AFRICAN & BLACK HISTORY Profile picture
Apr 26, 2023 12 tweets 5 min read Read on X
Today on #WorldPilotsDay, i’ll highlight black pilots who broke barriers 👨🏿‍✈️👩🏿‍✈️

—A THREAD—

In 1921, Bessie Coleman became the first black licensed pilot.

When she developed an interest in flying, women and people of color had no flight training opportunities in the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Image
Willa Brown was the first black woman to earn both a pilot's license and a commercial license. (Bessie got hers in France) Image
Marlon D. Green, was an Air Force Pilot who fought to desegregate the Airline Industry. He became the 1st black pilot hired by a major airline. ImageImage
Jill E. Brown became the first female African-American pilot for a major US airline in 1978 when she joined Texas International Airlines as a pilot. Image
Ahmet Ali Celikten was the world's first black fighter pilot.

He served in the air forces of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey. He was a veteran of World War 1 and the Turkish War of Independence. Image
Jesse L. Brown was the first black US Navy pilot. He flew 20 combat missions before being shot down in 1950 during the Korean War. Image
Eugene Jacques Bullard was the first African American military combat pilot. Often referred to as the “Black Swallow of Death” for his courage during missions, he faced incredible obstacles to become the only African-American pilot in World War 1. Image
He grew up in Georgia, flew for France in BOTH world wars, ran a Paris nightclub, spoke 3 languages and unironically owned a pet monkey. Image
Special mention to the Tuskegee Airmen became the first African American flying unit in the U.S. military and fought in World War II.

The Tuskegee Airmen epitomized courage and heroism. ImageImageImage
Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr. is one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen of World War II.

He survived 43 combat missions during World War II and is one of only a dozen remaining Tuskegee Airmen from the famed “Red Tails” fighter group still alive. Image
In 2001, Shawna Rochelle Kimbrell became the first Black woman to serve as a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force. Image
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More from @AfricanArchives

Jan 6
The black history of Miami, Florida.

A THREAD!

Bahamians were among the first settlers in Miami. The first name on the city charter in 1896, when the city was incorporated, was a Black man named Silas Austin. Out of 368 men who voted to incorporate Miami,162 of them were Black. Image
In 1896 Florida had a state law that required a minimum number of registered voters to incorporate. 368 voters signed to incorporate Miami.

Black people mostly occupied Overtown and Coconut Grove, which is also the oldest inhabited neighborhood in Miami. Image
The Black population was largely made up of Florida born Black folks, Bahamians and Black people who came further south from southern states like North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
Read 9 tweets
Jan 1
102 years ago, in 1923, a lie by a white woman that she’d been sexually assaulted by a black man, led to the destruction of the predominantly African American town of Rosewood, Florida, thus the Rosewood Massacre.

A THREAD Image
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Dec 31, 2024
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The Watch Night Services in Black communities can be traced back to gatherings on December 31, 1862, also known as “Freedom’s Eve.”

THREAD Image
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Just a few months earlier, on September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the executive order that declared enslaved people in the rebelling Confederate States legally free. However, the decree would not take effect until the start of the new year.
Read 12 tweets
Dec 25, 2024
The Baptist War: The Christmas Rebellion.

On this day in 1831, Over 60,000 enslaved Jamaicans, led by one man, Baptist preacher, Samuel Sharpe, went on to carry out one of the largest Slave Rebellions in West Indian history.

A THREAD Image
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So who was the Baptist preacher, Samuel Sharpe?

He was a baptist deacon and the leader of the native Baptists in Montego Bay. Also he was an avid follower of the growing abolitionist movement in London. Image
He led a plan for a peaceful general strike to start on Christmas Day in 1831, with the enslaved jamaicans demanding: —more freedom and
—a working wage and refusing to work unless their demands were met by the state owners and managers.
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Dec 22, 2024
One in every four cowboys was believed to be a Black man released from slavery despite the stories told in popular books and movies although the most famous cowboys of the old west were white.

Some notable cowboys!

A THREAD Image
Many of the enslaved african men were familiar with cattle herding from Africa.

a highlight of some famous black cowboys:
Bill Pickett (1871-1932), rodeo performer.

World famous black cowboy Bill Pickett "Dusky Demon" invented the rodeo sport, bulldogging (steer wrestling). In 1989 was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. Image
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Dec 19, 2024
Joseph Phillipe Lemercier Laroche and his children were the only black passengers on RMS Titanic.

A THREAD Image
Joseph Phillipe Lemercier Laroche was the son of a white French army captain and a Haitian woman who was a descendant of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the first ruler of independent Haiti.
Laroche’s uncle, Dessalines M. Cincinnatus, was president of Haiti from 1911 to 1912. Image
Read 14 tweets

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