Did you know Martin Luther King Jr regretted his “I Have A Dream” speech? Reflecting upon it he feared he was integrating his people into a burning house. He felt that America was not being true to what America’s founding father’s wrote on paper. His perspective started to change, he started to see riots as necessary and as durable social phenomena. He spoke less about “dreams” and more about action. He spoke to and supported sanitation workers that were on strike and spoke about boycotting Coca Cola and other businesses. He spoke about sticking together and never stopping until actionable change was made. He spoke of Egyptian history, Greek, and Roman history. He was still non-violent, but there was clearly a shift in his energy. He was assassinated within 24 hours of making his last speech.
Black History 365 | # 83 Shirley Chisholm
Black History 365 | # 82 The Kemetic (Egyptian) Peace Sign
The origin of splitting your index and middle finger while throwing up the “peace” sign is actually the hand signal used by allied nations during World War II. It’s a V, for victory. Victor de Laveleye, a Belgian refugee working for the BBC, shortwaved the following announcement to his countrymen: "I am proposing to you as a rallying emblem the letter V…” Although anti-war activists later adopted it as a symbol of peace the Kemetic aka Egyptian peace sign meant oneness. And your index and middle fingers are to be brought together. Makes sense. Pretty cool stuff. Peace.
Black History 365 | # 81 George Crum
This is the man who invented the potato chip. His name is George Crum. A skilled chef, he worked at Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York which is where Crum invented the chips. The Moon’s Lake House owner Cary Moon tried to later claim credit for the chip invention and began producing and distributing potato chips in boxes. In the 1920s a so-called entrepreneur named Herman Lay caught wind of these thinly cut potatoes, mimicked the recipe and began traveling through the south and introducing potato chips to different communities. At that point, Crum’s legacy was overtaken by the mass production and distribution of potato chips, on a national scale by Herman Lay. By 1930 Louis A “Doc” Farone, a bootlegger and associate of underworld figure Meyer Lansky gained ownership of Moon’s Lake House, turned it into an illegal gambling house and illegal bar during prohibition. Overall, legal and illegal American success was built off the organic discovery by the melanated. It has been said that when Crum opened his own restaurant in the 1860s in Malta, New York, he provided every table with a basket of chips for the free. For the love. Very player-like. He lived to be 90.
Black History 365 | # 80 Claudinette Fouchard
Born in Port Au Prince Haiti, Claudinette Fouchard won Miss Haiti and the Miss World Sugar Pageant in 1960. Upon winning Haiti had made a few stamps in her honor, she also made it to the covers of Jet & Ebony magazine. She eventually left to study in France and eventually at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. After her success in pageantry, Fouchard married and largely left the public eye. She married a German Industrialist in her parent’s backyard villa in Petionville, Haiti. Her time in the spotlight was short, however she made an immense impact on the world’s impression of Haiti.