Sunday, February 28, 2010

Black History Fact #28

1951 - New York City Council passes bill prohibiting racial discrimination
New York City Council passed bill prohibiting racial discrimination in city-assisted housing developments.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Black History Fact #27

Phillis Wheatley was a slave child of seven or eight and sold to John and Susanna Wheatley in Boston on July 11, 1761. Her first name was apparently derived from the ship that carried her to America, The Phillis.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: During her life, while it was not common for American women to be published, it was especially uncommon for children of slaves to be educated at all. Her gift of writing poetry was encouraged by her owners and their daughter, Mary; they taught Phillis to read and write, with her first poem being published at the age of twelve, "On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin." The countess of Huntingdon, Selina Hastings, was a friend of the Wheatley's who greatly encouraged and financed the publication of her book of poetry, Poems. Obour Tanner, a former slave who made the journey through the middle passage with Phillis also was one of the chief influences and supporters of Phillis' craft.

She was especially fond of writing in the elegiac poetry style, perhaps mirroring the genre of oration taught to her through the women in her African American tribal group. Her elegy on a popular evangelical Methodist minister, George Whitefield, brought her instant success upon his death. She also was well versed in Latin which allowed her to write in the epyllion (short epic) style with the publication of "Niobe in Distress."

Phillis' popularity as a poet both in the United States and England ultimately brought her freedom from slavery on October 18, 1773. She even appeared before General Washington in March, 1776 for her poetry and was a strong supporter of independence during the Revolutionary War. She felt slavery to be the issue which separated whites from true heroism: whites can not "hope to find/Deivine acceptance with th' Almighty mind" when "they disgrace/And hold in bondage Afric's blameless race."

Phyllis is remembered for many first time accomplishments from a woman of her day:

First African American to publish a book
An accomplished African American woman of letters
First African American woman to earn a living from her writing
First woman writer encouraged and financed by a group of women (Mrs. Wheatley, Mary Wheatly, and Selina Hastings.)

Friday, February 26, 2010

Black History Fact #26

Garvey, Marcus (1887–1940), social activist and journalist. As a major figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Marcus Garvey was in the vanguard of the new awakening among African Americans. Although his philosophy was at odds with other leading figures of the era, such as W. E. B. Du Bois, his influence could not be abated. Promoting his ideals in the art of oratory and through his newspapers, first Negro World and later the Blackman, Garvey has influenced almost every generation of African American writers since.

Images depicting the destructive element in racial prejudice, one of the cornerstones of Garvey's ideology, were initially seen when major fiction writers of the Harlem Renaissance, such as Nella Larsen, grappled with the infirmities of ““color”” prejudice. In Larsen's so-called passing novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929), mulattoes move into the white world to escape personal oppression and limited opportunity. As is typical in Garveyism, this social mobility leads to selfhate and racial ambivalence.

Richard Wright and his school of fiction writers was the next group to depict the struggle of African Americans against social and political forces. Richard Wright's Bigger Thomas in Native Son (1940), for example, is an ““Everyman”” motif for social, political, and cultural disenfranchisement of African Americans. Bigger acquires self-pride and faces his troubles through the aid of two white males, both unlikely cohorts, and becomes the folk hero often created through the use of Garveyism.

The next generation of writers displaying Garveyism might be termed the precursors of the Black Arts Movement. Extending James Baldwin's protest themes in Nobody Knows My Name (1960) and The Fire Next Time (1963), the aggressive poets of the sixties, such as Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), decry the destructive environment of the northern ghetto and portray Garvey's contempt for such dehumanizing existence. Beyond the 1960s, an aesthetic perspective that embraces the racial loyalty and pride found in Garveyism is seen in works such as Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye (1970). Thus, the influence of the Garvey social and political movement continues.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Black History Fact #25

Hiram Rhoades Revels

Born Sept. 1, 1822, Fayetteville, N.C., U.S. — died Jan. 16, 1901, Aberdeen, Miss.) U.S. clergyman and politician. The son of free blacks, he traveled to Indiana and Illinois to receive the education that was denied him in the South. Ordained a minister, he became a pastor and principal of a Baltimore school for African Americans. In the American Civil War he helped organize African American volunteer regiments for the Union army. After the war he moved to Natchez, Miss., and was elected state senator in 1869. In 1870 he was elected to the U.S. Senate to fill the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis, becoming the first African American elected to that body. He later served as president of Alcorn A&M College (1871 – 74, 1876 – 83).

