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February is Black History Month, We Look at Black First

Roselyn Payne Epps: First African-American elected national president of the American Medical Women’s Association in 1991

February is designated as Black History month. It is for the remembrance of the events in the history of the African Diaspora. I therefore wanted to use this post to highlight the achievements of Blacks in the areas of Science & Medicine and Sports, dubbed Black First

1) Black First in Science and Medicine:

  • Roselyn Payne Epps was the first African-American elected national president of the American Medical Women’s Association in 1991.
  • Charles Henry Turner (1867-1931) became the first person to prove that insects can hear and distinguish pitch.  He was a Zoologist and held a doctorate from the University of Chicago.
  • Joycelyn Elders became the first African-American and first woman US Surgeon General in 1993.
  • Frederick D. Gregory was the first African-American to pilot a spacecraft. In 1985 STS-51B/Spacelab-3 launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on April 29th with Colonel Frederick D. Gregory as pilot.

2) Black First in Sports:

  • Althea Gibson – was the first African American to play in and win Wimbledon and the United States national tennis championship. She won both tournaments twice, in 1957 and 1958. In all, Gibson won 56 tournaments, including five Grand Slam singles events.
  • Don Barksdale – a basketball star at UCLA became the first African-American named consensus All-American in 1947.
  • Fritz Pollard — was the first African American to play in the NFL. Later in his career he became a coach and also continued to play running back. In 2005 he was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame.
  • National Basketball Association (NBA) – In the 1950-51 NBA season Chuck Cooper became the first black player to be drafted when he was chosen by Boston; Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton became the first to sign an NBA contract when he signed with New York, and Earl Lloyd became the first to play in an NBA regular-season game because the schedule had his Washington team opening one day before the others.
  • Willie O’Ree — was the first African American to play in the National Hockey League (NHL). He had a short career that was started in 1958 with the Boston Bruins. His career ended in 1961 and the next year that an African American played in the league was 1974 when Mike Marson was drafted by the Washington Capitals.

During this month, I will be presenting  “Blacks First” in other areas.

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From Negro History Week to Black History Month

by Louise Fenner

Carter G. Woodson, the son of former slaves in Virginia, realized that the struggles and achievements of Americans of African descent were being ignored or misrepresented. He founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), which supports historical research, publishes a scholarly journal and sets the theme for Black History Month each year.

Each February, Black History Month honors the struggles and triumphs of millions of American citizens over the most devastating obstacles — slavery, prejudice, poverty — as well as their contributions to the nation’s cultural and political life.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, African Americans make up about 14 percent of the U.S. population and comprise the second-largest minority group, after Hispanics.

In 2009, the inauguration of Barack Obama, America’s first African-American president, lent Black History Month a special significance. Obama took the oath of office January 20, the day after Americans honored the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. with a federal holiday and national day of service.

In his inaugural address, Obama acknowledged the historical importance of a moment in which “a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.”

Honoring accomplishments of Black-Americans

Black History Month was the inspiration of Carter G. Woodson, a noted scholar and historian, who instituted Negro History Week in 1926. He chose the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and the abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976, the nation’s bicentennial. President Gerald R. Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Woodson, the son of former slaves in Virginia, realized that the struggles and achievements of Americans of African descent were being ignored or misrepresented. He founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), which supports historical research, publishes a scholarly journal and sets the theme for Black History Month each year.

John Fleming, ASALH president from 2007 to 2009 and director emeritus of the Cincinnati Museum Center, said Obama’s heritage — a black father born in Kenya and a white mother born in the United States — “continues to reflect the contributions Africans and Europeans have made to American history from the very beginning.”

Fleming said he believes Black History Month should focus on positive as well as negative aspects of the black experience. “Certainly, struggle has been an ongoing theme in our history from the very beginning. However, we were not slaves prior to being captured in Africa — and while slavery was part of our experience for 250 years, we have a hundred-and-some years in freedom that we also need to deal with.”

He said he has seen “substantial progress on many fronts,” but “at the same time there are still major problems that have to be addressed, one being the permanent underclass in urban areas now. We don’t seem to be able to break that cycle of poverty. And there are still some major rural pockets of poverty” such as in the Mississippi Delta.

“I’m glad to see the National African American Museum being developed on the Mall, which will tell a much broader story,” said Fleming. In 2003, President George W. Bush signed legislation to establish the new museum, which will be located on the National Mall near the Washington Monument. Although the new museum has not yet been built, it launched a photo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery late in 2007 that is traveling to museums around the country through 2011.

“I think that African-American history gets more attention during February than during any other time of year, “ Fleming said, “and I think it’s an opportunity for us in the field to emphasize that it is something that should be studied throughout the year.”

Each year, the U.S. president honors Black History Month, or African-American History Month as it is also called, with a proclamation and a celebration at the White House. States and cities hold their own events around the country, and media feature topics related to black history.

ASALH has its headquarters in Washington, where Woodson lived from 1915 until his death in 1950. His home is designated a national historic site.

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