Friday, November 11, 2016

101 Black History: Margus Garvey The Black Nationalist


Info taken from @  http://www.samefacts.com/2014/06/international-affairs/africa/remembering-black-nationalist-marcus-garvey/


Remembering Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey


Happy Juneteenth! The joy of Emancipation quickly yielded to grief after the Compromise of 1877 triggered a new round of repression of Black Americans. Since that time, Black Americans have debated and employed a range of strategies to fight racial oppression. One of those is nationalism, so this seems an appropriate day for me to update an extended review (originally published in an academic newsletter) of four books on one well-known exponent of that view: Marcus Garvey.
Books discussed in this essay:
Cronon, E. David (1955/1969). Black Moses: The story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin.
Fax, Elton C. (1972). Garvey: The story of a pioneer Black nationalist. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company.
Hill, Robert A., & Bair, Barbara (Eds.). (1987). Marcus Garvey: Life and lessons: A centennial companion to the Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Martin, Tony. (1983). Marcus Garvey, hero. Dover, Mass: The Majority Press.
On March 23, 1916, a flamboyant and eloquent activist named Marcus Garvey arrived in Harlem with plans to bring African-Americans a program of economic and spiritual renewal, autonomy, and self-reliance that he had developed in his native Jamaica. His original hope of securing the support of Booker T. Washington was dashed when The Sage of Tuskegee died just prior to Garvey’s journey. As Garvey explains in his essay “Aims and Objects of the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)” (Reprinted in Hill and Bair’s collection of Garvey’s papers), he decided that even without Washington’s assistance, he could personally inspire and lead a worldwide movement that would create a sense of unity and racial pride among all people of African descent, promote mutual help among Blacks, oppose European colonialism in Africa, and develop a self-supporting network of Black-controlled businesses and educational institutions. In the words of Elton Fax, these goals clearly did not “suffer from the encumbrances of modesty” (p.58)”, but Garvey’s indefatigable spirit and organizational ability enabled him to come impressively far towards meeting them before internal and external enemies brought the man and his movement to a crashing halt by the close of the 1920s.
Of the four books discussed here, E. David Cronon’s Black Moses is the most comprehensive and best documented, and thus serves as the best introduction to Garvey’s life and works. Through painstaking research, Cronon tracked down Garvey’s surviving family and friends and unearthed valuable published and unpublished sources. Cronon begins his story in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, where Garvey was born in 1887 and named after his father Marcus Garvey Sr.. Although the Garvey family was initially financially stable, they suffered a steady decline in their fortunes as Marcus Garvey Sr. became increasingly prone to paranoia, irrational outbursts, and disastrous business decisions (problems with which Marcus Jr. himself would later struggle). A particularly sad index of the family’s difficulties is that of the 11 Garvey children, only Marcus Jr. and his sister Indiana lived to maturity. Marcus was a bright and inquisitive child, but received little formal education because his family’s economic situation required him to work. Garvey’s shame about his lack of education never abated, and later fueled his envy and vituperation of his Harvard-educated arch-rival, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
As a young man, Garvey supported himself and his family by working as a printer. He was highly skilled at his trade and became a master printer and foreman at The P.A. Benjamin Company by the age of 20. In 1907, unionized workers at the company went on strike for higher wages, and elected Garvey to be their leader. Unfortunately, the strike was broken when the union treasurer embezzled the strike fund and the company imported linotype machines and scabs to replace the striking workers. Although the strikers were re-hired, Garvey was blacklisted by the printing industry in Jamaica for his role as organizer. This bitter experience made Garvey permanently skeptical of the value of labor unions, and lead him to look for alternative means to improve the lot of Blacks.
Influenced in part by Booker T. Washington’s writings, Garvey founded the UNIA in Jamaica as a “friendly society” which fed the poor and sick, operated an employment bureau, and sponsored cultural events such as literary and debating groups. At the time, the UNIA was so politically moderate that it attracted the support of many politically influential Whites, just as did many of Washington’s endeavors in the United States. Garvey did not strongly develop UNIA’s Black Nationalist themes and demands for an end to exploitation of African peoples until he came to Harlem in 1916.
During his first months in the U.S., Garvey seemed no different than the dozens of other colorful street-corner orators who served as a sideshow to the Harlem Renaissance. However, Garvey’s eloquence and popular appeal grew in tandem. By 1917, he was lecturing to packed auditoriums about promoting racial pride and self-reliance among Africa-descended peoples. Garvey’s speeches and essays, republished in the excellent collection edited by Hill and Bair, give as much sense as the written word can of Garvey’s electrifying power as a speaker. He was a master of sloganeering (“Up you mighty race”, “One aim! One God! One destiny!”, “Black is beautiful”) and inspirational words (“Be as proud of your race today as our fathers were in the days of yore. We have a beautiful history, and we shall create another in the future that will astonish the world”) with some occasional bombast thrown in to maintain listeners’ attention. Viewing the wonderful photos in Cronon’s book of the stocky, intense Jamaican speaking to massive, attentive crowds around the world, one can almost hear Garvey’s voice booming out from the pages.
Garvey was both too shrewd and too immodest to be satisfied with reaching auditorium size crowds. Drawing on his experience in publishing and printing, Garvey founded the Negro World newspaper in January of 1918 and successfully used it to trumpet his ideas around the world. The circulation of the paper varied from 50,000-200,000 and even Garvey’s opponents — who included many members of the more traditional Black press — were forced to admit that it was consistently engaging, thought-provoking and technically impressive. The paper promoted racial pride in both word and deed: Unlike virtually all other Black publications, it refused ads for skin whiteners and hair straighteners. Perhaps the finest tribute the paper received was its suppression by a number of colonial governments in Africa and the Carribean.
As he became a household name, Garvey began to draw more followers and launch new initiatives. In 1919, he founded the Negro Factories Corporation (NFC), a network of Black-owned businesses such as co-op groceries, steam laundries, millinery and clothing stores, a publishing company, a restaurant, and a hotel. The NFC was financed entirely by Black small investors, the logic being that as the businesses succeeded, investors would profit and new funds would become available to help new Black-owned business get started. In his speeches and publications, Garvey promulgated the idea that racial self-interest should be the paramount concern of every Black American, and should include patronizing Black-owned businesses. Garvey believed that Whites would never give Blacks full equality; rather it was up to Blacks to accumulate the material wealth and self-respect to allow them to seize equality for themselves.
Garvey’s most famous and most misunderstood venture was the Black Star Line (BSL). The purpose of the BSL was to purchase ships that would carry cargo and passengers between the United States, the Carribean, and Africa, using $5 stock shares sold through the mails for financing. Today, many otherwise well-informed people believe that Marcus Garvey’s “Back to Africa” campaign was an effort to build ships to transplant all Black Americans to Africa. All the books discussed here make clear that this is a gross misinterpretation. The purpose of the BSL was primarily to make money for Black investors and further promote Black economic self-reliance. Taking a cue from Zionists, Garvey hoped that one day there would be an independent Black nation in West Africa that many Blacks would visit and more would be inspired by, but he no more expected all Blacks to move there than Theodor Herzl expected all Jews to resettle permanently in Israel. In fact, Garvey believed that America offered Blacks tremendous opportunities because its extreme segregation created the perfect context for economic self-reliance and cultural autonomy. Hence, Garvey’s well-known “Back to Africa” slogan was metaphorical, referring to racial self-respect, pride, and knowledge of African culture and history.
