Tag: Brandon hardison

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion was, a Black inventor, who was awarded a patent for the Fire Extinguisher on March 26, 1872.

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion was, a Black inventor, who was awarded a patent for the Fire Extinguisher on March 26, 1872. The patent refers to pipe and valves and not the wall hanging type of extinguisher that is normally displayed. His fire extinguisher would be attached to a reservoir of stored water and used to spray burning fires.Today in our History – March 26, 1872 – THOMAS JEFFERSON MARTIN Patents Improved Fire Extinguisher. Black inventors were plentiful in the 19th Century, often creating innovative tools and techniques despite a known struggle to be recognized for their hard work. In the annals of Black History, the name Thomas J. Martin may not be immediately familiar, but his work as an inventor is quite notable. In 1872, Martin would make an improvement upon an earlier model of the fire extinguisher and was granted a patent (pictured) for his version of the fire-fighting tool on this day.Not much is known about Martin, but what is known is that he lived in the town of Dowagiac in the state of Michigan. According to research compiled by BlackInventions.org, Martin’s fire extinguisher would wisely be attached to a reservoir of stored water and used to spray burning fires.Below is a description of the invention from the awarded patent:The nature of invention relates to the construction, arrangement and combination of suitable pipes and valves for conducting water from suitable reservoirs to buildings by means of stationary engines, for the purpose of preventing or extinguishing fires in dwellings, mills, factories, towns and cities and may also be used for warning, ventilating and washing buildings and for washing pavements and sprinkling streets.Although British Captain George William Manby is credited with creating the modern style of the fire extinguisher in 1818, Martin’s improved version is often regarded as the first practical use of the machinery by some historians.Thomas Jefferson Martin, was a merchant and lived on a farm near Harpersville, Alabama. He was born May 29, 1842, near his place of residence. He had passed the greater part of his life as a merchant in Harpersville, retiring to his farm in 1897. He was the son of John Martin and Sarah (Thweat) Martin, both natives of South Carolina, where they married and soon afterward, 1820, located in Shelby County, Alabama They reared a family of eleven children, five of whom were surviving in 1904. The father was a well-to-do farmer, a Democrat, and he and his wife belonged to the Baptist church. He died in 1874, she in 1877.Thomas J. Martin was reared to farm life and given a fair common school education. He took an honorable part in the Civil war. He enlisted as a private in Company I, of the Eighteenth Alabama infantry. He was wounded at the battle of Shiloh and incapacitated for further service.He began a mercantile business in 1866 at Harpersville, which he continued with success until 1897. He at one time dealt largely in real estate and was one of the largest landowners in the county.He married, March 3, 1868, Evaline Moore Kidd. She was the daughter of Joseph W. Kidd and Caroline E. (Moore) Kidd and was born in Shelby County, Oct. 22, 1843. Her father was a son of William Kidd and Polly Henderson Kidd, while her maternal grandparents were Everett Moore and Anna Graham Moore. Both sides of the family were early comers to Alabama, the Kidds from Georgia, the Moores from North Carolina.Mr. and Mrs. Martin had five children in 1904, their names were: Thomas Algernon Martin, Sallie Graham Martin, John Renfro Martin, Joseph Webb Martin and Earl Thweat Martin. Thomas J. Martin and his family were among the best citizens of Shelby county, and merit the very high measure of esteem accorded them through all the countryside.On March 26 1872, Thomas J Martin, an African-American, was granted a patent for his version of the fire extinguisher. Martin’s invention, listed in the U. S. Patent Office in Washington, DC under patent number 125,063, was an improvement upon an earlier model of the fire extinguisher.The patent refers to pipe and valves and not the wall hanging type of extinguisher that is normally displayed.Martin’s fire extinguisher would wisely be attached to a reservoir of stored water and used to spray burning fires.Below is a description of the invention from the awarded patent:The nature of invention relates to the construction, arrangement and combination of suitable pipes and valves for conducting water from suitable reservoirs to buildings by means of stationary engines, for the purpose of preventing or extinguishing fires in dwellings, mills, factories, towns and cities and may also be used for warning, ventilating and washing buildings and for washing pavements and sprinkling streets.Although British Captain George William Manby is credited with creating the modern style of the fire extinguisher in 1818, Martin’s improved version is often regarded as the first practical use of the machinery by some historians.Research more about this great American Champion and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion event is in honor of our ancestors who moved to Canada for safety and a better life.

