Essential The Official African American Thread#2

[IllmaticDelta]

Valerie L. Thomas

(born February 1943) is an African-American scientist and inventor. She invented the Illusion Transmitter, for which she received a patent in 1980.

In 1964,[3] Thomas began working for NASA as a data analyst.[4] She developed real-time computer data systems to support satellite operations control centers (1964-1970) and oversaw the creation of the Landsat program (1970-1981), becoming an international expert in Landsat data products. In 1974 Valerie headed a team of approximately 50 people for the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE), a joint effort with NASA's Johnson Space Center, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. LACIE demonstrated the feasibility of using space technology to automate the process of predicting wheat yield on a worldwide basis.[5] In 1976, she attended an exhibition that included an illusion of a light bulb that was lit, even though it had been removed from its socket. The illusion, which involved another light bulb and concave mirrors, inspired Thomas. Curious about how light and concave mirrors could be used in her work at NASA, she began her research in 1977. This involved creating an experiment in which she observed how the position of a concave mirror would affect the real object that it reflected. Using this technology, she would invent the illusion transmitter.[2] On October 21, 1980,[4] she obtained the patent for the illusion transmitter, a device that NASA continues to use today.

In 1985, she was the NSSDC Computer Facility manager responsible for a major consolidation and reconfiguration of two previously independent computer facilities and infused it with new technology. She then served as the Space Physics Analysis Network (SPAN) project manager from 1986-1990 during a period when SPAN underwent a major reconfiguration and grew from a scientific network with about 100 computer nodes to one directly connecting about 2,700 computer nodes worldwide. In 1990 SPAN became a major part of NASA's science networking and today's Internet.[5] She also participated in projects related to Halley's Comet, ozone research, satellite technology and the Voyager spacecraft.

She retired from NASA and her positions of associate chief of NASA's Space Science Data Operations Office,manager of the NASA Automated Systems Incident Response Capability and as chair of the Space Science Data Operations Office Education Committee.[3] at the end of August 1995.

Postretirement, Valerie Thomas serves as an associate at the UMBC Center for Multicore Hybrid Productivity Research.[6] She continued to serve as a mentor for youth through the Science Mathematics Aerospace Research and Technology and National Technical Association.[2][4]

honed her skills at NASA, where she and her team developed the first satellite to send images from space (Landsat). She also worked on computer programs used for research on Haley’s Comet and the ozone hole. In the mid-’70s, she began experimenting with concave mirrors and finally patented a 3-D Illusion Transmitter in 1980. Today, NASA uses the technology, doctors use it for medical imaging, and when you watch your 3-D television, thank Valerie Thomas.

Thomas was always fascinated with electronics and technology from a young age, but being a girl, was not encouraged to pursue these interests. When she enrolled at Morgan State University, she decided to embrace them. She became one of two women in her class to major in physics. After graduation she began working at NASA in 1964 at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). She helped to develop real-time computer data systems for satellite operations control centers. Then from 1970 to 1981 she managed the development of the Landsat image processing data systems, the first satellite to send images from outer space. According to NASA, “The Landsat Program provides the longest continuous space-based record of Earth’s land in existence. Since 1972, Landsat satellites have collected measurements of Earth’s continents and surrounding coastal regions that have enabled people to study forests, food production, water and land use, ecosystems, geology, and more.”



During this period, she started experimenting with image transmission. In 1980, she patented her illusion transmitter. The invention is a television-like system for transmitting an illusion of an object. The invention was based on the properties of mirrors. A regular flat mirror shows a reflection of an object appearing behind the glass surface. A concave mirror presents a reflection that appears in front of the glass, which creates the 3D illusion. This was the beginning of 3D technology. The transmitter was first implemented in studying space phenomena and is still used to analyze images of distant space entities. Thomas’s technology was the groundwork for 3D movies and televisions today.



Thomas continued to work for NASA until her retirement in 1995 as the associate chief of the Space Science Data Operations Office. She has received a number of awards including the GSFC Award of Merit, the highest award given by the GSFC, and the NASA Equal Opportunity Medal. Her dedication to science, technology and paving a way for other Black women in math and science definitely qualify Valerie Thomas as an honorary fanbro.

To sum up what this technology is, would be to call it early 3D technology. We are now utilizing her techniques for our in home televisions among other up and coming new devices which are capable. To be more technical, the illusion transmitter uses a concave mirror on the transmitting end as well as on the receiving end to produce optical illusion images. A very technical process for what seems like something so simple and soon to be very common technology.

This technology was invented for and at NASAs headquarters but is the initial premise for how 3D technology works. What this patent does (the process) which is different from a holograph as it is an illusion transmitter, is it creates an optical illusion by placing parabolic mirrors that are conceived to create a parallax view of the subject which appears 3-dimensional to viewers. Parallax view – The effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions. What she did was take the various views of the view created and rendered an “illusion” or in more basic terms, created the first 3D technology. While this was first used for observing Haley’s Comet and other space phenomena, the process quickly became something NASA used and continues to use to analyze images of distant entities in space in a 3-dimensional illusionated view. The transition of this into our everyday lives can be seen in the new and ever improving television sets which the majority of western culture has. Technology that is being utilized in our space exploration also has implications and uses for our everyday lives. The 3D technology/illusion transmitter is just one of NASAs other different technologies that are utilized for everyday use as our culture has progressed.

Here is what the actual Patent diagram looks like:



It was in the Late 70’s where her experiments with flat mirrors and concave mirrors led her to her ultimate discovery of the Illusion Transmitter. How does it work exactly? It’s a very difficult concept to see on paper in technical terms, but when you actually think about what it is achieving (and how simple it is) it really is a pretty ingenious idea. How it works: Flat mirrors, provide a reflection of an object that is behind the glass surface (this is our everyday mirror). A concave mirror house presents a reflection that appears to exist in front of the glass which is what ultimately creates the 3D look or illusion. Thomas used these images she created to hopefully provide a more accurately of showing data. The process was initially viewed and used for NASA, but she was not quick to realize the commercial potential for the 3D illusion/delivery process.

Although 3D technology is traced back to the beginning of photography, “In 1844 David Brewster invented the Stereoscope. It was a new invention that could take photographic images in 3D” it was The Illusion Transmitter that really paved the way for 3D anime and film to achieve what Illusionist Photographers had been achieving in years prior. This illusion shows multiple images combined to show a 3d effect when used with special viewing lenses or 3D glasses– the same idea essentially behind the Illusion Transmitter.

