bfCallback1747239382631({"Request":{"VirtualSiteSlug":"blackfacts","IsToday":true,"SearchType":"today","SearchResultType":"event"},"Results":[{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"A slave known only as York, accompanies Lewis \u0026amp; Clarke in their famous expedition of the northwestern regions.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/2019/11/f4d9784f-5756-4f2b-91cf-205b3aa2ea551.png","ImageHeight":600,"ImageWidth":800,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","SourceName":"Blackfacts.com","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://blackfacts.com","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1804-05-14T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1804,"Month":5,"Day":14,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":411,"FactUId":"77bd2a36-3f66-4980-8801-bd8569928378","Slug":"black-slave-accompanies-lewis-amp-clarke-expedition","FactType":"Event","Title":"Black Slave Accompanies Lewis \u0026amp; Clarke Expedition","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/black-slave-accompanies-lewis-amp-clarke-expedition","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"22 year old Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to make the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageHeight":0,"ImageWidth":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","SourceName":"Blackfacts.com","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://blackfacts.com","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1963-05-14T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1963,"Month":5,"Day":14,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":1189,"FactUId":"dd4e65f9-b4f2-4863-bc5b-883a33809938","Slug":"arthur-ashe-1","FactType":"Event","Title":"Arthur Ashe","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/arthur-ashe-1","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Rosa Jinsey Young was born on this date in 1890. The daughter of a Methodist circuit rider, she became a teacher and opened a private school in 1912 in Rosebud, Alabama, for the Methodist church. When the school ran into financial problems, the Lutheran church offered help. Young joined the Lutheran church and founded the Alabama Lutheran Academy, which evolved into Concordia College, Selma. She wrote an autobiography, Light in the Dark Belt, and died in 1971.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageHeight":0,"ImageWidth":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","SourceName":"Blackfacts.com","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://blackfacts.com","SponsorId":"d9e17e24-cd53-4d57-be36-9d2660786c68","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Boston Professional Chapter","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/shpe-logo.jpg","SponsorUrl":"http://shpeboston.org/","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1890-05-14T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1890,"Month":5,"Day":14,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":3552,"FactUId":"3d069f6d-8054-4400-a567-4cd451f6f167","Slug":"rosa-jinsey-young","FactType":"Event","Title":"Rosa Jinsey Young","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/rosa-jinsey-young","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"By 1994 Colin Powell, the son of a Jamaica-born Harlem merchant,\u00A0 had already served as National Security Adviser to President George Herbert Walker Bush and chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Persian Gulf War.\u00A0 He would become the first African American Secretary of State in 2001 under President George W. Bush. On May 14, 1994, however, Powell most important task of the day was as commencement speaker at Howard University in Washington, D.C.\u00A0 His address appears below.\nThe real challenge in being a commencement speaker is figuring out how long to speak. The graduating students want a short speech, five to six minutes and lets get it over. They are not going to remember who their commencement speaker was anyway. P O W E L L.\nParents are another matter.\u00A0 Arrayed in all their finery they have waited a long time for this day, some not sure it would ever come, and they want it to last. So go on and talk for two or three hours. We brought our lunch and want our moneys worth.\nThe faculty member who suggested the speaker hopes the speech will be long enough to be respectable, but not so long that he has to take leave for a few weeks beginning Monday.\nSo the poor speaker is left figuring out what to do. My simple rule is to respond to audience reaction. If you are appreciative and applaud a lot early on, you get a nice, short speech. If you make me work for it, were liable to be here a long time.\nYou know, the controversy over Howards speaking policy has its positive side. It has caused the university to go through a process of self-examination, which is always a healthy thing to do.\u00A0Since many people have been giving advice about how to handle this matter, I thought I might as well too.\nFirst, I believe with all my heart that Howard must continue to serve as an institute of learning excellence where freedom of speech is strongly encouraged and rigorously protected.\u00A0 That is at the very essence of a great university and Howard is a greet university.