Volume 010 Issue 004 January 2016
Written by commuter student, Zachary Boyd
As President Barack Obama is winding down his presidency, I can only think about how far the African American community has come, starting from the slave trades to the Emancipation Proclamation to the Civil Rights Movement, and to now the Black Lives Matter movement. Although this month is mostly reflected on the struggle of gaining equal rights for everyone, the influence for the community could not be greater during this time.
Finally, you have the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Frederick Douglass, During the Harlem Renaissance, artists Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Oprah Winfrey, like Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, Malcolm X, and of course President Obama. Langston Hughes, Billie Holiday, and more They led by example by communicating gave the African American community a voice through the prism of representing the intelligent to let everyone know of the inequality that took side of African American community. They place, and empowered their culture not to also let the public know that they will not stop induce a situation that would endanger not only until each person has the same amount of equal themselves, but the entire community. rights as the next person. Then you have black inventors like George Washington Carver, Garrett Morgan, Madame C.J. Walker, and Lewis Howard Latimer, who changed the industrial landscape for society. These pioneers sparked the imaginations of young African American kids Designed, written and to not let discrimination dictate how far they edited by: Ericka Smith can contribute, and also to be creative and come up with new inventions and intricate devices that can better the world. The contributions that they made still impact society as a whole to make everyone’s life better.
For the African American community, the motivation to become better has never been more prevalent than now. With police violence being the heavy, maintained topic over the last two years, it is justifiable to be upset and angered by these series of unfortunate events. Talking about these issues with other people is the right way to simmer down the rage from the populace, but physically taking that anger on other people and businesses, will only enhance more violence. But if Black History has shown society anything, it is that the process for change is slowly coming around. 1