Do you know this about the Bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963?
Deana Wright tells us, “Sarah was in the bathroom with Addie Mae when the bomb exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church, in Birmingham, Alabama on that Sunday in 1963. She lost her right eye and was hospitalized for two months after the bombing, forcing her to miss her sister’s funeral. 56 years later she is still paying doctor bills, resulting from her eye injury.”
Below is a question posed in an exhibit at the Jim Crow Museum of racist artifacts in Big Rapids, Michigan.
Question
Somebody told me that whites used to pay to throw balls at blacks at the circus. Is this true? –Stephanie S. – Columbia, Missouri
Answer
At the end, thirty feet or so from the counter that closed the entrance, a grinning Negro face bobbed and grimaced through a hole in the back curtain painted to represent a jungle river. The Negro’s head came right out of the spread terrific jaws of a crocodile. “Hit the nigger in the head, get a good ten cent seegar,” the barker said. “Three balls for a dime, folks. Try your skill and accuracy. Hit the nigger baby on the head get a handsome cane and pennant” (Stegner, 1957, p. 47).
The exhibit goes on to explain:
This was a common chant at numerous carnivals, fairs, and circuses across the United States throughout the late 19th century until the mid 1940s, as Americans took part in one of their favorite pastimes, “African Dodger.”
The African Dodger, also known as “Hit the Nigger Baby” or “Hit the Coon” was as commonplace in local fairs, carnivals, and circuses as Ferris wheels and roller coasters are today.
Do you know that when you turn your lights on, you can thank DLewis Latimer who is responsible for the incandescent version of the light bulb we still use today?
Lewis Latimer was the child of, slaves, a sailor in the Civil War and an Assistant to Alexander Graham Bell.,
Do you know, Sarah Boon who was born into slavery designed the modern tapered ironing board and was one of the first Black Americans to be issued a patent? Her design is still used today.
Do you know, “Sarah Rector was born in 1902 in Taft, Oklahoma. She came from very humble beginnings, but later became the wealthiest Black girl in the country at the young age of 11. Her family were African American members of the Muscogee Creek Nation in Indian Territory.”
Do you know that “There are a few stories about the invention of the potato chip, but the most reliable ones all center around George Crum, a famous Black chef in the 19th century who served the wealthiest Americans and eventually opened his own wildly successful restaurant.”
Do you know that the #HarlemRenaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater and politics centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. Also known as: New Negro Movement.
Do you know that David Kenyon of Company 21, an all-African-American firehouse in Chicago “had an epiphany” and they thought the idea crazy—until they saw that Company 21 was often the first to arrive on scene?
