In honor of the end of Black History Month

Black History Month is over but I wanted to list 28 Black things that I like in honor of the Month of learning and celebration.

Here they are in no particular order.


Ester Rolle & John Amos (The first black tv parents)

Fredrick Douglass Style and substance

Freema Agyeman the first companion of color in the Whoverse

Alex Haley C'mon you have to ask? (Roots for those who do have to ask)

Whoopi Goldberg Thru ups and downs she has always been The Whoopster!

The Black Family (Yes even mine)

Wanda Sykes (Thanks for opening that community door just a little bit wider)

A tear jerker & a history lesson all in one.

A classic movie that increased the enrollment in HBCU's (Oh and Wake Up)

Jeffrey Wright black actor (not like most, this one actually knows and understands the craft)

Tananarive Due Sci-Fi writer extraordinaire!

Rod McCullom of Rod 2.0 From our old days in Chicago when he would answer all my tedious writing questions!

Oliver Copiel Black French comic book artist

Paul Mooney Just as good as George Carlin

Macy Gray She finally made me Happy!

Eric Holder Teller of truth and bringer of justice! (he is like Wonder Woman only black ,male and real!)

Egypt not full of people that look like Elizabeth Taylor

Black Cats, who says they are bad luck???!!!!

Happiness is a thing called Joe! (And Lena Horne and Ethyl Waters)

Queen Ororo Munroe and King T'Challa Marvel comics royal couple!

Another Spike Lee movie, so real and on point it was sad!

Warren Brown (You know I love a man in the kitchen)

Barack and Michelle Obama. For very different reasons.

Aaron McGruder...The Boondocks

Comedian Andre Kelley Former roommate and continuous inspiration.

Erykah Badu "Anne don't wear no panties" but she gives me hope in the music scene!

Cleopatra Jones Blacksplotation at it's best.

And Corey Baker Mayor of New Jersey and upcoming political power player.

Cotton pickin mind!!!!!!

Can anybody help me understand?

A grammar school Black history event was recently canceled in Hattiesburg Mississippi. Lillie Burney Elementary school had planned “Cotton picking day” for some of their students. The day included a trip to an actual cotton field where the children, dressed as slaves, would spend the afternoon picking cotton.

I feel the need to type that again. The children of this predominantly black school were going to be taken out to an actual cotton field dressed as slaves in rags and overalls and were going to pick cotton that afternoon.

Yes it does not sound any better the second time you read it does it? When the story showed up in my mailbox I read it three times. I sat for fifteen minutes and read it again. I asked one of my partners, who I think is a much more fare and balanced thinker than I am, to explain anyway this could be a good thing. He instead turned the TV up and kept watching his movie.

The only reason the day was canceled was because a parent read his son’s February calendar from school and “cotton picking day” didn’t seem to right to him either. After a few calls to the school the Principal went to the black history committee, made up of teachers in the school, and it was decided that the day should be changed to career day instead. Cotton picking day!

The school superintendent stood by the principal’s decision to have the day and later to cancel the day.

Cotton picking day!!!!

Black History Month

Brigadier General Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr. (July 1, 1877 – November 26, 1970) was an American general and the father of Benjamin O. Davis Jr. He was the first African-American general in the U.S. Army.

Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., was born in Washington, D.C., on July 1, 1877. His biographer Marvin Fletcher (author of America's First Black General, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., 1880-1970) has presented evidence of his birth records indicating that he was born in May 1880 and later lied about his age so that he could enlist in the army without the permission of his parents. It is the earlier date that appears on his grave at Arlington National Cemetery, however.) He was a student at Howard University when—as a result of the start of the War with Spain—he entered the military service on July 13, 1898 as a temporary first lieutenant of the 8th United States Volunteer Infantry. He was mustered out on March 6, 1899, and on June 18, 1899, he enlisted as a private in Troop I, U.S. 9th Cavalry Regiment (one of the original Buffalo Soldier regiments), of the Regular Army. He then served as corporal and squadron sergeant major, and on February 2, 1901, he was commissioned a second lieutenant of Cavalry in the Regular Army.

He was promoted to first lieutenant on March 30, 1905; to captain on December 24, 1915; to major (temporary) on August 5, 1917; and to lieutenant colonel (temporary) on May 1, 1918. He reverted to his permanent rank of captain on October 14, 1919, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on July 1, 1920; to colonel on February 18, 1930; to brigadier general (temporary) on October 25, 1940. He was retired on July 31, 1941, and recalled to active duty with the rank of brigadier general the following day.

