Little Known Black History Facts
Dr. Velma Scantlebury is the first African American female transplant surgeon in America. She is currently the associate director of the Kidney Transplant Program at Christiana Care in Delaware. With more than 200 live donor kidney transplants under her career, she holds extensive research credit in African American kidney donation. Dr. Scantelbury was once told […]
Patricia Campbell-Smith is now the first African-American to be appointed as Chief Judge for the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. President Barack Obama appointed Judge Campbell-Smith to the position one month after she was appointed to judge to the same court. The newly appointed judge has a long, impressive history of service with the U.S. […]
Mildred Carter of Tuskegee was Alabama’s first licensed black female pilot. She earned her pilot’s license on February 1, 1941. With 150 hours of flight time logged, Carter flew the skies in a two-plane formation with her husband and fellow Tuskegee Airman, Herbert Carter. In a campus publication, Mildred Carter had been given the title […]
Naomi Sims has been called “the first black supermodel” by people of the fashion industry. She was the first face of the term “Black is Beautiful” and in 1968, Sims was the first black woman to appear on the cover of the Ladies Home Journal. Born in Oxford, Mississippi in 1948, Sims was the youngest […]
Patricia Banks was the first black woman to sue the commercial flight industry for discrimination. While Ruth Carol Taylor was the first attendant hired in 1958 in response to the discrimination suit Banks started, Banks had opened the doors of the courtroom to make it possible. The New York City native was enrolled at Queens […]
In 1841, 33-year-old Solomon Northup was a free black man living comfortably in Saratoga, NY with his wife, Anne, and three children – Margaret, Elizabeth and Alonzo. After being lured with the promise of a job opportunity in Washington D.C., Northup was drugged and kidnapped, only to awaken chained in a dark dungeon, awaiting a […]
On the South Side of Chicago, a piece of black history was found by contractor Rufus McDonald, inside the attic of a home that was set to be demolished in 2009. Inside the abandoned house at 75th and Sagamon was a diploma dated back in 1870, with photos and papers of Mr. Richard Theodore Greener, […]
For nearly 50 years, Maxine Powell served as a mentor to Motown’s greatest hit music stars: The Jackson 5, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Diana Ross & the Supremes, the Four Tops and Marvin Gaye. Young artists would come to Motown and were sent to Powell at the Artists Development Department, also called the “Motown […]
Master Diver Carl “Maxie” Brashear was the first African American U.S. master diver to serve for the United States Navy. A native of Sonora, Kentucky, a 17-year-old Brashear enlisted in the United States Navy on February 25, 1948, shortly after the Navy had desegregated. His road to graduation wasn’t easy. Brashear received hate notes on […]
Recently the Gompers Local School Council voted to change a local Chicago high school’s name to honor the late great Jesse Owens. The change came after the original Jesse Owens Community Academy was closed and combined with the Gompers Elementary School. Gompers was performing at a higher rate academically so more funds went into the […]
Loretta Claiborne is a woman who’s been honored many times for her courage and strength, despite the obstacles she’s had in life. The special needs Olympic athlete with challenged motor skills and partial blindness holds the women’s record in her age group for the 5000 meters event. She got her first gold medal in 1983 […]
On this day in history in 2009, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President Barack Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”. He is the third sitting U.S. president to receive this honor. The president received the prize only 9 months in office. His appointment of the prize […]
