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And. James Weldon Johnson born in Jacksonville Florida in 1871 was best known for his poetry but he was also a novelist lyricist essayist critic translator anthologist biographer historian and civil rights leader in a real sense a renaissance man of great versatility because Jacksonville made no provisions for secondary education for blacks. Johnson went to high school and college at Atlanta University in Atlanta Georgia to continue his education during his college career. He was a top ranking student athlete campus leader and singer in the fund raising touring college quartet. After graduating from Atlanta University in 1894 Johnson became principal of Staten school in Jacksonville. His brother John joined him on the staff after returning from
studying at the Conservatory of Music in Boston as a music teacher. James's first love was poetry and songwriting while John two years younger concentrated mostly in the area of music. They collaborated on songs with James doing the words and John the music for a Lincoln birthday AAP servants in 1900 they wrote a song Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing. This was first sung at the celebration by a children's Corps from Jackson's Bill's black schools. This widely used majestic song has come to be known as the Negro National Anthem in one thousand or one of the brothers gave up their posts as principal and music teacher and moved to New York City to try their hand in writing songs for Tin Pan Alley and the black musical comedies of the day. They teamed up with Bob Cole to form a highly successful vaudeville troupe.
The hit songs written by this team were sung by black as well as leading right popular singers in 1916 Johnson joined the staff of the NWA CPE and later the faculty of Fisk University in Nashville Tennessee. Meanwhile his brother Rosamond Johnson had gone abroad to direct a musical comedy at the Hammerstein Opera House in London. Returning to America rose a man returned to the stage with the Rosamond Johnson quintet in 1925. The brothers collaborated once again in the collection. The book of American Negro spirituals James Weldon doing the words John Rosamond doing the music James Weldon's career ended abruptly and not of Arbil accident in 1938 John Rosemond died two years later in 1940. James Weldon and John Rosemond Johnson just
two of many great black Americans. Oh. Isabel I was born about 1797 as a slave in the prominent
Hardenberg family of Ulster County New York. She was the next to the youngest of the 12 children of James and Elizabeth slaves of the hard in Berks Isabella did not know her brothers and sisters because most of them were sold to other masters. When Mr. Hardenburgh died the last two children including Isabella were sold to other families. Her parents own sick and destitute were set free. It was about his new masters were English and since she only spoke Dutch she often was unable to understand the master's orders. The slave owners resented what they felt was disobedience and beat Isabella repeatedly. These severe beatings caused her to pray fervently and continuously for deliverance. Her prayers were answered as she was sold to a more benevolent master who rarely whipped her. Her new master was a landowner who was interested in her as a laborer and also had a physical attraction for her.
He provided Isabella with an elderly slave husband and he himself fathered five of her children. Isabel was soon set free and she devoted her life to do God's work. She moved to New York City and became a follower of a wealthy mystic who preached fasting healing and reincarnation. She remained devoted to this cult until it was taken over by a bearded fanatic calling himself the Messiah the Messiah turning the called into feasting for having sect which was totally against the principles of Isabella in 1834 the community of the Messiah was wrecked by scandals and Isabella the only black member proved to be innocent of all charges. After moving among various employers and jobs she received another revelation from God. She was to devote her life carrying his message to Americans. She left
New York City and became sword journey to truth. Traveling throughout the country delivering God's message. Women suffrage abolitionism religious awakening and various reforms became the object of her attention. She took her message and I spoused her causes throughout the Northeast and into the Midwest. She was a popular speaker because of her ex-slave background her deep keen insights and sharp wit. She played a prominent role in the second national women's separate convention 1952 and in 1864 she visited President Lincoln at the White House and helped in the segregation on the street cars of the nation's capital. Toward the end of her life she was still a surge earner declaring the truth to the people as she urged property ownership and education as keys to black advancement. She died in 1883 so our journey through