His first service as a commissioned officer of the Regular Army was in the Philippine Islands with the 9th Cavalry on the Island of Samar. In August 1901, he was assigned to duty with the 2d Squadron, 10th Cavalry, and returned from the Philippines with that organization for service as Adjutant at Fort Washakie, Wyoming. In September 1905, he was made Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Wilberforce University, Ohio, remaining there until September 1909, when, after a brief tour of duty at Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, he was detailed as Military Attache to Monrovia, Liberia, until January 1912.

He then was assigned to duty with the 9th Cavalry at Fort D.A. Russell (predecessor of Fort Francis E. Warren), Wyoming, and at Douglas, Arizona. He remained with his regiment on border patrol duty until February 1915, when he again was assigned to duty as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Wilberforce University, Ohio. He remained there until the summer of 1917, when he went to the Philippines for duty as Supply Officer of the 9th Cavalry at Camp Stotsenburg. He returned to the United States in July 1920, and was assigned to duty as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, where he served until July 1924, when he became Instructor of the 372d Infantry, Ohio National Guard, stationed at Cleveland, Ohio.

In July 1929 he returned to Wilberforce University as Professor Military Science and Tactics serving until late 1930 when he was detailed on special duty with the U.S. Department of State in connection with affairs relating to the Republic of Liberia.
In late 1931 he was assigned again to serve as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Tuskegee, Alabama, where he remained until August 1937 when he was transferred to Wilberforce University.

During the summers of 1930 to 1933, he was placed on detached service for duty with the Pilgrimage of War Mothers and Widows, making frequent trips to Europe on behalf of that organization. For his work on this assignment he received letters of commendation from the Secretary of War and from the Quartermaster General.

In August 1937 he was transferred from Tuskegee Institute to Wilberforce University. After a year at that institution, he was assigned as instructor and Commanding Officer of the 369th Infantry, New York National Guard. This organization was later changed to the 369th Coast Artillery (Anti-aircraft) Regiment. In January 1941 he was ordered to Fort Riley, Kansas, for duty as a brigade commander with the 2d Cavalry Division. The following June, he was assigned to Washington, D.C., for duty as Assistant to the Inspector General.
He was assigned to the European Theater of Operations in September 1942 on special duty as Advisor on Negro Problems and upon completion of this special duty he returned to the United States and resumed his duties in the Inspector General's Department.

In November 1944, he became Special Assistant to the Commanding General, Communications Zone, European Theater of Operations, stationed in Paris, France, and in November 1945 was granted a period of detached service for the purposes of recuperation and rehabilitation. In January 1946 he again became Special Assistant to The Inspector General, Washington, D.C. He retired on 14 July 1948, as the senior Brigadier General on the 184 member Permanent list, and after having served fifty years. General Davis died on November 26, 1970. His remains are interred in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. His son, General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., (U.S. Air Force, Retired), is the fourth African American graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and the nation's second African American general officer.

Black History Month

Mae Carol Jemison, M.D. (born October 17, 1956) was the first African-American woman to travel to space. She went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992.

Dr. Jemison was a Science Mission Specialist (at NASA first) on the STS-47 Spacelab J flight, a US/Japan joint mission. She conducted experiments in life sciences and material sciences, and was co-investigator in the bone Cell Research experiment in the Spacelab laboratory module. Jemison resigned from NASA on March 8, 1993.

Chemical engineer, scientist, physician, teacher and astronaut, she has a wide range of experience in technology, engineering, and medical research. In addition to her extensive background in science, she is well-versed in African and African-American Studies and is trained in dance and choreography. Her inspiration for going into NASA was African-American actress Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Lt. Cmdr. Uhura on Star Trek.

Dr. Jemison founded The Jemison Group, Inc., located in Houston, Texas, to research, develop and implement advanced technologies suited to the social, political, cultural and economic context of the individual, especially for the developing world. Current projects include: Alpha, (TM) a satellite based telecommunication system to improve health care in West Africa; and The Earth We Share, (TM) an international science camp for students ages 12 to 16, that utilizes an experiential curriculum.

