Originally born in the USA, Eugene had decided on his eleventh birthday that he would run away to France, where he could escape racial injustice. A boxer and talented jazz musician, he made his way to Europe and was given the French nickname “L’Hirondelle noire”, meaning Black Swallow. In 1914, when the WWI started, he served under France. Bullard received …
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Meet Afro-Russians, the Black Russians of African descent
Afro-Russians, often known as Black Russians, are people of African heritage who settled in Russia many years ago. The Metis Foundation estimates that there were about 50,000 Afro-Russians in 2009 Even after Western European colonization of the continent, there was never a noticeable population of people of African heritage in Russia. For centuries, Russia was too remote from Africa to …
Read More »Ernest Fredric “Ernie” Morrison was the first Black child movie star
Morrison, who performed under the stage name Sunshine Sammy, was most famous as one of the Dead End Kids/East Side Kids. As the oldest Our Gang cast-member Morrison earned $10,000 a year, making him the highest-paid Black actor in Hollywood. He made 28 episodes from 1922 to 1928 before he ditched Hollywood for New York’s vaudeville stages. He was featured …
Read More »Meet Gladys West, the Black woman who developed GPS technology
Most of us use global positioning system (GPS) technology on a regular basis, whether it’s to add a location to a social media post or to ask our car’s navigation system to take us to our destination. We do it without giving a second thought to how or by whom GPS technology was invented. Of course, Albert Einstein is well-known, …
Read More »Black Women in United States were required by law to cover their hair in public
The hair of black women is frequently admired and appreciated. From the afro to braids, black hair’s texture extends itself to creating various styles. Even the mainstream media frequently imitates fashions invented for and catered to women with Afrocentric hair, often without acknowledgment. However, there was a time when black women couldn’t show their hair in public. Continue reading to …
Read More »Harriet Tubman: a strong black woman who escaped slavery to become a leading abolitionist
Harriet Tubman (c. 1820–1913) escaped slavery to become a leading abolitionist. She led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom along the route of the Underground Railroad. Who Was Harriet Tubman? Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland and escaped to freedom in the North in 1849, becoming the Underground Railroad’s most renowned “conductor.” On this sophisticated hidden network of …
Read More »Ruby Bridges the first black child to attend an all-white school that she was guarded in 1960
Ruby Bridges born in 1954 was the first African American child to integrate an all-white public elementary school in the South. She later became a civil rights activist. Who Is Ruby Bridges? When Ruby Bridges was six years old, she became the first African American child to attend a predominantly white Southern elementary school. Due to angry mobs, her mother …
Read More »Did you know Avatar was created based on the culture of Nilotic people of Africa?
“The Nilotic people of Eastern South Sudan, Western Ethiopia, and Northern Kenya inspired Avatar. The Nilotic people are the world’s tallest and darkest people.” Avatar (also known as James Cameron’s Avatar) is a 2009 American film directed by James Cameron. In the mid-twentieth century, mankind colonize Pandora, a lush livable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star …
Read More »Meet self-educated African American Architect who designed Washington, DC in two days
Many people think, Washington, D.C., the U.S. headquarters. Originally designed by the white famous architects Pierre Charles L’Enfant, Andrew Ellicot finished the project in 1792 after the former left the building. U.S capital would not be the same if it wasn’t for Benjamin Banneker, the Black architect hired by George Washington, the first President of the United States, to design …
Read More »Henry Box Brown, enslaved black man who mailed himself to freedom in a wooden box in 1849
Henry “Box” Brown was born enslaved in Louisa County, Virginia in 1815. When he was 15, he was sent to Richmond to work in a tobacco factory. His life was filled with unrewarding drudgery, though he had it better than most of his enslaved peers. The loss of his freedom prevented him from living with his wife, Nancy, who was …
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