(Page 4) 101 Little Known Facts
16.
If you enjoy buying fresh food from across the country at your local supermarket, you
have an African American inventor named Frederick McKinley Jones to thank. He
invented the air-cooling units used in food transporting trucks in the 1930s, and was
awarded more than 60 patents over the course of his life, 40 of which involved
refrigeration equipment.
15.
African American Sarah Boone patented an improvement to the ironing board on April
26, 1892. Sarah Boone's ironing board was designed to be effective in ironing the
sleeves and bodies of ladies' garments.
14.
Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, an African American from Sainte-Domingue (Haiti),
built the first permanent settlement in what would become Chicago in 1779.
13.
William Tucker was the first African born in the colony in Jamestown, Virginia. There are
reports that he lived to be 108 years old.
12.
Alonzo Pietro, a Black Spaniard explorer, set sail with Christopher Columbus to the
“New World.”
11.
Ruth Ella Moore received a Ph.D. in Bacteriology from Ohio State University in 1933
becoming the first black female to do so. Dr. Moore served as the Head of the
Department of Bacteriology at Howard University Medical College from 1947 to 1958.
10.
Walter S. McAfee is the African American mathematician and physicist first calculated
the speed of the moon. On January 10, 1946 a radar pulse was transmitted towards the
moon. Two and a half seconds later, they received a faint signal, proving that
transmissions from earth could cross the vast distances of outer space.
9.
In 1900, James Weldon Johnson wrote with his brother the song "Lift Ev'ry Voice and
Sing" on the occasion of Lincoln's birthday. The song became immensely popular in the
black community and became known as the "Negro National Anthem.”
8.
Jesse Owens broke 4 world records in one afternoon at the Big Ten Championships on
May 25, 1935; a year later, he upstaged Adolf Hitler by winning 4 golds (100m, 200m,
4x100m relay and long jump) at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
7.
Henry Highland Garnett, born a slave in Kent County, MD was named Minister of Liberia
in 1881. He was also President of Avery College in Allegany, PA.
6.
In 1972 President Nixon named Benjamin Hooks, a lawyer and Baptist minister from
Memphis, to the Federal Communications Commission, making him its first black
member. From 1977 to 1993 he was the executive director of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People.
5.
Brig. Gen. Sherian Grace Cadoria was the highest ranking African American woman
officer ever in the U.S. Armed Forces when she retired in November 1990.
4.
Alice Parker, in 1918, created a heating furnace that could be used to heat an entire
living space.
3.
Carter G. Woodson organized the first Negro History Week Celebration on the second
week of February in 1926. The week celebration eventually became a month long
celebration which is now known as Black History Month.
2.
Phillis Wheatley, a slave brought from Africa as a child and sold to a Boston merchant,
spoke no English. By the time she was sixteen, however, under the tutelage of her
owners, she had mastered the language. Her interest in literature led her to write and
publish “Poems on Various Subjects” in 1773. She is one of, if not the, earliest published
African American author.
1.
Col. Guion S. Bluford, Jr., Ph.D. (USAF) was the first African American in space. He
has flown missions on STS–8, STS 61–A, STS–39, and STS–53.