Aaron Gustafson's Blog, page 5

Charles V. Bush agitated for equity in the officer corps

Charles Vernon Bush is perhaps best known for holding not one, but two ���first��� titles. In 1954, Charles became the first black page of the Supreme Court of the United States. Nine years later, he became the first black cadet to graduate from the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). Charles didn���t stop there, however.

After graduating from the USAFA, Charles had an impressive military career. He resigned from the Air Force in 1970 as a Major with a number of medals to his honor, including the Bronze Star. After his resignation, he went to Harvard Business School and began a second career in senior leadership of numerous companies including Max Factor and Hughes Electronics.

Throughout all of these experiences, Charles was well-aware of the problems brought about by a lack of representation within any organization���s upper management. In his retirement, he began to work with a handful of former military colleagues to try to change this reality in the Air Force.

In the mid-2000s, Charles and retired General Ron Fogleman, began putting more pressure on the USAFA (and the Air Force in general) to diversify senior leadership. They drafted a ���Strategic Diversity Plan��� for USAFA admissions. There was a lot of pushback to this from the Air Force and they went so far as to resist sharing racial demographics of the officer corps. With a little external help, they eventually obtained this Department of Defense (DOD) data through a rather circuitous route.

After compiling the data with a handful of others���many of whom did not take credit for the work for fear of retribution���they published the ���DOD Executive Diversity Study��� in 2008. The study concluded that whites rose into the DOD executive ranks at a rate of 3�� more than Native Americans and Pacific Islanders, 4�� greater than blacks, and 6�� greater than Hispanics. Clearly diversity was not a priority for the DOD. They attributed this reality to treating diversity as a personnel issue rather than a ���critical mission element,
strategically imperative to national security.���

These poor diversity statistics are partly a result of the past and current low numbers of qualified diversity candidates and graduates from our nation���s service academies and other officer-commissioning sources. This underrepresentation directly and adversely affects the pool of qualified diversity candidates available for senior promotions 25 years into the future.

It took over two years of advocacy, both within the military and in Congress and the White House for things to start to turn around. The Air Force began engaging with the Navy, which Charles felt offered a good model for increasing representation throughout its ranks. To put this in context, Charles recalls Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sharing just how important diversity within the officer corps is in a meeting in late 2010: ���We measured ourselves on that��� and if there were senior officers that weren���t [onboard], they were leaving.���

2010 was when the metaphorical rubber met the road for the Air Force, both within the military branch itself and within the USAFA. Policies were overhauled, directives were issued, and���to Charles��� joy���the admissions process for the Academy was reformed.

While Charles V. Bush was not solely responsible for the move to diversify the armed forces (or even the Air Force), his work highlighting inequity was instrumental in helping to improve representation within the officer corps.

If you���re interested, you should check out the Department of Defense���s Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan. It���s top three goals align perfectly with the goals every company and organization should hold:

Ensure Leadership Commitment to an Accountable and Sustained Diversity Effort
Employ an Aligned Strategic Outreach Effort to Identify, Attract, and Recruit from a Broad Talent Pool Reflective of the Best of the Nation We Serve
Develop, Mentor, and Retain Top Talent from Across the Total Force


Further Reading


���Diversity Is A Leadership Issue��� by Charles V. Bush. Speech at USAFA National Character & Leadership Symposium, 2011.
���Air Force Cadets��� Uncredited. Ebony, February 1960.

Madame Jones was the Beyonc�� of her time

When I learned of Sissieretta Jones (a.k.a., Madame Jones), and began reading up on her, I noticed several parallels between her career and Beyonc�����s.

Madame Jones was an opera singer born in 1869. Her father, Jeremiah Malachi Joyner, was a formerly enslaved minister who was both educated and literate (which was very uncommon for the time). Her mother sang in church choir and was a washerwoman. She sang from a young age, but mostly around the house. When her family relocated from Portsmouth, Virginia to Providence, Rhode Island, she began singing at her father���s church. In 1883 she began to formally study music at Providence Academy of Music before moving on to the New England Conservatory of Music and the Boston Conservatory. Clearly gifted, she began giving solo public performances two years later.

