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26th President of the United States

Years Served as President: 1901-1909

Vice President: Charles Warren Fairbanks

Party: Republican

Age at Inauguration: 42

Home State: New York

Date of Birth: October 27, 1858

Died: January 6, 1919

Married: Alice Hathaway Lee, Edith Kermit Carow

Children: Alice, Theodore, Ethel, Kermit, Archibald, Quentin

Nickname: Teddy, TR, Colonel, The Trust Buster

What is Theodore Roosevelt known for?

Theodore Roosevelt is known as one of the most famous heroes of the Spanish-American War.

He was the leader of the calvary known as "the Rough Riders."

As president, Roosevelt was known for fighting against government corruption and breaking up large companies called monopolies.

His most famous quote is, "Speak softly and carry a big stick."

Theodore Roosevelt was born in 1858 to a wealthy family in New York City. As a young boy, he was nicknamed "Teedie" and later "Teddy."

He was sickly and weak growing up, but he soon began building his strength with activities like weightlifting and gymnastics.

In 1880, Roosevelt graduated from Harvard College. He married Alice Hathaway Lee. The couple would have one child. After getting married, he enrolled at Columbia University Law School.

However, Roosevelt dropped out of Columbia after one year to enter public service. At age 23, he was elected to the New York State Assembly, where he served two terms.

Family Life

In 1884, Roosevelt's mother and his wife, Alice Hathaway Lee, died on the same day. For the next two years, Roosevelt spent his time on a ranch he owned in the Badlands of the Dakota Territory.

On the ranch, he hunted, drove cattle, and worked as a frontier sheriff while grieving his mother and wife.

Roosevelt eventually returned to New York and married his childhood sweetheart, Edith Kermit Carow. The couple had five children and raised Roosevelt's daughter from his first marriage, Alice.

Political and Military Career

After remarrying, Roosevelt returned to his budding career in politics. He ran for mayor of New York City in 1886 but didn't win.

In 1888, he was awarded a job with the U.S. Civil Service Commission by President Benjamin Harrison. He was later reappointed by the next president, Grover Cleveland.

Roosevelt served as the president of the New York City Board of Police Commissioners, and then the assistant secretary of the United States Navy.

When the Spanish-American War started in 1898, Roosevelt became the colonel of the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, nicknamed "the Rough Riders."

Roosevelt led the Rough Riders in the famous Battle of San Juan. He returned home as one of the major heroes of the war.

With his newfound popularity, Roosevelt was elected the governor of New York. He became known for fighting government corruption and stubbornly standing for his beliefs and opinions.

In 1900, Roosevelt was named the vice-presidential running mate to William McKinley. McKinley and Roosevelt won the election in a landslide.

Presidency

In September of 1901, President McKinley was shot by a man named Leon Czolgosz. McKinley died from his injury eight days later, and the young Roosevelt was sworn in as president.

Roosevelt was known for his youth, energy, and progressive beliefs. He launched a "Square Deal" domestic program to battle large trusts, or industrial combinations, that restricted trade.

These trusts allowed large corporations to pay low wages and charge high prices. By breaking up these trusts, Roosevelt earned the nickname "The Trust Buster."

His other presidential accomplishments included:

Signing the National Reclamation Act, dedicated to irrigation projects in the West.

Setting aside about 200 million acres of land for reserves, wildlife refuges, and national forests.

Helping Panama secede from Colombia and beginning construction on the Panama Canal.

Signing the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act to increase safety standards and government regulation of medicine and food.

Transforming the U.S. Navy into a major international force.

Winning the Nobel Peace Prize for leading negotiations to end war between Russia and Japan.

After serving for two terms, Roosevelt retired from the presidency, offering his support to candidate William Howard Taft.

After the Presidency

When Roosevelt left office in 1909, he immediately embarked on a 10-month African safari and tour of Europe. He was greeted by adoring crowds all over the world.

After returning to the United States, Roosevelt discovered that Taft had not followed through on his promises of progressive reform. Instead, he was siding with the more conservative members of the Republican Party.

Roosevelt was furious and formed his own party, the Progressive Party. It was popularly nicknamed "the Bull Moose Party," because Roosevelt once said that he was "as strong as a bull moose."

All four of Roosevelt's sons joined the war effort when World War I broke out. His youngest son, Quentin, was shot down and killed while flying in a mission over Germany.

Roosevelt's health was never quite the same after Quentin's death. He died in his sleep on January 6, 1919 at the age of 60.

Fun Facts About Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt is still the youngest president in history. He took office at the age of 42 years, 10 months, and 18 days.

During his vice-presidential campaign, Roosevelt spoke in 24 states and traveled by train more than 21,000 miles.

Roosevelt was not the first man to become president because of the death of his predecessor. However, he was the first of these men to win re-election.

