The Lesson (Black History) Lyrics

Be thoughtful of origin, heritage and culture

It is essential to becoming the person of substance

Your ancestors intended you to be

The Lesson Black History

H("i")pnotic and Chris Beatz Leath

Acknowledging online databases

Because of Them We Can and

The Black History Education Zone

Reminding everyone to

Celebrate all year long

Reflect on this history with me

Affirming facts of the 19th and 20th Centuries

In January

1863 Emancipation Proclamation is delivered

1955 opera soloist Marian Anderson performs at the Metropolitan Opera

1986 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday is declared

By the United States government a federal holiday

In February

1865 John S. Rock who coined the phrase

Black is Beautiful is admitted to the bar of

The United States Supreme Court

1926 Carter G. Woodson establishes Negro History Week

Later becoming Black History Month

In March

1827 the Freedom's Journal is established

1857 the consequential Dred Scott v. Sanford Plessy v. Ferguson decision

Is rendered by the United States Supreme Court

1988 Author Toni Morrison is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved

In April

1947 Jackie Robinson signs a contract with

The Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team

1974 Hammering Hank Aaron hits his 715th homerun

Shattering the previous records

In May

1875 Jockey Oliver Lewis wins the first Kentucky Derby

1954 the United States Supreme Court renders its

School anti-segregation decision in Brown v. The Board of Education Of Topeka Kansas

Per the 14th Constitutional Amendment

Sparking renewed efforts for equality

Protests and Freedom Rides

In June

1864 Seaman Joachim Pease earns the Congressional Medal of Honor

For bravery in battle

1865 United States federal troops assure

The Texas state government recognizes that enslaved men women and children are now freed

Two years after the Emancipation Proclamation

We now celebrate Juneteenth to commemorate this significant moment

In July

1852 Frederick Douglass delivers his hallmark speech

Known as What To The Slave Is The 4th Of July

1948 Althea Gibson wins the tennis championship at Wimbledon

Arthur Ashe follows her lead in 1975

In August

1936 Jesse JC Owens wins three gold medals at the Olympics

1963 hundreds of thousands of people gather for

The March on Washington DC for Jobs and Freedom

In September

1859 Harriet E. Wilson publishes Our Nig Sketches from the Life of a Free Black

1975 Daniel Chappie James becomes a four-star general in the United States Air Force

In October

1951 Opera singer and music teacher Belinda Staten Womack is born

And becomes a tremendous light

Through her gift of music education to all

1944 The implementation of the US Naval WAVES program

Leads to Harriet Ida Pickens and Frances Wills

Becoming commissioned officers

In November

1887 Granville T. Woods makes it possible for

Moving trains to communicate with each other

Decreasing accidents with his invention in railway telegraphy

1945 John H. Johnson publishes Ebony Magazine

1968 Shirley Chisholm is elected to the United States House of Representatives

And eventually becomes a formidable contender

For the 1972 presidential primary

Her slogan Unbought and Unbossed

In December

1849 Harriet Tubman escapes from the bowels of chattel slavery

And becomes an iconic beacon of hope

In the quest for freedom for every generation thereafter

1950 Ralph Bunche earns the Nobel Peace Prize

For his work in the Middle East through the United Nations

Celebrate with me

Facts in Black History especially in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Black Black History

Not just for you and me

But for everybody