In 1849 Rev. William White wrote a narrative about African American Preachers. In it he tells the story of a black preacher known as "Uncle Jack." Slave traders kidnapped Jack from Africa when he was seven years out and sold him into slavery in Nottoway, Virginia. When he was forty he heard a Presbyterian Minister from Prince Edward County preach and became religious. White wrote that once Jack...
After receiving much criticism on his first mass-produced, low-cost housing design, the influential post-World War II real estate developer, William Levitt, introduced a new design in 1949. As advertisements for the new Rancher sprang up across Pennsylvania, many citizens, including veterans who would receive significant discounts, flocked to the Exhibit Center in the Levittown suburbs. The...
From arguably the most famous superhero known to man, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created a character that presented the origins of Superman and how he became the symbol for justice. This character exemplified all the troubles of teenage awkwardness and solitude while trying to establish justice . Super-boy’s character is defined as the teenage version of Superman who grew up in the small town...
According to the 1949 Orlando Negro Chamber of Commerce business directory, there were seventeen beauty salons catering to Black community in Orlando. By the time the business directory for 1957 was published, there were twenty-nine Black beauty shops in the Orlando area. Among those twenty-nine shops, only twelve were on the 1945 business directory; this means that seventeen Black salons opened...
The 1949 Orlando Negro Chamber of Commerce Business Directory and the 1957 Orlando Negro Chamber of Commerce Business Directory show the major growth of black owned businesses in Orlando, Florida. The number of businesses listed in 1949 was 169. This grew to 389 in 1957. The businesses in these documents and the production of the Directories themselves reflect the strength of the efforts of Orlando’s...
In view of the fact that the Board of Trustees at its annual meeting, February 24-28, 1951, passed a resolution directing the President to reduce the faculty according to a set of principles.”[1] On Tuesday April 17, 1951 at 7:30 pm, the Executive Committee, Board of Trustees of Rollins College held a meeting with the student body to discuss the Wagner Affair. According to the Minutes...
The photograph taken by the agency created to document and appraise Detroit’s East Side neighborhoods in 1949 captured an important aspect of the history of urban agriculture in Detroit—African American’s contributions to urban agriculture. Seeing as the photograph was a piece of data used to assess the state of the neighborhood, it is clearly labeled. The date (7-26-49) is nicely written...
In 1949, the Sanborn Map Company updated its detailed survey of Opelika, Alabama. This map contains a wealth of detail, including all major and minor structures within the city limits, and detailed information about their function. Sanborn published this map (and others like it) for the benefit of insurance companies, who used them to estimate the fire risk for different structures in the town....
Despite the strides made toward racial equality, the deep south in the 1950s was still a dangerous place for a black person to live. The Ku Klux Klan had a widespread presence there and being lynched or beaten was a real fear for many black southerners. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) fought back hard, but was struggled against a corrupt, racist legal system...
After World War II, technology and society changed rapidly. New technologies were introduced while other technologies became consumer goods. One such example is the television. From 1948 through 1958, television went from being in only .4 percent of homes to over 80 percent of homes. (Baughman, pg. 42) The “availability of [broadcast] TV service” was the biggest reason for the explosion in...