Colin Powell

Colin Powell

By: Warren Brown

Nearly 20 years ago, Chelsea House Publishers began to publish the first volumes in the series called BLACK AMERICANS OF ACHIEVEMENT. This series eventually numbered over a hundred books and profiled outstanding African Americans from many walks of life. Today, if you ask school teachers and school librarians what comes to mind when you mention Chelsea House, many will say “Black Americans of Achievement.” The mix of individuals whose lives we covered was eclectic, to say the least. Some were well known Muhammad Ali and Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr, for example. But others, such as Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, were lesser known figures who were introduced to modern readers through these books. [download]

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Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice 

By: Janet Hubbard Brown 

On November 14, 2004, Condoleezza Rice was riding in a limousine with her aunt, Genoa Ray McPhatter (called “Aunt G”), through Washington, D.C. They were on their way to meet a few friends to celebrate Rice’s fiftieth birthday. Rice was surprised when the driver stopped in front of the home of the British ambassador, David Manning. Though Rice protested that she could not enter the house in her casual dress, her aunt insisted. When she went inside, she found more than 100 friends including the president of the United States, George W. Bush, and his wife, Laura gathered to celebrate the woman Forbes magazine had recently named number one on their list of “the most powerful women in the world.”. [download]

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Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King 

By: Dale Evva Gelfand

Happily married to a prominent Baptist minister and civil rights leader and the mother of four beautiful children, Coretta Scott King had many blessings to count on Thursday, April 4, 1968. Still, experience had taught her to guard against being complacent about anything life had given her. Life with her husband, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had made Coretta particularly aware at times frighteningly so that hers would never be an ordinary family. That spring day, however, was shaping up to be a completely uneventful one. Coretta was at home in Atlanta, Georgia, taking care of her children. As was now customary, her husband was out of town this time in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was scheduled to lead a march to protest the unfair treatment of the city’s African American garbage collectors, who were demanding the same wages and safe working conditions as their white counterparts. [download]

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Danny Glover

Danny Glover

By: Gloria Blakely

“WHEN I VISITED that campus, my eyes opened up,” Danny Glover recalled in 1987. “I’d never seen that type of black student before. I didn’t know about Muslims before. But here was Elijah Muhammad talking about being black and selfsufficient. I wanted to learn more.” It was 1966 when Danny first set foot on the campus of San Francisco State University (SFSU) in California, and young black Americans were determined to have the full benefit of each and every right expressed in the new, most comprehensive Civil Rights Act (1964) ever to be passed by the U.S. Congress. Elijah Muhammad had become the first national leader of the Black Muslims, a group that had become a major force in the civil rights movement. [download]

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Barack Obama

Barack Obama

By: Heather Lahr Wagner 

On February 10, 2007, a crowd of more than 15,000 people gathered outside the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois. The Capitol, chosen as the backdrop for this gathering, is rich in historical connections. Although the building is a reconstruction, it was on this site that Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous “House Divided” speech in 1858, boldly stating, “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.” That speech that marked the beginning of his campaign for the U.S. Senate. As an attorney and politician, Lincoln spent a lot of time at the Capitol. As a state legislator, he had been involved in the campaign to relocate the Illinois capital from Vandalia to Springfield in 1837. Lincoln used the building for meetings during his 1860 presidential campaign, and, after his assassination, his body lay in state in its Representatives Hall. [download]

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Bob Marley

Bob Marley 

By: Sherry Beck Paprocki

Thousands of people crowded into Meskal Square in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to celebrate what would have been the sixtieth birthday of the legendary reggae singer Bob Marley. The memory of Marley was powerful, and the music promised to be good. The Africa Unite concert would feature several of Marley’s adult children singing their own versions of the music their much-beloved father made popular. It was a sunny Sunday, February 6, 2005. The festive setting brought thousands of people together.Members of the Marley family flew in from Jamaica and the United States. Fans gathered from far-off places like Israel, Spain, South America, England, and even Japan. For months, the anticipation of this event had built. Red, gold, and green posters wrapped the lampposts in the city of Addis Ababa. Taxi drivers handed out advertisements for the big event. [download]

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Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee

By: Rachel A Koestler Grack

Toward the end of 1963, Bruce Lee stood front and center of the Garfi eld High School gymnasium in Seattle. In front of him, a couple of dozen scruff y-looking teenagers slouched in their chairs. Garfi eld was a tough, inner-city school whose students were not strangers to fi ghts. But these kids had never heard of kung fu, the Chinese martial art form Lee was there to demonstrate. A few yawned and checked their wristwatches, and others snickered to each other as they eyed the shrimpy little Asian guy who thought he knew how to fight. Although kung fu was new to these hoodlums, karate was quite popular in the United States at the time. Lee began by showing them the diff erence between a karate-style punch and the wing chun centerline punch. [download]

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Chris Rock

Chris Rock 

By: Anne M. Todd

Only the backstage area of a theater is visible. An announcer yells, “Live, from the Takoma Theatre in Washington, D.C.… Are … you … ready? … It’s Chri-i-i-i-s R-o-o-o-c-k!” The crowd cheers in anticipation of the comedian’s entrance. The camera closes in on a battered, red door with the name “Chris Rock” printed on a small card. The camera slowly pans down the length of the door to the floor. The door opens and there is a glimpse of an all-black outfit shirt, pants, belt, and shiny leather jacket as a person emerges from the dressing room. The only items of clothing that are not all black are the shoes, which are glossy white on top. As the person walks through the doorway, the camera remains on his shoes. The shoes proceed through a dark, narrow passageway leading to the main stage, and the audience’s excitement level builds. [download]

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