African-American Role Models - #3 Quiz

Answer: George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver is believed to have been born in January, 1864, in Diamond, MO. He was one of the children of a pair of slaves, Mary and Giles, but was raised by their owner and his wife, Susan and Moses Carver.

Carver received his high school diploma in Minneapolis, KS. Although he was accepted by Highland College in Highland, KS, upon arrival he was refused entry because of his race. Thus, he homesteaded a claim, built a house and planted crops, all the while studying and conducting experiments in biology, geology, and art. In 1890 he enrolled in Simpson College, IA, to study art and music, using and developing his artistic skills by drawing botanical samples. A teacher recommended he join the botany program at Iowa State Agricultural College and in 1891 he became the first black student at Iowa State in Ames, IA. His work at the Iowa State Experimental Station on plant pathology, while working on his master's degree, brought him national attention.

After graduation from Iowa State Carver was recruited by Booker T. Washington and headed Tuskegee's Agricultural Department where he gained national renown. He even pioneered a mobile "Jesup" wagon, named after the New York benefactor Morris Ketchum Jesup, to take the lessons of crop diversification, rotation, and alternate types of cash crops, to farmers themselves. He is said to have found 300 new uses for peanuts, and hundreds more for sweet potatoes, pecans and soybeans, inventing hundreds of products from plastic to paints to dyes and even to a type of gasoline. He taught and conducted research at Tuskeegee for 47 years.

In 1916 Carver was honored by being made a member of the British Royal Society of Arts. He also was the advisor on agriculture and nutrition to Mohandas Gandhi. A frugal man, upon his death in 1947 the George Washington Carver foundation was established with his savings to promote future agricultural research. A national monument is outside of home town, Diamond, MO, on a 210-acre complex which includes a nature trail, museum and statue of Carver. It is the first national monument dedicated to a black man as well as the first to be dedicated to anyone but a president.

His face has appeared on stamps and a commemorative coin. His name is on a number of schools as well as two military vessels and there is a George Washington Carver garden in the Missouri Botanical Garden with a life-size statue of the man. These honors are all well deserved by a person who started out in difficult circumstances.

Answer: Jack Johnson

John Arthur Johnson, born in March, 1878, was nicknamed the "Galveston Giant" from the city in Texas where he was born. He was one of six children whose parents taught them how to read and write. He was the first African-American heavyweight boxing champ from 1908 to 1915.

Johnson had a distinctive style of boxing by beginning a bout in a cautious manner then building up over time into a more aggressive fighter, a great deal like James Corbett had done ten years earlier. However, instead of saying how "clever" Johnson was as the reporters had of Corbett, they wrote of him as "cowardly and devious".

In February, 1903, Johnson beat "Denver" Ed Martin for the World Colored Heavyweight Championship, keeping that title until he won the World Heavyweight title in Sydney, Australia, in December, 1908, beating Canadian, Tommy Burns. After this victory, white people were extremely unhappy and began looking for "A Great White Hope" to take the title away from Johnson. In July, 1910, James L. Jeffries was thought to be such a person. He was a former undefeated heavyweight champion and came out of retirement for the fight which was held in Reno, Nevada, in a fight called "The Fight of the Century". Johnson won. John L. Sullivan stated that the entire fight had been fair on Johnson's part.

That evening the race riots began, although it is thought that some of the "riots" were merely black people celebrating. (A black poet, Cuney, even wrote a short, clever, poem called "My Lord, What a Morning" about the fight.) The riots occurred in more than 25 states and 50 cities with a total of 25 deaths and hundreds more injured. After winning that fight, Johnson himself set a "color barrier" and refused to fight any black men.

In April, 1915, Johnson fought Jess Willard, a working cowboy from Kansas, in Havana, Cuba, for the title. Johnson was knocked out in the 26th round and never again fought for the heavweight title.

