Black Awareness

February 20th AFRICAN AMERICAN PATENTED AIRCRAFT John F. Pickering, of Gonaives, Haiti was granted Patent Number 643,975, on February 20, 1900 for Air Ship... http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser. The United States Patent Office assigned Pickering’s airship to class 244/29, Airship and Fluid Sustained. See more

February 19th First Pan African Congress Meeting In February 1919, the first Pan-African Congress was organized by W. E. B. Du Bois and Ida Gibbs Hunt, wife of US Consul William Henry Hunt, who was at that time working at the American consulate in Saint-Étienne, France.[6] There were 57 delegates representing 15 countries, a smaller number than originally intended because British and American governments refused to issue passports to their citizens who had planned on attendin...g.[7] Their main task was petitioning the Versailles Peace Conference held in Paris at that time. Among their demands were that: The Allies should be in charge of the administration of former territories in Africa as a Condominium on behalf of the Africans who were living there. Africa be granted home rule and Africans should take part in governing their countries as fast as their development permits until at some specified time in the future. Delegates Among the delegates were:[8] Eliezer Cadet, Universal Negro Improvement Association Gratien Candace, Guadeloupe Blaise Diagne, Senegal, and French Commissioner General of the Ministry of Colonies William Jernagin, Washington, United States Charles D. B. King, Liberia Richard R. Wright Robert Russa Moton

February 18th H. GRENON. ' RAZOR STROPPING DEVICE....Continue reading

February 17th Albert Richardson November 26, 2012/3 Comments/in Inventors, Male Inventors, NonPhotos /by Gaius Chamberlain... Inventor of the Butter Churn and a casket lowering device. Albert Richardson was one of those rare inventors who not only created numerous devices, but created devices that were completely unrelated to one another. Until 1891 anyone wanting to make butter would have to do so by hand in a bowl. On February 17, 1891 Richardson patented the butter churn. The device consisted of a large wooden cylinder container with a plunger-like handle which moved up and down. In doing so, the movement caused oily parts of cream or milk to become separated from the more watery parts. This allowed for an easy way to make butter and forever changed the food industry. In 1894, Richardson saw a problem with the way the bodies of dead people were buried. It was common at that time to simply bury bodies in small, shallow graves or to try to lower their caskets with ropes into a deeper hole. Unfortunately, this required several people to work in unison to ensure that the casket was lowered evenly. Failure to do so could cause the casket to slip out of one of the ropes and to be damaged from hitting the ground. On November 13, 1894, Richardson patented the casket lowering device which consisted of a series of pulleys and ropes or cloths which ensured uniformity in the lowering process. This invention was very significant at that time and is used in all cemeteries today. In addition to these devices, Richardson patented a hame fastener in 1882, an insect destroyer in February of 1899 and an improvement in the design of the bottle in December of 1899.

February 16 The Freedman's Savings and Trust Company was established as a secure banking institution where Black soldiers could save their money and also to encourage the African-American community to save. President Abraham Lincoln signed a law incorporating it on March 3, 1865. On Feb. 16, 1856, Frederick Douglass was elected president of the then-failing bank. Initially headquartered in New York, and then Washington, D.C., Freedman's opened 37 branches in 17 states between... 1865 and 1871. During that period, it also took in deposits of more than $2.9 million. That money was lost, however, due to over-expansion, mismanagement and fraud. Douglass invested $10,000 of his own money in the institution, unaware that its solvency was uncertain. In June 1874, he petitioned Congress to close the bank.