Born in Chicago, Illinois in the early 1800s Daniel McCree is best known for patenting of the portable fire escape ladder. Very little is known about his childhood or personal life or when and where he died. On May 2, 1890, McCree filed Patent No. … Read MoreDaniel McCree (1800?- ?)
Sir Grantley Herbert Adams was a Barbadian politician. He was the first Prime Minister of Barbados from 1953 to 1958 and then became the first and only Prime Minister of the West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962. He was one of the co-founders of … Read MoreGrantley Herbert Adams (1898-1971)
Egyptian Sheikh Muhammad Ayyad al-Tantawi, one of the youngest teachers of Arabic studies in Egypt (at that time the Ottoman Empire), traveled to and worked in Russia. During his residence in Russia, he was the first to compile an Arabic grammar manual in the Russian … Read MoreSheikh Muhammad Ayyad al-Tantawi (1810-1861)
The Black Maroons of Florida, also known as Black Seminoles, Seminole Maroons, and Seminole Freedmen, were a community derived from Runaway slaves who integrated into American Indian culture. They were mostly Gullah fugitives who escaped from the rice plantations in South Carolina and Georgia who … Read MoreThe Black Maroons of Florida (1693-1850)
Emory Conrad Malick was an aviation pioneer from the state of Pennsylvania. He was an early graduate of the Curtiss Flying School where he earned his International Pilot’s License (FAI #105) on March 20, 1912. Malick was the first licensed Black Aviator. He was born … Read MoreEmory Conrad Malick (1881-1959)
Muhammed Idris as-Senussi was born on March 12, 1889, or 1890 in Al Jaghbub in Cyrenaica (a province of the Ottoman Empire in today’s Libya). His parents were Muhammed al-Mahdi as-Senussi and Aisha bint Muqarrib al-Barasa. Idris was the grandson of the founder and chief … Read MoreKing Idris (1889/90-1983)
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, established 1864, was the first African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E. church) in the state of Mississippi and the site for T.W. Stringer Grand Lodge of Freemasonry for the State of Mississippi in Vicksburg founded by Rev. T.W. Stinger in 1867, as … Read MoreBethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (1864- )
The Malê Rebellion in Brazil, also known as The Great Revolt, was a Muslim slave rebellion in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, in January 1835. The uprising occurred on a Sunday during Ramadan when enslaved African Muslims and freemen rose against the government. Yoruba and Hausa Muslims … Read MoreThe Malê Rebellion in Brazil (1835)
At the beginning of the Civil War, there were approximately two million enslaved women. An estimated 500,000 of these women fled from slavery as soon as white men left their plantations and homes to join the Confederate army. Those fleeing from slavery escaped to Union-occupied … Read MoreContraband Relief Association (1862-1865)
In 1816, Rocky Fork near Godfrey, Illinois, was established by four free African American families who purchased five adjacent parcels of land and built homes and a church that soon became a large-scale secret Underground Railroad station for escaped enslaved people fleeing to safety from … Read MoreRocky Fork Underground Railroad Community (1816- )
