Black History, It's the Real McCoy!

[Weird Harold]

February is Black History month in the US for those that don't know.

"The Real McCoy" is a phrase that entered the American lexicon as a result of the invention of an automatic oiler for steam engines by Elijah(?) McCoy. It was so superior to it's competitors that potential customers would ask if the oiling system was "The Real McCoy"

McCoy was black.

Like thousands of other black inventors who built things that we take for granted today, McCoy was lost to history and ignored for years until Black History Month was established.

At least McCoy profited from his invention in his lifetime. So many others were not only ignored by history, but were robbed or defrauded by their contemporaries.

I sincerely wish that Black History month was not necessary, but it is. Hollywood and history both have lied to us for too many years for the credit for many advances in science and technology to be lost or credited to intellectual property thieves.

On a History channel program tonight about Black aviators, Lt. Gen Peterson, the first black three star marine, said being first is a double edged sword. "It is an accomplishment to be first of my race, but the very fact that it's noteworthy means we have a very long way to go."

I'm proud to say that I've had the chance to shake the hands of some of the surviving Tuskeegee Airmen and thank them for their accomplishments.

 

[Weird Harold]

Well maybe if I remembered to ask the question...

I'd get more responses.

What minority person or persons have you learned about that you wouldn't have heard of without Black History Month?

 

[Siren]

hey ya opinionated old fart, I didnt know we was suppose to respond

 

[Lasz]

I heard the man who wrote the first farmer's almanac was black. That was my lesson of the day today. I didnt get his name though.

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: hey ya opinionated old fart, I didnt know we was suppose to respond

didnt know that first person killed in civil war was a black man

Interesting coincidence if you're not thinking of Crispus adacks (sp) the first person killed in the revolutionary war.

 

[Siren]

ah I think I am incorrect

 

[miles]

Jif & Skippy Johnson - the brothers who invented chunky peanut butter.

(apologies to Eddie Murphy)

 

[Weird Harold]

Jif & Skippy Johnson - the brothers who invented chunky peanut butter.

(apologies to Eddie Murphy)

They must have worked for Geo. W. Carver, then. Right?

 

[EthiopianPrince]

Weird Harold,

Great thread!

EP

 

[Weird Harold]

Great thread!

I'm glad you think so. I wish others concurred.

Siren said,"I didnt know that first person killed in civil war was a black man until history was revised to include them in more than just a sideline of being slaves."

Is searching out the accomplishments of minorities a "revision" of history, or a "correction?" I mentioned earlier that Hollwood had lied to be about black history. In one specific instance, that calvary that always arrrived at the last minute? You know, those blond, blue-eyed troopers in their neat uniforms, with their perfect timing? Well, the truth is, that about fifty percent of the troops assigned to the frontier were "Buffalo Soldiers" and given the disproportionate time the Buffalo soldier spent in the field when compared to the white calvary units, the odds were more like 80% those troops riding to the rescue were black.

[sarc]
I guess there just weren't enough black actors to be historically accurate.
[/sarc]

Being retired military and a technophile, I tend to look more to military history and the history of inventions than to social history or political history. I know the "big" names, like Frederick Douglas, that even biased histories couldn't leave out in the social change area of history, but my interests don't lead me to dig out the "bit players" history ignored yet were at least as important to understanding the social changes as the big names were.

So, help me out people. I'll do my best to hold up the military history end of this thread, you all educate me about social history.

 

[morninggirl5]

I continue to learn about Black History and still feel like there is so much more I need to know to teach my students effectively.


I love this thread WH, I'll post as I learn during this month.

What I learned today ---- Not only was he the first Black Supreme Court Justice, but Thurgood Marshall was also involved in the landmark Brown vs Board of Education case that ended segregation in schools.

 

[Bob Peale]

Re: hey ya opinionated old fart, I didnt know we was suppose to respond

I read it and thought it was interesting info.
didnt have anything to add.

didnt know that first person killed in civil war was a black man until history was revised to include them in more than just a sideline of being slaves.

Alrighty then...finally, a chance to use my degrees!

First off, the Civil War thing is a technicality. For most of the citizens of America, the Civil War began in 1861 with the firing upon of Fort Sumter, but for many, the war for freedom began many years before. For the abolitionists of the north and the slaves who were held in chains in the south, the Civil War was about the question of slavery. To those people, the war actually began in 1859....although for the instigator of this savage event, a man named John Brown, the war had begun much earlier than that.

On October 16, 1859, the fanatical prophet of doom led a small army of five black men and thirteen white men into the village of Harper's Ferry. He brought along a wagon filled with 200 rifles, 200 pistols and 1000 pikes to arm the slaves that he was sure would rally to his cause of freedom... at any cost. He would lead his army south along the Appalachians and destroy slavery through the plantations of the south.

