Parallels between Jesus and Horus, an Egyptian God


Quotations:

"The Christian myths were first related of Horus or Osiris, who was the embodiment of divine goodness, wisdom, truth and purity...This was the greatest hero that ever lived in the mind of man -- not in the flesh -- the only hero to whom the miracles were natural because he was not human." 1

"...I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me." Hosea 13:4, King James Version. This passage may have an additional and completely different meaning from that usually assigned.

Background:
About Yeshua of Nazareth: He is commonly referred to as Jesus Christ, although Joshua would be a more accurate translation of his first name. "Christ" is not his last name; it is simply the Greek word for "Messiah," or "anointed one." Theologians have discovered about 50 gospels which were widely used by Jewish, Pauline and Gnostic groups within the early Christian movement. Only four of these were chosen by the surviving group, Pauline Christianity, and were included in the Bible. Those four Gospels describe Jesus as a Jew who was born to a virgin in Palestine circa 4 to 7 BCE. He is portrayed as a rabbi, teacher, healer, exorcist, magician, prophet, and religious leader who had a one year (according to Mark, Matthew and Luke) or a three year (according to John) ministry in Palestine, starting when he was about 30 years old. Most Christians believe that he was executed by the Roman occupying army, visited the underworld, was resurrected, spent 40 days with his disciples, and then ascended to heaven. Most Christian denominations view Jesus as God, and as the Son of God, the second person in the Trinity.|

Conservative Christians view the Gospels as being inerrant whose authors were inspired by God. The Gospels and other passages in the Bible are mostly interpreted literally. Muslims revere Jesus as a great prophet -- next only to Muhammad in importance. They regard the assertion that Jesus is God to be blasphemy.

About Horus: Various ancient Egyptian statues and writings tell of Horus, (pronounced "hohr'-uhs;"
a.k.a. Harseisis, Heru-sa-Aset (Horus, son of Isis), Heru-ur (Horus the elder), Hr, and Hrw), a creator sky God. He was worshipped thousands of years before the first century CE -- the time when Jesus was ministering in Palestine. 2 Horus was often represented as a stylized eye symbol, symbolizing the eye of a falcon.

He was also presented "in the shape of a sparrow hawk or as a man [or lion] with a hawk's head." 3 He is often shown as an infant cradled by his mother Isis. He was considered to be the son of two major Egyptian deities: the God Osirus and and the Goddess Isis. In adulthood, he avenged his father's murder, and became recognized as the God of civil order and justice. Each of the Egyptian pharaohs were believed to be the living embodiment -- an incarnation -- of Horus.

"A list of the names of all the gods of Egypt would fill pages. But all these gods were only forms, attributes or phases of Ra, the solar god, who himself was the supreme symbol or metaphor for God....Horus, the son of Osirus and Isis, is himself an aspect of Ra.

Life events shared by Horus and Jesus
Stories from the life of Horus had been circulating for centuries before Jesus birth (circa 4 to 7 BCE). If any copying occurred by the writers of the Egyptian or Christian religions, it was the followers of Jesus who incorporated into his biography the myths and legends of Horus, not vice-versa.

According to author and theologian Tom Harpur: "[Author Gerald] Massey discovered nearly two hundred instances of immediate correspondence between the mythical Egyptian material and the allegedly historical Christian writings about Jesus. Horus indeed was the archetypal Pagan Christ."




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Frederick McKinley Jones (1893-1961)


Frederick McKinley Jones was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 17, 1893. Growing up as an orphan and not attending school beyond grade eight, Jones was ultimately to become one of the most prolific black inventors. His genius, as well as his skill and knowledge of mechanical and electrical devices, is evidenced by his 60 patents in divergent fields. Forty of those patents were related to refrigeration.

Jones invented the first practical and automatic refrigeration unit for trucks, which eliminated the problem of food spoilage over long hauls, thus making fresh produce available over wide areas. Subsequently, the unit was adapted to a variety of other carriers, including ships and railway cars.

His invention facilitated the development of international markets for food crops; led to the creation of total industries such as frozen foods, fast foods and container shipping; and altered consumers' eating habits.

Jones's contribution to the World War II effort includes several timely and necessary inventions such as a portable refrigeration unit, which was used to transport vitally needed blood serum and medicines on the battlefields of Europe; an air conditioning unit for military field hospitals designed for the primary purpose of maintaining the temperature of blood serum; and a portable x-ray unit.

Some of his other inventions were specifically designed for the then-fledgling movie industry and include the first process that enabled movie projectors to play back recorded sound—talking pictures—and a box-office device that automatically distributed tickets and change to customers.

Despite his exploits in the movie industry, Jones was primarily concerned with refrigeration. Recognized as an authority in the field and elected to membership in the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers, he also served as a consultant for the Defense Department and the U.S. Bureau of Standards.

Jones also founded a company jointly with his former boss in the motion picture business, Joseph Numero. The company, Thermo King Corp. (initially called the U.S. Thermo Control Company), is a world leader in transport temperature control equipment today, operating on a global scale with manufacturing plants in various countries and accessing global markets.

In 1991, Frederick Jones and his partner were awarded the National Medal of Technology posthumously.

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Genetic Mutation of Skin, From Black to White



There are millions of Blacks who do not exhibit real pride in themselves and this is partly due to the pigmentation of their skin. It takes courage to do what Lee Thomas is doing. Whites must understand that they were once Black. This condition is in Leviticus 13, Numbers 12, and 2nd Kings 5. There must be balance and truth can bring balance.

The World Media rediculed Michael Jackson when he told the world he skin was changing ferom black to white.

Never judge anyboby or anyone till you know all the facts.

