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Black History Month: February 2022
To recall and celebrate the positive contributions to our nation made by people of African descent, American historian Carter G. Woodson established Black History Week beginning on Feb. 12, 1926. In 1976, as part of the nation's bicentennial, the week was expanded into Black History Month.
TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT ON
OPRAH WINFREY
As a television host, producer and philanthropist, Oprah is arguably the most influential woman in America. The media maven is also the first African-American woman to become a billionaire. In 2011, after 25 successful years on air, Oprah ended her talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, which is one of the highest rated programs of its kind in history. That same year, she launched her own TV network, The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
Through her multimedia empire, Winfrey produces The Dr. Phil Show, The Rachel Ray Show, and The Dr. Oz Show. She publishes the best-selling O Magazine, and has her own satellite channel on XM Radio. Through her Angel Network, she founded the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa and the Oprah Winfrey Foundation.
TRIVIA
- Oprah Winfrey
- Born: 1/29/1954
- Birthplace: Kosciusko, Mississippi
- Graduated from East Nashville High School in Nashville, in 1971, where she was voted "most popular."
- Graduate of Tennessee State University, with degrees in speech communications and performing arts.
- Oprah is the first woman in history to own and produce her own talk show.
- In 1986, she became the first African-American woman to own her own nationally syndicated show.
- Her name was intended to be Orpah, but it was misspelled on her birth certificate.
- She was instrumental in the passage of the Oprah Bill, in the early 1990s. President Clinton signed the bill, aimed at stopping child abuse, into law.
- Raised in poverty, she received her first pair of shoes in 1959 at age 6. She learned to read at age 2, and when it was time for her to start kindergarten, she wrote a note to her teacher, insisting she belonged in the first grade. The teacher agreed.
- In 2003, Oprah became the first black female billionaire in the U.S.
- As of 2022, Oprah's net worth is $2.6 billion.
- In 2013, she generated Oscar buzz for her performance in Lee Daniels' The Butler.
- She continues to support educational causes and has spent more than $100 million on the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.
- In 2013, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama and an honorary doctorate degree from Harvard.
- Has been with her boyfriend Steadman Graham for 28 years.
(Source: Imdb.com, Wikipedia.com, Forbes, Biography.com)
QUOTES:
- "Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity."
- "My idea of heaven is a great big baked potato and someone to share it with."
- "Lots of people want to ride with you in the Limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the Limo breaks down."
- "All my life I have always known I was born to greatness."
- "The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be."
- "Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism."
- "What other people label or might try to call failure, I have learned is just God's way of pointing you in a new direction."
- "When you're doing the work you're meant to do, it feels right and every day is a bonus, regardless of what you're getting paid."
(Source: Imdb.com)
AUDIO
Oprah says everyone has a calling (2011):
- ["Everybody has a calling, mine aligned with my profession, my job. Not everybody gets paid for it, but everybody is called…My great wish for all of you who've allowed me to honor my calling through the show is that, you carry whatever you're supposed to be doing — carry that forward. Don't waste anymore time. Use your light to serve the world."] SOUNDCUE (:34 . . . OC serve the world)
Oprah ends her talk show after 25 years on air (2011):
- ["I thank you all for your support and trust in me. I thank you for sharing this yellow brick road of blessings…Thank you for being as sweet an inspiration to me as I was to you. I won't say goodbye, I'll just say, until we meet again. To God be the glory."] SOUNDCUE (:30 . . . be the glory)
BLACK HISTORY MONTH FACT OF THE DAY:
- As of 2020, the population of African Americans including those of more than one race was estimated at 46.9 million.
(Source: CDC.gov)
TODAY IN BLACK HISTORY (February 23rd):
- In 1868, Dr. William Edward Burghardt DuBois, educator and civil rights advocate, was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
- In 1869, Louisiana governor signed public accommodations law.
- In 1895, William H. Heard, AME minister and educator, named minister to Liberia.
- In 1915, Robert Smalls, Reconstruction congressman, died in Beaufort, South Carolina.
- In 1925, Louis Stokes, former mayor of Detroit, Michigan, and member of the U.S. House of Representatives, was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Stokes was the first African American elected to the House from Ohio.
- In 1929, Baseball catcher Elston Gene Howard was born in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1965, Howard signed a $70,000 contract with the New York Yankees and became the highest paid player in the history of baseball at the time.
- In 1965, Constance Baker Motley elected Manhattan Borough president, the highest elective office held by a Black woman in a major American city.
- In 1979, Frank E. Peterson, Jr. named the first Black general in the Marine Corps.
- In 1993, Little Richard received a lifetime achievement Grammy award.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH SPOTLIGHT: MAE CAROL JEMISON
Mae Carol Jemison is an American physician and NASA astronaut. She became the first black woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12th 1992. Jemison was born on October 17, 1956 in Decatur, Georgia, but was raised in Chicago, Illinois.
At age 16, she entered Stanford University. She graduated in 1977 with a B.S. in chemical engineering. In 1981, she obtained her Doctor of Medicine degree from Cornell Medical College (now Weill Medical College of Cornell University). She interned at Los Angeles County USC Medical Center and briefly worked as a general practitioner.
- Jemison served in the Peace Corps from 1985 to 1987. In 1987, she applied for NASA and was accepted. Jemison flew her only space mission from September 12th to 20th, 1992 as a Mission Specialist on STS-47. She resigned from NASA in 1993.
- She is also a dancer, and holds 9 honorary doctorates in science, engineering, letters, and the humanities.
(Source: Wikipedia.com, Brainyquotes.com, IMDB.com, Biography.com)
