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Fratelli D’Alessandri, Rome, Carte-de-viste of Edmonia Lewis, ca. 1874-76, Albumen silver, print mounted on card stock, 10.2 x 6.3 cm.
BALTIMORE, MD.- The Walters Art Museum announces the discovery of a previously unknown photograph of Mary Edmonia Lewis (1844–1907), the first 19th-century African American sculptor to receive international recognition. Prior to this discovery, there existed only seven known photographs of Lewis, all taken at the same sitting in Chicago around 1868-70 by photographer Henry Rocher. This previously unknown image was shot in Rome between 1874-76 by the prestigious Italian studio of Fratelli D’Alessandri, photographer of Pope Pius IX. It sheds new light on the artist and her commitment to using photography to promote her image. The worn 4 x 2.5” photograph was the 19th-century equivalent of a visiting or calling card called a carte-de-visite or cdv.
While on a research sabbatical, Walters Deputy Director of Audience Engagement Jacqueline Copeland found the Lewis image in a box of photographs of unnamed African American men, women and children in a Baltimore antique shop that wishes to remain anonymous.
“I was ecstatic when I realized that this unidentified black woman standing proudly and confidently in a 19th-century dress was Edmonia Lewis since so few images of her exist,” said Copeland. “In 2002, the Walters acquired Edmonia Lewis’ 1868 bust of Dr. Diocletian Lewis (no relation) through a generous grant by Baltimore philanthropists Eddie and Sylvia Brown. It was one of the first works by an African American artist to enter the museum’s permanent collection. This newly discovered photograph will be added to the Walters’ archives for further study and scholarship about this artist.”
Marilyn Richardson, a leading scholar and researcher on Edmonia Lewis, congratulated the Walters on “having a sharp eye and an excellent discovery.”
Lewis was born in the village of Greenbush, near Albany, New York. Her father was Haitian of African descent, and her mother was partly Native American, of the Chippewa tribe, and partly African American. She attended Oberlin College in Ohio and in 1863 moved to Boston, where she received instruction from the sculptor Edward Brackett. In 1866, she left the United States for Rome, settling among other American expatriate artists saying, “The land of liberty had no room for a colored sculptor”. She adopted the prevailing neoclassical style of sculpture, but softened it with a degree of naturalism.
She traveled to the United States from Europe several times, which was an arduous task for a woman at this time. Copeland’s research shows that Lewis had two other cdvs taken by Boston photographers, perhaps prior to the Rocher photographs taken in Chicago. She also discovered a photocopy of a cdv in the archives of the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore. It is unknown why Lewis’ carte de visites were found in Baltimore. It is possible that she brought the “calling cards” with her to Baltimore in 1883 when she installed and unveiled the bas-relief, Adoration of the Magi for the “colored” Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin on Baltimore’s Orchard Street.
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LORD LUGARD, The man who named Nigeria after a suggestion from his wife, posing in front of decapitated Africans from a revolt.
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Shocking and barbaric picture of white British coloniser Lugard posing savagely in front of decapitated African heads.Those people were preaching Christianity back then now their new hustle is democracy and free trade.
quote:Originally posted by TruthAndRights: Labeled a mulatto, her name was Amanda Robinson-Wilkinson, isn't she beautiful!?!? We are all very proud of this pic & our ancestry! It is rumored that her father, was indeed the slave master, & that she was allowed to join the "white family" during holidays & special occasions & that "the masta" was especially fond of her because of her beauty! year unknown.
The U.S First Lady Michelle Obama family picture. The baby in the picture is the First lady with her parents and brother.
Sara Forbes Bonetta.
^The story is bullshyt. If she's labeled as Mulatto during that time then she was most definitely indigenous/native not mixed (black & white). Mulatto was a term that was given to the native indigenous populations. That girl carries the traits of many of the indigenous/native populations of the southern U.S. versus someone who is biracial (black/white).
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Rediscovered: Photographer Richard Samuel Roberts witnessed some of the most interesting economic, political, and social change in US History. During the 1920s and 1930s.
quote: Phewww!! Beastly features. Those bytches look like monsters.
Your asspinion is irrelevant- no photograph I post here, nor in any other thread for that matter, is being posted for your critique nor for your asspinon...in other words, who gives a dam what you think...that being said, please
Now where was I...oh yes-
Alberta Virginia Scott, Radcliffe’s first African-American graduate, ca. 1898
“By the second decade of the century, Radcliffe graduated more than one black woman each year. By 1920, four black women graduated in the same class. This was unheard of at the other Seven Sister colleges, where such numbers would not be achieved until the 1940s and 1950s. By 1950, Radcliffe had graduated 56 African-American undergraduates and 37 African-American graduate students.” (Linda Perkins,”The Racial Integration of the Seven Sister Colleges,” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education) (Radcliffe College Archives)
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Rare Photo: The Claude McLin combo backs Billie Holiday at the Pershing Ballroom, probably during the last quarter of 1948. Ed McLin is on trumpet and Wild Bill Davis is at the piano. Photo courtesy of Greg McLin.
Stan Levy, Leonard Gaskin, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Dexter Gordon at the Spotlite on 52nd Street (1945).
Spelman Students, 1895
Jitterbugging in Clarksdale, Mississippi 1939.
Sometimes it seem like to tell the truth today is to run the risk of being killed. But if I fall, I'll fall five feet four inches forward in the fight for freedom. I'm not backing off. Fannie Lou Hamer
Paris Albums 5 courtesy of the Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress
In his groundbreaking sociological study on race and society, The Souls of Black Folk, published in 1903, W.E.B. Du Bois describes a dual sense of identity and internal conflict created by the notion of double-consciousness:
One ever feels his two-ness, -- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.
JAMES EARL JONES, DIANA ROSS, AND MICHAEL JACKSON
This photograph shows First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in New York City on 12 January 1942, mingling with soldiers at a pageant paying tribute to African Americans' contributions to America.
