Elijah McCoy, inventor of the automatic lubricating system used on trains and cars today, created a level of distinction which bears his name. image: blackinventor.com-
Some facts and accomplishments of Black people. Various readers mentioned that they had learned a lot of Black History facts from reading my columns during the month of February. Other facts will be some that I didn’t list last year.
LITTLE KNOWN BLACK HISTORY FACTS: (By Tom Joyner, Radio Personality and Dr. Henry L. Gates, Writer. These facts were published by McDonald’s Corporation. (Copyright 2000)
Henry T. Sampson invented the Cellular Phone on July 6, 1971. G.T. Sampson invented the Clothes Dryer on June 6, 1862. Alexander Miles invented the automatic Elevator doors on October 11, 1867. T. Grant invented the Golf Tee on December 12, 1899.
On January 18, 1958, Willie O’Ree (a brilliant right wing hockey play) became the first Black man to play in the National Hockey League (NHL), playing with the Boston Bruins.
John Brown Russwurm was one of the earliest Black students to graduate from college, received a degree from Bowdoin in 1826; and with Samuel Cornish, founded the first Black newspaper, “Freedom’s Journal.” The first issue appeared on March 16, 1827 with a strong civil rights stand.
Paul L. Downing invented the Mailbox on October 27, 1891. Langston Hughes, Poet and Playwright (1902–1967) (a postal stamp was made to honor Hughes).
Aaron Douglas painted extraordinary pictures, and sculptor Augusta Savage turned stone into portraits.
The whole country was moving to the rhythm of a Black dance called the “Charleston.” In politics, Marcus Garvey was calling for Black self-reliance and identification with African heritage.
W.E.B. Du Bois was fighting against segregation and for civil rights for people of color. This much energy, talent, and creativity infused the whole nation with a unique new vigor and originality.
George Washington Carver was a prominent American scientist and inventor in the early 1900s. Carver developed hundreds of products using the peanut, sweet potatoes and soybeans. He also was a champion of crop rotation and agricultural education.
Reading this column today, it is good to know that The Stone Churches of Lalibela in Ethiopia is one of the architectural wonders of the world. A group of eleven buildings, they are hewn from volcanic rock.
But, they are not carved from stone standing above ground. Astonishingly, they were cut into the earth, so that what one first sees is their roofs—level to the ground.
It is said that the churches date from the twelfth century. Their original purpose is unknown, but the network of underground passages suggests they could have been either palaces or fortifications.
The religious tradition is that they were built by angels in one night during the reign of King Lalibela, one of the early members of the Zagwe Dynasty. They now house Ethiopian Orthodox monks and a collection of Christian art treasures.
In the spring of 1721, when a smallpox epidemic erupted in Boston, killing nearly 1,000 people; Africa born Onesimus, a house slave owned by Cotton Mather, one of the leading ministers of colonial New England, told his master about “buying the smallpox.”
The inoculation he remembered from Africa, in which people infected themselves with the disease in order to create immunity. Does this remind you of our “Flu Shots” of today?
