Historical Firsts

03/06/12

admin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:00:00 +0000

03/06/12 is a post from: Historical Firsts

03/06/12

admin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:00:00 +0000

03/06/12 is a post from: Historical Firsts

02/01/12

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:00:00 +0000

02/01/12 is a post from: Historical Firsts

02/01/12

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:00:00 +0000

02/01/12 is a post from: Historical Firsts

Mary Ann Shadd Cary – Abolitionist, Editor, Lawyer

admin — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 23:45:21 +0000

This is one of the Women that I have added to my “Obscure Women” series. Mrs. Cary was a true champion for human rights, regardless of race or gender. A perfect example of someone who was of the elite class using their wealth, and status for the good of the people!

Today in 1823, Mary Ann Shadd Cary was born in Wilmington, DE. She was a Black educator and administrator. The eldest of 13 children of free Black parents, she received an education from the Pennsylvania Quakers. Cary devoted the first part of her life to being an abolition, working with fugitive slaves, and becoming the first African-American woman in North America to edit a weekly newspaper, the Provincial Freeman. This newspaper was devoted to displaced Americans living in Canada. She then became a teacher, establishing or teaching in schools for Negroes in Wilmington; West Chester, PA; New York; Morristown, NJ; and Canada. She was also the first woman to speak at a national African American convention.

Before and during the Civil War Mrs. Cary battled with her male counterparts over her right to have an authoritative voice as well as insisted on a role in black community politics. Also during the Civil War, Cary helped recruit African-American soldiers for the Union Army. In Washington, D.C., she established a school for Black children. She would embark on her second career, when she attended Howard University Law School. She became the first Black female lawyer in the United States when she graduated in 1870.

She fought alongside Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton for women’s suffrage, testifying before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. As a lawyer, she worked for the right to vote and was one of the few women to receive the right to vote in federal elections. She organized the Colored Women’s Progressive Franchise in 1880, which was dedicated to women’s rights. As an educator, abolitionist, editor, attorney, and feminist, she dedicated her life to improving the quality of life for everyone black, white, male and female. Truly a woman before her time!

Mary Ann Shadd Cary – Abolitionist, Editor, Lawyer is a post from: Historical Firsts

Fannie Lou Hamer – “I’m Sick and Tired of BEING Sick and Tired”

admin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 23:46:47 +0000

As a lil’ girl growing up in Mississippi, I heard Ms. Fannie speak. Although I was afraid for her safety, I was very inspired by her courage and determination to not let color or gender stop her from seeking what was right for those who could not seek it for themselves.

Fannie Lou Hamer was born on this date in 1917. She was an African-American civil rights activist. Born Fannie Lou Townsend in Montgomery County, MS, she was the last of 20 children in a family of sharecroppers. She began chopping and picking cotton as a child on a plantation in the Mississippi Delta. She lived and worked there until 1962, when she was fired because she attempted to register to vo te. She and her family were also forced to move from the plantation. In 1963, Hamer did register to vote and committed herself to civil rights activism. She began working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), organizing voter registration campaigns in the Mississippi Delta. In 1964, white members of the Democratic Party in Mississippi continued the tradition of refusing to accept Blacks in their delegation to the national party convention. Hamer and others formed the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). The MFDP sent 68 delegates to the national convention, to challenge the white Democrats right to represent Mississippi. Hamer recounted for the convention the harassment that she and other Blacks experienced when trying to register to vote in Mississippi in a nationally televised interview about her experiences with police brutality. Democratic Party officials offered the Black Mississippians two convention seats. Hamer and the MFDP, however, rejected the compromise offer and went home. The MFDP challenge resulted in a pledge from the Democratic Party not to seat any delegate to the 1968 national convention who had been chosen through racially discriminatory means. It also made Hamer a national celebrity.

After 1964, Hamer continued to work for Black voting rights and Black candidates for public office in Mississippi. She also founded social service organizations and initiated economic development efforts, including the Freedom Farms Corporation, established in 1969 to help poor families raise food and livestock. Hamer became a national figure in 1964 with a speech to the Democratic National Convention in which she recounted the voter discrimination and violence against Blacks in her home state of Mississippi. She became a national symbol of the participation of poor Southern Blacks in the civil rights movement. Fannie Lou Hamer died on March 14, 1977.

Fannie Lou Hamer – “I’m Sick and Tired of BEING Sick and Tired” is a post from: Historical Firsts

Bill Costen – First African American Commercial Hot-Air Balloon Pilot in the Country.

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:36:10 +0000

Below is a great piece on a good friend of mine which I borrowed from his website. I met Mr. Bill Costen in 2005. I was somewhat embarrassed that I had not met this living legend before, as we almost lived in each others backyard. He is one of my Unsung Heros. Below is a synopsis for the documentary film Sky Endeavors: The Story of a Black Balloon Pilot.

The rubber met the road in the early 1970s for Bill Costen. After being drafted by the Buffalo Bills and later being sent to a Buffalo farm team in Hartford, CT, a life-threatening tragedy forced him to put the pads down. The result was a lark that led to the birth of the first African American commercial hot-air balloon pilot in the country.

