Unsung Heroes - Black History
- Thread starter QueEx
- Start date
source: robertsmalls.org
In 1862 Robert Smalls, a 23-year-old mulatto slave, was employed by Confederates in Charleston, S.C. as pilot of Planter, area commander General Roswell Ripley’s transport steamer. In the early morning hours of May 13 the ship was loaded with armaments for the rebel forts. Contrary to regulations the white captain and crew were ashore for the night. (more)
At about 3 a.m. Smalls commandeered the 147-foot vessel from a dock fronting General Ripley’s home and office. Smalls and his crew sailed to a nearby dock, collected family members from another ship and headed toward sea. Aboard Planter during its dash to the Union blockading squadron were Smalls’ wife, children and 12 other slaves.
Smalls donned the captain’s broad-brimmed straw hat and assumed the captain’s typical stance - arms akimbo - in the pilot house. As he passed each rebel fort he gave the correct whistle signal and was allowed to pass. Onward, the nearest Union blockading vessel, was preparing to fire on the approaching ship when Smalls raised a white flag and surrendered.
Union press hailed Smalls as a national hero, calling the ship “the first trophy from Fort Sumter.” A Congressional bill signed by President Lincoln awarded prize money to Smalls and his associates.
In August 1862 two Union generals sent Smalls and missionary Mansfield French to meet with Secretary of War Stanton and President Lincoln. Their request to recruit 5000 black troops was soon granted. In October, 1862 during a speaking tour of New York to raise support for the Union cause Smalls was presented an engraved gold medal by “the colored citizens of New York” for his heroism, love of liberty and patriotism.
Robert Smalls
Civil War Hero and Politician
Civil War Hero and Politician
In 1862 Robert Smalls, a 23-year-old mulatto slave, was employed by Confederates in Charleston, S.C. as pilot of Planter, area commander General Roswell Ripley’s transport steamer. In the early morning hours of May 13 the ship was loaded with armaments for the rebel forts. Contrary to regulations the white captain and crew were ashore for the night. (more)
At about 3 a.m. Smalls commandeered the 147-foot vessel from a dock fronting General Ripley’s home and office. Smalls and his crew sailed to a nearby dock, collected family members from another ship and headed toward sea. Aboard Planter during its dash to the Union blockading squadron were Smalls’ wife, children and 12 other slaves.
Smalls donned the captain’s broad-brimmed straw hat and assumed the captain’s typical stance - arms akimbo - in the pilot house. As he passed each rebel fort he gave the correct whistle signal and was allowed to pass. Onward, the nearest Union blockading vessel, was preparing to fire on the approaching ship when Smalls raised a white flag and surrendered.
Union press hailed Smalls as a national hero, calling the ship “the first trophy from Fort Sumter.” A Congressional bill signed by President Lincoln awarded prize money to Smalls and his associates.
In August 1862 two Union generals sent Smalls and missionary Mansfield French to meet with Secretary of War Stanton and President Lincoln. Their request to recruit 5000 black troops was soon granted. In October, 1862 during a speaking tour of New York to raise support for the Union cause Smalls was presented an engraved gold medal by “the colored citizens of New York” for his heroism, love of liberty and patriotism.
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source: arlingtoncemetery.net
By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 5, 2000 -- The name "Lt. James Reese Europe" etched into a graying, weathered tombstone doesn't mean anything to most visitors to Arlington National Cemetery. It's just an obscure name among thousands on grave markers throughout the huge military burial ground.
Of Europe, the late ragtime and jazz composer and performer pianist Eubie Blake once said, "People don't realize yet today what we lost when we lost Jim Europe. He was the savior of Negro musicians … in a class with Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King Jr."
Europe is credited with bringing ragtime out of the bordellos and juke joints into mainstream society and elevating African American music into an accepted art form. He was an unrelenting fighter for the dignity of African American musicians and for them to be paid on the same scale as their white peers.
The French government called him a battlefield hero. Before the war, however, he was a household name in New York's music world and on the dance scene nationwide. According to books about ragtime and early jazz, James Reese Europe was the most respected black bandleader of the "teens" when the United States
entered World War I. Both his battlefield heroism and his music fell into obscurity after his untimely and tragic death at 39 on May 9, 1919.
The son of a former slave father and a "free" mother, Europe was born in Mobile, Ala., on Feb. 22, 1881. Lorraine and Henry Europe were both musicians and encouraged their children's talents.
When he was about 10, the family moved to Washington and lived a few houses from Marine Corps bandmaster John Philip Sousa. He and his sister, Mary, took violin and piano lessons from the Marine band's assistant director, Enrico Hurlei. Europe won second place in a music composition contest at age 14. Mary captured first place.
Europe moved to New York City in 1903 to pursue a musical career. Work as a violinist was scarce, so he turned to the piano and found work in several cabarets. He helped found an African American fraternity known as "the Frogs," and, in 1910, established the Clef Club, the first African American music union and booking agency.
His popularity soared as a bandleader and arranger for the internationally acclaimed dance duo Irene and Vernon Castle. The Castles and Europe helped pioneer modern dance by popularizing the foxtrot and other dances.
On May 2, 1912, Europe's Clef Club Orchestra became the first African American band and the first jazz band to play in New York City's famous Carnegie Hall. The orchestra's debut there was so well received that it was booked for two more engagements in 1913 and 1914.
Europe's compositions and arrangements of familiar tunes were played with a jazz twist long before the "Jazz Age." His style was between the syncopated beat of ragtime and the syncopated improvisation of jazz. He became popular in France using that same style as leader of the 369th Infantry Regiment band during World War I.
He enlisted as a private in the 15th Infantry, a black New York National Guard outfit, on Sept. 18, 1916. Europe accomplished something only a few African Americans did in those days: He attended officers training and was commissioned a lieutenant.
The 15th Infantry was later redesignated the 369th Infantry, which the French nicknamed "The Harlem Hellfighters" after the black soldiers showed their mettle in combat.
Europe's regimental commander, Col. William Hayward, asked the new lieutenant to organize "the best damn brass band in the United States Army." With the promise of extra money to attract first-class musicians, Europe recruited musicians from Harlem and reportedly put together one of the finest military bands that ever existed. He even recruited woodwind players from Puerto Rico because there weren't enough in Harlem. Europe also recruited singers, comedians, dancers and others who could entertain troops. He recruited the best drum major he could find -- Harlem dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.
When the 369th and its band arrived in France, they were assigned to the 16th "Le Gallais" Division of the Fourth French Army because white U.S. Army units refused to fight alongside them. Trained to command a machine gun company, Europe learned to fire French machine guns and became the first American officer and first African American to lead troops in battle during the war.
The Harlem Hellfighters would serve 191 days in combat, longer than any other U.S. unit, and reputedly never relinquished an inch of ground. The men earned 170 French Croix de Guerres for bravery. One of their commanding officers, Col. Benjamin O. Davis Sr., would become the Army's first black general in 1940.
Europe was gassed while leading a daring nighttime raid against the Germans. While recuperating in a French hospital, he penned the song "One Patrol in No Man's Land."
Europe and his musicians were ordered to the rear in August 1918 to entertain thousands of soldiers in camps and hospitals. They also performed for high-ranking military and civilian officials and for French citizens in cities across France. After Germany surrendered, the Hellfighters Band became popular performing throughout Europe. When the regiment returned home in the spring of 1919, it paraded up New York's 5th Avenue to Harlem led by the band playing its raggedy tunes to the delight of more than a million spectators.
Back in America, Europe found himself even more popular than before he went to war. He recorded "One Patrol in No Man's Land"; it became a nationwide hit.
Europe ironically survived being shot at and gassed in the trenches of France only to die on May 9, 1919, at the hands of one of his own men. A deranged drummer named Herbert Wright cut Europe's jugular vein with a penknife while the bandleader was preparing for a show at Mechanics Hall in Boston. Wright had been angry because he thought Europe favored his twin brother over him.
R. Reid Badger noted in his book "A Life in Ragtime" that Europe received the first public funeral for a black man in New York City on May 13, 1919. Thousands of fans, black and white, turned out to pay their respect.
In late February 2000, a busload of aging legionnaires of the 1st Lt. James Reese Europe American Legion Post 5 in Washington carefully ambled up a slippery, wet grassy hill at Arlington National Cemetery. Reaching a weathered headstone engraved with "Lt. James Reese Europe - Feb. 22, 1881 - May 14, 1919," they laid a wreath at the grave. Europe has a larger headstone than most -- it was erected in July 1943 to replace a small government-issued 1919 grave marker.
"Our post was named in honor of James Reese Europe in 1919, but to my knowledge, no one ever stopped to put a flower on his grave," said post commander Thomas L. Campbell. "Frankly, we didn't know much about him until we read a story about him in the American Legion magazine about a year ago. I thought it was time we did something to show some appreciation for the man whose name is on our post."
Campbell said the French government bestowed one its highest military awards on Europe and the 369th Infantry. The Dec. 9, 1918, citation to the French Croix de Guerre with Silver Star reads in part:
"This officer (Lt. James Reese Europe), a member of the 369th Infantry Regiment of the 93rd Infantry Division, American Expeditionary Forces, was the first black American to lead United States troops in battle during World War I. The unit, under fire for the first time, captured some powerful and energetically defended enemy positions, took the village of Bechault by main force, and brought back six cannons, many machine guns and a number of prisoners."
After their wreath-laying ceremony, the legionnaires attended a jazz concert performed by the Army Band's jazz ensemble at Fort Myer, Va., in Europe's honor.
Europe's only child, James R. Europe Jr. of North Bellmore, Long Island, N.Y., had been invited to the ceremony, but was unable to attend. The 83-year-old told the legionnaires his health made the trip inadvisable.
The younger Europe, a World War II Merchant Marine lieutenant, is a former member of the New York police and fire departments, served as chairman of the Nassau County Human Rights Commission from 1962 to 1975. The World War I bandleader's descendants include four granddaughters and a grandson, five great- grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren.
Interest has grown in Europe's music in recent years and his recordings are being remastered and reissued on CDs. The Internet is loaded with material about James Reese Europe. Using the search engine, key in James Reese Europe.
James Reese Europe
"infecting Europe With The Jazz Germ"
"infecting Europe With The Jazz Germ"
By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 5, 2000 -- The name "Lt. James Reese Europe" etched into a graying, weathered tombstone doesn't mean anything to most visitors to Arlington National Cemetery. It's just an obscure name among thousands on grave markers throughout the huge military burial ground.
Of Europe, the late ragtime and jazz composer and performer pianist Eubie Blake once said, "People don't realize yet today what we lost when we lost Jim Europe. He was the savior of Negro musicians … in a class with Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King Jr."
Europe is credited with bringing ragtime out of the bordellos and juke joints into mainstream society and elevating African American music into an accepted art form. He was an unrelenting fighter for the dignity of African American musicians and for them to be paid on the same scale as their white peers.
The French government called him a battlefield hero. Before the war, however, he was a household name in New York's music world and on the dance scene nationwide. According to books about ragtime and early jazz, James Reese Europe was the most respected black bandleader of the "teens" when the United States
entered World War I. Both his battlefield heroism and his music fell into obscurity after his untimely and tragic death at 39 on May 9, 1919.
The son of a former slave father and a "free" mother, Europe was born in Mobile, Ala., on Feb. 22, 1881. Lorraine and Henry Europe were both musicians and encouraged their children's talents.
When he was about 10, the family moved to Washington and lived a few houses from Marine Corps bandmaster John Philip Sousa. He and his sister, Mary, took violin and piano lessons from the Marine band's assistant director, Enrico Hurlei. Europe won second place in a music composition contest at age 14. Mary captured first place.
Europe moved to New York City in 1903 to pursue a musical career. Work as a violinist was scarce, so he turned to the piano and found work in several cabarets. He helped found an African American fraternity known as "the Frogs," and, in 1910, established the Clef Club, the first African American music union and booking agency.
His popularity soared as a bandleader and arranger for the internationally acclaimed dance duo Irene and Vernon Castle. The Castles and Europe helped pioneer modern dance by popularizing the foxtrot and other dances.
On May 2, 1912, Europe's Clef Club Orchestra became the first African American band and the first jazz band to play in New York City's famous Carnegie Hall. The orchestra's debut there was so well received that it was booked for two more engagements in 1913 and 1914.
Europe's compositions and arrangements of familiar tunes were played with a jazz twist long before the "Jazz Age." His style was between the syncopated beat of ragtime and the syncopated improvisation of jazz. He became popular in France using that same style as leader of the 369th Infantry Regiment band during World War I.
He enlisted as a private in the 15th Infantry, a black New York National Guard outfit, on Sept. 18, 1916. Europe accomplished something only a few African Americans did in those days: He attended officers training and was commissioned a lieutenant.
The 15th Infantry was later redesignated the 369th Infantry, which the French nicknamed "The Harlem Hellfighters" after the black soldiers showed their mettle in combat.
Europe's regimental commander, Col. William Hayward, asked the new lieutenant to organize "the best damn brass band in the United States Army." With the promise of extra money to attract first-class musicians, Europe recruited musicians from Harlem and reportedly put together one of the finest military bands that ever existed. He even recruited woodwind players from Puerto Rico because there weren't enough in Harlem. Europe also recruited singers, comedians, dancers and others who could entertain troops. He recruited the best drum major he could find -- Harlem dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.
When the 369th and its band arrived in France, they were assigned to the 16th "Le Gallais" Division of the Fourth French Army because white U.S. Army units refused to fight alongside them. Trained to command a machine gun company, Europe learned to fire French machine guns and became the first American officer and first African American to lead troops in battle during the war.
The Harlem Hellfighters would serve 191 days in combat, longer than any other U.S. unit, and reputedly never relinquished an inch of ground. The men earned 170 French Croix de Guerres for bravery. One of their commanding officers, Col. Benjamin O. Davis Sr., would become the Army's first black general in 1940.
Europe was gassed while leading a daring nighttime raid against the Germans. While recuperating in a French hospital, he penned the song "One Patrol in No Man's Land."
Europe and his musicians were ordered to the rear in August 1918 to entertain thousands of soldiers in camps and hospitals. They also performed for high-ranking military and civilian officials and for French citizens in cities across France. After Germany surrendered, the Hellfighters Band became popular performing throughout Europe. When the regiment returned home in the spring of 1919, it paraded up New York's 5th Avenue to Harlem led by the band playing its raggedy tunes to the delight of more than a million spectators.
Back in America, Europe found himself even more popular than before he went to war. He recorded "One Patrol in No Man's Land"; it became a nationwide hit.
Europe ironically survived being shot at and gassed in the trenches of France only to die on May 9, 1919, at the hands of one of his own men. A deranged drummer named Herbert Wright cut Europe's jugular vein with a penknife while the bandleader was preparing for a show at Mechanics Hall in Boston. Wright had been angry because he thought Europe favored his twin brother over him.
R. Reid Badger noted in his book "A Life in Ragtime" that Europe received the first public funeral for a black man in New York City on May 13, 1919. Thousands of fans, black and white, turned out to pay their respect.
In late February 2000, a busload of aging legionnaires of the 1st Lt. James Reese Europe American Legion Post 5 in Washington carefully ambled up a slippery, wet grassy hill at Arlington National Cemetery. Reaching a weathered headstone engraved with "Lt. James Reese Europe - Feb. 22, 1881 - May 14, 1919," they laid a wreath at the grave. Europe has a larger headstone than most -- it was erected in July 1943 to replace a small government-issued 1919 grave marker.
"Our post was named in honor of James Reese Europe in 1919, but to my knowledge, no one ever stopped to put a flower on his grave," said post commander Thomas L. Campbell. "Frankly, we didn't know much about him until we read a story about him in the American Legion magazine about a year ago. I thought it was time we did something to show some appreciation for the man whose name is on our post."
Campbell said the French government bestowed one its highest military awards on Europe and the 369th Infantry. The Dec. 9, 1918, citation to the French Croix de Guerre with Silver Star reads in part:
"This officer (Lt. James Reese Europe), a member of the 369th Infantry Regiment of the 93rd Infantry Division, American Expeditionary Forces, was the first black American to lead United States troops in battle during World War I. The unit, under fire for the first time, captured some powerful and energetically defended enemy positions, took the village of Bechault by main force, and brought back six cannons, many machine guns and a number of prisoners."
After their wreath-laying ceremony, the legionnaires attended a jazz concert performed by the Army Band's jazz ensemble at Fort Myer, Va., in Europe's honor.
Europe's only child, James R. Europe Jr. of North Bellmore, Long Island, N.Y., had been invited to the ceremony, but was unable to attend. The 83-year-old told the legionnaires his health made the trip inadvisable.
The younger Europe, a World War II Merchant Marine lieutenant, is a former member of the New York police and fire departments, served as chairman of the Nassau County Human Rights Commission from 1962 to 1975. The World War I bandleader's descendants include four granddaughters and a grandson, five great- grandchildren and seven great-great-grandchildren.
Interest has grown in Europe's music in recent years and his recordings are being remastered and reissued on CDs. The Internet is loaded with material about James Reese Europe. Using the search engine, key in James Reese Europe.
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<font size="5">
Denmark Vesey</font size>
1767-1822
Denmark Vesey
Profile:
Name – Denmark;
Surname – Vasey;
Birth date - 11 September 1767;
Birth place- Unknown ;
Nationality – American;
Occupation – Carpenter;
Famous for- Freedom fighter
( Best known as the leader of
great slave rebellion in South
Carolina (1822);
Death - 2 July 1822
Final sentence – hanging
<font size="3">Nationality - American
Occupation - Carpenter, Freedom fighter</font size>
Narrative Essay
Denmark Vesey (1767-1822), an African American who fought to liberate his people from slavery, planned an abortive slave insurrection.
Denmark Vesey, whose original name was Telemanque, was born in West Africa. As a youth, he was captured, sold as a slave, and brought to America. In 1781 he came to the attention of a slaver, Capt. Vesey, who was "struck with the beauty, alertness, and intelligence" of the boy. Vesey, a resident of Charleston, S.C., acquired the boy. The captain had "no occasion to repent" his purchase of Denmark, who "proved for 20 years a most faithful slave."
In 1800 Vesey won a $1,500 lottery prize, with which he purchased his freedom and opened a carpentry shop. Soon this highly skilled artisan became "distinguished for [his] great strength and activity. Among his color he was always looked up to with awe and respect" by both black and white Americans. He acquired property and became prosperous.
Nevertheless, Vesey was not content with his relatively successful life. He hated slavery and slaveholders. This brilliant man versed himself in all the available antislavery arguments and spoke out against the abuse and exploitation of his own people. Believing in equality for everyone and vowing never to rest until his people were free, he became the political provocateur, agitating and moving his brethren to resist their enslavement.
Selecting a cadre of exceptional lieutenants, Vesey began organizing the black community in and around Charleston to revolt. He developed a very sophisticated scheme to carry out his plan. The conspiracy included over 9,000 slaves and "free" blacks in Charleston and on the neighboring plantations.
The revolt, which was scheduled to occur on July 14, 1822, was betrayed before it could be put into effect. As rumors of the plot spread, Charleston was thrown into a panic. Leaders of the plot were rounded up. Vesey and 46 other were condemned, and even four whites were implicated in the revolt. On June 23 Vesey was hanged on the gallows for plotting to overthrow slavery.
