Month: May 2018

11May

May 11 1933- Louis Eugene Wolcott

GM – FBF – I was young boy when I went to Washington, D.C. and heard the words of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. and the “I have a Dream” speach with over 250,000 people. I was grown man when I went to Washington, D.C. to hear Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Million Man March.

Remember – “A woman will test you to see if you are what you say you are. Any woman that you fall in love with: She loves you too, but she’s going to try you; that’s her nature. She has to know that she can depend on you; she has to know that you will stand up for her. She has to know that you will back up the children that she brings in the world for us.” – Louis Farrakhan

Today in our History – May 11, 1933 – Louis Eugene Wolcott was born.

Louis Farrakhan, born as Louis Eugene Wolcott, is a Muslim American, known most popularly as a leader of the Islamic organization Nation of Islam (NOI). He was born on May 11, 1933 in The Bronx, New York. Farrakhan’s family had a difficult life, as he never knew his biological father and the family moved around a lot while the youngster was growing up. At age 6, he began receiving training for the violin. By age 13, he was so skilled with the instrument that he managed to play with famous orchestras such as the Boston College Orchestra. He continued to win prizes on a regular basis for his talent, and later enrolled in Boston Latin School and Winston-Salem Teachers College.

Farrakhan had some popular hits in his short lived musical career, performing under the name ‘The Charmer’. On tour in Chicago in 1955, he first came in contact with the teachings of NOI through saxophonist Rodney Smith. Having attended an address by then NOI leader Elijah Muhammad, Farrakhan instantly became inspired by his teachings and aspired to join the group. After passing the necessary criteria for becoming an NOI member, he was awarded the customary ‘X’ placeholder, which comes in place of most African Americans’ European slave prescribed surnames. Louis X’s name then changed to Louis Farrakhan after Muhammad replaced it sometime in the future.

Now a firm member of the NOI, Louis Farrakhan was keen on rising through the ranks quickly. He worked closely with Malcolm X who was then a minister at the Temple of Islam in Boston. Farrakhan continued to be inspired and mentored by Malcolm X, even serving as his assistant minister. After the assassination of Malcolm X, Farrakhan was appointed as national spokesman or national representative of the NOI, as well as minister of Harlem Mosque. After Elijah Muhammad’s death in 1975, a lot of things changed for NOI, from it’s organizational structure to the very core of it’s message. Taking on a more liberal standpoint and including inter-religious cooperation and dialogue, Warith Muhammad changed the very foundation of the NOI by going as far as changing it’s name to American Society of Muslims. Under Warith Deen Muhammad’s leadership, Farrakhan was a Sunni Imam for almost 4 years until 1978 when he decided to leave and create his own version of what he believed NOI stood for.

One of his most remarkable achievements and perhaps what he often remembered for is the Million Man March Farrakhan organized in 1995 in Washington D.C. Here he hoped to encourage the African Americans to re-imagine and redefine their roles and commitments to their families. The event was organized with the aid of many different civil rights groups and received vast publicity. While the actual numbers of the turnout are disputed, Farrakhan adamantly pointed out that the figure was close to his actual aim. Amongst some of the speakers at the event included Maya Angelou; Rosa Parks; Martin Luther King III, Cornel West, Jesse Jackson. 10 years later in 2005, Farrakhan marked the 10th anniversary of this momentous day by organizing the Million More Movement with the aid of other acknowledged Black movement activists such as Malik Zulu Shabazz, the activist Al Sharpton.

In recent years, Louis Farrakhan has suffered a number of health problems, including peptic ulcers, abdominal surgeries and even a heart attack in December of 2013. Research more about the Nation of Islam and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

10May

May 10 1930- The NPHC

GM – FBF – Today we look bsch on our, Greek lettered fraternities and sororities. Coming together to create a union. Enjoy!

Remember – “It’s all about love. We’re either in love, dreaming about love, recovering from it, wish for it or reflecting on it.” – Unknown

Todat in our History – May 10, 1930 –

The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) is a collaborative organization of nine historically African American, international Greek lettered fraternities and sororities. The nine NPHC organizations are sometimes collectively referred to as the “Divine Nine”. The member/partner organizations have not formally adopted nor recommended the use of this term to describe their collaborative grouping. The NPHC was formed as a permanent organization on May 10, 1930 on the campus of Howard University, in Washington, D.C. with Matthew W. Bullock as the active Chairman and B. Beatrix Scott as Vice-Chairman. NPHC was incorporated under the laws of the State of Illinois in 1937.