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Top 20 Black History Month Quotations


1. "I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me."
-- Muhammad Ali The Greatest (1975)

2. "Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise."
-- Maya Angelou "Still I rise," And Still I Rise (1978)

3. "Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can."
-- Arthur Ashe quoted in Sports Illustrated

4. "Just like you can buy grades of silk, you can buy grades of justice. "
-- Ray Charles

5. "The past is a ghost, the future a dream. All we ever have is now. "
-- Bill Cosby

6. "There is no negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own constitution..."
-- Frederick Douglass

7. "You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for miles, but you can still be working on a plantation."
-- Billie Holiday

8. "Greatness occurs when your children love you, when your critics respect you and when you have peace of mind. "
-- Quincy Jones

9. " Do not call for black power or green power. Call for brain power."
-- Barbara Jordan

10. "Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better."
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

11. "The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself—the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us—that's where it's at."
-- Jesse Owens, Blackthink (1970)

12. "I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminshes fear."
-- Rosa Parks

13. "Have a vision. Be demanding. "
-- Colin Powell

14. "Be black, shine, aim high. "
-- Leontyne Price

15. "God gives nothing to those who keep their arms crossed. "
-- African Proverb

16. "Freedom is never given; it is won."
-- A. Philip Randolph in keynote speech given at the Second National Negro Congress in 1937

17. "When I found I had crossed that line, [on her first escape from slavery, 1845] I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything."
-- Harriet Tubman

18. "Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."
-- Booker T. Washington

19. "Black people have always been America's wilderness in search of a promised land."
-- Cornel West, Race Matters

20 "We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice."
-- Carter Woodson on founding Negro History Week, 1926

Resource Box - © Danielle Hollister (2005) is the Publisher of BellaOnline Quotations Zine

- A free newsletter for quote lovers featuring more than 10,000 quotations in dozens of categories like - love, friendship, children, inspiration, success, wisdom, family, life, and many more. Read it - online

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Black History Month Speaker Empowerment Principles to Live Like a King


Live like a King! Remember, honor, and prophetically be guided into the future by the outstanding legacy of the King family. Had not Africans arisen to confront injustice in America, there would be no human or civil rights in this country.

Capture the greatness of African American civil rights leaders and impart their spirit today in the hearts of a new culture. Let us once again properly identify with their struggle. For me my personal history and interaction with Africans is rather unusual as I as a white man have been numerous times to Africa. The 8 countries I have spoken to audiences in are the impoverished war-torn nations of East Africa.

We must honestly acknowledge the historical atrocities at the hands of white supremacists and the nations they duped into following their ideology. Unlike many white speakers and ministers who go through Africa, I encouraged my African brothers to not emulate white men in their dress, but rather be authentic in their individuality. I tell my African friends: "You were born an original. Do not die a copy."

I personally deeply love and identify with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his family. In fact I had the privilege of meeting his daughter Bernice King in Southern California, when she spoke on great expectations for the future. The King family was spied on by the FBI for 4 years after the assassination of Rev. King the great Civil Rights leader.

The King family's forward struggle and refusal to yield our universal human rights should be an inspiration to us all. Even when faced with personal danger, threats, violence, and death they boldly carried on full force to overthrow injustice and the farce of government that claimed to represent we the people. The King family peaceably achieved reformation taking America out of the Dark Ages and one step closer into the light. Let us continue the fight for freedom lest we lose what Dr. King accomplished for us.

History curiously repeats itself. While America bombed and burned Vietnam with napalm, Hoover's FBI was assassinating civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King and Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party. Today the ATF kills women & children and burns & bulldozes churches (Waco, TX). Police brutalize WTO peaceful protestors on Seattle's streets. NYPD murder African Americans celebrating a bachelor party. Eight Florida boot camp workers punch, kick, and kill a 14-year-old African American boy and are acquitted of manslaughter. Is this democracy and the kind of America Dr. King gave his life for?

Unless we as a people continue to stand up to injustice, the freedoms our forefathers fought for shall be lost as America becomes a police state to serve the military-industrial complex. No government for the profiteers can also be for the people. Nevertheless what we tolerate will continue to dominate. Therefore it is time for us to arise, raise the standard, and take a stand to redeem the homeland.

The White House could use some color to again feel, get real, and heal the homeland.

African Americans have always led the way and been at the tip of the spear to pierce through evil and injustice. In this hour more than ever, African Americans must fight for people of every color who are being exploited and disenfranchized. The voice of African Americans must be heard throughout our land!

Interacting with the victims of genocide in war-torn Rwanda and Burundi (East Africa) where 1.2 million brothers divided and killed one another had a deep effect upon me. My travels deep into "the bush" of Africa (Malawi and Mozambique) where villagers had never before seen a white man, provided me a wonderful cross-cultural experience and the chance to experience being a minority myself.

When times get tough, we must ask ourselves:

Are you a thermometer or a thermostat?

Are you a mover and a shaker, or being moved and shaken?

Are you part of the problem, or part of the solution?

Are you living and loving fearlessly?

What are you living for and for what will you be remembered?

Is what you are living for, worth dying for?

Do you have a dream? Are you daily moving toward making it a reality or is it merely a fantasy?

What you refuse to confront, you can never correct.

What you tolerate, will continue to dominate.

You don't need a high IQ, if you have a strong "I will" and unflinching determination.

It's time we know ourselves by the spirit and the content of our character, rather than the color and shade of our skin. When we arise within and stop being distracted with conversations of color, we shall truly show the world what it is to transcend racial prejudice and live powerfully.

This Black History Month don't just celebrate and reflect upon the courageous journey toward liberty and equality embarked upon by African Americans of the past. Let us recommit ourselves to the continued pursuit of freedom and equality for all.

African Americans represent every aspect of this country's heritage and hope. Only with the involvement and leadership of African Americans can this country truly unite and achieve civil, social, and economic justice for all.

Contact Paul to speak at your next event! He captivates audiences, transcends limitations, & brings transformation while empowering people to live their dreams!

Paul Davis is a highly sought after professional speaker, life purpose coach, worldwide minister, and change master. He is the author of several books including United States of Arrogance, Breakthrough for a Broken Heart; Poems that Propel the Planet; God vs. Religion; and many more.

Paul's compassion for people & passion to travel has taken him to over 50 countries of the world where he has had a tremendous impact. Paul's organization Dream-Maker Inc. builds dreams, transcends limitations & revives nations.

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Lethal Weapon: When what you watch on TV begins to matter


Several psychologists, authors, & media personalities discuss how television and images impact the human mind's subconscious perception of race and racism. It is suggested that images on television can have an unconscious influence on your decision making and behavior beyond your conscious awareness. Some psychologists have created "Implicit Association Tests" (IAT) to measure the level of racial influences we may have latent within our subconscious. The results of these studies suggest that it is possible to harbor certain unconscious attitudes toward race/racism that are in direct conflict with our conscious belief system. The video concludes that the environments in which we live, where television is mostly dominated by White images, may affect how you feel and behave toward yourself and others without your conscious realization.

