American gymnast Simone Biles receives the Presidential medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden during a ceremony where President Joe Biden will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to seventeen recipients in the East Room of The White House on July 7, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Credit: © Oliver Contreras, SIPA USA/Alamy Images

With seven Olympic gold medals, one silver, two bronze, and now a President Medal of Freedom, Simone Biles has quite a collection! Simone Biles, an American gymnastics star, is the most decorated gymnast in the history of the sport. In 2019, she surpassed the record previously held by Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus, winning 25 world championship medals. Biles has been celebrated internationally for her grace and athletic skill in executing the most difficult moves in women’s gymnastics.

On July 7, 2022, Biles received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden, becoming the youngest living person in United States history to earn the honor. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor awarded by the president of the United States for outstanding service. The medal recognizes individuals who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, or to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”

The honor was established on July 6, 1945, as the U.S. Medal of Freedom by President Harry S. Truman to recognize notable civilian service that aided the United States during a time of war. On Feb. 22, 1963, after extensive study by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg and Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan, President John F. Kennedy reintroduced the medal as an honor for distinguished civilian service in peacetime. It was renamed the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Recipients have included educators, diplomats, former presidents and first ladies, authors, scientists, medical researchers, military leaders, humanitarians, religious leaders, civil rights activists, business executives, journalists, athletes, and performers.

Biles was a star of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She won a team gold medal as well as individual gold medals in the all-around, vault, and floor exercise events, plus a bronze medal on the balance beam. By winning five medals, Biles tied the record for the most medals won by an American woman gymnast in a single Olympics. Her four gold medals tied the world record for the most gold medals won in a single Olympics by a female gymnast.

In 2019, Biles became the first woman to win five world championships in the all-around event. She is the first Black American to hold the women’s world all-around champion title. She won the world floor exercise title five times, the balance beam title in three times, and the vault title two times. Biles won the United States national all-around championship seven times. She was also a member of the American team that won gold medals in the 2014 and 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

At the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Biles brought attention to the intense pressure Olympic athletes face. (The games were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.) After balking on the vault event in the team final, she withdrew from the rest of the team competition and four individual events—all-around, vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise—citing mental health issues. Biles went on to win a bronze medal on the balance beam. She also won a team silver medal.

Simone Arianne Biles was born on March 14, 1997, in Columbus, Ohio. She grew up in Texas, raised by her grandparents. Biles was introduced to gymnastics at the age of six on a day-care field trip to a gym in Spring, Texas. She began copying the moves of gymnasts practicing in the gym, attracting the attention of a coach. Biles soon enrolled in recreational classes at the gym under instructor Aimee Boorman, who became her coach. Biles, who stands only 4 feet 8 inches (1.42 meters) tall, entered her first competition in 2011. She won her first gold medals in 2013. Within two years, she became one of the most celebrated and dominant gymnasts in history.

A woman carries the Pan-African flag, a symbol of black unity, at a Juneteenth parade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Juneteenth celebrations commemorate the freeing of enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865.
Credit: © Tippman98x/Shutterstock

Last year, Juneteenth became a federal holiday. Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. This festival is held in many African American and other communities annually. The name of the festival refers to the date, June 19—the day the last enslaved people were freed in the southern state of Texas in 1865.

Juneteenth festivities often include family reunions, parades, prayer services, plays, and storytelling. Some communities hold longer Juneteenth festivals that span several days as a celebration of civil rights and freedom. Juneteenth is a federal holiday observed in the District of Columbia and by federal employees throughout the United States. In addition, all of the states have recognized Juneteenth in an official capacity.

The festival originated in Texas at the end of the American Civil War (1861-1865). In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared freedom for the enslaved people in the Confederate States in rebellion against the Union. However, many owners of enslaved people in Texas suppressed information about the emancipation even after the war ended in April 1865. On June 19, 1865, Gordon Granger, a Union general, entered Galveston, Texas, and ordered all enslaved people in the state to be freed. About 250,000 enslaved people, among the last remaining in the United States, were freed.

