In honor of Black History Month, a number of MVRHS students and teachers were interviewed on The Grapevine (MVRHS’ student-led weekly news broadcast) and asked the following questions: What does Black history means to you? How do you celebrate and learn about Black History month? How are MVRHS teachers integrating Black History education into the classroom? What has your experience been like growing up as a black person at MVRHS, on Martha’s Vineyard, and in America? Click the video above.
To kick off our Black History Month celebration on Monday, February 1st, the school community watched the video below on the origins of Back History Month followed by a guided discussion using the following prompts:
1. How have your schools celebrated Black History Month in past years?
2. What is the difference between a “call to action” versus celebrating accomplishments?
3. Is there a difference between a “call to action” if you are a person of color or not?
4. Is Black History Month still relevant today?
5. Do you have any ideas on ways to include more diverse stories/histories into our classrooms and school?
What is an HBCU? Find out by watching this short video.
Who was the first African American to win a nobel prize for literature?
Toni Morrison is one of the most celebrated authors in the world. In addition to writing plays, and children’s books, her novels have earned her countless prestigious awards including the Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. As the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Morrison’s work has inspired a generation of writers to follow in her footsteps. In 1987, Morrison released her novel called Beloved, based on the true story of an African-American enslaved woman. This book was a Bestseller for 25 weeks and won countless awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In 1993, Morrison became the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
What does Juneteenth commemorate? Find out by watching this short video.
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – which had become official January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance. 158 years later, On June 17, 2021, it officially became a federal holiday.
Ruby Bridges Fought Racism at 6 Years Old. Learn more about her legacy:
Few people know the story of Claudette Colvin: When she was 15, she refused to move to the back of the bus and give up her seat to a white person — nine months before Rosa Parks did the very same thing.
Maude Ballou – the “Daredevil” Who Served as MLK’s Right-Hand Woman
Jack Roosevelt Robinson was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.
Marsha P. Johnson was a black transgender activist who was a leader in fighting for LGBTQ+ rights in the late 1960s and in the following decades.
W.E.B. Du Bois (in full William Edward Burghardt Du Bois) was born February 23, 1868, Great Barrington, Massachusetts, U.S.—died August 27, 1963, in Accra, Ghana. Dubois was an American sociologist, historian, author, editor, and activist who was the most important Black protest leader in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. He shared in the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909 and edited The Crisis, its magazine, from 1910 to 1934. His collection of essays The Souls of Black Folk (1903) is a landmark of African American literature.
André Leon Talley (October 16, 1948 – January 18, 2022) was an American fashion journalist, stylist, creative director, and editor-at-large of Vogue magazine. He was the magazine’s fashion news director from 1983 to 1987, its first African-American male creative director from 1988 to 1995, and then its editor-at-large from 1998 to 2013. Often regarded as a fashion icon, he was known for supporting emerging designers and advocating for diversity in the fashion industry; while the capes, kaftans, and robes he wore became his trademark look.
He also authored three books, including the memoir The Chiffon Trenches, which landed on The New York Times Best Seller list; and co-authored a book with Richard Bernstein. Talley was the editor-at-large of Numéro Russia in 2013, before resigning due to anti-LGBT laws in Russia. He additionally worked stints with Andy Warhol at Interview, Women’s Wear Daily, W, Ebony and The New York Times. He once served as a stylist for United States President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama during their time in the White House; as well as styling Melania Trump for her 2005 wedding to Donald Trump.
In 2020, France awarded him the Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres honor for arts and letters; and the following year he received the North Carolina Award for his role in literature. He was featured in the documentaries The First Monday in May and The September Issue, and was the subject of the documentary, The Gospel According to André directed by Kate Novack.
Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner (May 17, 1912 – January 13, 2006) was an African-American inventor most noted for her development of the adjustable sanitary belt, although racial discrimination caused her patent for the sanitary belt to be prevented for thirty years. Kenner received five patents, which includes a carrier attachment for invalid walker and bathroom tissue holder.
Kenner graduated from high school in 1931. She attended Howard University, although she was unable to finish due to financial difficulties. Kenner did not receive any college degree or professional training. Women at the time were kept out of scientific establishments or academic institutions. Kenner and her family moved to Washington, D.C. when she was young and here is where she stayed to keep updating on her opportunities to have her ideas patented at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Kenner invented an adjustable sanitary belt with an inbuilt, moisture-proof napkin pocket. She completed the patent application for her invention in 1954. In 1956, the application was approved. The invention was described as an eliminator for “chafing and irritation normally caused by devices of [its] class.” However, the company that first showed interest in her invention, the Sonn-Nap-Pack Company, rejected it after they discovered that she was African American. Kenner never made any money from the sanitary belt, because her patent expired and became public domain, allowing it to be manufactured freely.
Before Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan joined the billionaire’s club, Robert Johnson became the first African American billionaire when he sold the cable station he founded, Black Entertainment Television (BET) in 2001.
In 1940, Hattie McDaniel was the first African American performer to win an Academy Award—the film industry’s highest honor—for her portrayal of a loyal slave governess in Gone With the Wind.
Hiram R. Revels (1863–1865) was a minister who, in 1870, became the first African American United States senator, representing the state of Mississippi. He served for a year before leaving to become the president of a historically Black college.
George Crum (born George Speck, 1824–1914) was a renowned African American chef who worked at Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York during the mid-1800s. According to culinary legend, Crum invented the potato chip during his work at the restaurant.
