Good morning, POU! It’s Hump Day. This week’s theme shares 10 exciting little known facts about Black History. An additional set of facts below:
Fact 1: Rapper Jay-Z reportedly developed his stage name as a reference to New York’s J/Z subway lines, which have a stop in his Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, neighborhood.
Fact 2: Jack Johnson, the first African American heavyweight champion, patented a wrench in 1922.
Fact 3: Before he became an NBA legend, Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
Fact 4: Chaka Kahn, dubbed the “Queen of Funk Soul,” is also well known for singing the theme song to the public television’s popular educational program Reading Rainbow.
Fact 5: In her early life, Coretta Scott King was as well known for her singing and violin playing as she was for her civil rights activism. The young soprano won a fellowship to the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, the city where she met future husband Martin Luther King Jr.
Fact 6: Pony Express rider George Monroe was also a highly skilled stagecoach driver for U.S. presidents Ulysses S. Grant, James Garfield, and Rutherford B. Hayes. Monroe, who was known as “Knight of the Sierras,” frequently navigated passengers through the curving Wanona Trail in the Yosemite Valley. As a result, Monroe Meadows in Yosemite National Park is named after him.
Fact 7: Since 1997, actor and director Sidney Poitier have served as a non-resident Bahamian ambassador to Japan.
Fact 8: Actor, singer, and civil rights activist Paul Robeson was once considered for a U.S. vice presidential spot on Henry A. Wallace’s 1948 Progressive Party ticket.
Fact 9: After retiring from baseball, Hall-of-Famer Jackie Robinson helped establish the African American-owned and -controlled Freedom Bank.
Fact 10: Mamie Smith is considered being the first African American female artist to make a blues record with vocals—”Crazy Blues,” released in 1920, sold 1 million copies in half a year.