just one of many great black America. Oh. Miss Bueller Recker Oliver a distinguished black Georgia educator was
born in Banks County Georgia in 1888 the first school she attended was a little wooden church called Neil's grow. It was located about four or five miles from our home and she walked each and every day. Later she attended high school in Athens Georgia. But because her family was financially handicapped she had to discontinue her education and help with the crops. However she continued to self educate herself at night. Eventually she returned to school and received her education at Knox Institute. After graduation in 1909 she wanted to organize her own school. Her parents pleaded with her not to undertake such a task without a dollar but the urge made her go on. She taught public and private schools taught music made and sold hats and did many other jobs to earn enough money to start an independent school. She sought many places for the location of her school and finally
decided without ever visiting the town that it would be built in Gainesville Georgia. After moving to Gainesville with her parents she brought an old two story house near the railroad crossing one of the greatest days of her life was the opening of the school. At first she didn't receive any help from the general public. And some blacks objected to the teaching of industrial education in the school. This attitude was later changed during the Depression the school unrolled more than 100 pupils but later families began moving to the north for better jobs. And she was left with only one student. She began wracking each day helping to get the children up dressing them and leading them to school. Later it was decided to run a bus and this action increased the enrollment in the school very much. The high school was later transferred to the city leaving only eighth grade day
school and the Veterans Administration directed a full time night school. The school was non denominational. Its primary purpose was the building of Christian character and the developing of good citizenship. The school existed especially for those with very limited means. It was not operated for financial gain but made it possible for those who would have no other chance for an education. It helped those who helped themselves. This was the motto of MS Rucker Oliver. And this was her life until she died in 1963. Miss Beulah rocker Oliver just one of many great black Americans. One of the most revered leaders in the black struggle for civil rights was a
Philip Rendall. He was the founder of the first Black Union to be chartered by a major labor federation. The brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Randolph was born in Crescent City Florida in 1889. And soon migrated to New York City where he held such jobs as waiter on the River Line boats Consolidated Edison Porter the elevator operator. He took evening courses in government economics literature and philosophy at City College in New York. He became appalled at working conditions for laborers and worked to organize his fellow workers to better conditions through unity. He was fired from the job when the manager overheard him planning a mass protest against deplorable work conditions. In 1979 he organized a small union of elevator operators in New York City and also aided in organizing campaigns among such groups as the garment workers. Randolph spoke on street corners sort boxes about Afro-American problems capitalisms
shortcomings and socialist prospects. He had a brilliant witty law student Chandler Owen founded a monthly magazine the messenger subtitled The only radical negro magazine in America. During and after the war he ran unsuccessfully on the Socialist ticket for such post as state legislator and Congressman. Although a radical and socialist Rand I've steadfastly opposed to communism. Despite his early union activities he considered himself primarily a writer and editor. However in 1925 Randolph set out to organize workers on railroad sleeping cars. He had long been concerned about the exploitation of Pullman car porters and maids who worked on trains about three hundred fifty hours a month for only $70 including tips. When they tried to organize the Pullman company fired activists and set up a worthless company union meeting in Harlem with half a dozen Puerto
