Friends of Padre Steve’s World, Yesterday President Trump delivered a speech at the Lincoln Memorial in his “Salute to America.” For Trump the speech was as non-partisan. Although he talked about the “spirit of America” and detailed many military, scientific, and economic accomplishments, appealed to American Exceptionalism, and threw in a couple of comments about […]
On the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in Memphis, Chicago remembers his time spent in our city, expanding his civil rights movement from the South.
King brought his movement for equal rights north to Chicago in 1966, targeting the city’s stark segregation. Here, hundreds marched with him to challenge the policies that maintained the rigidly white ethnic enclave, Marquette Park.
“I have never seen, even in Mississippi and Alabama, mobs as hateful as I’ve seen here,” King said of Chicago.
In this gallery of Chicago Sun-Times and AP archival photos, King is seen energizing crowds and facing violent attacks as he led the march in Marquette Park. The photos, from 1966, show him renovating deteriorating buildings and confronting Mayor Richard J. Daley.
via PHOTO GALLERY: Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago — Chicago Sun-Times
Vivien T. Thomas
The Johns Hopkins Medical Institution holds Personal Paper Collections in the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives, including papers about the “blue baby” disease. The surgical procedure eventually developed to save the lives of babies born with congenital heart malformation, robbing their blood of oxygen, is known as the Blalock-Taussig Shunt. However, it was a Black man named Vivien T. Thomas who created that shunt.
Vivien T. Thomas was born on August 29, 1910 in Lake Providence, Louisiana. His family later moved to Nashville, Tennessee. His father was a carpenter and Vivien followed in his dad’s footsteps until 1929. That year, Vivien began working as an orderly in a private infirmary and he enrolled as a premedical student at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial College.
The stock market crash bankrupted the bank where Vivien had saved money for school, and his savings were wiped out. He dropped out of school and in 1930, he was hired at Vanderbilt University as a laboratory assistant for Dr. Alfred Blalock. Blalock was conducting medical research using dogs, and Vivien’s responsibilities included taking care of the animals and cleaning-up after them. Read the rest of this entry
Friends of Padre Steve’s World, The theme of Black History Month this year is African Americans in Times of War to coincide with the centennial of the end of the First World War. In 1918 African Americans who in spite of the prejudice, intolerance and persecution they endured at home as a result of Jim Crow, […]
Della Reese
She was born Delloreese Patricia Early on July 6, 1931, in Detroit, Michigan. She began singing in church when she was 6-years old. By her teens, she was working as a singer in gospel luminary Mahalia Jackson’s unit.
After graduating from Detroit’s Cass Technical High School, she briefly attended Wayne State University, but soon moved into music professionally, taking Della Reese as her professional name.
Della Reese was the first Black woman to host her own talk show, which was launched in 1969 and called “Della”.
Della Reese got her first acting break from casting director Reuben Cannon, who offered her a guest shot on the cop show “The Mod Squad” in 1968. She also appeared in roles on “Police Woman,” “The Rookies,” “McCloud” Chico and the Man,” Welcome Back Kotter,” and “The A-Team.” Read the rest of this entry
Born Richard Claxton Gregory on October 12, 1932 in St. Louis, he transitioned today at the age of 84. There is no list that can pay due honor to his accomplishments and inspirations.
As a teenager, Dick Gregory earned a track scholarship to attend Southern Illinois University in Carbondale but his education was cut short when he was drafted in the U.S. Army in 1954. His commanding officer noticed that Dick had a knack for joking, and Dick entered and won several military talent shows. In 1956 after his discharge, Dick returned to the University but then dropped out saying that the university “didn’t want me to study, they wanted me to run.”
As a young man, Dick moved to Chicago and became part of a new generation of Black comedians along with Nipsey Russel. They broke with stereotypical Black entertainers by drawing on current events, including racial issues. As Dick Gregory said once, “Segregation is not all bad. Have you ever heard of a collision where the people in the back of the bus got hurt?”
