Black and Brilliant

Too often, we look at Blacks and their accomplishments as "no big deal." Yet many Blacks persevered and accomplished much, despite an America that did not want them to do anything other than serve as servants and at the bidding of white America. Black and Brilliant young people need to know their Black and Brilliant history, along with the Black and Brilliant stalwarts who engineered that history. I started on the "journey" of understanding who I was, who I am, and the great legacy of those who looked like me at an early age.
I was motivated and inspired by Mr. Rutledge Henry Pearson, my eighth-grade American history teacher, the 1960 Jacksonville Youth Council NAACP adviser, and later my mentor. It is never too early, nor are you too young, to understand the plight of those who look like you and what they achieved from the founding days of this country.