Representatives Randolph agreed to organize a real union. The group elected him president and he gave the messenger of a new subtitle the official organ of the brotherhood of sleeping car porters. The company attacked Randolph as being a radical red and outsider. Even some moderate black leaders editors and preachers denounced him as an atheistic agitator. Ignoring attacks Randolph pushed ahead and by 1928 he had signed up over half. The workers and had prepared them to strike for recognition better hours and improved condition. The American Federation of Labor withheld aid and it had to be called off. Discouraged many dropped out. Randolph was offered a large sum of money by companies supporters to abandon the effort. And although he really needed the money he turned down the offer. He continued to work
signing up workers for the union until the real re labor law changes in 1934 gave them another chance. In 1935 workers voted five thousand nine hundred thirty one to run thousand four hundred twenty two. For the Brotherhood to represent them in collective bargaining. In 1937 the Pullman Company signed a contract recognizing Randolph's Union throughout. Randolph as a rod for civil rights. He was advocating nonviolent protest demonstrations in 1940. A decade and a half before they caught on. He was a prime mover behind the 1963 March on Washington. Respected as the elder statesmen of the civil rights movement he helped unify moderate and radical forces in the movement. After 43 years as president of the sleeping car porters he retired in 1968 to the boat his interviews to the day. Philip
Randolph Institute. A. Philip Randolph just run of many great black Americans. You. Will you Londell Trotter of a 580 kava graduate of Harvard University founder of the Boston Guardian. A militant newspaper which opposed the accommodation as
policies of Booker T Washington and demanded full equality for blacks try to was born in Boston Massachusetts in 1870 to and after receiving a b a degree from Harvard. He returned for his masters which was awarded in 1895. He opened the Guardian offices in 1901. He announced that propaganda against discrimination based on color was a principal aim of his publication in publishing the Guardian try to abandon a promising career as an insurance executive because as he said the conviction grew up on me that pursuit of business money civic or literary position was like building a house upon séance. If race prejudice and persecution and public discrimination for mere color were to spread up from the south and result in a fixed caste of color every colored American would be a civil outcast and for ever an alien
in public life try to confront his foe. Booker T Washington at the Columbus Avenue African Zion Church in Boston on July 30th 19 0 3. He and his followers heckled the preeminent black leader and the police were called in. Trotta was arrested and sentenced to jail for 30 days. Try to explain that he had to resort to a public confrontation with rushing 10 because the Tuskegee kingpin held a monopoly on the American media and opposing views could not be heard. The treatment of trauma in Boston inspired the boys to become more active in the opposition to Washington try to collaborated with the boys in the organization of the Niagara Movement but declined a position of leadership in the CPC because of his distrust of whites trying to continue his career as an agitator and protester in the cause of civil rights. In 1906 he protested President Theodore
Roosevelt's discharge of black soldiers involved in a riot at grounds of ill Texas in 1910. He led a demonstration against the performance of the entire negro play the Klansman in Boston. In 1913 he confronted President Woodrow Wilson at the White House accusing the president of lying when he denied that he was responsible for segregation in government cafeterias of Washington in 1915. Try again landed in jail for picketing the showing of the anti black film Birth of a nation when the Paris Peace Conference convened in 1919. I applied for a passport to attend in order to present the grievances of American blacks to this world form when the United States government denied his visa trying to obtain the job as a cook on a transatlantic ship and managed to reach Europe as a representative of the National Equal rights
legal of the race petitioners of the Peace Conference Traddles support of the Japanese motion to include a prohibition against discrimination in the covenant of the League of Nations. The Western allies including the United States are proposed such a proviso in his remaining years. His money and energy dwindling. He continued to agitate for equal rights. He died in 1934. William Monro Trotter just one of many great black Americans. Oh.
