Thread by @BillWeirCNN

A #Juneteenth shout-out to the memory of Matthew Henson.

Born to sharecroppers in Maryland and terrorized by the KKK, he attended a tribute to Lincoln at age 10 and heard a rousing call by Frederick Douglas to fight for education and equality.

At 12, he became a cabin boy and sailed the world with a captain who taught him to read and write.

Years later, while working in a Washington DC clothing store he mentioned his experience to a customer named Robert Peary, who invited him on his next adventure.

On a canal survey in Nicaragua, his seamanship and mettle was so impressive, Commander Peary made him first mate for 20 years of adventures in the Arctic.

He was the only member of the crew who bothered to learn the language, dog sled and survival skills of the Inuit...

...which is the only reason they survived the EIGHTH attempt to reach the North Pole.

Frozen and exhausted, Peary couldn't walk, sent Henson ahead to scout and so a sharecropper's kid became the first man to plant the American flag at the top of the world.

111 years later, the Arctic is melting at a horrifying rate and the climate crisis will punish people of color in unfair proportions.

But I like to believe that there is a crop of young Matthew Hensons out there; smart, brave and tough enough to be the first to find a fix.