Today’s Black Fact: Patricia Bath Patricia Er Bath is an African American and Native American ophthalmologist,inventor and academic. She has broken ground for women and African Americans in a number of areas. Prior to Bath, no woman had served on the staff of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, headed a post-graduate training program in ophthalmologyor been elected to the honorary staff of the UCLA Medical Center (an honor bestowed on her after her retirement). Before Bath, no black person had served as a resident in ophthalmology at New York University and no black woman had ever served on staff as a surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center. Bath is the first African American woman doctor to receive apatent for a medical purpose. In 1981, she conceived of the Laserphaco Probe, a medical device “for ablating and removing cataract lenses”. The device was completed in 1986 after Bath conducted research on…
Today’s Black Fact: Jan Matzeliger Jan Ernst Matzeliger was an African-American inventor in the shoe industry. Matzeliger was born in Paramaribo (then Dutch Guyana, now Suriname). His father was a Dutch engineer and his mother a black Surinamese slave. He had some interest in mechanics in his native country, but his efforts at inventing a shoe-lasting machine began in the United States after a life of working in a machinery shop. He settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 19 after working as a sailor. By 1877, he spoke adequate English and had moved to Massachusetts. After a while, he went to work in a shoe factory. At the time, no machine could attach the upper part of a shoe to the sole. This had to be done manually by a “hand laster”; a skilled one could produce 50 pairs in a ten-hour day. After five years of work, Matzeliger obtained a…
Today’s Black Fact: Elijah McCoy Elijah J. McCoy was a black Canadian-American inventor and engineer, who was notable for his 57 U.S. patents, most to do with lubrication of steam engines. Born free in Canada, he returned as a five-year-old child with his family to the United States in 1847, where he lived for the rest of his life and became a US citizen. In Michigan, McCoy could find work only as a fireman and oiler at the Michigan Central Railroad. In a home-based machine shop in Ypsilanti, Michigan, McCoy did his own higher skilled work, developing improvements and inventions. He invented an automatic lubricator for oiling the steam engines of locomotives and ships. On July 12, 1872, he obtained his first patent, “Improvement in Lubricators for Steam-Engines.” The saying the real McCoy’, meaning the real thing, has been associated with Elijah McCoy’s invention of an oil-drip cup, for which…
Today’s Black Fact: Muhammad Ali Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist. Considered a cultural icon, Ali was both idolized and vilified. Ali changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam in 1964, subsequently converting to Sunni Islam in 1975, and more recently practicing Sufism. In 1967, three years after Ali had won the World Heavyweight Championship, he was publicly vilified for his refusal to be conscripted into the U.S. military, based on his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War. Nicknamed “The Greatest,” during his prime Ali was involved in several historic boxing matches. Notable among these were three with rival Joe Frazier, which are considered among the greatest in boxing history, and one with George Foreman, where he finally regained his stripped titles seven years later. Ali was well known for his unorthodox fighting style, which he described as…
Today’s Black Fact: Florence Griffith-Joyner Florence Delorez Griffith, also known as Flo-Jo was an American track and field athlete. During the late 1980s she became a popular figure in international track and field because of her record-setting performances and flashy personal style. She was the wife of triple jumper Al Joyner and the sister-in-law of heptathlete and long jumper Jackie Joyner-Kersee. She is considered the “fastest woman of all time” based on the fact that she still holds the world record for both the 100 metres and 200 metres, both set in 1988 and never seriously challenged. At 1988 Summer Olympics, n the 100 m final, she ran a wind-assisted 10.54, beating her nearest rival Evelyn Ashford by 0.3 seconds. In the 200 m quarter-final, she set a world record and then broke that record again winning the final by 0.4 seconds with a time of 21.34. She also ran…
Today’s Black Fact: Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, “By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.” Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was considered instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s. With five regular-season MVPs (tied for second place with Bill Russell; only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has won more, six), six Finals MVPs (NBA record), and three All-Star MVPs, Jordan is the most decorated player ever to play in the NBA. Jordan finished among the top three in regular-season MVP voting a record 10 times, and was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996. In June 2010, Jordan was ranked by Forbes Magazine…
Today’s Black Fact: Briana Scurry Briana Colette Scurry is a retired American soccer goalkeeper. Scurry was the starting goalkeeper for the United States women’s national soccer team at the 1995 World Cup (3rd place), 1996 Olympics (gold medal), 1999 World Cup (champions), 2003 World Cup (3rd place), 2004 Olympics (gold medal) and 2007 World Cup (3rd place). She was a founding member of the WUSA, playing three seasons as starting goalkeeper for the Atlanta Beat (2001–2003). Her career total of 173 international appearances is the most among female soccer goalkeepers. It is also the tenth most of any American female player, and the twentieth most among all women. Off the field, Scurry may be seen with First Lady Michelle Obama helping in the fight against childhood obesity. Scurry, took part in the kick-off ceremony for First Lady Michelle Obama’s formal unveiling of a nationwide campaign to address the serious epidemic…
Today’s Black Fact: Ussian Bolt Usain St. Leo Bolt is a Jamaican sprinter and a five-time World and three-time Olympic gold medalist. He is the world record and Olympic record holder in the 100 metres, the 200 metres and (along with his teammates) the 4×100 metres relay. He is the reigning Olympic champion in these three events. Bolt won a 200 m gold medal at the 2002 World Junior Championships, making him the competition’s youngest-ever gold medalist. In 2004, at the CARIFTA Games, he became the first junior sprinter to run the 200 m in less than 20 seconds with a time of breaking the previous world junior record held by Roy Martin by two-tenths of a second. He turned professional in 2004. His 2008 season began with his first world record performance—a 100 m world record of 9.72 s—and culminated in world and Olympic records in both the 100 m…