Two Possibilities Exist: Either We Are Alone In The Universe Or We Are Not. Both Are Equally Terrifying.

Centralia, Pennsylvania. For most of its history, the town of Centralia was a prosperous coal mining town. Centralia was officially founded in 1842 by Alexander Rae. The first mines opened in the area in 1856, and by 1890 the town had a population of 2,761 and hosted seven churches, five hotels, twenty-seven saloons, fourteen general stores, two theaters, a bank, and a post office. During World War I, production declined as many of the young men enlisted in the military. After the Wall Street Crash in 1929, several of the area mines were closed. However, many illegal mining operations continued in various places. By the 1960's, official coal mining in Centralia had completely ceased, but illegal mining continued until 1982.

In 1962, the Centralia Town Council was deciding what to do with the town landfill. The landfill was established the previous year to discourage illegal dumping and was located inside an abandoned strip-mine pit next to the Odd Fellowes Cemetery. On May 27, firefighters set the landfill on fire and let it burn before extinguishing it. However, the fire was not fully put out - it managed to enter the labyrinth of abandoned coal tunnels that snaked underneath the town.

Residents began to notice something was wrong around 1979. By this point there just over 1,000 residents living in Centralia. That year gas station owner John Coddington inserted a dipstick into one of his underground gasoline tanks to check the fuel level. When he withdrew it, it felt hot. So, he inserted a thermometer into the tank and was shocked to discover the temperature of the gas in the tank was 172° Fahrenheit. Beginning in 1980 several locals began to suffer from health effects due to the gases produced by the fire. Statewide attention began to focus on Centralia when sinkholes began opening at various places in the area. In 1981, 12-year-old Todd Domboski fell into a sinkhole in his grandmother's backyard that opened suddenly right beneath his feet. He saved himself be grabbing a tree root and was pulled to safety by his cousin Eric Wolfgang. The steam plume billowing from the hole was tested and found to contain lethal levels of carbon monoxide. At the same time, Governor Dick Thornburgh and State Rep. James Nelligen were visiting the area to assess the situation. In response to the worsening crisis, the U.S. Congress allocated $42 million for relocation effort. Most residents accepted the payments and moved out of town. Afterwards most of the town's structures were demolished. Some residents, however, refused to leave - with 63 residents remaining by 1990. In 1992, Governor Bob Casey invoked eminent domain on all properties within the town. The U.S. Postal Service discontinued Centralia's zip code in 2002.

There have been several legal attempts by the few remaining residents to stop the government from seizing their homes. The holdouts claim that the government wanted the mineral rights to all the coal deposits that remained untapped. In 2009, the state began formal eviction proceedings against the last few residents. These residents filed suit in 2010 claiming they were victims of fraud. By 2013, the residents settled, reaching an agreement that they could remain in their homes until their deaths, at which point the properties would be claimed under eminent domain. By 2020, only five residents still live in Centralia.

The fire underneath Centralia continues to burn. At its current burn rate, the fire could continue to burn for the next 250 years. Almost all the towns' structures have been demolished, and nature has mostly reclaimed the land. From above, the Centralia appears to be nothing more than a series of paved roads hidden within thick forest. There are numerous fissures all over the affected area spewing steam and toxic gas into the air. A section of Pennsylvania Route 61 passing through the Borough was closed after steam damaged and split the pavement repeatedly. There are many signs placed around warning of ground instability and toxic fumes.

The town has served as the model for numerous ghost towns in popular culture including Vampire Zero by David Wellington and Strange Highways by Dean Koontz. Most famously, the story of Centralia was used as research for the basis of the namesake town in the 2006 film 'Silent Hill' - a movie based the popular video game franchise of the same name.

Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic. This chapel in the Sedlec suburb of the city of Kutna Hora, Central Bohemia, Czech Republic is one of the most unique in the world: the interior is decorated entirely with human bones.

In the mid-12th century, a Catholic monastery was established in Kunta Hora by the Order of Cistercian Monks. It was the first Cistercian abbey in Bohemia and remained in operation until it was dissolved in 1783. In 1278, Henry - the Abbott of the Monastery - was sent to the Holy Land by King Ottokar II of Bohemia. There he collected soil from the area outside Jerusalem where Jesus was supposedly crucified. When he returned home, he scattered this holy soil in the Abby cemetery. Word of this pious act soon spread, making the cemetery a desirable place to be buried for people throughout Central Europe. This, in addition to the Black Death in the 14th century and the Hussite Wars in the 15th century, led to many thousands being buried in the cemetery, leading it to be vastly expanded. Around 1400, a new gothic cathedral was built on the cemetery grounds. The basement of this chapel was used as an ossuary - a vessel or site used for the storing of human remains. Over 40,000 bodies were exhumed to make room in the cemetery and their bones were placed in unorganized heaps within the ossuary.

In 1870, the Schwarzenberg family - a noble family that were patrons of the church - hired local woodcarver Frantisek Rint to organize the bones into a much more aesthetically pleasing arrangement. The results of his work are absolutely astounding. The decorations and furnishings of the chapel are made completely out of human bones. These decorations include four massive bell-shaped mounds, chandelier, an altar, a coat of arms of the House of Schwarzenberg, and a signature of Rint by the front entrance. The chapel has a earned the name "The Chruch of Bones" and receives as many as 200,000 visitors annually.

