"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" : NANNIE H BURROUGHS

The year was 1896, Nannie had just graduated from “M Street High School”( in Washington D.C.). Although she had moved to Philadelphia to take a position as assistant editor at a Baptist newspaper, she still had a desire to be a teacher back in Washington. So, Nannie moved back to Washington to take the Civil Service Exam. After passing the exam with high scores, she found out that she didn’t get the teaching position{ the school administrators were partial to light-skinned Negroes }. It broke her heart, but at the same time,”SHE RECEIVED A VISION FOR SOMETHING BETTER!“ In 1898, Nannie decided to move to Louisville, Kentucky to accept a position as secretary of the Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention. Soon after taking the position, she saw a path toward implementing the vision she got when she was in Washington. Part of her vision was to start an Industrial Club for Negro Women in Louisville. Nannie used the club as a training school to teach Black women life skills. She came up with her own unique curriculum for the women. The curriculum included lessons in areas such as hygiene, child care, sanitation, hygiene, cooking, sewing and laundry. The club worked out fine. However, it was mainly because of the speech that she made at the National Baptist Convention( in Virginia in 1900 ) that really catapulted her into the National spotlight, and gained her much recognition amongst her people! The title of her speech was,”How the Sisters Are Hindered from Helping.” Surprisingly, In all my years of school, I have never heard any mention of her speech! Sometime between 1908 and 1909, Nannie moved back to Washington D.C. and started her famous school,” The National Training School for Women and Girls!” The school opened in 1909 with only nineteen students. However, by 1929, the school grew to 102 students, eight teachers, a small farm that was used for agricultural training, and eight buildings valued at over $225,000. Nannie’s School provided multiple types of education and training for Black Women and Girls[ from the US and abroad for careers as missionaries, teachers, domestic servants, dressmakers, business women, printers, social workers, and other various professions ]. Nannie felt that she could use her school to help challenge & change the dominant culture of the “immoral image” of Negroes in America. Additionally, Nannie created her own history course that was dedicated to informing Black Women and Girls about society influencing Negroes in history. Needless to say, she was adamant about teaching Black Women and Girls to be proud of their race! Nannie H. Burroughs was born on May 2, 1879, in Orange , Virginia to John and Jennie Burroughs. In 1883, sometime after the passing of one of her sisters and her father. Nannie and her mother moved to Washington D.C. to live with her mother’s sister. During the early 1890s, Nannie attended M Street High School where she met two of her early role models, Mary Church Terrell and Anna J Cooper{ who were both educators and highly involved in civil rights as well as women’s suffrage }. After graduating from M Street High School in 1896, Nannie went on to accomplish many great things in her lifetime. A few of them were, her speech at the 1900 National Baptist Convention, her “47 Years of Dedicated Service” to the National Baptist Convention, being hired as secretary of the Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention, President of the Women's Convention auxiliary of the National Baptist Convention[ she served as President for 13 years ], the founding of The National School for Women and Girls in Washington D.C., and her work with the NAACP( truly, these were just a few of her many,many achievements ). Tragically, on May 20, 1961, Nannie H Burroughs was found dead in her home in Washington D.C. of natural causes. In 1964, the school that she founded, The National School for Women and Girls was changed to “The Nannie Burroughs School” in her honor. Even though she has long been gone from amongst us, Nannie left behind a legacy that is still inspiring Black Women, Men, and Black Youth of all ages!

"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" : Edward D Brown

Recently, the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby was held( the winners purse for the 2023 Kentucky Derby was “3 million dollars,” the highest purse in Triple Crown racing history ). While many Black People have heard about The Kentucky Derby, most of them do not know that “15” of the “FIRST 28” Kentucky Derby Race “WINNING JOCKEYS” were BLACK!Additionally, most Black People have never heard of Edward D Brown. Although he was born a slave in 1850[ in Fayette County, Kentucky ], he went on to become one of the wealthiest Negroes in the state of Kentucky! When Edward was only 7 years old, he and his cousin were sold to a White man named Robert Alexander. His owner had quite a number of horses which delighted young Edward. Since he had to feed the horses, he spent plenty of his time getting to know the horses.Soon he learned how to ride them as well. His owner took notice of Edward’s skill and enthusiasm in handling the horses. His owner decided to let Edward ride one of his horses{ a horse named Asteroid } in a horse race. To his owner’s surprise, Edward and Asteroid won 1st place! After the American Civil War ended and Edward was set free by his owner, he decided to continue working at his former owner’s horse stable. Along with riding several of Robert Alexander’s horses, he began training them as well( which allowed him to continue to work at the stables once his weight hindered him from being an effective jockey ). When his former owner died in 1867, Edward was offered a position as jockey for a White man name Daniel Swigert. He accepted the offer,and in 1870 he rode a horse name Kingfisher to victory at the “Belmont Stakes!” Edward was smart enough to save some of his earnings to eventually buy several horses of his own. He named his company, Ed Brown & Company. He mostly bred his horses and sold many of them to wealthy White businessmen. Many of the horses he sold went on to win important races such as the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes horse races. In the early 1890s, two of the horses that he owned[ a horse name Monrovia and a horse name Etta ] won the Kentucky Oaks Race. Other race horses that he trained were, Kentucky Derby winner Baden-Baden, Belmont Stakes winner Spendthrift, and the Hall of Fame race horse Hindoo. In 1903, due to his failing health, he reluctantly retired from the horse business. At the age of 56, Edward D Brown died on May 11,1906. In 1984, he was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1984{ and in 1999, a plaque was placed in Midway, Kentucky where he is was buried, to commemorate his accomplishments}.

