bfCallback1759988084603({"Request":{"VirtualSiteSlug":"blackfacts","IsToday":true,"SearchType":"today","SearchResultType":"event"},"Results":[{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Eugene James (Jacques) Bullard, the first African American combat aviator, was known as the \u0026ldquo;black swallow of death\u0026rdquo; for his courage during missions. He led a colorful life, much of it in Europe.\nBullard was born in Columbus, Georgia, on October 9, 1895, the seventh child of Josephine Thomas and William O. Bullard. Eugene received a minimal education but learned to read, a key to his later successes. After witnessing the near-lynching of his own father and other racial violence, Bullard ran away from home in 1906. In Atlanta, he joined a group of gypsies and traveled with them, tending and learning to race their horses. \nIn 1912 as a teen, Bullard stowed away on German merchant ship bound for Aberdeen, Scotland. For the next two years, he performed in a vaudeville troupe and supported himself as a prizefighter in Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe. He first appeared in Paris, his long-time destination, at a boxing match in November 1913. \nBullard was nineteen years old when World War I broke out. He joined the French Foreign Legion, serving the Moroccan Division of the 170th Infantry Regiment. He was seriously wounded twice and pulled out of action. France awarded him the Croix de Guerre and Medaille Militaire for his bravery at the Battle of Verdun. In 1916 he joined the French air service, first training as a gunner but later as a pilot. \nBullard quickly became known for flying into dangerous situations often with a pet monkey.\u00A0 He amassed a distinguished record, flying twenty combat missions and downing at least one German plane. When the United States entered the war, Bullard, and other American expatriates, applied for transfers to U.S. forces.\u00A0 Despite Bullard\u2019s flight experience, his application was denied, and the United States military pressured France to ground Bullard permanently to uphold the U.S. policy against black pilots. France succumbed and removed Bullard from aviation duty.\nAfter the war, Bullard discovered jazz and eventually owning two nightclubs, including \u0026ldquo;L\u2019Escadrille,\u0026rdquo; in the","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/eugene_jacques_bullard__.jpg","ImageHeight":400,"ImageWidth":257,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1895-10-09T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1895,"Month":10,"Day":9,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":4428,"FactUId":"0b5a0d8a-cdbc-43c9-b137-907cba74b238","Slug":"bullard-eugene-james-jacques-1895-1961-0","FactType":"Event","Title":"Bullard, Eugene James [\u0022Jacques\u0022] (1895-1961)","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/bullard-eugene-james-jacques-1895-1961-0","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Former Alabama Congressman Artur Genestre Davis was born on October 9, 1967 in Montgomery, Alabama. He was raised by his mother and grandmotehr and graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in Montgomery in 1986. He received his degree Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University in 1990 and Cum Laude from Harvard Law School in 1993. His academic career led way for his professional career as an attorney. \nAfter law\u00A0school, Davis worked briefly as an intern at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery before receiving\u00A0a clerkship with Judge Myron F. Thompson, one of the first black judges on the Federal bench in Alabama. Davis worked as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama from 1994 to1998, fighting drugs and violence. In 1998, he worked as a litigator in private practice. \nIn 2002, Davis was elected Congressman of the 7th Congressional District in Alabama which includes Birmingham and counties in south-central Alabama, defeating Congressman Earl F. Hilliard in the Democratic Primary. He was overwhelmingly reelected in 2004 and 2006. Davis was appointed to the Ways and Means committee, which oversees economic policy including tax law, trade policy, health care and Social Security. He is the tenth Alabamian to serve on this committee. Davis also serves on the Judiciary Committee, which covers immigration and criminal systems. \nDuring his first term, Davis worked to reverse funding cuts for minority colleges like Tuskegee University and Alabama A\u0026amp;M. In his second term he worked to renovate public housing with the HOPE VI program.\nDavis, one of the first black leaders to endorse the presidential bid of U.S. Senator Barack Obama, a fellow classmate at Harvard Law School.\u00A0However once Obama was elected he became the only member of the Congressional Black Caucus to vote again the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Presidents signature legislation.\nIn 2009 Davis sought to become Alabamas first African American governor.