Who Gets It? – Addelo.org

A chance to reflect and honor those who gave their lives for blacks in Africa and the diaspora.

Below are some of those who died for the betterment of Africa and the black race. They sacrificed their lives in service to something greater than themselves. We honor them when we embrace that same spirit in our own lives and conduct.

Patrice Lumumba

Patrice Lumumba, born Patrice Hemery Lumumba (July 2, 1925- January 17, 1961), was an African nationalist leader, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (June–September 1960). Forced out of office during a political crisis, he was assassinated a short time later. After attending a Protestant mission school, Lumumba went to work in Kindu-Port-Empain, where he became active in the club of the évolués (Western-educated Africans). He began to write essays and poems for Congolese journals. …

Thomas Sankara

Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (December 21 1949 – October 15 1987) was a Burkinabé military captain, Marxist revolutionary, pan-Africanist theorist, and President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. Viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution, he is commonly referred to as “Africa’s Che Guevara”. From 1970 to 1973, Sankara attended …

MLK

Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was a Baptist minister and civil rights activist who had a huge impact on race relations in the United States, beginning in the mid-1950s. Martin was originally born Michael King Jr. until his father change his name to Martin later. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen then attended Morehouse College. When he graduated from Morehouse in 1948 with a sociology degree at age 19, he was ordained as a minister and attended the liberal Crozer…

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela (July 18, 1918 — December 5, 2013) was a Black nationalist and the first Black president of South Africa (1994–99). His negotiations in the early 1990s with South African Pres. F.W. de Klerk helped end the country’s apartheid system of racial segregation and ushered in a peaceful transition to majority rule. Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Prize for Peace in 1993 for their efforts. Nelson was born Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. He attended South African Native College (later the University of Fort Hare) and studied law at the University of the Witwatersrand. He later passed the qualification exam to become a lawyer. I’…

Kwame Nkrumah

Kwame Nkrumah (September 21, 1909 – April 27, 1972) was a Ghanaian politician and revolutionary. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957. An influential advocate of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962. After twelve years abroad pursuing higher education, …

Jomo Kenyatta

Jomo Kenyatta (1894 — August 22, 1978) was the first prime minister (1963–64) and then president (1964–78) of Kenya. Kenyatta left the East African highlands in 1920 to become a civil servant and political activist in Nairobi. He opposed a union of the British colonial territories of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika. In 1945 he helped organize the sixth Pan-African Congress, attended by such figures as W.E.B. Du Bois and Kwame Nkrumah.
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Julius Nyerere

Julius Nyerere (March 1922 – Oct. 14, 1999) was the first prime minister of independent Tanganyika (1961), first president of Tanzania (1964–85), and the major force behind the Organization of African Unity (OAU; now African Union). He taught in Catholic schools before studying history and economics in Britain. As leader of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), he advocated peaceful change, social equality, and ethnic harmony. …

Malcolm X

Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was a minister, human rights activist and prominent Black nationalist leader who served as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam during the 1950s and 1960s. Malcolm was born Malcolm Little until he changed his named to Malcolm while in prison and converted to the Nation of Islam before his release from prison in 1952. Now a free man, Malcolm X traveled to Detroit, Michigan, where he worked with the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, to expand the movement’s following among Black Americans nationwide….

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