Black History Month Recognitions at Hostos

Hostos is excited to celebrate Black History Month this February. Each day our announcements will highlight the accomplishments of a renowned Black American from our past and present.

So far we have recognized: 

1^st – Kizzmekia Corbett: Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett is a viral immunologist that headed a team of scientists at the National Institute of Health who created the Moderna Vaccine against COVID-19. TIME magazine named Dr. Corbett one of four Heroes of the Year in 2021. She continues to be a powerful voice in educating the public about the importance of getting vaccinated. For example, she took over Michelle Obama’s Instagram account, spoke to the NFL’s Washington Football Team, appeared on “Sesame Street” with Big Bird, and responds to Twitter questions about vaccine safety.

2^nd – Bill Pickett: Bill Pickett was a cowboy, rodeo, and wild west show performer. He was born in Texas in 1870 and would go on to be the first Black American to be inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame. He is remembered for inventing the modern rodeo event of bull dogging, where he would jump from horseback to wrestle a running steer to the ground. Many people do not know that of the cowboys that rode the wild west in the 19^th century, 1 in 4 were Black. Yeehaw!

3^rd - Shirley Chisholm: Shirley Chisholm was the first Black US Congresswoman. She began her career as an elementary school teacher in New York City where she earned her Master’s degree from Columbia University. She was elected to represent the State of New York seven times from 1968 to 1983. She was one of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969. Today, there are fifty-eight Black Representatives and Senators in the United States Congress.  

4^th - Guy Stewart Bluford: U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Guy Bluford became the first Black American to travel to space in 1983. He was a fighter pilot who flew 144 combat missions in the Vietnam War. He later earned his doctorate in Aerospace Engineering. As an astronaut, he spent more than 28 days in space on four space shuttle launches as the crew’s mission specialist.  Dr. Bluford then became the Vice President of Aerospace Engineering Company. 17 other Black Americans have now also flown in space.

7^th - Debi Thomas: Dr. Debi Thomas is an Orthopedic Surgeon who specialized in knee and hip replacements. Her medical career came after she was the first Black athlete to win a medal at the Winter Olympics. She started figure skating at age 5 and started competing by age 10. While earning her engineering degree at Stanford, she also won the US Women’s Figure Skating Championship. Following in Dr. Thomas’ footsteps, Erin Jackson will compete in the speed skating event at the Beijing Olympics this month. She hopes to become the 5^th Black American to win a medal in the winter Olympics.

8^th – Frederick Douglass: Frederick Douglass was a leader in the abolitionist movement to end slavery in America. His bestselling biography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, along with his powerful public speaking convinced more and more people to join the cause of opposing slavery. After the civil war Frederick Douglass would go on to serve as an Ambassador for the United States and ran for Vice President in 1872.

9^th - Kamala Harris: Vice President Kamala Harris is our nation’s first female Vice President. She was elected in 2020 following her career as a District Attorney, Attorney General, and Senator from California. As Attorney General of California, she won a 20-billion-dollar lawsuit for people who had lost their homes to deceptive lending programs. As a Senator she passed laws to support Historically Black Colleges and provide funding to businesses affected by COVID-19. Many people believe she may run for President of the United States in the future.

10^th - Thurgood Marshall: Thurgood Marshall served as the first African American Supreme Court Justice from 1967 until 1991. Thurgood Marshall had memorized the US Constitution before graduating from high school. After graduating law school, he went on to argue cases that fought legalized racism. His greatest achievement was his victory in the Supreme Court case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. This victory ended legal segregation of schools in 1954.

11^th – Monika Schleier-Smith: Dr. Monika Schleier-Smith is an experimental physicist who specializes in quantum mechanics. After graduating from Harvard, she earned her doctorate at MIT. In 2020, she received the MacArthur Genius Grant to fund her studies of space-time and the way atoms behave in Black holes from the lab she runs at Stanford University. Her research will help us understand the very nature of time itself!  

14^th - Benjamin Banneker: Benjamin Banneker was a self-educated mathematician, astronomer, farmer, and writer in the 18^th century. He was an accomplished inventor who made a wooden clock that kept accurate time for over 50 years. In 1791 he was hired to help plan and map out our nation’s new capitol, Washington DC. Later Mr. Banneker used his scientific writings to try and persuade then Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson of the hypocrisy of slavery in a nation that sought freedom for all. 

15^th - Madam C.J. Walker: Madam C.J. Walker created a line of specialized hair care products for African Americans in the 1890s. Her products were massively successful and within the next 10 years she would become one of the first female self-made millionaires in America. In later life she continued to grow her business and also fund education and charity efforts for Black Americans. She moved to Harlem and became heavily involved in the arts of the Harlem Renaissance and charity. She eventually retired to a mansion in Irvington, just north of Yonkers, in 1918.  

16^th – August Wilson: August Wilson was an award-winning American playwright most celebrated for his play, ‘Fences’ in 1987. This play would later be turned into an Oscar winning movie with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. Mr. Wilson won two Pulitzer Prizes and a Tony Award while writing and producing Broadway plays for over 25 years.

17^th – Cathay Williams: At the age of 17 Cathay Williams voluntarily enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. At the time, women were not permitted to join the military. Cathay Williams pretended to be a man and enlisted under a false name. Following her hospitalization with complications of smallpox, she was discovered to be a woman and discharged. She would later conceal her true identity again and join the famous all black regiment called the Buffalo Soldiers. There she served on the Western Frontier following the Civil War.   

18^th - Neil deGrasse Tyson: Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson is an Astrophysicist, author, and speaker who has become famous for making advanced scientific ideas accessible to the public. He has degrees from Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton. He is now the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Many people will recognize Dr. Tyson from his television appearances on Nova ScienceNow and Cosmos.

28^th – Nikole Hannah-Jones: Nikole Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist who covers racial injustice and civil rights for the New York Times. Her most influential work was the 1619 Project that is now being released as an expanded book. The 1619 Project challenged Americans to better understand our nation’s history of slavery on the 400^th anniversary of the first arrival of an enslaved person to the colonies. She is now also a professor of Journalism at Howard University.

Thank you for joining us this month in recognizing the amazing lives and contributions of these Black Americans.

Hostos Classroom Celebrations