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Black History Fact #24

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1813 – 1897) was a slave who published “Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl” in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent. The book chronicles the hardships and sexual abuse she experienced as a female growing up in slavery. Jacobs fled slavery in 1835 by hiding in a crawlspace in her grandmother’s attic for nearly seven years before traveling to Philadelphia by boat, and eventually to New York. Jacobs was active in feminist anti-slavery movements.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Black History Fact #23

Ray Charles Robinson (1930 – 2004) a musical genius and pioneer in blending gospel and the blues shortened his name to just Ray Charles to prevent confusion with the great boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. Ray Charles began going blind at an early age and was completely blind by the time he was 7 years old, but has never relied upon a cane, or a guide dog. He was one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at its inaugural ceremony in 1986.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Black History Fact #22

Charles Drew (1904 - 1950)

Charles Drew discovered techniques to store blood and developed blood banks.
Black American physician and surgeon who was an authority on the preservation of human blood for transfusion.

Drew was educated at Amherst College (graduated 1926), McGill University, Montreal (1933), and Columbia University (1940). While earning his doctorate at Columbia in the late 1930s, he conducted research into the properties and preservation of blood plasma. He soon developed efficient ways to process and store large quantities of blood plasma in “blood banks.” As the leading authority in the field, he organized and directed the blood-plasma programs of the United States and Great Britain in the early years of World War II, while also agitating the authorities to stop excluding the blood of blacks from plasma-supply networks.Drew resigned his official posts in 1942 after the armed forces ruled that the blood of blacks would be accepted but would have to be stored separately from that of whites. He then became a surgeon and professor of medicine at Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, D.C., and Howard University (1942–50). He was fatally injured in an automobile accident in 1950.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Black History Fact #21

George T. Sampson invented a clothes dryer that used heat from a stove in 1892.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Black History Fact #20

C.B. Brooks invented the street sweeper in 1896. It was a truck equipped with brooms.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Black History Fact #19

Harlem: The Black Mecca

Housing executives planned to create neighborhoods in Harlem designed specifically for white workers who wanted to commute into the city. Developers grew overambitious, however, and housing grew more rapidly than the transportation necessary to bring residents into the downtown area. The once exclusive district was abandoned by the white middle-class, and frustrated developers were forced to cope with lower purchase prices than they first anticipated. White Harlem landlords started selling their properties to black real estate agents such as Philip A. Payton, John E. Nail, and Henry C. Parker. They also began renting directly to black tenants.

Meanwhile, the re-development and gentrification of midtown pushed many blacks out of the Metropolitan area. As a result, African-Americans began moving to Harlem en masse; between 1900 and 1920 the number of blacks in the New York City neighborhood doubled. By the time the planned subway system and roadways reached Harlem, many of the country's best and brightest black advocates, artists, entrepreneurs, and intellectuals had situated themselves in Harlem. They brought with them not only the institutions and businesses necessary to support themselves, but a vast array of talents and ambitions. The area soon became known as “the Black Mecca” and “the capital of black America.”

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Black History Fact #18

In 1915, Dr. Carter G. Woodson and Rev. Jesse E. Moorland co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). Their goal was to research and bring awareness to the largely ignored, yet crucial role black people played in American and world history. The following year, Woodson published and distributed his findings in The Journal of Negro History. He founded the publication with the hope that it would dispel popular mistruths. He also hoped to educate black people about their cultural background and instill them with a sense of pride in their race.

The son of former slaves and the second black person to receive a degree from Harvard University, Carter Woodson understood the value of education. He also felt the importance of preserving one's heritage and, upon his urgings, the fraternity Omega Psi Phi created Negro History and Literature Week in 1920. In 1926, Woodson changed the name to Negro History Week. He selected the month of February for the celebration as a way to honor of the birth of two men whose actions drastically altered the future of black Americans. Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. President who issued the Emancipation Proclamation was born on February 12th and Frederick Douglass, one of the nation's leading abolitionists was born on February 14th.