Jackie Robinson the first black player in baseball's major leagues and the first black to be voted into the Major Leagues Hall of Fame was born in Carroll Georgia in 1919. He was the youngest of five children of poor cotton sharecroppers. His mother subsequently moved to Pasadena California to live with her brother while doing domestic work to support her family. Jackie and the other boys helped out by working at various jobs. In 1939 Robinson entered the University of California at Los Angeles where he joined the football and baseball team. In his very first game in a UCLA uniform he stole five bases including home plate in 1940 to Robinson into the Army where he remained for two years after discharges as a first lieutenant late in 1944. He became a
basketball coach at the Sam Houston College of black school in Austin Texas. The salary for this job being insufficient for his needs. Robinson soon quit and joined the Kansas City Monarchs and a black baseball team. Robinson earned a salary of $400 a month. In April 1945. Robinson and two other black baseball players were given a tryout by the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. As it turned out this tryout was only a sham. The Red Sox were only trying to abate the increasing pressures on them and other teams to end segregation and discrimination in Major League Baseball. Although the other teams were not seriously interested in cracking Major League Baseball's color line Branch Rickey president of the Brooklyn Dodgers was carefully planning to do so in choosing the first black player for the major leagues. Rickey was not only interested in a superstar but also a person of character
courage and fortitude who could withstand the opposition. He would surely encounter. In fact. Ricky would give orders to this first black player. To silently accept the expected abuse in order for the experiment to succeed. After careful scouting and investigation Ricky chose Jackie Robinson. He did not jump suddenly from a signed contract into a Brooklyn Dodger uniform. He was first sent to the Triple-A prime club. He had an outstanding year stealing 40 bases and batting three hundred forty nine. The next year Ricky called Robinson up to the Brooklyn Dodgers as a first baseman. Thus becoming the first black major league player. In American history. Despite race's opposition to his playing Robinson achieved a spectacular record. When he retired in 1957. He had a lifetime batting average of three hundred eleven
in 1960 to the great honor of being the first black to be inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame was bestowed upon him. Using his athletic skills intelligence and cool temperament. Jackie Robinson blazed the trail for all of today's black athletes. Robinson died in 1972. Jack Roosevelt Robinson just one of many great black Americans. Yes. Undoubtably the greatest civil rights leader in United States history is Martin
Luther King Jr. born in Atlanta Georgia in 1929. King came from a militant heritage. His grandfather was instrumental in the founding of the Atlanta chapter of in WCP and founder of the Ebeneezer Baptist Church. Later pastor by his father and then co-pastor by King himself King attended public school in Atlanta and at age 15 entered Morehouse College. He planned to be a doctor but soon changed his major to sociology before the end of his junior year influenced by the college president and others. He decided to go into the ministry. He was ordained in his father's church in 1947 for Morehouse king entered Crozier Theological Seminary in Chester Pennsylvania one of six blacks among the 100 students. He became president of the senior class one of the plastic award as the most outstanding student and was awarded the crozier fellowship for graduate study at the University
of his choice. He chose Boston University and Harvard after completing his coursework and starting the research on his doctoral dissertation. King accepted a call in 1954 to become pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery Alabama. The arrest of Mrs. Rosa Parks in one thousand fifty five triggered a boycott of the buses by men gun Riza blacks. And they turned to King to lead the boycott. He held them together united and nonviolent for three hundred eighty one days despite harassment provocation and violence by whites including the bombing of his home. In December 1956 the boycott was called off after a court ruling ended segregated seating on buses after Mongomery black America had found a new leader. He brought together Southern black ministers to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to carry on nonviolent crusades against the evils of
second class citizenship throughout the south. Late in 1959 he moved to Atlanta and inspired the poor nation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee the sit in movement by black college students. His crusades failed in some places but he was notably successful in the results of the Birmingham demonstrations and the Selma voting rights march. He reached the peak of his influence on America. When he concluded is I have a dream or ration during the march on Washington in 1963 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He insisted on nonviolence as the only approach that would heal and unite rather than divide and increase mutual hatred. He came out against the Vietnam War as a drain on America's energies and funds needed to improve conditions at home while helping sanitation workers
on strike in Memphis Tennessee April 4 1968. King was struck down by an assassin's bullet. One of the saddest days in black America's history was when more than one hundred and fifty thousand people went to Atlanta to attend his funeral. King's success as the nation's greatest civil rights leader to date lay in his courage charisma intellect diplomacy and deeply held religious convictions. He dominated the lives and fortunes of black America as no other leader had. Martin Luther King Jr. just one of many great black America. A.
