David Owen July 2, 2016 James Armistead Lafayette, African American spy of the Revolutionary War that was one of George Washington’s most successful. Although James Armistead served many military duties as a slave, he was granted freedom in 1787. Assisted Read More …
David Owen July 1, 2016 Frederick Douglass in 1867: “A man’s rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.” and how the National African American Gun Association eventually came about (see video below) Read More …
David Owen June 30, 2016 Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream Speech” was an impromptu speech showing his genius for oratory. On Wednesday, August 28, 1963, 250,000 Americans united at the Lincoln Memorial for the final speech of the Read More …
PBS June 27, 2016 The earliest recorded protest against slavery was by the Quakers in 1688. Quakers, also known as “The Society of Friends,” have a long history of abolition. But it was four Pennsylvania Friends from Germantown who wrote Read More …
David Owen June 27, 2016 There are 3 times more enslaved people in the World today than there were black slaves kidnapped to the New World. This alleged statistic does not lessen the extreme criminality of the historic Transatlantic slave trade. It Read More …
PBS June 26, 2016 The first licensed African American Female pilot was named Bessie Coleman. Born in Atlanta, Texas in 1892, Bessie Coleman grew up in a world of harsh poverty, discrimination and segregation. She moved to Chicago at 23 Read More …
PBS June 25, 2016 Before there was Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin. Most people think of Rosa Parks as the first person to refuse to give up their seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. There were actually several Read More …
PBS June 23, 2016 Esther Jones, a black Cotton Club singer, was the real Betty Boop The iconic cartoon character Betty Boop was inspired by a Black jazz singer in Harlem. Introduced by cartoonist Max Fleischer in 1930, the caricature Read More …
PBS and Boston Globe June 22, 2016 A medical breakthrough: inoculation was introduced to America by a black person in 1721 Inoculation was introduced to America by a slave Few details are known about the birth of Onesimus, but it Read More …
July 21, 2016 PBS and mental floss A forgotten culture: 1 in 4 Cowboys were black and the Lone Ranger was black. One in four cowboys was Black, despite the stories told in popular books and movies. In fact, it’s Read More …