Malcolm X ( May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), born Malcolm Little and also known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, h was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans; detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.
After a period of travel in Africa and the Middle East, which included completing the Hajj, he repudiated the Nation of Islam, disavowed racism and founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. He continued to emphasize Pan-Africanism, black self-determination, and black self-defense.
In February 1965, he was assassinated by three members of the Nation of Islam.
Martin Luther king:
Luther King, Jr, was an American Baptist minister, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He was born on January 25, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful 1962 struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia (the Albany Movement), and helped organize the 1963 nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama.
King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history, and He is remembered for this powerful speech which sought to bring about a united society, where race did not act as a barrier.
In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People’s Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee 1968. His death was followed by riots in many U.S. cities.
Nelson Mandela:
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist, who was born on the July 18, 1918 in Mvezo, South Africa, served as President of South Africa from May 10, 1994 – June 14, 1999 1994 to 1999.
He was the country’s first black chief executive, and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. Politically an African nationalist and democratic socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997.
Mandela was a controversial figure for much of his life. Denounced as a communist terrorist by critics, he faced particular opposition from supporters of apartheid. Conversely, he gained international acclaim for his activism, having received more than 250 honours, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Soviet Lenin Peace Prize
Mandela spent most of his life campaigning for an end to apartheid in South Africa. After over 27 years in prison, he was released and was able to be the first elected president in post-apartheid South Africa.
He died on the December 5, 2013, in Houghton Estate, Johannesburg, South Africa and he is held in deep respect within South Africa, where he is often referred to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba, or as Tata (“Father”), and described as the “Father of the Nation”.
Barack Obama
Many believe that the emergence of Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii), popularly called Barack Obama, as the 44th and first African American President of the United States, is in fulfilment of the Martin Luther King’s dream of racial equality.
Obama is a great American politician currently serving as the 44th President of the States. He is as well as the first president born outside of the continental United States.
He began his presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009.
Nine months after his inauguration, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Major domestic initiatives in his first term included the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as “Obamacare”; the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; and the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010.
Pele
Born Edson Arantes do Nascimento on October 23, 1940 in Três Corações, Brazil, Pele is a retired Brazilian professional footballer of black decent who played as a forward. He is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time. In 1999, he was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS).
He was named after Thomas Edison and nicknamed “Dico, and much later” Pelé’ during his school days, a name said to have been given him because of his mispronunciation of the name of his favourite player, local Vasco da Gama goalkeeper Bilé, but the more he complained the more it stuck. The name, though has no meaning in Portuguese, is said to be Hebrew for “miracle”.
His exploit in the round leather game, mild mannered Pele who used his fame and prestige for a positive well-known advocate of overcoming poverty inspired the game of football worldwide, especially in Africa.
Since retirement, Pele has become a global ambassador for sport and he was also appointed a UNESCO goodwill ambassador.
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) whose full name was Michael Joseph Jackson, was arguably the most successful pop-music star of our time. An African American, Jackson’s music videos, including those of “Beat It”, “Billie Jean”, and “Thriller” from his 1982 album Thriller, are credited with breaking racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. The popularity of these videos helped bring the television channel MTV to fame. He was a singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actor, and was recognised as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time by Guinness World Records. Due to his extraordinary exploit in pop music, Jackson earned himself the title of The King of Pop at the height of his career.
Jackson has won hundreds of awards, making him the most awarded recording artist in the history of popular music. He became the first artist in history to have a top ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in five different decades when “Love Never Felt So Good” reached number nine on May 21, 2014.
While preparing for his comeback concert series, This Is It, Jackson died of acute propanol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25, 2009, after suffering from cardiac arrest.
Oprah Winfrey
Born to an unwed teenage mother, Oprah Winfrey spent her first years on her grandmother’s farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi, while her mother looked for work in the North. Life on the farm was primitive, but her grandmother taught her to read at an early age, and at age three Oprah was reciting poems and Bible verses in local churches. Despite the hardships of her physical environment, she enjoyed the loving support of her grandmother and the church community, who cherished her as a gifted child.