Black Americans bought enormous quantities of stock in Garvey’s enterprises, and also flocked to joined the UNIA. Although reliable membership data are not available (and Garvey’s assertion of 2-4 million members is surely an example of his tendency to exaggerate), even the more conservative estimates point to hundreds of thousands of UNIA members around the world by 1920. UNIA held mammoth international conventions in Harlem in the early 1920s. Garvey was enamored of extravagant uniforms, royal sounding titles, and elaborate parade dress (Many existing photos of him feature him in lavish regalia of his own design). The photos of the convention parades and other UNIA gatherings reproduced in Cronon’s, Martin’s, and Fax’s books are thus visually arresting. Middle-class Black organizations, like the NAACP, criticized the “silly” rituals and dress of UNIA, but Garvey believed that less educated, less privileged Blacks (like himself) might enjoy the opportunity to have an exalted title and march in uniform at the head of a parade, just as a White gas station attendant might take pride in becoming an officer of the local Water Buffalo Lodge. And to the chagrin of the NAACP, Garvey was correct: UNIA had more success at recruiting poor and less educated Blacks than any other civil rights organization of the period.
Part of the meteoric rise of the UNIA can be attributed to Garvey’s organizational skills and forceful personality, but broader cultural and historical factors explain why the movement struck such fertile ground with American Blacks. The years 1915-1925 were among the most dismal in terms of Black-White relations in the U.S. The Ku Klux Klan achieved its greatest popularity and public acceptance in these years. Other White mass movements, such as the Suffragettes and the Anti-Saloon League, also inflamed and played upon racist sentiments in order to advance their own political agendas. Black Americans, meanwhile, were discovering that even though many of them had just fought bravely in a war for freedom and democracy in Europe, these same values were still not honored at home. The many Southern Blacks who came north to work in war-related industries were also seeing initial hopes for betterment dashed, as they found that the prejudice in the South differed from that in the North in bluntness rather than intensity. Black Americans’ cynicism and despair was further fueled as the summer of 1919 (“Red Summer” in the words of James Weldon Johnson) saw White mobs in many U.S. cities terrorizing and murdering Blacks. With this as context, it is unsurprising that a movement emphasizing Black self-reliance and racial pride exploded in the span of only a few years under the direction of a charismatic leader.
Unfortunately, the decline of Garvey and the UNIA were almost as sudden as their ascent. Unscrupulous White businessmen fleeced the BSL board by selling them dilapidated ships that spent more time in drydocks than delivering goods. Other Black leaders, especially W.E.B. DuBois and members of the Black press, harshly criticized Garvey for emphasizing self-reliance over more traditional civil rights approaches to promoting racial equality. Further, rumors began to circulate that there was graft within Garvey’s enterprises. All the books reviewed here maintain convincingly that Garvey himself was an honest man, but some of his underlings apparently absconded with UNIA funds. Garvey must be held partially responsible for the problems within the UNIA, for he stood behind ineffectual, dishonest toadies but dismissed honest subordinates who pointed out problems or disagreed on matters of policy.
With the support of organizations like the NAACP, the U.S. government also began turning the screws on Garvey, charging him with mail fraud in connection with the sale of Black Star Line stock shares. Garvey and three other BSL executives were tried in 1923, but only Garvey, the one of the four who was probably innocent, was convicted. Garvey undermined himself at the trial by dismissing his brilliant lawyer Cornelius W. McDougald and choosing to defend himself, despite having no training in law (This was not a race-based decision, McDougald was Black). However, it is unlikely that even McDougald could have prevented a conviction because powerful elements of both White and Black society wanted to extinguish Garveyism. Further, the Judge, Julian Mack, was an NAACP board member. He sentenced Garvey to the maximum term of five years in prison. A bitter consequence of Mack’s sentence (and refusal to be replaced by a judge without ties to the NAACP) was that Garvey, who up to the time of the trial had admired Jews and held their work ethic and self-determination up as an example to Blacks, began developing anti-Semitic attitudes (prefiguring some Black leaders to come) because of his anger at Mack, an ardent Zionist.
With Garvey in prison, the movement struggled on, but never at its former strength. A deal with the Liberian government to start a UNIA colony fell through, a large bequest by a wealthy UNIA member was stolen during an internal squabble, and UNIA chapter membership dropped nationwide. Garvey was released from prison early, but as a foreigner convicted of a felon, he was immediately deported. He continued fighting for his causes in the Carribean and in England, but was so minimized as a political figure that his death in 1940 went largely unnoticed. It was not until the revival of Black nationalism in the U.S. and abroad that his memory was rehabilitated and his writings came back into print.
All of these basic facts about Garvey’s life can be gathered from Cronon’s detailed and well-documented text, which has a scholarly and dispassionate tone. Reading his book is like listening to a lecture by a learned professor. In contrast, reading Fax’s is like sitting down for coffee with one. Although his book is less detailed than Cronon’s and sometimes even sounds chatty, Fax has a much more engaged and engaging style of presenting Garvey’s life and works. He better conveys Garvey’s magnetism, and also seems to have a greater appreciation of the intra-Black politics of the 1920s. Because their styles and scope differ yet complement each other, Cronon and Fax are worth reading together.
Martin’s book does the best job of describing the UNIA outside of the U.S., particularly its strength and activities in Carribean countries and its influence on African nationalists such as Kwame Nkrumah and Nnamdi Azikiwe. At the same time, Martin’s book is often poorly reasoned and documented. As can be inferred from the title, his book leans toward hagiography. For example, Martin largely dismisses the internal problems and mistakes of the UNIA in a fashion that is not convincing even if one analyzes only the selected facts he presents. The main value of Martin’s panegyric may be that it illustrates how Garvey is idolized by some modern Black Nationalists.
This aspect of Martin’s book is but one example of how appraisals of Marcus Garvey and Black self-help movements tend to reflect the politics of the perceiver. Modern Black nationalists like Martin deify Garvey whereas the more traditionally liberal historian John Hope Franklin (author of the foreword of the 1955 edition of Cronon’s book) dismissively appraises Garvey as an “unforgettable character” who was “rather throughly discredited at the time of his death”. Statist liberals (Black or otherwise) often worry that “minority mutual aid organizations” and “self-reliance” are code words for cuts in social welfare and other forms of outside assistance, whereas liberaltarians (again, Black or otherwise) are more likely to see mutual-help as an important avenue for empowerment of minorities and curtailment of the imperialism of White helping professionals.
Regardless of whether one sees a more racially just society emerging from within or without Black America (or from both), Garveyism is an important movement to understand and to grapple with. All four of these books on Marcus Garvey are valuable companions on that intellectual journey.

