BLACK HISTORY FACTS/TIDBITS - MARCH- 2025

More Black History Facts for March

March 13, 1821,

Thomas Jennings - 1st Black person to patent an invention.

March 26, 1872, Thomas J. Martin receives patent for fire extinguisher;

March 1, 1892, Anna Mangin invents the pastry fork;

March 17, 1896, Charles Brooks receives patent for the Street Sweeper;

Matthew MacKenzie “Mack” Robinson - 1914 –2000

Matthew MacKenzie "Mack" Robinson was an American track and field athlete. He is best known for winning a silver medal in the 1936 Summer Olympics, where he broke the Olympic record in the 200 meters. He was the older brother of Baseball Hall of Fame member Jackie Robinson.

Mack was born in Cairo, Georgia, in 1914. He and his siblings wer

Mack was born in Cairo, Georgia, in 1914. He and his siblings were left fatherless at an early age, leaving their mother, Mallie Robinson, as the sole support of the children. She performed in a variety of manual labor tasks, and moved with her children to Pasadena, California, while the children were still young. At the start of middle school Mack was diagnosed with a heart murmur that got worse with age and was advised to only play non-contact sports. He remained in town for school and set national junior college records in the 100 meter, 200 meter, and long jump at Pasadena Junior College.

He placed second in the 200 meters at the United States Olympic Trials in 1936, earning himself a place on the Olympic team. He went on to win the silver medal at the Summer Olympics in Berlin, finishing 0.4 seconds behind Jesse Owens. In 2016, the 1936 Olympic journey of the eighteen Black American athletes, including Robinson, was documented in the film Olympic Pride, American Prejudice.[5]

Mack Robinson attended the University of Oregon, graduating in 1941. With Oregon he won numerous titles in NCAA, AAU and Pacific Coast Conference track meets. He has been honored as being one of the most distinguished graduates of the University of Oregon and is a member of the University of Oregon Hall of Fame and the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.

For a time in the early 1970s, Mack was a park director of Lemon Grove Park, a park in the East Hollywood part of the City of Los Angeles.

Later in life, he was known for leading the fight against street crime in his home town of Pasadena. The Pasadena Robinson Memorial, dedicated to both Matthew and Jackie, was dedicated in 1997. The memorial statue of Jackie Robinson by sculptor Richard H. Ellis at UCLA Bruins baseball team's home Jackie Robinson Stadium, was installed by the efforts of Jackie's brother, Mack.

Several locations are named in honor of Matthew Robinson. In addition to the Pasadena Robinson Memorial, the stadium of Pasadena City College was dedicated to him in 2000. That same year, the United States Postal Service approved naming the new post office in Pasadena the Matthew 'Mack' Robinson Post Office Building.

Robinson died of complications from diabetes, kidney failure, and pneumonia, on March 12, 2000, at a hospital in Pasadena, California; he was 85. He is interred at Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum, Altadena, California

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Patricia Bath - 1942-2019

Patricia Bath discovered and invented a new device and technique for cataract surgery known as laserphaco. Dr. Bath was the first woman ophthalmologist to be appointed to the faculty of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine Jules Stein Eye Institute. Patricia Bath, a Howard University alumna, made history as the first Black woman physician to receive a medical patent. Her Laserphaco Probe revolutionized cataract surgery and transformed eye care Dr. Patricia Bath invented laserphaco, a new device and technique to remove cataracts. It performed all steps of cataract removal: making the incision, destroying the lens and vacuuming out the fractured pieces. Bath is recognized as the first Black woman physician to receive a medical patent.

After completing an ophthalmology residency at New York University, Bath completed a corneal transplant surgery fellowship at Columbia University. While a fellow, she was recruited by UCLA Medical Center and Charles R. Drew University to co-found an ophthalmology residency program at Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital. She then began her career at UCLA, becoming the first woman ophthalmologist on the faculty of its prestigious Jules Stein Eye Institute. She was appointed assistant chief of the King-Drew-UCLA Ophthalmology Residency Program in 1974 and chief in 1983. Bath conceived her laserphaco device in 1981, published her first paper in 1987 and had her first U.S. patent issued in 1988. Her minimally invasive device was used in Europe and Asia by 2000.

When Bath interned in ophthalmology, she was one of the first to document that Black patients had double the rate of glaucoma and realized that the high prevalence of blindness among Black patients was due to a lack of access to ophthalmic care. In a seminal paper in 1976, she proposed the discipline of Community Ophthalmology, combining public health, community medicine, and clinical and daycare programs to test vision and screen threatening eye conditions in historically underserved communities. That same year, she co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, designed to protect, preserve and restore sight through education, community service, research and eye care services. She also founded the Ophthalmic Assistant Training Program at UCLA, whose graduates worked on blindness prevention.

Bath received her bachelor of arts degree in chemistry from Hunter College in 1964 and her medical degree from Howard University in 1968. Included among her many achievements, she was the first Black woman to complete a residency in ophthalmology at NYU and the first woman to chair an ophthalmology residency program in the United States at Drew-UCLA. She has been recognized as a laser pioneer, and among her numerous honors she has been recognized by the National Science Foundation, the Lemelson Center, the American Medical Women’s Association, the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the American Academy of Ophthalmology Museum of Vision & Ophthalmic Heritage, the Association of Black Women Physicians with its Lifetime Achievement Award for Ophthalmology Contributions, and by Alpha Kappa Alpha with its Presidential Award for Health and Medical Services.

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Celebrity Birthdays in March

March 18, 1941 – Wilson Pickett

March 25, 1942 – “The Queen of Soul – Aretha Franklin

March 22, 1943 – Jazz Guitarist George Benson

March 26, 1944 – Icon Diana Ross

Phyllis Mae Dailey 1919-1976

March 8, 1945 - becomes the 1st person to swear in as a Navy nurse. - Phyllis Mae Dailey (March 12, – October 31,) was an American nurse and officer who became the first African American woman either to serve in the United States Navy or to become a commissioned Navy officer. An alumna of the Lincoln School for Nurses and Teachers College, Columbia University, she was sworn into the Navy Nurse Corps as an ensign on March 8, 1945. She left the service on May 9, 1951, having earned the rank of lieutenant (junior grade).

Dailey and four other nurses being sworn into service by Cmdr. Thomas Gaylord, March 8, 1945, in New York (photo from the National Archives)

Early life and education

Dailey was born in New York City to Septimus and Mary Herron Dailey. Her parents had immigrated to America from the British West Indies in 1915. Her father was a carpenter. She graduated from the Lincoln School for Nurses, studied public health at the Teachers College, Columbia University, and worked at a city hospital. After the United States entered World War II, she repeatedly applied to the Army Nurse Corps and Navy Nurse Corps, the latter of which desegregated on January 25, 1945.

Military service - Dailey was sworn into service in the Navy Nurse Corps on March 8, 1945, becoming the first African American woman to serve in the Navy, as well as the first African American woman to become a commissioned Navy officer.[3][4][5] Three other African American women—Edith Mazie DeVoe, Helen Fredericka Turner, and Eula Lucille Stimley—also became ensigns in the Navy Nurse Corps during the war. These four were the only Black women out of six thousand nurses who served in the Navy during World War II. In contrast, at the time of Japan's surrender in early September 1945, 479 of the 50,000 Army Nurse Corps were Black, and 6,520 African American women had served in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps..

While Turner and Stimley left the service by mid-1946, Dailey stayed in the Navy after the war, rising to Lieutenant Junior Grade on April 11, 1948. She was discharged on May 9, 1951, and returned to civilian life.

Dailey was a member of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses. She attributed the Nurse Corps' desegregation to the activism of Mabel Keaton Staupers, who fought for the inclusion of Black nurses in the armed forces. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt also lobbied for integration. Dailey said she "knew the barriers were going to be broken down eventually and felt the more applicants, the better the chances would be for each person."

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BLACK HISTORY FACTS/TIDBITS - FEBRUARY - 2025

Phyllis Wheatley / 1753-1784

Phillis Wheatley Peters, also spelled Phyllis and Wheatly (c. 1753 – December 5, 1784) was an American author who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Born in West Africa, she was kidnapped and subsequently sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America, where she

On a 1773 trip to London with the Wheatley’s' son, seeking publication of her work, Wheatley met prominent people who became her patrons. The publication in London of her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral on September 1, 1773, brought her fame both in England and the American colonies. Prominent figures, such as George Washington, praised her work. A few years later, African-American poet Jupiter Hammon praised her work in a poem of his own.

Wheatley was emancipated by the Wheatley’s shortly after the publication of her book of poems. The Wheatley’s died soon thereafter and Phillis Wheatley married John Peters, a poor grocer. They lost three children, who all died young. Wheatley-Peters died in poverty and obscurity at the age of 31.

Early life

Although the date and place of her birth are not documented, scholars believe that Wheatley was born in 1753 in West Africa, most likely in present-day Gambia or Senegal. She was sold by a local chief to a visiting trader, who took her to Boston in the then British Colony of Massachusetts, on July 11, 1761, on a slave ship called The Phillis.[9] The vessel was owned by Timothy Fitch and captained by Peter Gwinn.

On arrival in Boston, Wheatley was bought by the wealthy Boston merchant and tailor John Wheatley as a slave for his wife Susanna. The Wheatley’s named her Phillis, after the ship that had transported her to North America. She was given their last name of Wheatley, as was a common custom if any surname was used for enslaved people.

The Wheatley’s' 18-year-old daughter, Mary, was Phillis's first tutor in reading and writing. Their son, Nathaniel, also tutored her. John Wheatley was known as a progressive throughout New England; his family afforded Phillis an unprecedented education for an enslaved person, and one unusual for a woman of any race at the time. By the age of 12, Phillis was reading Greek and Latin classics in their original languages, as well as difficult passages from the Bible. At the age of 14, she wrote her first poem, "To the University of Cambridge [Harvard], in New England".

Recognizing her literary ability, the Wheatley family supported Phillis's education and left household labor to their other domestic enslaved workers. The Wheatley’s often exhibited Phillis's abilities to friends and family. Strongly influenced by her readings of the works of Alexander Pope, John Milton, Homer, Horace and Virgil, Phillis began to write poetry.

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BLACK HISTORY INVENTIONS

Did you know that 101 Black and African American inventors ideas changed the world? Despite racial prejudice and discrimination which still exists, African Americans have persevered and contributed significantly to science and various other industries. Many African American inventors have made hundreds of innovative inventions, yet their achievements go unnoticed throughout history. We celebrate these individuals during Black History month to recognize their contributions and struggles toward a more equitable future.

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"Zenzile" Miriam Makeba 1932-2008

Zenzile Miriam Makeba (/məˈkeɪbə/ mə-KAY-bə, Xhosa: [máˈkʼêːɓà̤] ; 4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government

Born in Johannesburg to Swazi and Xhosa parents, Makeba was forced to find employment as a child after the death of her father. She had a brief and allegedly abusive first marriage at the age of 17, gave birth to her only child in 1950, and survived breast cancer. Her vocal talent had been recognized when she was a child, and she began singing professionally in the 1950s, with the Cuban Brothers, the Manhattan Brothers, and an all-woman group, the Skylarks, performing a mixture of jazz, traditional African melodies, and Western popular music. In 1959, Makeba had a brief role in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, which brought her international attention, and led to her performing in Venice, London, and New York City. In London, she met the American singer Harry Belafonte, who became a mentor and colleague. She moved to New York City, where she became immediately popular, and recorded her first solo album in 1960. Her attempt to return to South Africa that year for her mother's funeral was prevented by the country's government.

