We are currently in Black History Month, which means it's time to be much more pro-black than usual. In school, the only black history we are taught about slavery and the civil rights movement. I'm here to tell you that we as a people have been through and accomplished so much more! There's so many black heroes throughout the history of America, but we can only name MLK, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks. Even then, you spend one day in history class learning about those few people, by given a piece of paper with their face it for you to color with crayons, and 5 facts on the back.
I'm about to educate y'all on just a few black people that have changed the world, but for some reason are never talked about. So here's 7 of those people:
1. Henrietta Lacks
Henrietta Lacks was born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer and unfortunately died at the age of 31 on October 4, 1951. Doctors took her cells WITHOUT HER KNOWLEDGE LET ALONE HER PERMISSION, and were used to form the HeLa cell line. Since 1951, it has been used extensively in medical research and has helped develop vaccines for polio, as well as help us better understand cancer and HIV/AIDS. Her cells even went into space and have been exposed to nuclear testing. Her cells are so influential, so we gotta make sure we acknowledge her.
2. Dr. Daniel Hale Williams
Before McSteamy and McDreamy were doing it on Grey's Anatomy, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful open heart surgery in the United States He was not only the first black man to do it, he was one of the first person to do it in the world. On July 3, 1893, a man came into Provident Hospital with a stab wound in the chest. Williams surgically repaired the heart’s lining, with the patient having a full recovery within two months. However, his great accomplishment in science is seldom in many medical books. Why?
3. Bessie Coleman
She was the United States' first licensed African American woman pilot. Bessie traveled to France and studied the langauge, as well as learning how to fly across the ocean. She was awarded her international pilot's license by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in June 1921, and performed at numerous airshows within the next five years. She unfortunately died in a tragic plane accident in 1926.
4. Charles Drew
Dr. Charles Drew was born in Washington, D.C. on June 3, 1904, in Washington. He was a physician who developed ways to process and store blood plasma in "blood banks." As a matter of fact, he was in charge of directing blood plasma programs of the United States and Great Britain throughout World War II. It seemed like a pretty great gig for Dr. Drew, until it was announced that the blood of African-Americans would be segregated. So, he did what he felt was morally right and resigned. He died on April 1, 1950.
5. Lorraine Hansberry
Born on May 19, 1930, Lorraine Hansberry was the first African American woman to write a play performed on Broadway. This play was called A Raisin in The Sun, which tells a story of a struggling black family. The film version came out a few decades later in 1961 and received an award at the Cannes Film Festival. Hansberry, a great success, in the film world, as well as the world of activism (for she helped fight for the rights of African Americans as well), unfortunately died at the young age of 34 due to pancreatic cancer.
l hope this article opened your minds as to how much African Americans have done for this country. I hope you also take into consideration that there are so many other successful people of color just like these few. Now I want you to take a second and think, if there's so many people of color who really contributed to society throughout the years, then why haven't you heard of them?
