Category: Moments in History
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Moments in History: Lawrence Douglas Wilder
 Lawrence Douglas Wilder (born January 17, 1931) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 66th Governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994. He was the first African-American to serve as governor of a U.S. state since the Reconstruction era, and the first elected African-American governor.[a] Born in Richmond, Virginia, Wilder graduated from Virginia Union University and served in the United States Army during…
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Moments in History; Thurgood Marshall (video)
Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American lawyer and civil rights activist who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the Court’s first African-American justice. Prior to his judicial service, he successfully argued several cases before the Supreme Court, including Brown v.…
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Moment in History: Phillip B. Downing (video)
Before the year 1891, it would have been extremely difficult to mail a letter, because it would have required a long trip to your local post office. That was until an inventor, Philip B. Downing (1857-1934) invented the street letter box, which was basically a metal box with four feet that allowed people…
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Moments In History: George Washington Carver (video)
George Washington Carver was an American agricultural scientist and inventor who studied crop-rotation methods in the United States, He was the most prominent black scientist of the early 20th century. Carver was born into slavery in Newton County, Missouri. The date of his birth is uncertain and was not known to Carver; but it was before slavery was abolished in…
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Aunt Jemima, Not Just Pancakes!
Aunt Jemima is a brand of pancake mix, syrup, and other breakfast foods. The Aunt Jemima pancake mix was advertised in 1889 as the first ready-mix. Aunt Jemima is based on the common enslaved “Mammy” archetype, a plump Black woman wearing a headscarf who is a devoted and submissive servant. Her skin is dark and dewy, with a pearly…
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Lieutenant Colonel Robert Jones Friend: UFO Investigator
Those of you who are into the subject of UFOs and its history must remember Colonel Robert Friend. He played a huge role in the US Air Force’s nearly 20-year Project Blue Book, the official government study of UFOs. Lieutenant Colonel Robert Jones Friend was born in Columbia, South Carolina on February 29, 1920. From an early age,…
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Moments in History: Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. Douglass was born into slavery in February 1818, on the Eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay in Talbot County Maryland. Although his actual birthdate is unknown, he chose to celebrate the 14th of February as his birthday. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a…
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Hey, It’s National Waffle Day!
No one can be sad while eating a #waffle. National Waffle Day on August 24th commemorates the anniversary of the first waffle iron patent issued. Celebrate by savoring your favorite kind of waffle! On August 24, 1869, Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, New York received his patent for the waffle iron. While waffles existed…
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Dr. Charles R. Drew
Charles Richard Drew was an American surgeon and medical researcher. He was born on June 3, 1904  into a middle-class African-American family in Washington, D.C. His father was a carpet layer and his mother was a teacher. Drew and three of his four younger siblings grew up in Washington’s largely middle-class and interracial Foggy Bottom neighborhood. Drew won an athletics scholarship to Amherst College in Massachusetts,[7] from which he…
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Celebrate Juneteenth
#Juneteenth marks the complete end of slavery in the #UnitedStates. Juneteenth (a portmanteau of June and nineteenth; also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day, and Emancipation Day is a holiday celebrating the liberation of those who had been held as slaves in the United States. https://tnc.network/celebrate-juneteenth/ #Juneteenth Moments in History: Garrett A…