Even with his talent, Dick Gregory did not give up his day job. He worked for the U.S. Postal Service. He attributed the launch of his career to Hugh Hefner. Hefner saw Dick perform where he told the following;
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I understand there are a good many Southerners in the room tonight. I know the South very well. I spent twenty years there one night.
Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant and this white waitress came up to me and said, “We don’t serve colored people here.” I said, “That’s all right. I don’t eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken.”
Then these three white boys came up to me and said, “Boy, we’re giving you fair warning. Anything you do to that chicken, we’re gonna do to you.” So I put down my knife and fork, I picked up that chicken and I kissed it. Then I said, “Line up, boys!”
Hefner hired Dick Gregory to work at the Chicago Playboy Club to replace “Professor” Irwin Corey. Read the rest of this entry
I learned of the 54th Regiment by watching the movie “Glory.” It was so interesting that I then purchased a book about it. Thanks for this post.
Friends of Padre Steve’s World,
When it learned that the Federal Government was recruiting African Americans, both free men and former slaves as soldiers the Confederate Congress issued this proclamation:
“Any negro taken in arms against the Confederacy will immediately be returned to a state of slavery. Any negro taken in Federal uniform will be summarily put to death. Any white officer taken in command of negro troops shall be deemed as inciting servile insurrection and shall likewise be put to death.”
Those who doubt that the leaders of the Confederacy fought the war for any “state right” other than the maintenance and expansion of slavery needs to look at the actions and words of that racist republic.
One hundred and fifty-four years ago today one of those African American regiments went into action against the Confederate works at Battery Wagner, outside of Charleston, South Carolina. The 54th was raised…
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Thanks for the reminder and Dr. King’s encouraging words.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson is attempting to water-down the history of a people who were kidnapped from their family, culture, possessions and country, and in chains, sold as property and forced into labor.
Quotation source, the Washington Post.
In 2016, Ben Carson did not say that Obamacare was the worst thing since “involuntary immigrants” — he said “slavery.”
I could go into all of the comparisons between immigrants and what Secretary Carson calls “involuntary immigrants,” but I think that everyone already knows the comparisons, including Ben Carson. I want to address his statement from another perspective — that of this nation’ rule of law.
A definition of “rule of law” is:
“The principle that all people and institutions are subject to and accountable to law that is fairly applied and enforced; the principle of government by law.”
The principal foundation of America’s rule of law is our constitution. Read the rest of this entry
During Black History Month I like to spotlight some people that most Americans have never heard of or the contribution they made to our society….
Who was the first African-American to win the Congressional Medal of Honor?
You guessed it…….William Carney.
William Carney was the first African-American recipient.
He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions on July 18, 1863 at Fort Wagner, S.C. while a member of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment in the Civil War — the state’s first all-black regiment. During the disastrous battle at Ft. Wagner, Carney noticed that the man who carried the flag had been wounded.
So Carney bravely rescued the flag and carried it for him. He delivered it safely to his regiment and reportedly shouted “Boys, the old flag never touched the ground.” Carney was wounded during the battle but was not killed.
After the war he spent 31 years…
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With the release and popularity of the movie “Hidden Figures” and this being Black History month, I thought that copying a post written by guest blogger Yahteebutterfly would be appropriate.
Katherine Johnson, the African American mathematician who calculated the trajectory of NASA’s first manned spacecraft was born on August 26, 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
Her father, a farmer and logger who only had a sixth grade education, was a whiz at math. In an interview with Cathy Lewis of WHROTV, Dr. Johnson recalled that her father could listen to a difficult math word-problem and immediately have the answer and that he could determine the number of board feet he could get from a tree just by looking at it. When it came time for high school and college for his four children he began working at a hotel and had extra jobs to support the studies of his four children.
