| Barack Hussein Obama II - born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first president born in Hawaii. Obama previously served as the junior United States Senator from Illinois from January 2005 until he resigned after his election to the presidency in November 2008. Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, he ran for United States Senate in 2004. During the campaign, several events brought him to national attention, such as his victory in the March 2004 Democratic primary election for the United States Senator from Illinois as well as his prime-time televised keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won election to the U.S. Senate in November 2004. Obama began his run for the presidency in February 2007. After a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008 general election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Obama is the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Parents' Background & Meeting Barack Obama's parents met in a basic Russian language course while both were attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where Obama's father was enrolled as a foreign student. Obama was born at the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children in Honolulu, Hawaii, with his birth being announced in The Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Obama was born in Kapolani Medical Center at 2:30 PM in the afternoon off of, 1319 Punahou Street on August 4, 1961. The Honolulu Advertiser reports that: The future president's first boyhood home is still standing on (6085) Kalaniana'ole Highway, in the Kuli'ou'ou area between 'Aina Haina and Hawai'i Kai. The yellow, four-bedroom, single-story home was built in 1948. Nani Smethurst, who has owned the home since 1979, said the place is essentially the same as it was when it was built, although it has been upgraded and landscaped by Smethurst, who is an architect. The property also has a 450-square-foot cottage in the back that was built in 1953. It's feasible the couple occupied the back cottage at 6085 Kalaniana'ole. Public records from the time show that Barack H. Obama, 25, also had a residence at 625 11th Ave. in Kaimuki. The 11th Avenue address is now occupied by a larger dwelling that was built in 1990. Old friends in Mercer Island, Washington recall his mother visiting them with her new baby later on that summer. She subsequently enrolled at the University of Washington, and lived in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle as a single mother with her son. She and her son left Seattle in the summer of 1962 and she re- enrolled at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In 1963, Obama moved to 1427 Alexander Street, Apartment 110, which still exists in 2009. Later that year and for 3 years, Obama's mother's address was listed in the University of Hawaii directory as 2277 Kamehameha Ave. In 1964, Obama lived at 2234 University Ave. a single story home in the Manoa area of Honolulu near Noelani Elementary School. His parents divorced in January 1964. After the separation, he, his mother and his grandparents moved into a single-story home in the Manoa district. His father received a Masters degree in Economics from Harvard University, then returned to Kenya, where he became a finance minister before dying in an automobile accident in 1982. Indonesia Throughout his early years, Obama was known at home and at school as "Barry." He attended kindergarten at Noelani Elementary School, near his home. While still resident in Manoa, Dunham married Indonesian student Lolo Soetoro who was attending the University of Hawaii. When Suharto, a military leader in Soetoro's home country, came to power in 1967, all students studying abroad were recalled and the family moved to Indonesia. During his time in Indonesia, Obama attended local schools in Jakarta, from ages 6 to 10, where classes were taught in the Indonesian language. He first attended St. Francis Assisi Catholic school for almost three years. When his family moved to a new neighborhood, Menteng, he attended the secular, government-run SDN Menteng 1 school (also known as the Besuki school) for his fourth year. Obama was a Cub Scout while living in Indonesia. Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng remembered Obama's stepfather as "not religious", and "never went to prayer services except for big communal events" When Obama was in third grade he wrote an essay saying that he wanted to become president. His teacher later told the Chicago Tribune that she was not sure what country he wanted to become president of but that he said that his reason for becoming president was that he wanted to make everybody happy. After returning to Hawaii for high school, Obama lived with his maternal grandparents at 1617 S. Beretania, Apt. 1206 and two years later at Apt. 1008. In 1973, Obama's mother returned to Hawaii and lived in one of the 9 apartments at 1839 Poki Street. Obama attended the exclusive Punahou School, a private school in Honolulu. He worked at a nearby Baskin Robbins, which still stands in 2009. His maternal grandparents lived at the Punahou Circle apartments on South Beretania Street, Honolulu, while attending Punahou School, a private college preparatory school, from the fifth grade until his graduation in 1979. Obama's mother, Ann, died of ovarian cancer and uterine cancer a few months after the publication of his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father. In the memoir, Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother's middle class family. His knowledge about his African father, who returned once for a brief visit in 1971, came mainly through family stories and photographs. Of his early childhood, Obama writes: "That my father looked nothing like the people around me — that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk — barely registered in my mind." The book describes his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. He wrote that he used alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind". Obama has said that it was a seriously misguided mistake. At the Saddleback Civil Presidential Forum Barack Obama identified his high-school drug use as his greatest moral failure. Obama has stated he has not used any illegal drugs since he was a teenager. Some of his fellow students at Punahou School later told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that Obama was mature for his age as a high school student and that he sometimes attended parties and other events in order to associate with African American college students and military service people. Reflecting later on his formative years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: "The opportunity that Hawaii offered — to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect — became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear." During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama took a well publicized trip to Hawaii to visit his dying grandmother and suspended his campaign. College Years Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles, where he studied at Occidental College for two years. He then transferred to Columbia College in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. Obama graduated with a B.A. from Columbia in 1983, then worked at Business International Corporation and New York Public Interest Research Group. Early Career In Chicago After four years in New York City, Obama moved to Chicago to work as a community organizer. He worked for three years from June 1985 to May 1988 as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church- based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland (Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale) on Chicago's far South Side. During his three years as the DCP's director, its staff grew from 1 to 13 and its annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000, with accomplishments including helping set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens. Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute. In the summer of 1988, he traveled for the first time to Europe for three weeks then to Kenya for five weeks where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time. Harvard Law School Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988. In an interview with Ebony in 1990, he stated that he saw a degree in law as a vehicle to facilitate better community organization and activism: "The idea was not only to learn how to hope and dream about different possibilities, but to know how the tax structure affects what kind of housing gets built where." At the end of his first year he was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review based on his grades and a writing competition. In February 1990, his second year at Harvard, he was elected president of the law review, a full-time volunteer position functioning as editor-in-chief and supervising the law review's staff of 80 editors. Obama's election as the first black president of the law review was widely reported and followed by several long, detailed profiles. He got himself elected by convincing a crucial swing bloc of conservatives that he would protect their interests if they supported him. Building up that trust was done with the same kind of long listening sessions he had used in the poor neighborhoods of South Side, Chicago. Richard Epstein, who later taught at the University of Chicago Law School when Obama later taught there, said Obama was elected editor "because people on the other side believed he would give them a fair shake." While in law school he worked as an associate at the law firms of Sidley & Austin in 1989, where he met his wife, Michelle, and where Newton N. Minow was a managing partner. Minow later would introduce Obama to some of Chicago's top business leaders. In the summer of 1990 he worked at Hopkins & Sutter. Also during his law school years, Obama spent eight days in Los Angeles taking a national training course on Alinsky methods of organizing. He graduated with a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991 and returned to Chicago Settling Down In Chicago The publicity from his election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review led to a contract and advance to write a book about race relations. In an effort to recruit him to their faculty, the University of Chicago Law School provided Obama with a fellowship and an office to work on his book. He originally planned to finish the book in one year, but it took much longer as the book evolved into a personal memoir. In order to work without interruptions, Obama and his wife, Michelle, traveled to Bali where he wrote for several months. The manuscript was finally published as Dreams from My Father in mid-1995. He married Michelle LaVaughn Robinson in 1992 and settled down with her in Hyde Park, a liberal, integrated, middle-class Chicago neighborhood with a history of electing reform-minded politicians independent of the Daley political machine. The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born in 1998; their second, Natasha (known as Sasha), in 2001. One effect of the marriage was to bring Obama closer to other politically influential Chicagoans. One of Michelle's best friends was Jesse Jackson's daughter, Santita, later the godmother of the Obamas' first child. Michelle herself had worked as an aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley. Marty Nesbitt, a young, successful black businessman (who played basketball with Michelle's brother, Craig Robinson), became Obama's best friend and introduced him to other African-American business people. Before the marriage, according to Craig, Obama talked about his political ambitions, even saying that he might run for president someday. Project Vote Obama directed Illinois Project Vote from April to October 1992, a voter registration drive, officially nonpartisan, that helped Carol Moseley Braun become the first black woman ever elected to the Senate. He headed up a staff of 10 and 700 volunteers that achieved its