Black History 365 | # 192 Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler paved the way for African-American science fiction authors. Her first novel, Patternmaster, was published in 1976, a story that eventually expanded into a larger series. By 1979 and the publication of Kindred, she was firmly established as an African American writer. Through Kindred, she brought together critiques of both past and present societal hierarchies, both blended together in the science fiction genre. Called the “grand dame of science fiction,” Butler fearlessly crossed many lines. She used her novels to challenge our way of thinking and show that humans, regardless of race, deal with the same problems across all history and time. In an interview with Charlie Rose, she said, “I write about people and the different ways of being human.” Her work has been categorized as Afrofuturism, which is oh so fresh. In 1984, Butler won both the Hugo Award for Best Short Story and the Nebula Award for Best Novelette. By 1995, she was the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Fellowship “genius” grant. Born in 1947 in Pasadena, California she dealt with dyslexia but has been writing since 10 years old. Butler passed away February 24, 2006 at 58 years old in Lake Forest Park, Washington.

Black History 365 | # 191 Dr. Sebi

Dr. Sebi (1933-2016) was a pathologist, herbalist, biochemist, and naturalist born in the Republic of Honduras (República de Honduras) in Central América. He studied and personally observed herbs in Africa, North America, Central and South America, and the Caribbean, and developed a unique approach and methodology to healing the human body with herbs rooted in over 30 years of experience. He was born Alfredo D. Bowman on November 26, 1933, in the village of Ilanga in Spanish Honduras. He was dragged into court on multiple occasions: in 1987, he was charged for practicing medicine without a license (a case he won), and then he was hit with a civil lawsuit from New York Attorney General’s office preventing him from making his so-called therapeutic claims in New York newspapers. His death is cloudy and unfortunate to read about. Do your research. Dr. Sebi’s legacy still lives. Rest in peace & power.

Black History 365 | # 190 James Baldwin

James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a writer and civil rights activist who is best known for his semi-autobiographical novels and plays that center on race, politics, and sexuality. His childhood neighborhood would later inspire his first essay, The Harlem Ghetto (1948). In 1948, feeling stifled creatively because of the racial discrimination in America, Baldwin traveled to Europe to create what were later acclaimed as masterpieces to the American literature canon. While living in Paris, Baldwin was able to separate himself from American segregated society and better write about his experience in the culture that was prevalent in America.  Baldwin took part in the Civil Rights Movement, becoming close friends with Medgar Evers, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Nina Simone, and Lorraine Hansberry. He was also one of the first Black writers to include queer themes in fiction, notably in Giovanni’s Room (1956), writing with a frankness that was highly controversial at the time. The successive assassinations of Evers, Malcolm X and King in the late 1960s plunged Baldwin into a nervous breakdown. In 1971, he moved permanently to France, settling in a small village in Provence, Saint-Paul de Vence, which was to become his final resting place. In 2016 Baldwin was the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary by director Raoul Peck, I Am Not Your Negro. The film mixed archival footage of the civil rights movement with contemporary footage of the BLM movement and included historical interviews with Baldwin.

Black History 365 | # 189 Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks was a self-taught photographer, writer, composer, and filmmaker. Parks is remembered as the first African-American photographer who worked for Vogue and Life magazines, known for his documentary photojournalism of the 1940s through the 1970s. He captured iconic images of the civil rights movement, investigating important turning points in inner cities around the United States. Along with these charged moments, he also captured candid portraits of artists and musicians. If you don’t know his work, get familiar. You might already be familiar, after all Gordon Parks, is one of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century.

Black History 365 | # 188 Eunice Roberta Hunton Carter

Eunice Hunton Carter was the first African-American woman to work as a prosecutor in the New York County (Manhattan) District Attorney’s Office. As a key assistant to special prosecutor Thomas Dewey, she is credited with establishing key facts in the prosecution of mobster Charlie “Lucky” Luciano. After a brief period as a social worker, Carter’s determination to use the law as an instrument for change grew stronger. In 1927, she enrolled in Fordham University School of Law as one of the few women and even fewer African Americans in her class. She faced both racial and gender biases but overcame them, becoming the first African American woman to graduate from Fordham Law in 1932. In 1947, Carter was one of fifteen American women invited to attend the first International Assembly on Women in Paris to discuss “human and educational problems affecting peace and freedom.” She remained busy and active in the NAACP & YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) amongst many other national and international organizations and committees. Eunice Hunton Carter died in New York City on January 25, 1970, at the age of seventy. Much respect to her lasting legacy.