 

[Rhapscallion Démone]

Black Panthers in Portland

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The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) was founded in October 1966 in Oakland, California, by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, two young black men who met at Merritt Junior College. The party was their response to centuries of disenfranchisement of American blacks and routine police violence in local black neighborhoods. The BPP’s ten-point platform lists their goals of equality in the realms of employment, housing, and education, along with freedom for political prisoners and an end to police brutality.

In April 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, blacks across the nation took to the streets in grief and anger. In Portland, where the public disturbance was minor compared to the riots in Chicago and other cities, a group of about twenty disillusioned young blacks began meeting to study the writings of Malcolm X and the Little Red Book of quotations from China’s chairman Mao Tse-Tung.

In June 1969, one of the members of the study group was beaten and jailed. Upon his release on bail, Kent Ford held a press conference on the steps of the Portland police station at Southwest Third and Oak. “If they keep coming in with these fascist tactics,” he announced, “we´re going to defend ourselves.” With this public pronouncement, members of the original group, now down to about half a dozen, retooled themselves as a chapter of the BPP. Technically, no chapter could be founded without the blessing of Huey Newton, and Ford traveled to California later that year to secure official approval. The chapter opened an office on the southeast corner of Northeast Cook Street and Union Avenue (present-day Martin Luther King Boulevard), the first of four locations.

By the end of that year, the Portland Panthers had started a Children´s Breakfast Program at Highland United Church of Christ—where they fed up to 125 children each morning before school—as well as the Fred Hampton Memorial People´s Health Clinic, extending free medical care five evenings a week at 109 North Russell to anyone of any race. In February 1970, the BPP opened a dental clinic at 2341 North Williams. When their medical clinic was condemned and razed to accommodate a planned expansion of Emanuel Hospital, the chapter moved their Monday and Tuesday night dental practice to the Kaiser dental clinic at 214 N Russell and their medical clinic to the former dental clinic space on North Williams.

“It felt good,” Oscar Johnson recalls. “We were doing something. We had the respect of the community.” New members were attracted to the social programs, and the Portland chapter grew, though it never exceeded fifty members, about a third of whom were women. Original members included Johnson, a former U.S. Marine; Percy Hampton, who joined while still at Jefferson High School; Tommy Mills, a decorated Vietnam War vet; Joyce Radford, who volunteered for the medical clinic; Sandra Ford, whose work at the medical clinic launched her in a new career; and Kent Ford, captain of the Portland chapter, who had turned down a college scholarship in order to support his mother and siblings in Richmond, California. At the time of Ford's much-publicized arrest, he was running a crew that sold candy door-to-door and sending money home.

Meanwhile, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover declared the BPP a threat to national security. In August 1967, he issued an internal memorandum directing the FBI´s counter-intelligence program to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit or otherwise neutralize” the party. The result nationally was the assassination or incarceration of many party members, including Fred Hampton and Geronimo Pratt. Many former Panthers remain in prison or exile today.

Despite the persecution, BPP chapters—forty to forty-five of them—sprang up in major cities across the nation, including one that opened in Eugene, Oregon, in 1968 and operated for over a year. Portland BPP members were tracked by the FBI and characterized by the two major newspapers as criminal; yet they were spared the violent attacks party members suffered in other cities, perhaps because so many local dentists, doctors, and nurses—nearly all of them white—helped with their social programs. George Barton, a neurosurgeon, was their first volunteer physician, and Gerry Morrell was their first volunteer dentist. As head of Community Outreach for the Multnomah Dental Society, Morrell persuaded many others to join him.

The Portland chapter lasted a decade, finally closing the medical clinic in 1979. “We decided we just couldn´t keep going,” says Sandra Ford, a founding member who worked in the health clinic as a medical assistant. Those who volunteered in the social programs, black and white alike, remember their work with pride, and former Portland Panthers are still stopped on the street by children whom they fed in the breakfast program.


Black Panthers in Portland

 

[Rhapscallion Démone]

 

[IllmaticDelta]

During the early 20th-century, the modern Pan-Africanism movement began as a global intellectual campaign that aimed to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between people of color. The advocacy of political unions amongst all indigenous inhabitants of Africa inspired 20th-century Pan-African advocates like, Kame Nkrumah; who urged the rejection of western apparel in favor of nation dress. Yet, members of the young African elite mixed and matched traditional items with clothing made by tailors, each who had his own local flare. Amidst the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s developed an optimistic African youth culture that sought to engage in dialogue on international fashion, music trends and socio- political issues associated with that time. The Civil Rights Era, with its focus on integration and black respectability, paved the way for political expression via the vehicle of fashion.

The Dashiki “Say it Loud, I’m black and I’m Proud”
In 1967, Jason Benning coined the modern term Dashiki. The term originates from the combination of the Yoruba word “danski,” and the Hausa phrase “dan aki,” both which translate to shirt. Benning began to mass produce the dashiki style shirt out of Harlem, USA under the trademark “New Breed Clothing, Ltd.” Benning along with Milton Clarke, Howard Davis, and William Smith created an afro-centric aesthetic of the Black PowerMovement. The shirt rebelled against the fashions of the times and provided a symbol of affirmation for blacks, signaling a return to Africa’s roots and an insistence of full rights in American society. The legacy of slavery paired with the fight for social equality was channeled into the politics of dressing the body to symbolize racial consciousness. Dashikis are still worn today in protest of society’s blatant disrespect of black lives. The dashiki still serves as a garment that embraces African heritage while seeking to promote black pride.