goal of 400,000 registered African Americans in the state, leading Crain's Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be. Although fundraising was not required for the position when Obama was recruited for the job, he started an active campaign to raise money for the project. According to Sandy Newman, who founded Project Vote, Obama "raised more money than any of our state directors had ever done. He did a great job of enlisting a broad spectrum of organizations and people, including many who did not get along well with one another." The fundraising brought Obama into contact with the wealthy, liberal elite of Chicago, some of whom became supporters in his future political career. Through one of them he met David Axelrod, who later headed Obama's campaign for president. The fundraising committee was chaired by John Schmidt, a white former chief of staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley, and John W. Rogers Jr., a young black money manager and founder of Ariel Capital Management. Obama also met much of the city's black political leadership, although he didn't always get along with the older politicians, with friction sometimes developing over Obama's reluctance to spend money and his insistence on results. "He really did it, and he let other people take all the credit", Schmidt later said. "The people standing up at the press conferences were Jesse Jackson and Bobby Rush and I don't know who else. Barack was off to the side and only the people who were close to it knew he had done all the work." 1992–1996 Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, as a Lecturer for four years (1992–1996), and as a Senior Lecturer for eight years (1996–2004). During this time he taught courses in due process and equal protection, voting rights, and racism and law. He published no legal scholarship, and turned down tenured positions, but served eight years in the Illinois Senate during his twelve years at the university. In 1993 Obama joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 12-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004, with his law license becoming inactive in 2002. The firm was well- known among influential Chicago liberals and leaders of the black community, and the firm's Judson H. Miner, who met with Obama to recruit him before Obama's 1991 graduation from law school, had been counsel to former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, although the law firm often clashed with the administration of Mayor Richard M. Daley. The 29-year-old law student made it clear in his initial interview with Miner that he was more interested in joining the firm to learn about Chicago politics than to practice law. During the four years Obama worked as a full time lawyer at the firm, he was involved in 30 cases and accrued 3,723 billable hours. Obama was a founding member of the board of directors of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife, Michelle, became the founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago in early 1993. He served on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund Obama's DCP, from 1993–2002, and served on the board of directors of The Joyce Foundation from 1994–2002. Membership on the Joyce and Wood foundation boards, which gave out tens of millions of dollars to various local organizations while Obama was a member, helped Obama get to know and be known by influential liberal groups and cultivate a network of community activists that later supported his political career. Obama served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995–2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995–1999. He also served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center. In 1995, Obama also announced his candidacy for a seat in the Illinois state Senate and attended Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March in Washington, DC. |
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BLACK HISTORY
| Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins (May 25, 1849 – June 14, 1908) was an African American autistic savant and musical prodigy on the piano. He had numerous original compositions published and had a lengthy and largely successful performing career throughout the United States. During the 19th century, he was one of the most well-known American performing pianists. Early Life Wiggins was born on the Wiley Edward Jones Plantation in Harris County, Georgia. Blind at birth, he was sold in 1850 along with his slave parents, Charity and Mingo Wiggins, to Columbus, Georgia lawyer, General James Neil Bethune. The new owner re-named the child Thomas Greene Bethune or Thomas Wiggins Bethune (according to different sources). Because the blind lad could not perform work normally demanded of slaves, Tom was left to play and explore the Bethune plantation. At an early age, he evinced an interest in the piano after hearing the instrument played by Bethune's daughters. By age four he reportedly had acquired intuitive, if rudimentary—and imitative—piano skills based solely on hearing. He continually intruded upon the Bethune family residence to gain access to the piano, with Bethune's daughters abetting these intrusions. By age five Tom reportedly had composed his first tune, The Rain Storm, based on his aural impressions of a torrential downpour. After his extraordinary music skills were recognized by General Bethune, Tom was permitted to live in a room attached to the family house, away from the slave quarters. The small room was equipped with a piano. Bethune hired professional musicians to play for Tom, who could faithfully reproduce their performances, often after a single listening. Eventually he learned a reported 7,000 pieces of music, including hymns, popular songs, waltzes, and classical repertoire. Professional Career There are conflicting historical accounts of Blind Tom's first public performance, some indicating he was as young as three. One account from 1857 indicates that he had been performing publicly for several years. Newspaper reviews and audience reactions were favorable, prompting General Bethune to undertake a concert tour with Tom around their home state of Georgia. Tom later toured the South with Bethune or accompanied by hired managers, though their travels and bookings were sometimes hampered by the North-South hostilities which were drawing the nation towards Civil War. In 1860, Blind Tom performed at the White House before President James Buchanan. Mark Twain attended many of Blind Tom's performances over several decades and chronicled the proceedings. On- and offstage Tom often referred to himself in the third person (e.g., "Tom is pleased to meet you"). His piano recitals were augmented by other talents, including uncanny voice mimicry of public figures and nature sounds. He also displayed a hyperactive physicality both onstage and off. A letter written in 1862 by a soldier in North Carolina described some of Tom's eccentric capabilities: "One of his most remarkable feats was the performance of three pieces of music at once. He played 'Fisher's Hornpipe' with one hand and 'Yankee Doodle' with the other and sang 'Dixie' all at once. He also played a piece with his back to the piano and his hands inverted." At concerts, skeptics attempted to confirm if Tom's performance replications were mere trickery; their challenge took the form of having Tom hear and repeat two new, uncirculated compositions. Tom did so perfectly. The "audience challenge" eventually became a regular feature of his concerts. In 1866, at the age of 16, Tom was taken on a European tour by General Bethune. In 1875, General Bethune transferred management of Blind Tom's professional affairs to his son John Bethune, who accompanied Tom on tour around the U.S. for the next eight years. Beginning in 1875, John brought Blind Tom to New York each summer. While living with John in a boarding house on the Lower East Side, Tom added to his repertoire under the tutelage of Joseph Poznanski, who also transcribed new compositions by Tom for publication. Many of these were, at Tom's insistence, published under such pseudonyms as Professor W.F. Raymond, J.C. Beckel, C.T. Messengale, and Francois Sexalise. Custody Battle In 1882, John Bethune married his landlady, Eliza Stutzbach, who had demonstrated a knack for mollifying Tom's sometimes volatile temperament. However, shortly after their marriage, John Bethune embarked on an extended tour of the U.S. with Tom, in effect abandoning Eliza. When Bethune returned home eight months later, his wife filed for divorce. The couple split up—John took Tom—but a bitter legal squabble ensued, with Eliza hounding John for financial support, a claim that the courts usually adjudicated in John's favor. After John Bethune died in a railway accident in 1884, Tom was returned—over Eliza's objections—to the care of General Bethune (now living in Virginia). After a protracted custody battle in several courts, in August 1887 Tom was awarded to Eliza (putatively acting on behalf of Tom's elderly mother Charity), who moved Tom back to New York. Charity accompanied them with the understanding that she would benefit financially from Tom's earnings. However, after it became apparent that Eliza did not intend to honor any financial obligations to Charity, Tom's mother returned to Georgia. Tom continued performing and touring for a number of years under the management of Eliza and her attorney (and later husband) Albrecht Lerche. Tom was on tour in western Pennsylvania in May 1889 on the day of the Johnstown Flood, and rumor spread that he was among the casualties. Despite his continued appearances on the U.S. concert circuit, the rumor persisted for years, with some observers expressing skepticism that the Blind Tom who appeared in concert after 1889 was the "real Blind Tom." After being dogged by incessant legal challenges to her custodianship of Tom, Eliza took Tom off the concert circuit around 1893. Later Years Tom spent the next ten years as a ward of Eliza and her husband, who divided their time between New York city and New Jersey's Navesink Highlands. In 1903 Eliza arranged for Tom to appear on the popular vaudeville circuit, beginning with Brooklyn's Orpheum Theater. He spent almost a year performing in vaudeville, before his health began to deteriorate. It is believed he suffered a stroke (described in some reports as "partial paralysis") in December 1904, which ended his public performing career. After the death of her husband, Eliza relocated to Hoboken, New Jersey, with Tom. They kept out of public view, though neighbors could hear Tom's piano playing at all hours of the day and night. Tom suffered a major stroke in April 1908, and died the following June. He was buried in the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn, New York. Posthumous Recognition The people of Columbus, Georgia, raised a commemorative headstone for him in 1976. He was the subject of a play titled HUSH: Composing Blind Tom Wiggins, which was performed on the Atlanta stage with Del Hamilton as director. In 1999 John Davis recorded an album of Tom's original compositions on a CD entitled John Davis Plays Blind Tom. A biography, The Ballad of Blind Tom, by Deirdre O'Connell, was published in 2009. |
| "Blind Tom" Wiggins |
| Barack Hussein Obama II |
| Stanley Ann Dunham Mother of Barack Obama born in 1942, died in 1995. Born Stanley Ann Dunham, she was an American anthropologist who specialized in economic anthropology and rural development. She earned her Ph.D from the University of Hawaii and worked with the United States Agency for International Development, the Ford Foundation, and Women's World Banking, championing microcredit for the world’s poor. Obama referred to his mother as the dominant figure in his formative years. "The values she taught me continue to be my touchstone when it comes to how I go about the world of politics |