101 Black History: Toussaint L’Ouverture The Founder of Black Freedom in the western hemisphere



Known to his contemporaries as “The Black Napoleon,” Toussaint L’Ouverture was a former slave who rose to become the leader of the only successful slave revolt in modern history, the Haitian Revolution.

Born into slavery on May 20, 1743 in the French colony of Saint Dominque, L’Ouverture was the eldest son of Gaou Guinon, an African prince who was captured by slavers.  At a time when revisions to the French Code Noir (Black Code) legalized the harsh treatment of slaves as property, young L’ Overture instead inspired kindness from those in authority over him.  His godfather, the priest Simon Baptiste, for example, taught him to read and write.  Impressed by L’Ouverture, Bayon de Libertad, the manager of the Breda plantation on which L’Ouverture was born, allowed him unlimited access to his personal library.  By the time he was twenty, the well-read and tri-lingual L’Ouverture—he spoke French, Creole, and some Latin—had also gained a reputation as a skilled horseman and for his knowledge of medicinal plants and herbs.  More importantly, L’Ouverture had secured his freedom from de Libertad even as he continued to manage his former owner’s household personnel and to act as his coachman.  Over the course of the next 18 years, L’Ouverture settled into life on the Breda plantation marrying fellow Catholic Suzanne Simon and parenting two sons, Isaac and Saint-Jean. 

The events of August 22, 1791, the “Night of Fire” in which slaves revolted by setting fire to plantation houses and fields and killing whites, convinced the 48-year-old L’Ouverture that he should join the growing insurgency, although not before securing the safety of his wife and children in the Spanish-controlled eastern half of the island (Santo Domingo) and assuring that Bayon de Libertad and his wife were safely onboard a ship bound for the United States.  

Inspired by French Revolutionary ideology and angered by generations of abuse at the hands of white planters, the initial slave uprising was quelled within several days, but ongoing fighting between the slaves, free blacks, and planters continued.  Although he was free, L’Ouverture joined the slave insurgency and quickly developed a reputation first as a capable soldier and then as military secretary to Georges Biassou, one of the insurgency’s leaders.  When the insurgency’s leadership chose to ally itself with Spain against France, L’Ouverture followed.  Threatened by Spain and Britain’s attempts to control the island, the French National Convention acted to preserve its colonial rule in 1794 by securing the loyalty of the black population; France granted citizenship rights and freedom to all blacks within the empire.  

Following France’s decision to emancipate the slaves, L’Ouverture allied with France against Spain, and from 1794 to 1802, he was the dominant political and military leader in the French colony.  Operating under the self-assumed title of General-in-Chief of the Army, L’Ouverture led the French in ousting the British and then in capturing the Spanish controlled half of the island.  By 1801, although Saint Dominque remained ostensibly a French colony, L’Ouverture was ruling it as an independent state.  He drafted a constitution in which he reiterated the 1794 abolition of slavery and appointed himself governor for “the rest of his glorious life.” 

L’Ouverture’s actions eventually aroused the ire of Napoleon Bonaparte.  In 1802 Napoleon dispatched his brother-in-law, Charles Leclerc, to capture L’Ouverture and return the island to slavery under French control.  Captured and imprisoned at Fort de Joux in France, L’Ouverture died of pneumonia on April 7, 1803.  Independence for Saint Dominque would follow one year later under the leadership of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, one of L’Ouverture’s generals.  

