Black History Month: People Who Changed the World #1 · 11:13pm Feb 1st, 2018
Yes people, although not as widely observed in recent years, today starts what is known as "Black History Month". When people usually think of this, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcom X come to mind instantly. But this month, I will observe some of history's greatest minds who happen to be black! To kick this off, let's take a look at a woman by the name of Oprah Winfrey.
Bio: Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. Dubbed the "Queen of All Media", she is the richest African-American and North America's first multi-billionaire black person and has been ranked the greatest black philanthropist in American history. Several assessments rank her as the most influential woman in the world. Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood. She has stated that she was molested during her childhood and early teens and became pregnant at 14; her son died in infancy. Sent to live with the man she calls her father, a barber in Tennessee, Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime talk show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.
Credited with creating a more intimate confessional form of media communication, she is thought to have popularized and revolutionized the tabloid talk show genre pioneered by Phil Donahue, through which, according to a Yale study, she broke 20th century taboos and allowed LGBT people to enter the mainstream. By the mid-1990s, she had reinvented her show with a focus on literature, self-improvement, and spirituality. Though criticized for unleashing a confession culture, promoting controversial self-help ideas, and having an overly emotion-centered approach, she is often praised for overcoming adversity to become a benefactor to others. From 2006 to 2008, her endorsement of Obama, by one estimate, delivered over a million votes in the close 2008 Democratic primary race.
In my opinion, Ms. Winfrey is a true inspiration in the Black Community. I loved The Oprah Winfrey Show when it was still on the air as well as her more recent endeavours. She is truly an inspiring woman and a great way to start my month-long series highlighting amazing Black People. And now! A quote from Oprah:
"Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher."
Nice rundown of why we should learn about Oprah Winfrey. Interesting little bit of trivia on her: her name is actually a clerical error. It was supposed to be Orpah, a much lesser used name from the Bible, but the people being unfamiliar with it inverted the letters and somehow no one every corrected it and it stuck.
4787381
Ya know what? I did know that. I found that very interesting too.