Mason was born in Mississippi in 1818. She was given the name Bridget without a surname, and was later nicknamed Biddy. She was owned by slaveholders in Georgia and South Carolina before being returned to Mississippi.

Robert Marion Smith, her last owner, was a Mississippi Mormon convert. He decided to follow the call of the church and moved his family and enslaved persons to the West. There he would help establish a Mormon community in what would become Salt Lake City, Utah. At this time Utah was still a part of Mexico.

After several other moves, Mason and her family ended up in Los Angeles. California being a free state, Mason petitioned her owner and a Los Angeles District judge granted the petition and she was free.

Mason continued to work as a midwife and nurse and saved enough money to begin purchasing land which is now Downtown Los Angeles. She also organized the First A.M.E. Church which is now the oldest African American church in L.A.

She used her wealth (at one point estimated at $3 million dollars) to help feed and shelter the poor and open an elementary school for Black children. She was one of Los Angeles' biggest philanthropists at the time.

She died on January 15, 1891 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Evergreen Cemetery. However, in 1988, L.A. mayor Bradley held a ceremony in her honor and marked her grave with a tombstone.

Williams, born in Orangeburg South Carolina, photographed his first wedding at 11 years old. From then, he began a career in photography, which started as a simple way to make money, and would quickly morph into a tool to document American history. By the time he was 14, Cecil was freelancing for JET magazine. He went on to photograph significant desegregation efforts in South Carolina.  In January of 1960, during Williams’ senior year in college, he had an opportunity to capture images of then presidential candidate, John F. Kennedy, at a press conference in New York City.

The press conference was being held at a downtown hotel and he decided to go down to the hotel in hopes of capturing some images. However, after arriving at the hotel, he realized he forgot his press pass, and the hotel security was moments away from kicking him out of the room, just as Kennedy was about to come up to the podium.

But then Kennedy told them not to kick him out, and gave Williams his personal address. For the next year, while campaigning all over the United States, Cecil became a close acquaintance to Kennedy and would go on to become his favorite lensman. Williams once wrote, ” The historical significance of John F. Kennedy’s announcement that he was running for president, combined with a personal incident that happened at the press conference, made that day in January my most treasured memory.”

Cecil Williams is a professional photographer, videographer, publisher, inventor, author of 6 books, and architect of six residences that became his home and photography studio.

https://www.neh.gov/article/cecil-j-williams (see some of his iconic photos here)

https://www.loc.gov/item/2015669125/ (oral history interview)

https://www.ccpl.org/events/unforgettable-celebrating-time-life-hope-and-bravery%E2%80%9D-cecil-williams-traveling-exhibit

https://blackwithnochaser.com/cecil-fck-yo-fountain-williams-is-black-history/?fbclid=IwAR0xlfD254ZKST07sbFbzjwl0W7qVGhFgcaFdrVdSzqbp5Z71dTfpvjVvWA

Meet Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, an activist and advocate for the transgender and gender non-conforming community.

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy has spent more than 40 years advocating for the marginalized, whether in prisons or on the streets. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, the trans activist came to know herself in the 1950s and 60s, when police raids of queer bars were rampant and the thought of LGBTQ+ people speaking out against oppression was novel. She, alongside other vanguard activists like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, emerged from the perilous 1969 Stonewall Riots with a commitment to support her sisters and other trans family.

A former sex worker and a survivor of Attica State Prison, Miss Major’s unjust, discriminatory, and often violent experiences with law enforcement and the prison industrial system propelled her to help, mentor, and provide assistance to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated transgender people.

Miss Major’s fierce commitment and intersectional approach to justice has brought her to the forefront of many causes, including caring for people with HIV/AIDS, working with trans prisoners, and currently, mentoring her ‘gurls’ from Little Rock, Arkansas, where she runs House of GG, a retreat center for Black trans and gender nonconforming leaders from the south.

Her upcoming creative projects include executive producing the film Trans in Trumpland (on streaming platforms worldwide February 2021), and a book on her life’s activism written collaboratively with her longtime assistant Toshio Meronek (out late 2021 on Verso Books).

Sources:

• https://www.them.us/story/transvisionaries-miss-major
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/14560270363
• https://www.astraeafoundation.org/honorees/miss-major-griffin-gracy/
• https://missmajor.net/

Meet the amazing world renowned pianist, Tom Wiggins (referred to as “Blind Tom” Wiggins at the time).

“Blind Tom” Wiggins

Few performers in the nineteenth century roused as much curiosity as "Blind Tom" Wiggins. Born a slave in Georgia in 1848, by the time he died in Hoboken in 1908, he was an international celebrity, had traveled the world, and his name was a byword for inexplicable genius.

Thomas Wiggins was a musical prodigy and one of the most well-known pianists during the 19th century. He was born blind and sold into slavery as a child. The plantation owners wanted to kill him because he couldn’t perform work.

Instead he was left to explore the plantation where he had access to a piano. He learned by ear and began composing by age five. Wiggins also had an extraordinary memory. Although he passed before autism was commonly known, historians believe he was on the autism spectrum.

One of his music teachers described how Tom, now a man in his thirties, learned Beethoven's 3rd Concerto to perfection in the space of an afternoon. He then stunned her by capping off the lesson by turning his back to the piano and playing the bass with his right hand and the treble with his left hand. Somehow Tom could separate the treble from the bass as if they were detached, self-contained streams that were independent of one another.

Though he toured the world, his managers often took advantage of him since he did not care about wealth. His needs were basic but he always wanted access to a well-tuned piano, which was afforded to him.