Watching her three siblings enter elementary school before she did, Katherine could hardly wait to attend school. She loved learning and had a special fascination for numbers. She loved counting everything around her, even the number of steps she walked on her way to church. When she finally did attend school, she was such an outstanding student that she was skipped to second grade, and by the time she was 10, she entered high school where mathematician Angie King recognized her mathematical talent and mentored her during those four years. Read the rest of this entry
What an educational post! Thank you, Pastor Sneed.
Article by Kristin Fawcett of “Mental Floss”
Thomas L. Jennings (1791-1859) was the first African American person to receive a patent in the U.S., paving the way for future inventors of color to gain exclusive rights to their inventions. Born in 1791, Jennings lived and worked in New York City as a tailor and dry cleaner. He invented an early method of dry cleaning called “dry scouring,” and patented it in 1821—four years before Paris tailor Jean Baptiste Jolly refined his own chemical technique and established what many people claim was history’s first dry cleaning business.
People objected to an African American citizen receiving a patent, but Jennings had a loophole: He was a free man. At the time, U.S. patent laws said that the “[slavemaster] is the owner of the fruits of the labor of the slave both manual and intellectual”—meaning slaves couldn’t legally own…
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Monday, January 16, marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the federal date of recognition for one of the most important figures in the civil rights movement. Signed by President Reagan in 1983, the holiday marked the culmination of efforts that started just four days after King’s assassination in 1968, when Representative John Conyers of Michigan began 15 years of introducing and reintroducing a bill to establish the holiday. (Stevie Wonder joined the chorus of Americans backing Conyers’ efforts; in 1980 he wrote the song “Happy Birthday” to help create a groundswell of support.)
While it would be impossible to encompass everything King accomplished in a mere list, we’ve compiled a few intriguing facts that may pique your interest in finding out more about the man who helped unite a divided nation.
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BY GUEST BLOGGER, YAHTZEEBUTTERFLYOn January 1, 1900 The Rev. Dr. A. L. DeMond welcomed the new year and the new century with a speech which he delivered at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church (later to become pastored by Dr. Martin Luther King) in Montgomery, Alabama. Were it not for the Emancipation Proclamation Association publishing his speech pamphlet form, we might never have learned of Rev. DeMond or of his speech titled “The Negro Element in American Life, An Oration.”
Those members of the Dexter Avenue Baptist congregation in attendance on New Year’s Day in 1900 were treated to an oration which honored past and contemporary African Americans who championed freedom for slaves and civil rights for freedmen, as well as those African Americans who served in the U.S. Congress and in state legislatures, who advanced the education of African Americans, and who were great lawyers, doctors, military officers, writers, and artists.
Rev. DeMond asserted:
“There has never been a time since this nation was founded, so terrible in its oppression, so awful in its conditions, so cruel in its prejudices, but that Negro manhood, genius or bravery has been able to assert itself.”
His full speech can be found at Antislavery.eserver.org. Read the rest of this entry
December 1, 1942 – Singer Carla Thomas, known as the “Queen of Memphis” for her hit songs in the 1960s.
December 2, 1931 – Civil rights attorney Solomon Leay Jr. in Montgomery, Alabama. Some of the cases he worked on involved school desegregation, the Freedom Riders, and the march from Selma to Montgomery.
December 3, 1882 – Folk painter Ellis Ruley in Norwich, Connecticut
November 1, 1915 – Artist and poet Margaret Taylor-Burroughs
Here she is reading her philosophy:
November 2, 1859 – Educator James Benson Dudley
Excerpt from NCpedia;
“ James Benson Dudley, educator and college president, was born in Wilmington to John Bishop and Annie Hatch Dudley, slaves of Edward B. Dudley (1789–1855), governor of North Carolina…”
“Dudley edited the ‘Wilmington Chronicle’, a Negro weekly newspaper, and was active in politics, serving as register of deeds for New Hanover County in 1891 and as delegate to the 1896 Republican National Convention in St. Louis. He was secretary of the board of trustees for the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Greensboro from 29 May 1895 to 27 May 1896 before succeeding John O. Crosby as president of that institution on 28 May 1896; he retained the post for twenty-nine years.”
