They Did That

Happy New Year! They Did That will be taking a short break for the rest of this month but will be back on February 2nd with our next episode.

In the meantime, if you have any ideas for lost histories, we want to hear from you! Write to us at [email protected].

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100 years before Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin, there was Elizabeth Jennings. In 1854, Elizabeth refused to leave the streetcar she’d boarded after being told to wait for one designated for Black riders. When her fierce determination leads to an unwarranted physical assault at the hands of the conductor, Elizabeth takes her fight to the New York State Supreme Court. Her game-changing victory would lead to the desegregation of the New York City transit system and cause a ripple effect that would be felt for over a century.

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The “Godmother of Rock-n-Roll,” Sister Rosetta Tharpe, contributed to the DNA of rock ‘n’ roll and even inspired the British Invasion of the 1960’s. Born into an evangelicalChristian family in the segregated South in 1915, Sister Rosetta brought the sounds of the Black gospel church to the mainstream. By the time she was six she was a guitar prodigy - and by the time she was 30 she was performing in front of Black and white audiences across the country. She has inspired legendary artists like Elvis, Keith Richards, Johnny Cash, Little Richard, and Aretha Franklin - and the list goes on. So why was her musical genius overlooked for decades? In this episode, the story of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the revolutionary rocker.

To learn more about our contributor Erin White and her writing visit https://www.clippings.me/users/eewhite.

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Happy holidays! As a little gift from us to you, we’ve put together some of our favorite moments from this season.

And if you have ideas for lost histories, we want to hear from you! Write to us at [email protected] and tune back in on January 5th for our next episode.

Stay safe and warm! See y’all in the new year…

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Those instant noodles that kept you alive in college? Turns out they were invented during World War II to stave off hunger in Japan. But they weren’t developed by the government or some big corporation. We have just one guy to thank for dreaming up Chicken Ramen and Cup Noodles—and perfecting them in his backyard shed. Today, the story of Momofuku Ando, a serial entrepreneur in Japan who was struggling to find his big hitter…until the devastation of World War II sparked his greatest invention.

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Before 1967, "paramedic" wasn't a word and few first responders had training that went beyond basic first aid. That would all change with Freedom House Ambulance Service. Established in and by an overlooked Black community in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Freedom House Ambulance Service created the life-changing and lifesaving mobile emergency medical care we all benefit from today. Their knowledge would go on to be embraced and practiced all around the world, but the pioneering group would be lost to history…until now.

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Surrealist artists Pablo Picasso, Lee Miller, Man Ray and Roland Penrose were so enamored by Ady Fidelin, a Guadeloupan dancer in a Paris cabaret, that she became one of them, going on holiday with them and posing in their nearly 400 photographs and paintings. One of those photographs landed in the pages of Harper's Bazaar, making Ady the first black model in an American major fashion magazine. So how come Ady was written out of books, publications and didn't see any fame for her contribution? And where would Man Ray be without her? In this episode, the story of Adrienne Fidelin, the magnificent muse.

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Elijah McCoy revolutionized technology forever—from trains to the factory floor—by allowing steam engines to keep running without frequent manual intervention. In 1872, he invented a device that made steam engines infinitely more productive, but his peers refused to give him credit. They even tried passing off their own attempts, none of which worked as well—leading folks to say in frustration, “I want the Real McCoy!” Elijah was almost lost to history. But thankfully, his wife and a strong community of black activists in Detroit—and Andrew Moodie, a playwright in McCoy’s native Canada—swooped in to save his legacy. Today, the story of how Elijah McCoy became “The Real McCoy.”

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One of the earliest cycling champs was a Black man named Marshall "Major" Taylor. By the late 1880s, the bicycle had taken the world by storm, making cycling the biggest and most popular sport. In Indianapolis, Indiana, a young amateur cyclist with heaps of natural talent set out to make his mark. But there was a problem... Black men like him weren’t allowed to compete. His faith and determination would see him ride past that barrier and every other obstacle that stood in his way. Today, Major Taylor's pioneering path to becoming one of the greatest professional cyclists the sport has ever seen.

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The Patients’ Bill of Rights is something so common you see it in every hospital—and we have a group of young revolutionaries in the South Bronx to thank for it. In the late 1960s, the Young Lords and the Black Panthers were working hard to challenge the dismal healthcare standards plaguing their community. It was so bad that Lincoln Hospital, the only hospital in the area, was called the Butcher Shop of the Bronx. So, the Young Lords took it over. And in the aftermath of that action, they drafted a document that would re-shape healthcare, giving us permission to advocate for the care we rightfully deserve: the Patients’ Bill of Rights. Who were they? Today, the story of The Young Lords.

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