In
1776 Phoebe Frances, a young black woman, worked as awaitress in a tavern. The tavern
was in New York where many of the men who opposed English rule gathered to plan
the "Revolution". Phoebe's lover received word that George Washington was going
to be at the tavern. In an attempt to head off the Revolution, he gave Phoebe Frances
a dish of poisoned peas to serve Washington. Phoebe was outraged at this terrible
act. Instead, she warned Washington and threw the peas into the yard. The chickens
there ate the peas and fell dead. Her lover, Thomas Hickey, was hanged before 20,000
onlookers for this attempt. The deed of Phoebe Frances saved Washington and perhaps
- the American Revolution. » Top
Harriet
Tubman was born in 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland. She was the conductor of
the Underground Railroad that helped slaves escape to freedom. In 1837 she led her
own family to freedom, and settled them in Auburn, New York. When the Civil War
ended, she turned her home into a home for elderly blacks. Today, a tablet commemorating
the brave works of Harriet Tubman stands in Auburn, New York honoring her. Listed
are six words that were used by the men and women |Harriet Tubman helped. Add one
or more vowels to each to Identify them. Born: c. 1820, Dorchester County, Maryland
Died: March 10, 1913, Auburn, New York Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave from Maryland
who became known as the "Moses of her people." Over the course of 10 years, and
at great personal risk, she led hundreds of slaves to freedom along the Underground
Railroad, a secret network of safe houses where runaway slaves could stay on their
journey north to freedom. She later became a leader in the abolitionist movement,
and during the Civil War she was a spy with for the federal forces in South Carolina
as well as a nurse.
» Top
Barbara Jordan and Shirley Chisholm
have worked many hours to get bills passed and signed into law. Shirley Chisholm,
the first black congresswoman, was elected to the United States Congress from New
York in 1968. Four years later, she became the first black woman to run for president
of the United States. People often call her "Fighting Shirley Chisholm" because
she works hard to make changes for women, blacks, the poor and powerless.
Shirley was born in 1924 in Brooklyn, New York Barbara Jordan was born in Houston,
Texas in 1936 An excellent student, Barbara graduated from Texas Southern University
and attended law school at Boston University In 1966 she was elected to the Texas
State Senate. She was the first black woman elected since 1883. Barbara was elected
to the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C in 1972 and 1974. During
that time she was assigned to the important House Judiciary Committee.
I had three female role models. I met first lady Eleanor Roosevelt when I was 15 years old and had won a speech contest. She said to me,” You are black and you are
going to be a woman". Do not let your race or your gender stop you from achieving
all that you can achieve." Another role model for me was the underground railroad
leader Harriet Tubman. As a child, I read all I could about her.
And there was my
maternal grandmother, who gave me principles and beliefs to live by.
After I went to Congress, a student asked me why all our presidents had been white
men. I knew why, but the reasons weren't good ones. So I
decided to run. I campaigned
in 32 states. People looked at me so funny. I suffered disappointment, disillusionment,
racism, and discrimination because of my gender. My faith and self-confidence kept
me going. Both of these qualities are more important for children to have than ever.
Children must be encouraged to
speak out, especially if they're shy. Don't be afraid
to be outspoken. » Top
Edith Sampson, a lawyer and judge, was the first black woman m the United Nations.
She was born in 1901 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At age 26, she was the first black
woman to graduate with a law (L.L.M.) degree from Loyola University in Chicago,
Illinois. Between 1930 and 1940, Edith served as a referee of the Cook County Juvenile
Court, and established her private law
practice. President Harry S. Truman appointed
her as U.S. delegate to the United Nations in 1950.
Since then she has held many judicial positions in the courts of Chicago. First
Black Woman Lawyer She was the first black woman to graduate from a university law
school. She graduated from Howard University in 1872, when she became the first
black woman lawyer in the United States. She was also a civil rights activist. Connect
the dots and name this great black achiever.
» Top
Jane Matilda Bolin
Jane
Matilda Bolin was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1931, she had graduated from
Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and Eight years later, Jane was appointed to
judge of the Domestic Relations Court of New York City, becoming the first black woman judge in the United States. Marjorie Lawson, writer, lawyer, and judge, was
born in 1912 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She graduated from the University
of Michigan in 1933, and from Columbia University Law School in 1939. She practiced law until
1962, when she was appointed by President John F. Kennedy as judge of the Juvenile
Court of the District of Columbia. Marjorie was the first black woman appointed
to a judgeship by a U. S. president and approved by the U.S. Senate. She held this
position for three years. Marjorie also wrote a weekly public affairs column for
the Pittsburgh Courier for fifteen years. Jane Matilda Bolin was born April 11,
1908 in Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1931, she received her LL.B from Yale University
School of Law. She worked with her father who was also lawyer until passing the
New York bar exam and then moving to New Your City to practice law with her husband.
