Black History...

[Duemellon]

My sister was given the task of writing a weekly email for her company to recognize Black History Month.

Thanks to someone else breaking the seal on this year's 4wk recognition, I will now share with you the things she has collected & shared. Logically she started off with a very important one for this month...


February 1
The theme for the week – Inventors.

Carter G. Woodson, Father of Black History
By Lerone Bennett, Jr.
Full text available online at http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/blackhis/woodson.htm

One of the most inspiring and instructive stories in black history is the story of how Carter G. Woodson, the father of black history, saved himself for the history he saved and transformed.

At 17, the young man who was called by history to reveal black history was an untutored coal miner. At 19, after teaching himself the fundamentals of English and arithmetic, he entered high (secondary) school and mastered the four-year curriculum in less than two years.

At 22, after two-thirds of a year at Berea College in West Virginia, he returned to the coal mines and studied Latin and Greek between trips to the mine shafts. He then went on to the University of Chicago, where he received bachelor's and master's degrees, and Harvard University, where he became the second black to receive a doctorate in history.

The rest is history -- black history.

September 9, 1915 (at the Wabash Avenue YMCA in Chicago), Woodson and four others organized the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. The purposes of the organization, in Woodson's words, were "the collection of sociological and historical data on the Negro, the study of peoples of African blood, the publishing of books in the field, and the promotion of harmony between the races by acquainting the one with the other."

In 1920, (Woodson) organized Associated Negro Publishers "to make possible the publication and circulation of valuable books on colored people not acceptable to most publishers." In 1922, after serving as dean of Howard University and West Virginia State, he left the teaching profession. In the same year, he published one of the major books in the history of Black America, The Negro In Our History. On February 7, 1926, he organized Negro History Week, which was expanded in the 1960s to Black History Month. This was perhaps his proudest accomplishment. "No other single thing," he said, "has done so much to dramatize the achievement of persons of African blood."
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This article has been cleared for republication and abridgment in English and in translation by USIS and the press outside the United States; it may also be carried over the Internet. Credit to the author and the following note must appear on the title page of any reprint:

Lerone Bennett, Jr. is senior editor of Ebony.
Reprinted by permission from Ebony. Copyright (c) 1993 by Johnson Publishing Company, Inc.

[JSpaceman]

Bump. :cool:

[BigSugar]

finally!! a duemellon post i can get behind and enjoy! thanx due!! seriously......

[JSpaceman]

finally!! a duemellon post i can get behind and enjoy! thanx due!! seriously......
And yet I'm still wondering if there's a slight chance of any sarcasm at all... :p ;)

[rocketman70]

That was a nice post! Thx. :D

[BigSugar]

I watched Malcolm X last night, so i'm down with the cause baby. :cool:

asalam alekum, my board brothers.....and to you especially Brother Due.

[clemsonfan]

I watched Malcolm X last night, so i'm down with the cause baby. :cool:

asalam alekum, my board brothers.....and to you especially Brother Due.


I caught a 3 hour documentary on him last night on PBS. It was really interesting.

[postfeminist]

big sug, is that really you??

[classicgrrl]

big sug, is that really you??


yes I think it is. god help us.

great post Due. you rock!

[Duemellon]

yes I think it is. god help us.

great post Due. you rock!Thank my sister. I need to catch up/w the month! So I'll be doubling up the posts in this thread....

[Duemellon]

February 2
Prolific Inventors

Many of us have heard of Alexander Graham Bell, who got the patent for the telephone. We know Thomas Alva Edison, who, among other things, gave us light bulbs that we may see in the dark.

Of course, we all know Lewis Howard Latimer, don’t we?

No?

In 1874, Latimer, working with W. C. Brown, patented modifications to the train water closet, an early bathroom compartment for railroad trains.

In 1876, Latimer, also an accomplished draftsman, was hired by Alexander Graham Bell to draft the drawings for his invention, the telephone. Some sources credit Latimer with ultimately getting the drafts to the patent office just hours before Elisha Gray, who was also working on a telephone.