| Front row (left to right): Auma Obama (Barack's half-sister), Kezia Obama (Barack's stepmother), Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama (third wife of Barack's paternal grandfather), Zeituni Onyango (Barack's aunt) Back row (left to right): Sayid Obama (Barack's uncle), Barack Obama, Abongo [Roy] Obama (Barack's half-brother), unidentified woman, Bernard Obama (Barack's half-brother), Abo Obama (Barack's half-brother). |
| Obama (right) with his father in Hawaii. ca. 1971 |
| Alex Burl |
| Alex Burl - the first Black athlete in CSU history to win the William & Elwood Nye Award Alex Burl could run faster than anyone else in Colorado and earned the title "Mr. Track and Field." Burl won city and State championships at Manual High School under Coach Gil Cruter. He then went to Colorado A&M (now Colorado State), where he was Skyline League champion in the 100- and 220-yard dashes three years in a row. He ran in the days of the cinder tracks, before synthetic surfaces came into vogue, and still ran the 100-yard dash in 9.3 seconds in 1956. "When I was growing up, I made up my mind that I wanted to be the fastest man in the world and I wanted to play pro football," Burl said. "I figured out what I had to do in order to be able to do those things. I made sure my study habits were such that I would be eligible to compete." Burl also played football, first for Coach Al Oviatt at Manual and then for Bob Davis at A&M. He was in Fort Collins in the era during which the school produced a number of future NFL stars such as Gary Glick, Jack Christensen, Dale Dodrill and Jim David. Bob Blasi, who went on to build the football program at Northern Colorado in Greeley, was another teammate. While Burl was a fixture in the NCAA track and field championships as well as the Olympic trials in his day, he went the distance in football as well. He started at running back and at defensive back, playing in the one-platoon system. After his senior year with the Aggies, he played in the old College All-Star Game in Chicago's Soldier Field that pitted the top collegiate seniors from across the country against the defending NFL champions. "As far as football goes, that game probably was the biggest thing," Burl said. "We lost, but it led me to playing two years for the Chicago Cardinals." He is a member of the Colorado State University Hall of Fame and was the first Black African American to win the prestigious William and Elwood Nye Award, given to the university's outstanding senior male athlete, in 1954. He earned All-America honors three times in track and field as well as plaudits in AAU and military competition. Burl entered public education and eventually coached football at Manual and Denver West high schools. "I was big on trying to motivate my players," Burl said. "I thought back to when I was growing up, and I pointed out they should be the best they could be and if they did, they'd be successful. It's just a matter of them making up their minds." Burl began a family tradition Sons Gary, Farley and Gerald won state high school championships in their events at Manual. They came under their father's thumb at home and during summer recreation programs. "He was strict," Gary Burl said. "He was demanding, and most of his pupils are doing well. As we were growing up, we heard that if we turned out to be half as good an athlete as our dad, we'd do just fine. We knew he was a heck of an athlete. I think everyone here knew about him." Gary Burl noted there wasn't as much media attention in his dad's day. At 75, Alex Burl became a spectator. Knee and hip replacements had slowed him down and even cut into his fishing. However, he made it to all the high school events to watch the younger members of the Burl clan compete. Burl still has a title Jerry Stevens, a prominent member of the powerful Denver East High School track and field teams in the mid-1960s, came under Burl's gaze in the summer programs as he grew up. Stevens is an attorney in Denver. "We had a lot of positive role models, and he was one of them," Stevens said. "He always was very positive. He told us we could do anything if we wanted to badly enough. We looked up to him because we knew he was a great athlete who also was a great person. To this day when I see him, I can't call him anything other than Mr. Burl." Claude Johnson from Clinton, Maryland wrote: Let me add a bit to the comments of my very good friend Jerry Stevens. If it were not for Mr. Burl, many of the kids who frequented the Harrington Elementary School summer playground would probably not be here today. Mr. Burl's influence was just that strong. In the summer 1960, Mr. Burl's first year at Harrington, he changed an uninteresting barely fun summer experience into a life expanding experience. He taught us about life! He was a disciplinarian when many of us needed discipline; he was a father figure when our father's were not able to give the time and affection we craved; he was a dream maker who taught us that there was another world out there other than East Denver. I am very proud to still consider him a friend and mentor. Bye the way, my father, before he passed, felt as strongly about Mr. Burl and his impact on the kids in my neighborhood as I do. |
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On Saturday, April 24, 2010, the city of Rosewood Florida and the Real Rosewood Foundation will hold a Return to Rosewood celebration to preserve the history and tell the true story that left several people dead and homeless - both Black and white - in 1923. Rosewood was established in 1870; a city that prospered from the transfer of cedar and other goods through the railroad. As the cedar depleted, the white families moved 3 miles away to Sumner to work in the mills, leaving the town predominately Black. The town existed in peace until a white woman screamed rape on New Year’s Day 1923. Between January 1, 1923 and January 8, 1923 the town of Rosewood, a Black community in Levy County, Florida was ransacked and burned. The entire Black community was displaced and seven people were confirmed killed, three Black men, two Black women and two white men. However, it was later disputed and questioned that there were more then two white men killed and that Blacks won the “race war.” Many on both sides were injured or wounded. The entire incident was predicated on one white woman's claim that she was assaulted by a Black Rosewood man. No evidence of such an act was ever found. The white woman, Fannie Taylor of Sumner, Florida was not assaulted in Rosewood. ------- Ashamed of her affair gone-bad with a white married lover, Fannie Coleman Taylor accused a local Black man of attacking her. It was the beginning of the end for Rosewood. Though Fannie Taylor’s story was disputed by her laundress, Sarah Carrier – a Black woman who was present during the assault – no one cared. Fannie’s husband, James Taylor, sent for a lynch mob to find the man accused of raping his wife. After a large angry mob of klan members were called together, they went on the hunt for Jesse Hunter, a random Black man accused of escaping a convict gang - which was never proven. The mob brutally killed a man said to be associated with Hunter’s escape, Sam Carter, and tortured Sarah Carrier’s husband, Sylvester – needing someone to blame for the alleged rape. Meanwhile, the Black citizens organized and the night before the white mob went after Sylvester Carrier, the Black group — consisting of men, women and children – ambushed and shot men in the mob. The Black men went to work the next day at the Sumner mill as if nothing happened. A few days later, the white mob returned, killed a few others remaining and burned the town to the ground - but the majority of the Black citizens had already left by train. (None returned to the city, and some even changed their names several times for protection.) On May 4, 1994, the Florida Legislature agreed to compensate the survivors and descendants of the massacre. Then exactly 10 years later, Rosewood was granted a historic marker. Only a single house remains to prove the city physically existed, but the stories were carried down from generations of Rosewood survivors. In 1997, film director John Singleton captured the story in “Rosewood” starring actor Ving Rhames. Broadcast journalist Ted Koppel’s documentary, “The Last Lynching,” which told the story of the Rosewood riot, aired September 15, 2008, and included comments from then-Senator Barack Obama. The program was viewed in 115 countries by 1.5 billion people. The story of Rosewood is found in the book “Alachaua County” by Lizzie Jenkins, author and descendant of Rosewood survivors. Founding of Rosewood Rosewood was established around 1870 in Levy County, Florida on a road leading to Cedar Key and the Gulf of Mexico. It took its name from the abundant red cedar that grew in the area. It prospered as the Florida Railroad established a small depot to handle the transport of cedar wood to the pencil factory in Cedar Key and the transportation of timber, turpentine rosin, citrus, vegetables, and cotton. In 1890 the cedar depleted and many of the white families moved to Sumner, three (3) miles west of Rosewood and worked at the newfound saw mill established by Cummer and Sons. By 1900 Rosewood had a Black majority of citizens. Rosewood Massacre Ashamed of her affair gone-bad with a white married lover, Fannie Coleman Taylor accused a local Black man of attacking her. It was the beginning of the end for Rosewood. On the morning of January 1, 1923 Fannie Coleman Taylor of Sumner Florida, claimed she was assaulted by a Black man. Although she was not seriously injured and was able to describe what happened she allegedly remained unconscious for several hours due to the shock of the incident. No one disputed her account and no questions were asked. It was assumed she was reporting the incident accurately. Sarah Carrier a Black woman from Rosewood, who did the laundry for Fannie Taylor and was present on the morning of the incident, claimed the man that assaulted Fannie Taylor was her white lover. It was believed the two lovers quarreled and he abused Fannie and left. However, in 1923, no one questioned Fannie Taylor's account and no one asked Sarah Carrier about the incident. The Black community claimed Fannie Taylor was only protecting herself from scandal. A posse was summoned and tracking dogs were ordered by James Taylor, Fannie Taylor’s husband and the foreman at Cummer and Sons saw mill. The local white community became aroused at the alleged abuse of a white woman by a Black man, which was an unpardonable sin against Black men back then to look at a white woman. James Taylor summoned help from Levy County and neighboring Alachua County, who was ending a staged KKK rally leading up to January 1, 1923, on the court house square in downtown Gainesville, where a large number of KKK members had been rallying and marching in opposition of justice for Black people. A telegraph sent to Gainesville in regards to Fannie Taylor’s allegations provoked four to five hundred Klansmen that headed to Sumner at the appeal of James Taylor. With reaping tension displayed they willingly accepted the invitation and came to Sumner vigorously to participate at any cost necessary. They arrived enraged and combed the woods behind the Taylor’s home looking for a suspect. Suspicion soon fell on Jesse Hunter an allegedly Black man who had allegedly had recently escaped from a convict road gang. No proof of the escape was ever provided. The posse confronted Sam Carter at his home and Carter allegedly admitted to helping Hunter escape. Allegedly, the posse forced Carter to take them to the place where he last saw Hunter. Carter allegedly took the posse to where he parted ways with Hunter. When no trace of Hunter could be found the posse turned into an out of control lynch mob and tortured Carter, riddled him with bullets and hung him from a tree. The posse continued their hunt in Rosewood. They found Aaron Carrier, cousin and friend, to Sam Carter, in bed at Sarah Carrier’s house, yanked him out of bed, tied a rope around his neck and dragged him behind a Model “T” from Rosewood to Sumner. They tortured him, beat him with gun butts and kicked him until he