One of the most successful conductors on the anti-slavery Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman. She is credited with leading more than 300 blacks to freedom. Harriet was born in Dorchester County Maryland about 18 21 and became defiant at a very early age when she was a teenager. She saw an overseer grab a slave and she was told to help tie him so he could be beaten. She refused and when the slave ran out the door stood in the doorway to prevent his pursuit. Because of her stubbornness she was passed from one master to another. All of them resented her up anyway as an effort to increase slave stock. One of her Masters had had her married to a pre-Black named John Tubman despite the motive behind the marriage. They remained childless. That was us different temperaments. Harriet
yearning for freedom and John content to have a remain a slave and 1849 she made a decision to escape along with two of her brothers she fled hiding bad day and travelling by night. The North Star were invisible and moss on the trees helped show them the way to the promised land. The long hard journey and the slave catching dogs hot on their trail influence the brothers to turn back. But Harriet pushed ahead once and Delaware quicker sympathisers aided her in crossing into the Free State of New Jersey. But Harriet did not wrist easily until she reached the Adelphia. She found a job and saved her earnings. She could not enjoy the satisfaction of her hard earned freedom without thinking of her family and friends who remained in bondage. Late in 1850 using her savings and the assistance of William still a free black agent on the Underground
Railroad she led her sister and her two children in their escape from Maryland. The next year she led one brother and two other blacks to freedom. Later that year she returned to the land of slavery twice. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 made it difficult for scape slaves in many places in the north. So Harriet led her last group of us Cape bees all the way into Canada and remained there with them throughout the harsh winter to aid in their survival as she achieved the reputation of a Mozes of her people and the most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad. She also became one of the South's most wanted criminals. Rewards totaling at least $40000 were placed on her by most accounts in the decade between 1850 and 1860. Harriet Tubman made in 19 different trips into Maryland and Virginia rescuing all of her family and helping some 300 slaves out of bondage.
No other anti-slavery leader could match her feet. In the Civil War she guided a detachment of one hundred fifty black troops in a raid up the combo hee River near Port Royal South Carolina. And as a result nearly 800 slaves were liberated. Harriet settled in Albany New York and devoted the rest of her life to a home for poor elderly blacks. She poured all of her inner GI and financial resources into this project until she died in 1913. Harriet Tubman just one of many great black Americans. A.
The first black ever to attain the rank of general in the United States Army was Benjamin Oliver Davis Sr.. He was born in Washington D.C. in 1877 and began his 50 years of outstanding service in 1898. Promotions in the army were rare for blacks at that time regardless of their service record. But Davis proved his ability in the Philippine Isles and in Wyoming before receiving his first promotion in 19 0 5 he was promoted to first lieutenant. And in 1915 the captain because of the emergency of World War 1 he was given two rapid but temporary promotions. Major in 1979 lieutenant colonel in 1918. After the close of the war he returned to his former rank of captain. But because of his ability
was returned to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1920 it was not until 1930 that he received his next promotion when he was made a full colonel. He remained a full colonel for 10 years and in 1940 he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General becoming the first black to reach the rank of general in the United States Army. His son Benjamin O Davis Jr. eventually outstripped his brother and attain the highest military rank reached by an American black. Born in 1912 and traveling around the country with his father young Davis was prepared but uncertain about a military career. On his first entrance exam Davis failed but passed it on his second attempt. After a few pleasant days at West Point he was suddenly subjected to a completely cut and silent treatment from all the other cadets. He overcame this hostile and cruel treatment. And in 1936 became the
fourth black ever to graduate from West Point. Davis wanted to fly but the army air corridor rod blacks at that time when the color bar was dropped. Davison rode in the first class of black air cadets graduating in 1942. He became the commander of the All Black 1990 fighter squadron then trained and commanded a larger all-Black unit. The three hundred thirty second fighter group he won the civil Star for gallantry and the Distinguished Flying Cross and became a full colonel. Only eight years after leaving West Point in 1954 President Eisenhower promoted him to brigadier general in 1959 he was promoted to Major General and in 1965 to Lieutenant General becoming the highest ranking black ever in the United States Army. Benjamin Davis Sr. retired in 1948 and Benjamin Davis Jr.
retired in 1970. A job well done by two of many great black America. Oh.