Sources:
Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004); Martin Ros, Night of Fire: The Black Napoleon and the Battle for Haiti (New York: Sarpedon, 1994). 

FYI: interesting video to watch about haiti https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcV6NTqoyAc
to get more accurate biography speak to a haitian person who was raise in the haitian education system.
Contributor:
- See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/gah/loverture-toussaint-1742-1803#sthash.Da4Z33mE.dpuf

101 Black History : Benjamin Banneker The creator of the almanac

Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806)
Without Benjamin Banneker, our nation's capital would not exist as we know it.  After a year of work, the Frenchman hired by George Washington to design the capital, L'Enfant, stormed off the job, taking all the plans.  Banneker, placed on the planning committee at Thomas Jefferson's request, saved the project by reproducing from memory, in two days, a complete layout of the streets, parks, and major buildings. Thus Washington, D.C. itself can be considered a monument to the genius of this great man.

Banneker's English grandmother immigrated to the Baltimore area and married one of her slaves, named Bannaky.  Later, their daughter did likewise, and gave birth to Benjamin in 1731.  Since by law, free/slave status depended on the mother, Banneker, like his mother, was---technically---free.

Banneker attended an elementary school run by Quakers (one of the few "color-blind" communities of that time); in fact, he later adopted many Quaker habits and ideas. As a young man, he was given a pocket-watch by a business associate: this inspired Banneker to create his own clock, made entirely of wood (1753).  Famous as the first clock built in the New World, it kept perfect time for forty years.

During the Revolutionary War, wheat grown on a farm designed by Banneker helped save the fledgling U.S. troops fromBanneker's clock starving.  After the War, Banneker took up astronomy: in 1789, he successfully predicted an eclipse.  From 1792 to 1802, Banneker published an annual Farmer's Almanac, for which he did all the calculations himself.

The Almanac won Banneker fame as far away as England and France.  He used his reputation to promote social change: namely, to eliminate racism and war.  He sent a copy of his first Almanac to Thomas Jefferson, with a letter protesting that the man who declared that "all men are created equal" owned slaves.  Jefferson responded with enthusiastic words, but no political reform.  Similarly, Banneker's attempts "to inspire a veneration for human life and an horror for war" fell mainly on deaf ears.
But Banneker's reputation was never in doubt.  He spent his last years as an internationally known polymath: farmer, engineer, surveyor, city planner, astronomer, mathematician, inventor, author, and social critic.  He died on October 25, 1806. Today, Banneker does not have the reputation he should, although the entire world could still learn from his words: "Ah, why will men forget that they are brethren?"
Banneker's life is inspirational.  Despite the popular prejudices of his times, the man was quite unwilling to let his race or his age hinder in any way his thirst for intellectual development.






Benjamin Banneker, known as the first African-American man of science, was born in 1731 in Ellicott's Mills, Md.  His maternal grandmother was a white Englishwoman who came to this country, bought two slaves and then liberated and married one of them; their daughter, who also married a slave, was Banneker's mother.

From the beginning, Banneker, who was taught reading and religion by his grandmother and who attended one of the first integrated schools, showed a great propensity for mathematics and an astounding mechanical ability.  Later, when he was forced to leave school to work the family farm, he continued to be an avid reader.

Although he had no previous training, when he was only 22 he invented a wooden clock that kept accurate time throughout his life.  According to "Gay & Lesbian Biography," Banneker "applied his natural mechanical and mathematical abilities to diagrams of wheels and gears, and converted these into three-dimensional wooden clock-parts he carved with a knife."  People from all over came to see the clock.

In 1773 he began making astronomical calculations for almanacs, and in the spring of 1789 he accurately predicted a solar eclipse; that same year, he was the first African-American appointed to the President's Capital Commission.

He never married and is not known to have had any liaisons with women.  In one of his early essays he stated that poverty, disease and violence are more tolerable than the "pungent stings ... which guilty passions dart into the heart," causing some historians to view him as most probably homosexual.  According to "Gay & Lesbian Biography," Banneker's "self-isolation and love of drink is sometimes cited as at least a partial explanation for his lifelong bachelorhood.  But his grandmother, parents, and sisters were known to be people of considerable Christian dominance, and he always lived under their supervision."  Also, as he grew older, Banneker daily read the Bible, the teachings of which may have helped quash any gay tendencies.

A self-taught surveyor, in 1789 he was called on to assist George Ellicott and Pierre Charles L'Enfant in laying out what would become the nation's capital.

In 1790, he sold his farm and spent the rest of his life publishing his works on astronomy, mathematics and the abolition of slavery.  At the end of 1791, Banneker was publishing his almanac, greatly admired by then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson; the almanac was sent to Paris for inclusion at the Academy of Sciences.  Once the almanac's publication was assured, Banneker, having previously corresponded with Jefferson on the intellectual quality of African-Americans, began a correspondence with him on the subject of the abolition of slavery.

Toward the end of his life, he produced a dissertation on bees, a study of locust-plague cycles and more letters on segregationist trends in America.  He died at age 75 in Boston in 1806.  In 1980, the U.S. Post Office issued a Black Heritage commemorative stamp in his honor.


FYI: I can neither confirmed nor deny the information of his sexuality i try to provide a unbias biography of these articles. No matter is an important figure in human history.

101 Black History : Benjamin Banneker The creator of the almanac

Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806)
Without Benjamin Banneker, our nation's capital would not exist as we know it.  After a year of work, the Frenchman hired by George Washington to design the capital, L'Enfant, stormed off the job, taking all the plans.  Banneker, placed on the planning committee at Thomas Jefferson's request, saved the project by reproducing from memory, in two days, a complete layout of the streets, parks, and major buildings. Thus Washington, D.C. itself can be considered a monument to the genius of this great man.

Banneker's English grandmother immigrated to the Baltimore area and married one of her slaves, named Bannaky.  Later, their daughter did likewise, and gave birth to Benjamin in 1731.  Since by law, free/slave status depended on the mother, Banneker, like his mother, was---technically---free.

