George Washington Carver

Alejandro Queija

Well if you’re reading this right now the zombies have risen and good old me George Washington Carver, is going to tell you on how I influenced America before I eat your brains. Well I was born in Diamond, Missouri at 1864.Well everyone knows that I discovered peanut butter. That’s not the only thing I did you know I discovered hundreds of uses for them before mashing them up. Even though I was born a slave I never gave up my dream to go to college. I tried for a while to get accepted I finally got accepted to Highland College. After getting my masters I started teaching slaves how to farm and read. I also made a recipe for sweet potatoes after more and more Americans learned all his farming tips he got accepted to the Royal School for Arts in England. Theodore Roosevelt also mentioned me in of his speeches yeah I know im awesome. I even sold some of my famous peanuts to companies and even to the Republic of China. While I was famous I promoted peanuts and racial harmony. I won the Spignard metal for achievement When I was walking home one day, I took a bad fall down a flight of stairs; I was found unconscious by a maid who took me to a hospital. Before I go im going to tell you all the things I have I have my own monument, my own museum and im in the hall of fame for great Americans. But the thing is there’s a spot right next to me. You know whose it left for? It’s left for you.

Ken Griffey Jr. - By Jan Mattei

Hello, I am George Kenneth Griffey Jr. but everybody knows my by Ken Griffey Jr. I was born on November 12, 1969 in Donora, Pennsylvania. I've been surrounded by baseball since I am a little boy, because I grew up in Cincinnati where my dad played baseball for the Reds. I was always on the clubhouse during the games and learn a lot about baseball. In 1987 I graduated from Moeller High School in Cincinnati and drafted first overall by the Seattle Mariners. In 1988 I was playing Class A baseball for Seattle's farm team and by 1989 I  joined the Seattle Mariners where I  became the youngest player in the majors at age 19. The following season my dad joined the Mariners and we became the first father and son in history to play on the same Major League team at the same time.

I played for eleven seasons with Seattle (1989-1999) and established one of the best baseball records: 1,752 hits, 398 home runs, 1,152 RBIs, and 167 stolen bases. I led the American League in home runs four seasons (1994, 1997, 1998, and 1999), and voted the A.L. MVP in 1997, and maintained a .297 batting average. I also won 10 straight Gold Gloves and led the Mariners to their first two playoff appearances and scored the winning run in Seattle's five-game victory over the New York Yankees in the 1995 American League Division Series.

In 2000 I couldn't stand being away from my family anymore and asked the Mariners to trade me to Cincinnatti so I can be close to my family again, after a while they agreed and by 2004, I was once again one of the top power hitters in baseball and became the 20th player to hit 500 career homeruns. In July 2008 I was traded to the White Sox where I hit 18 homeruns. In 2009 I was traded back to the Mariners and by 2010 I decided to retire.

I am very involved in charity work I have The Ken Griffey, Jr. Family Foundation, that supports several causes, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and several children's hospitals across the United States of America.
I can Tell you that through hard work and dedication your dreams can come true.

Condoleezza Rice

Hello, I am Condoleezza Rice. I was born November 14th 1954. I was born in Alabama Brimingham. I am the second woman or african american to be U.S. Secretary of State. I consider myself a republican with moderate views. I have the highest position for an african american female to hold in the presidential cabinet. I became Republican in 1984, because I decided that Democrats patronized the helpless and the poor. When I was growing up my eleven year old friend, Denise McNair, was killed in 1963 in the bombing of Brimingham's 16th Street Baptist Church. When I was three years old I mastered the piano and people told me that my career could be as a prfessional pianist. When I was growing up I skipped the first grade and the seventh grade. I entered college when I was fifeteen years old. I have three degrees, and I got my masters in just one year. I was a professor around 1981-1999 in Stanford University, and I taught Political Science. In 1993-99 I became Stanford's provost. I had a big responsiblility. I had to see the schools budget and their academic programs. I was a memeber of the National Security staff while George Bush was president, then I was the National Security Advisor when the second George Bush was president, before becoming Secreatary of State in 2005. That is how I became famous by hard work.