After sitting out a term, Roosevelt ran for president again in 1912 (as the Bull Moose Party candidate) but was unsuccessful.

While campaigning in Milwaukee for the 1912 election, Roosevelt was shot in the chest but soon recovered.

Despite losing the 1912 election, Roosevelt's run was the most successful third-party effort in American history.
US Presidents

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Theodore Roosevelt Facts - US Presidents

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Theodore Roosevelt Biography 26th President of the United States Years Served as President: 1901-1909 Vice President: Charles Warren Fairbanks Party: Republican Age at Inauguration: 42 Home State: New York Date of Birth: October 27, 1858 Died: January 6, 1919 Married: Alice Hathaway Lee, Edith Kermit Carow Children: Alice, Theodore, Ethel, Kermit, Archibald, Quentin Nickname: Teddy, ...

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NAME: Theodore Roosevelt

NICKNAMES: T.R., Trustbuster

BORN: October 27, 1858, in New York City, New York

DIED: January 6, 1919, in Oyster Bay, New York

TIME IN OFFICE: September 14, 1901, to March 3, 1909

VICE PRESIDENT: Charles Warren Fairbanks

POLITICAL PARTY: Republican

EARLY LIFE

Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, to a wealthy New York family. During his childhood, Roosevelt had asthma and was often sick, so he went to school at home. Finally his father encouraged him to improve his health through physical exercise. By the time Roosevelt attended Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he was fit enough to compete in the college's boxing program. Roosevelt graduated with honors, married, and became a member of New York's state assembly.

Then tragedy struck. Roosevelt's mother and wife both died from illnesses on Valentine's Day in 1884. Roosevelt moved to the western United States and worked as a cowboy and a rancher. That's when he developed a love of the outdoors that would continue throughout his presidency.

FROM WAR HERO TO PRESIDENT

In the fall of 1886 Roosevelt returned to New York. He remarried, took up writing, and re-entered public service.

When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Roosevelt formed a volunteer company of cowboys, college football players, New York City police officers, and Native Americans. These "Rough Riders" became famous for their charge near San Juan Hill in Cuba, where they fought to help the island gain independence from Spain.

Roosevelt's popularity after the war helped get him elected governor of New York in 1899. In 1901, Roosevelt was elected to serve as vice president to President William McKinley after his vice president passed away. But barely six months into McKinley's second term, the president was assassinated by an angry citizen at a fair.

TEDDY THE TRUSTBUSTER

Following McKinley's assassination in 1901, Roosevelt became the 26th president of the United States. He immediately focused on monopolies, which is when several companies join together and become so powerful that the new company doesn't have any competition. Also called trusts, these monopolies controlled the railroad, beef, oil, and other industries. Trusts had become so powerful that people were suffering from high prices, low wages, and poor working conditions. (For instance, if a company is the only company that sells beef, then that company can charge as much as they want and pay workers as little as they want.) Roosevelt became known as a "trustbuster" for breaking up these monopolies.

He also made conservation a top priority during his administration. He created the United States Forest Service and established 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, four national game preserves, and five national parks during his time in office.

Roosevelt was a problem solver when other countries had disagreements. In fact in 1905, he became the first U.S. president and first American to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating an end to a war between Russia and Japan.

He also continued to oversee construction of the Panama Canal, a waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans across Central America. He visited the construction site in 1906, but it wouldn't officially open until five years after he left office, in 1914.

LASTING LEGACY

Roosevelt served a second term, then left the White House in 1909. He attempted to regain the presidency in 1912 by running as a third-party candidate for the Progressive, or Bull Moose, Party. During a campaign speech in Wisconsin, he was shot in the chest by a saloonkeeper who disagreed with his policies. Roosevelt refused to go to the hospital until he finished his speech, over an hour later. He survived the assassination attempt but lost the presidential race to Woodrow Wilson.

Roosevelt spent his retirement on safari in Africa and exploring the jungles of Brazil. But after the death of his youngest son, Quentin, in World War I, Roosevelt's health became bad. He died the following year on January 6, 1919.

Roosevelt was the first "accidental" president to later win outright election to the office. During his presidency, he expanded the reach of the U.S. government into such areas as industry, labor, the environment, consumer rights, and foreign affairs. He's been called by many historians the first modern president and is generally remembered fondly.

From the Nat Geo Kids books Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum and Weird But True Know-It-All: U.S. Presidents by Brianna Dumont, revised for digital by Avery Hurt

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NAME: Theodore Roosevelt NICKNAMES: T.R., Trustbuster BORN: October 27, 1858, in New York City, New York DIED: January 6, 1919, in Oyster Bay, New York TIME IN OFFICE: September 14, 1901, to March 3, 1909 VICE PRESIDENT: Charles Warren Fairbanks POLITICAL PARTY: Republican Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, to a wealthy New York family.

