This is Toni Stone. Marcenia Lyle “Toni” Stone was the first woman to play professional baseball regularly in a major men's professional baseball league. And while in the Negro American League, she replaced none other than Hank Aaron. She was a phenomenal athlete from her youth, and though she played football, basketball, golf, hockey and tennis, among other sports while growing up, baseball was the one that did it. At 16 years old, she joined the semi-pro Twin Cities Colored Giants club, which had been an all-male team. Stone began her professional career with the San Francisco Sea Lions of the West Coast Negro Baseball League in 1946. By 1949, she had moved east and began playing for the New Orleans Black Pelicans and the New Orleans Creoles of the Negro Southern League. Stone also reportedly got a hit off one the greatest pitchers in history, Satchel Paige. Sheesh! Stone retired from professional baseball following the 1954 season, one she spent with the Kansas City Monarchs after having her contract sold by Indianapolis following the ’53 campaign. In 1990, she was included in the “Women in Baseball” and “Negro League Baseball” exhibits at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Three years later, she was inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame and the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. In 1990, in her hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota declared March 6 “Toni Stone Day” in the city. Stone died on November 2, 1996 at the age of 75, but her legacy lives on today. An off-broadway play was produced about her life by award-winning playwright Lydia R. Diamond, entitled “Toni Stone” in 2019.
Black History 365 | # 221 Dr. Chester M. Pierce
If you don’t know about and love Sesame Street chances are you weren’t a PBS Kid. Either that or you were a Grouch. Sesame Street is an example of educational television proving success in improving cognitive skills, teaching respect and social skills, and promoting school readiness skills. Children who watch the show as two-year-olds gain an advantage in math, vocabulary, and other school readiness skills by the time they are five. In comes Dr. Chester Pierce. A psychologist and professor who was a national advisor for CTW and who would become the founding president of the Black Psychiatrists of America in 1969, also saw an opportunity to provide widespread, radical therapeutic treatment for Black children. Dr. Pierce earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1952. Following his medical education, he pursued an internship and residency training in psychiatry at Cincinnati General Hospital. Dr. Pierce held prominent positions, including Commander in the US Navy and senior consultant to various esteemed organizations such as the Surgeon General of the US Air Force, the Children's Television Network (Sesame Street, Electric Company), the US Arctic Research Commission, the Peace Corps, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He also is the person responsible behind the term “microaggression,” coining the term in 1970, leaving a lasting impact on the field of psychiatry and social justice. In the aftermath of strategic assassinations of black leaders The Black Psychiatrists of America, fueled by grief and a commitment to justice, strove to reshape the narrative on racism within their profession and society at large. They envisioned using mass media, particularly television, as a tool for radical therapeutic intervention. With a deep understanding of the damaging messages in mainstream media–especially detrimental to young black children–he saw an opportunity for change. This is where Sesame Street became the innovative educational tool but also as a means to counteract the racist narratives at the time. Launched in 1969, the show intentionally featured a racially diverse cast, portraying an idealized inner-city neighborhood where characters of all ethnicities lived, worked, and played innovative educational tool but also as a means to counteract the racist narratives at the time. Launched in 1969, the show intentionally featured a racially diverse cast, portraying an idealized inner-city neighborhood where characters of all ethnicities lived, worked, and played together. This was the shows “hidden curriculum,” and it aimed to bolster the self-respect of black and minority children while portraying a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural world. The show faced resistance, notably in Mississippi, where legislators initially deemed the interracial cast unfit for their audience. Despite challenges, Sesame Street has emerged as the most successful children’s show of all time, reaching hearts and minds across the nation. Dr. Chester Pierce’s radical mental health agenda has remained at the core of the show’s creation. Thank you Dr. Pierce for your contributions.
Black History 365 | # 220 Kara Walker
Kara Walker (born November 26, 1969, Stockton, California, U.S.) is an American installation artist who uses intricate cut-paper silhouettes, together with collage, drawing, painting, performance, film, video, shadow puppetry, light projection, and animation, to comment on gender relations, power, race, and black history. At the Rhode Island School of Design, Kara Walker began working in the silhouette form. In 1994, her work appeared in a new-talent show at the Drawing Center in New York and she became an instant hit. In 1997, she received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "genius grant." In 1997, Walker received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship “genius grant.” That same year, her work became the subject of debate when African American artist Betye Saar argued that Walker’s work was “revolting and negative” and made “for the amusement and the investment of the white art establishment.” Since then, Walker's work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide. The same year that she graduated from RISD, Walker debuted a mural at the Drawing Center in New York City, entitled "Gone: An Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart." It wasn't just the theme of the piece that caught the attention of critics, but its form: black-paper silhouette figures against a white wall. The mural launched Walker's career, also making her one of the leading artistic voices on the subject of race and racism. So, in addition to being well-received Kara Walker has also received backlash as well. Her response to this is, “I have always responded,” Walker said, “to art which jarred the senses and made one aware physically and emotionally of the shifting terrain on which we rest our beliefs.” PEACE to Kara Walker, Stockton stand up!
Black History 365 | # 219 Victor Murphy
This is Victor Murphy, he is the earliest documented person to have a lowrider with hydraulics in the city of Compton California and the earliest documented Black Lowrider with Hydraulics in the world as well. In the early 1960’s Victor had his Corvair Monza cut for hydraulics by Bill Hines of Lynwood California. Shoutout to @46to64 for bringing this story to light. PEACE TO VICTOR MURPHY & Bill Hines for his car customization.
Black History 365 | # 218 How Blade Saved Marvel
Before Blade the superhero movie genre was not respected in the mainstream. Blade doesn’t get the credit for its contributions to saving Marvel. Aside from establishing the tone, style, and methodology that most big budget studios based on comic books work from — it paved the way for the wave of comic book movies in recent decades and also rescued Marvel Comics from one of the most tumultuous times in its history. Marvel was experiencing significant financial troubles. The entire comic book industry was struggling in the 1990s, but Marvel was hit particularly hard, as seen by the company’s filing for bankruptcy in 1996. In an attempt to desperately raise money, Marvel resorted to selling off many of the film rights for their characters at the bottom dollar, which led to the fractured set-up we saw in the early 2000s, where different studios owned different characters. This interpretation of Blade paid off. The film made $70 million at the U.S. box office and a further $60 million internationally, recouping its $45 million budget. The success of Blade was also rumored to have played a pivotal role in Fox’s decision to purchase the adaptation rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four and for Sony to acquire the adaptation rights for Spider-Man. So know’dat Blade is the most influential Marvel film of all time. Shoutout to Wesley Snipes.