Black History Fact of the Week: Aesop the storyteller
Aesop, who is incorrectly depicted as a White Greek man, was born some time in 620 B.C.E.
An enslaved African in Greece, he was and is known for his fables such as “The Tortoise and the Hare,” “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” and “The Ant and the Grasshopper.” There are at least 656 short stories and fables Aesop told that have been recorded and are still being told to this very day. Many of his wise creations are called nursery rhymes.
The storyteller is described as having had an oversized head, short in stature, and he wore a scraggly beard and did not appear to groom often.
Accounts say that Aesop was released from bondage as a reward for his wit and ability to learn. As a free man, he sat at the roundtable of some of Greece’s renowned philosophers and was admired by most. He traveled throughout Greece, teaching and taking part in the affairs of the republics of the country.
In an unfortunate turn of events, Aesop visited the Delphians with a gift of gold to distribute among the citizens. Disgusted with the people’s greed, Aesop refused to divide the money. Delphi was offended and executed him as a public criminal in 560 B.C.
As a young man, Kenyatta, who was born with the name Kamau wa Ngengi, worked alongside his medicine-man grandfather after his parents’ death. He also suffered from infections in his feet and one leg. At 10-years-old, he underwent surgery at the Church of Scotland mission, where he was exposed to Europeans. He then became a student at the mission.
He later worked as a clerk in the public works department of Nairobi; this is arguably where his interest in politics was initiated.
On Sept. 26, 2001, police officer Stephen Roach was acquitted of all charges in the shooting death of an unarmed 19-year-old Black man—Timothy Thomas.
The shooting occurred on April 7 in Cincinnati, Ohio, when two off-duty police officers spotted the young man walking down the street. Thomas had 14 outstanding warrants out for his arrest, 12 of them for traffic violations. The other warrants were for evading the police. After noticing the police, the young man began to run. Within minutes, 12 officers were in pursuit.
On Aug. 17, 1887, Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. was born in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, to Marcus Mosiah Garvey Sr., a mason, and Sarah Jane Richards, a domestic worker. The youngest of 11 children, Garvey, along with his sister Indiana, were the only two to survive to maturity.
Naturally apt to revolutionary thought and action, in his young adult years he became a trade unionist, and in 1907 was elected vice president of the compositors’ branch of the printers’ union.
On June 17, 1871, James Weldon Johnson, writer of the lyrics for “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” (then called the Negro National Anthem), was born in Jacksonville, Fla., to James and Helen Johnson.
Coming from a well-educated and cultured family, Johnson was first taught by his schoolteacher mother. She instilled in him a sense of appreciation for English literature and the European tradition in music.
On Jan. 18, 1856, the world welcomed a future surgeon and history maker, Daniel Hale Williams.
He was the fifth of seven children born in Hollidaysburg, Penn., to Daniel and Sarah Williams.
Daniel’s father, a barber, moved the family to Maryland, but died of tuberculosis shortly after the move. Williams’ Scotch-Irish mother was unable to care for all the children, so she sent most of them away to live with relatives.
