Janet Cheatham Bell's offering of African Americans in history who are seldom noticed. People like Meta Warrick Fuller, Lena Walker, William Grant Still, John Brown, the Society of Friends.

1. BLACK HIGHLIGHTS OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
JANET CHEATHAM BELL FEBRUARY 2011

2. Do you know what part these
people and events played in
African American history?
Carter G. Woodson
Society of Friends (Quakers)
Oberlin College
Mason-Dixon Line
Harpers Ferry, W. Va
Historically Black Colleges
and Universities

3. CARTER G. WOODSON
1875-1950
• Worked in Kentucky
coal mines and
didn’t attend high
school until age 20
• B.A. University of
Chicago, 1907; Ph.D.
Harvard, 1912
• founded Association
for the Study of Negro
Life & History, 1915
• Established Negro
History Week, 1926

4. CARTER G. WOODSON
1875-1950
• Worked in Kentucky
coal mines and
didn’t attend high
school until age 20
• B.A. University of
Chicago, 1907; Ph.D.
Harvard, 1912
• founded Association
for the Study of Negro
Life & History, 1915
• Established Negro
History Week, 1926

5. CARTER G. WOODSON
1875-1950
• Worked in Kentucky
coal mines and
didn’t attend high
school until age 20
• B.A. University of
Chicago, 1907; Ph.D.
Harvard, 1912
• founded Association
for the Study of Negro
Life & History, 1915
• Established Negro
History Week, 1926

6. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF
FRIENDS
QUAKERS

7. QUAKER BELIEFS & PRACTICES
• all humans equal • 1688 took first public
before God stand against
slavery beginning
• equality makes the abolitionist (those
opposed to slavery)
peoples' ranks and movement
titles unimportant • 1787 organized and
• enslaving another operated the
human is horrific Underground
Railroad
• system of slavery • did not participate
should be in violence and war
undermined

8. QUAKER BELIEFS & PRACTICES
• all humans equal
before God
• equality makes
peoples' ranks and
titles unimportant
• enslaving another
human is horrific
• system of slavery
should be
undermined

9. QUAKER BELIEFS & PRACTICES
• 1688 took first public
stand against
slavery beginning
the abolitionist
movement
• 1787 organized and
operated the
Underground
• Isaac Hopper initiated
Railroad
efforts in Philadelphia to • did not participate
form Underground Railroad in violence and war

10. OTHER ABOLITIONISTS

11. OBERLIN COLLEGE
OHIO
• Founded • first college to admit
• 1833 non-whites in 1835
• first college to
• graduate women in
1841
• a major stop on the
Underground
• Asa Mahan, Railroad
abolitionist, social
reformer, first
president of Oberlin

12. OBERLIN COLLEGE
OHIO
• Founded • first college to admit
• 1833 non-whites in 1835
• first college to
• graduate women in
1841
• a major stop on the
Underground Railroad
• Asa Mahan,
abolitionist, social
reformer, first
president of Oberlin

13. MISSOURI COMPROMISE
1820

14. HARPERS FERRY, W. VA

15. JOHN BROWN
1800-1859
• Raided Harpers Ferry
to seize weapons and
engage in guerilla
warfare to end
slavery, 1859
• Tried and hanged for
treason and
conspiring with slaves
• Trial focused country
on slavery

16. JOHN BROWN
1800-1859
• Raided Harpers Ferry
to seize weapons and
engage in guerilla
warfare to end
slavery, 1859
• Tried and hanged for
treason and
conspiring with slaves
• Trial focused country
on slavery

17. JOHN BROWN
1800-1859
• Raided Harpers Ferry
to seize weapons and
engage in guerilla
warfare to end
slavery, 1859
• Tried and hanged for
treason and
conspiring with slaves
• Trial focused country
on slavery

18. The year after Brown was
executed Abraham Lincoln was
nominated by the Republican
Party to be President of the
United States. His election in
1860 led to the South's secession
from the Union and began the
Civil War which lasted from
1861-1865.