Banneker attended an elementary school run by Quakers (one of the few "color-blind" communities of that time); in fact, he later adopted many Quaker habits and ideas. As a young man, he was given a pocket-watch by a business associate: this inspired Banneker to create his own clock, made entirely of wood (1753).  Famous as the first clock built in the New World, it kept perfect time for forty years.

During the Revolutionary War, wheat grown on a farm designed by Banneker helped save the fledgling U.S. troops fromBanneker's clock starving.  After the War, Banneker took up astronomy: in 1789, he successfully predicted an eclipse.  From 1792 to 1802, Banneker published an annual Farmer's Almanac, for which he did all the calculations himself.

The Almanac won Banneker fame as far away as England and France.  He used his reputation to promote social change: namely, to eliminate racism and war.  He sent a copy of his first Almanac to Thomas Jefferson, with a letter protesting that the man who declared that "all men are created equal" owned slaves.  Jefferson responded with enthusiastic words, but no political reform.  Similarly, Banneker's attempts "to inspire a veneration for human life and an horror for war" fell mainly on deaf ears.
But Banneker's reputation was never in doubt.  He spent his last years as an internationally known polymath: farmer, engineer, surveyor, city planner, astronomer, mathematician, inventor, author, and social critic.  He died on October 25, 1806. Today, Banneker does not have the reputation he should, although the entire world could still learn from his words: "Ah, why will men forget that they are brethren?"
Banneker's life is inspirational.  Despite the popular prejudices of his times, the man was quite unwilling to let his race or his age hinder in any way his thirst for intellectual development.






Benjamin Banneker, known as the first African-American man of science, was born in 1731 in Ellicott's Mills, Md.  His maternal grandmother was a white Englishwoman who came to this country, bought two slaves and then liberated and married one of them; their daughter, who also married a slave, was Banneker's mother.

From the beginning, Banneker, who was taught reading and religion by his grandmother and who attended one of the first integrated schools, showed a great propensity for mathematics and an astounding mechanical ability.  Later, when he was forced to leave school to work the family farm, he continued to be an avid reader.

Although he had no previous training, when he was only 22 he invented a wooden clock that kept accurate time throughout his life.  According to "Gay & Lesbian Biography," Banneker "applied his natural mechanical and mathematical abilities to diagrams of wheels and gears, and converted these into three-dimensional wooden clock-parts he carved with a knife."  People from all over came to see the clock.

In 1773 he began making astronomical calculations for almanacs, and in the spring of 1789 he accurately predicted a solar eclipse; that same year, he was the first African-American appointed to the President's Capital Commission.

He never married and is not known to have had any liaisons with women.  In one of his early essays he stated that poverty, disease and violence are more tolerable than the "pungent stings ... which guilty passions dart into the heart," causing some historians to view him as most probably homosexual.  According to "Gay & Lesbian Biography," Banneker's "self-isolation and love of drink is sometimes cited as at least a partial explanation for his lifelong bachelorhood.  But his grandmother, parents, and sisters were known to be people of considerable Christian dominance, and he always lived under their supervision."  Also, as he grew older, Banneker daily read the Bible, the teachings of which may have helped quash any gay tendencies.

A self-taught surveyor, in 1789 he was called on to assist George Ellicott and Pierre Charles L'Enfant in laying out what would become the nation's capital.

In 1790, he sold his farm and spent the rest of his life publishing his works on astronomy, mathematics and the abolition of slavery.  At the end of 1791, Banneker was publishing his almanac, greatly admired by then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson; the almanac was sent to Paris for inclusion at the Academy of Sciences.  Once the almanac's publication was assured, Banneker, having previously corresponded with Jefferson on the intellectual quality of African-Americans, began a correspondence with him on the subject of the abolition of slavery.

Toward the end of his life, he produced a dissertation on bees, a study of locust-plague cycles and more letters on segregationist trends in America.  He died at age 75 in Boston in 1806.  In 1980, the U.S. Post Office issued a Black Heritage commemorative stamp in his honor.


FYI: I can neither confirmed nor deny the information of his sexuality i try to provide a unbias biography of these articles. No matter is an important figure in human history.

101 Black History: Sam Cooke the grandfather of soul

Sam Cooke

Sam Cooke, the son of Reverend Charles Cook, Sr., (a Baptist minister) and Annie May Cook was born January 22, 1931 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. The family moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1933. He had four brothers and three sisters – Willie, Charles Jr., L.C., David, Mary, Hattie and Agnes.

Sam graduated from Wendell Phillips High School in 1948, where he distinguished himself as an “A” student as well as being voted “most likely to succeed.” During his formative years, Sam, together with his brothers Charles Jr., L.C. and sisters Mary and Hattie, performed as a gospel group “The Singing Children.”

At the age of 15, Sam became lead singer of the famous “teenage” gospel group the “Highway QC’s” until he was 19 when he was hand-picked by Roy (S.R.) Crain, manager of the “Soul Stirrers,” to replace the legendary R.H. Harris as lead singer.

In 1951, with the “Soul Stirrers,” he began his writing and recording career on Specialty Records with such gospel classics as “Nearer To Thee,” “Touch The Hem Of His Garment” and “Be With Me Jesus.” For six electrifying years he established a new standard for gospel expression.

“It isn’t what you sing that is so important,” said Sam’s father, “but rather the fact that God gave you a good voice to use. He must want you to make people happy by singing, so go ahead and do so.”

With these words of encouragement, he did just that. At the height of his fame in the gospel world and with the screams of believers raising him up and being raised by him, Sam left it all behind.