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Beautiful Young Woman - Tallahassee, Early 1900s
JOYCE BRYANT modelling a Zelda gown. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten (1953 Singer and ModeL)
The world meets Donyale Luna. Richard Avedon Photographer Crabwalking in Galanos dress, head intact. This photo by Richard Avedon appeared in the landmark April 1965 Harper's Bazaar.
Donyale Luna, the first black supermodel, left the US for London in December, 1966 largely because Negroes were less discriminated against there. But in November 1968 racism raised its ugly head in the posh Cavendish Hotel.
Donyale, Mia Farrow and three male companions were asked to leave the hotel restaurant at 4 am, ostensibly because the men weren’t wearing ties. When they pointed out that men at the other tables were tieless, management called the police. A fracas ensued and Donyale’s date, Canadian photographer Iain Quarrier, was arrested and charged with assaulting a bobby.
A few days later, in a courtroom scene in which Mia and Donyale stole the show, Quarrier was found guilty and fined $24.
Talented Mary Edmonia Lewis African/Haitian & Ojibwe heritage July 4, 1843 – September 17, 1911?
Mary Edmonia Lewis was a talented American sculptor of African/Haitian and Ojibwe heritage. She is the first credited Black American Indian female sculptor in the U.S. Lewis gained fame and recognition as a sculptor in the international fine arts world. Lewis was inspired by the lives of abolitionists and Civil War heroes.
Her father was Haitian of African descent, while her mother was of Mississauga Ojibwe and African descent. Lewis’s mother was known as an excellent weaver and craftswoman. Lewis was nicknamed “wildfire” by her mother’s Native community, the Ojibwe. Her family background inspired Lewis in her later work.
Mary E. Lewis fell on hard criticism and was accused of several crimes at Oberlin, including the theft of paintbrushes by her art teacher, and even the murder of two female students. The girls apparently drank bad wine that was served by Lewis. Although she was not convicted of either crime, the school revoked her chances of graduation.
In 1863, Edmonia Lewis found friendship with abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Through Garrison, she was introduced to Edward Brackett who mentored her in her craft. She would become one of the most famed artists in Boston. Her first creations were medallions with portraits of white anti-slavery leaders and heroes of the Civil War. The replicas from her 1865 bust of Black battalion leader, Robert Gould Shaw, earned her enough money to travel abroad and study in Rome. The bust is now owned by the Museum of Afro-American History in Boston.
Using inspiration from the Emancipation Proclamation, Edmonia Lewis would make her masterpiece and best known sculpture called “Forever Free” in 1867. Then ten years later, the art world would praise her piece called “The Death of Cleopatra,” because it showed a strong, powerful Cleopatra after death, unlike other artists who made her look weak. The piece is held by the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C.
Diana Fletcher was the daughter of an enslaved African who ran away to seek freedom in Florida, and a Seminole woman who died on "The Trail of Tears," the forced relocation of American Indians to Oklahoma. It is said that she was separated from her father, once in Oklahoma, then adopted and raised by a Kiowa family.
Diana learned traditional Kiowa crafts from her step-mother: sewing, cooking, tanning buffalo hides, making teepees, and basketweaving.
When the members of the tribe raised enough money, they built a small school and hired a teacher. The Black Indian schools were operated by what were known as The Five Civilized Tribes: the Creek, Chicasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw, and Seminole. Some sources say Diana taught fellow Native Americans.
Diana's main accomplishment was valuing and preserving her family's history, culture and values, while, at the same time, learning to adjust and adapt to white American society. Because of ignorance, prejudice and racial hostility, the U.S. government attempted to force American Indians with African heritage, as well as all Native Americans, to reject their heritage. Because people like Diana maintained their traditions, we can now learn about their important contributions to the history of America.
The Hampton government boarding school was opened for Black students in 1868, with the intent of educating by training "the head, the hand, and the heart" so pupils could return to their communities as leaders and professionals among their people. In 1878, the institute opened its doors to American Indians. The following year, in a grand experiment led by Capt. Richard Henry Pratt, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvannia, was opened as a way to assimilate Indians into "civilized" society, although without the intent of returning graduates to their communities.
1920S
Classy Mary Lou Harris - 1930s
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Shady Rest (Scotch Plains Township, NJ) was the first African-American golf and country club in the United States.
There were other black-owned or operated golf courses at the time, but none combined golf with other amenities typically associated with country club life, such as tennis, horseback riding, locker rooms and a dining room, according to Lawrence Londino, a Montclair State University professor who produced a documentary called "A Place For Us" about Shady Rest, and John Shippen, the resident golf pro who is believed to have been the first American-born golfer to play in the U.S. Open.
Harry Tyson Moore November 18, 1905 – December 25, 1951 "The first martyr of the 1950s-era civil rights movement."
Moore was a Black American teacher, founder of the first branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Brevard County, Florida, and a pioneer leader of the civil rights movement in Florida and the southern United States.
Harry T. Moore and his wife, Harriette Vyda Simms Moore, were killed by Klu Klux Klan sneak-attack bombers who blew up the Moores' home on Christmas night 1951. The Moores were the first NAACP members to be murdered for their civil rights activism; Moore has been called the first martyr of the 1950s-era civil rights movement.
In the early 1930s Moore became state secretary for the Florida chapter of the NAACP. Through his registration activities, he greatly increased the number of members, and he worked on issues of housing and education.
He investigated lynchings, filed lawsuits against voter registration barriers and white primaries, and worked for equal pay for black teachers in public schools.
Seven Young Black Women Photographed Near Missouri - 1890s
From Tallahassee - Early 1900s
From Tallahassee, Florida - Early 1900s
Angela Davis, in Court with Ruchell Mcgee, one of the Soledad Brothers
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I hope you are saving all these pictures. It would not take that long to save all these pics to desktop and then put them on a disc or hardrive. Malcom and Ali, I never saw it before, great pic. I wonder if as a thread it would do better on destee
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James Ross' Store - Example of Black Retail Establishment in Buffalo, New York - 1899 From Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
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The Renaissance Ballroom in Harlem. The home of the Harlem Renaissance (Known as the RENs) during their basketball dominance from 1923 to 1948. The RENs home games would be the first event of the evening.......then after their game ended the floor would be cleared for a night of dancing & food (a Double-header)
Billie Holiday dancing with the one and only Mr. Bojangles, Bill Robinson at Club Ebony at his 70th birthday celebration in 1948.
