black historee month

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Black Celebs Who Risked Fame & Fortune To Move Us Forward



Jackie Robinson

Born Jan. 31, 1919, in Cairo, Ga., Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play major league baseball.

As an exceptional baseball player, Robinson faced blatant racial discrimination during his career, but he did not let it deter him from integrating the league.

Robinson also became a vocal champion for African-American athletes, the civil rights movement and other social and political causes. In July 1949, he testified on discrimination before the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1952, he publicly called out the Yankees as a racist organization for not having broken the color barrier five years after he began playing with the Dodgers.

source: biography.com

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Black Celebs Who Risked Fame & Fortune To Move Us Forward


Harry Belafonte

A multi-talented performer, Harry Belafonte was born on March 1, 1927, in New York City to Caribbean parents. He was dubbed the “King of Calypso” for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing, “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” with its signature lyrics. He is also known for starring in major films.

Belafonte supported the civil rights movement in the 1950s and was one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s confidants. Like many other civil rights activists, he was blacklisted during the McCarthy era.

Throughout his career, Belafonte has been vocal in pushing our people’s rights forward. Even to this day, he has been critical of the last two administrations and the lack of activism by current celebrities. He is also actively protesting the “Stand Your Ground” laws in the name of the slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.

source: wikipedia.com

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Black Celebs Who Risked Fame & Fortune To Move Us Forward

Bill Russell

The Hall Of Fame basketball player is known as one of the greatest winners of all time, victorious in 11 NBA championships. However, even though he was one of the greatest players to ever play, Russell faced intense discrimination while playing in Boston.

For our people, Russell’s role off the basketball court was equally important as it was on it. Russell has been a consistent advocate of equality. As a highly visible public figure in the years when the country was emerging from a century of legally sanctioned discrimination, Russell threw his prestige behind the dawning civil rights movement, participating with Martin Luther King Jr. During the historic 1963 March on Washington, Russell sat in the front row to hear King’s inspiring “I Have a Dream” speech.

Russell was a prominent voice among athletes during the civil rights era and he paved the way for many black athletes to play without fear or discrimination.

source: hoop-nation.com

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Black Celebs Who Risked Fame & Fortune To Move Us Forward

Sidney Poitier

More than an actor and Academy-Award winner, Sidney Poitier is an artist. A writer and director, a thinker and critic, a humanitarian and diplomat, his stature as a cultural icon was built on his stance against human suffering.

Throughout the 1950s, the Bahamian entertainer starred in important and controversial movies. Addressing issues of racial equality abroad, he made “Cry, The Beloved Country” about apartheid in South Africa and “To Sir, With Love,” about social and racial issues in London. He later took on problems closer to home in “Blackboard Jungle” and especially, “The Defiant Ones,” about two escaped prisoners who must overcome issues of race in their struggle for freedom.

For his role in “The Defiant Ones,” Poitier was nominated for an Academy Award.

Source: pbs.org

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Black Celebs Who Risked Fame & Fortune To Move Us Forward


Josephine Baker

Baker was the first African-American female to star in a major motion picture, Zouzou (1934), to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer.

Baker refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States, and her insistence on mixed audiences helped to integrate shows in certain parts of the country. Baker also worked with the NAACP and in 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of Martin Luther King Jr. Baker was the only official female speaker and she introduced the “Negro Women for Civil Rights.”

source: wikipedia.com

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Black Celebs Who Risked Fame & Fortune To Move Us Forward


Peter Tosh

Peter Tosh of Jamaica was more than a luminary in the development of reggae music. He was the ultimate firebrand, speaking out against oppression around the world in both his songs and his public statements. He was a man who demonstrated the power of personal and artistic integrity, pride and defiance in the face of authoritarian power. His music’s insurrectionary fervor has inspired artists of all stripes, from reggae disciples to punk-rock acolytes like The Clash.

His work trumpeted freedom and the struggle against injustice, and he emphasized the connection between music and revolution by toting a guitar in the shape of an M-16 rifle. Hounded, beaten and jailed by Jamaican authorities, Tosh never backed down or soft-pedaled his views.

Among the causes about which he spoke most eloquently and campaigned most tirelessly were the peril of nuclear weapons and the injustice of South African apartheid. Tosh was the first major songwriter to discuss the apartheid issue openly.

source: petertosh.com

woo figgit wen peter tosh told dem fe open da gates so dat de poor afrikkan cood see da parfarmance

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Black Celebs Who Risked Fame & Fortune To Move Us Forward

Paul Robeson

Robeson stands as one of the most accomplished African-American figures to spring forth from the Harlem Renaissance movement early during the1920s. Excelling in both academics and athletics, Robeson would later take on singing and acting on his way to becoming an international sensation.

Robeson also supported pan-Africanism and did his best to be a champion for blacks and other oppressed people. In the political climate of McCarthyism coupled with the Cold War, Robeson was singled out for his outspoken ways. Although by 1950 he was world famous for his portrayal of Othello, he was labeled a communist and barred from obtaining a passport. Later, he was blacklisted from performing in domestic venues and studios.

source: newsone.com

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Black Celebs Who Risked Fame & Fortune To Move Us Forward



Fela Kuti

Fela was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and composer, pioneer of the Afrobeat, human rights activist, and political maverick.

Kuti thought it most important for Africans to fight European cultural imperialism by supporting traditional African religions and lifestyles. The American Black Power movement also influenced Fela’s political views; he was a supporter of pan-Africanism and socialism, and called for a united, democratic African republic.

