During the month of February, for the ceremonial Black History Month, the Scribe will be posting profiles about notable figures in Black history. We will be discussing the lives, philosophies and works of these people.
But, Black History is not “finished”. It is not a remnant of an older time, and it is not dead by any meaning of the word. Black History is alive and well. It will not end when February, the shortest month of the year, ends. It will continue to live. It will thrive in each and every person of color, anywhere, at any time, all the time.
The people we will discuss this month are those who have shaped history with their own hands and have carried the torch of change. They have carried this torch, through hail or through fire, through bullets, through batons and through nooses, all to build a better world for us.
These 28 people have sacrificed so much; have done and mean so much, and are so much more important than the Scribe can fit into one or two or even ten pages. To remedy this, we have left hyperlinks to sources of more information about these people at the bottom of most, if not every page.
Please, take the time to read about these people and understand their struggle. Take the time to study the torch because the people who will be left to carry it in 30 years will be those seated in classrooms today.
Stevie Wonder is known for being a very talented musician covering many genres of music. In 1963, he released his song “Fingertips”; he was 13 years old, making him the youngest solo artist to ever go No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100.
He used his platform as a well-known, talented music artist to talk about important issues, and he spearheaded a campaign to make Martin Luther King Jr. ‘s birthday a national holiday. His song “Happy Birthday” was written for MLK in 1980 to start his campaign to make the holiday.
Stevie Wonder is still releasing music to this day at the age of 74 years old. In his song, “Happy Birthday” he wrote about Martin Luther King Jr. saying, “I just never understood how a man who died for good, could not have a day that would be set aside for his recognition.”
