NorthStar’s Week in Black History

June 28 through July 4


June 28

1866 ----- Congress authorized on this date the formation of two cavalry and four infantry regiments to be comprised solely of African-American soldiers.  These men were later dubbed “buffalo soldiers” and were often cited for bravery in battle.

The six military units were organized accordingly as the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st Infantry.  The 9th and 10th Cavalry were instrumental regiments of the United States Army.  They served in the West until 1896, fighting in the so-called Indian Wars and protecting frontier territories and their settlers.

Though no historian is certain how the buffalo soldiers were so named, it is generally accepted that their name was conferred by the plains Indians, who remarked that there was a resemblance between the black soldier’s hair and the hair of the buffalo, an animal held in high regard by Native Americans.

Known for their superior effectiveness in military conflicts, buffalo soldiers fought in more than 200 engagements.  From 1870 to 1890, 14 buffalo soldiers were awarded medals of honor, the Army’s highest award for bravery.  Further, buffalo soldiers were valued for their steadfastness.  Nearly one third of white soldiers deserted their military units and many more evidenced excessive use of alcohol.  In contrast, black soldiers had the lowest desertion and court martial rates, and they rarely abused alcohol.

In addition to serving as infantrymen, buffalo soldiers also built forts and roads, installed telegraph poles, uncovered watering holes and served as security escorts for stage coaches, wagon trains and cattle drives through hostile territory.

Buffalo soldiers are immortalized in the reggae song,“Buffalo Soldier,” co-written by Bob Marley and Noel G. “King Sporty” Williams.  The song was recorded in 1980 during Marley’s final recording sessions before his death.

1978 ----- The United States Supreme Court handed down the Bakke decision on this date.  In this decision affecting affirmative action, the court ruled that strict racial quotas that guaranteed access to and opportunities for blacks, women and other minorities in education and industry were unconstitutional.

The ruling met with strong criticism and was controversial because many felt that Regents of the University of California v. Bakke did not acknowledge, consider or address the legacy of discrimination, particularly racial discrimination rooted in slavery, in the United States.


June 29


1886 ----- James Van Der Zee, an African-American photographer who was part of the Harlem Renaissance and who is best known for his portraits of New Yorkers, was born on this date in Lenox, Mass.

The second of six offspring born to parents who worked in New York City for President Ulysses S. Grant, Van Der Zee was given piano, violin and art lessons as a child. Multi-talented, he excelled at all three.  He got his first camera at 14 after entering his name in a promotional contest.

When he moved as a young man to New York with his father and one of his brothers, Van Der Zee
supported himself initially by giving music lessons.  With friends, he also founded and performed with the five-piece Harlem Orchestra.  To make additional money and to learn more about photography, his abiding passion, Van Der Zee also worked as a darkroom technician at Newark’s Gertz Department Store.

In time, Van Der Zee was working behind the camera, as well as in the darkroom.  When he gained sufficient experience, he opened his own photography studio.  It quickly became successful.

Van Der Zee opened a second, larger studio in Harlem, and his second wife served as his assistant. The second studio flourished until the 1930s, when personal cameras became more commonplace. Van Der Zee kept his studio busy by shooting passport photos at low cost.

Following World War II, Van Der Zee, who had built a strong reputation as a gifted photographer, was sought after for lucrative photographic commissions.  He was also adept at photographic restoration.  Throughout his career, he perfected lighting and film development techniques, perfecting his craft and strengthening his reputation as an artist.

In 1968, Van Der Zee’s massive body of photographs came to the attention of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Van Der Zee was 82 at the time and boasted a collection of more than 75,000 photographs, depicting vividly six decades of African-American life and culture.

In 1969, some of Van Der Zee’s finest photographs were included in an exhibit at the museum. The showing was titled Harlem on My Mind.  Until his death, Van Der Zee worked as a photographer, creating during the last years of his life portraits of prominent people and many celebrities of the day. He died in 1983.  He was 97.


June 30


1908 ----- The founding of Allensworth, Calif., the state’s first all-black town, is celebrated on this date.

A former slave who later served as a soldier and a chaplain for the all-black 24th Infantry, Allen Allensworth, who had settled in Los Angeles following military service, was determined to establish a self-sufficient colony for blacks, imagining it as a space where blacks could live in harmony, free of racial discrimination.

