Black History Month 2011-Day 23

The First Black Governor



In 1872 Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback (1837-1921) became the first black governor of any state. He served from December 9, 1872, to January 13, 1873, while Louisiana governor Henry Clay Warmoth faced impeachment proceedings. Born of a white father and a freed slave mother in Mississippi, Pinchback had been sent to Ohio for an education. He became active in Louisiana politics; his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1872 was disputed, as was his election to the U.S. Senate in 1873. He became surveyor of customs in New Orleans about 1883. In the 1890s he moved permanently to Washington, D.C.

Source: Carney Smith, Jessie. Black Firsts: Groundbreaking Events in African American History. New York: Fall River Press, 2009.

As a side note; it was not until 1990 that another African American became governor of any U.S. state. In 1990, Douglas Wilder of Virginia became the second African-American state governor (and the first to be elected to office). (See Wikipedia link below).

For more information on P.B.S. Pinchback please follow the links below:

http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/tabid/383/Default.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._B._S._Pinchback

Black History Month 2011-Day 22

Hello everyone! Well, taking a step away from the Black Firsts theme to celebrate the life of an individual who contributed many ideas and characters to the Comic Book community, Dwayne McDuffie, passed away today.

For those that knew him outside the comic book world he looked like this:



For those that knew him inside the comic book world he is most recognizable as this:



For a good part of his career he worked as a freelance cartoonist, but in 1993 he (along with three other African-American writers) created Milestone Media. This was under the DC Comics label, but was meant to focus on the under-representation of minorities in the comic book world.

This is what he had to say about the beginning of Milestone Media:

“If you do a black character or a female character or an Asian character, then they aren't just that character. They represent that race or that sex, and they can't be interesting because everything they do has to represent an entire block of people. You know, Superman isn't all white people and neither is Lex Luthor. We knew we had to present a range of characters within each ethnic group, which means that we couldn't do just one book. We had to do a series of books and we had to present a view of the world that's wider than the world we've seen before.”

This was the first time minority characters were represented as characters instead of representatives of their race. Milestone Media also grew from that focus to be known for its storytelling more than anything else. The most popular character that has come from Milestone is Static and this character became part of the animated kids show Static Shock.



For more information of Dwayne McDuffie and his work check out some of my sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwayne_McDuffie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_shock
http://www.blacksuperhero.com/articles/art3-Lander.html
http://www.toplessrobot.com/2011/02/rip_dwayne_mcduffie.php
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=30969

Black History Month 2011 - Days 17-21

Hello everyone, first and foremost, Happy President’s Day! Today also marks the 46th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. I would also like to apologize for the absence of emails the past few days. I have been a bit under the weather and have been resting up to recoup. We will do some quick facts to catch us up for the past few days, courtesy of biography.com.

• Macon Bolling Allen was the first African-American to pass the bar and practice law in the United States in 1845.

• Writer and performer Maya Angelou worked as the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco, California, before graduating from high school.

• Deford Bailey was a wizard at playing the harmonica, and was most notable for mimicking the sound of locomotives. He was the first African-American to perform at the Grand Ole Opry and one of the first African-American stars of country music.

• Barbara Brandon was the country’s only black female cartoonist to be nationally syndicated. Her strip was named “Where I’m Coming From.”

• Actress Diahann Carroll won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series in 1968 for her role on the sitcom Julia. Carroll was the first African-American actress to star in her own television series where she did not play a domestic worker.

Black History Month 2011-Day 16

Hello everyone. This is one that is not the best Black first, but it is important to note. I could not find much more information on this film, but I hope you find the information on the history of Blackface interesting.

Day 16- “The Wooing & Wedding of a Coon”

The Wooing and Wedding of a Coon is the earliest known American-made film with an all-black cast came out in 1905. A derogatory one-reel film, it presented undisguised mockery of black life and featured the first movie version of a “coon.” One of the most insulting black caricatures, the coon (a short version of raccoon) depicted the person as lazy, inarticulate, easily frightened, and a buffoon. The caricature was born during the slavery period and reflected the masters’ and overseers’ view of their slaves as “slow,” “lazy,” and “trifling.” Hollywood films as well as minstrel shows did much to extend the coon image and to lay the groundwork for movies of the 1930s and 1940s that used the image.

