord' in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty."

King was fatally shot by James Earl Ray at 6:01 p.m., April 4, 1968, as he stood on the motel's second-floor balcony.

Building on the Foundation

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” ()

(Slide 41) - Black Entrepreneurs - Trough it all there where those who build on the foundation of others.

Annie Malone – One of America's first and most prominent African-American businesswomen, Malone founded and developed Poro College, a commercial and educational business focused on cosmetics for black women.

Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. was an American inventor and businessman as well as an influential political leader. His most notable inventions were the three position traffic signal and smoke hood. Morgan also discovered and developed a chemical hair-processing and straightening solution.

Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. was an American inventor and businessman as well as an influential political leader. His most notable inventions were the three position traffic signal and smoke hood. Morgan also discovered and developed a chemical hair-processing and straightening solution.

Sarah Breedlove, known as Madam C. J. Walker, was an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a political and social activist. Walker was considered the wealthiest African-American businesseswoman and wealthiest self-made woman in America at the time of her death in 1919.

(Slide 40) - Shirley Chisholm - The Democratic National Convention was a tense scene in July of 1972. The gathering in Miami came just one month after burglars had broken into the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate. The candidate who won the presidential nomination would be the one to take on President Richard Nixon, whom most people didn’t yet suspect of orchestrating the break-in. And for the first time, one of the candidates for the Democratic challenger was a black woman.

Shirley Chisholm had long been known for breaking barriers. Four years before, she’d become the first black U.S. Congresswoman in history as a Representative of her New York district. When she launched her primary campaign in January of ‘72, she became the first black person to seek the presidential nomination from one of the two major parties (the first woman was Margaret Chase Smith, who sought the Republican nomination in 1964). Her slogan was: “Unbought and Unbossed.”

(Slide 43) - Rev Jesse Jackson - As a young man, Jesse Jackson left his studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary to join Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in its crusade for black civil rights in the South; when King was assassinated in Memphis in April 1968, Jackson was at his side. In 1971, Jackson founded PUSH, or People United to Save Humanity (later changed to People United to Serve Humanity), an organization that advocated self–reliance for African Americans and sought to establish racial parity in the business and financial community. Civil rights leader and two-time Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson (1941–) became one of the most influential African-Americans of the late 20th century. He rose to prominence working within Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and was at the Memphis hotel with King when he was assassinated.

(Slide 44) - Rev Al Sharpton - Social/political activist and religious leader Al Sharpton was born Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. on October 3, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York. Outspoken and sometimes controversial, Sharpton has become a leading figure in the fight against racial prejudice and injustice. He developed his commanding speaking style as a child. A frequent churchgoer, Sharpton became an ordained minister in the Pentecostal church at the age of 10. He often traveled to deliver sermons and once toured with Mahalia Jackson, the famed gospel singer

(Slide 45) - Tony Dungy, a former professional football player and coach for Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1996-2001) and the Indianapolis Colts (2002-2008), was the first African American coach to win the Super Bowl. Dungy has been hailed as a coaching genius, changing losing organizations into winners. Coach Dungy is also has ministered to young black men through several of his books and ministry programs.

(Slide 46) - Mae Jemison - is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first black woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

(Slide 47) - Gen. Colin Powell - the first African American to hold the position of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — he is a Vietnam veteran and four–star U.S. Army general.

(Slide 43) - Barak Obama - On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States; he is the first African American to hold that office. The product of an interracial marriage—his father grew up in a small village in Kenya, his mother in Kansas—Obama grew up in Hawaii but discovered his civic calling in Chicago, where he worked for several years as a community organizer on the city’s largely black South Side.

Closing -

The journey to the current date has been a long one. One that has endured pain, hurt, sorrow, accomplishments, and significant achievements. If you watched closely then you would see progress. Even in death, there was significant progress. As I prepare to take my seat the questions we must ask ourselves is who has next?

God is asking all of us to dream Like Martin

God is asking all of us to dream Like Martin

to Lead like Harriet Tubman

- And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

Fight the good fight like Malcolm X

Think like Marcus Garvey

Write like Maya Angelou

Build like Madam C.J. Walker

Speak openly like Frederick Douglas

Educate like W.E.B. Debuis

Believe like Thurgood Marshall

Challenge the system like Rosa Parks

In finally, inspire the next generation like President Barak Obama

The profit Isaiah said, “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”