Today is June 6th. On this day, in 1944, 156,000 allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy in Nazi occupied France. 10,000 of these soldiers were counted as casualties by the end of the fighting. The troops consisted of American, British, and Canadian forces. The soldiers attacked at 5 beaches: Utah and Omaha by the Americans, and Gold, Juno, and Sword by the British and Canadians. All five beaches were linked by the 12th. By then, the liberation of France and all of Europe had begun.

The Dyatlov Pass incident, Soviet Union, 1959. In January of 1959, a skiing expedition was organized by a group of 10 people from the Ural Ploytechnic Institute led by student Igor Dyatlov. All group members were experienced hikers and skiiers and all except one were students at the institute. The expedition was planned to last three weeks and take the group to the top of Gora Oterton, a mountain in Russia. The group traveled by train to the town of Ivdel and then by truck to the village of Vizhai, the last inhabited settlement before the mountains. The group stayed the night in Vizhai before starting the trek the next day. On January 27th, the group began their expedition. On the 28th, group member Yuri Yudin turned back because of joint pain. That was the last time anyone saw the 9 other group members alive. Cameras and diaries found at the camp detailed the events leading up to the incident. On January 31st, the group stored surplus food and supplies in a wooded valley for their return trip. The next day the group began through the pass. However, due to bad weather conditions, the group got lost and strayed from their route, and instead of turning around they set up camp at the base of Kholat Syakhl (literally ‘Dead Mountain’ in the Mansi language). The group planned to send a telegram to their sports club when they had returned to Vizhai on February 12th. However, Dyatlov expected the trek to take longer, so the 12th came and went with no contact from the group with little alarm. By February 20th, relatives of the hikers demanded a search and rescue operation. The institute sent out volunteer groups consisting of students and teachers which were eventually joined by members of the military. On February 26th, searchers found the groups campsite. The tent had been torn open from the inside and all the groups shoes and personal belongings were still in the tent. Nine sets of footprints showed that the hikers fled the tent wearing only socks, a single shoe, or simply barefoot. Two bodies were discovered along the edge of some woods under a Siberian pine along with the remains of a small fire. The bodies were dressed only in underwear and evidence shows that one of them attempted to climb the tree. Three more bodies were discovered between the woods and camp apparently attempting to return to the tent. Two months later, on May 4th, the remaining bodies were found under 13 feet of snow at the bottom of a 247 foot ravine. Signs show that clothing belonging to the deceased were removed for use by the others. Examination of the bodies posed even more mysteries. While six died of hypothermia, one had a major skull fracture and two had fatal chest fractures. The force needed for these injuries would need be the equivalent of a car wreck. One hiker was missing her eyes, tongue, and part of her lips, one was missing his eyes, and a third was missing his eyebrows. Clothing on some of the bodies tested positive for trace amounts of radiation. Soviet authorities declared that a “compelling natural force” was responsible for the deaths. Numerous theories have been put out including aliens, avalanche, wild animal attacks, attacks by Mansi natives, infrasound panic, and military involvement. In 2019 the case was reopened by Russian authorities who claimed that an avalanche had caused the deaths. These claims have been disputed.

The Hook Island Sea Monster. This photo supposedly captured a large, Unidentified creature in the water off the coast of Hook Island, Australia.

Russia as a State Sponsor of Terrorism: What does it mean?

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine drags on, many have called on the United States government to label the Russian Federation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism. The impacts of this action would be catastrophic for Russia.

What is Terrorism?

Let’s begin by defining what Terrorism is. The United Nations has defined terrorism as Criminal acts intended to provoke a state of terror in the general public, which under no circumstances can be justified. Is Russia guilty of this?

Absolutely. Ever sense the unprovoked invasion began, Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukrainian civilians, destroying apartments buildings, hospitals, and shopping centers. Missile attacks in Mariupol, Chernihiv, Kramatorsk, Odessa, Kharkiv, Kremenchuk, Chasiv Yar, and Vinnytsia have resulted in large numbers of civilian casualties. The Russian government also has a long history of aggression both inside and outside of the country. This includes the support of the brutal regime of Syrian dictator Bashir Al-Assad, allegedly organizing the murders of various dissidents such as Boris Nemtsov and Anna Politkovskaya, conducting war crimes during the Second Chechen War between 2000 and 2009, and involvement in the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine in 2014.

State Sponsors of Terrorism

Beginning in the 1970’s, the United States Department of State has maintained the list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism”. Countries included on this list have been alleged to have “repeatedly provided support for acts of international Terrorism”. Inclusion on the list imposes strict unilateral sanctions that the US government can also make allied nations and trade partners follow. The countries that are currently on the list are North Korea, Syria, Iran, and Cuba. Countries that have been on the list in the past include Iraq, Libya, South Yemen, and Sudan.

Results of being Designated a Terrorist State

Being included on this list is followed by unilateral sanctions. Bear in mind, some of these are already in place due to the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the ongoing war:

A ban on arms-related exports

Controls over dual-use items, requiring a 30 day Congressional notice for good or services that could significantly enhance the country’s military capabilities. Dual use items are products that have both civilian or military applications. This includes vehicle parts, chemicals, mechanical equipment, and electronic components.

