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The Official Black History Month Thread!

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THE NEGRO LEAGUES

[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-1][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]The first successful organized Negro League was established on February 13, 1920, at a YMCA in Kansas City, Missouri. Andrew "Rube" Foster was the driving force behind the organization of this league and served as its president. [/SIZE][/FONT]

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[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]As a result of his leadership role in the early years of the leagues, Foster is known as "the father of black baseball." This first league was known as the Negro National League with member teams in the South and Midwest. The NNL operated successfully until 1931. [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-1][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Three years after the founding of the NNL, the Eastern Colored League was formed on December 16, 1923, with Edward H. Bolden serving as chairman. In 1924, the very first Negro World Series was played between the ECL and the NNL champions. The ECL collapsed in the spring of 1928 but the member teams reemerged in 1929 as the American Negro League.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-1][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]The depression years were especially difficult times for black baseball. In 1932, the East-West League was formed, but folded before the season ended. The Negro Southern League was the only black professional league to survive the 1932 season. The NSL was a minor league before and after the 1932 season.[/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]In 1933, a second Negro National League was formed, and was the only black professional league operating until 1937. The league included teams from the East and the Midwest through 1935. By 1936, the NNL was operating exclusively in the East.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-1][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]In 1937, teams in the South and the Midwest formed the Negro American League. The NAL and the NNL coexisted through the 1948 season. In 1949, the NNL was absorbed in the NAL, which operated as the last black major league through 1960.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-1][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]As in the white major leagues, the Negro leagues had their own World Series. Over the years, eleven inter-league Black World Series were held. The NNL and ECL played from 1924 through 1927. Champions from the second NNL and the NAL competed from 1942 through 1948. [/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Also in 1933, the black teams began all-star game competition. The game was known as the East-West game and was played each summer at Chicago's Comiskey Park. This game was considered more important than the World Series and annually attracted between 20,000 and 50,000 fans.[/SIZE][/FONT]

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FRITZ POLLARD THE FIRST BLACK NFL PLAYER




At its inception in 1920, the American Professional Football Association had several African-American players (a total of thirteen between 1920 and 1933). Fritz Pollard and Bobby Marshall were the first black players in what is now the NFL in 1920. Pollard became the first black coach in 1921. However, by 1932 the subsequent National Football League had only two black players, and by 1934 there were none. This disappearance of black players from the NFL effectively coincided with the entry of one of the leading owners of the league, George Preston Marshall. Marshall openly refused to have black athletes on his Boston Braves/Washington Redskins team, and reportedly pressured the rest of the league to follow suit. The NFL did not have another black player until after World War II.

In the NFL, when the Cleveland Rams wanted to move to Los Angeles, it was stipulated in their contract with the Los Angeles Coliseum that they had to integrate their team, so they signed two UCLA teammates, Woody Strode and Kenny Washington, who were playing semi-pro ball in the area in 1946. Still, Marshall was quoted as saying "We'll start signing Negroes when the Harlem Globetrotters start signing whites." In spite of this open bias, Marshall was elected to the NFL's Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963. As part of his "qualifications"' for enshrinement, the hall says: "Marshall was totally involved in all aspects of his team's operation and endured his share of criticism for not integrating his team until being forced to do so in 1962." The Redskins had no black players until they succumbed to the threat of civil-rights legal action by the Kennedy administration. The Redskins eventually came through though signing Bobby Mitchell and two other African American players by 1962. In 1946, the Cleveland Browns of a rival pro football league, the All-America Football Conference, signed two black players: Marion Motley and Bill Willis.

Even when the NFL did sign black players, poor treatment was evident. Reportedly, black players routinely received lower contracts than whites in the NFL, while in the American Football League there was no such distinction based on race[1]. Position segregation was also prevalent at this time. According to several books such as the autobiography of Vince Lombardi, black players were stacked at "speed" positions such as Defensive Back but excluded from "intelligent" positions such as Quarterback and Center. However despite the NFL's segregationist policies, after the league merged with the more tolerant AFL in 1970, more than 30% of the merged league's players were African American.


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BOBBY MARSHALL

Today, recent surveys have shown that the NFL is approximately 57-61% non-white (this includes African Americans, Polynesians, non-white Hispanics, Asians, and people that are mixed race.) Evidence shows that the general stereotype that "blacks run faster, jump higher and hit harder, but whites are smarter" is still prevalent, despite scientific evidence to the contrary. Conversely, the American Football League actively recruited players from small colleges that had been largely ignored by the NFL, giving those schools' black players the opportunity to play professional football. As a result, for the years 1960 through 1962, AFL teams averaged 17% more blacks than NFL teams did[2]. By 1969, a comparison of the two league's championship team photos showed the AFL's Chiefs with 23 black players out of 51 players pictured, while the NFL Vikings had 11 blacks, of 42 players in the photo. The American Football League had the first black placekicker in U.S. professional football, Gene Mingo of the Denver Broncos; and the first black regular starting quarterbacks of the modern era, Marlin Briscoe of the Broncos and James Harris of the Buffalo Bills. Willie Thrower was a back up quarterback who saw some action in the 1950s for the Chicago Bears.
 
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John Rock (also John Sweat or John Swett Rock) (October 13, 1825-December 3, 1866) was an American teacher, doctor, dentist and lawyer who originated the notion of "Black is Beautiful".

John S. Rock was a member of the abolitionist movement, born of free African American parents in Salem, New Jersey. Not much is known of his childhood. He taught in schools in New Jersey from 1844 to 1848.
Rock was one of the first African Americans with a medical degree. In addition, he was the first African American to be admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was a passionate abolitionist and civil rights leader and held a strong belief in the dignity and rights of all Americans.

While teaching, he studied medicine. He sought entrance into medical school in 1848. Most sources say he was refused entrance into medical school because of his race. He transferred into the field of dentistry and opened a dental practice in 1850. :up:

Finally gaining entrance into medical school, he graduated from American Medical College in Philadelphia in 1852. At the age of 27, he was a teacher, dentist and physician.
In 1853, he decided that Boston's liberal environment would be better suited for him. While practicing medicine and dentistry, he lectured for anti-slavery and temperance groups. He became known as one of the most brilliant speakers in the anti-slavery movement.
He is credited with coining the phrase "Black is beautiful" during a speech he gave in Faneuil Hall as a refutation of the western idea that the natural features of African Americans are unattractive.[1]
Troubled by health related problems, Rock went to Paris to seek medical treatment and returned to Boston in February 1859. Doctors advised him to cut back on his work and in 1860, he gave up his medical and dental practices and began to study law.
He gained admittance to the Massachusetts Bar in 1861 and opened his private law office. Rock became the first black to be received on the floor of the US House of Representatives.
February 1, 1865, the same day congress approved the 13th Amendment ending slavery, Charles Sumner introduced a motion that made Rock the first black attorney to be admitted to argue in the Supreme Court of the United States.
Rock enjoyed this honor for less than a year. On December 3, 1866, John S. Rock died in his home at the age of 41.
 
