1. Claude McKay is generally regarded as the first major poet of the Harlem Renaissance. His best poetry, including sonnets ranging from the militant “If We Must Die” (1919) to the brooding self-portrait “Outcast,” was collected in Harlem Shadows (1922), which some critics have called the first great literary achievement of the Harlem Renaissance.
2. Thomas Jennings was the first black inventor to receive a patent. The patent was awarded in 1821 for a dry cleaning process.
3. Henry Blair was the only inventor to be identified in the Patent Office records as "a colored man." Blair was born in Montgomery County, Maryland around 1807. He received a patent on October 14, 1834, for a seed planter and a patent in 1836 for a cotton planter.
4. George Carruthers, an Ohio scientist, has gained international recognition for his work on ultraviolet observations of the earth's upper atmosphere and of astronomical phenomena. Ultraviolet light is the electromagnetic radiation between visible light and x-rays. George Carruthers and his team invented the far ultraviolet camera spectrograph.
5. Emmett Chappelle is the recipient of 14 U.S. patents and was recently recognized as one of the 100 most distinguished African American scientists and engineers of the 20th Century. He started with NASA in 1966 in support of its manned space flight initiatives. He pioneered the development of the ingredients ubiquitous in all cellular material. Later, he developed techniques that are still widely used for the detection of bacteria in urine, blood, spinal fluids, drinking water and foods.
6. Majorie Joyner invented the permanent wave machine. This device, patented in 1928, curled or "permed" women's hair for a relatively lengthy period of time.
7. Lewis Latimer invented an improved method for making carbon filaments in the Maxim electric incandescent lamp. In 1881, he supervised the installation of electric lights in New York, Philadelphia, Montreal, and London.
8. In 1870 Hiram Revels of Mississippi was elected the country's first African-American senator. During the Reconstruction Era between 1863 to 1877, sixteen blacks served in Congress and about 600 served in states legislatures.
9. In 1957 the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights organization, was established by Martin Luther King, Jr., Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth
10. Granville T. Woods, known as the “Black Edison,” invented an induction telegraph system that allowed communication between train engineers
11. Why did Carter Woodson choose February as the month to celebrate Negro History week? He believed that Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, both born in February, had the greatest influence on black Americans.
12. The first antislavery protest organized by whites took place in Pennsylvania. It was held in 1696 by Mennonite Quakers.
13. Shirley Chisholm, elected in 1968 as a representative from New York, was the first black woman to serve in the US congress
14. Tom J. Martin, an African American Inventor, patented a fire extinguisher in 1872.
15. York, the first known African American to set foot in Iowa, was born into slavery around 1770 and grew up with his master, William Clark. Clark became co-captain of an expedition to explore the lands of the new Louisiana Purchase and insisted that York accompany him. In the late summer and fall of 1804, the expedition traveled up the Missouri River in what later became western Iowa. York was a valuable member of the party with excellent hunting skills and had gained the admiration of Indian tribes. After the expedition returned in 1806, the white members received money and land; York received nothing. He repeatedly asked for his freedom, angering Clark. For a while, York worked for a more severe master and later returned to Clark. York gained his freedom in 1816 and lived another 15 years.
16. The first case ever decided by the Iowa Territorial Supreme Court, announced on July 4 of 1839, gave freedom to a Missouri slave by the name of Ralph.
17. John Brown, a noted Kansas abolitionist, reportedly established the best known of the Underground Railroad routes in Iowa
18. Frederick Bailey was born a slave in Maryland in 1818. He escaped in 1838 and changed his name to Frederick Douglass. For the next 25 years, Douglass wrote and gave speeches against slavery all over the North, including Iowa. After the Civil War, he continued to work for civil rights of African Americans until his death in 1895.
19. There were two major routes on the Underground Railroad in Iowa. The southeastern Iowa route dates from the 1830s, but little information about this route survives. The other route, starting in Tabor in southwest Iowa, ran across central Iowa and ended in Clinton. This well-documented route began after 1854.
20. When Louis Dade of Fort Madison first took up the game of golf in the early 1930’s, he had to sneak on the Fort Madison course at 5:30 in the morning before it opened for the day to play. In 1939, he became the first African American to win the Iowa Amateur Golf Tournament. Dade taught golf for many years in southeast Iowa.
21. Bill White, a star for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1960s and later president of the National League, got his start with the Sioux City Soos in 1954.
22. From 1968 to 1976, the Fort Madison NAACP, under the leadership of Virginia Harper and others, fought the plans of the Iowa Highway Commission to widen Highway 61 in Fort Madison. The NAACP felt that discrimination was involved as many of the homes that were due to be removed were owned by Mexican Americans or African Americans. Most of these people could not buy homes anywhere else in Fort Madison due to the discriminatory practices by local realtors. In 1970, the Fort Madison NAACP asked the national organization for legal assistance which they received. In 1976, the U.S. Government intervened and made the Iowa Department of Transportation pick a different route.
23. In 1991, Al Saunders of Marble Rock was the first African American elected mayor in Iowa.
24. Edgar Cunningham of Waterloo was recognized as the first African American Eagle Scout in the United States and received a letter from President Coolidge. Cunningham was part of a segregated troop.
25. A number of African American radio stations have broadcasted in Iowa since 1971. KBBG FM in Waterloo has operated since 1978, making it the state’s longest lived African American radio station.
26. In response to pressure from African American leaders, the military began to make plans for a segregated air unit in 1940. The 99th Pursuit Squadron was formed in 1941 and was based near Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. By the end of the war almost 1,000 African Americans had earned their pilot’s wings at Tuskegee and about half of these served in Europe.
27. It was often very difficult for African Americans to find places to stay or to eat when they were travelling. Iowa had a reputation of being a very difficult place for African Americans to find accommodations that would serve them. From 1936 to 1964, “The Go Guide for Pleasant Motoring” informed African American travelers which places would serve them. This guidebook listed only one hotel and three restaurants in Iowa.
28. In the early half of the 20th century, Des Moines’s Center Street neighborhood was home to a thriving, vibrant African American community. The neighborhood supported many successful African American-owned businesses including nightclubs, barber shops, restaurants, pharmacies, hotels, service stations, and more. The neighborhood was destroyed by highway construction and urban development projects in the 1960s.
29. In the mid-20th century, it was not uncommon for motels across the country to turn away African American patrons. In response to this issue, Cecil Reed opened the Sepia Motel in 1954. Located on Highway 30 east of Cedar Rapids, the motel was open to all, regardless of race.
For more information on this or other programs, please visit the AAMI website at www.blackiowa.org or call 319-862-2101. The AAMI is open Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and is located at 55 12th Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
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