After careful examination of the historical record, the judgment of Sterling Stuckey remains valid: "Vesey's example must be regarded as one of the most courageous ever to threaten the racist foundations of America.... He stands today, as he stood yesterday ... as an awesome projection of the possibilities for militant action on the part of a people who have for centuries been made to bow down in fear."
Sources
The best account of Vesey's rebellion is Robert S. Starobin, ed., Denmark Vesey: The Slave Conspiracy of 1822 (1970). Of considerable importance is John Lofton, Insurrection in South Carolina: The Turbulent World of Denmark Vesey (1964). Herbert Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts (1943), provides a useful account of Vesey's revolt. William W. Freehling, Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina (1966), should be consulted for a broad understanding of the influence of the event.
Biography Resource Center
©2001, Gale Group, Inc.
http://www.africawithin.com/bios/denmark_vesey.htm
Denmark Vesey</font size>
1767-1822
Denmark Vesey
Profile:
Name – Denmark;
Surname – Vasey;
Birth date - 11 September 1767;
Birth place- Unknown ;
Nationality – American;
Occupation – Carpenter;
Famous for- Freedom fighter
( Best known as the leader of
great slave rebellion in South
Carolina (1822);
Death - 2 July 1822
Final sentence – hanging
<font size="3">Nationality - American
Occupation - Carpenter, Freedom fighter</font size>
Narrative Essay
Denmark Vesey (1767-1822), an African American who fought to liberate his people from slavery, planned an abortive slave insurrection.
Denmark Vesey, whose original name was Telemanque, was born in West Africa. As a youth, he was captured, sold as a slave, and brought to America. In 1781 he came to the attention of a slaver, Capt. Vesey, who was "struck with the beauty, alertness, and intelligence" of the boy. Vesey, a resident of Charleston, S.C., acquired the boy. The captain had "no occasion to repent" his purchase of Denmark, who "proved for 20 years a most faithful slave."
In 1800 Vesey won a $1,500 lottery prize, with which he purchased his freedom and opened a carpentry shop. Soon this highly skilled artisan became "distinguished for [his] great strength and activity. Among his color he was always looked up to with awe and respect" by both black and white Americans. He acquired property and became prosperous.
Nevertheless, Vesey was not content with his relatively successful life. He hated slavery and slaveholders. This brilliant man versed himself in all the available antislavery arguments and spoke out against the abuse and exploitation of his own people. Believing in equality for everyone and vowing never to rest until his people were free, he became the political provocateur, agitating and moving his brethren to resist their enslavement.
Selecting a cadre of exceptional lieutenants, Vesey began organizing the black community in and around Charleston to revolt. He developed a very sophisticated scheme to carry out his plan. The conspiracy included over 9,000 slaves and "free" blacks in Charleston and on the neighboring plantations.
The revolt, which was scheduled to occur on July 14, 1822, was betrayed before it could be put into effect. As rumors of the plot spread, Charleston was thrown into a panic. Leaders of the plot were rounded up. Vesey and 46 other were condemned, and even four whites were implicated in the revolt. On June 23 Vesey was hanged on the gallows for plotting to overthrow slavery.
After careful examination of the historical record, the judgment of Sterling Stuckey remains valid: "Vesey's example must be regarded as one of the most courageous ever to threaten the racist foundations of America.... He stands today, as he stood yesterday ... as an awesome projection of the possibilities for militant action on the part of a people who have for centuries been made to bow down in fear."
Sources
The best account of Vesey's rebellion is Robert S. Starobin, ed., Denmark Vesey: The Slave Conspiracy of 1822 (1970). Of considerable importance is John Lofton, Insurrection in South Carolina: The Turbulent World of Denmark Vesey (1964). Herbert Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts (1943), provides a useful account of Vesey's revolt. William W. Freehling, Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina (1966), should be consulted for a broad understanding of the influence of the event.
Biography Resource Center
©2001, Gale Group, Inc.
http://www.africawithin.com/bios/denmark_vesey.htm
Last edited by a moderator:
source: newcommunity.org
Raised on a small farm near Kansas City, Kansas, Edward J. Dwight, Jr. Had a consuming passion for aviation after witnessing a P-39 aircraft crash at an airport about a mile from his home. Thinking he could do better than the pilot that crashed, he decided then that he would learn to fly.
After graduating from high school, Ed Dwight attended a small junior college in Kansas City when he started going down to the local Air Force recruiting office every day for an application for pilot training. Every day he was told that the Air Force was not letting his kind in. He was told this even though President Harry S. Truman had ordered the desegregation of the armed services in 1948. He didn't know at the time in 1951 there was a move afoot to recruit black pilots. He then wrote to Washington and was told that an aviation evaluation team would be visiting his junior college campus. After an interview, he along with thirty-three others from the college, was sent to Lawry Air Base in Denver by the team to take the exam—-tests in math, physics, acceleration tests—-the actual problems he had been preparing for since he was in junior high school. Dwight was the only one who passed. Everyone got upset stating Dwight passed, none of us did. The fix was in. Dwight's black; something is wrong with this.
Ed breezed through the test because he had studied material he had obtained from the library. Dwight joined the Air Force two years later. In 1961, Captain Dwight, now an Air Force jet pilot and flight instructor with a degree in aeronautical engineering from Arizona State University, received a letter from President John F. Kennedy, offering him the opportunity to train to join the recently established NASA and become the first black astronaut. Within a couple of days, he was sent to Edward Air Force Base for evaluation. He knew that if he succeeded, plans were in place to line him up so that he would be on one of the lunar missions. Dwight had heard that a certain high ranking officer, Colonel Charles Yeager, the first test pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound stated that, "Washington is trying to cram a ****** down our throats, and we don't want that ****** to graduate because if he graduates, it'll hurt this program." Yeager, at the time, was the commandant of the Aerospace Research Pilot School and was addressing some of the staff. According to Dwight, Yeager tried to get him to resign several times. He called him into his office one day and asked Dwight, "Who got you into this school?" Was it the NAACP or are you some kind of black Muslim out here to make trouble?... Why the hell would a colored guy want to go into space anyway? As far as I'm concerned, there'll never be one to do it, and if it were up to me, you guys wouldn't even get a chance to wear an Air Force uniform.
As a result of President Kennedy's assassination on Friday, November 22, 1963, Dwight's hopes of ever going into space began to fade. The following Monday he received orders shipping him out to Germany, to be a liaison officer for a non-existent German test pilot school. Germany didn't have a space program. Dwight went straight to the White House but then there was nothing anyone could do for him. He was never officially notified that he was no longer in the space program, but by order of President Johnson, Dwight was transferred out of the astronaut training program. He was then asked to go quietly. Today, as an acclaimed sculptor, he records history in his art.
While Air Force Major H. Lawrence, who was killed in a training accident, became America's first black astronaut designee in 1967, it wasn't until January 1978 that NASA had its first black astronaut trainees, Dr. Ronald McNair (Mission
Specialist),, Lt. Col. Guion Bluford, USAF (Mission Specialist/Ph.D - Columbia and the first African-American in Space) and Fred Gregory. In April 1992, Astronaut Lt Col. Charles Bolden, USMC (Pilot/Commander), Jr. was mission commander on the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Dr. Mae Jemison, while a mission specialist aboard the Endeavor in September 1992, became the first African-American in space.
Mr. Dwight is now an acclaimed sculptor whos has completed notable works like the first statue of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, (Morehouse 48) in his home state of Georgia at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
(1964) Astronaut Edward J. Dwight, Jr., his wife and their children are new members of St. Peter's parish, Huber Heights, a Dayton suburb
Captain Edward J. Dwight Jr.
First African American
Astronaut Candidate
First African American
Astronaut Candidate
Raised on a small farm near Kansas City, Kansas, Edward J. Dwight, Jr. Had a consuming passion for aviation after witnessing a P-39 aircraft crash at an airport about a mile from his home. Thinking he could do better than the pilot that crashed, he decided then that he would learn to fly.
After graduating from high school, Ed Dwight attended a small junior college in Kansas City when he started going down to the local Air Force recruiting office every day for an application for pilot training. Every day he was told that the Air Force was not letting his kind in. He was told this even though President Harry S. Truman had ordered the desegregation of the armed services in 1948. He didn't know at the time in 1951 there was a move afoot to recruit black pilots. He then wrote to Washington and was told that an aviation evaluation team would be visiting his junior college campus. After an interview, he along with thirty-three others from the college, was sent to Lawry Air Base in Denver by the team to take the exam—-tests in math, physics, acceleration tests—-the actual problems he had been preparing for since he was in junior high school. Dwight was the only one who passed. Everyone got upset stating Dwight passed, none of us did. The fix was in. Dwight's black; something is wrong with this.
Ed breezed through the test because he had studied material he had obtained from the library. Dwight joined the Air Force two years later. In 1961, Captain Dwight, now an Air Force jet pilot and flight instructor with a degree in aeronautical engineering from Arizona State University, received a letter from President John F. Kennedy, offering him the opportunity to train to join the recently established NASA and become the first black astronaut. Within a couple of days, he was sent to Edward Air Force Base for evaluation. He knew that if he succeeded, plans were in place to line him up so that he would be on one of the lunar missions. Dwight had heard that a certain high ranking officer, Colonel Charles Yeager, the first test pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound stated that, "Washington is trying to cram a ****** down our throats, and we don't want that ****** to graduate because if he graduates, it'll hurt this program." Yeager, at the time, was the commandant of the Aerospace Research Pilot School and was addressing some of the staff. According to Dwight, Yeager tried to get him to resign several times. He called him into his office one day and asked Dwight, "Who got you into this school?" Was it the NAACP or are you some kind of black Muslim out here to make trouble?... Why the hell would a colored guy want to go into space anyway? As far as I'm concerned, there'll never be one to do it, and if it were up to me, you guys wouldn't even get a chance to wear an Air Force uniform.
As a result of President Kennedy's assassination on Friday, November 22, 1963, Dwight's hopes of ever going into space began to fade. The following Monday he received orders shipping him out to Germany, to be a liaison officer for a non-existent German test pilot school. Germany didn't have a space program. Dwight went straight to the White House but then there was nothing anyone could do for him. He was never officially notified that he was no longer in the space program, but by order of President Johnson, Dwight was transferred out of the astronaut training program. He was then asked to go quietly. Today, as an acclaimed sculptor, he records history in his art.
While Air Force Major H. Lawrence, who was killed in a training accident, became America's first black astronaut designee in 1967, it wasn't until January 1978 that NASA had its first black astronaut trainees, Dr. Ronald McNair (Mission
Specialist),, Lt. Col. Guion Bluford, USAF (Mission Specialist/Ph.D - Columbia and the first African-American in Space) and Fred Gregory. In April 1992, Astronaut Lt Col. Charles Bolden, USMC (Pilot/Commander), Jr. was mission commander on the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Dr. Mae Jemison, while a mission specialist aboard the Endeavor in September 1992, became the first African-American in space.
Mr. Dwight is now an acclaimed sculptor whos has completed notable works like the first statue of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, (Morehouse 48) in his home state of Georgia at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
(1964) Astronaut Edward J. Dwight, Jr., his wife and their children are new members of St. Peter's parish, Huber Heights, a Dayton suburb
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source: raahistory.com
Major Lawrence was born on October 2, 1935, in Chicago, Illinois. At the age of 16, he was a graduate in the top 10% of Englewood High School. At the age of 20, he became a graduate of Bradley University with a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry. In addition, while a student at Bradley University, he distinguished himself as Cadet Commander of the Bradley Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps and, upon graduation, received the commission of Second Lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve Program.
At the age of 21 he had become an Air Force pilot after completing flight training at Malden Air Force Base.
At the age of 22, he married the former Ms. Barbara Cress, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Henry Cress of Chicago. As he approached the age of 26, he had completed an Air Force assignment as an instructor pilot in the T-33 training aircraft for members of the German Air Force.
At the age of 30, Major Lawrence earned a Doctorate Degree in Physical Chemistry from Ohio State University during which time his grade point average (GPA) was above 3.5. His dissertation related to that part of chemistry which involved the conversion of tritium rays to methane gas.
At the age of 31, he served two roles in the Air Force; that of an Air Force pilot and also a research scientist in the Air Force Weapon's Laboratory at Kirkland Air Force Base, New Mexico. At the age of 32, Major Lawrence was a senior pilot with over 2,500 flying hours, 2,000 of these in jet aircraft. Major Lawrence successfully completed the Air Force Test Pilot Training School at Edwards Air Force Base in June 1967 and was selected to become an astronaut (Click here to see Major Lawrence as an astronaut) in the USAF's Manned Orbiting Laboratory and therein becoming the First African American Astronaut on June 10, 1967.
Major Lawrence's contribution to the current space program can be found in his early work as a test pilot who flew several of the F-104 Starfighter jet aircraft approach and landings tests at Edwards Air Force Base located in California.
It had been observed in the mid 1960's that if an F-104 was flown in a certain configuration (that is, landing gear extended, speed brakes down and drag chute open to increase the force of drag) that it could be used to test various theories regarding the gliding of a space vehicle to a landing on earth similar to that of the landing of the X-15 test aircraft. Major Lawrence, as a test pilot flew several research flights in the F-104 in an effort to test various theories related to un-powered flight that has led up to the present day design of the Orbiter that will permit it to glide from space to the landing that can be viewed on television during every Space Shuttle mission. The Orbiter , unlike a passenger jet aircraft does not have engines mounted under its wings or at the rear that an airline pilot can use to control the landing of such a large jet aircraft. At an altitude of approximately 200 miles, the Orbiter "breaks out of its circular orbit" and glides back to earth for landing. The Orbiter has to land successfully each time, because it, as previously indicated, has no engines to attempt a second approach.
This design did not instantly occur on a designer's drafting board, but is the end result of years of research flying dating back as far as the 1950's during which time a variety of aircraft were used to test various theories regarding un-powered flight. The most popular aircraft of this generation is the X-15. It is at this point in the evolution of a space vehicle that would have the capability of gliding to earth Major Lawrence's contribution begins to emerge.
While Major Lawrence flew several F-104 simulated landings, the flight in which he lost his life was a flight in which he flew in the role of co-pilot and instructor pilot when the student that he was instructing lost control of the aircraft, leading to the crash that took his life. (Click here to see the accident report)
In addition to the above, it has been pointed out that Major Lawrence was selected as an astronaut for a mission that the general public would view as the International Space Station. During the days of Major Lawrence, the program was given the name of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory.
As an astronaut, Major Lawrence emerges as one of the early pioneers of the space program by assisting in the development and testing of a variety of odd hybrid vehicles that would one day take man into space. In addition, he helped pioneer many of the astronaut training programs. If there were no individuals willing to go through the risks and dangers associated with extended space flight, there would not be a space station. (Click here to see Major Lawrence as a Test Pilot) The development and evolution of the many space station designs over the past 30 years was possible because of men like Major Lawrence and all of the other astronauts who had overcome the fears, risks and dangers associated with space flight.
It is both fitting and proper that visitors in general, and African Americans in specific, of this website remember Major Robert H. Lawrence, Jr. because he gave African Americans the history wherein the early development of America's space program cannot be written without including African Americans. In addition, major Lawrence left African Americans a strong presence and legacy in regard to the early development and evolution of America's space program because he took the risk and paid with his life.
In this regard, African Americans have continued to play a significant part in the space program. Since the Space Shuttle became operational, African Americans have held all of the positions associated with a Space Shuttle Crew. These positions are Mission Specialist, Pilot and Commander.
It is hoped that the brief sketch that we have researched would inspire other African Americans to become astronauts and continue this African American legacy and tradition
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=43073
Major Robert H. Lawrence, Jr.
America's First African American Astronaut
United States Air Force
America's First African American Astronaut
United States Air Force
Major Lawrence was born on October 2, 1935, in Chicago, Illinois. At the age of 16, he was a graduate in the top 10% of Englewood High School. At the age of 20, he became a graduate of Bradley University with a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry. In addition, while a student at Bradley University, he distinguished himself as Cadet Commander of the Bradley Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps and, upon graduation, received the commission of Second Lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve Program.
At the age of 21 he had become an Air Force pilot after completing flight training at Malden Air Force Base.
At the age of 22, he married the former Ms. Barbara Cress, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Henry Cress of Chicago. As he approached the age of 26, he had completed an Air Force assignment as an instructor pilot in the T-33 training aircraft for members of the German Air Force.
At the age of 30, Major Lawrence earned a Doctorate Degree in Physical Chemistry from Ohio State University during which time his grade point average (GPA) was above 3.5. His dissertation related to that part of chemistry which involved the conversion of tritium rays to methane gas.
At the age of 31, he served two roles in the Air Force; that of an Air Force pilot and also a research scientist in the Air Force Weapon's Laboratory at Kirkland Air Force Base, New Mexico. At the age of 32, Major Lawrence was a senior pilot with over 2,500 flying hours, 2,000 of these in jet aircraft. Major Lawrence successfully completed the Air Force Test Pilot Training School at Edwards Air Force Base in June 1967 and was selected to become an astronaut (Click here to see Major Lawrence as an astronaut) in the USAF's Manned Orbiting Laboratory and therein becoming the First African American Astronaut on June 10, 1967.
Major Lawrence's contribution to the current space program can be found in his early work as a test pilot who flew several of the F-104 Starfighter jet aircraft approach and landings tests at Edwards Air Force Base located in California.
It had been observed in the mid 1960's that if an F-104 was flown in a certain configuration (that is, landing gear extended, speed brakes down and drag chute open to increase the force of drag) that it could be used to test various theories regarding the gliding of a space vehicle to a landing on earth similar to that of the landing of the X-15 test aircraft. Major Lawrence, as a test pilot flew several research flights in the F-104 in an effort to test various theories related to un-powered flight that has led up to the present day design of the Orbiter that will permit it to glide from space to the landing that can be viewed on television during every Space Shuttle mission. The Orbiter , unlike a passenger jet aircraft does not have engines mounted under its wings or at the rear that an airline pilot can use to control the landing of such a large jet aircraft. At an altitude of approximately 200 miles, the Orbiter "breaks out of its circular orbit" and glides back to earth for landing. The Orbiter has to land successfully each time, because it, as previously indicated, has no engines to attempt a second approach.
This design did not instantly occur on a designer's drafting board, but is the end result of years of research flying dating back as far as the 1950's during which time a variety of aircraft were used to test various theories regarding un-powered flight. The most popular aircraft of this generation is the X-15. It is at this point in the evolution of a space vehicle that would have the capability of gliding to earth Major Lawrence's contribution begins to emerge.
While Major Lawrence flew several F-104 simulated landings, the flight in which he lost his life was a flight in which he flew in the role of co-pilot and instructor pilot when the student that he was instructing lost control of the aircraft, leading to the crash that took his life. (Click here to see the accident report)
In addition to the above, it has been pointed out that Major Lawrence was selected as an astronaut for a mission that the general public would view as the International Space Station. During the days of Major Lawrence, the program was given the name of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory.
As an astronaut, Major Lawrence emerges as one of the early pioneers of the space program by assisting in the development and testing of a variety of odd hybrid vehicles that would one day take man into space. In addition, he helped pioneer many of the astronaut training programs. If there were no individuals willing to go through the risks and dangers associated with extended space flight, there would not be a space station. (Click here to see Major Lawrence as a Test Pilot) The development and evolution of the many space station designs over the past 30 years was possible because of men like Major Lawrence and all of the other astronauts who had overcome the fears, risks and dangers associated with space flight.