 

[Rhapscallion Démone]

When I was eleven me, my younger brother and my cousins went to an Afrocentric charter school called Sparc Academy. It was St. Augustines college campus. We had normal uniforms and then we had uniforms for field trips and special events, which were tailor made Dashikis. I wish I could find those pics lol

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Lowkey to some, the modern global natural hair movement was pioneered by Afram women

1960's

60/70's





2000s

The natural hair movement is a movement which encourages women of African descent to keep their natural afro-textured hair. Born in the USA during the 2000s,[1][2] this movement is named "mouvement nappy" in French-speaking countries.[3][4][5][6]


The movement designates black women who wear afro-textured hair in its natural, coiled or curly state (as well as those who do not chemically straighten their hair but may still choose to wear it straight). The word "nappy" has been subjected to denigration since the Atlantic slave trade. Thereafter, some Afrodescendants have positively taken the word back, considered in francophone countries as a backronym made up of "natural" and "happy."[3][7][8][9]



The natural hair movement today
For about ten years, thanks to Web 2.0, a growing number of people have been sharing their beauty advice via:

• blogs: Black Girl Long Hair,[1][20][21] Naturally Curly,[1][20][22] Curly Nikki,[1][23][24] Hair Lista,[20][25] Afrobella,[1][26][27] Un-ruly.com[28][29][30] in the USA; Black Beauty Bag,[9][31][32][33] Afrobelle,[34][35] Ivy-Mag[36][37] in France
• Facebook pages:
  • 
    USA: Natural Chica;[20][38][39]
  • 
    Quebec: Racines Crépues;[40]
  • 
    France: Révèle-toi,[36][41] Boucles d’Ébène,[42][43][44] Belle Ébène,[45][46] Natural Hair Academy,[3][47] Black and Beautiful;[48][49]
  • 
    Senegal: Astuces Beauté Africaine;[50]
  • 
    Ivory Coast: Nappys De Babi;[3][11][51]
  • 
    Cameroon: Les Bidouilles d'une Nappy,[4][11] So Natural So Me;[11][52]
  • 
    South Africa: My Fro & I;[53]
  • 
    Togo: Frisettes & Co.;[11]
  • 
    Mali: Nappys de Bamako;[54]
  • 
    Democratic Republic of the Congo: Nappy Girls du Congo Kinshasa;
  • 
    Gabon: Nappy du Gabon;
  • 
    Guinea: Nappy de Guinée;
  • 
    Niger: Les Nappy Du Niger.[55]
• forums: Beauté d'Afrik[56] in France; Long Hair Care Forum,[1][25][57] Black Naps[58][59] and Nappturality[60][61] in the USA
• web-zines: Naturally Happy Hair[62] in the USA; FashizBlack,[3][63] Afrosomething[48][64][65] in France; Afro Style Magazine[66] in the Netherlands
• videos: Beautiful Naturelle[3][36] in France
• youtubers: "naptural85" ,"thechicnatural", "journeytowaistlength", "mynaturalsistas"

These websites have expanded the natural hair movement around the world so as to highlight the beauty of natural African hair.[3][4][17]


Outside of USA, several events have developed in order to accompany the natural hair movement, particularly in France and in Africa:

• The salon Boucles d'ébène: A demonstration, has existed for ten years, dedicated to the black hairdressing and beauty.[3][43][44][78]
• The Miss Nappy Paris′ competition: The election of "Miss Nappy" so as to promote the Afro hair beauty.[3][79]
• The Massalia Nappy Days: Lectures, projections of documentaries and fashion shows.[80]
• The Crépue d'ébène Festival at Abidjan (Ivory Coast): Dedicated to the natural beauty of the African woman and to the highlighting of the nappy hair.[81]
• The Natural Hair Academy: Event to better understand the nappy hair, days of advice by speakers.[3][47]
• The AfricaParis Festival: Dedicated to the "Afropean" culture.[3]

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Emery N. Brown

M.D., Ph.D. is an American statistician, neuroscientist and anesthesiologist. He is the Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School and at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and a practicing anesthesiologist at MGH. At MIT he is the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and professor of computational neuroscience; the Associate Director of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and the Director of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program. Brown is one of only 19 individuals who has been elected to all three branches of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Brown is also the first African American and first anesthesiologist to be elected to all three National Academies.[1][2][3][4][5]

Scientific career
Brown has published widely on topics in Computational Neuroscience and Anesthesiology.[7] Brown is the principal investigator of the Neuroscience Statistics Research Laboratory at MGH and MIT, where he currently conducts his research.[8]

Measuring Time on the Human Biological Clock
Brown developed statistical methods to characterize the properties of the human circadian system (biological clock) from core temperature data recorded under the constant routine and free-running and forced desynchrony protocols. Through the early part of his career, Brown collaborated with circadian researchers to apply his methods to answer fundamental research questions in circadian physiology. Brown’s statistical methods were critical for: estimating accurately the period and internal time on human circadian clocks from continuous core temperature measurement;[9][10] showing that bright lights could be used to shift the phase of the human circadian clock;[11] properly timed administration of light and dark periods could be used to realign the internal clocks of shift workers with external time;[12] and that, contrary to beliefs at the time, the period of the human biological clock, like that of other animals, was closer to 24 hours rather than 25 hours.[13]

Deciphering Brain Signals
Brown later focused his statistics research on developing signal processing algorithms and statistical methods for neuronal data analysis. He developed a state-space point process (SSPP) paradigm to study how neural systems maintain dynamic representations of information.[14] For the analysis of neural spiking activity and binary behavioral tasks represented as multivariate or univariate point processes (0-1 events that occur in continuous time), his research produced analogs of the Kalman filter, Kalman smoothing, sequential Monte Carlo algorithms, and combined state and parameter estimation algorithms commonly applied to continuous-valued time series observations.

Brown used the methods to: show that ensembles of neurons in the rodent hippocampus maintained a highly accurate representation of the animal’s spatial location;[15] track the formation of neural receptive fields on a millisecond time scale;[16][17][18] track concurrent changes in neural activity and behavior during learning experiments;[19] decode how groups of motor neurons represent movement information;[20] and track burst suppression in patients under general anesthesia.[21]

Brown applied the state-space paradigm to: analyze learning in behavioral neuroscience experiments;[22][23][24] study the relationship between learning and changes in hippocampal function in humans;[25] assess the efficacy of deep brain stimulation in enhancing behavior performance in humans and non-human primates;[26] and define precisely changes in levels of consciousness under propofol-induced general anesthesia.[27]

With Partha Mitra, Brown co-founded and co-directed the Neuroinformatics Summer Course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA from 2002-2006. He co-directs with Robert Kass the biannual Statistical Analysis of Neural Data Conference at the Carnegie Mellon University Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition.[28][29] He co-authored a textbook in neuroscience data analysis with Robert Kass and Uri Eden.[30]

