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Albany, NY 12247 NY Albany, New State Senator State York New

907 Legislative Office Building Office Legislative 907 PAID Smith A. Malcolm

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St. Alban, NY 11412 NY Alban, St.

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contact me if you have any questions, any have you if me contact

As always, please don’t hesitate to hesitate don’t please always, As

Malcolm A. Malcolm

races, cultures and ethnicities. and cultures races,

Americans and people of all other all of people and Americans State Senator State

our State and our nation of African- of nation our and State our

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science, the arts, civil rights, govern- rights, civil arts, the science,

tions African-Americans have made to made have African-Americans tions

A Special Report Special A

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February and throughout the year, I year, the throughout and February

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C Malcolm A. Smith Celebrating African- American History elebrating Every February, our nation recog- nation our February, Every

Dear Friends: Dear February 2007 February Albany Office:Albany NY 12247 Albany, Office Bldg., 907 Legislative A Special Report Senator State District Office: NY 11412 St. Albans, 205-19 Linden Boulevard, New York State Senate, Albany, New York 12247 York New Albany, Senate, State York New

The Origins of In 1997, the State Legislature established the New York State Freedom Trail Project to document and interpret the experiences of African-Americans, abolitionists and others in New Black History Month York State in the years leading up to the 1865 ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished in our country. In 1999, a Commission was ap- The idea for an annual celebration pointed to carry out the mission of the project. of African-American history began in The chronology of important dates included in this brochure comes from the New York 1926 when Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the State Freedom Trail Commission Report, which was prepared by the Schomburg Center for Re- founder of the Association for Afro- search in Black Culture, and which can be found in its entirety at www.oce.nysed.gov (this is American Life and the website of the Office of Cultural Education in the State Education Department). Under History, initiated what “Cultural Resources,” click on Freedom Trail Project. To visit the Schomburg Center, which is was then called Negro part of the New York Public Library system, go to www.nypl.org and find the Center under History Week. February Research Libraries. was chosen as the month to celebrate African- American history because it contains the birthdays of both Steps Along the Freedom Trail in N ew York State Frederick Douglass, the noted abolitionist, orator, and journalist, and President 1761 — Jupiter Hammon, a Long Island slave, becomes the first published black poet in North , who America. signed the Emancipation Proclamation in an effort 1785 — The Society for Promoting the of Slaves is established in New York City. to end slavery in the 1787 — The African Free School is founded by the New York Manumission Society, and becomes a United States. major training ground for black abolitionist leaders. Through this special observance, Dr. Wood- 1796 — Members of the John Street Methodist Church form Zion Church, New York State’s earliest Sojourner son hoped that all known black church, and the Mother Church of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion denomination. Truth Americans would be reminded of their ethnic , and that 1797 — In Ulster County, Elizabeth Baumfree gives birth to Isabella, her 12th child born into slavery. harmony among the Isabella later changes her name to , and becomes a famed guiding light of the Under- country’s different racial ground Railroad. groups would develop out 1799 — New York State enacts a gradual emancipation law, freeing black women born after 1799 at of mutual respect and the age of 25, and black men at the age of 28. understanding. In 1976, this national recognition 1817 — New York State passes a new emancipation act stating that all slaves in the state would be Harriet of African-American Tubman free after 4, 1827, which was later observed as “Emancipation Day” by African-Americans history was expanded to throughout New York. include the entire month of February. (continues inside) African-Americans Who Have Made A Difference...

Marian Anderson became the first The first African-American to serve as a Norbert Rillieux invented a process African-American soloist to sing with the Justice of the United States Supreme that reduced the time, cost and safety risk Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Court was Thurgood Marshall. of producing sugar from cane and beets.