It is both fitting and proper that visitors in general, and African Americans in specific, of this website remember Major Robert H. Lawrence, Jr. because he gave African Americans the history wherein the early development of America's space program cannot be written without including African Americans. In addition, major Lawrence left African Americans a strong presence and legacy in regard to the early development and evolution of America's space program because he took the risk and paid with his life.
In this regard, African Americans have continued to play a significant part in the space program. Since the Space Shuttle became operational, African Americans have held all of the positions associated with a Space Shuttle Crew. These positions are Mission Specialist, Pilot and Commander.
It is hoped that the brief sketch that we have researched would inspire other African Americans to become astronauts and continue this African American legacy and tradition
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=43073
D
DANGEROUSBLACKMAN
Guest
Great Post, I Respect All Black Heroes That Paved The Way For Other Blacks To Succeed In The World.
source: altheagibson.com
Williams sisters part of Gibson tribute
Born August 25, 1927 in Silver, SC, A right-hander, grew up in Harlem. Her family
was poor, but she was fortunate in coming to the attention of Dr. Walter Johnson,
a Lynchburg VA physician who was active in the black tennis community. He became
her patron as he would later for Arthur Ashe, the black champion at Forest Hills
(1968) and Wimbledon (1975). Through Dr. Johnson, Gibson received better instruction
and competition, and contacts were set up with the USTA to inject her into the
recognized tennis scene.
A trailblazing athlete who become the first African American to win championships at Grand Slam tournaments such as Wimbledon, the French Open, the Australian Doubles and the United States Open in the late 1950s. Gibson had a scintillating amateur career in spite of segregated offerings earlier in the decade.
She won 56 singles and doubles titles during her amateur career in the 1950s before gaining international and national acclaim for her athletic prowess on the professional level in tennis.
Gibson won 11 major titles in the late 1950s, including singles titles at the French Open (1956), Wimbledon (1957, 1958) and the U. S. Open (1957, 1958), as well as three straight doubles crowns at the French Open (1956, 1957, 1958).
In 1957, she was the first black to be voted by the Associated Press as it Female Athlete of the Year. She won the honor again in 1958. After winning her second U.S. Championship, she turned professional. One year she earned a reported $100,000 in conjunction with playing a series of matches before Harlem Globetrotter basketball games.
There was no professional tennis tour in those days, so Gibson turned to the pro golf tour for a few years, but she didn't distinguish herself. She tried playing a few events after open tennis started in 1968, but she was in here 40's and too old to beat her younger opponents. She worked as a tennis teaching pro after she stopped competing.
She became New Jersey State Commissioner of Athletics in 1975, a post she held for 10 years. She then served on the State's Athletics Control Board until 1988 and the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness until 1992. On September 28, 2003 at the age of 76, Althea Gibson died in East Orange General Hospital.
The title of her autobiography, written in 1958, is "I Always Wanted to Be Somebody." To tennis fans, she always will be somebody very special. Though she didn't go looking for the role of pioneer, she was one. "If it hadn't been for her," says Billie Jean King, winner of 12 Grand Slam singles titles, "it wouldn't have been so easy for Arthur (Ashe) or the ones who followed."
Grand Slam Record
1957-1958 Wimbledon Singles Championship
1956-1958 Wimbledon Doubles Championship
1956-1958 Wimbledon Mixed-Doubles Finalist
1957-1958 USLTA Singles Championship
1957 USLTA Mixed-Doubles Championship
1957-1958 USLTA Doubles Finalist
1957-1958 USLTA Singles Championship
1957 Australian Doubles Championship
1957 Australian Singles Finalist
1956 French Singles Championship
1956 French Doubles Championship
Williams sisters part of Gibson tribute
Althea Gibson
Tennis Pioneer
Tennis Pioneer
Born August 25, 1927 in Silver, SC, A right-hander, grew up in Harlem. Her family
was poor, but she was fortunate in coming to the attention of Dr. Walter Johnson,
a Lynchburg VA physician who was active in the black tennis community. He became
her patron as he would later for Arthur Ashe, the black champion at Forest Hills
(1968) and Wimbledon (1975). Through Dr. Johnson, Gibson received better instruction
and competition, and contacts were set up with the USTA to inject her into the
recognized tennis scene.
A trailblazing athlete who become the first African American to win championships at Grand Slam tournaments such as Wimbledon, the French Open, the Australian Doubles and the United States Open in the late 1950s. Gibson had a scintillating amateur career in spite of segregated offerings earlier in the decade.
She won 56 singles and doubles titles during her amateur career in the 1950s before gaining international and national acclaim for her athletic prowess on the professional level in tennis.
Gibson won 11 major titles in the late 1950s, including singles titles at the French Open (1956), Wimbledon (1957, 1958) and the U. S. Open (1957, 1958), as well as three straight doubles crowns at the French Open (1956, 1957, 1958).
In 1957, she was the first black to be voted by the Associated Press as it Female Athlete of the Year. She won the honor again in 1958. After winning her second U.S. Championship, she turned professional. One year she earned a reported $100,000 in conjunction with playing a series of matches before Harlem Globetrotter basketball games.
There was no professional tennis tour in those days, so Gibson turned to the pro golf tour for a few years, but she didn't distinguish herself. She tried playing a few events after open tennis started in 1968, but she was in here 40's and too old to beat her younger opponents. She worked as a tennis teaching pro after she stopped competing.
She became New Jersey State Commissioner of Athletics in 1975, a post she held for 10 years. She then served on the State's Athletics Control Board until 1988 and the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness until 1992. On September 28, 2003 at the age of 76, Althea Gibson died in East Orange General Hospital.
The title of her autobiography, written in 1958, is "I Always Wanted to Be Somebody." To tennis fans, she always will be somebody very special. Though she didn't go looking for the role of pioneer, she was one. "If it hadn't been for her," says Billie Jean King, winner of 12 Grand Slam singles titles, "it wouldn't have been so easy for Arthur (Ashe) or the ones who followed."
Grand Slam Record
1957-1958 Wimbledon Singles Championship
1956-1958 Wimbledon Doubles Championship
1956-1958 Wimbledon Mixed-Doubles Finalist
1957-1958 USLTA Singles Championship
1957 USLTA Mixed-Doubles Championship
1957-1958 USLTA Doubles Finalist
1957-1958 USLTA Singles Championship
1957 Australian Doubles Championship
1957 Australian Singles Finalist
1956 French Singles Championship
1956 French Doubles Championship
Thank you. I was impressed and shocked cause these heroes touched my brain. Thanks for the informative drop.
Magnificent POST!!!!!!
Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)
Black Nationalist, Pan-Africanist; The
father of contemporary Black Nationalism.
Born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, on August 17, 1887, Marcus Garvey was the youngest of 11 children. Garvey moved to Kingston at the age of 14, found work in a printshop, and became acquainted with the abysmal living conditions of the laboring class. He quickly involved himself in social reform, participating in the first Printers' Union strike in Jamaica in 1907 and in setting up the newspaper The Watchman. Leaving the island to earn money to finance his projects, he visited Central and South America, amassing evidence that black people everywhere were victims of discrimination. He visited the Panama Canal Zone and saw the conditions under which the West Indians lived and worked. He went to Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia and Venezuala. Everywhere, blacks were experiencing great hardships.
Garvey returned to Jamaica distressed at the situation in Central America, and appealed to Jamaica's colonial government to help improve the plight of West Indian workers in Central America. His appeal fell on deaf ears. Garvey also began to lay the groundwork of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, to which he was to devote his life. Undaunted by lack of enthusiasm for his plans, Garvey left for England in 1912 in search of additional financial backing. While there, he met a Sudanese-Egyptian journalist, Duse Mohammed Ali. While working for Ali's publication African Times and Oriental Review, Garvey began to study the history of Africa, particularly, the exploitation of black peoples by colonial powers. He read Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery, which advocated black self-help.
In 1914 Garvey organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association and its coordinating body, the African Communities League. In 1920 the organization held its first convention in New York. The convention opened with a parade down Harlem's Lenox Avenue. That evening, before a crowd of 25,000, Garvey outlined his plan to build an African nation-state. In New York City his ideas attracted popular support, and thousands enrolled in the UNIA. He began publishing the newspaper The Negro World and toured the United States preaching black nationalism to popular audiences. His efforts were successful, and soon, the association boasted over 1,100 branches in more than 40 countries. Most of these branches were located in the United States, which had become the UNIA's base of operations. There were, however, offices in several Caribbean countries, Cuba having the most. Branches also existed in places such as Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Namibia and South Africa. He also launched some ambitious business ventures, notably the Black Star Shipping Line.
In the years following the organization's first convention, the UNIA began to decline in popularity. With the Black Star Line in serious financial difficulties, Garvey promoted two new business organizations — the African Communities League and the Negro Factories Corporation. He also tried to salvage his colonization scheme by sending a delegation to appeal to the League of Nations for transfer to the UNIA of the African colonies taken from Germany during World War I.
Financial betrayal by trusted aides and a host of legal entanglements (based on charges that he had used the U.S. mail to defraud prospective investors) eventually led to Garvey's imprisonment in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for a five-year term. In 1927 his half-served sentence was commuted, and he was deported to Jamaica by order of President Calvin Coolidge.
Garvey then turned his energies to Jamaican politics, campaigning on a platform of self-government, minimum wage laws, and land and judicial reform. He was soundly defeated at the polls, however, because most of his followers did not have the necessary voting qualifications.
In 1935 Garvey left for England where, in near obscurity, he died on June 10, 1940, in a cottage in West Kensington.
Impact of Marcus Garvey
By Dr. John Henrik Clarke
When Marcus Garvey died in 1940 the role of the British Empire was already being challenged by India and the rising expectations of her African colonies. Marcus Garvey's avocation of African redemption and the restoration of the African state's sovereign political entity in world affairs was still a dream without fulfillment.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, the United States would enter, in a formal way, what had been up to that date strictly a European conflict. Marcus Garvey's prophesy about the European scramble to maintain dominance over the whole world was now a reality. The people of Africa and Asia had joined in this conflict but with different hopes, different dreams and many misgivings. Africans throughout the colonial world were mounting campaigns against this system which had robbed them of their nation-ness and their basic human-ness. The discovery and the reconsideration of the teachings of the honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey were being rediscovered and reconsidered by a large number of African people as this world conflict deepened.
In 1945, when World War II was drawing to a close the 5th Pan-African Congress was called in Manchester, England. Some of the conventioneers were: George Padmore, Kwame Nkrumah, W.E.B. Dubois, Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya. Up to this time the previous Pan-African Congresses had mainly called for improvements in the educational status of the Africans in the colonies so that they would be prepared for self-rule when independence eventually came.
The Pan-African Congress in Manchester was radically different from all of the other congresses. For the first time Africans from Africa, Africans from the Caribbean and Africans from the United States had come together and designed a program for the future independence of Africa. Those who attended the conference were of many political persuasions and different ideologies, yet the teachings of Marcus Garvey were the main ideological basis for the 5th Pan-African Congress in Manchester, England in 1945.
Some of the conveners of this congress would return to Africa in the ensuing years to eventually lead their respective nations toward independence and beyond. In 1947, a Ghanaian student who had studied ten years in the United States, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah returned to Ghana on the invitation of Joseph B. Danquah, his former schoolmaster. Nkrumah would later become Prime Minister. In his fight for the complete independence for the Gold Coast later to be known as Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah acknowledged his political indebtedness to the political teachings of Marcus Garvey.
On September 7, 1957, Ghana became a free self-governing nation, the first member of the British Commonwealth of Nations to become self-governing. Ghana would later develop a Black Star Line patterned after the maritime dreams of Marcus Garvey. My point here is that the African Independence Explosion, which started with the independence of Ghana, was symbolically and figuratively bringing the hopes of Marcus Garvey alive.
In the Caribbean Islands the concept of Federation and Political union of all the islands was now being looked upon as a realizable possibility. Some constitutional reforms and changing attitudes, born of this awareness, were improving the life of the people of these islands.
In the United States the Supreme Court's decision of 1954, outlawing segregation in school systems was greeted with mixed feelings of hope and skepticism by African-Americans. A year after this decision the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Freedom Rides and the demand for equal pay for Black teachers that subsequently became a demand for equal education for all, would become part of the central force that would set the fight for liberation in motion.
The enemies of Africans, the world over were gathering their counter-forces while a large number of them pretended to be sympathetic to the African's cause. Some of these pretenders, both Black and White, were F.B.I. and other agents of the government whose mission it was to frustrate and destroy the Civil Rights Movement. In a different way the same thing was happening in Africa. The coups and counter-coups kept most African states from developing into the strong independent and sovereign states they had hoped to become.
While the Africans had gained control over their state's apparatus, the colonialist's still controlled the economic apparatus of most African states. Africans were discovering to their amazement that a large number of the Africans, who had studied abroad were a detriment to the aims and goals of their nation. None of them had been trained to rule an African state by the use of the best of African traditional forms and strategies. As a result African states, in the main, became imitations of European states and most of their leaders could justifiably be called Europeans with black faces. They came to power without improving the lot of their people and these elitist governments continue until this day.
In most cases what went wrong was that as these leaders failed to learn the lessons of self-reliance and power preparation as advocated by Marcus Garvey and in different ways by Booker T. Washington, W.E.B Dubois, Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. Africa became infiltrated by foreign agents. Africans had forgotten, if they knew at all, that Africa is the world's richest continent, repository of the greatest mineral wealth in the world. They had not asked themselves nor answered the most critical question. If Africa is the world's richest continent, why is it so full of poor people? Marcus Garvey advocated that Africans control the wealth of Africa. He taught that control, control of resources, control of self, control of nation, requires preparation, Garveyism was about total preparation.
There is still no unified force in Africa calling attention to the need for this kind of preparation. This preparation calls for a new kind of education if Africans are to face the reality of their survival.
Africans in the United States must remember that the slave ships brought no West Indians, no Caribbeans, no Jamaicans or Trinidadians or Barbadians to this hemisphere. The slave ships brought only African people and most of us took the semblance of nationality from the places where slave ships dropped us off. In the 500 year process of oppression the Europeans have displaced our God, our culture, and our traditions. They have violated our women to the extent that they have created a bastard race who is confused as to whether to be loyal to its mother's people or its fathers people and for the most part they remain loyal to neither. I do not think African people can succeed in the world until the hear again Marcus Garvey's call: AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS, THOSE AT HOME AND ABROAD. We must regain our confidence in ourselves as a people and learn again the methods and arts of controlling nations. We must hear again Marcus Garvey calling out to us: UP!UP! YOU MIGHTY RACE! YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH WHAT YOU WILL!
http://www.swagga.com/marcus.htm
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" America 's High Tech "Invisible Man"
By Tyrone D. Taborn
You may not have heard of Dr. Mark Dean. And you aren't alone. But almost everything in your life has been affected by his work.
See, Dr. Mark Dean is a Ph.D. from Stanford University . He is in the National Hall of Inventors. He has more than 30 patents pending. He is a vice president with IBM. Oh, yeah. And he is also the architect of the modern-day personal computer. Dr. Dean holds three of the original nine patents on the computer that all PCs are based upon. And, Dr. Mark Dean is an African American.
So how is it that we can celebrate the 20th anniversary of the IBM personal computer without reading or hearing a single word about him? Given all of the pressure mass media are under about negative portrayals of African Americans on television and in print, you would think it
would be a slam dunk to highlight someone like Dr. Dean.
Somehow, though, we have managed to miss the shot. History is cruel when it comes to telling the stories of African Americans. Dr. Dean isn't the first Black inventor to be overlooked Consider John Stanard, inventor of the refrigerator, George Sampson, creator of the clothes dryer,
Alexander Miles and his elevator, Lewis Latimer and the electric lamp.
All of these inventors share two things:
One, they changed the landscape of our society; and, two, society relegated them to the footnotes of history. Hopefully, Dr. Mark Dean won't go away as quietly as they did. He certainly shouldn't. Dr. Dean helped start a Digital Revolution that created people like Microsoft's Bill Gates and Dell Computer's Michael Dell. Millions of jobs in information technology can be traced back directly to ! Dr. Dean.
More important, stories like Dr. Mark Dean's should serve as inspiration for African-American children. Already victims of the "Digital Divide" and failing school systems, young, Black kids might embrace technology with more enthusiasm! if they knew someone like Dr. Dean already was leading the way.
Although technically Dr. Dean can't be credited with creating the computer -- that is left to Alan Turing, a pioneering 20th-century English mathematician, widely considered to be the father of modern computer science -- Dr. Dean rightly deserves to take a bow for the machine we use today. The computer really wasn't practical for home or small business use until he came along, leading a team that developed the interior architecture (ISA systems! bus) that enables multiple devices, such as modems and printers, to be connected to personal computers.
In other words, because of Dr. Dean, the PC became a part of our daily lives. For most of us, changing the face of society would have been enough. But not for Dr. Dean.. Still in his early forties, he has! a lot of inventing left in him.
He recently made history again by leading the design team responsible for creating the first 1-gigahertz processor chip.. It's just another huge step in making computers faster and smaller. As the world congratulates itself for the new Digital Age brought on by the personal computer, we need to guarantee that the African-American story is part of the hoopla surrounding the most stunning technological advance the world has ever seen.. We cannot afford to let Dr. Mark Dean become a footnote in history. He is well worth his own history book.
http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/38.html
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Re: Unsung Heroes - Black History Month
good drop
honestly never heard of most of them
i dont blame the school system though...i blame myself for not going out to find the information myself.
thxs
good drop
honestly never heard of most of them
i dont blame the school system though...i blame myself for not going out to find the information myself.
thxs
Great Post....
source: US Centennial of Flight Commission
Bessie Coleman
Aviation Pioneer
Elizabeth 'Bessie' Coleman (January 26, 1892 – April 30, 1926) Bessie Coleman, the daughter of a poor, southern, African American family, became one of the most famous women and African Americans in aviation history. "Brave Bessie" or "Queen Bess," as she became known, faced the double difficulties of racial and gender discrimination in early 20th-century America but overcame such challenges to become the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license. Coleman not only thrilled audiences with her skills as a barnstormer, but she also became a role model for women and African Americans. Her very presence in the air threatened prevailing contemporary stereotypes. She also fought segregation when she could by using her influence as a celebrity to effect change, no matter how small.
Coleman was born on January 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas, to a large African American family (although some histories incorrectly report 1893 or 1896). She was one of 13 children. Her father was a Native American and her mother an African American. Very early in her childhood, Bessie and her family moved to Waxahachie, Texas, where she grew up picking cotton and doing laundry for customers with her mother.
The Coleman family, like most African Americans who lived in the Deep South during the early 20th century, faced many disadvantages and difficulties. Bessie's family dealt with segregation, disenfranchisement, and racial violence. Because of such obstacles, Bessie's father decided to move the family to "Indian Territory" in Oklahoma. He believed they could carve out a much better living for themselves there. Bessie's mother, however, did not want to live on an Indian reservation and decided to remain in Waxahachie. Bessie, and several of her sisters, also stayed in Texas.