'Valaida Snow conducting the orchestra on the set of the show Blackbirds at the Coliseum in London, October 5, 1934 Trumpeter, singer and dancer Valaida Snow was a pioneering woman in jazz and among the first to reach an international audience. Like fellow boasters Jelly Roll Morton and Sidney Bechet, her tall tales sometimes obscured the substantial accomplishments of her career, which took her from vaudeville to musical theater and cabaret, and stylistically, from early jazz through Swing to rhythm 'n' blues.'
Bruce Davidson's powerful image from 1963 shows a black woman being held by two white police officers in front of a movie theater marquee sign that reads, 'Damn the Defiant'
The Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain United Order of True Reformers was the first bank owned by African Americans in the United States. It was founded on March 2, 1888 by Reverend William Washington Browne and opened on April 3, 1889. Although the True Reformers bank was the first black-owned bank chartered in the United States, the Capitol Savings Bank of Washington, D.C. was the first to actually open on October 17, 1888
Harvey Gantt, the first African American admitted to Clemson University, begins classes at the South Carolina school. He would graduate two years later with honors and a degree in architecture and go on to serve two terms in the 1980s as the first black mayor of Charlotte, N.C.
Illustration from the February 15, 1862 Edition of Harper's Weekly Showing the First Safe Haven for Runaway Slaves in North Carolina
Courtesy of the Outer Banks History Center
Almost as soon as Union forces arrived on the Outer Banks, slaves sought refuge behind Federal lines. So many runaway slaves fled to the army that the New York Times of January 29, 1862 reported that a “Capt. Clark has erected a very commodious wooden house on the beach for the use of fugitives who have recently arrived from Roanoke Island. It is christened ‘Hotel de Afrique.’” The newspaper went on to describe the escaped slaves as “very expert boatmen, and are very useful in pulling about the inlet and working along the shore." Unfortunately, not all Union soldiers thought so highly of the former slaves. On March 11, 1862, Union Colonel James Nagle of the 48th Pennsylvania Regiment gave orders to Companies A, B, C, D, H, and I to reinforce General Ambrose Burnside at New Bern the following day. However, when the companies went to board the steamer George Peabody at Hatteras Inlet, they found it had run aground, and so with orders to establish a bivouac on the beach, they began to drink into the night. Soon fighting broke out, and officers were unable to control their men. Around midnight, some men from Company C broke into the Hotel de Afrique, an establishment for the shelter and protection of escaped slaves. Here, the men of Company C attacked the defenseless occupants with knives and bayonets, and fatally wounding one man. On the morning of March 13, James Wren wrote in his diary.
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe with Duke Ellington (at piano) and Cab Calloway, with trombonist J.C. Higginbotham ad trumpeter Hot Lips Page looking over the Duke’s shoulder, taken in 1939. Photo Credit: Photo taken by Charles Peterson. Courtesy Don Peterson.
Elbert Frank Cox (December 5, 1895�November 28, 1969) was an American mathematician who became the first black person in the world to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics. He spent most of his life as a professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he was known as an excellent teacher. During his life, he overcame various difficulties which arose because of his race. In his honor, the National Association of Mathematicians established the Cox-Talbert-Address, which is annually handed out at the NAM's national meetings. The Elbert F. Cox Scholarship Fund, which is used to help black students pursue studies, is named in his honor as well.
In 1950, Dr. Helen Dickens was the first African American woman admitted to the American College of Surgeons. The daughter of a former slave, she would sit at the front of the class in medical school so that she would not be bothered by the racist comments and gestures made by her classmates. By 1969 she was associate dean in the Ofc for Minority Affairs at the University of PA, and within 5 yrs. had increased minority enrollment from 3 students to 64. Helen was born in 1909, in Dayton, OH.
In 1966, Andrew Brimmer is the first African American to be appointed to the Federal Reserve Board
Wesley Brown -- Endured intense racial hazing to become the first black graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Wesley Anthony Brown (April 3, 1927 – May 22, 2012) was the first African American graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA), in Annapolis, Maryland. He served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War and served in the U.S. Navy from May 2, 1944, until June 30, 1969
A white girl follows an African-American girl down the slide at Thomas J. Semmes school in New Orleans during recess on Sept. 7, 1962. The children played together as the school went into its second day of integrated classes. (AP Photo/Jim Bourdier)
Augusta Braxton Baker, librarian with The New York Public Library from 1937 to 1974, blowing out the story hour candle. Baker was a devoted storyteller who developed a groundbreaking list of stories that portrayed African Americans positively and established a collection of African American children’s literature at the New York Public Library.
Instructor Gloria Hixon conducting Zoology class at Howard University
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Gilbert Hunt :: Through the Lens of Time Born a slave in King William County in 1780, Gilbert Hunt died a free man, educated, accomplished in his trade and remembered for acts of heroism. Hunt first gained public attention in 1811 when he helped save about a dozen women caught in a fire at the Richmond Theater. Excellent article in Times-Dispatch: www2.timesdispatc...
Ella Fitzgerald and Willie Mays
Born in Kent County, Delaware in 1808, Samuel Burris was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape to freedom. He was captured and tried in Dover, Delaware, on a charge of aiding runaways and sentenced to be sold as a slave. Wilmington abolitionist Isaac Flint, disguised as a slave trader, bought Burris at auction and helped him return to freedom and his family in Philadelphia.
Imagine that! - slaves who run away to freedom are suffering from mental illness. Give me a break?!!!