Makeba's career flourished in the United States, and she released several albums and songs, her most popular being "Pata Pata" (1967). Along with Belafonte, she received a Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording for their 1965 album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. She testified against the South African government at the United Nations and became involved in the civil rights movement. She married Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black Panther Party, in 1968, and consequently lost support among white Americans. Her visa was revoked by the US government when she was traveling abroad, forcing her and Carmichael to relocate to Guinea. She continued to perform, mostly in African countries, including at several independence celebrations. She began to write and perform music more explicitly critical of apartheid; the 1977 song "Soweto Blues", written by her former husband Hugh Masekela, was about the Soweto uprising. After apartheid was dismantled in 1990, Makeba returned to South Africa. She continued recording and performing, including a 1991 album with Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, and appeared in the 1992 film Sarafina!. She was named an FAO Goodwill Ambassador in 1999, and campaigned for humanitarian causes. She died of a heart attack during a 2008 concert in Italy.

Makeba was among the first African musicians to receive worldwide recognition. She brought African music to a Western audience and popularized the world music and Afropop genres. Despite her cosmopolitan background, she was frequently viewed by Western audiences as an embodiment of Africa: she was also seen as a style icon in both South Africa and the West. Makeba made popular several songs critical of apartheid, and became a symbol of opposition to the system, particularly after her right to return was revoked. Upon her death, former South African President Nelson Mandela said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."

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Rose Nicaud / 1812 - 1880

"Zenzile" Miriam Makeba 1932-2008

Do you know the name of Rose Nicaud? This trailblazing woman is the historical epitome of "Black girl, Black coffee." As an enslaved woman in New Orleans, utilized the laws of manumission to sell coffee to churchgoers on Sundays. Researchers estimate that she started selling her coffee around 1840. "Old Rose" quickly became the talk of th

According to written records, Ms. Rose Nicaud would shout this phrase aloud to attract customers to her coffee stand. this was a common form of “marketing” that many street vendors would utilize to drive sales. It wasn't long before she didn't have to do this anymore, as her patrons would await Sunday mornings when they could come and purchase a cup of her coffee. Over time, Rose Nicaud made such a name for herself, and generated so much profit from her coffee, that she was able to purchase her freedom.

Rose Nicaud's coffee so good, that it conjured a spiritual vibe for one of Rose Nicaud's biggest fans, Catherine Cole. In 1916, Cole wrote, "her coffee was like the benediction that follows prayer. Or, if you prefer, like the benedictine after dinner." With her permanent location near the end of the French Market (where Cafe Du Monde stands today), Rose Nicaud was able to spread the joy and blessing of her famous coffee everyday. In the process, she actualized a life of freedom. But, not just for herself. She also established a name for teaching and helping other enslaved Black women to start their own businesses and to make freedom moves.

There's so much learn and gain from her story. In my opinion, the coffee is only scratching the surface. Rose Nicaud's story, even the little bit of it that is known, is an inspiration to every Black girl and woman as we pursue our dreams -- coffee dreams, or otherwise. From her, we learn to never let systemic or cultural obstacles stand in the way of achieving our goals. We learn to always make room for other Black women to live their dreams and maximize their potential. We learn to continue to be the best in our fields of endeavor, by putting our signature touch on everything we do. This is also in our DNA.

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BLACK HISTORY FACTS/TIDBITS - JANUARY 2025

Claudette Colvin 1939 to Present

Claudette Colvin was born Claudette Austin in Montgomery, Alabama, on September 5, 1939, to Mary Jane Gadson and C. P. Austin. When Austin abandoned the family, Gadson was unable to financially support her children. Colvin and her younger sister, Delphine, were taken in by their great aunt and uncle, Mary Anne and Q. P. Colvin, whose daughter, Velma, had already moved out. Colvin and her sister referred to the Colvin’s as their parents and took their last name. When they took Claudette in, the Colvin’s lived in Pine Level, a small country town in Montgomery County, the same town where Rosa Parks grew up. When Colvin was eight years old, the Colvin’s moved to King Hill, a poor black neighborhood in Montgomery where she spent the rest of her childhood.

Two days before Colvin's 13th birthday, Delphine died of polio. Not long after, in September 1952, Colvin started attending Booker T. Washington High School. Despite being a good student, Colvin had difficulty connecting with her peers in school due to grief. She was also a member of the NAACP Youth Council, where she formed a close relationship with her mentor, Rosa Parks.

Bus incident

In 1955, Colvin was a student at the segregated Booker T. Washington High School in the city. She relied on the city's buses to get to and from school because her family did not own a car. The majority of customers on the bus system were African American, but they were discriminated against by its custom of segregated seating. Colvin was a member of the NAACP Youth Council and had been learning about the civil rights movement in school. On March 2, 1955, she was returning home from school. She sat in the colored section about two seats away from an emergency exit, in a Capitol Heights bus.

If the bus became so crowded that all the "white seats" in the front of the bus were filled until white people were standing, any African Americans were supposed to get up from nearby seats to make room for whites, move further to the back, and stand in the aisle if there were no free seats in that section. When a white woman who got on the bus was left standing in the front, the bus driver, Robert W. Cleere, commanded Colvin and three other black women in her row to move to the back. The other three moved, but another black woman, Ruth Hamilton, who was pregnant, got on and sat next to Colvin.

The driver looked at the women in his mirror. "He asked us both to get up. [Mrs. Hamilton] said she was not going to get up and that she had paid her fare and that she didn't feel like standing," recalls Colvin. "So I told him I was not going to get up either. So he said, 'If you are not going to get up, I will get a policeman.'" The police arrived and convinced a black man sitting behind the two women to move so that Mrs. Hamilton could move back, but Colvin still refused to move. She was forcibly removed from the bus and arrested by the two policemen, Thomas J. Ward and Paul Headley. This event took place nine months before the NAACP secretary Rosa Parks was arrested for the same offense. Colvin later said: "My mother told me to be quiet about what I did. She told me to let Rosa be the one: white people aren't going to bother Rosa, they like her”. Colvin did not receive the same attention as Parks for a number of reasons: she did not have "good hair", she was not fair-skinned, she was a teenager, and she was pregnant. The leaders in the Civil Rights Movement tried to keep up appearances and make the "most appealing" protesters the most seen.

When Colvin refused to get up, she was thinking about a school paper she had written that day about the local customs that prohibited blacks from using the dressing rooms in order to try on clothes in department stores. In a later interview, she said: "We couldn't try on clothes. You had to take a brown paper bag and draw a diagram of your foot ... and take it to the store". Referring to the segregation on the bus and the white woman: "She couldn't sit in the same row as us because that would mean we were as good as her".

"The bus was getting crowded, and I remember the bus driver looking through the rearview mirror asking her [Colvin] to get up for the white woman, which she didn't," said Annie Larkins Price, a classmate of Colvin. "She had been yelling, 'It's my constitutional right!'. She decided on that day that she wasn't going to move." Colvin recalled, "History kept me stuck to my seat. I felt the hand of Harriet Tubman pushing down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth pushing down on the other." Colvin was handcuffed, arrested, and forcibly removed from the bus. She shouted that her constitutional rights were being violated. Colvin said, "But I made a personal statement, too, one that [Parks] didn't make and probably couldn't have made. Mine was the first cry for justice, and a loud one.

The police officers who took her to the station made sexual comments about her body and took turns guessing her bra size throughout the ride. Price testified for Colvin, who was tried in juvenile court. Colvin was initially charged with disturbing the peace, violating the segregation laws, and a police officer. "There was no assault", Price said.

She also said in the 2009 book Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice, by Phillip Hoose, that one of the police officers sat in the back seat with her. This made her very scared that they would sexually assault her because this happened frequently. A group of black civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King Jr. was organized to discuss Colvin's arrest with the police commissioner. She was bailed out by her minister, who told her that she had brought the revolution to Montgomery.

Through the trial Colvin was represented by Fred Gray, a lawyer for the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which was organizing civil rights actions. She was convicted on all three charges in juvenile court. When Colvin's case was appealed to the Montgomery Circuit Court on May 6, 1955, the charges of disturbing the peace and violating the segregation laws were dropped, although her conviction for assaulting a police officer was upheld.

Colvin's moment of activism was not solitary or random. In high school, she had high ambitions of political activity. She dreamed of becoming the President of the United States. Her political inclination was fueled in part by an incident with her schoolmate, Jeremiah Reeves; his case was the first time that she had witnessed the work of the NAACP. Reeves was found having sexual intercourse with a white woman who claimed she was raped, though Reeves claims their relations were consensual. He was executed for his alleged crimes.

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William Tucker 1624 - ?

William Tucker was born near Jamestown of the Colony of Virginia c. 1624, and appears on the Virginia Muster of 1624/5, the first comprehensive census made in North America. His parents were Isabell and Anthony, African indentured servants. When he was born, there were 22 Africans in the colony, most of whom arrived in 1619.

His parents w

His parents were servants to Mary and Captain William Tucker, who was an envoy to the Pamunkey Native Americans for the colony. The Tucker plantation was located at or near the current site of Bluebird Gap Farm in Hampton.

Isabell and Anthony were wed in 1623 or before, with Captain Tucker's support. Under English law, indentured servants were not married while contracted for servitude. About the time William was born, there were two white children of indentured servants born in the colony. Tucker had 17 servants.

Baptism

He was baptized in the Anglican Church becoming the first African child baptized in English North America. He was named after Captain Tucker. The captain's plantation was located on the Hampton River. Nearby was a Native American village, once known as Kecoughtan, Virginia of the Kecoughtan tribe. It is now Hampton, Virginia. The closest Anglican Church was the Elizabeth City Parish, now the St. John's Episcopal Church.

There were two trains of thought about the baptism of African Americans. It was desirable to have as many Christians in the colony as possible. It was not believed, though, that baptizing a person changed their status as a servant or an enslaved person, which was formalized in 1667 by the Virginia Assembly. Enslaved people were still considered chattel, or personal property.

Childhood

As a boy, he was considered one of the captain's 17 servants. Elizabeth City County, Virginia was established in 1634, reportedly with the support of William's parents. It is now Hampton, Virginia. His parents were freed around 1635 (when William was about 10 or 11 years of age) and they established a farm in Kent County, Virginia.

Legacy

The 2-acre Tucker Family Cemetery in Hampton was named after him. Next to the cemetery is the Aberdeen Gardens neighborhood that was established by African Americans. The cemetery, which was previously called the Old Colored Graveyard, contains the remains of people that believe they were related to William. There are many unmarked graves, but it is believed that he is interred there. It is around one mile to the Bluebird Gap Farm, which is believed to be the site of Captain William Tucker's plantation.

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January 12, 1948, Sweatt v. Painter

Yes, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1948 that African Americans have the right to study law at state institutions. The landmark Sweatt v. Painter decision in 1950 opened the University of Texas School of Law to Black students.

Explanation

In Sweatt v. Painter, the Supreme Court ruled that a separate law school for African Americans was no

Explanation

In Sweatt v. Painter, the Supreme Court ruled that a separate law school for African Americans was not equal to the all-white University of Texas. The court ruled that Heman Marion Sweatt, the plaintiff, should be admitted to the University of Texas. NAACP state organizers searched for more than a year to find someone qualified and willing to be the plaintiff in a case against The University of Texas. They hoped to build a case to end segregation and take it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1945, Executive Secretary of the Houston NAACP Lulu Belle White approached Heman Marion Sweatt, a Houston native and graduate of Wiley College in Marshall, Texas.

Wiley College, one of the first HBCUs west of the Mississippi, was an important incubator for civil rights activists, including: Melvin B. Tolston, James Hemenway Morton, and James Leonard Farmer, Sr. Sweatt had grown up around Black Texan civil rights leaders. His father, James Leonard Sweatt, was a founding member of Houston Chapter of the NAACP, his barber was Richard Grovey from Grovey v. Townsend, and his dentist was Lonnie E. Smith from Smith v. Allwright— two U.S. Supreme Court cases that helped end the all-white voting primaries in Texas. Sweatt fought against the white-only primaries in Texas, helped with voter registration drives in the 1940s, and occasionally wrote articles for the Black newspaper the Houston Informer.