In 1937, she was appointed assistant corporation council for New York council. At
the age of 31, she was chosen as the first African-American judge in the United
States. She presided over the Domestic Relations Court of New York City, which is
now called the Family Court of the State of New York. Jane was forced to step down,
upon reaching the age of mandatory retirement, however, she continued to stretch
out a hand to her community. She became a volunteer reading teach for the New York
City Public Schools for a few years.
Juanita Stout.
The first black woman elected as judge in Philadelphia was Juanita Stout. She was
born in Wewoka, Oklahoma in 1919. Juanita graduated from the University of Iowa
in 1939, and then Indiana University where she received a J.D. degree and an LLM.
degree by 1952. She taught in elementary, high school and college until 1959, when
she was elected judge of the Municipal Court of Philadelphia
» Top
IBrigadier General Hazel Johnson
was born in baby West Chester, Pennsylvania. She received her bachelor of science
in Nursing from Villanova University, her master of arts in nursing from Columbia
University/ and her Ph.D. from Catholic University. She became the first black woman
General, Chief of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in 1982. She has also been a dean at
the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing/ Chief Nurse, U.S. Army Medical Command
in Korea, and has won many “Award Of Merit”.
» Top
On July 20, 1942, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAC) was formed. For the first
time black women were accepted with whites..
» Top
U.S. Army Second Lieutenant Marcella A. Hayes earned her aviator wings, and became
the first black woman pilot in the U.S. Army in November 1979. She is a graduate
of University of Wisconsin in the Army R.O.TC. Program. Marcella is the fifty-fifth
woman out of 48,000 officers to graduate from the Army Aviation School in Fort Rucker,
Alabama. » Top
In 1945, the first black nurse to be commissioned in the Navy Reserve Corps was
Phyllis Mae Dolly. Miss Dolly, a registered nurse from New York City, was sworn
in as an ensign.
» Top
Journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault is a correspondent for the
MacNeil/Lhrer News Hour. She was born in 1942 in Due West, South Carolina, and was
the first black woman admitted to the University of Georgia where she received her
bachelor of science degree in journalism in 1936. She has worked for the ”New York”
magazine, The New York Times newspaper, and with NBC
News in Washington, DC.
She accepted a Russell Sage fellowship in graduate social science at Washington
University in 1967. She has taught journalism at Columbia University in New York.
In 1968 she opened the Harlem Bureau of New York Times which presented human interest
stories about blacks rather than “sociological stereotypes.”» Top
In
1950, Gwendolyn Brooks, a Chicago poet and novelist, became the first black woman
to win the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. She also is a winner of the Guggenheim Fellow,
and Poetry Workshop Awards. Gwendolyn is also the first black woman elected into
the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
» Top
Lois
Jones Pierre-Noel has been called the finest black woman painter. A designer and
watercolorist, she served as a professor of art at Howard University from 1930s
until the 1970s. Lois studied at the Beaux-Arts and the Academie Julien in Paris,
and has exhibited one-woman shows in Europe and America. Her work has won numerous
awards, and recently several of her paintings were purchased for the presidential
palace in Haiti.
» Top
Nikki
Giovanni has been called the "princess of black poetry." Many of her poems are about
childhood and family love. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1943, she
has always loved churches and
the south. She has taught at several colleges and won many awards
for her poetry. In 1971, she wrote a book of poems for children. Spin a Soft Black
Song: Poems for Children.
» Top
Dr. Rebecca Cole was the first black woman physician in the United States. She practiced
from 1872 until 1881. She was also the first black female to graduate from the Philadelphia
Woman's Medical College in 1867.
» Top
Dr. May Edward Chinn was born in 1896 in Great Barrington, Illinois. Her father, Lafayette Chinn, was a runaway slave. In 1926, she was the first black woman graduate
from Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and became the first black woman intern at Harlem Hospital. For many years, she was the only black woman doctor on the entire
staff there. Dr. Chinn received many awards and honors praising her work in cancer.
» Top
Clinical
psychiatrist and administrator. Dr. Mildred Mitchell-Bateman was born in Cordele,
Georgia in 1922. She was a student at Johnson C. Smith University, the Woman's Medical
College of Pennsylvania, and the Menninger School of Psychiatry. In 1962, Dr. Mitchell-Bateman
became the director of West Virginia's Mental Health Department. She was the first
female mental health chief and the states first black department head.
