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John Hope Franklin: A Life of Firsts and Flowers
Editor’s note: They Did It First is The Root’s new weekly series on trailblazing people and events in the history of black America. Who was the first (and only) historian to have an orchid named for him? It certainly wasn’t his only “first,” but it was his most unusual. Revered historian John Hope Franklin, the author of…
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Carol Taylor’s 1st Flight Made History for African Americans
Who was the first African-American flight attendant for a U.S. airline? The skies weren’t always so friendly to black people. In the mid-1950s, the handful of black employees working for the major U.S. carriers were in service positions, and all the pilots (male only) and flight attendants (stewardesses or hostesses, in the vernacular of the…
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Cigar-Smoking, Gun-Toting Mary Fields Carried Montana’s Mail
Who was the first African American to drive a U.S. mail coach? Cascade, Mont., was the quintessential frontier town of the Wild West, packed with saloons and home to a handful of settlers and gold seekers who built up the area after the railroad arrived. As statehood was approaching in 1889, all of Montana had…
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Dorothy Dandridge: A 1st for the Academy Awards
Who was the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award in a leading role? Two black women had been honored before at the Academy Awards, both in the best supporting actress category: Hattie McDaniel, in 1939, the first African American ever to be nominated for an Oscar, and to win; and Ethel…
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Cathay Williams: She Pretended to Be a Man to Enlist as a Buffalo Soldier
Who was the first (and only) female buffalo soldier? In November 1866, an African American named William Cathey, along with two companions, enlisted in the U.S. Army in St. Louis. Described by the recruiting officer as 5 feet 9 inches tall, with black eyes, hair and complexion, Cathey stated that he was 22 years old…
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What a Slave-Reparations Claim Has to Do With Harvard Law School
Who was the first person to ask for reparations for slavery? In America the concept of reparations for slavery is generally thought to have originated during the Civil War era, with the failed promise of 40 acres and a mule. But it actually dates back to Revolutionary America, when a former slave named Belinda went…
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The 1st Successful American-Born Magician Was a Black Man
Who was America’s first successful stage magician? He swallowed swords and molten lead. He danced on eggs without cracking their shells. He threw knives; he threw his voice. He was Richard Potter, the first American-born stage magician and ventriloquist, black or white. Prior to Potter’s career in the early 19th century, the performance of magic…
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Why White Guests Clamored to Check In to Edwin Berry's Hotel
Who was the first American businessman to furnish hotel guest rooms with amenities and toiletries? As a young man, when the circus came to town, he set up a refreshment stand outside the big top. He had one at the train station, too. The cook’s apprentice-turned-hotel owner was praised upon his death as “the leading…
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Who Was the 1st Black Female Ph.D.?
Who was the first African-American woman to receive her Ph.D. degree from an American university? (Hint: Three pioneers are considered to share this distinction.) Let’s start with some numbers. In 1903 W.E.B. Du Bois published The Talented Tenth. Here he introduced the term by which he meant the “college-bred Negroes,” the race’s “exceptional men” who…
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Who Was the 1st Black Woman to Play Professional Baseball?
Who was the first black woman to play professional baseball? When Jackie Robinson stepped onto Ebbets Field on April 15, 1947, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ first baseman broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier. Integration of the all-white MLB was seen by many as a huge step forward not just for sport, but for the nascent civil…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
