Little-Known Black History Fact: Camilla Williams

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Written by Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

Camilla Williams is the first African-American woman to appear with a major U.S. opera company. She debuted at the New York City Opera in spring of 1946. Her breakout signature role was in Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" as Cio-Cio-San, a role she would play more than once and be adored for by critics.

A native of Danville, Virginia, Williams was introduced to theater at age 12. Ironically, the first production she witnessed was “Madame Butterfly.” Born in a segregated town, Williams was taken in as a private student by a Welsh voice teacher. The teacher was in town to teach music to the white female students of the all-white schools, but she taught black students privately at her home, including Williams.

Williams enrolled in Virginia State College and followed up with a teaching job in Danville. Soon she was offered a scholarship to return to her passion of music at Virginia State. In college, she studied with Marion Szekely-Freschl while working as an usher at the theater. READ ON....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Ole Miss’ New Mascot

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By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

Last year, we read a letter from one of our listeners, Wesley Grant, about the controversial mascot at the University of Mississippi. The mascot was Colonel Reb, a character that resembled an older white gentleman dressed in confederate-inspired attire. Many found the symbol offensive, especially combined with the waving of the rebel flag, which the school banned in the 1990s. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Dwayne McDuffie

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By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

The pioneering work of black cartoonist Dwayne Glenn McDuffie is captured weekly on the Cartoon Network. Because of McDuffie, the Justice League doesn’t just include a white Batman and Superman anymore, but black and female heroes too. Also in McDuffie’s lineup is the Blood Syndicate, a crime-fighting group of men and women that includes blacks, Asians and Latinos. His character Virgil Hawkins, the alter ego of his most popular comic hero, "Static Shock," is named after the black man who fought to be admitted to University of Florida law school in 1949 and became their first black law student in 1958. Hawkins desegregated all of Florida’s public universities.

McDuffie, the cartoonist behind it all, died on Feb. 21st - the day after his 49th birthday - during surgery. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Ollie Matson II

By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

On Saturday, Feb. 19th, pro football Hall of Famer Ollie Matson II passed away from respiratory failure at age 80. Matson left a legacy in both football and track, in which he flourished after battling discrimination as a college athlete. He had not only a record-breaking career in football; Matson was also the winner of two Olympic medals as a sprinter for the U.S. team in 1952 - bronze and silver in the 400m relay. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Sylvia Harris

By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

Sylvia Harris is a woman, who, at the age of 40, made horse racing history as one of the oldest rookie horse jockeys and only the second African-American woman to win a thoroughbred race. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: The Wharlest Jackson Case

By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

There are many cold cases from the civil rights movements. Many people were murdered in the struggle for equality in this country, and those hate crimes were never solved. Such was the case of Wharlest Jackson of Natchez, Mississippi.

Jackson and his wife, Exerlena, were working class blacks of Natchez who had been married for 13 years. Jackson, a 12-year employee of Armstrong Tire & Rubber, had just been promoted to working in the company’s chemical mixing plant - with a raise to 17 cents an hour, enough for his wife to finally quit working in the school cafeteria and take care of their five children full time.

There existed only one major problem with Jackson’s promotion: He beat out two white workers for the job. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Lucy Hicks Anderson

By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

Lucy Hicks Anderson of Oxnard, California was the first transgendered black person to be legally tried and convicted in court for impersonating a woman. During the trial, Anderson, who had been living the life of a woman, insisted that a person could live successfully as one gender and physically be another. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: American Colonization Society

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By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

The American Colonization Society was established in 1816 by Reverend Robert Finley, a white Presbyterian minister. The society was born from Finley’s idea that blacks in the United States were a threat to the overall country and would only be able to fulfill their potential as human beings in Africa. He worked to complete his vision of slaveholders sending their slaves back to Africa to bring a progressive end to slavery. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Jerome Singleton Jr.