\u00A0 He lost in the Democratic Primary to","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/ing_for_gov__of_alabama__2010__larry_o__gay_.jpg","ImageHeight":334,"ImageWidth":500,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1967-10-09T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1967,"Month":10,"Day":9,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":6491,"FactUId":"17675e3c-e57f-4e24-8d34-cb7a10d15d85","Slug":"davis-artur-1967","FactType":"Event","Title":"Davis, Artur (1967-   )","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/davis-artur-1967","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Elton Clay Fax, a prolific African-American cartoonist, author, and illustrator, was born on October 9, 1909, in Baltimore, Maryland.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/elton_c__fax.jpg","ImageHeight":281,"ImageWidth":226,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","SponsorId":"e1937d8b-561e-4826-8d6e-da76009d44da","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"Christo Rey New York High School","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/christorey-logo.jpg","SponsorUrl":"https://www.cristoreyny.org","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1909-10-09T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1909,"Month":10,"Day":9,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18165,"FactUId":"e0c4df71-9cc2-403f-b069-7485e4591571","Slug":"fax-elton-1909-1993--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"Fax, Elton (1909-1993) - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/fax-elton-1909-1993--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Scholar, African traditionalist poet, and Senegal\u2019s first president, L\u00E9opold S\u00E9dar Senghor was born on October 9, 1906 in Joal, Senegal.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/senghor_leopold.jpg","ImageHeight":500,"ImageWidth":442,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","SponsorId":"9e1feea4-572c-4dd2-8f95-e6c7481f3050","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/crds-logo.png","SponsorUrl":"http://criticalracedigitalstudies.com","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1906-10-09T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1906,"Month":10,"Day":9,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18233,"FactUId":"df001412-449e-4b50-960f-f96dbd8bfb7b","Slug":"senghor-l-opold-s-dar-1906-2001--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"Senghor, L\u00E9opold S\u00E9dar (1906-2001) - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/senghor-l-opold-s-dar-1906-2001--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"St. Augustine Catholic Church of New Orleans was the first black church in Louisiana and the first black Catholic church in the United States. In the 1830s a group of free African-American New Orleanians began organizing to create a Catholic church in Trem\u00E9, a historically black and multicultural New Orleans neighborhood. With the blessing of Antoine Blanc (1792-1860), the first Archbishop of New Orleans, the parish was founded in 1841 and the first ceremony was held there on October 9, 1842.\nA group of white Catholics, angered that a Catholic church aimed at black New Orleanians was to be built, began a campaign to purchase pews in an attempt to outnumber the black parishioners. This effort was unsuccessful, as free blacks still greatly outnumbered whites. Additionally, reputedly a first in American history, black members pooled resources to purchase pews for slaves.\nSt. Augustine Church has remained a central figure in the cultural and spiritual community of black New Orleans since its founding. In tandem with the Satchmo Festival in honor of Louisiana native Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), the church hosts Jazz Mass each year. Jazz Mass is a festival that draws from the rich musical tradition and wealth of jazz talent in New Orleans. Sidney Bechet, the great saxophonist and clarinetist, was baptized at St. Augustine and remained a parishioner. In addition to Bechet, Homer Plessy, the Creole civil rights activist who purposely violated Louisiana\u2019s Separate Car Act and became the plaintiff in Plessy v. Ferguson, and civil rights lawyer A.P. Tureaud were both members.\nIn 2005 hurricane Katrina devastated the Archdiocese of New Orleans financially. Although St. Augustine was relatively undamaged, the parish\u2019s numbers had been declining for some time. In order to save costs, in March 2006 Archbishop Alfred Hughes decided to close St. Augustine and merge its parish with St. Peter Claver in a neighboring African American area. This decision was met with resistance from St. Augustine\u2019s parishioners and lay leaders. A","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/st__augustine_s_church__new_orleans.jpg","ImageHeight":301,"ImageWidth":400,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1842-10-09T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1842,"Month":10,"Day":9,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":6849,"FactUId":"0754efbb-eaa1-40f9-965e-ff7f9b23e048","Slug":"st-augustine-catholic-church-new-orleans-louisiana-1841","FactType":"Event","Title":"St. Augustine Catholic Church, New Orleans, Louisiana (1841-   )","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/st-augustine-catholic-church-new-orleans-louisiana-1841","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Milton Jackson, also known as Milt or Bags because of the bags under his eyes, the leader of the Modern Jazz Quartet, was born on January 1, 1923, in Detroit, Michigan, to Manley Jackson and Lillie Beaty Jackson. He started playing the guitar at the young age of seven and then picked up the piano at age eleven. During his teenage years, he began playing the xylophone and vibraphone.