There we be de Boys has long been regarded as the dean of black intellectuals. He was one of the first blacks to obtain a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Harvard University and became one of the greatest militant agitators for civil rights. The boys was born in the largely white town of Great Barrington Massachusetts in 1868. His superb intelligence was demonstrated very early. He was the only black student in his high school class and graduated at the top of it. This distinction would have normally won him a scholarship to a good New England college but probably because of his race he was enrolled at the prestigious black Fisk University in Nashville Tennessee. While it Fisk he saw for the first time the realities of black life in America. He graduated from this going to 1888 and went immediately to Harvard
University. Following graduation from Harvard in a short teaching engagement at the University of Pennsylvania. He returned south to Atlanta University and almost singlehandedly made Atlanta a center for the Study of Negro life and history in 1903 Dubois published the soul of black folk in which he launched his militant assault upon Mr. Booker T Washington and others. In 1995 he and others stepped up militant agitation for full civil rights and founded the Niagara movement a movement dedicated to full equality after the riot at Springfield Illinois in 1908. The war is joined with concerned of white progressives in the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He then left Atlanta University to become the director of research and publisher for the organization. He was never quite comfortable at the inn WCP and his emphasis on black
chauvinism and Pan African ism often placed him at odds with his fellow white directors. In 1934 there was a complete break and Dubois resigned returning to teaching and research at Atlanta University. During this to new Atlanta he founded file on the Atlanta University review of race and culture. He also published such outstanding works as black reconstruction and dusk of dawn in 1944 Dubois was beyond the university's mandatory retirement age but wanted to stay on the school's administration and trustees argue that the mandatory retirement rule must be uniformly applied. And Dubois then returned to the inn WCP his attacks on executive secretary Walter White in his support of Henry Wallace and the progressive party in 1948 led to his dismissal that year from the NWC Pete. Now with no home at either Atlanta University
or the WCP he broke with his native land and all that it stood for. He became a citizen the Guyana and a card carrying member of the Communist Party. A scholar to the end he died in 1963. The boy just one of many great black Americans. A.
From 1847 to 1895. Frederick Douglass was the most articulate and best known of the anti-slavery leaders. He was born Frederick Augustus Bailey about 18 17 and lived in Baltimore with Hugh ald awls wife undertook the task of teaching slave children to read and write but all protested saying that teaching slaves encouraged rebelliousness. Douglas became increasingly determined to read and in his quest he was unwittingly aided by some of his white playmates. Sure enough as he became more literate he became more rebellious. He was sent to a professional slave breaker and was periodical tortured until he was apparently broken. His defiant spirit soon rose again and he overcame all of the efforts by the slave breaker
at the age of 19 to return to Baltimore. He had become more determined to break from bondage in 1838 he borrowed some identification papers from a free black seaman and escaped to the north and became a leading black abolitionist. Although freedom in the north was infinitely better than Southern slavery Douglas soon discovered that it was not entirely the promised land. Douglas his real identity as an escaped slave became known in 1845 when he published the narrative fearing that this exposure might lead to his capture and re-enslaved meant in the south. He fled to England. He was so impressive at the anti-slavery meetings there that English abolitionists donated enough money to purchase his freedom in America and also provided him with sufficient funds to establish his own anti-slavery newspaper from 1847 to 1863. He published the North Star and the Frederick Douglass
newspaper. These newspapers were the most successful of all the black newspapers published before the Civil War. At the outbreak of the Civil War Douglas like many other blacks viewed the conflict as a war against slavery and was eager to support it. But as it turned out President Lincoln and the Union Army were neither ready for war against slavery nor for black troops. Douglas then became an agitator for the employment of black troops following the war. Douglas became involved with the Republican Party the party of Lincoln and of emancipation Although Republican enthusiasm for the rights of blacks had seriously waned after the first few years of radical reconstruction in the south. The political and personal fortunes of Douglas steadily rose. He held a variety of offices with the United States government including recorder of deeds in Washington and minister to Haiti. When he died in
1895 black Americans were experiencing a nadir in their life in history. The essential elements of which were segregation discrimination disenfranchisement poverty and lynchings. He was known as one of the greatest educators for black rights. Frederick Douglass just one of many great black Americans. A. And.
