Publishing
Mary Ann Shadd was the first Black women editor of a newspaper in North America. She worked for racial integration in the United States. With the passage of the fugitive slave act in 1850, she decided that the future of Blacks looked better outside of the United States. Her conviction to the struggle for the rights of Blacks must have been inspired by her father Abraham Shadd, who was an abolitionist and opponent to the American Colonization Society.
Mary Ann Shadd was committed to the education of people of color. At the age of sixteen she went to Wilmington, Delaware to organize a school for children of color. Over the course of eleven years, Shadd taught in schools for black youth in New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware. In 1851, she joined the emigrationist movement and with her brother Isaac moved to Toronto, Canada.
Once in Canada, Shadd found herself locked in battle with Henry Bibb. Bibb was a staunch supporter of segregation in contrast to Shadd Ann who sought racial integration. Bibb published a newspaper called the Voice of the Fugitive in which he frequently attacked Shadd’s desire to assimilate. With the motto “Self reliance is the fine road to independence.” Shadd founded the paper Provincial Freeman where she in turn challenged Bibb’s desire for separation. Shadd used the paper to discuss all aspects of Black life in Canada. The paper exposed all aspects of segregation and discrimination in Canada.
In 1855 Shadd was the first woman to speak at the National Negro Convention. Frederick Douglass said that she gave one of the most convincing and telling speeches in favor of Canadian emmigration. Shadd would eventually abandon her belief in emmigration but would maintain a strong desire for Black autonomy and maintain her belief in Black self help. During the Civil War she worked as an enlistment officer.
Shadd eventually obtained a Law degree and continued to write letters and articles for newspapers. She increasingly turned attention to gender equality and actively participated in supporting rights for women. Shadd testified before Congress on women’s suffrage.
During her life she lectured extensively to many groups on subjects including race pride, the Klu Klux Klan, the Republican Party and women’s rights. Frederick Douglass spoke highly of Mary Ann Shadd.
Science
Walter S. McAfee participated in an U.S. Army Program in the 1940’s created to determine whether a high frequency radio signal could penetrate the earth’s outer atmosphere. McAfee made the necessary calculations and on January 10, 1946 the team sent a radar pulse through a special 40-feet square antenna towards the moon. Two seconds later, they received a faint signal. While official news of this scientific breakthrough did not include McAfee’s name, Americans could not have walked on the moon had it not been for Walter McAfee and his calculations.
Business
1911 – 1999
In 1940, became the first African-American to own a new motor vehicle franchise, a Studebaker dealership
Established a Chrysler dealership in 1963, becoming the first African-American owner of a ?Big Three? dealership
Chronicled his own struggle against racism in the book ?One Man?s Way?
Edward Davis was a trailblazer who paved the way for minority business owners in the automotive industry.
Leaving his Louisiana birthplace, Davis took a risk in the hope of a better future in Detroit, where he moved in with his uncle. After graduating from Cass Technical High School, Davis worked as a mechanic and eventually became employed at a Dodge Motor Company plant. Impressed with Davis? hard work, the plant supervisor?s son offered Davis a job selling cars in a Detroit dealership. Davis succeeded as an auto salesman in spite of racial harassment, and he decided to establish a dealership of his own.
Davis opened a Studebaker dealership in 1940 and operated it until 1956, when Studebaker entered bankruptcy. Davis then operated a service and used car business until 1963, when he was awarded a Chrysler-Plymouth franchise.
Successful with customers of all races, Davis promoted civic awareness through his dealership, whose slogan was: ?Good citizenship is our business, too.?
The Arts
In the early 1900s, particularly in the 1920s, African-American literature, art, music, dance, and social commentary began to flourish in Harlem, a section of New York City. This African-American cultural movement became known as “The New Negro Movement” and later as the Harlem Renaissance. More than a literary movement, the Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. African-Americans were encouraged to celebrate their heritage.
The main factors contributing to the development of the Harlem Renaissance were African-American urban migration, trends toward experimentation throughout the country, and the rise of radical African-American intellectuals.
The Harlem Renaissance transformed African-American identity and history, but it also transformed American culture in general. Never before had so many Americans read the thoughts of African-Americans and embraced the African-American community’s productions, expressions, and style.
Slavery
(July 2, 1839), slave rebellion that took place on the slave ship Amistad near the coast of Cuba and had important political and legal repercussions in the American Abolitionist movement (see abolitionism). The mutineers were captured and tried in the United States, and a surprising victory for the country’s antislavery forces resulted in 1841 when the U.S. Supreme Court freed the rebels. A committee formed to defend the slaves later developed into the American Missionary Association (incorporated 1846).
On July 2, 1839, the Spanish schooner Amistad was sailing from Havana to Puerto Pr