Civil Rights Congress (1946-1956) Paul Robeson & Civil Rights Congress Picketing the White House, August, 1948
Stephanie, Teddy & Stevie.
Esther Rolle "I told them (the producers) I couldn`t compound the lie that Black fathers don`t care about their children. I was proud of the family life I was able to introduce to television." - referring to her show "Good Times" and her insistence on having a husband and father figure" ~ Esther Rolle
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Agnibilécro-Kangah, chief of the Anyi Date: Early 20th century Geography: Côte d’Ivoire
An elderly Bezanozano man, c 1841
The Bezanozano are believed to be one of the earliest Malagasy ethnic groups to establish themselves in Madagascar, where they inhabit an inland area between the Betsimisaraka lowlands and the Merina highlands. Their name means “those of many small plaits” in reference to their traditional hairstyle, and like the Merina they practice famadihana (the reburial ceremony).
The Bezanozano speak a dialect of the Malagasy language, which is a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian language group derived from the Barito languages, spoken in southern Borneo. Name, date and photographer unknown
Great chief of Balé (King Fonyonga II of Bali-Nyonga, r. 1901–40) ca. 1935, Cameroon.
Usumbura Women Dar Es Salaam 1906.
Nandi warriors Kenya, 1940.
(Matt Bransford pictured at Mammoth Cave)
Mammoth Cave/When the first European settlers entered the Green River Valley in the early 1790s, Kentucky was still a part of the state of Virginia. Mammoth Cave lay unknown to these early settlers, its entrance only one of many openings in the green hillsides surrounding the river.
Then in 1799 a tract of 200 acres along the Green River was surveyed and found to contain two caves described as saltpeter caves. Saltpeter is a mineral that can be obtained by leaching sediments with water (see Drawing 1), much like when water is poured over coffee grounds to make coffee. Mining saltpeter was an important activity on the frontier because it was a key ingredient in gunpowder, and the early settlers needed their guns to hunt game for food and to defend themselves against possible attackers.
During the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain, much of the large quantity of saltpeter needed to fight the war was mined at Mammoth Cave. The cave owners relied on a work force of approximately 70 African American slaves to mine this valuable mineral.
Matt Bransford was the grandson of the slave guide Mat Bransford of the Stephen Bishop era. Matt filled a certain niche that other guides had never done before. He owned and operated a hotel out of his own home. Despite the ending of the civil war blacks were still not welcome in many establishments. Among guides, segragation was nearly non-existent. However, outside of Mammoth Cave black visitors were often the victims of such a practice.
In fact operators of the Mammoth Cave Hotel were all too aware of visitors' expectations when it came to sharing social settings with African Americans. Blacks were not allowed to be on the same tours with whites much less stay in the same hotel. Matt traveled to larger cities to appeal to the African American community to visit the world famous Mammoth Cave.
Matt led Special tours so African Americans could experience the renowned Mammoth Cave. Matt and his wife, Zemmie, provided lodging and meals for black visitors at their home called the Bransford Resort. It was the first time in Mammoth Cave history the African American community could experience the same comforts and fasciantion of the cave white visitors had experienced for over a century.
Nora Douglas Holt (1885-1974) - American musician and singer who composed over 200 pieces. In 1918 she was the first African American woman to earn her master’s degree from Chicago Musical College. During the roaring 1920s, Nora Holt was a wealthy socialite and party girl, Holt was a major player during the Harlem Renaissance. The photo is by an unidentified photographer c1930.
tintype of James Weldon Johnson’s mother and sister Helen Louise Johnson and Agnes Marion Edwards, 1870.
James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was an American author, educator, lawyer, diplomat, songwriter, and early civil rights activist. Johnson is best remembered for his leadership within the NAACP as well as for his writing, which includes novels, poems, and anthologies. He was also the first African-American professor at New York University. Later in life he was a professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University
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Vivian Juanita Malone Jones (7-15-42 -10-13-2005) one of the first of two African American students (James Hood) to enroll at the University of Alabama in 1963 and was made famous when Alabama Governor George Wallace blocked them from enrolling at the all-white university. Her courage has served as inspiration to members of the University of Alabama community since the day she first enrolled at the Capstone. Ms. Jones was also was the sister-in law to the US Attorney General Eric Holder.
quote:Remembering Vivien Theodore Thomas August 29, 1910 - November 26, 1985
Vivien was a Black-American surgical technician who developed the procedures used to treat blue baby syndrome in the 1940s. He was an assistant to surgeon Alfred Blalock in Blalock's experimental animal laboratory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and later at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Without any education past high school, Thomas rose above poverty and racism to become a cardiac surgery pioneer and a teacher of operative techniques to many of the country's most prominent surgeons. Vivien Thomas was the first African American without a doctorate to perform open heart surgery on a white patient in the United States.
There is a television film based on his life entitled “Something The Lord Made” and it premiered in May 2004 on HBO. (http://youtu.be/UmiRohBSy5Y)
Thomas was born in New Iberia, Louisiana. The grandson of a slave, he attended Pearl High School in Nashville in the 1920s. Thomas had hoped to attend college and become a doctor, but the Great Depression derailed his plans. He worked at Fisk University in the summer of 1929 doing carpentry but was laid off in the fall. In the wake of the stock market crash in October, Thomas put his educational plans on hold, and, through a friend, in February 1930 secured a job as surgical research technician with Dr. Alfred Blalock at Vanderbilt University. On his first day of work, Thomas assisted Blalock with a surgical experiment on a dog. At the end of Thomas's first day, Blalock told Thomas they would do another experiment the next morning. Blalock told Thomas to "come in and put the animal to sleep and get it set up". Within a few weeks, Thomas was starting surgery on his own. Thomas was classified and paid as a janitor, despite the fact that by the mid-1930s, he was doing the work of a postdoctoral researcher in the lab.
Before meeting Blalock, Thomas married Clara and had two daughters. When Nashville's banks failed nine months after starting his job with Blalock and Thomas' savings were wiped out, he abandoned his plans for college and medical school, relieved to have even a low-paying job as the Great Depression deepened.
