Norma Sklarek became the first black woman to be licensed as an architect in New York and California.

According to the African-American Registry website: From New York City she graduated from Barnard College (part of Columbia University) with a degree in architecture in 1950. Sklarek became the first African-American woman to be licensed as an architect in the United States with certification in New York State in 1954 and in California in 1962. She was the first African-American woman director of architecture at Gruen and Associates in Los Angeles. In 1966, she was the first woman to be elected Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Some twenty years later, in 1985, she became the first African-American woman architect to form her own architectural firm: Siegel, Sklarek, Diamond. At the time, this was the largest woman-owned and mostly woman-staffed architectural firm. Among Sklarek’s designs are the City Hall in San Bernardino, California, the Fox Plaza in San Francisco, Terminal One at the Los Angeles International Airport and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. From 1989 to 1992, Sklarek was a principal at The Jerde Partnership.

There she was in charge of project management and review of the functional and technological aspects of projects. Norma Sklarek is now semi-retired serving as Chair of the AIA National Ethics Council.

In her honor, Howard University offers the Norma Merrick Sklarek Architectural Scholarship Award.

To learn more about Norma Sklarek, go to: http://www.essortment.com/all/normasklarek_rqbo.htm

Win a copy of Martin Luther King: The Essential Box Set:

The Landmark Speeches and Sermons of Martin Luther King, Jr. By Clayborne Carson, Kris Shepard, Peter Holloran

What do you have to do to enter? Leave a comment on this blog post and there will be several other opportunities this month to enter but you have to check the bottom of random blog posts. (Sign up to mailing list so you’ll be alerted of new posts). The more you comment, the more chances you have to win. Contest ends on February 28, 2010. U.S. & Canada residents only. Avoid where prohibited by law.

Maggie Lena Walker (July 15, 1864-December 15, 1934) was an American teacher, businesswoman, and first African American woman bank president. She was the first woman to charter a bank in the United States. As a leader, she achieved successes with the vision to make tangible improvements in the way of life for African Americans and women. Disabled by paralysis and limited to a wheelchair later in life, Walker also became an example for persons with disabilities.

 According to wikipedia, she was a daughter of former slaves, Elizabeth Draper Mitchell and William Mitchell, who worked in the mansion of the abolitionist Elizabeth Van Lew. After a few years of living at the mansion, her father got a job as the head waiter at the Saint Charles Hotel and the family moved to a small house in town. Her father was murdered, presumably a victim of robbery and her mother supported herself and her two children with her laundry business while Maggie helped with the chores. In addition, Maggie attended the Lancaster School and then the Armstrong Normal School. After graduation in 1883, she taught at the Lancaster School until her marriage to Armstead Walker, Jr., a building contractor, in September 1886. They subsequently had three sons, though one died in infancy. She also became an agent for an insurance company, the Woman’s Union.

Since the age of fourteen, she had been a member of the Grand United Order of St. Luke, an African-American fraternal and cooperative insurance society founded in Baltimore in 1867 by a former slave, Mary Prout, with headquarters established in Richmond in 1889. The order had been established to assure proper health care and burial arrangements of its members and encouraged self-help and racial solidarity. Walker worked her way up until, in 1899, she became the executive secretary-treasurer of the organization, now renamed the Independent Order of St. Luke. The order was in debt at the time so she accepted a reduced salary of eight dollars per month.

In 1902, she started publishing a newsletter, the St. Luke Herald to increase awareness of the activities of the organization and to help in the educational work of the order. The following year, she opened the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank and became its president. The bank’s goal was to facilitate loans to the community. By 1920, the bank helped purchase about 600 homes. By 1924, the Independent Order of St. Luke had 50,000 members, 1500 local chapters, a staff of 50 working in its Richmond headquarters and assets of almost $400,000. The Penny Savings Bank absorbed all other black-owned banks in Richmond in 1929 and became the Consolidated Bank and Trust Companany with Walker as its chairman of the board.

Walker suffered more personal tragedies in her life. In 1907, she fell on the front steps of her home and injured her knees. The damaged nerves and tendons continued to trouble her for the rest of her life. She also suffered from diabetes and was confined to a wheelchair after 1928. Her husband died in 1915 when her son, Russell Ecles Talmage, mistook his father for a prowler on the porch and shot him. Russell was acquitted of the murder charge, but he never recovered from this ordeal and he died in 1923.

Walker died in Richmond, Virginia, on December 15, 1934. The cause of her death was listed as “diabetes gangrene.” The house her family occupied from 1904 to 1934 is now a Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site and is located at 110 1/2 East Leigh Street.

To read more about Maggie L Walker, go to: http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/walker-ml.html

I found out about Phyliss Wheatley, the first AA female poet, when I was in high school but it would be years later that I would find out about Frances Harper. I read a synopsis of one of her novels and had to get a copy.

Below is more information about Frances E.W. Harper from Wikipedia.

Today, I am highlighting a Louisiana native. She was well-known in our parts and for those who like art, you’re probably familiar with her already–Clementine Hunter (1887-1988).