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NAT "KING" COLE

Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole (or Nat "King" Cole), was a popular American jazz singer, songwriter, and pianist.
He first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist, then switched his emphasis to singing, becoming one of the most popular and best-known vocalists of all time.

He was born Nathaniel Adams Coles in Montgomery, Alabama. His birth date, according to the World Almanac, was on Saint Patrick's Day in 1919 ; other sources have erroneously listed his birthdate as 1917. His father was a butcher and a deacon in the Baptist church. His family moved to Chicago, Illinois, while he was still a child. There, his father became a minister; Nat's mother, Perlina, was the church organist. Nat learned to play the organ from his mother until the age of 12, when he began formal lessons. His first performance, at age four, was of Yes, We Have No Bananas. He learned not only jazz and gospel music, but European classical music as well, performing, as he said, "from Johann Sebastian Bach to Sergei Rachmaninoff."

The family lived in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. Nat would sneak out of the house and hang outside the clubs, listening to artists such as Louis Armstrong, Earl "Fatha" Hines, and Jimmie Noone. He participated in Walter Dyett's renowned music program at DuSable High School.

Inspired by the playing of Earl Hines, Cole began his performing career in the mid 1930s while he was still a teenager, and adopted the name "Nat Cole". His older brother, Eddie Coles, a bassist, soon joined Nat's band and they first recorded in 1936 under Eddie's name. They were also regular performers at clubs. In fact, Nat got his nickname "King" performing at one jazz club, a nickname presumably reinforced by the otherwise-unrelated nursery rhyme about Old King Cole. He was also a pianist in a national touring revival of ragtime and Broadway theatre legend, Eubie Blake's revue, "Shuffle Along". When it suddenly failed in Long Beach, California, Cole decided to remain there.

Revenues from Cole's record sales fueled much of Capitol Records' success during this period, and are believed to have played a significant role in financing the distinctive Capitol Records building on Hollywood and Vine, in Los Angeles.



Completed in 1956, it was the world's first circular office building and became known as "the house that Nat built."


Cole was considered a leading jazz pianist, appearing, for example, in the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts (credited on the Mercury Record labels as "Shorty Nadine," apparently derived from the name of his wife at the time). His revolutionary lineup of piano, guitar and bass in the time of the big bands became a popular set up for a jazz trio. It was emulated by many musicians, among them Art Tatum, Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, Tommy Flanagan and blues pianists Charles Brown and Ray Charles. He also performed as a pianist on sessions with Lester Young, Red Callender, and Lionel Hampton. The Page Cavanaugh Trio with the same set up as Cole came out of the chute about the same time, at the end of the war. It's still a toss up as to who was first, though generally agreed the credit goes to Nat Cole.

Cole's first mainstream vocal hit was his 1943 recording of one of his compositions, "Straighten Up and Fly Right", based on a black folk tale that his father had used as a theme for a sermon. Johnny Mercer invited him to record it for the fledgling Capitol Records label. It sold over 500,000 copies, and proved that folk-based material could appeal to a wide audience. Although Nat would never be considered a rocker, the song can be seen as anticipating the first rock and roll records. Indeed, Bo Diddley, who performed similar transformations of folk material, counted Cole as an influence.
Beginning in the late 1940s, Cole began recording and performing more pop-oriented material for mainstream audiences, often accompanied by a string orchestra. His stature as a popular icon was cemented during this period by hits such as "The Christmas Song" (Cole recorded the tune four times: June 14, 1946 as a pure Trio recording; August 19, 1946 with an added string section; August 24, 1953; and again in 1961 for the double album, The Nat King Cole Story. This final version, recorded in stereo, is the one most often heard today.), "Nature Boy" (1948), "Mona Lisa" (1950), "Too Young" (the #1 song in 1951)[1], and his signature tune "Unforgettable" (1951). While this shift to pop music led some jazz critics and fans to accuse Cole of selling out, he never totally abandoned his jazz roots; as late as 1956, for instance, he recorded an all-jazz album, After Midnight.

On November 5, 1956, The Nat King Cole Show debuted on NBC-TV. While commentators have often erroneously hailed Cole as the first African-American to host a network television show — an honor belonging to jazz pianist and singer Hazel Scott in 1950 — the Cole program was the first of its kind hosted by a star of Nat Cole's magnitude.
Initially begun as a 15-minute show on Monday night, the show was expanded to a half hour in July 1957. Despite the efforts of NBC, as well as many of Cole's industry colleagues (beginning with Frankie Laine, who was the first white singer to break the "color barrier" by appearing as a guest on a black entertainer's show) -- most of whom, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte, Mel Tormé, Peggy Lee, and Eartha Kitt — worked for industry scale in order to help the show save money, The Nat King Cole Show was ultimately done in by a lack of national sponsorship. Companies such as Rheingold Beer assumed regional sponsorship of the show, but a national sponsor never appeared.




The last episode of The Nat King Cole Show aired 17 December 1957. Cole had survived for over a year, and it was he, not NBC, who ultimately decided to pull the plug on the show. NBC, as well as Cole himself, had been operating at an extreme financial loss. Commenting on the lack of sponsorship his show received, Cole quipped shortly after its demise, "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark." This statement, plus the passing of time, has fueled the urban legend that Cole's show had to close down despite enormous popularity. In fact, the Cole program was routinely beaten by the competition at ABC, then riding high with its travel and western shows. In addition, musical variety series have always been risky enterprises with a fickle public; among the one-season casualties are Frank Sinatra in 1957, Judy Garland in 1963 and Julie Andrews in 1972.
 
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DOROTHY DANDRIDGE

Dorothy Jean Dandridge was born in Cleveland Ohio's City Hospital on November 9, 1922. Her mother was an aspiring actress named Ruby Dandridge. Ruby had walked out on Dorothy's father, Cyrus, five months previous to Dorothy's birth taking her first child, Vivian, with her. Cyrus still lived with his mother and Ruby had come to the conclusion that he would never amount to anything and she resented the fact that they did not have their own home.


