Anti-Segregation Pioneers

In the summer of 1854 Elizabeth Jennings challenged the segregation laws in New York City. She was a teacher and a religious person. On  July 16th, on her way to a church she was asked to board a different street car because of the segregation laws. She refused to leave the all white car and had to be physically removed from a car. She was injured when she resisted arrest.  Her arrest led to a successful civil suit against the City of New York.  

Claudette Colvin, is another unsung hero.  She refused to give up her seat on the bus a few months before Rosa Parks.  She was one of 5 people who challenged segregation laws in 1955. Read the article and listen to Claudette Colvin in a recently published article on CNN called Black women's roles in the civil rights movement have been understated -- but that's changing.

Hero quote of the day

 

Wong Chin Foo

When Wong Chin Foo came to New York in the 1870's for a better life he must have been disappointed by racist attitudes toward Chinese immigrants. At the time Chinese immigrants were not granted equal  opportunities.   The passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which suspended immigration from China and prevented naturalization for Chinese immigrants, only increased tensions for thousands of Chinese born residents living through out Manhattan and Brooklyn.  Wong Chin Foo  recognized that education was necessary to combat intolerance.  He advocated for his community by publishing a newspaper called The Chinese American.  The newspaper helped to dispel anti-Chinese sentiments and defended the honor of a misunderstood culture.  Wong Chin Foo wrote many articles advocating for equal treatment under the law. The Museum of the City of New York highlights Wong Chin Foo in the Hidden Voices exhibit. Listen to an interview with Scott Seiligman posted on the National Committee on U.S. China Relations discussing his remarkable life.  

Paul Gorski: Immigration Poetry

How does it feel to walk into school and be called something different?  Read "Becoming Joey" by Paul Gorski and identify the raw emotions behind immigration.  This poem relates to any unit that includes immigration.  Poem was featured on LearningforJustice.org.  Here is an excerpt:

Pausing in the doorway

José clears his throat,

trying to spit away

his alien voice.

Frances Benjamin Johnston: Pioneer Photographer

Local newspapers are a great source of unsung heroes.  The Long Island Press recently featured an article entitled Frances Benjamin Johnston Showed The World What A Woman Can Do.   The article highlights a trailblazer from the early 1900's. At the time people thought women could not handle heavy cameras, afford expensive equipment and were less talented. Johnston proved that a woman could master the profession of photography.  Her dedication to the field led her to be one of the first woman exhibiting photos at the Library of Congress. Her successful portraiture studio attracted clients such as Mark Twain and Isadora Duncan.       

Alexander Augusta

The life of  Alexander Augusta was recently featured on the Brian Lehrer Show.  He is an Unsung Black Hero of Public Health.  He was an African American  Virginia native who had to learn to read and write under the cover of night. He had to travel to Canada for a more extensive education because American universities rejected him. His pursuit of education and social justice garnered Abraham Lincoln's attention.  As a result, Lincoln recruited him as a surgeon of the 7th U.S. Colored Regiment.  His burial at in Arlington Cemetery is a testament to his courage and bravery.  

 

Upcoming Presentations

Rockville Centre Public Library
Saturday March 20th, 2021           11-12 pm
Unsung Heroes: Labor Leaders

Virtual 

Rockville Centre Public Library 

Thursday May 13th, 2021            1-2 pm

Unsung Heroes: Segregated Military Units 

Virtual 

Bilingual Wire Experts

In 1914 the first world war began between the French and Germans.  The war created a stalemate that lasted three years.  In 1918, the stalemate was finally broken when twenty five thousands of American soldiers joined the French side.  Among the American troops were two hundred and twenty three volunteer women called the Army Signal Corp.    

These French and English speaking switchboard operators sent messages along radio wires to help maintain contact with troops scattered over hundreds of miles. The Signal Corp decoded and transmitted top secret information directly to the battlefields. The switchboard operators were efficient and courageous working under terrible  conditions.  .       

These soldiers worked twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.  It is estimated that one hundred and fifty thousand messages were sent daily and twenty six million messages were sent by the end of the war. 

Merle Egan Anderson was an advocate for the Signal Corp officers after the war. During the war she helped train newly arriving officers while completing her own responsibilities.  After the war she fought for veteran status for all Signal Corp officers. Without veteran status, officers were not entitled to war medals and benefits.  Nearly sixty years later her persistence paid off when the United States  government gave them full veteran status in 1977.