Madame Jones���s voice, much like Beyonc�����s, was phenomenal. ���Her notes are as clear as a mockingbird���s��� wrote the New York Echo when she became the first black performer to sing at the Music Hall (later renamed Carnegie Hall) in 1892. Jody Rosen of the New York Times called Beyonc�����s voice ���one of the most compelling instruments in popular music��� in 2014. Yep, and Beyonc�� also played Carnegie Hall numerous times, both with Destiny���s Child and solo.

Madam Jones also performed at Madison Square Garden in 1892, before an audience of 75,000. Beyonc�� first played Madison Square Garden in 2005 with Destiny���s Child, but interestingly it wasn���t the same venue anymore and the maximum capacity was 20,000. The Madison Square Garden Madam Jones performed at was actually the second to bear that name, the one Beyonc�� performed at was the fourth (and current) incarnation.

In 1892, Madame Jones also gave her first performance at the White House (for President Benjamin Harrison). She performed there for four consecutive presidents���Harrison, Cleveland, McKinley, and Roosevelt���though she had to enter through the back door for all of them except Roosevelt. Beyonc�� took numerous trips to the White House as well and, while I couldn���t find any record of her performing there, I���m she she carried a tune once or twice. Plus she did perform an amazing cover of Etta James��� ���At Last��� at President Obama���s Inauguration Ball in 2008 and sang the National Anthem at his inauguration ceremony in 2013. Close enough.

By 1895, a decade into her career, Madame Jones had become the most well-known and highly paid black performer of her time. In 2014, Beyonc�� became the highest-paid black musician in history and she made Time���s ���100 Most Influential People��� list for the second year in a row.

This is where Madame Jones��� and Queen Bey���s careers diverge, however: Even when she was billing top dollar, Madame Jones was making pittance compared to her white counterparts. Adelina Patti, an Italian opera singer to whom Madame Jones was often compared, was making $4,000 a night in 1829, compared to Madame Jones��� $2,000 a week. Beyonc�� is tied with Madonna as the only female singer to earn over $100 million in a single year��� twice.

Sadly, Madame Jones��� first husband���also her manager, whom she divorced in 1899���mishandled and gambled away a lot of her money. When her mother fell ill in 1915, she retired form performing and returned to Rhode Island to care for her. She spent the rest of her life caring for her mother, two adopted children, and several homeless children. She survived on her earnings for a time, but eventually had to sell nearly everything���jewelry, medals, three of her four homes���to cover her expenses. In her final years, it���s said that the local head of the NAACP helped her pay her bills and even provided her with fuel to heat her home.

Madame Jones eventually developed cancer and died in poverty in 1933. She didn���t even have the money for a headstone. A 2018 GoFundMe campaign paid tribute to Madame Jones by purchasing a headstone for her.

Further Reading


Sisseretta Jones Biography BlackPast, 2007.
���From Opera, Minstrelsy and Ragtime to Social Justice: An Overview of African American Performers at Carnegie Hall, 1892���1943��� BlackPast, 2007.
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience, edited by Henry Louis Gates and Anthony Appiah. Basic Civitas Books, 1999.

Two Black women received patents��� in 1884 and 1885!

I have to admit that I was a little surprised when I learned that the first Black woman to receive a patent was granted it in 1884. To be clear, I wasn���t surprised because I didn���t think Black women were capable of inventing things���not at all. I was surprised because the process of obtaining a patent is pretty arduous on its own, even without factoring in the very overt racism I���m sure these inventors were dealing with at every step of the way.

On 23 September 1884, Judy W. Reed received patent number 305,474 for her ���dough kneader and roller.��� She is considered to be the first Black woman to receive a patent. We know don���t know much, but it���s believed she lived in Washington, D.C. or somewhere close by. She signed her patent application with an ���X,��� so it���s unclear if she was literate (slaves often risked their lives when they learned to read and write).

Judy���s invention improved on the design of existing dough kneaders by allowing the dough to mix more evenly. The dough moved between two rollers carved with corrugated slats that would knead it before moving it into a covered container that kept the dough clean.

The next year, on 14 July 1885, Sarah E. Goode received patent 322,177 for a piece of furniture that could hide a folded up mattress. In many ways, it was the precursor to the sleeper sofa, though her original design had it tucked away in a secretary desk. Unlike Judy, Sarah did sign her application with her name, so some consider her to be the first Black woman to be granted a patent in the United States.

