They are not as widely followed as Harriet Tubman or Frederick Douglass. However, their contributions are enormous and should be recognized.
Ernest Everett Just. He was a biologist who explored the fertilization of the egg and pioneered the study of cell life and human metabolism. He was the first recipient of the prestigious Spingarn Medal presented annually by the NAACP. The year the award was inaugurated was 1915 and it was awarded to “a man or woman of African descent and American citizenship who American in any human field of study.
Hiram Revels. Republican, Guest is the first American to serve in the United States Senate of the United States. In 1870 he was elected by the Mississippi State Legislature, but when he came to Washington, southern Democrats stopped him from sitting. Democrats argued that the Dred Scott decision of 1857 ruled that no blacks were citizens and therefore none could be considered. A citizen before the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868. Under these circumstances, Revels would not meet his requirement for at least nine years as a citizen of his state. After voting strictly between the lines, the Republicans prevailed and Revels was sworn in and seated.
Dr. Charles Drew. An eminent researcher, scientist, surgeon and teacher, Drew helped devise the blood bank process for storing large amounts of plasma. His experiments with plasma transfusions (blood with red blood cells removed) showed that liquid plasma has a longer life as opposed to whole blood being contaminated or it could be corrupted. He established the world’s first blood campaign, called “Blood for Britain”, and this campaign was credited with saving the allies in the battle of Dunkirk in World War II.
Charles Henry Turner. This is the first American Ph D. . A zoologist and research biologist, the first person proved that they could hear and distinguish pitch insects and roaches by trial and error. His fascination with bugs and insects led him to study ants, bees, moths and spiders, and he became a major figure in the behavior of insects.
Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback. Although he served for a little more than a month, Pinchback was still the first the governor of the United States. The ambassador, who had been the governor of Louisiana, was in the highest position when the governor was about to fight against him when he came down to meet the attack. A Republican, Pinchback was also the first African to be elected to the US House of Representatives. and won the US Senate with victories in 1874 and 1876. But southern Democrats contested the election results and each day Pinchback lost the seat. In an atmosphere of fear, terror and violence, the Democrats who controlled Congress pinchback and organize their opponents.
Henry O. Tanner. This was the first African to win international acclaim. as a painter Tanner experienced a lot of loss of race because he tried to increase his talent in the 19th century. For example, white students at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts were so impatient to have a black artist on their campus that they once threw Tanner in the street tied to his helmet. Dismayed by this brutal treatment, Tanner eventually moved to France, where he spent most of his professional life. Tanner, especially famous for his religious paintings, received the French Legion of Honor and was the first black American to be accepted. full enrollment in the National Academy of Art and Design.
Maria McLeod Bethune. Education became his central mission in life and he founded what is now called Bethune-Cookman University, a historically black university in Daytona Beach , Florida. Started in 1904, the school was originally called the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School. When he started his normal and industrial school, he had only $1.50 in cash, and there were only five pupils in a rented cabin. She was minority affairs advisor for five presidents and became the first black to head the federal office when Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her. director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration in 1936.
William Still. Native African-American abolitionist, still artistically organized and managed the Philadelphia branch of the underground The Railroad, a network of people sheltering fugitives and helping them on their way to freedom. He helped 800 slaves who escaped to freedom and was called the “Father of the Underground Railroad.” However, both the writer and the historian wrote what they would report about the indignity and cruelty of the slave flight before their eyes, with a description of those who wanted to escape the discomforts of slavery. After Civil War he published biographies and stories of those he helped.
W.C. Handy. In today’s world, with so many talented, musically challenged, vain rappers vying for so much attention, few people remember the time when W.C. Handy, “Father Blue.” He wrote and composed the music he heard from rural blacks in the Mississippi Delta, and this is the roots of rhythm and blues that spread to the North during the “Great Migration” and rock and roll. Handy played the cornet in bands throughout the South and founded his own company in Memphis in 1905. He published such works as “Memphis Blues” “Beale Street Blues” and “St. Louis Blues” his classic work. Although largely forgotten today, it was celebrated in its day, so much so that an estimated 15,000 people lined the funeral procession in 1958.
Carter Woodson. It is appropriate to end with Woodson, because he was the one who first suggested the Negro History Week in History of the Black Month. Dubbed the “Father of Negro History,” Woodson believed that the value, contributions, and achievements of Africans had long been overlooked and many volumes of history Black wrote to try to address this oversight.
Sources:
“Blacks in the Federal Government”, Empak Enterprises, Inc., 1991
“I Have a Dream, Black America’s Collection of USPS Stamps”
“Equality, Lives and Ideas of Black American Innovators” James Michael Brodie, Bill Adler Books, Inc., 1993
