January 2018 Inclusivity Team Order of Service Insert.
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Ever wonder what else should have been taught in history class?
Filling in the Gaps in American History (FIGAH), Inc. @FIGAH.US
Historic Black Women’s Army Corps Unit To Be Honored With New Monument
Learn more at: https://blavity.com/fort-leavenworth-6888-postal-battalion-womens-army-corps-monument
The 6888th was the first and only black WAC unit to be deployed overseas during WWII.
Fort Leavenworth, a U.S. Army base in Kansas, has special connection to black history — it was the home of the first black regiments formed during a time of peace.
These regiments later fought Native Americans during the wars of westward expansion, and became known as the Buffalo Soldiers.
A monument stands honoring them today, and that marker is about to be joined by another honoring historic black soldiers, the Leavenworth Times reports.
This new monument will be a tribute to the 6888th Central Directory Postal Battalion, which was the first and only black Women’s Army Corps (WAC) unit deployed overseas during World War II.
The planned monument will feature images of the unit, as well as information on its history and accomplishments. The marker will be capped by a bronze bust of the 6888th’s commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Charity Adams.
The Movies May Have Forgotten About Them, But Black Cowboys are Thriving
American movies and media may have largely forgotten the role of black Americans in cowboy culture, but the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo certainly hasn’t. The all-black rodeo was created in 1984 by entertainment producer Lu Vason in order to “uncover the cultural past of the black cowboy.” It’s been traveling the country ever since.
The event is named after Bill Pickett, the first black athlete to be inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame, and the inventor of “bulldogging,” a breathtaking rodeo move that involves a rider “riding alongside a steer, jumping onto its shoulders and horns, then digging his feet into the ground to bring the animal down.”
“The history of African-American cowboys and their role in settling the West isn’t that much different from the history of other African-American groups—it’s been largely ignored by historians and the media,” McMullin wrote in a statement. “The fact is that African-Americans made up roughly 25 percent of the cowboys responsible for the movement west.”
Mamie Johnson, Trailblazer in the Negro Leagues
Learn more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/obituaries/mamie-johnson-trailblazer-in-the-negro-leagues-dies-at-82.html
Mamie Johnson, known as Peanut, on her back porch in Washington in 2010, holding some of the balls she used to throw ceremonial first pitches.
Mamie Johnson, one of a handful of women to play in baseball’s Negro leagues in the early 1950s — and the only one known to pitch — died on Monday in a Washington hospital. She was 82.
Johnson, who stood about 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighed about 120 pounds during her playing days — hence the nickname Peanut
A deceptively hard-throwing right-hander, she threw a fastball, slider, circle change, screwball and curveball, for which she received pointers from the Negro leagues great Satchel Paige, she told The New York Times in 2010.
Statistics from the Negro leagues in those years are spotty at best, but her record with the Clowns was said to be an impressive 33-8 during her three years on the team.
Johnson may have owed her chance to excel in a man’s league in part to racism. In the late 1940s, before she was recruited to play for the Clowns, she wanted to try out for a team in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which inspired the 1992 film “A League of Their Own,” but she was not allowed to.
“I’m so glad to this day that they turned me down,” Johnson told The Times. “To know that I was good enough to be with these gentlemen made me the proudest lady in the world. Now I can say that I’ve done something that no other woman has ever done.”
Madam C.J. Walker’s “villa Lewaro” Estate in New York Protected as National Treasure with Preservation Easement
On the heels of launching the African-American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, the largest preservation campaign ever undertaken on behalf of African-American history, The National Trust for Historic Preservation announced a preservation easement on Madam C.J. Walker’s estate, Villa Lewaro. A powerful preservation tool, the easement prevents current and future owners from making adverse changes to or demolishing the estate’s historic, cultural and architectural features.
Madam C.J. Walker (December 23, 1867–May 25, 1919), America’s first self-made female millionaire, commissioned Villa Lewaro, her “Dream of Dreams,” at the height of her wealth and prominence as inventor and entrepreneur of haircare products for African-American women. Constructed in 1918, alongside the Hudson River in Irvington, New York, Madam Walker’s elegant residence was built to inspire African-Americans to reach their highest potential.
Designed by Vertner Tandy—the first African-American registered architect in the state of New York and one of the seven founders of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.—the 34-room mansion served as the intellectual gathering place for notable leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Langston Hughes.
“On the 150th anniversary of her birth, we are delighted to have played a lead role in the lasting protection of Madam C.J. Walker’s tangible legacy,” said Brent Leggs, director of the National Trust’s African-American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. “The legal protection of irreplaceable historic sites like Villa Lewaro, one of the most significant places in women’s history, is essential in telling the full American story and inspiring future generations.”