Ruby moved into an apartment on Central Avenue and did what work she could find to support her daughters. This usually entailed cleaning houses but Ruby also satisfied her creative aspirations by singing and reciting poetry for local theater groups and churches. Ruby was pleased to see that both of her daughters displayed a great talent for memorizing poetry and singing. A friend of Ruby named Geneva Williams soon moved in with them and Geneva became instrumental in teaching the girls singing, dancing and piano. The girls were too young to realize it at the time, but Geneva was also their mother's lover.
As the talents of Dorothy and Vivian improved, Ruby and Geneva began to plan a future for themselves that they hoped would bring them fame and security. The girls would now be called The Wonder Children and they would be their ticket. They moved to Nashville and The Wonder Children were signed with the National Baptist Convention to tour churches throughout the southern states.
Their act became a family affair with Geneva at the piano while Dorothy and Vivian performed a variety of skits that included singing, dancing, acrobatics, impressions and the ever popular poetry recitations. Mama Ruby became the business manager and she handled all the business affairs and sometimes even joined in the act herself.

The Wonder Children proved successful and they spent three years on the road. To Dorothy and Vivian, their act became tiring and tedious. Long hours were spent rehearsing as Geneva demanded perfection. The sisters had little time for fun and games and the usual activities that girls their age enjoyed. As for education, they were tutored, but education took a back seat to their work. The girls also learned about the harsh realities of racism that was at its worst in the south.
The Great Depression put a halt toThe Wonder Children tour and Ruby planned what they would do next. She had wisely studied films and intuitively felt that their future would be in Hollywood. They settled into a house on Fortura Street and Dorothy and Vivian were enrolled in Hooper Street School and a dancing school for afternoon classes. In the meantime, Ruby was using her vivacious personality to gain a foothold in the Hollywood community.

Dorothy and Vivian made friends at the dancing school with a girl named Etta Jones. They would sing together with Geneva at the piano and Ruby decided that the three girls would make a terrific singing trio. With the help of black agent Ben Carter, the girls found work at various theaters in southern California. Their reputation grew and The Dandridge Sisters, as they were known known, landed their first big break when they received an uncredited cameo in the film The Big Broadcast of 1936. Subsequent small film roles followed until the summer of 1938 when their manager informed them that he had booked them in the prestigious Cotton Club in New York City.
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Geneva and the girls moved to New York. Ruby was forming a successful career for herself as a character actress so she remained in Hollywood. On the first day of rehearsals at the Cotton Club, Dorothy met Harold Nicholas, who with his brother, Fayard Nicholas made up the famous Nicholas Brothers dancing team. Dorothy was almost 16 and she was developing into a beautiful young woman. People would stop to stare at her beauty and Harold Nicholas was no exception. They began dating much to the dismay of Geneva, who kept the girls on a tight leash.

The Dandridge Sisters were a hit in The Cotton Club and the critics gave them glowing reviews. Their success earned them another exciting engagement - they would tour in Europe. Again, the girls received good reviews but their tour was cut short by the advent of World War II.
The girls returned to Hollywood, where ironically The Nicholas Brothers were filming Down Argentine Way. Dorothy and Harold resumed dating. The Dandridge Sisters played a few more engagements but they eventually split up due in part to Dorothy's increasing desire to have a solo career.
Dorothy had aspirations to succeed on her own and in the fall of 1940, her prospects looked promising. She landed a small but significant role in a low budget film called Four Shall Die. She then went on to small parts in Lady From Louisiana and Sundown. She was teamed with the Nicholas Brothers for a lively rendition of "Chattanooga Choo Choo" in the film Sun Valley Serenade. Dorothy wanted desperately to be a film actress but she adamantly refused to portray stereotypical black roles such as maids.
Both Dorothy and Vivian worked steadily on their own but they longed to break free from Ruby and Geneva. In 1942, both sisters married. It would be Vivian's first of many marriages but Dorothy dreamed of having a fairytale marriage that would last. On September 6, 1942, she married Harold Nicholas at the home of Harold's mother.
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The couple bought a beautiful house not far from Harold's mother. After a lifetime of non-stop hard work and striving to please others, Dorothy decided that she could be perfectly happy leading a quiet home life. She proved to be the 1940's image of the ideal wife - she was an excellent cook and their home was beautifully decorated and always immaculate. She was also a wonderful hostess and they often had small parties and dinners. Dorothy became very good friends with her sister-in-law, Geri Branton. Harold Nicholas, on the other hand, did not prove to be the ideal husband. He spend most of his free time on the golf course and eventually he started seeing other women. Dorothy blamed her lack of sexual experience for Harold's wanderings. When she became pregnant, she hoped that their child was keep Harold at home. A daughter, Lynn (short for Harolyn), was born on September 2, 1943.
Dorothy appeared in a brief scene in David O. Selznick's Since You Went Away and as a singer in Pillow to Post in 1944 but she mostly devoted her time to her daughter Lynn. By the time Lynn was two, however, Dorothy could not help but notice that Lynn was not acting normally. She was a very hyper child who cried incessantly. She was not learning to talk and worse, she acted as though she did not recognize those around her. Dorothy was determined to find out what was wrong with Lynn and took her to every doctor she could find. All of them could give her no answer except to say that Lynn was ******ed. Harold was often on the road touring and he did not offer much solace. Dorothy, with her marriage a shambles and a daughter who was getting out of control, began to see a therapist.
In 1949, Dorothy informed Harold that their marriage was over. Ruby and Geneva agreed to look after Lynn while Dorothy tried to re-establish her career. She still wanted to act in films but she realized that that possibility was slim. She did not relish the thought of returning to nightclubs, but felt that she had little other choice. She met with Phil Moore, an arranger she had worked with while in The Dandridge Sisters, and he was optimistic about working with her again.
Phil Moore helped Dorothy with her songs and image. The result was a smoldering and sexy Dorothy that left audiences mesmerized. Their act was booked in clubs throughout southern California and in Las Vegas. Dorothy hated doing the nightclubs, especially in Las Vegas where racism was almost as bad as in the south. She was only allowed to do her act and was forbidden to talk with patrons or use any of the hotel facilities such as the elevator, lobby, swimming pool or bath rooms. Her dressing room was often an office or a storage room.

The nightclub reviews were very good and gave her the much needed publicity that would help her get film work in Hollywood. She was offered the role of Melmendi in Tarzan's Peril in 1951. Dorothy first balked at playing a jungle queen but after reading the script she didn't think it was that bad. Next up, she played an athlete's girlfriend in the low budget but successful The Harlem Globetrotters.

She returned to the nightclub scene in May of 1951 and opened in Hollywood's top club, The Mocambo. This very successful appearance led to offers to appear in Paris (Cafe de Paris), New York (La Vie en Rose) as well as numerous guest television appearances. She was the first black woman to perform at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

Leading roles for black actors in Hollywood were very scarce so when Dorothy heard that an all black production of Carmen Jones was being planned, she knew this was the role she had dreamed of. Carmen Jones was an Americanized version of the Bizet opera with new lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein. The lead character, Carmen, is a sultry vixen whose independent inclinations to love her men and then leave them lead to her violent demise.