Source: Carney Smith, Jessie. Black Firsts: Groundbreaking Events in African American History. New York: Fall River Press, 2009.

For information on the history of Blackface look here:

http://black-face.com/

Black History Month 2011-Day 15

Bloody Sunday (Not the Northern Ireland one)



"Bloody Sunday" occurred on March 7, 1965, when 600 civil rights marchers were attacked by state and local police with Billy clubs and tear gas so the march was cancelled. The route taken by the marchers is memorialized as the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail. On March 7, 1965, 525 to 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Highway 80. Discrimination and intimidation had prevented Selma's Black population, roughly half of the city, from registering to vote three weeks earlier. On February 18, 1965, a trooper, Corporal James Bonard Fowler, shot Jimmie Lee Jackson as Jackson tried to protect his mother and grandfather in a café that they fled to while being attacked by troopers during a civil rights demonstration. Jackson died of an infection at Selma's Good Samaritan Hospital eight days later. The marchers hoped to bring notice to the violations of their rights by marching to the state capitol of Montgomery, Ala.

Watch this video about the anniversary:



Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called for a march from Selma to Montgomery to ask then-Governor, George Wallace, to protect Black registrants. Wallace denounced the march as a threat to public safety and declared he would take all measures necessary to prevent it. In their first march, led by John Lewis and the Reverend Hosea Williams, they made it only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge, which was just six blocks away. State troopers and sheriffs from the county police department, some of who were mounted on horseback, awaited the protestors. In the presence of the news media, the police attacked the peaceful demonstrators with Billy clubs, tear gas and bull whips, and drove them back into Selma.

Source: http://www.blackhistory.com/cgi-bin/blog.cgi?blog_id=60918&cid=54



For more information on the Selma to Montgomery “Bloody Sunday” look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1965)#First_march

http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/al4.htm

http://www.history.com/topics/selma-montgomery-march

Black History Month 2011-Day 14

Tom “Blind Tom” Wiggins



Introducing one of the nineteenth century's most famous and perplexing pianists, Blind Tom. Born a slave in Georgia, Blind Tom died an international celebrity in 1908. He had an encyclopedic memory, an all-consuming passion for music and a mind boggling capacity to imitate - both verbally and musically - any sound he heard. These extraordinary savant powers rocketed him to fame and made his name a household word, a byword for eccentric, oddball genius.

Source: http://www.blackhistory.com/cgi-bin/blog.cgi?blog_id=177100&cid=54



Read an excerpt of the book The Ballad of Blind Tom, Slave Pianist.

Find out more information about Blind Tom here:

http://www.blindtom.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Tom_Wiggins

http://www.blackpast.org/?q=perspectives/confounded-enigma-blind-tom-wiggins

To hear one of his compositions and to see a short video about him look here:

Black History Month 2011-Day 13

Michael Steele



On January 30, 2009, Michael Steele became the first African American to lead the Republican Party as Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Chairman Steele is also only the second African American to lead either the Democratic or Republican Parties. The late Ron Brown was the first, chairing the Democratic National Committee from 1989-1993. Two out of the six men campaigning for the RNC Chair, this year, were African Americans. The other African American candidate was former Ohio Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell. Elected in 2000, to be the chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, Steele was also the first African American to chair any state party for the GOP.



Source: http://www.blackhistory.com/cgi-bin/blog.cgi?blog_id=119228&cid=54

For more information on Michael Steel look here:

http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/michael-steele.htm

http://www.gop.com/index.php/chairman_steele/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Steele

Black History Month 2011 Day 12

The First Black Company on the Stock Exchange



In 1971 Johnson Products became the first black firm to be listed on a major stock exchange when it was listed on the American Stock Exchange. The firm was founded by George Ellis Johnson in 1954. Johnson was the first black elected a director of the board of Commonwealth Edison, in 1971. Johnson was born in Richton, Mississippi, to sharecroppers. He relocated to Chicago with his mother, and attended Wendell Phillips High School until he was forced to drop out to support his family. He joined Fuller Products and later became a production chemist, developing hair relaxer for men. In 1954 Johnson borrowed $250 from a finance company to establish Johnson products. Later he and his wife turned the company into a multimillion-dollar enterprise known for innovations in the beauty care products industry. In the mid-1980s he lost the company in a divorce settlement.

