# data[].attributes.body
Gas Mask/Traffic Lights

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

# data[].attributes.body
Poet/Writer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about the biography and life of author Maya Angelou including her childhood, early career, work as a civil rights activist, becoming a writer, famous works, poetry, and interesting facts.

# data[].attributes.body
Civil Rights Lawyer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about the biography of Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice who argued the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education for the NAACP.

# data[].attributes.body
Olympian

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about Jesse Owens's biography and his track and field career. Fun facts about the Olympic athlete.

# data[].attributes.body
Train Oil

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

# data[].attributes.body
Poet/Writer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Langston Hughes (1902 - May 22, 1967) was an American poet, novelist, playwright and short story writer. Hughes was one of the writers and artists whose work was called the Harlem Renaissance.

Hughes grew up as a poor boy from Missouri, the descendant of African people who had been taken to America as slaves. At that time, the term used for African-Americans was " negro" which means a person with black skin. Most "negroes" did not remember or think about their link with the people of Africa, even though it was a big influence on their culture and, in particular, their music. Hughes was unusual for his time, because he went back to West Africa to understand more about his own culture. Through his poetry, plays, and stories, Hughes helped other black Americans to see themselves as part of a much bigger group of people, so that now the term "African-American" is used with pride.

Hughes became a famous writer, but all his life he remembered how he started out, and he helped and encouraged many other struggling writers.

Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. His parents were James Hughes and Carrie Langston Hughes who was a teacher. Langston's father, James Hughes, was so upset about the racism towards African-Americans that he left his family and moved to Mexico. During his childhood, Hughes was cared for by his grandmother, in Lawrence, Kansas while his mother worked to support the family. Langston's grandmother was a great story teller. She told stories that made him feel proud to be an African-American.

After his grandmother died, Hughes and his mother moved about 12 times until settling in Cleveland, and then, as a teenager went to live in Lincoln, Illinois with his mother, who had remarried. He was often left alone because his mother was at work. Even though his childhood was difficult and had lots of changes, he was able to use these things in the poetry that he started to write while he was at school. He never forgot the stories of his grandmother and tried to help other African-Americans when they were having problems. These were the people that he later wrote about in his own stories.

When Hughes went to school in Lincoln, there were only two African-American children in the class. The teacher talked to them about poetry. She said that what a poem needed most was rhythm. Langston later said that he had rhythm in his blood because, "as everyone knows", all African-Americans have rhythm. The children made him the "class poet".

At high school in Cleveland, Ohio, Langston learned to love reading. He loved the poetry of the American poets Paul Laurence Dunbar and Carl Sandburg. He wrote articles for the school newspaper, he edited the school yearbook and he wrote his first short stories and plays.

Hughes' father and Columbia University

When Langston Hughes was 17, he went to spend some time with his father in Mexico. He was very unhappy there. Hughes could not understand how his father felt. He said: "I had been thinking about my father and his strange dislike of his own people. I didn't understand it, because I was a Negro, and I liked Negroes very much!"
Hughes later wrote this poem:

When he was finished at high school in Lincoln in 1920, he went back to Mexico, to ask his father to pay for him to go to university. Hughes' father was a lawyer and a wealthy landowner. He could afford to send his son to university but he made difficulties about it. He said that Hughes could only go to university if he went overseas and studied engineering. Hughes wanted to go to a university in the US. After a time, they made an agreement that he should go to Columbia University but study engineering, not an arts degree. He went to Columbia in 1921 but left in 1922, partly because of the racism in the university.

Until 1926 Hughes did many different types of work. In 1923 he went as a crewman on the ship "S.S.Malone" and went to West Africa and Europe. He left the ship and stayed for a short time in Paris where he joined several other African-Americans who were living there. In November 1924, Hughes returned to the U.S. to live with his mother in Washington, D.C.. In 1925 he got a job as an assistant to Carter G. Woodson who worked with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Hughes did not enjoy his work because he did not have enough time to write, so he left and got a job as a "busboy", wiping tables and washing dishes at a hotel. Hughes is sometimes called "The Busboy Poet". Meanwhile, some of his poems were published in magazines and were being collected together for his first book of poetry. While he was working at the hotel he met the poet Vachel Lindsay, who helped to make Hughes known as a new African-American poet.

In 1926 Hughes began studying at Lincoln University, Pennsylvania. He had help from patrons, Amy Spingarn, who gave him $300 and "Godmother" Charlotte Osgood Mason. Hughes graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1929 and became a Doctor of Letters in 1943. He was also given an honorary doctorate by Howard University. For the rest of his life, except when he travelled to the Caribbean or West Indies, Hughes lived in Harlem, New York.

Langston Hughes sometimes went out with women, but he never married. People who have studied his life and poetry are sure that he was homosexual. In the 1930s it was harder to be open about being gay than it is nowadays. His poetry has lots of symbols which are used by other homosexual writers. Hughes thought that men who had very dark skin were particularly beautiful. It seems from his poetry that he was in love with an African-American man. He also wrote a story which might tell of his own experience. Blessed Assurance is the story of a father's anger because his son is "queer" and acts like a girl.

Hughes' life and work were an important part of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, alongside those Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, Countee Cullen, Richard Bruce Nugent, and Aaron Douglas, who together started a magazine Fire!! Devoted to Younger Negro Artists. Hughes and these friends did not always agree with the ideas of some of the other African-American writers who were also part of the Harlem Renaissance because they thought their ideas were Middle class and that they treated others who had darker skin, less education and less money with discrimination. All his life, Hughes never forgot the lessons that he learned about poor and uneducated African-Americans in the stories that his grandmother told.

In 1960, the NAACP awarded Hughes the "Spingarn Medal" for "distinguished achievements by an African American". Hughes became a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1961. In 1973, an award was named after him, the "Langston Hughes Medal", awarded by the City College of New York.

Hughes became a famous American poet, but he was always ready to help other people, particularly young black writers. He was worried that many young writers hated themselves, and expressed these feelings to the world. He tried to help people feel pride, and not worry about the prejudice of other people. He also tried to help young African-Americans not to express hatred and prejudice towards white Americans.
Hughes wrote:

"The younger Negro artists who create now intend to express

our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame.

If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not,

it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly, too.

The tom-tom cries, and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people

are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure

doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow,

strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain

free within ourselves."
(A tom-tom is an African drum)

On May 22, 1967, Hughes died in New York City at the age of 65 after having surgery for prostate cancer. His ashes are buried under the floor of the Langston Hughes Auditorium in the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. Over his ashes is a circle with a beautiful African design called "Rivers." At the centre of the design are words from a poem by Hughes: "My soul has grown deep like the rivers."

The Weary Blues. Knopf, 1926

Fine Clothes to the Jew. Knopf, 1927

The Negro Mother and Other Dramatic Recitations, 1931

Dear Lovely Death, 1931

The Dream Keeper and Other Poems. Knopf, 1932

Scottsboro Limited: Four Poems and a Play. N.Y.: Golden Stair Press, 1932

Shakespeare in Harlem. Knopf, 1942

Freedom's Plow. 1943

Fields of Wonder. Knopf,1947

One-Way Ticket. 1949

Montage of a Dream Deferred. Holt, 1951

Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. 1958

Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz. Hill & Wang, 1961

The Panther and the Lash: Poems of Our Times, 1967

The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. Knopf, 1994

Let America Be America Again 2005

Not Without Laughter. Knopf, 1930

The Ways of White Folks. Knopf, 1934

Simple Speaks His Mind. 1950

Laughing to Keep from Crying, Holt, 1952

Simple Takes a Wife. 1953

Sweet Flypaper of Life, photographs by Roy DeCarava. 1955

Simple Stakes a Claim. 1957

Tambourines to Glory (book), 1958

The Best of Simple. 1961

Simple's Uncle Sam. 1965

Something in Common and Other Stories. Hill & Wang, 1963

Short Stories of Langston Hughes. Hill & Wang, 1996

Non-fiction

The Big Sea. New York: Knopf, 1940

Famous American Negroes. 1954

Marian Anderson: Famous Concert Singer. 1954

I Wonder as I Wander. New York: Rinehart & Co., 1956

A Pictorial History of the Negro in America, with Milton Meltzer. 1956

Famous Negro Heroes of America. 1958

Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP. 1962

Major plays

Mule Bone, with Zora Neale Hurston. 1931

Mulatto. 1935 (renamed The Barrier, an opera, in 1950)

Troubled Island, with William Grant Still. 1936

Little Ham. 1936

Emperor of Haiti. 1936

Don't You Want to be Free? 1938

Street Scene (opera)|Street Scene, contributed lyrics. 1947

Tambourines to glory. 1956

Simply Heavenly. 1957

Black Nativity. 1961

Five Plays by Langston Hughes. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1963.

Jericho-Jim Crow. 1964

Popo and Fifina, with Arna Bontemps. 1932

The First Book of the Negroes. 1952

The First Book of Jazz. 1954

The First Book of Rhythms. 1954

The First Book of the West Indies. 1956

First Book of Africa. 1964

Related pages

Images for kids

Hughes at Lincoln University in 1928

Hughes's ashes are interred under a cosmogram medallion in the foyer of the Arthur Schomburg Center in Harlem

The Ways of White Folks, Hughes' first short story collection

The poem "Danse Africaine" as wall poem on a wall of the building at the Nieuwe Rijn [nl] 46, Leiden ( Netherlands)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Langston Hughes (1902 - May 22, 1967) was an American poet, novelist, playwright and short story writer. Hughes was one of the writers and artists whose work was called the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes grew up as a poor boy from Missouri, the descendant of African people who had been taken to America as slaves.

# data[].attributes.body
Women's Rights Activist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about the biography of Sojourner Truth, an enslaved person who escaped, fought for her son in the courts, and then became an abolitionist working for the freedom of all of the enslaved.

# data[].attributes.body
Baseball

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about the biography of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play Major League Baseball. He was a Hall of Fame player for the Brooklyn Dodgers who wore number 42.

# data[].attributes.body
Ironing Board

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sarah Boone was an African American dressmaker who made her name by inventing the modern-day ironing board. In her patent application, she wrote that the purpose of her invention was "to produce a cheap, simple, convenient and highly effective device, particularly adapted to be used in ironing the sleeves and bodies of ladies' garments." With its approval in 1892, Boone became one of the first African American women to be awarded a patent.

Early Years

Boone was born Sarah Marshall near the town of New Bern in Craven County, North Carolina, in 1832. The daughter of enslaved parents, she earned her freedom at one point; some sources say it came with her 1847 marriage to James Boone, a free African American. The couple went on to have eight children.