The Nature of General Anesthesia
Unraveling the mystery of general anesthesia is another major question facing modern medicine.[4] In 2004, Brown began a systems neuroscience research program to study the mechanisms of anesthetic action by forming and leading an interdisciplinary collaboration of anesthesiologists, neuroscientists, a statistician, a neurosurgeon, neurologists, bioengineers and a mathematician at MGH, MIT and Boston University.[31] In 2007 he received an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award to support this research making him, the first anesthesiologist and the first statistician to receive this award.[32] His anesthesiology research has made fundamental theoretical and experimental contributions to understanding the neurophysiology of general anesthesia. In two seminal papers,[33][34] Brown provided the first systems neuroscience analysis of how anesthetics act at specific receptors in specific neural circuits to produce commonly observed altered arousal states. This analysis provided an essential missing link between the substantial body of research on the molecular pharmacology of anesthetic action and the behavioral responses commonly seen in anesthetized patients. Brown also shows that, contrary to common dogma general anesthesia is not sleep, but rather a reversible coma.[33]

Brown’s research group has provided detailed insights into how anesthetics produce unconsciousness. The brain is not shut off under general anesthesia. Instead, anesthetics induce highly structured oscillations between key brain regions. These oscillations, which are readily visible in standard electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings, alter arousal by impairing normal communication between regions. This is analogous to what happens when an epilepsy patient loses consciousness with the appearance of the regular, hypersynchronous oscillations of a seizure. Anesthetic-induced oscillations are also akin to what happens when a hum in a phone line makes it impossible to sustain a normal conversation.[33][34]

Brown has performed many studies on the properties of propofol-induced anesthesia in particular. He found that propofol-induced unconsciousness is mediated simultaneously by two different oscillatory processes. The first is strong coherent alpha oscillations (8 to 10 cycles per second) between the cortex and the thalamus (26-28) and the second are strong incoherent cortical slow-wave oscillations (<1 cycle per second).[35][36][37] The alpha oscillations impair communication between the thalamus and cortex. The slow-waves restrict to narrow time intervals the times at which cortical neurons can discharge, thus making it difficult to sustain communication within the cortex.[36] Furthermore, each anesthetic has a different EEG signature reflecting different neural circuit mechanisms action. These signatures change with age and the anesthetic dose.[38][39] A practical implication of this finding is that the EEG can be used in real time to monitor accurately the anesthetic state of patients. Brown’s group has developed an online teaching program to train anesthesiologists on this monitoring approach.[40]

Brown and colleagues are establishing a new paradigm for waking patients up following general anesthesia. They have shown that the anesthetic state can be rapidly reversed by administering methylphenidate (Ritalin)[41] or activation of dopaminergic systems.[42] This suggests a new, feasible way to actively restore cognitive function in patients after anesthesia and sedation. They have received FDA approval to undertake a clinical trial to test this idea in humans (NCT 02051452).[43][44][45] They have also shown that burst-suppression, a state of profound brain inactivation seen in deep general anesthesia, hypothermia, coma and developmental brain disorders, can be simply explained by a unifying neural-metabolic model.[46] Brown’s group have also shown that burst suppression can be precisely controlled to maintain a therapeutic, medically-induced coma. This research uses a closed-loop control system based on his SSPP paradigm.[47][48] This could have important implications for treating patients, such as Gabrielle Giffords, Michael Schumaker, Malala Yousafzai and Joan Rivers, who sustain brain injuries or have intracranial hypertension and require a medically-induced coma to facilitate brain recovery.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Roy Clay Sr



Roy Clay, Black Godfather of Silicon Valley

Many accomplishments of African Americans tend to be erased or buried by mainstream historians. On one hand, successful sports and entertainment figures are idolized as we celebrate our physical and artistic talents. On the other hand, our mental giants – scientific innovators, inventors and titans of business – are rendered invisible.


Roy Clay was acknowledged at Black Media Appreciation Night at Oakland Yoshi’s on Nov. 26, 2012. His son, Rodney Clay, sits beside him. – Photo: Malaika Kambon
One of our great African American mental giants is often called the “Godfather of Silicon Valley.” Silicon Valley is the area in Northern California where the computer movement began and is home to most of the big names in the world of computers – Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Intel, Google and Twitter.
Roy L. Clay Sr. is the name of this African American star. In 1965, he created and headed the Hewlett-Packard computer division. It was the first computer company in the Silicon Valley.

In 1966, Roy and his team created the HP-2116, the world’s first mini-computer. The HP-2116 mini-computer was unlike any other computer in the world at that time. All other computers were huge machines that filled special rooms that had to be air-conditioned.

Roy’s mini-computer, which was about the size of a small, under-the-counter refrigerator, was designed to stand alone and survive “in the wild.” The first HP-2116 was purchased by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and was used aboard a research vessel where it was exposed to salt air and constant temperature changes. It operated successfully for more than 10 years.

Roy Clay built his reputation in the late 1950s when he worked for Lawrence Radiation Laboratory on the most advanced computers in the world. There he created a computer simulation program that showed how particles of radiation would be dispersed through the atmosphere after an atomic explosion.

On the basis of his reputation, Roy Clay was sought out and hired by David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, who wanted to create a new computer that could stand alone and would also work with other instruments that HP built. Roy took the job and set up HP’s computer development business in an atmosphere that he felt would be conducive to creativity. His workers began the day by playing golf together at daybreak and filtered into HP around 9 a.m. They stayed at work until their work was done.


Roy L. Clay Sr.
Bill Hewlett, HP’s other founder, was not pleased with Roy’s methods. “That’s not the HP way,” Hewlett told Clay. HP employees were expected to arrive at 7:45 a.m., take coffee between 9:35 and 9:45, begin a one-hour lunch break at 11:45, take a second 10-minute coffee break at 2:35 and leave at 4:30 p.m. Hewlett swallowed his objection, however, when he found Roy and his workers still in the office at 10:00 p.m.
Roy also proved to be very valuable to what became the premier venture-capital firm in the world, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers. He was selected as the consultant who advised the company on which computer start-ups they should fund. His guidance led to the initial funding of Intel, Compaq and Tandem, among many other Silicon Valley success stories.

Roy Clay’s young life was similar to the lives of many African Americans in the late 1940s and ‘50s. He was born in Kinloch, Missouri. It was the oldest African-American community incorporated in Missouri. He lived in a home with no indoor plumbing and a neighborhood with no streetlights and few paved roads. As in most American communities with an African American population that is separate from the white population, there was a tradition of police picking up Black boys like Clay if they wandered outside of Kinloch after dark.

“Everybody cared,” Clay said of his hometown. That was in keeping with the African American tradition of “it takes a village to raise a child.” He says that his first teacher “inspired me to do well. By the time I left that little school, I thought I could learn to do anything.”

