Black History

Remembering Jack Johnson, the First Black Heavyweight Boxing Champion The Texas-born fighter faced down his opponents and took down the ‘Great White Hope’ movement that was designed to end his reign, but his legacy reaches beyond the sport. In his heyday as heavyweight champion, which began in 1908 and ended in 1915, it wasn’t enough for promoters to find opponents for Jack Johnson. They needed white ones. The search for the “Great White Hope,” a movement started by noted author Jack London, who found Johnson’s position as heavyweight champ insufferable, began in 1910, with Jim Jeffries, the first of a string of white challengers to challenge Johnson for his title. It wasn’t until 1915, when Jess Willard, in the 26th round of a scheduled 45-round fight, that one finally succeeded. Born in Galveston, Texas, the son of former slaves, Johnson was a dock worker in his teenage years. He left home at 16, making it as far as New York, surviving by working as a janitor or stable boy. A shop ow...

13 Black-owned founded brands that transformed the alcohol market Alcohol has been around for a long time. How long? While the first "fermented drink" can be traced back to 7000 BCE, the first known beer recipe was etched into clay tablets by Black Sumerian women around 1800 BCE. Created as a hymn to Ninkasi—the Sumerian goddess of alcohol—this recipe reached modern hands in 1991 after Anchor Brewing Company brewed up a batch based on a translation by Miguel Civil, a Professor of Sumerology at the University of Chicago. The beer didn't take off commercially—mostly because it is meant to be consumed right away—but the takeaway here is that Black culture has been significant to the alcohol business for as long as we can remember. In this article, we're taking a look at some of the Black-owned and founded brands in the alcohol beverage industry to celebrate these crafters and their work in pushing the industry to new heights. Maison Noir Wines This double-sided project t...

Arthur Smith was labeled as the first African American Jewelry Designer during the mid-20th century. Showing artistic talent at a young age, Arthur received a scholarship to Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. After graduating in 1940, he enrolled in a jewelry-makin Attending class at NYU where he learned the basic technique of jewelry making. It wasn’t until he met Winifred Mason, that he began to focus and truly develop his true artistic skills. He begin applying the techniques he learned to his own personal creations. He soon opened his own shop in Greenwich Village in 1946, later relocating to 140 West Fourth Street which proved to be a boost to his career. It allowed him to market his products to higher-end shoppers, causing his creations to be in high demand. Arthur was able to establish business relationships with Bloomingdale’s and other stores around the U.S. He also received coverage in Vogue, Harper’s Bazzar and he was mentioned in The New Yorker. “A piece o...

Sarah Rector Sarah Rector received international attention at the age of eleven when The Kansas City Star in 1913 publicized the headline, “Millions to a Black Girl.” From that moment Rector’s life became a cauldron of misinformation, legal and financial maneuvering, and public speculation. Rector was born to Joseph and Rose Rector on March 3, 1902, in a two-room cabin near Twine, Oklahoma on Muscogee Creek Indian allotment land.  Both Joseph and Rose had enslaved Creek ancestry, and both of their fathers fought with the Union Army during the Civil War. When Oklahoma statehood became imminent in 1907, the Dawes Allotment Act divided Creek lands among the Creeks and their former slaves with a termination date of 1906.  Rector’s parents, Sarah Rector herself, her brother, Joe, Jr., and sister Rebecca all received land. Lands granted to former slaves were usually the rocky lands of poorer agricultural quality. Rector’s allotment of 160 acres was valued at $556.50. Primarily to ge...

Mr. & Mrs. Junius George Groves Junius George Groves, the son of Martin and Mary Anderson Groves, was born in slavery in Green County, Kentucky. After emancipation, he received public schooling three months out of the year but taught himself to read, write, and understand mathematics. As a freedman with just 90 cents to his name, Groves ventured to Edwardsville, Kansas, during the Exodus of 1879, where he married Matilda E. Stewart a year later. The couple had 14 children, 12 of whom survived into adulthood. After working as a sharecropper, Groves began purchasing farmland in 1884; by 1905, his holdings included about 500 acres. He and Matilda grew the farm and built a 22-room mansion on the property. Groves purchased and shipped produce—‌most famously potatoes—‌throughout North America. His other financial ventures included owning and operating a general goods store in Edwardsville, stock in mines in Indian Territory and New Mexico, and stock in Kansas banks; he also founded or co...

Black Folklore The Downfall Of Allensworth: How Racism And Lies Destroyed A Black Town In California Almost 70 miles south of Fresno, California, tucked away in the small county of Tulare is a tiny state park. Although it may not look like much, it was once a true testament to Black American resilience. How do you get a whole race of people to uplift themselves after years of persecution? This was the very question Colonel Allen Allensworth asked himself before he embarked on one of the most important journeys in African American history–to build the first Black self-sufficient town in California. Sadly, that journey would never get to live up to its full potential. Like so many other symbols of Black excellence in the early 1900s, Allensworth’s dream would be poisoned by racism’s venomous sting. Colonel Allensworth was an American hero in every sense of the word and his story doesn’t get told nearly enough. But this is Black Folklore, where we dive into America’s past to tell lesser-k...