Regardless of who you consider ���first,��� the fact is that this is just yet another example of Black women excelling at something often considered the domain of men (specifically white men, if we���re being honest). Black women have long struggled (and indeed continue to) for the recognition they deserve as inventors, entrepreneurs, and technologists. That needs to end.

Don���t stand idly by and let people erase Black women from technical conversations taking place in meeting rooms, at conferences, or on Twitter. Highlight them and their accomplishments when someone asks you who you}re inspired by. Look for opportunities to showcase their tremendous talent; that���s the only way we���re gonna make things better.

Further Reading �����These Four Black Women Inventors Reimagined the Technology of the Home���Smithsonian Magazine, 2017���Sisters in Innovation: 20 Women Inventors You Should Know��� A Mighty Girl, 2018 by Otha Richard Sullivan. Wiley, 2012.

Additional recommendations for little ones:

Izzy Gizmo by Pip Jones. Simon Schuster Children���s, 2017Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty. Harry N. Abrams, 2016.

Two black women received patents��� in 1884 and 1885!

I have to admit that I was a little surprised when I learned that the first black woman to receive a patent was granted it in 1884. To be clear, I wasn���t surprised because I didn���t think black women were capable of inventing things���not at all. I was surprised because the process of obtaining a patent is pretty arduous on its own, even without factoring in the very overt racism I���m sure these inventors were dealing with at every step of the way.

On 23 September 1884, Judy W. Reed received patent number 305,474 for her ���dough kneader and roller.��� She is considered to be the first black woman to receive a patent. We know don���t know much, but it���s believed she lived in Washington, D.C. or somewhere close by. She signed her patent application with an ���X,��� so it���s unclear if she was literate (slaves often risked their lives when they learned to read and write).

Judy���s invention improved on the design of existing dough kneaders by allowing the dough to mix more evenly. The dough moved between two rollers carved with corrugated slats that would knead it before moving it into a covered container that kept the dough clean.

The next year, on 14 July 1885, Sarah E. Goode received patent 322,177 for a piece of furniture that could hide a folded up mattress. In many ways, it was the precursor to the sleeper sofa, though her original design had it tucked away in a secretary desk. Unlike Judy, Sarah did sign her application with her name, so some consider her to be the first black woman to be granted a patent in the United States.

Regardless of who you consider ���first,��� the fact is that this is just yet another example of black women excelling at something often considered the domain of men (specifically white men, if we���re being honest). Black women have long struggled (and indeed continue to) for the recognition they deserve as inventors, entrepreneurs, and technologists. That needs to end.

Don���t stand idly by and let people erase black women from technical conversations taking place in meeting rooms, at conferences, or on Twitter. Highlight them and their accomplishments when someone asks you who you}re inspired by. Look for opportunities to showcase their tremendous talent; that���s the only way we���re gonna make things better.

Further Reading


���These Four Black Women Inventors Reimagined the Technology of the Home��� Smithsonian Magazine, 2017
���Sisters in Innovation: 20 Women Inventors You Should Know��� A Mighty Girl, 2018
by Otha Richard Sullivan. Wiley, 2012.

Additional recommendations for little ones:

Izzy Gizmo by Pip Jones. Simon Schuster Children���s, 2017
Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty. Harry N. Abrams, 2016.

Jerry Varnado and James Garrett started the first Black Student Union

In the aftermath of the Watts Riots of 1965, Jerry Varnado and James Garrett looked around and decided they needed to shake things up on the predominantly white campus of San Francisco State University. Together, they created the first Black Student Union and kicked off a campus movement that demanded schools of higher learning take the needs of their black students seriously.

James same to San Francisco State partly to organize and partly to take classes and avoid the draft. A veteran activist, Jerry had been a Freedom Rider and he���d also been involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). He wanted to agitate for change on campus.

Jerry was the chapter president of Alpha Phi Alpha, a black fraternity. A Mississippi native, he���d joined the Air Force before ending up at San Francisco State. He was also active in the (Negro Student Association) NSA, an organized club for all black students. He and James met at a party and instantly hit it off.