The soon-to-be plaintiff Sweatt took some graduate courses at the University of Michigan, but due to limited funds and ill health, returned to Houston, Texas, where he worked as a mail carrier. As Secretary for the National Alliance of Postal Employees, Sweatt successfully organized bringing the grievances of Black postal workers with the Postmaster to fight the racial discrimination evident in the post office when, against federal regulations, Black employees were kept from advancing to clerk and subsequently ineligible for promotions to supervisory positions. After his recruitment by Lulu Belle White, Sweatt consulted with Attorney William Joseph Durham, a self-taught leading Black Texan civil rights lawyer, who worked in collaboration with Thurgood Marshall and James M. Nabrit Jr. of the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP, which litigated hundreds of civil rights cases across the South. With Sweatt, the lawyers launched a case that eventually broke open the doors of the all-white flagship school in Texas and led to desegregating education in the United States.

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Jan Ernst Matzeliger 1852 – 1889

Matzeliger was born in Dutch Guiana, now Suriname. His father, Ernst Carel Matzeliger Jr. (1823–1864), was a third generation Dutchman of German descent living in the Dutch Guiana capital city of Paramaribo. He owned and operated the Colonial Shipworks that had been in his family for three generations. His mother was a house slave of African descent; she lived on the plantation of which his father was the owner for a time. At the age of ten, Jan Matzeliger was apprenticed in the Colonial Ship Works in Paramaribo, where he demonstrated a natural aptitude for machinery and mechanics. He left Dutch Guiana at age 19 and worked as a mechanic on a Dutch East Indies merchant ship for several years before settling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he first learned the shoe trade. By 1877, he spoke adequate English (Dutch was his native tongue) and moved to Massachusetts to pursue his interest in the shoe industry. He eventually went to work in the Harney Brothers Shoe factory.

In the early days of shoemaking, shoes were made mainly by hand. For proper fit, the customer's feet had to be duplicated in size and form by creating a stone or wooden mold called a "last" from which the shoes were sized and shaped. Since the greatest difficulty in shoemaking was the actual assembly of the soles to the upper shoe, it required great skill to tack and sew the two components together. It was thought that such intricate work could only be done by skilled human hands. As a result, this phase was not yet mechanized and shoe lasters held great power over the shoe industry. They would hold work stoppages without regard for their fellow workers' desires, resulting in long periods of unemployment for them.

After five years of work, Matzeliger obtained a patent for his invention of an automated shoe laster in 1883. A skilled hand laster could produce 50 pairs in a ten-hour day. Matzeliger's machine could produce between 150 and 700 pairs of shoes a day, cutting shoe prices across the nation in half.

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Alpha Kappa Alpha January 15, 1908

Alpha Kappa Alpha was founded January 15, 1908, at Howard University’s Miner Hall in Washington, D.C. by Ethel Hedgemon Lyle and 8 other collegiate women. “By merit and by culture” embodies the ideals for Negro progress with the official colors as salmon pink and apple green. Nellie M. Quander led the effort to incorporate Alpha Kappa Alpha to maintain perpetuity on January 29, 1913, alongside Norma E. Boyd and Minnie B. Smith. This incorporation gave AKA license to broaden its service concept and multiply its offerings through subordinate chapters. By 1921, AKA had established the first ten undergraduate chapters. In 1915, AKA held its first public political action conference with Illinois Congressman Martin B. Madden, a human rights activist as the speaker. The first volume of the Ivy Leaf was published in 1921 as a quarterly and “the official journal,” archiving records through the years. In the same year, the Sorority sent a telegram to President Warren G. Harding urging the present administration use its influence for the passage of the Dyer Anti-lynching Bill. In 1928, Alpha Kappa Alpha established the Ethel Hedgemon Lyle Fund for: sorority housing, educational loans for members, and the “sinking fund.” Former Vice-President of the United States of America, Kamala Harris is a

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Muhammad Ali 1942-2016

Muhammad Ali born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and social activist.[a] A global cultural icon, widely known by the epithet, “The Greatest," he is frequently cited as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. He held the Ring magazine heavyweight title from 1964 to 1970, was the undisputed champion from 1974 to 1978, and was the WBA and Ring heavyweight champion from 1978 to 1979. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC. Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. He joined the Nation of Islam in the early 1960s, but later disavowed it in the mid-1970’s. He won the world heavyweight championship, defeating Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22. During that year, he denounced his birth name as a "slave name" and formally changed his name to Muhammad Ali. In 1967, Ali refused to be drafted into the military, owing to his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the Vietnam War, and was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison while appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, where his conviction was overturned in 1971. He did not fight for nearly four years and lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger counterculture of the 1960’s generation, and became a prominent, high-profile figure of racial pride for African Americans during the civil rights movement and throughout his career. He fought in several historic boxing matches, including his highly publicized fights with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier (including the Fight of the Century, the biggest boxing event up until then), the Thrilla in Manila, and his fight with George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle. Ali thrived in the spotlight at a time when many boxers let their managers do the talking, and he became renowned for his provocative and outlandish persona. He was famous for trash-talking, often free-styled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry and has been recognized as a pioneer in hip hop. He often predicted in which round he would knock out his opponent. As a boxer, Ali was known for his unorthodox movement, fancy footwork, head movement, and rope-a-dope technique, among others. Outside boxing, Ali attained success as a spoken word artist, releasing two studio albums: I Am the Greatest! (1963) and The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976). Both albums received Grammy Award nominations. He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion, philanthropy, and activism. In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome, which some reports attributed to boxing-related injuries, though he and his specialist physicians disputed this. He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made fewer public appearances as his condition worsened and was cared for by his family.

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Willie O' Ree 1935 - Present

William Eldon O' Ree (born October 15, 1935) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player from Fredericton, New Brunswick. He is widely recognized for being the first black player in the National Hockey League (NHL), playing as a winger for the Boston Bruins. His accomplishment of breaking the color barrier in the NHL has led him to sometimes be referred to as the "Jackie Robinson of hockey," whom he had the chance to meet when he was younger. In 2018, O'Ree was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and starting that year the NHL has introduced the annual Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award in his honor. William Eldon O'ReeB was born on October 15, 1935, in Fredericton, New Brunswick, to Harry, a civil engineer and road maintenance worker, and Rosebud O'Ree. He was the youngest of nine siblings. His grandparents were escapees of slavery in the United States, moving to Canada through the Underground Railroad. Fredericton had a small black population during O'Ree's early years, with only two families living in the city at the time.

O'Ree began skating at the age of three and started playing organized hockey at the age of five. O'Ree regularly used the family's backyard rink to play the game, and when the weather allowed, he would skate to school. In the early rinks, skin color was never a problem, as O'Ree wrote in his autobiography, The Willie O’Ree Story: Hockey’s Black Pioneer.

When O'Ree was 14 years old, he was taught how to bodycheck by his older brother Richard, with whom he played organized hockey. At this age, O'Ree also met Jackie Robinson. At the age of 15, O'Ree participated in the New Brunswick Amateur Hockey Association playoffs as a part of the Fredericton Falcons.

Playing career

O'Ree played junior hockey for several teams in Quebec and Ontario before being signed by the Quebec Aces of the Quebec Hockey League (QHL) in 1955. Midway through his second minor-league season with the Quebec Aces, O'Ree was called up to the Boston Bruins of the NHL to replace Leo Labine, who was unable to play due to an illness. Two years earlier, O'Ree had been blinded when he was hit in his right eye by an errant puck; which would have precluded him from playing in the NHL if the Bruins had known. However, O'Ree managed to keep it secret, and made his NHL debut with the Bruins on January 18, 1958, against the Montreal Canadiens, becoming the first black player in league history. He played two games that year, with center man Don McKenney and right wing Jerry Toppazzini as his linemates. O'Ree played 43 games for the Bruins during the 1960–61 NHL season. An incident occurred during a game from that season against the Chicago Blackhawks in Chicago Stadium. According to O'Ree, he was called racist names by several of the Blackhawks players. During the game, Eric Nesterenko butt-ended O'Ree, knocking out his two front teeth and breaking his nose. O'Ree responded by hitting Nesterenko over the head with his stick, which O'Ree said "almost created a riot." O'Ree remembered that fans called him racist names and that the Blackhawks players were threatening to kill him, and he stated that he was "lucky to get out of the arena alive." After the 1960-61 season, O'Ree was traded to the Montreal Canadiens. O'Ree described that the Canadiens were run by racists and that he wasn't invited to try out for the team but was sent to a minor league team in Hull, Quebec. O'Ree scored 4 goals and 10 assists in his NHL career, all in 1961.

O'Ree faced racial taunts throughout his hockey career, including in the NHL, especially in the United States. [15] He noted that racist remarks were much worse in the U.S. cities than in Toronto and Montreal, the two Canadian cities hosting NHL teams at the time, and that "Fans would yell, 'Go back to the South' and 'How come you're not picking cotton?' Things like that. It didn't bother me. I just wanted to be a hockey player, and if they couldn't accept that fact, then that was their problem, not mine."

In the minor leagues, O'Ree won two scoring titles in the Western Hockey League (WHL) between 1961 and 1974, scoring 30 or more goals 4 times, with a high of 38 in 1964–65 and 1968–69. O'Ree played 50 games for the American Hockey League's New Haven Nighthawks in 1972–73. Most of O'Ree's playing time was with the WHL's Los Angeles Blades and San Diego Gulls. The latter team retired his number, which now hangs from the rafters at Pechanga Arena, formerly known as the San Diego Sports Arena. O'Ree continued to play in the minors until the age of 43.

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BLACK HISTORY FACTS/TIDBITS -DECEMBER 2024

Robert Clifton Weaver 1907-1997

Robert Clifton Weaver 1907-1997 was an American economist, academic, and political administrator who served as the first United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1966 to 1968, when the department was newly established by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Weaver was the first African American to be appointed to a US Cabinet-level position.

Prior to his appointment as cabinet officer, Weaver had served in the administration of President John F. Kennedy. In addition, he had served in New York State government, and in high-level positions in New York City. During the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, he was one of 45 prominent African Americans appointed to positions and helped make up the Black Cabinet, an informal group of African American public policy advisers. Weaver directed federal programs during the administration of the New Deal, at the same time completing his doctorate in economics in 1934 at Harvard University.

Robert Clifton Weaver was born on December 29, 1907, into a middle-class family in Washington, D.C. His parents were Mortimer Grover Weaver, a postal worker, and Florence (Freeman) Weaver. They encouraged him in his academic studies. His maternal grandfather was Dr. Robert Tanner Freeman, the first African American to graduate from Harvard in dentistry.

The young Weaver attended M Street High School, now known as Dunbar High School. The high school for Blacks at a time of racial segregation had a national reputation for academic excellence. Weaver went on to Harvard University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts degree. He also earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Economics, completing his doctorate in 1934.

December 26, 1966 – Kwanzaa Inaugurated

American black separatist Maulana Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966 during the aftermath of the Watts riots as a non-Christian, specifically African-American, holiday. Karenga said his goal was to "give black people an alternative to the existing holiday of Christmas and give black people an opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society." For Karenga, a figure in the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the creation of such holidays also underscored the essential premise that "you must have a cultural revolution before the violent revolution. The cultural revolution gives identity, purpose, and direction.