Bessie was a highly motivated individual. Despite working long hours, she still found time to educate herself by borrowing books from a traveling library. Although she could not attend school very often, Bessie learned enough on her own to graduate from high school. She then went on to study at the Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now Langston University) in Langston, Oklahoma. Nevertheless, because of limited finances, Bessie only attended one semester of college.
By 1915, Bessie had grown tired of the South and moved to Chicago. There, she began living with two of her brothers. She attended beauty school and then started working as a manicurist in a local barbershop.
Bessie first considered becoming a pilot after reading about aviation and watching newsreels about flight. But the real impetus behind her decision to become an aviator was her brother John's incessant teasing. John had served overseas during World War I and returned home talking about, according to historian Doris Rich, "the superiority of French women over those of Chicago's South Side." He even told Bessie that French women flew airplanes and declared that flying was something Bessie would never be able to do. John's jostling was the final push that Bessie needed to start pursuing her pilot's license. She immediately began applying to flight schools throughout the country, but because she was both female and an African American, no U.S. flight school would take her.
Soon after being turned down by American flight schools, Coleman met Robert Abbott, publisher of the well-known African American newspaper, the Chicago Defender. He recommended that Coleman save some money and move to France, which he believed was the world's most racially progressive nation, and obtain her pilot's license there. Coleman quickly heeded Abbott's advice and quit her job as a manicurist to begin work as the manager of a chili parlor, a more lucrative position. She also started learning French at night. In November 1920, Bessie took her savings and sailed for France. She also received some additional funds from Abbott and one of his friends.
Coleman attended the well-known Caudron Brothers' School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France. There she learned to fly using French Nieuport airplanes. On June 15, 1921, Coleman obtained her pilot's license from Federation Aeronautique Internationale after only seven months. She was the first black woman in the world to earn an aviator's license. After some additional training in Paris, Coleman returned to the United States in September 1921.
Coleman's main goals when she returned to America were to make a living flying and to establish the first African American flight school. Because of her color and gender, however, she was somewhat limited in her first goal. Barnstorming seemed to be the only way for her to make money, but to become an aerial daredevil, Coleman needed more training. Once again, Bessie applied to American flight schools, and once again they rejected her. So in February 1922, she returned to Europe. After learning most of the standard barnstorming tricks, Coleman returned to the United States.
Bessie flew in her first air show on September 3, 1922, at Glenn Curtiss Field in Garden City, New York. The show, which was sponsored by the Chicago Defender, was a promotional vehicle to spotlight Coleman. Bessie became a celebrity, thanks to the help of her benefactor Abbott. She subsequently began touring the country giving exhibitions, flight lessons, and lectures. During her travels, she strongly encouraged African Americans and women to learn to fly.
In February 1923, Coleman suffered her first major accident while preparing for an exhibition in Los Angeles; her Jenny airplane's engine unexpectedly stalled and she crashed. Knocked unconscious by the accident, Coleman received a broken leg, some cracked ribs, and multiple cuts on her face. Shaken badly by the incident, it took her over a year to recover fully.
Coleman started performing again full time in 1925. On June 19, she dazzled thousands as she "barrel-rolled" and "looped-the-loop" over Houston's Aerial Transport Field. It was her first exhibition in her home state of Texas, and even local whites attended, although they watched from separate segregated bleachers.
Even though Coleman realized that she had to work within the general confines of southern segregation, she did try to use her fame to challenge racial barriers, if only a little. Soon after her Houston show, Bessie returned to her old hometown of Waxahachie to give an exhibition. As in Houston, both whites and African Americans wanted to attend the event and plans called for segregated facilities. Officials even wanted whites and African Americans to enter the venue through separate "white" and "Negro" admission gates, but Coleman refused to perform under such conditions. She demanded only one admission gate. After much negotiation, Coleman got her way and Texans of both races entered the air field through the same gate, but then separated into their designated sections once inside.
Coleman's aviation career ended tragically in 1926. On April 30, she died while preparing for a show in Jacksonville, Florida. Coleman was riding in the passenger seat of her "Jenny" airplane while her mechanic William Wills was piloting the aircraft. Bessie was not wearing her seat belt at the time so that she could lean over the edge of the cockpit and scout potential parachute landing spots (she had recently added parachute-jumping to her repetorie and was planning to perform the feat the next day). But while Bessie was scouting from the back seat, the plane suddenly dropped into a steep nosedive and then flipped over and catapulted her to her death. Wills, who was still strapped into his seat, struggled to regain control of the aircraft, but died when he crashed in a nearby field. After the accident, investigators discovered that Wills, who was Coleman's mechanic, had lost control of the aircraft because a loose wrench had jammed the plane's instruments.
Coleman's impact on aviation history, and particularly African Americans, quickly became apparent following her death. Bessie Coleman Aero Clubs suddenly sprang up throughout the country. On Labor Day, 1931, these clubs sponsored the first all-African American Air Show, which attracted approximately 15,000 spectators. That same year, a group of African American pilots established an annual flyover of Coleman's grave in Lincoln Cemetery in Chicago. Coleman's name also began appearing on buildings in Harlem.
Despite her relatively short career, Bessie Coleman strongly challenged early 20th century stereotypes about white supremacy and the inabilities of women. By becoming the first licensed African American female pilot, and performing throughout the country, Coleman proved that people did not have to be shackled by their gender or the color of their skin to succeed and realize their dreams.
Bessie Coleman
Aviation Pioneer
Elizabeth 'Bessie' Coleman (January 26, 1892 – April 30, 1926) Bessie Coleman, the daughter of a poor, southern, African American family, became one of the most famous women and African Americans in aviation history. "Brave Bessie" or "Queen Bess," as she became known, faced the double difficulties of racial and gender discrimination in early 20th-century America but overcame such challenges to become the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license. Coleman not only thrilled audiences with her skills as a barnstormer, but she also became a role model for women and African Americans. Her very presence in the air threatened prevailing contemporary stereotypes. She also fought segregation when she could by using her influence as a celebrity to effect change, no matter how small.
Coleman was born on January 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas, to a large African American family (although some histories incorrectly report 1893 or 1896). She was one of 13 children. Her father was a Native American and her mother an African American. Very early in her childhood, Bessie and her family moved to Waxahachie, Texas, where she grew up picking cotton and doing laundry for customers with her mother.
The Coleman family, like most African Americans who lived in the Deep South during the early 20th century, faced many disadvantages and difficulties. Bessie's family dealt with segregation, disenfranchisement, and racial violence. Because of such obstacles, Bessie's father decided to move the family to "Indian Territory" in Oklahoma. He believed they could carve out a much better living for themselves there. Bessie's mother, however, did not want to live on an Indian reservation and decided to remain in Waxahachie. Bessie, and several of her sisters, also stayed in Texas.
Bessie was a highly motivated individual. Despite working long hours, she still found time to educate herself by borrowing books from a traveling library. Although she could not attend school very often, Bessie learned enough on her own to graduate from high school. She then went on to study at the Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now Langston University) in Langston, Oklahoma. Nevertheless, because of limited finances, Bessie only attended one semester of college.
By 1915, Bessie had grown tired of the South and moved to Chicago. There, she began living with two of her brothers. She attended beauty school and then started working as a manicurist in a local barbershop.
Bessie first considered becoming a pilot after reading about aviation and watching newsreels about flight. But the real impetus behind her decision to become an aviator was her brother John's incessant teasing. John had served overseas during World War I and returned home talking about, according to historian Doris Rich, "the superiority of French women over those of Chicago's South Side." He even told Bessie that French women flew airplanes and declared that flying was something Bessie would never be able to do. John's jostling was the final push that Bessie needed to start pursuing her pilot's license. She immediately began applying to flight schools throughout the country, but because she was both female and an African American, no U.S. flight school would take her.
Soon after being turned down by American flight schools, Coleman met Robert Abbott, publisher of the well-known African American newspaper, the Chicago Defender. He recommended that Coleman save some money and move to France, which he believed was the world's most racially progressive nation, and obtain her pilot's license there. Coleman quickly heeded Abbott's advice and quit her job as a manicurist to begin work as the manager of a chili parlor, a more lucrative position. She also started learning French at night. In November 1920, Bessie took her savings and sailed for France. She also received some additional funds from Abbott and one of his friends.
Coleman attended the well-known Caudron Brothers' School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France. There she learned to fly using French Nieuport airplanes. On June 15, 1921, Coleman obtained her pilot's license from Federation Aeronautique Internationale after only seven months. She was the first black woman in the world to earn an aviator's license. After some additional training in Paris, Coleman returned to the United States in September 1921.
Coleman's main goals when she returned to America were to make a living flying and to establish the first African American flight school. Because of her color and gender, however, she was somewhat limited in her first goal. Barnstorming seemed to be the only way for her to make money, but to become an aerial daredevil, Coleman needed more training. Once again, Bessie applied to American flight schools, and once again they rejected her. So in February 1922, she returned to Europe. After learning most of the standard barnstorming tricks, Coleman returned to the United States.
Bessie flew in her first air show on September 3, 1922, at Glenn Curtiss Field in Garden City, New York. The show, which was sponsored by the Chicago Defender, was a promotional vehicle to spotlight Coleman. Bessie became a celebrity, thanks to the help of her benefactor Abbott. She subsequently began touring the country giving exhibitions, flight lessons, and lectures. During her travels, she strongly encouraged African Americans and women to learn to fly.
In February 1923, Coleman suffered her first major accident while preparing for an exhibition in Los Angeles; her Jenny airplane's engine unexpectedly stalled and she crashed. Knocked unconscious by the accident, Coleman received a broken leg, some cracked ribs, and multiple cuts on her face. Shaken badly by the incident, it took her over a year to recover fully.
Coleman started performing again full time in 1925. On June 19, she dazzled thousands as she "barrel-rolled" and "looped-the-loop" over Houston's Aerial Transport Field. It was her first exhibition in her home state of Texas, and even local whites attended, although they watched from separate segregated bleachers.
Even though Coleman realized that she had to work within the general confines of southern segregation, she did try to use her fame to challenge racial barriers, if only a little. Soon after her Houston show, Bessie returned to her old hometown of Waxahachie to give an exhibition. As in Houston, both whites and African Americans wanted to attend the event and plans called for segregated facilities. Officials even wanted whites and African Americans to enter the venue through separate "white" and "Negro" admission gates, but Coleman refused to perform under such conditions. She demanded only one admission gate. After much negotiation, Coleman got her way and Texans of both races entered the air field through the same gate, but then separated into their designated sections once inside.
Coleman's aviation career ended tragically in 1926. On April 30, she died while preparing for a show in Jacksonville, Florida. Coleman was riding in the passenger seat of her "Jenny" airplane while her mechanic William Wills was piloting the aircraft. Bessie was not wearing her seat belt at the time so that she could lean over the edge of the cockpit and scout potential parachute landing spots (she had recently added parachute-jumping to her repetorie and was planning to perform the feat the next day). But while Bessie was scouting from the back seat, the plane suddenly dropped into a steep nosedive and then flipped over and catapulted her to her death. Wills, who was still strapped into his seat, struggled to regain control of the aircraft, but died when he crashed in a nearby field. After the accident, investigators discovered that Wills, who was Coleman's mechanic, had lost control of the aircraft because a loose wrench had jammed the plane's instruments.
Coleman's impact on aviation history, and particularly African Americans, quickly became apparent following her death. Bessie Coleman Aero Clubs suddenly sprang up throughout the country. On Labor Day, 1931, these clubs sponsored the first all-African American Air Show, which attracted approximately 15,000 spectators. That same year, a group of African American pilots established an annual flyover of Coleman's grave in Lincoln Cemetery in Chicago. Coleman's name also began appearing on buildings in Harlem.
Despite her relatively short career, Bessie Coleman strongly challenged early 20th century stereotypes about white supremacy and the inabilities of women. By becoming the first licensed African American female pilot, and performing throughout the country, Coleman proved that people did not have to be shackled by their gender or the color of their skin to succeed and realize their dreams.
source: The Red Hot Jazz Archive
Black Swan Records
The First Black Owned Record Company
...the first to be owned and operated by, and marketed to, African Americans.
In the first quarter of the 20th century (1900–1925), the great migration of the African-American people took shape. They left their rural, country, backwoods habitats of the southern states of the U. S. and relocated in the northern cities of an emerging industrialized America. They brought with them their taste for music which was a staple of their spiritual and earthy lifestyle.
This musical impact combined with the technical growth of capitalist America to produce an urban industry; the entertainment industry. Names like Scott Joplin (Ragtime), W. C. Handy (Blues), Eubie Blake (Popular) and Louis Armstrong (Jazz) produced a lucrative and thriving music entertainment industry that exists and is viable up until this present time. The technology of this industry was almost totally in the hands of white Americans. Recording, the making of records in its beginning years 1900–1920, was a discriminatory process. White producers took the musical ideas of Blacks, but were reluctant to allow Blacks to make records. By 1920 the only Black voice to be recorded by the major companies was Bert Williams on Columbia and Mamie Smith on OKeh Records. One man, Harry Herbert Pace, was aware of this fact. He decided to act.
"Companies would not entertain any thought of recording a colored musician or colored voice, I therefore decided to form my own company and make such recordings as I believed would sell." (The Negro in New York, 1939)
Harry Herbert Pace was born on January 6th, 1884 in Covington, Georgia. His father, Charles Pace, was a blacksmith who died while Harry was an infant leaving him to be raised by his mother, Nancy Francis Pace. Light skinned and extremely bright, Pace finished elementary school at age twelve and seven years later graduated valedictorian of his class in Atlanta University. A disciple of his college teacher, W. E. B. DuBois and his concept of the talented tenth, upon graduation, Pace worked in printing, banking and insurance industries first in Atlanta and later in Memphis. In various junior executive positions, he demonstrated a strong understanding of business tactics and had a reputation for rebuilding failing enterprises.
During his sojourn in the South, two significant things happened that would impact his figure. In 1912 in Memphis, he met and collaborated with W. C. Handy, generally recognized as the father of the Blues. Handy took a liking to Pace, they wrote songs together. Later they would develop the Pace and Handy Music Company, that would bring Harry Pace to New York City. Secondly, he met and married his wife, Ethlynde Bibb, who would be a great inspiration in his life. (African-American Business Leaders, Ingraham and Feldman.)
In 1920, Pace resigned his position in Atlanta, moved to New York, purchased a fine home on "Striver Row" in Harlem and settled in to manage the Pace and Handy Sheet Music business. The business using Pace's business knowledge and Handy's creative genius was very successful. While the company was profitable and artistically effective, Pace was frustrated. He observed as white recording companies bought the music and lyrics from Pace and Handy and then recorded them using white artists. When they did employ Blacks, they refused to let them sing and play in their own authentic style. Pace resolved to start his own record firm. Many scholars for years believed Handy was part of Pace company. Handy stated:
To add to my woes, my partner withdrew from the business. He disagreed with some of my business methods, but no harsh words were involved. He simply chose this time to sever connection with our firm in order that he might organized Pace Phonograph Company, issuing Black Swan Records and making a serious bid for the Negro market. ... With Pace went a large number of our employees. ... Still more confusion and anguish grew out of the fact that people did not generally know that I had no stake in the Black Swan Record Company."
In the 1920's New York, Harlem was ushering in a Negro renaissance of art and culture. Marcus Garvey (of whom Pace was a severe critic) was leading the largest Black mass movement for pride and economic redemption in twentieth century America. Even the Negro middle class, of which Pace was an undeniable member, was feeling the call to control the destiny of their lives, set up companies, manufacture products, employ and sell products to their own people. Pace was impacted by the wave of Black Nationalism sweeping the U. S. in the early 1920's post World War I period.
Humble Beginnings
In March of 1921 under the laws of the state of Delaware and using about $30,000 in borrowed capital, Pace organized the Pace Phonograph Corporation, Inc. with a Board of Directors that included Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, Mr. John E. Nail, Dr. Matthew V. Bouttle and Ms. Viola Bibb. The company's first office was his home at 257 West 138th Street New York, N. Y. The African-American newspaper, New York Age reported:
PHONOGRAPH COMPANY MAKING RAPID PROGRESS
Among the business organizations recently established by Negroes in New York, one of the most important is the Pace Phonograph Company. This company was incorporated in January 1921, under the laws of the state of Delaware on $110,000. The board of directors of the organization is composed of some of the most able colored businessmen.
Pace did not have an easy time entering the record business. White record companies threw up obstacles to keep him out. When he attempted to use a local pressing company, a large white company purchased the plant to keep him out. He was able to get a local studio to record, but had to send the master to a pressing plant located in Port Washington, Wisconsin to be pressed. Finally in about six weeks with all the preliminary work completed and all the necessary ingredients in place, from recording laboratories to wrapping paper and corrugated board. Pace was ready to manufacture Black Swan Records.
Pace used the name Black Swan to honor the accomplishments of Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield (1809–1976), a remarkably talented Negro singer known as "The Black Swan." Pace had designed a logo, a handsome black and gold label with a swan in gold against the black, floating above the banner (Jazz: A History of the New York Scene). In his advertising in African-American newspapers Pace stressed the race issue, saying, "The only genuine colored records; others are only passing for colored." Among the earliest employees for Pace was Fletcher Henderson, the pianist and band leader who became the recording manager and William Grant Still, the classical composer and orchestra leader who was the musical director of the new firm.
The first 3 records, probably recorded in April of 1921 and released in May of 1921, featured C. Carroll Clarke, a Denver-born baritone known to sing a fine ballad with a generally good reputation among high class Negro patrons, Katie Crippen, a vaudevillian who sang Blues and Revella Hughes, a soprano and vocal teacher who was very popular among the highbrow New York area patrons at that time. The Chicago Defender of May 7th, 1921 carried a press release of three paragraphs listing Black Swan 2001, 2002 and 2003 as May releases.
Fletcher Henderson was the pianist of record on all Black Swan releases from the start until the Fall of 1921. Other regularly used musicians for Black Swan during that period included: Joe Smith, Cornet; George Brashear, Trombone; Edgar Campbell, Clarinet; Cordy Williams, Charlie Dixon, Banjo; "Chink" Johnson, Trombone/Tubas. William Grant Still also doubled as manager and played several instruments (Oboe, Violin, Cello, Clarinet, Saxophone, Banjo and others) and was available for recordings.
Black Swan Records would have had a short and non-significant existence if it relied on the sale of its earliest records. Even Fletcher Henderson stated that these early releases were "straight songs or novelty numbers in the raggy style which was that heritage of the Europe-Brymn-Dabney School ... the one blues had not been done in blues style. "The music was not being produced to appeal to the taste of masses of the African-American people. This changed suddenly in the Summer of 1921.
It was in the Summer of 1921 that Ethel Waters came to the rescue of Black Swan Records. Three different accounts of this occurrence are depicted. Whichever version we select the outcome was the same. Fletcher Henderson stated:
"I was walking along 135th Street in Harlem one night, and there, in a basement, singing with all her heart, was Ethel. I had her come down and cut four sides of which two—Down Home Blues and Oh Daddy —became such hits that we were made."
Other recollections of this date are a bit different. Harry Pace himself was written:
"While in Atlantic City. ... I went to a cabaret on the West Side at the invitation of a mutual friend who stated that there was a girl there singing with a peculiar voice that he thought I might use. I went into the cabaret and heard this girl and I invited her over to my table to talk about coming to New York to make a recording. She very brusquely refused but at the same time I saw that she was interested and I told her that I would send her a ticket to New York and return on the next Wednesday. I did send such a ticket and she came to New York and made two records, Down Home Blues and Oh Daddy. This girl was Ethel Waters and the records were enormously successful. I sold 500,000 of these records within six months. The next month I had her make two other records and thereafter for a long time she made a record a month. But none of them ever measured up to the Down Home Blues record."