lost consciousness before shooting him. Levy County Sherriff Bob Walker aborted the shooting when he yelled, “Don’t! I’ll finish the “N” off." The magic “N” word saved Carrier’s life. The posse returned to Rosewood to hunt for Sylvester Carrier. Sheriff Walker threw Aaron Carrier in his Model “T” taking him to Gainesville, Alachua County jail and begged Sheriff James Ramsey to hide Carrier from the public and his family until tempers settled down and suggested he get medical help for him. Sheriff Ramsey brought in two local Black doctors, Dr. Parker and Dr. Ayers to treat Carrier for six months unknowingly to the public and his family. Fuming with anger because they had not found the attacker James Taylor sent Sylvester Carrier a message “We are coming to get you” the night of January 2nd. All hell broke loose in Rosewood when the mob returned with guns for a showdown, “to kill or be killed” because they were dissatisfied with the lack of success they anticipated. The mob formed a "party of citizens" to discuss how to investigate and accomplish their mission to find and silence Sylvester Carrier, who had become a lightning rod for their anger. Unbeknownst to the posse Sylvester Carrier took heed to the threats and made contact with his Levy County friends who bravely traveled to Rosewood to help avert the planned ambush of its citizens. The white mob burned the Black churches in Rosewood. Philomena Goins' cousin Lee Ruth Davis heard the bells tolling in the church as the men were inside setting it on fire. Even the white church in Rosewood was destroyed. Many Black residents fled into the nearby swamps, some clothed only in their pajamas. Wilson Hall was nine years old at the time; he later recalled his mother waking him to flee into the swamps early in the morning when it was still dark; the lights from approaching cars could be seen for miles. The Hall family walked 15 miles (24 km) through swampland to the town of Gulf Hammock. The survivors recall that it was uncharacteristically cold for Florida, and people spent several nights in raised wooded areas called hammocks to evade the mob. Some took refuge with sympathetic white families. Sam Carter's 69-year- old widow hid for two days in the swamps then was driven by a sympathetic white mail carrier, under bags of mail, to meet her family in Chiefland. White men began surrounding houses, pouring kerosene on and lighting them, then shooting at those who emerged. Lexie Gordon, a light-skinned 50-year-old woman who was ill with typhoid fever, had sent her children into the woods. She was killed by shotgun blast to the face when she fled from hiding underneath her home, which had been set on fire by the rampaging mob. Fannie Taylor's brother-in-law claimed to be her killer. On January 5, more whites converged on the area, forming a mob of between 200 to 300 people. Some came from out of state. Mingo Williams, who was 20 miles (32 km) away near Bronson, was collecting turpentine sap by the side of the road when a car full of whites stopped and asked his name. As was custom among many residents of Levy County, both Black and white, Williams used a nickname that was more prominent than his given name. He replied to the car full of white men with the name everyone used, "Lord God", and they shot him dead. After dark, the posse traveled to Rosewood prepared to kill or be killed. It had come down to Sylvester Carrier’s recruited men or the mob. The posse, intoxicated with moonshine and ignorance, was met head-on with resistance and several were killed or injured, however, not accurately reported in the “all white” 1923 newspapers. When the gun battle ended the posse that was able to return to Sumner, did return, leaving behind their guns. Others lay dead and wounded in Sarah Carrier’s yard. When the massacre ended that morning before dawn, Sylvester Carrier’s friends returned to their homes as they came, quietly “the back way” – going to work at Sumner saw mill and other places of employment the next day as if nothing happened. They never spoke openly about the Rosewood Massacre. The posse started firing upon arrival. Henry Andrews, an Otter Creek resident and C. Poly Wilkerson, a Sumner merchant were killed by Sylvester Carrier when they kicked in the door of his mother’s home, who they shot and killed through a window as she was walking through the house to quiet the children. Someone stationed in the house screamed, “Oh my God, Aunt Sarah’s been shot and Sylvester yelled, “SHOOT EVERYBODY, SHOOT!” The posse realized too late they were encircled by resisting Black men hiding in the dark pumping hails of lead to protect the Rosewood citizens, women and children, barricaded in the Carrier’s home. Hails of gunfire came from under the house, from behind the house and behind the barn. Hours later, the fight ended in a bloodbath that surprised the surviving posse as they mosey back to Sumner in disbelief, pain, and shame. The broken posse returned to Sumner to regroup and wait for Sheriff Walker - who they refused to listen to earlier – to bring them an update. However, gun shots being fired in the air as Rosewood kept the posse at bay until the Sheriff was able to finalize the escape route for the Rosewood citizens. For sure, guns belonging to the posse - dead and injured - were left in Rosewood and unaccounted for in Sumner. The sound of shots being fired in Rosewood signified that there was still life in Rosewood and the posse was not in a hurry to return risking more lives in defense of Fannie Taylor's horrific lies. James Taylor sent the posse to Rosewood to participate in the attack on Rosewood citizens although he never left Sumner surviving all physical harm. The posse now sought Sheriff Bob Walker to inquire about Rosewood’ s state of affairs but the Sheriff was too busy negotiating with the Cedar Key train conductors, the Bryce Brothers, on how to move the citizens out of Rosewood safely. January 3rd, when the shotgun firing ceased, some Rosewood citizens escaped into the swampland under the cover of fear, hiding out and waiting for the train to come and bring them to safety. Other citizens hiding in Sarah Carrier’s house knew they had to leave their Rosewood homes before the posse returned, therefore, they fled to store merchant John Wright’s home unannounced as instructed by Sheriff Bob Walker. John Wright was in total shock to see his store customers arrived at his home seeking refuge. They were instructed to wait there in hiding until they heard back from the Sheriff who was traveling back and forth to Cedar Key, Sumner, and Rosewood in an effort to move them safely out of Rosewood on the 4 AM early morning train conducted by the Bryce Brothers from Bryceville, Fla. Lexie Gordon sent her children to John Wright’s home for safekeeping although she was left in her home too ill to flee. When the posse returned to Rosewood days later to make an assessment of the damages they revengefully shot and killed her. Gordon’s home and other Rosewood homes were burglarized before burning them down. James Carrier, an animal trapper, who had suffered a stroke a few years earlier was the husband to Amma Carrier, the father of Aaron Carrier, and brother-in-law to Sarah Carrier, was ordered to dig his own grave and was shot and killed because he knew nothing about what was happening in Rosewood when he returned from his animal traps deep down in the woods. On Sunday morning the posse returned and one by one angrily burned the last remaking structures belonging to the Black community. The homes were burned because they did not want the public to know the real truth, “more than two whites were killed.” Therefore, they burned the evidence, bodies and all. “Until the Lion tells his own story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” Rosewood Aftermath On February 12, 1923, a special grand jury was empanelled to investigate the massacre. After twenty-five white and allegedly eight Black witnesses testified, the jurors reported that they could find no evidence on which to base any indictments. The entire Black community was displaced and seven people were confirmed killed, three Black men, two Black women and two white men. However, it was later disputed and questioned that there were more then two white men killed and that Blacks won the “race war.” Many on both sides were injured or wounded. The Black community of Rosewood never returned. Many left for other cities and counties losing touch with each other never sharing the Rosewood story with family members. And a number changed their names including Aaron and Mahulda Gussie Brown Carrier, Rosewood’s historians and schoolteacher. She was born Mahulda Gussie Brown May 5, 1894, in Archer, Alachua County, Florida. She married Aaron Carrier December 19, 1917. After the Rosewood tragedy they moved more than fifteen times escaping accumulated fear. They changed their name to Aaron and Mahulda G. Carroll. They even changed their birth dates. Mahulda Gussie Brown Carrier/Carroll lived in fear until death April 25, 1948, Tampa, Florida at the Clara Frye hospital. Her name is listed as “Mahulda G. Carroll” on her headstone. The Real Rosewood Website owner, Lizzie Polly Robinson Brown Jenkins’, mother strongly encouraged her to preserve Rosewood history never forgetting her Rosewood sister, Mahulda Gussie Brown Carrier/Carroll’s suffrage. At present, Mahulda Gussie Brown Carrier-Carroll is remembered and featured in the 2000 Great Floridians Magazine. Her name is included in the script on the Rosewood Historic Marker. Her name and a photo of the historic marker is listed in the third edition of the Florida Black Heritage Trail. Carrier is also featured in a book, Alachua County Florida, marketed online by Florida Magazine. Jenkins’ Rosewood re-constructive research is dedicated to the Rosewood survivors and descendants in memory of Rosewood culture. January 1, 2000, a plaque bearing Mahulda Gussie Brown Carrier’s name hangs on the porch of the Archer Train Depot, the same depot Carrier exited January 4, 1923, driven by the Bryce Brothers. Rosewood, a small majority Black town in Levy County was destroyed by a vigilante posse in 1923. May 4, 1994 The Florida Legislature agreed to compensate the massacre’s survivors and descendants. Compensation disbursed to Aaron Carrier proven in-laws and Mahulda Gussie Brown Carrier sister, Theresa Brown Robinson and brother, Richard Brown, sister-in-laws Queenie Jones Brown Monroe and Marie Brown Randle each received $3,333.33. Carrier niece Arbeaulah “Helen” Brown Porter Warmack and nephew Addison P. Brown, Jr., each received $1,616.16. Carrier nieces Elizabeth Crawford Mulligan and Bernice Crawford, niece-in-law Mabel Thomas Crawford and nephew Charlie Crawford each received $833.33, for a collective total of $19,900.96 paid to Aaron and Mahulda Gussie Brown Carrier family from the state of Florida compensation fund. Ten years from the date of the signing of the Rosewood bill by Governor Lawton Chiles, Governor Jeb Bush dedicated a Historic Marker in Rosewood May 4, 2004, in memory of the Rosewood citizens. This is a historic compilation of Jenkins at work preserving Rosewood history, a promise she has lived up to in honor of her mother’s principles and recorded family history. This summary of Rosewood’s history is not research - it’s history. Their land was confiscated under tax sales and not until 1994 did the state or any public entity offer an apology or make any compensation. Lizzie Jenkins, whose aunt was the Rosewood schoolteacher, explained her participation keeping Rosewood's legacy current: "It has been a struggle telling this story over the years, because a lot of people don't want to hear about this kind of history. People don't relate to it, or just don't want to hear about it. But Mama told me to keep it alive, so I keep telling it.... It's a sad story, but it's one I think everyone needs to hear." http://www.rosewoodflorida.com/ |
| Rosewood |
| In January 1923 the Town of Rosewood, Florida was destroyed |
Lizzie Jenkins - Retired Educator/Author, President of Real Rosewood Foundation...