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"Louis Armstrong's station in the history of jazz is umimpeachable. If it weren't for him, there wouldn't be any of us." Dizzy Gillespie, 1971

Early Days in New Orleans

Armstrong was born in one of the poorest sections of New Orleans on Aug. 4, 1901. "He was a prodigy," says art historian and curator Marc Miller, "a hard-working kid who helped support his mother and sister by working every type of job there was, including going out on street corners at night to sing for coins." At age 7, he bought his first real horn--a cornet. When Armstrong was 11 years old, juvenile court sent him to the Jones Home for Colored Waifs for firing a pistol on New Year's Eve. While there, he had his first formal music lessons and played in the home's brass band. After about 18 months he was released. From then on, he largely supported himself as a musician, playing with pick-up bands and in small clubs with his mentor Joe "King" Oliver. Oliver was one of a handful of noted musicians in New Orleans--along with Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet and others--who were creating a distinctive and widely popular new band music out of blues and ragtime. Soon, sheet music publishers and record companies would make jazz a household name.

Villard Paddio Louis Armstrong with His Mother, Mayann Armstrong,
and Sister, Beatrice Armstrong

Courtesy of the Louis Armstrong Archive
Queens College, CUNY

Chicago and New York

The early 1920s saw Armstrong's popularity explode as he left New Orleans for Chicago to play with "King" Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, and then moved on to New York, where he influenced the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra with improvisation and a new musical vocabulary.

When he returned to Chicago in 1926, he was a headliner on records and radio, and in jazz clubs, wowing audiences with the utter fearlessness and freedom of his groundbreaking trumpet solos. His "scat" singing transformed vocal tradition and musicians studied his recordings to hear what a horn could do. It has been said that Armstrong used his horn like a singer's voice and used his voice like a musical instrument.

Negros Who Work on Broadway
From scrapbook #55, n.d.
Louis Armstrong
Mixed-media collage
Courtesy of the Louis Armstrong Archive
Queens College, CUNY

In 1929, he returned to New York, where he performed at Connie's Inn in Harlem and on Broadway in Connie's Hot Chocolates, and made his first nationwide hit recordings. Jazz was becoming a worldwide phenomenon and Armstrong was its leader, as was recorded in the November 1934 issue of Music: Le Magazine du Jazz (Brussels): "Armstrong arrives! Who is Armstrong? The true king of jazz. The only one who could convince those who doubt."

52nd Street at Night
Charles Peterson, 1935
Black and white photograph
Courtesy of the Louis Armstrong Archive
Queens College, CUNY

He was one of America's most significant artists by the late 1930s, and had created a sensation in Europe with live performances and records. His music had had a major effect on "swing" and the big band sound.

Louis Armstrong, n.d. Reel 163

Mixed-media collage on cardboard reel-to-reel tape box
Courtesy of the Louis Armstrong Archive
Queens College, CUNY

Ambassador Satch

After World War II and though the early years of the Cold War, Armstrong served as "Ambassador Satch," spreading good will for America around the globe including State Department-sponsored tours and broadcasts in the '60s. He was especially well-received in the newly independent nations of Africa, marked by such events as a 1956 concert celebrating Ghana's independence, attended by more than 100,000 Louis Armstrong fans.

Although he was no stranger to racial prejudice himself, Armstrong rarely made public statements. In 1957, however, he publicly condemned the violence that swept Little Rock over school integration and how it was handled. "Do you dig me when I say, 'I have a right to blow my top over injustice?'" he said. For this statement, Armstrong was called a firebrand in newspapers across the country.

By the '50s, Armstrong was an established international celebrity--an icon to musicians and lovers of jazz--and a genial, infectiously optimistic presence wherever he appeared. His death on July 6, 1971, was front-page news around the world, and more than 25,000 mourners filed past his coffin as he lay in state at the New York National Guard Armory.

Armstrong summarized his philosophy in the spoken introduction to his 1970 recording It's A Wonderful World. "And all I'm saying is, see what a wonderful world it would be if only we would give it a chance. Love, baby, love. That's the secret. Yeah."

City of Health--Colony of Homeless Children
January, 1961
Louis Armstrong in United Arab Republic
Unidentified photographer
Black and white photograph
Courtesy of Louis Armstrong Archive
Queens College, CUNY

Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy was funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency, and by the New York State Council on the Arts. Additional support was provided by Mobil Foundation Inc. The exhibition was part of "America's Jazz Heritage," A Partnership of the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Smithsonian Institution. Organized by the Queens Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in cooperation with the Louis Armstrong Archives at Queens College, City University of New York, the exhibition made its eighth--and final--stop at the National Portrait Gallery. The Washington showing of Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy was made possible through the generous support of Infiniti, a Division of Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A.

