Rudolph Fisher was a physician, orator, music arranger, and writer during the Harlem Renaissance. His first short story, “City of Refuge,” which depicted the clashes between the newly arrived southern African Americans and Harlem’s black society, was published by the Atlantic Monthly in 1925. His second novel, The Conjure Man Dies, published in 1932, is still considered to be the …
View PostThomas Day was the first widely recognized black furniture maker in the South. He worked in Milton, North Carolina, and his workshop.
View PostLynette Woodard made history by becoming the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters and who, at age 38, began playing as one of the oldest members in the newly formed American women’s professional basketball league, the WNBA.
View PostEdward R Bradley became the first black co-editor of “Sixty Minutes”, a weekly news magazine on CBS-TV. His previous assignments included principal correspondent for “CBS Report,” CBS News White House correspondent, anchor of the “CBS Sunday Night News,” and reports broadcaster on “CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.” He is a native of Pennsylvania and a graduate of Cheyney State …
View PostHugh Nathaniel Mulzac was an African-Caribbean member of the United States Merchant Marine. He earned a Master rating in 1918 which should have qualified him to command a ship, but this did not happen until September 29, 1942 because of racial discrimination.
View PostNathan Francis Mossell (1856-1946) was the first African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He established the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School, which was the first African American hospital in Philadelphia. In addition to being the first African American member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, Mossell was the co-founder of the Philadelphia …
View PostBlack history fact for 2/9: William Pickett, aka: Bill, Will, Willie (1870-1932) – Of black and Cherokee Indian descent, Bill Pickett was one of the first great rodeo cowboys and is credited with inventing the sport of bulldogging.
View PostBlack history fact for 2/8: Clara Stanton Jones was the first African American president of the American Library Association. A graduate of Spelman, she spent most of her professional career with the Detroit Public Libraries, of which she became the first Black, and the first woman, director in 1970.
View PostBlack history fact for 2/7: Augusta Savage was an American sculptor associated with the Harlem Renaissance. She was also a teacher whose studio was important to the careers of a generation of artists who would become nationally known. She worked for equal rights for African Americans in the arts.
View PostBlack history fact for 2/6: Norma Merrick Sklarek was the first African American woman to officially pass her exam and become an architect in both New York (1954) & California (1962). In 1980, she also became the first African American woman to fellow with the American Institute of Architects.
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