Juneteenth celebrations were held only in Texas and a few communities in other states in the South in the years following the war. Black Americans carried the celebration with them as they migrated to other regions. Today, Juneteenth festivals have become popular celebrations of freedom and Black American culture in many communities throughout the country. Texas became the first U.S. state to recognize Juneteenth officially, in 1980. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021. In some places, Juneteenth is called Black Independence Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, or Jubilee Day.

Vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris
Credit: California Attorney General’s Office

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature AAPI pioneers in a variety of areas.

In January 2021, Kamala Harris became the first woman to serve as vice president of the United States. She is also the first person of African American and South Asian ancestry to serve in the position. Harris and Joe Biden, the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, defeated their Republican opponents, President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, in the 2020 election. Before becoming vice president, Harris represented California in the U.S. Senate since 2017. She had earlier served as California’s attorney general —the state’s chief law officer. Prior to serving as attorney general, Harris was the district attorney of San Francisco, California.

Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California, on Oct. 20, 1964. Her mother was a physician and cancer specialist who was born in India. Her father, who was born in Jamaica, became an economics professor. In 1986, Harris received a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Howard University. In 1989, she earned a law degree from the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. Harris married Doug Emhoff, an entertainment lawyer, in 2014.

From 1990 to 1998, Harris served as deputy district attorney for Alameda County, California. In 1998, she became the managing attorney of the Career Criminal Unit of the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. In 2000, she was named to lead the San Francisco City Attorney’s Division on Families and Children.

In 2003, Harris won the election as San Francisco district attorney. She was reelected in 2007 and served through 2010. Her victory in the 2010 campaign for state attorney general marked the first time that a woman and—because of her mixed ethnicity—a person of African American and South Asian ancestry won the post. Harris took office in 2011. As attorney general, she gained attention for her work to combat transnational gangs and investigate banks that engaged in mortgage fraud. She was reelected in 2014 and served until 2017.

In January 2015, Barbara Boxer, long-time U.S. senator from California, announced that she would not seek reelection in 2016. Shortly afterward, Harris announced that she would campaign for the open Senate seat. In June 2016, Harris finished first in California’s open primary for the U.S. Senate seat. She defeated U.S. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, a fellow Democrat, in the November election. As a U.S. senator, Harris served on a number of committees, including the Judiciary Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence.

In January 2019, Harris began a campaign for her party’s 2020 nomination for president. She dropped out of the race in December 2019, while trailing her competitors in fundraising and in support in public opinion polls. Harris’s memoir, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, was published in 2019.

In August 2020, Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, named Harris his vice presidential running mate. Issues in the campaign included the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and tensions between Black communities and police. Days after the November 3 election, major news outlets called the election for Biden and Harris, though election results had yet to be certified. Trump and Pence refused to concede, however, and challenged several state results via lawsuit. On November 23, following a string of legal defeats, the Trump administration authorized the start of the formal transition to a Biden administration. The Electoral College confirmed Biden’s victory on December 14. Harris resigned her Senate seat in January 2021, days before she and Biden took office.

Buck O’Neil former player in the Negro Baseball league is honored at a Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game.
Credit: © Bruce Cotler, Globe Photos/ZUMA/Alamy Images

February is Black History Month, an annual observance of the achievements and culture of Black Americans. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature Black pioneers in a variety of areas. 

Baseball legend Buck O’Neil was the thread that connected Josh Gibson and Babe Ruth with Lionel Hampton and Ichiro Suzuki. He remains among the most celebrated and important figures in the history of baseball. O’Neil left a lasting impact on the sport as a skilled player, a knowledgeable manager, a shrewd judge of talent, a passionate promoter, and a gifted storyteller.

Major League Baseball (MLB) failed to appreciate Buck O’Neil in a timely fashion. It denied him the chance to play or manage in the league because he was Black. But the sport’s ultimate recognition is finally coming to him, albeit too late for him to enjoy it. In December of last year, the Early Baseball Committee voted to admit O’Neil into the Hall of Fame. He will be formally inducted in July.