According to Karenga, the name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning "first fruits". First fruits festivals exist in Southern Africa and are celebrated in December/January with the southern solstice. Karenga was partly inspired by an account he read of the Zulu festival Umkhosi Wokweshwama. It was decided to spell the holiday's name with an additional "a" so that it would have a symbolic seven letters.

During the early years of Kwanzaa, Karenga said it was meant to be an alternative to Christmas. He believed Jesus was psychotic and Christianity was a "White" religion that Black people should shun. As Kwanzaa gained mainstream adherents, Karenga altered his position so practicing Christians would not be alienated, stating in the 1997 book Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture that "Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday." Many African Americans who celebrate Kwanzaa do so in addition to observing Christmas.

After its creation in California, Kwanzaa spread outside the United States.[13] In December 2022, Reverend Al Sharpton, Mayor Eric Adams, businessman Robert F. Smith, Reverend Conrad Tillard, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, and Elisha Wiesel joined to celebrate Kwanzaa and Hanukkah together at Carnegie Hall.

Nguzo Saba (The Seven Principles)

A display of Kwanzaa symbols with fruit and vegetables

Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder called the seven principles of Kwanzaa, or Nguzo Saba (originally Nguzu Saba – the seven principles of African Heritage). They were developed in 1965, a year before Kwanzaa itself. These seven principles are all Swahili words, and together comprise the Kawaida or "common" philosophy, a synthesis of nationalist, pan-Africanist, and socialist values.

Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the principles, as follows:[18]

1. Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

2. Kujichagulia (Self-determination): To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves.

3. Ujima (Collective work and responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.

4. Ujamaa (Cooperative economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.

5. Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

6. Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

7. Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Jennifer Josephine Hosten 1947- Present

December 3, 1970 – Jennifer Josephine Hosten became the 1st Black Miss World. Jennifer Hosten is a Grenadian radio announcer, development worker, diplomat, author, model and beauty queen who won the Miss World 1970 contest, representing Grenada. She became the first black woman and the first woman from her country to win the title. The whole contest had been controversial even before the result had been announced. Afterwards allegations were made about the influence of the Prime Minister of Grenada, who was on the judging panel.

She was born in St. George's, Grenada. She was 23 when she won the Miss World contest, and so the more likely of the two dates of birth that are reported is 31 October 1947. She studied in London and then worked for the BBC's Caribbean radio service before becoming a flight attendant.

The 1970 contest was held in London, United Kingdom. It began with a row because the organisers had allowed two entries from South Africa, one black, one white. Then during the evening there were protests by women's liberation activists and flour was thrown. The comedian, Bob Hope, was also heckled.

Even greater controversy then followed after the result was announced. Jennifer Hosten won, becoming the first black woman to win Miss World, and the black contestant from South Africa was placed second. The BBC and newspapers received numerous protests about the result and accusations of racism were made by all sides. Four of the nine judges had given first-place votes to Miss Sweden, while Miss Grenada received only two firsts while receiving the most overall points. Miss Sweden, who was favoured to win, finished fourth. Furthermore, the Premier of Grenada, Eric Gairy, was on the judging panel. Although there were judges from several other countries which also took part in the contest, there were many accusations that the contest had been rigged. Some of the audience gathered in the street outside Royal Albert Hall after the contest and chanted "Swe-den, Swe-den". Four days later the organising director, Julia Morley, resigned because of the intense pressure from the newspapers. Years later Miss Sweden, Marjorie Christel Johansson, was reported as saying that she had been cheated out of the title.

Julia Morley's husband, Eric Morley, was the chairman of the company that owned the Miss World franchise. To disprove the accusations, Eric Morley put the judging panel's ballot cards on view and described the complex "majority vote system". These cards showed that Hosten had more place markings in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th positions over Miss Sweden and the other five finalists. Julia Morley then resumed her job.

13th Amendment Ratified

December 18, 1865 – 13th Amendment was ratified, - Slavery was abolished in the united States of America 3 - The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. The amendment was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House of Representatives on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the required 27 of the then 36 states on December 6, 1865, and proclaimed on December 18. It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War.

President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, effective on January 1, 1863, declared that the enslaved in Confederate-controlled areas (and thus almost all slaves) were free. When they escaped to Union lines or federal forces (including now-former slaves) advanced south, emancipation occurred without any compensation to the former owners. Texas was the last Confederate-slave territory, where enforcement of the proclamation was declared on June 19, 1865. In the slave-owning areas controlled by Union forces on January 1, 1863, state action was used to abolish slavery. The exceptions were Kentucky and Delaware, and to a limited extent New Jersey, where chattel slavery and indentured servitude were finally ended by the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865.

In contrast to the other Reconstruction Amendments, the Thirteenth Amendment has rarely been cited in case law, but it has been used to strike down peonage and some race-based discrimination as "badges and incidents of slavery". The Thirteenth Amendment has also been invoked to empower Congress to make laws against modern forms of slavery, such as sex trafficking.

From its inception in 1776, the United States was divided into states that allowed slavery and states that prohibited it. Slavery was implicitly recognized in the original Constitution in provisions such as the Three-fifths Compromise (Article I, Section 2, Clause 3), which provided that three-fifths of each state's enslaved population ("other persons") was to be added to its free population for the purposes of apportioning seats in the United States House of Representatives, its number of Electoral votes, and direct taxes among the states. The Fugitive Slave Clause (Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3) provided that slaves held under the laws of one state who escaped to another state did not become free but remained slaves.

Though three million Confederate slaves were eventually freed as a result of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, their postwar status was uncertain. To ensure that abolition was beyond legal challenge, an amendment to the Constitution to that effect was drafted. On April 8, 1864, the Senate passed an amendment to abolish slavery. After one unsuccessful vote and extensive legislative maneuvering by the Lincoln administration, the House followed suit on January 31, 1865. The measure was swiftly ratified by nearly all Northern states, along with a sufficient number of border states up to the assassination of President Lincoln. However, the approval came via his successor, President Andrew Johnson, who encouraged the "reconstructed" Southern states of Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia to agree, which brought the count to 27 states, leading to its adoption before the end of 1865.

Though the Amendment abolished slavery throughout the United States, some black Americans, particularly in the South, were subjected to other forms of involuntary labor, such as under the Black Codes, white supremacist violence, and selective enforcement of statutes, as well as other disabilities. Many such abuses were given cover by the Amendment's penal labor exclusion.

P.B.S. Pinchback -1837-1921

December 11, 1872 – P.B.S. Pinchback - Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback was an American publisher, politician, and Union Army officer who served as Governor of Louisiana from December 9, 1872, to January 13, 1873. Pinchback was the first African-American governor and the second lieutenant governor (after Oscar Dunn) in the United States. A Republican, Pinchback served as acting governor of Louisiana for 35 days, during which ten acts of Legislature became law. He was one of the most prominent African-American officeholders during and following the Reconstruction Era.

Pinchback was born free in Macon, Georgia, to Eliza Stewart and her master, William Pinchback, a white planter. His father raised the younger Pinchback and his siblings as his own children on his large plantation in Mississippi. After the death of his father in 1848, his mother took Pinchback and siblings to the free state of Ohio to ensure their continued freedom. After the start of the American Civil War, Pinchback traveled to Union-occupied New Orleans. There he raised several companies for the 1st Louisiana Native Guard and became one of the few African-Americans commissioned as officers in the Union Army.

Pinchback remained in New Orleans after the Civil War, becoming active in Republican politics. He won election to the Louisiana State Senate in 1868 and became the president pro tempore of the state senate. He became the acting Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana following the death of Oscar Dunn in 1871 and briefly served as acting governor of Louisiana after Henry C. Warmoth was impeached. After the contested 1872 Louisiana gubernatorial election, Republican legislators elected Pinchback to the United States Senate. Due to the controversy over the 1872 elections in the state, which were challenged by white Democrats, Pinchback was never seated in Congress.

Pinchback served as a delegate to the 1879 Louisiana constitutional convention, where he helped gain support for the founding of Southern University. In a Republican federal appointment, he served as the surveyor of U.S. customs of New Orleans from 1882 to 1885. Later he worked with other leading men of color to challenge the segregation of Louisiana's public transportation system, leading to the Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson. To escape increasing racial oppression, he moved with his family to Washington, D.C., in 1892, where they were among the elite people of color. He died there in 1921.

Hariet Tubman 1822-1913

December 6, 1849 – Harriet Tubman - Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, was an American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, Tubman made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including her family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known collectively as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women's suffrage.

Born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman was beaten and whipped by enslavers as a child. Early in life, she suffered a traumatic head wound when an irate overseer threw a heavy metal weight, intending to hit another slave, but hit her instead. The injury caused dizziness, pain, and spells of hypersomnia, which occurred throughout her life. After her injury, Tubman began experiencing strange visions and vivid dreams, which she ascribed to premonitions from God. These experiences, combined with her Methodist upbringing, led her to become devoutly religious.

In 1849, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia, only to return to Maryland to rescue her family soon after. Slowly, one group at a time, she brought relatives with her out of the state, and eventually guided dozens of other enslaved people to freedom. Tubman (or "Moses", as she was called) travelled by night and in extreme secrecy, and later said she "never lost a passenger”. After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, she helped guide escapees farther north into British North America (Canada), and helped newly freed people find work. Tubman met John Brown in 1858 and helped him plan and recruit supporters for his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry.

When the Civil War began, Tubman worked for the Union Army, first as a cook and nurse, and then as an armed scout and spy. For her guidance of the raid at Combahee Ferry, which liberated more than 700 enslaved people, she is widely credited as the first woman to lead an armed military operation in the United States. After the war, she retired to the family home on property she had purchased in 1859 in Auburn, New York, where she cared for her aging parents. She was active in the women's suffrage movement until illness overtook her and was admitted to a home for elderly African Americans, which she had helped establish years earlier. Tubman is commonly viewed as an icon of courage and freedom.

Phyllis Wheatley 1753 - 1784

December 5, 1784 – Phyllis Wheatley - Phillis Wheatley Peters, was an American author who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Born in West Africa, she was kidnapped and subsequently sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America, where she was bought by the Wheatley family of Boston. After she learned to read and write, they encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent.

Rosa Parks - 1913-2005

Phyllis Wheatley 1753 - 1784

December 1, 1955 – Rosa Parks / Montgomery Bus Boycott - December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956

Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on the 1st of December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) coordinated the boycott, and its president, Martin Luther King, Jr., became a prominent civil rights leader as international attention focused on Montgomery. The bus boycott demonstrated the potential for nonviolent mass protest to successfully challenge racial segregation and served as an example for other southern campaigns that followed. In Stride Toward Freedom, King’s 1958 memoir of the boycott, he declared the real meaning of the Montgomery bus boycott to be the power of a growing self-respect to animate the struggle for civil rights.

The roots of the bus boycott began years before the arrest of Rosa Parks. The Women’s Political Council (WPC), a group of black professionals founded in 1946, had already turned their attention to Jim Crow practices on the Montgomery city buses. In a meeting with Mayor W. A. Gayle in March 1954, the council's members outlined the changes they sought for Montgomery’s bus system: no one standing over empty seats; a decree that black individuals not be made to pay at the front of the bus and enter from the rear; and a policy that would require buses to stop at every corner in black residential areas, as they did in white communities. When the meeting failed to produce any meaningful change, WPC president Jo Ann Robinson reiterated the council’s requests in a 21 May letter to Mayor Gayle, telling him, “There has been talk from twenty-five or more local organizations of planning a city-wide boycott of buses” (“A Letter from the Women’s Political Council”).