| Paul Cuffee (1759 – 1817) an African–American, philanthropist, ship captain, and devout Quaker transported 38 free African Americans to Sierra Leone, Africa in 1815 in the hopes of establishing Western Africa. He also founded the first integrated school in Massachusetts in 1797. Paul Cuffee (January 17, 1759 – September 9, 1817) was a Quaker businessman, patriot, and abolitionist of Aquinnah Wampanoag and African Ashanti descent. Cuffee built a lucrative shipping empire. He established the first school in Westport, Massachusetts to be racially integrated. A devout Christian, Cuffee often preached and spoke at the Sunday services at the multi-racial Society of Friends meeting house in Westport. In 1813 he donated most of the money to build a new meeting house in 1813. He became involved in the British effort to resettle former slaves in the colony of Sierra Leone. (Many had been transported from the US to Nova Scotia after the American Revolution after gaining freedom with the British.) Cuffee helped to establish The Friendly Society of Sierra Leone, to gather financial support for the colony. Early Life Paul Cuffee was born on January 17, 1759, free during the French and Indian War, on Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts. Paul was the seventh of eleven children. His father, Kofi (also known as Cuffee Slocum), was a member of the Ashanti ethnic group. He had been captured at age ten and brought as a slave to the British colony of Massachusetts. Paul's mother Ruth Moses was Native American, a member of the Wampanoag Nation. Kofi was a skilled carpenter who was self-educated. He worked long hours and earned enough money to buy his own freedom in 1776. He eventually bought a 116-acre (0.47 km2) farm. During Paul Cuffee's youth, there was no Quaker meeting house on Cuttyhunk Island, so the family held religious services in their kitchen. Kofi preached from the Scriptures. In 1767 when Paul was eight years old, the family moved to Dartmouth, Massachusetts where they had a farm. Kofi died when Paul was thirteen. Paul and his brother John took over operating their farm, and cared for their mother and three younger sisters. Paul persuaded his brothers and sisters to use their father's English first name, "Cuffee", as their family name, to drop the association with their father's former master. At the time of his father's death, young Cuffee knew little more than the alphabet but dreamed of gaining an education and being involved in shipping. The closest mainland port to Cuttyhunk was New Bedford, Massachusetts - the center of the American whaling industry. Cuffee used his limited free time to learn more about ships and sailing from sailors he encountered. Eventually, he was given a lesson in navigation by one of the sailors. Although initially discouraged by his difficulty in understanding the necessary mathematics, Cuffee studied whenever he could. Finally, at age 16, Paul Cuffee signed onto a whaling ship and, later, cargo ships, where he learned navigation. During the American Revolution, he was held prisoner by the British for a time. After his release, Cuffee moved to Westport, Massachusetts. He farmed and studied and saved money from his produce sales. In 1779, he and his brother David built a boat by hand. Although his brother was afraid to sail in dangerous seas, Cuffee went out alone in 1780, to deliver cargo to Connecticut. The boat was lost during a storm. Undaunted, Cuffee built another boat, also by hand. Again, he set out to sea alone. During this voyage, his ship and his cargo were seized by pirates. A third time he and David built a boat, and he borrowed money for the cargo. Cuffee set off for Nantucket alone. Chased by pirates chased him and, in his haste to flee them, his ship hit a rock, but he was not captured. However, he hit a rock while fleeing them but was able to make it back to Westport. Although Cuffee reached Nantucket, he did not turn a profit on the venture. Finally, he made yet another trip to Nantucket that turned a profit. Cuffee finally made enough money to purchase another ship and hired crew. He gradually built up capital and expanded ownership to a fleet of ships. He bought a 116-acre (0.47 km2) farm in Westport. At the age of twenty-one, Cuffee refused to pay taxes because free Blacks did not have the right to vote. In 1780, he petitioned the council of Bristol County, Massachusetts to end such taxation without representation. The petition was denied, but his suit was one of the influences that led the Legislature in 1783 to grant voting rights to all free male citizens of the state. At age twenty-four, Cuffee became part owner of a small sailing vessel and married Alice Pequit. Like his mother, Pequit was also Wampanoag. The couple settled in Westport, Massachusetts, where they had and raised their eight children. As Cuffee became more successful, he invested in more ships and made a sizable fortune. In the 1790s, he made money in cod fishing and smuggling goods from Canada. With this money, Cuffee bought a large farm along the Westport River (now known as the Paul Cuffee Farm). He also invested in the expansion of his fleet. Cuffee's investment in Sierra Leone Paul Cuffee wanted to improve conditions for the many African Americans who lived under in the American colonies. Due to his wealth, Cuffee did not live the average life of Blacks in America so he sought ways to help others who had not been as fortunate. Unfortunately, most Englishmen felt that people of African descent were inferior to Europeans, even in the predominantly Calvinist and Quaker New England. Although slavery continued, some believed the emigration of Blacks to colonies outside the United States was the easiest and most realistic solution to the race problem in America. Attempts by Europeans and Americans to colonize Blacks in other parts of the world had failed, including the British attempt to colonize Sierra Leone. They offered migration there to free African Americans whom they had resettled in Nova Scotia and London after the American Revolution. Beginning in 1787, 400 people departed from Great Britain for Sierra Leone. The colony was plagued with serious problems in trying to establish a working economy, as well as problems developing a government that could survive pressures from other peoples. Its London sponsors hoped to gain a return more quickly than was possible. Although colonizing Sierra Leone was difficult, Cuffee believed it was a viable option for Blacks and threw his support behind the movement. Paul Cuffee wrote: “I have for these many years past felt a lively interest in their behalf, wishing that the inhabitants of the colony might become established in truth, and thereby be instrumental in its promotion amongst our African brethren.” Cuffee was encouraged by people in New York, Baltimore, and Boston, as well as members of the African Institution. Cuffee mulled over the logistics and chances of success for the movement for three years before deciding in 1809 to move ahead with the project. On January 2, 1811 he launched his first expedition to Sierra Leone. Cuffee reached Freetown, Sierra Leone on March 1, 1811. He traveled the area investigating the social and economic conditions of the region. He met with some of the colony’s officials, who opposed Cuffee’s idea for colonization of Blacks from the United States for fear of competition. Cuffee sailed to Great Britain to seek help from people in the region. While there, he met with the heads of the African Institution and was granted permission to continue with his mission in Sierra Leone. Cuffee then left Liverpool and sailed back to Sierra Leone, where he finalized his plans for the colony. While in Sierra Leone, Cuffee helped to establish the Friendly Society of Sierra Leone, a trading organization run by Blacks. He believed that the Friendly Society would help to establish a more powerful Sierra Leone economy as well as self-help projects for the residents of the colony. Cuffee’s friends from the African Institution made grants to the Friendly Society money for these goals. Heartened by London’s response, Cuffee believed the trip to Sierra Leone was successful. He worried that when he and other powerful leaders left, some of the colonists might revert to non-Christian religious practices. He tried to encourage them to comply with his guidelines. After returning to the US in 1812, Cuffee was arrested for bringing British cargo into the United States. His brig, the Traveler, was seized as well. He was summoned to Washington, D.C. for violating trade laws. There he met with President James Madison. He was warmly welcomed into the White House by Madison. Madison later decided that Cuffee was not aware of and did not intentionally violate the national trading policy. Madison questioned Cuffee’s experience as well as the conditions of Sierra Leone and was eager to learn about Africa and the possibility of further expanding colonization. Madison evaluated Cuffee’s plans carefully, but rejected them, as he believed there would be too many problems in further US attempts to colonize Sierra Leone, a British project. He regarded Cuffee as the authority on Africa in the US. Cuffee intended to return to Sierra Leone once a year but the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain prevented him from doing so. He visited Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, speaking to groups of free Blacks about the colony. He also urged Blacks to form organizations in these cities to communicate with each other and to correspond with the African Institution and with the Friendly Society at Sierra Leone. He printed a pamphlet about Sierra Leone to inform the general public of his ideas. In the spring of 1813, Cuffee suffered several monetary losses because of some unprofitable ventures of his ships - one ship never returned. After getting his finances in order, he prepared to return to Sierra Leone. The war between the U.S. and Britain continued, so Cuffee decided he would have to convince both countries to ease their restrictions on trading. He was unsuccessful and was forced to wait until the war ended. He left on December 10, 1815 with thirty-eight Black colonists and arrived in Sierra Leone on February 3, 1816. Cuffee and his emigrants were not greeted as warmly as before. The authorities were already having trouble keeping the general population in order and were not thrilled at the idea that more emigrants were arriving. Although things did not go exactly as planned, Cuffee believed that once continuous trade between America, Britain, and Africa commenced the society would realize his predicted success. Cuffee left Sierra Leone in April filled with optimism for its future. Cuffee's Later Years On his return to New York in 1816, Cuffee exhibited to the New York African Institution certificates of the landing of those persons at Sierra Leone. He also received from Gov. M'Carthy a certificate of the steady and sober conduct of the settlers since their arrival, and an acknowledgment of $439.62, humanely advanced to since they landed, to promote their comfort and advantage. In 1816, Cuffee’s vision resulted in a mass emigration plan for Blacks. Congress rejected his petition for funds to return to Sierra Leone. During this time period, many Black Americans began to demonstrate interest in emigrating to Africa, and some people believed this was the best solution to problems of racism in the society. Cuffee was persuaded by Reverends Samuel J. Mills and Robert Finley to help them with their colonization plans of the American Colonization Society (ACS). Additionally, they became active, but found there was more reason to encourage emigration to Haiti, where American immigrants were welcomed by the government of President Boyer. Beginning in September 1824, nearly 6,000 Americans, most of them free Blacks, emigrated to Haiti. However, because of the nation's poverty and problems, many Americans returned to the US. In the beginning of 1817, Cuffee’s health deteriorated. He never returned to Africa. He died on September 7, 1817 and left an estate with an estimated value of $20,000. Cuffee is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on March 4. In 1797, when his children were prevented from attending their local school because of their mixed race, he decided to start a new school for children of all ethnicity’s. This was only one of the many bold actions Paul Cuffee took during his lifetime to improve civil rights in this country. Two hundred years later, the founders’ of the innovative model for urban education, were inspired by his integrity, determination and accomplishments, and named a public charter school, with a maritime theme, in his honor. |
