AfrocentriqueAZ: 2014

I hope that you and yours had a wonderful holiday season (or are having one if your holidays aren't done yet)!

I am REALLY excited about 2015 for this blog! My main focus will be on Black History. I will be concentrating on people who broke the color barrier in their various fields. I will post a new Black first every week.

Since it's a new year I decided to post a retrospective of what I have in my archives on my old blog and tomorrow I will post a look ahead at what I plan to post in this one. I hope you enjoy reading the posts as much as I enjoy finding the information! :-)

From my old blog:

#BH265 POSTS - THE FIRST BLACK...
(information below is directly from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_firsts)

18th century
1730s-1770s
1738
* First free African-American community: Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (now usually referred to as Fort Mose) in Florida
1760
* First known African-American published author: Jupiter Hammon (poem "An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries", published as a broadside)

1768
* First known African-American elected to public office: Wentworth Cheswell, town constable in Newmarket, New Hampshire.
1773
* First known African-American woman to publish a book: Phillis Wheatley (Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral)
* First separate African-American church: Silver Bluff Baptist Church, Aiken County, South Carolina
1778
* First African-American U.S. military regiment: the 1st Rhode Island Regiment

1780s-1790s
1783
* First African American to formally practice medicine in the U.S.: James Derham, who did not hold an M.D. degree
1792
* First major African-American Back-to-Africa movement: 1,200 Black Loyalist slaves who escaped to British lines during the American Revolutionary War, were relocated to Nova Scotia and given land, and later chose to settle in Settler Town, Sierra Leone, a British colony
1793
* First African Methodist Episcopal Church established: Richard Allen founded Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1794
* First African Episcopal Church established: Absalom Jones founded African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

19th century
Early 1800s
1804
* First African American ordained as an Episcopal priest in the U.S.: Absalom Jones in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1810s
1816
First fully independent African-American denomination: African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and mid-Atlantic states

1820s
1821
First African American to hold a patent: Thomas L. Jennings, for a dry-cleaning process
1822
First African-American captain to sail a whaleship with an all-black crew: Absalom Boston
1823
First African American to receive a degree from an American college: Alexander Twilight, Middlebury College (See also: 1836)
1827
First African-American owned-and-operated newspaper: Freedom's Journal

1830s
1836
First African American elected to public office and to serve in a state legislature: Alexander Twilight, Vermont[14] (See also: 1823)
1837
First formally trained African-American doctor: Dr. James McCune Smith from the University of Glasgow, Scotland[15] (See also: 1783, 1847)

1840s
1845
First African American licensed to practice law in the U.S.: Macon Allen from the Boston bar
1847
First African American to graduate from a U.S. medical school: Dr. David J. Peck (Rush Medical College) (See also: 1783, 1837)
First African-American president of any nation: Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Liberia
1849
First African-American college professor at a predominantly white institution: Charles L. Reason, New York Central College

1850s
1851
First African-American member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), Patrick Francis Healy. (See also: 1866, 1874)
1853
First novel published by an African American: Clotel; or, The President's Daughter, by William Wells Brown.[Note 2][21][22]
1854
First African-American Roman Catholic priest: James Augustine Healy (see 1875 and 1886)
First institute of higher learning created to educate African Americans: Ashmun Institute in Pennsylvania, renamed Lincoln University in 1866. (See also: 1863)
1858
First published play by an African American: The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom by William Wells Brown
First African-American female college instructor: Sarah Jane Woodson Early, Wilberforce College