Connecticut Dressmaker

Utilizing a network tied to the Underground Railroad, Boone migrated with her husband, children and widowed mother to New Haven, Connecticut, prior to the Civil War.

The family settled into an African American neighborhood near Dixwell Avenue, where Boone worked as a dressmaker and her husband as a bricklayer, until his death in the mid-1870s. According to records, Boone was successful enough to own her own house.

Hailing from an area where it was illegal to teach African Americans to read and write, Boone finally took steps to overcome that disadvantage in her late 40s, possibly through her membership at the Dixwell Congregational Church.

Ironing Board Patent

Facing fierce competition, Boone had to find a way for her dresses to catch the eye of customers. By the early 1890s, she hit on something that was tailor-made for the corsets that were popular in the era.

To that point, dressmakers were primarily ironing their clothes on a wooden plank placed across two chairs, a method that was fine for a wide skirt but ill-suited for the contours of tight, fitted material. Boone's solution was to create a narrower, curved board that could slip into sleeves and allow for a garment to be shifted without getting wrinkled. Her creation also was padded, to eliminate the impressions produced by a wooden board, and collapsible for easy storage.

Demonstrating the writing skills she had acquired only a few years earlier, Boone applied for a patent for her new and improved ironing board in 1891. She was awarded U.S. Patent No. 473,653 on April 26, 1892, making her one of the first African American women to earn that formal distinction for inventors.

Death and Legacy

Boone died of Bright's disease on October 29, 1904, and was buried alongside her mother and husband in New Haven's Evergreen Cemetery. Although there is little evidence that she benefitted from the commercialization of her invention, Boone's ironing board is recognized as the prototype for what became an indispensable household item over the following decades.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sarah Boone was an African American dressmaker who made her name by inventing the modern-day ironing board. In her patent application, she wrote that the purpose of her invention was "to produce a cheap, simple, convenient and highly effective device, particularly adapted to be used in ironing the sleeves and bodies of ladies' garments."

# data[].attributes.body
Writer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Birthday - February 18, 1931 Who is Toni Morrison? Toni Morrison is an accomplished novelist, editor, and professor, and her writings are usually noted for their African American characters.

# data[].attributes.body
Underground Railroad

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about the biography of Harriet Tubman, leader in the Underground Railroad who led many of the enslaved to freedom.

# data[].attributes.body
Boxer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about the biography of Muhammad Ali. Also known as Cassius Clay, he was one of the world's greatest heavyweight boxers and an Olympic gold medal winner.

# data[].attributes.body
The Potato Chip

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The potato chip was the result of an intended joke by a chef in New York in 1853.

# data[].attributes.body
Artist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Carl Van Vechten/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. ( LC-USZ62-42507)

(1911-88). American painter Romare Bearden was one of the most important African American artists of the 20th century. He is best known for his collages, which he created largely from painted paper, magazine clippings, and bits of fabric. These works were done in a style influenced by Cubism. Based largely on his boyhood memories of life in the rural South and in New York during the Harlem Renaissance, Bearden's works vividly capture aspects of American black culture. In addition to being an artist, Bearden was an art historian, teacher, composer, and author. He also owned and operated an art gallery.

Romare Howard Bearden was born on September 2, 1911, in Charlotte, North Carolina. When he was a small boy, he and his family moved to the North, as did many other African Americans in what became known as the Great Migration. Bearden grew up in New York City and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Bearden graduated with a degree in education from New York University in 1935. The following year, he studied with artist George Grosz at the Art Students League in New York City. At the same time, Bearden became a social worker for the New York City Department of Social Services. He continued working at that job until the late 1960s. In 1943 Bearden studied at Columbia University in New York City. Bearden's early artworks were paintings done in a realistic style. They often had a religious theme, such as in The Annunciation (1942).

Bearden served in the military during World War II. After the war, he lived in Paris, France (1950-51), studying at the Sorbonne. Bearden traveled extensively in Europe. During this period he developed his mature, semiabstract collage style. Bearden first achieved recognition for his art in the mid-1940s. By the 1960s he was considered the top collage artist in the United States.

Carol M. Highsmith Archive/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-highsm-02829)

Ritual, music, and family are common themes in Bearden's artwork. The complexity of his works lies in their poetic abstraction. Layered fragments of color and pattern evoke the rhythms, textures, and mysteries of a people's experience-for example, in Family (1969).

Bearden was also a songwriter and book illustrator. He occasionally designed sets for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Company. Bearden died on March 12, 1988, in New York City. In 1990 the Romare Bearden Foundation was established to promote his work and to support African American artists.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
(1911-88). American painter Romare Bearden was one of the most important African American artists of the 20th century. He is best known for his collages, which he created largely from painted paper, magazine clippings, and bits of fabric. These works were done in a style influenced by Cubism.

# data[].attributes.body
Civil Rights Activist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about the biography of Ida B. Wells, a former enslaved person who became a journalist and wrote about racial discrimination in the South. She ran a major campaign against lynching.

# data[].attributes.body
Runner

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Wilma Rudolph was an outstanding athlete in track and field events. She was the first U.S. woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics. People called her the world's fastest woman.

Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940, near Clarksville, Tennessee. As a child Wilma had many illnesses, including polio. This disease made her unable to walk without a leg brace or a special shoe. By age 12, however, she could walk normally.

Rudolph became a graceful yet powerful sprinter. She won a bronze medal at the 1956 Olympics. She won her three gold medals at the 1960 Olympics. She set world records in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and in the 4 × 100-meter relay.

After these victories Rudolph's hometown of Clarksville planned a welcome-home parade for her. Rudolph, who was African American, refused to participate unless Blacks and whites could attend the event together. This was the first time that both races had gathered together in Clarksville.

Rudolph retired from running in 1962. She later became a track coach and a national sports commentator. She died on November 12, 1994, in Brentwood, Tennessee.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Wilma Rudolph was an outstanding athlete in track and field events. She was the first U.S. woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics. People called her the world's fastest woman. Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940, near Clarksville, Tennessee. As a child Wilma had many illnesses, including polio.

# data[].attributes.body
Trains/Railways

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

# data[].attributes.body
Educator

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Biography: Booker T. Washington for Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about the biography of Booker T. Washington, educator and civil rights leader who opened the Tuskegee college for African Americans.

# data[].attributes.body
Machine for shoes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

# data[].attributes.body
Civil Rights Leader

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Who Was John Lewis?

John Lewis grew up in an era of racial segregation. Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., he joined the burgeoning civil rights movement. Lewis was a Freedom Rider, spoke at 1963's March on Washington and led the demonstration that became known as "Bloody Sunday." He was elected to Congress in 1986 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.

Early Life

John Robert Lewis was born outside of Troy, Alabama, on February 21, 1940. Lewis had a happy childhood - though he needed to work hard to assist his sharecropper parents - but he chafed against the unfairness of segregation. He was particularly disappointed when the Supreme Court ruling in 1954's Brown v. The Board of Education didn't affect his school life. However, hearing King's sermons and news of the 1955-56 Montgomery bus boycott inspired Lewis to act for the changes he wanted to see.

Civil Rights Struggle

In 1957, Lewis left Alabama to attend the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee. There, he learned about nonviolent protest and helped to organize sit-ins at segregated lunch counters. He was arrested during these demonstrations, which upset his mother, but Lewis was committed to the civil rights movement and went on to participate in the Freedom Rides of 1961.

Freedom Riders challenged the segregated facilities they encountered at interstate bus terminals in the South, which had been deemed illegal by the Supreme Court. It was dangerous work that resulted in arrests and beatings for many involved, including Lewis.

In 1963, Lewis became chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. That same year, as one of the "Big Six" leaders of the civil rights movement, he helped plan the March on Washington. Lewis - the youngest speaker at the event - had to alter his speech in order to please other organizers, but still delivered a powerful oration that declared, "We all recognize the fact that if any radical social, political and economic changes are to take place in our society, the people, the masses, must bring them about."

After the March on Washington, in 1964, the Civil Rights Act became law. However, this did not make it easier for African Americans to vote in the South. To bring attention to this struggle, Lewis and Hosea Williams led a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on March 7, 1965. After crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the marchers were attacked by state troopers. Lewis was severely beaten once more, this time suffering a fractured skull.

The violent attacks were recorded and disseminated throughout the country, and the images proved too powerful to ignore. " Bloody Sunday," as the day was labeled, sped up the passage of 1965's Voting Rights Act.

U.S. Congressman

Lewis left the SNCC in 1966. Though devastated by the assassinations of King and Robert Kennedy in 1968, Lewis continued his work to enfranchise minorities. In 1970, he became director of the Voter Education Project. During his tenure, the VEP helped to register millions of minority voters.

Lewis ran for office himself in 1981, winning a seat on the Atlanta City Council. In 1986, he was elected to the House of Representatives. Representing Georgia's 5th District, he was one of the most respected members of Congress. Since entering office, he has called for healthcare reform, measures to fight poverty and improvements in education. Most importantly, he oversaw multiple renewals of the Voting Rights Act. When the Supreme Court struck down part of the law in 2013's Shelby County v. Holder, Lewis decried the decision as a "dagger into the heart" of voting rights.

In the wake of the mass shooting that took place on June 12, 2016, in Orlando, Florida, Lewis led a sit-in comprised of approximately 40 House Democrats on the floor of the House of Representatives on June 22nd in an attempt to bring attention and force Congress to address gun violence by taking definitive legislative action. "We have been too quiet for too long," Lewis said. "There comes a time when you have to say something. You have to make a little noise. You have to move your feet. This is the time."

The protest came just days after several measures including a bill regarding background checks and adding restrictions on the purchase of guns by people on the federal no-fly list, failed in the Senate. Senator Chris Murphy applauded the protest. Murphy had previously led a filibuster in the Senate which led to the subsequent vote.

Clashing With Donald Trump

Lewis also spoke out against the presidency of Donald Trump, who was elected on November 8, 2016. In an interview with Chuck Todd for NBC News' Meet the Press, which aired on January 15, 2017, Lewis said he didn't believe Trump was a "legitimate president" because of Russian interference in the election. "I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected and they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton," Lewis said in the interview. He also said he would not attend Trump's inauguration.

Trump responded on Twitter, criticizing Lewis' work as a congressman and tweeting that Lewis was "All talk, talk, talk - no action or results. Sad!" The president-elect's attack on Lewis came just days before the Martin Luther King holiday, and prompted vocal support of the civil rights icon across social media. Several Democratic lawmakers also joined in support of Lewis and boycotted Trump's inauguration.

Trump continued his war of words, tweeting: "John Lewis said about my inauguration, 'It will be the first one that I've missed.' WRONG (or lie)! He boycotted Bush 43 also because he...thought it would be hypocritical to attend Bush's swearing-in....he doesn't believe Bush is the true elected president. Sound familiar!"

A spokeswoman for Lewis confirmed that he had missed the inauguration of George W. Bush: "His absence at that time was also a form of dissent. He did not believe the outcome of that election, including the controversies around the results in Florida and the unprecedented intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court, reflected a free, fair and open democratic process."

Photo: Robert W. Kelley/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

Cancer Diagnosis and Death

In December 2019, Lewis announced that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

Although he was "clear-eyed about the prognosis," Lewis said he felt encouraged that medical advancements had made this type of cancer treatable in many cases, adding that he intended to return to work as soon as possible.

Lewis passed away on July 17, 2020.

Legacy

Though the Supreme Court's decision about the Voting Rights Act was a blow to Lewis, he has been encouraged by the progress that has occurred in his lifetime. After Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, Lewis stated that "When we were organizing voter-registration drives, going on the Freedom Rides, sitting in, coming here to Washington for the first time, getting arrested, going to jail, being beaten, I never thought - I never dreamed - of the possibility that an African American would one day be elected president of the United States."

In addition to his work in Congress, Lewis reached a younger generation by helping to create a series of graphic novels about his work in the civil rights movement. In 2016, he won the National Book Award for the third installment in the series March: Book Three, which marks the first time a graphic novel has received the honor.

He accepted the award with co-writer Andrew Aydin and illustrator Nate Powell and spoke of its significance in an emotional acceptance speech. "Some of you know I grew up in rural Alabama, very poor, very few books in our home," Lewis said. "I remember in 1956, when I was 16 years old, going to the public library to get library cards, and we were told the library was for whites only and not for coloreds. And to come here and receive this honor, it's too much."

He also spoke about the importance of books in his life. "I had a wonderful teacher in elementary school who told me: 'Read, my child, read', and I tried to read everything," he said. "I love books."

The civil rights icon has also been honored with numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the NAACP's Spingarn Medal and the sole John F. Kennedy "Profile in Courage Award" for Lifetime Achievement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
John Lewis grew up in an era of racial segregation. Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., he joined the burgeoning civil rights movement. Lewis was a Freedom Rider, spoke at 1963's March on Washington and led the demonstration that became known as "Bloody Sunday."

# data[].attributes.body
Lightbulb and telephone

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

# data[].attributes.body
Activist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
W.E.B. Du Bois Lesson for Kids | Study.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you’ve heard of the NAACP, then you already know one of W. E. B. Du Bois’ important contributions to society - he was the founder - and his...

# data[].attributes.body
Blood banks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

# data[].attributes.body
Electronics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

# data[].attributes.body
Laser tools

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

# data[].attributes.body
Super soaker

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

# data[].attributes.body
Personal computer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

# data[].attributes.body
Refrigeration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Frederick McKinley Jones (May 17, 1893 - February 21, 1961) was an American inventor, entrepreneur, winner of the National Medal of Technology, and an inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. His innovations in refrigeration brought great improvement to the long-haul transportation of perishable goods. He co-founded Thermo King.

Jones was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 17, 1893 to a White father and Black mother. His mother deserted him when he was a child. His father struggled to raise him on his own. After he was virtually orphaned at the age of seven, he was raised by a priest at a Catholic rectory in Cincinnati. Jones left school after 6th grade and left the rectory to return to Cincinnati at age 11, where he got a job first as a cleaning boy and by age 14 he was working as an automobile mechanic. He boosted his natural mechanical ability and inventive mind with independent reading and study and the willingness to seek new pastures in his search for advancement, against the odds.

In 1912, Jones moved to Hallock, Minnesota, where he worked as a mechanic on a 50,000-acre (200 km ²) farm.

After service with the U.S. Army in World War I, Jones returned to Hallock; while employed as a mechanic, Jones taught himself electronics and built a transmitter for the town's new radio station. He also invented a device to combine sound with motion pictures. This attracted the attention of Joseph A. Numero of Minneapolis, Minnesota, who hired Jones in 1930 to improve the sound equipment made by his firm, Cinema Supplies Inc.

Refrigeration

Around 1938, Jones designed a portable air-cooling unit for trucks carrying perishable food, and received a patent for it on July 12, 1940. Numero sold his movie sound equipment business to RCA and formed a new company in partnership with Jones, the U.S. Thermo Control Company (later the Thermo King Corporation) which became a $3 million business by 1949. Portable cooling units designed by Jones were especially important during World War II, preserving blood, medicine, and food for use at army hospitals and on open battlefields.

Distinctions and honors

During his life, Jones was awarded 61 patents. Forty were for refrigeration equipment, while others went for portable X-ray machines, sound equipment, and gasoline engines.

1953 Merit Award, Phyllis Wheatley Auxiliary, "for outstanding achievements which serve as an inspiration to youth."

In 1977, he was posthumously inducted into the Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame.

In 1991, the National Medal of Technology was awarded to Joseph A. Numero and Frederick M. Jones. President George Bush presented the awards posthumously to their widows at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. Jones was the first African American to receive the award.

In the March 2009 issue of Heavy Duty Truck magazine, editor Tom Berg dubbed Jones "The King of Cool", and wrote that his "technological breakthrough redefined the global marketplace, with cultural reverberations felt from the world's largest cities to its most isolated villages."

He died of lung cancer in Minneapolis in 1961, predeceasing his wife Lucille. In an obituary in the Saturday Evening Post it was said "Most engineers start at the bottom of a project and work up, but Fred takes a flying leap to the top of the mountain and then backs down, cutting steps for himself and the rest of us as he goes." Jones continued filing for patents almost up until his death, receiving his last patent in February 1960.

US patent 2,163,754 was issued on June 27, 1939 - Ticket dispensing machine.

US patent D132,182 was issued on April 28, 1942 - Design for air conditioning unit.

US patent 2,336,735 was issued on December 14, 1943 - Removable cooling units for compartments.

US patent 2,337,164 was issued on December 21, 1943 - Means for automatically stopping and starting gas engines.

US patent 2,376,968 was issued on May 29, 1945 - Two-cycle gas engine.

US patent 2,417,253 was issued on March 11, 1947 - Two-cycle gas engine.

US patent 2,475,841 was issued on July 12, 1949 - Automatic refrigeration system for long-haul trucks.

US patent 2,475,842 was issued on July 12, 1949 - Starter generator.

US patent 2,475,843 was issued on July 12, 1949 - Means operated by a starter generator for cooling a gas engine.

US patent 2,477,377 was issued on July 26, 1949 - Means for thermostatically operating gas engines.

US patent 2,504,841 was issued on April 18, 1950 - Rotary compressor.

US patent 2,509,099 was issued on May 23, 1950 - System for controlling operation of refrigeration units.

US patent D159,209 was issued on July 4, 1950 - Design for air conditioning unit.

US patent 2,523,273 was issued on September 26, 1950 - Engine actuated ventilating system.

US patent 2,526,874 was issued on October 24, 1950 - Apparatus for heating or cooling atmosphere within an enclosure.

US patent 2,535,682 was issued on December 26, 1950 - Prefabricated refrigerator construction.

US patent 2,581,956 was issued on January 8, 1952 - Refrigeration control device.

US patent 2,666,298 was issued on January 19, 1954 - Methods and means of defrosting a cold diffuser.

US patent 2,696,086 was issued on December 7, 1954 - Method and means for air conditioning.

US patent 2,780,923 was issued on February 12, 1957 - Method and means for preserving perishable foodstuffs in transit.

US patent 2,850,001 was issued on September 2, 1958 - Control device for internal combustion engine.

US patent 2,926,005 was issued on February 23, 1960 - Thermostat and temperature control system.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn Frederick McKinley Jones facts for kids

# data[].attributes.body
Signal Chair for hotels

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Biography of Miriam Benjamin, Inventor of a Signal Chair

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Miriam E. Benjamin was the second Black woman to receive a U.S. patent. Her Gong and Signal Chair for Hotels inspired the in-flight call button.

# data[].attributes.body
Microphones

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

# data[].attributes.body
Elevator Doors

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

# data[].attributes.body
Folding beds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sarah Goode was the first African American woman to receive a U.S. patent. Patent #322,177 was issued on July 14, 1885, for a folding cabinet bed. Goode was the owner of a Chicago furniture store.

Early Years

Goode was born Sarah Elisabeth Jacobs in 1855 in Toledo, Ohio. She was the second of seven children of Oliver and Harriet Jacobs. Oliver Jacobs, a native of Indiana was a carpenter. Sarah Goode was enslaved from birth and received her freedom at the end of the Civil War. Goode then moved to Chicago and eventually became an entrepreneur. Along with her husband Archibald, a carpenter, she owned a furniture store. The couple had six children, of whom three would live to adulthood. Archibald described himself as a "stair builder" and as an upholsterer.

The Folding Cabinet Bed

Many of Goode's customers, who were mostly working-class, lived in small apartments and didn't have much space for furniture, including beds. So the idea for her invention came out of the necessity of the times. Many of her customers complained of not having enough room to store things much less to add furniture.

Goode invented a folding cabinet bed which helped people who lived in tight housing to utilize their space efficiently. When the bed was folded up, it looked like a desk, with room for storage. At night, the desk would be unfolded to become a bed. It was fully functioning both as a bed and as a desk. The desk had ample space for storage and was fully functioning as any conventional desk would be. This meant that people could be able to have a full-length bed in their houses without necessarily squeezing their home space; at night they would have a comfortable bed to sleep on, while during the day they would fold up that bed and have a fully functioning desk. This meant that they no longer had to squeeze their living environment.

When Goode received a patent for the folding cabinet bed in 1885 she became the first African American woman to ever get a United States Patent. This was not only a great feat for the African Americans as far as innovation and inventively is concerned, but it was a great feat for women in general and more specifically to African American women. Her idea filled a void in the lives of many. It was practical and many people appreciated it. She opened up the door for many African American women to come after her and get a patent for their inventions.

Sarah Goode died in Chicago in 1905 and is buried in Graceland Cemetery.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sarah Goode was the first African American woman to receive a U.S. patent. Patent #322,177 was issued on July 14, 1885, for a folding cabinet bed. Goode was the owner of a Chicago furniture store. Goode was born Sarah Elisabeth Jacobs in 1855 in Toledo, Ohio.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Early Life

Born on a farm near Diamond, Missouri, the exact date of Carver's birth is unknown, but it's thought he was born in January or June of 1864.

Nine years prior, Moses Carver, a white farm owner, purchased George Carver's mother Mary when she was 13 years old. The elder Carver reportedly was against slavery, but needed help with his 240-acre farm.

