Celebrating Black History
February 2023
Heroes and Highlights
Each day we are taking time to celebrate some of the heroes and highlights of Black history in the United States. Check back each day for a special update.
#1 The 15th Amendment
In 1870, the 15th Amendment was adopted into the U.S. Constitution.
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
Interestingly, the amendment sought to protect the voting rights of all black men. It wasn't until the 19th Amendment (1920) that women were granted voting protections.
#2 Invention and Innovation
On February 2, 1897, Alfred L. Cralle received a patent for the first ice cream scoop. As a hotel porter in Pittsburgh, Alfred noticed the restaurant servers having trouble scooping ice cream with typical spoons. While he did not profit from his invention, doors were opened to new career opportunities and his design would be the blueprint for many future ice cream scoops.
#3 Black History Month
The origins of what we now call "Black History Month" began back in 1926. Carter G. Woodson, a well-known writer and scholar dedicated to celebrating the historical contributions of Black people, created what was then called "Negro History Week." The second week of February was chosen, because it coincided with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, President Ford officially recognized the entire month of February as "Black History Month." In his proclamation, President Ford said,
"...seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
#4 A Harvard Dentist
February 6, 1867: Robert Tanner Freeman became the first African American to be accepted to medical school to become a dentist. After working as a dental apprentice for Dr. Henry Bliss Noble (a white dentist in Washington D.C.), Freeman was encouraged by his mentor to apply to dental school, and Tanner was finally accepted to Harvard Medical School at the age of 21. Upon his graduation in 1869, Freeman became the first African American Dentist in the United States.
#5 Civil War Hero
Civil War Hero - Abraham Galloway - This man's story is inspiring (below is just a small highlight reel). Born to an enslaved mother and white father, Galloway spent his youth learning to be a brick mason. After moving to Wilmington, NC with his enslaver, Galloway found his pathway to freedom with the help of the Underground Railroad. A stowaway in the cargo hold of a boat, he made his way through Philadelphia and eventually to Canada where he began his work as an abolitionist. In 1861, he joined Major General Butler's Union Army Regiment as a spy. After being captured at the Battle of Vicksburg, Galloway would later escape and begin efforts to recruit others to join the Union forces. In April of 1864, Galloway earned a meeting with President Lincoln to argue for Black American citizenship and equal rights. By 1865, he moved back to Wilmington, NC, joined the Republican Party, served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and became North Carolina's first Black presidential elector. In 1868, Galloway was elected as a North Carolina state senator. Sadly, just under 2 years later, he would die unexpectedly at the young age of 33.
#6 Two Sport Celebrity
Sports Star - Ora Washington - Born in Virginia before the turn of the century (1898), her family moved to Philadelphia in 1912 in search of new opportunities. A two sport star, Ora is now widely considered America's first Black female sports celebrity. As a tennis star at the Germantown YMCA, Washington hoped to join the United States Tennis Association. Unfortunately, the USTA still had a ban on Black players competing in tournaments. Discouraged but determined, Ora would go on to join the American Tennis Association (ATA), which was started by a group of professionals as an alternative to the USTA. Washington won national championship titles in each year from 1929-1936. She also won 12 doubles titles during her tenure with the ATA. At the same time she was tearing it up with a raquet, she was also dominating on the basketball court. Ora would win a national title in 1930, as a member of the Germantown Hornets, and went on to play for a decade for one of the most dominant women's basketball teams in history, the Philadelphia Tribunes.
#7 Astronaut
On This Day in History - February 9, 1995 - Dr. Bernard Harris, Jr. became the first African American to complete a spacewalk. A trained flight surgeon for the U.S. Air Force, Dr. Harris spent a decade as a NASA spaceflight engineer. During his time as an astronaut, Dr. Harris logged more than 438 hours and 7.2 million miles traveled in space. Today, Dr. Harris is the CEO of the Harris Institute and Harris Foundation, which work to improve teacher effectiveness and student achievement in math and science education.
“We are infinite beings with infinite possibilities. We have the power within ourselves to do anything we set our minds to do.” – Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr.
#8 Juneteenth
June 19, 1865 - The date that has been affectionately known as "Juneteenth" is widely considered the REAL date that slavery ended in the United States. President Lincoln's first Emancipation Proclamation came in September of 1862, but the executive order was finally signed on January 1, 1863. With the Civil War raging in many parts of the United States, it took Congress until January of 1865 to pass the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. By June of 1865, word had still not reached Galveston Bay, Texas until a unit of 2000 Union Soldiers marched into the area and took control of the southern state.
“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” -Orders Read By General Gordon Granger
With these words, more than 250,000 enslaved people were freed. As celebrations broke out among the newly freed Black people, the Juneteenth holiday was born.
#9 Public Service
Patricia Roberts Harris holds many important firsts, as well as an important place in the National Women's Hall of Fame. A graduate of Howard University Law School, she would go on to co-chair the National Women's Committee for Civil Rights (appointed by President Kennedy) and would later become the first Black woman to serve as an Ambassador for the United States (Luxembourg 1965-67). She spent time back at Howard University as a professor and the first Black woman to serve as Dean of the Law School. In 1977, President Carter appointed Harris as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, making her the first Black woman to serve as a Presidential Cabinet member. She would finish her career as the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.