Roberto Clemente #21 - One of the Best Baseball Players of All Time

  Roberto Clemente:

Hello my name is Roberto Clemente In 1955 I was spotted by a scout from the professional hardball team in the Puerto Rican town of Santurce and offered a contract. I signed with the club for forty dollars per month, plus a five hundred dollar bonus. It wasn't long before i caught the attention of the major league scouts and, in 1954, I signed up with the Los Angeles Dodgers who sent me to their minor league team in Montreal. In 1955, i was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates and started as their right fielder. It took a few years for me to learn the rules in the major leagues, but by 1960 i was the best player in professional baseball, helping lead the Pirates to win both the National League pennant and the World Series. Shortly after i joined the Pirates, i chose 21 for my uniform. Twenty-one was the total number of letters in the name–Roberto Clemente Walker. The Pirates retired his number at the start of the 1973 season, and the right field wall at the Pirates' PNC Park is 21 feet high in honor of me. Tragically, my life ended on December 31, 1972 in a plane crash while going to Nicaragua with relief supplies for earthquake victims.

 

Hello,

I was born a slave on a small farm in western Virginia, I was nine years old when the Civil War ended. I worked in a salt furnace as soon as i turned ten started serving as a houseboy for a white family where I first learned the virtues of frugality, cleanliness, and personal morality. I was educated at Hampton Institute, one of the earliest freedmen's schools devoted to industrial education. Growing up during Reconstruction and imbued with moral as opposed to intellectual training, I came to believe that postwar social uplift had begun at the wrong end. I was a pragmatist who engaged in deliberate ambiguity in order to sustain white recognition of my leadership. Such visibility won me international fame and the role of black adviser to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. I widely read autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), stands as a classic in the genre of narratives by American self-made men, as well as the prime source for me social and historical philosophy. My philosophy did not long survive my death, but in theory and practice, my views on economic self-reliance have remained one of the deepest strains in Afro-American thought.

-Booker T. Washington

Jackie Robinson

Dominic Diaz

Civics Blog

Jackie Robinson

Hey, I’m Jackie Roosevelt Robinson and I was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1919 in a family of sharecroppers. My mother, Mallie Robinson, single-handedly raised me and four of my siblings. Me and my family were the only black family on the block, and the prejudice I encountered only strengthened our bond. From this beginning would grow to be the first baseball player to break Major League Baseball's color barrier that destroyed the sport for more than 50 years.

Growing up in a large, single-parent family, I was great at all sports and learned to make his own way in life. At UCLA, I became the first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track. In 1941, I was named to the All-American football team. Due to money, I was forced to leave college, and eventually I decided to enlist in the U.S. Army. After two years in the army, I had gone up to second lieutenant. My army career was cut short when I was court-martialed in relation to objections with incidents of racial discrimination. At the end, I left the Army. In my rookie season, I hit 297. with 32 steals and 12 homers. That’s my life and I hope you enjoyed.

In this picture, I was playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. They don’t exist anymore but I’ll never forget them.

Christian Campos

Civics Blog

2-9-11

Michael Jeffrey Jordan

Hi, I’m Michael Jeffrey Jordan I was born on Feb. 17, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York, United States. I attended Emsley A. Laney High School and then I went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I’m 6ft. 6in. tall, and I weigh 215lb. I was the 3rd overall pick in the first round and was drafted into the Chicago Bulls in 1984. My leaping ability, was illustrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in slam dunk contests and earned me the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness". I also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball. During my first season in the NBA, I averaged 28.2 points on 51.5% shooting. I quickly became a fan favorite even in opposing arenas, and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the heading "A Star is Born" just over a month into my professional career. My second season was cut short by a broken foot which caused me to miss 64 games. Then I got my first MVP award in my third season. In my 1988-89 careers, I led the league in points with 53.5 percent shooting average. With Phil Jackson's contract expiring, the pending departures of Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman looming, and being in the latter stages of an owner-induced lockout of NBA players, I retired on January 13, 1999. As of 2007, I’ve lived in Highland Park, Illinois, and both of my sons attended Loyola Academy, a private Roman Catholic high school located in Wilmette, Illinois.