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The project was the mastermind of Austrian director Otto Preminger. Preminger was a director who liked to take risks and he was not afraid of controversy. The previous year, he had openly defied the Production Code by filming the controversial play The Moon Is Blue and he left the racy dialog intact. When the Production Board refused to give him a rating of approval, Preminger released the film without it. Preminger also could see that black actors were underused and not given the chance to show their full potential and he wanted to do something about it. Preminger also had a reputation of being a tyrant on the set and he was often brutal with his actors.

Dorothy arranged a meeting with Preminger to discuss Carmen Jones. He knew her from her work in Bright Road and when she came to his office, he was under the impression that she was interested in the part of Cindy Lou, the sweet demure girlfriend of Harry Belafonte at the start of the film. When Dorothy informed him that she was only interested in the role of Carmen, Preminger told her that she was not right for the part. Dorothy was furious but determined to change his mind. She bought a wig, a skirt and a low cut blouse that she wore off the shoulder. She met with Preminger again and he could not believe the transformation. He had found his Carmen.

Almost immediately, however, Dorothy had doubts about her own ability to play the part. This time it was Preminger's turn to convince her that she could do it. Dorothy cooked him his favorite dinner of cold steak and cucumbers and after dinner one thing lead to another. It would be the start of a long and troubled relationship.


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The filming of Carmen Jones progressed smoothly. Both Dorothy and Belafonte were disappointed to learn that their voices would be dubbed for the singing sequences. Carmen Jones was released in November of 1954 and it was a resounding success. Dorothy was all over the media. She appeared on the cover of the November 1, 1954 issue of Life, photographed as Carmen by Philippe Halsman. The next few months would be a whirlwind round of premieres, promotions and photo shoots. It was heavily rumored that she would receive an Academy Award nomination. She refused to listen to the gossip but when the nominations were announced in February of 1955, she read her name along with Audrey Hepburn, Jane Wyman, Judy Garland and Grace Kelly. Dorothy Dandridge was the first black woman to be nominated in the category of Best Actress. The buzz in Hollywood for the next month was that the winner would be either Dorothy or Judy Garland. But when the winner was announced in late March, the surprize winner was Grace Kelly for her role in The Country Girl.
Dorothy next attended the Cannes Film Festival with Preminger and then returned to the U.S. for more nightclub work as she awaited her next film offer. She did not have to wait long. She was wanted for the role of Tuptim in The King and I. Dorothy did not like the part which she considered nothing more than a slave and was further disappointed to see that it was not the leading role. Preminger advised her not to do it. She turned down the role but her decision would haunt her for the rest of her life. She later felt that her refusal to play Tuptim was the beginning of her downfall in Hollywood. The role was given to Rita Moreno and the film was a huge success.
Dorothy's success and fame changed her life tremendously. She bought a beautiful home overlooking Los Angeles and she continued to get lots of publicity. Not all of it was good. In 1957, the infamous tabloid Hollywood Confidential ran a story about an alleged one night stand between Dorothy and a bartender in Lake Tahoe. Dorothy sued them. Fame also affected Dorothy's personal life. She had not heard from her sister Vivian in over two years and she did not know where Vivan was living. She spoke to her mother every day. Ruby Dandridge was a successful character actress and was now living with another woman. Geneva had been shown the door a few years previously and when she came to Dorothy for financial help, she was refused. Dorothy would never forget her beatings from Geneva.
It seemed that Dorothy now moved in mostly white circles. Her relationship with Preminger would increasingly become strained due to the fact that he was married and they could not be seen in public together.

Dorothy found that white men were especially attracted to her and would go out with her but to most of them, marriage would be out of the question. Most all men, black or white, found Dorothy to be a fascinating woman. In addition to her beauty, she was very intelligent and a wonderful conversationist. She was particularly fascinated by psychology and was constantly reading books about the subject.

In 1959, Samuel Goldwyn announced that he would film George Gershwin's musical Porgy and Bess. The story was highly unpopular with blacks and when Harry Belafonte and Dorothy were approached to star in the lead roles, Belafonte flatly turned it down. He urged Dorothy to do the same. Dorothy did not want to do it but all she could think about was The King and I and the role that she had turned down. She was in a turmoil because here was a big budget Hollywood production. Her past two films (Tamango and The Decks Ran Red) had been low budget foreign productions and it looked as if Hollywood work was slowly eluding her. She reluctantly accepted but the entire shoot was to be an unhappy one. Director Reuben Mamoulain was replaced with none other than Otto Preminger. Their relationship was now over and Preminger was particularly harsh with Dorothy during the filming. His reprimands were often so cruel and embarrassing that she would rush from the set in tears.
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Sidney Poitier and Sammy Davis, Jr. were her co-stars in the film. Porgy and Bess was not as successful as Carmen Jones and the reviews were mediocre. Dorothy managed to rise above it all, however and won a Golden Globe Award for her performance.
Dorothy did not know it but her career would be downhill from here.
 
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BLACKS IN THE CIVIL WAR

Background

"Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship."
Frederick Douglass​
The issues of emancipation and military service were intertwined from the onset of the Civil War. News from Fort Sumter set off a rush by free black men to enlist in U.S. military units. They were turned away, however, because a Federal law dating from 1792 barred Negroes from bearing arms for the U.S. army (although they had served in the American Revolution and in the War of 1812). In Boston disappointed would-be volunteers met and passed a resolution requesting that the Government modify its laws to permit their enlistment.

The Lincoln administration wrestled with the idea of authorizing the recruitment of black troops, concerned that such a move would prompt the border states to secede. When Gen. John C. Frémont (photo citation: 111-B-3756) in Missouri and Gen. David Hunter in South Carolina issued proclamations that emancipated slaves in their military regions and permitted them to enlist, their superiors sternly revoked their orders. By mid-1862, however, the escalating number of former slaves (contrabands), the declining number of white volunteers, and the increasingly pressing personnel needs of the Union Army pushed the Government into reconsidering the ban.

As a result, on July 17, 1862, Congress passed the Second Confiscation and Militia Act, freeing slaves who had masters in the Confederate Army. Two days later, slavery was abolished in the territories of the United States, and on July 22 President Lincoln presented the preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet. After the Union Army turned back Lee's first invasion of the North at Antietam, MD, and the Emancipation Proclamation was subsequently announced, black recruitment was pursued in earnest. Volunteers from South Carolina, Tennessee, and Massachusetts filled the first authorized black regiments. Recruitment was slow until black leaders such as Frederick Douglass encouraged black men to become soldiers to ensure eventual full citizenship. (Two of Douglass's own sons contributed to the war effort.) Volunteers began to respond, and in May 1863 the Government established the Bureau of Colored Troops to manage the burgeoning numbers of black soldiers.

