Oprah Winfrey

Childhood Continued

Donations She Has Made

Oprah Winfrey

Childhood Continued

Oprah has been named the greatest black philantropist in American history. By 2012, Oprah had given about $400 million to various educational causes. Over 400 scholarships have been given to Morehouse College in Atlanta , Georgia, the United Negro College Fund and Tennessee State University. Back in 2007, she invested $40 million as well as her time and started the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. The academy provides educational and leadership opportunities for disadvantaged girls in South Africa.

At 14 years old, Oprah lost her premature baby who died shortly after being born. Her mother sent her back to live with her father in Nashville for good soon after. Winfrey has said her father saved her life. He was very strict and provided her with guidance, structure, rules and books. Oprah was asked by her father to write weekly book reports and she had to learn 5 new vocabulary words every day.

At 6 years old, Winfrey joined her mom and her two half brothers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They lived in an extremely poor and dangerous neighbourhood. At 12 years old, she went to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee. While living in Milwaukee, she began making speeches at many places including social gatherings and churches. She even once earned five hundred dollars for a speech. She knew then that she wanted to be "paid to talk". Unfortunately, Winfrey had to leave the safety of her father's home once more. Moving back with her mother had a negative effect on Oprah. As a young teenager, she dealt with many problems at her mother's house including using drugs and being sexually abused. The abuse started at the age of 9 and continued until the age of 14. A teenaged cousin and other male relatives and friends abused her during this time.

Accomplishments /Awards Continued

• In 1987, she won her first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host. She won the award for 5 consecutive years from 1991 to 1995. She won the award one last time in 1998 in a tie with the Rosie O'Donnell Show
• The Oprah Winfrey Show won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show from 1987-1989, 1991-1992 and 1994-1997

Oprah's Date of Birth and Place of Birth

Bibliography

Pictures Of Oprah's Donations

Interesting Facts About Oprah Continued

Oprah has given 400 scholarships to the United Negro College Fund

Oprah has given 400 scholarships to Morehouse College in Atlanta , Georgia

Oprah was born on January 29th,1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi, to Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey. Her name was supposed to be Orpah, but because they misspelled her name as Oprah on her Birth Certificate, her parents left her name as Oprah.

In 1998, Winfrey became the first woman and African American ever to top Entertainment Weekly's list of the 101 most powerful people in the entertainment industry. Forbes magazine named her the world's most powerful celebrity in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2013. In 2014, the magazine also ranked her 14th on their list of the 100 most powerful women in the world.

This is were Oprah was born in Kosciusko Mississippi

Oprah Winfrey has an academy called " The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa

This is Oprah as a little girl

Oprah has given 400 scholarships to Tennessee State University

Online Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey
• http://www.notablebiographies.com/We-Z/Winfrey-Oprah.html
• http://www.aceshowbiz.com/celebrity/oprah_winfrey/biography.html

Books

Great African Americans in Business

By Pat Rediger

Conclusion

Oprah is a great example of someone who overcame being poor and experiencing terrible things when she was young, to becoming a leader in the entertainment industry. Her television talk show got people reading with the Oprah Book Club and she shared her personal stories of being sexually abused and her struggles with losing weight. Even though she has alot of money and is considered to be one of the most influential people in the entire world, she still is a humble and warm hearted person. She is a wonderful role model for black people and women everywhere, which is why I chose Oprah Winfrey for my Black History Month project.

Photo's from Childhood

Oprah doing a Speech at Harvard University

Oprah as a child

Education

Oprah's Mom

Oprah's Dad

Interesting Facts About Oprah

Conclusion

Oprah attended East Nashville High School where she was an honours student. She participated in drama club and student council. After she graduated in 1971, she received a four year scholarship to Tennessee State University. Then in 1976, she graduated with a B.A. degree in Speech and Performing Arts.

In January 2007, LIFE magazine called Oprah "America's most powerful woman". The magazine also listed her as both the most influential woman and the most influential black person of her generation. In 2010, they named her one of the 100 people who changed the world. She was the only living woman to make this list. TIME magazine named her one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century.