King recalled in his memoir that “Mrs. Parks was ideal for the role assigned to her by history,” and because “her character was impeccable and her dedication deep-rooted” she was “one of the most respected people in the Negro community” (King, 44). Robinson and the WPC responded to Parks’ arrest by calling for a one-day protest of the city’s buses on 5 December 1955. Robinson prepared a series of leaflets at Alabama State College and organized groups to distribute them throughout the black community. Meanwhile, after securing bail for Parks with Clifford and Virginia Durr, E. D. Nixon, past leader of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), began to call local black leaders, including Ralph Abernathy and King, to organize a planning meeting. On 2 December, black ministers and leaders met at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and agreed to publicize the 5 December boycott. The planned protest received unexpected publicity in the weekend newspapers and in radio and television reports.

On 5 December, 90 percent of Montgomery’s black citizens stayed off the buses. That afternoon, the city’s ministers and leaders met to discuss the possibility of extending the boycott into a long-term campaign. During this meeting the MIA was formed, and King was elected president. Parks recalled: “The advantage of having Dr. King as president was that he was so new to Montgomery and to civil rights work that he hadn’t been there long enough to make any strong friends or enemies” (Parks, 136).

That evening, at a mass meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church, the MIA voted to continue the boycott. King spoke to several thousand people at the meeting: “I want it to be known that we’re going to work with grim and bold determination to gain justice on the buses in this city. And we are not wrong.… If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong” (Papers 3:73). After unsuccessful talks with city commissioners and bus company officials, on 8 December the MIA issued a formal list of demands: courteous treatment by bus operators; first-come, first-served seating for all, with blacks seating from the rear and whites from the front; and black bus operators on predominately black routes.

BLACK HISTORY FACTS/TIDBITS -DECEMBER 2024

Michael Croslin 1933-1989

Michael Croslin’s invention, the Medtek 410, revolutionized blood monitoring with its computerized technology. Before its development, medical professionals had to rely on their instincts and the patient’s vital signs for diagnosis. The Medtek 410 eliminated the guesswork, providing doctors with accurate and reliable data for making informed treatment decisions. Croslin also developed a similar device, the Medtek 420, which automatically adjusts for surrounding noise and air pressure while monitoring a patient’s pulse. Together, these inventions have improved the accuracy and efficacy of medical treatments, demonstrating the power of technological innovation in medicine.

Prior to the development of the Medtek devices, medical professionals had to rely on manual methods to measure a patient’s blood pressure and pulse rate. These methods were often time-consuming and prone to error, leading to inaccurate readings and misdiagnosis. However, Michael Croslin revolutionized patient care through the invention of computerized blood pressure and pulse monitoring devices that enabled healthcare workers to get up-to-the-minute information on patients’ vital signs.

The Medtek 410 and 420, as he called them, are devices that were designed to measure a patient’s blood pressure and pulse rate quickly and accurately. These devices used advanced technology to take the guesswork out of monitoring a patient’s vital signs, allowing medical professionals to diagnose and treat patients more effectively, according to justia.

Michael’s invention undoubtedly had a significant impact on the medical industry, with Medtek devices, medical professionals could obtain accurate readings quickly and easily. In addition to improving the accuracy of vital sign measurements, the Medtek devices also have a number of other benefits; They are portable and easy to use, making them ideal for use in various settings, including hospitals, clinics, and even in the home.

Willie D. Davis 1934 – 2020

Willie D. Davis (July 24, 1934 – April 15, 2020) was an American professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL). Davis played college football for the Grambling State Tigers before being drafted 181st in the 1956 NFL draft. He spent 12 seasons in the NFL, playing for the Cleveland Browns and the Green Bay Packers.

In the NFL, Davis was a five-time champion, including winning the first two Super Bowls under Vince Lombardi. Individually, Davis was a six-time All-Pro and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981. Davis attended college at Grambling State University, where he played football for the Tigers at both offensive tackle and defensive end. Davis was selected with pick number 181 in the 15th round of the 1956 NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns, but he did not start his career until the 1958 NFL season due to military service in the United States Army. Davis wore number 77 and played at various positions on both offense and defense for the Browns, before being traded to the Green Bay Packers in 1960.

Davis wore number 87 during his career with the Packers, where he was moved to a permanent position at defensive end by Vince Lombardi. For 10 seasons, Davis anchored the Packers' defensive line, playing 138 consecutive regular-season games and part of 162 regular-season games for his NFL career. Davis was a member of all five of Lombardi's NFL title-winning teams and played in Super Bowls I and II.

Davis played in an era when neither tackles nor sacks were official statistics. However, John Turney, a member of the Professional Football Researchers Association, reports that Davis had in excess of 100 sacks during his 10-year Green Bay career (1960–69), "possibly more than 120," including a minimum of 40 over the 1963–65 seasons alone. Davis himself is quoted as saying, "I would think I would have to be the team's all-time leader in sacks. I played 10 years and I averaged in ‘teens' in sacks for those 10 years. I had 25 one season. [Paul] Hornung just reminded me of that the other day." Davis earned All-Pro honors 5 times (1962, 64–67). He was voted to the Pro Bowl five times (1963–67).

During his early years with the Packers, Davis, along with other players, lived in the Hotel Northland. He often told the story about how he along with the visiting officials, CBS broadcasters and crew, etc. were awoken on the morning of the Ice Bowl by a wake-up call from the front desk announcing the time and that the temperature was 17 degrees below zero.

Davis was also credited with following Vince Lombardi's lead in having no one associated with the team treat any man differently regardless of race. Davis would intentionally take the leadership position to offer to have lunch and dinner with players that had never played on an integrated team or eaten at the same table with an African American. Davis proactively and positively ensured that they acclimated well to Lombardi's culture of inclusion.

BLACK HISTORY FACTS/TIDBITS - NOVEMBER 2024

Andrew Jackson Beard 1849–1921

Born around 1849, Andrew Beard spent the first fifteen years of his life as a slave on a small farm in Eastlake, Alabama.[2] A year after he was emancipated, he married and became a farmer in Pinson, a city just outside Birmingham, Alabama.[3]

In 1872, after working in a flour mill in Hardwicks, Alabama, Beard built his own flour mill, which he operated successfully for many years.[2] In 1881, he patented a new double plow design that allowed to adjust the distance between the plow plates (U.S. patent 240,642), which he later sold in 1884 for $4000 (equivalent to $140,000 in 2023). After the sale of his first patent, Beard returned to farming. In 1887, he patented a second double plow design that allowed for pitch adjustment, (U.S. patent 347,220), which he sold for $5,200 (equivalent to $180,000 in 2023), and invested his earnings into real estate.[2]

Following his stint in real-estate, Andrew Beard began to work with and study engines. In 1882, he patented a design for a new rotary steam engine,[2] and took out two patents (U.S. patent 433,847 and U.S. patent 478,271). In 1890 and 1892, while living in Woodlawn, Beard patented two improvements to the Janney coupler, (invented by Eli H. Janney in 1873 – U.S. patent 138,405). The coupler Beard improved was used to hook railroad cars together, and to be operated required the dangerous task of manually placing a pin in a link between the two cars; Beard himself had lost a leg in a car coupling accident.[3] Thanks to his design, the coupling could be now performed automatically. Beard's patents were U.S. patent 594,059, granted on 23 November 1897 and U.S. patent 624,901 granted 16 May 1899. The former was sold for $50,000 in 1897 (equivalent to $1.8 million in 2023).[2][4]

Beard's railroad car coupler improvement included two horizontal jaws, which automatically locked together upon joining. Beard's improved coupler was the first automatic coupler widely used in the US.[2] In 1887, the same year Beard's first improvement of the automatic coupler was patented, the US Congress passed the Federal Safety Appliance Act, which made it illegal to operate any railroad car without automatic couplers.[1]

Little is known about the period of time from Beard's last patent application in 1897 up until his death,[2] but he reportedly became paralyzed and impoverished in his later years.[5] He died in 1921.

Morris( Morrie) Nolton Turner 1923-2014

Turner was raised in Oakland, California, the youngest child of a Pullman porter father and a homemaker and nurse mother.He attended Cole Elementary School and McClymonds High School in Oakland and Berkeley High School.Turner first started drawing at age 10, drawing what he heard while listening to radio shows. He later moved onto cartoons during high school, ultimately deciding at the age of 14 that he wanted to become a professional cartoonist. During this time, he also worked on the school newspaper, and was elected to the student council, though widespread racism greatly hindered any benefits he gained as a result.Turner got his first training in cartooning via a correspondence course. During World War II, where he served as a mechanic with Tuskegee Airmen, his illustrations appeared in the newspaper Stars and Stripes. After the war, while working for the Oakland Police Department, he created the comic strip Baker's Helper.In 1963, Turner joined the Association of California Cartoonists and Gag Artists, where he befriended fellow cartoonists Charles M. Schulz and Bil Keane, the respective creators of Peanuts and Family Circus. Desiring to contribute to the ongoing Civil Rights Movement, he was encouraged by activists to create work based on his own experiences as a black man.This thought of a comic based on the experience of a minority would be further solidified during a discussion with Schulz. Turner lamented the lack of minorities in cartoons, and Schulz suggested he create one. Morris' first attempt, Dinky Fellas, featured an all-black cast, but found publication in only one newspaper, the Chicago Defender, where it debuted on July 25, 1964. Turner would later rework the strip and retire the Dinky Fellas name in 1965. The comic was retooled into Wee Pals, and upon its debut, it became the first American syndicated comic strip to have a cast of diverse ethnicity. Although the strip was only originally carried by five newspapers, it was picked-up by more than 100 after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968. In 1969, Morris and his wife, Letha, collaborated to add a new segment to accompany Wee Pals. Titled "Soul Corner", the segment highlighted famous ethnic minorities, with Morris illustrating, and Letha researching the subjects. In 1970, Turner became a co-chairman of the White House Conference on Children and YouthTurner appeared twice as a guest on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, on May 7, 1971 and May 14, 1973. In his 1971 visit, Turner discussed his comic strip and how each of his characters were named, as he drew examples of his characters. On his return 1973 visit, he showed Fred Rogers pictures he had drawn of several of the neighbors in Fred's television neighborhood. Turner also presented a clip from his Kid Power animated series, which aired Saturday mornings on ABC at the time. As well, during the 1972–73 television season, Wee Pals on the Go was aired by ABC's owned-and-operated station in San Francisco, KGO-TV. This Sunday morning show featured child actors who portrayed the main characters of Turner's comic strip: Nipper, Randy, Sybil, Connie and Oliver. With and through the kids, Turner explored venues, activities and objects.

As the comic strip continued, Turner added characters of more ethnicities, as well as child with physical disabilities.During the Vietnam War, Turner, Keane, and four other members of the National Cartoonist Society traveled to South Vietnam, where they spent a month drawing more than 3,000 caricatures of service personnel. For concerts by the Bay Area Little Symphony of Oakland, California, Turner drew pictures to the music and of children in the audience.

Turner launched the first in a series of Summer Art exhibitions at the East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC) on June 10, 1995.

Heanrietta Mahim Bradberry 1903 - 1979

Henrietta Mahim Bradberry was born in Franklin, KY, and lived in Chicago, IL. She was a housewife who held two patents. The first, received in 1943, was for a bed rack attachment that allowed for the airing-out of clothes. The second, received in 1945, was for a pneumatically-operated device that allowed for the firing of torpedoes from beneath the water surface

Henrietta M. Bradberry was the wife of William Bradberry [source: 1930 U.S. Federal Census]; the couple lived on Champlain Avenue in Chicago.

Bradberry’s bed rack was an attachment that could be applied to the end of a bed to hang up and refresh worn clothes with fresh flowing air. The patent she filed in 1941 better explains the purpose of the rack: “This invention relates to bed attachments especially for use in connection with exposing bed clothes to freshening by air after use.”

Bradberry also made the rack collapsible by providing a pedal that would rise and lower the rack for proper use.

