February 1 ,2026

I know it's frigidly cold in most of the Northeast right now, but here is a man that braved even colder temperatures.

- First African American Arctic explorer.
- Recognized as the first person to reach the North Pole in 1909.
- in 1937, became the first African American accepted into the exclusive international Explorer's Club due to his achievement.
- Made six voyages and spent a total of 18 years in expeditions.
- At the age of 70, received an award from the U.S. Navy and a gold medal from the Chicago Geographic Society.

Hayestorically speaking, he was a real cool guy...

I really debated if I should end with that awful pun, so I will probably not include it in this article.

February 2, 2026

Here is a woman that understood the complete assignment! She was a boss in a time when they wanted women to be silent.

- In 1903, founded St. Luke Penny savings Bank in Richmond, VA.
- First female bank president of any race to charter a bank in the United States
- Served as chairman of the board of directors when the bank merged with two other Richmond banks to become, The Consolidated Bank and Trust company.
- She said, " let us put our money together; let us use our money; let us put our money out at usury among ourselves, and reap the benefit ourselves."
- A visionary, she established a newspaper, The St. Luke herald, to promote closer communication between businesses and the public.
- Received an honorary master's degree from Virginia Union University in 1925.
- Inducted into the junior achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2001.

I wonder if she would have been a sponsor for Various Fields.

February 3, 2026

This gentleman right here really understood the importance of history for everyone!

- Pan-Africanist writer, historian, professor.
- Pioneer in the creation of Africana studies and professional institutions in academia starting in the late 1960s.
- Founded the African Heritage Studies Association and the Black Caucus of the African Studies association in 1968.
- Challenged the views of academic historians and helped shift the way African history was studied and taught.
- Actively deconstructed the lies, propaganda, and miseducation of White supremacy via lectures, debates, academic research, and books.
- Met and mentored many of the great minds throughout the African diaspora.
- One of his landmark works is a documentary called "A Great and Mighty Walk", about his life and the history of Africans throughout time and across the globe.

February 7, 2026

- Guyanese-
born literary critic, linguist, and anthropologist.

- Associate professor of African Studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
- In 1976 published the book, "They Came Before Columbus," that features his arguments for an African origin of Mesoamerican culture in the Western Hemisphere.
- Achieved widespread attention within the African-American community for his claims of prehistoric African contact and diffusion of culture in Central and South America.
- In 1983, authored "The Lost Sciences of Africa: An Overview," that discusses early African advances in metallurgy, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, engineering, agriculture, navigation, medicine, and writing.

February 8, 2026

- American civil aviator known as "Queen Bess".
- First woman of African-American and Native American descent to hold a pilot license and first American to earn an international pilot's license.
- In 1921, she received her international pilot license in France because no flight school in America would train a colored woman.
-Her goals were to expose her people to the world of aviation. She desired to speak to audiences, and their children, to inspire them to get involved in the flight industry.
- In 1926, she fell to her death while practicing for one of her famous stunt shows. Evidence later indicated her plane may have been tampered with.
- Inducted international aviation Hall of Fame in 2006. 

This queen was really the first fly girl.

February 9, 2026

- Canadian-American inventor and engineer.
- Son of former slaves from Kentucky who escaped via Underground Railroad to Canada.
- Although a great financial sacrifice, McCoy's parents sent him to Edinburgh Scotland; he studied mechanical engineering.
- Noted for 57 U.S. patents, most involved the lubrication of steam engines.
- Sold many of his patents for a fraction of their worth; never capitalized on his own inventions; the devices he designed made others millionaires.
- His oil-drip cup invention was so amazing, people termed the phrase "The Real McCoy" which now refers to something authentic and of high quality.

Another name that we need to know in history!

February 12, 2026

Kwame Nkrumah
September 21, 1909 - April 27, 1972

- Prime minister of Ghana between 1957 and 1960.
- President of Ghana from 1960 - 1966.
- Helped organize the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester, England in 1945.
- Declared the independence of Ghana from the United Kingdom in 1957.
- Announced plans for a new constitution, which made Ghana a Republic in 1960.
- Was awarded the Lenen Peace prize by the Soviet Union.
- Ghana became a founding member of the Organization of African Unity in 1963.
- In 2000, he was elected the greatest African of the millennium, by a vote in Africa.

