4.3 Black History Play: Top Ten Facts
The Late Show: Top Ten Black History Facts
Announcer: And now, welcome to the Late Show with your host, David Jimmy Conan O’Brian…
Host: Good Evening, our first guests tonight are Condoleezza Rice and Martin Luther King, Jr. Is it true that you both started college when you were just 15 years old?
Condoleeza: Yes, I studied political science at the University of Denver.
MLK: And I majored in sociology at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
Host: That is amazing! Next we have two very courageous people who escaped slavery in the mid 1800’s. William and Ellen Craft, please tell us of your daring escape.
William: I saved money I earned working overtime as a cabinet maker to buy train tickets to Philadelphia, but it was Ellen, here, that really came through with the plan.
Ellen: Well, my father was my mother’s master, so I was born with light enough skin to pass for white. I posed as a white gentleman and William posed as my slave. To avoid writing anything, I bandaged my arm, and also my face to hide the fact that I am a woman.
Host: That is amazing! And now, folks, it is time for tonight’s top ten list. Tonight’s subject is: Top Ten surprising and little known facts about Black History.
Number 10: Cathay Williams was the one and only female Buffalo Soldier, posing as a man named William Cathay to enlist in the 38th infantry in 1866. She served for two years before a doctor discovered that she was a woman, leading to her discharge.
Number 9: Langston Hughes’ daddy discouraged him from being a writer and only agreed to pay for his college education if he studied engineering.
Number 8: Lincoln University in Pennsylvania is the first institution of higher education founded for African-Americans. It paved the way for the 104 other historically Black colleges, which have produced distinguished alums like Thurgood Marshall, Spike Lee, and the almighty Oprah.
Number 7: Journalist Ida Wells-Barnett refused to give up her railcar seat for a white man in 1884, and she bit a conductor on the hand when he tried to force her. She was dragged off the train. She sued the railroad and initially won, but the decision was overturned.
Number 6: Before he was a blockbuster actor, Will Smith was The Fresh Prince and, along with partner Jazzy Jeff, won the first-ever Grammy for Best Rap Performance. They boycotted the awards because the category was barred from television.
Number 5: Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to Congress and the first Black major-party presidential candidate survived three assassination attempts during her 1972 campaign.
Number 4: Maya Angelou stopped celebrating her birthday for many years following the assassination of her friend, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on the same day. She annually sent flowers to Mrs. King to commemorate that day.
Number 3: Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a real place, so to speak. The home of Josiah Henson, whose life is generally believed to have been an inspiration for the novel, has been restored and added to the National Register of Historic Places in North Bethesda, Maryland.
Number 2: Tice Davids, a runaway slave from Kentucky, was the inspiration for the first usage of the term “Underground Railroad.” When he swam across the Ohio River to freedom, his former owner assumed he’d drowned and told the local paper if Davids had escaped, he must have traveled on "an underground railroad."
And the Number 1 surprising or little known fact about Black History: The King of Pop, Michael Jackson, snagged several Guinness World Records, including highest annual earnings for a pop star, best-selling album of all time for his classic, Thriller, and most Grammy Awards won in a year (he took home 8).