Woodson and the ANSLH provided learning materials to teachers, black history clubs and the community at large. They also published photographs that depicted important figures in black culture, plays that dramatized black history, and reading materials.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson died in 1950, but his legacy continued on as the celebration of Negro History Week was adopted by cities and organizations across the country. This observance proved especially important during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, a time when the inhumane and unequal treatment of black people in America was being challenged and overturned.


The Black Power Movement of the 1970s emphasized racial pride and the significance of collective cultural values. This prompted the ASNLH, now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, to change Negro History Week to Black History Week. In 1976, they extended the week to a month-long observance.

Black History Month is now recognized and widely celebrated by the entire nation on both a scholarly and commercial level. The Association for the Study of African American Life and History continues to promote, preserve and research black history and culture year-round.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Black History Fact #17

Arthur Ashe

First black man to win a Wimbledon singles title, defeating Jimmy Connors in 1975.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Black History Fact #16

Thurgood Marshall
First African-American appointed to the Supreme Court, in 1963.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Black History Fact #15

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American pilots in the U.S. armed forces. Beginning in 1941, select groups of extensively tested and rigorously trained African-Americans were trained at The Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The Tuskegee Airmen are depicted in the G.I. Joe action figure series.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Black History Fact #14

Richard Theodore Greener (1844 - 1922), was the first African-American graduate from Harvard in 1870. He started out at Oberlin college, the first American college to admit African-Americans and went on to become a lawyer.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Black History Fact #13

Jesse Jackson (1941 - ) successfully negotiated the release of Lieutenant Robert O. Goodman, Jr., an African-American pilot who had been shot down over Syria and taken hostage in 1983.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Black History Fact #12

February 12, 1909

On this day - The National Association for The Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization founded in 1909 by 60 black and white citizens. It helps prevent unjust acts,and set equality for all minorites. It achieved major success in the arts, business,and other fields. Currently, it is trying to abolish the "N-word" in the Websters dictionary which depicts the word as a black person.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Black History Fact #11

John Love invented the pencil sharpener in 1897.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Black History Fact #10

Shirley Chisholm was the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives. She was elected in 1968 and represented the state of New York. She broke ground again four years later in 1972 when she was the first major party African-American candidate and the first female candidate for president of the United States.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

ReKaya Gibson Virtual Book Tour













Book Excerpt





THE FOOD TEMPTRESS by Rekaya Gibson

CHAPTER 1 – Down to the Nitty-Gritty

EXERPT

Ambrosia rushes over to take his order.
“Good morning, Mr. Richards!”
“I’ll take the usual.”
“Okay, no problem.”
Fifteen minutes later, Ambrosia returns with his order—and the grits.
“Here you go, sir. Enjoy.”
As usual, Norris arranges everything before diving in. He looks at the yellowish substance dotted with red specks, pokes his spoon into it, and examines the mysterious stuff.
“Cheesy grits, how nice,” he comments in his sardonic manner.
First, Norris eats his eggs and bacon together. He bites into his toast, and sips his coffee. He repeats this process until one piece of toast is gone. Norris picks up the last piece, but puts it down to try the grits instead. He feels someone watching him, so he looks toward the kitchen. Inez stares at him, anticipating disappointment. Ambrosia, washing down a table near the counter, expects a miracle. Of course, their intent looks do not faze him.
He nibbles on the grits and sets his spoon down on the table, picks up the plate and lowers his nose to get a whiff, inhaling like a serious pothead. His eyes twinkle. He grabs the spoon and licks it clean. He dives in and withdraws a heap of goodness. As he opens his mouth, Ambrosia studies his full lips, noticing them for the first time. The pepper sauce—that she stirred in before serving—explodes in his mouth. He closes his eyes for a moment. A teardrop falls from his left eye as the cheese tickles his tongue.
As long as Norris has been coming to the cafĂ©, the serving staff has never seen him eat anything except eggs, bacon, unbuttered toast, and black coffee—until now.
“What the hell?” He chokes out, “This is actually good.” Then louder, “Waitress, oh waitress! Who made this?”
Ambrosia smiles shyly and says, “I did. Want more?”
He nods and says, “Sounds good to me.”
“You can have some every day when you come in.”
Norris places his money on the table, and as he turns to leave the restaurant, calls out, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Ambrosia.” He walks out with a little pep in his step. Ambrosia is proud of herself. She never knows how her food will affect men and for how long. She already notices a positive change in his behavior. She hopes to reap the benefits of future alterations. She cannot wait to see him again.