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion event is in honor of our ancestors who moved to Canada for safety and a better life. The history of Black Canadian voting rights is marked by contrasting shifts. Enslaved during the period 1600–1834, Black persons could not vote.Emancipated, they were entitled to the rights, freedoms and privileges enjoyed by British subjects, including the franchise; however, racial discrimination did at times impede Black Canadians’ right to vote. The rights and freedoms of Black women were further restricted by virtue of their sex. Black communities in Canada represent an array of experiences, below are some that relate to the right to vote.Today in our History – March 24, 1937 – Blacks win the right to vote in Canada.During the period of African enslavement in Canada, from the early 1600s until its abolition on 1 August 1834,Black persons were legally deemed to be chattel property (personal possessions). As such, Black persons were not considered to be “people” and therefore did not possess the rights or freedoms enjoyed by full citizens, including protections under the law and involvement in the democratic process.Black persons in Canada secured some rights and freedoms as their social status changed from enslaved persons to British subjects with the gradual abolition of enslavement, during the period 1793 to 1834 (see also Chloe Cooley and the Act to Limit Slavery).As British subjects, they were technically entitled to all of the rights, freedoms and privileges that status carried. However, because of their skin colour, Black Canadians faced racism and their civil rights and civil liberties were limited. The rights and freedoms of Black women were further restricted by virtue of their sex. Most women did not gain suffrage at the federal level until 1918 and between 1916 and 1940 at the provincial level (see Women’s Suffrage).Black men had the right to vote provided they were naturalized subjects and owned taxable property. Until 1920, most colonies or provinces required eligible voters to own property or have a taxable net worth — a practice that excluded poor people, the working class and many racialized minorities.Though Black Canadians were not prohibited by law from exercising the right to vote, public sentiment against extending the franchise to Blacks did exist, and local conventions did prevent Black persons from voting. The prejudice and discrimination they faced affected Black peoples’ decision to attend polling stations.Black residents felt strongly about the franchise and took measures to secure this right when it was encroached or threatened. In 1848, Black men in Colchester, Canada West (Ontario), attended the election of parish and township officers. Though Black residents accounted for a third of the town’s population, the white men in attendance physically blocked them from voting. Blacks in Colchester sought the legal intervention of a local judge, who ordered that their rights be restored. Their voting rights were affirmed by the local courts and the chairman of the township meeting was subsequently prosecuted and received a heavy fine.Black Canadians publicly expressed their anger at the mistreatment of the Black voters in Colchester. In an article published in Voice of the Fugitive, Black abolitionist and Provincial Freeman co-editor Samuel Ringgold Ward charged that the right to vote was the “most sacred” of all rights. He remarked that had the white men stolen all of the Black voters’ grain and cattle and left them with nothing, that violation would pale in comparison to that of taking away their “right of a British vote.”Although the Black vote represented a small fraction of the electorate in many places, it was a valuable and deciding factor in a number of elections. Black voter support was courted by white politicians, and on several occasions, Black communities used this as a means to address issues of concern. In 1849, for instance, Edwin Larwill, a politician in Canada West, brought forth several anti-Black resolutions at a Western District council meeting, including a petition to the government requesting that African American immigrants be charged a poll tax. Larwill also asked the provincial government to contemplate whether Blacks should have the right to vote. Years later, in 1857, Larwill lost his seat on the Legislative Assembly to Archibald McKellar, due in large part to Black voters strategically casting their vote for McKellar, who opposed Larwill’s anti-Black discrimination.Both Liberal and Conservative candidates vied for the Black vote during Nova Scotia’s 1843 and 1847 elections. Widely supported Reform (Liberal) leader Joseph Howe delivered speeches in the Black communities of Preston and Hammond Plains to rally their votes, for instance.He pledged to improve the difficult conditions faced by Black Nova Scotians due to racism and the hardships of settlement. Howe also vowed to address the Black community’s concerns about the government withholding land grants to Black Loyalists (see also Loyalists).When Albert Jackson was hired as the first Black mail carrier in Toronto in May 1882, his white colleagues refused to train him for the job and did not want to work alongside him. Toronto’s Black community held meetings to decide on a course of action and wrote letters to newspaper editors. James David Edgar, who was pursuing a Liberal nomination for the federal election, supported Jackson in order to obtain votes from members of the Black community. Meanwhile, Conservative Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald was approached by Black citizens while on the campaign trail in Toronto. They demanded that Jackson be trained and returned to his post. Jackson’s boss, Toronto postmaster Thomas Charles Patterson, was a close friend of the Prime Minister. Macdonald persuaded him to yield to the Black community’s grievance and to train Jackson. One month after he was hired, Jackson received his mail delivery route. Research more about this great American event and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion event is in honor of our ancestors who moved to Canada for safety and a better life.

