#rootdisruptor

#RootDisruptor: Martin Delany Martin Robison Delany was an African-American abolitionist, journalist, physician and writer. He was born free in Charles Town, West Virginia (then part of Virginia, a slave state). Delany was an outspoken Black nationalist, arguably the first; and is considered by some to be the grandfather of Black nationalism. He was also one of the first three Blacks admitted to Harvard Medical School. Trained as an assistant and a physician, he treated patients during the cholera epidemics of 1833 and 1854 in Pittsburgh, when many doctors and residents fled the city. Active in recruiting Blacks for the United States Colored Troops, he was commissioned as a major, the first African-American field officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War. https://www.instagram.com/p/CLXs_JSF_1HAz9s76j8pcF-i_XIIltm23-hXgM0/?igshid=ae9nv5r0rj8d

Today we honor #RootDisruptor‬ Miriam Makeba. Miriam Makeba or “Mama Africa,” was a South African singer and civil rights activist, known for denouncing apartheid on the world stage and campaigning abroad for the end of the oppressive policy. As a result of her activism, her South African passport was revoked in 1960 by the apartheid regime, and they banned her from returning to her country in 1963. However, the world came to Makeba’s aid and Guinea, Belgium and Ghana issued her international passports. She received passports from six other countries in her lifetime, and was granted honorary citizenship in 10 countries. Despite the success that made her a star, she refused to wear makeup or curl her hair for performances, proudly wearing what came to be known internationally as the “Afro-look.” Her fourth marriage to civil rights activist, Black Panther, and Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968 caused controversy in the United States, and her record deals and tours were canceled. The couple then moved to Guinea, and as the apartheid system crumbled, she returned to South Africa for the first time in 1990. #BlackHistory

Today's #RootDisruptor is none other than: Anna Arnold Hedgemen. A civil rights leader, politician, and writer, Anna Arnold Hedgemen was also the first African-American student at Hamline University, a Methodist college in Minnesota. After college she became a teacher, and during her tenure, Hedgemen witnessed segregation and decided to fight for its end. After holding a position as assistant dean of women at Howard University in 1946, Hedgemen later moved to New York and became the first African-American woman to hold a mayoral cabinet position in the history of the state. #BlackHistoryMonth #BlackHistory #Our#History #BHM

Today we honor #RootDisruptor Madam Tinubu. Madam Efunroye Tinubu was born in Yorubaland, an area that is referred to as pre-colonial Nigeria (early to mid 19th century). She was a major political and business player, who campaigned against the influence of the British Empire over her people and for the elimination of slavery. She became the first Iyalode of the Egba clan and is considered an important figure in Nigerian history because of her political significance as a powerful female aristocrat in West Africa. Iyalode (queen of ladies) is a title commonly bestowed on the most prominent and distinguished woman in a town. After Tinubu, a former slave trader herself, realized the treatment of Africans enslaved in Europe and the Americas was far more inhumane than the way slavery was practiced in Africa, she became a scathing opponent of all forms of slavery and used her influence to try to eliminate the practice in her region.

In honor of Black History Month, we're celebrating the innovators and game-changers who 'disrupted' our history all month long. Today we honor the legacy of Robert Smalls. Robert Smalls was an enslaved African-American born into slavery in Beaufort, S.C., who after the American Civil War, became a sea captain and politician. He freed himself, his crew and their families from slavery on May 13, 1862, when he led an uprising aboard a Confederate transport ship, the CSS Planter, in Charleston harbor, and sailed it north to freedom. His feat successfully helped persuade President Abraham Lincoln to accept African-American soldiers into the Union Army. #RootDisruptor #BlackHistory #OurHistory #BlackHistoryMonth #BHM2015

Today we honor the legacy of Septima Poinsette Clark. Septima Poinsette Clark is perhaps the only woman to play a significant role in educating African Americans for full citizenship rights without gaining sufficient recognition. Known as the “Grandmother of the American Civil Rights Movement,” Septima Poinsette Clark developed the literacy and citizenship workshops that played an important role in the drive for voting rights and civil rights for African Americans. In 1920, while serving as an educator in Charleston, Clark worked with the NAACP to gather petitions allowing blacks to serve as principals in Charleston schools. #RootDisruptor #BlackHistoryMonth #OurHistory #Legend #BlackHistory