Black History Month: Maya Angelou - Zane State College (2024)

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Who was the first black woman on the US currency? ›

Maya Angelou becomes the first Black woman to appear on the U.S. quarter The Maya Angelou design is the first quarter in the "American Women Quarters Program" — a four-year program that will feature prominent women in U.S. history.

The Black History Month 2024 theme, “African Americans and the Arts,” explores the key influence African Americans have had in the fields of "visual and performing arts, literature, fashion, folklore, language, film, music, architecture, culinary and other forms of cultural expression."

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” – Nelson Mandela, former first President of South Africa and anti-Apartheid leader.

While the list is likely far from complete, Maya Angelou won at least 54 major awards and honors during her lifetime and even after her death.

Viola Desmond was a successful black businesswoman who was jailed, convicted and fined for defiantly refusing to leave a whites-only area of a movie theatre in 1946. Her court case was an inspiration for the pursuit of racial equality across Canada.

Celebrate Black History Month with the Scarsdale Library. Born in 19^th century rural Louisiana to former slaves, Sarah Breedlove rose to become the first female African-American self-made millionaire in the United States. Known as Madam C.J. Walker, she developed a line of beauty care products for black women.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks are often elevated—and with good reason. These figures made contributions to Black history and, by extension, American history, that cannot be overstated.

What Does “306” Mean? Did you know that the number 306 has significance in Black history? When Dr. Martin Luther King stayed at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, the site of his assassination in 1968, he preferred to stay in room 306.

The 400 Years of African-American History Commission develops and facilitates activities throughout the United States, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Africans in the English colonies at Point Comfort, Virginia in 1619.

Why is February a Black History Month? ›

Woodson chose February for reasons of tradition and reform. It is commonly said that Woodson selected February to encompass the birthdays of two great Americans who played a prominent role in shaping black history, namely Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, whose birthdays are the 12th and the 14th, respectively.

Angelou joined the Harlem Writers Guild in the late 1950s and met James Baldwin and other important writers. It was during this time that Angelou had the opportunity to hear Dr. Martin Luther King speak. Inspired by his message, she decided to become a part of the struggle for civil rights.

Angelou died on the morning of May 28, 2014, at age 86.

Returning to her mother's care briefly at the age of seven, Angelou was raped by her mother's boyfriend. He was later jailed and then killed when released from jail. Believing that her confession of the trauma had a hand in the man's death, Angelou became mute for six years.

Booker T. Washington was the first African American to appear on a United States coin. He is one of two African Americans to appear on two coins, the other being Jackie Robinson. The “T” in Washington's middle name stood for Taliaferro.

The US Treasury has minted coins featuring poet Maya Angelou – the first black woman ever featured on the US 25-cent coin known as a quarter.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Anti-slavery crusader Harriet Tubman will become the first African-American on the face of U.S. paper currency, and the first woman in more than a century, when she replaces former President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.

In the late 1800s, Martha Washington became the first — and so far only — woman to have a solo portrait on U.S. paper money, appearing on the $1 silver note.