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion event is in honor of our ancestors who moved to Canada for safety and a better life. The history of Black Canadian voting rights is marked by contrasting shifts. Enslaved during the period 1600–1834, Black persons could not vote.Emancipated, they were entitled to the rights, freedoms and privileges enjoyed by British subjects, including the franchise; however, racial discrimination did at times impede Black Canadians’ right to vote. The rights and freedoms of Black women were further restricted by virtue of their sex. Black communities in Canada represent an array of experiences, below are some that relate to the right to vote.Today in our History – March 24, 1937 – Blacks win the right to vote in Canada.During the period of African enslavement in Canada, from the early 1600s until its abolition on 1 August 1834,Black persons were legally deemed to be chattel property (personal possessions). As such, Black persons were not considered to be “people” and therefore did not possess the rights or freedoms enjoyed by full citizens, including protections under the law and involvement in the democratic process.Black persons in Canada secured some rights and freedoms as their social status changed from enslaved persons to British subjects with the gradual abolition of enslavement, during the period 1793 to 1834 (see also Chloe Cooley and the Act to Limit Slavery).As British subjects, they were technically entitled to all of the rights, freedoms and privileges that status carried. However, because of their skin colour, Black Canadians faced racism and their civil rights and civil liberties were limited. The rights and freedoms of Black women were further restricted by virtue of their sex. Most women did not gain suffrage at the federal level until 1918 and between 1916 and 1940 at the provincial level (see Women’s Suffrage).Black men had the right to vote provided they were naturalized subjects and owned taxable property. Until 1920, most colonies or provinces required eligible voters to own property or have a taxable net worth — a practice that excluded poor people, the working class and many racialized minorities.Though Black Canadians were not prohibited by law from exercising the right to vote, public sentiment against extending the franchise to Blacks did exist, and local conventions did prevent Black persons from voting. The prejudice and discrimination they faced affected Black peoples’ decision to attend polling stations.Black residents felt strongly about the franchise and took measures to secure this right when it was encroached or threatened. In 1848, Black men in Colchester, Canada West (Ontario), attended the election of parish and township officers. Though Black residents accounted for a third of the town’s population, the white men in attendance physically blocked them from voting. Blacks in Colchester sought the legal intervention of a local judge, who ordered that their rights be restored. Their voting rights were affirmed by the local courts and the chairman of the township meeting was subsequently prosecuted and received a heavy fine.Black Canadians publicly expressed their anger at the mistreatment of the Black voters in Colchester. In an article published in Voice of the Fugitive, Black abolitionist and Provincial Freeman co-editor Samuel Ringgold Ward charged that the right to vote was the “most sacred” of all rights. He remarked that had the white men stolen all of the Black voters’ grain and cattle and left them with nothing, that violation would pale in comparison to that of taking away their “right of a British vote.”Although the Black vote represented a small fraction of the electorate in many places, it was a valuable and deciding factor in a number of elections. Black voter support was courted by white politicians, and on several occasions, Black communities used this as a means to address issues of concern. In 1849, for instance, Edwin Larwill, a politician in Canada West, brought forth several anti-Black resolutions at a Western District council meeting, including a petition to the government requesting that African American immigrants be charged a poll tax. Larwill also asked the provincial government to contemplate whether Blacks should have the right to vote. Years later, in 1857, Larwill lost his seat on the Legislative Assembly to Archibald McKellar, due in large part to Black voters strategically casting their vote for McKellar, who opposed Larwill’s anti-Black discrimination.Both Liberal and Conservative candidates vied for the Black vote during Nova Scotia’s 1843 and 1847 elections. Widely supported Reform (Liberal) leader Joseph Howe delivered speeches in the Black communities of Preston and Hammond Plains to rally their votes, for instance.He pledged to improve the difficult conditions faced by Black Nova Scotians due to racism and the hardships of settlement. Howe also vowed to address the Black community’s concerns about the government withholding land grants to Black Loyalists (see also Loyalists).When Albert Jackson was hired as the first Black mail carrier in Toronto in May 1882, his white colleagues refused to train him for the job and did not want to work alongside him. Toronto’s Black community held meetings to decide on a course of action and wrote letters to newspaper editors. James David Edgar, who was pursuing a Liberal nomination for the federal election, supported Jackson in order to obtain votes from members of the Black community. Meanwhile, Conservative Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald was approached by Black citizens while on the campaign trail in Toronto. They demanded that Jackson be trained and returned to his post. Jackson’s boss, Toronto postmaster Thomas Charles Patterson, was a close friend of the Prime Minister. Macdonald persuaded him to yield to the Black community’s grievance and to train Jackson. One month after he was hired, Jackson received his mail delivery route. Research more about this great American event and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion was an American singer, dancer, actor, vaudevillian and comedian whom critic Randy Blaser called “the greatest entertainer ever to grace a stage in these United States.”