In June of 1957 he left Specialty Records, along with his producer/manager Bumps Blackwell, and three months later signed with Keen Records where he wrote and recorded such Number 1 hits as “You Send Me,” “Win Your Love For Me,” “Everybody Loves To Cha Cha Cha,” “Only Sixteen” and “(What A) Wonderful World.” Sam didn’t “cross-over” he “combined” – blending sensuality and spirituality, sophistication and soul.

After the success of “You Send Me” in 1957, Sam signed with the William Morris Agency, appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and performed at New York City’s world famous Copacabana in March of 1958.

In 1959, Sam married Barbara Campbell, his childhood sweetheart, at her Grandmother’s house in Chicago, with his father performing the ceremony. They had two daughters – Linda and Tracey and a son, Vincent, who, in 1963, died tragically at the age of eighteen months. Sam also became partners in 1959 with J.W. Alexander in Kags Music (now ABKCO Music, Inc.) and later that year, with J.W., Sam formed SAR Records (now ABKCO Records). Kags Music would control not only Sam’s 152 classic compositions, but also the compositions written by artists signed to SAR.

In 1960, Sam signed with RCA Records, a deal negotiated by The William Morris Agency, where he continued to write and record such Number 1 hits as “Chain Gang,” “Twisting The Night Away,” “Bring It On Home To Me,” “Having A Party” and “Cupid.”

In 1963, J.W. and Sam appointed Allen Klein to manage SAR, Kags and all of the related companies; at the same time Allen became Sam’s manager. On September 1st of the same year, Sam signed a new agreement whereby all of his RCA business would pass through Sam’s record label, Tracey Records. RCA was now merely Tracey Records’ distributor. This new deal guaranteed Sam a minimum advance of half a million dollars over three years and established Sam’s complete ownership of his work. Everything he did from this point on would be by his own design and direction, and in fact even RCA’s distribution rights of the Tracey material were limited to 30 years from the term of the agreement.

Before producing his good friend Cassius Clay’s (Muhammad Ali) recording titled “The Gang’s All Here,” he and Malcolm X attended Clay’s heavyweight championship bout with Sonny Liston in Miami.

Sam died on December 11, 1964. “At the Mount Sinai Baptist Church in Los Angeles, a crowd of 5,000 persons, some of whom arrived five hours before the scheduled last rites, over-ran facilities designed to accommodate 1,500. In an emotion packed atmosphere, super charged by the singing of Lou Rawls, Bobby Blue Bland and Arthur Lee Simpkins, women fainted, tears ran down men’s cheeks and onlookers shouted. Gospel singer Bessy Griffin, who was to appear on the funeral program, became so grief stricken she had to be carried off. Ray Charles stepped in from the audience to sing and play ‘Angels Keep Watching Over Me’.” EBONY Magazine February 1965

For 14 years Sam sanctified and glorified his gospel heritage and forged new paths by being the first black artist to establish his own record company (SAR) where he helped such gospel oriented artists as the Womack Brothers (Bobby, Cecil, Friendly Jr., Curtis and Harry) who later became the Valentinos, R.H. Harris & His Gospel Paraders, The Simms Twins, Johnnie Morisette, Johnnie Taylor and Billy Preston, as well as giving continued expression to the Soul Stirrers.

Today, many years after he began his writing and recording career, Sam’s music endures with cover recordings by artists from all genres of the recording industry such as Aretha, Bryan Adams, Gerald Alston, The Animals, Arcade Fire, The Band, Billy Bragg, Solomon Burke, Jimmy Buffet, Eric Clapton, Shemekia Copeland, Jim Croce, Terrence Trent D’Arby, Gavin DeGraw, Bob Dylan, The Fugees, Art Garfunkel, Al Green, Leela James, Jon Bon Jovi, R. Kelly, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Nas, The Neville Brothers, Otis Redding, The Righteous Brothers, The Rolling Stones, Seal, Dan Seals, Nina Simone, The Spinners, Cat Stevens, Rod Stewart, The Supremes, James Taylor, Tina Turner, Luther Vandross, Jackie Wilson, Bobby Womack and Ray Charles, among many others

FYI: What is not listed in the biographies i read was that sam cooke belive in owning his own music and was once quoted saying a white man will never own his music. he also owned his own record label.

101 Black History: Thurgood Marshall The father of racial equality


THURGOOD MARSHALL BIOGRAPHY

Born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 2, 1908, Thurgood Marshall was the grandson of a slave. His father, William Marshall, instilled in him from youth an appreciation for the United States Constitution and the rule of law. After completing high school in 1925, Thurgood followed his brother, William Aubrey Marshall, at the historically black Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania. His classmates at Lincoln included a distinguished group of future Black leaders such as the poet and author Langston Hughes, the future President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and musician Cab Calloway. Just before graduation, he married his first wife, Vivian "Buster" Burey. Their twenty-five year marriage ended with her death from cancer in 1955.
In 1930, he applied to the University of Maryland Law School, but was denied admission because he was Black. This was an event that was to haunt him and direct his future professional life. Thurgood sought admission and was accepted at the Howard University Law School that same year and came under the immediate influence of the dynamic new dean, Charles Hamilton Houston, who instilled in all of his students the desire to apply the tenets of the Constitution to all Americans. Paramount in Houston's outlook was the need to overturn the 1898 Supreme Court ruling, Plessy v. Ferguson which established the legal doctrine called, "separate but equal." Marshall's first major court case came in 1933 when he successfully sued the University of Maryland to admit a young African American Amherst University graduate named Donald Gaines Murray. Applauding Marshall's victory, author H.L. Mencken wrote that the decision of denial by the University of Maryland Law School was "brutal and absurd," and they should not object to the "presence among them of a self-respecting and ambitious young Afro-American well prepared for his studies by four years of hard work in a class A college."
Thurgood Marshall followed his Howard University mentor, Charles Hamilton Houston to New York and later became Chief Counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). During this period, Mr. Marshall was asked by the United Nations and the United Kingdom to help draft the constitutions of the emerging African nations of Ghana and what is now Tanzania. It was felt that the person who so successfully fought for the rights of America's oppressed minority would be the perfect person to ensure the rights of the White citizens in these two former European colonies. After amassing an impressive record of Supreme Court challenges to state-sponsored discrimination, including the landmark Brown v. Board decision in 1954, President John F. Kennedy appointed Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In this capacity, he wrote over 150 decisions including support for the rights of immigrants, limiting government intrusion in cases involving illegal search and seizure, double jeopardy, and right to privacy issues. Biographers Michael Davis and Hunter Clark note that, "none of his (Marshall's) 98 majority decisions was ever reversed by the Supreme Court." In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson appointed Judge Marshall to the office of U.S. Solicitor General. Before his subsequent nomination to the United States Supreme Court in 1967, Thurgood Marshall won 14 of the 19 cases he argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of the government. Indeed, Thurgood Marshall represented and won more cases before the United States Supreme Court than any other American.
Until his retirement from the highest court in the land, Justice Marshall established a record for supporting the voiceless American. Having honed his skills since the case against the University of Maryland, he developed a profound sensitivity to injustice by way of the crucible of racial discrimination in this country. As an Associate Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall leaves a legacy that expands that early sensitivity to include all of America's voiceless. Justice Marshall died on January 24, 1993.