By the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 black men (10% of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died over the course of the war—30,000 of infection or disease. Black soldiers served in artillery and infantry and performed all noncombat support functions that sustain an army, as well. Black carpenters, chaplains, cooks, guards, laborers, nurses, scouts, spies, steamboat pilots, surgeons, and teamsters also contributed to the war cause. There were nearly 80 black commissioned officers. Black women, who could not formally join the Army, nonetheless served as nurses, spies, and scouts, the most famous being Harriet Tubman , who scouted for the 2d South Carolina Volunteers.
Because of prejudice against them, black units were not used in combat as extensively as they might have been. Nevertheless, the soldiers served with distinction in a number of battles. Black infantrymen fought gallantly at Milliken's Bend, LA; Port Hudson, LA; Petersburg, VA; and Nashville, TN.

The July 1863 assault on Fort Wagner, SC, in which the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers lost two-thirds of their officers and half of their troops, was memorably dramatized in the film Glory. By war's end, 16 black soldiers had been awarded the Medal of Honor for their valor.
In addition to the perils of war faced by all Civil War soldiers, black soldiers faced additional problems stemming from racial prejudice. Racial discrimination was prevalent even in the North, and discriminatory practices permeated the U.S. military. Segregated units were formed with black enlisted men and typically commanded by white officers and black noncommissioned officers. The 54th Massachusetts was commanded by Robert Shaw and the 1st South Carolina by Thomas Wentworth Higginson—both white. Black soldiers were initially paid $10 per month from which $3 was automatically deducted for clothing, resulting in a net pay of $7. In contrast, white soldiers received $13 per month from which no clothing allowance was drawn. In June 1864 Congress granted equal pay to the U.S. Colored Troops and made the action retroactive. Black soldiers received the same rations and supplies. In addition, they received comparable medical care.
The black troops, however, faced greater peril than white troops when captured by the Confederate Army. In 1863 the Confederate Congress threatened to punish severely officers of black troops and to enslave black soldiers. As a result, President Lincoln issued General Order 233, threatening reprisal on Confederate prisoners of war (POWs) for any mistreatment of black troops. Although the threat generally restrained the Confederates, black captives were typically treated more harshly than white captives. In perhaps the most heinous known example of abuse, Confederate soldiers shot to death black Union soldiers captured at the Fort Pillow, TN, engagement of 1864. Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest witnessed the massacre and did nothing to stop it.
The document featured with this article is a recruiting poster directed at black men during the Civil War. It refers to efforts by the Lincoln administration to provide equal pay for black soldiers and equal protection for black POWs. The original poster is located in the Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780's–1917, Record Group 94.
 
I wonder how many people would get upset if there was a White history month?
 
I wonder how many people would get upset if there was a White history month?

Probably no one would get angry. But I've always wondered, why is there only Black History Month? Why isn't there a White History Month, an Asian History Month, and a Hispanic History Month?
 
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JAMES WELDON JOHNSON

Early Years
Born James William Johnson in Jacksonville, Florida, on 17 June 1871 — he changed his middle name to Weldon in 1913 — the future teacher, poet, songwriter, and civil rights activist was the son of a headwaiter and the first female black public school teacher in Florida, both of whom had roots in Nassau, Bahamas. The second of three children, Johnson's interests in reading and music were encouraged by his parents. After graduating from the school where his mother taught, Johnson spent time with relatives in Nassau and in New York before continuing with his education.


College
While attending Atlanta University, from which he earned his A.B. in 1894, Johnson taught for two summers in rural Hampton, Georgia. There he experienced life among poor African Americans, from which he had been largely sheltered during his middle-class upbringing in Jacksonville. During the summer before his senior year he attended the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where, on "Colored People's Day," he listened to a speech by Frederick Douglass and heard poems read by Paul Laurence Dunbar, with whom he soon became friends.
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Bob Cole, James Weldon Johnson,
and John Rosamond Johnson


Educator and Songwriter
After graduating from Atlanta University, Johnson became the principal of the Jacksonville school where his mother had taught, improving education there by adding ninth and tenth grades. In 1895 he founded a newspaper, the Daily American, designed to educate Jacksonville's adult black community, but problems with finances forced it to shut down after only eight months. While still serving as a public school principal, Johnson studied law and became the first African American to pass the bar exam in Florida.
When Johnson's younger brother, John Rosamond, graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1897, the two began collaborating on a musical theater. Though there attempts to get their comic opera "Tolosa" produced in New York in 1899 were unsuccessful, Johnson's experiences there excited his creative energies. He soon began writing lyrics, for which his brother composed music, including "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which subsequently came to be known as the "Negro National Anthem." The Johnson brothers soon teamed up with Bob Cole to write songs. In 1902, Johnson resigned his post as principal in Jacksonville, and the two brothers moved to New York, where their partnership with Cole proved very successful.
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Grace Nail Johnson

Diplomat and Poet
Johnson, though, became dissatisfied with the racial stereotypes propagated by popular music and, in 1903, began taking graduate courses at Columbia University to expand his literary horizons. In 1906 he secured a consulship at Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, the position allowing him time to write poetry and work on a novel. In 1909 he was transferred to Corinto, Nicaragua, where a year later he married Grace Nail, the daughter of prosperous real estate developer from New York. While still in Nicaragua he finished his novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, which was published anonymously in 1912 in hopes that readers might think it a factual story.
Unable to secure a more desirable diplomatic post, Johnson resigned his consulship in 1913 and returned to the U.S. After a year in Jacksonville, he moved back to New York to become an editorial writer for the New York Age, in which capacity he was an ardent champion for equal rights. In 1917 he published his first collection of poetry, Fifty Years and Other Poems, the title poem having received considerable praise when it had first appeared in the New York Times.
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Caricature of Johnson
by Miguel Covarrubias

Activist and Anthologist
In 1916, Joel E. Spingarn offered Johnson the post of field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. An effective organizer, Johnson became general secretary of the NAACP in 1920. Though his duties prevented him from writing as much as he would have liked, Johnson found time to assemble three ground-breaking anthologies: The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922), The Book of American Negro Spirituals (1925), and The Second Book of Negro Spirituals (1926).



Johnson's second collection of poetry, God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse, appeared in 1927 and marks his last significant creative endeavor. His administrative duties for the NAACP were proving strenuous, and, after taking a leave of absence in 1929, he resigned as general secretary in 1930. During his final years he wrote a history of black life in New York that focuses on Harlem Renaissance entitled Black Manhattan (1930), his truly autobiographical Along This Way (1933), and Negro Americans, What Now? (1934), a book that argues for integration as the only viable solution to America's racial problems. Johnson died on 26 June 1938 near his summer home in Wiscasset, Maine, when the car in which he was driving was struck by a train. His funeral in Harlem was attended by more than 2000 people.
 
