Black History Month 2024
 

Once again as Black History Month rolls around and I'm reminded that Black history is so much a part of American history. I feel that it's almost criminal the way the history of Blacks and other minorities in the course of events of our nation's history simply got washed over. We've come a long way and yet we have not. I still feel one day we'll all be seen as equals, none over another.

And there are some great ones from our state - Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Benjamin Banneker, and Thurgood Marshall come to mind.

Achievements by Blacks span our country's entire history. A year or two ago I read something about a White parent wanting to opt-out of Black History Month. I wonder what she was afraid of? I'm old enough to remember when it was only Black History Week.

Watching a PBS special about architect Paul Revere Williams. The man who designed some of the finest homes in the LA area. He also was a major designer of the LA International Airport while also designing the Beverly Hills Hotel.

He went on to design St. Judes Hospital in Memphis for Danny Thomas, gratis amongst many other outstanding public buildings.

A truly remarkable man who overcame the adversity of being an African American in the so-called Land of The Free.

Meanwhile, vast parts of Los Angeles and the surrounding cities were "protected" by covenants in the deeds prohibiting the sale of these homes to anyone not of the Caucasian persuasion. My grandmother's house in Inglewood had such a covenant.

One of the things that was never taught in school. The story of the Tuskegee Airmen.

I was today's years old when I learned about Octavia Butler, science fiction author. In the 1980's she won two Hugo awards. The top award for science fiction. In 1995 she became the first science fiction writer to win a MacArthur Fellowship. So much interesting historical events in our nation's history. I wonder what they're teaching students nowadays.

The potato chip was invented in 1853 by George Crum. Crum was a black American chef at the Moon Lake Lodge resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. Crum’s chips were originally called Saratoga Chips and potato crunches. And the rest, as they say, is history.

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...lg&oe=65D8E8E7

John A. Burr:
Burr designed a lawn mower with traction wheels and a rotary blade that was designed to not easily get plugged up from lawn clippings.
John Albert Burr also improved the design of lawn mowers by making it possible to mow closer to building and wall edges. You can view U.S. patent 624,749 issued to John Albert Burr.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ris_Miller.jpg

"USS Doris Miller (CVN-81) will be the fourth Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy.[6][7] Doris Miller is scheduled to be laid down January 2026, launched October 2029 and commissioned in 2032. She will be built at Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries (formerly Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding) in Newport News, Virginia.[4]

Naming
The ship, named for Messman Second Class Doris Miller, is the first aircraft carrier named for both an enlisted sailor and an African American.[8] The ship will be the second to honor Miller, who received the Navy Cross for his actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor; the first ship was USS Miller (FF-1091).[9]

Construction
On 25 August 2021, with six members of Doris Miller's family in attendance, the Navy conducted the First Cut of Steel ceremony at Newport News Shipbuilding, signaling the formal start of construction for the fourth Ford-class aircraft carrier.[10]" Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Doris_Miller#See_also

Quite the American hero by any standard whatsoever.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Miller