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion was an American singer, dancer, actor, vaudevillian and comedian whom critic Randy Blaser called “the greatest entertainer ever to grace a stage in these United States.” At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the Will Mastin Trio, which toured nationally, and his film career began in 1933. After military service, Davis returned to the trio and became an overnight sensation following a nightclub performance at Ciro’s (in West Hollywood) after the 1951 Academy Awards.With the trio, he became a recording artist. In 1954, at the age of 29, he lost his left eye in a car accident. Several years later, he converted to Judaism, finding commonalities between the oppression experienced by African-American and Jewish communities. After a starring role on Broadway in Mr. Wonderful with Chita Rivera (1956), he returned to the stage in 1964 in a musical adaptation of Clifford Odets’ Golden Boy opposite Paula Wayne. Davis was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance and the show was said to have featured the first interracial kiss on Broadway. In 1960, he appeared in the Rat Pack film Ocean’s 11.In 1966, he had his own TV variety show, titled The Sammy Davis Jr. Show. While Davis’s career slowed in the late 1960s, his biggest hit, “The Candy Man”, reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1972, and he became a star in Las Vegas, earning him the nickname “Mister Show Business”.Davis’s popularity helped break the race barrier of the segregated entertainment industry. He did however have a complex relationship with the black community and drew criticism after publicly supporting President Richard Nixon in 1972.One day on a golf course with Jack Benny, he was asked what his handicap was. “Handicap?” he asked. “Talk about handicap. I’m a one-eyed Negro who’s Jewish.” This was to become a signature comment, recounted in his autobiography and in many articles. After reuniting with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in 1987, Davis toured with them and Liza Minnelli internationally, before his death in 1990. He died in debt to the Internal Revenue Service, and his estate was the subject of legal battles after the death of his wife. Davis was awarded the Spingarn Medal by the NAACP and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for his television performances. He was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 1987, and in 2001, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.Today in our History – March 23, 1951- the Will Mastin Trio appeared at Ciro’s as the opening act for headliner Janis Paige. They were to perform for only 20 minutes, but the reaction from the celebrity-filled crowd was so enthusiastic, especially when Davis launched into his impressions, that they performed for nearly an hour, and Paige insisted the order of the show be flipped. Davis began to achieve success on his own and was singled out for praise by critics, releasing several albums. Davis’ talent was developed at a young age. At the age of three, he started dancing in vaudeville and eventually joined forces with his father and Will Mastin as the Will Mastin Trio. In 1933, he made his film debut in “Rufus Jones for President.” Thanks to the calculated efforts of his father and “Uncle” Will Mastin, Davis was shielded from the harsh realities of racism. When he was drafted into the United States Army during World War II, Davis encountered blatant racial discrimination for the first time.“Overnight the world looked different,” Davis said, as noted by The Oral Cancer Foundation. “It wasn’t one color anymore. I could see the protection I’d gotten all my life from my father and Will. I appreciated their loving hope that I’d never need to know about prejudice and hate, but they were wrong.”Eventually, he was transferred to an entertainment regiment, which lessen the mistreatment he had received up until that point.“My talent was the weapon, the power, the way for me to fight,” he said. “It was the one way I might hope to affect a man’s thinking,”After he was discharged from the military, he rejoined the Will Mastin Trio. By the 1950s, the group was headlining major acts throughout the nation. However, in 1954, he was involved in a car accident in which he lost his eye. During his recovery, he spoke with a rabbi and learned of many similarities between the struggles endured by Jewish people and Black Americans. After the incident, he converted to Judaism and frequently joked that he was the only one-eyed Jewish Black man in entertainment.Davis’s first two albums, “Starring Sammy Davis, Jr.,” “and Sammy Davis, Jr. Sings Just for Lovers,” both received much critical and commercial acclaim. He appeared in various television shows and became a founding member of the Rat Pack along with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, which allotted him a reliable income and a high profile.Despite his success, he was a frequent target of racism in his personal and professional lives. He eventually refused to perform at venues that practiced racial segregation, and was forced to hire bodyguards after he married his second wife. During the 1960s, he became active in the Civil Rights Movement and participated in the 1963 March on Washington.Davis continued his groundbreaking career throughout the 1970s and 80s, with various television appearances and chart-topping hits. However, his health began to decline and in 1989, a tumor was discovered in his throat. In April 1990, a television special was filmed in Davis’ honor, and a few weeks later, he passed away from throat cancer. In memoriam, the lights on the Las Vegas Strip were darkened for 10 minutes; only the deaths of President John F. Kennedy and of Martin Luther King, Jr., were previously granted the same honor.Davis was granted many accolades throughout his life. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award. He was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and the Spingarn Medal by the NAACP. In 2001, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.Various biographies and autobiograhies were released during his life and after. In 1965, he published his first autobiography “Yes I Can: The Story of Sammy Davis, Jr.,” and “Why Me?” in 1980. A third autobiography, “Sammy,” was released posthumously in 2000, and the Wil Haygood biography, “In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr.,” was published in 2003.In August 1989, Davis began to develop symptoms: a tickle in his throat and an inability to taste food. Doctors found a cancerous tumor in Davis’s throat. He had often smoked four packs of cigarettes a day as an adult. When told that surgery (laryngectomy) offered him the best chance of survival, Davis replied he would rather keep his voice than have a part of his throat removed; he was initially treated with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. His larynx was later removed when his cancer recurred. He was released from the hospital on March 13, 1990. Davis died of complications from throat cancer two months later at his home in Beverly Hills, California, on May 16, 1990, at age 64. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. On May 18, 1990, two days after his death, the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip were darkened for 10 minutes as a tribute. Research more about this great American Champion and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!

/ In Brandon Hardison / Tags: / By Herry Chouhan / Comments Off on GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion was an American singer, dancer, actor, vaudevillian and comedian whom critic Randy Blaser called “the greatest entertainer ever to grace a stage in these United States.”

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion event is the Equal Rights Amendment passed by Congress.