When Carver was an infant, he, his mother and his sister were kidnapped from the Carver farm by one of the bands of slave raiders that roamed Missouri during the Civil War era. They were resold in Kentucky.

Moses Carver hired a neighbor to retrieve them, but the neighbor only succeeded in finding George, whom he purchased by trading one of Moses' finest horses. Carver grew up knowing little about his mother or his father, who had died in an accident before he was born.

Moses Carver and his wife Susan raised the young George and his brother James as their own and taught the boys how to read and write.

James gave up his studies and focused on working the fields with Moses. George, however, was a frail and sickly child who could not help with such work; instead, Susan taught him how to cook, mend, embroider, do laundry and garden, as well as how to concoct simple herbal medicines.

At a young age, Carver took a keen interest in plants and experimented with natural pesticides, fungicides and soil conditioners. He became known as the "the plant doctor" to local farmers due to his ability to discern how to improve the health of their gardens, fields and orchards.

Education

At age 11, Carver left the farm to attend an all-Black school in the nearby town of Neosho.

He was taken in by Andrew and Mariah Watkins, a childless Black couple who gave him a roof over his head in exchange for help with household chores. A midwife and nurse, Mariah imparted on Carver her broad knowledge of medicinal herbs and her devout faith.

Disappointed with the education he received at the Neosho school, Carver moved to Kansas about two years later, joining numerous other Blacks who were traveling west.

For the next decade or so, Carver moved from one Midwestern town to another, putting himself through school and surviving off of the domestic skills he learned from his foster mothers.

He graduated from Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kansas, in 1880 and applied to Highland College in Kansas (today's Highland Community College). He was initially accepted at the all-white college but was later rejected when the administration learned he was Black.

In the late 1880s, Carver befriended the Milhollands, a white couple in Winterset, Iowa, who encouraged him to pursue a higher education. Despite his former setback, he enrolled in Simpson College, a Methodist school that admitted all qualified applicants.

Carver initially studied art and piano in hopes of earning a teaching degree, but one of his professors, Etta Budd, was skeptical of a Black man being able to make a living as an artist. After learning of his interests in plants and flowers, Budd encouraged Carver to apply to the Iowa State Agricultural School (now Iowa State University) to study botany.

Carver Makes Black History

In 1894, Carver became the first African American to earn a Bachelor of Science degree. Impressed by Carver's research on the fungal infections of soybean plants, his professors asked him to stay on for graduate studies.

Carver worked with famed mycologist (fungal scientist) L.H. Pammel at the Iowa State Experimental Station, honing his skills in identifying and treating plant diseases.

In 1896, Carver earned his Master of Agriculture degree and immediately received several offers, the most attractive of which came from Booker T. Washington (whose last name George would later add to his own) of Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama.

Washington convinced the university's trustees to establish an agricultural school, which could only be run by Carver if Tuskegee was to keep its all-Black faculty. Carver accepted the offer and would work at Tuskegee Institute for the rest of his life.

Tuskegee Institute

Carver's early years at Tuskegee were not without hiccups.

For one, agriculture training was not popular-Southern farmers believed they already knew how to farm and students saw schooling as a means to escape farming. Additionally, many faculty members resented Carver for his high salary and demand to have two dormitory rooms, one for him and one for his plant specimens.

Carver also struggled with the demands of the faculty position he held. He wanted to devote his time to researching agriculture for ways to help out poor Southern farmers, but he was also expected to manage the school's two farms, teach, ensure the school's toilets and sanitary facilities worked properly, and sit on multiple committees and councils.

Carver and Washington had a complicated relationship and would butt heads often, in part because Carver wanted little to do with teaching (though he was beloved by his students). Carver would eventually get his way when Washington died in 1915 and was succeeded by Robert Russa Moton, who relieved Carver of his teaching duties except for summer school.

What Did George Washington Carver Invent?

By this time, Carver already had great successes in the laboratory and the community. He taught poor farmers that they could feed hogs acorns instead of commercial feed and enrich croplands with swamp muck instead of fertilizers. But it was his ideas regarding crop rotation that proved to be most valuable.

Through his work on soil chemistry, Carver learned that years of growing cotton had depleted the nutrients from soil, resulting in low yields. But by growing nitrogen-fixing plants like peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes, the soil could be restored, allowing yield to increase dramatically when the land was reverted to cotton use a few years later.

To further help farmers, he invented the Jessup wagon, a kind of mobile (horse-drawn) classroom and laboratory used to demonstrate soil chemistry.

Carver: The Peanut Man

Farmers, of course, loved the high yields of cotton they were now getting from Carver's crop rotation technique. But the method had an unintended consequence: A surplus of peanuts and other non-cotton products.

Carver set to work on finding alternative uses for these products. For example, he invented numerous products from sweet potatoes, including edible products like flour and vinegar and non-food items such as stains, dyes, paints and writing ink.

But Carver's biggest success came from peanuts.

In all, he developed more than 300 food, industrial and commercial products from peanuts, including milk, Worcestershire sauce, punches, cooking oils, salad oil, paper, cosmetics, soaps and wood stains. He also experimented with peanut-based medicines, such as antiseptics, laxatives and goiter medications.

It should be noted, however, that many of these suggestions or discoveries remained curiosities and did not find widespread applications.

In 1921, Carver appeared before the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on behalf of the peanut industry, which was seeking tariff protection. Though his testimony did not begin well, he described the wide range of products that could be made from peanuts, which not only earned him a standing ovation but also convinced the committee to approve a high protected tariff for the common legume.

He then became known as "The Peanut Man."

Fame and Legacy

In the last two decades of his life, Carver lived as a minor celebrity but his focus was always on helping people.

He traveled the South to promote racial harmony, and he traveled to India to discuss nutrition in developing nations with Mahatma Gandhi.

Up until the year of his death, he also released bulletins for the public (44 bulletins between 1898 and 1943). Some of the bulletins reported on research findings but many others were more practical in nature and included cultivation information for farmers, science for teachers and recipes for housewives.

In the mid-1930s, when the polio virus raged in America, Carver became convinced that peanuts were the answer. He offered a treatment of peanut oil massages and reported positive results, though no scientific evidence exists that the treatments worked (the benefits patients experienced were likely due to the massage treatment and attentive care rather than the oil).

Carver died on January 5, 1943, at Tuskegee Institute after falling down the stairs of his home. He was 78 years old. Carver was buried next to Booker T. Washington on the Tuskegee Institute grounds.

Monument

Soon after, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation for Carver to receive his own monument, an honor previously only granted to presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

The George Washington Carver National Monument now stands in Diamond, Missouri. Carver was also posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Quotes

"Where there is no vision, there is no hope."

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these."

"When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."

Sources

George Washington Carver; American Chemical Society.
George W. Carver (1865? - 1943); The State Historical Society of Missouri.
George Washington Carver; Science History Museum.
George Washington Carver, The Black History Monthiest Of Them All; NPR.
George Washington Carver And The Peanut; American Heritage.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
George Washington Carver: Facts, Inventions & Quotes | HISTORY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
George Washington Carver, born into slavery, was a scientist and inventor who developed hundreds of products using peanuts (but not peanut butter) and other crops.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ruby Nell Bridges Hall (born September 8, 1954) is an American activist. She is known for being the first black child to attend an all- white elementary school in the South. She went to William Frantz Elementary School.

Ruby Bridges was born in Tylertown, Mississippi, to Abon and Lucille Bridges. When she was 4 years old, the family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1960, when she was 6 years old, her parents responded to a request from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Her father was hesitant, but her parents allowed her to participate in the integration of the New Orleans school system.

Integration

In a 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court made Racial segregation against the law. Ruby, who was born the year the law passed, was chosen to attend the all-white William Frantz Elementary School. The school board said that black children could attend the first grade if they passed a test. Bridges passed the test. As soon as Bridges entered the school, many white parents pulled their children out. Only one person agreed to teach Bridges, and that was Barbara Henry from Boston, Massachusetts. For over a year Henry taught her alone, "as if she were teaching a whole class."

On her first day of school, four U.S. Marshals had to go with her to school. Angry crowds of parents shouted threats at her and parents did not let their children go to school. There was such chaos that first day that Ruby could not make it to her classroom. For the next six months, the marshals took her to and from her school. Former United States Deputy Marshal Charles Burks later recalled, "She showed a lot of courage. She never cried. She didn't whimper. She just marched along like a little soldier, and we're all very very proud of her."

On the second day of school, the boycott broke. After this, more people started sending their children to school again. This does not mean that all of the trouble was over, however. People tried to hurt her family. Her father lost his job and her grandparents were thrown off their farm in Georgia. Ruby never missed a day of school that year. The story of her going to a white school is the subject of a Norman Rockwell painting called The Problem We All Live With.

Ruby finished elementary school and graduated from high school. Bridges went on to become a travel agent for American Express. Mrs. Ruby Bridges Hall is married and has four sons. She still lives in New Orleans. In 1999, she wrote a children's book, Through My Eyes, telling her story. The same year she started the Ruby Bridges Foundation to promote "the values of tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all differences." She travels and talks to children all over the country.

On January 8, 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded Ruby Bridges the Presidential Citizens Medal. She was one of 28 to receive the medal that day.

Ruby Bridges quotes

"Don't follow the path. Go where there is no path and begin the trail. When you start a new trail equipped with courage, strength and conviction, the only thing that can stop you is you!"

"I now know that experience comes to us for a purpose, and if we follow the guidance of the spirit within us, we will probably find that the purpose is a good one."

"Racism is a grown-up disease and we must stop using our children to spread it."

Interesting Facts About Ruby Bridges

Ruby enjoyed jumping rope, climbing trees, and playing softball when she was young.

On November 14, her first day at William Frantz Elementary School, she was the only student there.

Barbara Henry was the only teacher who agreed to teach Ruby. She began teaching Ruby on her second day of school.

Ruby's courageous story can be read to children from the book The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles.

Ruby was one of only six children who passed the entrance test, which was designed to be difficult.

Awards and honors

In September 1995, Bridges and Robert Coles were awarded honorary degrees from Connecticut College and appeared together in public for the first time to accept the awards.

Bridges' Through My Eyes won the Carter G. Woodson Book Award in 2000.

On August 10, 2000, the 40 year anniversary of her walk into William Frantz Elementary School, Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder made Ruby Bridges an Honorary Deputy U.S. Marshal.

On January 8, 2001, Bridges was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton.

In November 2006, Bridges was honored as a "Hero Against Racism" at the 12th annual Anti-Defamation League "Concert Against Hate" with the National Symphony Orchestra, held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

On May 19, 2012, Bridges received an Honorary Degree from Tulane University at the annual graduation ceremony at the Superdome.