1860s
1861
First North American military unit with African-American officers: 1st Louisiana Native Guard of the Confederate Army
First African-American U.S. federal government civil servant: William Cooper Nell[26]
1862
First African-American woman to earn a B.A.: Mary Jane Patterson, Oberlin College[27]
First recognized U.S. Army African-American combat unit: 1st South Carolina Volunteers
1863
First college owned and operated by African Americans: Wilberforce University, Ohio.[28][Note 3] (See also: 1854)
First African-American president of a college: Bishop Daniel Payne (Wilberforce University)
1864
First African American woman to become a physician in the United States: Rebecca Lee Crumpler, New England Female Medical College
1865
First African-American field officer in the U.S. Army: Martin Delany[30]
First African-American attorney admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court: John Stewart Rock[31]
First African American to be commissioned as captain in the Regular U.S. Army: Orindatus Simon Bolivar Wall, known as OSB Wall[32]
1866
First African American to earn a Ph.D.: Father Patrick Francis Healy, S.J. (from University of Leuven, Belgium).[20] (See also 1851, 1874)
First African-American woman enlistee in the U.S. Army: Cathay Williams[33]
1868
First elected African-American Lieutenant Governor: Oscar Dunn (Louisiana).[34]
First African-American mayor: Pierre Caliste Landry, Donaldsonville, Louisiana[35]
1869
First African-American U.S. diplomat: Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett, minister to Haiti[36]
First African-American woman school principal: Fanny Jackson Coppin (Institute for Colored Youth)[37]
1870s
1870
First African American to vote in an election under the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting voting rights regardless of race: Thomas Mundy Peterson[38]
First African American to graduate from Harvard College: Richard Theodore Greener.[39]
January: First African American elected to either chamber of the U.S. Congress: Senator Hiram Rhodes Revels (R-Miss.).[40][Note 4]
December: First African American elected to U.S. House of Representatives: Joseph Rainey (R-S.C.).[41][Note 5]
1872
First African-American midshipman admitted to the United States Naval Academy: John H. Conyers (nominated by Robert B. Elliott of South Carolina).[42]
First African-American governor (non-elected): P. B. S. Pinchback of Louisiana (See also: Douglas Wilder, 1990)[43]
First African-American nominee for Vice President of the United States: Frederick Douglass by the Equal Rights Party.[44][Note 6]
1874
First African-American president of a major college/university: Father Patrick Francis Healy, S.J. of Georgetown College.[20] (See also: 1851, 1863, 1866)
1875
First African-American Roman Catholic bishop: Bishop James Augustine Healy, of Portland, Maine.[23] (See also: 1854)
1876
First African American to earn a doctorate degree from an American university: Edward Alexander Bouchet (Yale College Ph.D., physics; also first African American to graduate from Yale, 1874)[45] (See also: 1866)
1877
First African-American graduate of West Point and first African-American commissioned officer in the U.S. military: Henry Ossian Flipper.[46]
1878
First African-American police officer in Boston, Massachusetts: Sergeant Horatio Julius Homer.[47]
First African-American baseball player in organized professional baseball: John W. "Bud" Fowler.[48]
1879
First African American to graduate from a formal nursing school: Mary Eliza Mahoney, Boston, Massachusetts.[49]
First Black American Major League Baseball Player William Edward White http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Edward_White

1880s
1880
First African American to command a U.S. ship: Captain Michael Healy.[50]
1881
First African American whose signature appeared on U.S. paper currency: Blanche K. Bruce, Register of the Treasury.[51]
1883
First known African-American woman to graduate from one of the Seven Sisters college: Hortense Parker (Mount Holyoke College)[52][Note 7]
1884
First African American to play professional baseball at the major-league level: Moses Fleetwood Walker.[53] (See also: Jackie Robinson, 1947)
First African-American woman to hold a patent: Judy W. Reed, for an improved dough kneader, Washington, D.C.[54][Note 8]
1886
First African-American Roman Catholic priest publicly known at the time to be African-American: Augustine Tolton, Quincy and Chicago, Illinois[55] (See also: 1854)
1890s
1891
First African-American police officer in present-day New York City: Wiley Overton, hired by the Brooklyn Police Department prior to 1898 incorporation of the five boroughs into the City of New York.[56] (See also: Samuel J. Battle, 1911)
1892
First African American to sing at Carnegie Hall: Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones[57]