For three years, while in retirement, Johnson owned a nightclub in Harlem. He sold it to Owney Madden who renamed it the Cotton Club. Jack Johnson was married three times, all to white women, which in those days was not looked upon kindly. None of the marriages resulted in children. In 1913 a jury convicted him of violating the Mann Act by transporting a prostitute over the state line, even though the action had been done before the Mann Act had been passed. The jury that convicted him was all white and the judge was Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a future baseball commissioner who kept the color barrier intact in that sport. Rather than go to prison he left the country and spent the next seven years in exile, traveling the world with his wife. In 1920 he returned to the US and was sent to Leavenworth in September to serve his sentence. While in prison, Johnson invented a modified type of wrench which was patented in April, 1922.

Johnson was named to the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954. In 1970 a play and later a movie starring James Earl Jones, named the "Great White Hope", was made about him. A number of documentaries have also been made about him, and both Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis have done soundtracks for documentaries. Ken Burns, in his documentary, said about Johnson, "For more than thirteen years Jack Johnson was the most famous and most notorious African-American on earth." All because he was the best at what he did.

Answer: William H. Carney

William Harvey Carney, born as a slave named just "William" in Norfolk, Virginia, in February, 1840, earned the first Medal of Honor by a African-American. This was during the Civil War in July, 1863, at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, although the medal was not awarded for nearly 37 years after his act of bravery.

William had escaped to Massachusetts via the Underground Railroad and joined the Massachusetts regiment. There he met a man by the name of William Carney who allowed him to use his last name so he could serve in the 54th. Our Carney was a sergeant with the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. His medal was given for his having saved the American flag, planting it on a parapet, and finally retreating across the battlefield when the Union had to pull back, all the while having been wounded a total of three times. He made sure the flag never touched the ground.

The attack on Fort Wagner is shown in the movie "Glory". Carney's face is depicted on the monument sculpted by Auguste St. Gaudens honoring Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment which is on Boston Common.

Carney worked for the post office after the war until retirement.

In 1901 a song was written about his deed called "The Old Flag Never Touched the Ground", which is allegedly what he said when he got back across the battlefield with it.

Robert Black, another African-American, was the second person to perform an action that was given the Medal of Honor, but he was the first one to actually receive his Medal.

Answer: James "Cool Papa" Bell

James Thomas Nichols, nicknamed "Cool Papa", was born in May, 1903, in Starkville, Mississippi, and played center field in the Negro Baseball League. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. It is not known why, or even when, he changed his named to "Bell", but one of six siblings was also named Bell. He played baseball for various teams, in both the US and Mexico, from 1922 until 1946. During the late 1940's he coached for the Kansas City Monarchs and taught the various strategies of the game to such future great players such as Jackie Robinson and Ernie Banks.

Bell is recorded as having rounded all the bases in 12 seconds. Satchel Paige once said "If Cool Papa had known about college, or if colleges had known about Cool Papa, Jesse Owens would have looked like he was walking". The historian, Ken Burns, once related in his "Baseball" that Bell once scored from first on a sacrifice bunt. He scored standing up. There are many stories like this about "Cool Papa" but no one knows how many are true. John Holoway says in his book that Bell was in the Top 5 in stolen bases nine times.

Bell has been inducted into the St. Louis, Missouri, Walk of Fame, and there is a street in that city named after him. Also, the road leading into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in Jackson is named for him and he is a member of that Hall of Fame.

Answer: Dr. Maulana Karenga

Ronald McKinley Everett was born on a farm in Parsonburg, Maryland, in July of 1941, the last of fourteen children. In the late 1950s, while living with his brother, who was a teacher, he attended Los Angeles City College and became the first African-American student body president. He received both his BA and MA from the University of California, Los Angeles and at that time took the name Maulana (Swahili for "master teacher") Karenga (Swahili for "keeper of tradition"). In 1976 he received his first PhD from United States International University and in 1994 he was awarded a second PhD with a dissertation about Maat, the ancient Egyptian idea of truth, balance, order, law, morality and justice This degree was from the University of Southern California. He is presently the Chair of the African Studies department at California State University, Long Beach. He has written several books, including "Introduction to Black Studies", now in its fourth edition.

He founded Organization US which in the 1950s was put on various lists by the FBI as being dangerous, revolutionary and committed to the armed Black Power movement, which it was. In 1971 he was sentenced to prison for ten years, for torturing women, although he was pardoned in 1975, on the grounds the sentence was politically motivated. Those years, and the violent ones leading up to them, were not his finest hour and certainly not a time when he was a role model who should be followed.

