Black History 365 | # 36 - Dr. Patricia Bath

Timelapse of digital painting

“I was not seeking to be the first, I was only attempting to do my thing,” are the words Dr. Bath uses to describe her history…well at least what her mindframe was while in the thick of it. She is the inventor of cataract laser eye surgery while working for the company Laserphaco. This discovery is widely credited as Laserphaco eye surgery. You’ll find that companies like to put their names on things. It’s all business. Now, upon explaining to the director what she achieved, she was met with a “You didn’t do that, that’s impossible.” She was met with anger, and not acceptance from her scientific breakthrough. Now the company that has been most successful doing laser eye surgery is the company LASIK. Dr. Bath conceived the laser eye device in 1981. If you search for the inventor of laser eye surgery, you’ll find that the LASIK company will credit Gholam A. Peyman as the inventor of LASIK eye surgery, which is in fact, laser eye surgery. And he got his patent for his version after Dr. Bath’s discovery in 1989. Thank you Dr. Bath.

Black History 365 | # 26 - Alice Dunnigan

Have you heard of Alice Allison Dunnigan? She was the first Black woman to cover the White House. Dunnigan was one of three African Americans and one of two women in the press corps that covered the campaign of President Harry S. Truman. During her years of covering the White House, she frequently asked questions regarding the burgeoning civil rights movement and the plight of black America. She was the first Black woman to be a member of the House and Senate Press Galleries. In 1953 Dunnigan was barred from covering a speech given by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in a whites-only theater and was made to sit with the servants to cover Ohio’s Senator Robert A. Taft’s funeral. History shows that society will remind people of their “place” in the societal structure regardless of their accomplishments, education, wealth, etc. ESPECIALLY if they stand for something.

Black History 365 | # 1 - Kwame Brown (Stokely Carmichael)

Did you know Stokely Carmichael before joining the Black Panther Party was an SNCC member (usually pronounced snick on media outlets)? SNCC stands for Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In 1965 he along with the organization went to Lowndes County to register people to vote. In 1967 after traveling to Cuba, North Vietnam, China, and Guinea. When he returned to the US, he left the SNCC and joined the Black Panther Party.

Black History 365 | # 17 - Jane Bolin

Have you heard about Jane Bolin? She was the first Black woman to graduate from Yale Law School in 1931. She was one of only two Black students in her class at Wellesley College. Discouraged by her career advisor and her father who was a renowned black lawyer to apply to Yale Law, but she persisted. She was one of three women in her class. Other students would bully her throughout her time in school, but she stubbornly kept at it. She also later became the first Black female judge in the United States. She held that position for 40 years.

Black History 365 | #22 - Assata Shakur

While not a blood relative Assata Shakur is Tupac’s godmother. She is the sister of Mutulu Shakur, Tupac’s step-father. New Jersey prosecutors identify her as a fugitive who broke out of prison after she was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper. In May 1973, Shakur and two other members of the Black Liberation Army (BLA) Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli, were pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike by State Trooper Werner Foerster and another highway officer. During a confrontation, a shootout ensued, killing the trooper and Zayd Malik Shakur. She surfaced in Cuba in 1984, where she was granted political asylum. She has lived in Cuba since, despite US government efforts to have her returned. She has been on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list since 2013 and was the first woman to be added to this list. The Shakurs are one of the most influential family in America. Unfortunately they aren’t wealthy like the Rockefeller’s or thriving with future generations keeping their legacy’s going. The black freedom movement does not have monetary value. I do NOT condone police violence or violence in general, but I was not there. And therefore don’t know what truly happened, but this is the story of Assata Shakur. PEACE+POWER to the Shakur family. She is 76 years old.