A fugitive slave who escaped and then The phrase “the real McCoy” is associated When he was signed to the Brooklyn worked as a merchant seaman, Crispus with the work of Elijah McCoy, an Dodgers in 1947, Jackie Robinson Attucks was a hero of the American engineer and inventor credited with broke the color barrier in his sport and Revolution who was the first to fall during patenting close to 60 inventions, including became the first African-American to play the Boston Massacre of 1770. the ironing board, lawn sprinkler, and a major league baseball. lubricator for steam engines. In 1960, Wilma Rudolph was the first Benjamin Banneker was appointed by Traffic engineer Garrett A. Morgan African-American woman to win three President George Washington to the invented safety helmets and gas masks for Olympic gold medals in track. commission that planned the construction firefighters, and also developed the concept of Washington, D.C., and helped to survey of changing traffic signals. Susie King Taylor was the first black the site of the national capital. army nurse, and served African-American African-born Onesimus, a troops for more than four years during the Jane Bolin was the first black woman to owned by minister Cotton Mather in Civil War. She also wrote My Life In Camp, be appointed to a judgeship in the United colonial New England, is credited with an autobiographical account of her States. launching the concept of smallpox experiences. inoculation in the fight against this deadly In 1955, the regulating unit for the first disease. In 1773, Phyllis Wheatley became the heart pacemaker was developed by Otis first African-American woman to publish a Boykin, who also invented more than 25 At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, book of poetry in the United States. other electronic devices used in computers athlete Jesse Owens won four gold and guided missile systems. medals in track and field. O.S. (Ozzie) Williams, an aeronautical engineer, was in charge of In 1983, Guion Bluford was the first At a time when sugar was considered a developing and producing rocket control African-American to go into space. luxury and only available to a few, systems that guided lunar landing modules during NASA’s Apollo moon missions. United Nations official and Harvard professor Ralph Bunche was the first Freedom Trail continued African-American to win the Nobel Peace — The New York State Legislature restricts the voting rights of free black men, requiring Prize. 1821 that they be state residents for three years and own $250 in property. In 1826, as a result of these A pioneering brain surgeon, Benjamin restrictions, only 16 black men in New York County—out of a total African-American population S. Carson, Sr., led the surgical team of almost 12,500—were able to vote. that performed the first successful 1827 — The nation’s first African-American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, begins publication in separation of a pair of Siamese twins, who New York City. were born joined at the head. 1837 — The New York Committee of Vigilance, a group formed to aid runaway slaves, New York’s Shirley Chisholm was the announces that it has helped more than 600 fugitive slaves pass through New York City ports in its first African-American woman elected to first two years. By 1840, the group had provided aid to almost 1,400 fugitive slaves. the United States Congress. 1837 — James McCune Smith, New York City’s first degree-holding black doctor, opens a prac- From 1993 to 1995, Rita Dove served as tice and pharmacy at 55 West Broadway. Poet Laureate of the United States, — Frederick Washington Bailey—a fugitive from Maryland who would later change his becoming the first African-American and 1838 name to Frederick Douglass—arrives in Manhattan disguised as a sailor, and is aided by Under- the youngest person ever to hold this ground Railroad station master David Ruggles in completing his freedom journey to honor. Massachusetts. In 1847, he would move to Rochester and begin publishing the North Star. , a physician, Charles Richard Drew 1841 — Sixteen African-American teachers from Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens issue a “Jour- conducted blood plasma research, and is nal of Education,” appealing for improved education and equal voting rights. Also that year, free also credited with organizing the first full- New York resident Solomon Northrup, a talented violinist, is kidnapped and sold into slavery in time blood bank for American soldiers in Louisiana. Europe during World War II. 1843 — The National Convention of Colored People is held in Buffalo, and a school for black Computer engineer Philip Emeagwali children is opened in Utica by minister and abolitionist Jermain Loguen. is credited with writing the fastest computer application program in the 1846 — A statewide referendum on equal voting rights for black and white New Yorkers is reject- world, which made 3.1 billion calculations ed, which would also be the fate of a similar referendum in 1860. per second. 1850 — The United States Congress enacts the Compromise of 1850, which includes a stricter fugitive slave law and heavy fines for anyone caught aiding runaways. Meanwhile, the New York Patricia Roberts Harris was the first Vigilance Committee privately reports that more than 400 fugitives have arrived in recent months African-American woman to serve as a at sites throughout New York City. United States Ambassador to another country. 1851 — , who escaped from slavery in Maryland in 1849 and who would move to Auburn, New York in 1857, begins her journeys to the South as a conductor on the Under- Explorer Matthew Henson, together ground Railroad. with Robert Peary, discovered the North Pole. 1862 — Captain Nathaniel Gordon—the only person in the United States ever convicted of trad- ing slaves—is hanged in lower Manhattan. In addition to serving as a Peace Corps physician, Mae Jemison became the 1863 — President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. first black female astronaut in 1992. 1864 — Black New Yorkers enlist in the 20th, 26th and 31st regiments of the U.S. Colored Samuel Lee Kountz, Jr., a physician, Troops for service in the Civil War. Trained at Rikers and Hart Islands, more than 4,000 black New Yorkers fight in the war. developed a method to detect and treat the rejection of transplanted kidneys. 1865 — The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, ending slavery in the United States, is ratified. Source: New York State Freedom Trail Commission Report