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion event is the Equal Rights Amendment passed by Congress. It is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. It seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in matters of divorce, property, employment, and other matters. The first version of an ERA was written by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman and introduced in Congress in December 1923 In the early history of the Equal Rights Amendment, middle-class women were largely supportive, while those speaking for the working class were often opposed, pointing out that employed women needed special protections regarding working conditions and employment hours. With the rise of the women’s movement in the United States during the 1960s, the ERA garnered increasing support, and, after being reintroduced by Representative Martha Griffiths in 1971,it was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on October 12, 1971, and by the U.S. Senate on March 22, 1972, thus submitting the ERA to the state legislatures for ratification, as provided for in Article V of the U.S. Constitution.Congress had originally set a ratification deadline of March 22, 1979, for the state legislatures to consider the ERA. Through 1977, the amendment received 35 of the necessary 38 state ratifications.[note 2] With wide, bipartisan support (including that of both major political parties, both houses of Congress, and presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter) the ERA seemed destined for ratification until Phyllis Schlafly mobilized conservative women in opposition. These women argued that the ERA would disadvantage housewives, cause women to be drafted into the military and to lose protections such as alimony, and eliminate the tendency for mothers to obtain custody over their children in divorce cases. Many labor feminists also opposed the ERA on the basis that it would eliminate protections for women in labor law, though over time more and more unions and labor feminist leaders turned toward supporting it.Five state legislatures (Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee, and South Dakota) voted to revoke their ERA ratifications. The first four rescinded before the original March 22, 1979, ratification deadline, while the South Dakota legislature did so by voting to sunset its ratification as of that original deadline. However, it remains an unresolved legal question as to whether a state can revoke its ratification of a federal constitutional amendment.In 1978, Congress passed (by simple majorities in each house), and President Carter signed, a joint resolution with the intent of extending the ratification deadline to June 30, 1982. Because no additional state legislatures ratified the ERA between March 22, 1979, and June 30, 1982, the validity of that disputed extension was rendered academic.Since 1978, attempts have been made in Congress to extend or remove the deadline.In the 2010s, due in part to fourth-wave feminism and the Me Too movement, interest in getting the ERA adopted was revived.[8][9] In 2017, Nevada became the first state to ratify the ERA after the expiration of both deadlines,[10] and Illinois followed in 2018.[11] In 2020, Virginia’s General Assembly passed a ratification resolution for the ERA,[12][13] claiming to bring the number of ratifications to 38. However, experts and advocates have acknowledged legal uncertainty about the consequences of the Virginian ratification, due to expired deadlines and five states’ revocations.[Today in our History – March 22, 1972 – On March 22, 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment is passed by the U.S. Senate and sent to the states for ratification.First proposed by the National Woman’s political party in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment was to provide for the legal equality of the sexes and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex.More than four decades later, the revival of feminism in the late 1960s spurred its introduction into Congress. Under the leadership of U.S. Representative Bella Abzug of New York and feminists Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, it won the requisite two-thirds vote from the U.S. House of Representatives in October 1971. In March 1972, it was approved by the U.S. Senate and sent to the states.Hawaii was the first state to ratify what would have been the 27th Amendment, followed by some 30 other states within a year. However, during the mid-1970s, a conservative backlash against feminism eroded support for the Equal Rights Amendment, which ultimately failed to achieve ratification by the a requisite 38, or three-fourths, of the states.Because of the rejection of the Equal Rights Amendment, sexual equality, with the notable exception of when it pertains to the right to vote, is not protected by the U.S. Constitution. However, in the late 20th century, the federal government and all states have passed considerable legislation protecting the legal rights of women. The Equal Rights Amendment, in its most recently proposed form, reads, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex.” Research more about this great American Champion event and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion event was a little challenging for me to research because there is not that much Information on this event for the time that I had.

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion event was a little challenging for me to research because there is not that much Information on this event for the time that I had. We all have heard the stories of Christopher Columbus and his voyages. In Trenton, N.J. where I am from as a young student we even had Columbus day off to go to the Columbus day parade. I would always ask the question – Did Columbus have any Blacks as slaves or working for him on the ship and teachers would never answer the question because THEY didn’t know or for whatever reason. So I am asking the question to you?Today in our History – March 21, 1492 – Alonzo di Pietro, a BLACK man was hired and would practice daily with the other ship’s captions to prepare for the upcoming voyage that Columbus would be embarking on later that year.Alonzo di Pietro did so well and Columbus was so Impressed that he commissioned Alonzo di Pietro to pilot one of the ships (Some say the Santa Maria).Which one I do not know but if you have the time, research and find out for yourself and share it with your babies and the world. This is what I have found thus far supporting the reason way a Black was there in power of one of the ships.In 1492, a black navigator named Alonzo di Pietro piloted one of Christopher Columbus’ ships on his first voyage to the Americas, according to one of my favorite books, “Great Negroes Past and Present.”1492 Pedro Alonso Niño known as Alonzo Pietro or Peralonso Niño and his three brother’s sets sail with Christopher Columbus. Pedro Alonso Niño was pilot of the Santa María, Juan Niño was master of La Niña, of which was the owner, and Francisco Niño is believed to have been a sailor on La Niña.The Niños took part as well in Columbus’s second and third voyages. Between 1499 and 1501 they traveled on their own account, with the merchants Cristóbal and Luis Guerra, following the route of Columbus’s third voyage to the Gulf of Paria on the South American mainland in what is now Venezuela.Alonzo Pietro sets sail with Christopher Columbus as he begins his famous journey to find a new trade route to China, but accidentally “discovers” the Americas. Pietro was one of Columbus’ navigators. He was known as “il Negro”—The Black.Please do more research if you can about this great American event that would Impact our forefathers and mothers, you and your children to this day.