He went on to graduate from Saint Louis University, where he majored in mathematics. With strong ambition and determination, Clay seized upon every opportunity that came his way. Through hard work, his superior intellect and a bit of luck, he eventually became the technological pioneer who earned the title of “Godfather of Silicon Valley.” Roy L. Clay Sr. was inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Council’s Hall of Fame in 2003.

Despite his many achievements, Roy L. Clay remains humble. He states, “I started the HP computer company coming from Kinloch, Missouri. What I could do, many other people could do. I didn’t see myself as a special person,” Clay says. “Sometimes the breaks didn’t come to get [some people] through. I had that break. I grasped the opportunity to break through.”


HP-2116 mini-computer
As the true entrepreneur, Roy Clay went on to form his own company, Rod-L Electronics. There he invented the first electronic equipment safety testing device to be certified by Underwriters Laboratory (UL). In the mid-1970s, Clay discovered that Underwriters Laboratories was going to require an electrical safety test on electrical products to ensure that they wouldn’t shock or cause a fire. He reached out to HP, IBM, AT&T and Xerox. Each became his business partner. His ROD-L tester was placed at the end of each company’s computer production line.
For many years, computers had to have the ROD-L sticker on the back to show that they were certified by UL. According to Clay, “If it didn’t have Rod-L on that rear panel, it meant it was not a real IBM computer.” His tester is still the standard today.

In 1973 Clay became the first African American to serve as councilman for the city of Palo Alto, California, which is home to Stanford University as well as Hewlett-Packard. He also served the city as vice-mayor.

His activist spirit was aroused by a Richard Nixon-era policy proposal of “benign neglect,” which aimed to withhold resources from urban African American neighborhoods. In response, he helped organize networking events for Black technology workers. His philosophy was, “The way to get through [benign neglect] is to get African Americans in positions to do things so we can get others in positions to do things.”

That is a philosophy that would serve the entire African American population in our efforts to rebuild and revitalize our communities. Thank you, Roy L. Clay, for your highly respected contributions to the world of technology.

Clay was a vital piece to the rise of HP to technology prominence. He established the software development facility, managed the computer division and guided the companies emergence as an HP Computer company. Clay became the highest-ranking African American at HP.

The computer industry began to emerge and its home was the northern California region that became know as the Silicon Valley. Roy Clay Sr., because of his work, became known as the Godfather of Silicone Valley. His work in the computer field caused an industry to grow. When industry grows so do the investments in that industry. Clay was the guiding hand behind the technology investments made by capital investor group Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers . The group invested in Tandem Computers, Compaq Computers and Intel Corporation. Today Intel corporation is the leading maker of computer chips for just about every computing device you can buy. In 2013 Intel reported over $52.7 billion in revenue.

In the mid-1970’s, Clay discovered that Underwriters Laboratories was going to require a safety test on electrical products to ensure that they wouldn’t shock or cause a fire. Clay was an entrepreneur and he formed his own company, Rod-L Electronics. Clay could very well be one of Silicon Valley’s first technology start ups.

At Rod-L he invented the first electronic equipment safety testing device to be certified by Underwriters Laboratory (UL). Clay soon partnered with his former employer HP as well as IBM, AT&T and Xerox. His ROD-L tester was soon found on each company’s computer production line. The ROD-L sticker was found on these companies computer products as evidence that they were certified by UL. According to Clay, “If it didn’t have Rod-L on that rear panel, it meant it was not a real IBM computer.” The Rod-L tester is still the standard today.

Clay also focused his intellect and leadership abilities on local politics by serving as the first African-American on the Palo Alto, California City Council in 1973. Palo Alto, in the heart of the Silicon Valley, is home to Stanford University as well as Hewlett-Packard. He also served as the city’s vice-mayor.

Clay was motivated to action by the Nixon administration policy proposal of “benign neglect.” This policy was aimed at urban African-American communities and designed to withhold resources from these neighborhoods. Clay’s response was to organize networking events for Black technology workers. He believed, “The way to get through “benign neglect ‘was to get African-Americans in positions to do things so we can get others in positions to do things.”

But with so much accomplished in his life Clay has to be introspective. Clay grew up in the community of Kinloch, Missouri next door to Ferguson where Micheal Brown was killed by a police officer. Clay had his own incident with police when he was young and was told by the police; ” “******, don’t let me catch you again in Ferguson.” Clay’s mother told him after the incident, “You will experience racism for the rest of your life, but don’t ever let that be a reason why you don’t succeed.”

Clay’s mother was prophetic and he took it to heart. Clay’s first attempt to find employment after college was at McDonnell Aircraft. Not knowing he was a black man Clay was invited to interview for a position with the company. Once they got a look at him he was told “Mr. Clay, we are very sorry but we have no jobs for professional Negros.” Clay would not be defeated and five years later he was hired for the job.

In 2003 he was inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Council’s Hall of Fame. Mr. Clay was honored for his pioneering professional accomplishments alongside his former employers Bill Hewlett and David Packard of HP and Robert Noyce the co-founder of Intel.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

John Chavis, early 19th Century minister and teacher, was the first African American to graduate from a college or university in the United States. Chavis was born on October 18, 1763. His place of birth is debated by historians. Some scholars think that Chavis hailed from the West Indies. Others believe that he was born in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, or that he was born in North Carolina. Available records document that Chavis was a free African American who probably worked for Halifax, Virginia attorney James Milner beginning in 1773. It is likely that Chavis utilized the books in Milner’s extensive law library to educate himself.

In 1778, while still a teenager, Chavis entered the Virginia Fifth Regiment and fought in the Revolutionary War. He served in the Fifth Regiment for three years. In the 1780s Chavis earned his living as a tutor and while working in this capacity he married Sarah Frances Anderson. Although an excellent teacher, Chavis’ own intellectual capacity was not satisfied. He soon moved his family to New Jersey to enter a tutorial program with John Witherspoon, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In 1792, at the age of 29, Chavis was accepted into the College of New Jerseys’ Theological School, later renamed Princeton University.

In 1794, after Witherspoon’s death, Chavis left New Jersey, transferring to Liberty Hall Academy in Virginia, which was later renamed Washington Academy and which would eventually become Washington and Lee University. Chavis was licensed to preach in the Presbyterian Church of Lexington, Virginia upon his graduation from Liberty Hall Academy in the fall of 1799.