Carney Smith, Jessie. Black Firsts: Groundbreaking Events in African American History. New York: Fall River Press, 2009.



For more information on Johnson Products check out their website:

http://www.johnsonproducts.com/about_us_heritage.html

Black History Month 2011-Day 11

Happy Friday to all and to day eleven of BHM 2011. Today we are focusing on a black first in the law. I hope you all enjoy. Also, thank you for all of the supportive email responses and encouragement. It is very nice to know that the information is useful and interesting to everyone!



Gertrude E. Durden Rush (1880-1962) was the first black woman admitted to the Iowa bar (1918). From the beginning of her practice until the 1950s, she was the only black woman to practice law in Iowa. She was also a co-founder of the National Bar Association. Rush was born in Navasota, Texas, and graduated from Des Moines College in 1914. In that year as well, she completed her law training by correspondence at LaSalle Extension University. In 1919 Rush graduated from Quincy Business College. She was active with women’s groups, particularly the Iowa Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs and the National Baptist Women’s Convention. She founded the Charity League in 1912, whose primary concern was with the welfare of blacks in Des Moines. In 1924 she served as attorney for the Women’s Auxiliary of the National Baptist Convention.

Carney Smith, Jessie. Black Firsts: Groundbreaking Events in African American History. New York: Fall River Press, 2009.



For more information about Gertrude Rush and the NBA please follow the links below:

http://www.nationalbar.org/about/index.shtml

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fruge

http://www.styleupri.org/EAPD_2ndQtr2010.pdf

http://www.ianationalbar.com/nba.html

Notable Black Women (book)


Also, there is an event coming up to celebrate the history of African-American businesses in Iowa. Thank you to my cousin for the information. Check it out here if you are interested: http://www.iowalifechanging.com/Documents/documents.aspx?id=3

Black History Month 2011-Day 10

Hello everyone and happy Thursday! Today we are going to venture out from the wonderful book from Ms. Jessie Carney Smith and take a look at the world of fashion. Per special request I have found some information about the beginnings of African-American influence in the fashion world. The links I have found should be really informative and there are a couple of books that will prove useful for more information.



Elizabeth Keckly, born a slave, became a skilled seamstress in her time. Elizabeth Keckly supported herself and her family through her dressmaking and design skills. She bought her freedom and moved to Washington D.C. She was famous for the inaugural gown she designed for Mary Todd Lincoln, wife to then president Abraham Lincoln. This dress can be viewed today at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. The wives of Robert E. Lee, Stephen Douglas, and Jefferson Davis were also clients of Elizabeth Keckly. A respected independent business woman, she worked towards the abolition of slavery through her well-connected white clients.



This is a picture of the dress that Keckly designed for Mrs. Lincoln.

For more information look here:
http://www.whowearemagazine.com/2009/11/blacks-in-herstory.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Kecklyhttp://www.historyofquilts.com/keckly.htmlhttp://www.burwellschool.org/about/ElizabethKeckly.php

For ordering information on the books look here:
http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Scenes-Lincoln-White-House/dp/1451503970/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297373229&sr=8-1http://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Lincoln-Keckly-Remarkable-Friendship/dp/0767902599/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1297373229&sr=8-2

Black History Month 2011-Days 8 & 9

Hello everyone! I am so sorry; this has been a bit of a hectic week. I will be back on track now. I hope you all enjoy the facts about Black Firsts in Journalism.

Day 8-Time Magazine



Time magazine’s first black national correspondent (1963) was Wallace Houston Terry II, whose many assignments included coverage of the Vietnam War. He was named 1993 holder of the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies at Middle Tennessee State University.

Carney Smith, Jessie. Black Firsts: Groundbreaking Events in African American History. New York: Fall River Press, 2009.