The two began meeting to discuss strategies for organizing on campus. Even though their ideas seemed like the sort of thing the NSA would be interested in, it became clear the NSA was not motivated to agitate in the same way James & Jerry wanted it to; their group needed its own identity. Tricia Navara, a fellow student, dubbed them the ���Black Student Union��� (BSU) and the name stuck.

���Our thing was not simply to understand the world. Our duty was to change it,��� Garrett recalled. ���Everybody on the campus who identified themselves as a black person, whether they were a student, faculty, worked in the yards, you were a member of the Black Student Union by definition.���

Pretty soon word of the BSU spread beyond the San Fransisco State campus and the group began getting calls from other schools. First from a group at Stamford, then other colleges, high schools, and even elementary schools. As the BSUs spread, they put collective pressure on schools to diversify, to create more liberal admissions policies, and to change their treatment of black students. Ibram Rogers referred to the movement as the Black Campus Movement.

With the power of the BSU behind him, James Garrett boldly proposed that San Francisco State should have a Black Studies department. He wrote and submitted a proposal to the faculty in the spring of 1967. Later that year, racial tensions at San Francisco State came to a head and students of color (the BSU among them) kicked off a legendary strike that led to the creation of a Black Studies Department (along with a slew of other significant changes).

Our educational system is by no means perfect, but the BSUs around the world have a legacy of agitating for equity for black (and brown) students. Their work has led to the creation of ethnic studies departments and schools around the world. And they have made great strides in pushing for schools to have greater black representation with their faculty. And all of that is thanks to the chance meeting of two young men at a frat party who decided they were going to make things better for themselves and their fellow black students.

As an interesting side note, the Black Studies Department at San Francisco State grew into the College of Ethnic Studies. This year the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State will celebrate its 50th year!

Further Reading


Blow it up!: The Black student revolt at San Francisco State College and the emergence of Dr. Hayakawa, by Dikran Karagueuzian, 1971
���On Strike! Blow It Up!��� Code Switch podcast, 2019
���Remembering the Black Campus Movement: An Oral History Interview with James P. Garrett��� by Ibram Rogers, M.A., Temple University
���The Black Student Union at SFSU started it all��� SFGate, 2010

Captain Francisco Men��ndez helped found the first free black settlement in the U.S.

In 1724, the man who came to be known as Francisco Men��ndez escaped his enslavement in South Carolina and sought refuge in Spanish-controlled Florida. His quest for freedom, made alongside a number of other black slaves, was part of a series of events that led to the legal establishment of the first free black community in the United States.

In the late 17th Century, Spain and Britain were bickering neighbors in the southeast of what is now the United states. In 1693, Spain���s King Charles II ordered Spanish colonists to grant freedom and protection to any escaped British slaves who agreed to convert to Catholicism and serve Spain in the militia for four years. To be clear, Spain did not do this because it didn���t support slavery���far from it���they did it for two directly related reasons: it undermined the British colonists by depleting their workforce and it boosted the size of La Florida. Between 1688 and 1725 at least six separate groups of slaves escaped from South Carolina and settled in St. Augustine (the capital of Spanish Florida).

We don���t know his original name, but the man baptized in the Catholic Church as ���Francisco Men��ndez��� was from the Mandinka nation in western Africa, located along the Gambia River. It���s believed that he was captured and sold by slave traders and likely arrived in Carolina some time between 1709 and 1711. A veteran of the Yamasee War, Francisco was appointed captain of the slave militia at St. Augustine in 1726, just two years after his arrival. His defense of the city in 1727 earned him a reputation for strong leadership and bravery.

Despite Spain���s promise and all he had done for Spain in such a short time, Francisco did not earn his unconditional freedom from slavery until nine years later, in 1738. In that same year, the Spanish governor established Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (Fort Mose) about two miles north of St. Augustine. Slaves who had escaped from the British colonies were directed there and, with around 100 residents, Fort Mose became the first legal settlement of free blacks in what would eventually become the United States.

Francisco became the military leader at Fort Mose, which also meant he was the leader of that maroon community. The fort defended the northern approach to St. Augustine, a role that was challenged in 1740 when the British invaded Florida with their eyes on St. Augustine. The Fort���s residents evacuated to the capital and its militia and the Spanish eventually defeated the British and drove them back, but not before Fort Mose was destroyed.