Alice Coachman made history at the 1948 Olympics in London when she leaped to a record-breaking height of 5 feet, 6 and 1/8 inches in the high jump finals to become the first African American woman to win an Olympic gold medal. She went on to support young athletes and older, retired Olympic veterans through the Alice Coachman Track and Field Foundation.
Hattie McDaniel (1893–1952) became the first African American to win an Oscar in 1940, for her supporting role as Mammy in ‘Gone With the Wind.’
Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all indigenous and diaspora ethnic groups of African descent. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans with a substantial support base among the African diaspora. Its ideology is mutli-faceted incorporating Political, and economic power as well as ideas of cultural identification and education.
Dorothy Height has been called the matriarch of the civil rights movement and often worked behind the scenes. After receiving two degrees from New York University in the 1930s, Height worked for the New York City Welfare Department and then became the assistant executive director of the Harlem Y.M.C.A. She was involved in anti-lynching protests, brought public attention to the exploitation of African-American women working in “slave markets,” and escorted First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to the National Council of Negro Women, a council she served on for more than 40 years. In the 1950s, she lobbied President Dwight D. Eisenhower to take an aggressive stance on school desegregation issues. Height also worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and she stood on the platform with him when he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in August 1963.
https://parade.com/1328166/shameikarhymes/african-american-historical-figures/
Ethel Waters first entered the entertainment business in the 1920s as a blues singer, before making history. Waters was the first to integrate Broadway appearing in Irving Berlin’s As Thousands Cheer and eventually became the highest-paid performer on Broadway. In addition to becoming the first African American to star in her own television variety show in 1939, The Ethel Waters Show. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the film Pinky in 1950. Also in 1950, Waters was the first Black actress to star in a television series, Beulah, which aired on ABC. In 1962, she became the first African American woman to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by a Leading Lady for the show Route 66.
https://parade.com/1328166/shameikarhymes/african-american-historical-figures/
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is usually credited for the iconic March on Washington in August 1963, but it was actually Bayard Rustin who organized the historical event. The march brought more than 200,000 peaceful protestors of varying races and religions together to hear King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. As a gay man who had controversial ties to communism, he was considered too much of a liability to be on the front lines of the movement so he worked in the background. Rustin also helped King found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
ps://parade.com/1328166/shameikarhymes/african-american-historical-figures/
Dr. Josephine B. Isabel-Jones became the first African-American woman to become a board-certified pediatric cardiologist in the U.S. Dr. Isabel-Jones is currently a professor emeritus of pediatrics and an assistant dean of student affairs at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Isabel-Jones has had a long-standing interest in medical mission work. For several years (1970s-1980s) she volunteered her services as a pediatric cardiologist at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Hospital serving indigent children with congenital heart disease in South Central Los Angeles. In her semi-retirement she has enjoyed having time to be in DISCIPLE, an intense 6-year curriculum of Bible study and her work with Hannah’s Descendants., both of which she looks upon as opportunities to transition from her career of healing bodies to a mission in healing souls.
Katherine Johnson (1918–2020) was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights.
Known as the first African American professional photographer, Gordon Parks (1912-2006) used his camera as a tool to help the world understand the experience of African Americans in the U.S. “I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.” – Gordon Parks
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1950 for her book Annie Allen, which chronicles the evolution of a young Black girl into womanhood through poetry. Her work often dealt with the personal celebrations and struggles of ordinary people in her community. Learn more about Gwendolyn here.
Marie Selika Williams (1849 – 1937) was an American coloratura soprano. She was the first African-American artist to perform in the White House. Marie Selika was born in Natchez, Mississippi. Shortly after her birth, Selika’s family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio where, as a child, she began to study music, thanks to the support of a wealthy local benefactor. While still in her early 20s, she moved to San Francisco, California to study with Signora G. Bianchi under whose guidance she made her debut as a concert soprano in 1876. Soon afterward Selika met and married a fellow operatic artist, baritone Sampson Williams, also known as Signor Velosko, the Hawaiian tenor.
In 1950, Ethel Waters was the first black American performer to star in her own regular television show, Beulah, but it was the 1961 role in the “Good Night, Sweet Blues” episode of the television series Route 66 that earned her an Emmy award. She was the first black so honored. Acting was a second career after singing in four different genres—jazz, blues, pop, and gospel. She performed on Broadway stages, the first black to receive top billing with white stars. And finally, she claimed leading roles in Hollywood films, earning an Academy Award nomination for the film Pinky.
George Washington Johnson
George Washington Johnson (1846 – 1914) was an American singer and pioneer sound recording artist, the first African-American recording star of the phonograph. Johnson was born in Virginia, either in Fluvanna County or near Wheatland in Loudoun County. His father may have been a slave; if so, he was likely freed in 1853. From an early age, Johnson was raised near Wheatland as the companion and servant of a prosperous white farmer’s son. During his time with this family, he developed his musical ability and even learned to read and write, which was unusual for a black child in Virginia before the American Civil War. Johnson later worked as a laborer, and in his late twenties he moved to New York City. By the late 1870s he was making his living as a street entertainer in New York, specializing in whistling popular tunes.
Johnson sang as well as whistled, and also was able to give a boisterous laugh in musical pitch. From this he developed the second performance that made him famous, “The Laughing Song”.