Thurgood Marshall life Timeline
1908 – Marshall named Thoroughgood on July 2 to Norma and William Marshall in Baltimore, Maryland; shortens name to Thurgood in second grade. 
1929 – Marshall marries University of Pennsylvania student Vivian “Buster” Burrey. 
1930 - Mr. Marshall graduates with honors from Lincoln U. (cum laude) 
1933 - Receives law degree from Howard U. (magna cum laude); begins private practice in Baltimore Receives law degree from Howard U. (magna cum laude); begins private practice in Baltimore. 
1934 –Marshall graduates from Howard University School of Law (magna cum laude); begins private practice in Baltimore. 
1934 - Marshall works for National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Baltimore division. 
1935 - With Charles Houston, wins first major civil rights case, Murray v. Pearson 
1936 - Becomes assistant special counsel for NAACP in New York 
1940 - Wins first of 29 Supreme Court victories (Chambers v. Florida) 
1940 - Marshall is named first Director-Counsel of NAACP Legal Defense Fund. 
1944 - Successfully argues Smith v. Allwright, overthrowing the South's "white primary" 
1948 - Wins Shelley v. Kraemer, in which Supreme Court strikes down legality of racially restrictive covenants 
1950 - Wins Supreme Court victories in two graduate-school integration cases, Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents 
1951 - Visits South Korea and Japan to investigate charges of racism in U.S. armed forces. He reported that the general practice was one of "rigid segregation". 
1954 - Wins Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, landmark case that demolishes legal basis for segregation in America 
1955 - Marshall marries Cecelia “Cissy” Suyat Marshall. 
1956 - Thurgood Marshall Jr. was born. 
1959 - John W. Marshall was born. 
1961 - Defends civil rights demonstrators, winning Supreme Circuit Court victory in Garner v. Louisiana; nominated to Second Court of Appeals by President J.F. Kennedy 

1961 - Appointed circuit judge, makes 112 rulings, all of them later upheld by Supreme Court (1961-1965) 
1965 - Appointed U.S. solicitor general by President Lyndon Johnson; wins 14 of the 19 cases he argues for the government (1965-1967) 
1967 - Becomes first African American elevated to U.S. Supreme Court (1967-1991) 
1971- Marshall and the other U.S. Supreme Court Justices guaranteed abortion rights in landmark Roe v. Wade case. 
1978 – Marshall and the other U.S. Supreme Court Justices barred quota systems in college admissions in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case. 
1987 - Marshall gifts his name to establish the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund to benefit Public Historically Black Colleges and Universities 
1991 – Marshall retires as Associate Justice of U.S. Supreme Court. 
1993 – Marshall succumbs to heart failure in Baltimore, Maryland at age 84 and leaves behind a lasting legacy of civil rights.


101 Black History: George Washington Carver The American Saviour

Info came from @ http://www.biography.com/people/george-washington-carver-9240299


George Washington Carver Biography
Botanist, Chemist, Scientist, Inventor (c. 1864–1943)

George Washington Carver was a prominent African-American scientist and inventor. Carver is best known for the many uses he devised for the peanut.