After this battle, Francisco took his fight to the high seas with the Spanish, where they raided British ships. He was captured in 1741 by British sailors who, upon discovering his role leading the black militia at Fort Mose, tortured him and sold him back into slavery in the Bahamas.

A second Fort Mose was built in 1752. No one knows quite how it happened, but by 1759 Francisco was back in Florida and in charge of Fort Mose, yet again. That iteration of Fort Mose lasted until Florida was ceded to the British in 1763 as part of the Peace of Paris. Most of the inhabitants of Fort Mose, Francisco included, emigrated to Cuba with the evacuating Spanish. Once there, he established a community called San Agust��n de la Nueva Florida that was modeled on Fort Mose.

You can visit the Fort Mose site, which is a national park.

Further Reading


Fort Mose Site, Florida
Fort Mose: Colonial America���s Black Fortress of Freedom, University Press of Florida, 1995

Jane Bolin didn���t let anyone tell her what she couldn���t do

If you���ve heard of Jane Bolin, it���s probably in the context of her becoming the first black judge in the United States. It���s quite the accomplishment, no doubt, but Jane���s life was quite literally filled with firsts.

Born to an interracial couple in 1908 and growing up in the small city of Poughkeepsie, New York, Jane was often the target of discrimination and abuse. Her father, Gaius Bolin, was the first black man to graduate from Williams College. Jane attended the Smith Metropolitan AME Zion Church, which had been a stop on the Underground Railroad, and regularly read The Crisis, both of which had a significant impact on her in her early years.

A smart and dedicated student, Jane enrolled in Wellesley College (Vassar would not let her in) as one of only two black freshman. Despite (or perhaps in spite of) rejection from her white classmates, she excelled, graduating as one of the top students in her class in 1928. Her career counselor tried to dissuade her from applying to Yale Law School, saying there would be no work for a black woman in law, but Jane applied anyway and became the only black student and one of only three women in the school at the time. She graduated in 1931���the first black woman to receive a law degree from Yale���and passed the New York Bar exam in 1932.

After practicing law briefly with her father in Poughkeepsie, Jane moved to New York City and took a position in the city���s legal affairs office. In 1933, she married Ralph Micelle, a fellow attorney who later joined FDR���s Federal Council of Negro Affairs (a.k.a., the ���Black Cabinet���). Then, in 1936, Jane ran for the New York State Assembly as a Republican (back before the parties effectively swapped places). She didn���t win, but her campaign bolstered her visibility in New York state politics and the Republican party. In 1937, Jane became the first black person to serve as assistant corporation counsel for the City.

In 1939, NYC Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, appointed Jane as a judge to the Domestic Relations Court. This appointment, in 1931, made Jane Bolin the first black woman judge in the United States and she remained the only black woman to sit on the bench��� for twenty years! She remained a judge in that court for a total of forty years, when the law required her to retire (at age 70).

While on the bench, Jane worked tirelessly to end racial discrimination. She fought to end segregation in child placement. She pushed for publicly funded childcare agencies to accept children of all races. And she helped create an integrated treatment center for delinquent boys.

Jane was also an activist for children���s rights and education. She served as a legal advisor to the National Council of Negro Women and served on the boards of the NAACP, the National Urban League and the Child Welfare League. Upon her retirement, she continued her work in education as a reading instructor in New York City public schools and reviewed disciplinary cases for the New York State Board of Regents.

In so many ways, Jane Bolin was a pioneer. I can���t even begin to imagine what it must have been like to be the ���first��� so many times. To look around a room and see no one else who looks like you. No one who can understand your lived experiences. No one who you can be yourself around. That must have been incredibly lonely and isolating. Combine that with the number of folks who undoubtedly told her she could not succeed in the career she wanted and I can���t help but be amazed by her resilience. She persisted in so many ways and I am just in awe.

Further Reading


Jane Bolin Biography, Biography.com, 2014
���1st African-American female judge ���showed the strength of the subtle������, Poughkeepsie Journal, 2017
���Jane Matilda Bolin���A Woman of Firsts���, New York Post, 2007

Captain Francisco Men��ndez helped found the first free Black settlement in the U.S.

In 1724, the man who came to be known as Francisco Men��ndez escaped his enslavement in South Carolina and sought refuge in Spanish-controlled Florida. His quest for freedom, made alongside a number of other Black slaves, was part of a series of events that led to the legal establishment of the first free Black community in the United States.