Thomas and Blalock did groundbreaking research into the causes of hemorrhagic and traumatic shock. This work later evolved into research on Crush syndrome and saved the lives of thousands of soldiers on the battlefields of World War II. In hundreds of flawlessly executed experiments, the two disproved traditional theories which held that shock was caused by toxins in the blood. Blalock, a highly original scientific thinker and something of an iconoclast, had theorized that shock resulted from fluid loss outside the vascular bed and that the condition could be effectively treated by fluid replacement. Assisted by Thomas, he was able to provide incontrovertible proof of this theory, and in so doing, he gained wide recognition in the medical community by the mid-1930s. At this same time, Blalock and Thomas began experimental work in vascular and cardiac surgery, defying medical taboos against operating upon the heart. It was this work that laid the foundation for the revolutionary lifesaving surgery they were to perform at Johns Hopkins a decade later.
By 1940, the work Blalock had done with Thomas placed him at the forefront of American surgery, and when he was offered the position of Chief of Surgery at his alma mater Johns Hopkins in 1941, he requested that Thomas accompany him. Thomas arrived in Baltimore with his family in June of that year, confronting a severe housing shortage and a level of racism worse than they had endured in Nashville. Hopkins, like the rest of Baltimore, was rigidly segregated, and the only black employees at the institution were janitors. When Thomas walked the halls in his white lab coat, many heads turned.
In 1943, while pursuing his shock research, Blalock was approached by renowned pediatric cardiologist Dr. Helen Taussig, who was seeking a surgical solution to a complex and fatal four-part heart anomaly called Tetralogy of Fallot (also known as blue baby syndrome, although other cardiac anomalies produce blueness, or cyanosis). In infants born with this defect, blood is shunted past the lungs, thus creating oxygen deprivation and a blue pallor. Having treated many such patients in her work in Hopkins's Harriet Lane Home, Taussig was desperate to find a surgical cure. According to the accounts in Thomas's 1985 autobiography and in a 1967 interview with medical historian Peter Olch, Taussig suggested only that it might be possible to "reconnect the pipes" in some way to increase the level of blood flow to the lungs but did not suggest how this could be accomplished. Blalock and Thomas realized immediately that the answer lay in a procedure they had perfected for a different purpose in their Vanderbilt work, involving the anastomosis, or joining, of the subclavian to the pulmonary artery, which had the effect of increasing blood flow to the lungs.
Thomas was charged with the task of first creating a blue baby-like condition in a dog, and then correcting the condition by means of the pulmonary-to-subclavian anastomosis. Among the dogs on whom Thomas operated was one named Anna, who became the first long-term survivor of the operation and the only animal to have her portrait hung on the walls of Johns Hopkins. In nearly two years of laboratory work, involving some 200 dogs, Thomas was ultimately able to replicate only two of the four cardiac anomalies involved in Tetralogy of Fallot. He did demonstrate that the corrective procedure was not lethal, thus persuading Blalock that the operation could be safely attempted on a human patient. Even though Thomas knew he was not allowed to operate on patients at that time, he still followed Blalock's rules and assisted him during surgery.
On November 29, 1944, the procedure was first tried on an eighteen-month-old infant named Eileen Saxon. The blue baby syndrome had made her lips and fingers turn blue, with the rest of her skin having a very faint blue tinge. She could only take a few steps before beginning to breathe heavily. Because no instruments for cardiac surgery then existed, Thomas adapted the needles and clamps for the procedure from those in use in the animal lab. During the surgery itself, at Blalock's request, Thomas stood on a step stool at Blalock's shoulder and coached him step by step through the procedure, Thomas having performed the operation hundreds of times on a dog, Blalock only once, as Thomas' assistant. The surgery was not completely successful, though it did prolong the infant's life for several more months. Blalock and his team operated again on an 11-year-old girl, this time with complete success, and the patient was able to leave the hospital three weeks after the surgery. Next, they operated upon a six-year-old boy, who dramatically regained his color at the end of the surgery. The three cases formed the basis for the article that was published in the May 1945 issue of the “Journal of the American Medical Association,” giving credit to Blalock and Taussig for the procedure. Thomas received no mention.
News of this groundbreaking story was circulated around the world by the Associated Press. Newsreels touted the event, greatly enhancing the status of Johns Hopkins and solidifying the reputation of Blalock, who had been regarded as a maverick up until that point by some in the Hopkins old guard. Thomas' contribution remained unacknowledged, both by Blalock and by Hopkins. Within a year, the operation known as the Blalock-Taussig shunt had been performed on more than 200 patients at Hopkins, with parents bringing their suffering children from thousands of miles away.
Thomas's surgical techniques included one he developed in 1946 for improving circulation in patients whose great vessels (the aorta and the pulmonary artery) were transposed. A complex operation called an atrial septectomy, the procedure was executed so flawlessly by Thomas that Blalock, upon examining the nearly undetectable suture line, was prompted to remark, "Vivien, this looks like something the Lord made."
To the host of young surgeons Thomas trained during the 1940s, he became a figure of legend, the model of a dexterous and efficient cutting surgeon. "Even if you'd never seen surgery before, you could do it because Vivien made it look so simple," the renowned surgeon Denton Cooley told Washingtonian magazine in 1989. "There wasn't a false move, not a wasted motion, when he operated." Surgeons like Cooley, along with Alex Haller, Frank Spencer, Rowena Spencer, and others credited Thomas with teaching them the surgical technique that placed them at the forefront of medicine in the United States. Despite the deep respect Thomas was accorded by these surgeons and by the many black lab technicians he trained at Hopkins, he was not well paid. He sometimes resorted to working as a bartender, often at Blalock's parties. This led to the peculiar circumstance of his serving drinks to people he had been teaching earlier in the day. Eventually, after negotiations on his behalf by Blalock, he became the highest paid technician at Johns Hopkins by 1946, and by far the highest paid African-American on the institution's rolls. Although Thomas never wrote or spoke publicly about his ongoing desire to return to college and obtain a medical degree, his widow, the late Clara Flanders Thomas, revealed in a 1987 interview with Washingtonian writer Katie McCabe that her husband had clung to the possibility of further education throughout the Blue Baby period and had only abandoned the idea with great reluctance. Mrs. Thomas stated that in 1947, Thomas had investigated the possibility of enrolling in college and pursuing his dream of becoming a doctor, but had been deterred by the inflexibility of Morgan State University, which refused to grant him credit for life experience and insisted that he fulfill the standard freshman requirements. Realizing that he would be 50 years old by the time he completed college and medical school, Thomas decided to give up the idea of further education.