Probably no one would get angry. But I've always wondered, why is there only Black History Month? Why isn't there a White History Month, an Asian History Month, and a Hispanic History Month?
you might like this
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ROSA PARKS
Most historians date the beginning of the modern civil rights movement in the United States to December 1, 1955. That was the day when an unknown seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. This brave woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested and fined for violating a city ordinance, but her lonely act of defiance began a movement that ended legal segregation in America, and made her an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere.
Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama to James McCauley, a carpenter, and Leona McCauley, a teacher. At the age of two she moved to her grandparents' farm in Pine Level, Alabama with her mother and younger brother, Sylvester. At the age of 11 she enrolled in the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, a private school founded by liberal-minded women from the northern United States. The school's philosophy of self-worth was consistent with Leona McCauley's advice to "take advantage of the opportunities, no matter how few they were."

Opportunities were few indeed. "Back then," Mrs. Parks recalled in an interview, "we didn't have any civil rights. It was just a matter of survival, of existing from one day to the next. I remember going to sleep as a girl hearing the Klan ride at night and hearing a lynching and being afraid the house would burn down." In the same interview, she cited her lifelong acquaintance with fear as the reason for her relative fearlessness in deciding to appeal her conviction during the bus boycott. "I didn't have any special fear," she said. "It was more of a relief to know that I wasn't alone."
After attending Alabama State Teachers College, the young Rosa settled in Montgomery, with her husband, Raymond Parks. The couple joined the local chapter of the NAACP and worked quietly for many years to improve the lot of African-Americans in the segregated south.
"I worked on numerous cases with the NAACP," Mrs. Parks recalled, "but we did not get the publicity. There were cases of flogging, peonage, murder, and rape. We didn't seem to have too many successes. It was more a matter of trying to challenge the powers that be, and to let it be known that we did not wish to continue being second-class citizens."
The bus incident led to the formation of the Montgomery Improvement Association, led by the young pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The association called for a boycott of the city-owned bus company. The boycott lasted 382 days and brought Mrs. Parks, Dr. King, and their cause to the attention of the world. A Supreme Court Decision struck down the Montgomery ordinance under which Mrs. Parks had been fined, and outlawed racial segregation on public transportation.
In 1957, Mrs. Parks and her husband moved to Detroit, Michigan where Mrs. Parks served on the staff of U.S. Representative John Conyers. The Southern Christian Leadership Council established an annual Rosa Parks Freedom Award in her honor.
 
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Edward Alexander Bouchet

Bouchet was the first African American to graduate from Yale in 1874. He was also the first African American to be elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Yale and the first African American to earn a doctorate from an American university when he earned a Ph.D. in physics in 1876.
Following graduation from Yale, Bouchet taught chemistry and physics for 26 years at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia. He taught in high schools and colleges for much of the remainder of his career, serving as U.S. Inspector of Customs at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition from 1904-1905 and principal of Lincoln High School in Galipolis, Ohio from 1908-1913. Bouchet died at the age of 66 in 1918. He was buried in the family plot -- without a tombstone.
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Probably no one would get angry. But I've always wondered, why is there only Black History Month? Why isn't there a White History Month, an Asian History Month, and a Hispanic History Month?
It's not a history month per se, but November (or maybe it's October) is National Hispanic Month or something like that. White and Asian months, I don't know if they exist. I don't think there needs to be a White history month. Just open any history text book, it'll be filled with White people.
 
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DANIEL HALE WILLIAMS


Daniel Hale Williams was an African American physician who made history by performing the first successful open heart surgery operation.
Daniel Hale Williams was born in 1856 in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, the fifth of eight children. His father was a barber who died when Daniel was only nine. His mother was unable to provide for all the children on her own, so she moved the family to Baltimore, Maryland to stay with relatives. An apprenticeship with a shoemaker was found for Daniel; he remained there as a shoemaker's apprentice for three years while he was still a young child. As a teenager, he learned to cut hair and became a barber, living and working with a family who owned a barber shop in Janesville, Wisconsin.

In Janesville Daniel began to attend high school. He graduated from Hare's Classical Academy in 1877. While working as a barber, he met Dr. Henry Palmer, a leading surgeon, who became the Surgeon General of Wisconsin. Dr. Palmer took Daniel on as a medical apprentice; he had two other apprentices at the time. Dr. Palmer helped the three apprentices apply for admission to a top medical school, the Chicago Medical School, which was affiliated with Northwestern University. All three were accepted and began their studies in 1880. Dr. Daniel Hale Williams graduated with his medical degree in 1883.
Dr. Williams began to practice surgery and medicine at the South Side Dispensary. At the same time, he held a position at Northwest University, as an instructor of anatomy. He worked for a time as a medical doctor for the City Railway Company and for the Protestant Orphan Asylum. Dr. Williams's practice began to grow, as did his reputation as a skilled surgeon. In 1883, he was one of only four African American doctors in the Chicago area, yet he gained so much respect within the medical community that six years later, in 1889, he was appointed to the Illinois Board of Health.

Dr. Williams observed that African American patients were routinely subject to second-class medical care. Also, opportunities for most Black physicians were extremely limited, and it was difficult for African Americans to gain admission to medical and nursing schools because of institutionalized racism. Dr. Williams met a young woman, Emma Reynolds, who had been refused admission by every nursing school in the area. This prompted him to launch a new venture, the first African American owned hospital in the United States. It started as a twelve-bed facility, named Provident Hospital. At Provident Hospital, Dr. Williams also opened the first nursing school for African Americans, where Emma Reynolds and six others made up the first graduating class. Dr. Williams employed African American and White doctors at Provident Hospital, emphasizing the need to provide the best available care to everyone. He required that the doctors at Provident keep abreast of the latest advances in medicine.
Two years later, in 1893, a young man named James Cornish was rushed to Provident Hospital with a stab wound to the chest. Doctors at this time did not have X-ray machines, and the doctors at Provident were unsure what to do for Mr. Cornish. His condition began to deteriorate; his pulse was getting weaker and he started to go into shock, which are signs of internal bleeding. In the operating room, Dr. Williams made the decision to open up Cornish's chest and see what could be done before he bled to death internally. The surgical team found a pierced blood vessel and a tear to the pericardium tissue around the heart. Dr. Williams sutured both of these injuries to stop the bleeding. James Cornish survived the operation. Newspaper headlines reported: "Sewed Up His Heart! Remarkable Surgical Operation on a Colored Man!" Cornish recovered and lived another twenty years. It was the first successful open heart surgery ever performed.
Dr. Williams's medical career prospered and he became surgeon-in-chief at Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C.. He organized the hospital into specialized departments such as Medical, Surgical, Gynecological, Obstetrical, Dermatological, etc. He helped organize the National Medical Association, which at the time was the only medical organization open to African Americans. In 1898 he married Alice Johnson, a school teacher, and moved back to Chicago where he acted as chief of surgery at Provident, which had grown to be a much larger institution. He continued on to hold top positions in teaching and as head surgeon at another Chicago hospital. Dr. Williams was often invited to speak to doctor's associations around the country on the subject of health care for African Americans. He encouraged African American leaders to open hospitals in other cities where African American people would receive first rate care. He received numerous honors and was the first Black physician named as a Fellow in the American College of Surgeons. In 1926 he retired after suffering a stroke. Dr. Williams passed away in Idlewild, Michigan, in 1931, after a life of history-making accomplishments. http://www.communityanderson.com/diversity/images/pioneers_6.gif
 
