Little Known Black History Facts
Dr. Asa Greenwood Yancey was the first black faculty member at Emory University’s medical school. In the early 1940’s, Dr. Yancey studied at Freedmen’s Hospital at Howard University under Dr. Charles Drew, an African American surgeon who created the blood bank concept. Dr. Yancey was born in Atlanta, Ga. and attended Booker T. Washington High […]
Yityish Aynaw, the first black Miss Israel will be seated across from the first black President of the United States at the dinner table this week in Israel. President Obama is due to speak at the Jerusalem’s International Convention Centre this week. Yityish Aynaw is of Ethiopian descent with Jewish grandparents. Her name is Arabic […]
Inge Ruth Hardison was an African-American female sculptor and artist of the 1930’s. She was known for her unique collection of busts called Negro Giants in History. The busts were meant to give honor to the blacks that were not then depicted in the National Hall of Fame in Washington DC. Inge Hardison was also […]
In the town of Dixmoor, Illinois, there is a family rivalry going on between Wendy Casey and her son Randall Casey. They are both running for Mayor. The candidates are running against two additional opponents, Dorothy Armstrong and Keevan Grimmett, who has been called a favorite to win. The historical mother-son mayoral run in Dixmoor […]
On Saturday, March 9th, a special groundbreaking ceremony was held to welcome the new Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park at Maryland’s eastern Shore. The 17-acre stretch is also the land that Tubman actually covered in her journeys through the Underground Railroad. The park comes as part of a 125-mile tour with 30 historical stops […]
Twelve year-old twins, Peter and Paula Imafidon, are black children from Waltham Forest in northeast London. Nicknamed “the Wonder Twins,” Peter and Paula are Great Britain’s current highest achievers. At 9-years-old they made history as the youngest children in British history to attend high school. They are now in their third year. The children became […]
A phenomenal woman of the medical field passed away recently. Dr. Jane C. Wright was responsible for the use of chemotherapy as a viable resort for treating cancer. In 1955, Dr. Wright served as Director of Cancer Research at NYU Medical Center. She discovered a new way to reach cancerous tumors that were once hard […]
The USS Monitor was an ironclad Civil War ship of the Union Army that sank on December 31, 1862. The Monitor was famous for its battle with the Confederate ship CSS Virginia, (formerly the USS Merrimack), on March 9, 1862. It was the first ironside warship battle of the U.S. Army. When the USS Monitor […]
Ten years before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life was almost taken by a woman named Izola Ware Curry. Curry was a 42-year-old mentally ill woman who stabbed Dr. King on September 20, 1958. The disturbed woman used a letter opener to brutally wound Dr. King during his New York book signing […]
Conrad O. Johnson was a legendary music composer and former director of the Kashmere Stage Band in Houston, Texas. Also called “Thunder Soul,” the award-winning band was founded by Johnson at the predominately black Kashmere High School. Under Johnson’s direction, the school band recorded eight albums and became national champions from the 1960’s to 1978. […]
Howard University graduate Patricia Roberts Harris was the first black woman to hold a cabinet position in the U.S. government, the first black woman to serve as an ambassador, and the first National Executive Director of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. Patricia Roberts Harris was born in May 1924 in Matoon, Illinois. Her father worked […]
On February 28, Pope Benedict XVI officially resigned from his papal duties. This is the first time in 700 years that a Catholic pope has resigned at his own free will. The question has arisen as to whether or not Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Ghana will become the next to take over the […]
