At the top of my "favorite" Black History Heros list is my Dad. This blog post doesn't have enough capacity for all I could say about him. By far he's the most notable teacher to me of Black History and not because he's an avid reader, historian, genealogist, but because he lived through the civil rights movement. He was thrown out of school for arguing for a black cheerleader to be on the squad. Nothing made me more proud than to march perform on his high school football field (German Township) as the first black "Featured Twirler" of the Fairchance-Georges Band.
If I do nothing else in life, I know that on that one day I made my Dad proud.
His other feats in Black History is that he went on to serve the United States in the Air Force, came back to his hometown and graduated with kids five years younger and then went to Youngstown State to earn a degree in nursing (yes, he was a male nurse way before it became fashionable). To top things off he just showed up at George Washington University with his family in tow and got a scholarship for the MBA program.
So today I honor my Dad, Joseph Mickens on his 48 hour long birthday...his mom says he was born on February 3rd, but his Grandmother told him he was really born on February 2nd.
For my family and friends in Fairchance, drive by my Dad's house and toot the horn so he knows you are thinking of him!
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