The council promotes interaction through forums, meetings and other mediums for the exchange of information and engages in cooperative programming and initiatives through various activities and functions.

Each constituent member organization determines its own strategic direction and program agenda. Today, the primary purpose and focus of member organizations remains camaraderie and academic excellence for its members and service to the communities they serve. Each promotes community awareness and action through educational, economic, and cultural service activities.

The National Pan-Hellenic Council was established in an age when racial segregation and disenfranchisement plagued African Americans, the rise of each of the black fraternities and sororities that make up the NPHC bore witness to the fact that despite hardships African Americans refused to accede to a status of inferiority.

The organization’s stated purpose and mission in 1930:

Unanimity of thought and action as far as possible in the conduct of Greek letter collegiate fraternities and sororities, and to consider problems of mutual interest to its member organizations.

The founding members of the NPHC were Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, and Zeta Phi Beta. The council’s membership expanded as Alpha Phi Alpha (1931), Phi Beta Sigma (1931), Sigma Gamma Rho (1937), and Iota Phi Theta (1996) joined this coalition of Black Greek letter organizations (BGLOs). In his book on BGLOs, Lawrence Ross coined the phrase “The Divine Nine” when referring to the coalition.

As required by various campus recognition policies, neither the NPHC, nor its member national or chapter organizations discriminate on the basis of race or religion.

In 1992, the first permanent national office for NPHC was established in Bloomington, Indiana on the campus of Indiana University through the joint cooperation of Indiana University and the National Board of Directors of NPHC. Research more about this time honored Tridition and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

09May

May 9 1967- Phillipa Duke

GM – FBF – To be young, gifited and black, here is one of the best. Enjoy!

Remember – “Everyone loves a prodigy […]. Prodigies get us off the hook for living ordinary lives. We can tell ourselves we’re not special because we weren’t born with it, which is a great excuse.” – Phillippa Duke Schuyler

Today in our History – May 9, 1967 – Black Child Prodigy star dies.

Phillippa Duke Schuyler was a child pianist, composer, and later journalist. Schuyler, born August 2, 1931, grew up in Harlem, and was the only child of George S. Schuyler, a prominent black journalist, and Josephine Cogdell, a white Texan from a wealthy and socially prominent family. Her parents were not Harlem civil rights crusaders, but rather conservatives and members of the John Birch society, who believed that interracial marriage and the resulting children could solve America’s race issue. They also fed Phillippa a strict raw food diet, believing that cooking removed all of the vital nutrients from food. By playing Mozart at the age of four and scoring 185 on an IQ test at the age of five, Phillippa quickly proved to her parents and the world that she was a child prodigy.

Phillippa began giving piano recitals and radio broadcasts as child, and with the help of her journalist father she quickly attracted an enormous amount of press coverage. In 1940 when she was nine, Phillippa became the subject of “Evening with a Gifted Child,” a profile written by Joseph Mitchell of The New Yorker, who heard several of her early compositions. Phillippa’s mother kept her isolated from other children by exclusively relying on tutors for her education. At the age of 13, Phillippa’s delusions and memories of her happy childhood were permanently tarnished when she stumbled across her mother’s scrapbook which described in detail how her parents thought of her as a genetic experiment. These feelings plagued Phillippa for the remainder of her life, and motivated her desire to travel, write, and play, so that she could find her place in the world.

She plunged herself into her music, and once she outgrew the child prodigy years she struggled to find a place in the American music community. On tour, especially in the South, she began to experience racial prejudice, something of which she had been mostly unaware during her sheltered upbringing. In order to continue to perform and make money, she became a world traveler, eventually visiting over 80 countries. Her world travels did not abate her sense of alienation from her native country and her parents and as a young woman Schuyler changed her name to Felipa Monterro and began to pass as white.

By her thirties, those world travels spawned her interest in journalism and afforded her fluency in numerous languages. Those travels placed her in dramatic locales at important moments of history. In 1960, for example, she was one of the few American journalists in Leopoldville (later Kinshasa), The Congo, to cover its independence. Through the 1960s she would author several books based on her experiences in world travel. Phillippa Schuyler died in a helicopter crash on May 9, 1967, when she, while working as a Vietnam War correspondent, attempted to evacuate a number of Vietnamese orphans threatened by an impending Viet Cong guerilla attack. Schuyler was 36. Research more about black child Prodigey stars and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

08May

May 8 1858- John Brown

GM – FBF – Today we Introduce a man who gave his life for the freedom of Blacks and his last words before he was hung is below. For in less than two (2) years the Civil War will begin. Enjoy!

