Frazier “Slow “ Robinson was born on May 30, 1910 in Birmingham Alabama. His father was a very strict man and did not approve of slow and his brother Norman playing baseball. Their father was a Protestant Minister, he thought the boys would follow in his footsteps. From his youth, Frazier was attracted to baseball. Robinson played the bulk of his career with the Kansas City Monarchs and the Baltimore Elite Giants. Slow Robinson was a catcher with the Monarchs, the same team as Satchel Paige. Slow was a religious man, he love to sing negro spirituals. With the Monarchs he organized a quartet with Satchel Paige, John Markham and I.V. Barnes. Frazier wanted to be a baseball catcher, even though catching is probably the least glamorous position on a team .. But, he knew that being a catcher he would be involved in every phase of the game, like positioning the players and most catchers were captains. He caught hall of fame pitcher Satttchel Paige and played with many other legendary black players. Slow Frazier died in 1997.

Jack Johnson:
The great prize fighter, Jack Johnson had a second passion in life, Auto racing. In 1910 Johnson challenged Barney Oldfield to a race at Coney Island Sheepshead Bay Race Track. Johnson drove a 90 horsepower Thomas Flyer and Oldfield a 60 horsepower Knox. Best of three, five mile sprints. Even though Oldfield won it was one of the earliest motor races involving African Americans. Malcolm Durham

Malcolm Durham

BLACK SKI CLUBS

4 Seasons West, L.A.

Ski Ambassadors, Co.

Double Diamonds, Ct.

Southern Snow Seekers, Ga

Ski Twieters, Ill

Sno-Burners, N.Y.

Hockey
As of the year 2000 there are 16-20 Black Hockey players: namely Grant

Fuhr Flames, Kevin Weekes, “Carnucks”, Peter Worrell “Partners”, Anson Carter, “Bruins”, Jarome Iginla, “Flames” & Fred Brathwaite, “Flames”. . Grant Fuhr won 5-Stanley Cups with the Oilers.Sorry to say, Grant retired from Hockey Sept.-6,2000. Jarome Iginla scored 28 goals last season, which was second on the Team. Before these players, people like Herb Carnegie played in Quebec, 1940's & 1950's, he was denied a chance to play in the NHL because the color of his skin. The very first NHL player was Willie O’Ree, he now instucts kids in Atlanta. The second player was Mike Marson, Capitals & Kings, he teaches karate in Canada.

Black Jockeys- Isaac Murphy (1856-1896)

Although largely forgotten today, Negro Jockeys, as they were called then, were prominent until the early Twentieth Century. Isaac Murphy was one such person, he was the only jockey to have won the Derby, the Kentucky Oaks, and the Clark Stakes, all three at one meeting, 1884, and the first rider to have back-to-back derbies, 1890 &1891. His three derby wins were unequal for thirty-nine years. His first winning mount war Glentina, at the Crab Orchard Park in Lexington on September 15, 1876. His records were in most respects not topped. He won 44 percent of all the races in which he rode, 1412 mounts, 628 winners.
In the inaugural Derby on May 17, 1875, fourteen of the fifteen jockeys in the race were black. The winner was Oliver Lewis. Murphy inspired other black jockeys to follow in his footsteps: they won the Kentucky Derby in 1876, 1887, 1880, 1882, and 1883. Murphy was the first jockey to be voted into the Jockey Hall of Fame (1955) at the National Museum of Racing. Murphy’s career virually ended in 1891, he died of pneumonia on February 2, 1896 in Lexington, leaving an astate of $30,000 to his only heir, his wife Lucy.

Charles R. Drew:

Dr. Drew was born June 3, 1904, the first of five children born to Richard & Nora

Drew. Growing up in Washington D.C., Drew attended public school. In high school he was a four letter man. He entered Amherst College in 1922. After finishing Amherst he applied to Howard-U School of Medicine, Howard refused. He then applied to Mcgill University Medical School in Canada and was accepted. He turned to be an outstanding student. He received a Rosenwald Fellowship which enabled him to complete his medical education and finish second in a class of 137 students. Charles Drew spent two years at Columbia University as a resident in surgery at Presbyterian Hospital connected with Columbia-U where he studied blood chemistry and blood transfusion. At Columbia, Dr. Drew studied preservation of blood & plasma. Plasma is the liquid portion of blood. Also at Columbia, Dr’s Drew & Scudder set up a blood bank at Presbyterian Hospital. Drew organized the blood bank for U.S. & England during WW-2. With all this said, his name is never mention in any blood bank or biology book. Dr. Drew died from a car accident on April, 1, 1950. Dr. Drew needed a plasma transfusion but was refused because of the color of his skin, this for a man that pioneered plasma..

Wendell Scott

Many drivers have participated in different classes of racing, some are still racing. Most never get sponsorship. Drivers like Wendell Scott raced for years without sponsorship, yet he was able to win 1-race, Top 5 three times, Top 10 Seventeen times. In 1966 he finished sixth in the Grand National standing. He won 120 races in lower divisions and won state championship in 1959.

Colored Racing Series :
In 1924 the Colored Racing Series was formed. They raced from 1924 thru 1936. Most African Americans like Charley Wiggins, Wm Rackers, Al Warren and Red Oliver built and race there own open Wheel cars. They race at the state fairgrounds in Indiana and around the country. Wiggins was good, whites would seek information from him for there cars.

Frederick Douglas Patterson:
Also in the early 1900's there was an all African American Automobile Company. The name was Patterson Greenfield. On Sept. 23, 1915 young Patterson saw his dream roll off the line. The Patterson Greenfield was priced at $850. The car had 4-cylinders with 40-HP. This company was founded by Frederick Douglas Patterson.

