The Black Star Line (1919−1922) was a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey, the organizer of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), and other members of the UNIA. The shipping line was created to facilitate the transportation of goods and eventually African Americans throughout the African global economy. It derived its name from the White Star Line, a line whose success Garvey felt he could duplicate. Black Star Line became a key part of Garvey’s contribution to the Back-to-Africa movement. It was one among many businesses which the UNIA originated, such as the Universal Printing House, Negro Factories Corporation, and the widely distributed and highly successful Negro World weekly newspaper.
The American Colonization Society (ACS), founded in 1816, may have been the first organization to support and implement the idea of resettling American-born blacks to Africa. As early as 1820, black Americans had begun to return to their ancestral homeland via the ACS. In 1822, the ACS founded Liberia, a land to be settled by black people returning from the USA. Between 1822 and the American Civil War, the ACS migrated approximately 15,000 free blacks back to Africa.
Liberia is the only other country in the world (besides the US) with a capital named after a US president: Monrovia.
George Washington, first President of the United States, who gave his name to the national capital, had just a single tooth in his head at the time of his April 30, 1789 first inauguration in New York City. However, his false teeth were not, contrary to legend, made of wood.
George Washington did not have a middle name. Many early presidents did not either. The presidents without a middle name are:
George Washington
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
James Monroe
Andrew Jackson
John Tyler
Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore
Franklin Pierce
James Buchanan
Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
Benjamin Harrison
William McKinley
Theodore Roosevelt
The names John, Thomas, James, Andrew, Zachary, Abraham and Benjamin are all found in the Bible.
Actor Jonathon Harris played the role of Doctor Zachary Smith in the TV series Lost in Space
The father of St John the Baptist was Zachariah (a variant of the name Zachary). He was an official in the Temple and one day was visited by the angel Gabriel, who proclaimed that Zachariah’s wife Elizabeth would have a son, and they would name him John.
Zachariah mocked the angel, saying that he and his wife were too old to have children. Gabriel said that Zachariah would be mute until the son was born, and immediately Zachariah lost the power of speech.
Nine months later, Elizabeth gave birth to a son. The family assumed that he would be named Zachariah, after his father, but Zachariah wrote on a tablet “His name is John.” He immediately regained the power of speech.
In a May 12, 1780 letter from Paris to his wife Abigail, John Adams, at the time United States minister (ambassador) to France, wrote, “I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.”
John Quincy Adams, son of the 2nd U.S. President, did indeed study Mathematicks and Philosophy; he went on to become the 6th President of the U.S. Late in his career he argued before the Supreme Court in United States v. Schooner Amistad, taking the position that the Africans aboard that schooner were free human beings, and not the property of the schooner’s owner.
Thomas Boylston Adams, a great-great-great-grandson of John Adams, the second President, and a great-great-grandson of John Quincy Adams, the sixth, died in 1995. He once told an interviewer, ‘‘My branch of the family is the poor Adamses – completely broke.’’
Boylston is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts. The area was first settled by Europeans in the late 1600s, and in 1697 the residents petitioned to form a local town and government. The request was denied by the British Colonial Governor of Massachusetts, as he wanted restrict popular representation. Boylston was finally incorporated in 1786, and was named after Ward Nicholas Boylston, a benefactor of the town. The fund he set up in 1797 finally accumulated $1,450, which was used to build the town hall and school building.
The Super Bowl was named after the toy that Lamar Hunt’s daughter was playing with when he and others were deciding on a name for the big game — the super ball. The first games had been called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, which is a mouthful. Lamar Hunt was owner of the AFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, who played in Super Bowl I (retractively renamed). The Chiefs are in the playoffs this year and have not been back since Super Bowl IV when they beat the Vikings handily, 23-7.
GO CHIEFS!!!
The Chiefs were originally the Dallas Texans, moving to Kansas City in 1963.
The Texans actually won the AFL championship in their last season in Dallas, but even then weren’t doing great against the NFL’s Cowboys, so they decamped for Kansas City.
The Chiefs lost Super Bowl I to the Green Bay Packers, 35-10. This was the most lopsided Super Bowl score for the first 18 Super Bowls until Super Bowl XVIII when the Los Angeles Raiders beat the Washington Redskins 38-9. This year the Chiefs are among the top ranked teams to win this year’s Super Bowl LIII.
GO CHIEFS!!!
Gotta talk about Super Bowl XX
Go Bears!
Running back and Hall of Fame member Walter Payton was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the first round (fourth overall), from Jackson State University, a Historically Black University (HBU) located in Jackson, Mississippi. It is the fourth largest (in terms of students) in the state of Mississippi (the first three is the University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, and the University of Southern Mississippi).
Although Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio was the first American college or university to regularly admit both blacks and women, soon after its founding in 1833, it is not considered a Historically Black University (HBU) since its student body has never had a majority of people of color.
In 1984, Walter Payton broke Jim Brown’s career NFL rushing record when, on October 7 at home against the New Orleans Saints, Payton ran for 154 yards to set the career rushing record at 12,400 yards, or 88 yards more than Brown. Both Payton and zbrown are men of color.
Later that season, on December 9 at home against the Green Bay Packers, Walter Payton played quarterback for the Bears because Jim McMahon and Steve Fuller were both injured, and Rusty Lisch was ineffective. Payton threw one TD pass that day as the Bears’ QB, to Matt Suhey.
In his career Walter Payton threw 8 TD passes. One of those was as the QB.
Prior to 1995, scientists believed the Giant Panda was not actually a bear but a type of raccoon. However, molecular studies indicate that it is a true bear, part of the family Ursidae. These studies show it differentiated early (about 19 million years ago) from the main ursine stock.