Remember – “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with Blood.” ―John Brown

Today in our History – May 8, 1858 – John Brown holds antislavery convention in Canada.

As the October elections saw a free-state victory, Kansas was quiet. Brown made his men return to Iowa, where he fed them tidbits of his Virginia scheme. In January 1858, Brown left his men in Springdale, Iowa, and set off to visit Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York. There he discussed his plans with Douglass, and reconsidered Forbes’ criticisms. Brown wrote a Provisional Constitution that would create a government for a new state in the region of his invasion. Brown then traveled to Peterboro, New York, and Boston to discuss matters with the Secret Six. In letters to them, he indicated that, along with recruits, he would go into the South equipped with weapons to do “Kansas work”.

Brown and twelve of his followers, including his son Owen, traveled to Chatham, Ontario, where he convened on May 8th – 10th a Constitutional Convention. The convention, with several dozen delegates including his friend James Madison Bell, was put together with the help of Dr. Martin Delany. One-third of Chatham’s 6,000 residents were fugitive slaves, and it was here that Brown was introduced to Harriet Tubman. The convention assembled 34 blacks and 12 whites to adopt Brown’s Provisional Constitution. According to Delany, during the convention, Brown illuminated his plans to make Kansas rather than Canada the end of the Underground Railroad. This would be the Subterranean Pass Way.[citation needed] Delany’s reflections are not entirely trustworthy. Brown was no longer looking toward Kansas and was entirely focused on Virginia. Other testimony from the Chatham meeting suggests Brown did speak of going South. Brown had long used the terminology of the Subterranean Pass Way from the late 1840s, so it is possible that Delany conflated Brown’s statements over the years. Regardless, Brown was elected commander-in-chief and he named John Henrie Kagi as his “Secretary of War”. Richard Realf was named “Secretary of State”. Elder Monroe, a black minister, was to act as president until another was chosen. A.M. Chapman was the acting vice president; Delany, the corresponding secretary. In 1859, “A Declaration of Liberty by the Representatives of the Slave Population of the United States of America” was written.

Although nearly all of the delegates signed the constitution, very few delegates volunteered to join Brown’s forces, although it will never be clear how many Canadian expatriates actually intended to join Brown because of a subsequent “security leak” that threw off plans for the raid, creating a hiatus in which Brown lost contact with many of the Canadian leaders. This crisis occurred when Hugh Forbes, Brown’s mercenary, tried to expose the plans to Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson and others. The Secret Six feared their names would be made public. Howe and Higginson wanted no delays in Brown’s progress, while Parker, Stearns, Smith and Sanborn insisted on postponement. Stearns and Smith were the major sources of funds, and their words carried more weight. To throw Forbes off the trail and to invalidate his assertions, Brown returned to Kansas in June, and he remained in that vicinity for six months. There he joined forces with James Montgomery, who was leading raids into Missouri. He will lead a raid on Harpers Ferry Armory,VA. in October 1859 and was captured with others and hung. Research more about John Brown and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

07May

May 7 1845- Mary Eliza

GM – FBF – Yesterday, someone stole my Information on FB. If you receive a request for an Invite or messanger wants you to do something please don’t do it. Today we honor the first black nurse to practice in America. Enjoy!

Remember – “When you’re a nurse you know that every day you will touch a life or a life will touch yours.” – Mary Eliza Mahoney

Today in our History – May 7, 1845 –

Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first African American nurse to study and work professionally in the United States. She was also a co-founder of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) with Adah B. Thoms.

Mahoney was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, May 7,1845 to Charles and Mary Jane Sterwart Mahoney. She grew up with her parents, a sister and one brother in Boston, Massachusetts where her interest in nursing began as a teenager.

When Mahoney began working at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, she initially did not work as a nurse. Instead, she held positions that included cook, janitor, washerwoman and an unofficial nurse’s aide – all over a 15-year period.

