The Stories Henry David Thoreau told about Black People

 

(Women's History Month) Day 29: Honoring and Celebrating retired US Army Master Sergeant Andrea Motley Crabtree!

Did you know that in 1982 retired Master Sergeant Andrea Motley Crabtree became the Army’s first female deep-sea diver and the first African American female deep-sea diver in ANY BRANCH of the MILITARY? 

Motley Crabtree said in 2023, “I expected to go through a lot of hazing when I went through dive school and I did,” she recalled, “and I actually agree with the process. Once that diver badge is pinned on, any diver that sees that pin knows exactly what I went through and what I’m capable of, and I knew the same of them … If they were wearing that pin, I knew they knew what they were doing. That should have been enough. That should tell it all. For me, it never stopped. I had to prove myself over and over and over again every day.”

Learn more about this incredible woman who persisted and rose above racism and sexism to honor dreams, her family, and her country. News Article

 

Let's Learn about Biochemist, Surgeon, and Oncologist, Dr. Jane Cooke Wright (1919 - 2013)!

 

Dr. Jane Cooke Wright (1919 – 2013)

Pioneer in Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology

Early Life and Education

Jane Cooke Wright was born on April 20, 1919, in New York City into a family of people who stressed education and community service. Her father, Dr. Louis T. Wright, was a prominent surgeon and one of the first Black physicians to gain national recognition; her mother, Myrtle (Hilliard) Wright, supported the family’s commitment to education. Jane Wright graduated from Girls’ High School of Brooklyn and earned her Bachelor of Science degree from New York University in 1940. She went on to receive her medical degree from New York Medical College in 1945, graduating during an era when few women—and especially few Black women—entered medicine.

Early Career and Breakthroughs

After completing residency training and clinical work, Dr. Wright joined the staff at the Harlem Hospital and later the cancer research center at New York Medical College. In the late 1940s and 1950s, she became one of the first physicians to systematically evaluate chemotherapy drugs in clinical settings using innovative methods for testing and administering antitumor agents.

Key Contributions to Oncology

Development of Chemotherapy Testing Methods: Dr. Wright refined tissue culture techniques that allowed clinicians to test how a patient’s own tumor cells responded to different chemotherapeutic agents. This approach contributed early steps toward what would later be called personalized or precision therapy—choosing treatments based on how a patient’s cells individually react rather than using a one‑size‑fits‑all regimen.

Clinical Trials and Drug Evaluation: She conducted and supervised clinical trials that assessed the safety and efficacy of various antitumor drugs. Her careful clinical observations and systematic testing helped establish protocols for dose scheduling and combinational chemotherapy.

Leadership in Cancer Centers: Dr. Wright served in leadership roles—most notably as head of the Cancer Chemotherapy Department at the New York Medical College’s Cancer Research Foundation—where she led multidisciplinary teams of physicians and scientists in translating laboratory findings to patient care.

Scientific Approach and Significance

Dr. Wright combined laboratory science and clinical medicine. By using explant and culture techniques to expose tumor cells to drugs in vitro, she collected data that informed treatment decisions for patients. Her techniques emphasized empirical testing and careful record‑keeping, helping to raise standards for how chemotherapeutic compounds were evaluated clinically. In doing so, she helped shift oncology toward more rigorous, evidence‑driven approaches.

Impact on Medicine and Representation

Beyond her scientific contributions, Dr. Wright was a role model who broke barriers for women and Black physicians in medicine and research. At a time when both racial and gender discrimination limited opportunities for many, her achievements demonstrated the vital contributions of diverse physicians in advancing medical knowledge. Her leadership inspired later generations of oncologists and researchers who continued to expand the tools available to treat cancer.

 Selected Honors and Professional Activities

• Leadership positions in hospital and academic settings where she directed chemotherapy research programs.
• Publications and presentations describing clinical methods for testing antitumor agents and reporting patient outcomes in clinical trials.
• Recognition among peers for combining patient care with translational research that linked bench science to bedside treatments.

Lasting Legacy

Dr. Jane Cooke Wright’s work contributed to the foundations of modern chemotherapy practice and the early idea that treatment should be tailored to patient‑specific tumor responses. Her career exemplifies how clinical insight, laboratory methods, and careful clinical trials can work together to improve patient care. She also stands as an important historical figure in widening access and opportunity in medicine, showing that excellence in scientific research and compassionate clinical practices are strengthened by diverse perspectives.