The Kentucky native’s inventive spirit was at work once more when two years later, she invented a new way for torpedoes to be discharged from submarines and subterranean forts. Unlike the two years it took the Patent Office to approve of her bed rack, the times of World War II could have made it so that Bradberry’s invention was given the fast track.

The torpedo firing mechanism made it so that several torpedoes could be launched and that water would not get into the part of the machinery that made unleashing the missiles possible.

Maggie Lena Walker 1864-1934

At the turn of the century, Maggie Lena Walker was one of the foremost female business leaders in the United States. She gained national prominence when she became the first woman to own a bank in the United States. Walker’s entrepreneurial skills transformed black business practices while also inspiring other women to enter the field.

Walker was born to enslaved parents on July 15, 1864 in Richmond, Virginia. After the Civil War, her mother worked as a laundress and her father as a butler in a popular Richmond hotel. Walker’s father was killed and she had to help her mother financially by working. Although his death was ruled a suicide, Walker later revealed that she believed he had been murdered. She attended a local school in Richmond and upon graduation, began teaching. She stepped down from teaching after she married a successful brick maker.

When Walker was 14, she joined the Independent Order of St. Luke’s, an African American benevolent organization that helped the sick and elderly in Richmond. Within the organization, Walker held many high-ranking positions. In 1902, she began publishing the organization’s newspaper, The St. Luke Herald. She encouraged African Americans in Richmond to harness their economic power by establishing their own institutions through the newspaper.

Walker had always focused her efforts on accounting and math. Her first business endeavor was a community insurance company for women. From there she continued her entrepreneurial pursuits. In 1903, she founded the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank. Walker was the first woman of any race to charter a bank in the United States. The bank was a powerful representation of black self-help in the segregated South. The Penny Savings Bank not only attracted adults but Walker worked to appeal to children by passing out banks which encouraged them to save their money.

In 1915, Walker’s husband was killed by her son, after he mistook him for a burglar. Her husband’s passing left her in charge of a large estate. She continued working for the Order of St. Luke's but also held leadership positions in other civic organizations, including National Association of Colored Women (NACW). She also served as the Vice President of the Richmond chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

By 1924, the Penny Savings Bank had spread to other parts of Virginia and included more than 50,000 members. While other banks collapsed during the Great Depression St. Luke’s Penny Saving survived. The bank eventually consolidated with two other large bank and moved to downtown Richmond. It is still in operation today.

After an illness in 1928, Walker was forced to use a wheelchair. Although limited in movement, Walker remained a leader in the Richmond African American community. She fought arduously for women’s rights as well. For much of her life Walker served as board member of the Virginia Industrial School for Girls.

On December 15, 1934, Walker died from complications due to diabetes. Walker’s house in Richmond has since been designated a National Historic Site by the National Park Service.

BLACK HISTORY FACTS/TIDBITS - OCTOBER 2024

Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005)

Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm, an advocate for the rights of people of color and for women’s rights, became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress in November 1968. Four years later, she became the first Black person to seek a major party’s nomination for the U.S. presidency when she ran for the Democratic Party no

Chisholm represented New York’s Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. When initially elected, she was assigned to the House Agriculture Committee, which she felt was irrelevant to her urban constituency. In an unheard-of move, she demanded reassignment and got switched to the Veterans Affairs Committee. By the time she left that chamber, she had held a place on the prized Rules and Education and Labor Committees.

Chisholm was born in Brooklyn as the eldest of four daughters of parents who were immigrants from Barbados. She received her B.A. from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York in 1946, and she earned her M.A. from Columbia University in 1952 while working as a nursery school teacher, director of a child care center, and later as an educational consultant with the city’s child care department.

In 1964, she began her political career as a member of the New York State legislature as an assembly member. After four years there, she was elected on the Democratic ticket to serve in the U.S. Congress. She served two terms and in 1972 ran in the New York Democratic primary for president of the United States, establishing another first for Black women.

Chisholm recounted her campaign for the presidency in her book, Unbought and Unbossed. After leaving Congress in 1983, she was named to the Purington Chair at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, where she taught for four years. In 1985, she became a visiting scholar at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. In the later years of her life, Chisholm became a sought-after speaker on the lecture circuit.

In the 1990s, Shirley Chisholm moved to Florida. She passed away on January 1, 2005, at her home in Ormond Beach

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Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige (1906 - 1982)

Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige was an American professional baseball pitcher who played in Negro league baseball and Major League Baseball (MLB). His career spanned five decades and culminated with his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

A right-handed pitcher, Paige first played for the semi-professional Mobile Tigers from 19

A right-handed pitcher, Paige first played for the semi-professional Mobile Tigers from 1924 to 1926. He began his professional baseball career in 1926 with the Chattanooga Black Lookouts of the Negro Southern League and became one of the most famous and successful players from the Negro leagues. On town tours across the United States, Paige would sometimes have his infielders sit down behind him and then routinely strike out the side.[1]

At age 42 in 1948, Paige made his debut for the Cleveland Indians; to this day, this makes him the oldest debutant in National League or American League history. Additionally, Paige was 59 years old when he played his last major league game, which is also a record that stands to this day. Paige was the first black pitcher to play in the American League and was the seventh black player to play in Major League Baseball. Also in 1948, Paige became the first player who had played in the Negro leagues to pitch in the World Series; the Indians won the Series that year. He played with the St. Louis Browns from 1951 to 1953, representing the team in the All-Star Game in 1952 and 1953. He played his last professional game on June 21, 1966, for the Peninsula Grays of the Carolina League, two weeks shy of 60. In 1971, Paige became the first electee of the Negro League Committee to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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Annie Frances Lee (1935–2014)

Annie Frances Lee (1935–2014) was an African - American artist. She is known for her depiction of African-American everyday life. Her work is characterized by images without facial features. She used body language to show emotion and expression in her work. Her most popular paintings are Blue Monday and My Cup Runneth Over. Lee was born in Gadsden, Alabama but grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She began painting as a child and won her first competition at the age of 10 but did not start painting professionally until she was 40. Lee attended Wendell Phillips High School on Chicago's South Side. Her artistic accomplishments led her to receive a scholarship to attend Northwestern University but she declined the scholarship to marry and raise a family. By the age of 40, when she began her career as an artist, Lee had lost two husbands to cancer, raised a daughter from her first marriage and a son from her second, and lost a son in an accident in 1986. She enrolled in Loop Junior College and completed her undergraduate to work at Mundelein College and the American Academy of Art. While working as the chief clerk at Northwestern Railroad, Annie studied art at night for eight years, eventually earning a Master of Education degree from Loyola University. Lee's railroad job inspired one of her most popular paintings, Blue Monday, which depicts a woman struggling to pull herself out of bed on a Monday morning. Her trademarks are the animated emotion of the personalities in the artwork and the faces which are painted without features. At age fifty, Lee had her first gallery show and she allowed prints to be made of four of her original paintings. Using her designs, Lee also developed figurines, high fashion dolls, decorative housewares, and kitchen tiles.

Lee's work reflected her own experiences as well as her observations of those in communities around her. After showing her work in other galleries for a number of years, Lee opened Annie Lee and Friends Gallery in Glenwood, Illinois where she displayed her works as well as the works of other artists. When several of her paintings appeared on the sets of popular television shows such as The Cosby Show and A Different World, the exposure helped popularize her work. Although she regularly received requests for public appearances, Lee preferred to appear at gallery shows; she also enjoyed visiting schools to encourage and inspire students. After many years, Lee left Chicago for Las Vegas. The play Six No Uptown written by L.A. Walker, Terry Horton, and Cassandra Sanders was inspired by Lee's painting of the same name. The play opened in Las Vegas in 2014 and centers around a Bid Whist card game, Lee's game of choice.

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Thomas Elkins 1818-1900

An inventor, abolitionist, and trained medical professional, Dr. Thomas Elkins played a significant role in supporting the Underground Railroad in Albany, New York, during the 1840s and 1850s. He also made an important contribution to the development of refrigeration techniques and patented several inventions for other household furniture

Born in New York State in 1818, Elkins studied surgery and dentistry, possibly with one of the founders of the Albany Medical College. Elkins went on to operate a pharmacy in Albany for several decades and offered dental services as well. Additionally, the 1881 edition of The Albany Handbook identifies him as a “district physician,” a position recognized by the city.

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Sir William Arthur Lewis 1915-1991

Lewis's career featured many important milestones. In addition to being the first Black person to win a Nobel Prize in a scientific discipline, Lewis was also the first Black student at the London School of Economics (LSE), the first Black teacher at the LSE, the first Black faculty member at the University of Manchester, and the first Bl

Sir Arthur Lewis was born in 1915 on the Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia. He showed remarkable intellectual abilities from a young age, skipping two full grades and graduating from his school at the age of 14. Shortly thereafter, he won a scholarship that allowed him to study as an undergraduate at the London School of Economics.

Lewis was the only Black student at the LSE at the time, and despite the prejudices that no doubt greeted him there, he soon earned a reputation for academic excellence. In fact, Lewis’s undergraduate adviser described Lewis as the brightest student he had ever supervised. After gaining his undergraduate degree in 1937, Lewis enrolled in the PhD program, which he completed in 1940. Following his graduation, he was hired as a faculty member at the LSE, where he worked until 1948.

In 1948, Lewis accepted a position as a lecturer at the University of Manchester, where he remained until 1957. It was during this time that he developed the ideas in development economics for which he would later win the Nobel Prize. The most famous of these ideas was his dual sector model, otherwise known as the "Lewis model.

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Thomas Milner 1933 -present

Milner, who still lives in Hartford, was the capital city's mayor from 1981-87, and will turn 90 later this year. Not only did he break barriers during his political career, powerful historical forces that drove the civil rights movement also propelled Milner’s accomplishments. Together, they provided Milner’s opportunity to address racial injustice by gaining the levers of government power, according to a Wesleyan University historian, Hartford political powerhouse, and others who observed these dramatic events unfold firsthand.

Milner has several ties to Middletown. His parents met in the city, and his great-grandmother was a resident of Middletown. In fact, Jesse Caples, who also lived in Middletown, fought in the Revolutionary War, and later was captured and released by the British, was Milner’s great-great-great-grandfather.

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Joseph Black 1924–2002)

Joseph Black - Joe Black was born on this date in 1924. He was an African American baseball player in the Negro Leagues and author. A native of Plainfield, N.J., Black graduated from Morgan State in 1950 and later received an honorary doctorate from Shaw University. Black was 28 when he reached the majors after helping the Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro Leagues win two championships in seven years. He roomed with Robinson while with Brooklyn, pushed for a pension plan for Negro League players and was instrumental in the inclusion of players who played before 1947.

He spent a season in the minors before the Dodgers promoted him to the major leagues in 1952, five years after teammate Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier. He was dominant out of the bullpen, chosen Rookie of the Year after winning 15 games and saving 15 others for the National League champions. He had a 2.15 ERA but with 142 innings pitched, fell eight innings short of winning the title. Strapped for pitching, the Dodgers brought Black out of the bullpen and started him three times in seven days in the 1952 World Series against the New York Yankees.

He won the opener with a six-hitter over Allie Reynolds, 4-2, and then lost the fourth game, 2-0, and the seventh, 4-2. The next spring after the World Series, the team urged Black to add some pitches to his strong fastball and tight curve. He lost control of his two basic pitches in the process and didn't regain his dominance until 1955, when he won 10 straight games at the start, a record at the time. After three more seasons with Brooklyn, Black drifted to Cincinnati and Washington and was out of baseball by 1958. In six seasons, he compiled a 30-12 record, half of his wins coming in his rookie season.