19. In 1865,
after 246 years,
and the
loss of 620,000 lives,
slavery was abolished.

20. “American slavery was a
human horror of
staggering dimensions.
Julian Bond, professor, Department of History,
University of Virginia; former national chair,
NAACP, graduate of Morehouse College
(HBCU)

21. “It lasted twenty times
longer than the Nazi
holocaust,
Julian Bond, professor, Department of History,
University of Virginia; former national chair,
NAACP, graduate of Morehouse College
(HBCU)

22. “killed ten times as many
people,
Julian Bond, professor, Department of History,
University of Virginia; former national chair,
NAACP, graduate of Morehouse College
(HBCU)

23. “and destroyed cultures
on three continents.
Julian Bond, professor, Department of History,
University of Virginia; former national chair,
NAACP, graduate of Morehouse College
(HBCU)

24. “The profits it produced
endowed great fortunes
and enriched
generations.”
Julian Bond, professor, Department of History,
University of Virginia; former national chair,
NAACP, graduate of Morehouse College
(HBCU)

25. AFTER THE CIVIL WAR
HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES (HBCU)

26. HISTORICALLY BLACK
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
• Alabama Agricultural • Delaware State
and Mechanical University, 1891
University, 1875 • Fisk University, 1866
• Bennett College, (Tennessee)
1873, 1926 (North • Hampton University,
Carolina) 1861, 1863 (Virginia)
• Central State • Howard University,
University, 1856, 1947 1867 (DC)
(Ohio) • Morehouse College,
• Cheyney University, 1867 (Georgia)
1837 (Pennsylvania)

27. HISTORICALLY BLACK
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
• Alabama Agricultural • Delaware State
and Mechanical University, 1891
University, 1875 • Fisk University, 1866
• Bennett College, (Tennessee)
1873, 1926 (North • Hampton University,
Carolina) 1861, 1863 (Virginia)
• Central State • Howard University,
University, 1856, 1947 1867 (DC)
(Ohio) • Morehouse College,
• Cheyney University, 1867 (Georgia)
1837 (Pennsylvania)

28. HISTORICALLY BLACK
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
• Alabama Agricultural • Delaware State
and Mechanical University, 1891
University, 1875 • Fisk University, 1866
• Bennett College, (Tennessee)
1873, 1926 (North • Hampton University,
Carolina) 1861, 1863 (Virginia)
• Central State • Howard University,
University, 1856, 1947 1867 (DC)
(Ohio) • Morehouse College,
• Cheyney University, 1867 (Georgia)
1837 (Pennsylvania)

29. HISTORICALLY BLACK
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
• Alabama Agricultural • Delaware State
and Mechanical University, 1891
University, 1875 • Fisk University, 1866
• Bennett College, (Tennessee)
1873, 1926 (North • Hampton University,
Carolina) 1861, 1863 (Virginia)
• Central State • Howard University,
University, 1856, 1947 1867 (DC)
(Ohio) • Morehouse College,
• Cheyney University, 1867 (Georgia)
1837 (Pennsylvania)

30. HISTORICALLY BLACK
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
• Alabama Agricultural • Delaware State
and Mechanical University, 1891
University, 1875 • Fisk University, 1866
• Bennett College, (Tennessee)
1873, 1926 (North • Hampton University,
Carolina) 1861, 1863 (Virginia)
• Central State • Howard University,
University, 1856, 1947 1867 (DC)
(Ohio) • Morehouse College,
• Cheyney University, 1867 (Georgia)
1837 (Pennsylvania)

31. HISTORICALLY BLACK
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
• Alabama Agricultural • Delaware State
and Mechanical University, 1891
University, 1875 • Fisk University, 1866
• Bennett College, (Tennessee)
1873, 1926 (North • Hampton University,
Carolina) 1861, 1863 (Virginia)
• Central State • Howard University,
University, 1856, 1947 1867 (DC)
(Ohio) • Morehouse College,
• Cheyney University, 1867 (Georgia)
1837 (Pennsylvania)

32. HISTORICALLY BLACK
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
• Alabama Agricultural • Delaware State
and Mechanical University, 1891
University, 1875 • Fisk University, 1866
• Bennett College, (Tennessee)
1873, 1926 (North • Hampton University,
Carolina) 1861, 1863 (Virginia)
• Central State • Howard University,
University, 1856, 1947 1867 (DC)
(Ohio) • Morehouse College,
• Cheyney University, 1867 (Georgia)
1837 (Pennsylvania)

