Not often someone puts a smile on your face before 6am. But you can't help but love this little guy.
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The 1500s were not a good time to be an African in the company of Europeans — especially if those Europeans were Portuguese. Portugal ramped up the slave trade earlier than most, and brought enslaved Africans with them as they traveled all over the world. So when we read stories from that era of Jesuit missionaries with African servants in Japan, it's probably safe to assume that "servant" is a euphemism. That's how the man who would become known as "Yasuke" first stepped onto the stage of history, a black man far from home, working for a missionary named Alessandro Valignano. Yasuke was likely originally from Portuguese Mozambique, though other accounts claim he may have come from the Congo. His birth name was lost to history, but it's generally believed that "Yasuke" was how it was rendered in Japanese. In any case, he was clearly a physically imposing figure to both the Portuguese and the Japanese. At 6 feet, 2 inches (nearly 2 meters) tall, he was head and shoulders above the average Japanese person. So it's not surprising that he caught the attention of the daimyō ("great lord") Oda Nobunaga — according to some accounts, this happened when several people were crushed in an attempt to get a close look at him. Now, Oda was not just another feudal lord. Through his conquest, he ended several centuries of civil war in Japan, and set the foundation for the unified country to come. Whether by purchase, request, or sheer intimidation, he convinced Valignano to leave Yasuke in his company as a free man and a warrior. Within a year of entering Oda's service, Yasuke was granted the status of samurai, an honor generally restricted to those who inherited it. As he became fluent in Japanese, Yasuke became one of the lord's most trusted advisors.
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The Great Wilma Rudolph
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Her parents
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She and Muhammad Ali....., they were both in the 1960 Olympics in Rome; both from Louisville, MO
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JFK & Wilma Rudolph at the White House....
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Also, at the White House, her mother, LBJ, & her coach Ed Temple...
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Ed Temple, Track Coach Who Led Wilma Rudolph To Olympic Gold
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Florence “Flo Jo” Joyner
and Wilma Rudolph
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CAC's, I tell you...
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Captive & chained Aboriginals, early 1900s, Wyndham prison, Western Australia
CAC's, I tell you...
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Captive & chained Aboriginals, early 1900s, Wyndham prison, Western Australia
The anonymous cat in the bottom left corner makes me think this shit was shop'd.... dope picture but that kinda ruins it for me
They looked shopped although I know they not. Dude on the left look pissed wife dragged him to this shit!!Pastel bridesmaids (1960s)
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