SHANEEN KNOWS

  Supermodel, Actress and Media Mogul Tyra Lynne Banks was born on December 4, 1973 in Inglewood, California. Tyra started modeling at age 15 while she was in high school and at age 16 she got signed to Elite Model Management after being turned down by many agencies. Tyra put her college plans on hold to travel to Europe for a modeling opportunity. She moved to Milan and by her first runway season she was booked for 25 shows at Paris Week in 1991. Soon afterward, Tyra appeared on the covers of Elle and Teen Vogue magazine, Tyra is now a contributor to the Vogue Italia website. While in Europe, young Tyra Banks had become a regular on the catwalk and was featured in several advertising campaigns modeling for some of fashion's greats like Chanel, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Ralph Lauren and Nike. Tyra returned home to the United States in the mid-1990's to further her career. Tyra Banks broke color barriers in the modeling world when she became the first Black woma

For more than 50 years Major League Baseball was a segregated sport until Mr. Jackie Robinson came along and changed the game. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1919 to a family of sharecroppers, he was one of five children. He and his family lived where no one else looked like them, they were the only black family on a block when racial prejudice was prevalent. In spite of growing up in a single-parent home, Jackie excelled at an early age. Sports was his thing and while attending school at UCLA Jackie became the first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, football, track and basketball. He was even named to the All-American football team in 1941. Jackie's college career was cut short when financial difficulties forced him to leave college, so he decided to try out the U.S. Army. There he became one of the first Blacks to attend Officer Candidate School and he graduated second lieutenant after only two years. Jackie's Army career

Walter Jerry Payton was born on July 25, 1954. He was fondly known around the NFL and to fans as "Sweetness" because of his moves on the field and his kindness. He will always be remembered as one of the greatest running backs to ever play the game of football. The two-time MVP played with the Chicago Bears for thirteen years (1975-1982) and during his stellar career he scored 125 touchdowns (2nd most ever), 492 receptions, he accounted for a record 21,803 combined net yards and he was a consistent threat in the passing game. In thirteen years he only missed one game and that was during his rookie season in 1975. "Never Die Easy" was Walter Payton's motto. When he practiced on the field in college at Jackson State he purposely never ran out-of-bounds and always served his tacklers punishment whenever they tried to force him down or off the field. Payton attributed his motto to his college coach, Bob Hill. Never Die Easy is also the title of his posth

It's February! The one month on the calendar when African-American heritage is celebrated every year and we owe it all to one man because he brought Black history awareness to the forefront. Founded in 1926 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Black History Month was originally known as Negro History Week. February became the chosen month in 1976, because both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln were born in February. Known as the "Father of Black History," Dr. Carter G. Woodson was the son of a slave born on December 19, 1875 in Canton, New Virginia. In 1895 at age 20, Woodson began his high school studies and received his diploma in less than two years. Afterward, he went on to pursue his college career at Berea College where he earned a Bachelor degree in Literature and the University of Chicago were he received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees. In 1912, Woodson became the second African-American to earn his Ph.D. at Harvard University where he studied

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born June 7, 1917 in Topeka Kansas and raised in Chicago. She was the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Gwendolyn Brooks is the author of more than twenty books of poems including Blacks and Children Coming Home . She discovered her gift for writing at a young age and when she was just 13 years-old her first poem was published in a children's magazine. At age 16 she had already created a portfolio of writings that included nearly 75 published poems. A year later when she turned 17 years-old she began submitting her work to the Chicago Defender newspaper poetry column. In 1943, Brooks won her first major poetry award at the Midwestern Writer's Conference and two years later her first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville , was published by Harper and Row. Brooks also received a Guggenheim Fellowship which is awarded through a competition to individuals who previously demonstrated exceptional capacity for

Michael Jeffrey Jordan is hands down one of the greatest professional basketball players to ever play the game! But before Jordan made it to the NBA, he was just a college kid with hoop dreams. He played for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for three years and was apart of the Tar Heels' national championship team in 1982. It was in 1984 when all the magic began, Jordan was official when he was drafted to the Chicago Bulls NBA team. The sports world had no idea this was the beginning of an era in basketball that would be unforgettable... history in the making. It didn't take long before Michael Jordan became a superstar, he was the player who had it all- high scoring capabilities, great defense and he could leap from the free throw line with his tongue hanging out for a slam dunk in your face! Jordan soon earned the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness." Michael Jordan was so great and so influential NIKE gave him his own signat

  When I think of Black love, two people come to mind... Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Ossie and Ruby weren't just husband and wife they were co-workers and partners who built their lives and careers together, maintaining their unique relationship for 57 years. Ossie Davis was born Raiford Chatman Davis on December 18, 1917 in Cogdell, Clinch County, Georgia. He became known as "Ossie" when the courthouse clerk who was filing his birth certificate misunderstood his mom and thought she said his name was Ossie instead of his initials R.C. Ossie came up during a time when racism was high. The KKK once threatened to shoot his dad. Following the wishes of his parents, Ossie went to Howard University but ended up dropping out in 1939 to go to New York and fulfill his dreams of becoming an actor. That same year his acting career began with the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem. Meanwhile, Ruby Dee, born Ruby Ann Wallace on October 27, 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio was also pur

Before there was D'Jango, there was Harriet Tubman, a 5'2 pint-sized powerhouse also known as the "Conductor" for the Underground Railroad. Harriett Tubman, born Araminta Harriet Ross in 1820 was no stranger to slavery, she was born into it. When she was just a young girl she had a bad accident that caused a head injury. She was hit with a heavy piece of metal after a slave master tried to throw the metal at another slave and hit her instead. Because of this she suffered from seizures, headaches and narcoleptic attacks throughout her life. She lived during a time when women didn't play much of a role, they just cooked and cleaned. Harriet did her fair share of the required duties but she had a bigger role in mind, she wanted to be free. Around 1844, she got married to a free Black man, John Tubman and soon changed her name from Araminta to Harriet. Not much is known about him or their union but the marriage was complicated due to her slave status. A ma

Charles Drew, born June 3, 1904, was an African-American Inventor. Drew attended McGill University Medical School in Montreal where he was a honor student specializing in physiological anatomy. He did countless research on blood plasma and transfusions in New York City but it was during his work at Columbia University where he made discoveries relating to the preservation of blood. He found that blood could be preserved and reconstituted at a later date by separating the liquid red blood cells from the near solid plasma and freezing the two separately. When Charles Drew developed the system for the storing of blood plasma (blood bank) he revolutionized the medical profession. Dr. Drew then established the American Red Cross blood bank, he was the first director to do so. He also organized the world's first blood bank drive, which they called "Blood for Britain" because he helped supply blood plasma for the British during World War II, this ultimately saved th