February 13, 2026

Rube Foster
September 17, 1879 - December 9, 1930

- American baseball player, manager, and pioneer executive in the Negro leagues.
- Elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.
-Best African-American pitcher of the first decade of the 1900s.
-Organized the Negro National League (NNL), first long-lasting professional League for African-American ballplayers.
- Founded and managed the Chicago American Giants, one of the most successful black baseball teams.
- NNL played an exciting brand of baseball that kept the fans entertained. Their talent fueled the resurgence of the White-owned MLB, Major League Baseball.
- However, instead of NNL teams being consolidated into MLB and their owners getting to keep the teams, they were raided and picked apart for the best of their talent, a point illustrated in William C. Rhoden's book "$40 Million Dollar Slaves".

February 14, 2026

John Horse
1812-1882

- Black Seminole leader
- Helped renew resistance in the Second Seminole War with two dramatic escapes in 1837.
- Served as a U.S. Army Scout in Florida, helped negotiate the surrender of more than 500 Native Americans in 1838.
- Led the largest mass slave escape in U.S. history from Oklahoma to Mexico (1849-1850).
- Founded free black settlements in Oklahoma (1849) and Mexico (1851).
- Secured The communal title for the Black Seminoles to their land grant in Mexico, where descendants still live today.

February 15, 2026

Haitian Revolution
1791 - 1804

- Successful anti-slavery and anti-colonial insurrection overthrowing the French.
- Led to the West pulling out of the institution of slavery throughout the Americas.
- Only slave uprising that led to the founding of a state, free from slavery, and ruled by non-Whites and former captives.
- Self-liberated slaves destroyed slavery, fought to preserve their freedom, and with the collaboration of mulattoes, founded the sovereign state of Haiti.
- Challenged long-held beliefs about Black inferiority and enslaved person's capacity to achieve and maintain freedom.

February 16, 2026

Olmecs
Early as 1200 BCE to about 400 BCE

- The first great Mesoamerican civilization.
- Olmecs appeared to practice ritual bloodletting and played the Mesoamerican ballgame, hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoamerican societies.
- The Olmec civilization was first defined through artifacts that collectors purchased and considered among ancient America's most striking.
- Monumental sacred complexes, massive stone sculpture, ball games, chocolate drinking and animal gods are features of Olmec culture.
- Believed to be of African ancestry by African scholars and are heralded as one of the foundations of the book by Ivan Van Sertima entitled "They Came Before Columbus".
- The distinctly African features of a broad nose and thick lips led many to these conclusions.
- Some say the noses and lips are thick because of dull tools, however, they have impeccable eyelids and hair. If one can carve an eyelid, then why not a narrow nose?

February 17, 2026

The First Black Cowboys
(Image of Bass Reeves)

- One in four of America's cowboys were African-American.
- Many of the slaves in the 17th and 18th centuries were familiar with herding cattle from homelands of West Africa.
- Federation of Black Cowboys maintained the legacies of Black cowboys in America.
- Hollywood gave little attention to Black cowboys who made their mark in Western history.
- Notable Black cowboys: Bass Reeves, Ned Huddleston (aka Isom Dart), and William "Bill" Pickett.

February 18, 2026

Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable
1745 - August 28th, 1818

- Was born in San Domingo, Haiti, but the actual date is unknown.
- Frontier trader, trapper, farmer-entrepreneur, peacekeeper and protector of Native Americans.
- Founded a settlement that later became the city of Chicago in 1779.
- Well known for trading goods throughout Midwest; expanded his cabin to a trading post, which later became a small community with a church, school, and store.
- Had commercial buildings, docks, a mansion house with fruit orchards and livestock in 1776

February 19, 2026

Huey P. Newton, Ph. D.
February 17, 1942- August 22, 1989

- Political activist and revolutionary.
- Co-founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966.
- Overcame illiteracy and attended Merritt college and the University of San Francisco School of Law.
- In 1980, he earned a Ph.D. in social philosophy from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
- Allied for freedom, full employment, decent housing, education, and military exemption for African-Americans.
- Sponsored a free breakfast program for children, sickle-cell anemia tests, free food and shoes, and a school.
- He was shot and killed in Oakland California August 22nd, 1989.

February 20, 2026

Zumbi Dos Palmares
1655 - November 20, 1695

- Principal representative of Black resistance to slavery during the period of Colonial Brazil.
- The leader of Quilombo dos Palmares, a free community of slaves.
- In 1675, help defend Quilombo against Portuguese soldiers; known as a great warrior.
- Replaced Ganga Zumba in Palmares and commanded the resistance against Portuguese army in 1680.
- In 1695, was betrayed, denounced, and beheaded by former companion at the age of 40.
- Date of death, November 20, is the Brazilian national holiday, known as Black Consciousness day or Black Awareness Day.

