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We close out Black History Month with a quote from the Father of Black History Month, Dr. Carter G. Woodson.
“We have a wonderful history behind us…and it is going to inspire us to greater achievements.”
-Dr. Carter G. Woodson
Dr. Woodson is so right! Our history is rich and wonderful, and it will propel present and future generations to higher heights and greater achievements. Thank you for rocking with Black Mail for another month of Black History….Special Delivery!
But, y’all know one month can’t hold our history! We’ll be back!
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“Good things don’t come to those who wait. They come to those who agitate!” -Julian Boyd.
What a powerful quote by civil rights activist, politician, and educator Julian Bond. Bond was born in 1940 in Nashville, Tennesse. He met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr while attending Morehouse College. While at Morehouse, Bond worked with other students to desegregate lunch counters in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1960, he helped establish the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which mobilized students in the fight for civil rights.
Bond was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives from 1967-1975. He also served in the Georgia Senate from 1975-1987. In addition to his political service, Bond served as the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center from 1971-1979. Following his tenure at the Southern Poverty Law Center, he was president of the Atlanta Chapter of the National Association For The Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1978-1989. He then served as the chairman of the national NAACP from 1998-2010.
Throughout his lifetime, Bond was also a staunch advocate for voting rights. Bond died in 2014 from complications related to vascular disease at the age of 75.
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Scientist and inventor Dasia Taylor was born on April 6, 2004, in Chicago, Illinois. Taylor graduated from Iowa City West High School in Iowa City, Iowa, in 2021.
In 2019, at age fifteen, Taylor conducted an experiment with beets. She discovered that dye from beets applied to surgical sutures would change color at a perfect pH point, revealing if a wound was healing properly. When healing correctly, the suture thread (containing beet juice) would change from bright red to dark purple. Cesarean infections were of particular concern for Taylor. In some African nations, as much as 20 percent of women giving birth by c-section experience surgical site infections.
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Steve Henson (1918-2007) created ranch dressing to compliment the dishes he was serving to his work crews while working as a plumber in Alaska. Upon retirement, Henson and his wife Gayle bought the large 120-acre Sweet Water Ranch in Santa Barbara, California, in 1954. They soon changed the name to Hidden Valley Ranch. Henson brought his recipe, now called “ranch dressing,” to California.
He would serve the tangy blend for guests visiting his ranch. They loved it and often requested bottles to take home. He introduced the recipe to some local businesses near his farm, and it literally flew off the shelves. Soon, Henson sent packets of the dressing around the country, launching a thriving mail-order business. Thus, Hidden Valley Ranch dressing was born! The original seasoning packet required customers to add buttermilk and mayonnaise.
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Haben Girma was born in Oakland, California, on July 28, 1988. She was born deafblind. Her mother is originally from Eritrea and came to the United States as a refugee in 1983 to escape the Eritrea War of Independence against Ethiopia. Girma’s father is of Ethiopian descent. Her early education took place in Oakland Public Schools. The 1990 passing of the Americans With Disabilities Act supported Girma in receiving an inclusive education. The Americans With Disabilities Act outlawed discrimination based on disability. Girma uses a braille assistive technology device to read.
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Black inventor Otis F. Boykin was born in 1920 in Dallas, Texas. His mother died before his first birthday. His father was employed as a carpenter and later became a minister. Boykin graduated from Fisk University in 1941. While in college, he worked as a laboratory assistant at an aerospace laboratory, testing automatic aircraft controls. Following graduation from Fisk, Boykin was employed as a lab assistant for Majestic Radio and TV Corporation in Chicago, Illinois, and eventually became a supervisor there. In 1944, he began employment with the P.J. Nilsen Research Laboratory. Boykin began graduate studies in 1944 but quickly dropped out because he could not afford the tuition. In 1946, Boykin briefly led his own company, Boykin-Fruth, Inc., where he began developing various inventions.
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On February 20, 1900, Black inventor John F. Pickering (1892-1940) of Gonaives, Haiti, was granted a patent for the “Air Ship. ” (Patent 643,975). Pickering was not the original inventor of the blimp but made some significant improvements to the original design. The first blimp was invented by Henry Giffard in 1852. Pickering’s design was the first blimp with directional controls. It was also powered by an electric motor. In modern times blimps were used for research, tourism, surveying, advertising, freight transportation, camera platforms for sporting events, aerial observation, and military defense. Not much is known about his life.
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In 1880 Black inventor Powell Johnson patented “eye protectors.” Johnson designed the eyewear for various professions, including furnacemen, ironworkers, firefighters, and other workers exposed to glare and bright lights. The eye protectors had two frames with cloth disks inserted to shield the eyes from bright light. This type of design was the first of its kind. Johnson’s design improved upon previous inventions and helped pave the way for modern protective eyewear.
Little is known about Johnson’s life. He is credited with developing the first known functional safety-related eyewear.
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Delegates agreed upon the Three-Fifths Compromise during the 1787 U.S. Constitutional Convention. The Convention decided that three out of every five enslaved persons would be counted to determine a state’s total population for legislative representation and taxation before the Civil War. This gave disproportionate representation to southern slave-holding states in the House of Representatives.
The issue of how to calculate population totals was of significant concern. The United States was deeply divided on the abolishment of slavery, with some delegates from Northern states seeking to have representation determined based on the size of a state’s free population. Southern delegates demanded that enslaved individuals be counted as part of the population. The constitutional framers agreed upon a compromise resulting in representation in the House of Representatives being calculated based upon a state’s free population plus three-fifths of its enslaved population. This agreement was referred to as the Three-Fifths Compromise:
“Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other Persons” (United States Constitutional Convention 1787)
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