Blalock's approach to the issue of Thomas's race was complicated and contradictory throughout their 34-year partnership. On the one hand, he defended his choice of Thomas to his superiors at Vanderbilt and to Hopkins colleagues, and he insisted that Thomas accompany him in the operating room during the first series of tetralogy operations. On the other hand, there were limits to his tolerance, especially when it came to issues of pay, academic acknowledgment, and his social interaction outside of work.
After Blalock's death from cancer in 1964 at the age of 65, Thomas stayed at Hopkins for 15 more years. In his role as director of Surgical Research Laboratories, he mentored a number of African-American lab technicians as well as Hopkins' first black cardiac resident, Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr., whom Thomas assisted with his groundbreaking work in the use of the Automatic Implantable Defibrillator.
Thomas' nephew, Koco Eaton, graduated from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, trained by many of the same physicians his uncle had trained. Eaton trained in orthopedics and is now the team doctor for the Tampa Bay Rays.
In 1968, the surgeons Thomas trained — who had then become chiefs of surgical departments throughout America — commissioned the painting of his portrait (by Bob Gee, oil on canvas, 1969, The Johns Hopkins Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives) and arranged to have it hung next to Blalock's in the lobby of the Alfred Blalock Clinical Sciences Building.
In 1976, Johns Hopkins University presented Thomas with an honorary doctorate. However, because of certain restrictions, he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws, rather than a medical doctorate, but it did allow the staff and students of Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to call him doctor. Thomas was also appointed to the faculty of School of Medicine as Instructor of Surgery.
In July 2005, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine began the practice of splitting incoming first year students into four colleges, each named for famous Hopkins faculty members that had major impacts on the history of medicine. Thomas was chosen as one of the four, along with Helen Taussig, Florence Sabin, and Daniel Nathans.
Following his retirement in 1979, Thomas began work on an autobiography, “Partners of the Heart: Vivien Thomas and his Work with Alfred Blalock,” ISBN 0-8122-1634-2. He died on November 26, 1985, of pancreatic cancer, at age 75, and the book was published just days later. Having learned about Thomas on the day of his death, Washingtonian writer Katie McCabe brought his story to public attention for the first time in a 1989 article entitled "Like Something the Lord Made", which won the 1990 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing and inspired filmmaker Andrea Kalin to make the PBS documentary "Partners of the Heart," which was broadcast in 2003 on PBS's American Experience and won the Organization of American Historians's Erik Barnouw Award for Best History Documentary in 2004. McCabe's article, brought to Hollywood by Washington, D.C. dentist Irving Sorkin, formed the basis for the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning 2004 HBO film “Something the Lord Made.”
Thomas's legacy as an educator and scientist continued with the institution of the Vivien Thomas Young Investigator Awards, given by the Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesiology beginning in 1996. In 1993, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation instituted the Vivien Thomas Scholarship for Medical Science and Research sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline. In Fall 2004, the Baltimore City Public School System opened the Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy, and on January 29, 2008, MedStar Health unveiled the first "Rx for Success" program at the Academy, joining the conventional curriculum with specialized coursework geared to the health care professions. In the halls of the school hangs a replica of Thomas's portrait commissioned by his surgeon-trainees in 1968. The Journal Of Surgical Case Reports (JSCR) announced in January 2010 that their annual prizes for the best case report written by a doctor and best case report written by a medical student would be named after Thomas.
Malcolm X, Mecca, 1964.
Josephine Baker & Lena Horne March on Washington 1963
Mom & Me / 1914 Studio portrait of African American woman with her daughter by her side. Rufus Holsinger, photographer. 1914. Holsinger Studio Collection, University of Virginia.
Moata Vamoa, a chief of the Lunda Early 20th century Angola, Lunda.
His Highness Gi-Gia, king of Allada, and his advisers circa. 1905, Nigeria
Sultan Njoya in the courtyard of his palace at Foumban (r. ca. 1885–1933) ca. 1917 Geography: Cameroon.
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Queen Binao of the Sakalava kingdom, Diego Suarez (now Antsinarana) Madagascar; photo c. 1904; she reigned 1895-1927.
Horace Tapscott (1934-1999) Pianist, bandleader, and social activist Horace Tapscott committed his life to the empowerment of his South Central Los Angeles community. Tapscott founded the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and its umbrella organization, the Union of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension (UGMAA), both of which were at the forefront of the vibrant community arts movement in black Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s.
Tapscott was born on April 6, 1934 in segregated Houston, Texas. His mother, Mary Malone Tapscott, was a professional singer and pianist. Seeking employment opportunities in the California shipyards, Tapscott’s family moved to Los Angeles in 1943. Tapscott spent his childhood learning piano and trombone, immersed in the richly diverse Central Avenue night club scene. After attending Jefferson High School and, later, Los Angeles City College, Tapscott served in the US Air Force, playing trombone in a service band. Upon his discharge, Tapscott returned to Los Angeles to find that the LAPD, operating under Chief William H. Parker, had dismantled the Central Avenue arts scene. While on tour with the Lionel Hampton orchestra in 1959, Tapscott determined to resettle in Los Angeles, hoping to reforge the communicative link between black artists and the community that had been lost on Central Avenue.
