Last week marked the beginning of February, Black History Month!

The students of Osbourn Park have been especially participating in this celebration through informative messages of Africans that have left a mark on the world over the morning announcements. To continue these efforts and pay homage to great figures that reshaped industries, genres, and so many other aspects of our world., we’ve gathered some more individuals worthy of being honored during this month!

Nina Simone: “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me…. And I’m feelin’ good.”

Nina Simone, or Eunice Kathleen Waymon, was an African-American singer, songwriter, and civil rights activist in the 1900s. Many people recognize her hit songs, “Feeling Good” and “I Put a Spell on You;” her music was not only beautiful, but held deep meaning towards her audience, fellow black people in America, and served as a way for people like her to fight for their rights during the 1960s.

Benjamin O. Davis: “Segregation fosters intolerance, suspicion and friction.”

Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. was the first Black commander of an integrated fighter wing in the United States Air Force. Davis was living proof, during a time of injustice and discrimination, that blacks could and would command respect from whites. Later in his career, he was promoted and became the first Brigadier General of the United States Air Force.

Jesse Owens: “We all have dreams. In order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort.”

Jesse Owens was an African-American star of track and field. Owens set a 25-year world record in the 1936 Olympic long jump, and won four gold medals in 100 and 200 meter dashes and relays in that same year. Later in his career, he was awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1976) and the Congressional Gold Medal (1990). Owens set a new standard for the whole of track and field as people knew it going into the 21st century.