This attitude and her high achievements in historically exclusionary fields led Dartmouth College to invite her to its Hanover campus in 1993, where she taught a course on Space Age Technology and Developing Countries. Dr. Jemison is currently a member of the Dartmouth faculty in the Environmental Studies Program and is Director of The Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries at Dartmouth College. The Institute was established as an agent for identifying, assessing, researching and implementing advanced technologies that may be employed advantageously to the development of less industrialized nations.

Dr. Jemison is the host and a technical consultant to World of Wonders series produced by GRB Entertainment and seen weekly on the Discovery Channel. She is also in demand as a speaker to civic and government organizations, schools and corporations around the country and internationally.

Awards and honors she has received include Essence Award (1988); Gamma Sigma Gamma Women of the Year (1989); Honorary Doctorate of Science, Lincoln College, PA (1991); Honorary Doctor of Letters, Winston-Salem, NC (1991); McCall's 10 Outstanding Women for the 90s (1991); Pumpkin Magazine's (a Japanese Monthly) One of the Women for the Coming New Century (1991); Johnson Publications Black Achievement Trailblazers Award (1992); Mae C. Jemison Science and Space Museum, Wright Jr. College, Chicago, (dedicated 1992); Ebony's 50 Most Influential women (1993); Turner Trumpet Award (1993); and Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth (1993); Kilby Science Award (1993); Induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame (1993); People magazine's 1993 "50 Most Beautiful People in the World"; CORE Outstanding Achievement Award; National Medical Association Hall of Fame. She was honored by the establishment (1992) of the Mae C. Jemison Academy, an alternative public school in Detroit.

Dr. Jemison is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Science; Association of Space Explorers: Honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.; board of Directors of Scholastic, Inc.; Board of Directors of Houston's UNICEF; Board of Trustees Spelman College; Board of Directors Aspen Institute; board of Directors Keystone Center; and the National Research Council Space Station Review Committee. She has presented at the United Nations and internationally on the uses of space technology, was the subject of a PBS Documentary, The New Explorers: Endeavor by Kurtis Production, and made a cameo appearance in the episode "Second Chances" of Star Trek: The Next Generation as Lieutenant Palmer.

In 2006, she appeared in the PBS documentary, African American Lives, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. The documentary, which uses DNA testing to trace the ancestry of several African Americans, revealed that Jemison's maternal grandfather is East Asian.[1]

She resides in Houston, Texas with her cats, Sneeze and Little Mama.

Black History Month

Butterfly McQueen (January 8, 1911 – December 22, 1995) was an American film and television actress.

Born Thelma McQueen in Tampa, Florida, she trained as a dancer and took her stage name from the "Butterfly Dance" after performing it in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
McQueen made her first film in 1939 in what would become her most identifiable role—as Prissy, the young maid in Gone with the Wind, uttering the famous words: "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies!" She also played an uncredited bit part as a sales assistant in The Women, filmed after Gone With the Wind but released before it. Around this time she also modeled for the Mrs. Butterworth bottle. She continued to play maids and small parts in various films including Cabin In The Sky (1943), Since You Went Away (1944), Mildred Pierce (1945) and Duel in the Sun (1946). She also played Butterfly, Mary Livingstone's maid in the Jack Benny radio program, for a time during World War II. But by 1947 had grown tired of the ethnic stereotypes she was required to play and ended her film career.

By 1950 she had played another racially-stereotyped role for two years on the television series Beulah, which reunited her with her Gone with the Wind co-star Hattie McDaniel.
Her acting roles after this were very few, and she devoted herself to other pursuits including study, and received a bachelor's degree in political science in 1975. She had one more role of some substance in the 1986 film The Mosquito Coast.

McQueen lived in Aiken, South Carolina and died in Augusta, Georgia as a result of burns received when a kerosene heater she was attempting to light exploded and burst into flames. A lifelong atheist, she donated her body to medical science and remembered the Freedom From Religion Foundation in her will.

Tuesdays Invitation! Black history

Black History month, began by Carter G Woodson as Negro History Week, began in 1926 and was celebrated the second week of February. That week was chosen because of the birthdays of President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, two people he felt had made a great impact in social condition of Black Americans.

While many people feel that the need for an entire month dedicated to the education of one race of people has far outlived its usefulness, especially in the wake of the Election of President Obama and our new “post racial” society. But I believe that there can never be enough education in general and that education about Blacks in American history continues to be lacking. So Derrick’s Window will celebrate Black history month. I invite you to join in.