The next morning, Norris sits down at his special table, smiling. The servers look at each other in amazement. Instantly, Ambrosia appears at his table.
“Good morning, Ambrosia!”
“Hello, Mr. Richards.”
“I’ll have the norm...um, and the cheese grits.”
“Certainly, sir.”
“Ambrosia?”
“Yes.” She thinks, This is it.
“I’ll have a small glass of orange juice with my meal today.”
“Why, Mr. Richards, you devil, you.” She heads toward the counter to pick up his food.
“Here you go. Enjoy.”
Norris eats his food like a typical man, without arranging it on the table and eating it in order. Ambrosia is happy that her plan seems to be working. She cannot wait to go on a date with Norris.
She watches him eat his food as she delivers a tray to the customers standing near the front door. He starts with the grits, alternating bites with the rest of his food. Norris closes his eyes and moves his head from side to side, similar to Stevie Wonder.
It’s really gone to his head.
Take it easy, big boy. That stuff is potent. Norris finishes his meal and motions Ambrosia to his table.
“Ambrosia, that was another great meal. Would you consider going out with me?”
She manages to say, “What?”
“Will you go out with me? You caught my eye when you fell with grace at the farmer’s market. I’ve been checking you out since then. So, what do you say?”
“Yes, I’ll go on a date with you.”
“Let’s meet at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday at Copeland’s. I hear they have a good champagne brunch. Here’s my phone number. Give me a call so we can get to know each other a little better before we go out.”
Ambrosia is almost speechless. “Okay, talk to you later.”


Black History Fact # 9

Michael Jackson (1958 -2009) singer, songwriter, and entertainer extraordinaire, was nominated for 12 Grammy awards and won a record breaking eight in 1984. He has received 13 Grammy awards in his career, and is a double inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as part of the Jackson 5 and as a solo artist). He holds the title of Most Top 10 Singles from an album for Thriller (1982) and the Most #1 Singles from an album for Bad (1987).

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Black History Fact #8

Wilma Rudolph (1940 -1994)

A record breaking track star was born the 20th of 22 children, and stricken with polio as a child. She not only overcame polio but broke world records in three Olympic track events and was the first American woman to win three gold medals at the Olympics (1960).

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Black History Fact #7

Shirley Chisholm was the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives. She was elected in 1968 and represented the state of New York. She broke ground again four years later in 1972 when she was the first major party African-American candidate and the first female candidate for president of the United States.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Black History Fact #6

The black population of the United States in 1870 was 4.8 million; in 2007, the number of black residents of the United States, including those of more than one race, was 40.7 million.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Black History Fact #5

Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African American ever elected to the United States Senate. He represented the state of Mississippi from February 1870 to March 1871.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Black History Fact #4 Famous Cookies

1975 -

On this year in history Wally Amos “Famous Amos” creator of the Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies, opened his first free standing cookie store on Sunset Blvd in CA. Wally Amos was also became the first black talent agent in the history of the William Morris Agency.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Black History Fact #3 First African American to ever win an Oscar

February 29, 1940

On this day in hisrtory, Hattie McDaniel became the first African American woman to win an Oscar. Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Black History Fact #2 The Ice cream Scoop

While working in Pittsburgh as a porter Alfred L. Cralle noticed that the popular treat ice cream, was difficult to dispense. It stuck to spoons and ladles and usually required two hands and at least two implements to serve.

Cralle invented a mechanical device now known as the ice cream scoop and applied for a patent. On February 2, 1897, the 30-year old was granted U.S. Patent #576395.

Monday, February 1, 2010

The History of Black History Month

February 1, 1926

Black History Month owes its existence to Carter G. Woodson. What is now known as Black History Month was first celebrated on this date as Negro History Week by Carter G. Woodson. It became a month long celebration 50 years later in 1976.

February was chosen because two prominent leaders shared February as their birth month. Those two leaders were Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass...... Let's remember those that paved the way for us, and celebrate (Black History 365).

Black History Month



In honor of black history month there will be a different black history fact added to our blog. Please visit daily for a new fact.

Kenyatta
The Review Mag