In Honor of Black History month...

SmoothSeas said:
Powerful Black Stories popped up on my FB feed and I opened the site in a new window and immediately started following. lots of tidbits and trivia. if you're on FB, go check it out...


Click to expand...
My son and I find this information very interesting...again something we did not know. But @SmoothSeas..these look SO good. Now you've made me want some!
 

Benjamin Banneker:
"A free Black man who owned a farm near Baltimore, Benjamin Banneker was largely self-educated in astronomy and mathematics. He was later called upon to assist in the surveying of territory for the construction of the nation's capital. He also became an active writer of almanacs and exchanged letters with Thomas Jefferson, politely challenging him to do what he could to ensure racial equality." Read more:
https://www.biography.com/scientist/benjamin-banneker

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Benjamin Banneker depicted on a 1943 mural by Maxine Seelbinder in the Recorder of Deeds Building in Washington, D.C. (2010)[1]
 
Another entry from my historian friend's FB page: Ruby Bridges (1954-)
At the tender age of six, Ruby Bridges advanced the cause of civil rights in November 1960 when she became the first African American student to integrate an elementary school in the South.
Born on September 8, 1954, Bridges was the oldest of five children for Lucille and Abon Bridges, farmers in Tylertown, Mississippi. When Ruby was two years old, her parents moved their family to New Orleans, Louisiana in search of better work opportunities. Ruby’s birth year coincided with the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, which ended racial segregation in public schools.
Nonetheless, southern states continued to resist integration, and in 1959, Ruby attended a segregated New Orleans kindergarten. A year later, however, a federal court ordered Louisiana to desegregate. The school district created entrance exams for African American students to see whether they could compete academically at the all-white school. Ruby and five other students passed the exam.
Her parents were torn about whether to let her attend the all-white William Frantz Elementary School, a few blocks from their home. Her father resisted, fearing for his daughter’s safety; her mother, however, wanted Ruby to have the educational opportunities that her parents had been denied. Meanwhile, the school district dragged its feet, delaying her admittance until November 14. Two of the other students decided not to leave their school at all; the other three were sent to the all-white McDonough Elementary School.
Ruby and her mother were escorted by four federal marshals to the school every day that year. She walked past crowds screaming vicious slurs at her. Undeterred, she later said she only became frightened when she saw a woman holding a black baby doll in a coffin.
She spent her first day in the principal’s office due to the chaos created as angry white parents pulled their children from school. Ardent segregationists withdrew their children permanently. Barbara Henry, a white Boston native, was the only teacher willing to accept Ruby, and all year, she was a class of one. Ruby ate lunch alone and sometimes played with her teacher at recess, but she never missed a day of school that year.
While some families supported her bravery – and some northerners sent money to aid her family – others protested throughout the city. The Bridges family suffered for their courage: Abon lost his job, and grocery stores refused to sell to Lucille. Her share-cropping grandparents were evicted from the farm where they had lived for a quarter-century. Over time, other African American students enrolled; many years later, Ruby’s four nieces would also attend. In 1964, artist Norman Rockwell celebrated her courage with a painting of that first day entitled, “The Problem We All Live With.”
Ruby graduated from a desegregated high school, became a travel agent, married and had four sons. She was reunited with her first teacher, Henry, in the mid 1990s, and for a time the pair did speaking engagements together. Rudy later wrote about her early experiences in two books and received the Carter G. Woodson Book Award.
A lifelong activist for racial equality, in 1999, Ruby established The Ruby Bridges Foundation to promote tolerance and create change through education. In 2000, she was made an honorary deputy marshal in a ceremony in Washington, D.C.
-- by Debra Michals, Ph.D.
















 
Keenan Ivory Wayans is part of the extremely talented Wayans family of comedians/actors. He was once named one of the 100 most influential Blacks for his contributions to the entertainment industry. IMDB describes his break out project In Living Color:
"The trail-blazing linchpin of a sprawling family dynasty of comic entertainers, it was multi-talented writer/director/producer Keenen Ivory Wayans (born June 8, 1958, in New York City) who led the familial pack and was the first to achieve national prominence when he successfully created, launched, wrote, hosted and starred in In Living Color (1990), a landmark 1990s black-oriented comedy sketch satire on Fox TV that beat the odds and transcended the then-narrow periphery of TV comedy to became a defiant movement of inclusion."

