We’ve all heard about Black History Month, but do we know what it means or what it stands for? We tend to take for granted those before us who gave everything they had to gain freedom for African Americans of the future. People such as Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson, Sojourner Truth, and many more made a difference in so many Americans lives today.

Martin Luther King Jr was one of the most well-known spokespeople and leader of the civil rights movement in 1954 until his devastating assassination in 1968. King was the seminal leader of the civil rights movement, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a prime figure in the march on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, the Montgomery bus boycott, the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965, and a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. After he was suddenly assassinated, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a federal holiday was set in his name. His legendary speech “I have a dream”, will be a speech that is forever remembered across the country, and forever remembered as the speech that led the civil rights movement.

Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play in the Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers. On April 15, 1947, he made history during his first professional debut when he started first base while playing against the Boston Braves. When the Dodgers signed Robinson, they indicated the end of racial segregation in the MLB. In 1962, Robinson was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He inspired so many African American athletes throughout his long journey and his crucial fight to the top.

Sojourner Truth was a women’s and civil rights activist, and a spokesperson for abolition and temperance. She was a slave who was bought and sold four times. Just before New York’s law that freed slaves passed, she escaped to an abolitionist family who helped her and her family to freedom. When Truth met William Lloyd Garrison, she was inspired to give speeches about the corruption of slavery. Through the years, she wrote an autobiography with the help of Olive Gilbert, she continued to advocate for women’s rights and the freedom of slaves, and she used her connections to publicly speak and inspire. In the 1850s, she settled in Michigan where she raised her children. She never stopped helping slaves to freedom and she never stopped speaking around the nation about her beliefs.

There are so many more lessons we could learn from those who were passionate about equality and determined to rid of segregation. They fought to make America a better place for African American’s and never gave up when they were faced with racism, sexism, or discrimination. Though our country still has ways to go, we wouldn’t be where we are without their courageous bravery.