How did Oprah help promote diversity?

Oprah is a great example of someone who overcame being poor and experiencing terrible things she was young to become a leader in the entertainment industry. Her television talk show got people reading with the Oprah Book Club and she shared her personal stories of being sexually abused and her struggles with losing weight. Eventhough she is rich and she is considered to be one of the most influential people in the entire world, she is a humble and warm hearted person. She is the perfect role model for black people and women everywhere which is why I chose Oprah Winfrey for my Black History Month project.

Accomplishments /Awards

East Nashville High School

Tennessee State University

• Oprah was Miss Black Nashville and Miss Tennessee during her first year at Tennessee State University
• In 1986, Oprah received a special award from the Chicago Academy for the Arts for unique contributions to the city's artistic communuity and she won the Women of Achievement Award from the National Organization for Women

Childhood

Accomplishments/Awards Continued

Oprah's Professional Career Continued

Winfrey's unmarried parents seperated soon after she was born and she was left with her maternal grandmother, who raised Oprah on her farm. Under the strict guidance of her grandmother, Oprah learned how to read at two and a half years old. Since she was so good at reading, she wrote a letter to her Kindergarten teacher on her first day of school saying ''I don't belong here in Kindergarten because I know how to read so well'' so her Kindergarten teacher moved her up to grade 1.

Oprah has been called the "Queen Of All Media". She is the founder of Harpo Productions (Oprah spelled backwards), has co-authored five books and is the publisher of her monthly magazine "O". She created her own website and in January 2011 she launched the Oprah Winfrey Network along with Discovery Communications. She is the richest African-American person of the 20th century and she is the world's first black woman billionaire worth over 3.1 billion dollars as of 2015. She also holds the title of richest self-made woman in America.

• Inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1993
• Oprah received the first Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 2002 Emmy Awards for services to television and film
• U.S. President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013
• Oprah has received honourary doctorate degrees from Duke and Harvard Universities

Oprah's Professional Career Continued

Oprah's Professional Career Pictures

Oprah's first day on air for the "The Oprah Winfrey Show"

Oprah Co-Hosting "People Are Talking" with Richard Sher

Oprah's Professional Career

Donations Continued

Oprah's Professional Career Pictures

This is one of Oprah's Monthly magazines called "O"

This is Oprah doing her show "The Oprah Winfrey Show"

In 1985, movie producer Quincy Jones saw Oprah on her television show and he asked her to audition for the role of Sophia in his upcoming movie The Color Purple. She won the part and was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for best supporting actress. The Oprah Winfrey Show made its national syndication debut in September 1986. The show was on the air until 2011 and was the highest-rated program of its kind in history. In 2008, The Oprah Winfrey Show was being seen by an estimated 46 million people in the U.S. weekly and the show was airing in 140 countries internationally.

This is Oprah Winfreys Network

This is Oprah in the movie The Color Purple

In 1998, she created Oprah's Angel Network which supported charitable projects and gave grants to non- profit organizations around the world. In total, more than $80 million was raised by the charity. She covered all the administrative costs which meant that all the money raised went straight to the different charity programs. In 2013, Winfrey donated $12 million to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African History and Culture.

Oprah began working in broadcasting at the age of 17. She was hired by WVOL, a radio station in Nashville, to read the afternoon newscasts part-time. Two years later, Oprah became Nashville's first African- American Female C0-Anchor of the evening news at tv station WTVF. She then went to work at WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland in 1976. She worked as a reporter as well as being the co-anchor of the six o'clock news. Shortly thereafter, she took over the co-host duties of an early morning talk show called "People Are Talking". After seven years on the show, the general manager of WLS-TV in Chicago saw Oprah in an audition tape sent by her Baltimore producer. In January 1984, she took over as the anchor on the morning talk show A.M. Chicago. In 1985, the program was renamed to the Oprah Winfrey Show and it was expanded to one hour instead of half an hour. The show was shown in more than 120 U.S. cities.