Black history from another angle

BLACK HIGHLIGHTS OFAMERICAN HISTORY

JANET CHEATHAM BELL FEBRUARY 2011

Do you know what part these people and events played in

African American history?

Carter G. Woodson

Society of Friends (Quakers)

Oberlin College

Mason-Dixon Line

Harpers Ferry, W. Va

Historically Black Collegesand Universities

CARTER G. WOODSON1875-1950

• Worked in Kentucky coal mines and didn’t attend high school until age 20• B.A. University of

Chicago, 1907; Ph.D. Harvard, 1912• founded Association for

the Study of Negro Life & History, 1915• Established Negro

History Week, 1926

Q U A K E R S

RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

QUAKER BELIEFS & PRACTICES

• all humans equal before God• equality makes

peoples' ranks and titles unimportant• enslaving another

human is horrific• system of slavery

should be undermined

• 1688 took first public stand against slavery beginning the abolitionist (those opposed to slavery) movement• 1787 organized and

operated the Underground Railroad• did not participate in

violence and war


• all humans equal before God• equality makes

peoples' ranks and titles unimportant• enslaving another

human is horrific• system of slavery

should be undermined


• Isaac Hopper initiated efforts in Philadelphia to form Underground Railroad

• 1688 took first public stand against slavery beginning the abolitionist movement• 1787 organized and

operated the Underground Railroad• did not participate in

violence and war

OTHER ABOLITIONISTS

OBERLIN COLLEGEOHIO

• Founded• 1833

•

• Asa Mahan, abolitionist, social reformer, first president of Oberlin

• first college to admit non-whites in 1835• first college to

graduate women in 1841• a major stop on

the Underground Railroad

OBERLIN COLLEGEOHIO

• Founded• 1833

•

• Asa Mahan, abolitionist, social reformer, first president of Oberlin

• first college to admit non-whites in 1835• first college to

graduate women in 1841• a major stop on the Underground Railroad

MISSOURI COMPROMISE1820

HARPERS FERRY, W. VA

JOHN BROWN1800-1859

• Raided Harpers Ferry to seize weapons and engage in guerilla warfare to end slavery, 1859• Tried and hanged for

treason and conspiring with slaves• Trial focused country

on slavery

JOHN BROWN1800-1859

• Raided Harpers Ferry to seize weapons and engage in guerilla warfare to end slavery, 1859• Tried and hanged for treason and conspiring with slaves• Trial focused country

on slavery

JOHN BROWN1800-1859

• Raided Harpers Ferry to seize weapons and engage in guerilla warfare to end slavery, 1859• Tried and hanged for

treason and conspiring with slaves• Trial focused country on slavery

The year after Brown was executed Abraham Lincoln was nominated by the Republican Party to be President of the United States. His election in 1860 led to the South's secession from the Union and began the Civil War which lasted from 1861-1865.

In 1865,

after 246 years, and the

loss of 620,000 lives, slavery was abolished.

“American slavery was a human horror of staggering dimensions.

Julian Bond, professor, Department of History, University of Virginia; former national chair, NAACP, graduate of Morehouse College (HBCU)

“It lasted twenty times longer than the Nazi holocaust,


“killed ten times as many people,


“and destroyed cultures on three continents.


“The profits it produced endowed great fortunes and enriched generations.” Julian Bond, professor, Department of History, University of Virginia; former national chair, NAACP, graduate of Morehouse College (HBCU)

H I S T O R I C A L LY B L AC K C O L L E G E S ( H BC U )

AFTER THE CIVIL WAR

HISTORICALLY BLACKCOLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

• Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, 1875 • Bennett College,

1873, 1926 (North Carolina)• Central State

University, 1856, 1947 (Ohio) • Cheyney University,

1837 (Pennsylvania)

• Delaware State University, 1891 • Fisk University, 1866 (Tennessee) • Hampton University, 1861, 1863 (Virginia)• Howard University, 1867 (DC)• Morehouse College, 1867 (Georgia)

T O M O R R O W: T H E I N N OVAT O R S

THE END

I N N O V A T O R STHOSE WHO HAD NO ROLE MODELS

BENJAMIN BANNEKER1731-1806

• Astronomer, surveyor, mathematician• 1783 completed

carving of America’s first clock which worked for 20 years• Wrote to Thomas

Jefferson in 1791 challenging his claim that blacks could not understand Euclid

LEWIS LATIMER1848–1928

• Patented an improved toilet system for railroad cars in 1874

• Drew the blueprints for Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone in 1876

• Patented the carbon filament, an important part of the light bulb —while working with Thomas Edison in 1884

DANIEL HALE WILLIAMS1856-1931

• Graduated Chicago Medical College, 1883• Founded Provident

Hospital, 1891• First physician to

successfully perform open heart surgery, 1893

IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT1862-1931

• Rust College (HBCU)• Sued Chesapeake &

Ohio R.R. for discrimination, 1884.• Journalist who owned

her own newspaper in Memphis and Chicago• Fearless crusader

against lynching• A founder of the

NAACP

“I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap. I had already determined to sell my life as dearly as possible if attacked.” Ida B. Wells

MADAM C. J. WALKER1867-1919

• Entrepreneur and America’s first female self-made millionaire• Founded a national

hair-care business

“There is no royal flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it for if I have accomplished anything in life it is because I have been willing to work hard.”

