Who's your favorite "person of African descent?"

In My Humble Opinion
1

Sound like a school project? Well, it is. WhyKid (sixth grade), to coincide with Black History Month, needs to research and write a timeline of the life of a “person of African descent.” Since this is for Reading class, I’m assuming it means he has to read a book about it.

Any ideas? In the past, we’ve done the obvious: Martin Luther King, Jr., George Washington Carver, etc.

I suggested Malcom X or Huey P. Newton, but that got me a :rolleyes: from the kid. He doesn’t think it would go over well. And he’s probably right. He’s the lone blond kid in an African, Asian and Mexican descent class.

I next suggested Charlize Theron, who is blond and blue-eyed and obviously Anglo-Saxon, but was born and raised in South Africa. That got me a “MOOOOO-oooom!” and he left the room. (Yes, I was kidding with that one. More or less.)

Any ideas?

2

Mine is my niece. I wish I got to see her more often.

3

If we’re talking about a famous person, particularly African Americans, I say kids can’t go wrong learning about Thurgood Marshall.

4

Dave Matthews is of South African descent, as well. But it sounds like that’s not exactly the direction he wants to head in.

Everyone will be picking MLK, Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X. If he really wants to be different, he could focus on Thurgood Marshall, or even possibly Jimi Hendrix. Both were very important in their respective arenas.

5

Nelson Mandela would be a good choice.

6

Yeah, if he’s the lone blond kid, I think Thurgood would be an excellent choice. Kind of like “this guy is the reason why we all can go to school together.” And the first Black Supreme Court Justice to boot.

7

Shirley Chisholm just died recently. She might be another interesting choice.

8

Frederick Douglass - probably people will pick him but he was a brilliant man, strong in character and intelligence

Sojourner Truth - Amazing orator, feminist, one of my first heros of youth - possibly because at the time I was fascinated with her height (I was like 8 at the time)

Madam CJ Walker - Entrepreneur, successful in rough times (I’m reading a book written by her great great granddaughter right now)

WEB Du Bois - Brilliant mind, sociologist, interesting discussion of race, interesting to talk of his relationship and differences to Booker T Washington (also brilliant mind)

Langston Hughes - PHENOMENAL poet, 'nuff said.

Ralph Ellison - writing that would move you to tears

Nikki Giovanni - Great current poetwho came of age during the 60s and 70s and has sharp take on more current race relations

Gwendolyn Brooks - another fantastic poet

Just some of my favorites. If you son was interested, some of the Black Power movement guys (Cleaver, Carmichael, etc) or even Malcom X (the autobiography is fantastic!) would be interesting to talk about in regards to how and why they split from MLK and how they began to feel by the 60s. I did a report like that in 10th grade.

I don’t know why the kids in his class would feel animosity toward him for talking about people who don’t always get taught about in school. I was one of three white people in a college discussion section in my African American History class. One of the guys asked us (the white kids) how we felt learning a different, and at times more negative, perspective on American history than what is commonly taught in high schools. He seemed generally surprised and pleased to find out that we all came in knowing a decent about about this part of history. But then again, that was college, not junior high. :slight_smile:

Okay, I’m officially a bookworm. I’ll just stop talking now. I hope my rambling helped!

9

Jesse Jackson is quite interesting, as is Eldridge Cleaver (though very controversial, and I’m not sure how well a sixth grader would get on with ‘Soul on Ice’). I agree with Thurgood Marshall as well.
Actually, I’d go for Mary Seacole. British/West Indian nurse who was/is lesser known than Florence Nightingale but had as impressive a career. Some info:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1387245,00.html If you want african americans that’s obviously not going to be helpful.

10

Biggirl. She’s a way bigger smartass than any of these other people mentioned.

Also, Shirley Chisholm.

11

Charlize Theron is a prominent African-American. I like Charlize Theron.

Don’t mind me, I’m just pointing out that the phrase “African-American” is useless.

12

Jackie Robinson.

13

Guess I should have read the entire OP.

14

How about Bob Marley. He is back in the news once again with his widow’s plans to have his body exhumed and reburied in Ethiopia for his 60th birthday. He is quite a fascinating individual, and there are quite a few ways to approach the report: you could focus on Marley’s music, on his influence on Jamaican society, on his involvement with Rastafarianism, etc.

15

If you want to go a little bit into left field, how about Major Taylor? He was one of the highest paid athletes, of any color, in the early part of the c20th. One of the great unsung heroes in both the fields of professional sport and combatting prejudice.

16

I’ll second Thurgood Marshall but more as a crusading civil rights lawyer than as a Supreme Court Justice.

I nominate LeRoy “Satchell” Paige, the famous baseball pitcher and Halle Berry’s favorite, Dorothy Dandridge.

17

If you go back far enough were all people of “African descent”. So maybe Lucy or one of her cousins. Barring that, I’d like to add Jesse Owens, any number of early jazz greats, Josephine Baker, there’s just a ton of folks to choose from. Maybe you can take him on a trip to the library and look through some of the displays and see if anyone’s history interests him.

18

Especially considering that the OP didn’t once say anything about African-Americans.

19

Harlem jazz baby Florence Mills! There’s even a new book out about her.

20

How about Paul Robeson?

I’d like to say Jack Johnson, but if Huey Newton or Malcolm X wouldn’t go over well, I suppose he wouldn’t either (and parts of his story would be pretty risque for sixth grade).

And I guess Nat Turner would be right out, too.