BENJAMIN OLIVER DAVIS, SR.

BIOGRAPHY

THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN GENERAL OFFICER IN THE REGULAR ARMY AND IN THE U.S. ARMED FORCES


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Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., was born in Washington, D.C., on July 1, 1877. He entered the military service on July 13, 1898, during the War with Spain as a temporary first lieutenant of the 8th United States Volunteer Infantry. He was mustered out on March 6, 1899, and on June 18, 1899, he enlisted as a private in Troop I, 9th Cavalry, of the Regular Army. He then served as corporal and squadron sergeant major, and on February 2, 1901, he was commissioned a second lieutenant of Cavalry in the Regular Army.

PROMOTIONS

He was promoted to first lieutenant on March 30, 1905; to captain on December 24, 1915; to major (temporary) on August 5, 1917; and to lieutenant colonel (temporary) on May 1, 1918. He reverted to his permanent rank of captain on October 14, 1919, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on July 1, 1920; to colonel on February 18, 1930; to brigadier general (temporary) on October 25, 1940. He was retired on July 31, 1941, and recalled to active duty with the rank of brigadier general the following day.

SERVICE


His first service as a commissioned officer of the Regular Army was in the Philippine Islands with the 9th Cavalry on the Island of Samar. In August 1901 he was assigned to duty with the 2d Squadron, 10th Cavalry, and returned from the Philippines with that organization for service as Adjutant at Fort Washakie, Wyoming. In September 1905 he was made Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Wilberforce University, Ohio, remaining there until September 1909, when, after a brief tour of duty at Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, he was detailed as Military Attache to Monrovia, Liberia, until January 1912.

He then was assigned to duty with the 9th Cavalry at Fort D.A. Russell (predecessor of Fort Francis E. Warren), Wyoming, and at Douglas, Arizona. He remained with his regiment on border patrol duty until February 1915, when he again was assigned to duty as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Wilberforce University, Ohio. He remained there until the summer of 1917, when he went to the Philippines for duty as Supply Officer of the 9th Cavalry at Camp Stotsenburg. He returned to the United States in July 1920, and was assigned to duty as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, where he served until July 1924, when he became Instructor of the 372d Infantry, Ohio National Guard, stationed at Cleveland, Ohio.

In July 1929 he returned to Wilberforce University as Professor Military Science and Tactics serving until late 1930 when he was detailed on special duty with the Department of State in connection with affairs relating to the Republic of Liberia.

In late 1931 he was assigned again to serve as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Tuskegee, Alabama, where he remained until August 1937 when he was transferred to Wilberforce University.

During the summers of 1930 to 1933, he was placed on detached service for duty with the Pilgrimage of War Mothers and Widows, making frequent trips to Europe on behalf of that organization. For his work on this assignment he received letters of commendation from The Secretary of War and from The Quartermaster General.

In August 1937 he was transferred from Tuskegee Institute to Wilberforce University. After a year at that institution, he was assigned as instructor and Commanding Officer of the 369th Infantry, New York National Guard. This organization was later changed to the 369th Coast Artillery (Antiaircraft) Regiment. In January 1941 he was ordered to Fort Riley, Kansas, for duty as a brigade commander with the 2d Cavalry Division. The following June, he was assigned to Washington, D.C., for duty as Assistant to The Inspector General.

He was assigned to the European Theater of Operations in September 1942 on special duty as Advisor on Negro problems and upon completion of this special duty he returned to the United States and resumed his duties in the Inspector General's Department.

In November 1944 he became Special Assistant to the Commanding General, Communications Zone, European Theater of Operations, stationed in Paris, France, and in November 1945 was granted a period of detached service for the purposes of recuperation and rehabilitation. In January 1946 he again became Assistant, The Inspector General, Washington, D.C. He retired on 14 July 1948, after having served fifty years. General Davis died on November 26, 1970. His remains are interred in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. His son, Lieutenant General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., (U.S. Air Force, Retired), is the fourth African American graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and the nation's second African American general officer.

DECORATIONS AND HONORS


General Davis' U.S. military decorations consisted of the Bronze Star Medal and the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM). His DSM medal, awarded by General Order 10, dated 22 February 1945, stated that General Benjamin O. Davis was awarded the DSM "for exceptionally meritorious service to the Government in a duty of great responsibility from June 1941 to November 1944. The War Department release issued about General Davis' DSM on February 11, 1945 included the following citation:

For exceptionally meritorious service to the Government in a duty of great responsibility from June, 1941, to November, 1944, as an Inspector of troop units in the field, and as special War Department consultant on matters pertaining to Negro troops. The initiative, intelligence and sympathetic understanding displayed by him in conducting countless investigations concerning individual soldiers, troop units and other components of the War Department brought about a fair and equitable solution to many important problems which have since become the basis of far-reaching War Department policy. His wise advice and counsel have made a direct contribution to the maintenance of soldier morale and troop discipline and has been of material assistance to the War Department and to responsible commanders in the field of understanding personnel matters as they pertain to the individual soldier.

Additionally, General Davis was awarded an Honorary Degree of LL.D. from Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia. His foreign awards and honors consisted of the Croix de Guerre with Palm from France and the Grade of Commander of the Order of the Star of Africa from Liberia.
 
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Raven-Symone made her debut as little Olivia on The Cosby Show when she was only three years old. Now all grown up and 22 years old, she's still acting and stars in her own Disney Channel show, That's So Raven. Although she was very young when she was on the show, Raven says she still feels the impact of The Cosby Show every day.

