July 2018 http://amazingblackhistory.com/ Newsletter
There are 2 recently published articles that will be featured in this edition of the newsletter. The first is that of Clara Brown. Born a slave, Clara Brown was given her freedom at the age of 56. She had been separated from her family whom she loved dearly. Despite the difficulties in her life, she was able to earn the respect of the people of Colorado and became known as “The Angel of the Rockies”.
To read this amazing story of a life of giving, click here. The Life of Clara Brown – Angel of the Rockies
The second article reflects on the great life of Clara Brown and the purpose of the site itself. We explore in greater detail the lessons learned from the life of Clara Brown. We grow when we take inspiration from what we as humans are capable of and there are few more inspiring examples than Clara Brown. To see some of life’s most amazing lessons that can inspire you, click Life Lessons from the life of Clara Brown .
This edition of http://amazingblackhistory.com/ takes a look at some interesting aspects of race and every day life. It looks at many aspects that are taken for granted. It looks at aspects that we find shocking when we learn about them.
Some of the issues and people that we will refer to in this edition follow:
Mamie “Peanut” Johnson – Female pitcher in the Negro Leagues
Walter White – Black man with European features, great grandson of William Henry Harrison, head of NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Researched lynchings in the South.
Racial Integrity Act of 1924 – Virginia Law defining race. Considers the Pocahontas Exemption, Reversed by Loving v Virginia.
Plessy v Ferguson – Supreme Court ruling that gave us “Separate but Equal”
Anna Arnold Hedgeman – Civil Rights Advocate and Executive Director of Harry Truman’s 1948 Presidential campaign
Drapetomania – Psychological disease of people who seek freedom, later debunked
Francis Lewis Cardozo – First Black elected to statewide office in South Carolina when he was elected Secretary of State in 1868
Alexander Lucius Twilight – Black educator, minister and politician. Believed to be the first Black to earn a Bachelor’s degree when he graduated from Middlebury College in 1823. Designed and built Athenian Hall, the first granite public building in Vermont.
Frederick McKinley Jones Black Entrepreneur, winner of the National Medal Technology and inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Inventor of the Refrigerated truck which revolutionized the food industry.
Reuben Shipley – Brought to Oregon with a promise of freedom. A look at shocking Oregon Laws
Dewey Gatson, also known as “Rajo Jack” or “Jack Desoto” was one of the first Black race car drivers. Competing mostly on the West coast, racing stock cars, midget cars, big cars and motorcycles
Let us take a look at Garrett Morgan, an amazing inventor. He invented the gas mask which has saved countless lives, but we find that he had many difficulties in gaining acceptance of this important invention.
Garrett Morgan was born March 4, 1877. He received only a 6th grade education, yet his inquisitive mind and entrepreneurial spirit served him well as he patented many discoveries that have been successful. We will look at one of those inventions, the gas mask.
In 1914 Garrett Morgan invented a breathing device that allowed people to enter hazardous environments safely. This device could be used by firemen and first responders to save lives. During periods of war, it could save soldiers exposed to hazardous atmospheres. This gas mask, sometimes called a “safety hood” was the prototype for the gas mask in common use today.
Morgan earned first prize at the Second International Exposition of Safety and Sanitation in New York City. Morgan personally worked to market the device and targeted fire departs.
In 1916, there was an explosion under Lake Erie as the City of Cleveland was working on a tunnel to supply fresh water to the city. A pocket of natural gas exploded, trapping workers underground in suffocating fumes and dust. First responders attempted to make rescue, but never came back because they too were overcome by the toxic atmosphere.
Morgan and his brother Frank responded, Garrett still in his pajamas. They used the hoods to enter the tunnel and make rescues.
They saved 2 lives and recovered 4 bodies before the rescue was shut down.
As surprising as it may be, the dramatic demonstration of the effectiveness of the device actually hurt sales when people learned that the inventor was Black. Morgan was nominated for the Carnegie Medal, but wasn’t chosen. To make matters worse, the photographs which allowed people to see that the inventor was Black named others as the rescuers, not Morgan and his brother Frank.
Despite the effectiveness of the device, Morgan faced resistance, particularly in the South, not because of difficulties with the device, but the color of his skin. To combat the resistance, he hired a White actor to pose as the inventor. Morgan himself would then pose as the inventor’s assistant, disguised as a Native American named “Big Chief Mason” he would enter unsafe environments wearing the hood and emerge unharmed. He sometimes posed as a Portuguese person with some success. Anything except a Black man worked.