In Living Color certainly was trailblazing. When I first saw it, I didn't think it would fly, but it became a big hit. Speaking of Fly...Keenan is credited with jump starting the careers of artists who went on to become big stars, among them Jennifer Lopez and Carrie Ann Inaba who were part of In Living Color's dancers...The Fly Girls. Wikipedia lists some others:
"Other members of the Wayans family—Damon, Kim, Shawn, and Marlon—had regular roles, while brother Dwayne frequently appeared as an extra. The show also starred several previously unknown comedians and actors, including Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, Tommy Davidson, David Alan Grier, and T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh. The show introduced Jennifer Lopez and Carrie Ann Inaba as members of In Living Color's dance troupe The Fly Girls, with actress Rosie Perez serving as choreographer. The show was immensely popular in its first two seasons, capturing more than a 10-point Nielsen rating; in the third and fourth seasons, ratings faltered as the Wayans brothers fell out with the Fox network's leadership over creative control and rights.

The series won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series in 1990. The series gained international prominence for its bold move and its all-time high ratings gained by airing a live, special episode as a counterprogram for the halftime show of U.S. leader CBS's live telecast of Super Bowl XXVI, prompting the National Football League to book A-list acts for future game entertainment, starting with Michael Jackson the following year.[2] In 2018, a history of the show, Homey Don't Play That! by David Peisner, was released by 37 INK, an imprint of Simon & Schuster."

The multi talented Keenan wrote, produced, directed as well as appeared in several films and T.V. shows. He was one of the first Blacks in the industry to gain autonomy over his creative projects. And he did it while in his early 30's.

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BABY ESTHER LEE JONES, THE BLACK SHIRLEY TEMPLE IN THE 20s, THE ORIGINAL BOOPER DOOPER, AND AN INFRIGNEMENT LAWSUIT
No one know when she died, but this child star was making $750 per week in the 20s...That was a lot of money back then!
"Esther Lee Jones was a child stage performer born in Chicago in 1919 who was extremely popular in the 1920s and early 1930s, and was seen as one of the top-tier black stars of the Harlem Renaissance..."
This video bio of the child star gives a detailed glimpse into her life and fame. It's sad that not many heard of her, and there were no recordings done...
 
"In the mid-1800’s, West Africa’s Kru tribe was known among slave traders and colonialists for their resistance to capture and enslavement. They were also invaluable to merchants who visited the region because of their knowledge of the rough coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean."
"The Kru were infamous for fighting for their freedom, reducing their value to slave traders who found them too difficult to tame for slavery. If captured, the Kru would simply kill themselves, rather than become property. In battle, they were fierce even if their weapons were inferior to those of the invaders and often vanquished foes on sheer grit alone."
https://blackamericaweb.com/2017/02/01/little-known-black-history-fact-kru-people/

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This young African American pilot was flying the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11. The media never acknowledged him or his heroism. He left behind a wife and an infant son. Below are links paying tribute to him and for the foundation established in his name. The following was forwarded to me....We need to keep this going....please pass this on!! The link below leads to one of the Heroes of Flight 93 pages.

IN HONOR AND MEMORY OF LEROY HOMER
An excellent tribute and it is amazing how the media failed to
recognize him
This is the black pilot that flew the plane that went down in
Pennsylvania. They never gave him tribute. They always talked
about every one else. This is the first picture of him that I
have seen. In case you have not seen his photograph or heard his
name, click on the link below.
He is the pilot that flew the plane in Pennsylvania on September
11, 2001.
http://www.unitedheroes.com/Leroy-Homer.html
There is a foundation in his honor:
https://leroywhomerjr.org/

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@Pecos
 
Sorry if anyone has already posted this, but Paul Revere Williams was an amazing innovator in creating the architecture of Los Angeles.


 
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