Sarah Breedlove known as Madam C.J Walker was the first black woman to become a self-made millionaire. She developed a successful line of beauty and hair products for black women.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe is credited as the Godmother of Rock ‘N’ Roll. Before Elvis, Johnny Cash or Little Richard, there was Sister Tharpe- A Black woman who forged her own sound in a male dominated industry.
She does not get the credit she deserves.
A Boston monument to Phyllis Wheatley. In 1773 she became the first black woman to publish a book.
Her poems captured the realities of slavery for the enslaved, before covering themes such as rebellion and revolution.
When Bessie Coleman developed an interest in flying, women and people of color had no flight training opportunities in the US.
She learnt French and moved to Paris to earn her pilot's license.
She became the first black licensed pilot.
Euphemia Lofton Haynes was a mathematician and Educator. She became the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1943.
Dr. Alexa Canady. She became the first black woman to become a neurosurgeon in 1981. She also co-invented a device to treat fluid buildup in the brain.
Alice Coachman became the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal following a record-setting high jump despite nursing a back injury.
She was often unable to use the training facilities due to segregation & also trained barefoot and used old equipment
Constance Baker Motley was the first Black woman to argue cases before the Supreme Court and was the first African-American woman to be appointed as a federal judge, serving from 1966 to 1986.
Dr. Shirley Jackson, first Black woman to ever earn a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Her research paved the way for numerous developments in the telecommunication space including the touch-tone telephone, the portable fax, caller ID & call waiting.
Hazel Scott, piano prodigy, jazz sensation and television pioneer. She was the First African-American Woman to Host Her Own TV Show.
Not one but two Grand pianos being played with ease by Hazel Scott in 1943 🤯
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Job Maseko, a WW2 hero, sank a NAZI ship with a bomb made from a tin can with condensed milk. He was denied the highest military decoration, due to his race.
A THREAD!
Maseko was working as a delivery driver when he volunteered for service in the South African Native Military Corps during WWII (NMC). Later he was sent to the 2nd South African Infantry Division after finishing basic training in North Africa.
Due to South African race regulations at the time, they were unable to carry firearms. They were only allowed traditional weapons such as spears for guard and ceremonial duty.
On this day in 1790, Jean Baptist Pointe Desable founded the city of Chicago.
A THREAD
Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable was born in Saint-Domingue, Haiti (French colony at the time) during the Haitian Revolution. At some point he settled in the part of North America that is now known as the city of Chicago and was described in historical documents as "a handsome negro"
He married a Native American woman, Kitiwaha, and they had two children. In 1779, during the American Revolutionary War, he was arrested by the British on suspicion of being an American Patriot sympathizer.
On this day in 1921, The Tulsa Race Massacre happened in the affluent black community of Greenwood in Tulsa (Black Wall Street)
White supremacists killed more than 300 Black Americans and looted & burned to ground homes & businesses.
History of Tulsa before the riot
A THREAD
Ottawa W. Gurley created the Black Wall Street, the affluent black community in Greenwood in Tulsa.
Ottowa Gurley was born in 1868 to freed slaves in Huntsville, Alabama, Gurley grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He was self-educated and eventually married his childhood sweetheart, Emma. After a brief time as a teacher, he worked at U.S. Postal Service.
In 1969, the Black Panthers launched free breakfast programs across the US, feeding thousands of kids before school. The FBI called it a threat. In some cities, police raided kitchens, smashed food, and urinated on supplies to shut them down.
A THREAD
In January 1969, the Black Panther Party launched their Free Breakfast for Children Program, their first and most notable community effort, to feed kids who went to school hungry due to poverty. It was radical care in action. But the FBI called it a threat.
The Black Panthers, founded in 1966, built programs to tackle systemic issues like poverty and hunger. The Free Breakfast Program was a direct response to families unable to feed their kids before school. It aimed to nourish bodies and minds for learning.
Founded in 1964, The Deacons for Defense & Justice was an armed Black self defense group who stood up against the KKK & discriminatory treatment by police in the Jim Crow South
Though they supported the values of MLK, they didn’t subscribe to his nonviolent philosophy
A THREAD
On July 10, 1964, a group of black men in Jonesboro, Louisiana led by Earnest “Chilly Willy” Thomas and Frederick Douglas Kirkpatrick founded the group known as The Deacons for Defense and Justice.
As the black leaders began to rise to the occasion in the Deep South, conflict was sure to come knocking. The deacons provided security for black leaders all over the south. They worked closes with king though he preached non violence.
On this day in 1920, The Elaine Race Massacre inquiry began, addressing the killing of 200+ Black sharecroppers. A blood-thirsty gang of white soldiers led the deadliest massacre in U.S. history in 1919.
-The Elaine Massacre-
A THREAD
On September 30, 1919, Black sharecroppers gathered at a church in Hoop Spur, near Elaine, led by Robert L. Hill of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union. They sought better cotton payments from white plantation owners who dominated during the Jim Crow era.
Tensions were high and they had posted guards at the church door. When two deputized white men and a black trustee pulled into view and shots fired. One of the white men was killed, the other wounded.