"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" : MARY H DICKERSON

In the past, Black women have made great contributions to our Black Communities and The Civil Rights Movement. Between 1870 - 1914, Black women established many civic clubs, groups, and organizations in America. One of the women who helped found several of them in Newport, Rhode Island was Mary H Dickerson. She was known one of the most influential African-American women and civil rights leaders in America. Mary was born on October 22, 1830 in Haddam Connecticut. As she grew older, Mary learned how to sew and make dresses. At some point she moved to New Haven Connecticut where she got married to Silas Dickerson. Around 1865, at the end of the American Civil War, Mary and Silas Dickerson moved to Newport, Rhode Island( Rhode Island had used its industrial capacity to supply the Union Army with the materials needed to win the war ). In the early 1870s she opened a dressmaking shop [ she was the first Black woman to open a store on Bellevue Avenue ]. Many of her customers were prominent citizens in the city of Newport. Through her business, Mary was able to come into contact with several Black women looking to get involved in different Black civic organizations. Several of the groups that She founded were The Women’s Newport League, in 1895, the Northeastern Federation of Women’s Club{ she started it with Josephine St Pierre Ruffin },in 1896, and The Rhode Island Union of Colored Women’s Club, in 1903. In 1900, she submitted photos of Colored Clubs, organizations, and Black people from Newport to be included in the “NEGRO EXHIBIT” for the Worlds Fair Paris Exposition. On July 1, 1914, Mary H Dickerson died in Newport, Rhode Island(she was buried in New Haven, Connecticut). Today her work serves as inspiration to civil rights organizations such as the NAACP , The Congressional Black Caucus, and The Urban League. In Closing, I would like to add that around 1916, it was a group of local Black women from the “Monroe Civic League,” in Monroe that spearheaded the campaign to establish a library for the Black citizens here in Monroe, Louisiana[ they named the new library,”The Carver Branch Library”].

"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" : JOHN HARRIS

If you were to ask most Black People in Monroe, Louisiana if they were “FREE,” most of them would probably say “Yes.” However, if you were to “POINT” out some of the “SYSTEMS & LAWS” that have been deliberately put in place to “RESTRICT and LIMIT” their “FREEDOMS & ADVANCEMENT,” many of them would probably “ADMIT” that they are not “TRULY” free at all! To help everyone understand my point, let us go back to the year of “1896.” Remember that 1896 was the year that the ruling in the LandMark U.S. Supreme Court case “Plessy v. Ferguson” [ establishing the principal of “separate but equal” as the law of the land ] was handed down , less than a year before the passage of “The Dibble Act of 1897.” Ok, on March 13, 1897, a piece of civil rights legislation known as The Dibble Act was passed into state law in San Francisco,California { the law mandated that all citizens “of every color or race whatsoever” would be entitled to full and equal facilities of all shared places of public accommodation and amusement }. The Dibble Act was introduced to the California legislature by San Francisco Assemblyman and abolitionist Henry Clay Dibble. Dibble was a former soldier in the Union military who ended up staying in Louisiana after the American Civil War. However, he had to leave the south after President Rutherford B Hayes withdrew the federal troops from the south. Next, on July 4, 1897, a Negro domestic worker by the name of John Harris tried( on 2 separate occasions ) to pay his entrance fee into the newly opened “Sutro Baths”with a group of his White friends. The manager returned his money to him and asked him to leave. Since John Harris was connected to groups like the Franchise League[ formed in 1852 ], the Assembly Club, the Colored American McKinley Club, the Afro-American League, and the Excelsior Republican Club{ that formed around the right to vote and other civil rights issues }, he was able to file his discrimination lawsuit only two weeks after his second attempt to enter the Sutro Baths. What was just important as the lawsuit itself, was that a Black man wasn’t afraid to stand up for what he believed in! Furthermore, because John Harris went forth with his lawsuit, other Black People came forth and sued, and other Black People came forth and sued! Their lawsuits lead to a similar piece of civil rights legislation that was passed in California, in 1959, known as the “Unruh Act. “ Also, the Unruh Act helped paved the way for the “Historic 1964 Civil Rights Act” signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964! By the way, John Harris won his lawsuit, and even though the amount he won didn’t even cover the court costs,his lawsuit went down in history as “The Test Court Case For Black Civil Rights in America!” In closing, I would like to remind everyone that we need to keep a careful eye on the bills, ordinances, and laws that these government officials and government leaders are “presenting and passing” into law, because these very same laws can be used against American citizens of all races!