Mamie Johnson:
Mamie “Peanut” Johnson was a picture of determination and was recognized for her accomplishments by being invited to the White House in 2013 at a ceremony to honor the Negro Leagues.
Born September 27, 1935 in Ridgeway, South Carolina. Johnson developed a love of baseball and played with passion. Her love was for baseball over softball and she played as often as possible. She honed her skills throwing at birds on the family farm.
She played with the boys and often was the only female on all male teams. This was during a time where it was a crime to compete in any contest between the races. Penalties could include fines and jail. When her mother moved to Washington, D. C. to find work, Mamie lived with relatives in New Jersey before moving to Washington.
She and a friend went to try out for the All Girl team featured in the movie “A League of their Own”, although the major league had been integrated, the League of their Own was not. It is believed that the scene where the ball is thrown back to the team is based on her presence at tryouts.
While it seems like the snub by the all-White girls’ team may have been a bad thing, it allowed her to be available for greater recognition playing in the Negro Leagues. Remember that what appears to be a set back may be a set up. A set up for greater success!
Scouts watched her play and offered her a serious job with the Indianapolis Clowns. While the name sounds funny, there was nothing about her play that was anything but serious. She earned the nickname “Peanut” because of her small size, 5’3” and 115 pounds. As a pitcher, she had a record of 33 wins and 8 losses, playing against the best players of the Negro Leagues.
Her career in baseball was short as she left the game at the age of 20, earned her nursing degree, and worked in her souvenir shop dedicated to baseball.
Johnson appeared at the White House for the first time in 2009. She was also a guest lecturer at a library of Congress symposium.
In 2012, she met Mo’ne Davis a Black female pitcher from Philadelphia who pitched her team to the Little League World Series in 2014.
There is a baseball field in Northeast Washington at the Rosedale Recreation Center named in her honor in 2013.
Mamie “Peanut” Johnson pursued her passion with gusto and earned recognition because of it, demonstrating that you too can overcome the naysayers and reach your highest dreams!
Walter White:
Walter Francis White was born July 1, 1893 to George W. White and Madeline Harrison White. Both were born slaves.
Madeline was the grand daughter of Dilsia a slave and her master William Henry Harrison. Dilsia and William Henry Harrison had 6 children. Madeline was the daughter of Marie Harrison, one of Dilsia and William Henry Harrison’s children. Therefore, Walter Francis White was the great grand son of the 9th president of the United States, William Henry Harrison.
All members of his immediate family had fair skin, and his mother, Madeline, was also blue-eyed with blond hair. Walter White had African and European ancestry on both sides of his family. To quote him in his autobiography “A Man Called White” “I am a Negro. My skin is white, my eyes blue, my hair blond. The traits of my race are nowhere visible upon me.”
White was head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and because of his appearance, he was able to investigate many of the Lynchings that were so prevalent in the United States, primarily in the South. That is until it was discovered, his real race and mission.
Many people who had the characteristics of Europeans would often move to another location and “pass” for White. It is suspected that these people would often be the most vocal and racist in order to take the attention that might expose them and their “secret” and focus it away from themselves.
The story of Walter White brings into focus the law and definition of race:
There are states that define being Black as having as little as 1/32 Negro blood. Let us look at this. Having one Black parent makes a person ½ Black (Mulatto). Having one grand parent makes a person ¼ or (Quadroon). One great grand parent makes a person 1/8 (Octaroon). One great great grand parent makes a person 1/16 Black. One great great great grand parent makes a person 1/32. Few people know all of their ancestors to this degree.
There are other laws that indicate one drop of Black blood makes a person Black. A recent estimate shows that in excess of 3% of all “White” people have at least 1% of direct African heritage.
There were laws passed such as “The Racial Integrity Act” in 1924 covering the State of Virginia. This law required a racial description of every person and divided society into only 2 classifications. There was White and Colored, which was basically anybody except White. It included Native Americans. This law also put forth the “One Drop” rule. The law covered the marriage between White and Nonwhite people. The law expanded the anti-miscegenation law and criminalized all marriages between White and Nonwhite persons.
There was an exception to the Racial Purity Law. While the law stated that people were to be divided into 2 categories, one White, one Colored with all people who were not White included into the 2nd category. Many of the influential first families proudly claimed to have Pocahontas as an ancestor. The law therefore exempted those people from being classified according to the law and allowed them to consider themselves White.
This law was overturned by the Loving v Virginia ruling by the United States Supreme Court in 1967.
