Black History Fever--Web 2.0 Style!

The intricacies of social networking can get downright infuriating at times--worrying about privacy issues; being exposed to pure, unrestrained idiocy and bigotry; etc.--but I also love that we get to share good things with so many people instantly. For that, I am truly thankful and excited.

This brings me to the Black History fever I've been feeling and seeing since yesterday, as evidenced on none other than Facebook! A number of users, including me, have been using their status updates to share with their comrades various facts that involve African-Americans. Here are just a few from Feb. 1-2, 2012:

• Day 2: Gotta throw my boy in here. - August Wilson (April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright whose work included a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Each is set in a different decade, depicting the comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience in the twentieth century.
• Francis Cecil Sumner was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in Psychology...known as the "Father of Black Psychology"
• One of the most gifted writer of the last century, Richard Wright is a Natchez/Jackson MS native. From humble beginnings to the toast of Paris, two of his books, Black Boy and Native Son, are essentials in anyone reading library. Using his characters to describe the terrible treatment and conditions, many blacks faced in the 1940's and 1950's, he put into words what very few had the ability to do. We salute you..this 1st day of Black History Month.
• It's Black History Month!!!! - Moses George Hogan (March 13, 1957 - February 11, 2003) was an African-American composer and arranger of choral music. He was best known for his very popular and accessible settings of spirituals. Hogan was a pianist, conductor and arranger of international renown. His works are highly celebrated and performed by high school, college, church, community, and professional choirs across the globe today. He died at the age of 45 of a brain tumour, and his survivors include his mother, a brother and four sisters. His interment was located at Mount Olivet Cemetery and Mausoleum.
• Originally a journalist inspired by the civil rights movement, Cornelius recognized that in the late 1960s there was no television venue in the United States for soul music, and introduced many African-American musicians to a larger audience as a result of their appearances on Soul Train.
• Factoid for the day: Garrett A. Morgan, born to former slaves in Mar. 1877, was the first inventor to apply for and acquire a U.S. patent for the three-position traffic signal. The patent was granted on November 20, 1923. Morgan later had the technology patented in Great Britain and Canada as well. So, if you appreciate the traffic light, thank Garrett Morgan for that! :-)
• On this day [Feb. 1] in 1960, students from North Carolina A&T State University staged a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, NC, beginning the first of the historic sit-ins of the 1960s.

Some of you know that I am passionate about educating the babies, but I'm passionate about education in general. What a fun way to do it! So catch the fever: it's good for you! Happy Black History Month!