GM – FBF – Today’s Champion event was a Mbuti (Congo pygmy) man, known for being featured in an exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, and as a human zoo exhibit in 1906 at the Bronx Zoo.

GM – FBF – Today’s Champion event was a Mbuti (Congo pygmy) man, known for being featured in an exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, and as a human zoo exhibit in 1906 at the Bronx Zoo. He had been purchased from African slave traders by the missionary Samuel Phillips Verner, a businessman searching for African people for the exhibition, who took him to the United States. While at the Bronx Zoo, he was allowed to walk the grounds before and after he was exhibited in the zoo’s Monkey House. Except for a brief visit to Africa with Verner after the close of the St. Louis Fair, he lived in the United States, mostly in Virginia, for the rest of his life.African-American newspapers around the nation published editorials strongly opposing his treatment. Robert Stuart MacArthur, spokesman for a delegation of black churches, petitioned New York City Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. for his release from the Bronx Zoo. In late 1906, the mayor released him to the custody of James M. Gordon, who supervised the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum in Brooklyn.In 1910 Gordon arranged for him to be cared for in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he paid for his clothes and to have his sharpened teeth capped. This would enable him to be more readily accepted in local society. He was tutored in English and began to work at a Lynchburg tobacco factory.He tried to return to Africa, but the outbreak of World War I in 1914 stopped all ship passenger travel. He fell into a depression, and committed suicide in 1916.Today in our History – March 20, 1916 – Ota Benga ( 1883 – March 20, 1916) commits suicide. During September of 1906, nearly a quarter of a million New Yorkers flocked to the Bronx Zoo to behold a young African named Ota Benga – a so-called “pygmy” – exhibited in an iron monkey house cage.Protests by a coterie of ministers and a small cadre of elite whites met a wall of resistance as the exhibition of the 103-pound, 4-foot-11 Ota Benga was quietly sanctioned by zoological society officials, the mayor, scientists, the public and many of the nation’s newspapers, including The New York Times.“Bushman Shares a Cage with Bronx Park Apes,” trumpeted a New York Times headline on September 9.“The human being happened to be a Bushman, one of a race that scientists do not rate high in the human scale,” said the article. “But to the average nonscientific person in the crowd of sightseers there was something about the display that was unpleasant.”Still, up to 500 people at a time flocked to the monkey house to see the boyish Benga, who often sat on a stool in stupefied silence. The spectacle inspired sensationalized headlines from New York to California and across Europe, and zoo attendance during September doubled over the previous year. On one day alone, 40,000 people visited the zoo, according to figures it released.Days after Benga’s debut in the monkey house, Times editors were baffled by the ministers’ objections, saying: “We do not quite understand all the emotion which others are expressing in the matter.”They added: “Ota Benga, according to our information, is a normal specimen of his race or tribe, with a brain as much developed as are those of its other members. Whether they are held to be illustrations of arrested development, and really closer to the anthropoid apes than the other African savages, or whether they are viewed as the degenerate descendants of ordinary negroes, they are of equal interest to the student of ethnology, and can be studied with profit.”This chapter from our not-so-distant past sheds light on prevalent and pernicious racial attitudes that were embedded in science, academia, government and the media. It both illuminates the racial progress that has been made in a century, but also the residue of attitudes that linger still.More than a century later, the mass incarceration of young black males, many for low-level drug offenses, and the pervasive police killings of unarmed men have only recently received sustained national attention.And while the televised spectacle of videotaped police shootings has heightened public awareness, many Americans had for decades normalized – even celebrated – the criminalization of black men, just as a desensitized public sanctioned the caging of Ota Benga.It may be easier for Americans to agree that police officers should be equipped with cameras than to address racial views that have stealthily seeped into every segment of society.Four years before Benga’s exhibition, “The Basis of Social Relations: A Study in Ethnic Psychology,” published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in New York and London as part of the Webster Collection of Social Anthropology, said that Africans were “midway between the Oran- utang [sic] and the European white.” It added: “The African black presents many peculiarities which are termed ‘pithecoid’ or ape-like.”Indeed, it was a callous disregard for Benga’s humanity that resulted in him being exhibited at the zoo. Benga was first brought to the United States by Samuel Verner, an avowed white supremacist from South Carolina and former African missionary.Two years earlier, he had been commissioned by organizers of the St. Louis World’s Fair as a special agent to bring back so-called “pygmies” – the diminutive forest-dwellers from Central Africa who some scientists at the time inaccurately considered examples of the lowest form of human development.Before embarking on his mission, Verner secured letters of introduction from U.S. Secretary of State John Hay; William McGee, the president of the American Anthropological Association who oversaw the anthropology department for the fair; and David Francis, the former governor of Missouri and secretary of the Interior who was president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, commonly called the St. Louis World’s Fair.Verner also secured the support of Belgian Secretary of State Chevalier Cuvelier, who was, Verner said, “next to the King, the most influential of all the men I should have to deal.” At the time, the Congo Free State was the exclusive property of Belgian King Leopold II.With the imprimatur of U.S. and Belgian officials, an armed and determined Verner went hunting for “pygmies,” a term that once referred to monkeys and that some today consider derogatory. Ota Benga and eight other young Congolese males of undetermined ages were exhibited on the St. Louis fairgrounds where they were poked, prodded and otherwise harassed by curious spectators. Two years later, Verner would temporarily turn Benga over to the zoo, where he became a global sensation.As hundreds crowded around his cage, Benga often sat in sullen silence or mocked the menacing mob. At other times, he distracted himself by shooting his bow and arrow or playing with the orangutan housed in his cage. He would try to evade the howling, heckling mobs with eyes pleading for the keepers to release him from public view. On occasion, he was allowed to amble through the woods under the watchful eye of an attendant, but once detected, he would be pursued by violent mobs and returned to the cage.While Benga initially seemed resigned to his fate, by the second week he began to resist captivity by either disrobing or threatening to kick, bite or strike attendants as they tried to return him to the cage.His resistance, and the mounting protests, finally resulted in Benga being released to the care of Rev. James H. Gordon, who ran the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum in Brooklyn’s Weeksville section.For the next 10 years, Benga would, unsuccessfully try to find his way back home while attempting to adjust to American life. He spent the final six years of his life, from 1910 to 1916, living in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he initially was a student in a seminary before securing a job at a tobacco factory and doing odd jobs. There he became a beloved member of the African American community that included Anne Spencer, who would later become an acclaimed poet during the Harlem Renaissance.Yet Benga’s tragic story (spoiler alert) came to an even sadder end. Apparently suffering from depression, he shot himself in the heart with a revolver and died.The biases that resulted in Benga’s exhibition have morphed into attitudes that scholars say operate subconsciously. Research more about this great American tragedy and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!

