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Dr. Evelyn Boyd Granville (May 1924 – Present) For Day 17 of Black History month, we’d like to highlight Dr. Evelyn Boyd Granville, an American computer scientist, mathematician and educator who was the second African American woman to graduate with a PhD in Mathematics from an American university (Yale).  After college she worked as a research assistant and taught mathematics at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. She relocated back to Washington D.C. and worked for the National Bureau of Standards, using math in the research and development of fuses for missiles. She then went on to work for IBM, who...

761st Tank Battalion Today we decided to take a slightly different approach, and instead of highlighting an individual, we decided to highlight a group of men. For day 16 of Black History Month, we highlight the 761st Tank Battalion a group of American soldiers and the first African American tank squad that saw combat during World War 2. They were known as the “Black Panthers” and their motto was “Come Out Fighting.” The “Black Panthers” were commanded by Lt. Colonel Paul L. Bates, who understood the racist attitudes towards African American soldiers at the time, and pushed the battalion to be better...

Selma Burke (December 31, 1900 – August 29, 1995) For day 15 of Black History Month, we’d like to highlight Selma Burke, an American artist, sculptor and educator, who was a part of the Harlem Renaissance movement. She is self-described as “a people’s sculptor” and created many public pieces of art that focused on prominent African American figures such as, Duke Ellington, Mary McLeod Bethune and Booker T. Washington (pictured). One of the works she is best known for, is her portrait in bronze of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which she competed in a national competition, for an opportunity to do the sculpture....

Benjamin O. Davis Jr. (December 18, 1912 – July 4, 2002)  For day 14 of #BlackHistoryMonth, we’d like to highlight General Benjamin O. Davis Jr., an American airman and officer, who became the first African American to rise to the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Air Force. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps in the military but had ambitions of becoming a pilot. In order to pursue this dream, he decided to enroll at West Point Military Academy. Davis naively entered West Point believing that his classmates would not reject him because of his race...

On this day in 1996, Tupac (2Pac) Shakur released the double album All Eyez on Me. Today we highlight track 10 which is entitled "Only God Can Judge." "Somebody help me, tell me where to go from here ‘Cause even thugs cry, but do the Lord care? Try to remember but it hurts I'm walkin' through the cemetery, talkin' to the dirt I'd rather die like a man than live like a coward There's a ghetto up in Heaven and it's ours "Black Power!" is what we scream As we dream in a paranoid state And our fate is a...