MY TURN column
The Courier-Post
February 19, 2009
The election of Barack Obama as the first African-American president has been heralded as a landmark achievement in American history. It is appropriate, especially during the month of February, to be mindful of the many other notable "firsts" achieved by Black Americans.
Since 1976, Black History Month has marked not only the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, (men who greatly influenced both black and white Americans), but also the accomplishments by other personalities who have assumed an honored place in the history of our nation.
Here then is a compilation of historic proportions:
Government
On Feb. 3, 1870, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, and three weeks later, Hiram Revels became the first black U.S. senator from Mississippi. Joseph Rainey assumed the position of Congressman from South Carolina that same year, and was re-elected to the House of Representatives four more times.
The first black female U.S. Representative was New York's Shirley Chisholm (1969-1983), followed by the first female U.S. senator, Carol Mosely Braun, who served Illinois between 1992-1998.
In recent years, high government positions have been held by Gen. Colin Powell, the 65th U.S. secretary of state (2001-2004) and the first black chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-1993). His successor as secretary of state was Dr. Condoleezza Rice (2005-2009), the first black woman to hold that cabinet office.
Carl Stokes was the first black American male to be elected mayor of a major U.S. city (Cleveland, 1967-1971), while Sharon Pratt Dixon Kelly became the first female mayor of Washington, DC (1991-1995). It wasn't until 1990 that Douglas Wilder of Virginia was elected the country's first black governor.
In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, based largely on the more than 30 cases he successfully argued as a lawyer challenging racial segregation in higher education. Marshall's achieved his greatest impact with the landmark decision handed down in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), and the "separate but equal" doctrine.
Andrew Young, a supporter and friend of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, became the first black U.S. Representative to the United Nations in 1977. Earlier this month, Washington lawyer Eric Holder became the nation's first African-American Attorney General.
Military
In both war and peace, black Americans have served the United States with distinction. For bravery exhibited during the Civil War, Sgt. William H. Carney was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1900. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. became the first African-American general in the U.S. Army in 1940. His son, Benjamin O. Davis Jr. was the first black general in the U.S. Air Force, after leading the famed Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.
Education
Distinguished scholars have left their mark in the black community as well. In 1837, James McCune Smith was the first male to earn an M.D. degree, followed by Rebecca Lee Crumpler, who became the first black woman to receive an M.D. degree as a graduate of the New England Female Medical College in 1864.
Born in Philadelphia, Alain Locke graduated from Harvard University in 1907 and became the first black Rhodes Scholar. Following study at Oxford, he went on to receive a Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard in 1918. Locke encouraged black artists and musicians in America to explore their African roots and he created the Harlem Renaissance movement.
The first black college president was Daniel A. Payne (Wilberforce University, Ohio, 1856), while the first president of an Ivy League University is Ruth Simmons, currently heading the ivy leagues's prestigious Brown University since 2001.
Literature
Ever since Phillis Wheatley became the first published American black poet in 1773, African-American writers have been capturing literary awards.
Gwendolyn Brooks' won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, Charles Gordone was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1970, and Princeton professor Toni Morrison brought home the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.
Robert Hayden became the nation's first black Poet Laureate (1976-1978, and Rita Dove held the same honor for a woman between 1993-1995.
Popular culture
Many aspects of daily life have been touched by black pioneers. Thomas L. Jennings became the first African-American to hold a U.S. patent in 1821 for his invention of a dry-cleaning process. Sarah E. Goode, became the first African-American woman to receive a patent for her 1885 invention of a bed that folded up into a cabinet.
There is much speculation that the discovery of the North Pole in 1909 was actually accomplished by Matthew A. Henson, a black outdoorsman, who accompanied explorer Robert E. Peary, who was laying sick in an icy campsite. Another black American, George Gibbs, traveled with Richard Byrd when he claimed the South Pole for America on a trip from 1939-41.
For his work in mediating an Arab-Israeli truce, Ralph J. Bunche was the first African-American to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. (The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became the second in 1964.)
In 1983, Guion "Guy" Bluford Jr., a Philadelphian, became the first black astronaut to travel in space; Mae Jemison became the first black female astronaut in 1992. Frederick D. Gregory flew the space shuttle as its first African-American commander in 1998.
Miss America of 1984, Vanessa Williams, was the country's first black winner. When she was forced to resign, Suzette Charles of Mays Landing (the runner-up, and also an African-American) assumed the title.
The arts
Whether in the fine arts or Hollywood, black Americans have always excelled. Marian Anderson became the first black representative in the Metropolitan Opera Company in 1955, and Arthur Mitchell the first principal dancer in the New York City Ballet in 1959. Mitchell later developed the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the first African-American classical ballet company.
Both Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald were the first black recipients of Grammy Awards in 1958, while Gordon Parks became the first black director for a major Hollywood studio in 1969.
Oscars were first given to black actors when Hattie McDaniels won the supporting actress award in 1940 for her role in "Gone with the Wind." In 1963, Sidney Poitier won best actor for "Lilies of the Field."
Television
Network television also proved to be a breakthrough arena. In 1956, singer Nat King Cole became the first black to become host of a weekly network television show. Oprah Winfrey became the first black woman television host in 1986.
Philadelphia comedian Bill Cosby was the first African-American star of a weekly television drama with 1965's "I Spy." The Cosby Show (1984-92), became the most popular program on American television during the late 1980s.
Sports
Black athletes have dominated the American sports scene for years. Everyone knows about Jackie Robinson's 1947 introduction into the National Baseball League with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Fewer may recall that New Jersey's Larry Doby was the first black player in the American League's Cleveland Indians three months later that same year. Both men are enshrined in baseball's Hall of Fame.
Management positions in baseball soon opened up. The first African-American manager in the major leagues was Frank Robinson with the Cleveland Indians (1975-1977). Robinson was named Manager of the Year in 1982 and 1989.
Former Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Bill White became the highest ranking black executive in sports from 1989-94 when he served as president of the National League.
The aptly named Willie Thrower was the first black NFL quarterback in 1953 for the Chicago Bears. The first black professional football coach was Fritz Pollard. He was also first black to play in the Rose Bowl.
Other well-known athletic firsts:
Marshall W. Taylor (1899 World Cycling Champion)
Jack Johnson (1908 Heavyweight Boxing Champion)
Earl Floyd (1950 National Basketball Association player, Washington Capitols)
Althea Gibson (1957, 1958 Wimbledon Tennis Champion)
Willie O'Ree (1958, National Hockey League player, Boston Bruins)
Arthur Ashe (1968 Wimbledon Champion)
Tiger Woods (1997 Masters Champion)
It's amazing to think that in 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt caused a national uproar when he invited educator Booker T. Washington to be a dinner guest at the White House. Today, the first African-American president and his entire family have moved into that very same residence.
