African American mother and child holding an American flag

Boyz n the Hood is a 1991 American hood drama by John Singleton, starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube, Nia Long, and others. It follows Tre Styles (Gooding Jr.), who moves in with his father in South Central L.A. amidst gang culture. The film was Singleton's directorial debut, inspired by his own life, and led to significant breakout roles for the cast. Premiered in 1991, it earned critical acclaim and nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, making Singleton the youngest and first African American nominee for Best Director. In 2002, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

These are African Chinese known as the Jomon people and it is assumed that the original inhabitants of China were black. It is said they arrived 100,000 years ago and were still living in the country during the Qing Dynasty. It is also believed that at about 35,000 BC some of these people took this route and entered Japan. They became the first humans to inhabit the Japanese Islands. Later another group known as the Ainu followed. Today their genes can still be found in 40% of modern Japanese as well as Mongolians and Tibetans.

Carl Maxie Brashear was the first African American to become a U.S. Navy Master Diver, rising to the position in 1970. Service/branch United States Navy Years of service 1948-1979

Cuba Gooding, Jr. played Brashear in the 2000 film Men of Honor, which was inspired by Brashear's life.

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Did you know The oldest Christian nation is Ethiopia ?

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He knew the truth about the original #Hebrews

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In 1875, Oliver Lewis became the first jockey to win the Kentucky Derby, America's longest continuous sporting event. Lewis was born in 1856 in Fayette Country, Kentucky, to his parents Goodson and Eleanor Lewis. Lewis was born free, but there is little known about his parents or family. Lewis was only 19 years old when he entered the first Kentucky Derby. The race was held at what was then the Louisville Jockey Club on May 17, 1875, but is now known as Churchill Downs.

Ten thousand spectators watched this first race. Lewis rode a horse named Aristide, which was one of two colts entered by their owner, H. Price McGrath of Jessamine, Kentucky. The other horse, Chesapeake, was ridden by William Henry. Although the same owner entered both horses, Chesapeake was favored to win the $2,850 purse, and Lewis was told that his job was to lead most of the race to tire out the other horses. Out of the fifteen jockeys in the field, at this first Kentucky Derby, thirteen of them were African American. Aristide's trainer, Ansel Williamson, was also an African American.

Oliver Lewis followed his instructions and was pushing most of the field while trailing a horse named Volcano for most of the race. However, in the last stretch, Chesapeake was unexpectedly far back in the pack, while Aristide and Volcano were running neck and neck for first place. Lewis and Aristide pulled away near the finish line and won the race by two lengths. With that victory, Lewis became the first jockey to win the Kentucky Derby. Later that season, Lewis came in second in the Belmont Stakes in New York and won three more races at the Louisville Jockey Club, riding Aristide in all of them. He would never ride in the Kentucky Derby again, however, and would retire after that racing season for unknown reasons.

After retiring, Lewis worked for a short time as a day laborer, but then began providing handicapping tables and racing forms to bookies. He later became a bookie himself, which was legal in Kentucky at that time. Lewis married, although his wife's name is unknown. The couple had six children, including James, who inherited his lucrative bookmaking business. Oliver Lewis died in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1924 at the age of 68.

1897: African American Buffalo Soldiers test bikes for Army on 1,900 mile expedition
In 1897, 20 soldiers, an army surgeon and a reporter led by Lt. James A. Moss, rode bicycles from Fort Missoula in Montana to St. Louis, Missouri. The trip was made as an experiment to see whether the bicycle could serve a useful purpose in the Army.
1890s America was also experiencing a bicycle-craze due to the recent invention of the "safety bicycle" (a bicycle with wheels of equal size and chain driven). Accounts make it clear that Moss had a romantic streak, and enjoyed the outdoors, as well as what he referred to as "the poetry of cycling".
The 41-day journey to St. Louis was 1,900 miles and took the men through Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Missouri. In the 1890s, the Army was segregated, with most black units (a.k.a "Buffalo Soldiers") serving in the isolated outposts in the West. Fort Missoula, at that time, was home to the 25th Infantry, a black regiment. Moss was a Southerner and recent graduate of West Point. He was only twenty-five years old. He and some of the '97 riders had done trips before. In the summer of 1896, eight of them rode first to the Mission Mountains, north of Missoula and then Yellowstone Park. For the St. Louis trip, Moss picked a path that mostly followed the railroads -- the Northern Pacific to Billings and then various arms of the Burlington the rest of the way.
Fortunately, Eddie Boos, a nineteen-year-old, rode along with the Corps to St. Louis and wired lengthy reports to the local Missoula paper, as well as newspapers all over the United States.
Combining his accounts with those of Lt. Moss, we get a fairly detailed picture of the trip. Sadly, no accounts from the soldiers, themselves, are known to exist. We only know them through Boos and Moss's somewhat stereotyped descriptions. Nevertheless, what comes through is a group of highly dedicated, tough, resilient, men who at the end of a long, hard ride still had a keen sense of humor and enjoyment of life*. A year after the trip they proved their mettle as soldiers, securing key victories during the Spanish-American War. Boos tells us that the Corps was escorted by hundreds as they drew closer to the finish of their journey and were welcomed by over 10,000 upon reaching their goal in Forest Park in St. Louis.

UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD'S FIRST BLACK WOMAN TRAIN ENGINEER
Edwina Justus (July 11, 1943) is a African-American trailblazer engineer who is best known for being Union Pacific's first black female train engineer.

At a young age, Edwina's role as a change-maker began when she became the first African-American girl to attend Brown Park School, and she was the only person of color in the entire school.

In search of better opportunities, Edwina applied for a job at Union Pacific. After her application was denied, she enrolled at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

When she applied at Union Pacific for the second time, her application was a success. Justus began her career at U.P. in 1973 as a clerk at one of its Omaha facilities. Edwina Justus was one of five black women who worked in the Omaha office.

In 1976 she applied for an engineer opening in North Platte, Neb. She got the job and became UP’s first black female engineer at the age of 34. North Platte was a big operation. Union Pacific is the largest railroad in the United States. “When I received the offer in North Platte, Nebraska, my dad encouraged me to take it.”

However, the work environment wasn't supportive. Edwina endured racial slurs and the belief that she couldn't do good work as a woman. But she was not deterred. She used her wit and performance to excel in her career.

Justus worked 22 years before retiring in 1998. She hauled items such as livestock, automobiles and airplane wings to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Denver, Colorado, never taking for granted the beauty of a sunset or quiet night.

“Railroading isn’t easy, but I didn’t let anyone bully me and I always stood up for myself,” Justus said.

In 2018, Justus was honored in a Durham Museum exhibit. The exhibit shares the diverse experiences of 12 Nebraska women through time.

Enslaved Africans returning from a cotton field, 1860. Know your history knowledge is power.