After his release from prison he re-established the US organization and called on African-Americans to adopt secular humanism, using the Seven Principles of Blackness, which are followed on the seven days of Kwanzaa. Those are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith. Basically, Kwanzaa is a celebration of one's African heritage and the African-American community. It has nothing to do with religion and should not be compared to Christmas or Chanukah. In 1998 Karenga published a book called "Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture".

Answer: Meadow "Meadowlark" Lemon III

Meadow Lemon, born in April, 1932, in Wilmington, North Carolina, played in more than 16,000 games and in 94 different countries with the Harlem Globetrotters.

He began playing with the Globetrotters in 1955 and became the "Clown Prince" in 1958, a position he held for 20 years and one which he had wanted since he was a child. In 1980 he left to found a similar type of basketball team to the Globetrotters and didn't return to them until 1994. He returned to his Meadowlark Lemon's Harlem All-Stars Team in 2004.

In 2000, Lemon received the John Bunn award, which is the highest award given by the Basketball Hall of Fame other than induction into it, itself. In 2003 he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2001 the Globetrotters awarded him a "Legends" ring and retired his #36 jersey.

In 1986 Lemon became an ordained minister and had the offices of Meadowlark Lemon Ministries, as well as the offices for his touring basketball team, in Arizona.

Answer: Crispus Attucks

Crispus Attucks was born as a slave circa 1722 in Framingham, Massachusetts. Much of Attucks' life history is based on speculation by historians over the years. They believe he was born from an African father and a Wampanoag or Natick mother but cannot agree on whether or not he was still a slave, albeit escaped, or a freeman as an adult.

During a face-off in March, 1770, later called the Boston Massacre, British soldiers opened fire on a crowd of colonists in which five colonists were killed and six were wounded. Attucks was the first to be killed. Some have insisted that Attucks was the instigator of the event but that is argued. What is known is that he was the first one to die, with two shots to his chest. The testimony of two eyewitnesses in 1770 did not refer to Attucks as a "black man" thus it seems that Boston society looked upon him merely as a man of mixed race. The five dead, looked upon as heroes, were buried in a common grave in Granary Burying Grounds.

John Adams defended the British soldiers on a claim of self-defence and was succcessful in having only two of them charged with manslaughter, and not murder. They were given a choice of hanging or being branded on their thumbs. Needless to say, the soldiers accepted the branding.

There is a monument in the Boston Common honoring all the victims of the Massacre, including Attucks. His name is on a number of schools and roads all over the US. In a popular book about Attucks, author James Neyland wrote: "He is one of the most important figures in African-American history not only for what he did for his own race but for what he did for all oppressed people everywhere. He is a reminder that the African-American heritage is not only African but American and it is a heritage that begins with the beginning of America.

Answer: Moses Fleetwood Walker

Moses Fleetwood Walker, nicknamed "Fleet", was born in October, 1856, in Mount Pleasant, Ohio, the son of a black physician and a white mother. He attended Oberlin College and played on the school's first varsity baseball team in 1881 and was a star catcher. In 1882 the University of Michigan recruited him and he played for them as well as for the White Sewing Machine club while attending school. Here, for the first time, Walker experienced racial discrimination. He was denied service at a Kentucky restaurant with the rest of the team. Further, the opposing team refused to play against a black opponent. Walker was pulled but because of the loud wishes of the crowd the opposing team allowed him to be put back in the game. Back at school, after a terrible 1881, Walker virtually made the 1882 season for Michigan with both his catching and batting skills.

In 1883 he joined the Toledo Blue Stockings. When they were to play an exhibition game against the Chicago White Stockings, Cap Anson refused to play if Walker was going to play. The Blue Stockings played him and told Anson that the White Stockings would forfeit the gate receipts if they refused to play. Needless to say, Anson played the Blue Stockings rather than lose the gate money.