John Jordan O’Neil, Jr., was born Nov. 13, 1911, in Carrabelle, Florida, on the Gulf Coast. His father played baseball and introduced him to the game. Around 1920, the family moved to Sarasota, near the spring training facilities of several MLB teams. As a youth, O’Neil watched such players as Babe Ruth prepare for the season. His family would also take him to Negro league games. Negro leagues were professional baseball leagues formed for Black players, who were barred from playing alongside white players because of racial segregation.

As a teenager, O’Neil worked in the fields harvesting celery. He was prohibited from attending the segregated high school in Sarasota. He received high school and college instruction from Edward Waters College (now Edward Waters University), a historically Black college in Jacksonville.

In 1934, O’Neil began playing for small Negro league teams. O’Neil got the nickname “Buck” after being mistaken for a Negro league team owner named Buck O’Neal. O’Neil joined the Kansas City Monarchs in 1938. His sure fielding at first base and high batting average helped the Monarchs to win four consecutive Negro American League pennants from 1939 to 1942.

At the time, Kansas City, Missouri, was one of the hubs of Black culture. O’Neil and many of his teammates were obsessed with jazz. They rubbed elbows with such jazz greats as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Lionel Hampton.

In 1943, O’Neil was drafted into the United States Navy to serve in World War II (1939-1945). He returned to the Monarchs after the war and was named player-manager in 1948. A player-manager manages a baseball team while also playing for the team.

Jackie Robinson had broken MLB’s color barrier the year before, and MLB clubs were signing star players away from Negro leagues teams. The loss of talent caused many Black baseball fans to lose interest in the Negro leagues. To keep the Monarchs in business, O’Neil sought out talented young Black players, signed them, and sold their contracts to MLB teams. He signed a young Ernie Banks on the recommendation of fellow Negro leagues legend Cool Papa Bell.

In 1955, O’Neil was hired as a scout by the MLB Chicago Cubs. He specialized in signing players from the remaining Negro leagues teams and Black players from the South. He scouted future Hall-of-Famers Lou Brock, Lee Smith, and Billy Williams.

In 1962, the Cubs named O’Neil a coach, making him the first Black coach in MLB history. At the time, the Cubs were utilizing a “college of coaches” approach, in which a group of men shared coaching duties throughout the season. O’Neil was given the impression that he might get a chance to manage the team.

During a game that season, a series of ejections of coaches made O’Neil the logical choice to fill in as the third-base coach. He would have become the first Black on-field coach in MLB history. But another coach came in to coach third instead. Years later, O’Neil learned that Cubs coach Charlie Grimm had told the other coaches that O’Neil was never to coach in the field or manage. O’Neil was certain that this exclusion was racially motivated. O’Neil returned to scouting in 1964. In 1988, he became a scout for the Kansas City Royals.

Later in life, O’Neil campaigned to raise public awareness of the Negro leagues. In 1990, he helped establish the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. O’Neil was featured prominently in the documentary miniseries “Baseball” (1994) by the American filmmaker Ken Burns. He regaled audiences with stories of such Black baseball stars as Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson. The work served to introduce younger generations of baseball fans to the players of the Negro leagues.

O’Neil’s warmth, love of baseball, and gift for storytelling won him friends and admirers wherever he went. Star hitter Ichiro Suzuki met O’Neil early in his MLB career and sought him out whenever he traveled to Kansas City. After O’Neil’s death, Suzuki donated a large sum to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

O’Neil lobbied to get Negro leagues players elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. But in 2006, when 17 Negro leagues players and executives were inducted, O’Neil was not selected. The Hall of Fame asked O’Neil to speak during the induction anyway, since none of the 17 honorees were still living. O’Neil agreed and gave a speech praising the new Hall-of-Famers during the induction ceremony.

Despite O’Neil’s magnanimity, those close to him speculated that the snub broke his heart. O’Neil died on Oct. 6, 2006, just two months after the ceremony. It took 15 more years before O’Neil was finally inducted.

In July, O’Neil will take his rightful place next to the other legends of the game, many of whom he met, played against, or mentored. One of his own sayings fits this belated honoring of one of baseball’s greatest treasures: “Waste no tears for me. I didn’t come along too early—I was right on time.”

