Betty Shabazz is an American educator and activist who is the widowed wife of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X). In 1976 Shabazz began working at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, first as a professor, then as the director of its department of communications and public relations. She also lectured occasionally, addressing such topics as civil rights and racial tolerance. Shabazz died in 1997 from severe burns suffered in a fire set by her 12-year-old grandson.
Black History 365 | # 131 Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King became a forceful public figure and important leader in the Civil Rights movement in her own right. She made numerous contributions to the struggle for social justice and human rights throughout her life. Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King Jr. married on June 18, 1953. The following year they moved to Montgomery, Alabama where Martin Luther King Jr. began his work as a minister at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis in 1968, Coretta King was thrust into the national spotlight. She calmed local and national racial tensions by exuding quiet dignity and courage at his public funeral in Atlanta. Then just four days after his death, Coretta Scott King led a march of fifty thousand people through the streets of Memphis.
Black History 365 | # 130 Denise Oliver Velez
Denise Oliver Velez was involved in social movements such as the Civil Rights and AIDS awareness programs. Oliver-Velez was a member of both the Young Lords Party and the Black Panther Party. She became the highest-ranking woman in the Young Lords Party. After the Young Lords moved its headquarters from New York to Puerto Rico, Denise Oliver-Velez joined the Black Panther Party. As a member, she worked on the local Panther Party paper and participated in international travel and solidarity work. She is currently an adjunct Professor of Anthropology and Women’s Studies at SUNY New Paltz, and is a Contributing Editor for the progressive political blog Daily Kos.
Black History 365 | # 129 Buddy Bolden
Buddy Bolden is widely known as the inventor of jazz music. While this is debatable, it is clear that Bolden’s music helped form the jazz movement. From New Orleans, from 1898 until 1906, he was known as the King, locally. He formed a band as the coronet player, two clarinet players, one guitarist, one bass player, and a drummer. No one in the band could read sheet music so all compositions played were either copied from other bands or created on the spot, helping to generate the spontaneous improvisation that would become a hallmark of jazz.
Black History 365 | # 128 Rita Marley
Did you know that Rita Marley, the wife of Bob Marley has lived in Ghana for over 20 years? She moved to Ghana alongside Bob Marley's family in the 1990s and became a Ghanaian citizen in 2013. She now resides in Ghana and was several years ago enstooled as Nana Afua Adobea 1(Queen of Development) in the South-eastern Akwapim Region of Ghana.