Black History Month
Courtesy of the Student National Medical
Association
KCUMB Chapter
Early Pioneers
Benjamin Bannecker
• In 1761 he attracted attention
by building a wooden clock that
kept precise time
• Self educated, he began
astronomical calculations about
1773—accurately predicted a
solar eclipse in 1789
• Sent a copy of his first almanac
to Thomas Jefferson with a
letter asking for aid in bringing
about better conditions for
American blacks
Carter G. Woodson
• Second African American
to earn a doctorate from
Harvard University
• Began promoting Negro
History Week during the
second week of February
to celebrate the birthdays
of Abraham Lincoln and
Frederick Douglass. In the
1960s it became Black
History Month
Daniel Hale Williams
• One of the first African
American surgeons in
America
• Helped found Provident
Hospital in Chicago in 1891
• In 1893, achieved
international fame by
performing the world's first
successful heart surgery at
Provident
Rebecca Lee Crumpler
• Became the first African American woman in the
United States to earn an M.D. degree
• Authored A Book of Medical Discourses - one of
the very first medical publications by an African
American
Mary McLeod Bethune
• Appointed administrative
assistant for Negro affairs of the
National Youth Administration
by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt in 1936
• Became an adviser on minority
affairs to Roosevelt and assisted
the secretary of war in selecting
officer candidates for the U.S.
Women's Army Corps (WAC)
• Vice president of the National
Association for the
Advancement of Colored
People from 1940 to 1955
Great Inventors
George Washington Carver
• Agricultural chemist who
discovered 300 uses for peanuts
and hundreds of uses for
soybeans, pecans and sweet
potatoes
• Created recipes and
improvements to/for: bleach,
buttermilk, ink, instant coffee,
linoleum, metal polish, shaving
cream, shoe polish, synthetic
rubber, talcum powder
• Despite hundreds of inventions,
he was only issued three patents
Charles Richard Drew
• Black American physician and
surgeon who became an
authority on the preservation of
human blood for transfusion
• Developed efficient ways to
process and store large
quantities of blood plasma in
“blood banks”
• Agitated the authorities to stop
excluding the blood of blacks
from plasma-supply networks
Activists
Thurgood Marshall
• First African-American justice
on the Supreme Court of the
United States
• Primary strategist of the series
of cases that ended with the
Supreme Court's 1954 decision
in the case of Brown v. Board
of Education of Topeka which
declared segregation in public
schools as unconstitutional
Ruby Bridges
• First African American to
enter an all-white school
when the New Orleans
public school system was
ordered to desegregate in
1960
• Her first walk to school
inspired the familiar
painting by Norman
Rockwell
Reverend Vernon Johns
• Controversial Alabama preacher
who often upset his
conservative congregation with
his sermons, including
"Segregation After Death" and
"When The Rapist Is White"
• Strongly opposed segregation
and on one occasion walked
into a 'White' restaurant and
ordered a sandwich, knowing
he was putting his life at risk
• After Johns retired, the
congregation appointed a new
preacher--Martin Luther King
Dorothy I. Height
• One of the major leaders of the
Civil Rights Movement of the
1960s
• Organized "Wednesdays in
Mississippi,” to create a
dialogue about the Civil Rights
Movement between Southern
and Northern white and black
women
• Served as the president of the
National Council of Negro
Women for over 40 years
Artists and Authors
Gwendolyn Brooks
•
American poet whose works deal
with the everyday life of urban
blacks
•
First African American poet to win
the Pulitzer Prize 1949
•
Named Poet Laureate of Illinois in
1968
•
Received a lifetime achievement
award from the National
Endowment for the Arts in 1989
Johnnetta B. Cole
• Became the seventh president
of Spelman College in 1987
• Called herself “Sister
President,”and became known
as a strong advocate for the
liberal arts curriculum in a
changing society
• Author of Conversations:
Straight Talk with America's
Sister President (1993) and
many other scholarly articles
focusing on race and and class
in the Pan-African world
Gordon Parks
• Bought a used camera in
1938, deciding on a career in
photography
• Three years later, received a
fellowship from the Julius
Rosenwald Foundation to
work in the photography
section of the Farm Security
Administration
• Became a poet, novelist, film
director and photographer
Physicians
David Satcher M.D.
•
Medical doctor and public health
administrator
•
Past Director of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC)
•
Appointed as the 16th Surgeon
General by President Bill Clinton
•
Director of the National Center for
Primary Care at the Morehouse
School of Medicine
Barbara Ross Lee, D.O.
• Initially a school teacher after a
college advisor discouraged her
from becoming a doctor
• Graduated from the Michigan
State University College of
Osteopathic Medicine in 1973
• First African American woman
to be appointed dean of an
American medical school
William G. Anderson, D.O.
•
Graduate of the University of
Osteopathic Medicine and
Health Sciences in Des Moines
•
Leader in the Civil Rights
Movement in Georgia where
he worked along side Dr.
Martin Luther King
•
First African American
President of the American
Osteopathic Association
•
Associate Dean of the
Kirksville College of
Osteopathic Medicine