BLACK HISTORY MONTH LITTLE KNOWN FACTS

Fact #152
Isaac Murphy, a great thoroughbred jockey, was the first to win three Derbies and the only jockey to win the Kentucky Derby, the Kentucky Oaks, and the Clark Handicap within the same year.

Fact #153
For a time during his youth, future politician Barack Obama referred to himself as "Barry."

Fact #154
Barack Obama won Best Spoken Word Album at the Grammy Awards for the abridged audio book of his autobiography Dreams from My Father and the nonfiction work, The Audacity of Hope.

Fact #155
Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles founded the first college for black women in the United States in 1881. The school was named Spelman College after Laura Celestia Spelman Rockefeller, the wife of John D. Rockefeller, who made a sizeable donation to the school.

Fact #156
Legendary baseball player Satchel Paige would travel as many as 30,000 miles a year to pitch as a free agent. When baseball season was over in the U.S., he would travel to the Dominican Republic and Mexico to pitch during the winter.

Fact #157
Bill Pickett (1871 - 1932) a renowned cowboy and rodeo performer was named to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1971 and honored by the U.S. Postal service in a series of stamps as one of the twenty "Legends of the West"

Fact #158
Since 1997, actor Sidney Poitier has been deeply involved in politics as the Bahamian ambassador to Japan.

Fact #159
In addition to her career in Washington D.C., Condoleezza Rice is an accomplished pianist who has accompanied cellist Yo-Yo Ma, played with soul singer Aretha Franklin, and performed for Queen Elizabeth II.

Fact #160
A serious student, Condoleezza Rice entered college at the age of 15, and was an assistant professor at Stanford by age 26.

Fact #161
At the very peak of his fame, rock 'n' roll pioneer Little Richard concluded that his music was the Devil's work, and became a traveling Evangelical preacher instead. When the Beatles revived several of his songs in 1964, Little Richard returned to the stage.

Fact #162
Actor, singer, and civil rights activist Paul Robeson was once considered for a U.S. vice presidential spot on Henry A. Wallace's 1948 Progressive Party ticket.

Fact #163
An heirloom tomato variety, originating in Russia, is named after actor, athlete and civil rights activist Paul Robeson.

Fact #166
Performer Paul Robeson was conversant in more than 20 languages.

Fact #167
African-American baseball legend Jackie Robinson had an older brother, Matthew, who won a silver medal in the 200-yard dash in the 1936 Olympics. He came in second to Jesse Owens.

Fact #168
Before Branch Rickey offered future hall-of-famer Jackie Robinson the contract that integrated professional baseball, he personally tested Robinson's calm reactions to the racial slurs and insults he knew the player would have to endure.

Fact #169
After retiring from baseball, hall-of-famer Jackie Robinson helped establish the African-American owned and controlled Freedom Bank.

Fact #170
In the early 1940s in Fort Hood, Texas, future baseball legend Jackie Robinson refused to give up his seat and move to the back of a bus when ordered to by the driver. His excellent reputation, combined with the united efforts of friends, the N.A.A.C.P., and various black newspapers, helped save him from serious consequences.

Fact #171
Before becoming a professional baseball player, Jackie Robinson played football for the Honolulu Bears.

Fact #172
Ray Charles Robinson (1930 – 2004) a musical genius and pioneer in blending gospel and the blues shortened his name to just Ray Charles to prevent confusion with the great boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. Ray Charles began going blind at an early age and was completely blind by the time he was 7 years old, but has never relied upon a cane, or a guide dog. He was one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at its inaugural ceremony in 1986.

Fact #173
Boxer Sugar Ray Robinson's birth name was actually Walker Smith, Jr.

Fact #174
Reverend Al Sharpton preached his first sermon at the age of four, and toured with world-famous gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson.

Fact #175
Run of Run-D.M.C. is the brother of hip-hop promoter Russell Simmons.

Fact #176
Upon her death in 2003, singer Nina Simone's ashes were spread across the continent of Africa, per her last request.

Fact #177
African-American tap dancer Howard Sims, was known as the "Sandman" because he often sprinkled sand on stage to amplify his tap dance steps.

Fact #178
Mamie Smith was the first African-American artist to make a blues record. The album, which brought blues into the mainstream, sold a million copies in less than a year.

Fact #179
Olympic medal winning athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith, made headlines around the world by raising their black-gloved fists at the 1968 medal award ceremony. Both athletes wore black socks and no shoes on the podium to represent black poverty in America.

Fact #180
Walker Smith Jr. (1921 – 1989) became known as Sugar Ray Robinson when he borrowed his friend Ray Robinson's Amateur Athletic Union card and became the Golden Glove Lightweight champion in 1940 under the borrowed name.