"I actually read an e-mail the other day: 'Yeah, we watch That's So Raven, but I only know her as Olivia. I'll only know her as that.' I think that's fabulous. If I didn't have that, I don't think I'd be where I am today," she says.

Raven was a little too young at the time to understand the enormous impact the show had on the world—she says just loved seeing herself on TV. "And the story goes, I said, 'Mom, I want to do what Rudy does. I want to be with her.' So I was with her, and I was excited when I was a kid."

Raven's new movie—College Road Trip, starring Martin Lawrence and Donny Osmond—hits theaters March 7, and her latest CD, Raven-Symone, will be available in stores April 28. Raven also helps inspire kids to create their own meals and crafts on her website, ravensymonepresents.com.



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As the youngest Huxtable kid, Rudy, Keisha Knight Pulliam literally grew up on set and says that Bill was not only her boss, but also was like a father to her. "I definitely think he was the best combination of all of those," Keisha says. "He was definitely a father figure in that he led by example." As a boss, Bill set the standard for Keisha. "It was so wonderful for my first major experience to be so perfect in terms of he taught us so much about professionalism," she says. "You know, about the craft."

While the social significance of The Cosby Show is often talked about, Keisha says it wasn't until she went to Spelman College that she truly began to understand the importance of her days playing Rudy. "I was a sociology major with a concentration in film, and I'm sitting in a sociology class, and we're discussing us—The Cosby Show—and they're looking at me like the authority on the situation," she says. When Keisha saw the show in a textbook, she says she was shocked. "I'm, like, are you serious? This is crazy! I guess it really, really hit me, the magnitude, how deep it was, at that point."

When she's not acting on the sitcom Tyler Perry's House of Payne, Keisha says she's busy with plans to start her own acting studio in Atlanta.


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Sabrina Le Beauf played the oldest Huxtable kid, Sondra. It was her first big job after graduating from the Yale School of Drama. "You know, I had been struggling in New York as an actor, so you get a job and you're just happy to have a job," she says.

Like Keisha, it wasn't until much later in life that Sabrina realized the lasting impression The Cosby Show had on its viewers. "Even now, when they write you on MySpace or whatever, and they tell you that there's a whole other generation—that they're raising their children to watch The Cosby Show—and just how important it was to them growing up and how important they want it to be to their children."

After the show ended and Sabrina continued acting, she realized she had even more to be grateful for. "Another thing about our set that I didn't realize was unique to us was that Mr. Cosby made sure there were many people of color on staff—in the makeup room, directors, writers," Sabrina says. "And so therefore, when I left the show and went to do other shows and found out that that was not the rule in Hollywood, then I began to realize just again by example how lucky we were."

Since then, Sabrina has taken up interior design but is still acting. "I do a lot of original theater. I've actually worked right here in Chicago at the Goodman," she says.


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Even at a young age, Malcolm-Jamal Warner says he understood the importance of The Cosby Show and his role as Theo. When he was a child, Malcolm-Jamal says his father would make him read biographies on African-American activists like Richard Wright, Langston Hughes and Mary McLeod Bethune. "So being on the show, for me it was finally like, 'Wow, finally here's a television show that I can relate to as a viewer, one, but to be able to be a part of a show where people really cared about how people of color were being portrayed was like Nirvana," he says.

Malcolm-Jamal says one of the biggest criticisms The Cosby Show received was that black people didn't really live like the Huxtables. However, Malcolm-Jamal says their fans constantly proved the critics wrong. "Day in and day out, we were getting thousands of letters from young people saying, 'Thank you for the show because my father is a doctor. My mother is a lawyer. We really do live like that,'" he says.

"It was wonderful that the show forced black America and white America to finally recognize the black middle class," Malcolm-Jamal says.

Since The Cosby Show, Malcolm-Jamal has continued acting and added director, poet and musician to his list of talents. Currently, he can be seen in the film Fool's Gold with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. His jazz-funk band, Miles Long, is working on its third CD.


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Tempestt Bledsoe says Bill Cosby led by example.
Since both her parents were teachers, Tempestt Bledsoe said it was always a given that she would go to college one day. She figured that while the show was taping, she would have to go part-time. "We did a Monday to Thursday schedule, and I said, 'I'll take some classes on a Friday.' And once Mr. Cosby found out I was really serious and I was going to take these classes, he said, 'You take a full load, do whatever you need to do, and we'll schedule around you.'" So while still playing the role of Vanessa, Tempestt was able to get a degree in finance from NYU.

Tempestt says Bill taught the children on set by leading by example. "It wasn't like he was sitting us down and giving us a set of rules and [saying], 'You have to do this and you have to do that.' The strongest example you can give to any child is your behavior, what you do every day," she says.

Looking back, Tempestt says family and love are what stand out the most to her—especially the relationship between Cliff and Claire. "You know, the way he loved his wife," she says. "That's what struck me."

Tempestt has had a number of television roles since playing Vanessa. Currently, she's the voice of Riley on the Disney series The Replacements.
 
There shouldn't be any "Race" History Month.

But there iiis!:grin:

BENJAMIN OLIVER DAVIS, SR.

BIOGRAPHY

THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN GENERAL OFFICER IN THE REGULAR ARMY AND IN THE U.S. ARMED FORCES​

Is this who a 'Soldier's Story' is after, remember?
Howard Rollins, ect...
 
Douglas Wilder

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Lawrence Douglas Wilder was born on January 17, 1931, in Richmond, Virginia. The grandson of slaves, he was named after abolitionist-orator Frederick Douglass and poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Wilder attended Richmond's racially segregated public schools—George Mason Elementary and Armstrong High School. In 1951, he graduated from Virginia Union University with a degree in chemistry. He served in the army during the Korean War, during which he won the Bronze Star for heroism in combat. After the war, Wilder returned to Richmond and worked as a chemist in the state medical examiner's office. Using the benefits provided under the G.I. Bill of Rights, he studied law at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He received his degree in 1959 and after passing the bar in Virginia established his own law firm, Wilder, Gregory, and Associates.

In 1969, Wilder entered politics, running in a special election for the Virginia state senate. He won and became the first African American state senator in Virginia since Reconstruction. Wilder spent ten years in the General Assembly and was recognized as one of its most effective legislators.

In 1985, Wilder was elected lieutenant governor. Four years later, he ran for statewide office again, and, on January 13, 1990, L. Douglas Wilder became Virginia's sixty-sixth governor. He was the first elected African American governor in United States history. During his administration, Wilder was praised for his sound fiscal management and his ability to balance the state budget during difficult economic times. He sponsored new construction projects at many of Virginia's colleges and universities, mental health facilities, and state parks.

After promoting the idea of a popularly elected mayor for Richmond, Wilder was overwhelmingly elected to the post in November 2004.
 

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