33. HISTORICALLY BLACK
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
• Alabama Agricultural • Delaware State
and Mechanical University, 1891
University, 1875 • Fisk University, 1866
• Bennett College, (Tennessee)
1873, 1926 (North • Hampton University,
Carolina) 1861, 1863 (Virginia)
• Central State • Howard University,
University, 1856, 1947 1867 (DC)
(Ohio) • Morehouse College,
• Cheyney University, 1867 (Georgia)
1837 (Pennsylvania)

34. THE END
TOMORROW: THE INNOVATORS

35. INNOVATORS
T H O S E WH O H A D N O R O L E M O D E L S

36. BENJAMIN BANNEKER
1731-1806
• Astronomer, surveyor,
mathematician
• 1783 completed
carving of America’s
first clock which
worked for 20 years
• Wrote to Thomas
Jefferson in 1791
challenging his claim
that blacks could not
understand Euclid

37. LEWIS LATIMER
1848–1928
• Patented an improved
toilet system for railroad
cars in 1874
• Drew the blueprints for
Alexander Graham
Bell’s first telephone in
1876
• Patented the carbon
filament, an important
part of the light bulb —
while working with
Thomas Edison in 1884

38. LEWIS LATIMER
1848–1928
• Patented an improved
toilet system for railroad
cars in 1874
• Drew the blueprints for
Alexander Graham
Bell’s first telephone in
1876
• Patented the carbon
filament, an important
part of the light bulb —
while working with
Thomas Edison in 1884

39. DANIEL HALE WILLIAMS
1856-1931
• Graduated
Chicago Medical
College, 1883
• Founded Provident
Hospital, 1891
• First physician to
successfully perform
open heart surgery,
1893

40. IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT
1862-1931
• Rust College (HBCU)
• Sued Chesapeake &
Ohio R.R. for
discrimination, 1884.
• Journalist who owned
her own newspaper
in Memphis and
Chicago
• Fearless crusader
against lynching
• A founder of the
NAACP

41. “I felt that one had
better die fighting
against injustice than to
die like a dog or a rat in
a trap. I had already
determined to sell my life
as dearly as possible if
attacked.”
Ida B. Wells

42. MADAM C. J. WALKER
1867-1919
• Entrepreneur and
America’s first
female self-made
millionaire
• Founded a national
hair-care business

43. “There is no royal flower-
strewn path to success. And
if there is, I have not found it
for if I have accomplished
anything in life it is because I
have been willing to work
hard.”
Madam Walker

44. MAGGIE LENA WALKER
1867-1934
• First woman to
charter a bank in the
U.S., St. Luke’s Penny
Savings Bank, 1902
• First woman bank
president
• Obtained her skill with
money as leader of
the Independent
Order of St. Luke
burial society in
Richmond, VA

45. CHARLES DREW
1904-1950
Received an athletic
scholarship to Amherst
College in MA
M.D., McGill University
(Montreal), 1933
Ph.D., Columbia
University, 1940
Researched blood
transfusions and
developed blood
plasma and blood
banks

46. REGINALD LEWIS
1942-1993
• Economics degree
Virginia State U., 1965
(HBCU)
• Law degree Harvard
University, 1968
• Purchased Beatrice
International Foods in
a $985 million LBO,
1987
• Activist and
philanthropist

47. THE END

48. THE ARTISTS

49. IRA ALDRIDGE
1807-1867
• Distinguished
Shakespearean actor
from New York.
• Performed in top
theaters in Europe and
England where he
received many honors.
• One of 33 actors of the
English stage honored
with bronze plaques at
the Shakespeare
Memorial Theatre at
Stratford-on-Avon

50. “I will live down the
prejudice, I will crush it
out. I will show to the
world that a man may
spring from a race of
slaves, and yet far excel
many of the boasted
ruling race.”
Charles W. Chesnutt, 1878

51. CHARLES WADDELL CHESNUTT
1858-1932
• Novelist, short story
writer, public
intellectual whose
work exposed
American hypocrisy
• The Conjure Woman
(short stories)
published in 1899 was
followed by novels:
The House Behind the
Cedars and The
Marrow of Tradition in
1900 and 1901.

