Black History Month Experience

Join us for a special celebration with drumming, dancing, a choir performance, food, youth presentations & more to celebrate Black History Month on Sunday, February 23, 2025 at 11:30am at Unity of Oak Park.

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Be Inspired

Each week, we will post a story about inspiring African American “FIRSTS” and Black History Makers.

Register for our Free Black History Month Experience

Meet A. Philip Randolph, American labor leader, social activist, journalist and civil rights strategist.

A tribute story written by Unity Member Phyllis Walden

Meet A. Philip Randolph: American labor leader, social activist, journalist and civil rights strategist. Randolph was considered to be one of the most effective trade unionists in America. He led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) in becoming the exclusive collective bargaining agent of the Pullman porters and served as the organization’s first President. It was the first victory of African American workers over a great industrial corporation. As a result of Randolph’s efforts to address change through nonviolent protests and the mobilization of public pressure, many considered Randolph to be the true father of the civil rights movement in the United States.

Randolph understood that social justice had to include discussions of race and class, as well as interest group politics. Over the course of Randolph’s career, his strategies of mass action, nonviolent civil disobedience and “purposeful coalitions between black and white workers” became the primary basis for civil rights protest movements in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Asa Philip Randolph was born April 15, 1889 in Crescent City Florida. The family moved to Jacksonville, Florida in 1891 where he and his brother ultimately attended the Cookman Institute, the only academic high school for African Americans in Florida. Asa excelled in public speaking, literature, drama and was the valedictorian of the 1907 graduating class.

Randolph’s parents and brother were early influences in his development. Self-esteem and race pride, religious faith and education were key components of Asa’s upbringing. His father was an African Methodist Episcopal(A.M.E.) minister; his mother a seamstress. His awareness of racial oppression grew from stories of heroes such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and other leaders who fought for liberty and justice throughout slavery. He learned early, by example, not to stand down to bullies. In the late 1890’s, his father, with a group of armed companions, aborted an attempted lynching, of a young man, by a group of Ku Klux Klan members. While this was taking place, his mother sat up all night with a rifle across her lap to protect her children.

Randolph moved to New York in 1911, and through his journalism and activism, became an established figure within the Socialist Party. In 1925, Randolph organized and led the first successful African-American labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and in 1935 this organization(BSCP) became the exclusive bargaining agent of the Pullman porters. Asa was the most widely known spokesperson for African American working-class interests during this time.

Major Accomplishments:

· In 1940, when President Franklin Roosevelt refused to issue an executive order banning discrimination against black workers in the defense industry, Randolph initiated the 1941 March on Washingon, that forced President Roosevelt to issue that same executive order, six days prior to the march. The order stated that “there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin” and the Fair Employment Practices Commission was set up to oversee the order.

· In 1947, Randolph demanded that the government integrate the armed forces and he founded the League for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Against Military segregation. Threatened with widespread civil disobedience, President Harry Truman ordered an end to segregation in the military.

· In 1955, Randolph was elected as a vice president of the newly merged AFL-CIO and served on the AFL-CIO Executive Council until 1974.

· He was a founder of the Negro American Labor Council and, served as president from 1960 to 1966.

· He served as the chair and one of the principal organizers of the 1963 March on Washington, at which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.

· In 1964 Randolph was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon Johnson.

· In 1968, he retired as president of the BSCP and was named as president of the newly formed Philip Randolph Institute, established to promote trade unionism in the black community.

A. Philip Randolph died on May 16,1979 in New York City.

Meet Engine 21, the first organized, paid, firefighting African-American company in Chicago.

A tribute story written by Unity Choir Member Kucha Brownlee

Engine Company 21, organized in 1872, was the first all-black fire company in the Chicago Fire Department.

Engine 21, organized December 21, 1872, and was Chicago's first paid African-American firefighting company. The story of Engine 21 is the story of reconstruction in Chicago and America.

According to the Tribune "the assimilated drill alarms helped Engine 21 to become the first arrival at many alarms and fires." Also, David B Kenyon (1836--1814) and members of Engine 21 created and made popular the concept of the sliding pole in the Fire Service.