THE AFRICAN INSURANCE COMPANY (1810-1813) In 1810 The African Insurance Company was created with offices located at 159 Lombard Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  It was the first African American-owned insurance company in the United States. The first president was Joseph Randolph while Cyrus Porter was treasurer and William Coleman was its secretary. The establishment of an insurance company by African Americans was a natural progression from beneficial societies that had emerged just after the American Revolution. Beneficial societies were social and economic safety nets for an impoverished community; in Philadelphia the Free African Society established on April 12, 1787 charged members monthly dues in order to create a pool of money from which to draw if women were widowed, a member fell sick, or to provide a Christian burial for a member who died.  This assurance that one would be taken care of by an organization if any misfortune were to befall them was a powerful mo...

Anthony & Mary Johnson Anthony Johnson (c. 1600 – 1670) was a man known for achieving wealth in the early 17th-century Colony of Virginia. Born in Angola, he was one of the first African Americans whose right to own a slave for life was recognized by the Virginia courts. Held as an indentured servant in 1621, he earned his freedom after several years, and was granted land by the colony. He later became a tobacco farmer in Maryland. He attained great wealth after completing his term as an indentured servant, and has been referred to as "'the black patriarch' of the first community of Negro property owners in America". In the early 1620s, Portuguese slave traders captured the man who would later be known as Anthony Johnson in Portuguese Angola, named him António, and sold him into the Atlantic slave trade. António was bought by a colonist in Virginia. As an indentured servant, António worked for a merchant at the Virginia Company. He was also received into the Roman...

Honoring the African-American bike builders There are so many well-known bike builders in the industry. They leave their mark in their styling and engineering. Many are now legends. Here are the stories of some African-American bike builders who have also left their name in bike building history. Ben Hardy It’s one of the most iconic and famous bikes around – the “Captain America” bike from the movie “Easy Rider.” Clifford Vaughs was a bike designer and Ben Hardy was a bike builder. Together they came up with a the red, white and blue, panhead, hardtail chopper that is captured in so many movie photos with Peter Fonda behind the handlebars. Hardy also built the “Billy” bike, driven by Dennis Hopper, that also appeared in the movie. The “Captain America” bike was painted by Dean Lanza and Fonda specified that the tank resemble the shield belonging to the comic book character Captain America, hence the name of the bike. For 25 years Vaughs and Hardy remained unknown and uncredited as the...

Black Owned Cycling Apparel While Black riders have been setting styles since Kitty Knox broke the color barrier at the League of American Bicyclists (then Wheelmen) in 1895, these companies are the first to step into the kit space as brands. Clipt'n - This is the only brand on the list to feature drop tail bibs, let alone drop-tails with four pockets. Launched in 2021 by Sheldon Freeman and the late James Moten Jr., Clipt'n's, Mr. Freeman revealed to me, "We've sold more women's [bibs] than men's." Their club-fit jerseys have nicely tapered torsos, all in calming prints in current color palates, but the bibs are the real stars here. Kings Rule Together and Queens Rule Together ; this brand was kickstarted by riders behind the Philadelphia-based cycling club of the same name. KRT's summer jerseys are highly elastic and have all the right features: good sleeve length, a zippered pocket, aero fit, and a minimal collar. The prints are reminiscent of...

Born in Boston, Katherine T. “Kittie” Knox (1874-1900) worked as a seamstress but discovered a passion for bicycling. She was a talented bike rider and a member of Boston’s Riverside Cycling Club, one of the country’s first Black cycling groups. She challenged the idea that bicycling was an activity meant for men and often finished ahead of her male competition in bicycle races. Knox insisted on riding her bicycle in baggy trousers instead of the long skirts that women were expected to wear at the time. She joined the overwhelmingly male-dominated League of American Wheelmen (LAW), the predecessor to today’s League of American Bicyclists (LAB). In 1894, LAW banned Black people from belonging to the organization. Knox challenged this head-on. She showed up at LAW’s annual meeting in 1895 to present a certificate confirming that she had joined prior to the group’s “white only” membership policy. Several LAW members came to Knox’s defense, but many others expressed strong objections to he...

Marshall "Major" Taylor The Major Taylor Project is named after American cyclist Marshall “Major” Taylor (1878-1932). Marshall “Major” Taylor is a Black athlete and cycling legend who was one of the greatest bicyclists of his era, setting numerous world records and winning a World Championship and multiple national championships--all while battling racism throughout his career from the late 1800s to early 1900s. He was an international superstar whose superhuman exploits were as well-known in his era as LeBron James or Michael Jordan are today.   As the bicycle industry and cycling community turn their attention to the Black Lives Matter movement and the racial injustices Black people continue to face more than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, the story of Marshall “Major” Taylor, “the fastest man in America,” is more relevant now than ever. Born in 1878, Taylor was a powerful sprinter who established numerous world records in races covering distances from a qua...

12 Of The Greatest And Most Famous Black Opera Singers While black singers tend to be known for more modern styles of music like jazz and R & B, they’ve also been gracing the stages of opera halls around the world. From Marian Anderson to Jessye Norman to Leontyne Price, there have been a number of black singers who have made their mark on one of the oldest and most prestigious forms of vocal music. In this post, we’re going to take a look at the lives and careers of 12 of the greatest and most famous black opera singers of all time. Let’s get started. 1. Marian Anderson Considered one of the finest classical singers of her generation, Marian Anderson was a trailblazer who broke down racial barriers in the world of opera. Born in Philadelphia in 1897, Anderson began singing in her local church choir as a child. However, her career began to take off in the mid-1920s, when she won a singing contest with the New York Philharmonic, which resulted in her performing with them. Throughout...