Alonzo Herndon was one of the first to successful black insurance executives and became one of black America's wealthiest men. He was born in Walton County Georgia on July 26 1858 and write hundred eighty three he was established in Atlanta as a journeyman barber. His reputation for the fish and sea thrift and respect for him is spread quickly among the white patrons who frequently visited the shop and they all requested his chair thus enabling him to purchase one half interest in the shop he worked and later owning it. By the turn of the century a Herndon a barber shop could always be found in the downtown business area and Herndon had amassed a small personal fortune in one thousand otu he opened the famous Herndon barber shop at 66 Peachtree Street which by all accounts was one of the finest in the country.
The shop was outfitted with elaborate chandelier isn't Golda Meir's and an established clientele of Supreme Court and superior court judges lawyers politicians ministers and planters. Herndon success was indeed spectacular. In less than 20 years he progressed from the status of journeyman worker to wealthy proprietor employing min of his own race. His reputation for honesty efficiency success as a bobber businessman and well made him respected throughout the community by both blacks and whites. In 19 0 5 two prominent black ministers turned to him to save the Atlanta Benevolent and Protective Association a small insurance villager facing financial and management difficulties. Herndon purchased the organization along with two smaller ones and reorganize them under his management. As the Atlanta Mutual Insurance Association. He began operating the new
business at 2 0 2 Auburn Avenue in a building he already own. He provided equipment better than any that had been previously used the leading black newspaper the Atlanta independent probably concluded the Atlantic mutual had the finest office equipment of any Black Enterprise in the state. Although spirits were high in Atlanta mutual in the first few years of his existence it faced many challenges and difficulties. A constant source of company anxiety was the inexperience of the agents. These men and women were apt to make huge blunders in their efforts to increase the business and dishonest agents sometimes attempted to do fraud. Both the policyholders and Atlanta mutual yet in spite of discouraging conditions high lapse rates and great odds against success Atlanta mutual persevered in its efforts to build a secure company and remained
stable at the end of 1915. Total insurance in force was over a million dollars an impressive achievement. Alonzo Hearn didn't belong to that breed of successful black businessmen with strong interest in promoting black progress. At lot of mutual have done much to publicize the positive aspects and future possibilities of black insurance companies today it is known as Atlanta life and is still one of the largest black companies in America. Alonzo Herndon died in 1927. Alonzo Herndon just one of many great black Americans. And.
The exodus of 1879 was what it was called. And Benjamin perhaps Singleton was responsible for it. He was responsible for thousands of blacks packing up leaving the south and going north. Singleton was born a slave an 18 0 9 in Nashville Tennessee and by occupation was a carpenter and cabinet maker. He decided to make his escape to freedom and failed three times before finally succeeding using the underground railroad to get to Canada. Soon afterward he came back to Detroit where he worked as a scavenger and also kept a secret boarding house for fugitive slaves. He then began to travel and in his travels he discovered thinly populated areas in Kansas. He marched through the south preaching in advertising of a haven just over the hill in sunny Kansas. And in 1873 led some 300
blacks to Cherokee County Kansas and founded Singleton's colony whites approve of his policy saying that it was better than politics. They even aided him in various ways such as publishing his notices and writing up his movement. In just 20 months some 19000 Exodus Toure's as they were called had gone to Kansas but not all of the blacks went directly there. Many of them stopped in St. Louis and waited to hear about conditions in Kansas before going further. Others stopped because their friends gave out. Most of the immigrants were destitute and the whites of Kansas organized the Kansas Freedman's Relief Association in order to save some of the needy blacks from starvation. There were so many Exodus Jews that the whites decided they didn't want any more. The Democrats began to accuse the Republicans of stirring up the migration for political purposes. And when Pat Singleton was called before a congressional committee about the immigration he declared.