In 1808, John Chavis opened a private school in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he taught black and white children. Chavis specialized in Latin and Greek, and his school soon gained a reputation for excellence. Before long, however, white parents protested the presence of black pupils, and Chavis re-arranged his school, teaching white children during the day and African American children by night. Despite their insistence on segregated classrooms, some of North Carolina’s most powerful whites sent their children to Chavis to be educated. Chavis educated a generation of young North Carolinians including the children of Governor Charles Manly.

In his later years Chavis became vocal in his support of the abolitionist movement. His outspokenness may have cost him the allegiance of some white families. While a few abolitionists in Virginia and North Carolina were allowed to openly express their views, the Nat Turner-led slave rebellion of August 1831 in Southampton County Virginia made such dissent unacceptable. Virginia and North Carolina passed laws restricting free African American freedom of movement and barred their education. Chavis could no longer practice his professions in North Carolina. He became, however, more vocal in his condemnation of slavery and fought for the rights of African American citizens. Foul play may have lead to Chavis’ mysterious death in June of 1838. He was survived by his wife, and son, Anderson Chavis.

One of the core "Lumbee Indian" lines

 

[IllmaticDelta]

COPY AND PASTED FROM PBS. A PERSONAL HERO OF MINE SINCE IM A BIOCHEM MAJOR

LIBRARY RESOURCE KIT WHO WAS PERCY JULIAN?
EXPANDED VERSION
Dr. Percy Lavon Julian was a trailblazing chemist whose discoveries improved and saved countless lives. The grandson of slaves, Julian grew up at a time when African Americans faced extraordinary obstacles. Yet Julian refused to let racism prevent him from becoming one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century, as well as a leader in business and civil rights.

Julian was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on April 11, 1899. Both of his parents were educated, which was rare for Black families in the South at that time. Although his family greatly valued education, Julian had to attend a segregated elementary school. And, because Montgomery had no public high school for African Americans, he was forced to attend a teacher training school for African Americans instead.

In 1916, having barely a tenth-grade education, Julian entered DePauw University, a largely white liberal arts school in Indiana. "On my first day in college," he recalled, "I remember walking in and a white fellow stuck out his hand and said, 'How are you? Welcome!' I had never shaken hands with a white boy before and did not know whether I should or not." Despite having to take remedial courses to catch up to his white peers and experiencing considerable racial discrimination, Julian not only earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and first in his class.

After teaching chemistry at Fisk University for a couple of years, Julian won a fellowship to continue his graduate work. In 1923, he became the first African American to earn a master's degree in chemistry from Harvard University. However, Harvard still refused him admission to its doctoral program—Julian had been denied the teaching assistantship needed for admission. Julian eventually became the head of the chemistry department at Howard University, an African American institution. Determined to continue his education, he enrolled in the University of Vienna, and in 1931 he earned a Ph.D. in chemistry, the fourth African American to achieve this distinction. It was in Vienna that he experienced a new sense of freedom—accessing layers of society unavailable in the United States. It was here that Julian also began his lifelong inquiry into the chemistry of plants.

Returning to DePauw University as a research fellow, Julian eventually became an expert in synthesis, the process of turning one substance into another through a series of planned chemical reactions. Synthesis was the highest calling for a chemist in the 1930s. In 1935, Julian and a colleague synthesized physostigmine, a plant compound from Calabar beans, and won a high-stakes, high-profile scientific victory over the "dean" of chemistry, Sir Robert Robinson. Their achievement led to physostigmine being widely used as a treatment for glaucoma. In fact, in 1999, the American Chemical Society recognized their work as a National Historic Chemical Landmark—one of the top 25 accomplishments in American chemical history. In addition, numerous undergraduates trained by Julian were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society—an unheard of occurrence at the time.

Still, despite his impressive achievements, Julian's opportunities were sharply restricted, and DePauw refused to appoint him to a permanent faculty position. American colleges and universities at the time simply were not prepared to have a Black person teaching white students. Thus, Julian moved from the world of academia to the world of business, where although he faced similar challenges, he landed a job as Director of Research at the Glidden Company in 1936.

Among other important achievements, Julian's highly successful research at Glidden helped trigger an explosive growth industry for soybeans. For 18 years, his work uncovering new uses for the chemicals found in soybeans was not only enormously profitable for Glidden, it helped relieve human suffering across the globe. For example, a protein he extracted from soybeans was used to produce a fire-retardant foam in fire extinguishers. Called Aer-o-foam, it saved thousands of soldiers' lives during World War II.

In addition, Julian discovered a process for making artificial hormones. The discovery was actually serendipitous: after water leaked into a giant tank of soybean oil, Julian recognized crystals of stigmasterol, a steroid, at the bottom of the tank. He eventually developed a process for converting stigmasterol into progesterone and making it available on a commercial scale. Today progesterone is used to decrease the risk for uterine cancer and in hormone replacement therapy. Julian also found a way to create synthetic cortisone, making this once prohibitively expensive "wonder drug" affordable to millions of arthritis sufferers.

In recognition of his contributions to society, Julian was named Chicagoan of the Year in 1950. But when he and his wife Anna and their two children moved to Oak Park, Illinois, a predominantly white, affluent suburb of Chicago, they encountered violent resistance. Despite attempts to intimidate them—their house was set on fire and firebombed—the Julians stood their ground and remained in Oak Park.

In 1953, Julian established Julian Laboratories to produce synthetic steroids, which pharmaceutical companies used to make drugs. He proved to be as talented an entrepreneur as he was a chemist. Julian's company flourished, making him a millionaire when he sold it in 1961. By the 1970s, Julian had more than 100 patents to his name and was widely recognized as an innovator who had helped make a range of medicines more affordable. He also was a prominent civic and civil rights leader, raising funds and speaking publicly for racial justice and full equality for all Americans. Perhaps his greatest contribution was breaking the color barrier in American industrial science: Julian's labs were the training grounds for dozens of promising young African American chemists. For his contributions to humanity, Julian received 18 honorary degrees and more than a dozen civic and scientific awards; he was the second African American elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the first chemist.

Percy Julian died of liver cancer in 1975, at the age of 76. Throughout the world, millions of people continue to benefit from his groundbreaking discoveries.

He was a pioneer in extraction based organic chemistry. He endured racism and became a millionaire from the bottom (being a grandson of slaves)

Lank

NOVA | Forgotten Genius | Library Resource Kit: Who Was Percy Julian? Expanded Version | PBS

 

[Jemmy]

One of the core "Lumbee Indian" lines

There's gotta be something debunking the "slave name" myth. While a lot of AAs do have slave names a lot of them also created their own names.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

The Racial Frontier Rare photographs of Blacks who forged lives in the Old West.

