Vocalist Frankie Lymon (1942-1968) became the first black American teen heartthrob. He also inspired a number of younger musicians, including Michael Jackson. Born in Harlem, he became a singer of doo-wop, performing with his friends for donations ...
Posted Tuesday, September 13th 2011 at 2:51PM
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The first known black regular lecturer in the antislavery cause and the first major black abolitionist was Charles Lenox Redmond (1810-73). His fame soared, following a triumphant tour of England. He was one of the seventeen members of the New Engl ...
Posted Monday, September 12th 2011 at 4:13PM
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In 1968 Gordon A. Parks Sr. (1912-?) produced The Learning Tree, and he helped to break down racial barriers in Hollywood when he became the first black to produce, direct, and score a film for a major studio, Warner Bros. The film, Seven Arts, was ...
Posted Friday, September 9th 2011 at 4:45PM
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In 1954 Norma Merrick Sklarek (1928-?) became the first black woman registered architect in New York State. In 1962 she became the first black woman licensed in California. She was also the first black woman fellow of the American Institute of Arch ...
Posted Thursday, September 8th 2011 at 3:24PM
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Daniel Hale Williams (1856-1931) performed the world’s first successful heart operation on July 9, 1893. The open-heart surgery was executed at Provident Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, a hospital that Williams founded. He opened the chest of James ...
Posted Wednesday, September 7th 2011 at 1:47PM
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Charlotta Bass (1880-1969) is thought to be the first woman to own and publish a newspaper in this country. She bought the California Owl in 1912 and ran it for some forty years. Bass was the Progressive Party’s vice-presidential candidate in 1952, ...
Posted Tuesday, September 6th 2011 at 3:54PM
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Ralph Waldo Ellison (1914-1994) was the first black to win the National Book Award for his novel, Invisible Man. Written in 1952, the book deals with a black man’s “place” in a white man’s world. Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, he studied at Tuske ...
Posted Tuesday, August 30th 2011 at 3:02PM
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Jack Johnson (1878-1946) knocked out Tommy Burns on December 26 in Sydney, Australia, in the fourteenth round to become the first black heavyweight boxing champion. He lost only five of his first ninety-seven fights. Born in Galveston ...
Posted Monday, August 29th 2011 at 3:01PM
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The Brandford Modeling Agency, founded by Edward Brandford (1908-?) was the first licensed black modeling agency in the country. Their models were known as “Brandford Lovelies.” Brandford was born in Jamaica, British West Indies, and was apprentice ...
Posted Friday, August 26th 2011 at 3:39PM
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In 1921 the Pace Phonograph Company, which used the Black Swan label, was the first record company owned and operated by a black. It was established in January 1921 by Henry Pace (1897-1943), who had been owner of a music publishing company with W.C ...
Posted Thursday, August 25th 2011 at 3:15PM
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In 1890 Ida Gray Nelson Rollins (1867-1953) became the first black woman to earn a doctor of dental surgery degree in the United States. She graduated from the University of Michigan in June. Nelson Rollins was born in Clarksville, Tennessee. Her ...
Posted Monday, August 22nd 2011 at 2:47PM
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Cheyney State College sometimes referred to as the oldest black college in the United States, had its beginning in 1832. Richard Humphreys, a Philadelphia Quaker, willed $10,000 to a board of trustees to establish a school for blacks. A school for ...
Posted Wednesday, August 17th 2011 at 4:30PM
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By Dom Apollon:
“In the United States, people who work hard generally succeed in life.”
You could argue that those 12 simple words sum up the theory of American life since the nation’s founding, and studies show wide agreement across demographi ...
Posted Wednesday, August 17th 2011 at 3:25PM
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In 1903 Maggie Lena Walker (1865-1934) became the first black woman president on July 28, when she founded the Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia. The bank began as an insurance society in which Walker became active at the time of ...
Posted Monday, August 15th 2011 at 3:02PM
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A press day with Congolese writer/director Djo Tunda Wa Munga is scheduled for Thursday, May 19. VIVA RIVA! is the first Congolese feature film in two decades and the first to be filmed in the Lingala language (with French).
Please let me know if ...
Posted Tuesday, May 10th 2011 at 3:52PM
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