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Today in Hip Hop History:

Here’s a list of some black inventors!

RIP

Cicely Tyson

1924-2021

Harlem Native

In many cultures, ethnic groups, and nations around the world, hair is considered a source of power and prestige. African people brought these traditions and beliefs to the Americas and passed them down through the generations.

In my mother’s family (Black Americans from rural South Carolina) the women don’t cut their hair off unless absolutely necessary (i.e damage or routine trimming). Long hair is considered a symbol of beauty and power; my mother often told me that our hair holds our strength and power. Though my mother’s family has been American born for several generations, it is fascinating to see the beliefs and traditions of our African ancestors passed down. We are emotionally and spiritually attached to our hair, cutting it only with the knowledge that we are starting completely clean and removing stagnant energy.

Couple this with the forced removal and covering of our hair from the times of slavery and onward, and you can see why so many Black women and men alike take such pride and care in their natural hair and love to adorn our heads with wigs, weaves, braids, twists, accessories, and sharp designs.

https://www.unheardvoicesmag.com

#blackhistory #blackhistorymonth #bhm #unheardvoicesmag

Edna Lewis by Mariona Lloreta

(April 13, 1916 – February 13, 2006)

Edna Regina Lewis was an American renowned chef, teacher, and author who helped refine the American view of Southern cooking. She’s often called the Julia Child of the South, but Edna Lewis really needs no such qualifier. She is a culinary icon in her own right. The granddaughter of emancipated slaves in Freetown, Virginia, Lewis was a celebrated chef in New York in the late 1940s and 1950s, a time when chefs who were black or female were a rarity, let alone both.. She championed the use of fresh, in season ingredients and characterized Southern food as fried chicken, pork, and fresh vegetables – most especially greens. She wrote and co-wrote four books which covered Southern cooking and life in a small community of freed slaves and their descendants.

10 years without you . Thank you for all you did for the culture . The doors you opened up for black women and supported the new comers . The hardship you endured being a mega star and even in death is disrespect even though you did so much and cared so much .

Mary W Jackson by Tracie Ching

April 9, 1921 – February 11, 2005)

Mary Jackson was an American mathematician and aerospace engineer at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which in 1958 was succeeded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. She worked at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, for most of her career. She started out in the computing unit at the segregated West Area Computing division in 1951. She took advanced engineering classes and, in 1958, became NASA’s first black female engineer.

After 34 years at NASA, Jackson had earned the most senior engineering title available. She realized she could not earn further promotions without becoming a supervisor. She accepted a demotion to become a manager of both the Federal Women’s Program, in the NASA Office of Equal Opportunity Programs and of the Affirmative Action Program. In this role, she worked to influence the hiring and promotion of women in NASA’s science, engineering, and mathematics careers.

Jackson’s story features in the 2016 non-fiction book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race. She is one of the three protagonists in Hidden Figures, the film adaptation released the same year.

In 2019, Jackson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.[2] In 2021, the Washington, D.C. headquarters of NASA was renamed the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters.