Black History Month
at Garden of Praise

Benjamin Banneker

1731 - 1806

Benjamin Banneker was a self-taught African American astronomer, mathematician, and almanac author who gained recognition for his exceptional intellect, particularly by publishing his own almanac and corresponding with Thomas Jefferson, where he challenged Jefferson's stance on slavery while highlighting his own achievements as a free Black man, advocating for racial equality during a time of widespread prejudice; his life is an example of overcoming adversity through education and self-reliance.

Phillis Wheatley

1753 - 1784

In 1773, Phillis Wheatley accomplished something that no other woman of her status had done. When her book of poetry, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, appeared, she became the first American slave, the first person of African descent, and only the third colonial American woman to have her work published. During the Siege of Boston in 1775, she wrote a poem, “To His Excellency George Washington” and had it sent to him at his Cambridge headquarters whereupon Washington invited her to visit with him in 1776.

James Forten

1766 - 1842

James Forten was a Black entrepreneur, veteran, and abolitionist who was born to free parents in 1766 in Philadelphia. When he was a boy, he served on several privateer ships during the Revolutionary War. He used his wealth and social standing to work for civil rights for African Americans in both the city and nationwide. Beginning in 1817, he opposed the colonization movements, particularly that of the American Colonization Society.

Sojourner Truth

1797 - 1893

A formerly enslaved woman, Sojourner Truth became an outspoken advocate for abolition, temperance, and civil and women's rights in the nineteenth century. Her Civil War work earned her an invitation to meet with Abraham Lincoln in 1864. In her brief but powerful speech “Ain't I a Woman?” delivered at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention of 1851, Black abolitionist and feminist activist Sojourner Truth urgently describes the need for equal rights for women in the United States.

Elizabeth Keckly

1818 - 1907

Elizabeth Keckly was a formerly enslaved woman, dressmaker, and philanthropist who served as Mary Todd Lincoln's personal seamstress. Her story is one of resilience and overcoming challenges. She worked her way up to financial independence by being a skilled seamstress. She called herself a modiste to draw attention to her artistry and skill.

Frederick Douglass

1818 - 1895

Frederick Douglass was a prominent African American abolitionist who escaped slavery in Maryland and became a powerful orator and writer, using his personal experiences to expose the brutality of slavery and advocate for its abolition. He gained widespread recognition for his autobiography “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, which detailed his life as a slave and his fight for freedom, significantly impacting public opinion on slavery in the United States before the Civil War. After Emancipation, Douglass continued to fight for civil rights for African Americans.

Harriet Tubman

1820 - 1913

Harriet Tubman is credited with conducting upward of 300 enslaved people along the Underground Railroad from the American South to Canada. She showed extraordinary courage, ingenuity, persistence, and iron discipline. During the Civil War, she became the first woman to lead an armed military raid in June 1863. She was also a Union scout, spy, and nurse. She was a suffragist who fought for women's rights. She established a nursing home for African Americans on her property in Auburn, NY.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary

1823 – 1893

Mary Ann Shadd Cary was an African American activist, journalist, teacher, and lawyer who fought against slavery and oppression. She was a leader in the abolitionist movement, the women's suffrage movement, and the Black community. As creator & editor-in-chief of The Provincial Freeman, Shadd had her finger on the pulse of the Underground Railroad and used her paper to track escape attempts, follow legal challenges and fight against the slave trade.

Booker T. Washington

1856 – 1915

Booker T. Washington was a prominent leader in the late 1800s and early 1900s who believed in education and economic self-improvement to help African Americans. He was born into slavery and became a leader in the post-Reconstruction South. He was an author, educator, orator, philanthropist, and, from 1895 until his death in 1915, the United States' most famous African American. The tiny school he founded in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1881 is now Tuskegee University, an institution that currently enrolls more than 3,000 students.

George Washington Carver

1864 – 1943

George Washington Carver was an agricultural scientist, inventor, and educator who created hundreds of products from peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. His work improved the lives of poor farmers in the South and helped to diversify the region's crops. He established an agriculture extension in Alabama and founded an industrial research lab where he worked tirelessly on the development of hundreds of applications for new plants. Carver discovered more than 300 uses for peanuts and hundreds more uses for soybeans, pecans and sweet potatoes.

