Tag Archives: Black History
PHOTO :: Obama Reflects While Sitting on the Historical Rosa Park Bus
On a trip to visit the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, President Obama took a minute to sit on the same Montgomery, Alabama bus that Rosa refuse to give up her seat.
Obama later reflected on the moment at a fundraiser in suburban Detroit.
“I just sat in there for a moment and pondered the courage and tenacity that is part of our very recent history but is also part of that long line of folks who sometimes are nameless, often times didn’t make the history books, but who constantly insisted on their dignity, their share of the American dream,” he said, according to a White House pool report.
Ebony&Jet Founder, John H. Johnson Honored By the US Postal Service
*Ebony/Jet founder John H. Johnson is being honored by the U.S. Postal Service’s black heritage stamp for 2012.
Johnson started Johnson Publishing Co. in 1951 with a $500 loan using his mother’s furniture as collateral.
The Johnson stamp joins the ranks of other honorees like U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordon, singer Ella Fitzgerald, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, poet Langston Hughes and baseball player Jackie Robinson.
*EurWeb
Civil Rights Leader Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth Dies at 89
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.— The Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, who was bombed, beaten and repeatedly arrested in the fight for civil rights and hailed by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for his courage and energy, has died. He was 89.
Obama Administration Rejects Pardon Request for Marcus Garvey
JAMAICA –THE already strained relations between the Barack Obama administration and the Government of Jamaica could be in for more severe testing, as the US government now says the granting of a pardon to Jamaica’s National Hero Marcus Garvey would be a waste of time and resources, since Garvey has been dead for ages.
A report in the Sunday Observer says the flat rejection of a request for a presidential pardon for Jamaica’s first national hero, the Right Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, follows an eventual reply to Florida-based Jamaican-born attorney Donovan Parker, who has been writing to president Obama every week since January, requesting a posthumous pardon for Garvey.
Many believe that Garvey was set up by the J Edgar Hoover-led Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), fearful of his widening popularity among downtrodden US blacks.
| caricomnewsnetwork.com
KROGER & PEPSICO SPONSOR AMERICAN LEGACY MAGAZINE'S "KNOW YOUR HISTORY" MOBILE TRUCK TOUR
– Four (4) City Tour To Begin On February 9th –
Mount Vernon, NY (BlackNews.com) — American Legacy, the magazine of African-American history and culture announced today that Kroger and Pepsico are sponsoring its “Know your History” mobile truck tour in 4 U.S. cities beginning February 9th through February 19th. The mobile truck is a traveling museum filled with photos, stories and interactive learning stations that celebrate the African-American experience “We’re excited to have Kroger and PepsiCo join us in this celebration of African American history and culture. As we present this educational event in each city, our mission of providing important information on our past is achieved.”
The 18-wheel trailer transformed into a black history museum will take visitors on a historical journey in black history through the pages of American Legacy Magazine.
The “Know Your History” tour, sponsored by Kroger & Pepsico will include: an exhibit of the magazines covers highlighting the depth and magnitude of African-American history and culture; “Always In Our Sight: The Fight For Civil Rights” an exhibit of artifacts and memorabilia from slavery to civil right from the collection of Gene Peters; exhibit featuring the Buffalo Soldiers, and an exhibit from American Airlines: Black History in Aviation.
HISTORY:: Andrew Jackson Beard Invented the "Jenny Coupler" or Train Hook
Andrew Jackson Beard (1849 – 1921) invented the “Jenny Coupler” which allowed train cars to hook themselves together when they are bumped into one another. The device is still used today.
Andrew Jackson Beard was an African-American inventor. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio for his work on railroad coupler design.
Born in Alabama in 1849, Andrew Beard spent the first fifteen years of his life as a slave on a small farm in Alabama. A year after he was emancipated, he married and became a farmer in a small city outside of Birmingham. While in Birmingham, he was able to develop and champion his first invention, a plow. Three years later, he patented a second plow. These two inventions earned him almost $10,000, with which he began to invest in real estate.
Following his stint in real-estate, Andrew Beard began to work with and study engines. In 1892, he filed a patent for an improvement to the rotary steam engine.
Andrew Beard is sometimes falsely cited as the inventor of the automatic railroad coupler, also known as the knuckle coupler, but this was invented by Eli H. Janney, a former Confederate Major who was awarded a patent for his revolutionary invention in 1873.U.S. Patent 138,405 Beard’s patent relating to the automatic coupler was one of some 8,000 variant patents awarded between Janney’s invention in 1873 and the turn of the 20th century.
Little is known about the period of time from Beard’s last patent application in 1897 up until his death. He died in 1921.
Remembering The Man Behind The Dream, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. King is often presented as a heroic leader in the history of modern American liberalism.
A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King’s efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. There, he expanded American values to include the vision of a color blind society, and established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history.
In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other nonviolent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and stopping the Vietnam War.
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986.