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By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

Jerome Singleton Jr. of Imo, South Carolina is a single below knee sprinter who just recently became the fastest amputee in the world after beating South African runner Oscar Pistorius, the "fastest man on no legs," in the 100-meter at the Paralympic World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Macon Bolling Allen

By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

Macon Bolling Allen was a free black man from Indiana who was the first black lawyer in America. Historic reports indicate he was actually born Allen Macon Bolling and changed his name after he was granted citizenship years later. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Female Anti-Slavery Society

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By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

The Female Anti-Slavery Society in Salem, Massachusetts was established in 1832 in response to other abolitionist organizations that discouraged female participation. Groups like the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, established in 1783, was an exclusively male organization. Women were completely discouraged from joining the groups, in part, because they wanted to take the struggle beyond the end of the slave trade and end slavery overall – a radical fight that men like William Wilberforce did not want to encourage. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Wallace Rayfield

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By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

Born in 1872, Wallace Rayfield, the son of a Pullman porter in Macon, Georgia, was a legendary craftsman who was the second in the nation to be licensed and the first black architect in Alabama. He worked alongside Robert Taylor, the first licensed black architect in history, when the two of them taught at Tuskegee Institute under Booker T. Washington.

Rayfield’s name is relatively unknown in history books. Rayfield’s work as an architect consisted of designing the most significant buildings in civil rights history including 16th Street Baptist Church, Ebenezer Baptist Church and the Trinity Building in South Africa. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Vernon Dahmer

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Vernon Dahmer was a hero and casualty of the civil rights movement. His efforts in voter registration would eventually lead to his death by the Ku Klux Klan, but helped to pull the community of Hattiesburg, Mississippi together. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Dangerfield Newby

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By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

During the famous raid on Harper’s Ferry by white abolitionist John Brown, the first black to be killed in his band of freedom fighters was Dangerfield Newby. A slave of Faquier County, Virginia, Newby stood at six-feet, two-inches tall and was a child of his slavemaster, who eventually freed all his mulatto children in 1858. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Addisleigh Park

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By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

Addisleigh Park is a small neighborhood located in Queens, New York. An area known for it’s historic architecture, Addisleigh Park was a haven for some of the greatest legends in black history, including Jackie Robinson, Count Basie, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, W.E.B. DuBois, Roy Campanella, James Brown, Joe Louis and Cootie Williams, just to name a few. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: DJ Kool Herc

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By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

Jamaican-born DJ Clive Campbell, a.k.a. DJ Kool Herc, is considered the father of hip-hop music. His technique of isolating the instrumental part of a record, emphasizing the drum beat (or "break”) while simultaneously switching from one break to another, became legendary. He used the two-turntable setup and played two of the same records at the same time. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Prince Whipple

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By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

If you’ve ever seen a copy of Emmanuel Leutze's 1851 painting, "Washington Crossing the Delaware," at the New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, you’ll notice a black soldier at the helm, helping to row. The soldier is said to be Prince “Caleb Quotem” Whipple. His original name is unknown. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Oscar Dunn

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By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

Oscar Dunn was the first elected black former slave to serve as lieutenant governor of Louisiana during Reconstruction. The self-educated Dunn learned public speaking from the actors who often stayed in his mother’s lodging house. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Dr. John A. Kenney

By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

Dr. John A. Kenney was a health care pioneer for African-Americans, with 46 years of dedication to the National Medical Association. A farm boy and son of former slaves, Dr. Kenney founded the first full-service hospital for African-Americans alongside Booker T. Washington in Tuskegee, Alabama. CONTINUE....

Little-Known Black History Fact: Wendell Scott

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By: Erica Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show

Wendell Oliver Scott is a NASCAR pioneer who holds the position of being the only black driver to win a race in what is now the Sprint Cup Series. The Danville, Virginia native made history on May 23, 1952 at the Danville Fairgrounds Speedway when he was the first black to compete in the stock car racing competition. Scott became the first African-American to obtain a NASCAR racing license in 1953. CONTINUE....