Monique Jones - The Book of Awesome Black Americans: Scientific Pioneers, Trailblazing Entrepreneurs, Barrier-Breaking Activists and Afro-Futurists

Praise for The Book of Awesome Black Americans

Monique L. Jones is my go-to for witty, bold, and compassionate takes on pop culture. In The Book of Awesome Black Americans, Jones brings her impressive breadth of knowledge and slick style to this well-researched and endlessly exciting collection of Black American stories. The Book of Awesome Black Americans sheds new light on familiar heroes and showcases Black Americans we should be talking about more. Activists and rap stars, abolitionists and pioneers, inventors and scientists surge with life throughout this thrilling and comprehensive work. Read this book! Its awesome.

Jennifer Maritza McCauley, National Endowment for the Arts Fellow and author of SCAR ON/SCAR OFF

The Book of Awesome Black Americans belongs on every coffee table in America. Monique Jones packs her book with astonishing stories of bravery, grit, and joy. The astonishing anecdotes of overlooked personalities and heroes will ensure you never look at history the same again. Who says history has to be boring?

Li Lai, founder of Mediaversity Reviews

Monique Jones digs deep to provide little-known facts and context for a marvelous assemblage of our unsung heroes.

Trey Mangum, contributor to The Hollywood Reporter

Black history has always been more than one month, more than one chapter in a history book. Monique L. Joness Book of Awesome Black Americans show us that and more. Black people built America, despite being ripped from Africa via the act of global terrorism called the Transatlantic Slave Trade. In her vital and thorough book, Jones writes the history we dont learn in school, the history we need to truly understand the multitudes we contain as Black people. This is a textbook in Black excellence and contribution, and it begins a conversation many are too eager to stifle. Black peoples history did not begin in 1619, and our place in this country will continue to evolve for many years to come.

Ashley Jones, recipient of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award and author of the award-winning poetry collections Magic City Gospel and dark // thing

Monique Jones strikes the balance of fun and learning with her fantastic debut. The Book of Awesome Black Americans gives us an upbeat but necessary lesson on our unsung heroes.

Joi Childs, brand marketer and film/TV critic

Scientific Pioneers, Trailblazing Entrepreneurs, Barrier-Breaking Activists and Afro-Futurists

Monique L. Jones

Mango Publishing
Coral Gables

Copyright 2020 Monique L. Jones

Published by Mango Publishing, a division of Mango Media Inc.

Cover and Interior Design: Jermaine Lau

Cover photos courtesy of Olga Besnard, Albert H. Teich, and Debby Wong. Interior photos from Shutterstock.

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The Book of Awesome Black Americans: Scientific Pioneers, Trailblazing Entrepreneurs, Barrier-Breaking Activists and Afro-Futurists

Library of Congress Cataloging
ISBN: (p) 978-1-64250-147-6 (e) 978-1-64250-148-3

BISAC: YAN038110, YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / People & Places / United States / African American

LCCN: 2019948836

Printed in the United States of America

Please note some names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

To everyone important in my life; you know who you are.

To W.E.B. DuBois who came up with the idea for an encyclopedia of African diasporic excellence. To Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Kwame Anthony Appiah for following through with that idea by creating Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience. Your work inspired and educated me as a child, and I hope this book passes on that same spirit of learning and pride.

Table of Contents

Who Is an Awesome black
american to You?

Black history. Its a topic the country revisits every February. But Black history means more than just a cursory look at Black notables during Black History Month. Black History is part of American history. Its important all year roundevery second of every day.

The Book of Awesome Black Americans is a look at some of the people who have made this countryand the worldgreater by defying the odds, pushing through adversity, and paving a path for others to follow. This book is also a reflection of my own childhood, which was spent researching and reading about Black leaders, inventors, and innovators who shaped how I viewed myself and my place in the world. While this book is just a pittance of the debt theyre owed, I hope that it serves as my recognition for the incredible lives theyve lived.

There are some things we need to get out of the way before we dive headfirst into this book together. Most of us already know about Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and the like. Indeed, a few folks we always learn about will be included here. But this book is largely dedicated toward those faces and stories we dont see or hear about a lot in the mainstream. This includes LGBTQ+ voices and the voices of people who lived in a time when their stories were considered unimportant. This includes individuals who predate the African American experience, such as the African nobles who are the genesis of African American history. This also includes everyday people past and present who have worked behind the scenes to make our lives, and our futures, better and brighter; they might have gotten accolades for their work, but, if you met them on the street, you probably wouldnt recognize them. Those are the individuals this book is highlighting.

Another thing to note is that I use Black American in two different ways in the book. The first way is to discuss African American people, people who are descended from African slaves brought to America. The second way is to write about people from the diaspora who are of African descent but are American citizens. This is because there are some people in the book who might not be descendants of slaves in the United States, but they are, indeed, American citizens of an African background.

I hope that you, the reader, have fun with this book. As a child who loved learning, I was entranced by Africana , an encyclopedia set comprised solely of Black American accomplishments, historical dates, and facts written by W.E.B. DuBois and later edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Kwame Anthony Appiah. Through Africana , which I read when it was in its website form, I was transported through time and learned so much about my own African American history. Of course, the book youre reading now isnt an encyclopedia. Still, my wish is that it engenders the same type of curiosity and love for learning as Africana did for me. I hope that you are inspired to learn more about the people highlighted in this book. I want it to inspire you to go on your own personal, enlightening journey.