52. META WARRICK FULLER
1877-1968
• Pennsylvania
Museum and School
of Industrial Art, 1898
• Prize-winning student
• First artist to celebrate
Afro-centric themes
• Studied in Paris as a
protégé of Rodin

53. Two of Fuller’s sculptures

54. WILLIAM GRANT STILL
1895-1978
• Studied at Wilberforce
University (HBCU) and
Oberlin College
• Classical composer
who played several
instruments.
• First black to have his
symphony performed
by a major orchestra.
• First black to conduct a
major symphony
orchestra in Los
Angeles, 1936

55. TROUBLED ISLAND BY
WILLIAM GRANT STILL
• This grand opera • The New York City
was the first by a Opera Company
received 22 curtain
black to be
calls on opening night,
performed by a
but it was never
major opera
performed again.
company in 1949.

56. RICHARD WRIGHT
1908-1960
• His novel, Native Son
(1940), first bestselling
book by black writer
and first selected by
the Book-of-the-
Month Club. It was
also adapted for
stage and film.
• Black Boy (1945), his
autobiography, also
a bestseller and
BOMC selection

57. GORDON PARKS, SR.
1912-2006
• Self-taught
photographer, poet,
composer, filmmaker,
writer
• First black photo-
grapher at Life
magazine, 1948-1972
• First black to produce
and direct a major
Hollywood film, The
Learning Tree, 1969

58. American Gothic
as interpreted by
Gordon Parks

59. GWENDOLYN BROOKS
1917-2000
• Poet Laureate of Illinois,
1968-2000; Poetry
Consultant to the
Library of Congress,
1985-86
• Recipient of many
poetry grants and
awards including a
Guggenheim, and in
1950, the first Pulitzer
Prize awarded to an
African American for
her collection of
poetry, Annie Allen.

60. THE END
TOMORROW: ADVOCATES AND POLITICIANS

61. ADVOCATES & POLITICIANS

62. RICHARD ALLEN
1760-1831
• Worked at night to save
money and purchased
his freedom in 1783
• Created the Free African
Society and negotiated
purchase of property in
1787on which first church
was built. Current church
is on that same land.
• Established the African
Methodist Episcopal
Church in 1816, first
independent black
institution in America
• Allen became first bishop

63. ELIZABETH KECKLEY
1818-1907
• Moved to nation’s
capital and became
Mrs. Lincoln’s
seamstress and
confidante
• Author of Behind the
Scenes: 30 Years a
Slave and 4 Years in the
White House, 1868
• Founder and president
of the Contraband
Relief Association, 1862

64. HIRAM R. REVELS
1822-1901
• First person of African
descent elected to
the U.S. Senate (R)
from Mississippi, 1870
• Nominated a black
to attend West Point,
but he was refused
admission.
• Left Senate to
become President of
Alcorn State
University (HBCU) in
1871.

65. MARY WHITE OVINGTON
1865-1951
• Suffragette, socialist,
journalist, author
• Liaison between the
(all-white) National
Negro Committee
and the (all-black)
Niagara Movement
that merged to form
the NAACP
• First Executive
Secretary of the
NAACP, 1910

66. ELLA BAKER
1903-1986
• Graduate of Shaw
University (HBCU)
• Field Secretary for the
NAACP, 1940-1947
• Founder of and advisor
to SNCC (Student Non
Violent Coordinating
Committee), 1960
• SNCC initiated student
sit-ins and Freedom
Rides that
desegregated lunch
counters and interstate
bus travel

67. FANNIE LOU HAMER
1917-1977
• Voting rights activist
• Helped to organize
Mississippi Freedom
Summer for SNCC
• Vice-Chair of the
Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party
• Spoke at 1964
Democratic Nat’l
Convention

68. CARL STOKES
1927-1996
• First African American
elected mayor of a major
city, Cleveland,1967-1971
• Only politician to publicly
support Muhammad Ali’s
refusal to be drafted
• First black anchorman in
NYC on WNBC-TV, 1972
• Cleveland municipal
judge, 1983-1994
• Ambassador to the
Seychelles, 1994-96

69. CARL STOKES
1927-1996
• First African American
elected mayor of a major
city, Cleveland,1967-1971
• Only politician to
publicly support
Muhammad Ali’s
refusal to be drafted
• First black anchorman in
NYC on WNBC-TV, 1972
• Cleveland municipal
judge, 1983-1994
• Ambassador to the
Seychelles, 1994-96

70. THE LAST WORD