Black History 2025 | St James AME Zion

February - Black History Month, handwriting in a desktop calendar, an annual observance or

Honoring excellence

This year, Black History Month holds even greater significance. Over the next 28 days, we are taking time to honor and reflect on our rich history—recognizing the trailblazers who came before us and the progress we've made as a community. While much work remains, the foundation of excellence and resilience is strong.

Each week, we will spotlight different areas of Black achievement and impact:

Week 1: Civil Rights & Leadership
Week 2: Arts & Literature
Week 3: Science, Medicine & Innovation
Week 4: Politics, Activism & Sports

We invite you to join St. James AME Zion Church this month in celebrating and uplifting Black excellence.

Seeds That Traveled Far: Still Growing

This final day is not a spotlight. It is a pause. A moment to look back at the people we honored this month—not as names on a list or accomplishments to admire from a distance—but as human beings who lived within real systems, real resistance, real hope, and real uncertainty. Every African American Child should know and love their history Photo by Anthony McKissic on Unsplash This series was not created to summarize Black history. It was created to sit with it. To learn. To

Feb 282 min read

African American History Museum Photo by Dineda Nyepan on Unsplash

Where Memory Is Guarded

Lonnie G. Bunch III was born in 1952, in Newark, New Jersey—at a moment when Black Americans were still fighting for the right to be seen as fully human, let alone fully historical. That timing matters. He came of age in a world where history was present, but not always preserved for him—or told with him in mind. Lonnie G. Bunch III. Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III to Discuss His Vision for the Museums at Headliners Book Event , Press.org , 8 Dec. 2019, https://ww

Feb 283 min read

Redefining Who Leads Knowledge

Scientific leadership expanded what was possible inside laboratories and national policy. But progress does not hold unless it is taught, protected, and institutionalized. The next frontier was not discovery—it was authority over knowledge itself: who governs learning, who shapes curriculum, and who is trusted to lead the institutions that define intellectual legitimacy. For generations, higher education was not simply unavailable to Black Americans—it was structurally closed

Feb 262 min read

Authority Without Translation

By the time Black leadership began appearing in boardrooms, advisory councils, and national decision spaces, the question quietly shifted. It was no longer whether Black expertise belonged there—but whether the future itself could be responsibly shaped without it. That shift is where Shirley Ann Jackson stands. Shirley Ann Jackson (b. 1946). BlackPast.org , https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/jackson-shirley-ann-1946/ . Accessed 13 Feb. 2026. Her story is not one

Feb 262 min read

The Architecture of Trust

Some expansions arrive through innovation. Others arrive through something far more exacting: trust. Roger W. Ferguson Jr.’s legacy sits in that quieter category — where Black leadership expanded not by disruption alone, but by proving that the most fragile systems in modern society could be safely entrusted to Black stewardship. The previous chapter explored what it meant for Black leadership to move from access to authority inside corporate governance — not as a momentary b

Feb 252 min read

Corporate Stewardship Under Pressure

Leadership does not always arrive at moments of expansion. Sometimes it arrives when systems are already strained — when institutions are no longer building the future, but deciding what can be carried forward. That was the terrain Ursula Burns entered. Raised in a low-income housing project on New York’s Lower East Side, Burns’ early life did not signal proximity to corporate power. What ultimately carried her forward was not narrative, but fluency — particularly in mathemat

Feb 242 min read

The Sky, Entrusted

Before Black Americans were trusted to govern the sky, they were barred from even imagining it as theirs. Commander Charles F. Bolden Jr. , astronaut on STS-60 (1994). NASA, https://www.nasa.gov/former-astronaut-charles-f-bolden-jr/ . Accessed 13 Feb. 2026. Long before Charles F. Bolden Jr. was entrusted with the future of America’s space program, he was told—plainly—that certain doors were not meant to open for him. As a high school student in segregated South Carolina, his