» Top
Dr.
Jane C. Wright, a surgeon and educator, was born in 1919 in New York City. Dr. Wright
became the first black associate dean and professor at the State University of New
York
Downstate Medical Center in 1967. She had also been director of cancer chemotherapy
research and instructor in research therapy there. She succeeded her father. Dr.
Louis Wright, as head of the Harlem Hospital Cancer Research Foundation.
» Top
Mary
McLeod Bethune was born in 1875 in Mayesville, South Carolina. In 1904, she founded the Bethune-Cookman College at Daytona Beach, Florida with one dollar and fifty cents and five students. She studied at Scotia Seminary in North Carolina and at
the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. She won many awards for leadership including
the Medal of Merit from Haiti, and the NAACP's Spingarn Award. Under Franklin Roosevelt,
she was director of the Negro Affairs division of the National
Youth Administration
and a consultant to the founding conference of the United Nations. After the president
died, Mrs. Roosevelt gave Mary the president's cane which she used until her death
in 1955. Mary was founder of the National Council of Negro Women, and served as
director of the American Red Cross in Florida. She also was president for many years
of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.
» Top
Rosa
Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama near Montgomery on February 4, 1913. She learned
to sew at the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, and grew up to be a seamstress.
But she grew up to be more than that. Rosa is said to be the "Mother of the (1)VILCI
(2)STRIGH Movement" for(3)FUSINREG to give up her bus (4) TEAS to a white man in
Montgomery in 1955. This act led to her (5)TESRAR, and started the famous bus (6)TOCTOBY
led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Within one year, blacks were given (7)LAUQE bus
riding (8) GHTSRI. Rosa was also a member of the NAACP and the Montgomery Voters
League
» Top
The Reverend Alice M. Henderson was commissioned a chaplain in the U.S. Army in
1974. She is the first woman Army chaplain. Before that, Alice was the associate
minister of an African Methodist Episcopal Church in Atlanta, Georgia Work the crossword
to find out how much you know about Alice M. Henderson.
» Top
Born
in 1927 in South Carolina and raised in Harlem, New York City, Althea Gibson grew
up to be the first black woman in international tennis. She was the first black
to win a national tennis championship. In 1957 and 1958, Althea won the women's
championship at Wimbledon, England. She turned professional the next year In I960
she won the world championship in pro tennis, and then retired fourteen years. In
1958, she wrote her autobiography, I Always Wanted to Be Somebody. She still plays
tennis, and also works in recreation programs. » Top
Wilma
Rudolph was regarded as the fastest woman sprinter of all time. She broke every
100-meter and 200-meter event of her time. What is remarkable about this, is that
during Wilma Rudolph's childhood she was denied the
use of her left leg as a result
of an illness. In the 1960 Olympics, she won three gold medals in the 100-meter
run, 200-meter run and the relay run. In 1960, she was named United States Female
Athlete of the Year.
» Top
Maggie
Walker, the nation's first female bank president, was born in 1867 in Richmond,
Virginia. At age fourteen, she joined the United Order of St. Luke, a mutual self-help
organization. By 1899, she had become Grand Secretary-Treasurer, and was responsible for starting the Order of St. Luke's newspaper and department store. Walker became
president of the St. Luke's Penny Savings Bank in 1903. This bank merged with two
others on January 2, 1930 to form the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company. Walker
moved up from president to chairwoman of the Board of Directors, and remained in
that position until her death in 1934
» Top
Katherine
Clinton is a graduate of Albany State College, Albany, Georgia. She is an electrical
engineer at Kennedy Space Center. Her job responsibilities include the development
of mission dependent ground application software. She is the first black woman engineer
hired at Kennedy Space Center. Connect the dots and name this object used in space.
»
Top
Winnie Mandela was born in 1936
in a small South African Village, Transkei. She studied in Johannesburg, and graduated
as South Africa's first black female social worker. In 1962, she was separated from
her husband. Nelson Mandela, who has been imprisoned for life since 1964 on charges
of treason. In 1977, Winnie was banished to Brandfort, a remote area of the Orange
Free State. Defying bans made on her protest actions, she continues the struggle
to change the racist apartheid government in South Africa. She organized a soup
kitchen for the destitute, operated a nursery school, and established a medical
clinic. As of Spring 1986, all bans were removed from Winnie, and she has the same
limited rights of all blacks in South Africa.» Top