\nIn his first public performance, he sang tenor as a member of a touring gospel quartet, and in 1945 he played at a concert in Detroit as a part of a local jazz group where Dizzy Gillespie also played. Gillespie liked Jackson and wanted to record with him, which helped Jackson become better known. Jackson then worked with artists like Charlie Parker, Howard McGhee, Thelonious Monk, and The Woody Herman Orchestra from 1948\u20131949 and played in Gillespie\u2019s sextet from 1950\u20131952.\nAs he was playing with these artists, he was also doing recordings with musicians like Lou Donaldson, Ray Brown, and Horace Silver under the name of Milt Jackson Quartet, and by the end of 1952, the group was renamed the Modern Jazz Quartet, and the group\u2019s members were solidified with Percy Heath on bass, Connie Kay on drums, John Lewis on piano, and Jackson on vibraphone. For more than twenty years, Jackson centered his career on the Modern Jazz Quartet and became a critical part of their sound. Although he mainly focused on the Modern Jazz Quartet, he did record with other jazz artists like John Coltrane, Ray Charles, Coleman Hawkins, and Miles Davis in the 1950s as a leader or sideman. Some felt that Jackson was restricted musically in the Modern Jazz Quartet because John Lewis became the musical director in the mid-1950s. Jackson left the group in 1974 to pursue a solo career which caused the group to break up entirely; he did this because he was angry at his financial position after decades with the group.\nJackson spent the next seven years touring alone and doing performances with various local bands in cities, while also recording for Norman Granz\u2019s Pablo","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/milton_jackson.jpg","ImageHeight":1000,"ImageWidth":1000,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1999-10-09T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1999,"Month":10,"Day":9,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":7998,"FactUId":"833cdc3e-e95a-45d0-a100-c06b60f20ca7","Slug":"jackson-milton-milt-or-bags-1923-1999","FactType":"Event","Title":"Jackson, Milton/ Milt or Bags (1923-1999)","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/jackson-milton-milt-or-bags-1923-1999","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Benjamin Banneker was an African-American astronomer, clockmaker, and publisher who was instrumental in surveying the District of Columbia.\nHe was born in Maryland on November 9, 1731. His maternal grandmother, Molly Walsh emigrated from England to Maryland as an indentured servant in bondage for seven years. At the end of that time, she bought her own farm near Baltimore along with two other slaves.\n Later, she freed the slaves and married one of them. Formerly known as Banna Ka, Mollys husband had changed his name to Bannaky. Among their children, they had a daughter named Mary. When Mary Bannaky grew up, she also purchased a slave, Robert, whom, like her mother, she later freed and married. Robert and Mary Bannaky were the parents of Benjamin Banneker.\nBannekers grandmother, Molly used the Bible to teach Marys children to read. He also learned the flute and the violin. Later, when a Quaker school opened nearby, Benjamin attended it during the winter where he learned to write and basic mathematics. His biographers disagree on the amount of formal education he received, some claiming an 8th-grade education, while others doubt he received that much. However, few dispute his intelligence. At the age of 15, he took over the operations for the family farm. His father, Robert Bannaky, built a series of dams and watercourses that successfully irrigated the family farm.\n Benjamin enhanced the system to control the water from the springs (known around as Bannaky Springs) on the family farm. Their tobacco farm flourished even in times of drought.\nAt the age of 21, Bannekers life changed when he saw a neighbors pocket watch. (Some say the watch belonged to Josef Levi, a traveling salesman.) He borrowed the watch, took it apart to draw all its pieces, then reassembled it and returned it running to its owner.\n Banneker then carved large-scale wooden replicas of each piece, calculating the gear assemblies himself, and used the parts to make a striking clock, the first wooden clock in the United States. The clock","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/fthmb.tqn.com/rfg1kz0ioxwwk5np_lbyxdplkwu-/2979x4320/filters-fill-auto-1-/about/145890476-58b847065f9b5880809c7f77.jpg","ImageHeight":2175,"ImageWidth":1500,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"6982ddb9-33e1-469e-8344-2e6290cc3f69","SourceName":"ThoughtCo","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.thoughtco.com/african-american-history-4133344","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1806-10-09T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1806,"Month":10,"Day":9,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":9036,"FactUId":"9f9eaae3-bc0b-4b6d-b49e-94a273e7dfaf","Slug":"benjamin-banneker-biography--space-astronomy","FactType":"Event","Title":"Benjamin Banneker Biography - Space/Astronomy","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/benjamin-banneker-biography--space-astronomy","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Lecture 5 of Clay Carsons Introduction to African-American History Course (HIST 166) concentrating on the Modern Freedom Struggle (Fall 2007).  