In 1880, Latimer took his drafting skills to US Electric Lighting Company, owned by a rival of Edison’s, Hiram Maxim. Edison’s lightbulb provided light by burning a filament of bamboo, paper or thread. The lightbulbs provided light, but usually only for a few days before having to be replaced. While with the US Electric Lighting Company, Latimer found a way to make the filament last longer, encasing it with a cardboard envelope. The lightbulb lasted longer and, as a result, became less expensive to own. Nearly anyoe who works or has worked in a research or development department can attest that they were required to sign a document stating any inventions or research found while they were employed are the property of the company. Since Latimer was working for a company rather than on his own, the patent was granted to US Electric Lighting Company. Later, Latimer, working with Joseph V. Nichols, received a patent for a more efficient and effective way of connecting the filament to the lead wires, again improving the life and use of the incandescent bulb.

Latimer was highly sought out because of his abilities in electrical lighting. He was sent to major cities such as Philadelphia and New York, and even through Canada and London, to get them electrified on their city streets, railroad stations and government buildings.

Later, Latimer was hired by Thomas Edison in his legal department as a draftsman and patent expert, even testifying in court for Edison when patents were challenged. He wrote a book on electrical lighting, considered one of the most thorough books written, Incandescent Electric Lighting: A Practical Description of the Edison System. He was listed as one of the charter members of the Edison pioneer, a group of people considered responsible for creating the electrical industry.

Other prolific Black inventors include George Washington Carver, Ned Barnes (railroad), William Barry (postal service), Otis Boykin (Electrical Engineering), Richard Bowie Spikes (various), David Nelson Crosthwait, Jr (23 patents), Granville T. Woods (27 patents).

[Duemellon]

February 3
Day to Day

Necessity is the Mother of Invention. This old proverb is very true, wherever a human being has a need, and finds a way to fulfill it. Discoveries and inventions such as fire and the wheel came from a need, a desire, an accident. People have found ways to improve on existing inventions as well, such as making wheels out of air-filled rubber instead of wood, and matches to start a fire instead of flint and tinder, or waiting for a handy lightening strike.

Following are Black men and women, who created new inventions, or modified existing inventions, to make our lives all the easier.

List of patents issued to Black inventors: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa020600g.htm
New inventions and first patents
Sarah Boone – Ironing board, 1892
A table with folding legs specifically created for ironing clothes

Jan E. Matzelinger – Automatic method for lasting shoes, 1883, 1891
A machine that attached uppers to the soles in a minute, greatly reducing the cost of shoes.

John Lee Love – pencil sharpener, 1897
Love invented a machine that sharpened pencils using a crank and rotor to grind off slices of wood.

Alice Parker – gas heating furnace, 1919
Created a furnace that provided central heating for the first time.
Improvements on existing inventions
George Sampson – clothes drier, 1892

John Standard – refrigerator, 1891

Lloyd Ray – dustpan, 1897
A metal collection plate was added to a short wooden handle.

Thomas Stewart – mop, 1893
Stewart’s mop allowed a user to wring it out with a lever instead of his bare hands.

John Burr – lawnmower, 1889
Traction wheels and a rotary blade that didn’t clog as easily were added to existing designs.

William Purvis – fountain pen, 1890
Adjustments to the case that allowed excess ink to be returned to the ink reservoir, instead of spilling out onto paper or into pockets

[Duemellon]

February 4
The world around us


New Inventions
Miriam E. Benjamin – Gong and Signal Chair for hotels, 1888
Allowed for restaurant patrons to signal attendants for assistance. A light board allowed attendants to determine who was signaling for assistance. Precursor for signals used on airplanes today to signal flight attendants.

Charles Brooks – streetsweeper, 1896
The streetsweeper was once a person, picking up trash with his hands, sweeping the streets with brooms. Brooks’ invention, a truck with a series of brushes attached below, pushed debris off the road to the gutters. The brushes were designed to be switched out with scrapers, useful for snow removal. He also created a receptacle for storing the collected garbage and litter, a method for automatic turning of the brushes, and a lifting mechanism for the scrapers. He also invented an early ticket punch (now a paper punch), complete with an attached receptacle for catching the punchouts.

