January. The beginning of a new start. A new year. It’s so refreshing. But in a lot of areas in America, January is one of the coldest months to withstand! But regardless of weather or if there’s goals for the new year or not, amazing things have happened in January. I felt the need to do some reading. Update my knowledge. So I listed only six amazing things that have contributed to black history on this day.

Enjoy!

1908 – Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first Greek-lettered African-American sorority was founded on Howard University’s campus in Washington, D.C.

1929 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., clergyman, activist and leader of the Civil Rights Movement, was born in Atlanta, Georgia. King entered Morehouse College at 15 and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology in 1948. He then earned his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1951 and his Ph.D. from Boston University in 1955. King led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and in 1957 helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, serving as its first president. King was the 1957 recipient of the NAACP Spingarn Medal. On August 28, 1963, King led the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. In 1964, he became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. King was assassinated April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1971, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for “Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam.” He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Jimmy Carter July 11, 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. On October 10, 1980, his boyhood home and several nearby buildings were designated the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site. On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday to honor King and Martin Luther King Jr. Day was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time January 17, 2000. More than 750 cities in the United States have streets named in his honor. A memorial to King at the National Mall in Washington, D. C. opened October 16, 2011. “The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.” was published in 1998. King’s name is enshrined in the Ring of Genealogy at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan.

1933 – Author Ernest Gaines born in River Lake Plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. He is a prominent African-American fiction writer, is a writer-in-residence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His 1993 novel, A Lesson Before Dying, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In 2004, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1961 – Motown Records signed The Supremes.

1989- I was born!!! 🙂

January 15, 1989, Winnie Elizabeth Caldwell was born. St. Mary’s Hospital was introduced to this 9 lb. 10 oz baby. But Winnie’s birth wasn’t a normal circumstance. Nine months into the pregnancy, Winnie’s mother was attacked. The attacker broke in the home of Winnie’s mother, tried to take advantage of her and when she refused he attacked her in the worst way, with several stabs in her stomach. By the grace of God she’s alive and also Winnie and her brother Ishmael. Ishmael was 10 at the time and called 911 for help. Winnie learned of this altercation briefly as a child and in full graphic detail in her early twenties. Therefore Winnie knew she had a special purpose here. Let alone, she shares the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King and is named after Winnie Mandela. This testimony is very near and dear to Winnie but she decided to share with you as her guest because you’re near and dear to her. Seeing God saved her and her family’s life, Winnie realized the least she could do was minister to others through her passion, writing. Winnie has used testimonies to give advice to others and interviewed influential people to reach the masses. Winnie plans to do a lot more with her gifts and talents.

Winnie is not only a blogger but she’s a single mother of an 8 year old boy and reality never stops. But she refuses to stop chasing her dream of making her writing and her brand her ultimate career.

1998 – James Farmer, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on this date, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a citizen. Farmer was the co-founder and a National Director of CORE.

I always love learning as much as I can about black history! Why not look into the events that transpired on your birthday? You’ll be amazed at what was found. I will have to say there were some great accomplishments 1/15 and it motivates me to push farther. I challenge you reading this, to research the same!

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.”

-Robert Francis Kennedy

( U.S. attorney general and adviser, 1925-1968)

Be blessed!