Matthew Henson

1866 – 1955

Matthew Henson was an African American explorer most renowned for accompanying Robert Peary on multiple expeditions to the Arctic, ultimately reaching what they thought was the geographic North Pole on April 6, 1909. Although often overshadowed by Peary, Henson played a crucial role in the expedition, particularly in his expertise with dog sledding and Inuit culture, becoming one of the first people to set foot on the North Pole.

Madam C.J. Walker

1867 – 1919

Madam C.J. Walker was an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and activist who became the first self-made female millionaire in the United States. She was a pioneer of the Black hair care and cosmetics industry. She rose from poverty in the South to become one of the wealthiest African American women of her time. She used her position to advocate for the advancement of black Americans and for an end to lynching.

Mary McLeod Bethune

1875 - 1955

Mary McLeod Bethune was an American educator, civil rights leader, and presidential advisor. She was a trailblazer for Black women and a key figure in the civil rights movement. Tireless, talented and committed to service, she held leadership positions in several prominent organizations even while also leading her school. In 1935, she founded the National Council of Negro Women, which would become a highly influential organization with a clear civil rights agenda.

Rosa Parks

1913 - 2005

Rosa Parks was an African American civil rights activist. By refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, she helped spark the American civil rights movement. Her action led to a successful protest action—the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955–56. Rosa Parks taught the world a valuable lesson: we can fight for our beliefs by not tolerating everyday acts of injustice and oppression.

Nelson Mandela

1918 - 2013

Nelson Mandela was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom. Nelson Mandela was arrested on several occasions and stood trial four times. He spent over 27 years in prison and was released on February 11, 1990. Known and loved around the world for his commitment to peace, negotiation and reconciliation, Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first democratically elected president in 1994.

Henrietta Lacks

1920 - 1951

Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951 at the age of 31, and without her knowledge or consent, doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took a sample of her cancerous cells which became the first immortal human cell line, known as HeLa cells, used extensively in medical research without her family's awareness or financial benefit. This story highlights ethical issues surrounding informed consent in medical practice, particularly in the context of race and poverty.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

1929–1968

Martin Luther King, Jr. rose to fame with his advocacy of nonviolence as a means to effect social change. From 1955 when he emerged as a leader during the Montgomery Bus Boycott until his assassination in 1968, he was both admired and reviled in his crusade to achieve racial equality. He is known for his contributions to the American civil rights movement in the 1960s. His most famous work is his “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered in 1963, in which he spoke of his dream of a United States without segregation and racism.

Wilma Rudolph

1940 – 1994

Wilma Rudolph was the 20th of 22 children. As a young child she was paralyzed by polio, and contracted both scarlet fever and double pneumonia. Many doctors felt she would never walk again, yet she always believed otherwise. By the time she was 12, she had regained her ability to walk and took up athletics. Rudolph was the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field at the same Olympic game. Her performance also won her the title of “the fastest woman in the world”. Returning home, an Olympic champion, Rudolph refused to attend her homecoming parade if it was not integrated.

Barack Obama

1961 – Present

In 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American to ever be elected to the highest office in the land, the presidency of the United States. It was a truly historical event in the country. Earlier in 1996 he had been elected to the Illinois State Senate, and eight years later he was elected to the United States Senate. During his time as president one of his most important accomplishments was the signing of the Affordable Care Act into law.

Tiger Woods

1975 – Present

Tiger Woods is undoubtedly one of the greatest golfers in the sport. His father began training him when he was only two years old. He is the only African American player ever to win the Masters Tournament. In his early career he was the first player ever to win the four major golfing tournaments consecutively, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship. In 2009 he was involved in a one-car accident which drastically changed his life. But after multiple surgeries and months of rehab he has been able to return to golfing.

William Wilberforce waged a tireless campaign to abolish the slave trade and slavery within the British Empire.

Abraham Lincoln led the war against slavery in the United States, which ultimately cost him his life.