November 4, 1942 – Ophthalmologist and inventor Patricia Bath in Harlem, New York
November 9, 1731 – Surveyor Benjamin Banneker in Baltimore County, Maryland
November 11, 1914 – Civil rights activist Daisy Bates, who guided the Little Rock Nine students who integrated Little Rock Central High School
Sheriff Joe Arpaio is in some legal trouble. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down. Tell us what you think in the comment section below. https://www.tytnetwork.com/join
“The longtime sheriff of metropolitan Phoenix was charged Tuesday with criminal contempt-of-court for ignoring a judge’s order in a racial-profiling case, leaving the 84-year-old lawman in a tough spot two weeks before Election Day as he seeks a seventh term.
Prosecutors promised two weeks ago that they would charge Sheriff Joe Arpaio, but the misdemeanor count wasn’t officially filed against him until U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton signed it.
On Wednesday, a federal judge set a Nov. 3 status conference — five days before the election — in the sheriff’s racial profiling case.
A formal trial date is scheduled for Dec. 6.
Arpaio could face up to six months in jail if convicted. A misdemeanor conviction would not…
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October 1, 1939 – Physicist and space scientist Dr. George Caruthers in Cincinnati, Ohio. He created the far ultraviolet camera/spectrograph.
Man’s First Moon-Based Space Observatory-The first observatory ever operated by man from a fixed platform outside the earth was this gold-plated ultra-violet (UV) camera/spectograph.It was placed on the moon by the Apollo 16 astronauts, after they landed there April 20,1972.
Excerpt from an article at Edubilla.
“The Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph (UVC) was one of the experiments deployed on the lunar surface by the Apollo 16 astronauts. It consisted of a telescope and camera that obtained astronomical images and spectra in the far ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
“The main goals of the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph spanned across several disciplines of astronomy. Earth studies were made by studying the Earth’s upper atmosphere’s composition and structure, the ionosphere, the geocorona, day and night airglow, and aurorae. Heliophysics studies were made by obtaining spectra and images of the solar wind, the solar bow cloud, and other gas clouds in the solar system. Astronomical studies by obtaining direct evidence of intergalactic hydrogen, and spectra of distant galaxy clusters and within the Milky Way. Lunar studies were conducted by detecting gasses in the lunar atmosphere, and searching for possible volcanic gasses. There were also considerations to evaluate the lunar surface as a site for future astronomical observatories.”
September 2, 1766 – Businessman and abolitionist James Forten was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Author Julie Winch discusses her book on the life of James Forten at this link.
September 3, 1895 – Lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston in Washington, D.C.
September 4, 1908 – Writer Richard Wright in Natchez, Mississippi
September 5, 1939 – Claudette Colvin, the first person arrested for not giving up her bus seat to a White woman in Montgomery, Alabama.
Interview by Democracy Now with Claudette Colvin:
Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson, the African American mathematician who calculated the trajectory of NASA’s first manned spacecraft was born on this day, August 26th, in 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
Her father, a farmer and logger who only had a sixth grade education, was a whiz at math. In an interview with Cathy Lewis of WHROTV, Dr. Johnson recalled that her father could listen to a difficult math word-problem and immediately have the answer and that he could determine the number of board feet he could get from a tree just by looking at it. When it came time for high school and college for his four children he began working at a hotel and had extra jobs to support the studies of his four children.
Watching her three siblings enter elementary school before she did, Katherine could hardly wait to attend school. She loved learning and had a special fascination for numbers. She loved counting everything around her, even the number of steps she walked on her way to church. When she finally did attend school, she was such an outstanding student that she was skipped to second grade, and by the time she was 10, she entered high school where mathematician Angie King recognized her mathematical talent and mentored her during those four years. Read the rest of this entry
Photo by http://www.zastavki.com/
2020 Nominated by Iridium Eye Reviews
Nominated by Studiotj
Nominated by Micheline Walker
Respect Award
2018
Second nomination 1/2017
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident 