{"id":8460,"date":"2022-02-08T16:10:54","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T22:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goaldrivencounseling.com\/staging\/2015\/?p=8460"},"modified":"2022-02-08T16:12:49","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T22:12:49","slug":"spotlight-on-black-historical-figures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goaldrivencounseling.com\/staging\/2015\/spotlight-on-black-historical-figures\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on: Black Historical Figures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For Black History month, we are spotlighting Black historical figures who acted as activists and trailblazers. While we don\u2019t know everything about their personal lives and struggles, we can see coping skills and resilience in their accomplishments, especially in the face of racism and discrimination. Here are four individuals who do not always get to be center-stage when celebrating Black history, resilience, and joy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve chosen individuals who have worked in mental health fields like social work and psychology as well as historical figures who lived through their own personal struggles. These four individuals paved the way for today\u2019s mental health advocates and we celebrate them this Black History Month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you celebrate those who have paved the path you\u2019re walking?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alvin Ailey (1931-1989):<\/strong> Dancer and Choreographer<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Alvin Ailey founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater <\/a>and the Ailey School after a successful career as a dancer. He was especially interested in the African American experience, and making sure that Black artists had support to express themselves and embody their experiences in dance. He has received numerous fellowships and medals, and choreographed over thirty productions that premiered in New York from the 1960s to the 1980s. Perhaps his most famous work Revelations<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>uses a variety of music from African-American spirituals to song-sermons, gospel songs, and holy blues. Ailey\u2019s energetic and moving choreography draws inspiration from ballet, jazz, modern dance and theater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oDN_oh7dCrE\n<\/div>
A clip of \u201cWade in the Water\u201d from Revelations.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Especially when traveling internationally, Ailey faced descrimination because of both his race and his sexuality. As a gay man living in the second half of the twentieth century, he spend most of his life in the closet. He rejected being referred to as a \u201cBlack choreographer\u201d preferring instead to be known simply as a choreographer and allowing his work to speak for the African-American experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While extremely private about his personal life, we do know that Ailey suffered from what would later become known as bipolar disorder. Even living with this condition, he was able to have an incredible career. Furthermore, he built a large support system of fellow dancers and choreographers. When his illness caused him to step back from working, his long-time collaborator Judith Jamison stepped into his role. She now serves as the Artistic Director Emerita of the Alvin Ailey American Dance theater after having served as its artistic director from Ailey\u2019s death in 1989 until 2010. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ailey paved the way for other Black performers in the dance world, including Alonzo King, Misty Copeland, Darrell Grand Moutrie and countless others. Ailey\u2019s work captures the African American experience, depicting struggle and joy through movement and music. Ailey\u2019s work, performed by new generations of dancers, continues to reach a global audience today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audre Lorde (1934\u20131992):<\/strong> Writer and activist<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Audre Lorde is often quoted as describing herself <\/a>as a \u201cBlack, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.\u201d Lorde\u2019s intersecting identities helped her to advocate for women, people of color, poor people, and queer people. She attended both Hunter College and Columbia University in New York City, earning her master\u2019s degree in library science. She then worked as a librarian at the New York public schools throughout the 1960s. She went on to work as a professor of English at John Jay college and Hunter College in New York City. Her poetry, prose, and theory has been published and widely acclaimed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lorde\u2019s love of poetry started as a young teenager as a way to express her emotions. Her most widely cited essay, \u201cThe Master\u2019s Tools Will Not Dismantle The Master\u2019s House,\u201d has influenced critical race theory, queer theory, and feminist thought. Throughout her life, Audre Lorde worked as a teacher and an activist, advancing feminist thinking through her activism and scholarship. Lorde speaks to this idea in the essay, writing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society’s definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference — those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older — know that <\/em>survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. For t<\/em>he master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define the master’s house as their only source of support. <\/em> <\/p>

-Audre Lorde, 1983. <\/a><\/p><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Here Lorde encourages her fellow activists and individuals who live outside of society\u2019s norms to operate outside of those spaces rather than striving for conformity. She believes that the words, actions, and systems of the oppressor will never be able to be used by the oppressed to bring about justice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lorde\u2019s writing has been beyond instrumental in academic and activist circles alike. She lived by the words put forth in this essay, collaborating with other individuals to bring about new forms of thought, advocacy, and dismantling oppressive systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francis Sumner (1895\u20131954):<\/strong> Psychologist and Education reformer<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Francis Sumner was born in Arkansas <\/a>and attended school in the south before being drafted into the army during World War I. After the war, he returned home to pursue a PhD studying Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. His work responded to these European theorists, questioning mainstream arguments and biases in psychology that claimed Black individuals were inferior to whites. Despite facing racial descrimination, especially when it came to funding, Sumner was able to publish his research in journals and work as a professor at multiple universities. He went on to work with others to found the psychology department at Howard University. He served as its chair from 1928 until his death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of Sumner\u2019s work focused on what today we would call racial justice. His work aimed to better understand the psychological and social reasoning behind racism and descrimination. He advocated for education<\/a> for Black Americans by adapting ways of teaching specifically to the African American experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is remembered as the \u201cfather of Black Psychology\u201d and his work and writings have inspired psychologists, educators, activists, and the ways we think about education and segregation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dorothy Height (1912\u20132010):<\/strong> Educator and activist<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In her ninety-eight years, Doctor Dorothy Height worked tirelessly for social causes that impacted women and African Americans in the United States. Taking what we could call an intersectionality lens today, Dr. Height saw the problems of inequality for women and African Americans as connected civil rights issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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