Ethel Waters added her own recollections. She had recorded earlier for the Cardinal company, having been contracted by a free-lanced talent scout, who later suggested she go to Black Swan for an audition:
"... I found Fletcher Henderson sitting behind a desk and looking very prissy and important. ... There was much discussion of whether I should sing popular or 'cultural' numbers. They finally decided on popular, and I asked one hundred dollars for making the record. I was still getting only thirty-five dollars a week, so one hundred dollars seemed quite a lump sum to me. Mr. Pace paid me the one hundred dollars, and that first Black Swan record I made had Down Home Blues on one side, Oh Daddy on the other. It proved a great success ... got Black Swan out of the red.
Riding the crest of this first successful Black Swan Recording, Pace and his small army hit upon the concept that would catapult Black Swan into the annals of recording history; the Black Swan tours.
High Times For Black Swan
It was ironic that at the time of its earliest success Black Swan had the opportunity to record and sign Bessie Smith, who would later become legendary as the "Queen of the Blues." Harry Pace upon hearing her sing one night decided that she was too "nitty gritty" for his taste. (African-American Business Leaders, Ingraham and Feldman) Two years later she would break all sales as a Columbia recording artist.
The company was doing better by the fall of 1921. Pace decided to send a group of Black Swan artists out on a Vaudeville tour.
In the October 22, 1921 issue of the Chicago Defender there appeared the following advertisement:
"Coming Your Way—Black Swan Troubadours Featuring the Famous phonographic Star ETHEL WATERS The World's Greatest 'Blues' Singer and Her Black Swan Jazz Masters. Company of All-Star Colored Artists. Exclusive Artists of the Only Colored Phonograph Record Company. Lodge, Clubs Societies and Managers wire or write terms and open time. T. V. Holland, Mgr. 275 W. 138th St. New York City.
(Hendersonia/W. C. Allen)
An orchestra, the Black Swan Jazz Masters was organized to accompany Ethel Waters on this national tour. A man named Simpson was named road manager and a series of dates were lined up. But before the Tour could begin two matters had to be dealt with that reveal the social tone of the time, particularly in the world of African-American entertainment.
Fletcher Henderson, the well-mannered, quiet, studious pianist and leader of the Black Swan Jazz Masters, was being advertised on a National Tour with a noted Blues singer. From a distinguished Southern colored Georgia family, this Atlanta University chemistry graduate had to entertain his parents in New York City to counsel him before departing on the tour. After meeting Ms. Ethel Waters, the beloved Black Queen of stage, screen , T. V. and music had to suffer further indignities so she could enrich the legacy of Black Swan Records. She was requested and agreed to sign a one year contract with Harry Pace.
The Chicago DEFENDER of Dec. 24,1921 broke the news:
"ETHEL MUST NOT MARRY–SIGNS CONTRACT FOR BIG SALARY–PROVIDING SHE DOES NOT MARRY WITHIN A YEAR. New York, Dec. 21–Ethel Waters, star of the Black Swan Troubadours, has signed a unique contract with Harry H. Pace, which stipulates that she is not to marry for at least a year, and that during this period she is to devote her time largely to singing for Black Swan Records and appearing with the Troubadours. It was due to numerous offers of marriage, many of her suitors suggesting that she give up her professional life at once for domesticity, that Mr. Pace was prompted to make this step. ... Miss Waters' contract makes her now the highest salaried colored phonograph star in the country."
The tour began at the Pennsylvania Standard Theater in Philadelphia on Nov. 23,1921 and the Black Swan Troubadours remained on tour until July of 1922. They visited 21 states (See Appendix) and performed in over 53 cities playing one or two night stands and up to 2 weeks on one engagement. (New Orleans)
The turnouts and enthusiasm of the audiences were fantastic. After the first month engagement, Pace hired Lester Walton, noted newspaper columnist (the first Black) for the New York World (a major daily newspaper) as the road manager and advance man for the Tour. Walton got the African-American Newspaper Network (New York Age, Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, Baltimore Afro-American) involved in pumping out constant media on the Tour and the people's response to Ethel Waters and her Black Swan Jazzmen.
"ETHEL WATERS MAKING BIG HIT IN WEST Harry H. Pace, president of the Pace Phonograph Company, under whose auspices Ethel Waters and her troubadours are touring the West, received the following telegram from C. H. Turner, manager of the Booker Washington Theater, St. Louis, Mo., on Tuesday morning relative in her show, which opened there on New Year's Day:
"Congratulations on your wonderful show which opened here today to a record business. Predict increase in sales of your product by thousand per cent."
Miss Waters and her band has been making a hit in every theater she has played since beginning her tour. During the Christmas week her show was at the Lincoln Theater, Louisville, Ky."
New York, Age, Jan., 7th, 1922
Early in January 1922, the Chicago DEFENDER noted that Lester Walton "manager in advance for the tour of Ethel Waters & Co." had arrived in Chicago on Jan. 3, while the troupe itself was "breaking all records" in St. Louis. Undoubtedly he was lining up their next major playing date, for on Jan. 14, 1922, a prominent advertisement in the DEFENDER announced:
"One week Only—Starting on Monday, January 16. ... Walton & Pace present the Black Swan Troubadours featuring Ethel Waters—World's Greatest Singer of Blues and Her Jazz Masters, New York's Leading Exponents of Syncopation. Also Ethel Williams and Froncell Manley in a Whirlwind Dancing Specialty. Grand Theater, State @ 31st St., Chicago. Nightly at 8:30."
Chicago Defender, Jan. 14, 1922
"When the four musicians declared they were through, Miss Waters asked if there were others in the company who objected to traveling to the South. There were no response. The singer ended the incident by stating that while railroad accommodations and other phases of travel were none too desirable in the South she felt it her duty to make sacrifices in order that members of her Race might hear her sing a style of music which is a product of the Southland. The places of four dissatisfied musicians were at once filled by talented young men from Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Chicago."
Chicago Defender, Feb. 11th, 1922
"ETHEL WATERS CO, NOW IN THE SOUTH
Ethel Waters and her Black Swan Troubadours opened their Southern tour Monday at the Palace Theater, Memphis, for a week's run. Indications are that company will do a record-breaking business during this engagement. Company will open in Pine Bluff, Ark. for two days' engagement of February 24 and 25, Fort Smith, February 27 and 28."
New York Age, Feb. 18th, 1922
"ETHEL WATERS AND CO. A HIT IN NEW ORLEANS
New Orleans, La.—The Ethel Waters' Company, Lester A. Walton, manager, of New York played a week's engagement at the Lyric Theater of this city beginning Monday, April 17th, and offered a show that drew a record attendance at every performance for this playhouse. It has been voted the cleanest and strongest company of vaudeville performers offered at the Lyric in a long time. So popular as entertainers did it become after showing a few days that the New Orleans Item, a big daily here persuaded the manager to have the company's star and its jazz band to go to its office on Friday night and have their work radio phoned all over the city and the surrounding territory. And on Saturday morning on the first page. The Item told its readers of the way the blues singer and jazz players stirred the radio fans by its hit. Friday night after the show, the Astoria Hotel had the company and manager as honor guests at a special entertainment in the Red Room of the Hotel. A toothsome collation was served the guests and the hall was thronged."
New York Age, April 29th, 1922
"The dance at Lincoln Park Tuesday night (i.e. May 16) by Henderson's Dance Orchestra of New York popularly known as Ethel Water's Jazz Masters, was much better than expected. There was (sic) quite a few present in spite of the dampness caused by the rain, and all who went danced to the strains until the wee hours of the morning."
Savannah TRIBUTE, May 18th, 1922
"The jazzies were present with bells on, and for the first time of their lives members of the [...] his instrument [...] than any musician [t]o ever appear—could do more with [...] an excellent musician can do with a trombone—and few in the audience ever expected to hear the notes from a cornet that issued forth last night."
Wilmington, N. C. TRIBUTE, unknown date
"The Wilmington, N. C., Dispatch had the following to say concerning the company's appearance in that city: 'Ethel Waters and her jazz masters have come and gone but their memory will linger for months. The Black Swan Troubadours played an engagement at the Academy of Music last night and were so much better than had been expected the crowd was left wide eyed and gasping with astonishment and delight for the company has class written all over it. Ethel Waters is headlined but was forced to share her honors with Ethel Williams, a dancer of more ability than two-thirds of those who have ever played Wilmington. Her acts, including shimmies and shivers, is done with Roscoe Wickman and it sent crowd into paroxyms of the wildest delight. The Williams woman is almost white, with her form of a Venus and the eyes of a devil and in company with Wickman, she lifted the audience up and up until it literally overflowed with delight. Ethel Waters' blues numbers closed the program and with her jazz masters under perfect control and rendering jazz music that is only possible with Negro artists, she backed all colored competitors who have ever appeared here completely off the boards. The Waters aggregation is in a class to itself. It is so much better than other colored shows that have appeared here that a comparison is unfair to others.'
New York Age, June 3rd, 1922
The Tour was an overwhelming success with ramifications far and wide. Black Swan was established as an national record label with respect and increasing record sales. The new Blues and Jazz music had national recognition and a meaningful following. In New Orleans, Ethel Waters became the first Black performer to entertain on the new mass media, radio. Musicians like Louis Armstrong in New Orleans and Joe Smith in Cincinnati came out to support and perform with the Black Swan Jazz Masters. Anew camaraderie and standard was adopted within the National Jazz community.
By the time the participants in the Black Swan Troubadours returned to New York in July of 1922, the Pace Phonograph Co. had exploded in success. From its beginning in the basement of the owner, the company now owned a building as 2289 Seventh Avenue and 135th Street. It employed 15–30 people in its offices and shipping room, an 8-man orchestra, seven district managers in the largest cities in the country and over 1,000 dealers and agents in locations as far away as the Philippines and the West Indies.
In January of 1922, Harry H. Pace had issued a public financial statement on the first year of existence of Black Swan Records (New York Age, Jan. 24th, 1922). This strategy brought to the attention of everyone the financial success of Black Swan Records. A company started with $30,000 investment had yielded an income of $104,628.74 during its first eleven months of existence. That was almost four times the economic investment. Pace boasted that the success of Black Swan had colored people rewarded in the economic success of their labors:
"It is worthy to note that sharing in the prosperity of this company are colored employees, including singers, musicians, composers, printers an many other. The company announces disbursements for the period of [...] $101,327.17."
In April of 1922, Pace completed his final major deal when he bought part-interest in a pressing plant to produce Black Swan Records. He formed a partnership with John Fletcher, a white man, to purchase the bankrupt Remington Phonograph Corp. and their recording and pressing plant in Long Island City. With this increased capacity, Pace expanded the production of Black Swan Records to more than 6,000 records daily. Black Swan issued two new series of recorded music with its 10000 and 14000 series. With William Grant Still replacing the touring Fletcher Henderson, the company introduced music in every genre including opera, choral groups and symphony orchestras.
Things were going so well for Harry Pace that in an interview with writers for the New York Age in August of 1922, he talked about manufacturing a "Swanola" phonograph. He stated that this part of the business had not yet been fully developed. But the Pace Company was looking forward to employing colored mechanics as soon as they could be properly trained for work. This was Harry Pace's final dream for Black Swan Records.
The Decline of Black Swan
If the success that Pace Phonograph Corp. Inc. experienced during its first year provided anything, it alerted the competition to the lucrativeness of the market. More than ever by succeeding years 1922 and 1923 obtaining Black artists became increasingly harder as the major white companies began to bid competitively for their services. After the tour concluded in July of 1922, artists like Fletcher Henderson and Ethel Waters no longer recorded exclusively for Black Swan Records.
The success of race records led to costly competition and price cutting by white-owned labels such as Okeh, Paramount and Columbia.
Many African-Americans, especially from the entertainment community, resented Pace for breaking his promise of an all-Black recording company. Though he continued to advertise that the enterprise was run only by Blacks and that they released recordings only by Black musicians, it was proven that the company was pressing records by white ensembles such as the Original Memphis Five. Pace began to lose the respect and confidence of the musician community and it became more difficult to continue to produce a quality product.
In March of 1923, the Pace Phonograph Company was renamed the Black Swan Phonograph Co., a sure signal that trouble was coming. By the summer on 1923, no new recordings of Black Swan were announced. Pace summed up his troubles in a letter sent to Roi Ottley:
Business became so great that we bought a plant in Long Island City that we were using as a recording laboratory and a pressing laboratory, and shortly afterwards transferred all shipping over to the plant. We were selling around 7,000 records a day and had only three presses in the factory which could make 6,000 records daily, ... We ordered three additional presses in 1923 made especially for some improvements, and had them ready for installation in the factory. Before they were set up and ready for running, radio broadcasting broke and this spelled doom for us. Immediately dealers began to cancel orders that they had placed, records were returned unaccepted, many record stores became radio stores, and we found ourselves making and selling only about 3,000 records daily and then it came down to 1,000, and our factory was closed for two weeks at a time and finally the factory was sold to a sheriff's sale and bought by a Chicago firm who made records for Sears & Roebuck Company. However, this did not completely defeat us and we continued to have records made at a concern in Connecticut and sold these repeat orders for a year or so until the thing finally came to a close.
In December of 1923, Black Swan Records declared bankruptcy and in May of 1924 Paramount announced a deal to lease the Black Swam catalog. Black Swan Records was history.
Pace Moves On
The long term impact of Black Swan Records are too numerous to elaborate upon fully in this paper. Some of them are:
Paramount, Columbia and other recording companies could no longer ignore Black musicians and singers.
The Black Swan discography still has value. As late as 1987, Jazzology Records announced its intention to revive the name and reissue the series of early recordings.
Ethel Waters, Fletcher Henderson, William Grant Still, Alberta Hunter and many others used Black Swan as a training period and proceeded on to outstanding success within the entertainment industry.
It opened up the entertainment/recording industry to Blacks and opened up advertisement in Black newspapers from major record and entertainment companies. Today, the many musical, recording and entertainment stars who earn enormous salaries and have world-wide recognition owe a debt of gratitude to the symbol of self-pride and self-determination to The Black Swan Recording Company.
Today, the Black Swan Catalog is available on George H. Buck's Jazzology/GHB label.
Black Swan Records
The First Black Owned Record Company
...the first to be owned and operated by, and marketed to, African Americans.
In the first quarter of the 20th century (1900–1925), the great migration of the African-American people took shape. They left their rural, country, backwoods habitats of the southern states of the U. S. and relocated in the northern cities of an emerging industrialized America. They brought with them their taste for music which was a staple of their spiritual and earthy lifestyle.
This musical impact combined with the technical growth of capitalist America to produce an urban industry; the entertainment industry. Names like Scott Joplin (Ragtime), W. C. Handy (Blues), Eubie Blake (Popular) and Louis Armstrong (Jazz) produced a lucrative and thriving music entertainment industry that exists and is viable up until this present time. The technology of this industry was almost totally in the hands of white Americans. Recording, the making of records in its beginning years 1900–1920, was a discriminatory process. White producers took the musical ideas of Blacks, but were reluctant to allow Blacks to make records. By 1920 the only Black voice to be recorded by the major companies was Bert Williams on Columbia and Mamie Smith on OKeh Records. One man, Harry Herbert Pace, was aware of this fact. He decided to act.
"Companies would not entertain any thought of recording a colored musician or colored voice, I therefore decided to form my own company and make such recordings as I believed would sell." (The Negro in New York, 1939)
Harry Herbert Pace was born on January 6th, 1884 in Covington, Georgia. His father, Charles Pace, was a blacksmith who died while Harry was an infant leaving him to be raised by his mother, Nancy Francis Pace. Light skinned and extremely bright, Pace finished elementary school at age twelve and seven years later graduated valedictorian of his class in Atlanta University. A disciple of his college teacher, W. E. B. DuBois and his concept of the talented tenth, upon graduation, Pace worked in printing, banking and insurance industries first in Atlanta and later in Memphis. In various junior executive positions, he demonstrated a strong understanding of business tactics and had a reputation for rebuilding failing enterprises.
During his sojourn in the South, two significant things happened that would impact his figure. In 1912 in Memphis, he met and collaborated with W. C. Handy, generally recognized as the father of the Blues. Handy took a liking to Pace, they wrote songs together. Later they would develop the Pace and Handy Music Company, that would bring Harry Pace to New York City. Secondly, he met and married his wife, Ethlynde Bibb, who would be a great inspiration in his life. (African-American Business Leaders, Ingraham and Feldman.)
In 1920, Pace resigned his position in Atlanta, moved to New York, purchased a fine home on "Striver Row" in Harlem and settled in to manage the Pace and Handy Sheet Music business. The business using Pace's business knowledge and Handy's creative genius was very successful. While the company was profitable and artistically effective, Pace was frustrated. He observed as white recording companies bought the music and lyrics from Pace and Handy and then recorded them using white artists. When they did employ Blacks, they refused to let them sing and play in their own authentic style. Pace resolved to start his own record firm. Many scholars for years believed Handy was part of Pace company. Handy stated:
To add to my woes, my partner withdrew from the business. He disagreed with some of my business methods, but no harsh words were involved. He simply chose this time to sever connection with our firm in order that he might organized Pace Phonograph Company, issuing Black Swan Records and making a serious bid for the Negro market. ... With Pace went a large number of our employees. ... Still more confusion and anguish grew out of the fact that people did not generally know that I had no stake in the Black Swan Record Company."
In the 1920's New York, Harlem was ushering in a Negro renaissance of art and culture. Marcus Garvey (of whom Pace was a severe critic) was leading the largest Black mass movement for pride and economic redemption in twentieth century America. Even the Negro middle class, of which Pace was an undeniable member, was feeling the call to control the destiny of their lives, set up companies, manufacture products, employ and sell products to their own people. Pace was impacted by the wave of Black Nationalism sweeping the U. S. in the early 1920's post World War I period.
Humble Beginnings
In March of 1921 under the laws of the state of Delaware and using about $30,000 in borrowed capital, Pace organized the Pace Phonograph Corporation, Inc. with a Board of Directors that included Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, Mr. John E. Nail, Dr. Matthew V. Bouttle and Ms. Viola Bibb. The company's first office was his home at 257 West 138th Street New York, N. Y. The African-American newspaper, New York Age reported:
PHONOGRAPH COMPANY MAKING RAPID PROGRESS
Among the business organizations recently established by Negroes in New York, one of the most important is the Pace Phonograph Company. This company was incorporated in January 1921, under the laws of the state of Delaware on $110,000. The board of directors of the organization is composed of some of the most able colored businessmen.
Pace did not have an easy time entering the record business. White record companies threw up obstacles to keep him out. When he attempted to use a local pressing company, a large white company purchased the plant to keep him out. He was able to get a local studio to record, but had to send the master to a pressing plant located in Port Washington, Wisconsin to be pressed. Finally in about six weeks with all the preliminary work completed and all the necessary ingredients in place, from recording laboratories to wrapping paper and corrugated board. Pace was ready to manufacture Black Swan Records.
