Black History Facts Week 2

Day 8 --- The banjo originated in Africa and up until the 1800s was considered an instrument only played by blacks.

DAY9 --- Isaac Murphy (1861 – 1896), a great thoroughbred jockey, was the first to win three Derbies and the only jockey to win the Kentucky Derby, the Kentucky Oaks, and the Clark Handicap within the same year.

DAY 10 --- Black Swan Records, founded in 1921 by Harry Pace in Harlem, was the first U.S. record label owned and operated by African-Americans. It was originally the Pace Phonograph Corporation and was renamed Black Swan Records after the 19th century opera singer Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, who was known as the Black Swan.

DAY 11 --- Otis Boykin (1920 -1982) invented electronic control devices for guided missiles, IBM computers, and the control unit for a pacemaker.

DAY 12 --- Jack Johnson (1878 – 1946), the first African–American heavyweight champion, patented a wrench in 1922.

DAY 13 --- In the mid 1800s Philadelphia was known as “The Black Capital of Anti–Slavery,” because of the strong abolitionist presence there and such groups as The Philadelphia Female Anti–Slavery Society, The Philadelphia Young Men’s Anti–Slavery Society and The Philadelphia Anti–Slavery Society.

DAY 14 --- Jesse Ernest Wilkins Jr. (1923 –), a physicist, mathematician and an engineer, earned a PhD. in mathematics at age 19 from the University of Chicago in 1942.