| Paul Cuffee |
| “Stagecoach Mary” - Mary Fields |
| Mary Fields lived by her wits and her strength. She traveled north to Ohio, settled in Toledo and worked for the Catholic convent. She formed a strong bond with Mother Amadeus. When the nuns moved to Montana and Mary learned of Mother Amadeus' failing health, she went West to help. Having nursed Mother Amadeus back to health, she decided to stay and help build the St. Peter's mission school. She protected the nuns. Mary was a pistol-packing, hard drinking woman, who needed nobody to fight her battles for her. When turned away from the mission because of her behavior, the nuns financed her in her own business. She opened a cafe. Mary's big heart drove her business into the ground several times because she would feed the hungry. In 1895, she found a job that suited her, as an U.S. mail coach driver for the Cascade County region of central Montana. She and her mule Moses never missed a day, and it was in this capacity that she earned her nickname of "Stagecoach Mary", for her unfailing reliability. Former Slave, Mary Fields Felt At Home In Montana Whether Working In A Covenant or Mail Route A Black gun-totin' female in the American wild west. She was six feet tall; heavy; tough; short-tempered; two- fisted; powerful; and packed a pair of six-shooters and an eight or ten-gauge shotgun. A legend in her own time, she was also known as Stagecoach Mary Mary Fields was born as a slave in Tennessee during the administration of Andrew Jackson -- a feisty sort with whom she shared driving ambition, audacity, and a penchant for physical altercation on a regular basis. She smoked rather bad homemade cigars. Well after the Civil War loosened things up, as a free woman in 1884, having made her way to Cascade County (west central Montana) in search of improved sustenance and adventure, she took a job with the Ursuline nuns at their mission in the city of Cascade. Named, St. Peter Mission, the nun’s simple frontier facility was relatively well funded, and the nuns had a thriving business converting heathen savages, and other disgusting customers, to the true path of salvation -- although not salvation from the white men. Mary was hired to do 'heavy work' and to haul freight and supplies to keep the nuns' operation functional and well fed. She chopped wood, stone work, rough carpentry, dug certain necessary holes, and when reserves were low, she did one of her customary supply runs to the train stop. These “supply runs” consisted of traveling to Great Falls or the city of Helena when special needs arose. On such a night run (it wasn't very far, but it was cooler at night), Mary's wagon was attacked by wolves (maybe they wanted some of the dried beans or nun suits on board). The terrified horses bolted uncontrollably and overturned the wagon, thereby unceremoniously dumping Mary and all her supplies onto the dark prairie. However, Mary kept the wolves at bay the entire night with her revolvers and rifle. And when dawn broke, she got the freight delivered to the great relief of the nuns who had spent more than $30 on the goods in question (which was their principle concern). At the same time, they had no hesitation to dock Mary's pay for the molasses that leaked from a keg, which was cracked on a rock in the overturn. Mary was a pugnacious woman and she did not pay particular attention to her fashion statement. She did not look or act the part of a woman in the Victorian age (albeit on the frontier), however, certain ruffian men would occasionally attempt to trample on her rights and hard won privileges. Woe to all of them. She broke more noses than any other person in central Montana. Once a 'hired hand' at the mission confronted her with the complaint that she was earning $2 a month more than he was ($9 vs. $7), and why did she think that she was worth so much money as “an uppity colored woman.” To make matters worse, he made this same complaint and general description in public at one of the local saloons where Mary was a regular customer, and followed that up with a (more polite) version directly to Bishop Filbus N.E. Berwanger himself. Although Mary’s wages did not change, the statement and complaint was more than enough to boil her blood, and at the very next opportunity the two of them were engaged in a shoot-out behind the nunnery. The shoot out went on and when Mary went to simply shoot the man as he cleaned out the latrine - figuring to dump his body in there - she missed. He shot back and the fracas was on. Bullets flew in every direction until the six-guns were empty, and blood was spilt. Neither actually hit the other by direct fire, but one bullet shot by Mary bounced off the stone wall of the nunnery and hit the forlorn man in the left buttock, which completely ruined his new $1.85 trousers. Not only that, but other bullets Mary fired passed through the laundry of the bishop, which was hanging on the line, generously ventilating his drawers and the two white shirts he had had shipped from Boston only the week before. That was enough for the bishop; he fired Mary, and gave the injured man a raise. Out of work and needing money, Mary took a stab at the restaurant business in Cascade. However, Mary’s café did not last long as she could not help feeding the poor and eventually, her restaurant was forced to close. In 1895, she landed a job carrying the United States Mail. Since she had always been so independent and determined, this work was perfect for her, and quickly she developed a reputation for delivering letters and parcels no matter what the weather, nor how rugged the terrain. She and her mule, Moses, plunged through anything, from bitterly raw blizzards to wilting heat, reaching remote miner's cabins and other outposts with important mail that helped accommodate the land claim process. These efforts on her part helped greatly to advance the development of a considerable portion of central Montana, a contribution for which she is given little credit. Known by then as Stagecoach Mary for her ability to deliver on a regular schedule, she continued in this capacity until she reached well into her sixties, but it wore her down. She retired from the mail delivery business, although she still needed a source of income. So, at the age of seventy, she opened a laundry service, also in Cascade. Figuring that by now she deserved to relax just a bit, she didn't do a lot of laundry, but rather spent a considerable portion of her time in the local saloon, drinking whiskey and smoking foul cigars with the sundry assortment of sweating and dusty men who were attracted to the place. While she claimed to be a crack shot, actually her aim toward the cuspidor was rather general, to the occasional chagrin of any nearby fellow patrons -- never mind, she did laundry. One lout failed to pay his bill to her however (he had ordered extra starch in the cuffs and collar). Hearing him out in the street, she left the saloon and knocked him flat with one blow - at the age of 72. She told her wobbly drinking companions that the satisfaction she got from that act was worth more than the bill owed, so the score was settled. As luck would have it, she knocked out his tooth that had already been giving him trouble and the man was grateful. In 1914, she died of a failure of her liver. Neighbors buried her in the Hillside Cemetery in Cascade, marking the spot with a simple wooden cross, which still exist today. In spite of her drinking, and cigar smoking, and occasional fisticuffs, townsfolk were hard pressed to believe that this mellow (!?) old woman of 80 was the hard-shooting and short-tempered female character of earlier years they had heard so much about. But they were wrong, she was. I am Mary Fields. People call me "Black Mary." People call me "Stagecoach Mary." I live in Cascade, Tennessee. I am six feet tall. I weigh over two hundred pounds. A woman of the 19th Century, I do bold and exciting things. I wear pants. I smoke a big black cigar. I drink whiskey. I carry a pistol. I love adventure. I travel the country, driving a stagecoach, delivering the mail to distant towns. Strong, I fight through rainstorms. Tough, I fight through snowstorms. I risk hurricanes and tornadoes. I am independent. No body tells me what to do. No body tells me where to go. When I'm not delivering mail, I like to build buildings. I like to smoke and drink in bars with the men. I like to be rough. I like to be rowdy. I also like to be loving. I like to be caring. I like to baby sit. I like to plant flowers and tend my garden. I like to give away corsages and bouquets. I like being me, Mary Fields. |