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Additional Research Information:

University of Michigan Health System: Your Child & Television http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/yourch

The Media Awareness Network: Kids & Racial Stereotypes
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english...

University of Washington: The Unconscious Roots of Racism
http://web.psych.washington.edu/news/...

Gladwell.com: The Second Mind (Blink)
http://www.gladwell.com/blink/blink_e...

WashingtonPost.com: See No Bias
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-...

Scientific American: The Implicit Prejudice
http://sciam.com/print_version.cfm?ar...

Harvard University: Research Matters
http://www.researchmatters.harvard.ed...

Project Implicit®
http://www.projectimplicit.net/

Also see the following videos on the 4TruthAndJustice YouTube channel:
"Unconscious Prejudice"
"Scientific American Frontiers"
"Psychological Dispositions in Black & White"
Category: Education


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Celebrating Mothers: Worshipping the Black Madonna


One of the most sacred icons of the Catholic Church is the Black Madonna and Christ child. Statues representing her are in Europe's most venerated shrines and cathedrals. Each year, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims ritually humble themselves before the image of Mary and her child Jesus at Black Madonna sites throughout France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and other Catholic countries.

Why do we not hear more about the Black Madonna? Pilgrims throughout the ages have visited Black Madonna sites and left inspired, confident, relieved, or healed of their afflictions. Today, there are over 300 documented Black Madonna sites in France alone. Sometimes Black Madonna statues are hidden away in vaults, while the public is shown Madonnas with European features.

There are theories that the dark representation of the skin color of the statues is dues to the materials used or changes in the material over time or my personal favorite --- candle soot. Give me a break. The Black Madonna is black because she is black.

Article source: http://www.blackhandside.net/2008/05/worshipping-the.html

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Rosa Parks (1913-2005)


did not get on the bus to get arrested. I got on the bus to go home.

—Rosa Parks

How she sat there
Right inside a place so wrong it
Was ready

—From "Rosa," in On the Bus with Rosa Parks by Rita Dove

There comes a time that people get tired. We are here ... to say to those who have mistreated us for so long, that we are tired, tired of being segregated and humiliated, tired of being kicked about by the brutal feet of oppression.

—Martin Luther King, Jr.

On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks sat down so that we could all stand up for our rights. Coming home from work as a dressmaker in Montgomery, Alabama, she refused to yield her seat on the bus to a white passenger as required by law, and was promptly arrested. This action/reaction/inaction was the catalyst for the civil rights movement in the South and catapulted Dr. Martin Luther King from the pulpit of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery onto the national and international stage as a champion of civil rights. On that fateful night, Mrs. Parks was simply tired, not sick and tired of being sick and tired as most black folk in the South were at that time.

Rosa Parks' "no" reverberated across the black social and political spectrum, challenging black and white America. The civil rights movement; its step-child the Black Power movement; and its flip side, the Black Nationalist movement heightened the contradictions in America. A resurgence of black pride, dignity and power shook America at its roots as black folk asserted that, as the popular saying went, "We ain't what we ought to be, we ain't what we want to be, we ain't what we gonna be, but thank God we ain't what we was."

On October 31, 2005, Mrs. Rosa Parks lay in state in the Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C. As thousands filed past her coffin, America paid its homage and debt to the woman who sat down so that we could stand up.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Books

Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue With Today's Youth, Rosa Parks and Gregory J. Reed. Lee & Low Books, 1996.

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Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey



The Journey of Man is a documentary that talks about our evolution, our recent history, and how we came to be to the way we are today. It looks at the Y chromosome, that's passed down from male to male, and tracks the marker mutations to map our ancestors' journey. It's how we conquered the Earth in just the last 59,000 years.

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Ernest Everett Just (1883-1941)


Ernest E. Just was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1883. As a sophomore at Dartmouth, he enrolled in his first biology class and read an article which attempted to explained the process of fertilization and egg development, which sparked a lifelong interest in embryology. Graduating from Dartmouth with special honors in zoology and history (although his major was English), he immediately went to a teaching job at Howard. He received his Ph.D. from Chicago and continued teaching at Howard while returning to Woods Hole, a haven for biologists, every summer. He attempted to explain the process of fertilization and egg development, a subject on which he became an international authority.

He was a "scientist's scientist". Dr. Charles Drew, a pioneer in blood plasma research himself, described Dr. Just as "a biologist of unusual skill and the greatest of our original thinkers in the field".

He was invited to work at many European laboratories, including The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Germany, the Sorbonne, the Naples Zoological Laboratory and various Russian Laboratories. No such invitation came from laboratories in the United States, as segregation was firmly entrenched in the American way of life.

Dr. Frank Lillie, his old friend and teacher, eulogizing Dr. Just, alludes to this fact:

"His death was premature and his work unfinished; but his accomplishments were many and worthy of remembrance. That a man of his ability, scientific devotion and of such strong personal loyalties as he gave and received should have been wasted in the land of his birth must remain a matter of regret."

Books

Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just, Kenneth R. Manning. Oxford Univ Press, 1984.

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African-American Astronauts


Many of us possess talents and abilities but do not excel because we don't take the chances or act on the challenges that come our way. We need to walk over to the edge of our abilities and then move beyond that edge ... From the outside this can look difficult. However, once you've acquired the skills to perform the task, it seems almost easy. Like most things in life, it's easy if you know how.

—Ronald. E. McNair

Guion S. Bluford became the first African-American to go into space in August 1983 aboard the Challenger. It was the first launch and landing of a space shuttle at night. His mission on this flight included the deployment of an Indian communications satellite. He later served as a mission specialist on Challenger (October 30, 1985) and Discovery (April 28, 1991 and December 2, 1992).

Charles F. Bolden was the pilot on the space shuttle mission aboard the Discovery (April 24, 1990) which launched the Hubble space telescope and set an altitude record at 640 kilometres. He was also the pilot on Columbia (January 12, 1986) and Atlantis (March 24, 1992); and mission commander on Discovery (February 3, 1994).

Frederick D. Gregory became the first African-American Space Commander on the space shuttle mission aboard the Discovery (November 22, 1989) which deployed a satellite for the Department of Defense. On his first space flight, he was the pilot on Challenger (April 29, 1985) and he served as commander on Atlantis (November 24, 1991).

Mae C. Jemison became the first African-American woman to travel in space on the shuttle mission aboard the Endeavor (September 12, 1992), where she conducted experiments to study the effects of zero gravity on people and animals.