For more information on Wallace Houston Terry II look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Terry

Day 9-Crisis Magazine



The first issue of Crisis magazine, the official organ of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the vehicle for the dissemination of educational and social programs for blacks, was published in April 1910. Edited by W.E.B. Du Bois, Crisis was first printed in one thousand copies, but by 1920 circulation had increased one-hundredfold.

Carney Smith, Jessie. Black Firsts: Groundbreaking Events in African American History. New York: Fall River Press, 2009.



For more information on Crisis visit the following websites:
http://www.thecrisismagazine.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crisis

Black History Month 2011-Days 6 & 7

Hello everyone! I apologize about yesterday. I will give you two today to make up for that. The Day 7 fact is a quick one, so hopefully you don’t feel overloaded.

Day 6-Toni Morrison



Toni Morrison, novelist, educator, and editor, was the first black American and the second American woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature, which was awarded on October 7, 1993. The Swedish Academy called her a “literary artist of first rank,” one who “gives life to an essential aspect of American reality,” and one who wrote prose “with the luster of poetry.” Informed of the honor, Morrison said that her work was inspired by “huge silences in literature, things that had never been articulated, printed or imagined and they were the silences about black girls, black women.” Her novel Song of Solomon, published in 1977, won the National Book Critics Award for fiction that year, and in 1988 she won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her work Beloved. Her other novels include The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1974), Tar Baby (1981), and Jazz (1992). Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio, and graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1953. She received a master’s degree in English from Cornell University in 1955. In 1965 Morrison became a textbook editor for a subsidiary of Random House Publishing in Syracuse, New York, and three years later she moved to New York City as a senior editor in the trade department at Random House. She mixed her editorial work with a teaching career and taught at a number of colleges. She left the publishing field in 1984, and in 1989 became the Robert F. Goheen Professor of the Council of Humanities at Princeton University. In 1996 the National Endowment for the Humanities named her Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities.

Carney Smith, Jessie. Black Firsts: Groundbreaking Events in African American History. New York: Fall River Press, 2009.



For more information on Toni Morrison and her Nobel Prize win follow the links below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/morrison-bio.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/08/books/93nobel.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120603/

Day 7-Invention of the Rubber Stamp



W.B. Purvis invented the hand stamp, patented on February 27, 1883. This was a wooden device to which rubber letters are attached. It was very effective and remains in use today.

Carney Smith, Jessie. Black Firsts: Groundbreaking Events in African American History. New York: Fall River Press, 2009.




Purvis was also the inventor of the Fountain Pen. This patent came in 1890.

Black History Month 2011 Day 5

The Country’s Oldest Black College



Cheyney State College, sometimes referred to as the oldest black college in the United States, had its beginning in 1832. Richard Humphreys, a Philadelphia Quaker, willed $10,000 to a board of trustees to establish a school for blacks. A school for black boys was eventually established in 1839 and incorporated in 1842. The school became known as the Institute for Colored Youth in 1852. It reorganized in 1902 and moved to Cheyney, Pennsylvania, where it was renamed. It became a teacher training school in 1914 and a normal school in 1921, when it was purchased by the state. Since 1932 Cheyney State College (now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania) has been a degree-granting institution.

Carney Smith, Jessie. Black Firsts: Groundbreaking Events in African American History. New York: Fall River Press, 2009.





For more information on Cheyney University of Pennsylvania look here:

http://www.cheyney.edu/
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/cheyney-pa/cheyney-university-3317
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyney_University_of_Pennsylvania

It’s the first Friday in February. I hope you have all enjoyed the first few days. Also, I had the opportunity to write an article for the Liberty Tribune Newspaper and you can check that out here. http://www.kccommunitynews.com/liberty-tribune-opinion/26717313/detail.html. Today I am going to focus on a sport that is near and dear to my mother’s heart; auto racing. We are going to take a look at Wendell Oliver Scott.



