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African American Teacher Guide to Black History Month

When speaking of African Americans that have altered the course of history the list is long and growing. Of course we have all heard of great Afro-American heroes such as Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass and most recently President Obama, yet this review will focus on the lesser-known names. An impossible task would be to list every African American that has impacted not only the United States of America but the world, and do it in this one review!

Ratios and Greatness

On basis of ratios of African Americans as opposed to any other race of people on planet Earth that percentage is very high in favor of the African-Americans. A good question to ask would be why is this? Does it boil-down to overachieving or just a genetic pool to better not only themselves but the world around them?

Not Common Household Names

As mentioned earlier it is the goal of this review to shed light on some of the most influential African-Americans that are not common household names. In this way we hope to broaden the spectrum and bring home the point that African-Americans have greatly and exponentially improved the quality of lives of so many people in the world today.

Listing of Great African Americans

Please have a look at the list and read the descriptions of each African American hero that has made all of our lives either a bit easier, healthier and in some cases economically superior. African-Americans have made a deep and perpetually lasting impact on the world today.

Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806)

Mathematician, Inventor one of America's greatest intellectuals and scientists was called the "sable genius because of his dark skin and great intellect. Ben Banneker became an advisor to President Thomas Jefferson and while still a youth he made a wooden clock which kept accurate time past the date that Banneker died. This clock is believed to be the first clock wholly made in America.

Mary McLeod Bethune (1875- 1955)

Founder of Bethune-Cookman College. The last of seventeen children of sharecroppers, Mary Bethune lifted herself from the cotton field to the White House as an advisor to the President of the United States. Her greatest accomplishment, however, was almost single-handedly building Bethune-Cookman College in 1923. With only one dollar and fifty cents, nerve and determination, she set out to build a school for the Blacks who were working in the railroad labor camps in Florida.

Ralph Bunche

As a diplomat who accomplished the seemingly impossible by negotiating the 1949 armistice between one-year-old Israel and its Arab neighbors, Ralph Bunche demonstrated that there is more than one way to resolve an issue. For that he earned the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1950.

George Washington Carver (1860-1943)

Agricultural Scientist

If an honest history of the Deep South is ever written, Dr. George Washington Carver will stand out as one of the truly great men of his time. Born of slave parents in 1860 in Diamond, Missouri, Dr. Carver almost single-handedly revolutionized southern agriculture.

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