| Frank Wills – 1970’s the Watergate scandal Private security guard If you’ve heard the name Frank Wills in a movie, it’s because his name was made famous through the infamous Watergate scandal of the 1970’s. Wills was working as a private security guard at the Watergate Office building in 1972 when he noticed a piece of duct tape on a door lock while making his usual rounds. After taking it off, he went about his business, only to find that one of the burglars had replaced the tape over a lock. Wills could have ignored it, but instead, he called the police, which led to the arrest of five men in the biggest Washington scandal in history. Because of his instinct, President Richard Nixon resigned and several administrators in the White House were indicted and convicted. After his exposure, the life of Frank Wills changed was changed forever. He quit his job as a security guard when he did not receive a raise for his huge discovery, which led to high-profile experiences in music and movies. In a Hollywood replay of the Watergate scandal, Wills would play his own part, particularly in “All the President’ s Men,” nominated for eight Academy Awards. The song, “The Ballad of Frank Wills,” was written by Ron Turner in his honor. There would be other songs dedicated to him, and he would go on to work for Dick Gregory, live for some time in the Bahamas and appear on talk shows. But eventually, it all came crashing down after he was unable to hold down a job. In 1973 - he left GSS due to their unwillingness to provide paid vacations. He had trouble finding full-time employment after that. In the Washington Post he was quoted as saying... "I don't know if they are being told not to hire me or if they are just afraid to hire me." On the 25th anniversary of the break-in (1997), Wills was bitter. In a Boston Globe interview, he said: "I put my life on the line. If it wasn't for me, Woodward and Bernstein would not have known anything about Watergate. This wasn't finding a dollar under a couch somewhere." Wills would return to South Carolina to care for his sick mother until she died and was convicted of shoplifting in 1983. He did however, gain a role in “Forrest Gump” in 1994 as a prison guard. But 10 years later, Wills was seen living in poverty, washing his clothes in a bucket. He died from a brain tumor in 2000. Posthumously, Wills’ story was mentioned in Spike Lee’s 2004 movie, “She Hate Me.” Frank Wills died broke on September 27, 2000 at age 52 in a hospital in Augusta, Georgia. Brain tumor. |
| Frank Wills |
Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. was an American inventor whose curiosity and innovation led him to develop several commercial products, the successors of which are still in use today. A practical man of humble beginnings, Morgan devoted his life to creating items that made the lives of common people safer and more convenient. Among his creations was the three-position traffic signal, a traffic management device that greatly improved safety along America's streets and roadways. Morgan's technology was the basis for the modern-day traffic signal and was a significant contribution to development of what we now know as Intelligent Transportation Systems. The Inventor's Early Life Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. was born in Paris, Kentucky on March 4, 1877. His parents were former slaves. Morgan spent his early childhood attending school and working with his brothers and sisters on the family farm. He left Kentucky while still a teenager, moving north to Cincinnati, Ohio in search of employment. An industrious youth, Morgan spent most of his adolescence working as a handyman for a wealthy Cincinnati land-owner. Similar to many African Americans of his generation, whose circumstances compelled them to begin working at an early age, Morgan's formal education ended after elementary school. Eager to expand his knowledge, however, the precocious teenager hired a tutor and continued his studies in English grammar while living in Cincinnati. In 1895, Morgan moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked as a sewing machine repairman for a clothing manufacturer. Experimenting with gadgets and materials to discover better ways of performing his trade became Morgan's passion. News of his proficiency for fixing things traveled fast and led to numerous job opportunities with various manufacturing firms throughout the Cleveland area. Morgan opened his own sewing equipment and repair shop in 1907. It was the first of several businesses he would start. In 1909, he expanded the enterprise to include a tailoring shop which retained 32 employees. The new company made coats, suits, and dresses, all sewn with equipment the budding inventor had made himself. In 1920 Morgan started the Cleveland Call newspaper. As the years progressed, he became a prosperous and widely respected businessman. His prosperity enabled him to purchase a home and an automobile. Morgan's experiences driving through the streets of Cleveland are what led him to invent the nation's first patented three-position traffic signal. The Three-Position Traffic Signal The first American-made automobiles were introduced to U.S. consumers shortly before the turn of the century. Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903 and with it American consumers began to discover the What's Ahead of the open road. At that time, it was not uncommon for bicycles, animal-powered carts and motor vehicles to share the same thoroughfares with pedestrians. Accidents frequently occurred between the vehicles. After witnessing a collision between an automobile and a horse-drawn carriage, Morgan was convinced that something should be done to improve traffic safety. While other inventors are reported to have experimented and even marketed their own three-position traffic signals, Garrett A. Morgan was the first to apply for and acquire a U.S. patent for such a device. The patent was granted on November 20, 1923. Morgan later had the technology patented in Great Britain and Canada as well. Prior to Morgan's invention, most of the traffic signals in use featured only two-positions: Stop and Go. Manually operated, these two-position traffic signals were an improvement over no signal at all, but because they allowed no interval between the Stop and Go commands, collisions at busy intersections were common during the transition moving from one street to the other. Another problem with the two-position traffic signals was the susceptibility to human error. Operator fatigue invariably resulted in erratic timing of the Stop and Go command changes, which confused both drivers and pedestrians. At night, when traffic officers were off duty, motorists frequently ignored the signals altogether. The Morgan traffic signal was a T-shaped pole unit that featured three positions: Stop, Go and an all-directional stop position. The third position halted traffic in all directions before it allowed travel to resume on either of the intersection's perpendicular roads. This feature not only made it safer for motorists to pass through intersections, but also allowed pedestrians to cross more safety. At night, or at other times when traffic was minimal, the Morgan signal could be positioned in a half-mast posture, alerting approaching motorists to proceed through the intersection with caution. The half-mast position had the same signaling effect as the flashing red and yellow lights of today's traffic signals. Morgan's traffic management technology was used throughout North America until it was replaced by the red, yellow and green-light traffic signals currently used around the world. The inventor eventually sold the rights to his traffic signal to the General Electric Corporation for $40,000. Shortly before his death in 1963, Morgan was awarded a citation for the traffic signal by the U.S. Government. Other Morgan Inventions Garrett Morgan was constantly experimenting with new ideas. Though the traffic signal came at the height of his career and became one of his most renowned inventions, it was just one of several items he developed, manufactured, and sold over the years. One day, while tinkering in his workshop, Morgan accidentally discovered that some of the chemicals used in his sewing machine repair business also relaxed the tight curl pattern of kinky hair. To market his new discovery, he started the G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Company in 1913. Later, he created both a hair dying ointment and a curved-tooth pressing comb. The new company manufactured and sold these items as well as the hair processing cream. Morgan also invented a zig-zag stitching attachment for manually operated sewing machines and a self-extinguishing cigarette filter. Another Significant Contribution to Public Safety In 1912, Morgan received a patent on a Safety Hood and Smoke Protector. Two years later, a refined model of this early gas mask won a gold medal at the International Exposition of Sanitation and Safety, and another gold medal from the International Association of Fire Chiefs. On July 15, 1916, Morgan made national news for using his gas mask to rescue several men trapped during an explosion in an underground tunnel beneath Lake Erie. Following the rescue, Morgan's company was bombarded with requests from fire departments around the country that wished to purchase the new life-saving masks. The Morgan gas mask was later refined for use by U.S. soldiers during World War I. As word spread across North America and England about Morgan's life saving inventions, such as the gas mask and the traffic signal, demand for these products grew far beyond his home town. He was frequently invited to conventions and public exhibitions around the country to show how his inventions worked. Fighting Prejudice Morgan came of age at a time when the United States was struggling to rid itself of the institutionalized racism which remained even after slavery was abolished in 1863. Described by those who knew him as a gentle and devoted family man who enjoyed the outdoors and was a model of self-discipline, Morgan also was a man who disdained discrimination. He had contempt for people who thought they were better than others, either because of social standing or color. Though Morgan's inventions and entrepreneurship afforded him a level of prestige, wealth and respect denied to many of his Black contemporaries, he too experienced prejudice. Morgan's commitment to fighting racial prejudice was demonstrated by his membership and service as an officer in the Cleveland Association of Colored Men. He was actively involved in that organization from 1914 until it merged with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Morgan remained a member of the NAACP until his death at the age of 86, on August 27, 1963. |
| Garrett Morgan |
| Before L. P. Ray patented his invention, anyone cleaning a room or a hall simply swept dirt, dust or trash out of a door onto the ground outside or used a piece of paper in order to collect it. Ray created a device with a metal collection plate attached to a short wooden handle in which trash could be swept without getting one's hands dirty. The device was patented on August 3, 1897 and is called a dustpan. Black African American inventor, Lloyd Ray, patented a new and useful improvement in dustpans. Lloyd Ray invented a device with a metal collection plate attached to a short wooden handle in which trash could be swept into, without getting one's hands dirty. |
| Lloyd P. Ray |
