Black History Unlocked

"The mother and the children are better off if the husband isn't working or if the husband isn't there." Free To Choose is a PBS television series featuring Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize-winning economist

Follow @blackhistoryunlocked for Black history 365 Which of the following is the cornerstone of the majority of Black neighborhoods in America? A. Black-owned businesses B. Community centers C. Family D. Church

James Joseph Richardson, convicted of poisoning his seven children, was exonerated after 21 years when the babysitter confessed to committing the crime Sources: law.umich.edu & Tampa Bay Times

A nine-year old Black boy sat on a library counter refusing to leave until the librarian gave him his books. He did not care that the librarian had called the police. He was not phased that during this time in history, places of learning were staunchly segregated. He was unwavering as the police came marching in, confident that the knowledge he sought was rightfully his. And with courage and pride, Ronald E. McNair left the library unscathed with his books in hand, and his mother and brother by his side. Decades later, the Lake City Library would become the Dr. Ronald E. McNair Life History Center. Dr. Ronald Erwin McNair was born in 1950 in a low-income community in South Carolina. In 1971, he graduated magna cum laude from North Carolina A&T State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics. He then enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At first, McNair was afraid to pursue physics at the graduate level, for fear he could not compete. However he persisted through his trepidation and in 1976, at the age of 26, he graduated with honors and earned his PhD degree in LASER Physics. Dr. McNair soon became a recognized expert in LASER Physics while working as a staff physicist with Hughes Research Laboratory. In 1978, NASA picked 35 new astronauts from 8,000 applicants. Among them were McNair and two other African Americans including Col. Guion Bluford, who in 1983 became the first African American to travel into space. In 1984 McNair was Mission Specialist aboard the flight of the Space Shuttle, Challenger making him the second African-American to fly to space. McNair and the four other crew members logged 191 hours in space on the eight-day mission. Challenger made 128 orbits of the Earth on that trip. After his death in the Challenger explosion in 1986, members of Congress provided funding for the Robert E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program to encourage students from low-income, first-generation college backgrounds, or students from groups underrepresented in fields of graduate study to enroll in graduate studies. Sources: University of Washington, Nasa.gov, blackpast.org & New Jersey Institute of Technology

Frazier Baker and his infant daughter, Julia were m******* by a lynch mob on February 22, 1898 Sources: blackpast.org, postalmuseum.si.edu & Equal Justice Initiative

The brown paper bag test was a form of discrimination used to exclude dark-skinned Black people by comparing their skin tone to the color of a brown paper bag. To keep BHU alive, please consider donating or purchasing our children's book, "Amulet: Shadows From The Past" click the link in our bio to donate or purchase Sources: All That Is Interesting & Ferris.edu

Formerly enslaved woman Martha Haley was sold over five times and gave birth to 19 children, including five sets of twins Swipe left to read a summary of the article about Martha Haley

Malcolm X was assassinated during a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan on February 21, 1965 To keep BHU alive, please consider donating or purchasing our children's book, "Amulet: Shadows From The Past" click the link in our bio to donate or purchase

Follow @blackhistoryunlocked for Black history 365 To keep BHU alive, please consider donating or purchasing our digital product "Black History Facts You Probably Didn't Learn In School" click the link in our bio to donate or purchase

Muhammad Ali saved a suicidal man who was threatening to jump out of a ninth-floor building in Los Angeles in 1981 To keep BHU alive, please consider donating or purchasing our digital product "Black History Facts You Probably Didn't Learn In School" click the link in our bio to donate or purchase #muhammadali #untoldstories #HistoryMade #Blackpast #blackhistoryunlocked

Tignon Laws: When Black women in Louisiana were required by law to cover their hair Follow @blackhistoryunlocked for Black history 365 To keep BHU alive, please consider donating or purchasing our digital product "Black History Facts You Probably Didn't Learn In School" click the link in our bio to donate or purchase Sources: Vice News & edi.nih.gov/

On September 6th, 1913, 12 Black men held at a prison farm in Richmond, Texas, were placed in an underground cell as punishment for not picking cotton fast enough. Eight of those men died of asphyxiation. The cell was nine feet long, seven feet wide, and seven feet high, and temperatures outside neared 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The only ventilation in the cell came from four small holes connected to pipes in the ceiling that were “just large enough to admit a quarter.” The next day, inspectors found that one of the holes had been plugged. Accused of “laziness in picking cotton” while being forced to work on a prison farm, all 12 men were left in this cramped cell overnight. Three of the surviving men explained that they were each able to position themselves by one of the three working holes in the ceiling. The fourth survived by pressing his face against the crack at the bottom of the door. They cried out repeatedly to guards throughout the night; “Men are dying in here,” they yelled. The guards ignored them, claiming that “it is always the case for prisoners confined as the men were to make such cries.” Early the next morning, when the guard on duty heard the men shouting that one of them was dead, he opened the cell and had two of the prisoners remove one of the dead bodies. The guard “did not stop to ascertain” if any of the other men inside were dead. Instead, he waited for his manager to arrive before they reopened the cell to find eight of the men inside had suffocated to death. No one was ever held accountable for the deaths of these men. The Attorney General of Texas ultimately concluded that prison officials were not culpable because placing these men in this suffocating chamber, and failing to listen to their pleas for help, did not violate the law. Source: Equal Justice Initiative