I will highlight from several sources information about this dynamic painter. She not only painted, she made dolls, quilts, baskets, lace curtains, etc.  She reminds me of a very creative friend of mine–Peggy Eldridge Love.

One thing I learned about Clementine Hunter’s  story is that you’re never too old to pursue your dreams.

Hunter was born on Hidden Hill Plantation near Cloutierville, Louisiana; a place so isolated and harsh that local legend claimed it was the real-life inspiration for Uncle Tom’s Cabin. her family moved north to the Cane River area when she was a child, and eventually they moved to Melrose Plantation near Natchitoches, where Hunter spent a lot of her life picking cotton. She attended school for just 10 days and never learned to read or write.

But in the late 1940s, one of the many artists who visited the plantation left behind some tubes of paint. Plantation curator Francois Mignon encouraged Hunter to try her own hand at painting. During the next four decades, she created thousands of paintings.

It was often midnight before she was free to ”mark some pictures,” as she once said of her painting; using cardboard, paper bags, lumber scraps, milk jugs, the insides of soap boxes, and other throw-outs. Almost all of her works were ”memory paintings,” showing plantation life as she remembered it: picking cotton, gathering figs, threshing pecans; the weddings, baptisms, funerals, and other scenes of everyday life. Her titles were often intriguing, too.

A June 1953 article in Look magazine brought her to national attention. In 1957, some critics dubbed her “’the Black Grandma Moses.” And, in 1979, Robert Bishop, director of The Museum of American Folk Art in Washington, called the artist, then in her 90s, ”the most celebrated of all Southern contemporary painters.” By the 1970s, there were large public and private collections of Hunter’s work, and by the 1980s, several important traveling exhibitions featured her paintings. The prices for her work had risen from 25 cents to several thousand dollars.

In the last years of her life, Hunter left her rented cabin and moved upriver, living in a trailer she bought with money from selling her paintings. She painted until the last few months of her life, dying at the age of 100 on January 1, 1988. Hunter was more modest about her abilities. “God puts those pictures in my head and I just puts them on the canvas, like He wants me to,” the artist said.

Reference:
Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia
Volumes 1 and 2, edited by Darlene Clark Hine
Copyright 1993, Carlson Publishing Inc., Brooklyn, New York
ISBN 0-926019-61-9

Click to see original Look and Saturday Evening Post articles

If you’ve never been to Natchitoches, LA, please make plans to visit. It is rich in African-American history.  If you do decide to come, I’m only an hour and some minutes away so shoot me an email offloop and I’ll even meet you there.

The answer to yesterday’s quiz question was Harriett Tubman.

Today’s Black History question is What state was the first to have more blacks than whites?

Missouri
Florida
South Carolina
Tennessee

P.S. – If you’re an aspiring writer or want to learn about self-publishing, check out today’s post on Blogging in Black: http://blogginginblack.com/?p=1169

This month is the official month we celebrate Black History. Some ask why do we need an entire month? Well, unfortunately, if we didn’t have the month, kids and adults would never learn about people from our rich past. We are survivors, fighters, educators, scientists, philosophers, freedom fighters, professional business men & women, athletes, entertainers, founders, inventors, etc. and yes even president.

SheliaGoss.com will be featuring women past and present that have contributed to Black History in some way or another.

We can thank Carter G Woodson for initiating what is now an official celebrated month of Black History.

Dr.Carter G. Woodson was born in 1875 in New Canton, Virginia, the son of former slaves James and Elizae Riddle Woodson. His father helped Union soldiers during the Civil War, and he moved his family to West Virginia when he heard that Huntington was building a high school for blacks. Coming from a large, poor family, Carter Woodson could not regularly attend school. Through self-instruction, Woodson mastered the fundamentals of common school subjects by age 17.

To read more about Carter G. Woodson, click here.

Today, I honor my mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and the many women that came before them. Each one of these ladies made an important impact not only in my life, but in their communities through service and making a stand for justice.

I recall a story my grandfather told me about his grandmother, my great-great grandmother. She came from Africa. Made her way to the shores of America on a slave ship via Virginia. She walked from Virginia to Louisiana. Owned by the Prudes. Bred children–some she was able to keep and then there were others that were taken from her–sold into slavery just like herself.

Thanks to my mom, I was able to learn about the many contributions to Blacks in our nation, not just during Black History month, but all year through and that’s what we need to do for this new generation. Celebrate Black History daily.

Color-Free
© 2008 by Shelia M. Goss

The color of my skin shouldn’t define me
Because when I go out of this country,
American is all they see.

My Brown-sugar, Caramel, Ebony, Hershey-chocolate,
Mahogany, Mocha, Vanilla complexion
Is only an outer shell.
You have to dig Deeper,
If you want to know
What’s embedded in my mind.

My skin color might hint to my Races
Past struggles and pain,
But don’t lose the fact that we’re
Individuals and not all the same.

One day I hope we can all
Be one big happy family
In the meantime, I’ll leave a legacy
To the younger generation.

Show by example on how to get through
Life’s complications.
I will teach them how to love
Through my own interactions.