Pace used the name Black Swan to honor the accomplishments of Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield (1809–1976), a remarkably talented Negro singer known as "The Black Swan." Pace had designed a logo, a handsome black and gold label with a swan in gold against the black, floating above the banner (Jazz: A History of the New York Scene). In his advertising in African-American newspapers Pace stressed the race issue, saying, "The only genuine colored records; others are only passing for colored." Among the earliest employees for Pace was Fletcher Henderson, the pianist and band leader who became the recording manager and William Grant Still, the classical composer and orchestra leader who was the musical director of the new firm.
The first 3 records, probably recorded in April of 1921 and released in May of 1921, featured C. Carroll Clarke, a Denver-born baritone known to sing a fine ballad with a generally good reputation among high class Negro patrons, Katie Crippen, a vaudevillian who sang Blues and Revella Hughes, a soprano and vocal teacher who was very popular among the highbrow New York area patrons at that time. The Chicago Defender of May 7th, 1921 carried a press release of three paragraphs listing Black Swan 2001, 2002 and 2003 as May releases.
Fletcher Henderson was the pianist of record on all Black Swan releases from the start until the Fall of 1921. Other regularly used musicians for Black Swan during that period included: Joe Smith, Cornet; George Brashear, Trombone; Edgar Campbell, Clarinet; Cordy Williams, Charlie Dixon, Banjo; "Chink" Johnson, Trombone/Tubas. William Grant Still also doubled as manager and played several instruments (Oboe, Violin, Cello, Clarinet, Saxophone, Banjo and others) and was available for recordings.
Black Swan Records would have had a short and non-significant existence if it relied on the sale of its earliest records. Even Fletcher Henderson stated that these early releases were "straight songs or novelty numbers in the raggy style which was that heritage of the Europe-Brymn-Dabney School ... the one blues had not been done in blues style. "The music was not being produced to appeal to the taste of masses of the African-American people. This changed suddenly in the Summer of 1921.
It was in the Summer of 1921 that Ethel Waters came to the rescue of Black Swan Records. Three different accounts of this occurrence are depicted. Whichever version we select the outcome was the same. Fletcher Henderson stated:
"I was walking along 135th Street in Harlem one night, and there, in a basement, singing with all her heart, was Ethel. I had her come down and cut four sides of which two—Down Home Blues and Oh Daddy —became such hits that we were made."
Other recollections of this date are a bit different. Harry Pace himself was written:
"While in Atlantic City. ... I went to a cabaret on the West Side at the invitation of a mutual friend who stated that there was a girl there singing with a peculiar voice that he thought I might use. I went into the cabaret and heard this girl and I invited her over to my table to talk about coming to New York to make a recording. She very brusquely refused but at the same time I saw that she was interested and I told her that I would send her a ticket to New York and return on the next Wednesday. I did send such a ticket and she came to New York and made two records, Down Home Blues and Oh Daddy. This girl was Ethel Waters and the records were enormously successful. I sold 500,000 of these records within six months. The next month I had her make two other records and thereafter for a long time she made a record a month. But none of them ever measured up to the Down Home Blues record."
Ethel Waters added her own recollections. She had recorded earlier for the Cardinal company, having been contracted by a free-lanced talent scout, who later suggested she go to Black Swan for an audition:
"... I found Fletcher Henderson sitting behind a desk and looking very prissy and important. ... There was much discussion of whether I should sing popular or 'cultural' numbers. They finally decided on popular, and I asked one hundred dollars for making the record. I was still getting only thirty-five dollars a week, so one hundred dollars seemed quite a lump sum to me. Mr. Pace paid me the one hundred dollars, and that first Black Swan record I made had Down Home Blues on one side, Oh Daddy on the other. It proved a great success ... got Black Swan out of the red.
Riding the crest of this first successful Black Swan Recording, Pace and his small army hit upon the concept that would catapult Black Swan into the annals of recording history; the Black Swan tours.
High Times For Black Swan
It was ironic that at the time of its earliest success Black Swan had the opportunity to record and sign Bessie Smith, who would later become legendary as the "Queen of the Blues." Harry Pace upon hearing her sing one night decided that she was too "nitty gritty" for his taste. (African-American Business Leaders, Ingraham and Feldman) Two years later she would break all sales as a Columbia recording artist.
The company was doing better by the fall of 1921. Pace decided to send a group of Black Swan artists out on a Vaudeville tour.
In the October 22, 1921 issue of the Chicago Defender there appeared the following advertisement:
"Coming Your Way—Black Swan Troubadours Featuring the Famous phonographic Star ETHEL WATERS The World's Greatest 'Blues' Singer and Her Black Swan Jazz Masters. Company of All-Star Colored Artists. Exclusive Artists of the Only Colored Phonograph Record Company. Lodge, Clubs Societies and Managers wire or write terms and open time. T. V. Holland, Mgr. 275 W. 138th St. New York City.
(Hendersonia/W. C. Allen)
An orchestra, the Black Swan Jazz Masters was organized to accompany Ethel Waters on this national tour. A man named Simpson was named road manager and a series of dates were lined up. But before the Tour could begin two matters had to be dealt with that reveal the social tone of the time, particularly in the world of African-American entertainment.
Fletcher Henderson, the well-mannered, quiet, studious pianist and leader of the Black Swan Jazz Masters, was being advertised on a National Tour with a noted Blues singer. From a distinguished Southern colored Georgia family, this Atlanta University chemistry graduate had to entertain his parents in New York City to counsel him before departing on the tour. After meeting Ms. Ethel Waters, the beloved Black Queen of stage, screen , T. V. and music had to suffer further indignities so she could enrich the legacy of Black Swan Records. She was requested and agreed to sign a one year contract with Harry Pace.
The Chicago DEFENDER of Dec. 24,1921 broke the news:
"ETHEL MUST NOT MARRY–SIGNS CONTRACT FOR BIG SALARY–PROVIDING SHE DOES NOT MARRY WITHIN A YEAR. New York, Dec. 21–Ethel Waters, star of the Black Swan Troubadours, has signed a unique contract with Harry H. Pace, which stipulates that she is not to marry for at least a year, and that during this period she is to devote her time largely to singing for Black Swan Records and appearing with the Troubadours. It was due to numerous offers of marriage, many of her suitors suggesting that she give up her professional life at once for domesticity, that Mr. Pace was prompted to make this step. ... Miss Waters' contract makes her now the highest salaried colored phonograph star in the country."
The tour began at the Pennsylvania Standard Theater in Philadelphia on Nov. 23,1921 and the Black Swan Troubadours remained on tour until July of 1922. They visited 21 states (See Appendix) and performed in over 53 cities playing one or two night stands and up to 2 weeks on one engagement. (New Orleans)
The turnouts and enthusiasm of the audiences were fantastic. After the first month engagement, Pace hired Lester Walton, noted newspaper columnist (the first Black) for the New York World (a major daily newspaper) as the road manager and advance man for the Tour. Walton got the African-American Newspaper Network (New York Age, Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, Baltimore Afro-American) involved in pumping out constant media on the Tour and the people's response to Ethel Waters and her Black Swan Jazzmen.
"ETHEL WATERS MAKING BIG HIT IN WEST Harry H. Pace, president of the Pace Phonograph Company, under whose auspices Ethel Waters and her troubadours are touring the West, received the following telegram from C. H. Turner, manager of the Booker Washington Theater, St. Louis, Mo., on Tuesday morning relative in her show, which opened there on New Year's Day:
"Congratulations on your wonderful show which opened here today to a record business. Predict increase in sales of your product by thousand per cent."
Miss Waters and her band has been making a hit in every theater she has played since beginning her tour. During the Christmas week her show was at the Lincoln Theater, Louisville, Ky."
New York, Age, Jan., 7th, 1922
Early in January 1922, the Chicago DEFENDER noted that Lester Walton "manager in advance for the tour of Ethel Waters & Co." had arrived in Chicago on Jan. 3, while the troupe itself was "breaking all records" in St. Louis. Undoubtedly he was lining up their next major playing date, for on Jan. 14, 1922, a prominent advertisement in the DEFENDER announced:
"One week Only—Starting on Monday, January 16. ... Walton & Pace present the Black Swan Troubadours featuring Ethel Waters—World's Greatest Singer of Blues and Her Jazz Masters, New York's Leading Exponents of Syncopation. Also Ethel Williams and Froncell Manley in a Whirlwind Dancing Specialty. Grand Theater, State @ 31st St., Chicago. Nightly at 8:30."
Chicago Defender, Jan. 14, 1922
"When the four musicians declared they were through, Miss Waters asked if there were others in the company who objected to traveling to the South. There were no response. The singer ended the incident by stating that while railroad accommodations and other phases of travel were none too desirable in the South she felt it her duty to make sacrifices in order that members of her Race might hear her sing a style of music which is a product of the Southland. The places of four dissatisfied musicians were at once filled by talented young men from Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Chicago."
Chicago Defender, Feb. 11th, 1922
"ETHEL WATERS CO, NOW IN THE SOUTH
Ethel Waters and her Black Swan Troubadours opened their Southern tour Monday at the Palace Theater, Memphis, for a week's run. Indications are that company will do a record-breaking business during this engagement. Company will open in Pine Bluff, Ark. for two days' engagement of February 24 and 25, Fort Smith, February 27 and 28."
New York Age, Feb. 18th, 1922
"ETHEL WATERS AND CO. A HIT IN NEW ORLEANS
New Orleans, La.—The Ethel Waters' Company, Lester A. Walton, manager, of New York played a week's engagement at the Lyric Theater of this city beginning Monday, April 17th, and offered a show that drew a record attendance at every performance for this playhouse. It has been voted the cleanest and strongest company of vaudeville performers offered at the Lyric in a long time. So popular as entertainers did it become after showing a few days that the New Orleans Item, a big daily here persuaded the manager to have the company's star and its jazz band to go to its office on Friday night and have their work radio phoned all over the city and the surrounding territory. And on Saturday morning on the first page. The Item told its readers of the way the blues singer and jazz players stirred the radio fans by its hit. Friday night after the show, the Astoria Hotel had the company and manager as honor guests at a special entertainment in the Red Room of the Hotel. A toothsome collation was served the guests and the hall was thronged."
New York Age, April 29th, 1922
"The dance at Lincoln Park Tuesday night (i.e. May 16) by Henderson's Dance Orchestra of New York popularly known as Ethel Water's Jazz Masters, was much better than expected. There was (sic) quite a few present in spite of the dampness caused by the rain, and all who went danced to the strains until the wee hours of the morning."
Savannah TRIBUTE, May 18th, 1922
"The jazzies were present with bells on, and for the first time of their lives members of the [...] his instrument [...] than any musician [t]o ever appear—could do more with [...] an excellent musician can do with a trombone—and few in the audience ever expected to hear the notes from a cornet that issued forth last night."
Wilmington, N. C. TRIBUTE, unknown date
"The Wilmington, N. C., Dispatch had the following to say concerning the company's appearance in that city: 'Ethel Waters and her jazz masters have come and gone but their memory will linger for months. The Black Swan Troubadours played an engagement at the Academy of Music last night and were so much better than had been expected the crowd was left wide eyed and gasping with astonishment and delight for the company has class written all over it. Ethel Waters is headlined but was forced to share her honors with Ethel Williams, a dancer of more ability than two-thirds of those who have ever played Wilmington. Her acts, including shimmies and shivers, is done with Roscoe Wickman and it sent crowd into paroxyms of the wildest delight. The Williams woman is almost white, with her form of a Venus and the eyes of a devil and in company with Wickman, she lifted the audience up and up until it literally overflowed with delight. Ethel Waters' blues numbers closed the program and with her jazz masters under perfect control and rendering jazz music that is only possible with Negro artists, she backed all colored competitors who have ever appeared here completely off the boards. The Waters aggregation is in a class to itself. It is so much better than other colored shows that have appeared here that a comparison is unfair to others.'
New York Age, June 3rd, 1922
The Tour was an overwhelming success with ramifications far and wide. Black Swan was established as an national record label with respect and increasing record sales. The new Blues and Jazz music had national recognition and a meaningful following. In New Orleans, Ethel Waters became the first Black performer to entertain on the new mass media, radio. Musicians like Louis Armstrong in New Orleans and Joe Smith in Cincinnati came out to support and perform with the Black Swan Jazz Masters. Anew camaraderie and standard was adopted within the National Jazz community.
By the time the participants in the Black Swan Troubadours returned to New York in July of 1922, the Pace Phonograph Co. had exploded in success. From its beginning in the basement of the owner, the company now owned a building as 2289 Seventh Avenue and 135th Street. It employed 15–30 people in its offices and shipping room, an 8-man orchestra, seven district managers in the largest cities in the country and over 1,000 dealers and agents in locations as far away as the Philippines and the West Indies.
In January of 1922, Harry H. Pace had issued a public financial statement on the first year of existence of Black Swan Records (New York Age, Jan. 24th, 1922). This strategy brought to the attention of everyone the financial success of Black Swan Records. A company started with $30,000 investment had yielded an income of $104,628.74 during its first eleven months of existence. That was almost four times the economic investment. Pace boasted that the success of Black Swan had colored people rewarded in the economic success of their labors:
"It is worthy to note that sharing in the prosperity of this company are colored employees, including singers, musicians, composers, printers an many other. The company announces disbursements for the period of [...] $101,327.17."
In April of 1922, Pace completed his final major deal when he bought part-interest in a pressing plant to produce Black Swan Records. He formed a partnership with John Fletcher, a white man, to purchase the bankrupt Remington Phonograph Corp. and their recording and pressing plant in Long Island City. With this increased capacity, Pace expanded the production of Black Swan Records to more than 6,000 records daily. Black Swan issued two new series of recorded music with its 10000 and 14000 series. With William Grant Still replacing the touring Fletcher Henderson, the company introduced music in every genre including opera, choral groups and symphony orchestras.
Things were going so well for Harry Pace that in an interview with writers for the New York Age in August of 1922, he talked about manufacturing a "Swanola" phonograph. He stated that this part of the business had not yet been fully developed. But the Pace Company was looking forward to employing colored mechanics as soon as they could be properly trained for work. This was Harry Pace's final dream for Black Swan Records.
The Decline of Black Swan
If the success that Pace Phonograph Corp. Inc. experienced during its first year provided anything, it alerted the competition to the lucrativeness of the market. More than ever by succeeding years 1922 and 1923 obtaining Black artists became increasingly harder as the major white companies began to bid competitively for their services. After the tour concluded in July of 1922, artists like Fletcher Henderson and Ethel Waters no longer recorded exclusively for Black Swan Records.
The success of race records led to costly competition and price cutting by white-owned labels such as Okeh, Paramount and Columbia.
Many African-Americans, especially from the entertainment community, resented Pace for breaking his promise of an all-Black recording company. Though he continued to advertise that the enterprise was run only by Blacks and that they released recordings only by Black musicians, it was proven that the company was pressing records by white ensembles such as the Original Memphis Five. Pace began to lose the respect and confidence of the musician community and it became more difficult to continue to produce a quality product.
In March of 1923, the Pace Phonograph Company was renamed the Black Swan Phonograph Co., a sure signal that trouble was coming. By the summer on 1923, no new recordings of Black Swan were announced. Pace summed up his troubles in a letter sent to Roi Ottley:
Business became so great that we bought a plant in Long Island City that we were using as a recording laboratory and a pressing laboratory, and shortly afterwards transferred all shipping over to the plant. We were selling around 7,000 records a day and had only three presses in the factory which could make 6,000 records daily, ... We ordered three additional presses in 1923 made especially for some improvements, and had them ready for installation in the factory. Before they were set up and ready for running, radio broadcasting broke and this spelled doom for us. Immediately dealers began to cancel orders that they had placed, records were returned unaccepted, many record stores became radio stores, and we found ourselves making and selling only about 3,000 records daily and then it came down to 1,000, and our factory was closed for two weeks at a time and finally the factory was sold to a sheriff's sale and bought by a Chicago firm who made records for Sears & Roebuck Company. However, this did not completely defeat us and we continued to have records made at a concern in Connecticut and sold these repeat orders for a year or so until the thing finally came to a close.
In December of 1923, Black Swan Records declared bankruptcy and in May of 1924 Paramount announced a deal to lease the Black Swam catalog. Black Swan Records was history.
Pace Moves On
The long term impact of Black Swan Records are too numerous to elaborate upon fully in this paper. Some of them are:
Paramount, Columbia and other recording companies could no longer ignore Black musicians and singers.
The Black Swan discography still has value. As late as 1987, Jazzology Records announced its intention to revive the name and reissue the series of early recordings.
Ethel Waters, Fletcher Henderson, William Grant Still, Alberta Hunter and many others used Black Swan as a training period and proceeded on to outstanding success within the entertainment industry.
It opened up the entertainment/recording industry to Blacks and opened up advertisement in Black newspapers from major record and entertainment companies. Today, the many musical, recording and entertainment stars who earn enormous salaries and have world-wide recognition owe a debt of gratitude to the symbol of self-pride and self-determination to The Black Swan Recording Company.
Today, the Black Swan Catalog is available on George H. Buck's Jazzology/GHB label.
Salutations and the highest praise to you brother, this is an excellent use of the Internet. I am saving all of these posts for my four year old son and sending them out to my friends and family. And, even though you're name is Que-ex, (I'm a Nupe) you deserve the highest praise.
source: pbs.org
"The greater majority of the noble houses of Italy can today trace their ancestry back to Alessandro de Medici. ...so can a number of other princely families of Europe"
Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence
Despite the many portraits of this 16th century Italian Renaissance figure, his African heritage is rarely, if ever, mentioned.[Editor's Note: For more on this omission as it has occurred in the art world, read this January 2005 update.]
Alessandro wielded great power as the first duke of Florence. He was the patron of some of the leading artists of the era and is one of the two Medici princes whose remains are buried in the famous tomb by Michaelangelo. The ethnic make up of this Medici Prince makes him the first black head of state in the modern western world.
Alessandro was born in 1510 to a black serving woman in the Medici household who, after her subsequent marriage to a muleteer, is simply referred to in existing documents as Simonetta da Collavechio. Historians today are convinced that Alessandro was fathered by the seventeen year old Cardinal Giulio de Medici who later became Pope Clement VII. Cardinal Giulio was the nephew of Lorenzo the Magnificent.
On being elected Pope in 1523, Cardinal Giulio was forced to relinquish the lordship of Florence but he appointed a regent for his thirteen year old son Alessandro who had just been created Duke of Penna, and a nephew, Ipollito. Even though both were bastards, they were the last of what has come to be referred to as the elder line of the family.
Republicanism had grown in Florence under the regent and when Emperor Charles V sacked Rome in 1527, the Florentines took advantage of the situation to install a more democratic form of government and both Alessandro and Ipollito fled. When peace was finally made two years later between the Papal and the Imperial factions, Charles V agreed to militarily restore Florence to the Medici. After a siege of eleven months Alessandro was finally brought back as the Emperor's designated head of state.
In 1532, the new Florentine constitution declared Alessandro hereditary Duke and perpetual gonfalonier of the republic. Though his common sense and his feeling for justice won his subjects' affection, those in sympathy with the exiled opposition hated Alessandro and accused him of using his power to sexually exploit the citizenry. However, only two illegitimate children with the possibility of a third, have been attributed to him and even these he fathered with one woman, Taddea Malespina, a distant cousin of his.