Madam Walker

MAGGIE LENA WALKER1867-1934

• First woman to charter a bank in the U.S., St. Luke’s Penny Savings Bank, 1902• First woman bank

president• Obtained her skill with

money as leader of the Independent Order of St. Luke burial society in Richmond, VA

CHARLES DREW1904-1950

Received an athletic scholarship to Amherst College in MAM.D., McGill University (Montreal), 1933Ph.D., Columbia University, 1940Researched blood transfusions and developed blood plasma and blood banks

REGINALD LEWIS1942-1993

• Economics degree Virginia State U., 1965 (HBCU)• Law degree Harvard

University, 1968• Purchased Beatrice

International Foods in a $985 million LBO, 1987• Activist and

philanthropist

T H E E N D

T H E A R T I S T S

IRA ALDRIDGE 1807-1867

• Distinguished Shakespearean actor from New York.

• Performed in top theaters in Europe and England where he received many honors.

• One of 33 actors of the English stage honored with bronze plaques at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-on-Avon

“I will live down the prejudice, I will crush it out. I will show to the world that a man may spring from a race of slaves, and yet far excel many of the boasted ruling race.” Charles W. Chesnutt, 1878

CHARLES WADDELL CHESNUTT1858-1932

• Novelist, short story writer, public intellectual whose work exposed American hypocrisy• The Conjure Woman

(short stories) published in 1899 was followed by novels: The House Behind the Cedars and The Marrow of Tradition in 1900 and 1901.

META WARRICK FULLER1877-1968

• Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, 1898• Prize-winning student• First artist to

celebrate Afro-centric themes• Studied in Paris as a

protégé of Rodin

Two of Fuller’s sculptures

WILLIAM GRANT STILL1895-1978

• Studied at Wilberforce University (HBCU) and Oberlin College

• Classical composer who played several instruments.

• First black to have his symphony performed by a major orchestra.

• First black to conduct a major symphony orchestra in Los Angeles, 1936

TROUBLED ISLAND BYWILLIAM GRANT STILL

• This grand opera was the first by a black to be performed by a major opera company in 1949.

• The New York City Opera Company received 22 curtain calls on opening night, but it was never performed again.

RICHARD WRIGHT 1908-1960

• His novel, Native Son (1940), first bestselling book by black writer and first selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club. It was also adapted for stage and film.• Black Boy (1945), his

autobiography, also a bestseller and BOMC selection

GORDON PARKS, SR.1912-2006

• Self-taught photographer, poet, composer, filmmaker, writer• First black photo-

grapher at Life magazine, 1948-1972• First black to produce

and direct a major Hollywood film, The Learning Tree, 1969

American Gothic as interpreted by

Gordon Parks

GWENDOLYN BROOKS1917-2000

• Poet Laureate of Illinois, 1968-2000; Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress, 1985-86

• Recipient of many poetry grants and awards including a Guggenheim, and in 1950, the first Pulitzer Prize awarded to an African American for her collection of poetry, Annie Allen.

T O M O R R O W: A DVO C AT E S A N D P O L I T I C I A N S

T H E E N D

ADVOCATES & POLITICIANS

RICHARD ALLEN 1760-1831

• Worked at night to save money and purchased his freedom in 1783

• Created the Free African Society and negotiated purchase of property in 1787on which first church was built. Current church is on that same land.

• Established the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816, first independent black institution in America

• Allen became first bishop

ELIZABETH KECKLEY1818-1907

• Moved to nation’s capital and became Mrs. Lincoln’s seamstress and confidante

• Author of Behind the Scenes: 30 Years a Slave and 4 Years in the White House, 1868

• Founder and president of the Contraband Relief Association, 1862

HIRAM R. REVELS1822-1901

• First person of African descent elected to the U.S. Senate (R) from Mississippi, 1870• Nominated a black to

attend West Point, but he was refused admission.• Left Senate to become

President of Alcorn State University (HBCU) in 1871.

MARY WHITE OVINGTON1865-1951

• Suffragette, socialist, journalist, author• Liaison between the

(all-white) National Negro Committee and the (all-black) Niagara Movement that merged to form the NAACP • First Executive

Secretary of the NAACP, 1910

ELLA BAKER1903-1986

• Graduate of Shaw University (HBCU)

• Field Secretary for the NAACP, 1940-1947

• Founder of and advisor to SNCC (Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee), 1960

• SNCC initiated student sit-ins and Freedom Rides that desegregated lunch counters and interstate bus travel

FANNIE LOU HAMER1917-1977

• Voting rights activist • Helped to organize

Mississippi Freedom Summer for SNCC• Vice-Chair of the

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party• Spoke at 1964

Democratic Nat’l Convention

CARL STOKES1927-1996

• First African American elected mayor of a major city, Cleveland,1967-1971

• Only politician to publicly support Muhammad Ali’s refusal to be drafted

• First black anchorman in NYC on WNBC-TV, 1972

• Cleveland municipal judge, 1983-1994

• Ambassador to the Seychelles, 1994-96

CARL STOKES1927-1996

• First African American elected mayor of a major city, Cleveland,1967-1971• Only politician to publicly support Muhammad Ali’s refusal to be drafted

• First black anchorman in NYC on WNBC-TV, 1972

• Cleveland municipal judge, 1983-1994

• Ambassador to the Seychelles, 1994-96

THE LAST WORD

Black history from another angle

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