Two elementary schools are named after Bridges: one in Alameda, California, and another in Woodinville, Washington. A statue of Bridges stands in the courtyard of William Frantz Elementary School.

Images for kids

Ruby Bridges speaking at Texas A&M University-Commerce in February 2015

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ruby Nell Bridges Hall (born September 8, 1954) is an American activist. She is known for being the first black child to attend an all- white elementary school in the South. She went to William Frantz Elementary School. Ruby Bridges was born in Tylertown, Mississippi, to Abon and Lucille Bridges.

# data[].attributes.body
Influencer & Talk Show Host

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Oprah Gail Winfrey ( born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, broadcast from Chicago, which ran in national syndication for 25 years, from 1986 to 2011. Dubbed the "Queen of All Media", she was the richest African-American of the 20th century. She was once the world's only black billionaire. By 2007, she was often ranked as the most influential woman in the world.

Orpah Gail Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi, to an unmarried teenage mother. Her mother, Vernita Lee (1935-2018), was a housemaid.

Winfrey's biological father is usually noted as Vernon Winfrey (c. 1933-2022), a coal miner turned barber turned city councilman who was in the Armed Forces when she was born. However, Mississippi farmer and World War II Veteran Noah Robinson Sr. (born c. 1925) has claimed to be her biological father.

After Winfrey's birth, her mother traveled north, and Winfrey spent her first six years living in rural poverty with her maternal grandmother, Hattie Mae (Presley) Lee (April 15, 1900 - February 27, 1963). Her grandmother was so poor that Winfrey often wore dresses made of potato sacks, for which other children made fun of her.

At age six, Winfrey moved to an inner-city neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her mother. At the age of eight, she was baptized in a Baptist church. In 1962, Winfrey was temporarily sent to live with her father Vernon in Nashville, Tennessee, as her mother had to work a lot and could not care of Oprah and her other kids well enough.

Winfrey attended Lincoln High School in Milwaukee. When she got successful in the Upward Bound program, she was transferred to the affluent suburban Nicolet High School. At this time, Winfrey was continually reminded of her poverty as she rode the bus to school with fellow African-Americans, some of whom were servants of her classmates' families.

She began to rebel and steal money from her mother in an effort to keep up with her free-spending peers. As a result, her mother once again sent her to live with Vernon in Nashville, although this time she did not take her back. Vernon was strict but encouraging, and made her education a priority. Winfrey became an honors student, was voted Most Popular Girl, and joined her high school speech team at East Nashville High School, placing second in the nation in dramatic interpretation.

She had won an oratory contest and got a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, a historically black institution. She studied communication. However, she did not deliver her final paper and receive her degree until 1987, by which time she was a successful television personality.

The first episode The Oprah Winfrey Show was broadcast nationwide on September 8, 1986 and displaced Donahue as the number-one daytime talk show in America.

In the early years of The Oprah Winfrey Show, the program was classified as a tabloid talk show. In the mid-1990s, Winfrey began to host shows on broader topics such as heart disease, geopolitics, spirituality, and meditation. She interviewed celebrities on social issues they were directly involved with, such as cancer, charity work, or personal struggles, and hosted televised giveaways.

The viewership for The Oprah Winfrey Show was highest during the 1991-92 season, when about 13.1 million U.S. viewers were watching each day. By 2003, ratings declined to 7.4 million daily viewers. Ratings briefly rebounded to approximately 9 million in 2005 and then declined again to around 7.3 million viewers in 2008, though it remained the highest rated talk show.

In 2008, Winfrey's show was airing in 140 countries internationally and seen by an estimated 46 million people in the US weekly. According to the Harris poll, Winfrey was America's favorite television personality in 1998, 2000, 2002-06, and 2009. Winfrey was especially popular among women, Democrats, political moderates, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Southern Americans, and East Coast Americans.

The series finale of The Oprah Winfrey Show aired on May 25, 2011.

Other ventures

In addition to her talk show, Winfrey also produced and co-starred in the drama miniseries The Women of Brewster Place (1989) and its short-lived spin-off, Brewster Place. As well as hosting and appearing on television shows, Winfrey co-founded the women's cable television network Oxygen which was the initial network for her Oprah After the Show program from 2002 to 2006 before moving to Oprah.com when Winfrey sold her stake in the network. She is also the president of Harpo Productions ( Oprah spelled backwards), a film and TV production company behind The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil, Rachael Ray, The Dr. Oz Show and many others. She also moderated three ABC Afterschool Special s from 1992 to 1994.

On January 15, 2008, Winfrey and Discovery Communications announced plans to change Discovery Health Channel into a new channel called OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. It was scheduled to launch in 2009 but was delayed, and actually launched on January 1, 2011.

In January 2017, CBS announced that Winfrey would join as a special contributor on the Sunday evening news magazine program starting in September 2017. Winfrey left 60 Minutes by the end of 2018.

In June 2018, Apple announced a multi-year content partnership with Winfrey, in which it was agreed that Winfrey would create new original programs exclusively for Apple's streaming service, Apple TV+. The first show under the deal, Oprah's Book Club, premiered on November 1, 2019. Oprah's Book Club is based on the segment of the same name from The Oprah Winfrey Show. The second show under the deal, Oprah Talks COVID-19, debuted on March 21, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. A third show, The Oprah Conversation debuted on July 30, 2020, with Winfrey "[continuing] to explore impactful and relevant topics with fascinating thought leaders from all over the world".

"The Oprah Effect"

The power of Winfrey's opinions and endorsement to influence public opinion, especially consumer purchasing choices, has been dubbed "the Oprah Effect". The effect has been documented or alleged in domains as diverse as book sales, beef markets, and election voting. Late in 1996, Winfrey introduced the Oprah's Book Club segment to her television show. The segment focused on new books and classics and often brought obscure novels to popular attention. The book club became such a powerful force that whenever Winfrey introduced a new book as her book-club selection, it instantly became a best-seller; for example, when she selected the classic John Steinbeck novel East of Eden, it soared to the top of the book charts. Being recognized by Winfrey often means a million additional book sales for an author.

Personal life

At 13, Winfrey ran away from home. When she was 14, she became pregnant, but her son was born prematurely and died shortly after birth.

In the 1970s, Winfrey had a romantic relationship with John Tesh. In the mid-1980s, Winfrey briefly dated movie critic Roger Ebert.

Winfrey and her partner Stedman Graham have been together since 1986. They were engaged to be married in November 1992, but the ceremony never took place.

Close friends

Winfrey's best friend since their early twenties is Gayle King. King was formerly the host of The Gayle King Show and is currently an editor of O, the Oprah Magazine.

Winfrey has also had a long friendship with Maria Shriver, after they met in Baltimore. Winfrey considered Maya Angelou, author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, her mentor and close friend; she called Angelou her "mother-sister-friend". Winfrey hosted a week-long Caribbean cruise for Angelou and 150 guests for Angelou's 70th birthday in 1998, and in 2008, threw her "an extravagant 80th birthday celebration" at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Personal wealth

Winfrey became a millionaire at the age of 32 when her talk show received national syndication. Winfrey negotiated ownership rights to the television program and started her own production company.

At the age of 41, Winfrey had a net worth of $340 million and replaced Bill Cosby as the only African American on the Forbes 400. By 2000, with a net worth of $800 million, Winfrey is believed to have been the richest African American of the 20th century. By 2008, her yearly income had increased to $275 million.

Forbes' list of The World's Billionaires has listed Winfrey as the world's only black billionaire from 2004 to 2006 and as the first black woman billionaire in the world that was achieved in 2003. As of 2014, Winfrey had a net worth in excess of 2.9 billion dollars and had overtaken former eBay CEO Meg Whitman as the richest self-made woman in America.

Religious views

Oprah was raised a Baptist. Oprah has stated that she is a Christian and her favorite Bible verse is Acts 17:28. Oprah attends The Potter's House Church, Dallas service, an Evangelical church.

Philanthropy

In 2004, Winfrey became the first black person to rank among the 50 most generous Americans and she remained among the top 50 until 2010. By 2012, she had given away about $400 million to educational causes.

As of 2012, Winfrey had also given over 400 scholarships to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Winfrey was the recipient of the first Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 2002 Emmy Awards for services to television and film. To celebrate two decades on national TV, and to thank her employees for their hard work, Winfrey took her staff and their families (1,065 people in total) on vacation to Hawaii in the summer of 2006.

In 2013, Winfrey donated $12 million to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom later that same year.

In 1998, Winfrey created the Oprah's Angel Network, a charity that supported charitable projects and provided grants to nonprofit organizations around the world. Oprah's Angel Network raised more than $80 million ($1 million of which was donated by Jon Bon Jovi). Winfrey personally covered all administrative costs associated with the charity, so 100% of all funds raised went to charity programs. In May 2010, with Oprah's show ending, the charity stopped accepting donations and was shut down.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Oprah created the Oprah Angel Network Katrina registry which raised more than $11 million for relief efforts. Winfrey personally gave $10 million to the cause. Homes were built in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama before the one-year anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Interesting facts about Oprah Winfrey

Her first name was spelled Orpah on her birth certificate after the biblical figure in the Book of Ruth, but people mispronounced it regularly and "Oprah" stuck.

Winfrey's grandmother, Hattie Mae, taught her to read before the age of three and took her to the local church, where she was nicknamed "The Preacher" for her ability to recite Bible verses.

Winfrey acknowledged her grandmother's influence, saying it was Hattie Mae who had encouraged her to speak in public and "gave me a positive sense of myself".

As a child, she played games interviewing her corncob doll and the crows on the fence of her family's property.

A genetic test in 2006 determined that her matrilineal line originated among the Kpelle ethnic group, in the area that today is Liberia. Her genetic makeup was determined to be 89% Sub-Saharan African, 8% Native American, and 3% East Asian.

Winfrey had three younger half-siblings: half-sister Patricia (died in February 2003 at age 43), another half-sister named Patricia (she was put up for adoption) and half-brother Jeffrey, who died of AIDS-related causes in 1989.

Winfrey's first job as a teenager was working at a local grocery store.

At the age of 17, Winfrey won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant.

Winfrey started her career in media as a newscaster at a local black radio station, WVOL, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Winfrey co-starred in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985), as distraught housewife Sofia. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

In 1989, she was accepted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame.

In the 2008 presidential race, Winfrey endorsed Barack Obama.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2018 opened a special exhibit on Winfrey's cultural influence through television.

Her 1993 interview with Michael Jackson became the fourth most-watched event in American television history as well as the most watched interview ever, with an audience of 36.5 million.

In 2021, she conducted an interview with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and her husband Prince Harry, which was broadcast globally and received international media attention.

Winfrey has co-authored five books.