After his career ended, Black became an executive with Greyhound in Phoenix. In addition to lobbying for Black players, he remained in baseball through his affiliation with the commissioner's office, where he consulted with players about career choices. He wrote a syndicated column, "By The Way," for Ebony magazine and an autobiography, Ain't Nobody Better Than You. He was a board director of the Baseball Assistance Team and worked for the Arizona Diamondbacks in community relations after they joined the NL in 1998.

Joe Black, the Brooklyn Dodgers' right-hander who became the first Black pitcher to win a World Series game, died in May 2002 at the Life Care Center of Scottsdale of prostate cancer. He was 78.

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Black History Facts / Tidbits - September 2024

Stevland Hardaway Morris Judkins aka Stevie Wonder - Present

Stevland Hardaway Morris (/ˈstiːvˌlənd/; né Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. One of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the 20th century, he is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include R&B, pop, soul, gospel, funk, and jazz. A virtual one-man band, Wonder's use of synthesizers and other electronic musical instruments during the 1970s reshaped the conventions of contemporary R&B. He also helped drive such genres into the album era, crafting his LPs as cohesive and consistent, in addition to socially conscious statements with complex compositions. Blind since shortly after his birth, Wonder was a child prodigy who signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of 11, where he was given the professional name Little Stevie Wonder.

Wonder's single "Fingertips" was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963, at the age of 13, making him the youngest solo artist ever to top the chart. Wonder's critical success was at its peak in the 1970s. His "classic period" began in 1972 with the releases of Music of My Mind and Talking Book, the latter featuring "Superstition", which is one of the most distinctive and famous examples of the sound of the Hohner Clavinet keyboard. His works Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974) and Songs in the Key of Life (1976) all won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, making him the only artist to have won the award with three consecutive album releases. Wonder began his "commercial period" in the 1980s; he achieved his biggest hits and highest level of fame, had increased album sales, charity participation, high-profile collaborations (including with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson), political impact, and television appearances. Wonder has continued to remain active in music and political causes.

Wonder is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales of over 100 million records worldwide. He has won 25 Grammy Awards (the most by a male solo artist) and one Academy Award (Best Original Song, for the 1984 film The Woman in Red). Wonder has been inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday in the U.S. In 2009, he was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace, and in 2014, he was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo - Present

MISSION STATEMENT

The Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo celebrates and honors Black Cowboys and Cowgirls and their contributions to building the west. We highlight the irrefutable global appeal of Black Cowboys and Cowgirls in the West and the stories behind a sub-culture that is still strong today. BPIR also serves as a cultural event and opportunity for families to enjoy and embrace the cowboy culture, while being educated and entertained with reenactments, history highlights, and western adventure.

VISION

The Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo remains committed to its vision of educating people about Black Western Heritage and honoring the contributions of Black Cowboys and Cowgirls. BPIR will persist in delivering an affordable, family-friendly entertainment experience that is both educational and enjoyable, maintaining its track record of engaging audiences of all ages and backgrounds for the past 39 years.

IN CONCLUSION

The Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo (BPIR) ensures continued engagement with a key demographic while also appealing to a wider audience. By partnering with BPIR, your corporation aligns with an established entity dedicated to educating Americans about the diverse history of the American West. This partnership offers your company an opportunity to be part of an exhilarating event that caters to audiences of all ages, cultural backgrounds, and income levels, while also allowing you to target specific regional markets within a national platform.

BPIR presents a cost-effective way for any company to engage with African-American consumers across the United States, who collectively spend nearly 1 trillion dollars annually on various consumer goods. Moreover, the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo reintroduces an essential aspect of Black Western Heritage into contemporary society, offering a blend of family entertainment, educational experiences, excitement, and celebration.

Chaka Khan / Reading Rainbow -Presesnt

After using the same iconic theme song originally sung by disco soul singer Tina Fabrique for 16 years, children’s television show Reading Rainbow replaced the beloved intro in 2001 with a new one recorded by 10-time Grammy Award winner Chaka Khan.

Reading Rainbow was on television from June 6, 1983 to November 10, 2006 and is the fourth-longest running children’s show on PBS. During its span of 21 seasons and 155 episodes, Reading Rainbow won over 200 broadcast awards, including a Peabody Award as well as 26 Emmy Awards.

Little Rock Nine -September 25, 1957

Little Rock Nine, group of African American high-school students who challenged racial segregation in the public schools of Little Rock, Arkansas. The group—consisting of Melba Pattillo, Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Minnijean Brown, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls, Jefferson Thomas, Gloria Ray, and Thelma Mothershed—became the centre of the struggle to desegregate public schools in the United States, especially in the South. The events that followed their enrollment in Little Rock Central High School provoked intense national debate about racial segregation and civil rights.

Moneeta Sleet, Jr. 1926-1996

Shelby J. Davidson 1868-1931

Moneta J. Sleet Jr. (February 14, 1926 – September 30, 1996) was an American press photographer best known for his work as a staff photographer for Ebony magazine. In 1969 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for his photograph of Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow, at her husband's funeral. Sleet was the first African-American man to win the Pulitzer, and the first African American to win the award for journalism.[1][2][3] He died of cancer in 1996 at the age of 70.[4]

Shelby J. Davidson 1868-1931

Shelby J. Davidson (born: 1868 - died: 1931) Lexington, Kentucky on May 10, 1868, the son of Shelby Jeames and Amelia Scott Davidson. Having been born after Emancipation, the younger Shelby was able to take advantage of the educational opportunities in the public school system. He later traveled to Louisville and enrolled in a state university program. Dissatisfied with the scope and quality of the program, he enrolled in Howard University in 1887. Howard, at the time, was the premier academic institution for Black students. As such, Shelby had to take additional courses for two years in a preparatory program in order to get him up to speed with his colleagues.

George Peake 1722 – 1827

George Peake, the first known Black settler in the Cleveland area. Mr. Peake was born in Maryland and was a former resident of Pennsylvania but came to Cleveland with his wife and 2 sons in April of 1809. He was something of an inventor, developing a new hand mill for grinding grain. Peake's mill used stones that were 18-20" in diameter and that produced a much better quality of ground meal In December of 1811, Peake bought 103.5 acres of land in Rockport Township, what is now known as Rocky River. George Peake died in September 1827 at the age of 105—an extraordinarily old age both now and then!

Black History Facts / Tidbits - August 2024

Lonnie George Johnson - Inventor / 1949-Present

Lonnie George Johnson, inventor, first conceived the Super Soaker while doing work with the U.S. Air Force. Initially called the "Power Drencher" when it first appeared in toy shops in 1990, it eventually got its trademark name after some tweaks and remarketing.[15] Selling between $10 and $60 depending on the model, the Super Soaker took off, generating $200 million in sales in 1991.[2] Shortly after making the deal for the Super Soaker with the Larami Corporation, Larami became a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc. in February 1995.[18]

Johnson tweaked the design of the water gun, replacing the water in the Super Soaker with a "toy [Nerf] projectile."

In February 2013 Johnson filed suit against Hasbro after he discovered that he was being underpaid royalties for the Super Soaker and several Nerf toysIn November 2013, Johnson was awarded nearly $73 million in royalties from Hasbro Inc. in arbitration. According to Hasbro, the Super Soaker is approaching sales of $1 billion.[20]

Black August

Black August is an annual commemoration and prison-based holiday to remember Black political prisoners, Black freedom struggles in the United States and beyond, and to highlight Black resistance against racial, colonial and imperialist oppression. It takes place during the entire calendar month of August.[1]

Black August was initiated by the Black Guerilla Family in San Quentin State Prison in 1979 when a group of incarcerated people came together to commemorate the deaths of brothers Jonathan P. Jackson (d. August 7, 1970) and George Jackson (d. August 21, 1971) at San Quentin State Prison.[2] [3].

March on Washington August 28, 1963

On August 28, 1963, more than a quarter million people participated in the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, gathering near the Lincoln Memorial.

More than 3,000 members of the press covered this historic march, where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the exalted "I Have a Dream" speech.

Originally conceived by renowned labor leader A. Phillip Randolph and Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the NAACP, the March on Washington evolved into a collaborative effort amongst major civil rights groups and icons of the day.

Stemming from a rapidly growing tide of grassroots support and outrage over the nation's racial inequities, the rally drew over 260,000 people from across the nation.

Celebrated as one of the greatest — if not the greatest — speech of the 20th century, Dr. King's celebrated speech, "I Have a Dream," was carried live by television stations across the country.

Elijah McCoy 1844-1929

McCoy was a Canadian American engineer of African-AmeriElijah can descent who invented lubrication systems for steam engines. Born free on the Ontario shore of Lake Erie to parents who fled enslavement in Kentucky, he traveled to the United States as a young child when his family returned in 1847, becoming a U.S. resident and citizen. His inventions and accomplishments were honored in 2012 when the United States Patent and Trademark Office named its first regional office, in Detroit, Michigan, the "Elijah J. McCoy Midwest Regional Patent Office".[3]

Charles Edward Anderson Berry aka Chuck Berry 1926-2017

Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957), and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958).[1] Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.[2]

Born into a middle-class black family in St. Louis, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student, he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to a reformatory, where he was held from 1944 to 1947. After his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of the blues musician T-Bone Walker, Berry began performing with the Johnnie Johnson Trio.[3] His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955 and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess, of Chess Records. With Chess, he recorded "Maybellene"—Berry's adaptation of the country song "Ida Red"—which sold over a million copies, reaching number one on Billboard magazine's rhythm and blues chart.[4]

By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star, with several hit records and film appearances and a lucrative touring career. He had also established his own St. Louis nightclub, Berry's Club Bandstand.[5] He was sentenced to three years in prison in January 1962 for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines for the purpose of having sexual intercourse.[3][6][7] After his release in 1963, Berry had several more successful songs, including "No Particular Place to Go", "You Never Can Tell", and "Nadine". However, these did not achieve the same success or lasting impact of his 1950s songs, and by the 1970s he was more in demand as a nostalgia performer, playing his past material with local backup bands of variable quality.[3] In 1972, he reached a new level of achievement when a rendition of "My Ding-a-Ling" became his only record to top the charts. His insistence on being paid in cash led in 1979 to a four-month jail sentence and community service, for tax evasion.

Nathaniel Adams Coles aka Nat KIng Cole (1919 – 1965)

Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965),[1] known professionally by his stage name Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's career as a jazz and pop vocalist started in the late 1930s and spanned almost three decades where he found success and recorded over 100 songs that became hits on the pop charts.

Cole started his career as a jazz pianist in the late 1930s, when he formed The King Cole Trio, which became the top-selling group (and the only black act) on Capitol Records in the 1940s. Cole's trio was the model for small jazz ensembles that followed. Starting in 1950, he transitioned to become a solo singer billed as Nat King Cole. Despite achieving mainstream success, Cole faced intense racial discrimination during his career. While not a major vocal public figure in the civil rights movement, Cole was a member of his local NAACP branch and participated in the 1963 March on Washington. He regularly performed for civil rights organizations. From 1956 to 1957, Cole hosted the NBC variety series The Nat King Cole Show, which became the first nationally broadcast television show hosted by an African American.

In September 1964, Cole began to lose weight and experienced back problems.[62] He collapsed with pain after performing at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. In December, Cole was working in San Francisco when he was finally persuaded by friends to seek medical help. A malignant tumor in an advanced state of growth on Cole's left lung was observed on a chest X-ray. Cole, who was a heavy cigarette smoker, had lung cancer and was expected to have only months to live.[63] Against his doctors' wishes, Cole carried on his work and made his final recordings between December 1 and 3 in San Francisco, with an orchestra conducted by Ralph Carmichael. The music was released on the album L-O-V-E shortly before Cole died.[64] His daughter noted later that he did this to assure the welfare of his family.