Improvements on existing inventions
Garrett Morgan – Traffic signal, 1923
Morgan was the first to seek and obtain a patent. The original signal showed Stop, Go and All Stop, which allowed pedestrians to cross. Morgan’s invention is credited as an early example of Intelligent Transportation Systems.
Morgan also invented a zig-zag attachment for manually operated sewing machines, and founded a company that made personal grooming products such as dyes and a curved-tooth pressing comb.
In 1916, Morgan, using a gas mask he had created, rescued several men trapped during an explosion in a tunnel under Lake Erie. The mask was later used by fire departments, and, after some refinement, the US Army during World War I.

Norbert Rillieux – automated sugar refining, 1843, 1846
Originally, sugar refinement was a manual process, a very dangerous process that involved men, taking boiling hot sugar in large kettles and transferring it to another kettle. The process was inefficient and expensive due to the amount of heat required to boil sugar. A process to boil the sugar with a single pan in a vacuum was developed in France. Rillieux took it a step further and made it a three-pan vacuum process, increasing the efficiency of refinement. The process was later used in soapmaking, gelatin, condensed milk and glue, and the recovery of waste liquids in factories and distilleries.

Alexander Miles – elevator, 1887
Made elevators safer, creating a mechanism to automatically close doors to the shaft when the elevator car wasn’t there.

Philip Downing – Mail drop box, 1891
More secure from theft and weather than existing boxes, very similar to models seen on the streets today.

[Duemellon]

Those who dared
Monday, February 7


"I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations....I have built my own factory on my own ground"
- Madam Walker, National Negro Business League Convention, July 1912

Born in 1867, Sarah Breedlove lost both of her parents before her eighth birthday. She and her sister, Louvenia, supported themselves working in the cotton fields of Delta, Louisiana and nearby Vicksburg, Mississippi. Sarah married her first husband, Moses McWilliams, at the age of fourteen. Her only daughter, A’Lelia, was born in 1885. Just two years later, Sarah was widowed.

Finding herself alone and with a toddler to raise, Sarah packed up and moved to St. Louis, Missouri, moving in with her brothers. Sarah Breedlove McWilliams supported herself and her daughter working as a washerwoman.

During the 1890’s, Sarah started losing her hair. Experimenting with existing treatments and creating some of her own, she came up with a hair care system to treat scalp problems using massage, more frequent washing and medicinal chemicals. At last, Sarah was ready to start her own business. Encouraged by her success in St. Louis, she moved to Denver, Colorado, joining her now-widowed sister and neices.

Sarah met her next husband, Charles Joseph Walker, while in Denver. The marriage didn’t last, but Sarah kept her new name, Madam C. J. Walker, and used it for her business.

Beginning with in-home sales, Madam C. J. Walker toured the south while her daughter held down the business in Denver. Madam Walker was able to open another office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1910, operations were moved from the Denver and Pittsburgh offices to a factory in Indianapolis, Indiana. She employed many people, several thousand by some accounts. She never forgot her roots, generously donating to the NAACP, elder and indigent groups, and schools, including prestigious Tuskegee University in Alabama. Madam Walker was also an activist, working toward fair treatment for all races, a behavior she encouraged in her sales agents. In 1917, following the murder of over three dozen Blacks by a mob of Whites in East St. Louis, Madam Walker joined a group of Harlem leaders who presented a petition at the White House for federal anti-lynching laws.

"This is the greatest country under the sun," she told them. "But we must not let our love of country, our patriotic loyalty cause us to abate one whit in our protest against wrong and injustice…”
- Madam C. J. Walker Hair Culturists Union of America convention, Philadelphia, PA 1917

Her life ended in 1919 when she was 52. Madam C. J. Walker died a wealthy women, often credited as one of the first Black millionaires.

*Madam C. J. Walker did not invent the straightening comb, but popularized its use among Black women, according to the Madam C. J. Walker website. She did, however, help create an industry that allows women and men to feel better about themselves.

Did You Know…
Walter Sammons, a Black man, holds the patent for a heated comb that removed kinks from the hair (1920).

Online Sources
Madam C. J. Walker website
http://www.madamcjwalker.com/

The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences
http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/walker.html

Researched and written by Lisa-Marie Jones