/ In Brandon Hardison / Tags: / By Herry Chouhan / Comments Off on GM – FBF – Today’s Champion event was a Mbuti (Congo pygmy) man, known for being featured in an exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, and as a human zoo exhibit in 1906 at the Bronx Zoo.

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion is the former Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, having served in the position from May 8, 2009 to July 2011.

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion is the former Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, having served in the position from May 8, 2009 to July 2011. He is also the former King County Executive. Sims ran unsuccessfully for higher office twice: United States Senator in 1994 and for Governor of Washington in 2004.Today in our History – March 19, 1969 – Ronald Cordell Sims and wife LYDIA SIMS, the Spokane Community Action Council elected Sims president partly because of his yearlong campaign to get city agencies to hire African Americans.During World War II, Lydia Sims moved from Newark, New Jersey, to Spokane with her husband, James Sims, an Army Air Force soldier stationed at Geiger Airfield. At the end of the war, the Sims family decided to remain in Spokane. For 10 years they lived in the Garden Springs housing project, a complex in west Spokane inhabited primarily by former military families. There they raised their sons, James McCormick and twins Ron and Donald. Lydia Sims’s political views were strongly influenced by racial discrimination, which she vehemently opposed. In the 1960s, as a student at Eastern Washington University, she participated in a movement to desegregate schools in Cheney, Washington. Later, she served on the state’s Human Rights Coalition, the League of Women Voters, the Human Rights Council, and the Washington State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.In the late 1960s, she became personnel director of the Spokane Community Action Council, an agency that managed Head Start and various community centers. In 1975 she became the city’s affirmative action specialist, and in 1976 joined the newly established Spokane City Affirmative Action Department. She was eventually appointed human resources director for the city of Spokane, the first African American department manager in that city’s history. In this position Sims helped African Americans, women, and other minority groups find opportunities in Spokane’s job market. In the 1980s, Sims became the first African American female branch president of the Spokane National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).After serving in the military, James Sims, who had a bachelor’s degree from Lincoln University and a master’s in history from Gonzaga University, applied for a position with the Washington state Office of Community Development. Although he excelled in the civil service exam for the position, the state denied Sims the job. Sims enlisted the help of renowned Spokane civil rights attorney Carl Maxey and sued the state. He won the case and was employed as a state social worker. He later worked with state employees as a union organizer.In the 1950s, James Sims served as a minister at the Calvary Baptist Church, and in the mid-1960s, he became pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church. In 1956 Sims was elected president of the Spokane NAACP, replacing James Chase. As president, he often publicly criticized the city for its reluctance to hire African Americans. Sims also exposed restaurants, hotels, automobile repair shops, and banks for not hiring blacks. On March 19, 1969, the Spokane Community Action Council elected Sims president partly because of his year long campaign to get city agencies to hire African Americans.After James Sims’s death in the 1990s, Lydia Sims retired to Edmonds, Washington, and continued her advocacy. In 2000, with her son, King County Executive Ron Sims, she co-launched the Healthy Aging Partnership, an information and assistance line for the elderly at the Central Area Senior Center in King County. Lydia Sims died on June 23, 2012. Research more about this great American event and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!

/ In Brandon Hardison / Tags: / By Herry Chouhan / Comments Off on GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion is the former Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, having served in the position from May 8, 2009 to July 2011.