With the death of his father, the Pope, in 1534, the exiles attempted to oust the Duke Alessandro from Florence. But the Emperor decided to uphold Alessandro and in an obvious show of support, gave Alessandro his own illegitimate daughter, Margaret of Austria, as wife.
Despite the security this kind of support should have given him, Alessandro was finally assassinated a few months after his wedding by Lorenzaccio de Medici, a distant cousin who had ingratiated himself in order to win his confidence. According to the declaration he later published, Lorenzaccio claimed that he had executed Alessandro for the sake of the republic and that he had been able to disarm him of his personal bodyguards by setting up a sexual liaison for him as a trap. When the anti-Medici faction failed to use this occasion to overthrow the ducal government, Lorenzaccio fled in dismay. He was himself eventually murdered some twelve years later.
Allessandro's Children:
Although the initial reaction to the assassination on the part of the Ducal party had been to set up a regency for Alessandro's four year-old son, Giulio, they instead turned to Cosimo of the cadet branch of the family who as young man of seventeen they felt would be able to bring some equilibrium to the political instability that confronted them.
Since they were his cousins and since Cosimo had to consolidate the authority of the Medici family, Cosimo raised Alessandro's children in his own household and continued as their guardian until adulthood. Despite the awkward presence at his court of a potential pretender to the duchy of Florence, Cosimo apparently regarded his young wards with true affection.
Giulio married Lucrezia Gaetani in 1561 and a year later, Cosimo appointed him First Admiral of the Knights of San Stephano, an order especially founded to fight the Turks.
Giulio's sister, Giulia, was first married to Francesco Cantelmo, the Count of Alvito and the Duke of Popoli. When her husband died unable to give her children a few years later, Cosimo then married Giulia off in 1559 to a first cousin of his, Bernardino de Medici. Apparently Giulia's pride in her Medici ancestry was intense. In the early years of her second marriage, her insistence that she be treated at court as the equal of Cosimo's wife caused a rift between herself and Cosimo. Eventually she and her husband moved to Naples where, at an enormous expense to themselves, they acquired both the title and lands of the principality of Ottaiano. (Click here for more on Giulia and "Giulia's Portrait." Also, read the November 2001 Washington Post article on the race issue controversy over a portrait of Giulia.)
The greater majority of the noble houses of Italy can today trace their ancestry back to Alessandro de Medici. And, as shown in the two lines of descent to the Hapsburgs drawn up below, so can a number of other princely families of Europe:
source: pbs.org
"A View On Race And The Art World"
Jan 14, 2005
In a current exhibition on Italian Renaissance art that is on display at the Philadelphia Museum until Feb. 13, 2005, a focal work is a portrait of Alessandro de' Medici. Unfortunately, however, the unique opportunity that this small, but important show might have offered to the national conversation on race has been ignored.
Down through the centuries, most scholars have accepted that Alessandro de' Medici's mother was a slave woman and she was so identified by Alessandro's contemporaries. But the subject of the African ancestry of Alessandro, the first Duke of Florence, is being downplayed by the curators of the Philadelphia exhibit, entitled "Pontormo, Bronzino and the Medici."
Due to a kind of snobbery endemic to the field - a subject which Phillipe de Montebello at the Met in New York so unabashedly has talked about - it is not just the Philadelphia Museum but the American art establishment in general that appears to be having difficulty coming to terms with this Medici scion from whom descends some of Europe's most titled families, including two branches of the Hapsburgs.
In just the last three years, for example, a portrait of Alessandro's daughter, Giulia, Princess of Ottojano, and another portrait of the Duke himself have appeared in two major exhibitions in the U.S.: one at the National Gallery in Washington in 2001 and another at the Art Institute of Chicago in an exhibit which a few months later travelled to the Detroit Institute of the Arts where it closed in 2003. However, as with the current Philadelphia exhibit, little was done by the curators of these shows to draw the public's attention to either the Duke's color or his place in history.
In the only reference to the Duke's color in the entire 173-page catalogue of the Philadelphia exhibit, Karl Strehlke, the curator and organizer writes, "Some scholars have claimed that Alessandro's mother was a North African slave. This cannot be confirmed, however, and the text of a letter that she wrote to her son in 1529 suggests that she was an Italian peasant from Lazio." Such a statement can only be described as disingenuous.
Based on what Lorenzino de' Medici, Alessandro's kinsman, wrote about her in his Aplogoia, all scholars who have dealt with the subject accept that the servant whom he cites as the Duke's mother, is one and the same Simunetta from Collavecchio in the province of Lazio. Besides her being specifically identified as a "slave" by the historians Bernardo Segni and Giovanni Cambi, both contemporaries of the Duke's, Cardinal Salviati, a relation of Alessandro's, describes this woman as "una villisima schiava." And, in point of fact, the question of identity that Lorenzino de' Medici does raise, and Segni repeats, is not whether Simunetta was Alessandro's mother, but whether the "mule driver" she subsequently married was Alessandro's father instead of one or the other of two candidates still attributed with his paternity.
As Christopher Hare in his work, Romance of a Medici Warrior, explains, "[Alessandro] was reported to be the son of the late Lorenzo dei Medici, Duke of Urbino, but the affection shown him by Clement VII, gave strength to the general opinion that the Pope was his father. In any case his mother was a mulatto slave, and Alessandro had the dark skin, thick lips and curly hair of a Negro."
Like Hare, one need only to browse through the images of the Duke published in Carla Langedijk's two-volume work, Portraits of the Medici, to verify contemporary descriptions of his apearance such as Ceccherelli's "capelli ricci neri e bruno in vise," (brown in complexion with very curly black hair) or Scipione Ammirato's "color bruno, labbri grossi e capegli crespi." (brown, thick lips and kinky hair.)
Granted, the majority of paintings, coins, medallions, etc. depicting Alessandro de' Medici were done after his assassination in 1537. However, they were the work of artists who had known him personally. The African traits of the Duke that appear in Giorgio Vasari's frescos in the Palazzo Vecchio, for example, are just as pronounced as in the more familiar image attributed to the school of Bronzino. Furthermore, in Vasari's own description of the work he did for this commission, the accuracy of the innumerable portraits he executed and the public's ability to identify them, especially after their demise, was the source of a great deal of pride for him.
But what could be more decisive proof of Alessandro's African ancestry than the following taken from Scipione Ammirato, the court historian of Alessandro de' Medici's successor, Cosimo:
"Non sono per tacere l'opinione,che in quel eta ando attorno intorno la nascita di Alessandro, la qual fu, che egli fusse nato d' una schiava in quel tempo, che il padre e i zij rientrarono in Firenze. Il che peravventura pote procedere per esser egli stato di color bruno, e per aver avuto i labbri grossi, e i capegli crespi."
What makes the omission of Alessandro's race in the current Philadelphia exhibition problematic, especially after criticism by the Washington Post and the New York Times for the similar omission in the National Gallery's exhibition, is the fact that besides being the first black head of state in modern western history, Alessandro de' Medici's race was quite pivotal to the Grand Ducal and the most politically powerful period of Medici history.
Pope Clement VII, Alessandro's father, who also was born illegitimate, obviously felt that his illegitimate son would need every political bootstrap he could obtain for him if Alessandro were to survive as the legal representative of the family. Hence the bargain Clement struck with the Emperor Charles V in 1529 to have Alessandro created Duke of Florence even though the family had assiduously avoided such honorifics so as not to appear insensitive to the republican aspirations of the population.
Considering not only the racial problems America is still struggling with but also the high proportion of African Americans in Philadelphia, the curators' treatment of the subject of Alessandro's African slave mother is troubling. All the more so considering how important a role the de' Medici have played in European history and culture and the implications this holds for undermining the racial preconceptions that people of color must still contend with today.
Moreover, it seems to me that in addition to the elitism of the rarified world of the art connoisseur, the old bugaboo of political correctness is also to blame. For those who push the victimization paradigm of the African American experience, there can be no room in the discourse on race for "narratives" that do not fit the stereotype.
But such a stance is misguided. A study of this particular branch of the Medici family would provide us with a unique and invaluable insight into how one of the most powerful and influential dynasties in Europe was forced to deal with the issue of race so early in the history of the African slave trade.
Researched and Written by Mario de Valdes y Cocom an historian of the African diaspora.
"The greater majority of the noble houses of Italy can today trace their ancestry back to Alessandro de Medici. ...so can a number of other princely families of Europe"
Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence
Despite the many portraits of this 16th century Italian Renaissance figure, his African heritage is rarely, if ever, mentioned.[Editor's Note: For more on this omission as it has occurred in the art world, read this January 2005 update.]
Alessandro wielded great power as the first duke of Florence. He was the patron of some of the leading artists of the era and is one of the two Medici princes whose remains are buried in the famous tomb by Michaelangelo. The ethnic make up of this Medici Prince makes him the first black head of state in the modern western world.
Alessandro was born in 1510 to a black serving woman in the Medici household who, after her subsequent marriage to a muleteer, is simply referred to in existing documents as Simonetta da Collavechio. Historians today are convinced that Alessandro was fathered by the seventeen year old Cardinal Giulio de Medici who later became Pope Clement VII. Cardinal Giulio was the nephew of Lorenzo the Magnificent.
On being elected Pope in 1523, Cardinal Giulio was forced to relinquish the lordship of Florence but he appointed a regent for his thirteen year old son Alessandro who had just been created Duke of Penna, and a nephew, Ipollito. Even though both were bastards, they were the last of what has come to be referred to as the elder line of the family.
Republicanism had grown in Florence under the regent and when Emperor Charles V sacked Rome in 1527, the Florentines took advantage of the situation to install a more democratic form of government and both Alessandro and Ipollito fled. When peace was finally made two years later between the Papal and the Imperial factions, Charles V agreed to militarily restore Florence to the Medici. After a siege of eleven months Alessandro was finally brought back as the Emperor's designated head of state.
In 1532, the new Florentine constitution declared Alessandro hereditary Duke and perpetual gonfalonier of the republic. Though his common sense and his feeling for justice won his subjects' affection, those in sympathy with the exiled opposition hated Alessandro and accused him of using his power to sexually exploit the citizenry. However, only two illegitimate children with the possibility of a third, have been attributed to him and even these he fathered with one woman, Taddea Malespina, a distant cousin of his.
With the death of his father, the Pope, in 1534, the exiles attempted to oust the Duke Alessandro from Florence. But the Emperor decided to uphold Alessandro and in an obvious show of support, gave Alessandro his own illegitimate daughter, Margaret of Austria, as wife.
Despite the security this kind of support should have given him, Alessandro was finally assassinated a few months after his wedding by Lorenzaccio de Medici, a distant cousin who had ingratiated himself in order to win his confidence. According to the declaration he later published, Lorenzaccio claimed that he had executed Alessandro for the sake of the republic and that he had been able to disarm him of his personal bodyguards by setting up a sexual liaison for him as a trap. When the anti-Medici faction failed to use this occasion to overthrow the ducal government, Lorenzaccio fled in dismay. He was himself eventually murdered some twelve years later.
Allessandro's Children:
Although the initial reaction to the assassination on the part of the Ducal party had been to set up a regency for Alessandro's four year-old son, Giulio, they instead turned to Cosimo of the cadet branch of the family who as young man of seventeen they felt would be able to bring some equilibrium to the political instability that confronted them.
Since they were his cousins and since Cosimo had to consolidate the authority of the Medici family, Cosimo raised Alessandro's children in his own household and continued as their guardian until adulthood. Despite the awkward presence at his court of a potential pretender to the duchy of Florence, Cosimo apparently regarded his young wards with true affection.
Giulio married Lucrezia Gaetani in 1561 and a year later, Cosimo appointed him First Admiral of the Knights of San Stephano, an order especially founded to fight the Turks.
Giulio's sister, Giulia, was first married to Francesco Cantelmo, the Count of Alvito and the Duke of Popoli. When her husband died unable to give her children a few years later, Cosimo then married Giulia off in 1559 to a first cousin of his, Bernardino de Medici. Apparently Giulia's pride in her Medici ancestry was intense. In the early years of her second marriage, her insistence that she be treated at court as the equal of Cosimo's wife caused a rift between herself and Cosimo. Eventually she and her husband moved to Naples where, at an enormous expense to themselves, they acquired both the title and lands of the principality of Ottaiano. (Click here for more on Giulia and "Giulia's Portrait." Also, read the November 2001 Washington Post article on the race issue controversy over a portrait of Giulia.)
The greater majority of the noble houses of Italy can today trace their ancestry back to Alessandro de Medici. And, as shown in the two lines of descent to the Hapsburgs drawn up below, so can a number of other princely families of Europe:
Giulio de Medici, (Allessandro's son) Knight Commander of the Gallery of St. Stephen m. Lucrezia, Countess Gaetani
Cosimo de Medici (illegitimate) m. Lucrezia (II), Countess Gaetani
Angelica de Medici m. Gianpetro, Count Altemps
Maria Cristina, Countess Altemps m. 1646 Ipollito, Duke Lante della Rovere
Antonio, Duke Lante m. 1682 Angelique, Princesse de La Tremouille
Marie Anne Lante m. Jean Baptiste, Duke of Croy Havre
Louis, Duke of Croy Havre m. 1736 Marie Louise, Princess of Montmorency Luxembourg
Joseph, Duke of Croy Havre m. 1762 Adelaide, Princess of Croy Solre
Adelaide, Duchess of Croy Havre m. 1788 Emanuel, Prince of Croy Solre
Constance, Princess of Croy Solre m. 1810 Ferdinand, Duke of Croy
Augusta, Duchess of Croy m. 1836 Alfred, Prince of Salm Salm
Alfred, Prince of Salm Salm m. 1869 Rosa, Countess Lutzow
Emanuel, Prince of Salm Salm m. 1902 Christina von Hapsburg, Archduchess of Austria
Rosemary, Princess of Salm Salm m. 1926 Hubert Salvator von Hapsburg, Archduke of Austria
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF ALESSANDRO'S DESCENT:
Joseph, Duke of Croy Havre m. 1762 Adelaide, Princess of Croy Solre
Amalie, Duchess of Croy Havre m. 1790 Charles, Marquis of Conflans
Amalie de Conflans m. 1823 Eugene, Prince of Ligne
Henri, Prince of Ligne m. 1851 Marguerite, Countess of Talleyrand Perigord
Ernest Louis, Prince of Ligne m. 1887 Diane Marchioness of Cosse Brissac
Eugene, Prince of Ligne m. 1917 Phillipine, Princess Noailles
Yolanda, Princess of Ligne m. 1950 Karl von Hapsburg, Archduke of Austria
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF ALESSANDRO'S DESCENT:
Giulio de Medici, Knight Commander of the Gallery of St. Stephen m. Lucrezia, Countess Gaetani
Cosimo de Medici (illegitimate) m. Lucrezia, Countess Gaetani
Angelica de Medici m. Gianpetro, Count Altemps
Maria Cristina, Countess Altemps m. 1646 Ipollito, Duke Lante della Rovere
Antonio, Duke Lante m. 1682 Angelique, Princesse de La Tremouille
Luigi, Duke Lante m. Angela, Princess Vaini
Fillipo, Duke Lante m. Faustina, Marchioness Caprianca
Maria Christina Lante m. Averado, Duke Salviati
Anna Maria Salviati m. Marcantonio , Prince Borghese
Camillo, Prince Borghese m. 1803 Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon's Sister
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF ALESSANDRO'S DESCENT:
Marie Anne Lante m. Jean Baptiste, Duke of Croy Havre
Adelaide, Croy Havre m. Emanuel, Prince of Croy Solre
Constance, Princess of Croy Solre m. 1810 Ferdinand of Croy Solre
Juste Marie, Prince of Croy m. 1854 Marie, Countess Ursel
Charles, Prince of Croy m. 1896 Matilda, Countess Robiano
Marie Imaculee m. 1926 Thiery, count of Limburg Stirum
Evrard, Count of Limburg Stirum m. 1957 Helen, Princess of France daughter of the Count of Paris
Cosimo de Medici (illegitimate) m. Lucrezia (II), Countess Gaetani
Angelica de Medici m. Gianpetro, Count Altemps
Maria Cristina, Countess Altemps m. 1646 Ipollito, Duke Lante della Rovere
Antonio, Duke Lante m. 1682 Angelique, Princesse de La Tremouille
Marie Anne Lante m. Jean Baptiste, Duke of Croy Havre
Louis, Duke of Croy Havre m. 1736 Marie Louise, Princess of Montmorency Luxembourg
Joseph, Duke of Croy Havre m. 1762 Adelaide, Princess of Croy Solre
Adelaide, Duchess of Croy Havre m. 1788 Emanuel, Prince of Croy Solre
Constance, Princess of Croy Solre m. 1810 Ferdinand, Duke of Croy
Augusta, Duchess of Croy m. 1836 Alfred, Prince of Salm Salm
Alfred, Prince of Salm Salm m. 1869 Rosa, Countess Lutzow
Emanuel, Prince of Salm Salm m. 1902 Christina von Hapsburg, Archduchess of Austria
Rosemary, Princess of Salm Salm m. 1926 Hubert Salvator von Hapsburg, Archduke of Austria
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF ALESSANDRO'S DESCENT:
Joseph, Duke of Croy Havre m. 1762 Adelaide, Princess of Croy Solre
Amalie, Duchess of Croy Havre m. 1790 Charles, Marquis of Conflans
Amalie de Conflans m. 1823 Eugene, Prince of Ligne
Henri, Prince of Ligne m. 1851 Marguerite, Countess of Talleyrand Perigord
Ernest Louis, Prince of Ligne m. 1887 Diane Marchioness of Cosse Brissac
Eugene, Prince of Ligne m. 1917 Phillipine, Princess Noailles
Yolanda, Princess of Ligne m. 1950 Karl von Hapsburg, Archduke of Austria
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF ALESSANDRO'S DESCENT:
Giulio de Medici, Knight Commander of the Gallery of St. Stephen m. Lucrezia, Countess Gaetani
Cosimo de Medici (illegitimate) m. Lucrezia, Countess Gaetani
Angelica de Medici m. Gianpetro, Count Altemps
Maria Cristina, Countess Altemps m. 1646 Ipollito, Duke Lante della Rovere
Antonio, Duke Lante m. 1682 Angelique, Princesse de La Tremouille
Luigi, Duke Lante m. Angela, Princess Vaini
Fillipo, Duke Lante m. Faustina, Marchioness Caprianca
Maria Christina Lante m. Averado, Duke Salviati
Anna Maria Salviati m. Marcantonio , Prince Borghese
Camillo, Prince Borghese m. 1803 Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon's Sister
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF ALESSANDRO'S DESCENT:
Marie Anne Lante m. Jean Baptiste, Duke of Croy Havre
Adelaide, Croy Havre m. Emanuel, Prince of Croy Solre
Constance, Princess of Croy Solre m. 1810 Ferdinand of Croy Solre
Juste Marie, Prince of Croy m. 1854 Marie, Countess Ursel
Charles, Prince of Croy m. 1896 Matilda, Countess Robiano
Marie Imaculee m. 1926 Thiery, count of Limburg Stirum
Evrard, Count of Limburg Stirum m. 1957 Helen, Princess of France daughter of the Count of Paris
source: pbs.org
"A View On Race And The Art World"
Jan 14, 2005
In a current exhibition on Italian Renaissance art that is on display at the Philadelphia Museum until Feb. 13, 2005, a focal work is a portrait of Alessandro de' Medici. Unfortunately, however, the unique opportunity that this small, but important show might have offered to the national conversation on race has been ignored.