At age 33 Mahoney entered the 16-month nursing program at the New England Hospital for Women and Children. Coursework included many hours of lectures and hands-on patient care. The rigorous workload proved too tough for all but four of the 42 students – Mahoney being one of them who successfully made it through the program. She received her nursing certification in 1879, making her the first African American in history to earn a professional nursing license.

Mahoney spent the good part of the next 30 years working as a private care nurse. Her reputation was impeccable as she worked all across the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. In addition, Mahoney served as director of the Howard Orphan Asylum for black children in Long Island, New York.

Mahoney was an original member of the predominately white Nurses Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada – known later as the American Nurses Association (ANA). She later co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), in 1908. Serving as the NACGN’s national chaplain, Mahoney gave the welcoming address at the first convention of the NACGN. In 1951, the NACGN would merge with the ANA.

After over 40 years of nursing service, Mahoney retired and turned her focus to women’s equality. The progression was natural given her fight for minority rights during her professional career. In 1920, she was among the first women to register to vote in Boston, Massachusetts.

Mary Mahoney died on January 4, 1926 at the age of 80, after a three-year battle with breast cancer. She was laid to rest at Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, Massachusetts.

Ten years after her death, the NACGN established the Mary Mahoney award, which is given to women who contributed to racial integration in nursing. After the NACGN was dissolved in 1951, the ANA continued presenting the award. In recognition of significant contributions in advancing equal opportunities in nursing for members of minority groups, the award is still given out today.

The national African American sorority, Chi Eta Phi, erected a monument of Mahoney after restoring her gravesite in 1973. Nurses from across the country came to remember Mary Mahoney. Three years later, Mary Eliza Mahoney was inducted into the Nursing Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993.

Mary Mahoney was not just an inspiration to African American women, but to the entire nursing profession. Her drive and passion for nursing helped shape the standards at which the profession has come to expect and continues to develop. Research more about blacks in the health profession and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

06May

May 6 1888- Matthew A. Cherry

GM – FBF – Who in our time have not seen, sat in or rode a tricycle, protection for the front of a street car is the forrunner to an automobile fender. Give thanks to Mr. Matthew A. Cherry. Enjoy!

Remember – “Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.” – Matthew A. Cherry

Today in our History – May 6,1888 – A black man invents the tricycle!

Matthew A. Cherry was a African American Inventor who created several devices for the transportation industry, including the velocipede, the tricycle and the street car fender.

The velocipede consisted of a metal seat frame upon which were attached two or three wheels which allowed someone sitting on the seat to propel themselves forward at considerable speeds by moving their feet along the ground in a fast walking or running motion. Cherry’s model of the velocipede greatly improved upon other similar devices, and over time evolved into the tricycle and the bicycle.

In May 1888 Cherry received a patent for creating the tricycle, a three wheeled vehicle that is used today mostly by pre-schoolers although it is used for many other purposes in different countries. In Asia and Africa tricycles are used for commercial transportation and deliveries, while in the USA and Canada they are also used extensively for shopping and exercise.

After receiving the patent for the tricycle, Cherry set out to solve a problem with streetcars.

At the time, whenever the front of a streetcar accidentally collided with another object, the streetcar was severely damaged, often having to be totally replaced, so he invented the street car fender – a piece of metal that was attached to the front of the street car and acted as a shock absorber which diminished the impact of an accident and added safety for passengers and employees.

Cherry received a patent for the street car fender on January 1, 1895 and the device has been modified through the years and is now used on almost every transportation device. Research more about African American Inventors and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

05May

May 5 1908- Clinton E. Knox

GM – FBF – Most of the Images and articles about Knox is still not declasified yet, Wich leads me to what former President Eisenhower warned of – “American citizens to be vigilant in monitoring the military-industrial complex.” – Read and Understand.

Remember – For the United States to be a global leader, we have to have a very tight relationship with Europe. And we’ve held that relationship since 1949 when we established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO. NATO is the bond. It’s a security bond. -Clinton Everett

Today in our History – May 5,1908 – A Bloack Man in charge of NATO.

Clinton Everett Knox was the first African American secretary to the United States Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and former United States Ambassador to the countries of Dahomey (Benin) and Haiti.
Clinton E. Knox was born May 5, 1908, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was the youngest of five children born to Estella Briggs Knox and William J. Knox Sr. Knox’s older brother, William J. Knox, Jr., was one of the scientists who helped develop the atomic bomb during World War II. His other older brother, Dr. Lawrence Howland Knox, was a noted chemist.