Bernard J. Harris became the first African-American to walk in space during the space shuttle Discovery's mission (February 2, 1995), which included a rendezvous with the Russian Space Station, Mir. He was also a mission specialist on Columbia (April 26, 1993), where he conducted research in physical and life sciences.

Ronald E. McNair was one of the seven crew members who were killed when the Challenger exploded 73 seconds after its launch on January 28, 1986. On this mission, he was supposed to carry out extensive studies on Halley's Comet. He previously served on the Challenger (February 3, 1984).

Books

African-American Astronauts, Gail Saunders-Smith, L. Octavia Tripp, Stanley P. Jones. Capstone Press, 1998.

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The Emancipation Act


Freedom, More or Less

On August 1, 1834, the Emancipation Act came into force, after fifty years of bitter debate in Britain over the morality and profitability of slavery. It did not abolish servitude, but it was the first significant promise of freedom.

This act did not make a difference to the more than half million slaves in Britain's Caribbean colonies, for although the Emancipation Act outlawed slavery in theory, the slaves had to wait another four years for the most elementary liberties.

The government was afraid of liberating half a million slaves without controls, while the planters did not want their estates to collapse, as forced labour would no longer be available.

The Emancipation Act simply transformed the slaves into apprenticed labourers for a further four to six years. The only slaves to be immediately free were those under six years old, while the incubus of slavery persisted for the others.

Books

British Slave Emancipation: The Sugar Colonies and the Great Experiment, 1830-1865, William A. Green. Clarendon Press, 1991.

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Granvillle T. Woods (1856-1910)


Granville T. Woods, the greatest colored inventor in the history of the race and equal, if not superior, to any inventor in the country, is destined to revolutionize the mode of street car transit.

—Catholic Tribune (Cincinnati, Ohio), January 14, 1886

Woods's inventions were ... part of the everyday lives of millions of people. They rode street cars and subways powered by Woods's motors, supplied with electricity by Woods's electric transfer devices, and brought to safe stops by Woods's improved air brakes.

—Aaron A. Klein, The Hidden Contributors: Black Scientists and Inventors in America

Born on April 23, 1856 in Columbus, Ohio, Granville T. Woods attended school sporadically until he was ten years old and then went to work in a machine shop. At sixteen, his wanderlust led to the augmentation of his elementary engineering knowledge via a series of related jobs and eventual formal training at an eastern college.

Despite his engineering skill and credentials, it was obvious to him that advancement in these jobs was virtually nil. Taking a proactive approach, he formed his own company, Woods' Railway Telegraph Company, to produce and market his telegraph and other inventions.

During his lifetime, he held over thirty-five patents. More than a dozen of these patents were inventions for electric railways but most of them were focused on electrical control and distribution.

His most remarkable invention, however, was the induction telegraph, a system for communicating to and from moving trains. Woods successfully defended lawsuits against his patent—two by Thomas Edison and one by another inventor named Phelps. In the wake of his loss, Edison tried to offer Woods a job and buy his company, but his offer was flatly rejected. Edison upped the ante by offering Woods a partnership in one of his various companies, but Woods preferred to remain independent.

Woods's inventions include:
a device that coupled the function of the telephone and telegraph—purchased by Alexander Graham Bell
an air-brake system—purchased by George Westinghouse
the power system known as "the third rail"—a conductor of electricity set parallel to the subway's tracks
a thermostatically controlled egg incubator


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Jackie Robinson (1919-1972)


Jackie Robinson was born January 31, 1919. Graduating from UCLA, he began to play baseball with the Kansas City Monarchs. When Branch Rickey decided to pioneer in hiring Black baseball players, he hired Robinson on October 23, 1945.
On April 18, 1946 he made his debut in Jersey City as second baseman for the Montreal Royals. The next season Jackie moved up to the National League as first baseman.

In 1947, the Dodgers won the pennant and did so five more times in the following ten years. In 1949, he was chosen as the National League's Most Valuable Player, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

Jackie Robinson died on October 24, 1972.

Books

Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy, Jules Tygiel. Oxford University Press, 1997.

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Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950)


We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world, void of national bias, race, hate, and religious prejudice. There should be no indulgence in undue eulogy of the Negro. The case of the Negro is well taken care of when it is shown how he has far influenced the development of civilization.
—Carter G. Woodson

Dr. Carter G. Woodson was born of slaves in New Canton, Virginia. Mainly self-taught, he mastered the fundamentals of common school subjects by the time he was seventeen. At age 20, he entered Douglas High School in Huntington, West Virginia where he earned his teaching diploma after two years (he later returned as principal). He subsequently obtained his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in History from Harvard, becoming the second African-American to receive this degree.

In his career as an educator, Dr. Woodson became convinced that the role of his people in history was either ignored or misinterpreted. As a result of this conviction, Dr. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History to conduct research into the history of African people throughout the world. It is worth noting that he did not believe in "Negro history" as a separate discipline but instead viewed so-called "Negro history" as a missing segment of world history, and he devoted his life to reconstructing this segment.

One year later, in 1916, he published the influential Journal of Negro History, which has not missed an issue to this day. In 1921, he established Associated Publishers to provide a forum for publication of valuable books on African history not then acceptable to most publishers. In addition, he authored numerous scholarly works and publications.

In 1926, Dr. Woodson inaugurated Negro History Week. The chosen week included February 12th (Abraham Lincoln's birthday) and February 14th (Frederick Douglass's birthday). In cases where only one of these days fell within the week, Frederick Douglass's birthday had priority. It is worth noting that Dr. Woodson realized that Negro History Week would be no longer necessary once this segment of World history was integrated into the curriculum and taught with respect and sensitivity.

In the 1960's the name was changed to Black History Week to reflect the increasing racial awareness of African-Americans. In 1976, the celebrations were extended to include the entire month of February.

Books

Carter G. Woodson: A Bio-Bibliography, Jacqueline Goggin. Louisiana State University Press, reprint edition, 1997

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Elijah McCoy (1843-1929)


Elijah McCoy was born in Colchester, Ontario in 1843. His parents were escaped slaves who made it to Canada from Kentucky via the Underground Railroad.

The family relocated to the U.S. and settled near Ypsilanti, Michigan. Young Elijah McCoy developed a penchant for mechanical engineering and, unable to acquire the necessary training in the U.S., he left for Scotland to work as an apprentice in mechanical engineering. Returning to the U.S. as a certified engineer, he was unable to get a job in his field and had to settle for a menial job as a fireman on the Michigan Central Railroad.

Part of the fireman's duties involved oiling the train's many parts at frequent intervals, with the train having to stop for this operation. McCoy sought to develop a solution to this problem. In 1872, he applied for a patent for his "lubricating cup", which "provides for the continuous flow of oil on gears and other moving parts of a machine in order to keep it lubricated properly and continuously and thereby do away with the necessity to shut down the machinery periodically".

Concerned initially with the lubrication of stationary engines, McCoy continued with his ultimate goal to lubricate the machines while they were in operation. Eventually, no heavy duty machinery was without his automatic oiling devices and the term the "real McCoy" became linked with the pioneering achievement of Elijah McCoy.

Books

African-American Inventors: Lonnie Johnson, Frederick McKinley Jones, Marjorie Stewart Joyner, Elijah McCoy, Garrett Augustus Morgan, Fred M. B. Amram. Capstone Press, 1998.
Buy it in school & library binding

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CNN Student News One-Sheet: Black History Month

(CNN Student News) -- February marks the beginning of Black History Month, a federally recognized, nationwide celebration that provides the opportunity for all Americans to reflect on the significant roles that African-Americans have played in the shaping of U.S. history. But how did this celebration come to be, and why does it take place in February?

We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice.

- Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) on founding Negro History Week, 1926
Dr. Carter G. Woodson, considered a pioneer in the study of African-American history, is given much of the credit for Black History Month, and has been called the "Father of Black History." The son of former slaves, Woodson spent his childhood working in coalmines and quarries

He received his education during the four-month term that was customary for black schools at the time. At 19, having taught himself English fundamentals and arithmetic, Woodson entered high school, where he completed a four-year curriculum in two years. He went on to receive his Master's degree in history from the University of Chicago, and he eventually earned a Ph.D from Harvard.

Disturbed that history textbooks largely ignored America's black population, Woodson took on the challenge of writing black Americans into the nation's history. To do this, Woodson established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. He also founded the group's widely respected publication, the Journal of Negro History. In 1926, he developed Negro History Week. Woodson believed that "the achievements of the Negro properly set forth will crown him as a factor in early human progress and a maker of modern civilization."

Woodson chose the second week of February for the celebration because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black American population: Frederick Douglass (February 14), an escaped slave who became one of the foremost black abolitionists and civil rights leaders in the nation, and President Abraham Lincoln (February 12), who signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which abolished slavery in America's confederate states. In 1976, Negro History Week expanded into Black History Month. The month is also sometimes referred to as African-American Heritage Month.

(Source: http://blackhistorypages.net/pages/cgwoodson.php, http://www.chipublib.org/002branches/woodson/woodsonbib.html)

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Missouri trail leads into a gold mine of black history

Visitors can tour area once known as 'Little Dixie'

By Pamela Selbert | Special to the Tribune

History books may tell us a lot about the past but not necessarily all of it. So says St. Louis storyteller/historian Angela da Silva, whose ancestors were slaves on a central Missouri grain and cattle plantation for several generations. They and many other African-Americans, free or enslaved, helped settle the land and helped shape its history.

In search of this "forgotten Missouri," da Silva, 55, has spent the last decade poring over genealogical records and other historical documents at museums, courthouses and other archives across the state, primarily in the counties along Interstate Highway 70. The highway roughly parallels the Missouri River in an area once known as "Little Dixie" for the large number of slaves who lived there.

Da Silva, head of the Black Tourism Network in St. Louis, has recently developed a "trail" of several dozen sites spanning the state, where visitors can learn more about "what the history books don't tell." February, which is Black History Month, offers an opportunity to consider a trip there deep into African-American history that is relevant far beyond Missouri.

The trail begins in St. Louis, a pivotal point on the Underground Railroad, the network of safe havens that helped slaves escape to freedom. One of the city's newest attractions is the Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing, named for the free black woman who helped slaves cross the Mississippi into Illinois. She eventually was arrested and charged in court, though her fate is unknown. But at the crossing, dedicated by the National Park Service, visitors learn about Meachum's efforts, and an annual May re-enactment recalls the 1855 morning of her arrest.

Among St. Louis' many other black history sites are the George Washington Carver Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden; the Old Courthouse, where the celebrated Dred Scott freedom trial took place; the St. Louis Art Museum African Arts Collection; the Black World History Museum; and "Seeking St. Louis" at the Missouri History Museum, an extensive exhibit that explains the important role African-Americans played in the city's history. The History Museum is hosting a George Washington Carver exhibit through March 1 and a "Katherine Dunham, Beyond the Dance" exhibit through Nov. 8.

St. Louis also is home to lesser known but significant sites, such as the hotel where the events in the song "Frankie and Johnny" actually played out and the tree not far from the Mississippi where a hapless slave, escaped from a riverboat, was chained and burned to death in the early 1830s. One observer was abolitionist/newspaper publisher Elijah Lovejoy, who wrote of the gruesome event in detail. Several years later he was murdered in Alton, Ill., for his anti-slavery stance.

The trail moves west to the Daniel Boone Home and 1,000-acre Boonesfield Village (now a campus of Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo.). Here Boone, who arrived from Kentucky in 1799, helped son Nathan build a fine stone manse, now open for tours, and lived out his final years. A dozen or so historic buildings have been moved here to create the village, where early Missouri history, including slavery on the frontier, is interpreted.

Grady Manus, chief interpreter, explained that when the Boones and other settlers came, they brought with them slaves and free blacks, many of whom were skilled artisans who played an important role in building homes and other structures on the frontier. He added that until recently it was not widely known that the Boones owned slaves or that a slave named Derry was one of Daniel Boone's closest companions. "To omit that from Boone history would be telling less than the truth," Manus said.

Historical re-enactments are held at the village throughout the year, and da Silva, an authority on the Underground Railroad, gives a powerful performance as Lila, a slave woman. (Lila will also appear on Oct. 4, 11 and 18 in three St. Louis parks as yet to be announced.)

Other stops on the trail include Lincoln University in Jefferson City, the only "historically black college started by African-American Civil War veterans," said Lori Simms of the Missouri Division of Tourism. The school, now on the National Register of Historic Places, was begun in 1866 by the enlisted men of the 62nd and 65th United States Colored Infantry and their white officers. At the time there was no college for African-Americans in the state. A fine bronze and granite memorial to the soldiers by sculptor Ed Dwight was dedicated at the school in 2007.