Down through the centuries, most scholars have accepted that Alessandro de' Medici's mother was a slave woman and she was so identified by Alessandro's contemporaries. But the subject of the African ancestry of Alessandro, the first Duke of Florence, is being downplayed by the curators of the Philadelphia exhibit, entitled "Pontormo, Bronzino and the Medici."
Due to a kind of snobbery endemic to the field - a subject which Phillipe de Montebello at the Met in New York so unabashedly has talked about - it is not just the Philadelphia Museum but the American art establishment in general that appears to be having difficulty coming to terms with this Medici scion from whom descends some of Europe's most titled families, including two branches of the Hapsburgs.
In just the last three years, for example, a portrait of Alessandro's daughter, Giulia, Princess of Ottojano, and another portrait of the Duke himself have appeared in two major exhibitions in the U.S.: one at the National Gallery in Washington in 2001 and another at the Art Institute of Chicago in an exhibit which a few months later travelled to the Detroit Institute of the Arts where it closed in 2003. However, as with the current Philadelphia exhibit, little was done by the curators of these shows to draw the public's attention to either the Duke's color or his place in history.
In the only reference to the Duke's color in the entire 173-page catalogue of the Philadelphia exhibit, Karl Strehlke, the curator and organizer writes, "Some scholars have claimed that Alessandro's mother was a North African slave. This cannot be confirmed, however, and the text of a letter that she wrote to her son in 1529 suggests that she was an Italian peasant from Lazio." Such a statement can only be described as disingenuous.
Based on what Lorenzino de' Medici, Alessandro's kinsman, wrote about her in his Aplogoia, all scholars who have dealt with the subject accept that the servant whom he cites as the Duke's mother, is one and the same Simunetta from Collavecchio in the province of Lazio. Besides her being specifically identified as a "slave" by the historians Bernardo Segni and Giovanni Cambi, both contemporaries of the Duke's, Cardinal Salviati, a relation of Alessandro's, describes this woman as "una villisima schiava." And, in point of fact, the question of identity that Lorenzino de' Medici does raise, and Segni repeats, is not whether Simunetta was Alessandro's mother, but whether the "mule driver" she subsequently married was Alessandro's father instead of one or the other of two candidates still attributed with his paternity.
As Christopher Hare in his work, Romance of a Medici Warrior, explains, "[Alessandro] was reported to be the son of the late Lorenzo dei Medici, Duke of Urbino, but the affection shown him by Clement VII, gave strength to the general opinion that the Pope was his father. In any case his mother was a mulatto slave, and Alessandro had the dark skin, thick lips and curly hair of a Negro."
Like Hare, one need only to browse through the images of the Duke published in Carla Langedijk's two-volume work, Portraits of the Medici, to verify contemporary descriptions of his apearance such as Ceccherelli's "capelli ricci neri e bruno in vise," (brown in complexion with very curly black hair) or Scipione Ammirato's "color bruno, labbri grossi e capegli crespi." (brown, thick lips and kinky hair.)
Granted, the majority of paintings, coins, medallions, etc. depicting Alessandro de' Medici were done after his assassination in 1537. However, they were the work of artists who had known him personally. The African traits of the Duke that appear in Giorgio Vasari's frescos in the Palazzo Vecchio, for example, are just as pronounced as in the more familiar image attributed to the school of Bronzino. Furthermore, in Vasari's own description of the work he did for this commission, the accuracy of the innumerable portraits he executed and the public's ability to identify them, especially after their demise, was the source of a great deal of pride for him.
But what could be more decisive proof of Alessandro's African ancestry than the following taken from Scipione Ammirato, the court historian of Alessandro de' Medici's successor, Cosimo:
"Non sono per tacere l'opinione,che in quel eta ando attorno intorno la nascita di Alessandro, la qual fu, che egli fusse nato d' una schiava in quel tempo, che il padre e i zij rientrarono in Firenze. Il che peravventura pote procedere per esser egli stato di color bruno, e per aver avuto i labbri grossi, e i capegli crespi."
What makes the omission of Alessandro's race in the current Philadelphia exhibition problematic, especially after criticism by the Washington Post and the New York Times for the similar omission in the National Gallery's exhibition, is the fact that besides being the first black head of state in modern western history, Alessandro de' Medici's race was quite pivotal to the Grand Ducal and the most politically powerful period of Medici history.
Pope Clement VII, Alessandro's father, who also was born illegitimate, obviously felt that his illegitimate son would need every political bootstrap he could obtain for him if Alessandro were to survive as the legal representative of the family. Hence the bargain Clement struck with the Emperor Charles V in 1529 to have Alessandro created Duke of Florence even though the family had assiduously avoided such honorifics so as not to appear insensitive to the republican aspirations of the population.
Considering not only the racial problems America is still struggling with but also the high proportion of African Americans in Philadelphia, the curators' treatment of the subject of Alessandro's African slave mother is troubling. All the more so considering how important a role the de' Medici have played in European history and culture and the implications this holds for undermining the racial preconceptions that people of color must still contend with today.
Moreover, it seems to me that in addition to the elitism of the rarified world of the art connoisseur, the old bugaboo of political correctness is also to blame. For those who push the victimization paradigm of the African American experience, there can be no room in the discourse on race for "narratives" that do not fit the stereotype.
But such a stance is misguided. A study of this particular branch of the Medici family would provide us with a unique and invaluable insight into how one of the most powerful and influential dynasties in Europe was forced to deal with the issue of race so early in the history of the African slave trade.
Researched and Written by Mario de Valdes y Cocom an historian of the African diaspora.
Major props i just finished reading all of this
Thanks for the assist Que
JAMES WELDON JOHNSON
AFRICAN AMERICAN POET/COMPOSER OF THE NEGRO NATIONAL ANTHEM
"LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING"
'THE NEGRO NATIONAL ANTHEM'
Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us,
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears have been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, Our God, where we met Thee;
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand.
True to our GOD,
True to our native land
GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER
George Washington Carver (July 12, 1864 – January 5, 1943)[1] was an American botanical researcher and agronomy educator who worked in agricultural extension at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, teaching former slaves farming techniques for self-sufficiency.
To bring education to farmers, Carver designed a mobile school. It was called a Jesup Wagon after the New York financier, Morris Ketchum Jesup, who provided funding. [2] In 1921, Carver spoke in favor of a peanut tariff before the House Ways and Means Committee. Given racial discrimination of the time, it was unusual for an African-American to be called as an expert. Carver's well-received testimony earned him national attention, and he became an unofficial spokesman for the peanut industry. Carver wrote 44 practical agricultural bulletins for farmers.
In the post-Civil-War South, an agricultural monoculture of cotton had depleted the soil, and in the early 1900s, the boll weevil destroyed much of the cotton crop. Much of Carver's fame was based on his research and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops as both a source of their own food and a cash crop. His most popular bulletin contained 105 existing food recipes that used peanuts. His most famous method of promoting the peanut involved his creation of about 100 existing industrial products from peanuts, including cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline and nitroglycerin. His industrial products from peanuts excited the public imagination but none was a successful commercial product. There are many myths about Carver, especially the myth that his industrial products from peanuts played a major role in revolutionizing Southern agriculture. [3][4]
Carver's most important accomplishments were in areas other than industrial products from peanuts, including agricultural extension education, improvement of racial relations, mentoring children, poetry, painting, religion, advocacy of sustainable agriculture and appreciation of plants and nature. He served as a valuable role model for African-Americans and an example of the importance of hard work, a positive attitude and a good education. His humility, humanitarianism, good nature, frugality and lack of economic materialism have also been widely admired.
One of his most important roles was that the fame of his achievements and many talents undermined the widespread stereotype of the time that the black race was intellectually inferior to the white race. In 1941, "Time" magazine dubbed him a "Black Leonardo," a reference to the white polymath Leonardo da Vinci [5]
George Dixon
born July 29, 1870, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
died January 6, 1909, New York, New York, U.S.
George Dixon.
UPI/Corbis-BettmannCanadian-born American boxer, the first black to win a world boxing championship. He is considered one of the best fighters in the history of the bantamweight and featherweight divisions (present weight limits 118 pounds and 126 pounds, respectively).
A resident of Boston from 1887, Dixon won the world bantamweight championship by knocking out Nunc Wallace of England in the 18th round on June 27, 1890, in London. Later that year he resigned the title, after one successful defense, and he subsequently fought as a featherweight. He held the championship of that class from July 28, 1891, when he knocked out Abe Willis of Australia in the 5th round in San Francisco, to October 4, 1897, when he lost a 20-round decision to Solly Smith, also in San Francisco. He regained that title on November 11, 1898, when he defeated Dave Sullivan in the 10th round in New York City, and he held it until January 9, 1900, when he was knocked out by Terry McGovern in the 8th round, also in New York City. In 20 years of professional boxing (1886–1906), he fought 158 bouts (some boxing historians say 700, the divergence caused by the difficulty of determining which fights should be considered exhibition bouts in this period before official sanctioning), including 33 championship fights. Dixon was elected to Ring magazine's Boxing Hall of Fame in 1956.
George Dixon, I must research him more.
I can't believe that no one has posted Bayard Rustin. Yeah, he was as queer as a $3 bill, but he was the brains behind the early civil rights movement, the principle organizer of the 1963 March on Washington and the nigga who convined MLK to adopt Ghandi's philosophy of non-violence/ passive resistance. Oh, you owe this nigga plenty...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rustin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rustin
Charlie Christian
All white boys should make a pilgrimage to his grave, because this is the man who legitimized the electric guitar and made it a lead solo instrument. Before Charlie Christian, guitar was relegated to the rhythm section. Christian's innovation was to play single note melodies and improvisation on the guitar like Pops (influenced as was everyone else in the world by Louis Armstrong) played the coronet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Christian
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5699
All white boys should make a pilgrimage to his grave, because this is the man who legitimized the electric guitar and made it a lead solo instrument. Before Charlie Christian, guitar was relegated to the rhythm section. Christian's innovation was to play single note melodies and improvisation on the guitar like Pops (influenced as was everyone else in the world by Louis Armstrong) played the coronet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Christian
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5699
No one has forgotten to acknowledge Bayard Rustin. There are thousands of people of African descent that should be posted, this is an ongoing thread. You posted it and in doing so, someone will be inspired to research him further. Second, I'm sure one of the reasons Que ex started this thread was to begin to exorcise the ghetto thinking out of a lot of Black folk. Referring to him as nigga is does not honor his work or memory, in particular someone who was working for freedom against those that called him the original derivation of that term. I'm sure you can express yourself without using so called hip, self hating words.
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source: The School District of Philadelphia
A Philip Randolph
April 15, 1889 - May 16, 1979
"Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exactedÖ and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final fact, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political and religious relationship." A. Philip Randolph
Asa Philip Randolph
by Dominique Butler
A. Philip Randolph was born April 15,1889 in Crescent City, Florida. He was one of two sons. His parent's names were Reverend James Williams and Elizabeth Robinson Randolph, who were both dependents of slaves.
He and his family moved to Jacksonville in 1891. This was the place where he and his brother attended school. They both excelled by being the top in their classes at the Cookman Institute. After school, he was reduced to menial work. In the spring of 1911, he traveled to New York with a friend, secretly hoping to become an actor. He took classes at City College, and bowing to his parents objections to an acting career, switched from drama to politics and economics, soon joining the socialist party. During this time Randolph met his future wife, Lucille Green, a 31 year old widow from Christianburg, Virginia.
Randolph soon met another friend from North Carolina. His name was Chandler Owen. He was studying sociology and political science at Columbia University. They both shared the same ideas and would soon become soap box orators and establish THE MESSENGER, a radical Harlem magazine, in 1917.
He organized The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters which was considered the first serious effort of unionizing the Pullman company. The Pullman company was the most powerful business organization in the country, and it viciously resisted efforts to unionize.
Randolph struggled with his company for 12 years. He was a very strong fighter and he never gave up. The brotherhood's courageous battles won the admiration of many labor and liberal leaders. Even the American Federation of Labor leadership saw the bitterly anti-Communist Brotherhood as a bastion against the influence of communism among the black working class. His organization had this effect on many people.
They had many setbacks, but the Brotherhood prevailed. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal guaranteed workers the right to organize and required corporations to negotiate with unions. In 1935, the Pullman company was forced to sit down with the Brotherhood. Randolph moved to secure formal affiliation with the AFL and was finally granted an international charter. At their convention, there were many disagreements over whether to organize by craft or industry. The conflict led to the expulsion of unions that wanted to organize by industry. Those unions soon formed the Congress of Industrial Organization. In 1937, the Brotherhood, which remained in the AFL, finally obtained a contract with the Pullman Company, the first contract ever between a company and a black union. Randolph emerged as one of the first major black labor leaders in the country.
One really good thing about Asa Randolph was that he was also a spokesperson for African-American rights in the 1940s and 1950s. He is hailed as the dean of American civil rights leaders. He mainly focused his attention on the rising number of blacks on relief and the number of defense industry jobs that were increasing with the war effort heating up. These jobs traditionally excluded blacks. Randolph proposed the march on Washington - a mass action protest to demand change
The African -American community embraced the plan, and a band of militants threw themselves into the project with fervor. Under pressure, President Roosevelt finally signed an executive order banning discrimination within the government and among the defense industries that won government contracts. Randolph called off the march. The young militants felt betrayed, even though Randolph reminded them that the executive order was what they had sought.
In 1947, Randolph spoke with the president over civil rights for African Americans. President Harry S. Truman called for a peacetime draft, but failed to include a provision against segregation. Randolph also founded the committee against Jim Crow in military service and training. Within a year the group became the League for Non Violent Civil Disobedience Against Military Segregation and called for blacks to refuse to register for the draft or to serve if called. Truman met with Randolph and other African American leaders, but refused to be persuaded.
Randolph testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee and continued to pressure Truman. At last the president gave in. The date was July 26, 1948. Truman issued an executive order barring discrimination in the Military. Believing they had achieved their purpose, Randolph called off the non- violent civil disobedience campaign, again angering the young militants who were hungry for action.
Randolph's fights inside the AFL-CIO were taking place in the 1950's during a time of harsh economic recession that affected blacks. Randolph called for a March on Washington for freedom and jobs. A militant named Bayard Rustin made peace with Randolph by the 50's and became the chief organizer. Trade unions gave Randolph financial support.
The march took place in August. It was an emotional event for Randolph whose wife Lucille had died a few months before. A crowd of 250,000 participated in a peaceful demonstration. Randolph, Martin Luther king Jr., and other leaders met with President John F. Kennedy afterward. Within a year the civil rights act of 1964 was signed.
Randolph died in 1979. His funeral was attended by a host of luminaries led by President Jimmy Carter. Randolph left this world with many memories to carry on with many people. Whatever he believed in he took action and he fought, even at hard times when he probably thought that he could not succeed. He had enough strength for everybody and made this world a better place
A Philip Randolph
April 15, 1889 - May 16, 1979
"Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exactedÖ and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final fact, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political and religious relationship." A. Philip Randolph
Asa Philip Randolph
by Dominique Butler
A. Philip Randolph was born April 15,1889 in Crescent City, Florida. He was one of two sons. His parent's names were Reverend James Williams and Elizabeth Robinson Randolph, who were both dependents of slaves.
He and his family moved to Jacksonville in 1891. This was the place where he and his brother attended school. They both excelled by being the top in their classes at the Cookman Institute. After school, he was reduced to menial work. In the spring of 1911, he traveled to New York with a friend, secretly hoping to become an actor. He took classes at City College, and bowing to his parents objections to an acting career, switched from drama to politics and economics, soon joining the socialist party. During this time Randolph met his future wife, Lucille Green, a 31 year old widow from Christianburg, Virginia.
Randolph soon met another friend from North Carolina. His name was Chandler Owen. He was studying sociology and political science at Columbia University. They both shared the same ideas and would soon become soap box orators and establish THE MESSENGER, a radical Harlem magazine, in 1917.
He organized The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters which was considered the first serious effort of unionizing the Pullman company. The Pullman company was the most powerful business organization in the country, and it viciously resisted efforts to unionize.
Randolph struggled with his company for 12 years. He was a very strong fighter and he never gave up. The brotherhood's courageous battles won the admiration of many labor and liberal leaders. Even the American Federation of Labor leadership saw the bitterly anti-Communist Brotherhood as a bastion against the influence of communism among the black working class. His organization had this effect on many people.
They had many setbacks, but the Brotherhood prevailed. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal guaranteed workers the right to organize and required corporations to negotiate with unions. In 1935, the Pullman company was forced to sit down with the Brotherhood. Randolph moved to secure formal affiliation with the AFL and was finally granted an international charter. At their convention, there were many disagreements over whether to organize by craft or industry. The conflict led to the expulsion of unions that wanted to organize by industry. Those unions soon formed the Congress of Industrial Organization. In 1937, the Brotherhood, which remained in the AFL, finally obtained a contract with the Pullman Company, the first contract ever between a company and a black union. Randolph emerged as one of the first major black labor leaders in the country.
One really good thing about Asa Randolph was that he was also a spokesperson for African-American rights in the 1940s and 1950s. He is hailed as the dean of American civil rights leaders. He mainly focused his attention on the rising number of blacks on relief and the number of defense industry jobs that were increasing with the war effort heating up. These jobs traditionally excluded blacks. Randolph proposed the march on Washington - a mass action protest to demand change
The African -American community embraced the plan, and a band of militants threw themselves into the project with fervor. Under pressure, President Roosevelt finally signed an executive order banning discrimination within the government and among the defense industries that won government contracts. Randolph called off the march. The young militants felt betrayed, even though Randolph reminded them that the executive order was what they had sought.
In 1947, Randolph spoke with the president over civil rights for African Americans. President Harry S. Truman called for a peacetime draft, but failed to include a provision against segregation. Randolph also founded the committee against Jim Crow in military service and training. Within a year the group became the League for Non Violent Civil Disobedience Against Military Segregation and called for blacks to refuse to register for the draft or to serve if called. Truman met with Randolph and other African American leaders, but refused to be persuaded.
Randolph testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee and continued to pressure Truman. At last the president gave in. The date was July 26, 1948. Truman issued an executive order barring discrimination in the Military. Believing they had achieved their purpose, Randolph called off the non- violent civil disobedience campaign, again angering the young militants who were hungry for action.
Randolph's fights inside the AFL-CIO were taking place in the 1950's during a time of harsh economic recession that affected blacks. Randolph called for a March on Washington for freedom and jobs. A militant named Bayard Rustin made peace with Randolph by the 50's and became the chief organizer. Trade unions gave Randolph financial support.
The march took place in August. It was an emotional event for Randolph whose wife Lucille had died a few months before. A crowd of 250,000 participated in a peaceful demonstration. Randolph, Martin Luther king Jr., and other leaders met with President John F. Kennedy afterward. Within a year the civil rights act of 1964 was signed.
Randolph died in 1979. His funeral was attended by a host of luminaries led by President Jimmy Carter. Randolph left this world with many memories to carry on with many people. Whatever he believed in he took action and he fought, even at hard times when he probably thought that he could not succeed. He had enough strength for everybody and made this world a better place