Little Known Black History Facts
Since 1932, in front of the Atlanta Capitol building, stood a statue of Thomas Watson. The statue is inscribed, saying that Watson is a “champion of right who never faltered in the cause.” Thomas Watson was a white U.S. Senator in the late 1800’s. During that time, he campaigned through the Populist Party for the […]
A woman named Abby Fisher, a former slave from South Carolina, is the author of the first published African American cookbook. Born in 1832, Abby Fisher was freed after the Civil War. After she and her family moved to San Francisco, she entered her food in cooking competitions. Her recipes, especially pickles, jellies and preserves, […]
Afros, locks and naturals – all symbols of a powerful movement that began with the word of John S. Rock, an African-American abolitionist who was the first black person to be admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. Rock would paraphrase the term “Black is Beautiful” during a speech back […]
In African history, the gris-gris was an amulet or symbol of good luck and spiritual protection. The practice of using a gris-gris symbol was brought to America by African slaves near Senegal and Mali in the 17th & 18th centuries. The gris-gris is a small bag full of little objects specific to the person or […]
In 1931, nine black boys were hitching a ride aboard the Southern Railroad freight train. The illegal use of the freight trains was a common mode of transportation for Depression-era workers, both white and black. News had spread that jobs were available in Memphis, so those in search of survival hopped on the Chattanooga train. […]
During World War II, a black U.S. Coast Guard volunteer named Charles David, Jr. aboard the ship Comanche, braved the bitter February cold to help save hundreds of men. The fallen sailors were aboard the SS Dorchester, which had just been hit by a German torpedo. David was among many men who volunteered to go […]
The historic Smithsonian National African-American History Museum has received its first arrivals that will be on display for all to see at its grand opening in 2015. First to arrive is a segregated Southern Railway car from the Pullman company, which existed in the 1920’s. The car holds original signs that read ‘Colored’ or ‘White’ […]
The Jim Crow Museum is a museum at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. Curated by owner David Pilgrim, the Jim Crow Museum is home to the biggest collection of Jim Crow paraphernalia in the country. Among his collections are rare statuettes of blacks with exaggerated red lips, jet black skin and oversized body […]
William Potts, also known as Lieutenant Spartacus or William Freeman, was a former member of the Black Panther Party who was charged with hijacking a Piedmont Airlines flight in 1984. Potts left his aunt’s home in New Jersey that March with $120 she had given him to pay her electric bill. Instead, Potts bought a […]
Casper Holstein was a gangster in the early 1900’s. His legacy as the “Bolito King” was known in the underground numbers racket of Harlem. An original native of St. Croix, Virgin Islands, Holstein got his start in the numbers game on Wall Street. After a stint in the Navy and working as a porter and […]
In 1944, George Junius Stinney, Jr., age 14, became the youngest person executed for a crime in the U.S. in the 20th century. The 5’1, 90-pound African American boy was sent to the electric chair for allegedly killing two young white girls. They were 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and 8-year-old Mary Emma Thames. The girls […]
The 333rd Field Artillery Battalion was an all-black unit of World War II. Their service would begin in Normandy in 1944 with intense combat. Though there were many soldiers who were captured during World War II, none would take on the story of eleven men left to die from the 333rd – they would be […]
