One of the first famous African Americans I remember learning about was Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood Marshall was the first African American Supreme Court justice, and presided over the infamous Brown v. Board of Education case, which sought to end segregation in the state of Arkansas. He is very well respected within the city of Baltimore for his works in the areas of civil rights and law, and is a person that most of us are proud to call a native son.

One of the famous African Americans that I admire most is Frederick Douglas. He is so well admired in Baltimore, as a matter of fact, that there is actually a school named after him there. Thurgood Marshall actually went to that school. He was one of the greatest abolitionists ever and a man who was way before his time. The fact that he was able to speak on behalf of African Americans at a time when most of them were treated like second-class citizens is remarkable to me.

Switching gears a little bit, I am also a great admire of the African American writer James Baldwin. He was a part of the Harlem Renaissance, and wrote a book called “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” which had a profound impact on my life and my faith. It was remarkable to me how different he and I were as individuals, in terms of race, religion and sexual orientation, and yet how much of a kinship I felt with him when he described some of his feelings of guilt that had been ingrained in him for various reasons. I had to stop on a number of occasions and take a deep breath because I was so enthralled, and of all the famous African Americans that have ever lived, I probably find him the most interesting.

There are so many more famous African Americans that it is hard just to name a few that I really admire. I have always enjoyed studying different ethnicities than my own and the contributions they have made to society. African Americans, like every ethnic group in America, have certainly done their part, and that should be acknowledged.

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It is therefore understandable why the American women history lacks any spectacular accounts of women shaping the political events of the time. Indeed, women’s participation and inclusion in national politics remained very low for years after they gained the right to vote in 1920. By 1994 (only two and a half decades ago), only two women had served in the United States Senate. Less than 12 had been Congressional Representatives prior to 1955. Today, we have 16 Senators and 67 Congress representatives, which translate to around 15% of the total United States Congress.

As yet, no woman has entered the annals of American women history as a presidential nominee for any of the major parties. At least four, however, have run either as Vice President Nominee or gone as far as seeking their party’s. Among the most notable women in the American women history as regards holding leadership positions in the nation include Belva Lockwood, who in 1879 became the very first woman to ever practice law in the US Supreme Court. Over a century later in 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor attained the honour of the first ever female member of the US Supreme Court. Sandra was to be joined later by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor as the second and third Supreme Court serving member respectively.

On 4th January 2007, another first in the American women history was achieved, with Nancy Pelosi becoming the first ever female Speaker of the US House of representatives. This was closely followed by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s first, during the 2008 presidential campaign. Clinton’s achievement is in itself among the most significant in the American women history, having won over 1,896 delegate votes against Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential Nomination. In the same year, Sarah Palin, an Alaskan Governor of repute became the first ever female Vice Presidential Nominee from the Republican Party.

A surface look at these statistics cannot capture in full the complex nature of women integration in national politics. The American women history constitutes of a tale in which women have had to overcome overwhelming challenges, override great opposition, satisfy awesome expectations and bear delimiting social responsibilities.

The last two generations of American women have triggered a remarkable social shift in the integration of women politicians within mainstream national politics. The American public has stated its willingness to support and vote for an American woman as their leader. Consequently many opportunities are opening up for the female gender to join the decision making tables around the nation and make an impact in forging an American future.

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As soon as you open a book on Roman art history, you’ll find that the Romans were lovers of Greek art. Outstanding in literature, poetry, history, philosophy, the Romans seemed to let their fascination with Greek art dominate their entire outlook on art, so much so that many art historians fail to see anything that clearly sets Roman art off from Greek art. To some extent, this is true. The Romans imported Greek art from every age of Greek art, from the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. Not only did they import these styles, but they also imported Greek artists to create new works for Rome. Roman writers on art in those times hardly wrote anything on Roman art, but they wrote copiously on Greek art, lauding it as the height of artistic endeavor. So fascinated were they by the Greeks, the Romans did not even record the names of their own artists, yet the art criticism from those times lavish praises on the Greeks: Phidias, Praxiteles, Polyclitus and other famous Greek artists. Entranced by the Greeks—-who would not be—-the Romans were without question, artistic imitators of the Greeks.

You might do well when preparing for your vacation to Italy to give some consideration to Greek art history, seeing how influential the art of Greece was in Roman art history. Perhaps, if you are going primarily to witness the artistic tradition of the West, you might do just as well to first visit Greece, Athens, in order to get a full sense of the origins of Western art.

If you have time only for Rome, you’ll still be exposed to the Greeks styles expressed through the vision of ancient Rome. Your reading in Roman art history will also help you distinguish those contributions that are distinctively Roman – yes, they did expand on Greek art, creating a specifically Roman expression. The Romans were not able to completely eliminate their own unique history from their works. The influence of their Etruscan forefathers emerges in much of the sculpture and architecture of the later Roman period. Read a history on Roman art and learn more on what distinguishes Roman art from Greek art. When you stand before the temple of Sibyl in Tivoli, outside the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, in the Colosseum, in the Pantheon of Rome, you’ll see more than architecture; you’ll see ancient Rome.