Feb 242 min read

Standing Where You Were Never Meant to Remain

Some institutions are built to test endurance. The U.S. military has long been one of them—defined by hierarchy, tradition, and unspoken rules about who is meant to lead and who is meant to serve. For Black women, presence itself could be read as defiance. Brigadier General Clara Adams-Ender entered that system not to challenge it, but to survive within it. She joined the Army to pay for nursing school, stepping into a role that fit expectation. What followed did not. Brigadi

Feb 242 min read

Holding the Line

Ralph Bunche showed the world how peace is negotiated. Azie Taylor Morton shows what happens after—when peace, progress, and credibility must be maintained. Azie Taylor Morton (1936–2003). BlackPast.org , https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/morton-azie-taylor-1936-2003/ . Accessed 13 Feb. 2026. Some people change history by standing at the microphone. Others do it by holding the systems steady. Morton belonged to the second group. She rose from sharecropping fiel

Feb 242 min read

Architect of Global Peace

While some challenged injustice by raising their voices, Ralph Bunche planted his resistance inside institutions that were never built to let Black authority take root. Ralph Bunche (ca. 1903–1971). Photo from the U.S. Information Agency (CC BY-SA 2.0). BlackPast.org , https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/bunche-ralph-j-ca-1903-1971/ . Accessed 13 Feb. 2026. Ralph Bunche was a political scientist and diplomat whose work helped shape the modern international order.

Feb 242 min read

Nina simone records Photo byPhoto by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash

When the World Became the Stage

Racial barriers in the United States pushed Nina Simone’s voice—and Black music—into global space Simone, Nina (1933–2003). Courtesy of the Netherlands National Archives. BlackPast.org , https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/simone-nina-1933-2003/ . Accessed 13 Feb. 2026. Nina Simone encountered racial barriers long before she became a global voice. Even as a child prodigy, her talent was recognized only within limits. She graduated as valedictorian from an elite hi

Feb 242 min read

Building the Infrastructure of Voice

Before Black leadership could influence policy or institutions, it had to be heard clearly and consistently. That work required more than writers. It required builders. One of those builders was Claude Barnett. Image: Claude Albert Barnett (photo by Vincent Saunders), BlackPast.org (accessed Feb. 13, 2026), blackpast.org/african-american-history/barnett-claude-albert-1889-1967/ Born in Sanford, Florida, Barnett trained as a journalist and public relations professional at a

Feb 182 min read

Policy Does Not Move on Its Own

Government systems often appear immovable—bound by rules, tradition, and hierarchy. Yet policy rarely changes on its own. It moves because someone understands how the system works and applies pressure where it matters. That was the work of Mabel Keaton Staupers. Photo: Mabel Keaton Staupers , BlackPast.org (accessed Feb. 13, 2026), blackpast.org/african-american-history/staupers-mabel-keaton-1890-1989/ A trained nurse and national leader within the profession, Staupers emerg

Feb 171 min read

The Law, Before Belonging

Before Black Americans were widely recognized as citizens, Macon Bolling Allen pursued the law in a nation that questioned his right to practice it at all. Macon Bolling Allen, born Allen Macon Bolling, came of age in the early nineteenth century when legal authority was largely inaccessible to Black Americans. His pursuit of the law unfolded within a profession that challenged not only his qualifications, but his standing to belong. Image of Macon B. Allen. Celebrating Bla

Feb 172 min read

Vintage hospital ward at Provident Hospital showing early 20th-century medical equipment

No Applause Required

Provident Hospital, Chicago (1891–mid-20th century) Provident Hospital opened in Chicago in 1891 at a time when Black patients were routinely denied admission to white hospitals and Black physicians were barred from clinical practice inside them. The hospital was founded not as a statement, but as a solution—one that answered exclusion with infrastructure. Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses, 29th & Dearborn . Mapping Care , University of Illinois Chicago, 4 May

Feb 162 min read

Skill Without Sanction

Vivien Thomas came of age in the Jim Crow South with plans to become a physician. He graduated from high school with honors in Tennessee and worked as a skilled carpenter, saving for years to fund his education. The Great Depression erased those savings, closing the path he had prepared for. By http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/portlarg/thomasv.jpg , Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9661368 In 1930, Thomas took a laboratory position at Vanderbilt Univers

Feb 142 min read