\nAnd freedom of speech means permitting the widest range","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/powell_colin.jpg","ImageHeight":203,"ImageWidth":250,"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":"1994-05-14T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1994,"Month":5,"Day":14,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":7192,"FactUId":"9c16d39b-7335-4c67-bdf9-75a0ffd802b4","Slug":"1994-general-colin-powell-urges-african-american-students-to-reject-racial-hatred","FactType":"Event","Title":"(1994) General Colin Powell Urges African American Students to Reject Racial Hatred","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/1994-general-colin-powell-urges-african-american-students-to-reject-racial-hatred","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Homer Harris was born on March 4, 1916 in Seattle, Washington.\u00A0 In 1933, Harris became the first black captain of the football team at Garfield High School in Seattle.\u00A0 At the University of Iowa, Homer was elected by his teammates to be team captain, most inspirational, and Most Valuable Player.\u00A0 He was the first African American team captain in Big Ten history and had hopes of becoming a player in the National Football League. \u00A0\nIn 1933, the National Football League banned African Americans from playing, so upon graduation Harris instead accepted a coaching job at A \u0026amp; T College in Greensboro, North Carolina.\u00A0 His mother\u2019s influence caused him to enter medical school at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.\u00A0 Harris joined the Army, and after World War II had an internship in dermatology at the University of Illinois. \u00A0\nHarris returned to Seattle in 1955 and opened his own dermatology practice.\u00A0 After initial difficulty renting office space in the Medical Dental Building, Harris built up his practice which was reputed to be the largest west of the Rockies.\u00A0 Harris received an award in 1989 from the Black Heritage Society for being a black pioneer in dermatology.\u00A0 He retired from practicing medicine after 43 years. \u00A0\nWashington State declared November 13,\u00A0 2002 to be Dr. Homer Harris Day, and the Seattle Parks Foundation announced that an anonymous donor contributed $1.3 million to build a park in Seattle\u2019s Central Area in Harris\u2019 honor.\u00A0 The University of Iowa inducted Harris into their Hall of Fame in August 2002, and the Pacific Northwest chapter of the African American Sports Hall of Fame followed suit in 2003.\u00A0 Homer Harris Park opened on May 14, 2005.\nHomer Harris died in Seattle on March 17, 2007, at age 90 from Alzheimers disease.\u00A0\nCopyright 2007-2017 - BlackPast.org v3.0 NDCHost - California | blackpast@blackpast.org | Your donations help us to grow. | We welcome your suggestions . |  Mission Statement","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/harris_homer.jpg","ImageHeight":311,"ImageWidth":200,"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":"2005-05-14T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":2005,"Month":5,"Day":14,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":8301,"FactUId":"ad112947-c48a-4aab-9db3-396eaf171389","Slug":"harris-jr-dr-homer-e-1916-2007","FactType":"Event","Title":"Harris, Jr., Dr. Homer E. (1916- 2007 )","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/harris-jr-dr-homer-e-1916-2007","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Hastings Kamuzu Banda ,  (born c. 1898, near Kasungu, British Central Africa Protectorate [now Malawi]\u2014died Nov. 25, 1997, Johannesburg, S.Af.), first president of  Malawi (formerly Nyasaland) and the principal leader of the Malawi nationalist movement. He governed Malawi from 1963 to 1994, combining totalitarian political controls with conservative economic policies.\nBanda\u2019s birthday was officially given as May 14, 1906, but he was believed to have been born before the turn of the century. He was the son of subsistence farmers and received his earliest education in a mission school. After working in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa, in 1925 he went to the United States, where he received a B.A. (1931) and a medical degree (1937) at the University of Chicago and Meharry Medical College in Tennessee, respectively. In order to achieve the qualifications needed to practice in the British Empire, Banda then continued his studies at the University of Edinburgh (1941) and subsequently practiced in northern England and London from 1945 to 1953.\nBanda first became involved in his homeland\u2019s politics in the late 1940s, when white settlers in the region demanded the federation of the Rhodesias and Nyasaland. Banda and others in Nyasaland strongly objected to this extension of white dominance, but the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was nevertheless established in 1953. In 1953\u201358 Banda practiced medicine in Ghana, but from 1956 he was under increasing pressure from Nyasa nationalists to return; he finally did so, to a tumultuous welcome, in 1958. As president of the Nyasaland African Congress, he toured the country making antifederation speeches, and the colonial government held him partly responsible for increasing African resentment and disturbances. In March 1959 a state of emergency was declared, and he was imprisoned by the British colonial authorities. He was released in April 1960, and a few months later he accepted British constitutional proposals granting Africans in Nyasaland a majority in","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/media1.britannica.com/eb-media/99/76399-004-54009faa.jpg","ImageHeight":450,"ImageWidth":375,"ImageOrientation":"portrait","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":"1906-05-14T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1906,"Month":5,"Day":14,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":10302,"FactUId":"bcce03d7-d660-43ff-bc15-7261f2de93fe","Slug":"hastings-kamuzu-banda","FactType":"Event","Title":"Hastings Kamuzu Banda","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/hastings-kamuzu-banda","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"African American engineer, architect,\u00A0and mathematician Archie Alphonso Alexander was born on May 14, 1888 in Ottumwa, Iowa, the oldest of Price Alexander\u2019s and Mary Hamilton Alexander\u2019s nine children.