Little Known Black History Facts
For many years, the distinction of being Yale University’s first Black student went to Edward Bouchet, an 1874 graduate. His portrait hung in the Yale library for over a century and the university named several fellowships and symposiums after him. Bouchet was also the first African-American to earn a PhD (at Yale in 1876) and […]
Even before the Civil War, black newspapers existed to keep Blacks informed of the fight against slavery. Two in particular were The Anglo-African and The Christian Recorder. Robert Hamilton founded the Anglo-African in 1859. The paper used Black writers and activists to spread the news of the struggle in the South. The free black population […]
On July 26, 2012, President Obama launched his official White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African-Americans. The program is designed to help children of color succeed in education and life in general. Obama’s point person for the program is Executive Director David Johns. The Initiative aims to ensure that all African-American students receive an […]
The years 1865 through the mid-1960’s were the prime decades of the Black hospital movement. During that time, when most hospitals with adequate equipment were segregated, the Black hospital movement was designed to give Black physicians a way to treat patients and study medicine through lectures, workshops, and training sessions. Their goal was to improve […]
In 1970, Marshall “Eddie” Conway was convicted of murdering Donald Sager, a Baltimore police officer. At the time, Conway was the Minister of Defense of the Black Panther Party in Baltimore. Sager and two other police officers were ambushed in their patrol cars by three men as they answered a call for domestic disturbance. The […]
Apartheid ended in 1994 but Cape Town, South Africa is still segregated. Many beaches in the ‘Mother City’ remain predominately white and it’s the only province of South Africa not run by the African National Congress. Most Cape Town Blacks live in shacks outside of the city – the so-called Cape Town flats. If you’re poor, […]
In 1964, a man named John Young started a restaurant called John Young’s Wings and Things in Buffalo, New York. Young, a farm boy from Alabama, started cooking with his father on a riverboat before relocating to Buffalo. Young had heard of a restaurant in Washington D.C that served chicken wings, so he decided to […]
On March 13th, the U.S. Postal Service will commemorate a Black aviation leader. His name is Charles Alfred “Chief” Anderson Sr., and he is the first Tuskegee Airman to be featured on a U.S. postage stamp. Chief Anderson is viewed as “the father of black aviation” for his role as the trainer of the Tuskegee Airmen. When […]
When we published a Little Known Black History Fact earlier this week, we weren’t expecting such a quick response. After all, the fact was about people who are no longer with us. But in the City of Richmond, those people are still part of a very current decision. When a minor league baseball team wanted […]
If you don’t think girls and women are good at math, think again. Physicist and mathematician Katherine G. Johnson made a significant mark in history at NASA, becoming one of the only women to work closely with the space program. A native of West Virginia, Johnson was born to a family that had to go […]
In Richmond, Va, there are plans to build a minor league baseball park near and on top of a historic slave burial ground and former marketplace. The new park for the Flying Squirrels team would mean the construction of a 7,200 seat stadium, a new hotel, over 700 new apartments and a grocery store. It […]
Although many people associate it just with New Orleans, there are Mardi Gras celebrations all over the world. What most people don’t know is that the U.S. celebration of Mardi Gras began in Mobile, Alabama. Tuesday, March 4, 2014 is Fat Tuesday the start of the Mardi Gras season. According to the U.S. Library of Congress, the […]