Brown was many things in his life, from failed businessman to guerilla leader in the Kansas Territory. When the question had come about whether or not Kansas was to have slavery, Brown had formed a personal strike force of killers to insure that it didn't. There was fierce fighting on both sides of the issue and towns like Lawrence suffered by being burned to the ground by pro-slavery forces and men like those in a cabin at Pottawatomie Creek were hacked to death with swords by Brown and his army of anti-slavery men.

Brown became a symbol of the abolitionist movement and men who would speak out against slavery, but would not strike with the sword, railed his cause in abolitionist newspapers of the day. Brown moved east, bringing the fight to the slavery strongholds of the southern states.

At Harper's Ferry, Brown quickly seized the federal arsenal, the armory, and the engine house and then gathered up hostages from the village. After that, things started to spiral out of control. The first man killed was the town's baggage master, a free black man. The army of slaves did not appear, but the townspeople did after Brown and his men opened fire on an incoming train. The first of Brown's men to fall was a former slave who hoped that Brown could liberate his wife and children, still being held in the south. Someone in the crowd cut off this man's ears as souvenirs. Before the battle was over, Brown would lose nine more men, two of them his own sons.

However, Crispus Attucks WAS the first person killed in the War of Independence (The Revolutionary War) at the Boston Massacre.

 

[Bob Peale]

I heard the man who wrote the first farmer's almanac was black. That was my lesson of the day today. I didnt get his name though.

It was also considered one of the most comprehensive ever written. The man's name was Benjamin Banneker.

What made Banneker's Almanacs innovative -- aside from the fact that they were produced by a black man in an age when African Americans were considered incapable of scientific, mathematical or literary accomplishment -- was the inclusion of commentaries, literature, and fillers that had a political and humanitarian purpose.

In the 1793 edition, Banneker included his correspondence with Thomas Jefferson, in which he challenged Jefferson's ideas, put forth in "Notes on the State of Virginia," about the inferiority of "a race of Beings who have long labored under the abuse and censure of the world." He also included poetry by Phillis Wheatley and English anti-slavery poet William Cowper, as well as anti-slavery speeches and essays from England and America.

Banneker's editors also prefaced the Almanac with laudatory references to him, such as this excerpt from the 1796 edition:

Not you ye proud, impute to these the blame
If Afric's sons to genius are unknown,
For Banneker has prov'd they may acquire a name
As bright, as lasting, as your own.

But that was really not his greatest accomplishment - in fact, far from it. When Banneker was twenty-one, a remarkable thing happened: he saw a patent watch. The watch belonged to a man named Josef Levi. Banneker was absolutely fascinated with the watch. He had never seen anything like it. Levi gave Banneker his watch. This was to change his life. Banneker took the watch apart to see how it worked. He carved similar watch pieces out of wood and made a clock of his own; the first striking clock to be made completely in America. Banneker's clock was so precise it struck every hour, on the hour, for forty years. His work on the clock led him to repair watches, clocks and sundials. Banneker even helped Joseph Ellicott to build a complex clock. Banneker became close friends with the Ellicott brothers. They lent him books on astronomy and mathematics as well as instruments for observing the stars. Banneker taught himself astronomy and advanced mathematics.

Banneker's parents died, leaving him the farm since his two sisters had married and moved away. Banneker built a "work cabin" with a skylight to study the stars and make calculations. Working largely alone, with few visitors, he compiled results which he published in his Almanac.

Around this time, Major Andrew Ellicott, George Ellicott's cousin, asked Banneker to help him survey the "Federal Territory". Banneker and Ellicott worked closely with Pierre L'Enfant who was the architect in charge of planning Washington D.C. L'Enfant was suddenly dismissed from the project, due to his temper. When he left, he took the plans with him. Banneker recreated the plans from memory, saving the U.S. government the effort and expense of having someone else design the capital.

 

[Bob Peale]

Two other interesting collections of facts:

Black History Facts

and

Black Inventors

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Re: hey ya opinionated old fart, I didnt know we was suppose to respond

However, Crispus Attucks WAS the first person killed in the War of Independence (The Revolutionary War) at the Battle of Bunker Hill (which wasn't really Bunker Hill, but that's another story and not germaine to this thread!).

Close, but no cigar. From PBS.ORG as cached by google.com:

In 1770, Crispus Attucks, a black man, became the first casualty of the American Revolution when he was shot and killed in what became known as the Boston Massacre. Although Attucks was credited as the leader and instigator of the event, debate raged for over as century as to whether he was a hero and a patriot, or a rabble-rousing villain.