In the late 17th Century, Spain and Britain were bickering neighbors in the southeast of what is now the United states. In 1693, Spain���s King Charles II ordered Spanish colonists to grant freedom and protection to any escaped British slaves who agreed to convert to Catholicism and serve Spain in the militia for four years. To be clear, Spain did not do this because it didn���t support slavery���far from it���they did it for two directly related reasons: it undermined the British colonists by depleting their workforce and it boosted the size of La Florida. Between 1688 and 1725 at least six separate groups of slaves escaped from South Carolina and settled in St. Augustine (the capital of Spanish Florida).

We don���t know his original name, but the man baptized in the Catholic Church as ���Francisco Men��ndez��� was from the Mandinka nation in western Africa, located along the Gambia River. It���s believed that he was captured and sold by slave traders and likely arrived in Carolina some time between 1709 and 1711. A veteran of the Yamasee War, Francisco was appointed captain of the slave militia at St. Augustine in 1726, just two years after his arrival. His defense of the city in 1727 earned him a reputation for strong leadership and bravery.

Despite Spain���s promise and all he had done for Spain in such a short time, Francisco did not earn his unconditional freedom from slavery until nine years later, in 1738. In that same year, the Spanish governor established Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (Fort Mose) about two miles north of St. Augustine. Slaves who had escaped from the British colonies were directed there and, with around 100 residents, Fort Mose became the first legal settlement of free Black people in what would eventually become the United States.

Francisco became the military leader at Fort Mose, which also meant he was the leader of that maroon community. The fort defended the northern approach to St. Augustine, a role that was challenged in 1740 when the British invaded Florida with their eyes on St. Augustine. The Fort���s residents evacuated to the capital and its militia and the Spanish eventually defeated the British and drove them back, but not before Fort Mose was destroyed.

After this battle, Francisco took his fight to the high seas with the Spanish, where they raided British ships. He was captured in 1741 by British sailors who, upon discovering his role leading the Black militia at Fort Mose, tortured him and sold him back into slavery in the Bahamas.

A second Fort Mose was built in 1752. No one knows quite how it happened, but by 1759 Francisco was back in Florida and in charge of Fort Mose, yet again. That iteration of Fort Mose lasted until Florida was ceded to the British in 1763 as part of the Peace of Paris. Most of the inhabitants of Fort Mose, Francisco included, emigrated to Cuba with the evacuating Spanish. Once there, he established a community called San Agust��n de la Nueva Florida that was modeled on Fort Mose.

You can visit the Fort Mose site, which is a national park.

Further Reading ��Fort Mose Site, FloridaFort Mose: Colonial America���s Black Fortress of Freedom, University Press of Florida, 1995

Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler prioritized the most vulnerable

Given the often slow way in which systems of oppression���in this case, both white supremacy and the patriarchy���are broken down, it���s relatively surprising to discover that one woman, Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, managed to to so much in her 64 years on this earth. She was the first black woman to enter medical school in the United States and, upon graduation became the first black woman physician. She was also the first black woman to write a medical textbook���at a time when few blacks were even admitted into medical school���and the only woman to publish a medical book in the entirety of the 19th century! But even with all of those accolades, the thing that stands out most to me about Rebecca was her commitment to the most vulnerable.

Though born in Delaware, Rebecca was raised largely by her aunt in Pennsylvania. This aunt spent much of her time caring for the sick and infirm in her neighborhood, inspiring Rebecca to do the same. In 1852, at age 21, she moved to Massachusetts to pursue nursing and quickly made an impression on the doctors with whom she worked. Urged by her colleagues, who recognized her skill and intelligence, she applied to and was accepted by the New England Female Medical College in 1860. This was a huge deal because it was rare for either women or black men to be accepted into medical school at the time, so admittance of a black woman was quite literally unheard of. To put this in context, when she entered medical school, only 300 of the over 54,000 doctors in the U.S. were women; none were black women.

