July has been a banner month (so far!) for accolades and entries into the history books. We begin by tooting our own horn:
BlackPast.org! The
National Education Association (NEA) has a 150 year history of advocating for the educational rights of all children and particularly Black children. Each year, at the annual Human and Civil Rights Awards Dinner, the organization recognizes outstanding contributions made by educators. There are various awards named in honor of those whose efforts and achievements have been guiding lights. One of the awards is the
Carter G. Woodson Memorial Award. The historian and scholar
Carter G. Woodson was a pioneer in establishing the study of African American history as a rigorous discipline within departments of History at American universities. This year, the recipient of this prestigious award was Dr. Quintard Taylor Jr, the
Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History at the
University of Washington, in honor of his founding of the website
BlackPast.org, to which this blog is attached. Congratulations! A video of Dr. Taylor's speech can be found
here.
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| Claudia Alexander 1959-2015 |
Claudia Alexander passed away this month. She was a brilliant, pioneering planetary scientist who worked for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. She supervised the Galileo mission to Jupiter and
"managed the United States' role in the international comet-chasing Rosetta project". She conducted landmark research on the evolution and interior physics of comets, Jupiter and its moons, solar wind, and numerous other topics.
Renee Powell is one of only seven women, and the only Black woman, to be inducted this past week into the membership of the
Royal and Ancient Golf Club in St. Andrews, Scotland, the home of golf.
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| Renee Powell b.1946 |
After
Althea Gibson (professional tennis player and golfer), Powell is the second Black woman to play on the
LPGA tour. Powell's start in golf was the result of her father
Bill Powell's pioneering efforts in building
Clearview Golf Club, in East Canton, Ohio to give African Americans access to golf. He began by acquiring enough land to build a nine-hole golf course and finally a full 18-hole course. Today, Powell runs the Club.
Finally, while not July milestones, two milestones in the golfing sector passed away this year.
Charlie Sifford and
Calvin Peete. Mr. Sifford was the first African American golfer to play on the PGA tour and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2004. Mr. Peete won more PGA tours than any other African American at the end of the 20th century.