George Washington Carver - Mini Biography (TV-14; 4:26) A short biography of George Washington Carver who was offered a horticultural position by Booker T. Washington at the Tuskegee Institute and went on to discovering countless uses for the peanut and other important crops.
Synopsis
George Washington Carver was born into slavery in Diamond, Missouri, around 1864. The exact year and date of his birth are unknown. Carver went on to become one of the most prominent scientists and inventors of his time, as well as a teacher at the Tuskegee Institute. Carver devised over 100 products using one major crop—the peanut—including dyes, plastics and gasoline. He died in 1943.
Early Years
Botanist and inventor George Washington Carver was one of many children born to Mary and Giles, an enslaved couple owned by Moses Carver. He was born during the Civil War years, most likely in 1864. A week after his birth, George was kidnapped along with his sister and mother from the Carver farm by raiders from the neighboring state of Arkansas. The three were sold in Kentucky, and among them only the infant George was located by an agent of Moses Carver and returned to Missouri.
The conclusion of the Civil War in 1865 brought the end of slavery in Missouri. Moses Carver and his wife, Susan, decided to keep George and his brother James at their home after that time, raising and educating the two boys. Susan Carver taught George to read and write, since no local school would accept black students at the time.
The search for knowledge would remain a driving force for the rest of George's life. As a young man, he left the Carver home to travel to a school for black children 10 miles away. It was at this point that the boy, who had always identified himself as "Carver's George" first came to be known as "George Carver." Carver attended a series of schools before receiving his diploma at Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kansas.
Accepted to Highland College in Highland, Kansas, Carver was denied admittance once college administrators learned of his race. Instead of attending classes, he homesteaded a claim, where he conducted biological experiments and compiled a geological collection. While interested in science, Carver was also interested in the arts. In 1890, he began studying art and music at Simpson College in Iowa, developing his painting and drawing skills through sketches of botanical samples. His obvious aptitude for drawing the natural world prompted a teacher to suggest that Carver enroll in the botany program at the Iowa State Agricultural College.
Carver moved to Ames and began his botanical studies the following year as the first black student at Iowa State. Carver excelled in his studies. Upon completion of his Bachelor of Science degree, Carver's professors Joseph Budd and Louis Pammel persuaded him to stay on for a master's degree. His graduate studies included intensive work in plant pathology at the Iowa Experiment Station. In these years, Carver established his reputation as a brilliant botanist and began the work that he would pursue for the remainder of his career
Tuskegee Institute
After graduating from Iowa State, Carver embarked on a career of teaching and research. Booker T. Washington, the principal of the African-American Tuskegee Institute, hired Carver to run the school's agricultural department in 1896. Washington lured the promising young botanist to the institute with a hefty salary and the promise of two rooms on campus, while most faculty members lived with a roommate. Carver's special status stemmed from his accomplishments and reputation, as well as his degree from a prominent institution not normally open to black students.
Tuskegee's agricultural department achieved national renown under Carver's leadership, with a curriculum and a faculty that he helped to shape. Areas of research and training included methods of crop rotation and the development of alternative cash crops for farmers in areas heavily planted with cotton. This work helped struggling sharecroppers in the South, many of them former slaves now faced with necessary cultivation under harsh conditions including the devastation of the boll weevil in 1892. The development of new crops and diversification of crop use helped to stabilize the livelihoods of these people who had backgrounds not unlike Carver's own.
The education of African-American students at Tuskegee contributed directly to the effort of economic stabilization among blacks. In addition to formal education in a traditional classroom setting, Carver pioneered a mobile classroom to bring his lessons to farmers. The classroom was known as a "Jesup wagon," after New York financier and Tuskegee donor Morris Ketchum Jesup.
Rise to Prominence
Carver's work at Tuskegee included groundbreaking research on plant biology that brought him to national prominence. Many of these early experiments focused on the development of new uses for crops such as peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans and pecans. The hundreds of products he invented included plastics, paints, dyes and even a kind of gasoline. In 1920, Carver delivered a speech before the Peanut Growers Association, attesting to the wide potential of peanuts. The following year, he testified before Congress in support of a tariff on imported peanuts. With the help of Carver's testimony, Congress passed the tariff in 1922.
Carver's prominence as a scientific expert made him one of the most famous African-Americans and one of the best-known African-American intellectuals of his time. By the time of his testimony, however, Carver had already achieved international fame in political and professional circles. President Theodore Roosevelt admired his work and sought his advice on agricultural matters in the United States. Carver was also recognized abroad for his scientific expertise. In 1916, he was made a member of the British Royal Society of Arts—a rare honor for an American. Carver also advised Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi on matters of agriculture and nutrition.
READ ARTICLE: 7 facts about George Washington Carver 

Carver used his celebrity to promote scientific causes for the remainder of his life. He wrote a syndicated newspaper column and toured the nation, speaking on the importance of agricultural innovation, the achievements at Tuskegee, and the possibilities for racial harmony in the United States. From 1923 to 1933, Carver toured white Southern colleges for the Commission on Interracial Cooperation.
The politics of accommodation championed by both George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington were anathema to activists who sought more radical change. Despite his involvement with government-funded scientific research and programs, Carver largely remained outside of the political sphere, and declined to criticize prevailing social norms outright. Nonetheless, Carver's scholarship and research contributed to improved quality of life for many farming families, and made Carver an icon for African-Americans and Anglo-Americans alike.
George Washington Carver died on January 5, 1943, at the age of 78 after falling down the stairs at his home. He was buried next to Booker T. Washington on the Tuskegee grounds. Carver's epitaph reads: "He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world."

Legacy
Carver's iconic status remained after his death, in part due to steps that Carver and others took during his lifetime to establish his legacy. Carver, who had lived a frugal life, used his savings to establish a museum devoted to his work, including some of his own paintings and drawings. In December 1947, a fire broke out in the museum, destroying much of the collection. One of the surviving works by Carver is a painting of a yucca and a cactus, displayed at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. In addition to the museum, Carver also established the George Washington Carver Foundation at Tuskegee, with the aim of supporting future agricultural research.
A project to erect a national monument in Carver's honor also began before his death. Harry S. Truman, then a senator from Missouri, sponsored a bill in favor of a monument during World War II. Supporters of the bill argued that the wartime expenditure was warranted because the monument would promote patriotic fervor among African-Americans and encourage them to enlist in the military. The bill passed unanimously in both houses.
In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated $30,000 for the monument west of Diamond, Missouri—the site of the plantation where Carver lived as a child. This was the first national monument dedicated to an African-American. The 210-acre complex includes a statue of Carver as well as a nature trail, museum and cemetery.
Carver appeared on U.S. commemorative postal stamps in 1948 and 1998, as well as a commemorative half dollar coin minted between 1951 and 1954. Numerous schools bear his name, as do two United States military vessels. In 2005, the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis opened a George Washington Carver garden, which includes a life-size statue of the garden's famous namesake. These honors attest to George Washington Carver's enduring legacy as an icon of African-American achievement, and of American ingenuity more broadly. Carver's life has come to symbolize the transformative potential of education, even for those born into the most unfortunate and difficult of circumstances.

George Washington Carver
OCCUPATION
BIRTH DATE
c. January, 1864
DEATH DATE
EDUCATION
PLACE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF DEATH
Tuskegee, Alabama







NAME