Remember Me…

1. Remember Me… Faces in Black History that Affect the African American Present Compiled by: Ridgeland High School Drama Team, 2007-2008

2. JACKIE ROBINSON • Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play in baseball's major leagues in the modern era. Only white players were accepted in the major leagues until 1947, when Robinson was called up to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. http://who2.com/ask/jackierobinson.html

3. JACKIE ROBINSON • Robinson was named “Rookie of the Year” for 1947 and went on to appear in six World Series in ten seasons with the Dodgers. http://who2.com/ask/jackierobinson.html

4. JACKIE ROBINSON • Robinson's stellar play, and his role in breaking the color barrier, led to his 1962 induction as the first African-American in baseball's Hall of Fame. http://who2.com/ask/jackierobinson.html

5. Reverend Jessie Jackson • Once an aide to Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson has been a political activist and public figure since the civil rights days of the 1960s. Jackson, a Baptist minister, is the founder of the non-profit organization PUSH (People United to Save Humanity). http://who2.com/ask/michaeljordan.html

6. Reverend Jessie Jackson • In the 1980s he was a regular presence at rallies and protests, especially on the topic of civil rights but also in other areas. He has several times been an unofficial U.S. envoy in diplomatic missions.

7. Reverend Jessie Jackson • In 1999, he helped secure the release of three American military prisoners from Yugoslavia. He made unsuccessful runs for the Democratic nomination for U.S. President.

8. Bessie Coleman • Bessie Coleman is remembered as an aviation pioneer. Coleman grew up in Texas, moved to Chicago, and got interested in flying. Failing to find anyone in Chicago who would teach flying to a black woman, Coleman determined to go abroad to get training– a daring move for that era. WWW.ASK.COM/H2.BESSIECOLEMAN.COM

9. Bessie Coleman • She moved to Paris, was accepted to aviation school, and on 15 June 1921 she received her pilot's license. The certificate made her the world's first licensed black aviator.

10. Bessie Coleman • Coleman appeared at air shows across the country. She died in 1926 while flight-testing an open-cockpit plane.

11. MICHAEL JORDAN • Michael Jordan was a dominant basketball player in the world during the 1990s. He won the NBA's Most Valuable Player award five times and led the Chicago Bulls to the league championship six times. WWW.ASK.COM/MICHEAL JORDAN

12. MICHAEL JORDAN • In 1994, Jordan played an unsuccessful baseball season for the minor league Birmingham Barons. In March of 1995 he ended his baseball career and returned to the Bulls.

13. MICHAEL JORDAN • He retired from basketball in 1999. In the year 2000 he became a part owner and executive for the NBA's Washington Wizards. In 2001 Jordan began considering another comeback as an NBA player, and that fall, at age 38, he returned once again to play for the Wizards. He played for two more full seasons, retiring again in April of 2003.

14. OPRAH WINFREY • Oprah Winfrey is the most successful female talk show host in American TV history. After anchoring and reporting TV news in Nashville, Tennessee and Baltimore, Maryland, she landed a job on the morning show of A.M. Chicago in 1984. http://who2.com/ask/oprahwinfrey.html

15. OPRAH WINFREY • The next year she made her movie debut in The Color Purple and was nominated for an Oscar. In 1986 she launched The Oprah Winfrey Show, a TV talk show which featured celebrity interviews and discussions of social issues.

16. OPRAH WINFREY • The show was a smash hit and within a decade she was one of the richest women in the United States. "Oprah's Book Club” became famous for its ability to create bestsellers. In 2000 she launched her own lifestyle magazine, O.

17. Black Panthers • The Black Panthers were initially formed to protect local communities from police brutality and racism. The group also ran medical clinics and provided free food to school children. Within a couple of years the Black Panthers in Oakland were feeding over 10,000 children every day before they went to school. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USApantherB.htm

18. Sterling A. Brown • Brown was and is known for his unsentimental and frank portraits of African- American people and their lives and experiences. http://www.geocities.com/sterlingabrown/bio.html?1020816980720

19. Sterling A. Brown • Sterling Allen Brown received many awards in his life.  In 1922 he received second prize from Opportunity Magazine for the poem "When de Saints Go Ma'ching Home" and third prize (shared with Frank Horne) from Opportunity Magazine for an essay.

20. Madame C.J. Walker • Madam Walker was an entrepreneur who built her empire developing hair products for black women. She claims to have built her company on an actual dream where a large black man appeared to her and gave her a formula for curing baldness. http://www.lkwdpl.org/WIHOHIO/walk-mad.htm

21. Madame C.J. Walker • When confronted with the idea that she was trying to conform black women's hair to that of whites, she stressed that her products were simply an attempt to help black women take proper care of their hair and promote its growth.

22. Katherine Dunham • Throughout her illustrious career as one of the world’s most respected dancers, choreographers and teachers,  Miss Dunham used her talents, fame and resources to call public attention to social injustices at home and abroad. http://www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/kdunham/bio.htm

23. Katherine Dunham • Miss Dunham is also credited with developing one of the most important pedagogues for teaching dance which is still used throughout the world.

24. Frankie Lymon • As lead vocalist with The Teenagers, Frankie Lymon became the first black teenage singing idol. The group's success inspired the formation of a number of youthful black vocal groups, from The Students in the late '50s to The Jackson Five in the '60s. http://www.history-of-rock.com/lymon.htm

25. Frankie Lymon • The group's sound influenced young singers such as Ronnie Bennett and Diana Ross, and served as prototype for both the girl groups and early Motown groups of the '60s.