Plessy v Ferguson:
Louisiana’s Separate Car Act of 1890 required separate accommodations for Black, Creole and White residents. Homer Plessy participated in a fight to overcome the effects of the law. Plessy was a free person of mixed heritage, 7/8 European and 1/8 African. Under law, Plessy was defined as “Colored” and this required him to sit in the “Colored” car on the streetcar. Plessy’s hair was straight, his complexion extremely light, so much so that a person had to ask to determine his race.
Even the railroad has opposed the law because it would require the purchase of additional rail cars and require conductors to make the determination of race. When Plessy refused to move, he was arrested.
The United States Supreme Court decision gave rise to “Separate but Equal”. Separate but Equal was always meant separate, but seldom equal. This gave rise to segregated schools, restaurants and even medical facilities. Countless people of color have died or been permanently disabled because of being refused medical treatment at public hospitals by doctors sworn to the Hippocratic Oath “First do no harm”. Countless people have a limited education because of disparate funding of facilities, faculty and offerings. In many cases the ratio of money spent on students was as much as 10 to 1.
Portions of Plessy were overturned by Brown v Board (to be discussed in detail in a later edition of amazingblackhistory.com). We have explored some of the seldom discussed facts that affect everyday life of Black people in this country. Let’s take a look at some other people who may be of interest.
Anna Arnold Hedgeman:
Anna Arnold Hedgeman was a Black civil rights leader, politician, educator and writer. She was the executive director of Harry Truman’s 1948 presidential campaign. She served in the Health, Education, and Welfare Department during the Truman administration.
Drapetomania:
Drapetomania was considered a mental illness. Put forth in 1851 by physician Samuel A Cartwright, it was considered a mental illness to seek freedom, thus Blacks seeking freedom were classified as suffering a mental defect. It is unclear how that affected Whites who were free. Since that time, it has been declared as pseudoscience and classed as scientific racism.
Francis Lewis Cardozo:
Francis Lewis Cardozo was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1836 to Lydia Weston and Isaac Cardozo a Spaniard. State law prevented them from being married and they lived in a common-law marriage. He attended the only school in the City of Charleston that would admit Blacks. Cardozo worked as a carpenter and shipbuilder in his youth.
He was a clergyman, educator and politician. He attended the University of Glasgow in Scotland, and seminaries in Edinburgh and London before being ordained a Presbyterian Minister. He served as pastor of Temple Street Congregational Church in New Haven, Connecticut.
In 1865, Cardozo returned to Charleston to become superintendent of the American Missionary Association school, which he developed into the Avery Norman Institute, one of the first secondary schools for Blacks. Avery was established to train teachers. In recent years, Avery Institute has been incorporated as part of the College of Charleston.
In 1868, he was elected Secretary of State in South Carolina, becoming the first Black to hold a statewide office in South Carolina. He was elected State Treasurer in 1872 and reelected in 1874 and 1876.
In 1876 South Carolina elections became increasingly violent to suppress Black voting. As a result, White Democrats regained control of state government. Rutherford B Hayes became president by election of the Electoral College with the promise to remove federal troops from the South.
Democrats prosecuted Cardozo for conspiracy. Despite questionable evidence, he was found guilty and served 6 months in jail. After the federal government dropped electoral fraud against Democrats, Cardozo was pardoned in 1879.
Alexander Lucius Twilight
Alexander Lucius Twilight was born in 1795 and was an educator, minister and politician. He is believed to be the first Black known to have earned a bachelor’s degree, graduating from Middlebury College in 1823.
In 1829, he became principal of the Orleans County Grammar School. While there, he designed and built Athenian Hall. Athenian Hall was the first granite public building in the state. It is now often referred to as the Old Stone House. It is now a museum run by the Orleans County Historical Society in Brownington, Vermont.
In 1836 he became the first Black elected as a state legislator before the Civil War.
Athenian Hall or The Old Stone House is part of the Brownington Village Historic District. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Frederick McKinley Jones:
Frederick McKinley Jones is truly one of the game changers of our time. A Black entrepreneur, he has won the National Medal of Technology, been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. One of his innovations in refrigeration brought tremendous improvement to the transportation of perishable goods in the country, notably refrigerated trucks and other modes of transportation, such as trains.
Jones left school after the 6th grade but had a craving for knowledge. By the age of 14, he was working as an automobile mechanic. He continued to hone his skills with self-study and the search for advancement. He went against the odds and won.
After service with the U.S. Army in WWI, he taught himself electronics and built a radio transmitter that served the town where he was living.
