United States; he is the first African American to hold that office. The product of an interracial marriage–his father grew up in a small village in Kenya, his mother in Kansas–Obama grew up in Hawaii but discovered his civic calling in Chicago, where he worked for several years as a community organizer on the city’s largely black South Side. After studying at Harvard Law School and practicing constitutional law in Chicago, he began his political career in 1996 in the Illinois State Senate and in 2004 announced his candidacy for a newly vacant seat in the U.S. Senate. He delivered a rousing keynote speech at that year’s Democratic National Convention, attracting national attention with his eloquent call for national unity and cooperation across party lines. In February 2007, just months after he became only the third African American elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction, Obama announced his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. After withstanding a tight Democratic primary battle with Hillary Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, Obama defeated Senator John McCain of Arizona in the general election that November. Obama’s appearances in both the primaries and the general election drew impressive crowds, and his message of hope and change–embodied by the slogan “Yes We Can”–inspired thousands of new voters, many young and black, to cast their vote for the first time in the historic election.

Black History Wod: “44th U.S. President” Choose 1st Term or 2nd Term or Challenge yourself and do Both Terms!!!1st Term: 44 Min AMRap 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2 Deadlifts, Burpees, KBS with 44 Calorie Row at the top of Every Round RX: Deadlift 225/155 KBS: 70/53 Scaled: Deadlift 155/105 KBS: 53/32 2nd Term: 44Min AMRap 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2 Unbroken Sets of Squat Cleans and Front Squat RX: 175/125 Scaled: 135/95 Unbroken means All Squat Cleans Tap and Go and on the last Squat Clean go immediately into the Front Squats. This workout is 44 Minutes so after the 2 reps increase the weight by 10lbs and start at 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 until the 44mins are up.

By the early 1970s, the advances of the civil rights movement had combined with the rise of the feminist movement to create an African-American women’s movement. “There can’t be liberation for half a race,” declared Margaret Sloan, one of the women behind the National Black Feminist Organization, founded in 1973. A year earlier, Representative Shirley Chisholm of New York became a national symbol of both movements as the first major party African-American candidate and the first female candidate for president of the United States. A former educational consultant and a founder of the National Women’s Caucus, Chisholm became the first black woman in Congress in 1968, when she was elected to the House from her Brooklyn district. Though she failed to win a primary, Chisholm received more than 150 votes at the Democratic National Convention. She claimed she never expected to win the nomination. It went to George McGovern, who lost to Richard Nixon in the general election. The outspoken Chisholm, who attracted little support among African-American men during her presidential campaign, later told the press: “I’ve always met more discrimination being a woman than being black. When I ran for the Congress, when I ran for president, I met more discrimination as a woman than for being black. Men are men.”

Black History Wod: Shirley Chisholm Runs for President, 1972

1 Full Snatch 9 OHS 7 Power Snatches 2 OHS Every 2mins 20 Rounds

RX 155/105, Scaled 95/65

Rodney King Riots” AKA “Americas Nightmare” Complete 100 Rounds of 1 Power Clean 1 Push Press 1 Rack Lunge Left Knee to Ground 1 Rack Lunge Right Knee to Ground RX: 135/95 Scaled: 95/65

Black History Wod: Mandela 94 DeadLift 95 Push-Ups 96 HangClean 97 Sit-Ups 98 PushPress 99 AirSquats 135/95 ABSOLUTELY NO SCALING IF YOU ATTEMPT TO DO THIS WORKOUT THERE IS NO SCALING!!!

Black History Wod: “Rivers of Blood” The Assassination of MLK For Time: 19 Burpees 100 Air Squats, 100 Sit-Ups, 100 Push-Ups, 100 Knees to Elbow (Plank Style), 68 Burpees with 8 Ground To Overhead on the Minute 45min Time Cap 35/45 Plate

After the heady rush of the civil rights movement’s first years, anger and frustration was increasing among many African Americans, who saw clearly that true equality–social, economic and political–still eluded them. In the late 1960s and early ’70s, this frustration fueled the rise of the Black Power movement. According to then-SNCC chairman Stokely Carmichael, who first popularized the term “black power” in 1966, the traditional civil rights movement and its emphasis on nonviolence, did not go far enough, and the federal legislation it had achieved failed to address the economic and social disadvantages facing blacks in America. Black Power was a form of both self-definition and self-defense for African Americans; it called on them to stop looking to the institutions of white America–which were believed to be inherently racist–and act for themselves, by themselves, to seize the gains they desired, including better jobs, housing and education. Also in 1966, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, college students in Oakland, California, founded the Black Panther Party. While its original mission was to protect blacks from white brutality by sending patrol groups into black neighborhoods, the Panthers soon developed into a Marxist group that promoted Black Power by urging African Americans to arm themselves and demand full employment, decent housing and control over their own communities. Clashes ensued between the Panthers and police in California, New York and Chicago, and in 1967 Newton was convicted of voluntary manslaughter after killing a police officer. His trial brought national attention to the organization, which at its peak in the late 1960s boasted some 2,000 members.