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/archie_a__alexander.jpg","ImageHeight":394,"ImageWidth":295,"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":"1888-05-14T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1888,"Month":5,"Day":14,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":18496,"FactUId":"65044c99-c3ba-4e9c-9a14-901586b31f52","Slug":"alexander-archie-alphonso-1888-1958--birthday","FactType":"Event","Title":"Alexander, Archie Alphonso (1888-1958) - Birthday","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/alexander-archie-alphonso-1888-1958--birthday","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Having a sharecropper and a slave as his ancestors, the eighth child of Munn and Lilly Barrow, Joseph Louis Barrow, was born on May 14, 1914, in a cotton-field country near Alabama. Belonging to a financially weak family, Joe Louis received little education as a child and worked odd jobs in order to support his family as a teenager instead of going to school.\nMoving to Detroit, Louis briefly attended school at the Bronson Vocational School in order to train in cabinet making and took piano lessons in his free time. However, a friend recommended a completely different path for him and Louis soon turned towards boxing.\nLouis debuted as a lightweight and faced knockdown three times in his first fight but showed great potential and by 1934 held the national Amateur Athletic Union light-heavyweight title. He finished his amateur career with a surprising 43 knockout victories in 54 matches. \u00A0The following year, the young fighter lived up to his success and fought 14 bouts, earning almost $370,000 as prize money.\nLiving up to his nickname of The Brown Bomber, Louis defeated the defending champion, Jim Braddock, at 1937 heavyweight championship and rose as a sports icon for blacks and whites across America. Even though he had huge fan following, only 3 of Louis\u2019 25 title defenses went the full fifteen rounds.\nEnlisting with the army in 1942 and donating money towards the military relief funds, Louis officially retired from professional boxing in 1949. Although he made a short comeback, the former boxer was unable to live up to his previous reputation and in 1951, put a complete end to his career as a boxer after he faced defeat at the Madison Square Garden.\nRetiring from boxing led Louis back to the financial issues that he initially started off with. Desperate for a stable lifestyle, he tried working in a number of fields including wrestling and setting up interracial food shops. However, he was unable to achieve success in any of the fields and ended up in a psychiatric hospital due to his cocaine addiction and","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.famousafricanamericans.org/images/joe-louis.jpg","ImageHeight":401,"ImageWidth":580,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"73e45e4e-5e7c-4595-9ff3-d9df1f177307","SourceName":"Black History Resources","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.internet4classrooms.com/black_history.htm","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"1914-05-14T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1914,"Month":5,"Day":14,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":6366,"FactUId":"889f3810-59a5-4e01-8ff3-b12ed32f80df","Slug":"joe-louis-1","FactType":"Event","Title":"Joe Louis","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/joe-louis-1","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"On May 14, 2013, the National Council of Justice ruled that notary publics in Brazil could no longer refuse to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies. Many saw the ruling as an opening for gay couples to get married in Latin Americans largest country.\nLegal scholars said that with the ruling the National Council of Justice, a 15-member panel led by Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa, legalized gay marriage in Brazil. The ruling follows recent decisions by lawmakers in Argentina and Uruguay to legal same-sex marriage. The National Council of Justice voted 14 to 1 in favor of requiring notary publics to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies. Notary publics would also be required to convert same-sex civil unions into marriages. In 2011, Brazils high court ruled in favor of allowing same-sex unions.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.factmonster.com/sites/factmonster-com/files/public-3a/brazil.gif","ImageHeight":154,"ImageWidth":250,"ImageOrientation":"landscape","HasImage":true,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"c996ac0a-d532-48f6-89c4-79eaf9e982f6","SourceName":"Fact Monster - Black History","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://www.factmonster.com/black-history-month-activities-history-timeline-ideas-events-facts-quizzes","IsSponsored":false,"HasSmallSponsorLogo":false,"EffectiveDate":"2013-05-14T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":2013,"Month":5,"Day":14,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":7097,"FactUId":"9fc48593-0ddf-43b9-9535-099fabf649ac","Slug":"brazil-7","FactType":"Event","Title":"Brazil","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/brazil-7","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Birthday of jazz artist, coronet player, band leader and composer, Joseph King Oliver of New