26. Charles Drew • Over the years, Drew has been considered one of the most honored and respected figures in the medical field and his development of the blood plasma bank has given millions a second chance to live. http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/charlesdrew.html

27. Barack Obama • Barack Obama has dedicated his life to public service as a community organizer, civil rights attorney and leader in the Illinois state Senate. Obama now continues his fight for working families following his recent election to the United States Senate. http://obama.senate.gov/about/

28. Al Sharpton • A former boy preacher, turned reckless demagogue, turning (he hopes) into an elder statesman of Black America. He has always loved the limelight and hung out with celebrities such as Mahalia Jackson, James Brown, Michael Jackson and Don King. Say what you want about him, he's certainly entertaining. http://www.realchange.org/sharpton.htm

29. Reverend Al Sharpton • He grew up in a prosperous, suburban family (his dad was a landlord and businessman) and was a child prodigy as a preacher.

30. Reverend Al Sharpton • By age 7, he was touring with gospel great Mahalia Jackson and Bishop F.D. Washington, the renowned Pentecostal minister of Brooklyn's Washington Temple Church of God in Christ as "the Wonder Boy Preacher."

31. Reverend Al Sharpton • Al Sharpton also made an unsuccessful run for the United States Presidency in 2004.

32. Marian Anderson • DATE OF BIRTH: February 27, 1897 – according to her birth certificate. (Throughout her life she gave her birthdate as February 17, 1902.) • PLACE OF BIRTH: Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia • http://lkwdpl.org/wihohio/ande-mar.htm

33. Marian Anderson • Marian Anderson was the oldest of three daughters born to John and Anna Anderson. In 1912, John suffered a head wound at work and died soon after. Anna and her three daughters moved in with John’s parents, while Anna found work cleaning, laundering and scrubbing floors.

34. Marian Anderson • Marian attended William Penn High School until her music vocation arose. She transferred to South Philadelphia High School, focusing on music and singing frequently at assemblies, and graduating at age 18. She applied for admission to a local music school, but was coldly rejected because of her color.

35. Marian Anderson • Marian’s musical career began quite early,. She joined the junior choir at age six. Before long, she was nicknamed “The Baby Contralto.” When she was eight, her father bought a piano from his brother, but they could not afford any lessons so Marian taught herself.

36. Bishop T.D. Jakes • On June 9, 1957, Thomas D. Jakes was born in South Charleston. It was one of those communities where every adult in the community contributed to the upbringing of all the children. • http://www.topblacks.com/religion/t-d-jakes.htm

37. Bishop T.D. Jakes • He had a habit as a child of preaching to an imaginary congregation and always carrying his bible to school. This earned him the nickname "Bible Boy". Earnest and Odith instilled a strong work ethic in their son at an early age. His mother was a home economics teacher and taught her children to cook, sew and clean for themselves.

38. Bishop T.D. Jakes • His father was a self made businessman. He started a janitorial service with one bucket and one mop and turned that into a company that employed over 40 people and had such prestigious clients as the West Virginia Capitol building.

39. Bishop T.D. Jakes • He attended and graduated from Center Business College in 1972. In 1992 he first preached, "Woman, Thou Art Loosed," a powerful Sunday School sermon for hurting woman. "Woman, Thou Art Loosed" would become his most popular message.

40. Public Enemy • Public Enemy rewrote the rules of hip hop, becoming the most influential and controversial rap group of the late '80s and, for many, the definitive rap group of all time. Building from Run D.M.C.'s street-oriented beats and Boogie Down Productions' proto-gangsta rhyming, Public Enemy pioneered a variation ofhardcore rap that was musically and politically revolutionary. http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Public%20Enemy:1927000065:page=biography

41. Public Enemy • With his powerful, authoritative baritone, lead rapper Chuck D rhymed about all kinds of social problems, particularly those plaguing the black community, often condoning revolutionary tactics and social activism.

42. Public Enemy • In the process, D directed hip hop toward an explicitlyself-aware, pro-black consciousness that became the culture's signature throughout the next decade.

43. Public Enemy • Musically, Public Enemy was just as revolutionary as their production team, the Bomb Squad, which created dense soundscapes that relied on avant garde cut and paste techniques, unrecognizable samples, piercing sirens, relentless beats, and deep funk.

44. Public Enemy • It was chaotic and invigorating music, made all the more intoxicating by Chuck D's forceful vocals and the absurdist raps of his comic foil Flavor Flav. With his comic sunglasses and an oversized clock hanging from his neck.

45. Public Enemy • After all the controversy settled in the early '90s, once the group entered a hiatus, it became clear that Public Enemy was the most influential and radical rap band of their time.

46. Spike Lee • Spike Lee has established himself as one of Hollywood's most important and influential filmmakers in the past decade. Spike completed his ninth film Girl 6 in Spring of 1996. This movie followed his critically-acclaimed films Malcolm X and Clockers. • Lee's Jungle Fever and Mo' Better Blues were also critically well received. http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/slee2.html

47. Spike Lee • Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Spike returned South from Brooklyn to attended Morehouse College. Spike continued his education at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he received his Master of Fine Arts Degree in Film Production.

48. Spike Lee • In 1986, his debut film, the independently produced comedy, She's Gotta Have It, earned him the Prix de Jeunesse Award at the Cannes Film Festival and set him at the forefront of the Black Wave in American Cinema.

49. Spike Lee • School Daze, his second feature, not only proved highly profitable, but also launched the careers of several young Black actors.

50. Spike Lee • Spike's timely 1989 film, Do The Right Thing, garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film & Director awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.