Tapscott envisioned an orchestra which could simultaneously preserve black culture, perform original music, and foster community involvement. With local musicians Tapscott formed the Underground Musicians Association (UGMA) in 1962, which then established the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (Ark as in Noah’s– to serve as a life raft for black history and culture). Responding to a perceived disconnect between black Los Angeles and its rich African history, the Arkestra engaged the youth through musical instruction, revised history courses, and remedial reading and math classes. The Arkestra frequently performed in public schools, parks, community centers, churches, hospitals, and prisons – places it felt its message was needed.
Although the Arkestra played in support of diverse political groups, internally it stressed only the importance of self-expression. The Arkestra did, however, develop a key relationship with the Black Panther Party. Tapscott and Elaine Brown composed “The Meeting,” which became the Panthers’ anthem, and the Arkestra performed original musical arrangements to back Elaine Brown on her albums Seize the Time (1969) and Elaine Brown (1973).
In 1975 Tapscott institutionalized the UGMAA as a nonprofit organization. This allowed the foundation to pursue grants and other forms of financial support, while also expanding its social programs. The Arkestra’s free breakfast program continued while free arts classes ranging from drama to music theory to painting and poetry were offered to the community.
Until his death from lung cancer in 1999, Tapscott continued to encourage any community member with an artistic spirit to perform in the Arkestra, embracing poets, dancers, and even improvisational martial artists. It was Tapscott’s hope that a positive experience in the arts would extend to other areas of life, and that these positive experiences would bind the community together.
Mrs. King and her four children flew from Memphis back to Atlanta with Dr. King’s body for burial. As Dr. King’s body was being taken from the plane, there was just a moment when the family came together in the doorway. - by Harry Benson
A barber at work in Cairo.. 1880 (Photo by P. Schoefft/Hultre Archive/Getty Images)
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Mrs. Medgar Evers and her children featured in the March 1965 edition of Ebony.
Rogers, Timmie (1914-2006)
Timmie Rogers was a popular black comedian and entertainer from the 1940s through the 1990s. He was one of the first African American entertainers who refused to wear blackface or to dress in dirty tattered clothing while performing. Rogers also was one of the first entertainers to speak directly to the audience in his own voice. Previous black performers beginning in the Jim Crow era had always affected some variation of the Sambo and Coon type characters up to the mid-20th Century routine of Amos and Andy.
Rogers was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1914. His grandfather was a slave and his father ran away from home at the age of 12, finding a job as dishwasher in a kitchen on an Ohio River steamboat. Rogers’ mother ran a boarding house in Detroit where she sold liquor during Prohibition.
As a child, Rogers began dancing and performing on the street corners in Detroit for change and later took a job cleaning ashtrays at a ballroom where he was allowed to perform his acts before the main entertainment. By the 1940s Rogers was performing one of his first, which incorporated an anti- segregation theme titled, I’ve Got a Passport from Georgia. He also wrote a song for Nat King Cole called If You Can’t Smile and Say Yes.
In 1948, Rogers was one of the featured performers on the first all-black TV variety show that began as Uptown Jubilee and became Sugar Hill Times. The show aired three times on CBS before it was canceled. Later in the 1960s and 1970s, Rogers made appearances on a number of variety shows, including The Jackie Gleason Show and The Melba Moore-Clifton Davis Show. Rogers was often called the Jackie Robinson of Comedy because he was a pioneer television performer.
In the October 1960 issue of Ebony, Rogers was quoted as saying, “White comics can insult their audiences freely, but Negroes can’t insult white people. Negro comic works with wraps on, always behind the cultural ghetto.” Throughout his career, Rogers worked relentlessly to challenge the racial status quo and he succeeded in breaking through racist barriers, paving the way for the next generation of black comedians, such as Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby.
Rogers performed at the Apollo, often using his catch phrase, “Oh yeah!” During his long career, Rogers won several awards, including the first gold album for a black comedian. He was inducted into the National Comedy Hall of Fame in 1993.
Rogers continued performing into the 1990s, usually in nightclubs near his home in Los Angeles. Timmie Rogers died in Los Angeles in 2006, at the age of 92.
Sources: Denise Watson Batts, “Timmie Rogers: a side-splitting revolutionary,” The Virginian Pilot and The Ledger-Star, Norfolk, VA. (February 3, 2008); Louie Robinson, “Why Negro Comics Don’t Make It Big,” Ebony Magazine 110 (October 1960); Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory of Prime Time Network TV Shows (New York: Ballantine Books, 1992); Alex McNeil, Total Television (New York: Penguin Books, 1996).
March on Washington 1963.
Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr
Jenni Dennie-She was born a slave in northern Virginia’s Prince William County, but by the late 1880′s she finagled enough money from people like tycoon Andrew Carnegie to build an entire educational campus: classrooms, dormitories, dining halls, libraries and shops to teach both academic classes and trades like carpentry, animal husbandry, cooking and sewing to male and female black students from across the region, who had few other options for continuing their education.
Opened in 1894 with a small group of students and lasting in various forms until the original buildings were torn down in the 1960′s, Jennie Dean’s “Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth” is testament to one woman’s determination and leadership. Her legacy lives on through the hundreds of students she touched, and their families.
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In 1977, Mabel Fairbanks was the first African American inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame. After watching a Sonja Henje movie, she became enthralled with figure skating. Bargaining for a pair of skates two sizes too large in a pawnshop, Mabel illustrated the perseverance and determination which were to become the hallmarks of her life. She stuffed the skates with cotton; gained her balance by walking up and down the stairs in her building; and a 6 foot by 6 foot makeshift rink was constructed in her room by her uncle using tin, wood and dry ice.
When she ventured to the local ice rink, she was denied entry. She continued to hone her skills while returning to the rink repeatedly. Her persistence paid off: the manager finally relented and the rest, as we say, is black history.