I will show them how to give
And not wait for someone’s reaction.
I will encourage them to dream and not
Let society dictate who they can be.

I will show them the benefit of believing in
Oneself, but most of all in a Higher Being.

I hope to see the manifestation of my vision
A society that’s COLOR-FREE.

For fun, answer today’s quiz question in the comment field:
Who escaped slavery in Maryland in 1849 to become the conductor of the Underground Railroad?

Harriet Beecher Stowe
Angela Davis
Harriet Tubman
Rosa Parks

by Guest Blogger Peggy Eldridge-Love

When I’ve gone to family reunions in recent years I’ve been reminded of the reality of the history of the civil rights struggles in the middle of the last century as sitting amongst us is one of our family members who was a central figure in that struggle.

His right, in 1962, to attend the southern university of his choice required then President John F. Kennedy to have to call out federal troops and U.S. Marshals. That simple right was violently opposed and challenged by the state’s governor and its people, and resulted in some of the most tumultuous, riotous days of this nation’s history as the struggles for his rights played out.

In 1967, a photograph of this same relative being shot in 1966 as he led the civil rights march entitled “March Against Fear” from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi won the Pulitzer Prize for photography (Photographer, Jack R. Thornell of Associated Press).

That this family member, James Meredith, opened doors for those of us coming behind him in search of the educations not only of our ability, but also our choice, goes without saying. That this family member has continually reached out to us individually and collectively to encourage our efforts as we reach for our own goals and objectives is unrelenting. One of the first letters of support and encouragement I received when my first book was published was from James. One of my greatest treasures will always be that letter as it reassured me that “I had a lot to say that the world needed to hear”. I believed him and as a part of that belief I have never stopped trying.

But before civil rights there was Reconstruction and my husband’s family played a key role in that lofty endeavor.

His great, great grandfather was a member of the 1866 Constitutional Convention and a number of successive legislatures, but it was his son, born in 1859, who took the new possibilities for freed black people and maximized on them and built a legacy of success that still resonates from Atlanta to Los Angeles for its ferocity.

Lieutenant-Colonel Floyd Henry Crumbly, a member of the Tenth U.S. Calvary, and honored veteran of the Spanish-American War, followed his military career with a thirst for business that in the mid 1880′s turned a $300 line of credit into one of Atlanta’s first black-owned grocery stores and him into one of the founders of Atlanta’s prestigious Wheat Street business center.

Within months Floyd Henry (after whom my husband is named) had paid off his loan and initiated purchase of the building he operated out of. A year and a half later he paid that building off and purchased the one next door. It was a momentum that he didn’t believe was just for himself, and as his prosperity increased, so did his commitment to his fellow man.

By 1890 he became the chief organizer of the Georgia Real Estate Loan and Trust Company, along with a hand full of other successful black Atlanta entrepreneurs of the time. He is credited with bringing into reality and serving on the board of trustees for The Carrie Steele Logan Orphanage which focused on the needs of African-American orphanaged and abandoned children who previously had been left to forge for themselves. In 1892 he was selected as a director of The Penny Savings Bank of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and, based on his outstanding military career, was appointed and Adjutant of the staff of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Grant by the Governor of the State of Georgia.

Floyd Henry Crumbly founded the Negro Historical Society of Atlanta, and, eventually he moved to Los Angeles, California. His contributions in California were many as well as noted in F.H. Crumbly, “A Los Angeles Citizen,” The Colored American Magazine (September 1905). Some of his letters to co-harts such as Fredrick Douglass and Booker T. Washington are also a part of their collections in the Library of Congress.

It is a pleasure to be able to point our children and grandchildren to the accomplishments and contributions of their bloodlines – particularly these two – and to remind them that none of us arrive at our destination alone. We are there because of the efforts, the thrusts, the sacrifices, and the tenacity of others who cracked open the doors and let in a little light to shine upon our path.

This knowledge is particularly poignant on this celebration of Black History Month.

 Peggy Eldridge-Love is a poet, playwright, screenwriter and novelist. Her published and produced works include You Beckon and The Knoll Frames. Her poetry is included in the American Greetings 2006 African-American Almanac Day-At-A-Time Calendar. To learn more about this dynamic writer, visit her website at www.peggyeldridgelove.com or blog: http://peggyeldridgelove.blogspot.com 

February is Black History month, but why limit yourself to learning about your history or other people’s history just once a year. Visit these sites and pass the information on.

•  
  • Black History Hotlist
  • Black Inventor Online Museum

R-E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N

Copyright 2008 By Shelia M. Goss

Revolution started many years ago on the back of the broken-hearted, resulting from

Evil men’s egos who thought it was okay to enslave the mind and

Violate the body and whoever was against it were either maimed or killed

Only the strong survived. Now here we are in a new day and time, some of us

Living life recklessly, leaving the memory of our ancestors behind

United we must stand, because history shows how far divided we can fall

Too many people fought and died for the things we now enjoy

Instead of complaining, be thankful and be ready for action when injustice surfaces

Oppressed? Distressed?  Then take the time to think of some solutions

Not being complacent with inequality is only the beginning of the REVOLUTION