Nationally, Black men were not hired as firefighters. This stymied Blacks' ability to get employment and promotions in general. Black men, such as Thomas J. Martin, the inventor of the fire extinguisher in 1872; Garrett Morgan, the inventor of the gas mask in 1914; and Engine 21's invention of the firehouse sliding pole discredit negative stereotypes of Black firefighters. "Black Heroes of Fire; The History of the first African-American Fire Company in Chicago: Fire Engine 21" Submitted by Kucha Brownlee

Meet Madame CJ Walker: Entrepreneur, philanthropist, political and social activist, and most importantly, the first female, self-made millionaire in America

A tribute story written by Unity Board Trustee Lagel Gillmore

Sarah Breedlove was born December 23, 1867 in Delta Louisiana.She had one sister and four brothers. Sarah was the first one in the family born into freedom.  She was orphaned at seven years old and sent to live in to Vicksburg, Mississippi at the age of 10 where she worked as a Domestic. She went on to make her fortune by developing and marketing a line of cosmetics and hair care products for black women.

She called her company, Madame CJ Walker A version of her third husband‘s name Mrs. Charles Joseph Walker. Madame Walker was a big financial supporter of organizations, such as the NAACP and was a patron of the arts.

She built a lavish estate in Irving.  There, she hosted special event in the African-American community. Madam Walker died May 25, 1919, and is buried in Woodlawn cemetery Bronx, New York. Her home in Irving, New York, the Villa Lewaro and The Madam Walker theater in Indianapolis are both listed on the historical registry. On March 4, 2016, a skin care company  in collaboration with Sephora launched hair products In honor of Madame Walker. A line of products focused on using natural ingredients for all types of hair. Madame CJ Walker Beauty Culture. 

Meet Moms Mabley:  The First Female Black Comedian

A remembrance of teenage friendship by Rev. Lucinda Witt

Loretta Mary Aiken, known by her stage name Jackie "Moms" Mabley, was an American stand-up comedian and actress. Mabley began her career on the theater stage in the 1920s and became a veteran entertainer of the Chitlin' Circuit of black vaudeville. 

Born: March 19, 1897, Brevard, NC

Died: May 23, 1975 (age 78 years)

Entertainment Medium: Vaudeville; television; stand-up; film

I had a best friend at McCulloch Jr. High School in Marion, IN. who introduced me to her comedy routines. My friend’s name was Linda Smith. She was funny and she had a laugh that just drew me to her. She also remembered every monologue that Mom created, and she could imitate her style so very well.

She asked me if I would like to come to her house and listen to the records of Mom Mabley’s comedy routines. I said, “Yes!!”

 My Mother was not too sure about me going over to her home, because it was in the black neighborhood section in Marion, IN.

I felt no fear at all, and I assured her that Linda was one of my best friends, and I loved listening to the records of Mom’s routines that she had acquired.  

I respected her because of our close friendship, and her willingness to share an important part of her life with me.   My Mother finally gave in and allowed me to share the experience of this great, talented and funny woman.

 I never had any problems going into Linda’s home. Her Mother was so kind and sweet, and she always had cookies and milk for us to share as we listened to the records. We spent many happy moments listening to Mom; I got a real appreciation and understanding of what made Black Comedy so appealing. Mom was the first black woman to create her own routines.

Mom’s timing and comedic subjects were hysterical.  I learned a great deal from her as I listened to her voice, and the subject matter, which was all about black life. She told the funniest stories about her family and friends.

In 1921 she began touring with the husband-and-wife team Butterbeans & Susie, soon making her debut at Harlem's legendary Cotton Club; Mabley was also a fixture of New York City's emerging Black theatre.

Mabley entered the world of film and stage as well, working with writer Zora Neale Hurston on the 1931 Broadway show Fast and Furious: A Colored Revue in 37 Scenes and taking on a featured role in Paul Robeson's Emperor Jones (1933).

She performed alongside other legendary Black performers like Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington. Drawing on her vaudeville training, Mabley would intermingle singing and dancing with her comedy routine.

According to Whoopi Goldberg, who directed a documentary about Mabley in 2013, said that she may have been the very first standup comic of any gender.

Mabley effectively harnessed the power of laughter in ways that resonated with her Black audience and forced her white audience to confront their own prejudice.

In the early 1960s, Mabley began to gain the attention of white audiences through her popular comedy records as well as her appearances on mainstream television programs such as The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Ed Sullivan Show.

Yet despite her increasing popularity, Mabley did not change her routine for white audiences. She used her stand-up comedy to pointedly critique American politics and expose the underlying absurdity of racial discrimination.

Though she never experienced the full fame she deserved in her lifetime, she is remembered as a trailblazer, not only helping to create the craft of stand-up comedy but challenging gender stereotypes and racial bigotry,