Fencing :
Former six-time Olympian Peter Westbrook is busy teaching fencing to kids in New York. Two of his students were Keeth & Erinn Smart. Training for nine (9) years, they were the second best fencers in New York, and now are among the best in the nation. Keeth is the top ranked Sabre competitor in the U.S., and Erinn is ranked #4 with the foil.

Daniel Hale Williams:

Born in Hollidayburg, Pa. on January 18, 1856. At the age of twenty-two, he became an apprentice in Dr. Palmers office. In those day’s one could open private practice at the end of two years of aprenticeship. After working with Dr. Palmer, Dan went to Chicago Medical College, which at the time was one of the best Med Schools in the country. In 1883, Dan graduated from Med School, and open his office on thirty-first street in Chicago. He had his sights set on being a great surgeon.Most operations were done in homes, reason being, blacks were not welcomed in hospitals, they were put on charity wards, and neglected and used for experimentation.

Dr. Williams first operation took place in Mrs. LeBeau’s dining room, where he removed her hemorrhoids. Dr. Williams reputation as a successful surgeon spread. He did more and more surgery in dining rooms and kitchens. He was appointed clinical instructor & surgeon to many hospitals and clinics. Dan also noticed that there were no black nurses, this bothered him. Couple that with the lack of medical clinics and hospitals for blacks, he decided to start a hospital. We will train our nurses. He was determined to start a new kind of hospital, one to be owned, staffed, and managed by blacks & whites together. So, on January, 23, 1891, Provident Hospital made history. May, 1891, the doors were open to a twelve bed hospital. The staff was made up of black & white doctors, women from around the country began appling for nurse training program. Things went well that first year, out of the 189 sick patience, 141 recovered.

On July 9, 1893 a fight broke out in a saloon. A man was stabbed in the chest near the heart. By the time he reached Provident Hospital, he had lost a lot of blood. He would soon die if nothing was done. Blood transfusion & X-rays were unknown at that time. Dr. Williams had no choice but to operate. So, Dr. Williams and five other doctors moved quickly to open the chest and saw that the knife had penetrated the heart and cut the pericardium. He sutured that wound and continued to work until the chest was completely closed. The man recovered and lived for 50 years. As a matter of fact, he outlived Dr. Williams. That my friend’s was the first open heart surgery.

Garrett Morgan:  

Garrett Morgan was born in Paris, Kentucky on March 4, 1877. Around age 16 he moved to Cleveland with no money. While in Cleveland he taught himself how to repair sewing machines. In 1907 he opened a shop that sold & repaired sewing machines. He made enough money to buy a home and seny for his mother. He then married, had three sons. In 1909, Morgan opened a tailor shop. He sold coats, suits and dresses. He had 32 workers. In 1912 Garrett Morgan invented the safety hood, then called “Breathing Device”, now called “Gas Mask”. He was granted a patent in 1914. The objective of this device was to let fireman enter a house filled with smoke and breathe freely. Thus began the National Safety Device Co. with Morgan as general manager. Stock in this company sold for $10/share. Morgan urged blacks to buy stockin this co., they didn’t, and within days the stock sold for $100, two years later, over $250. Fire Departments all over the country began using this device with great results. Requests came from Police & Fire Departments asking for demonstration of the Morgan Safety Hood. Morgan set up his own company to manufacture & sell the hoods. In the south it became necessary for Morgan to employ a white man to show his invention. Orders began to pour in but stopped when became known that the inventor was black. In world war one, the safety hood/gas mask, was usedby the U.S. Army. Even today, the gas is a standard issue in the army.

Morgans brain went into overdrive after witnessing a car and a horse & carriage accident. Why not have electric light signals at intersection with different colored lights. With that in mind the Traffic Light was invented. November 1923, he received patent # 1,475,024, and later he sold the rights to GE for $40,000, the rest is history. He also invented a woman’s hat fastener & a friction drive clutch. Morgan started his own newspaper “The Cleveland Call”, now called “Call & Post”, and is still published in Cleveland & Cincinnati. If you go to 5204 Harlem Avenue in Cleveland, you will see the G.A. Morgan Refining Co., founded in 1913. The business is still thriving after all these years.

After two years of illness, Morgan died at age 86 on July 27, 1963..

Lewis Latimer:  

Latimer was born on September 4, 1848. Back in those day’s, men had a brief childhood. At age 16 Latimer join the Navy. He was discharged in 1865. Because of his love for drawing, he took a job with Crosby & Gould as a office boy. While there he learned about drafting and later approach his employer and ask if he could make drawings. The request was grudgingly granted. His work was so outstanding, he was given a job as a draftsman. He went on to become chief draftman. Crosby & Gould was located near where Alexander Graham Bell taught deaf-mute people. Bell asked Latimer to assist. It was Latimer who executed the drawing and assisted in preparing the descriptions required to prepare the applications for the telephone patent. Latimer started to work on his own invention, water closets for railroad cars, the Latimer Lamp, Electric Lamp with Joseph Nichols, Carbon Filaments.Latimer’s method for producing carbon filaments resulted in a superior filament that lasted longer. Globe supporter for electric lamps. Some of his inventions are on display in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.. He installed the first maxim incandescent electric light plants, the Equitable Building and other buildings in NYC. Latimer wired his incandescent lamps in parallel circuit so that if one lamp went out, the others would continue to give light. He installed lights in Philadelphia & Canada. Latimer became an associate in the engineering department @ the Edison Electric Light Co. in 1884. Later Edison Light became GE..GE & Westinghouse formed the board of patent control, Latimer was the chief draftsman.

Latimer died December 11, 1928. The 75 th anniversary of Edison’s invention was held in 1954, Latimers name was not mentioned. How quickly people forget..