Little Known Black History Facts
Wallace “Wally” Amos was the first black talent agent with the William Morris Agency of New York in 1962. He represented major music legends like Diana Ross & the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke and Simon & Garfunkel. To attract clients, he sent them homemade cookies using a famous family recipe. Wally Amos was born […]
Their nicknames were Mean Joe, Hollywood Bags, Fats Holmes and Mad Dog. And in the mid-1970’s, they were known as the Steel Curtain Four. The Steel Curtain Four referred to the four defensive tackles of the Pittsburgh Steelers – there was Joe Greene, L.C. Greenwood, Ernie Holmes and Dwight White. The team got their nickname […]
The Colored Hockey League of Maritimes in Nova Scotia was formed in 1894 across the provinces of Canada. This was 22 years before the National Hockey League. The first all-black ice hockey league held over a dozen teams and employed over 400 African-Canadian players. The men were typically natives from the Nova Scotia, New Brunswick […]
Willie Mae Kirk, also known as “Ankie,” of Austin, TX, was a civil rights leader who led black students in protest against injustice in the 1940’s. Ms. Kirk worked as a teacher in Austin schools for 32 years. Among her battles was discrimination in public venues of Austin and voter registration. She was the mother […]
Pelagie Green was the first black person to join St. Louis’ Muny Opera House dance chorus in 1962. While her appearance was historical, it was also life- threatening. For her own safety, 19-year-old Pelagie Green was under the constant watch of Officer Charles Wren, a black police officer whom she later married. Green went on […]
Mary Seacole was a Jamaican nurse and medicine woman for British soldiers during the Crimean War, which was fought between the Russians and the British, French, and Ottoman Turkish. Seacole was born Mary Jane Grant in Kingston in 1805. Her father was a Scottish white man and her mother was a free black Jamaican woman. […]
In 1976, a black student at Duke University named Michael Holyfield took his friend up on a dare and auditioned to be the next school mascot, the Blue Devil. The boys had seen the open audition in the newspaper and Holyfield knew he could get the job with his own charisma. Holyfield won the bet […]
Today, the father of Soul Train, Don Cornelius, would have been 77 years old. A new voice out of school, Cornelius started his career by filling in for DJ’s on Chicago’s WVON radio. In 1968, he served as host of the sports program “A Black’s View of the News” on WCIU. The broadcasting entrepreneur started […]
WARNING: Clip above contains offensive language and imagery and may not be suitable for all viewers. It’s been exactly 40 years since the release of the landmark film, “The Mack”, starring Max Julien and Richard Pryor. “The Mack” was released in 1973 and was the only major writing credit for writer Robert J. Poole. Set […]
Mignon Clyburn (DEM) is the first woman and black woman to head the FCC. Clyburn, who is currently serving as acting Chairwoman, was appointed by President Obama this past May. Prior to her work on the commission, Clyburn was the co-owner, publisher and general manager of The Coastal Times, a weekly newspaper in Charleston that […]
Harvard University just announced the launch of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Within the new 15 million dollar center, there will be the Afro-Latin American Research Institute, the History Design Studio, the Program for the Study of Race and Gender in Science and Medicine, and the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African […]
In the 2013 Emmy Awards, Kerry Washington is the first African American woman to be nominated in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in nearly 20 years. The last was Cicely Tyson for her role in Sweet Justice in 1995. Tyson was a leading lady for the major awards show, she […]