​

Men of African descent were in the West since the time of Spanish exploration in the 16th century.


Estevanico, a Black slave from Morocco, was among the explorers who landed near Florida’s Tampa Bay in 1528. A series of disasters followed, and the members made their way in makeshift barges to the coast of Texas. Indians enslaved them, and soon, Estevanico was one of only four survivors. They escaped captivity and reached the interior of Mexico by 1536. After sharing with explorers the stories his captors had told of the “Seven Cities of Gold,” Estevanico was picked as a guide to these fabled cities in 1539. Unfortunately, Zunis killed him on the way, leaving Francisco Coronado to lead the charge the following year.

Blacks also participated from the beginning in American exploration and settlement of the West. Notably, York, a slave, accompanied Lewis & Clark on their epic 1804-06 expedition. Black frontiersmen were trappers during the fur trade era. They fought beside the Texans at the Alamo. Blacks made the trek westward to Utah with the Mormons and to California with the 49ers. And during the Indian Wars, they served as scouts, hunters and soldiers.

After the Civil War, young Black men arrived in Texas and became cowboys. A few became lawmen … and outlaws. They performed in the Wild West shows in the last half of the 19th century and beyond.

Even with all this activity, Black Americans on the frontier were relatively few in number when compared to the White population. (John W. Ravage suggests Blacks comprised no more than three percent of the people in the 19th-century American West, in his 1997 book Black Pioneers.) Accordingly, photographs of Blacks in the West are rare and much sought by historians and collectors.

Even though the images are rare, photography does document Black presence in the West, beginning with daguerreotypes and ambrotypes of the gold miners in California. These photographs of the 1840s-50s are quite few and fragile, and the surviving examples are of great value. The tintypes and paper images that followed are also very scarce. Collectively, these images reveal much about the participation of African Americans in every part of the West from 1860 to the end of
the century.

Among the images are those of notable Black personalities, including James Beckwourth, Cherokee Bill, Reuben the Guide and Mary Fields. Also in this collection are wonderful photographs of anonymous Black scouts, soldiers, cowboys and housewives, doing their best to capture a piece of the American Dream.

Photo Gallery

JIM BECKWOURTH
The son of a slave mother and a plantation-owner father, Jim Beckwourth roamed the West as a trapper, trader, horse thief and scout for 40 years. He has the distinction of being the subject of perhaps the first full-length biography of a Western frontiersman. His dictated memoirs, published in 1856, predate Kit Carson’s autobiography by two years. This excellent photograph was taken near the end of his eventful life.
– Courtesy Lee Burke Collection –

CAPTURE OF CHEROKEE BILL
Living alongside the soldiers who patrolled the West and the settlers who made it their home were those who did not respect the law. This cabinet card depicts one of the most infamous of the Black outlaws, Crawford Goldsby, alias Cherokee Bill, who reputedly murdered five men and committed numerous robberies over a two-year period. E.D. Macfee photographed the capture in Wagoner, Indian Territory, in 1895. Cherokee Bill is shown in the center; “Bill” is faintly written on his cowboy hat in the photo.

BUFFALO SOLDIER IN BUFFALO COAT
Photographed by John C. H. Grabill in Sturgis, Dakota Territory, circa 1886, this cabinet card depicts an unknown soldier in the 25th Infantry and is the only known image of a Buffalo Soldier wearing a buffalo robe.

BUFFALO SOLDIER PHOTO BY C.S. FLY
Photographer C.S. Fly is well known, mainly because he was the principal photographer of  Tombstone, Arizona—the town made famous for its O.K. Corral gunfight. Fly is also known for his images of Geronimo, which were popular and often copied by other photographers. But this image of an unidentified soldier in the all-Black 24th Infantry was undoubtedly made just for the sitter, and the circa 1882 cabinet card is probably a unique image.

TENTH CAVALRY BUFFALO SOLDIERS & APACHE SCOUTS
Commanded by Lt. Clark, these Indian scouts of Arizona were photographed in the field by Andrew Miller (attributed). The boudoir card is circa 1885. Eight of the 16 men in this image are Buffalo Soldiers. Note those in the background: One points his pistol skyward, one aims directly at the photographer and the third blows his bugle. This is an extremely rare outdoor view, which shows the relationship of the 10th Cavalry and the Apache scouts during the Indian Wars in the Southwest.

INVITATION TO THE EXECUTION OF TWO WILLIAMS
This invitation to the December 20, 1895, execution shows murderer William Gay (at left) and William Biggerstaf. Both men paid the ultimate price for their crimes. Interestingly, J.P. Ball, the Black photographer in Helena, Montana, also photographed Biggerstaf’s execution. Earlier in his career, Ball was a daguerreian artist in Cincinnati.

MARY FIELDS, SHOTGUN RIDER
Mary Fields was a pistol-packing, hard-drinking woman who settled in Cascade, Montana, in 1884. In 1895, she found a job that suited her, as a U.S. mail coach driver for the Cascade County region of central Montana. She and her mule Moses never missed a day, and it was in this capacity that she earned her nickname of “Stagecoach Mary,” for her unfailing reliability. It is not known who photographed this circa 1885 tintype of her.

NAVAJO WARRIOR & NEGRO CAVALRY
This circa 1887 studio portrait was probably taken in Arizona by Ben Wittick, a well-known photographer of Indian and frontier life in the Southwest.

RAG TAG COWBOY
This unidentified fellow appears to be a cowboy, but there isn’t much normal or traditional about his outfit. His double action pocket pistol, holster and cartridge belt are not of a high quality. He is wearing shoes instead of boots and a couple of sweaters instead of a bib shirt. Perhaps this outfit is the best he could afford. Or maybe he is just a real individualist! (If he isn’t a cowboy … what is he?)
– Courtesy Robert G. McCubbin –

REUBEN THE GUIDE
Reuben the Guide was a celebrated tour guide who escorted visitors from San Diego, California, across the border to Tijuana, Mexico. He was well liked and known for his sombrero and five-pointed badge. His likeness appears on a number of postcards, and he posed frequently for tourists. R.P. Dammand of San Diego photographed this circa 1895 cabinet card of him.

The Racial Frontier

 

[Rhapscallion Démone]

The Racial Frontier Rare photographs of Blacks who forged lives in the Old West.

​

Men of African descent were in the West since the time of Spanish exploration in the 16th century.