 

[Bob Peale]

Re: Re: Re: hey ya opinionated old fart, I didnt know we was suppose to respond

Close, but no cigar. From PBS.ORG as cached by google.com:

Noted and corrected

 

[MsFigment]

Sojourner Truth

I first heard of this woman 3 or 4 years ago during my workplace's Black History Month celebration. She was born a slave in 1797 in New York State. She was freed in 1827 when New York passed an Anti-Slavery Law. At that time she became both a fervant abolitionist and an early feminist. What I remember most about her is the "Ain't I a Woman?" Speech delivered in 1851 at the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio quoted below:

"Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon.

But what's all this here talking about? That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say."

Modern History Sourcebook:Sojourner Truth: Ain't I a Woman

I hope one of this days people such as Sojourner Truth are a part of the history books and not a little known sidebar.

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Sojourner Truth

"Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon.
...
I hope one of this days people such as Sojourner Truth are a part of the history books and not a little known sidebar.

Her first words are as true today as they were in 1827. It's to bad that the "white men" won't admit what a fix they're in even today.

Although today, it's at least "politicians" as much as it is "white men" that aren't listening.

 

[Phoenyx]

The first man to set foot ont he north pole was black.
Cant remember the name.

 

[Bob Peale]

The first man to set foot ont he north pole was black.
Cant remember the name.

Matthew Henson - as part of Robert Peary's expedition in 1909

 

[Weird Harold]

Matthew Henson - as part of Robert Peary's expedition in 1909

I think there is some debate about whether he was first or second, but it does seem apparent that Henson always led the way for Peary.

One thing that Black History Month has brought to light, is that there were many blacks and other minorities who played significant roles in the success of "expeditions of discovery" that have been minimized or outright ignored by historians.

Lewis and Clark's expidition would have failed miserably were it not for two non-whites. Almost everyone knows of Sacajawea (sp) but only those who dig into the history know that Lewis' (?) black slave was a major key to peaceful meetings with many of the tribes they encountered.

I'm having a terrible time with names lately, so I don't remember his name.

I'm constantly amazed at how many blacks throughout history went far beyond what was required of them to make sacrifices where most people could see no possible gain.

It took the largest non-nuclear explosion in history to spark the Port Chicago Mutiny in WWII. Black sailors serving as stevedores loading munitions ships pressed on despite unsafe working conditions when their concerns were dismissed as laziness until the inevitable accident destroyed a good portion of Port Chicago. (which was NOT in Illinois, BTW -- it was near Sandiego California.)

When ordered to go back to work, they quite wisely raised their concerns about safety again and were arrested and tried as muntineers.

Survivors' accounts indicate they enlisted and served in unecessarily dangerous conditions because of Patriotism -- Their country needed them and they did what needed to be done.

The same sentiments of "This is my country and it needs me" drove many blacks to fight for "freedom" in WWII despite the fact they had little to no freedom of their own. It is an attitude that was not unique to WWII.

Blacks served with distinction in every war from the Civil War onwards. Segregated units had the lowest desertion rates of any military units throughout their history and the lowest rates of disiplinary problems of any kind -- and White officers still claimed that they were "unreliable" and "undisiplined," creating an official policy that severely limited their ability to serve.

I don't know that I would have the courage or conviction required to support the level of patriotism and commitment to American values that so many blacks in the military have if I were denied the very things I was fighting for -- actually, I'm pretty sure Iwould NOT have that kind of courage.

 

[Bob Peale]

Lewis and Clark's expidition would have failed miserably were it not for two non-whites. Almost everyone knows of Sacajawea (sp) but only those who dig into the history know that Lewis' (?) black slave was a major key to peaceful meetings with many of the tribes they encountered.

I'm having a terrible time with names lately, so I don't remember his name.

York

 

[Bob Peale]

Here's My Contribution for today -

Black Wall Street

BTW:

Black History Month owes its origin to historian Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950). The son of former slaves, he was born in Buckingham County, Virginia. Woodson entered high school at the age of 20 and Carter G.Woodson taught elementary school for two years after his graduation. Woodson later studied at Berea College, the University of Chicago, and Harvard University.

In 1915, he started the Association for Negro Life and Histroy to study the accomplishments of black people and on February 19, 1926, he established "Negro History Week" which is now called Black History Month in the United States.

source:

Encarta

 

[Weird Harold]

York

Thanks. I knew I could count on youtofind the right name.

 

[Bob Peale]

Thanks. I knew I could count on youtofind the right name.

LOL!