February 21, 2026

Patrice Lumumba
July 2, 1925 - January 17, 1961

- Congolese Independence leader and first democratically-elected leader of Congo as prime minister, at the age of 35.
- Founder and leader of mainstream Mouvement National Congolais.
- Had an integral role in the campaign for Independence from Belgium.
- He Co-established the Mouvement National Congolais in 1958, to call for countrywide unity and freedom from colonial atrocities.
- He was assassinated in 1961.
- In 2013, the United States of America admitted President Eisenhower authorized his assassination.
- In 1964, Malcolm X said Lumumba was "... the greatest black man who ever walked the African continent..."

February 22, 2026

Angela Davis
January 26, 1944 - Present 

- Political activist, academic scholar, and author.
- The Leader of the Communist Party USA in the 1960s.
- Advocate for prisoner rights, she co-founded Critical Resistance, an organization working to abolish the prison-industrial complex.
- Membership In the Communist Party led to former Governor of California Ronald Reagan's request, in 1969, to bar her from teaching at any university in California.
- Conducts research on feminism, African-American studies, critical theory, Marxism, popular music, and social consciousness.
- Twice a candidate for Vice President on the Communist Party USA ticket during the 1980s.

February 23, 2026

Noble Drew Ali
January 8, 1886 - July 20, 1929

- Born Timothy Drew, but known as Noble Drew Ali.
- Founder of the Moorish Science Temple of America in 1913.
- Promoted that African-Americans are of Moorish ancestry, specifically from "Moroccan empire."
- Rejected derogatory labels such as "Black", "Colored," and "Negro."
- Included the projected ideologies of spiritual growth and evolution, as well as, enlightenment and oneness of Allah.
- Urged Americans of all races to reject hate and embrace love.

February 24, 2026

Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan
December 31, 1918 - March 19, 2015

- African-American writer and historian.
- Considered to be one of the most prominent Afro-centric scholars by some in the Black Nationalist community.
- Authored 49 books, primarily on ancient Nile Valley civilization and its influence on Western cultures.
- In 1945, received doctoral degrees in cultural anthropology and Moorish history from the University of Havana and the University of Barcelona, Spain.
- Appointed chairman of the African Studies Committee of the newly-founded United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1945.

February 25, 2026

Black Wall Street
Greenwood, suburb of Tulsa,
Oklahoma: 1906 - 1921

- One of the most successful black economies in American history.
- O.W. Gurly, a wealthy African-American from Arkansas, moved to Tulsa, purchased over 40 acres of land, and sold to other African-Americans in 1906.
- During oil boom of the 1910s, area of Northeast Oklahoma, around Tulsa flourished.
- Tulsa race riot of 1921, a two-day massacre of hundreds of Black residents started by a White mob.
- Over 800 people admitted to area hospitals, estimated 10,000 homeless, 35 city blocks housing 1,256 residences destroyed, and 600 successful businesses lost.
- The community mobilized its resources and rebuilt the Greenwood area within five years of the race riot in spite of political efforts to prevent reconstructionere...

February 26, 2026

Barack Hussein Obama II
August 4, 1961 - Present 

 - Served as 44th president of the United States, 2009-2017.
- First African-American to serve as president.
- First president born outside the contiguous United States.
- in 2010, enacted the Affordable Care Act (often referred to as "Obamacare"), designed to increase health insurance quality and affordability, reduce the cost of health care, and lower the uninsured rate by expanding insurance coverage.
- The first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review.
- Negotiated and normalize U.S. relations with Cuba in 2015.

- and much more...

February 27, 2026

Madam C.J. Walker
December 23, 1867- May 25, 1919

- Entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political/social activist
- First Black female self-made millionaire in America.
- World's most successful female entrepreneur of her time, and one of the most successful African-Americans.
- Made her fortune by developing and marketing a line of beauty and hair products for Black women.
- Made financial donations to numerous organizations and became a patron of the arts.
- In 1993, inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca, New York.

February 28, 2026

Fannie Lou Hamer
October 6, 1917 - March 14, 1977

- Voting rights activist, civil rights leader, and philanthropist.
- Worked for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
- Helped poor and needy families in her Mississippi community.
- Vice-chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP).
- Elected as a national Democratic Party delegate in 1972.
- Died on March 14, 1977, and according to The New York Times, "None of us would be where we are today had she not been here then."