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion was an American television actor, known for originating the role of Mamie Johnson in the soap opera The Young and the Restless; she was the first black regular on the show.

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion was an American television actor, known for originating the role of Mamie Johnson in the soap opera The Young and the Restless; she was the first black regular on the show. In a career that lasted from the 1960s until 2001, she also appeared in Sanford and had a recurring role in Dynasty.Today in our History – March 18, 1931 – Marguerite Ray is born.Actress, advocate, patron of the arts, beloved family member and friend, Marguerite Ray died last month in Los Angeles, CA, at the age of 89.Known best for the roles of Mamie Johnson on The Young and the Restless (1980-1990), Evelyn Lewis on Sanford (1980-81), and Jane Matthews on Dynasty (1989), she also made many on-screen appearances in numerous television series and films.Marguerite, the oldest of seven, was born in New Orleans to Walter and Jeannette Ray. She graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1948. Continuing her education, she graduated from UC Berkeley in 1953 with a degree in Recreation and Theatre Arts.Soon thereafter Marguerite began working in the Bay Area, then moved to Europe serving as recreation and entertainment director with the U.S. Special Services in Germany, 1954-59.Upon returning to USA in 1965, she helped form the acting group, The Aldridge Players-West, which performed in San Francisco and toured the HBCUs.In 1969, she moved to Los Angeles where she landed many roles in theater, television, commercials, voice overs and modeling, working with the Inner City Cultural Center, then focusing on freelance performance work until her retirement in the early 2000s.Over the years, Marguerite enjoyed traveling, patronizing the visual and performance arts, and serving on Boards of several advocacy groups, notably Kwanza Foundation, Jenesse Center, and The Actors Fund. Her many experiences afforded her a circle of close friends. Research more about this great American Champion and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!

/ In Brandon Hardison / Tags: / By Herry Chouhan / Comments Off on GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion was an American television actor, known for originating the role of Mamie Johnson in the soap opera The Young and the Restless; she was the first black regular on the show.

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion event was a mass attack upon a group of African Americans in the courthouse room or on the courthouse grounds that left ten dead and another thirteen deaths resulting from wounds.

GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion event was a mass attack upon a group of African Americans in the courthouse room or on the courthouse grounds that left ten dead and another thirteen deaths resulting from wounds. The trouble began in January 1886 when two brothers, Ed and Charley Brown, half-black and half-American Indian, were delivering molasses to a local saloon in Carrollton, the county seat. They bumped into and spilled molasses upon the clothing of Robert Moore, a white man said to be from Greenwood. An argument ensued and was quickly resolved, but the matter did not end there. A month later, Moore told his friend James Monroe Liddell, a Carrollton attorney and a Greenwood newspaper editor, about the incident. Liddell would deal with the Browns on behalf of his friend.Today in our History – March 17, 1886 – The Carroll County Courthouse Massacre. The Carroll County Courthouse Massacre occurred on March 17, 1886 in Carrollton, the county seat of Carroll County, Mississippi. An incident from earlier in the year led to the bloodshed in March that left twenty-three people dead.The events leading up to the massacre began in January when brothers Ed and Charley Brown, who were part Native American and black, spilled molasses they were delivering to a saloon on a white man named Robert Moore. The matter was quickly resolved without incident after Moore confronted the Brown brothers. Still, Moore mentioned the matter to his friend and Carrollton attorney James Liddell, who decided to handle the matter on his own.On February 12, 1886, Liddell confronted the Brown brothers and accused them of intentionally spilling the molasses on Moore. An argument ensued, but bystanders intervened before the confrontation became physical. Later that evening, Liddell confronted the brothers a second time after he heard they were talking negatively about him. This time, the argument ended with shots fired and all three men wounded, though not seriously.Though no one knows who fired the first shot, the Brown brothers pressed charges against Liddell for attempted murder. The whites in Carrollton were not pleased that a black person would actually had the audacity to charge a white person with a crime.On March 17, 1886, the day of the trial, over fifty armed white men stormed the courtroom and opened fire on the Brown brothers and the other blacks in attendance. Some blacks tried to escape by jumping out the second floor windows but were shot by armed white men waiting outside the courthouse. Both Brown brothers were killed along with twenty-one other blacks during the massacre. It is unknown how many others died later from bullet wounds. All victims of the Carroll County massacre were black; no whites were injured.No one was ever arrested or charged with the murders. Mississippi governor Robert Lowry stated that the “riot” was perpetrated by and was the result of the “conduct of the Negroes.” People across the United States expressed outrage and demanded an investigation once they read newspaper reports about the atrocity. However, local or state authorities never conducted an investigation. President Grover Cleveland also denied a request for federal action from former U.S. Senator Blanche K. Bruce. Besides newspaper reports, there are few written accounts of the massacre. The massacre is rarely discussed and remains a “cold case” to this day. Research more about this great American Tragedy and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!

/ In Brandon Hardison / Tags: / By Herry Chouhan / Comments Off on GM – FBF – Today’s American Champion event was a mass attack upon a group of African Americans in the courthouse room or on the courthouse grounds that left ten dead and another thirteen deaths resulting from wounds.