A Moment in Black History with Olympic Gold Medalist and Speed Skater, Erin Jackson! #BlackHistory365 #BlackHistoryGuardians

 

Speed skating has been a sport in the Winter Olympics since 1924. However, women only began competing in 1960. In 2022, at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, Florida native and UF alumna, Erin Jackson made history by becoming the first Black woman to win an individual gold medal for the 500-meter event with a time of 37.04 seconds.  #BlackHistory365 #BlackHistoryGuardians

Let's Learn about Clara Brown (c. 1800 – 1885): Angel of the Rockies! #BlackHistory365 #BlackHistoryGuardians

 

Clara Brown (1800 – 1885): Angel of the Rockies

Story by Kevin Bell (2026) and Edited by Corendis Hardy

Clara Brown was born into slavery around 1800 in Virginia. Like most Black people during that time immediately confronted with the cruelties of bondage, harsh environments, and discrimination in the antebellum South. Brown once shared that her earliest memories of childhood involved being sold on the auction block, torn from familiar surroundings and thrust into the possession of new enslavers.

By age nine, she and her mother had been sold to Ambrose Smith, a tobacco planter whose relocation to Kentucky uprooted her once again. These early movements laid the foundation for the uncertainty that would shape her life. Thus, exposing her to the trauma of family separation long before she understood its permanence.

While in Kentucky, Brown endured both the physical and emotional pains of enslavement; she labored both in the fields and within the household. When she was eighteen years old, she married an enslaved carpenter named Richard. Together, they welcomed four children, but this semblance of family stability proved fragile. When Smith died in 1835, his estate was divided. Clara’s husband and children were auctioned off to separate buyers. She never saw most of them again. Only one daughter, Eliza Jane, remained in her memory as a distant hope—a child whose fate she vowed to uncover no matter how long it took.

Clara was sold to George Brown, a Kentucky hat maker whose surname she would use for the rest of her life. For the next two decades she raised his children, performed domestic labor, and developed skills as a cook, laundress, and midwife. These abilities would become her tools of survival and prosperity in the years ahead.

No matter how difficult times got, Brown kept the dream of reuniting with her stolen children in her heart; the loss of her family never stopped shaping her choices. Behind every task she performed lay a singular motivation: one day, she would search for the beloved children and find them.

Clara Brown’s life had a major pivot in her mid-50’s after the death (1856 or 1857) of George Brown, her enslaver.  His will stipulated that she be freed, and his family honored this directive and granted her legal independence.  Despite this, Kentucky’s laws came with sharp constraints. The state required freed Black people to leave within a set period of time or risk re-enslavement. Forced to uproot herself yet again, Brown left the state and began searching for her scattered loved ones, traveling through Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas while taking work as a cook and midwife.

Her search was grueling and often fruitless. Records were scarce, information unreliable, and the people she sought had been absorbed into different corners of the country without documentation. Still, she persisted, writing letters through literate friends and following leads even when they seemed improbable. Freedom introduced new obstacles: finding shelter, earning wages, and navigating a society still deeply hostile to Black independence. Despite these challenges, the desire to reunite with her children remained her guiding force.

In April 1859, Brown joined a wagon train departing from Leavenworth, Kansas, for the Rocky Mountains. At fifty-nine years old, she walked most of the nearly 700-mile journey. Thus, enduring physical strain, extreme weather, and racial hostility from some travelers. The wagon train passed through Kansas and Missouri before approaching the rugged terrain surrounding Denver. Back then, composed of competing settlements like Auraria and Cherry Creek. The trip took eight weeks, and Clara arrived as one of the first Black women to reach the region during the Gold Rush era.

Upon arrival, Brown began working at the City Bakery   and later followed miners into nearby mountain towns, eventually settling in Central City in Gilpin County. The chaotic mining environment presented both exploitation and opportunity. In a community dominated by men seeking fortune, Brown leveraged her domestic skills to create financial stability. She cooked, laundered clothing, nursed the sick, and delivered babies—roles that made her indispensable in a frontier town lacking organized institutions.

Brown’s reputation spread quickly. Miners depended on her services, and her earnings grew steadily. Central City became the starting point for her entrepreneurial journey, but it also became her new base of hope. Even as she built a life surrounded by strangers, her private mission endured: if her daughter had indeed traveled west, this was where she might someday be found.

Building Wealth and Becoming a Business Leader in the Colorado Territory

Clara Brown’s success as a laundress in Central City allowed her to pursue opportunities few Black women of the era could access. She partnered with others to expand her operations, turning a single laundry service into a thriving business. Miners relied on her consistency, and she became known for reliability during a time when stability in the camps was rare. Using her earnings wisely, she invested in mining claims, real estate, and property across the state. Therefore, acquiring fourteen to sixteen lots in Denver and several houses throughout Central City.