| The most famous Black cowboy of all Born on June 14, 1854 as a slave on Robert Love’s plantation in Davidson County Tennessee, Nat (pronounced Nate) Love would grow up to be one of the most famous cowboys in the Old West . Raised in a log cabin, Nat’s father had become a slave foreman on the plantation and his mother worked in the kitchen of the "big house.” Looked after primarily by an older sister when he was young, but she, like her mother, had duties in the kitchen so Nat primarily looked after himself. Though he had no formal education, with help from his father, he learned to read and write. After the Civil War, when the slaves were freed, Nat’s father worked a small farm that he rented from his former master, Robert Love. However, freedom was to be short-lived for the former slave, as he died just a few years later. Nat then took various jobs on area plantations to help support the family and found that he had great skill in breaking horses. In 1869, Love left his family in an uncle's care and headed West with $50 in his pocket. When he reached Dodge City, Kansas he ran into the crew of the Texas Duval Ranch. Having just brought a herd to the Kansas railhead, the cowboys were having breakfast when Nat joined them. The young man soon approached the trail boss asking for a job. The boss agreed that Nat could join them if he could break a horse named Good Eye. The wildest horse in the outfit, Nat would later say it was the toughest ride he’d ever had. But ride he did and got the job with the Duval Ranch at $30 a month. The 16 year-old quickly adapted to the life of a cowboy, showing excellent skills as a ranch hand and practiced so often with a .45 revolver that his shooting skills also became very good. Earning a reputation as one of the best all-around cowboys in the Duval outfit, he soon became a buyer and their chief brand reader. In this capacity, he was sent to Mexico on several occasion and soon learned to speak fluent Spanish. After three years with the Duval Outfit, Love moved on to Arizona in 1872, where he went to work for the Gallinger Ranch on the Gila River. There he traveled many of the major western trails, sometimes working in dangerous situations in Indian battles and fighting off rustlers and bandits. During these years as an Arizona cowboy, Nat was referred to as Red River Dick and claimed to have met many of famous men of the West including Pat Garrett, Bat Masterson and Billy the Kid. In the spring of 1876, the Gallinger cowboys were sent to deliver a herd of three thousand steers to Deadwood, South Dakota . When the crew arrived on July 3rd, the locals were busy preparing for a 4th of July celebration. One of the many organized events included a "cowboy” contest with a $200 cash prize to the winner. The contestants competed in roping bridling, saddling, and shooting. Winning every competition, hands down, Nat walked away with the $200 prize and the nickname of "Deadwood Dick." Nat continued to work as a cowboy in the southwest for another 15 years before settling down and marrying in 1889. The next year he took a job in Denver, Colorado as a Pullman porter on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. As such, he worked on the routes west of Denver and moved his family several times to Wyoming , Utah , and Nevada before finally settling down in southern California. In 1907, Nat Love published his autobiography, The Life and Adventures of Nat Love, Better Known in the Cattle Country as "Deadwood Dick," a tale that tended to take on the epic proportions more noted in the many "dime novels” of the time. Love’s last job was working as a courier for the General Securities Company in Los Angeles, CA. Nat Love, also know as Deadwood Dick, was born a slave in Tennessee. He had a love of the free and wild life on the range. Soon he was known as a good all around cowboy. Nat found a Texas outfit that had delivered its herd and was preparing to go back down to Texas. There was several good Black cowboys in the outfit. After sharing breakfast with the crew, Nat asked the trail boss for a job. The boss agreed if Nat could break a horse named Good Eye - the wildest horse in the outfit. Bronco Jim, another Black cowboy gave Nat some pointers and Nat rode that horse. He said later that it was the toughest ride he had ever had. The work was very hard. Nat rode through hailstorms so violent that only strong men could withstand them. The first time he met hostile Indians, he admitted he was too scared to run. After going through a number of such trials he adjusted to the ways of the cattle country and could handle any problem, Nat had a forty-five and he would practice with every time he had a chance and later became very good and could shoot better than any of his friends. Nat left the Texas Panhandle, and rode into Arizona where he got a job working for an outfit on the Gila River. He had ridden many of the trails of the southwest and he believed that he was a capable cowboy. While in Arizona working with Mexican vaqueros, he learned to speak Spanish like a native and he became very good at reading brands. In the spring of 1876, Nat Love's outfit received orders to deliver three thousand steers to Deadwood City in the Dakota Territory. They arrived July 3rd just as the town was preparing for the 4th of July. The mining men and gamblers had gotten together and organized a contest with $200 prize money. Nat said that six of the dozen men in the contest were Black. Each Black cowboy was to rope, throw, tie bridles, and saddle a mustang in the shortest possible time. The wildest horses were chosen for this event. Nat roped, threw, tied bridles, saddled, and mounted his mustang in exactly nine minutes. The next competitor took twelve minutes and thirty seconds. In the rifle and Colt events, shooting at 100 and 250 yards with 14 shots, Nat placed all of his shots in the bulls eye and 10 of the 12 pistol shots in the bulls eye. Nat Love was the obvious winner and along with the prize money, the town gave Nat the title of "Deadwood Dick". |
| Nat Love |
| Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) The first ever book published by an African American was a collection of poems by Phillis Wheatley. Phillis Wheatley was born in Gambia, Africa and was a slave child sold to the Wheatley family in 1761. During that time, it was extremely uncommon for women to be published, or slaves to be educated at all, but Phillis Wheatley, with the support of her friends and family, learned to read and write. Her first poem was published at the age of 12, “On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin”. Phillis Wheatley appeared before General Washington for her poems, and was a strong supporter of independence during the Revolutionary War. Phillis' popularity as a poet both in the United States and in England ultimately brought her freedom from slavery on October 18, 1773. She even appeared before General Washington in March 1776 for her poetry and was a strong supporter of independence during the Revolutionary War. Phillis Wheatley felt slavery was the issue that separated whites from true heroism. Wheatley wrote, “Whites can not hope to find divine acceptance with the Almighty mind when they disgrace and hold in bondage Africa’s blameless race.” Family Background: Phillis Wheatley was a slave child of seven or eight and sold to John and Susanna Wheatley in Boston on July 11, 1761. Her first name was apparently derived from the ship that carried her to America: The Phillis. Accomplishments: During her life, while it was not common for American women to be published, it was especially uncommon for children of slaves to be educated at all. Her gift of writing poetry was encouraged by her owners and their daughter, Mary; they taught Phillis to read and write, with her first poem being published at the age of twelve, "On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin." The countess of Huntingdon, Selina Hastings, was a friend of the Wheatley's who greatly encouraged and financed the publication of her book of poetry, Poems. Obour Tanner, a former slave who made the journey through the middle passage with Phillis also was one of the chief influences and supporters of Phillis' craft. She was especially fond of writing in the elegiac poetry style, perhaps mirroring the genre of oration taught to her through the women in her African American tribal group. Her elegy on a popular evangelical Methodist minister, George Whitefield, brought her instant success upon his death. She also was well versed in Latin, which allowed her to write in the epyllion (short epic) style with the publication of "Niobe in Distress." Phyllis is remembered for many first time accomplishments from a woman of her day:
Phillis Wheatley died in December 1784 in Boston, Massachusetts as a result of childbirth. Bibliography:
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| Phillis Wheatley |
| Katie Washington is Notre Dame's first Black valedictorian Saturday, April 24, 2010 5:37 PM She's Notre Dame's first Black valedictorian. (WBBM) -- History is being made at the University of Notre Dame in 2010. In the 161 years the University of Notre Dame has been awarding degrees, never had there been a Black African American as valedictorian… until now. She’s Katie Washington of Gary , Indiana . She carries a 4.0 GPA majoring in biology and minoring in Catholic social teaching. According to the Northwest Indiana Times, Washington plans to continue her studies at Johns Hopkins University and follow in her father’s footsteps into medicine. Washington says she’s humbled by the honor of being named valedictorian. More information from Notre Dame University: Katie Washington, a biological sciences major from Gary, Indiana has been named valedictorian of the 2010 University of Notre Dame graduating class and will present the valedictory address during Commencement exercises on Sunday, May 16, 2010 in Notre Dame stadium. Washington, who earned a 4.0 grade point average, has a minor in Catholic Social Teaching. She has conducted research on lung cancer at the Cold Spring Harbor labs and performed genetic studies in the University’s Eck Institute for Global Health on the mosquito that carries dengue and yellow fever. She is the co-author of a research paper with David Severson, professor of biological sciences. Washington directs the Voices of Faith Gospel Choir at Notre Dame, is a mentor/tutor for the Sister-to-Sister program at South Bend’s Washington High School and serves as the student coordinator of the Center for Social Concerns’ “Lives in the Balance: Youth Violence and Society Seminar.” Upon graduation, Washington plans to pursue a joint M.D./Ph.D program at Johns Hopkins University. According to nwitimes.com, she has been accepted to five schools, including Harvard University but plans to attend Johns Hopkins University and pursue joint degrees in M.D. and Ph.D. In 2006, Washington was the valedictorian at West Side High School located in Gary, Indiana and stems from a family of high achievements: Katie Washington’s Mother, Jean Tomlin is a nurse at Women, Infants and Children program in Gary, Indiana.
West Side High School said they are not just proud of Washington but also of her classmate Dominique Taylor, who will graduate from Notre Dame. The two friends have known each other since they were in second grade at the Banneker Achievement Center. |
| Katie Washington |
| The owner and originator of all information are gathered from various sources and most artists of each photograph are unknown. All credit belongs to the original author and/or artist.v |