Prohibition on economic assistance of any kind

Requiring the United States to oppose loans by the World Bank and other international financial institutions

Lifting diplomatic immunity to allow families of terrorist victims to file civil lawsuits against the country in American courts

Denying companies and individuals tax credits for income earned in terrorist listed countries

Denial of duty free treatment of goods exported to the United States

Authority to prohibit any US citizen from engaging in a financial transaction with a terrorist listed government without a Treasury Department license

Prohibition of Defense Department contracts above $100,000 with companies controlled by Terrorist list states

The main sanction that would happen if Russia were included would be to its reputation. Jason Blazakis, former Director of the U.S. State Department Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office in the Bureau of Counterterrorism and Professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, stated in an Op-Ed for the Los Angeles Times, that Russia being designated a terrorist state would be the “ultimate sanction”. Think about it. What country would want to be doing business with a terrorist state? Many nations would cease trade or any other operations in Russia very quickly. Any governments that continue to do business with Moscow would be subject to secondary sanctions. “It would also have the added benefit of getting more companies to de-risk from Russia. That would likely include US and non-US companies. Businesses don’t like operating in countries that are state sponsors of terrorism” Blazakis stated. Although many companies have ceased operations in Russia already, those that haven’t would flee in droves.

As you can see designating Russia as a terrorist state would have catastrophic impact on the Russian economy. The “nuclear economic option” so to speak. Maybe this would finally get the point across to Russia that their invasion is unjustified and immoral. I will also list charities you can donate to to help Ukraine. Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦

World Vision

International Medical Corps

Save the Children

Action Against Borders

Project HOPE

International Rescue Committee

Heart to Heart International

CARE International

Razom for Ukraine

Voices of Children

Come Back Alive

Serhiy Prytula Foundation

United24

Hospitallers

Army SOS

8:15 am, August 6th, 1945. This is the day that brought humanity into the atomic age. 75 years ago today, the United States dropped a nuclear bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy”, on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. It was followed by a second bomb, nicknamed “Fat Man”, being dropped of the city of Nagasaki on August 9th. These remain the only times that nuclear bombs were used in warfare. Over 140,000 people were killed in the explosions. Thousands more have died since then due to injuries and illnesses contracted from the blasts. Nearly 70% of the city was leveled and anything within one mile of the detonation site was totally destroyed. The attack led the surrender of Japan to the allied nations on August 15, officially ending the Second World War.

As we near the end of pride month, I would like to celebrate a number of LGBTQ+ figures that may be unknown to some.

Alan Turing (1912 - 1954)

Alan Turing was British mathematician, cryptologist, and computer scientist who is credited as the founder of modern computer science and artificial intelligence. During World War II, he worked for Britain’s Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, leading the effort to decrypt German naval intelligence. Turing created a number of methods and devices that helped crack the German Enigma Code and allowed the allies to read German intelligence and allow allied ships to avoid U-Boat ‘Wolf-packs’. Turing’s work was pivotal in helping the allied victory in the war. Sadly, Turing was arrested in 1952 for homosexual acts and convicted of ‘gross indecency’. He accepted chemical castration as an alternative to prison. In 1954, was found dead from suicide by cyanide poisoning. It’s believed that Turing’s work helped shortened the war by several years.

Harvey Milk (1930 - 1978)

Harvey Milk was a politician and the first openly gay man to serve in public office in the United States. Milk moved to San Francisco in 1972 and took up residence in the Castro District, a neighborhood that was heavily populated by lesbians and gay men, and opened a camera store called Castro Camera. Milk became involved in politics because of civic issues and policies that drew his ire. Homosexuality was still heavily persecuted in the city at the time. In 1973, he announced his declared his candidacy for city supervisor. However, he faced a negative reception from the established gay political scene and lost the election. He lost his second election two years later. By this point, Milk had become a leading figure in the gay community, known as the “Mayor of Castro Street”, and had allies that included Mayor George Moscone, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, and future Senator Diane Feinstein. Finally, in 1978, Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, inaugurated January 8. During his tenure he was involved in a number of issues including childcare, housing, and police reform. Sadly, he only served eleven months in office before he, along with George Moscone, was assassinated by former supervisor Dan White, who was against many of Milks policies. Today, Harvey Milk is considered an icon of San Francisco and a martyr of the LGBTQ movement.

Rose Cleveland (1846 - 1918)

Rose Cleveland was the sister of U.S. President Grover Cleveland and, as such, acted as First Lady of the United States from his inauguration until he married Frances Folsom in 1886. After leaving the White House she became a teacher, writer, and lecturer in Indiana. At age 44 she started a romantic relationship with wealthy widow Evangeline Marrs Simpson. They exchanged numerous letters, some with explicitly erotic imagery. The relationship cooled after six years after Simpson married Episcopal preacher Bishop Henry Whipple, despite Cleveland’s protests. After Whipple died in 1901, their relationship resumed. Cleveland and Evangeline moved to Bagni di Lucca, Italy in 1910, where they cared for Evangeline’s ill brother and settled there after his death. They lived there together until Cleveland died during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. After her death, Evangeline wrote “the light has gone out for me…the loss of this noble and great soul is a blow that I shall not recover from”. Evangeline died in 1930 and is buried in the cemetery in Italy next to Rose. Many of their letters remain an important part of LGBTQ history.

Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987)

Andy Warhol was an American artist, director, and producer who was a leading figure in the pop art movement of the 1950’s to 1970’s. This movement focused on combining fine art with elements of popular culture, hence the name pop art. Warhol’s paintings focused on mass produced consumer goods and celebrity portraits. Warhol’s most famous pieces include Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962), Green Coca-Cola Bottles (1962), Marilyn Diptych (1962), and Mao Tse-Tung (1972). He also directed and produced experimental films including Empire (1964) and Chelsea Girls (1966). His New York City gallery, The Factory, was a popular gathering place for artists, musicians, actors, socialites, and celebrities. In 1966, he became the manager of rock band The Velvet Underground, which became the house band of The Factory. In 1969, he created Interview magazine, which features interviews with celebrities, artists, musicians, and other creatives. Warhol lived openly as a gay man before the gay liberation movement and had a series of male partners. He said his sexuality was a major influence of his work. Warhol died on February 22, 1987 due to complications from a gallbladder surgery. Andy Warhol is regarded as one of America’s most famous visual artists.

Gladys Bentley (1907 - 1960)

Gladys Bentley was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s and 1930’s. Her career took off after performing at Harry Hansberry’s Clam House, a well known gay speakeasy in New York City. She gained popularity as a black, lesbian, cross dressing performer. She performed in men’s clothes and was backed up by a chorus of drag queens. She sang with a deep, growling voice, and took popular songs and added her own raunchy lyrics while flirting with women in the audience. Despite being openly lesbian in the beginning of her career, she later started wearing dresses and married during the more conservative 1950’s in order to adapt to the mindset of the time period. Bentley died of pneumonia in 1960 and is remembered as an icon of both the LGBTQ and Black communities.

Willem Arondeus (1894 - 1943)

Willem Arondeus was an openly gay Dutch artist and writer who fought for the Dutch resistance against Nazi occupation during World War II. Prior to the war, he wished to work as an artist, but he found very little popularity, so he turned to writing instead. After Germany occupied The Netherlands, Arondeus joined the Resistance Movement, publishing underground periodicals and forging documents. His most famous endeavor, was his involvement in the bombing of the Amsterdam Civil Registry in 1943. The Civil Registry was established following the German invasion and occupation of the Netherlands in 1940 and was used to keep records of all residents of the country and identified those who were Jewish, resistance members, and those who could be called up for forced labor. On March 27, resistance members, including Arondeus, entered the building by disguising themselves as police officers and sedating the guards. They then piled all the documents on the floor and set of explosives. They fire department delayed putting out the fire and then doused the whole building with water. 800,000 ID cards were destroyed in total. Unfortunately, someone betrayed Arondeus and he was subsequently arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. Before his execution, his last words were “tell people that homosexuals are not cowards”.

Gilbert Baker (1951 - 2017)

Gilbert Baker was an American artist and designer who is the original creator of the LGBTQ Rainbow Pride flag. He joined the anti-war movement in the 1970’s where he met, and became friends with, Harvey Milk. Milk commissioned Baker to create a flag that could represent gay pride. Using the American flag as inspiration, Baker hand sew the original flag, which had eight colored stripes (two more than the modern version). Each color represents a different aspect important to the gay community: (from hot pink to violet) sex, life, healing, sunlight, nature, magic, serenity, and spirit. The flag was first flown in San Francisco on June 25, 1978, for gay pride day. Baker died in 2017, and is regarded as a major figure in the pride movement. Today there are many different variations of the Pride flag, with each one representing a different group from the gay community

Larry Kramer (1935 - 2020)

Larry Kramer was an American playwright, author, film producer, and gay rights activist, who worked to bring awareness to the AIDS crisis in the 1980’s. He began his career writing scripts for Columbia pictures, winning an Academy Award for the 1969 film Women in Love. After witnessing the disease later known as AIDS spread among his friends, Kramer became involved in gay activism. In 1982, Kramer co-founded Gay Men’s Health Crisis, now known as GMHC, which provides social services for those infected with AIDS, along with testing, legal assistance, and mental health support. It’s currently the largest AIDS assistance organization in the world After, growing frustrated with the government paralysis and apathy towards gay men, he wanted to engage in further action, so in 1987, he helped found the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). ACT UP is a direct action protest organization that works to change legislation and public policy to end the AIDS crisis. ACT UP soon had chapters in cities all over the United States. The movement then spread internationally, with separate movements being established in other countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, India, and Germany. In 1992, Kramer wrote the play ‘The Destiny of Me’, which follows a character from his 1985 play ‘The Normal Heart’ seeking experimental treatment for AIDS. The play was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The Normal Heart debuted on Broadway in 2011, and was adapted into an HBO movie in 2014. Kramer died of pneumonia on May 27, 2020.

Bessie Smith (1894 - 1937)

Bessie Smith was an American blues singer, nicknamed the ‘Empress of Blues’. She was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930’s. Smith stated her career busking in the streets to help her family financially. In 1912, she auditioned for a music troupe that included blues legend Ma Rainey. She was originally hired as a dancer. Smith began her solo career at the 81 Theater in Atlanta, Georgia. She signed with Columbia Records in 1923. She made 160 recordings for Columbia, accompanied by some of the most famous musicians of the day including Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson, and Sidney Bechet. She became the highest paid black entertainer of the day. Throughout her career, smith was apologetically herself, having affairs with both men and women. Some speculate her bisexuality was hinted at in the lyrics of her songs, including ‘boy in the boat’: “when you see two women walking hand in hand/Just look ‘em over and try to understand/They’ll go to those parties/Having the lights down low/Only those parties where women can go”. Sadly, her career was cut short in 1937, when she died at the age of 43 due to injuries sustained in a car accident enroute to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her funeral was attended by more then 5,000 people. In 1989, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with an entry saying her reign was “definitive, unprecedented, and glorious”.

