Posts by David F. Walker
Lesson in Black History – Lincoln Perry and Willie Best
Lincoln Perry and Willie Best—Born in Florida in 1902, Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry would go on to become arguably the most controversial black actor in the history of motion pictures. Best know by his stage name Stepin Fetchit (above), Perry became the embodiment of the negative stereotypes that portray black men as lazy, illiterate…
Read MoreLessons in Black History – MATTHEW HENSON
MATTHEW HENSON – Robert Peary is most often credited as the first man set foot at the North Pole, but technically and historically that distinction goes to Matthew Henson, a fellow explorer and associate of Peary. Both men had worked together, including several expeditions to the Arctic. Henson had spent a significant time living with…
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ONE FALL Issue #1 by David F. Walker and Brett Weldele First issue of a comic series for fans of wrestling & monsters. Written by David F. Walker. Art by Brett Weldele.
Read MoreLessons in Black History – George Walker and Bert Williams
George Walker and Bert Williams – Two popular vaudeville performers during the era of the minstrel show (when performers, usually white, would paint their faces black), George Walker (above right) and Bert Williams first met in 1893. Williams was a popular comedian, musician and stage performer that is generally considered to be the most popular…
Read MoreLessons in Black History – MARSHALL “MAJOR” TAYLOR
Marshall “Major” Taylor—The son of a Civil War veteran, and one of eight children, Marshall Taylor and his family moved from Kentucky to Indiana, where his father went to work for a wealthy white family. Taylor became friends with Dan Southard, the son of his father’s employer. The Southards afforded Marshall a good life and…
Read MoreLessons in Black History – Bessie Coleman and Willa Brown
BESSIE COLEMAN and WILLA BROWN – Two pioneering aviators, the life stories of both Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman (above) and Willa Brown (below) define courage and tenacity. Coleman was born to sharecropper parents—the tenth of thirteen children—and dreamed of a better life. She moved to Chicago in 1915, and worked as a manicurist in a barbershop,…
Read MoreLessons in Black History – ALTHEA GIBSON
ALTHEA GIBSON– Long before the Williams sisters took the world of tennis by storm, there was Althea Gibson, the South Carolina-born woman who broke the color barrier of competitive tennis. Gibson’s family moved to Harlem in the 1930s, and it was there that she became involved in tennis. She had a successful career in the…
Read MoreLessons in Black History – BASS REEVES
Bass Reeves – Born a slave in 1838, Bass Reeves escaped to freedom in the early 1860s. Fleeing north to the Indian Territories (Oklahoma), he lived for a time with different Native American tribes, becoming fluent in various languages. In 1875, U.S. marshal James Fagan recruited Reeves as a deputy U.S. marshal, in part because…
Read MoreLessons in Black History – Claudette Colvin (plus Mary Louise Smith and Irene Morgan Kirkaldy)
Claudette Colvin – Rosa Parks is considered the godmother of the Civil Rights Movement for not giving up her seat on a segregated bus in December 1955. Parks’s act of defiance has been recorded by history as being the spark that set off the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was in turn crucial in ending segregation.…
Read MoreLessons in Black History – The Lovings
Richard and Mildred Loving – On June 12, 1967, the United States Supreme Court made a landmark decision in the case of Loving vs. Virginia, effectively clearing the way for interracial marriages in all fifty states. When the court ruled on the case, sixteen states still had anti-miscegenation laws that made it illegal for people…
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