The trail continues west through Arrow Rock, a distinctly Southern town frozen in time to Civil War days, when a third of its 1,000 residents were slaves who labored on area hemp plantations. The town shriveled after the railroad bypassed it following the war, and today it counts just 66 residents. Nearby Prairie Park, an elegant plantation home with slave quarters, can be toured. Just to the south is Pleasant Green, which includes a two-story Federal-style plantation home built in 1830, plus slave cabins, all furnished as they might have been in antebellum days.

On to Pennytown, a community founded in 1871 by former slave Joe Penny. It grew to include 200 residents on 65 acres but now consists only of tiny Pennytown Freewill Baptist Church. A handful of former residents maintain the church and hold a homecoming every August. To the west near Lexington, where the Civil War Battle of the Hemp Bales took place in September 1861, the trail passes 1,000-acre Hickland Heathstone, the "only intact slave-breeding plantation in the country that we know of," da Silva said. Adjacent to the fine home, still owned by Hickland descendants, is a five-cell birthing cabin and the overseer's cabin.

Kansas City is on the trail with several black history sites, including the American Jazz Museum, where exhibits tell the stories of Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker and others; the first-rate Negro Leagues Baseball Museum; and the Arabia Steamboat Museum, a destination unto itself.

The steamboat, loaded with 200 tons of supplies bound for the frontier, sank in the Missouri River near Kansas City in 1856, explained David Hawley, who 20 years ago, helped unearth the boat, which he calls a "19th Century Wal-Mart" for its thousands of artifacts. By then the steamboat wreckage was beneath a cornfield, as the river had long since changed course. Slaves, Hawley said, would have loaded the supplies aboard in St. Louis.

After the Civil War had ended and the 1866 Missouri Constitution mandated "free public schools for Negroes," soldier/educator/civil rights activist James Milton Turner, a former slave, was appointed second assistant state superintendent of schools. His only duty was to establish black schools, among them the log Banneker School, built that year in Parkville just north of Kansas City. The logs were replaced with bricks in 1885, and until 1904, when the school closed, it had held about 70 students in eight grades.

One of the principal supporters of the school was none other than Jesse James, da Silva said. Considering the outlaw's radical Southern sympathies, this may seem surprising, she said. But according to the Missouri Historical Society, Jesse James' mother, Zerelda, had married a Dr. Samuels, the father of two mixed-race children, when her own sons were small, and the children grew up together. One of Jesse James' stepbrothers was headmaster at the Banneker School.

Today, the tiny school at the end of a very steep street, empty for more than a century, is dilapidated and forlorn. But according to a sign, work has begun to turn it into a black interpretive center.

The trail ends at the Jesse James Home in St. Joseph, which was also the end of the line for the notorious outlaw. Under the assumed name Tom Howard, James and his family had moved into the small frame house only a few months before fellow gang member Bob Ford gunned him down April 3, 1882.

James, 34, was standing on a chair to straighten a needlepoint wall hanging when he was shot from behind, said museum director Gary Chilcote. The bullet that killed him left a large hole in the wall (now protected with plastic) near a faded needlepoint, still crooked, embroidered with the words "God Bless Our Home."

The house, moved a few blocks to its current site in 1977, is now part of the Patee House Museum, one of the finest, most extensive museums anywhere. The Patee opened as a luxury hotel with 140 guest rooms in 1858, and today is a National Historical Landmark for its role as headquarters for the Pony Express (1860-61). Over the years the building was a hotel three times and a women's college twice before serving 80 years as a shirt factory that closed in 1957. Six years later it opened as a museum.

Article Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0201-black-historyfeb01,0,5937421.story

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Frederick Douglass: Chronology


February 1818 Born Frederick Baily near Easton, Maryland
1824 Works for Captain Aaron Anthony
1826 Travels to Baltimore, Maryland to work for Hugh Auld
March 1833 Returns to Anthony farm to work for Thomas Auld
January 1834 Works for Edward Covey
1835 Works for William Freeland
1836 First escape plan fails; is imprisoned; sent back to Hugh Auld
1837 Meets Anna Murray
September 1838 Escapes to New York; sends for and marries Anna Murray; changes name to Frederick Douglass
August 1841 Asked to speak at American Anti-Slavery Society meeting; invited to go on lecture tour
May 1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is published; Douglass begins tour of England
1847 Returns to the United States and begins lecture tour
December 1847 Begins printing the North Star
1848 Attends first women's rights convention
1850 Becomes involved in the underground railroad
1851 Breaks with William Garrison
November 1859 Sales to England to begin lecture tour
May 1860 Returns to the United States
1863 Meets with President Abraham Lincoln to discuss the treatment of black soldiers during the Civil War
1864 Meets with Lincoln to formulate plans to lead blacks out of the South in case of a Union defeat
February 1866 Meets with President Andrew Johnson to discuss black suffrage.
July 1867 Declines Johnson's offer to head Freedman's Bureau
Mary 1870 The Fifteenth Amendment is adopted and blacks are granted the right to vote; becomes editor of the New National Era
1874 Becomes president of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company
1877 Becomes U.S. Marshal
1880 Appointed recorder of deeds for Washington, D.C.
August 1882 Anna Douglass dies
January 1884 Douglass marries Helen Pitts of Rochester
1889 Accepts post of American consul-general to Haiti
1891 Resigns post and returns home

February 20, 1895: Dies in Washington, D.C.

Article Source: http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/douglass/part6.html

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Frederick Douglass: Life After the 13th Amendment

With the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in December 1865, slavery was officially abolished in all areas of the United States. The Reconstruction era was under way in the South, the period during which the 11 Confederate states would be gradually reintroduced to the Union. In the meantime, Norhern armies continued to occupy the South and to enforce the decrees of Congress. Frederick Douglass was then 47 years old, an active man in the prime of his life. No longer enlisted in the war on slavery, he thought about buying a farm and settling down to a quiet life. But black Americans still desperately needed an advocate, and Douglass soon rejected any notion of an early retirement.