By the end of the Civil War (1866), Clara Brown has built a net worth exceeding $10,000—an extraordinary fortune for a formerly enslaved woman. Her investments spanned mountain towns and growing urban centers, making her one of the most financially successful Black women in the Colorado Territory. Her wealth, however, was never treated as a privilege for personal comfort. Instead, she viewed it as a tool to uplift formerly enslaved people seeking refuge and opportunity in the West.

Clara Brown financed wagon trains to bring former enslaved families to Colorado, paying fares, arranging employment, and providing shelter for people with nowhere else to turn. Her home doubled as a boarding place, a clinic, and a sanctuary. Her business ventures funded a humanitarian mission that stretched far beyond her own needs, solidifying her reputation as an economic force and a community pillar.

The “Angel of the Rockies:” A Life Devoted to Service and Community Care

Clara Brown’s success set the stage for her transformation into a beloved community figure known as the “Angel of the Rockies.” Her home in Central City became a refuge where miners, travelers, and neighbors found food, shelter, and medical care. She nursed the sick, delivered babies, and buried the dead. Therefore, offering compassion in a rugged environment where institutional support did not yet exist. Her generosity extended to people of all races, making her an anomaly in a region marked by discrimination and social hierarchy.

Clara Brown’s philanthropy included supporting churches of multiple denominations. She contributed money to build what became the first Protestant church in the Rockies and later supported a Catholic congregation as well. Her home hosted Methodist services and Sunday school classes before formal buildings could be established. Her contributions shaped Central City into a more structured and caring community, bridging social divides during a period of rapid growth.

Beyond local charity, Brown funded education and advancement for others. She paid for young women to attend Oberlin College and supported charitable foundations throughout Colorado. Her belief in collective uplift was so strong that, in 1879, Governor Frederick Walker Pitkin appointed her to help recruit Black Exodusters struggling in Kansas, urging them to resettle in Colorado. Once again, she used her own money and energy to help displaced families build new lives.

Despite her success in Colorado, Brown’s heart remained tethered to the family she lost decades earlier. She spent years writing letters, visiting states, and following leads in the hope of finding her children. While she located extended relatives in the South after the Civil War, the whereabouts of her daughter Eliza Jane remained unknown. Brown learned that her son and another daughter had died, deepening the urgency of her search for the surviving child.

A Family Reunion Against All Odds

In 1882, nearly half a century after their forced separation, Brown received word of a woman in Iowa matching Eliza Jane’s description. Friends in Colorado helped fund her journey. When the two met, they confirmed their connection—a reunion that newspapers described with reverence. Brown, then in her eighties, returned to Colorado with her daughter and granddaughter, forming a family unit long imagined but finally realized.

The reunion symbolized the culmination of Clara Brown’s lifelong mission. Her perseverance through loss, migration, and hardship reflected the experiences of countless Black families fractured by slavery. By restoring her own family, even late in life, she reclaimed a piece of what had been taken from her and demonstrated the indomitable force of love and survival.

(Pictured: Bronze Statue of Clara Brown aka “Aunt Clara” located in the National Museum of African American History and Culture)

A Bittersweet Ending

Clara Brown’s life stands as one of the most extraordinary stories of resilience in American history. Born into slavery, she endured separation, loss, and displacement before forging a new path on her own terms. As one of Colorado’s first Black settlers, she built businesses, amassed wealth, and used her success to uplift others. Her home became a center of care, hope, and refuge during the Gold Rush era, earning her the legacy of the “Angel of the Rockies.”

Her forty-year search for her daughter revealed a devotion that transcended time and circumstance. Clara Brown demonstrated that freedom was not simply the absence of enslavement but the ability to rebuild, nurture, and heal. Through entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and unwavering love, she reshaped the frontier and ensured that her story would endure long after her passing. Her example remains a reminder of how one woman transformed suffering into service and turned personal tragedy into a legacy of community and restoration.

Clara Brown died on October 23, 1885, in Denver Colorado. Her funeral was attended by local and state dignitaries. In 1989, she was posthumously inducted to the Colorado’s Women Hall of Fame and in 1922, she was inducted to the Colorado Business Hall of Fame. There is a permanent memorial chair in her name at the City Central Opera House.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Galloping Through Black History and Remembering Sylvia "Rideoutt" Bishop (1920 - 2004), the First Black Woman to Train Thoroughbreds in the United States! #BlackHistory365 #BlackHistoryGuardians

    In 1954, Sylvia "Rideoutt" Bishop (1920 - 2004) became the first Black woman to train Thoroughbreds in the United States. She made history when the West Virginia legislature authorized her with a license for training racehorses. During her 60-year career in horse racing, she trained approximately 200 steeds. Between 1987 - 2000, Sylvia "Rideout" Bishop's horses won 44 races. 