After being named a Doctor of Medicine in March of 1864, Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler began practicing medicine in Boston, primarily serving poor black women and children. When the Civil War ended the following year, she relocated to Richmond, Virginia, which she believed was ���a proper field for real missionary work, and one that would present ample opportunities to become acquainted with the diseases of women and children.��� In her work with the Freedmen���s Bureau, she tended to newly freed slaves that were refused treatment by white doctors. Her patients were not the only ones on the receiving end of prejudice in those years, Dr. Crumpler was similarly snubbed or ignored by her white male colleagues, pharmacists, and others. Some apparently joked that the ���M.D.��� she earned really stood for ���mule driver.��� Frankly I���m glad their names have been lost to time; fuck them.

Unsurprisingly, Dr. Crumpler opted to return to Boston some time before the birth of her daughter in 1870. There, she continued her work with poor black women and children from her practice at 67 Joy Street on Beacon Hill. Due to the nature of her clientele, Dr. Crumpler frequently worked pro bono. She retired from her practice in 1880 and relocated to Hyde Park. Three years later, she published A Book of Medical Discourses, which she dedicated to nurses and mothers. Its focus is on the medical care of women and children and it was a distillation of the notes she had kept throughout her many years in the medical field. Unlike many books by other black authors, hers bore no introduction from a white male authority.

Throughout her career, Dr. Crumpler worked to improve the health (and lives) of poor black women and children. Her devotion to the most vulnerable, even in the face of sustained abuse and threats is incredibly inspiring. So many of us are afraid to put our comfort on the line in service of others, let alone our livelihoods (or our lives). We have a lot to learn from brave, trailblazing black women like Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler.

Further Reading


Women���s History Month Honors Rebecca Lee Crumpler, M.D. First Black Female Physician in the United States, All Things in Mind, 2016
Biography of Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, National Library of Medicine, 2003

Orrin C. Evans showed us black people could be (super)heroes too

Did you know that the first black comic book hero debuted in 1947? ���Lion Man��� was a college-educated Black American sent to the Gold Coast (now Ghana) by the United Nations to investigate a uranium deposit. His story was but one of nine depicted in the first (and only) issue of All-Negro Comics, the first comic book created by an all black team. That team was led by a journalist named Orrin Cromwell Evans.

Born in 1902, Orrin began his career at 17, writing for Sportsman���s Magazine. He honed his journalistic skills at the Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest black newspaper in the country, before breaking the color barrier to become the first black writer to cover general assignments for the Philadelphia Record. His 1944 article series on segregation in the armed services helped end the practice (and became a part of the congressional record), but it also drew the ire of folks intent on upholding the status quo. His family received numerous death threats, which led to their home being protected at one point by a 24-hour vigil held by friends, both black and white.

When the Record was shuttered during a protest, Orrin began looking for new opportunities. He wrote for a variety of notable publications, but he saw great potential in using comic books to reach the black community. He had always been enamored by the way in which a well-crafted cartoon could make complex topics easy to understand.

In 1947, Orrin formed a partnership with four of his former colleagues at the Register to form All-Negro Comics, Inc. Together they worked with several cartoonists from both Philadelphia and Baltimore to assemble stories that met with Orrin���s moral and educational standards.

The first issue of All-Negro Comics became available in July of 1947 for 15��. When the second issue was ready to publish, Orrin���s newsprint supplier refused to sell to him. Other potential vendors also refused to work with him. And so the second issue remains unpublished to this day.

There is some speculation that, in addition prejudice on the part of the paper suppliers, two rival white publishers (Parents Magazine Press and Fawcett Comics) had conspired to undermine the burgeoning company in an effort to reduce competition for their own black-themes titles.

In addition to Lion Man, All-Negro Comics #1 featured, among other characters, another black protagonist, detective Ace Harlem. And, while there were other comic books aimed at the black community, there were no memorable black heroes in comics until the introduction of Black Panther in Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966). In fact, black people in general were pretty much non-existent, even in street scenes in comic books until the 1960s. Spiderman #18, published in November of 1964, was notable for depicting a black policeman!

Comics are still pretty damn white, but I am hopeful things are changing for the better. Incredibly successful franchises like Black Panther and Luke Cage (a.k.a. Power Man) play a part, as does Miles Morales��� Spiderman. I loved Dwayne McDuffie���s Damage Control back in the ���80s and Aaron McGruder���s Boondocks in the late ���90s/early ���00s. I���m really excited for the future of the genre though, especially with folks like Eve Ewing (Champions, Ironheart) getting involved in the medium.