Clinton Knox attended the elementary and secondary schools of New Bedford, graduating from New Bedford High School in 1926. Knox received his A.B. degree in 1930 from Williams College and his M.A. degree from Brown University in 1931. Knox was as an instructor at Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland, teaching history and international relations between 1931 and 1936 and again between 1939 and 1943. During the intervening years he attended Harvard University where he received his Ph.D. in European history in 1940. Knox was the Bayard-Cutting Fellow at Harvard (1938-1939).

Knox served in the United States Army during World War II (1943-1945) as a research analyst in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Following the war, he worked for the Department of State beginning in 1945 and would remain there for 28 years until his retirement in 1973. Knox initially served as a departmental officer. He became a member of the Foreign Service of the United States in 1954 and first served abroad in 1957 as the first African American secretary to the United States Mission to NATO. While with NATO he held posts in France and Honduras.

Knox became the Ambassador to the West African Republic of Dahomey (now the country of Benin), serving in this capacity for five years (1964-1969). Following his work in Africa, Knox served as Ambassador to Haiti (1969-1973), under the regime of Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier and later his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier. In 1973, while serving as Ambassador to Haiti, Knox was kidnapped at gunpoint by unknown assailants who demanded the release of 35 political prisoners and cash. After 17 hours as a hostage, the kidnappers released Knox in exchange for 12 prisoners and $70,000. Knox returned to the United States shortly afterwards and retired at the age of 65.

Clinton E. Knox died on October 14, 1980, in Silver Springs, Maryland. Research more about NATO and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

04May

May 4 1961- 13 Original Freedom Fighters

GM – FBF – I had a client in Anniston, Alabama for four (4) years. Every visit I always asked where is the monument for the freedom riders who’s bus was set ablaze? I asked hotel workers, local business owners, schools principls, etc. that was 2011 through 2015. I am happy to announce that on January 12, 2017, The Freedom Riders National Monument in Anniston, Alabama opened. Enjoy!

Remember – “Traveling in the segregated South for black people was humiliating. The very fact that there were separate facilities was to say to black people and white people that blacks were so subhuman and so inferior that we could not even use public facilities that white people used.” ~ Diane Nash, Freedom Rides Organizer

Today in our History – May 4, 1961 – The original group of 13 Freedom Riders—seven African Americans and six whites—left Washington, D.C., on a Greyhound bus on May 4, 1961.

Freedom Riders were groups of white and African American civil rights activists who participated in Freedom Rides, bus trips through the American South in 1961 to protest segregated bus terminals. Freedom Riders tried to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters at bus stations in Alabama, South Carolina and other Southern states. The groups were confronted by arresting police officers—as well as horrific violence from white protestors—along their routes, but also drew international attention to their cause.
The 1961 Freedom Rides, organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), were modeled after the organization’s 1947 Journey of Reconciliation. During the 1947 action, African-American and white bus riders tested the 1946 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Morgan v. Virginia that found segregated bus seating was unconstitutional.

The 1961 Freedom Rides sought to test a 1960 decision by the Supreme Court in Boynton v. Virginia that segregation of interstate transportation facilities, including bus terminals, was unconstitutional as well. A big difference between the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation and the 1961 Freedom Rides was the inclusion of women in the later initiative.

In both actions, black riders traveled to the American South—where segregation continued to occur—and attempted to use whites-only restrooms, lunch counters and waiting rooms.

The original group of 13 Freedom Riders—seven African Americans and six whites—left Washington, D.C., on a Greyhound bus on May 4, 1961. Their plan was to reach New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 17 to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, which ruled that segregation of the nation’s public schools was unconstitutional.

The group traveled through Virginia and North Carolina, drawing little public notice. The first violent incident occurred on May 12 in Rock Hill, South Carolina. John Lewis, an African-American seminary student and member of the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), white Freedom Rider and World War II veteran Albert Bigelow, and another African-American rider were viciously attacked as they attempted to enter a whites-only waiting area.

The next day, the group reached Atlanta, Georgia, where some of the riders split off onto a Trailways bus.

John Lewis, one of the original group of 13 Freedom Riders, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 1986. Lewis, a Democrat, has continued to represent Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, which includes Atlanta, into the early part of the 21st century.

On May 14, 1961, the Greyhound bus was the first to arrive in Anniston, Alabama. There, an angry mob of about 200 white people surrounded the bus, causing the driver to continue past the bus station.