Wendell Oliver Scott was the first and only black driver to win a NASCAR Winston Cup (then the Grand National) race. The year was 1963. He was the first black driver since Rojo Jack (1923) to earn a national following. Scott began racing at Danville Fairgrounds Speedway in his hometown of Danville, Virginia, and won more than one hundred short-track Sportsman races, as well as several state and track titles. He moved to NASCAR’s premier division in 1961 where he made almost five hundred starts. In the summer of 1964 Scott won a short-track race at Jacksonville, Florida. Injuries in a race at Talladega ended his career in 1973. The 1977 film Greased Lightning, starring Richard Pryor, was based on his life. Scott was subjected to many slashed tires, or not receiving points he should have been awarded. His driving skills eventually led to a degree of recognition. From 1949 until his death in 1990, Scott owned and operated Scott’s Garage, where his skills as an auto mechanic were in great demand. A street in Danville was named for him in 1997. In 1999 he was one of five drivers, and the only black, inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, in Talladega, Alabama.

Carney Smith, Jessie. Black Firsts: Groundbreaking Events in African American History. New York: Fall River Press, 2009.



For more information on Wendell Oliver Scott look here:
http://www.legendsofnascar.com/Wendell_Scott.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Scott

Black History Month 2011-Day 3

Hello everyone and welcome to day three! Today we are going to focus on an inventor that created something extremely useful that is still used today.

In 1878, Inventor J.R. Winters patented the first fire escape ladder, on May 7. He improved the wooden ladder in existence at the time and used a metal frame with parallel steps. The escape ladder was attached to the side of buildings and used to enable people to safely escape from fire or other perils.

Carney Smith, Jessie. Black Firsts: Groundbreaking Events in African American History. New York: Fall River Press, 2009.

His original design is pictured below:



It has evolved into permanent fixtures on the side of buildings:



And now it is even available as a portable item:

Black History Month 2011 Day 2

Hello everyone and welcome to day two. Today we will focus on a historical event that was a first in black history.

An Act to Prohibit the Importation of Slaves

An Act to Prohibit the Importation of Slaves became effective on January 1, 1808. It was passed in March 1807 and was the first law prohibiting the importation of slaves into the United States. First the Treasury Department, then the Secretary of the Navy, and at times the Secretary of State were responsible for enforcing the law. Although it was poorly enforced, the law helped to end slavery in the United States by prohibiting the transportation of slaves from Africa to the United States and its territories. It prompted some Southern states to pass similar laws, while other states refused to act.

Carney Smith, Jessie. Black Firsts: Groundbreaking Events in African American History. New York: Fall River Press, 2009.

For the complete wording of the Act follow the link below:

http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=179

Hello everyone and welcome to Black History Month 2011. For those that were part of this last year, welcome back. For the new additions, welcome! You will be receiving a different fact everyday of February.

Before we dive into our first fun fact of the month I’d like to thank a few people that have helped this mini-project of mine develop nicely. First, Dr. Cecelia Robinson, who is a constant support to anyone who knows her; thank you for making me dream big! Second, Ms. Asheley Brown, who has made this stunning header you see above you; love ya girl! Last, Ms. Jessie Carney Smith, who has written an incredible book where I will be getting most of my information this year called “Black Firsts”.

That will be our theme this year, Black Firsts. You will learn about many different people, organizations, and events that were a first in the history of America. Thank you all for participating this year and I hope you enjoy the knowledge!

Today we are starting with an Iowa native. (Sorry, I gotta start with Iowa.) His name is Simon Estes and his contributions are enormous. Estes is a bass baritone and an opera singer who was born in Centerville, IA. He attended the University of Iowa and the Julliard School of Music. He also has an amphitheatre named after him in Des Moines, IA.

His first came in 1978 when he was the first black man to sing at the Bayreuth Festival when he appeared in the title role of Der Fliegende Hollander. In 1966 he also won the first International Tchaikovsky Vocal Competition in Moscow.

Carney Smith, Jessie. Black Firsts: Groundbreaking Events in African American History. New York: Fall River Press, 2009.


For an example of his amazing vocal talents check out the following video below:



For more information on Mr. Estes click on any of the following links:
Simon Estes-Wikipedia
Simon Estes-Wartburg
Simon Estes-Iowa State University
Simon Estes-Autobiography