Allensworth was joined in his effort by three other black men; they included John W. Palmer, a miner; William H. Peck, a clergyman, and Henry A. Mitchell, a real-estate developer.  The four men formed the California Colony and Home-Promoting Agency.  They purchased a 900-acre tract of land in Tulare County approximately 30 miles north of Bakersfield.  The Pacific Farming Company, an all-white rural land development concern, sold them the land.

Black settlers soon began moving in.  They built houses, public buildings and roads in the colony.  They also established a church, an orchestra, a glee club and a brass band. Eventually their were schools and a library.  The colony soon became a town and it flourished for many years.

Farming the land was difficult, because the weather was often hot and the earth dry.  The town’s water supply also became contaminated with toxins, and it became increasingly difficult to support the town’s residents.  In 1914, Allensworth was killed when he was struck by a motorcycle. The town faltered further without its founder and leader.

For the next 20 years, Allensworth declined steadily, gradually losing residents until the town was nearly empty.  In 2010, the United States Census verified that Allensworth’s population was 471.

Friends of Allensworth, a volunteer organization dedicated to honoring the contributions of African Americans to California and to the United States, now oversees Allensworth.

What was once the town of Allensworth is preserved as Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park of the State of California Park System.  Ongoing efforts are being made to recreate the town as a historic site honoring its African-American pioneers.


July 1


1961 ----- Frederick Carlton “Carl” Lewis, African American track and field star athlete, who won 10 Olympic medals, including nine gold medals and 10 World Championship medals, was born on this date in Birmingham, Ala.

Though he qualified for five Olympic Games, Lewis competed in only four of them, because the United States boycotted the Moscow Games in 1980. Lewis did compete in 1984 in Los Angeles, 1988 in Seoul, 1992 in Barcelona and 1996 in Atlanta.

When he competed in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Lewis won four gold medals, equaling the earlier record for gold medals won in a single Olympic competition held by Jesse Owens, who wowed Berlin in 1936. Lewis took the 100-meter at 9.9 seconds, winning by eight feet, the biggest margin in Olympic history.  Following his win in the 100-meter, Lewis captured the long jump at 28 ¼ feet and then won the 200-meter in 19.80 seconds, setting what was then an Olympic record.  He also ran a 8.94 as the anchor leg of the winning 4 x 100 relay team.

In 1999, Lewis was named one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century by the Sports Illustrated Century Sports Awards ceremony, and in 2001, Lewis was elected to the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.


July 2


1943 ----- Lt. Charles B. Hall became the first African-American pilot to shoot down a Nazi plane during World War II on this day. Hall was a Tuskegee Airman and in 1943, he was one of the first of 43 black pilots assigned to combat duty with the 99th Pursuit Squadron in North Africa.

Lt. Hall earned the Distinguished Flying Cross during a dogfight in which he shot down a German Focke-Wulf single-seat engine fighter during a mission over Panelleria near Palermo, Sicily. Pilots of the 99th once set a record for destroying five German aircraft in less than four minutes.

In getting his kill, Hall became the first black pilot who earned official credit for destroying an enemy plane during the War. Hall, a native of Brazil, Ind., retired as an Air Force major. He died Nov. 22, 1971.


July 3


1904 ------ Charles Drew, MD, who discovered a way to preserve blood plasma so it could be stored for long periods, was born on this day in Washington, D.C.

In 1940, Dr. Drew, who received his medical degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, relocated to London, where he set up the country's first blood bank.

His work in the preservation of blood plasma saved the lives of soldiers and civilians in World War II. Later, the American Red Cross appointed him head of its blood bank in New York, but he resigned his post to protest the Red Cross practice of separating blood according to a person's race. He later advised the U.S. Army regarding hospital care in occupied Europe, according to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture African American Desk Reference. In 1942, he became head of surgery at Howard University and chief of staff at Freedmen's Hospital.


July 4


1876 ----- Edward Mitchell Bannister, a black Canadian painter, is awarded the Gold Medal for the painting Under the Oaks at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, on this day, according to the Encyclopedia of Black America.

While Bannister was well known in the artistic community of his adopted home in Providence, R.I., he was largely forgotten for almost a century because of racism.


NorthStar's Week in Black History is compiled and written
by Frederick H. Lowe and Susan M. Miller.