Black and Education

Fannie Lou Hamer was born on October 6, 1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi to Jim and Ella Townsend.

She worked on a farm as a sharecropper for 18 years and her parents, too, were sharecroppers.

Thurgood Marshall was born on July 2nd in Baltimore, Maryland in 1908. His father was a porter or waiter for a railroad company and his mother was an elementary school teacher. They were very involved in teaching their children and, reportedly, Thurgood’s father would take him down to the courthouse in Baltimore just to view court proceedings.  His mother, being a schoolteacher, oversaw her children's development and made sure they got good educational foundations in school.

Charles Henry Langston was born in 1817 in Louisa County, VA. His mother’s name was Lucy Jane Langston and his father was a slaveowner named Robert Quarles. Robert Quarles had served in the Revolutionary War and was, as we have said, a slaveowner. He had a baby with Lucy Langston and, after the child was born, he freed both Lucy and their baby.

The two, later on, had three additional children:

In May of 1902 the Peace of Vereeniging was signed between Boer forces and the British (putting an end to a set of wars between the two sides).  After a few years, the former Boer republics joined with the British territories and, in May of 1910, they formed the Union of South Africa.  

The African National Congress was then created, just two years later, in 1912 to respond to the white-run government.  Ironically, eight years after this formation, in 1918, Nelson Mandela was also born.

The government began to, immediately, codify its suppression of black South Africans.  

In 1913 the Natives Land Act was passed which set aside about 13% of South Africa's land for the "Native population."  It prohibited blacks from buying, renting, or using land anywhere outside of the areas that were set aside for them.

Katherine Johnson was born on August 26, 1918 in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia and, by now, you may know that she grew up to be an integral part of the nation's space program as a valuable mathematician in NASA.  You may not know about the connection she shares with some members of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

(See our website for articles and pictures). Charles Young was a Buffalo Soldier, a pioneer in many ways, and one of the most celebrated African-American military men, at the time of his death.

We have to examine our past to determine the impact of current drug policy in order to ensure that these results don't just happen again--while we stand by and watch.  Since the 1980s no single issue has struck at the heart of the struggles of Black America quite like the "War on Drugs" has.  Let me first state that the majority of black, white and Hispanic people in America do not use illicit drugs and if they do, they do so AT THE SAME RATES— this has been the case for decades.

Garrett Morgan was born around 1877 in Paris, Kentucky.  He did not receive a formal education beyond a several-year period of time when he was living with his parents.  He later hired a tutor, for himself, after he left his parents' home.

In September of 1900 Ida B. Wells stopped the project she was working on to report on the outrageous actions that took place in New Orleans in July of that year.  Robert Charles was an African-American man who had an encounter with police, while sitting on the steps of a building with his friend, one night.  In that encounter shots were fired and Charles wounded one of the police officers.  Over the ensuing days, Charles would shoot and kill several police officers during shoot outs and citizens of New Orleans would join with police in an unprecedented manhunt.

One of the most famous challenges to slavery took place at the home of an African-American man named, William Parker.  On September 11, 1851, Edward Gorsuch showed up at Parker’s home.  Gorsuch was seeking several escaped men whom he believed were being sheltered at Parker’s house.