todd smith

On this day in 1968, Shirley Chisholm became first black woman elected to the United States Congress.

“The conqueror writes history. They came, they conquered and they wrote. Now you don’t expect people who came to invade us to write the truth about us” —Miriam Makeba

On this day in 1944, US Navy began accepting black women to serve. Harriet Ida Pickens and Ensign Frances Wills were the first two Black officers to be commissioned into the Women’s Reserve. On October 19th, 1944, the U.S. Navy began admitting black women to serve as administrative officers in the Women's Reserve of the U.S. Navy,better known as WAVES( Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). Despite this groundbreaking order, Black women remained largely unrepresented in the naval branch. Of the more than 80,000 women serving during World War II, only 72 were black. The U.S. military's history of racial segregation formally came to an end on July 26, 1948, when President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, the legislation that integrated all branches of the U.S. armed forces. On December 26, 1944 Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Harriet Ida Pickens, and Ensign Frances Wills were commissioned as the first African-American WAVES.

Lonnie Johnson, NASA engineer, invented the Super Soaker. He made your childhood hot summers fun, 1980s.

In 1875, a 19-year-old Black jockey named Oliver Lewis made history in the Kentucky Derby, then quietly disappeared. Lewis became the first jockey to ever win the Kentucky Derby, America’s longest-running sporting event. At the time, the race was watched by 10,000 spectators and held at the Louisville Jockey Club, now known as Churchill Downs. What makes his victory even more striking is that he wasn’t supposed to win. Lewis rode Aristide, one of two horses entered by the same owner. The favored horse, Chesapeake, was expected to take the prize. Lewis was reportedly instructed to set the pace and tire the field so Chesapeake could surge late. But things didn’t go as planned. As the race unfolded, Chesapeake fell far behind. In the final stretch, Lewis found himself neck and neck with another horse, Volcano. He seized the moment. Aristide pulled away and won by two lengths. With that decision, Oliver Lewis became the first Kentucky Derby champion. At that first Derby, 13 of the 15 jockeys were African American, as was Aristide’s trainer, Ansel Williamson—facts rarely mentioned in popular accounts of the sport today. Despite his success, Lewis would never ride in the Kentucky Derby again. He retired after that season for reasons that remain unknown. He later worked as a laborer, then as a bookmaker when it was legal in Kentucky. He raised a family of six children and died in 1924 at the age of 68. The man who won the very first Derby helped build the sport—yet history nearly left him behind.