Cole entered Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica on December 7, 1964, and cobalt therapy was started on December 10. Frank Sinatra performed in Cole's place at the grand opening of the new Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Los Angeles Music Center on December 12.[65] Cole's condition gradually worsened, but he was released from the hospital over the New Year's period. At home, Cole was able to see the hundreds of thousands of cards and letters Throughout Cole's illness, his publicists promoted the idea that he would soon be well and working, despite the private knowledge of his terminal condition. Billboard magazine reported that "Nat King Cole has successfully come through a serious operation and... the future looks bright for 'the master' to resume his career again". Cole returned to the hospital in early January 1965.

[70] On Valentine's Day, Cole and his wife briefly left St. John's to drive by the sea. Cole died at the hospital early in the morning hours of Monday, February 15, 1965, at the age of 45.[71that had been sent after news of his illness was made public. Cole's funeral was held on February 18 at St. James' Episcopal Church on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles; 400 people were present inside the church, and thousands gathered outside. Hundreds of members of the public had filed past the coffin the day before.[72] Honorary pallbearers included Robert F. Kennedy, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Mathis, George Burns, Danny Thomas, Jimmy Durante, Alan Livingston, Frankie Laine, Steve Allen, and Pat Brown, the governor of California.[73]

The eulogy was delivered by Jack Benny, who said that "Nat Cole was a man who gave so much and still had so much to give. He gave it in song, in friendship to his fellow man, devotion to his family. He was a star, a tremendous success as an entertainer, an institution. But he was an even greater success as a man, as a husband, as a father, as a friend."[73] Cole's remains were interred in Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, California.[74]

Black History Facts / Tidbits - July 2024

Admiral Michelle Howard - (1960 - Present)

A 1982 Naval Academy graduate, Adm. Michelle Howard became the first black woman to command a U.S. Navy combatant ship, USS Rushmore (LSD 47) (1999). She was the first woman promoted to the rank of four-star admiral (2014). Upon her promotion, Howard became the highest ranking woman in U.S. armed forces history and the highest ranking black woman in Navy history. She served as VCNO from 2014 to 2016. Howard also became the first woman four-star admiral to command operational forces when she assumed command of both U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Naval Forces Africa and Allied Joint Forces Command Naples (NATO) from 2016 to 2017. Howard retired from the Navy in 2017, after nearly 36 years of service.

Hazel Scott - (1920 - 1981)

Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on June 11, 1920, Hazel Dorothy Scott was the only child of R. Thomas Scott, a West African scholar from Liverpool, England, and Alma Long Scott, a classically trained pianist, and music teacher. In 1924, the family moved from Trinidad to the United States and settled in Harlem, New York City.Her parents had separated by this time, and Scott lived with her mother and grandmother.

By now, Scott could play anything she heard on the piano. With her mother's guidance and training, she mastered advanced piano techniques and was labeled a child prodigy. When Scott was eight years old, she began studying with Professor Paul Wagner of the Juilliard School of Music. In 1933, her mother organized her own Alma Long Scott's All-Girl Jazz Band, where Scott played the piano and trumpet.

Dr. Gloria R. Scott 1938 - Present

In 1961, Scott’s career began as a research associate in genetics and embryology at Indiana University Institution for Psychiatric Research. During this time, she worked as a biology instructor at Marion College until 1965, making her the first African American instructor at a predominately white college in Indianapolis, Indiana at the time. Scott held the positions as Dean of Students and Deputy Director of Upward Bound at Knoxville College in 1965 and as the Special Assistant to the President and Educational Research Planning Director at North Carolina A&T University in 1967. During her ten year tenure, Scott continued to make history by becoming the first African American National President of the Girl Scouts in 1975. She then served as the Institutional Research Planning Director at Texas Southern University for a year before becoming Vice President at Clark College in Atlanta in 1977.

After ten years at Clark College, Scott became the President of Bennett College in 1987, thus fulfilling her life’s mission to educate African American women.

Carl Lewis 1961 - Present

Dr. Gloria R. Scott 1938 - Present

Frederick Carlton Lewis OLY (born July 1, 1961) is a former American track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 1996, when he last won the Olympic long jump. He is one of only six Olympic athletes who won a gold medal in the same individual event in four consecutive Olympic Games. Along with USA discus thrower Al Oerter, he is one of only two Olympians to win a gold medal in the same individual event in athletics in four Olympic Games. He is currently the head track and field coach for the University of Houston.

Lewis was a dominant sprinter and long jumper who topped the world rankings in the 100 m, 200 m and long jump events frequently from 1981 to the early 1990s. He set world records in the 100 m, 4 × 100 m and 4 × 200 m relays, while his world record in the indoor long jump has stood since 1984. His 65 consecutive victories in the long jump achieved over a span of 10 years is one of the sport's longest undefeated streaks. Over the course of his athletics career, Lewis broke 10 seconds for the 100 meters fifteen times and 20 seconds for the 200 meters ten times. Lewis also long jumped over 28 feet seventy-one times.

His accomplishments have led to numerous accolades, including being voted "World Athlete of the Century" by the International Association of Athletics Federations and "Sportsman of the Century" by the International Olympic Committee, "Olympian of the Century" by Sports Illustrated and "Athlete of the Year" by Track & Field News in 1982, 1983, and 1984.

After retiring from his athletics career, Lewis became an actor and has appeared in a number of films. In 2011, he attempted to run for a seat as a Democrat in the New Jersey Senate, but was removed from the ballot due to the state's residency requirement. Lewis owns a marketing and branding company named C.L.E.G., which markets and brands products and services including his own.

Meredith Gourdine 1929-1998

Carl Lewis 1961 - Present

Meredith Gourdine 1929-1998

Meredith Gourdine's Scientific career

Meredith Gourdine is featured in this USPTO film from 1989. Skip to 14:10 for the start of the section on Gourdine, which includes him speaking about his work on airport fog dispersal system, his time as an Olympian, and his work in the late 1980's.

During the last three years of his Ph.D. program (1958-1960), Gourdine worked as a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[5] After graduation, he worked for Plasmadyne Corporation and Curtis-Wright Corporation, then in 1964, he founded a research and development firm, Gourdine Laboratories, in Livingston, New Jersey.[1] In 1973 he founded Energy Innovations, a company that produced direct-energy conversion devices in Houston, Texas.[2] The companies developed engineering techniques to aid removing smoke from buildings and disperse fog from airport runways, and converting low-grade coal into inexpensive, transportable and high-voltage electrical energy.[2]

Gourdine was inducted to the Dayton, Ohio, Engineering and Science Hall of Fame in 1994,[3] was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1991, was a member of the Black Inventors' Hall of Fame, a member of the Army Science Board, and served as a Trustee of Cornell University.[3][1] He was an expert in Electrogasdynamics, the generation of electrical energy based on the conversion of the kinetic energy contained in a high-pressure, ionized, moving combustion gas (e.g., Ion wind).[2] He specialized in devising applications, including electric precipitator systems. He also invented the Focus Flow Heat Sink, used to cool computer chips.[5]

Gourdine was granted a total of over 30 U.S. patents.[5]

He was involved in a number of civic groups during his career, including New York Mayor Lindsay's Task Force on Air Pollution, President Lyndon Johnson's Advisory Panel on Energy, and President Richard Nixon's Task Force on Small Business[1]

Meredith Gourdine's Athletic career

At the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, while he was still an undergraduate student at Cornell, he won a silver medal for the long jump, one and a half inch short of Jerome Biffle's gold medal jump.[3][6]

Black History Facts / Tidbits - June 2024

Effie O'Neal Ellis

Effie O'Neal Ellis was an American pediatrician, child medical care consultant, and an activist for infant health and maternal education. Ellis was the first African American woman to hold an executive position in the American Medical Association.

HENRY JAY LEWIS (1932-1996)

Lewis broke racial barriers in the American field of conducting, becoming the first African American to serve as conductor and musical director of a major American orchestra (the New Jersey Symphony) in 1968, and the first African American to conduct the Metropolitan Opera, in 1972.

Samuel L. Gravely, Jr. (1922-2004)

Vice Admiral Samuel Lee Gravely Jr. began his illustrious career as a seaman apprentice at Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois, in 1942. A native of Richmond, Virginia, Gravely would go on to be the U.S. Navy’s first African-American commander, captain, rear admiral, and vice admiral. He was commissioned in 1944 and served during World War II onboard USS PC-1264. After the war, Gravely had a brief stint in the civilian world before he was recalled to active duty in 1949. He would remain on active duty until his retirement in 1980. During the Korean War, he served onboard USS Iowa (BB-61), and later in the 1950s served on USS Toledo (CA-133) and USS Seminole (AKA-104).

Dr. Mae C. Jemison (1956 - present)

Mae Carol Jemison is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first African-American woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was an American poet, author, and teacher. Her work often dealt with the personal celebrations and struggles of ordinary people in her community. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on May 1, 1950, for Annie Allen, making her the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize.

joseph H. Dickson (1855-1936)

Joseph H. Dickinson was born in Canada in 1955 and moved to Michigan in 1870. He learned about various types of organs while working for the Clough and Warren Organ Company in Detroit in 1872. One of the organs he designed was awarded a prize at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1876 and Dickinson was quickly hired to build organs for major customers, including the Royal Family of Portugal. Dickinson also invented a roller mechanism for the player piano which made the piano more reliable and able to play the sheet music in forward or reverse mode. After marrying Eva Gould in 1884, Dickinson formed the Dickinson-Gould Organ Company along with his father-in-law. The company manufactured reed organs and Dickinson received numerous patents for them, the last coming in 1912.

Kenneth A. Gibson (1932-2019)

Kenneth Allen Gibson was an American politician of the Democratic Party who was the 36th mayor of Newark, New Jersey from 1970 to 1986. He was the first African American mayor of a major city in the Northeastern United States.

Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. (1912-2002)

Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. was a United States Air Force general and commander of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen. He was the first African-American brigadier general in the USAF. On December 9, 1998, he was advanced to four-star general by President Bill Clinton.

William Barry (1841 - 1925)

William Barry, born in 1841, educated in Canada and moved to Carthage, NY then to Syracuse. While living in Syracuse, he called himself an inventor, machinist and manufacturer of machines. After an unsuccessful partnership with Attorney George Hey and Matthew Dolphin in the early 1890's, Barry was issued his first mail marking machine patent on January 2, 1894. His second patent was issued in June, 1897. Information on total number of Barry cancels is unavailable. However, Raleigh was the only city in the state to use this machine. June 22: William Barry received the patent for the postmarking and cancelling machine, which is used by Post Offices around the globe, 1897

Dr. James F. Densler (1932-Present)

Frederick McKinley Jones (1893-1961)

Dr. Densler was born in Savannah, GA, July 3, 1932, and attended the public schools of his hometown. He graduated from Alfred E. Beach High School in 1950 and was the Valedictorian of his class. Dr. Densler was the First African Pediatric Surgeon to practice in the USA (1969), the first African American to be accepted into the Surgical Section of the American Academy of the Pediatrics (1971) and the second African American to be certified in Pediatric Surgery (1976). Locally, he was the first African American to serve on the Hospital Authority of Fulton County for Northside Hospital, Atlanta, GA (1980-1988).

Frederick McKinley Jones (1893-1961)

Inventor Frederick McKinley Jones pioneered portable refrigeration, which earned him the nickname “King of Cool.” After a challenging childhood, Jones taught himself mechanical and electrical engineering and became one of the most notable Black inventors of the 20th century. He received more than 60 patents during his lifetime for inventing various refrigeration, sound, and automobile devices. The portable refrigeration units he developed helped the United States military transport food, medicine, and blood during World War II. With a business partner, Jones founded a company today known as Thermo King. He died in February 1961 at age 67.