Author Jason Reynolds visits the Build Series to discuss his novel “Look Both Ways” at Build Studio on October 08, 2019 in New York City.
Credit: © Gary Gershoff, Getty Images

February is Black History Month, an annual observance of the achievements and culture of Black Americans. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature Black pioneers in a variety of areas. 

When you check out the new releases section of your library or bookstore, you are bound to see several colorful and eye-catching books by Jason Reynolds. Reynolds is an American author of novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade readers. His works explore a variety of topics from a young person’s perspective. Such topics include the Black American experience, as well as such issues as gun and gang violence.

In 2020, the librarian of Congress appointed Reynolds National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. The position involves traveling and speaking to groups of children, parents, and teachers to promote the joy of reading. Although normally a two-year position, the term was extended to three years for Reynolds because the COVID-19 pandemic (worldwide epidemic) interrupted his speaking schedule.

Reynolds was born on Dec. 6, 1983, in Washington, D.C. He grew up in neighboring Oxon Hill, Maryland. Reynolds graduated from the University of Maryland in 2005 with a degree in English.

Reynolds became interested in poetry at a young age. An interest in rap music inspired him to explore literature. He advocates using rap and comic books as nontraditional ways to reach young readers. Reynolds’s first book, When I Was the Greatest, was published in 2014. It tells the story of three Black teenage boys growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, in New York City. Reynolds often chooses Black teenagers—particularly teenage boys—as his subjects. He portrays the uncertainty or fear many of the boys feel, to encourage young male readers to express their own emotions.

Reynolds is best known for such books as Miles Morales: Spider-Man and Long Way Down (both 2017) and the “Track” series, which began with Ghost (2016). His other books include The Boy in the Black Suit (2015); All American Boys (2015, with Brendan Kiely); As Brave as You (2016); Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks (2019); Stuntboy, in the Meantime (2021); and Ain’t Burned All the Bright (2022).

Reynolds also wrote Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (2020). The book is an adaptation, for middle-grade and teen readers, of the award-winning book Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (2016), written by the historian and activist Ibram X. Kendi. The books show ways in which past ideas and practices have embedded assumptions about race into modern thinking, and how people can identify racist thinking in their own lives in order to change it.

Reynolds has won many awards for his works, including the 2015 Coretta Scott King John Steptoe New Talent Award for When I Was the Greatest. Pick up one of Reynold’s award-winning books today, you may not be able to put it down!

Sculptor Augusta Savage
Credit: National Archives

February is Black History Month, an annual observance of the achievements and culture of Black Americans. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature Black pioneers in a variety of areas. 

The Harlem Renaissance was a movement in Black American literature and arts during the 1920’s and early 1930’s, when writers and artists tried to explore Black life in the United States in a fresh way. This artistic “renaissance,” which means rebirth, was set in Harlem, an area in New York City that was the center of Black American cultural life during the period. Writers like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston built on Black American folk culture and addressed such themes as politics, gender, and heritage. Jazz musicians Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington transformed music. One sculptor of the Harlem Renaissance who cast the reality of the Black experience into sculptures was Augusta Savage.

Augusta Savage was a Black American sculptor and influential art teacher. Savage typically worked in plaster, creating sculptures meant to be cast in bronze. However, Savage could not afford bronze. As a result, most of her sculptures went uncast, and the plaster originals have been destroyed or damaged. Savage’s talent has been recognized after her death, but most of her artwork remains missing.

Savage’s sculptures take their subjects from the Black American experience. Her most successful work was The Harp (Lift Every Voice and Sing), a tribute to the musical contributions of Black Americans. The Harp was a 16-foot (5-meter) tall painted plaster statue. Twelve singers stand in for the strings of the harp, with a man kneeling in front holding sheet music. The base of the harp, supporting the strings, was a large arm and hand. The sculpture was commissioned for and displayed at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

Augusta Christine Fells was born Feb. 29, 1892, in Green Cove Springs, Florida, near Jacksonville. Her father, a Methodist minister, disapproved of her early creativity in art. The principal at her high school, in West Palm Beach, recognized Savage’s talent and asked her to teach a clay modeling class. She married James Savage in 1915, but they soon divorced. After winning an award at the West Palm Beach County Fair in 1919, Savage moved to New York City.