In 1976, she moved to Baltimore to join WJZ-TV News as a co-anchor. There, she co-hosted her first talk show, People Are Talking, while continuing to serve as anchor and news reporter. She had found a niche that perfectly suited her outgoing, empathetic personality, and word soon spread to other cities. In January 1984, she was invited to Chicago to host a faltering half-hour morning program on WLS-TV. In less than a year, she turned AM Chicago into the hottest show in town. The format was soon expanded to an hour, and in September 1985 it was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show.
A year later, The Oprah Winfrey Show was broadcast nationally, and quickly became the number one talk show in national syndication. In 1987, its first year of eligibility, the show received three Daytime Emmy Awards in the categories of Outstanding Host, Outstanding Talk/Service Program and Outstanding Direction. The following year, the show received its second consecutive Emmy as Outstanding Talk/Service Program, and Oprah herself received the International Radio and Television Society’s “Broadcaster of the Year” Award. She was the youngest person ever to receive the honor.
Muhammad Ali
Born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; January 17, 1942), Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, generally considered among the greatest heavyweights in the history of the sport. A controversial and polarising figure during his early career, Ali is now highly regarded for the skills he displayed in the ring plus the values he exemplified outside of it: religious freedom, racial justice and the triumph of principle over expedience.[3][4] He is one of the most recognised sports figures of the past 100 years, crowned “Sportsman of the Century” by Sports Illustrated and “Sports Personality of the Century” by the BBC.
In 1967, three years after winning the heavyweight title, Ali refused to be conscripted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War. He was eventually arrested and found guilty on draft evasion charges and stripped of his boxing title. He did not fight again for nearly four years—losing a time of peak performance in an athlete’s career. Ali’s appeal worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where in 1971 his conviction was overturned. Ali’s actions as a conscientious objector to the war made him an icon for the larger counterculture generation.
Ali remains the only three-time lineal world heavyweight champion; he won the title in 1964, 1974, and 1978. Between February 25, 1964 and September 19, 1964 Muhammad Ali reigned as the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion
Bob Marley
Jamaican born Robert Nesta Marley (February 6, 1945-May 11, 1981), popularly called by the Nickname, ‘Bob’ Marley was a great Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter, musician, and guitarist with African maternal ancestry and stood firm for the emancipation of the Black race. He achieved international fame and acclaim through his revolutionary reggae music (a music genre of strong rhythm that originated in Jamaica in the 1960s).
Starting out in 1963 with the group The Wailers, he forged a distinctive song writing and vocal style that would later resonate with audiences worldwide. He is arguably the most successful member of the Rastafari- an Abrahamic belief which developed in Jamaica in the 1930s, following the coronation of Haile Selassie I as Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930 in which the adherents worship him in much the same as God the Father.
James Joseph Brown
Talking about those affected their generation musically, mention must be made of James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006), popularly known as James Brown, a great American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer and bandleader of Black origin. The founding father of funk music and a major figure of 20th century popular music and dance, he is often referred to as the “Godfather of Soul”. In a career that spanned six decades, Brown influenced the development of several music genres.
Brown began his career as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia. Joining an R&B vocal group called the Avons that later evolved to become the Flames, Brown served as the group’s lead singer. First coming to national public attention in the late 1950s as a member of the singing group the Famous Flames with the hit ballads “Please, Please, Please” and “Try Me”.
Serena Jameka Williams
Born September 26, 1981, is an American professional tennis player, who is ranked No. 1 in women’s singles tennis. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has ranked her world No. 1 in singles on six separate occasions. She became the world No. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002, and achieved this ranking for the sixth time on February 18, 2013. She is the reigning champion of the French Open, Wimbledon and Olympic women’s singles and doubles. Williams is regarded by some commentators and sports writers as the greatest female tennis player of all time.
Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Wood
Wood (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer who is among the most successful golfers of all time. He has been one of the highest-paid athletes in the world for several years.
Following an outstanding amateur and two-year college golf career, Woods turned professional at age 20 in late summer 1996. By April 1997 he had already won his first major, the 1997 Masters, in a record-breaking performance, winning the tournament by 12 strokes and pocketing $486,000. He first reached the number one position in the world rankings in June 1997. Through the 2000s, Woods was the dominant force in golf, spending 264 weeks from August 1999 to September 2004 and 281 weeks from June 2005 to October 2010 as World Number One.
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