BLACK HISTORY MONTH LITTLE KNOWN FACTS

Fact #128
Harriet Ann Jacobs was a slave who published Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Brent. The book chronicles the hardships and sexual abuse she experienced as a female growing up in slavery. Jacobs fled slavery in 1835 by hiding in a crawlspace in her grandmother's attic for nearly seven years before traveling to Philadelphia by boat, and eventually to New York.

Fact #129
Rapper Jay-Z allegedly developed his stage name as a reference to New York's J/Z subway lines that have a stop in his Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, neighborhood.

Fact #130
The popular FUBU clothing line stands for "For Us By Us." It was originally created by designer Daymond John, who wanted to create a company that would give back to his Queens, New York, community.

Fact #131
Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champion, patented a wrench in 1922.

Fact #132
After the success of Negro Digest, publisher John H. Johnson decided to create a magazine to depict the positive side of black life and black achievement. The first issue of his publication, Ebony, sold out in a matter of hours. An additional 25,000 copies had to be printed immediately to meet the demands of the public.

Fact #133
The theme song for the groundbreaking African-American sitcom Sanford and Sons was composed by music great Quincy Jones.

Fact #134
Before he became a basketball legend, Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team during his sophomore year for being undersized.

Fact #135
Chaka Kahn, the "Queen of Funk Soul" is also well known for singing the theme song to public television's popular educational program, Reading Rainbow.

Fact #136
Alicia Keys was accepted into Columbia University, but decided to pursue a full-time music career instead.

Fact #137
In her early life, Coretta Scott King was as well known as a singer as she was as a civil rights activist. The young soprano won a scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where she met future husband, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fact #138
Martin Luther King, Jr. was stabbed by an African-American woman in 1958 while attending his book signing at Blumstein's department store in Harlem. The next year, King and his wife visited India to study Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence.

Fact #139
Lewis Howard Latimer drafted patent drawings for Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, while working at a patent law firm.

Fact #140
In 1967, Robert H. Lawrence, Jr. became the first black man to be trained as an astronaut. Unfortunately, he died in a plane crash during flight training, and never made it into space.

Fact #141
Heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis led protests against the U.S. Armed forces policies of segregation while he served in the Army during WW II.

Fact #142
Nat "Deadwood Dick" Love, a renowned and skilled cowboy, was the only African-American cowboy to write his autobiography The Life and Adventures of Nat Love, Better Known in the Cattle Country as Deadwood Dick, published in 1907.

Fact #143
African-American fashion designer Ann Lowe designed the wedding dress of Jacqueline Bouvier, the bride of future president, Senator John F. Kennedy.

Fact #144
Jazz musician Alice MacLeod married John Coltrane in 1965. She appeared as a pianist in many of his later recordings.

Fact #145
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall said he was punished for misbehavior in school by being forced to write copies of the Constitution. He said this later piqued his interest in politics.

Fact #146
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was a classmate of Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes during their studies at Lincoln University.

Fact #147
Buffalo Soldiers is the name given to the all-black regiments of the U.S. Army started in 1866. More than 20 Buffalo Soldiers received the highest Medal of Honor for their service—the highest number of any U.S. military unit. The oldest living Buffalo Soldier, Mark Matthews, died at the age of 111 in 2005.

Fact #148
The Loew's Grand Theatre on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia, was selected to air the premiere of the film Gone with the Wind in 1939. All the black actors, including Academy Award-winner Hattie McDaniel, were barred from attending.

Fact #149
George Monroe and William Robinson are thought to be the first black Pony Express riders.

Fact #150
At one point, Pony Express rider George Monroe was also a stagecoach driver for President Ulysses S. Grant. He frequently navigated the president through the curving Wanona Trail in the Yosemite Valley and, as a result, Monroe Meadows in Yosemite National Park is named for him.

Fact #151
Garrett Augustus Morgan, inventor of the traffic signal, also became the first African-American to own a car in Cleveland, Ohio.

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