This lecture is entitled Bayard Rustin: Radical Outsider.  Recorded October 9, 2007 at Stanford University.\nThis course introduces the viewer to African-American history, with particular emphasis on the political thought and protest movements of the period after 1930, focusing on selected individuals who have shaped and been shaped by modern African-American struggles for freedom and justice.  Clayborne Carson is a professor in the History Department at Stanford University.\nComplete playlist for the course:\nhttp://www.youtube.com/view_play_list... \nCourse syllabus:\nhttp://www.stanford.edu/~ccarson/Hist... \nMore on Clayborne Carson:\nhttp://www.stanford.edu/~ccarson/ \nStanford University channel on YouTube:\nhttp://www.youtube.com/stanford","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/i.ytimg.com/vi/lttlfh8nflu/hqdefault.jpg","ImageHeight":360,"ImageWidth":480,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"5b3a5b56-d9e8-4587-9879-cc66f343f883","SourceName":"AA Studies Research Guide","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://libguides.lib.msu.edu/c.php?g=95622\u0026p=624428","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"2007-10-09T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":2007,"Month":10,"Day":9,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":9205,"FactUId":"c9829fd3-ea6b-4627-8c0b-d82e7704cdb6","Slug":"lecture-5-african-american-freedom-struggle-stanford","FactType":"Event","Title":"Lecture 5 | African-American Freedom Struggle (Stanford)","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/lecture-5-african-american-freedom-struggle-stanford","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Robert H. Jackson , in full Robert Houghwout Jackson  (born February 13, 1892, Spring Creek, Pennsylvania, U.S.\u2014died October 9, 1954, Washington, D.C.), associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1941\u201354).\nAn adept scholar, Jackson pleaded his first case by special permission while still a minor and was admitted to the bar at the age of 21. He served as corporation counsel for Jamestown, New York, and, after the stock market crash of 1929, helped merge the city\u2019s three financial institutions, subsequently becoming a director of the consolidated entity. He was also an active supporter of New York Gov.  Franklin D. Roosevelt, who appointed him to a commission to study the state\u2019s judicial system. After Roosevelt\u2019s election to the presidency, Jackson was made general counsel to the Internal Revenue Bureau, where his notable accomplishment was the successful prosecution of financier Andrew Mellon for income-tax evasion. Jackson also served as special counsel to the Treasury and the Securities and Exchange Commission and as assistant attorney general of the Tax, and then the Anti-Trust, Division. President Roosevelt appointed him U.S. solicitor general in 1938 and attorney general in 1940. In all these assignments he was the chief legal exponent of New Deal legislation. As attorney general, he drafted at Roosevelt\u2019s request an opinion defending the transfer to Great Britain of 50 over-age destroyers in exchange for U.S. acquisition of several British military bases.\nIn 1941 Roosevelt named Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. His early opinions reflect his liberal and nationalistic views. In Edwards v. California (1941), which declared unconstitutional California\u2019s \u0026ldquo;Okie\u0026rdquo; law barring indigent migrants from entering the state, Jackson held that freedom of movement within the United States was guaranteed by citizenship. He also strongly defended the separation of church and state. His defense of First Amendment guarantees were, however, balanced by concern for maintaining public order and security, which led","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/07/115307-004-d3179ad9.jpg","ImageHeight":450,"ImageWidth":522,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"80689a34-9b7c-4d3a-91f8-56cabb44f365","SourceName":"Brittanica","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.britannica.com/search?query=black%20history","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1954-10-09T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1954,"Month":10,"Day":9,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":10037,"FactUId":"b58e4c99-5131-420f-af54-00c97d0d5313","Slug":"robert-h-jackson","FactType":"Event","Title":"Robert H. Jackson","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/robert-h-jackson","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Teacher, news