Government

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Capitol Men Chronicles the First Black USA Congressmen

Blanche Kelso Bruce, Hiram Revels, and P.B.S. Pinchback get most of the credit.

Right after the Civil War, a very large number of African Americans were elected to Congress, almost exclusively by black constituents.

Historian and author Phillip Dray reveals how during Reconstruction, African American legislators by the hundreds took their place in black history.

Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen is an eye-opener and a must read.

We know how this story ends, with ‘black codes,’ Jim Crow laws, and blatant discrimination to “zero out” the presence of African American Congressional leadership by the end of the 19th Century.

Discover the fascinating story for yourself by learning more about these capitol men.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 03/18 at 07:00 PM
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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Arthur, Clarence, and Parren Mitchell Go to Washington

Arthur, Clarence, and Parren Mitchell, (no relationship), are three former members of the U.S. Congress who combined social activism with legislative power.

Arthur W. Mitchell, (1886-1968), was the first black Democrat elected to the U.S. Congress (1934 - 1943).

Mitchell studied under Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute.  The Congressman, representing the First Congressional District of Illinois, received his law school instruction at Columbia and Harvard.

Clarence Mitchell, (1911-1984), earned the nickname the “101st. Senator,” thanks to his effective lobbying efforts for civil rights.

His influence helped pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  Mitchell helped extend a ban against voting literacy tests in 1970.

He was instrumental in gaining enforcement powers for the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) in 1972.  President Jimmy Carter awarded Mitchell the Medal of Freedom in 1980 for his lifetime battle for civil rights.

Parren Mitchell was the first African American to be elected to Congress from Maryland’s 7th District in 1970.  He became Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1976.

In 1950, he challenged the University of Maryland in the courts to become the school’s first black graduate student.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 09/24 at 07:00 AM
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Monday, February 04, 2008

5 African Americans who Changed the World

Here are 5 outstanding African Americans who made contributions during the 20th century to change our world.  These 5 black history people usually rise to the top in the spotlight during black history month.


1) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.


Martin Luther King Jr. is the father of the modern civil rights movement.  He was born Michael Luther King, January 15, 1929, in Atlanta Georgia.

Dr. King earned his Ph.D. from Boston University in 1955 (a Doctorate in Theology).

He married Coretta Scott King in 1953.  The young 26 year-old Martin organized the Montgomery bus boycott with the Reverend Ralph David Abernathy and the NAACP in 1955 after Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat to whites.

King became the first leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957.  By 1961, he was supporting freedom rides to integrate Southern lunch counters and rest rooms.

His famous “I Have a Dream Speech” was delivered on the Washington D.C. mall in 1963.  King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.  He was assassinated in 1968 as he was preparing to lead a labor protest march on behalf of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.


2) Rosa Parks


The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1956 that segregation on common carrier buses was illegal.  The decision was reached primarily because of the Montgomery bus boycott that lasted one year.

Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger (December 1, 1955).  Arrested for her act, Parks eventually found justice in the courts.

In 1999, President Bill Clinton presented her with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor for a U.S. civilian.


3) Thurgood Marshall


Thurgood Marshall, (1908-1993), was born in Baltimore, Maryland.  “Mr. Civil Rights,” changed history in 1954 when he successfully argued Brown vs. the Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Brown case outlawed segregation in schools.

Marshall was educated at Lincoln University and Howard Law School.  He began practicing law in 1933, became assistant special counsel for the NAACP in 1936, then chief counsel in 1938.

He was the first director/chief counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (1940-1961).

In 1961, President John Kennedy appointed him Second Circuit United States Court of Appeals judge.  By 1965 he was appointed solicitor general in the Department of Justice.

Marshall was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967 becoming the first African American on the court.

Thurgood Marshall is considered the most prominent civil rights lawyer of the 20th Century.


4) Jackie Robinson


U.S. Army Lieutenant and former UCLA football great Jackie Robinson (1919-1972), entered major league baseball in 1945 by signing a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers’ farm team, the Montreal Royals.

Robinson, the first ever black player at the start of the 1947 season, was one of three African Americans on the roster of a major league baseball franchise by the end of 1947 (joined by Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians, and Henry Thompson of the St. Louis Browns).


5) Muhammad Ali


Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay on January 17, 1942, won an Olympic gold medal in Rome as a light heavy weight in 1960.

He defeated Sonny Liston in 1964 to win the heavy weight championship for the first time.  Ali won the crown again in 1974 by beating George Foreman.

"The Greatest” became the first in boxing history to win the heavy-weight title three times when he took out Leon Spinks in 1978.

Ali refused to be drafted into the U.S. Army (he was a conscientious objector on religious and moral grounds).  He was stripped of his first title in 1967.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 02/04 at 12:02 AM
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

First Lady Shirley Chisholm Targets the White House

Long before the presidential aspirations of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Carol Moseley Braun, Alan Keyes, Barack Obama, and others, there was Shirley Chisholm.

Shirley St. Hill Chisholm, (1924-2005), was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1968.

She was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1924.  Shirley was the first African American woman elected to Congress, and the first black to wage a serious campaign for the 1972 Democratic nomination for president.

Chisholm retired from Congress in 1982.

Listen to Congresswoman Chisholm’s historic 2 minute announcement for her candidacy for President of the United States, recorded 36 years ago, in 1972, outside of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.

What remarkable parallels can you hear between Chisholm’s diplomatic words and so many similar voices of the candidates of today?

Chisholm is truly a black history pioneer in American politics.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 01/30 at 06:00 PM
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Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Stokes, Hatcher, and McCree Breakthrough as Mr. Mayor

Many have come since, but in November, 1967, 40 years ago, these 3 black history people were elected as the first African American mayors of major U.S. cities.

  • Carl B. Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland, Ohio.
  • Floyd McCree was elected mayor of Flint, Michigan.
  • Richard B. Hatcher was elected mayor of Gary, Indiana.

The mid 20th century civil rights movement helped lead to these important political gains.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 11/07 at 07:11 AM
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Azie Taylor Morton Billed as the first African American Female Treasurer of the U.S.

Azie Taylor Morton, (1936 - 2003), was the first African American woman Treasurer of the United States (1977).

Blanche Kelso Bruce was the first black appointed to the position in 1881.

Before her post as the 36th Treasurer, Morton, a Dale, Texas native, was a teacher, a U.S. EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) investigator, and a special assistant to the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Morton’s signature appeared on $1, $5, and $10 bills issued between September, 1977 - August 1979.  If you have one of these bills, they are very rare.

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Posted by Hugh Smith on 10/24 at 06:00 PM
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