In many parts of the South, the newly freed slaves labored under conditions similar to those existing before the war. The Union army could offer only limited protection to the ex-slaves, and Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, clearly had no interest in ensuring the freedom of southern blacks. The new president's appointments as governors of sourthern states formed conservative, proslavery governments. The new state legislatures passed laws designed to keep blacks in poverty and in positions of servitude. Under these so-called black codes, ex-slaves who had no steady employment could be arrested and ordered to pay stiff fines. Prisoners who could not pay the sum were hired out as virtual slaves. In some areas, black children could be forced to serve as apprentices in local industries. Blacks were also prevented from buying land and were denied fair wages for their work.

At a meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society in May 1865, one month after the end of the Civil War, William Lloyd Garrison had called upon the organization to disband, now that its goal was achieved. Douglass came out against Garrison's proposal, stating that "Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot." The society voted to continue the struggle for black rights, but many abolitionists left the movement. Fortunately, abolitionists were not the only ones interested in giving blacks the right to vote. The Republican party was worried that the Democrats would regain their power in the South. If this happened, the Republicans would lose their dominant position in Congress when the southern states were readmitted to the Union. Led by two fierce antislavery senators, Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, a group of radical Republicans joined with abolitionists in a campaign for voting rights for black men, who, they believed, would naturally support the Republicans. During the later part of 1865, Douglass traveled throughout the North, speaking out for black suffrage and warning the country that the former slaveholders were regaining control of the South. In February 1866, he addressed his most important audience, President Andrew Johnson. Along with his son Lewis and three other black leaders, Douglass met with Johnson to impress upon him the need for changes in the southern state governments. The president did most of the talking, and he told the delegation that he intended to support the interests of southern whites and to block voting rights for blacks. Douglass and Johnson parted, both saying that they would take their cases to the American people.

Despite the president's opposition, Douglass and the supporters continued to battle for black rights with some success. The public mood gradually turned against Johnson and his attempts to install governments in the South that were controlled by Confederate loyalists. The Republican-controlled Congress became increasingly resistant to Johnson's plans for a limited reconstruction of the southern states. The radical Republicans wanted to see sweeping changes enforced that would end the former slaveholders' power in the South. Thaddeus Stevens urged that the estates of the large slaveholders be broken up and the land distributed to ex-slaves, or freedmen, as they were then known.

In the summer of 1866, Congress passed two bills over the president's veto. One, the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, extended the powers of a government agency that had been established in 1865 for the purpose of providing medical, educational, and financial assistance for the millions of impoverished southern blacks. Congress also passed the Civil Rights Bill, which gave full citzenship to blacks, along with all the rights enjoyed by other Americans. President Johnson's supporters, mainly Democrats and conservative Republicans, organized in the summer of 1866 to stop the movement for further black rights. The radical Republicans also held a meeting in Philadelphia to vote on a resolution calling for black suffrage, and Douglass attended the convention as a delegate from New York. Unfortunately, he encountered much prejudice from some Republican politicians, who were unwilling to associate with blacks on an equal level. Nonetheless, Douglass went to the convention and spoke out for black suffrage. The vote on the resolution was a close one, for some of the delegates were afraid that white voters would not support a party that allied itself too closely with blacks.

Speeches by Douglass and the woman suffragist Anna E. Dickinson helped turn the tide in favor of black suffrage. For Douglass, the convention also held a more personal note. While marching in a parade of delegates, he spotted Amanda Sears, whose mother, Lucretia Auld, had given him his first pair of pants and arranged for him to leave the Lloyd plantation. Sears and her two children had traveled to Philadelphia just to see the famed Frederick Douglass. The movement for black suffrage grew rapidly after the Philadelphia convention. With President Johnson's supporters greatly outnumbered, in June 1866, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed to ensure that rights guaranteed earlier to blacks under the Civil Rights Bill were protected by the Constitution. The amendment was finally ratified in July 1868 after all the states approved it. Although the new amendment declared that no state could deny any person his full rights as an American citizen, it did not guarantee blacks the right to vote. In most states, however, blacks were already voting.

During July 1867, Douglass was asked by President Johnson to take charge of the Freedman's Bureau, a position that would have allowed him to oversee all the government programs administering to the needs of southern blacks. Douglass was tempted by the offer, the first major post to be offered to a black man, but he realized that by associating with the Johnson administration, he would be helping the president appear to be the black man's friend. Instead, he refused to serve under a man whose policies he detested. By 1867, Douglass could see that Johnson's days in office were numbered. The president was unable to stop Congress's Reconstruction acts, which divided the South into five military districts and laid out strict guidelines for the readmission of the Confederate states into the Union. The new laws required the southern states to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and to guarantee blacks the right to vote. The radical Republicans were angered by Johnson's attempts to block the Reconstruction measures, and they instituted impeachment proceedings against him, the first time a president underwent this ordeal. The impeachment measure fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority in the House and Senate needed to remove Johnson from office, but the president exercised little power during the last two years of his term.

During the 1868 presidential contest, Douglass campaigned for the Republican candidate, Ulysses S. Grant, the former commander in chief of the Union army. In a famous speech, "The Work Before Us," Douglass attacked the Democratic party for ignoring black citizens and warned about the rise in the South of white supremacist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan. These secret societies attempted to intimidate blacks with fire and the hangman's noose. They also attacked "Yankee carpetbaggers" (northerners who had flooded into the South at the end of the Civil War) and "scalawags" (southern whites who cooperated with the federal Reconstruction authorities). Douglass feared that the terrorist tactics of the Klan would succeed in frightening blacks into giving up the civil rights they had gained in the South. "Rebellion has been subdued, slavery abolished, and peace proclaimed," he said, "and yet our work is not done.....We are face to face with the same old enemy of liberty and progress.....The South today is a field of blood."

Black voters came out strongly for the Republicans in the 1868 elections, helping Grant win the presidency. With Grant in office, the Fifteenth Amendment passed through Congress and was submitted to the states for ratification. This amendment guaranteed all citizens the right to vote, regardless of their race. Douglass's push for state approval of the amendment caused a breach between him and the woman suffragists, who were upset that the measure did not include voting rights for woman. Old friends such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton accused Douglass of abandoning the cause of women's rights. At the annual meeting of the Equal Rights Association in May 1869, Douglass tried to persuade the woman suffragists that voting rights for blacks must be won immediately, while women could afford to wait. "When women because they are women are dragged from their homes and hung upon lampposts, .....then they will have the urgency to obtain the ballot," said Douglass. One of the women in the crowd cried out, "Is that not also true about black women?" "Yes, yes," Douglass replied, "but not because she is a woman but because she is black." The women in the audience were not convinced by Douglass's argument, and some of them even spoke out against black suffrage. Douglass's relationship with the woman suffragists eventually healed, but women would not receive the right to vote until 1920.