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There are many great ways to make history for kids fun. Dates and names are important, but they can be boring. Instead of loading kids down with a list of names and dates, try to include just one date and a few key people to start out. That is easier to remember and more likely to stick in their mind. Make sure the events you choose to present early on are the most interesting and exciting, showing kids that learning about the past means hearing some really great stories.

History for kids in kindergarten or first grade should be very simple. Include facts, but present them in a fun way. One of the best ways to do this is to have a play or to just have the children act out what is going on in the classroom. This can be hard when they can not read very well yet, but there are ways to get them to be involved. Think about using vivid pictures and real life examples of why the moment in history you are presenting to them changed the way they live today. That helps them connect something from long ago to something that they can touch, feel, or experience now.

History for kids that are a bit older is going to be more complex, but it should be just as fun for them. They have a greater comprehension of what is being taught to them, and they can hang on to more facts and make better connects between what happened then to what is happening now. This is a great time to teach them how history means more than just a bunch of events that led to where we are now. Those moments in history teach us about ourselves and our lives, and leads us away from the same mistakes our ancestors may have made.

There are many ways to make history for kids interesting. The major events should always be covered, but don’t forget to find things that are more interesting than some of the others. They may be smaller events of less historical importance, but they help a child feel that history is fun and worth learning. The same goes for the other topics children start to study when they are young. Finding fun ways to capture them when they are young means a thirst for learning when they are older. With the educational system in our country in a questionable state, it is always a good idea to start them off as best as you can.

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The class began with the story of the Middle Passage and the horrific conditions to which African slaves were subjected on their journey to the Americas. It addressed slavery itself in Colonial America and during the Revolutionary and Civil War eras.

We learned about African American soldiers that served during the American Revolution and the Civil War, and about such figures as Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists, both African American and Caucasian, who fought to bring an end to slavery.

I knew a lot about African American history before I took the course, but this shed light on some of the lesser-known historical figures that helped shape American history. Men like Vernon Johns, a preacher and predecessor of Martin Luther King, Jr., and John Chavis, a free black man who actually advocated slavery.

We learned about Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver, as well as W.E.B. Dubois and the founding of the NAACP. You started to see how African American history was really the history of all of America.

One of the more interesting aspects of the class for me was learning about African American literary figures and the Harlem Renaissance. I have read such writers as Langston Hughes and Zora Neal Hurston, and to see them in an historical light was pretty interesting.

The African American history course taught us a lot about the Civil Rights movement, with such figures as Stokely Carmichael, Medgar Evers and Rosa Parks, and how much sacrifice was made on the part of Americans of all races to make this a better and more tolerant country.

Because the class was more than a decade ago, and Barack Obama was not even a Senator at that point, we did not get to hear about the first African American president in U.S. history, but I think that just goes to show how African American history, like all history, is ever evolving.

What I took away most from the African American history is that it is a history of triumph and tragedy. African Americans have struggled for equality in the United States and made great strides as well. What struck me the most about the course is how, in spite of our differences as Americans, there is far more that we have in common.

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Everyone knows that the 1789 French Revolution was this great deal that practically changed the political landscape of all of Europe. But what was it like for the people that they should have gone off the deep end and slaughtered the royal family and brought about such stunning change? France at the time was hopelessly caught in the grip of an autocratic monarchy and a terribly fundamentalist Catholic influence. Inept kings and queens have existed before without provoking their citizens like this; but France had the misfortune of suffering a series of terrible famines too at the time; now hunger, economic mismanagement, fundamentalism and an apathetic monarchy surely sounds like a potent brew. Exactly what was it that the monarchy did that was so awful? Well, to begin with, there were Portuguese slaves, and Jewish people and Muslims who were forced to live with no rights. Women were not allowed to divorce their husbands or to inherit property, education was virtually nonexistent, scientific thought was discouraged and Catholic dogma was enforced, and the country was run into the ground fighting unnecessary wars all around.

Here in this country, it is not uncommon to hear the 1789 French Revolution vilified and the American civil war glorified in comparison. What the French Revolution achieved is quite remarkable even by today’s standards. It started that society down the path of racial equality, gay rights, feminism, and emancipation for slaves all the way back then. And in achieving all this, the French Revolution took the lives of fewer than 20,000 people.

Of course any war or revolution is bound to visit some horrors on all concerned and as in any popular revolt, law and order inevitably broke down and anyone suspected remotely of being a sympathizer of the royalty was sent to their death. Often, the mobs, drunk on the power of lawlessness would easily switch to killing anyone in sight and justifying their actions in any way they could. There was a saying attributed to Dostoyevsky “If there is no God, everything is permitted.” Perhaps that explains the good parts of what shapes an event like the 1789 French Revolution

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