Orleans, Louisiana.","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageHeight":0,"ImageWidth":0,"ImageOrientation":"none","HasImage":false,"CssClass":"","Layout":"","Rowspan":1,"Colspan":1,"Likes":0,"Shares":0,"ContentSourceId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","SourceName":"Blackfacts.com","ContentSourceRootUrl":"https://blackfacts.com","SponsorId":"06dc953b-5d0f-47e0-a5ae-9e69f8b070aa","IsSponsored":true,"SponsorName":"Intellitech","SmallSponsorLogoUrl":"24x24/ice-mobile-350x350-53.png","SponsorUrl":"http://intellitech.net","HasSmallSponsorLogo":true,"EffectiveDate":"1885-05-14T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1885,"Month":5,"Day":14,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":3628,"FactUId":"e3c56e3e-8a83-4af2-b3d9-d752b772bdd6","Slug":"musician-joseph-oliver-born","FactType":"Event","Title":"Musician Joseph Oliver born","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/musician-joseph-oliver-born","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"A historically black college located in on a 125-acre campus near downtown Jackson, the capital city of the state of Mississippi, Jackson State University (JSU) has been the designated urban university of the state\u2019s higher education system since 1979.\u00A0 The school was founded in 1877 by the American Baptist Home Mission Society as Natchez Seminary \u0026ldquo;for the moral, religious, and intellectual improvement of Christian leaders of the colored people of Mississippi and the neighboring states.\u0026rdquo; \u00A0 \nThe institution was originally located in Natchez, Mississippi, but was moved to Jackson in 1882.\u00A0 In 1899 the curriculum was expanded and the school\u2019s name was changed to Jackson College.\u00A0 The American Baptist Home Mission Society withdrew its support for the College in the 1930s, prompting the administration to seek state support to continue its operation.\u00A0 The State of Mississippi assumed support of the college in 1940, and mandated that the school\u2019s primary purpose should be the training of teachers.\u00A0 In 1942 the Board of Trustees instituted a four year teacher education program leading to a Bachelor of Science in Education degree.\u00A0 Between 1953 and 1956 the curriculum was again expanded to include a graduate program and bachelor\u2019s programs in the arts and sciences.\u00A0 In 1956 the institution became known as Jackson State College.\u00A0 Jackson State achieved university status in 1974. \nJackson State earned national notoriety on May 14, 1970, when two students, Philip Gibbs, a JSU junior, and James Green, a senior at Jim Hill High School, were killed by Jackson police when they opened fire on the campus during a student protest.\u00A0 These killings came ten days after four white Kent State Students were killed by National Guardsmen on that campus in Ohio. \nToday, Jackson State University (JSU) is the fourth largest state supported institution in Mississippi.\u00A0 As of Fall term 2009, JSU served 8,783 students, 76% of whom were full time.\u00A0 About 93% of the student body was African American, and the ratio of women to men on campus was","MaxDetailCharacters":0,"ImageUrl":"https://cdn.blackfacts.com/uploads/blackfacts/facts/www.blackpast.org/files/blackpast_images/jackson_state.jpg","ImageHeight":350,"ImageWidth":283,"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":"1970-05-14T00:00:00","HasEffectiveDate":true,"Year":1970,"Month":5,"Day":14,"LastUpdatedDate":"2023-11-25T05:14:39.027","LastUpdatedBy":"ExtractionBotHub","IsEditable":false,"InsertAd":false,"Id":5648,"FactUId":"d840b65c-287f-4dd3-abe3-8f37103b3522","Slug":"jackson-state-university-1877","FactType":"Event","Title":"Jackson State University (1877-   )","LocalFactUrl":"/fact/jackson-state-university-1877","ResultCount":-1,"SearchType":"Today"},{"FadeSummary":false,"SummaryText":"Mary Jane Grant Seacole was an early nurse in the British Empire during the 19th Century. Born in Kingston, Jamaica as Mary Grant, she was the daughter of a Scottish officer and a black mother. Mary\u2019s mother ran a hospital/boarding house in Kingston and she, after a brief period as a servant, returned to her family home and worked alongside her mother. It was during this period that Marys skills as a nurse were first recognised and she spent a good deal of time travelling throughout the Caribbean providing care.\u00A0 Mary Jane Grant married Edwin Seacole in 1836 but he died eight years later.\nIn 1850, Mary Seacole resided briefly in Panama with her half brother, Edward, where they ran a hotel for travelers bound for Gold Rush California. Seacoles reputation as a nurse grew as she provided care for these mostly American travelers during several outbreaks of cholera. \nIn 1853, when Great Britain declared war on Russia, initiating the Crimean War, Seacole traveled to England to offer her services. The British government and the Crimean Fund initially rejected her offer of assistance. An old friend and distant relative, Thomas Day, however, provided Seacole with the necessary funds to travel to the Crimea and set up a hospital and boarding house for convalescing officers.\u00A0 In the 1850s Crimea was part of the Russian Empire.\u00A0 After the break up of the Soviet Union, it became part of Ukraine and only in 2014 was it annexed to Russia again. \nOn arrival in Turkey, Seacole sought out Florence Nightingale and offered her services. Nightingale refused but Seacole continued on to the Crimea despite having no official support.\u00A0 When she arrived in the Crimea she constructed her hotel near the British lines surrounding Sevastopol out of driftwood and packing crates and opened its doors in March 1855. 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