Savage was accepted into many renowned art programs and schools, but her lifelong struggle with poverty kept her from many opportunities. She worked at a steam laundry, an industrial laundromat, to provide for her family. Savage received a scholarship to the Cooper Union School of Art in New York City and graduated from the four-year program in three years. She was accepted to the Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts in France. However, her acceptance was rescinded (taken back) when the committee found out she was Black.

Savage was commissioned by New York City’s Harlem Library to make busts of W. E. B. Du Bois, the American sociologist and civil rights activist, and other notable civil rights leaders. In 1929, Savage was given funds and awarded a fellowship to study in France. There, Savage exhibited her work at the Grand Palais. In 1934, Savage became the first Black American elected to the National Association of Woman Painters and Sculptors. She started her own studio, where she gave free art classes. Savage died of cancer on March 26, 1962.

Browns’ 1969 patent plan for an elaborate home security system suggests safety and relaxation can go hand in hand.
Credit: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Today many people have security systems installed in their houses. Security systems set off an alarm when someone breaks in and automatically call the police. Home security systems also connect to smoke alarms and call the fire department if there is a fire. Some people also have security cameras around the house. They can show us when we have a package at the front door or when a visitor is waiting outside. Newer models even let you open the door from your smartphone or smartwatch! Do you know about the woman who invented the first home security system?

Well, she did not work for the CIA, FBI, or Homeland Security. Marie Van Brittan Brown was a Black American nurse. She was born on Oct. 22, 1922, in the Queens borough (section) of New York City. She married Albert Brown, an electronics technician. She worked late hours as a nurse and was concerned about the slow response time of the police in her neighborhood. Brown created a home security system for their house and filed for a patent in 1966. Brown called her invention the “Home Security System Utilizing Television Surveillance.”

The system involved a camera that monitored four different areas, displaying surveillance footage on a television. The system also had a two-way microphone, a button to let visitors into the house, and a button that called the police. The patent was approved in 1969. However, Brown never found a manufacturer or marketed her invention. Brown died on Feb. 2, 1999, in Queens.

Zaila Avant-garde, winner of the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Credit: © Heather Harvey, ESPN Images/Scripps National Spelling Bee

M-u-r-r-a-y-a. Murraya, a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees. Also, the winning word of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on July 8, 2021. Luckily, it was one the finalist knew. Zaila Avant-garde jumped for joy after correctly spelling the word and becoming the first Black American winner of the Bee, and the second Black winner. In 1998, the first official Black winner of the Bee was 12-year-old Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica.

Avant-garde was born in Harvey, Louisiana, in 2007. At just 14 years old, she was not only the spelling bee champion, but also a holder of three Guinness Book of World Records titles for skill with a basketball. She possesses the world records for “Most Bounced Juggles” with four basketballs in one minute, “Most Dribbles” with four basketballs in 30 seconds, and “Most Basketballs Dribbled in One Minute Simultaneously” with six basketballs.

Avant-garde started competitive spelling only two years prior to her national win and $50,000 prize. Outside of her home schooling, Avant-garde studied words for 7 hours a day. She also had three spelling tutors and special computer programs for spelling preparation.

Being the first Black American winner of the Scripps Cup is something Avant-garde doesn’t take lightly. With a lower median income in the United States, Black and Hispanic families have fewer resources to succeed at competitive spelling. A commonly used study-aid called SpellPundit costs $600 per year (as of 2020). Other spellers hire previous competitors to tutor them for $200 per hour. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scripps organization sent resources and computers to hundreds of finalists. This action helped more than 200 children participate in the bee.

The first Scripps National Spelling Bee took place in 1941, presented by the E.W. Scripps Company. It started with dozens of spellers and over the decades has grown to hundreds of competitors. Succeeding in the spelling bee can open doors to higher education, internships, and higher-paying jobs.