Estevanico, a Black slave from Morocco, was among the explorers who landed near Florida’s Tampa Bay in 1528. A series of disasters followed, and the members made their way in makeshift barges to the coast of Texas. Indians enslaved them, and soon, Estevanico was one of only four survivors. They escaped captivity and reached the interior of Mexico by 1536. After sharing with explorers the stories his captors had told of the “Seven Cities of Gold,” Estevanico was picked as a guide to these fabled cities in 1539. Unfortunately, Zunis killed him on the way, leaving Francisco Coronado to lead the charge the following year.

Blacks also participated from the beginning in American exploration and settlement of the West. Notably, York, a slave, accompanied Lewis & Clark on their epic 1804-06 expedition. Black frontiersmen were trappers during the fur trade era. They fought beside the Texans at the Alamo. Blacks made the trek westward to Utah with the Mormons and to California with the 49ers. And during the Indian Wars, they served as scouts, hunters and soldiers.

After the Civil War, young Black men arrived in Texas and became cowboys. A few became lawmen … and outlaws. They performed in the Wild West shows in the last half of the 19th century and beyond.

Even with all this activity, Black Americans on the frontier were relatively few in number when compared to the White population. (John W. Ravage suggests Blacks comprised no more than three percent of the people in the 19th-century American West, in his 1997 book Black Pioneers.) Accordingly, photographs of Blacks in the West are rare and much sought by historians and collectors.

Even though the images are rare, photography does document Black presence in the West, beginning with daguerreotypes and ambrotypes of the gold miners in California. These photographs of the 1840s-50s are quite few and fragile, and the surviving examples are of great value. The tintypes and paper images that followed are also very scarce. Collectively, these images reveal much about the participation of African Americans in every part of the West from 1860 to the end of
the century.

Among the images are those of notable Black personalities, including James Beckwourth, Cherokee Bill, Reuben the Guide and Mary Fields. Also in this collection are wonderful photographs of anonymous Black scouts, soldiers, cowboys and housewives, doing their best to capture a piece of the American Dream.

Photo Gallery

JIM BECKWOURTH
The son of a slave mother and a plantation-owner father, Jim Beckwourth roamed the West as a trapper, trader, horse thief and scout for 40 years. He has the distinction of being the subject of perhaps the first full-length biography of a Western frontiersman. His dictated memoirs, published in 1856, predate Kit Carson’s autobiography by two years. This excellent photograph was taken near the end of his eventful life.
– Courtesy Lee Burke Collection –

CAPTURE OF CHEROKEE BILL
Living alongside the soldiers who patrolled the West and the settlers who made it their home were those who did not respect the law. This cabinet card depicts one of the most infamous of the Black outlaws, Crawford Goldsby, alias Cherokee Bill, who reputedly murdered five men and committed numerous robberies over a two-year period. E.D. Macfee photographed the capture in Wagoner, Indian Territory, in 1895. Cherokee Bill is shown in the center; “Bill” is faintly written on his cowboy hat in the photo.

BUFFALO SOLDIER IN BUFFALO COAT
Photographed by John C. H. Grabill in Sturgis, Dakota Territory, circa 1886, this cabinet card depicts an unknown soldier in the 25th Infantry and is the only known image of a Buffalo Soldier wearing a buffalo robe.

BUFFALO SOLDIER PHOTO BY C.S. FLY
Photographer C.S. Fly is well known, mainly because he was the principal photographer of  Tombstone, Arizona—the town made famous for its O.K. Corral gunfight. Fly is also known for his images of Geronimo, which were popular and often copied by other photographers. But this image of an unidentified soldier in the all-Black 24th Infantry was undoubtedly made just for the sitter, and the circa 1882 cabinet card is probably a unique image.

TENTH CAVALRY BUFFALO SOLDIERS & APACHE SCOUTS
Commanded by Lt. Clark, these Indian scouts of Arizona were photographed in the field by Andrew Miller (attributed). The boudoir card is circa 1885. Eight of the 16 men in this image are Buffalo Soldiers. Note those in the background: One points his pistol skyward, one aims directly at the photographer and the third blows his bugle. This is an extremely rare outdoor view, which shows the relationship of the 10th Cavalry and the Apache scouts during the Indian Wars in the Southwest.

INVITATION TO THE EXECUTION OF TWO WILLIAMS
This invitation to the December 20, 1895, execution shows murderer William Gay (at left) and William Biggerstaf. Both men paid the ultimate price for their crimes. Interestingly, J.P. Ball, the Black photographer in Helena, Montana, also photographed Biggerstaf’s execution. Earlier in his career, Ball was a daguerreian artist in Cincinnati.

MARY FIELDS, SHOTGUN RIDER
Mary Fields was a pistol-packing, hard-drinking woman who settled in Cascade, Montana, in 1884. In 1895, she found a job that suited her, as a U.S. mail coach driver for the Cascade County region of central Montana. She and her mule Moses never missed a day, and it was in this capacity that she earned her nickname of “Stagecoach Mary,” for her unfailing reliability. It is not known who photographed this circa 1885 tintype of her.

NAVAJO WARRIOR & NEGRO CAVALRY
This circa 1887 studio portrait was probably taken in Arizona by Ben Wittick, a well-known photographer of Indian and frontier life in the Southwest.

RAG TAG COWBOY
This unidentified fellow appears to be a cowboy, but there isn’t much normal or traditional about his outfit. His double action pocket pistol, holster and cartridge belt are not of a high quality. He is wearing shoes instead of boots and a couple of sweaters instead of a bib shirt. Perhaps this outfit is the best he could afford. Or maybe he is just a real individualist! (If he isn’t a cowboy … what is he?)
– Courtesy Robert G. McCubbin –

REUBEN THE GUIDE
Reuben the Guide was a celebrated tour guide who escorted visitors from San Diego, California, across the border to Tijuana, Mexico. He was well liked and known for his sombrero and five-pointed badge. His likeness appears on a number of postcards, and he posed frequently for tourists. R.P. Dammand of San Diego photographed this circa 1895 cabinet card of him.

The Racial Frontier

History they rarely ever teach in school. Side note I always thought Jim looked like Snoop.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

History they rarely ever teach in school.

the history/legacy is so deep that so much stuff is left out

Side note I always thought Jim looked like Snoop.

same here

 

[IllmaticDelta]

The afram influence is all over what we now think of as rural white-hillbilly, country-mountain music


new docu coming out