James Baldwin (1924 - 1987)

James Baldwin was an American writer who gained critical acclaim across multiple forms, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. In 1953, he published his first book ‘Go Tell it on the Mountain’, a semi-autobiographical novel which tells the story of a young African American man who grew up in Harlem, New York City, and his relationship with his family and the Pentecostal Church. In 1998, Modern Library ranked the book 39th on its list of 100 best English language novels of the 20th century. In 2005, Time Magazine included the book in its list of the 100 Best Novels from 1923 (when Time was first published) to 2005. In 1956, Baldwin wrote ‘Giovanni’s Room’ whose main character was a gay American man living in Paris, France, who began an affair with an Italian bartender named Giovanni, whom he met at a Gay bar. Gay and Bisexual men are also frequently featured in his other works. His unfinished manuscript Remember This House was expanded and adapted in the 2016 Oscar nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro, which won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary. His 1974 novel ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ was adapted into a movie in 2018, which won Best Supporting Actress for Regina King at the 91st Academy Awards, where the film was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score. King also received Best Supporting Actress at the 76th Golden Globe Awards and 24th Critics Choice Awards. Both the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute included it in their top 10 films of 2018. Today, James Baldwin is considered one of the most famous LGBTQ writers in American history.

An original Jack O Lantern made from a turnip.

Halloween, or All Hallow’s Eve, is said to have been influenced by ancient Christian, pagan, and Irish traditions. In Christianity, Halloween in the first day of AllHallowTide, a festival consisting of All Hallow’s Eve, All Hallow’s Day, and All Soul’s day. The celebration was meant to remember the dead. In pagan tradition, the holiday was influenced by the ancient gealic festival of Samhain, which marks the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter. During the festival, large bonfires were lit and the bones of animals kept for slaughter were thrown in as a sacrifice. According to gaelic mythology, during this time, the boundary between the living world and the spirit world is at its thinnest, allowing spirits to cross into our world. According to legend, the spirit of a man named stingy Jack was cursed to wonder the earth for an eternity after his death, with nothing but a hollowed out turnip containing a lit coal to guide his way. He was dubbed Jack of the Lantern or Jack O’ Lantern. The Irish people would carve out gourds, such as turnips, to ward off malicious spirits. Irish immigrants in North America began to use pumpkins because they were easier to carve. The children of the poor would wear costumes and go from door to door of the wealthy receiving small gifts of special cakes called soul cakes in exchange for a song or a prayer for the dead. Eventually children took up this practice by going from door to door asking for small gifts of food or money. Eventually All these traditions evolved into the Halloween that we all know and love.

In honor of Black History Month, here are 10 Black Americans who were pioneers of their time. (I apologize that this post is late. I’ve been preoccupied with midterm exams)

Eugene Bullard (1895 - 1961)

Eugene Bullard was one of the first African American military pilots in the world. Originally from Georgia, Bullard had run away from home when he was 11 and wondered around the state for six years with a clan of gypsies before stowing away on a German cargo ship in 1912. He ended up in Aberdeen, Scotland and eventually ended up in London, where he worked as a boxer and performer for an entertainment troupe. He traveled to Paris for a boxing match and eventually settled there permanently. When World War 1 began in 1914, Bullard joined the French Foreign Legion, where he saw combat at the Somme, Champaign, and Verdun. After being injured during the Battle of Verdun, he was sent to Lyon to recuperate. After recovering in 1916 he joined the French Air Service as a machine gunner. He obtained his pilot's license in 1917. He flew several missions during the war and claimed two victories over German planes. He applied to join the American Air Corps after the United States entered the war in 1917 but was rejected because of his race. Bullard returned to the French Air Service but was removed after an apparent conflict with a French officer. He remained in the military until 1919. He returned to Paris where he worked a nightclub, operated his own nightclub and gym, and married Marcelle de Straumann. After Germany invaded France in 1940, he volunteered to fight again, but was injured during the defense of Orleans. He escaped to Spain and later returned to the United States, settling in Harlem, New York City. In 1949, he was working as a security guard at concert hosted by Paul Robeson. Riots broke out where a racist mob and police officers beat concert goers, including Bullard. He eventually died of Stomach Cancer in 1961.

Bullard received many honors from France. In 1954, the French government invited Bullard to Paris to be one of the three men chosen to rekindle the everlasting flame at the Tomb of the Unkown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe. In 1959, he was made a Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor. He also received the Military Medal, an award given for courageous acts and the third highest award in France. After his death, he also received honors from the United States. He was posthumously commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force in 1994. He was inducted into the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame in 1989 and the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2022. The Museum of Aviation in Warner Robbins, Georgia erected a statute in honor of Bullard.

Ruby Bridges (1954 - )

Ruby Bridges hadn't even been born yet when, in 1954, the United States Supreme Court made a landmark ruling in the Brown vs. Board of Education case that declared that desegregation in public schools was unconstitutional. This decision caused protests and celebrations all across the South, including New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1960, when Ruby was 6 years old, U.S. Circuit Court Judge ruled that schools in New Orleans must begin desegregation. Ruby was one of four 6-year-old girls (the others being Lenona Tate, Tessie Provost, and Gail Etienne) selected by the NAACP to participate in the integration. Tate, Provost, and Etienne enrolled at McDonogh 19 Elementary School, while Bridges enrolled at William Frantz Elementary School. All four faced death threats, racial slurs, and taunts. After a race riot broke out at Parish School Board meeting, U.S. Marshalls were called in to escort the girls to and from school.