She developed into a formidable figure skater but she was barred from joining any figure skating clubs, which was the route to official competition. She also attempted to join ice shows but she was not allowed. Eventually, she traveled with ice shows to the West Indies and Mexico, with the knowledge that "they needed someone to skate in dark countries." Needless to say, she wowed her audiences with her spins and jumps. On her return to Los Angeles, the racial situation remained unchanged, and she continued to perform at nightclubs such as Ciro's and other local showrooms.
After her pro years passed her by, she became a teacher and coach, giving free lessons to those who could not afford to pay. She coached the first African American to win a national title (Atoy Wilson, 1966), and the first African Americans to win the national pairs title (Richard Ewell and Michelle McCladdie, 1972). Included among her students were some of the sport's luminaries such as Kristi Yamaguchi, Tiffany Chin, Rudy Galindo, and a young Scott Hamilton. Her knowledge and insight led to the unlikely pairing of Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner, which resulted in this duo winning five national titles and the world championship.
Despite her skills and talent, she was never allowed to take part in official competition. Her tenacity and love for the sport gave her supreme satisfaction as she reflected: "If I had been allowed to go to the Olympics or Ice Capades like I wanted to then, I may not have helped other blacks like I did, and coached such wonderful skaters, and I think all that has been just as important and meaningful."
No jumps were named after her such as the Lutz (as in Alois Lutz) and the Salchow (as in Ulrich Salchow). Her spins—where you extend your leg back and above your head and another where you hold your leg straight up—which are commonplace today were dismissed as "spin variations." Yet she spun around and jumped over the obstacles that racism placed in her way. Mabel Fairbanks: Breaking Down Barriers
Children showing their dance moves Belafonte TACOLCY Center, Miami, early 1970s African Dance Festival
Feb. 3 1956, Autherine J. Lucy became the first black student to attend the University of Alabama. However, three days later she was expelled, as what was referred to for "her own safety" in response to threats. In 1992, Autherine Lucy-Foster graduated from the University with a master’s degree in education.
Colonial soldier with German women, 1919.
In the period following World War I, French colonial troops were used as part of the Allied occupation of the German Rhineland, in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles. German propaganda in response to the presence of these troops relied on racial stereotypes of primitive, sexually depraved “savages” who could not be trusted among white women. This rhetoric of “Black Shame” (Schwarze Schande) became an international phenomenon, spanning the political divide and gaining support from a broad coalition of groups in Europe and North America.
Hitler wrote about the Black Shame in Mein Kampf, decrying the “negrification” of Europe. His government would later sterilize 500 or so mixed-race children born of African servicemen and German women (the so-called “Rhineland Bastards”), and instances of Nazi atrocities against black French troops were recorded during the Battle of France.
Morehouse College students in the late 1940s
Dancer, actress, and dance instructor Jeni LeGon was born Jennie Ligon on August 14, 1916, in Chicago, Illinois. Later, in London, she learned that she was descended from General Henry Beauchamp Lygon, the 4th Earl of Beauchamp, through her father, Hector Ligon, a "Geechie" from the Georgia Sea Islands. LeGon grew up with her older sister Mary Belle in Chicago's overcrowded Black Belt. Practicing and performing with other children, LeGon received her first formal training from Mary Bruce's School of Dance. She often skipped school to learn new dance routines from the movies, and she graduated from Sexton Elementary School in 1928. In 1930, at age thirteen, she successfully auditioned for the Count Basie Orchestra's chorus line. Leaving Englewood High School a year later, LeGon was already a cutting edge professional dancer with a repertoire of knee drops, flips, slides, mule kicks, and flying splits, which she performed wearing pants.
In 1931, LeGon became a member of the family oriented Whitman Sisters troupe, which traveled the South. With her half sister, Willa Mae Lane, she formed the LeGon and Lane tap duo in 1933. In 1935 Hollywood, Earl Dancer, the former manager of Ethel Waters, discovered LeGon. Dancer helped LeGon to be the first black woman to sign an extended contract from MGM, though it was shortly cancelled. In her first screen role, LeGon danced with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (the only black woman to do so on screen) in Hooray for Love, which also featured Fats Waller.
Her twenty-four film credits include: Broadway Melody of 1936, This Was Paris, (1937), Start Cheering, Fools for Scandal (1938), I Can't Give You Anything But Love (1940), Birth of the Blues, Sundown, Arabian Nights (1941), While Thousands Cheered, Stormy Weather (1943), Hi De Ho (1945), Easter Parade (1948), I Shot Jesse James (1949) and Somebody Loves Me (1952).
LeGon married composer Phil Moore in 1943 and they co wrote "The Sping" which Lena Horne sang in Panama Hattie. She also starred in Fats Waller's Broadway musical, Early to Bed and took African dance lessons from Katherine Dunham that same year. In 1953, LeGon appeared with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte as a teacher in Bright Road. Her next U. S. film role would not come until Snoop Dogg's 2001 film, Bones. In the 1950's LeGon founded a school of dance and appeared in television's Amos and Andy. By the 60's she toured with Jazz Caribe. In 1969, LeGon settled in Vancouver, British Columbia teaching tap, point and Dunham technique. In the 1970s, LeGon worked with Troupe One, a youth theatre group and traveled to London with the Pelican Players in the 80s.
The Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and the National Congress of Black Women have honored LeGon. In 2002, Oklahoma City University conferred upon her a doctorate of performing arts in American Dance. In 1999, the National Film Board of Canada released Grant Greshuk's prize-winning documentary, Jeni LeGon: Living in a Great Big Way. Jeni Legon passed away on December 7, 2012
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Vivian Juanita Malone Jones (7-15-42 -10-13-2005) one of the first of two African American students (James Hood) to enroll at the University of Alabama in 1963 and was made famous when Alabama Governor George Wallace blocked them from enrolling at the all-white university. Her courage has served as inspiration to members of the University of Alabama community since the day she first enrolled at the Capstone. Ms. Jones was also was the sister-in law to the US Attorney General Eric Holder. 
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