The mob followed the bus in automobiles, and when the tires on the bus blew out, someone threw a bomb into the bus. The Freedom Riders escaped the bus as it burst into flames, only to be brutally beaten by members of the surrounding mob.

The second bus, a Trailways vehicle, traveled to Birmingham, Alabama, and those riders were also beaten by an angry white mob, many of whom brandished metal pipes. Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor stated that, although he knew the Freedom Riders were arriving and violence awaited them, he posted no police protection at the station because it was Mother’s Day.

Photographs of the burning Greyhound bus and the bloodied riders appeared on the front pages of newspapers throughout the country and around the world the next day, drawing international attention to the Freedom Riders’ cause and the state of race relations in the United States.

Following the widespread violence, CORE officials could not find a bus driver who would agree to transport the integrated group, and they decided to abandon the Freedom Rides. However, Diane Nash, an activist from the SNCC, organized a group of 10 students from Nashville, Tennessee, to continue the rides.

U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, brother of President John F. Kennedy, began negotiating with Governor John Patterson of Alabama and the bus companies to secure a driver and state protection for the new group of Freedom Riders. The rides finally resumed, on a Greyhound bus departing Birmingham under police escort, on May 20.

The violence toward the Freedom Riders was not quelled—rather, the police abandoned the Greyhound bus just before it arrived at the Montgomery, Alabama, terminal, where a white mob attacked the riders with baseball bats and clubs as they disembarked. Attorney General Kennedy sent 600 federal marshals to the city to stop the violence.

The following night, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. led a service at the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, which was attended by more than one thousand supporters of the Freedom Riders. A riot ensued outside the church, and King called Robert Kennedy to ask for protection.

Kennedy summoned the federal marshals, who used teargas to disperse the white mob. Patterson declared martial law in the city and dispatched the National Guard to restore order.

On May 24, 1961, a group of Freedom Riders departed Montgomery for Jackson, Mississippi. There, several hundred supporters greeted the riders. However, those who attempted to use the whites-only facilities were arrested for trespassing and taken to the maximum-security penitentiary in Parchman, Mississippi.

During their hearings, the judge turned and looked at the wall rather than listen to the Freedom Riders’ defense—as had been the case when sit-in participants were arrested for protesting segregated lunch counters in Tennessee. He sentenced the riders to 30 days in jail.

Attorneys from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights organization, appealed the convictions all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reversed them.

The violence and arrests continued to garner national and international attention, and drew hundreds of new Freedom Riders to the cause.

The rides continued over the next several months, and in the fall of 1961, under pressure from the Kennedy administration, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued regulations prohibiting segregation in interstate transit terminals. Research more about the summer of ’61 in the south and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

03May

May 3 1919- Nella Larson

GM – FBF – Most people have heard about “The Harlem Renaissance” and the explosion of performing arts, music and literature. Have you heard of this award winning author? Enjoy!

Remember – “These people yapped loudly of race, of race consciousness, of race pride, and yet suppressed its most delightful manifestations, love of color, joy of rhythmic motion, naive, spontaneous laughter. Harmony, radiance, and simplicity, all the essentials of spiritual beauty in the race they had marked for destructions.” – Nella Larsen

Today in our History – May 3,1919 – Nella Larsen marries Dr. Elmer Samuel Imes, a black physicist who became the chairman of the Physics Department at Fisk University.

Nella Larsen, nurse, librarian, and, writer, was born Nella Marie Larsen in Chicago in 1891 to a Danish mother and a black West Indian father. Knowing little about her father after his death when she was two years old, she was reared in the home with her mother, remarried to a Danish man, and her half-sister. Larsen attended school in all white environments in Chicago until 1906-1907, when she moved to Nashville, Tennessee to attend high school at Fisk University’s Normal School. This was her introduction to a predominantly black environment.

After completing the year at Fisk, Larsen journeyed to Denmark where she spent three years (1909-1912) with relatives and audited courses from the University of Copenhagen. Returning to the United States, she entered a three-year course of study at Lincoln Hospital Training School for Nurses in New York City. Larsen later practiced nursing from 1915 to 1921 at John A. Andrew Hospital and Nurse Training School in Alabama and the City Department of Health in New York. On May 3, 1919, Larsen married Dr. Elmer Samuel Imes, a black physicist who became the chairman of the Physics Department at Fisk University.