She publishes the magazine: O, The Oprah Magazine and from 2004 to 2008 also published a magazine called O At Home.

Winfrey's company created the Oprah.com website to provide resources and interactive content related to her shows, magazines, book club, and public charity. Oprah.com averages more than 70 million page views and more than six million users per month, and receives approximately 20,000 e-mails each week.

Oprah is often listed among the most influential and powerful people in the world.

The Wall Street Journal coined the term "Oprahfication", meaning public confession as a form of therapy.

Oprah Winfrey quotes

"Turn your wounds into wisdom."

"You can have it all. Just not all at once."

"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough."

"The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams."

"Surround yourself only with people who are going to take you higher."

"You get in life what you have the courage to ask for."

"You don't become what you want, you become what you believe."

Images for kids

Winfrey speaking at Moore's inauguration, 2023

Winfrey filming in Denmark in 2009

Filmography

1985
The Color Purple
Sofia

Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
Nominated - Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress

There Are No Children Here
LaJoe Rivers

TV movie (ABC)

1998
Beloved
Sethe

Producer;
Nominated - NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture

1999
Our Friend, Martin Coretta Scott King
Voice role; Direct-to-video film

2013
The Butler
Gloria Gaines

African-American Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress;
Santa Barbara International Film Festival - Montecito Award;
Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role;
Nominated - Black Reel Award for Best Supporting Actress;
Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress;
Nominated - Denver Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress;
Nominated - NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture;
Nominated - Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress;
Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture;
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role;
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

2014
Selma Annie Lee Cooper
Producer;
Women Film Critics Circle Award for Best Female Action Star;
Nominated - Academy Award for Best Picture;
Nominated - Independent Spirit Award for Best Film;
Nominated - NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

2017
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Deborah Lacks
TV movie; Executive producer;
Nominated - NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special;
Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie

Crow: The Legend
The One Who Creates Everything by Thinking

Voice role

As producer only

1989 - The Oprah Winfrey Show (supervising producer - 8 episodes, 1989-2011)

1989 - The Women of Brewster Place (TV miniseries) (executive producer)

1992 - Nine (TV documentary) (executive producer)

1992 - Overexposed (TV movie) (executive producer)

1993 - ABC Afterschool Special (TV series) (producer - 1 episode "Shades of a Single Protein") (producer)

1993 - Michael Jackson Talks to... Oprah Live (TV special) (executive producer)

1997 - Before Women Had Wings (TV movie) (producer)

1998 - The Wedding (TV miniseries) (executive producer)

1998 - Beloved (producer)

1998 - David and Lisa (TV movie) (executive producer)

1999 - Tuesdays with Morrie (TV movie) (executive producer)

2001 - Amy & Isabelle (TV movie) (executive producer, producer)

2002 - Oprah After the Show (TV series) (executive producer)

2005 - Their Eyes Were Watching God (TV movie) (executive producer)

2006 - Legends Ball (TV documentary) (executive producer)

2007 - Oprah's Big Give (TV series) (executive producer)

2007 - The Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special (TV movie) (executive producer)

2007 - Building a Dream: The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy (TV documentary) (executive producer)

2007 - Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's For One More Day (TV movie) (executive producer)

2007 - The Great Debaters (producer)

2009 - The Dr. Oz Show (TV series) (executive producer)

2009 - Precious (executive producer)

2009 - Christmas at the White House: An Oprah Primetime Special (TV special) (executive producer)

2010 - The Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special (TV movie) (executive producer)

2011 - Your OWN Show (TV series) (executive producer)

2011 - Extraordinary Mom (TV documentary) (executive producer)

2011 - Serving Life (TV documentary) (executive producer)

2014 - The Hundred-Foot Journey (producer)

2014 - Selma (producer)

2016-present - Queen Sugar (co-creator and executive producer)

2016-2020 - Greenleaf (executive producer)

2017 - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (TV movie) (executive producer)

2018 - Love Is (executive producer)

2019 - When They See Us (executive producer)

2019 - Oprah Winfrey Presents: After Neverland (executive producer)

2019 - David Makes Man (executive producer)

2020 - The Water Man (executive producer)

2023 - The Color Purple (producer)

In Spanish: Oprah Winfrey para niños

# data[].attributes.body
Aviator Stunt Performer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Elizabeth "Bessie" Coleman (January 26, 1892 - April 30, 1926) was the first female African American and Native American pilot ever to hold an international pilot license. She fought discrimination to follow her dream of becoming a pilot. She became a skilled barnstormer (a pilot that travels to perform stunts and give rides) and an aviation educator.

Coleman was born in Texas in 1892. Her mother was African American and her father was Native American. She was the tenth of thirteen children. Her parents were sharecroppers. When Coleman was two, her family moved to Waxahachie, Texas, where Bessie later went to school. She loved reading and excelled in math.

Coleman's father believed that the family would be treated better if they moved to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Unable to convince his wife to accompany him, Coleman's father left the family when she was nine. Coleman's mother worked as a maid. During the cotton harvest, everyone in the family worked in the fields to earn extra money. It was hot, difficult work, and during the harvest, African American children could not go to school. Bessie still managed to finish all eight grades in the local school. Coleman decided that she wanted to go to college, so she saved her money. In about four years, she had enough money to begin college. A year later, she ran out of money.

At the age of 23, Coleman boarded a train and traveled to Chicago, where she moved in with her brothers. Coleman took a class to learn to become a manicurist, and soon found a job at the White Sox Barber Shop in Chicago. There she heard stories of flying during wartime from pilots returning home from World War I. She took a second job at a chili parlor to save money so that she could become a pilot. In early 1917, Bessie Coleman married Claude Glenn, but she never publicly acknowledged the marriage, and the two soon separated.

At the time, aviation (flight) schools in America were not allowing women or black people to attend. Bessie's friend Robert Abbott told her that she could travel to France to fly. She studied the French language after work at night. She got a new job managing a restaurant and saved her money. Robert Abbot and her friends helped her pay for the trip, and in 1920, Coleman sailed to France. She learned to be a pilot at the Caudron Brothers' School of Aviation. In 1921, Coleman became the first female African American pilot and the first female Native American pilot to hold an international pilot license. She earned it from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

Coleman went back to the United States to work as a barnstormer, performing tricks and stunts in her airplane. Barnstormers like Coleman flew planes in loops, figure eights, and other patterns while audiences watched. Coleman performed in the United States and Europe. In the 1920s, much of the United States still practiced racial segregation. Coleman refused to perform at places that did not let African Americans watch equally. For one show in Texas, Coleman refused to perform unless the showrunners let everyone in the audience enter through the same gate instead of making one gate for white people and one for black people. She also taught flying lessons and encouraged women to learn to be pilots.

Coleman wanted to open an aviation school in the United States where black students could learn to be pilots.

In April 1926, Coleman and her mechanic, William Will, were practicing for a performance the next day. Will was piloting the plane when it flipped over and started to dive. Coleman fell out of the plane and was killed. William Wills was unable to regain control of the plane and it plummeted to the ground. Wills died upon impact and the plane exploded and burst into flames. Although the wreckage of the plane was badly burned, it was later discovered that a wrench used to service the engine had jammed the controls.

Coleman is buried in Chicago's Lincoln Cemetery.

Atlanta, Texas, has a Regional History Museum that proudly displays a smaller version of Bessie Coleman's yellow bi-plane "Queen Bess." The museum display also includes a uniform and other memorabilia regarding the life and times of Bessie Coleman. Outside the regional history museum is a Texas Historical Marker located at 101 N. East Street in Historic Downtown, Atlanta, Texas. The road to the Hall-Miller Municipal Airport in Atlanta, Texas, is named Bessie Coleman Drive in her honor.

A public library in Chicago was named in Coleman's honor, as are roads at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Oakland International Airport in Oakland, California, Tampa International Airport in Florida, and at Germany's Frankfurt International Airport. A memorial plaque has been placed by the Chicago Cultural Center at the location of her former home, 41st and King Drive in Chicago, and it is a tradition for African-American aviators to drop flowers during flyovers of her grave at Lincoln Cemetery.

A roundabout leading to Nice Airport in the South of France was named after her in March 2016, and there are streets in Poitiers, and the 20th Arrondissement of Paris named after her.

Bessie Coleman Middle School in Cedar Hill, Texas, is named for her.

Bessie Coleman Boulevard in Waxahachie, Texas, where she lived as a child, is named in her honor.

B. Coleman Aviation, a fixed-base operator based at Gary/Chicago International Airport, is named in her honor.

Several Bessie Coleman Scholarship Awards have been established for high school seniors planning careers in aviation.

The U.S. Postal Service issued a 32-cent stamp honoring Coleman in 1995. The Bessie Coleman Commemorative is the 18th in the U.S. Postal Service Black Heritage series.

In 2001, Coleman was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

In 2006, she was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

In 2012, a bronze plaque with Coleman's likeness was installed on the front doors of Paxon School for Advanced Studies located on the site of the Jacksonville airfield where Coleman's fatal flight took off.

Coleman was honored with a toy character in season 5, episode 11a of the children's animated television program Doc McStuffins.

She was placed No. 14 on Flying's 2013 list of the "51 Heroes of Aviation."

In 2014, Coleman was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.

On January 25, 2015, Orlando renamed West Washington Street to recognize the street's most accomplished resident.

On January 26, 2017, the 125th anniversary of her birth, a Google Doodle was posted in her honor.

In December 2019, The New York Times featured Coleman in their Overlooked (obituary feature), "Bessie Coleman, Pioneering African-American Aviatrix."

Bessie Coleman quotes

"I refused to take no for an answer."

"You've never lived till you've flown."

"A woman is like a teabag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water."

"Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes."

"The only source of knowledge is experience."

Interesting facts about Bessie Coleman

Bessie was extremely intelligent and fought hard against the assumption that black women were not capable of great things.

She applied to flight schools all across the United States but was not accepted at any of them.

Robert Abbot, who was the founder and publisher of the country's largest black newspaper, the Chicago Defender, heard about Coleman's determination. He published her story in his paper and raised money for her to travel to France.

The Caudron Brothers of France were famous like the Wright brothers of the United States.

Bessie learned to perform airplane stunts from Anthony Fokker.

Bessie was briefly married, but never publicly talked about it.

Coleman's nicknames included "Queen Bess" and "Brave Bessie."

She survived a plane crash in 1923, in which her plane cut out during a performance.

In Spanish: Bessie Coleman para niños

Images for kids

Coleman's grave at Lincoln Cemetery

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 - June 10, 2004), professionally known as simply Ray Charles, was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. Among friends and fellow musicians he preferred being called "Brother Ray". He was often referred to as "The Genius". Charles started losing his vision at the age of 5, and by 7 he was blind.