Sky Endeavors is about more than a 6’5 ex-jock showing the world how to navigate through the clouds; who weathered the ordeal of his mom passing when he was only 10 years old; who flunked out the University of Nebraska his freshman year and moved across the country with something to prove; who warmed the bench in high school only to be drafted in the pros five years later; who survived numerous twists and turns in his life to avoid becoming another ignominious statistic. It is about flight in every sense of the word.

Told through the eyes of Bill’s award-winning filmmaker daughter, Chantal Costen, Sky Endeavors is a multi-layered film that displays a story untold, that will prompt a call to your nearest hot air balloon pilot right after it makes you contemplate the meaning of a dream deferred. It is a piece of history that serves as another reminder of the rich tapestry of not only the African American stock, but also humanity.

Sky Endeavors crystallizes the art of struggle and redemption, while providing an unofficial blueprint for not becoming a victim of circumstance. It is the manifestation for father and daughter, of a dream simultaneously realized. Three decades, thousands of passengers and countless adventures later Bill is still flying, proving that with a bit of faith the sky is the limit.

Bill Costen – First African American Commercial Hot-Air Balloon Pilot in the Country. is a post from: Historical Firsts

Coretta Scott King – More than the wife of Martin

admin — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:45:12 +0000

Coretta Scott King (April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006) was an author, activist, and civil rights leader. The widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King helped lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Mrs. King’s most prominent role may have been in the years after her husband’s 1968 assassination when she took on the leadership of the struggle for racial equality herself and became active in the Women’s Movement.

Mrs. King continued to serve the cause of justice and human rights; her travels took her throughout the world on goodwill missions to Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia. In 1983, she marked the 20th Anniversary of the historic March on Washington, by leading a gathering of more than 800 human rights organizations, the Coalition of Conscience, in the largest demonstration the capital city had seen up to that time.

Mrs. Coretta Scott King left a legacy of pursuing equality for all!

Coretta Scott King – More than the wife of Martin is a post from: Historical Firsts

Elizabeth Keckly/Mary Baxter Johnson

admin — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 20:09:48 +0000

Elizabeth Keckly was born in February 1818 in Dinwiddie County Courthouse, VA. She was born a slave to slave parents. She was brought into this world in God-like thought but fettered in action. Like many before her, she was forced into servitude. But she never surrendered her mind or her desire to be free!

Although a slave Lizzy set goals for herself and her son, George. Lizzy dreamed of being a dressmaker, mantua maker for the ladies of the White House. She knew that she would not always be a slave.

When researching strong women from years past, I was drawn to Elizabeth Keckly for more than one reason. The main reason was she mirrored my great-grandmother, Mary Baxter Johnson. We called her Muddea:-) Like Lizzy, Muddea (1850?-1975) was born a slave to slave parents. Also like Lizzy she would not die a slave. Although Muddea was a farmer, she was a shrewd business woman! She would purchase forty acres of land for a $1 an acre. (It would take her two years to pay it in full) That land is still in our family to this day! She built up the land, she left a rich heritage for her offspring. She built a reputation that many would come to admire. Although Muddea died at the young age of 125 (you read correctly 125 years of age!), when I was 7 years of age, I still feel her love and inspiration to be the best person that I can be despite many obstacles.

After my performances, I am often asked,”Why do you do historical performances?” Simply put — to educate people about the unsung heroines that help to set a firm foundation of self-worth and dignity. To learn from the struggles of others, to set goals then achieve them!

Visit www.historicalfirsts.org for more information on Elizabeth Keckly and other fascinating women!

Elizabeth Keckly/Mary Baxter Johnson is a post from: Historical Firsts

Making up History – What are your thoughts?

admin — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 23:19:35 +0000

There is a growing trend regarding this country’s history. It is becoming the norm to tell history the way it did NOT happen! It is also becoming the norm to take accurate literature and change/replace offensive words. Thereby changing history.

As an African American Woman who was born and reared in Mississippi,
you know where cotton was king and old Jim Crow ruled from beneath white
sheets. Where the word “nigger” was as common as the sun rising and
setting.

My husband and I are children of the 60′s. Just four years separate us
in age. Yet on his birth certificate he is considered a “Negro” and I am
considered “Colored” all the while still being addressed as “nigger”.

I say this to emphasize the point that I know all to well what being
called a nigger means and what it feels like.

With this being said I am very much offended that history is being made
up. It is offensive to me that there are those who feel the need to be
comforted by pretending that this country’s history is less than
stellar. It is offensive to me that there are educators/guides and their
respective establishments who feel the need to pacify their visitors. Or
that our educational system feel the need to censor well documented
accurate literature.

As a storyteller/performer and educator, I do not feel the need to leave
“nigger” or “ofay” out of my performances. If history is to be known, it
is to be told as it really happened regardless of who will be offended.
I do not say this to shock or offend but as a passionate lover of
history (good, bad or indifferent). I feel history must be told
correctly or we will never learn from it. If you are offended by what
you hear or read, ask “Why does this offend me?”

It is important to not only have discussions about things that make us uncomfortable but to learn from them as well!

Making up History – What are your thoughts? is a post from: Historical Firsts