Sometime around 1938 me designed and built an air-cooling unit for trucks carrying perishable food. He got a patent for this unit in ne1940. Portable units designed by Jones had a large role during WWII preserving blood, medicine and food for use in hospitals and on the battlefields.
Today, a significant quantity of our food and other supplies are transported to us in refrigerated trucks and trains, thanks to the innovations of Frederick McKinley Jones.
Jones co founded the well-known Thermo King company.
Reuben Shipley:
Reuben Shipley was brought to Oregon on a promise that he would be given his freedom in exchange for helping his White owner. While this seems a simple situation with a simple answer, there is more to the story. Freedom is precious and highly desirable. We often take it for granted today, but to the slave who cherished it, it was often more complicated.
In Shipley’s case, he would have to leave his wife and two sons behind because they were owned other slave owners. If he chose to remain in Missouri, he would only be sold to another slave owner, denying his freedom and further separating him from his beloved family.
To show the magnitude of the decision, there were 2 other slaves, both women, given the same options, but chose to remain in Missouri, close to their families.
Reuben Shipley chose to go to Oregon and once free he would earn enough money to buy his family’s freedom and move them to Oregon.
Despite the promise of freedom, despite the 6 month trip that covered 2,000 miles, despite fulfilling his part of the promise, he never saw his family again!
As we look at the case of Reuben Shipley, we find other interesting facts that go against what we have been led to believe.
Many of Oregon’s early leaders were pro slavery. Oregon was the only free state with an exclusion clause against Blacks in its constitution, a clause not repealed until 1926.
There have been 3 exclusion laws in Oregon’s history. The first provided a severe whipping of any free Black who refused to leave the state. This was to be no less than 20, nor more than 30 stripes on his or her bare back. This was to be administered by the constable of the proper county.
On the matter of slavery, Oregon approved the 13th amendment which banned slavery. They approved the 14th amendment granting citizenship and equal rights to Blacks. Oregon rescinded ratification and did not re-ratify it until 1973. Oregon did not ratify the 15th amendment which gave Blacks the right to vote until 1959.
While we may express concern for Oregon and the 15th amendment, remember that Mississippi did not ratify the 13th amendment granting freedom to slaves until 2013.
Dewey Gatson;
Dewey Gatson, also known as “Rajo Jack” or “Jack Desoto” was one of the first Black race car drivers. Competing mostly on the West coast, racing stock cars, midget cars, big cars and motorcycles. He was inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2003 and the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2007.
A skilled mechanic, in 1939, Gatson was working on his engine when he got the opportunity to race, but the engine was being torn down to repair the main bearings. The race was 400 miles away and the time for repair was short. He put the car on a truck, took the parts and had his wife drive the truck. He put the engine together while on the road and qualified 3rd during the qualifying race and 2nd in the actual race.
In order to avoid some of the racism Gatson would avoid being in pictures. Because of his skill, he was respected by other drivers. Drivers would often drive between races in caravans. When one restaurant owner refused service to Gatson, the other drivers banded together, saying that they would all be served or none of them. The owner relented, and all were served. This scene had to be repeated at motels. Many people take for granted that Blacks received service at most places, but this was a common occurrence for most Blacks in earlier days.
In order to be allowed to race, Gatson often had to claim that he was Portuguese or Native American, anything except Black.
Gatson’s wife Ruth would go with him to all the races because she would be the trophy girl’s job in case he would win. She would give him the trophy and a kiss.
We have taken a look at some little discussed aspects of racism; however, the intent of the site is to spur meaningful discussion and interest in subjects seldom discussed. To the readers, we hope that in addition to an interest in people, you will develop an interest in other subjects as well, such as the field of study or work of the person involved. The location, the circumstances and a multitude of other passions. Learn that you can pursue your interests and passions!
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Books – Clara Brown
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Books to further your education on subjects featured in this edition:
Garrett Morgan
Mamie “Peanut” Johnson – One of only 3 women to play in the Negro Leagues
The autobiography of Walter Francis White – A Man Called White
Plessy v Ferguson – the Supreme Court Decision that gave us “Separate but Equal” the law that shaped the racial climate of America
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Anna Arnold Hedgeman – Executive Director of Harry Truman’s 1948 Presidential Campaign
Francis Lewis Cardozo – Photo, not a book
While not a book, here are two portraits of Francis Lewis Cardozo
Alexander Lucius Twilight
Frederick McKinley Jones – Inventor of the refrigerated truck
The following book covers Frederick McKinley Jones, but talk about other inventors as well
You may find value in the following offerings