Fact #181
The "sweet as sugar" boxing style of athlete Walker Smith, Jr. earned him the nickname "Sugar" Ray Robinson. Considered the greatest boxer of all time, Robinson held the world welterweight title from 1946 to 1951 and was middleweight champion five times between 1951 and 1960 - the first boxer in history to win a divisional world championship five times.

Fact #182
In 1930, Valaida Snow captivated audiences with her professional singing and jazz trumpet playing. Her abilities earned her the name "Little Louis", in reference to the style of trumpeter Louis Armstrong.

Fact #183
John Baxter Taylor, the first African-American to win an Olympic Gold Medal, also held a degree from the University of Pennsylvania in veterinary medicine.

Fact #184
African-American Olympic figure skating medalist Debi Thomas, studied engineering at Stanford University and later became an orthopedic surgeon.

Fact #185
In addition to being a millionaire entrepreneur, Madame C.J. Walker was also a civil rights activist. In 1917 she was part of a delegation that met with President Woodrow Wilson to convince him to make lynching a federal crime.

Fact #186
Muddy Waters (1913 – 1983) is considered the "Father of Chicago Blues" with his infusion of the electric guitar into the Delta country blues. Muddy Waters was influential to some of the most popular rock bands, such as the Rolling Stones, who named themselves after his popular 1950 song &dlquo;Rollin’ Stone".

Fact #187
Rapper Kanye West's father was Ray West, a former Black Panther who was one of the first black photojournalists at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Fact #188
The mother of rapper and producer Kanye West was a Professor of English before retiring to serve as her son's manager.

Fact #189
Phillis Wheatley was the first published African-American poet with her 1774 collection, Poems on Various Subjects. In order to prove she was the author, she had to submit her work to examination by a group of Boston intellectuals, and defend her literary ability in court.

Fact #190
Before Forest Whitaker was a film star, he was accepted to the Music Conservatory at the University of Southern California (USC) to study opera as a tenor.

Fact #191
Jesse Ernest Wilkins Jr. (1923 – ), a physicist, mathematician and an engineer, earned a PhD. in mathematics at age 19 from the University of Chicago in 1942.

Fact #192
The "Dee" in actor Billy Dee Williams' name is short for his middle name, "December."

Fact #193
Cathay Williams (1842 – ) was the first and only known female Buffalo Soldier. She was born into slavery and worked for the Union army during the Civil War. She posed as a man and enlisted as Williams Cathay in the 38th infantry in 1866. She was given a medical discharge in 1868.

Fact #194
NFL player John Williams competed in two Super Bowls before he quit the league to become a dentist.

Fact #195
Renowned African-American architect Paul Williams mastered the art of rendering drawings upside-down so that his clients, who may have been uncomfortable sitting next to a black person, would see the drawings right side up.

Fact #196
Because he worked during the height of segregation, most of the homes African-American architect Paul Williams designed were built on land whose deeds barred blacks from being able to purchase them.

Fact #197
Musician Stevie Wonder recorded the cries of his newborn daughter, Aisha Morris, for his popular song, "Isn't She Lovely?"

Fact #198
Black History Month originated in 1926 by Carter Godwin Woodson as Negro History Week. The month of February was chosen in honor of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, who were both born in that month.

Fact #199
Lewis and Clark were accompanied by York, a black slave, when they made their 1804 expedition from Missouri to Oregon. York’s presence aided in their interactions with the Native Americans they encountered.

Fact #200
The first major black super-hero, the Black Panther, made his debut in Fantastic Four No. 52 in July of 1966.

Fact #201
The Selma to Montgomery marches marked the peak of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama. Of the three marches, only the last made it all the way to Montgomery, Alabama. The path is now a U.S. National Historic Trail.

Fact #202
The first university owned and operated by African-Americans is Wilberforce College, in Wilberforce, Ohio. The school names notable graduates such as James H. McGee, the first African-American mayor of Dayton, Ohio, and African-American conductor William Grant Still.

Fact #203
Since its creation, the popular FUBU clothing line has won two Congressional Awards, two NAACP Awards, the Pratt Institute Award, the Christopher Wallace Award, the Online Hip-Hop Award and a Citation of Honor from the Queens Borough President.

Fact #204
The banjo originated in Africa and up until the 1800s was considered an instrument only played by blacks.

Fact #205
According to the American Community Survey, in 2005 there were 2.4 million black military veterans in the United States -the highest of any minority group.

Fact #206
In the mid 1800s Philadelphia was known as "The Black Capital of Anti–Slavery," because of the strong abolitionist presence there and such groups as The Philadelphia Female Anti–Slavery Society, The Philadelphia Young Men’s Anti–Slavery Society and The Philadelphia Anti–Slavery Society.

Fact #207
Buffalo Soldiers is a name respectfully given to the African–American cavalries during the 1800s by the Native American Kiowa tribe. These soldiers received second class treatment and were often given the worst military assignments, but had the lowest desertion rate compared to their white counterparts.

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