Black History Wod: “1966 The Black Panther Party is Founded” 19 DeadLifts 66 AirSquats 19 PowerCleans 66 AirSquats 19 PowerSnatch 66 AirSquats RX:DeadLift 275 Power Clean 185 Power Snatch 135 Scaled: DeadLift 185 PowerClean125 Power Snatch 85

In 1952, the former Malcolm Little was released from prison after serving six years on a robbery charge; while incarcerated, he had joined the Nation of Islam (NOI, commonly known as the Black Muslims), given up drinking and drugs and replaced his surname with an X to signify his rejection of his “slave” name. Charismatic and eloquent, Malcolm soon became an influential leader of the NOI, which combined Islam with black nationalism and sought to encourage disadvantaged young blacks searching for confidence in segregated America. As the outspoken public voice of the Black Muslim faith, Malcolm challenged the mainstream civil rights movement and the nonviolent pursuit of integration championed by Martin Luther King Jr. Instead, he urged followers to defend themselves against white aggression “by any means necessary.” Mounting tensions between Malcolm and NOI founder Elijah Muhammad led Malcolm to form his own mosque in 1964. He made a pilgrimage to Mecca that same year and underwent a second conversion, this time to Sunni Islam. Calling himself el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, he renounced NOI’s philosophy of separatism and advocated a more inclusive approach to the struggle for black rights. On February 21, 1965, during a speaking engagement in Harlem, three members of the NOI rushed the stage and shot Malcolm some 15 times at close range. After Malcolm’s death, his bestselling book The Autobiography of Malcolm X popularized his ideas, particularly among black youth, and laid the foundation for the Black Power movement of the late 1960s and 1970s.

Black History Wod: “By Any Means Necessary”

For Time: 75 Front Squats Unbroken, 100 Push Press Unbroken, 75 Back Squats Unbroken, 100 Overhead Squats Unbroken, 75 Thrusters Unbroken. Rules for Unbroken: If you put the bar down you must start from 0 on that movement. 65/45

In August 1955, a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago named Emmett Till had recently arrived in Money, Mississippi to visit relatives. While in a grocery store, he allegedly whistled and made a flirtatious remark to the white woman behind the counter, violating the strict racial codes of the Jim Crow South. Three days later, two white men–the woman’s husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam–dragged Till from his great uncle’s house in the middle of the night. After beating the boy, they shot him to death and threw his body in the Tallahatchie River. The two men confessed to kidnapping Till but were acquitted of murder charges by an all-white, all-male jury after barely an hour of deliberations. Never brought to justice, Bryant and Milam later shared vivid details of how they killed Till with a journalist for Look magazine, which published their confessions under the headline “The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi.”

Till’s mother held an open-casket funeral for her son in Chicago, hoping to bring public attention to the brutal murder. Thousands of mourners attended, and Jet magazine published a photo of the corpse. International outrage over the crime and the verdict helped fuel the civil rights movement: just three months after Emmett Till’s body was found, and a month after a Mississippi grand jury refused to indict Milam and Bryant on kidnapping charges, a city-wide bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama would begin the movement in earnest.

Black History Wod: Emmett Till RX: 1000 Box Jumps For Time 24 Inches/18 Inches Scaled: 500 Box Jumps 18 Inches/16 Inches

Black History Wod: “The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Launches A Drive To Register Black Voters” 100 Full Snatches with 5 Box Jumps every minute RX: 115/75 Scaled: 95/65

On August 28, 1963, some 250,000 people–both black and white–participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the largest demonstration in the history of the nation’s capital and the most significant display of the civil rights movement’s growing strength. After marching from the Washington Monument, the demonstrators gathered near the Lincoln Memorial, where a number of civil rights leaders addressed the crowd, calling for voting rights, equal employment opportunities for blacks and an end to racial segregation. The last leader to appear was the Baptist preacher Martin Luther King Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), who spoke eloquently of the struggle facing black Americans and the need for continued action and nonviolent resistance. “I have a dream,” King intoned, expressing his faith that one day whites and blacks would stand together as equals, and there would be harmony between the races: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” King’s improvised sermon continued for nine minutes after the end of his prepared remarks, and his stirring words would be remembered as undoubtedly one of the greatest speeches in American history. At its conclusion, King quoted an “old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’” King’s speech served as a defining moment for the civil rights movement, and he soon emerged as its most prominent figure.

Black History Wod: “March on Washington” Row One Min On One Min Off 7 Rounds then 100 Thrusters 115/75 then Row One Min On One Min Off 7 Rounds