meet our black history month heroes

As Hurston grew up in Florida, she became well-known for her fiery intellect, kindness and sense of humor. Hurston’s friends even said that she had a talent of sorts – “of walking into hearts.” After moving to New York, she used this talent to rise to prominence in the crowd of intellectuals, socialites and artists centered in Harlem. Hurston was able to befriend many influential writers, artists and actors, and eventually became one of the leaders of the literary and artistic renaissance happening in Harlem, which spanned 1919 – 1935. It was said that Hurston had the ability to capture the attention of strangers simply by being herself and telling them her stories, which left them so charmed by her that they would offer to help her pursue her dreams in any way they could. Her kind nature and bold personality helped pave the path to her becoming the most significant and successful female African-American author of the first half of the twentieth century, during a career that spanned over 30 years. In that time, she wrote essays, plays, novels and children's literature, as well as worked at the Library of Congress and taught at North Carolina College for Negroes (now North Carolina Central University). Hurston’s powerful literary works, including her masterpiece, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), are invaluable contributions to our shared history and culture. Her mother would say to her, “Jump at de sun” because “We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.” Hurston reminds us that acts of kindness and compassion, as well as true human connection and an understanding of history, can make all the difference in life and how we approach it.

Wilma was born into a life full of challenges from the very start, but luckily, she was one of 22 children, which provided just what she needed; a big support system! Her family made sure never to let anything hold her back. She had to overcome several bouts of serious illnesses as a child but the worst of them was polio, which caused her infantile paralysis. She lost strength in her left leg and foot, leaving her physically disabled for much of her early life. Doctors told Rudolph that she would never walk again, but her mom encouraged her and she became determined to heal. When her fierce daughter was 11 years old, Rudolph's mother discovered her playing basketball outside as the result of her family's help to rehabilitate her. She then turned to sports and was a natural, and after a college coach met her, he persuaded her to try track and field. This pivotal moment set Rudolph on the path to success, and she won a bronze medal, at the age of just 16, at the Melbourne Olympic Games. She became known as “the fastest woman in the world” at the 1960 Summer Games in Rome, when she became the first American woman to win three gold medals during a single Olympics. Throughout her lifetime, she used her platform to speak about many social issues and she started an organization to help young track and field stars train at Tennessee State University. Rudolph was also inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983, in the very first group of inductees, which just goes to show that you can do anything with determination and support.

George Washington Carver was born in Missouri before slavery was abolished. His master, Moses Carver, was a German immigrant who had purchased George's mother in 1855, and later rescued the infant George when he was kidnapped with his mother, although, sadly, she was not recovered. Luckily, his brother had remained safe in Missouri and the brothers were reunited, and, after slavery was abolished, they were encouraged to learn to read and write, and to go to school. One night, George slept in a barn near a school for black children that he hoped to attend, meeting the farm’s owner, Mariah Watkins, by accident. When asked his name, he replied "Carver's George." Watkins, herself a former slave, told him that from now on, his name was "George Carver," and allowed the teen to live on her farm while he attended school. This profound moment was the beginning of Carver's independence, and eventually led him to study in Iowa, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in agriculture in 1894. His accomplishment made Carver the first black student to attend Iowa State, from which he also obtained a masters in 1896. Moving from Iowa to Alabama, Carver became an instructor at Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute, where he would teach for the rest of his career. His work as the institute’s director of agricultural research gained him national recognition and respect as a botanist as he fought to renew millions of acres of exhausted Southern farmland through the planting of such crops as peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes. And what he remembered most through all of his influential life was what Watkins had said to him the first night that they met in her barn: "You must learn all you can, then go back out into the world and give your learning back to the people.”