Words That Reach Your Heart

February Is Black History Month

It's here, the time of year when we reflect on all the extraordinary contributions African Americans have made in our great nation. Those who have achieved success while also giving back are too numerous to count.  Many shoulders have carried the weight of oppression so that we may freely live. We honor those greats who made tremendous sacrifices for the sake of freedom and the advancement of all people. 

In honor of this month, I would like to share with you my top ten list of what I call "Breakthrough Stars". These are people who overcame insurmountable odds to accomplish their dreams. Some of them may be familiar while others are relatively unknown. They are (or in some cases, were) strong in their convictions, tireless in their fight, and steadfast in their faith. 

Terri’s Top Breakthrough Stars

Autum Ashante was raised by a single father. She was ridiculed by highly regarded conservatives at the age of 7 for writing a poem that highlighted the travesty of slavery.  Autum never wavered and mastered languages such as Arabic, Swahili, and Spanish.  She scored 149 on the standard IQ test. At age 13, she was accepted into the University of Connecticut.

Joan Elizabeth Higginbotham was born in Chicago, Illinois, and attended Whitney Young Magnet High School, graduating in 1982. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1987, and a Masters of Mangement Science (1992) and Masters in Space Systems (1996) both from the Florida Institute of Technology.  She is the third African American woman to go into space, after Mae Jemison and Stephanie Wilson.

Solomun Northup was a free-born African American from New York, the son of a freed slave. A farmer and violinist, he owned a property in Hebron. In 1841 he was kidnapped by slave-traders, having been enticed with a job offer as a violinist.  He wrote a book about his journey. In 2013 the movie Twelve Years a Slave was released.

Kenneth Irvine Chenault is an American business executive. He has been the CEO and Chairman of American Express since 2001.  He is the third African American CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Ursula M. Burns serves as Chairman and CEO of Xerox. She is the first African-American woman CEO to head a Fortune 500 company. She is also the first woman to succeed another woman as head of a Fortune 500 company.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Shani Davis became the first Black athlete (from any nation) to win a gold medal in an individual sport, winning the speed skating 100 meter event.  He also won a silver medal in the 1500 meter event.  At the 2010 Winter Olympics he became the first to duplicate this feat, winning a gold medal in the 1000 meter and a silver medal in the 1500 meter.  Watch for Shani Davis in the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Isabel Wilkerson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American Journalist and the author of New York Times Best Selling book, The Warmth of Other Suns.Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration.

 

Ronald Harmon "Ron" Brown was the United States Secretary of Commerce, serving during the first term of President Bill Clinton. He was the first African American to hold this position. He was killed, along with 34 others in a 1996 plane crash in Croatia.

Barrington Antonia Irving, Jr., C.D was the youngest person to pilot a plane around the world solo.  He is also the first black person and the first Jamaican to accomplish this feat.