Sources:

• https://www.goodneighbor.care/neighborly-news/black-history-month-famous-african-americans-with-disabilities
• http://www.blindtom.org/#/confounded-the-enigma-of-blind-tom/

Discover the amazing story of the fastest woman in the world!  Enjoy.

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Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940 in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee. As one of 22 children, she was constantly surrounded by support and care, which she needed given her poor health.

Rudolph survived bouts of polio and scarlet fever. Her illness forced her to wear a brace on her leg. Rudolph’s diagnosis was very bleak, “my doctor told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.” As a result of her illnesses, she needed constant care.

Her siblings took care of her by taking turns to take off her leg braces and messaging her legs. As a result, at the age of six, Rudolph began to hop on one leg. By eight she could move around with a leg brace. At the age of 11, Rudolph’s mother discovered her playing basketball outside and immediately engaged her in sports as physical therapy.

She competed in the 1956 Olympic games and won a bronze medal in 4x100 relay. Four years later, Rudolph headed to the 1960 summer Olympics determined to get gold. Her performance in Rome cemented her as one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century. She won three gold medals and broke at least three world records. Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field at the same Olympic game. Her performance also earned her the title of “the fastest woman in the world.”

In addition to her accomplishments on the field, Rudolph was a tireless proponent of women's rights and civil rights.

Sources:

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/wilma-rudolph (Norwood, Arlisha. "Wilma Rudolph." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2017. 2/8/21.)

https://www.biography.com/news/jackie-robinson-black-athletes-first-sports

https://www.visitclarksvilletn.com/plan/clarksville-connections/athletics/wilma-rudolph/

Meet the first man to reach the North Pole!

Matthew Alexander Henson was born on August 8, 1866, to a family of freeborn sharecroppers in Nanjemoy, Maryland. Henson led a life of travel and exploration and traveled the world in his work. He was orphaned at a very young age and at 12 years old, he began working as a cabin boy aboard a sailing ship. In the next six years, he became a sailor and traveled to (then called) Orient, North Africa, and the Black Sea. He also traveled to Central America before his exploration of the Arctic.

Through the sale of three large meteor fragments he and Robert Peary discovered in Central America, they earned $40,000 which funded their exploration for the next decade. The meteor fragments were sold to the American Natural History museum in New York. The two (Henson and Peary) made seven attempts to reach the north pole and each time they got closer. On their eight attempt, they finally did. The team that arrived at the north pole had to endure unimaginable cold (65 degrees below zero), crackling and drifting ice, and other extreme conditions.

There was some controversy as to which man was the first to reach the pole, but over time, it was clear Henson was the first man to step on the North Pole, but the controversy never completely left him. He continued his world travels after the North Pole expedition for several years. Henson passed away on March 9, 1955. Little did he know that history would forget his amazing achievement.

Meet an inventor with over 60 inventions!

Sources: 

https://www.biography.com/inventor/frederick-jones

https://aaregistry.org/story/frederick-mckinley-jones-innovator-of-many-devices/

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Fredrick McKinley Jones

Jones was born on May 17, 1893 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a prolific early 20th Century inventor with over 60 inventions.

His mother passed away when he was nine years old and he was raised by a priest in Convington, Kentucky. As he left the rectory, he began working as a mechanic's helper, working

on cars. By 19, he had built several race cars and became a well-known racer in the Great Lakes region.

He served in the army as an electrician and invented many machines during that time. When a doctor complained about having patients required to come into the office to get x-rays, he invented a mobile x-ray machine that could be taken to the patient. Unfortunately, he never thought to trademark many inventions and saw others make money from his inventions. Additionally, he used scraps of metal to convert silent-movie projects into talking projectors.

Eventually, with a partner, he formed The Thermo King company which transformed the shipping and grocery industry. His invention of refrigerated trucks allowed the import and export of food and was instrumental in creating the global frozen food industry around the world.

In 1944, Jones became the first African American to be elected into the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers and he was a consultant with the Department of Defense in the 1950's.

Bessie "Queen Bess" Coleman

Also known as "Brave Bessie" and "Queen Bess," Coleman was born on January 26, 1892 in Atlanta, Texas. She was the first licensed Black and Native American pilot in the world. Before becoming a pilot, Coleman attempted to attend agricultural college in Oklahoma but had to drop out due to financial issues. She moved to Chicago in 1915 to live with her brothers and trained as a manicurist. In Chicago, her brothers shared stories of their time in the military in World War I while they were stationed in France.

Her brother John teased her about becoming a pilot because women in France were able to do so but they could not in the United States. She applied to many pilot schools in the U.S. but she wasn't admitted because she was a woman and Black. This motivated her to take French language classes at night because the application for pilot school in France was in French language only. She applied and finally was accepted at the Caudron Brothers' School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France. She received her international pilot’s license on June 15, 1921 from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

Upon return to the U.S., she spoke and gave flying lessons across the country and performed in many flight shows, doing dangerous tricks. She was famous for doing “loop-the-loops” and making the shape of an “8” in an airplane. Eventually, She saved enough money to purchase her own plane (a Jenny – JN-4 with an OX-5 engine) and continued advocating for Black women to become pilots. Slowly, she became popular in the U.S. and Europe and traveled the world with her flight shows. Throughout her career, she refused to speak anywhere that was segregated.

Heartbreakingly, she passed away on April 30, 1926 during a crash, testing a new plane. Ida B. Wells, the famous activist, performed her funeral services to honor her in Chicago.

Sources:

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/bessie-coleman

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bessie-Coleman

https://www.oprahmag.com/life/g25954127/african-american-historical-figures/