Education, Inventions and Freedom

On November 20 in Black History

In 1865… Howard Seminary (later Howard University) founded in Washington, D.C. By 1867, liberal arts and medical programs were added to the university. Famous alumni include Thurgood Marshall, Phylicia Rashaad and Toni Morrison. Famous faculty include Dr. Charles Drew and Carter G. Woodson. The University continues to attract the nation’s top students and produces more on-campus African-American Ph.D.s than any other university in the world. www.howard.edu

In 1938… Morgan State University was founded on this date. The school actually began in 1867 as the Centenary Biblical Institute to train young men in ministry. In 1915, Andrew Carnegie gave the school a conditional grant of $50,000 for the central academic building. The university became public in 1939. Morgan is also a founding member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). Morgan State experienced record student enrollment this year. www.morgan.edu

In 1923…Garrett Morgan invented and patented the traffic signal. He was successful and had invented the first human-hair straightener. He marketed the product under the name the G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Cream. Morgan called it a Safety Hood and patented it as a Breathing Device, but the world came to know it as a Gas Mask. He also started a newspaper called the Cleveland Call. http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/garrettmorgan.html

In 1655…Zumbi, Afro-Brazilian abolitionist, soldier and leader in the resistance against the Portugese oppression, was beheaded. Zumbi was the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares, in the present-day state of Alagoas, Brazil. He was known or his physical prowess and cunning in battle and was a respected military strategist by the time he was in his early twenties. November 20 is celebrated, chiefly in Rio de Janeiro, as a day of national pride. The day has special meaning for Afro-Brazilians, who honor him as a hero, freedom fighter, and a symbol of freedom. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumbi

Bust of Zumbi in Brasília. The plaque reads: "Zumbi dos Palmares, the black leader of all races."

Gathering Sounds

"I gather up each sound you left behind and stretch them on our bed.

each nite I breathe you and become high."  

Sonia Sanchez



Sonia Sanchez

 Renown poet and professor, Sonia Sanchez has been known for her innovative melding of musical formats - like the blues - and traditional poetic formats like haiku and tanka.  Sanchez was the first to create and teach a course based on Black Women and literature in the United States.

Here's Sonia reciting, "Put On the Sleeves of Love" from her upcoming book, Morning Haiku, which will be published January 25, 2011.  Check out her website at http://www.soniasanchez.net/.

I was first introduced to Sonia Sanchez in the movie, love jones when Nina quoted the poem above to when talking to Darius on a date.  Nina's character said that Sanchez's poems made her want to burn her notebook...and I thought, "now I just HAVE to read those poems."

Stay tuned as we highlight black poets monthly.

Happy Birthday Condoleeza

On November 14 in Black History...

In 1954, Condoleeza Rice professor, diplomat and national security expert, was born in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1974, at the age of 19, Rice earned her Bachelor’s Degree in political science, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver. In 1975 she earnedher master’s degree from the University of Notre Dame. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush.
Rice was the first African-American woman secretary of state, as well as the second African American (after Colin Powell), and the second woman (after Madeleine Albright).

Rice has written numerous articles and several books on international relations and foreign affairs, including Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft, with Philip Zelikow (Harvard University Press, 1995). She has authored and coauthored several books, includingalso Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family (2010), Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft (1995), with Philip Zelikow, The Gorbachev Era (1986), with Alexander Dallin, and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984). 
She's currently a professor at Stanford University.

"Education is your armour for whatever comes against you."

Condoleeza Rice

Watch this video about Rice's stance on education and why her father did not march  with Dr. King.

The Daily Show - Condoleezza Rice Pt. 1
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condoleezza_Rice
http://www.hoover.org/fellows/10078
http://www.hoover.org/news/press-releases/29313
http://todayinafricanamericanhistory.com/african-american-history (retrieved on November 14, 2010)

Opera and Sisterhood

Mary Cardwell Dawson

On November 12 in Black History...

In 1941, Mary Cardwell Dawson founded on November 12 the NATIONAL NEGRO OPERA COMPANY.  in 1941. The NNOC grew to include chapters New York, Chicago,Washington, DC, and other cities around the country. Dawson's opera company, her music school and the Cardwell Dawson Choir, opened new doors and launched careers for African-Americans who had little or no access to classical odr opera music training.  First Lady Elanor Roosevelt and Marian Anderson were honorary board chairs. 

The house  where the company was housed also has a rich history beyond Mary Cardwell Dawson. Businessman William "Woogie" Harris, brother of famed photographer "Teenie" Harris, bought the house in 1930, hosting and housing prominent black entertainers (Lena Horne, Sarah Vaughn, Cab Calloway) and athletes (Joe Louis, Roberto Clemente) who were denied Pittsburgh hotel accommodations because of their race. Neighbors dubbed the house "Mystery Manor" because of the famous comings and goings.  The Company disbanded in 1962 upon Dawson's death.  Currently there are efforts to restore the house. 

 Check out this video about the house and NNOC.

National Negro Operal Company

In 1922 SIGMA GAMMA RHO, INC. was founded on November 12 by seven school teachers: Mary Lou Allison Little, Dorothy Hanley Whiteside, Vivian White Marbury, Nannie Mae Gahn Johnson, Hattie Mae Dulin Redford, Bessie M. Downey Martin, and Cubena McClure.  The sorority was the first African-American sorority founded at a predominantly white college, Butler University in Indianapolis, IN.  The group became an incorporated national collegiate sorority on December 30, 1929, when a charter was granted to Alpha chapter at Butler.

Its first three years were devoted to organizing. Now, Sigma Gamma Rho continues to grow through Sisterhood, Scholarship and Service. The sorority has supported the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), National Council of Negro Women, National Pan-Hellenic Council, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, National Urban League, March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, National Mental Health Association, United Negro College Fund, Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Social Change, Black Women's Agenda, and American Association of University Women.

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., now has over 400 chapters in the United States, Bermuda, the Virgin Islands, Bahamas, and Germany.

Voting in Mid-term Elections

Blacks, Young Voters Did Turn Out for Mid-Terms


http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/moving_america_news/23386

Did  you vote?  If you did not vote, you can't complain.