Since the tumultuous period, Bridges has become a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement. She has been the subject of Songs, documentaries, movies, and 1964 Norman Rockwell painting "The Problem We All Live With". She is currently the Chair of the Ruby Bridges Foundation. She has also received numerous accolades over her life including the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Clinton in 2001, being honored as a "Hero Against Racism" by the Anti-Defamation League in 2006 and being inducted in the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2024.

Bessie Coleman (1892 - 1926)

Bessie Coleman was born the tenth child out of thirteen to a family of sharecroppers in Texas. She walked four miles each day to attend a segregated school where she loved reading and established herself as an exceptional math student. Every harvest season she helped her family harvest cotton. When was turned eighteen years old, she enrolled at the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University in Langston, Oklahoma (known today as Langston University). She only completed one term before running out of funds and returning home. In 1915, she moved to Chicago to live with brothers where she worked as a manicurist at a barbershop, where she heard flying stories of pilots returning from their service in World War 1. She took a second job as a restaurant manager to save money in the hopes of becoming a pilot herself, but flight schools in the U.S. at the time were not accepting women nor black people. As such, she was encouraged to study abroad by Robert Abbott, publisher of the African American newspaper 'The Chicago Defender'. To do this she received financial backing from the defender and banker Jesse Binga (founder of the first black owned bank in Chicago).

In 1920, she traveled to France to earn her license. She trained on a Nieuport 14 Biplane. In 1921, she received her pilots license, becoming the first black woman (and first black person in general) to receive a license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. She returned to the United States in September becoming a media sensation. She made a living performing in air shows as a stunt flier. She met with community activists and spoke before crowds about perusing aviation as a profession and the goals of black people in the United States. Unfortunately, she was killed in 1926, when the plane she was flying in lost control and threw her out at 2,000ft. Though she never established her own flight school, her ambitions inspired many other black aviators to this very day.

Katherine Johnson (1918 - 2020)

Katherine Johnson was one of the first black to be employed as a scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Born in White Sulpher Springs, West Virginia, she was the youngest of four children. Her mother was a teacher, and her father was a lumberjack, farmer, and handyman. From an early age she displayed strong mathematical abilities, so her parents enrolled her in high school in Institute since their home county didn't school for African Americans passed the 8th grade. After graduating high school, she enrolled at West Virginia State College, where took every mathematics course offered (new classes were even added just for her). She graduated 'summa cum laude' in 1937 and took a teaching job Marion, Virginia.

In 1938, the Supreme Court ruled that states that provide higher education for white students must provide it for black students as well. As a result of this, Johnson was selected along with two men to become the first black students to be enrolled at the West Virginia University Graduate School in 1939. However, she left the program to start a family with her husband James Goble. The couple had three daughters: Joylette, Katherine, and Constance.

At a family gathering in 1952, a relative informed her that the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, the precursor to NASA) was hiring mathematicians and that the Langley Research Center was hiring Black applicants as well as white. Johnson took a job at the agency in 1953. She spent 33 years with NACA and NASA, where she earned a reputation as a human computer for mastering complex mathematical calculations and helping pioneer the use of electronic computers. She worked at topics including gust alleviation, flight trajectories, and launch windows. Her work was instrumental to the Apollo Missions during the Cold War 'Space Race'. For her work she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015, the Silver Snoopy Award and a NASA Group Achievement Award in 2016, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2019. She was the one of the subjects of the 2016 film Hidden Figures, and she was posthumously inducted into the National Womens Hall of Fame in 2021.

Shirley Chisholm (1924 - 2005)

Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. She was born in Brooklyn to working class parents. Since her mother face difficulty working and raising her children, Shirley and her three younger sisters were to live with their grandmother in Barbados. She said about her grandmother "Granny gave me strength, dignity, and love. I learned from an early age that I was somebody. I didn't need the black revolution to teach me that". She returned to the United States in 1934 and in 1939, began attending the integrated Girl's High School in Brooklyn. She did so well academically, she served as the Vice President of the Junior Arista Honor Society. She attended Brooklyn College where she majored in sociology and graduated in 1946. She married her husband Conrad in 1949. After suffering two miscarriages, the couple learned they could not have children. She worked as a teacher's aide from 1946 to 1953, during which she went on to obtain her master's degree in childhood education from Columbia University in 1951. She soon became an authority on childhood education and child welfare as a consultant for the Division of Day Care in New York City's Bureau of Child Welfare.

She entered politics when she joined the effort to elect Lewis Flagg Jr. to the bench as the first black judge in Brooklyn. The election group became known as the Bedford–Stuyvesant Political League (BSPL), which pushed candidates that supported civil rights and advocated for expanding opportunities in Brooklyn. After leaving the BSPL she worked with a number of different political groups including the League of Women Voters, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Urban League, and the Democratic Party Club in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

In 1964, Chisholm decided to run for the New York State Assembly after the present holder, Thomas R. Jones, was appointed to the New York City Civil Court. Despite resistance because she was a woman, she appealed to women voters and won the Democratic primary in June. She was elected in December serving in the assembly from 1965 to 1968, where she championed several pieces of legislation including expanding unemployment benefits and sponsoring the introduction of the SEEK program which helped disadvantaged kids enter college. In 1968 Chisholm ran for the United States House of Representatives for New Yorks 12th District, which had recently been redrawn to incorporate the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. She ran with the slogan "unbought and unbossed" and won the district with a nearly 2 to 1 margin over her opponent, becoming the first black woman ever elected to Congress. She served on a number of different committees during her career, including the Agriculture, Veterans, and Education and Labor Committees. She worked with Bob Dole to expand the Food Stamps program, played a critical role in the creation of the WIC program, and was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the National Women's Political Caucus. In 1972, she became the first black candidate for a major-party nomination for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, though she ultimately lost the nomination. She retired from politics in 1983, after 14 in Congress. She was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.