He pioneered the soul music genre during the 1950s by combining blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel styles into the music he recorded for Atlantic. He contributed to the integration of country music, rhythm and blues, and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, notably with his two Modern Sounds albums. While he was with ABC, Charles became one of the first black musicians to be granted artistic control by a mainstream record company. Charles placed multiple singles and albums in the Top 10 of the Top 40 on various Billboard charts: 44 on the US R&B singles charts, 11 on the Hot 100 singles charts, 2 on the US Country singles charts, 8 on the Billboard 200 album charts, and one on the US Country Album charts.

Charles cited Nat King Cole as a primary influence, but his music was also influenced by Louis Jordan and Charles Brown. He became friends with Quincy Jones. Their friendship lasted until the end of Charles's life. Frank Sinatra called Ray Charles "the only true genius in show business", although Charles downplayed this notion.

In 2002, Rolling Stone ranked Charles number ten on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", and number two on their November 2008 list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". Billy Joel said, "This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley".

Charles died in 2004 from liver failure.

Images for kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 - June 10, 2004), professionally known as simply Ray Charles, was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. Among friends and fellow musicians he preferred being called "Brother Ray". He was often referred to as "The Genius".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 - August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. She began her career as a child singing gospel at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father, C. L. Franklin, was minister. In 1960, at the age of 18, she embarked on a secular career, recording for Columbia Records but achieving only modest success. After signing to Atlantic Records in 1967, Franklin achieved commercial acclaim and success with songs such as "Respect", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Spanish Harlem" and "Think".

Early life and career: 1942-1960

Aretha Massacorale Franklin was born at a two-room house in Memphis located at 406 Lucy St. She was the third of four children born to Barbara (née Siggers) and C.L. Franklin and the fifth of six overall in between past relationships by her parents.

Franklin's family moved to Buffalo, when Franklin was two, and then by four, had settled in Detroit.

Following the move to Detroit, Franklin's parents, who had a troubled marriage, split. Due to her father's work as a Baptist minister, Franklin was primarily raised by her grandmother, Rachel.

Franklin suffered a tragedy when her mother died in Buffalo when Aretha was ten.

Franklin sang in church at an early age and learned how to play piano by ear. By her late preteens, Franklin was regularly singing solo numbers in her father's New Bethel Baptist Church. Franklin's father, C.L. (short for Clarence LaVaughn), was a respected and popular preacher.

Franklin grew up with local and national celebrities hanging out at her father's home including gospel greats Albertina Walker and her group The Caravans, Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward, three women who played a pivotal role in her vocal development as a child.

Music style and image

Franklin had often been described as a great singer and musician due to "vocal flexibility, interpretive intelligence, skillful piano-playing, her ear, her experience".

Franklin's voice was described as being a "powerful mezzo-soprano voice". She was praised for her arrangements and interpretations of other artists' hit songs.

In 2015, then-President Barack Obama wrote the following regarding Franklin:

Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R. & B., rock and roll - the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope. American history wells up when Aretha sings. That's why, when she sits down at a piano and sings 'A Natural Woman,' she can move me to tears - the same way that Ray Charles's version of 'America the Beautiful' will always be in my view the most patriotic piece of music ever performed - because it captures the fullness of the American experience, the view from the bottom as well as the top, the good and the bad, and the possibility of synthesis, reconciliation, transcendence.

Franklin is one of the most honored artists by the Grammy Awards, with 18 competitive Grammys and two honorary Grammys. She had 20 #1 singles on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and two #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Respect" (1967) and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (1987), a duet with George Michael. Since 1961, she had a total of 45 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. She also had 14 singles that sold more than one million - more than any other female artist. Between 1967 and 1982 she had 10 #1 R&B albums - more than any other female artist.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked her at top of its list "The Greatest Singers of All Time" In 2005, she was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. On February 6, 2006, she performed, along with Aaron Neville, "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XL. The same year she got an honorary Doctor of Music degree by the Berklee College of Music.2010, Franklin received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Yale University.

In 1987, Franklin became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She was the only featured singer at the 2009 presidential inauguration of Barack Obama.

Personal life

Franklin was the mother of four sons, Clarence, Jordan, Ted and Kecalf.

Franklin was married twice. Her first husband was Ted White, whom she married in 1961 at the age of 19. She married her second husband, actor Glynn Turman, on April 11, 1978, at her father's church. They divorced in 1984.

Franklin's sisters, Erma and Carolyn, were professional musicians and spent years performing background vocals on Franklin's recordings. Her brother Cecil became her manager.

On June 10, 1979, when her father, C. L., was shot twice at point-blank range in his Detroit home. Aretha moved back to Detroit in late 1982 to assist with the care of her father, who died at Detroit's New Light Nursing Home on July 27, 1984.

Franklin was a Christian and was a registered Democrat.

On August 13, 2018, Franklin was reported to be gravely ill at her home in Riverfront Towers, Detroit. She was reported to be under hospice care and surrounded by friends and family. Stevie Wonder, Jesse Jackson, and ex-husband Glynn Turman, among others, visited her on her deathbed. Franklin died at home on August 16, 2018, aged 76. The cause was reported to be advanced pancreatic cancer.

Franklin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1979, had her voice declared a Michigan "natural resource" in 1985, and became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences awarded her a Grammy Legend Award in 1991, then the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994. Franklin was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1994, recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 1999, and was bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. She was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2005.

Franklin became the second woman inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. She was the 2008 MusiCares Person of the Year, performing at the Grammys days later. Following news of Franklin's surgery and recovery in February 2011, the Grammys ceremony paid tribute to the singer with a medley of her classics performed by Christina Aguilera, Florence Welch, Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride, and Yolanda Adams. That same year she was ranked 19th among the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time top artists, and ranked first on the Rolling Stone list of Greatest Singers of All Time. In 2013, she was again ranked first in Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Singers" list.

Inducted to the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012, Franklin was described as "the voice of the civil rights movement, the voice of black America" and a "symbol of black equality". Asteroid 249516 Aretha was named in her honor in 2014.

"American history wells up when Aretha sings", president Obama explained in response to her performance of "A Natural Woman" at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors. "Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R&B, rock and roll-the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope". On June 8, 2017, the City of Detroit honored Franklin's legacy by renaming a portion of Madison Street, between Brush and Witherell Streets, "Aretha Franklin Way".

On January 29, 2018, The Oakland Press′s correspondent Gary Graff confirmed that the American Idol runner-up Jennifer Hudson will take the role to play Franklin in her coming biopic. The news was announced by the the film's executive producer Clive Davis, who made public their decision on the choice of actors casting in the film two days before Graff's article was published.

An all-star tribute concert to Franklin, celebrating her music, is scheduled for November 14, 2018, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Grammy Awards

Aretha Franklin's 18 Grammy Award Wins

14

1988

Best R&B Performance - Duo Or Group with Vocals

R&B

I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) (with George Michael)

18

2008

Best Gospel-Soul Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group

Gospel

Never Gonna Break My Faith (with Mary J. Blige)

Discography

Images for kids

Franklin performing in April 2007 at the Nokia Theater in Dallas, Texas

Franklin performs in the East Room of the White House in 2015

In Spanish: Aretha Franklin para niños

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Nathaniel Adams Coles, professionally known as Nat King Cole, (March 17, 1919 - February 15, 1965) was an American jazz musician, singer and songwriter. He was born in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama. His father was a Christian minister. Millions of Nat King Cole's recordings were sold while he was alive. He died of cancer of the lung in February, 1965. He was only forty-five years old. People around the world still enjoy listening to the music of one of America's greatest performers of popular and jazz music.

Early years

When Cole was four years old, his parents moved the family north to Chicago, Illinois. He learned to play the piano when he was very young. His mother was the only piano teacher he ever had. He gave his first public performance when he was four. By the time he was twelve, Cole was playing piano at his father's church.

His interest in jazz

Cole played piano in New York City and Los Angeles, California when he was a young man. In 1937, he formed a group that played jazz music. Oscar Moore played the guitar and Wesley Prince played the bass. The trio reportedly did not need a drummer because Cole's piano playing kept the beat so well. They named the group, The King Cole Trio. At the same time, Cole also changed his name into Nat King Cole. The trio soon became very popular. Nat sang some songs, but mostly played the piano.

Well-known popular singer

By the middle 1940s, Nat King Cole was beginning to be known as a popular singer as well as a jazz piano player. He was one of the first musicians to record with new Capitol Records.

The first song he recorded for Capitol was "Straighten Up and Fly Right." He wrote the song. The words were based on his father's teachings. The song became one of the biggest hits of 1943. It sold more than 500,000 copies.

Nat recorded hundreds of songs. Some of the most popular include "Sweet Lorraine," "Nature Boy," "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer," "When I Fall in Love," and "Mona Lisa." In 1950, the American film industry gave him an award for his recording of "Mona Lisa." That song made him famous as a singer.

Nat King Cole also acted in movies. The best known one is Saint Louis Blues. He played the part of the jazz composer W.C. Handy. He also appeared in a movie about himself called The Nat King Cole Story.

In the 1950s, he sang with some of the best known orchestras of the time.

He received many awards during his life. He also received many more after his death. One was a 1990 Grammy Award for lifetime achievement.

His success and experiences with racism

By 1956, Nat King Cole was known internationally. He signed an agreement to perform at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Cole often performed in places that only admitted white people. Black leaders did not like this about him. Cole said he tried to take legal action against those places but often failed.

Cole earned more money and moved to California. He bought a house in an area where white people lived. At that time, many white Americans did not want to live near blacks. White home owners nearby protested the purchase of a house by a black family. Cole and his family refused to leave and lived in the house without problems.

Cole was the first black man to have his own television program. His program began on NBC Television in 1956. NBC agreed to support The Nat King Cole Show for a while. It hoped American companies would pay to sell their products on the program. However, major companies were not willing to advertise on a program that had a black performer. They believed that white people in the southern part of the United States would not buy their products. Many Americans watched the show, but NBC stopped production after a year.

Nat King Cole was married two times. In 1936, he married a dancer, Nadine Robinson. Their marriage failed. In 1948, he married Maria Ellington. They had three children. They also adopted and raised two other children.

Nat's daughter, Natalie followed her father as a singer. She recorded many songs after her father died. In 1991, Natalie Cole recorded an album called Unforgettable. It contains 22 of Nat King Cole's songs, including the song "Unforgettable." Modern technology made it possible to mix her voice with a recording of her father singing the same song.