In 1884 Toledo became a major league by joining the American Association. The star pitcher of the Blue Stockings and Walker's teammate said of Walker "he was the best catcher I ever worked with but I disliked a Negro and whenever I had to pitch to him I used to pitch anything I wanted without looking at his signals". Needless to say, that attitude hurt not only the team but also Walker with physical injuries.

The Toledo Blue Stockings folded in 1884 and Walker went back to playing with the minors. In joined the International League's Newark Little Giants who were to play an exhibition game with - again - the Chicago White Stockings, still managed by Cap Anson who objected to the the black pitcher of the Little Giants. On the same morning of that game the International League's owners met and voted to not have African-American players in their league. Later the League would modify its ban on black athletes and Walker signed with Syracuse. This time there was another incident with Anson whose team was to play Syracuse. Anson again refused to play with a black player on the field. Syracuse did not stand up to Anson and played a non-black man. In 1889 Syracuse let Walker go and not long after that the American Association and the National League both put an unofficial ban on African-American players. The "color barrier" had been drawn...because of Moses Fleetwood Walker's expertise and Cap Anson's dislike for African-Americans. It wasn't broken until Jackie Robinson did so in 1946.

There was lots of life after baseball for Moses Walker. He bought a hotel and a movie theater. He patented several of his inventions including moving picture equipment as well as an exploding artillery shell, and he published a newspaper.

Answer: George Washington Buckner

George Washington Buckner was born a slave in December, 1855, near Greensburg, Kentucky. He was freed at the age of ten and received a basic "freedman's" education. Later he moved to Indiana where he attended Indiana State Normal School, which later became known as Indiana State University, to be a teacher. He also studied at Indiana Eclectic Medical College where he was trained as a physician and from which he graduated in 1890. He practiced medicine in Indiana. Buckner was a Democrat and in 1913 was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to be the "minister resident", and later the American Consul General to Liberia. In 1915 he resigned those positions due to health problems and returned to Indiana.

After his return to the US he became even more active in the Democratic party and was eventually named "Elder Statesman of Indiana Blacks" due to his work with the Democratic Party as well as his work with and for the black community in Evansville, Indiana.

Answer: Althea Neale Gibson

Althea Gibson was born in Silver, South Carolina, in August, 1927. The family moved to Harlem in New York where her family barely eked by, living on welfare for a time. She not only had trouble with school, she often simply did not go. But she loved sports, basketball and ping pong in particular. Joining in public recreation programs, Althea played ping pong and began winning tournaments. She was introduced to the Harlem River Tennis Club where she learned to play tennis and did very well. In the early 1940's she had caught the attention of a physician from Virginia who was active in the African-American tennis community which allowed her to have better instructions and join in competitions, as well as to join the United States Tennis Association.

Later another southern physician and tennis activist became her mentor and she moved to his home, took private tennis lessons and attended an industrial high school. In 1950 she began attending Florida A&M, graduating in 1953. She then moved to Jefferson City, Missouri, to become an athletic instructor at Lincoln University. Gibson won the ATA Womens' Single Tournament from 1947 to 1956, ten years in a row but was still excluded from playing in white tournaments. (The ATA was an all-black organization.)

In 1950 Alice Marble wrote a letter to a tennis magazine wherein she denounced the fact that Gibson was not allowed to play in better known tourneys only because of bigotry. Because of that letter, Gibson became the first African-American tennis player of either sex to enter the Forest Hills, New York, National Grass Court Championship tournament. She then was the first African-American to play at Wimbledon. In 1956 she not only won the French Open, she toured with the national tennis team supported by the US State Department.

In 1957 she won both the Wimbledon womens' singles and doubles competitions, for which her return met with a ticker-tape parade in New York City. She followed those up by winning the Forest Hill's womens' singles. She turned around in 1958 and did the same things as she had done in 1957. The AP voted her Female Athlete of the Year in both of those years. In 1959 she turned professional and in 1960 she won the womens' professional singles title. To make things even more interesting, in the early 1960's she was the first black female playing on the women's professional golf tour.

Gibson's autobiography, published in 1958, was entitled "I Always Wanted to Be Somebody". She certainly had succeeded against long odds but not without a lot of caring help by others.