He was a candid supporter of human rights and many of his songs are direct attacks against dictatorships, specifically the militaristic governments of Nigeria in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1984, Muhammadu Buhari’s government of which Kuti was a vocal opponent, jailed him on a charge of currency smuggling that Amnesty International and other rights groups denounced as politically motivated. Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience, and his case was also taken up by other groups. After 20 months, he was released from prison by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, leader of a coup against Buhari.

source: wikipedia.com

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Black Celebs Who Risked Fame & Fortune To Move Us Forward


Steve Biko

Biko was an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. He founded the Black Consciousness Movement that would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody in 1977, he has been called a martyr of the anti-apartheid movement.

While he lived, his writing and activism empowered black people, and he was famous for the slogan “Black is Beautiful,” which he described as meaning: “Man, you are okay as you are, begin to look upon yourself as a human being.”

source: wikipedia.com

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Black Celebs Who Risked Fame & Fortune To Move Us Forward


Dick Gregory

Gregory is African-American comedian and civil rights activist whose social satire changed the way white Americans perceived black comedians from his first public performance.

Gregory’s activism has continued until the present day. In response to published allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency had supplied cocaine to predominantly African-American areas in Los Angeles, thus spurring the crack epidemic, Gregory protested at CIA headquarters and was arrested.

In 1992, he began a program called “Campaign for Human Dignity” to fight crime in St. Louis neighborhoods.

Source: dickgregory.com

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Black Celebs Who Risked Fame & Fortune To Move Us Forward


Tommie Smith and John Carlos

The 1968 Olympics Black Power salute was an act of protest by the African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos during their medal ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. As they turned to face their flags and hear the American national anthem, they each raised a black-gloved fist and kept them raised until the anthem had finished. Smith, Carlos and Australian silver medalist Peter Norman also all wore human rights badges on their jackets. In his autobiography, Silent Gesture, Tommie Smith stated that the gesture was not a “Black Power” salute, but a “human rights salute.”

Smith and Carlos were largely ostracized by the U.S. sporting establishment and they were subject to criticism. Time magazine showed the five-ring Olympic logo with the words, “Angrier, Nastier, Uglier,” instead of “Faster, Higher, Stronger”. After returning to the United States, they were subject to abuse and their families received death threats.

source: wikipedia.com

[Wahalla]

Black Celebs Who Risked Fame & Fortune To Move Us Forward

Paul Robeson

Robeson stands as one of the most accomplished African-American figures to spring forth from the Harlem Renaissance movement early during the1920s. Excelling in both academics and athletics, Robeson would later take on singing and acting on his way to becoming an international sensation.

Robeson also supported pan-Africanism and did his best to be a champion for blacks and other oppressed people. In the political climate of McCarthyism coupled with the Cold War, Robeson was singled out for his outspoken ways. Although by 1950 he was world famous for his portrayal of Othello, he was labeled a communist and barred from obtaining a passport. Later, he was blacklisted from performing in domestic venues and studios.

source: newsone.com

I am a huge fan of theman
yep all true and it is forgotten that he was a communist who was an apologist for the soviet union....He was what u describe repeatedly as a sell out having sex with numerous white starlets... while married... Including Dame Peggy Ashcroft... During the so called civil rights movement he was rejected by the civil rights movement and Malolm X.....

[Wahalla]

Black Celebs Who Risked Fame & Fortune To Move Us Forward


Josephine Baker

Baker was the first African-American female to star in a major motion picture, Zouzou (1934), to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer.

Baker refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States, and her insistence on mixed audiences helped to integrate shows in certain parts of the country. Baker also worked with the NAACP and in 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of Martin Luther King Jr. Baker was the only official female speaker and she introduced the “Negro Women for Civil Rights.”

source: wikipedia.com

again yu would describe her as a oyibo plaything after all she had a number of european sexual parnters..As for the topless dancing at the Follie Bergie she was a star...I am sure the prudes and She spent more time living in France than the US .. She was member of the Marqui during WWII, transporting messages and helping allied air men who were shot down......She was awarded the Legion de Honnouir for her service. she survived the Nazi occupation... when she started a ophanage and went bankrupt looking after ophans.. But she did i beleive support the War in Algeria and Vietnam by the French by singing to the troops but i could be wrong... I would love to hear Blackstar take on this.....

[Wahalla]

Black Celebs Who Risked Fame & Fortune To Move Us Forward



Jackie Robinson

Born Jan. 31, 1919, in Cairo, Ga., Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play major league baseball.

As an exceptional baseball player, Robinson faced blatant racial discrimination during his career, but he did not let it deter him from integrating the league.

Robinson also became a vocal champion for African-American athletes, the civil rights movement and other social and political causes. In July 1949, he testified on discrimination before the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1952, he publicly called out the Yankees as a racist organization for not having broken the color barrier five years after he began playing with the Dodgers.

source: biography.com

It is forgotten he was courtmarshalled in WWII as a officer....he had a son who migrated to Tanzania....

[Wahalla]

Black Celebs Who Risked Fame & Fortune To Move Us Forward

Muhammad Ali

Former professional boxer Muhammad Ali is generally considered among the greatest heavyweights in the sport’s history. A controversial and even polarizing figure during his early career, Ali is today widely regarded not only for the skills he displayed in the ring but for the values he exemplified outside of it: religious freedom, racial justice and the triumph of principle over expedience.

When Ali appeared on the scene, it was popular among those in the vanguard of the civil rights movement to take the “safe” path. That path was unsafe for those who participated in the struggle. Too many men and women were subjected to economic assaults, violence and death when they carried the struggle “too far.”

Then along came Ali, preaching not “white American values,” but freedom and equality of a kind rarely seen anywhere in the world. And as if that wasn’t threatening enough, Ali attacked the status quo from outside of politics and the accepted strategies of the civil rights movement.

source: .gilderlehrman.org

Some things in life are unforgivable... What Ali did to Fraser outside the ring is one of them.....Nothing Ali did can remidiate from Alis cruety and inhumanity... they were lower than what the rascist did to him....