#10 The SCLC is Born
February 14, 1957 - On the heels of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a meeting in New Orleans was held to formulate what is now known as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Formerly known as The Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Non-Violent Integration, the civil rights organization selected Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as its president. Among many accomplishments, the SCLC is credited with laying the groundwork for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
#11 Original Bus Boycott
Claudette Colvin - Months before the infamous arrest of Rosa Parks (December 1, 1955) and the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (December 5, 1955), 15 year old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on a public bus while riding home from high school.
“All I remember is that I was not going to walk off the bus voluntarily,” Colvin told NPR in 2009.
Colvin was arrested for her refusal and would later serve as a plaintiff in the federal Civil Rights case, "Browder v Gayle", which challenged bus segregation. The landmark case earned a ruling that bus segregation was unconstitutional. After the case was eventually appealed and sent to the U.S. Supreme Court, the ruling was upheld, striking a huge victory in the movement for equal rights for Black citizens.
#12 All That Jazz
Duke Ellington - Born in Washington D.C. to a family that encouraged the exploration of the arts, Duke Ellington was an American pianist who is arguably the greatest jazz composer and bandleader of all time. A student of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, Ellington would go on to become one of the originators of "Big Band Jazz." Ellington led his band for more than half a century, composed thousands of scores, and created one of the most distinctive ensemble sounds in all of Western music.
#13 Movie Star
Sidney Poitier - Born to Bahamian (from the Bahamas) parents while they were on a trip to Miami in 1927, Sidney Poitier was the youngest of 7 children. After a troubled childhood and a stint in the U.S. Army during WWII, Sidney would go on to become one of the most iconic actors of all time.
As a teen, Sidney joined the American Negro Theatre with dreams of becoming an actor, but failed to catch on in his first few auditions due to difficulty reading his lines. Discouraged but determined, Poitier would persevere and practice to overcome his challenges, eventually earning a roll in a Broadway production of Lysistrata Jones. From there he would continue to earn roles on the stage, radio and in movies. Then, in 1958, he earned his first "Best Actor" nomination for The Defiant Ones. In 1964, Sidney Poitier would become the first Black actor to win an Academy Award (Oscar) for "Best Actor" for his role in Lillies of the Field.
#14 The Grammys
February 22, 1989 - Jeffrey Allen Townes, a DJ from West Philadelphia, and Willard Carroll Smith II, a rapper from West Philadelphia, began their musical careers together in 1984. Affectionately known as DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, the hip hop duo would go on to sell 5.5 million records, and win the first ever Grammy Award for a hip hop album (Parents Just Don't Understand). The duo would choose to boycott the Grammy Awards in spite of their nomination and ultimate victory, because the awards show did not include rappers in their performances. A year later (1990), DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince would win another Grammy Award and perform at the awards show.
#15 Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was the development of the Harlem neighborhood in New York City as a Black cultural mecca in the early 20th Century and the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted. Lasting roughly from the 1910s through the mid-1930s, the period is considered a golden age in African American culture, manifesting in literature, music, stage performance and art.
Langston Hughes, one of the most prominent figures of the Harlem Renaissance and often referred to as the leader of the movement, was an American poet, novelist and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. A prolific writer at an early age, Hughes moved to New York as a young man to attend Columbia University. He would eventually finish his studies at Lincoln University and would go on to pen some of the most celebrated poems in history.
“Hold fast to your dreams, for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”
-Langston Hughes
(Source: History.com)
#16 Science
NASA Computer Scientist - Born in West Virginia in 1918, Katherine Johnson would go on to be one of 3 handpicked students to integrate West Virginia's graduate schools. A lifelong learner, Johnson showcased her talents in math at a young age and would become only the 3rd African American to earn a PhD from West Virginia State College. Motivated by the Russian launch of the Sputnik satellite, Dr. Johnson would begin providing mathematical support for the NASA space programs. In 1960, she earned credit for her work laying out equations that would provide evidence that an orbital space flight was possible and in 1961, she provided the trajectory analysis for Alan B. Shepard's Freedom 7 Mission (the first American human spaceflight).
In 2016, Katherine Johnson's story would make it to the "big screen" in the movie, Hidden Figures.
#17 The Supreme Court
Thurgood Marshall—Born in Baltimore in 1908, Thurgood Marshall is perhaps best known as the first African American Supreme Court justice, but he also played an instrumental role in promoting racial equality during the civil rights movement. As a practicing attorney, Marshall argued a record-breaking 32 cases before the Supreme Court, winning 29 of them. In fact, Marshall represented and won more cases before the high court than any other person. During his 24-year term as Supreme Court justice, Marshall’s passionate support for individual and civil rights guided his policies and decisions. Most historians regard him as an influential figure in shaping social policies and upholding laws to protect minorities.
A graduate of Howard University Law School, Marshall would argue the pivotal, Brown v Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. The case would eventually include a ruling that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
(Source: History.com)
#18 The First Black History Monument
George Washington Carver - On July 14, 1943, the first National Monument honoring an African American was dedicated in honor of agricultural scientist, George Washington Carver. The monument is located in Missouri at the childhood home of Carver, and was dedicated by President Franklin Roosevelt.
Born on a farm near Diamond, Missouri, just before slavery was abolished, Carver's contributions to agricultural science remain some of the most important breakthroughs in history. His studies on the benefits of crop rotation and the hundreds of uses he found for peanuts, soy beans, sweet potatoes and more continue to impact the farming and food industries today.