correspondent, and Fisk Jubilee Singer, Benjamin M. Holmes was born a slave around 1846 in Charleston, South Carolina and bound as an apprentice to a black tailor. Holmes was eventually bought by a man named Kaylor, who employed him as a hotel clerk in Chattanooga, Tennessee. While toting bundles around town for his master, Holmes used to study the letters on signs and doors and his boss\u2019s measuring books, and by 1860 had taught himself to read and write. \nAfter his owner and the rest of the staff joined the Confederate Army, Holmes was left minding the store. As Union troops approached Chattanooga in 1862, his white owners sold him to a trader who fed him a diet of cow\u2019s head, boiled grits, and rice. While imprisoned in a slave pen, Holmes somehow managed to get hold of a copy of Lincoln\u2019s Emancipation Proclamation and read it aloud. After Union troops occupied Chattanooga in the fall of 1863, Holmes volunteered his services as a valet to General Jefferson Columbus Davis, the Union commander of the Army of the Cumberland\u2019s First Division, with whom he remained until the end of the war. \nAfter the war, Holmes returned to Chattanooga and worked for a barber. When the barber died, his estate went to Holmes, making him the first black estate administrator in Tennessee. But the estate proved insolvent, and for his pains Holmes ended up with a three hundred dollar debt.\nIn 1868 Benjamin Holmes enrolled at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. By now he had already taught himself enough reading and mathematics to advance to the high school department in a mere two months. To earn his tuition, he taught a Davidson County school of sixty-eight pupils for thirty dollars a month. At a second school farther out in the countryside, his class was smaller, but the conditions more perilous. Once, someone fired a shot into the school while he was teaching a class. Holmes returned to Fisk at the end of the summer and studied history, Latin, pedagogy and analysis. Holmes also became a deacon at Fisk\u2019s Howard","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.net/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/holmes_benhamin.jpg","ImageHeight":429,"ImageWidth":350,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"de2ecbf0-5aa4-45ce-bbf9-9a6ac45f6ac8","SourceName":"Black Past","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.blackpast.org/","SponsorId":"becbe15c-72a7-4130-b8db-a12eaf26b3ab","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"New York University","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/nyu-logo.jpg","SponsorUrl":"https://www.nyu.edu","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1875-10-09T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1875,"Month":10,"Day":9,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":4915,"FactUId":"7dbcbb9e-4884-4cfc-b8d7-73df22a45d1e","Slug":"holmes-benjamin-m-1846-1875","FactType":"Event","Title":"Holmes, Benjamin M. (1846-1875)","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/holmes-benjamin-m-1846-1875","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Benjamin Banneker was one of the first well known African American scientists and mathematicians. He was born on November 9, 1731 to an ex slave named Robert, and Mary Banneky, the daughter of an Englishwoman and a free African slave. He grew up on his parents farm along with three of his sisters where he was taught how to read and write by his mother and grandmother. He received very little formal education, other than a short time spent at the Quaker country school. Most of his knowledge came from extensive reading and self education. From an early age, as soon as he learned to read, Banneker would read the Bible aloud to his family. Soon, he taught himself literature, history, astronomy and mathematics.\nBanneker inherited and successfully ran his father\u2019s farm, which he expanded by growing tobacco. In the meantime, he continued to learn and experiment on his own. In 1761, he manufactured a wooden clock from scratch, despite the fact that all he had ever seen before in his life was one pocket watch. He carved out all the components of the clock by hand, and it functioned perfectly. Banneker had a deep interest in astronomy, developed after his neighbor, George Ellicott, lent him several books on the subject. He also borrowed Ellicott\u2019s telescope and instruments and began studying the subject on his own.\nBanneker worked with a surveyor named Major Andrew Ellicott who was responsible for mapping out the Federal Territory. Banneker joined Ellicott as his scientific assistant. Soon after, he published his first almanac, that is, an annual publication that includes information about weather forecasts, plantation dates, tides etc, usually arranged according to the calendar. Banneker made accurate forecasts about solar and lunar eclipses, and his almanac was published each year between 1792 and 1797.\nBenjamin Banneker was one of the most intelligent men of his time, but his genius was not limited to the field of science. He had strong political views which he chose to express openly and worked towards achieving. 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