The campaign for state ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment was successful. On March 30, 1870, President Grant declared that the amendment had been adopted. Later, at the last official meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society, Douglass spoke gratefully about the new rights blacks had won. "I seem to be living in a new world," he said. While thanking all the men and women who had struggled for so long to make this new world possible, he modestly omitted his own name. However, no one had fought harder for black rights than Douglass. By 1870, he could look proudly upon some of the fruits of his labors. Between 1868 and 1870, the southern states were readmitted to the Union, and large numbers of blacks were elected to the state legislatures. Blacks also won seats in Congress, with Hiram Revels of Mississippi becoming the first black senator and Joseph Rainey of South Carolina being the first black to enter the House of Representatives. In 1870, Douglass was asked to serve as editor of a newspaper based in Washington, D.C., whose goal was to herald the progress of blacks throughout the country. Early on, the paper, the New National Era, experienced financial difficulties, and Douglass bought the enterprise. The paper folded in 1874, but for a few years it provided him with the means to publish his opinions on the developing racial situation in the United States.

Another misfortune occurred in 1872, when Douglass's Rochester home went up in flames. None of his family was hurt, but many irreplaceable volumes of his newspapers were destroyed. Although friends urged him to rebuild in Rochester, Douglass decided to move his family to the center of political activity in Washington, D.C. During 1872, Douglass campaigned hard for the reelection of President Grant. He supported the president even though many of the Republican party leaders he most respected, including Senator Charles Sumner, chose to back the Democratic candidate, Horace Greeley. Although personally honest, Grant was harshly criticized for not controlling the corrupt officials who served in his administration. Douglass stuck with the president, believing that blacks needed a strong friend in the White House. At the time, the Ku Klux Klan and other white terrorist organizations were burning black schools and murdering schoolteachers in an effort to keep southern blacks from learning how to read. Grant easily won the 1872 election, and Douglass was given an unexpected honor. He was chosen as one of the two electors-at-large from New York, the men who carried the sealed envelope with the results of the state voting to the capital. After the election, Douglass expected that he would be given a position in the Grant administration, but no post was offered, so he returned to the lecture circuit.

A third financial loss struck Douglass in 1874. That year he was offered and accepted the position of president of the Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company, a bank that had been founded to encourage blacks to invest and save their money. The previous management had made huge loans to speculators at extremely low interest rates. By the time Douglass was put in charge, the bank was on the verge of collapse. He immediately appealed to Congress for help and tried to restore confidence by investing much of his own money in the bank. Even so, the prestigious Freedmen's Bank failed, and many black depositors lost their money. For Douglass, it was a blow to his pride as well as to his pocketbook. Fortunately, Douglass had the means to recoup his losses on the lecture circuit. He no long spoke simply about black rights but included other topics on which he was an authority, such as Scandinavian folklore. On whatever subject he lectured, he combined his humor, intelligence, and passion to create a memorable experience for his audiences. Many people described him as one of the world's greatest speakers.

As Douglass traveled, he continued the battle against the daily humiliations that blacks were forced to endure throughout the country. Whenever he encountered discriminatory practices in a restaurant, hotel, or railway car, he would write a letter of protest to the local newspapers. In such ways, he retained his position as the foremost spokesman for black Americans. In 1875, he was cheered by Congress's passage of the Civil Rights Bill, which gave blacks the right to equal treatment in theaters, inns, and other public places. In 1877, after the inauguration of the new Republican president, Rugherford B. Hayes, Douglass was finally rewarded with a political post, the largely ceremonial position of marshal for Washington, D.C. However, in order to court southern votes for the close presidential election of 1876, the Republicans had agreed to remove the bulk of the federal troops in the South. The rights that had been granted to blacks after the Civil War could no longer be protected in the sothern states. Douglass was criticized for accepting his post after the Rebpulcians' betrayal of their black supporters, but he saw the appointment as simply another milestone for his people. In any case, Douglass did speak out against the Republicans for abandoning southern blacks to the discriminatory practices of the South.

Nearing the age of 60, Douglass was ready to give up his life on the road. In his undemanding job as a U.S. marshal overseeing the criminal justice system in the nation's capital, he was aided by a large staff of employees. Following his appointment, he purchased a new home in the Washington area. The 15 acre estate that he christened Cedar Hill included a 20 room house, which held a huge library and whose walls were decorated with the portraits of Abraham Lincoln, William Lloyd Garrison, Susan B. Anthony, and other people who had influenced him. His children were frequent visitors to Ceder Hill, and he greatly enjoyed playing the role of family patriarch. In 1877, Douglass traveled to St. Michaels, Maryland, to visit old friends and to see the farms and plantations where he had worked as a slave. While there, he took the opportunity to visit his old master, Thomas Auld. Aged and feeble, Auld greeted his former slave as Marshal Douglass, and the two men spoke for a long time. Auld both justified and apologized for his actions as a slaveholder. Overall, the former master and slave were able to part on good terms. After the 1880 election of the Republican candidate James Garfield as president, Douglass was appointed to the post of recorder of deeds for Washington, D.C. He liked his new job, which entailed managing the department that made records of property sales in the capital. During his five years in this position, he had ample time for his writing projects and speaking engagements. In 1881, he published the third of his autobiographical volumes, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. In August 1882, Anna Douglass died after a long illness. Douglass observed a traditional year of grieving, but he was hardly ready to settle into the life of a widower. He had never shrunk from controversy, and his next act upset both black and white society. In early 1884, Douglass announced that he was marrying Helen Pitts, a white woman who was nearly 20 years younger than he was.

Douglass enjoyed 9 years of marriage to Helen Pitts, on February 20, 1895, Douglass was struck by a massive heart attack and died at the age of 77. As news of Douglass's death spread throughout the country, crowds gathered at the Washington church where he lay in state to pay their respects. Black public schools closed for the day, and parents took their children for a last look at the famed leader. His wife and children accompanied his body back to Rochester, where he was laid to rest. No one has struggled more resolutely for the rights of his people than Frederick Douglass. Born at a time when strong voices were desperately needed to cry out for freedom, he established himself as a powerful speaker for all men and women.

Article Source: http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/douglass/part5.html

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