Thurgood Marshall (1908 - 1993)

Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer and jurist who served as the black justice of the United States Supreme Court. Marshall was originally from Baltimore, Maryland, where graduated from high school with honors in 1925 and then attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania where he graduated with honors in 1930 with a bachelor's degree in American literature and philosophy. While at Lincoln, he led the schools debate team to numerous victories. He attended Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C. because he couldn't attend the all-white University of Maryland Law School. While at Howard, he was mentored by NAACP first special counsel and Law School Dean George Hamilton Houston. He graduated first in class in 1933. He joined Houston as his assistant at the NAACP in 1935, where they worked together on the landmark case Missouri ex rel. Gaines vs. Canada, which ruled that any state which provides a school to white students had to provide in-state education to black students as well. After Houston returned to Washington, Marshall took over his position as special counsel to the NAACP and also became director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. 

During his career he argued 32 civil rights before the Supreme Court, winning 29 of them. Many of them were landmark cases including Smith vs. Allwright (which ruled that primary elections must be open to voters of all races), Morgan vs. Virginia (which ruled that a state law enforcing the segregation of interstate buses was unconstitutional), Shelley vs. Kramer (which ruled that racially restrictive housing covenants cannot be legally enforced), and Brown vs. Board of Education (which ruled that state laws requiring segregation in schools was unconstitutional).

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed him as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in order for Kennedy to demonstrate his commitment to the interests of black Americans. He took the oath after numerous delays by southern Senators. Marshall authored 98 majority opinions while on the bench. He was nominated as the United States Solicitor General by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, where he won fourteen of the nineteen Supreme Court cases he argued. In 1967, Johnson nominated Marshall to be a Supreme Court Justice after Justice Tom C. Cark resigned. He took the Oath of Office on October 2. Marshall remained on the Court for 24 years until his retirement in 1991. A staunch liberal, he often dissented from the court as the liberal majority vanished and the court became more conservative. During his tenure he advocated for equal rights for minorities, opposed the death penalty, and supported abortion rights.

Jesse Owens (1913 - 1980)

Jesse Owens was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games. Owens was born the youngest of ten children in Oakville, Alabama. In 1922, his family moved to Ohio during the great migration in search of better opportunities. As a child, he developed a passion for running, which was encouraged by his middle school track coach Charles Riley. It was in middle school where he met Minnie Solomon. They married in 1935 and had three daughters: Gloria in 1932, Marlene in 1937, and Beverly in 1940. He first came to national attention while attending high school where he equaled the world record of 9.4 seconds in the 100 yards dash and long-jumped 24 feet 91⁄2 inches at the 1933 National High School Championship in Chicago. While a student at Ohio State University, Owens won a record eight NCAA championships. Notably in 1935, he set three world records and tied a fourth during the Big Ten Conference track meet in Ann Arbor. He equaled the world record of 9.4 seconds in the 100-yard dash and set records for the long jump at 26 feet 81⁄4 inches, the 220-yard sprint at 20.3 seconds, and the 220-yard low hurdles at 22.6 seconds, which cemented him in track and field history.

In 1936, in despite of his apprehension, he was selected to compete in the Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. At the time, Germany was under the iron grip of the Nazi regime led by Adolf Hitler. Hitler saw the games as an opportunity to promote the Nazi ideals of antisemitism and Aryan supremacy. He believed German athletes would dominate the games. However, he visions went unfulfilled. Over the length of competition Owens won Gold Medals in the 100-meter dash at 10.3 seconds, the long jump at 26 ft 5 inches, the 200-meter sprint at 20.7 seconds, and the 4 x 100-meter sprint relay at 39.8 seconds. On August 1, Hitler shook hands with the German victors only and left the stadium and then skipped all further medal presentations. Despite his victories, racial discrimination in the United States made it difficult for Owens to earn a living, being prohibited from appearing at sporting events and refused commercial sponsorships. He attempted several careers, but all they proved fruitless. He hit rock bottom in 1966, when he was prosecuted for tax evasion. In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower selected Owens as a Goodwill Ambassador, being sent all around the world to promote physical exercise and tout American freedom and economic opportunity in the developing world, a position held until the 1970s. He also did product endorsement for corporations such as Quaker Oats, Sears and Roebuck, and Johnson & Johnson. He was invited to the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics as a guest of the West German government. He eventually retired and moved to Arizona with his wife. Owens succumbed to Lung Cancer in 1980 at the age of 66 and was buried in Tucson, Arizona. In 1983 he was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and was posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal in 1990.

Hiram Revels (1827 - 1901)

Hiram Revels was the first African-Amercian to serve in the United States Congress. He was born to free black people in Fayetteville, North Carolina. His father was a Baptist preacher. He attended a Quaker seminary in Indiana as a boy and in 1845, was ordained as a minister with the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He traveled throughout the Midwest preaching and acted as a religious teacher. He studied religion at Knox College in Illinois from 1855 to 1857 and then became a minister a Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland, while also serving as a high school principal. During the Civil War, he enlisted as a Chaplain in the Union Army and helped recruit and organized two black regiments in Maryland and Missouri.