Images for kids

Nat King Cole corner in the Hotel Nacional de Cuba

Cole's vault at Forest Lawn Memorial Park

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Nathaniel Adams Coles, professionally known as Nat King Cole, (March 17, 1919 - February 15, 1965) was an American jazz musician, singer and songwriter. He was born in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama. His father was a Christian minister. Millions of Nat King Cole's recordings were sold while he was alive.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Barack Hussein Obama II ( /b ə ˈ r ɑː k h uː ˈ s eɪ n oʊ ˈ b ɑː m ə / i ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician. He was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He was the first African-American to hold the office. Before becoming president, he was a U.S. senator from Illinois and served from 2005 to 2008. He is a Democrat.

Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He married Michelle Robinson in 1992. They have two daughters.

Obama was inaugurated in January 2009 as the first African American mixed-race president. As president, he slowly ended US participation in the Iraq War, having prepared the country to defend itself. The al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden was killed while Obama was in office. Also, he contributed to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (often called "Obamacare") which changed many health care laws. He also enacted many acts to create public works jobs to help the economy. He became the first president to openly express support for gay marriage, and proposed gun control as a result of the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Obama left office in January 2017 and was succeeded by Republican Donald Trump. He now lives in Washington, D.C. He is ranked very high in presidential opinion polls.

Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children (called Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in 1961) in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the first President to have been born in Hawaii. His father was a black exchange student from Kenya named Barack Obama Sr. He died in a motorcycle accident in Kenya in 1982. His mother was a white woman from Kansas named Ann Dunham, who was an anthropologist and died in 1995. He spent most of his childhood in Hawaii and Chicago, Illinois, although he lived in Jakarta, Indonesia with his mother and stepfather from age 6 to age 10. He later moved back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents.

He started college at Occidental College in Los Angeles, and graduated from Columbia University in New York City. After taking time off as a community organizer, Obama went to law school at Harvard University. After law school, Obama worked for a law firm in Hyde Park, Chicago.

Obama has been married to Michelle Obama since 1992. She has a law degree from Harvard Law School. She worked as a lawyer. They have two daughters, Malia Ann, who was born in 1998 and Natasha ("Sasha"), born in 2001. They were born at University of Chicago Medical Center in Chicago. They lived in Chicago, but moved into the White House on January 20, 2009.

Obama has a half sister who is a teacher in Hawaii. His father died from a car accident in Kenya. His mother died of ovarian cancer. His maternal grandmother died just before Obama won the election to become President.

Before becoming president

Obama worked for Alice Palmer, an Illinois state senator. In 1995 she chose not to run for re-election so that she could run for U.S. Congress, and Obama decided to run for her Illinois state senate seat. Palmer lost her election for U.S. Congress, so she tried to keep her seat in the state senate, but she did not have enough time to meet the rules of the election. Obama's team said that she could not be on the ballot, and the election rulemakers agreed. Obama won the election and became an Illinois state senator. He was state senator from 1997 to 2004.

While he was Illinois state senator, he wrote a law that required police to keep records on the race of people they stopped. The law that he wrote also forced police to videotape when they talked to people they suspect of murder. He taught law part-time at the University of Chicago Law School. Judge and political teacher Abner J. Mikva taught Obama politics and became his mentor. During his early political career, Obama would make appearances and debate on Chicago Tonight.

Obama ran for the U.S. Senate. While running for Senate, John Kerry asked him to speak at the Democratic National Convention. He spoke on television. He was a U.S. Senator from 2005 to 2008.

Obama won the presidential election of 2008.

Presidential campaigns

2008 presidential campaign

Obama's presidential campaign for the White House started in early June 2008 when he defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primaries. Hillary Clinton was favored to win but Obama won many smaller state caucuses (local party elections) by having a lot of volunteers. He decided not to accept government money for his campaign so that he could accept more private money under Campaign finance reform in the United States. He raised the most amount of money ever for a presidential campaign.

Obama's campaign theme was that he was a man of hope and change. He was also against the war in Iraq. He was in favor of giving money to American car companies. He was in favor of sending more troops to Afghanistan.

During the campaign, some people said that Obama's friends were Tony Rezko, a landlord, and former revolutionary Bill Ayers; Obama said that they were not his friends. Obama also had trouble when his minister at church, Jeremiah Wright, was videotaped criticizing America. During the campaign, Obama said that his opponent, Republican candidate John McCain, was just like George W. Bush, something that John McCain said was not true. He ran with Joe Biden as his candidate for Vice President.

He defeated McCain in the election on November 4 by a wide electoral majority of 365 to 173, meaning that he won the most votes in enough states to send 365 people to officially elect him. The popular vote (based on the total number of votes across the country) was closer, with Obama winning 53%, McCain 46%.

2012 presidential campaign

Obama announced he was running for president again in April 2011 when he posted a video on his website. Because he was already the president, there were very few other Democrats who tried to oppose him. He won the democratic nomination easily. Their opponents in the Republican party this time were Mitt Romney, who was running for president, and Paul Ryan, who was running for vice president.

In the election on November 6, Obama and Joe Biden defeated Romney and Ryan by a majority of 332 to 206 electoral votes. This meant that, even though it was still large, his majority was smaller than in 2008. In terms of the popular vote, Obama won 51.1% and Romney won 47.2%.

Presidency (2009-2017)

First term (2009-13)

Obama was first sworn in as president on January 20, 2009.

Great Recession

He continued the financial bailout that George W. Bush started, giving billions of dollars to car companies and banks so that they would not go bankrupt. He signed an act written by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd which would regulate Wall Street (the financial industry) to try to prevent another recession like this from happening again.

Nobel Peace Prize

Obama received the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on October 9, 2009. He noted that his efforts were humble, but he donated the prize money to several charities.

Tea Party movement

Though his popularity was very high (around 70% approval) when he entered office, his approval ratings fell to 45% percent during the year of 2010. He received much criticism from Republicans, conservatives, libertarians, and members of the Tea Party because they believe that the federal government is becoming too big and spending too much money and that his programs are not the best for the country.

Obama made a plan to slowly withdraw troops from Iraq, ending the War in Iraq by the end of 2011, while adding more troops to Afghanistan to help the United States win the War in Afghanistan. He also decided that the United States should help in the war against Libya. He has said several times that he wants to improve U.S. relations with the Muslim world. Obama reduced US participation in the Iraq War and continued the war on terror which resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011. Obama started a no-fly-zone policy on the Libyan civil war that ended in October 2011 with the killing of Muammar al-Gaddafi.

Economic policy

With rising economic deficits (the amount of money the government borrows each month) under his administration, he called for taxes to be increased on the rich. He criticized his Republican opponents for wanting to cut welfare benefits for the poor rather than raising taxes to help pay down the debt.

LGBT rights

He signed the Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 in 2010, allowing openly gay men and openly lesbian women in the armed forces. On May 9, 2012, he became the first sitting US President to openly support legalizing same-sex marriage.

Gun control

Before his second term began, there has been debating of guns because of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that happened on December 14, 2012, as well as shootings in the past.

2012 re-election campaign

On April 4, 2011 Obama said that he would run for re-election for a second term in 2012 in a video titled "It Begins with Us" that he posted on his website and filed election papers with the Federal Election Commission. He was officially nominated as his party's nominee on September 6, 2012. Mitt Romney was officially nominated as his opponent by the Republican party on August 30, 2012. While the election results were very close, Obama easily won the electoral college votes he needed to win a second term. Obama and Romney spent more than $2 billion on advertising during the election campaign.

On December 21, 2012, Obama nominated John Kerry for United States Secretary of State during his second term. Kerry was sworn in on February 1, 2013.

Second term (2013-17)

Main article: Second inauguration of Barack Obama

Obama was inaugurated for a second term privately (only his family members could see) on January 20, 2013, at the White House. The next day, January 21, 2013, he was inaugurated again, this time in public, at the United States Capitol. This was because January 20, 2013, was on a Sunday.

The start of his second term in 2013 had a few setbacks. With the NSA, people were upset at the Obama administration that the government was possibly listening to their phone calls. His party (the Democrats) also lost the Congressional elections. Because of disagreements between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, neither side was getting anything done and Obama resulted in using his Executive Order (his power as president) to help reform things like the immigration system.

He visited South Africa in late June 2013. Prior to visiting South Africa, he visited Senegal. He visited Robben Island, where Mandela was imprisoned. He did not meet with Nelson Mandela.

2013 United States federal government shutdown

The United States government shutdown occurred on October 1, 2013. On October 17, 2013, Obama signed a bill that ended the United States government shut down.

Presidential Medals of Freedom

Obama awarded several people, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton and media mogul Oprah Winfrey for the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 20, 2013. He has awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to many people, such as Stephen Hawking, Sandra Day O'Connor, Chita Rivera, Loretta Lynn and George H. W. Bush.

Death of Nelson Mandela

Minimum wage and college

He supported increasing the minimum wage, requiring women to be paid the same as men at the same job, and has called for the first 2 years of college to be fully government-funded for students who study full-time and get good grades.

Legalization of same-sex marriage

Obama supported LGBT members, and successfully convinced the courts in 2015 that same-sex marriage should be legal in the United States.

Climate change

Obama was also concerned about climate change, and promoted the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court

Post-presidency (2017-present)

As it is not possible for a person to be president for three terms, Obama could not run for president again. He was succeeded by Republican Donald Trump in early 2017. He left office with a 60% approval rating.

Even though he is not the president anymore, Obama still owns a house in Washington, D.C.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, spend time making speeches and attending events. They also run a charity called the Obama Foundation, and own Higher Ground Productions, a company which makes movies. The company was hired by Netflix to make documentaries. One of their documentaries, American Factory, won an Academy Award for being the best documentary of 2019.

He released his presidential memoir, A Promised Land, on November 17, 2020.

In May 2020, Obama criticized President Trump for his response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying that it is "an absolute chaotic disaster".

Obama wrote a presidential memoir, in a $65million deal with Penguin Random House. The book, A Promised Land, was released on November 17, 2020.

In February 2021, Obama and musician Bruce Springsteen started a podcast called Renegades: Born in the USA where the two talk about "their backgrounds, music and their 'enduring love of America.'" In late 2021, Regina Hicks had signed a deal with Netflix, in a venture with his and Michelle's Higher Ground to develop comedy projects. On March 4, 2022, Obama won an Audio Publishers Association (APA) Award in the best narration by the author category for the narration of his memoir A Promised Land.

On April 5, 2022, Obama visited the White House for the first time since leaving office, in an event celebrating the 12th annual anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act.

In 2022, he narrated the Netflix documentary series Our Great National Parks, which later won him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator.

In June 2022, it was announced that the Obamas and their podcast production company, Higher Ground, signed a multi-year deal with Audible.

In September 2022, Obama visited the White House to unveil his and Michelle's official White House portraits.

In Spanish: Barack Obama para niños