Oprah Winfrey is one of the most influential women of the world as well as one of the richest African-Americans of the 20^th century.

Born on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi to unmarried parents, she spent her early life on a remote farm with her grandmother. She later moved in with her Mom in a poor neighborhood of Milwaukee. After some time of bad influence and bad behavior she moved to Nashville, Tennessee to live with her father.

Oprah’s father was very influential in her educational drive. She spent her teen years under his strict guidance, doing weekly book reports and adding five new words to her vocabulary every night before dinner.

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Civil rights activist and politician Carl Rowan

Carl Rowan was born in Ravenscroft, Tennessee on August 11, 1925. He grew up in the small town of McMinnville, Tennessee and graduated from Bernard High School in 1942 as the valedictorian. He went on to attend Tennessee State University for one year and then Washburn University for one year.

Rowan was one of the first African-Americans to become a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1947 and received a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Minnesota in 1948. He began his career in journalism writing for numerous African American newspapers in and around Minneapolis.

He went on to become a copywriter at The Minneapolis Tribune for two years and later became a staff writer, reporting exclusively on the Civil Rights Movement. Read the rest of this entry »