From 1922 to 1926, Larsen served as a librarian at the New York Public Library. After resigning from this position, she began her literary career by writing her first novel, Quicksand (1928). Meshing autobiography and fiction in order to explore the psychology of racial dualism and marginality on black middle class women, Quicksand won Larsen the Harmon Foundation’s bronze medal (second prize) and secured her a position as an important literary figure of the Harlem Renaissance.

In her second novel, Passing (1929), Larsen suggests with the contrastive lives of two women that passing is as much a psychological state of mind as it is physical. After the publication of this novel, in 1930 Larsen was awarded the first Guggenheim Fellowship to an African American woman.

Working on her third book in Spain, Larsen was distracted by a charge of plagiarism of her short story, “Sanctuary” (1930) and an accidental discovery of her husband’s infidelity. Although she was cleared of the plagiarism charge, her marriage did not survive; she was divorced in Nashville, Tennessee in 1933. Added to these complications in her life, the stock market crash of 1929 reduced the financial assistance available to support black artists. Larsen never completed her third novel.

After her former husband’s death in 1941, the alimony payments ceased and Larsen returned to her nursing career, working at Bethel Hospital in Brooklyn until she died in 1964. Research more about THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

01May

May 1 2014- Janet Emerson Bashen

GM – FBF – We have made it to another new month and I have been blessed to bring you every day reminders and people that you have not heard about. Today we examine a strong black woman.

Remember – ” Our black women can do anything in life as they want. You must have a vision and go for it everyday” – Janet Emerson Bashen

Today in our History – May 1, 2014 – Woman Inventor elected to the Black Inventor’s Hall of Fame.

Janet Emerson Bashen is the founder and CEO of the Bashen Corporation, a private consulting group that investigates Equal Employment Opportunity complaints under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. She is the first African American woman in the United States to hold a software patent.

Born Janet Emerson in Mansfield, Ohio on February 12, 1957, Bashen grew up in a working class family. Early in her childhood, her family moved to Huntsville, Alabama, where her father worked as a garbage collector and her mother was the city’s first black woman emergency room nurse.

Bashen attended Alabama A&M until she married and relocated to Houston, Texas. She finished her degree in legal studies and government at the University of Houston and then continued her education at Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Administration. She also attended Harvard University’s “Women and Power: Leadership in a New World.”

Working in the insurance industry after graduation, Bashen called for the creation of third-party teams to investigate Equal Employment Opportunity claims as they arose in her company’s workplace. She argued that third party investigators would be less subject to influence from either side in complaints. Her CEO did not listen but with encouragement from officials at the National Urban League, Bashen in 1994, borrowed $5,000 from her mother to start her own EEO complaints management business from her dining room table.

The new Bashen Corporation specialized in investigating complaints made to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Companies brought in the Bashen Corporation in as a third-party fact-finder if employees complained of discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Bashen Corporation then worked with the company’s human resource departments to remedy the situation through education, mediation, or policy changes which often avoided lengthy and costly discrimination trials. Within the first five years of the company’s history, Bashen herself oversaw EEO investigations at Flagstar Corporation, Compaq Computers, Goodyear Tires, and General Motors.

As her company grew, Bashen faced a new problem: storing and retrieving information related to Equal Employment Opportunity cases. In 2001, she worked with her cousin, Donny Moore, a computer scientist from Tufts University, to develop software that could securely store information about her cases. She also used the Internet to make public information about the cases available to employers and employees at multiple worksites.

Bashen filed a patent for LinkLine in 2001, and when that patent was approved in 2006, she became the first African American woman in the U.S. to hold a software patent. The Bashen corporation has since developed several other software programs to facilitate corporate adherence to Title VII including AAPLink Affirmative Action Software which helps institutions manage their affirmative action cases; 1-800Intake which serves as a hotline for discrimination reporting for smaller companies; and EEOFedSoft which facilitates EEO complaints and manages case files within government agencies.

Janet Bashen and her business have received multiple awards, including the 2003 Pinnacle Award from the Houston Chamber of Commerce, the 2004 Crystal Award from the National Association of Negro Women in Business, and recognition from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for LinkLine at the World Festival of Black Arts and Culture in Dakar, Senegal in 2010. In 2014, Bashen was elected to the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard’s Kennedy School. She is also a member of the Black Inventor’s Hall of Fame. Research more about this great American and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!