I started it all. I was the cause of it all. The migration began to decrease in the summer of 1879 and Singleton busied himself looking after blacks in the colonies and in relief work. It came to a halt in 1881 and a St. Louis newspaper in the late 80s reported that Singleton brought over eighty two thousand blacks out of the South. The father the Exodus as he came to be known died in 1892. Benjamin Pat Singleton just one of many great black Americans. And.
The spike. Contributions by such black historians as the boy's jewels of T Wilson William S. mail and others. Carter G Woodson is known to many Americans as the father of Negro history almost single handedly he rescued black history from neglect and made it an important well respected discipline encouraging and inspiring the many other black historians who came after him with him was born at New Canton and rule Buckingham County Virginia in 1875. Through self-instruction he absorbed the rudiments of elementary school. By the time he was 17 then moved to Huntington West Virginia to enter Douglas High School in which he completed in a year and a half. He studied two years at Career College and in 1898 began teaching in Fayette County Kentucky. His work was so impressive that he was called to the principal ship
of Douglas High from which he graduated four years before travelling through many foreign countries doing graduate work. He learned to speak many languages fluently. In 1990 moved to Washington D.C. As a teacher of history English Spanish and French in Dunbar High School. This job was near the Library of Congress where he did his research for his doctoral dissertation. The disruption of Virginia in 1912 Harvard awarded him a Ph.D. becoming the second black American to receive a Harvard Ph.D. in history. What's and devoted his whole career to correcting misconceptions about the black man's past. He had a missionary zeal to tell about the achievements of Afro Americans and their African ancestors. He had a burning desire to overcome the constant misrepresentations by newspapers magazines textbooks and racist politicians on the thing that blacks
were inferior people who had never accomplished anything worthwhile in 1015 he founded the Association for the Study of Negro life in history in 1916 he introduced the first issue of the association's quarterly publication The Journal of Negro history which he ran virtually as a one man operation while teaching full time in 1922. He retired from teaching and devoted the remainder of his life to Negro history. He published such outstanding books as the education of the negro prior to 1861 a century of Negro migration. The history of the Negro church and his text book The negro in our history which was so popular that it went through nine editions in his lifetime. Nineteen twenty six he launched the observance of Negro History Week held annually the second week of February. What's a never married describing his work in Negro history as his wife
and family. Woodson died in 1950. Surely Carter G Watson is the father of Negro history. And just one of many great black Americans.
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Program
Great Black Americans
Producing Organization
Maryland Public Television
Contributing Organization
Maryland Public Television (Owings Mills, Maryland)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/394-55z61bh6
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Description
Episode Description
Great Black Americans - Part 2 (Master)
Episode Description
Episodes about James Seldon and J. Rosamond Johnson; Sojourner Truth; Beulah Oliver; A. Philip Randolph; Monroe Trotter; Jackie Robinson; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Harriet Tubman; Benjamin O. Davis Sr. and Jr.; W.E.B. Dubois; Frederick Douglass; Alonzo F. Herndon; Benjamin Singleton; and Carter G. Woodson.
Broadcast Date
1980-06-17
Created Date
1978-09-22
Asset type
Program
Topics
History
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
01:01:46
Credits
Copyright Holder: MPT
Producing Organization: Maryland Public Television
AAPB Contributor Holdings
Maryland Public Television
Identifier: 35154.0 (MPT)
Format: U-matic
Generation: Master
Duration: 01:00:00?
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Citations
Chicago: “Great Black Americans,” 1980-06-17, Maryland Public Television, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 29, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-394-55z61bh6.
MLA: “Great Black Americans.” 1980-06-17. Maryland Public Television, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 29, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-394-55z61bh6>.
APA: Great Black Americans. Boston, MA: Maryland Public Television, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-394-55z61bh6