In 1866, Revels was called to be the pastor in Natchez, Mississippi where he settled permanently with his wife and five daughters. In 1868, during the Reconstruction Era, he was elected as an Alderman of Natchez and in 1869, he was elected to represent Adams County in the Mississippi State Legislature. In 1870, Revels was elected to the United States Senate by the state legislature to fill the seat left since before the Civil War. Southern Democrats opposed his seat, stating that the 1857 Dred Scott decision disqualified him on basis if citizenship. He officially became the first black senator on February 25. As a senator, he advocated compromise and moderation, and supported racial equality. He served on both the Committee of Education and Labor and the Committee of the District of Columbia (at the time, Congress administered the district). His professional conduct was greatly admired by fellow congressmen and the Northern press. After his term expired, he became President of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College in Claiborne County, Mississippi (currently Alcorn State University). He served in this post until his retirement in 1882. In 2002, he was listed as one of 100 Greatest African Americans by Molefi Kete Asante.

Henry Johnson (1897 - 1929)

Henry Johnson was an American soldier who was noted for heroic actions during World War One. Originally from North Carolina, he moved to Albany, New York and worked variety of menial jobs before enlisting in the army in 1917, two months after the United States entry into the First World War. The unit he was assigned to, the all-black New York National Guard 15th Infantry Regiment, was mustered into federal service and redesignated as the 369th Infantry Regiment, commonly known as the Harlem Hellfighters. The regiment was assigned to labor service duties while stationed in Europe. The black service members faced discrimination and harassment by white soldiers and even the American headquarters. The American commander loaned the regiment to the French Army. It's believed he did this because white soldiers refused to fight alongside black soldiers. The French enthusiastically welcomed the new troops.

The regiment, Johnson included, was assigned to the Ardennes Forest. While on outpost duty on the night of May 14, 1918, Johnson came under attack by a German raiding party. Using only his bare hands, a bolo knife, his rifle butt, and some grenades, he was able to repel the attackers, killing four of them and preventing the capture of his fellow soldiers, all while suffering 21 wounds. He was given the nickname "Black Death" for his actions and awarded the Croix de guerre by France. However, his actions went unrecognized in the U.S. because of racial discrimination, and he died poor and in obscurity. However, he has since been posthumously given several awards by the military, including the Purple Heart in 1996, the Distinguished Service Cross in 2002, and the Medal of Honor in 2015. In 2023, the U.S. Army base Fort Polk in Louisiana was renamed Fort Johnson in his honor.

Dorothy Height (1912 - 2010)

Dorothy Height was an activist for both the Civil Rights and Women's Rights movements. Height was born in Richmond, Virginia and moved to Rankin, Pennsylvania when she was five. Her mother was active in the Pennsylvania Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, and regularly took along Dororthy to meetings, which exposed her to activism from a young age. Height was an enthusiastic participate in Young Women's Christian Association, who was eventually elected as president of the club. She was appalled to learn that her race prevented her from using the YMWA's central branch swimming pool and dedicated much energy to changing the YWCA. While in high school she was active in the anti-lynching movement and won first place and a $1,000 scholarship in a national oratory contest held by the Elks Club. Height graduated from high school in 1929 and was accepted entry in Bernard College at Columbia University but was barred from entering because the school had an unwritten policy of only admitting two black students a year. She instead enrolled at New York University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1932 and a master's degree in educational psychology in 1933. She pursued postgraduate work at the New York School of Social Work.

From 1934 to 1937, Height worked for the New York Department of Welfare, a job she credited for teaching her conflict resolution skills. She then took a job as a counselor at the YWCA Harlem Branch. While working there she met civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt at a meeting of the National Council of Negro Women being held at the YWCA office. During this meeting Bethune told her "The freedom gates are half ajar. We must pry them fully open". She dedicated her life to this cause. She also did work with the United Christian Youth Movement, a group that worked to relate faith to real-world problems.

Beginning in 1939, she worked at YWCA offices in New York City and Washington, D.C., specializing in interracial relations. She ran trainings, wrote periodicals, and worked in Public Affairs on race issues. She believed that segregation caused prejudice through estrangement, so after the YWCA adopted in interracial charter in 1946, Height worked to help white members of the organization transcend their apprehension and bring their action in line with what the YWCA principles by running workshops, facilitating meetings, and writing articles. In 1958, she was elected president of the National Council of Negro Women and remained at the post until 1990. While president of the NCNW, she worked alongside civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and Whitney Young. Thanks to her background as an orator, she became a master at acting as the middleman in initiating dialogue between feuding parties. In 1963 she became head of the "Action Program for Integration and Desegregation of Community YWCAs", which was started in response to the growing civil rights movement. In this role she worked to monitor progress in integrating the association. In 1974, she was named to the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, which was formed in response to the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment scandal. She was also a driving force behind the movement to get a statue of Mary McLeod Bethune in Lincoln Park, the first statue of a woman or a black person to be erected on federal land.

She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993. She was awarded the Presidential Citizen's Medal in 1989, the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton in 1994, a Congressional Gold Medal by President George H.W. Bush in 2004, and President Barack Obama called Height "the godmother of the civil rights movement and a hero to so many Americans". She died on April 20, 2010, at the age of 98. She was buried at Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Maryland after a funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. She is considered one of the driving forces of the American Civil Rights Movement.