A post office in Washington, D.C., will be officially renamed in honor of civil rights leader Dorothy Height.

In 1965, Bishop Taylor became the first African-American Methodist Bishop to serve as the President of the Church's Council of Bishops.

In 1983 The Rev. Leontine T.C. Kelly was elected to the Episcopacy by the Western Jurisdictional Conference of The United Methodist Church making her the first African-American woman to be named bishop.

Before there was the Kent State University shooting in 1970, there was Orangeburg massacre in 1968. Bishop Marcus Matthews rarely talks about it but he could have died on that Feb. 8 day, the day now famously known as the Orangeburg Massacre.

Throughout the month of February, United Methodists of all “colors” designate time to celebrate the heritage and contributions of black people within the church. The stories of black people in the Methodist church are still under-told and under-appreciated by many, thus creating time to honor this heritage is an important way to affirm the witness of all members of the body of Christ.

For so many African Americans there is limited information about their lineage. Stories were passed down among the generations about enslavement and survival, but slowly the emphasis shifted to locking away those family stories and memories in an attempt to find success in a free yet unequal society.

Ida B. Wells was a suffragist, women's advocate and anti-lynching crusader who changed history when she refused to give up her seat on a train.