Black History Fact of the Week
Harriet Wilson
On September 5, 1859, Harriet Adams Wilson became the first African American woman to publish a novel in English. Her only published work, “Our Nig; Or Sketches From the Life of A Free Black,” is an autobiographical sketch based on her life as a Black indentured servant in New England.
Very little is known about Wilson, but the information that has been discovered reveals that she may have been born on March 15, 1825 in Milford, NH, to Joshua Green, a Black “hooper of barrels,” and an Irish American, Margaret Ann (or Adams) Smith who was a washerwoman. Her mother abandoned Wilson on the farm of Nehemiah Hayward Jr., where she became an indentured servant. On Oct. 6, 1851, she married Thomas Wilson, who claimed to have escaped the slave South.
However, according to records, Wilson was never enslaved. Harriet later gave birth to a son, George Mason Wilson, who died at the age of seven.
Wilson moved to Boston, where she published her book with the Massachusetts firm of George C. Rand and Avery. She then began lecturing and advocating for children’s education and labor reform. Known in spiritualist circles as “the Colored medium,” she often shared her own life experiences in public arenas, also appearing in local newspapers.
On June 28, 1900, she died in Quincy, Mass.
In her memory and honor, on November 5, 2006, the Harriet E. Wilson full-size bronze memorial statue was unveiled in Milford, making it the first statute in the state’s history to honor a person of color.
She came from a very large family—she the 10th child of 15, and began her career in music singing in her father’s church choir.
After receiving her degree in music from Oklahoma City University, Mitchell became one of the top opera performers in the world, singing in Geneva, Paris, Madrid, and Sydney. Her debut with the San Francisco opera in 1972 catapulted her career to unimaginable heights.
On Aug. 26,1918, a legend was born in White Sulphur Springs, W.A. to Joshua, a farmer who worked extra jobs as a janitor, and Joylette, who was a teacher. Early in her life math genius, physicist, and space pioneer Katherine Johnson showed her love of numbers. She said in an interview that she counted everything including the stairs in the house, the plates she washed, and the steps from home to church.
Vickie Knight has seen how the other half lives, and knows that one day, she too, will get back on her feet thanks to the opportunities afforded her through education.
Knight, a Compton native, who found herself homeless through a seers of unfortunate circumstances, recently spent a few days in the luxury of the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia. She was in the City of Brotherly Love to accept an award for being named the 2010 National Graduate of the Year by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC).
In a time when injustice reigned with no remorse, and in the wake of the assassination of activist Malcolm X, an uprising of young Black leaders and freedom fighters formed a group that would change the climate and pace of the Civil Rights Movement forever. Huey P. Newton along with his long-time friends Bobby Seale and David Hilliard founded the Black Panther Party in Oakland, Calif. on Oct. 15, 1966.
When the doctor said you needed a booster shot, it made you wince.
You’re all grown up, and you know that a vaccine is nothing but a poke, a sting, and lots of protection. No big deal.
So why is there a little-kid part of you that wants to wail, when the needle approaches your arm (or worse)?