    Bishop's long horse-training career began when she was 14-years old, and she began working at the Charles Town Racetrack in Virginia.  She learned on the job through various duties including mucking stalls, grooming the horses and hot walking them. Bishop began training horses in the 1940s. In 1954, Bishop was officially granted a trainer's license from the state of West Virginia, making her the first Black woman in the country to become an official Thoroughbred trainer. 

    In 1959, Bishop made history when she officially became the first Black woman to train the winner of a Thoroughbred race.

    Outside of racing, Bishop also managed the restaurant inside Charles Town's landmark Payne's Hotel, later owning the hotel and restaurant from 1962-1999 after Lavinia Payne willed it to her.

    Bishop left horse training for more than a decade as financial strains caused her to pick up work with the Doubleday publishing house in Virginia. From her return to the track in 1987 until 2000, it is estimated her horses won 44 races and earned $166,633. Bishop won her final race in 2000 and retired from training horses that same year. She died in Charles Town in 2004. Charles Town Races inducted her into their Hall of Fame in 2008. Following this recognition, the "Sylvia Bishop Memorial" race was introduced into the track's annual stakes schedule and continues to this day. Learn more! 

Let's Learn about George Washington Carver: Scientist, Educator, and Advocate for Sustainable Agriculture! #BlackHistory365 #BlackHistoryGuardians

 George Washington Carver (c. 1864 - 1943) 

Scientist, Educator, and Advocate for Sustainable Agriculture

Early Life and Education

George Washington Carver is best known for his long-lasting and significant contributions to agriculture, botany and mycology. Through scientific research, he discovered and developed over 300 ways to use peanuts, including for treating soil depletion, as well as using them for makeup, soaps, and dyes.

Carver was born into slavery around 1864 in Diamond, near Newton County, Missouri. Orphaned as an infant and raised by Moses and Susan Carver after being kidnapped, Carver faced physical disabilities and racial barriers but developed an early curiosity about plants and nature. He pursued education persistently, attending several schools before enrolling at Simpson College in Iowa to study art and piano. He later transferred to Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University), where he became the first Black student and later the first Black faculty member. There he earned a Bachelor of Science in 1894 and a Master of Science in 1896, specializing in botany and mycology.

Career and Scientific Contributions
In 1896 Carver accepted Booker T. Washington’s invitation to join the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama. At Tuskegee he led the agricultural department and established an agricultural extension program that taught poor Southern farmers sustainable farming techniques. Carver’s research focused on crop rotation, soil improvement, and alternatives to cotton monoculture. He promoted planting nitrogen-fixing legumes—especially peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans—to restore soil depleted by repeated cotton cultivation.

Carver developed hundreds of practical uses and products from peanuts and sweet potatoes (such as dyes, plastics, and cosmetics) primarily to demonstrate the crops’ economic value to farmers. His work emphasized applied science: creating low-cost, locally appropriate solutions to improve small farmers’ livelihoods and soil health.

Teaching, Outreach, and Philosophy

Carver was a dedicated teacher and extension agent. He traveled widely across the South, conducting demonstrations and offering hands-on instruction for farmers. He published bulletins with clear, practical guidance and recipes for soil amendments, crop rotations, and home-based value-add processes—making scientific knowledge accessible. Carver’s approach combined scientific rigor with moral purpose: he believed in stewardship of the land, self-sufficiency, and education as tools for empowerment.

In 1906, George Washington Carver began using “The Jesup Agricultural Wagon”, a mobile classroom that allowed him to teach farmers and sharecroppers how to grow crops, such as peanuts, sweet potatoes, pecans and soybeans. The wagon’s name originates from Morris Jesup, a New York banker who financed the project. However, it was Carver himself who designed the wagon, selected the equipment, and developed the lessons for farmers.

Legacy and Recognition

Carver became a prominent public figure during his lifetime, receiving national recognition for his scientific and humanitarian work. He advised presidents, consulted for industry, and was awarded numerous honors. His legacy lies in sustainable agriculture, agricultural education, and the model he set for science serving community needs. Institutions, scholarships, and research centers continue to bear his name.

 

Significance for Today George Washington Carver’s emphasis on soil health, crop diversity, and context-sensitive innovation resonates with contemporary concerns about sustainable agriculture and climate resilience. His career exemplifies how scientific research, when paired with community-centered education and practical application, can foster long-term social and environmental benefits.

 

Learn more about George Washington Carver today!