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"Louis Armstrong's station in the history of jazz is umimpeachable. If it weren't for him, there wouldn't be any of us." Dizzy Gillespie, 1971 Early Days in New Orleans Armstrong was born in one of the poorest sections of New Orleans on Aug. 4, 1901.

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Louis Armstrong (born August 4, 1901, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.-died July 6, 1971, New York, New York) was the leading trumpeter and one of the most influential artists in jazz history.

Early life and career

Although Armstrong claimed to be born in 1900, various documents, notably a baptismal record, indicate that 1901 was his birth year. He grew up in dire poverty in New Orleans, Louisiana, when jazz was very young. As a child he worked at odd jobs and sang in a boys' quartet. In 1913 he was sent to the Colored Waifs Home as a juvenile delinquent. There he learned to play cornet in the home's band, and playing music quickly became a passion; in his teens he learned music by listening to the pioneer jazz artists of the day, including the leading New Orleans cornetist, King Oliver. Armstrong advanced rapidly: he played in marching and jazz bands, becoming skillful enough to replace Oliver in the important Kid Ory band about 1918, and in the early 1920s he played in Mississippi riverboat dance bands.

King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band

Fame beckoned in 1922 when Oliver, then leading a band in Chicago, sent for Armstrong to play second cornet. Oliver's Creole Jazz Band was the apex of the early, contrapuntal New Orleans ensemble style, and it included outstanding musicians such as the brothers Johnny and Baby Dodds and pianist Lil Hardin, who married Armstrong in 1924. The young Armstrong became popular through his ingenious ensemble lead and second cornet lines, his cornet duet passages (called "breaks") with Oliver, and his solos. He recorded his first solos as a member of the Oliver band in such pieces as "Chimes Blues" and "Tears," which Lil and Louis Armstrong composed.

Solo career

Encouraged by his wife, Armstrong quit Oliver's band to seek further fame. He played for a year in New York City in Fletcher Henderson's band and on many recordings with others before returning to Chicago and playing in large orchestras. There he created his most important early works, the Armstrong Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings of 1925-28, on which he emerged as the first great jazz soloist. By then the New Orleans ensemble style, which allowed few solo opportunities, could no longer contain his explosive creativity. He retained vestiges of the style in such masterpieces as "Hotter than That," "Struttin' with Some Barbecue," "Wild Man Blues," and "Potato Head Blues" but largely abandoned it while accompanied by pianist Earl Hines ("West End Blues" and "Weather Bird"). By that time Armstrong was playing trumpet, and his technique was superior to that of all competitors. Altogether, his immensely compelling swing; his brilliant technique; his sophisticated, daring sense of harmony; his ever-mobile, expressive attack, timbre, and inflections; his gift for creating vital melodies; his dramatic, often complex sense of solo design; and his outsized musical energy and genius made these recordings major innovations in jazz.

Armstrong was a famous musician by 1929, when he moved from Chicago to New York City and performed in the theatre review Hot Chocolates. He toured America and Europe as a trumpet soloist accompanied by big bands; for several years beginning in 1935, Luis Russell's big band served as the Louis Armstrong band. During this time he abandoned the often blues-based original material of his earlier years for a remarkably fine choice of popular songs by such noted composers as Hoagy Carmichael, Irving Berlin, and Duke Ellington. With his new repertoire came a new, simplified style: he created melodic paraphrases and variations as well as chord-change-based improvisations on these songs. His trumpet range continued to expand, as demonstrated in the high-note showpieces in his repertoire. His beautiful tone and gift for structuring bravura solos with brilliant high-note climaxes led to such masterworks as "That's My Home," "Body and Soul," and "Star Dust." One of the inventors of scat singing, he began to sing lyrics on most of his recordings, varying melodies or decorating with scat phrases in a gravel voice that was immediately identifiable. Although he sang such humorous songs as "Hobo, You Can't Ride This Train," he also sang many standard songs, often with an intensity and creativity that equaled those of his trumpet playing.

Louis and Lil Armstrong separated in 1931. From 1935 to the end of his life, Armstrong's career was managed by Joe Glaser, who hired Armstrong's bands and guided his film career (beginning with Pennies from Heaven, 1936) and radio appearances. Though his own bands usually played in a more conservative style, Armstrong was the dominant influence on the swing era, when most trumpeters attempted to emulate his inclination to dramatic structure, melody, or technical virtuosity. Trombonists, too, appropriated Armstrong's phrasing, and saxophonists as different as Coleman Hawkins and Bud Freeman modeled their styles on different aspects of Armstrong's. Above all else, his swing-style trumpet playing influenced virtually all jazz horn players who followed him, and the swing and rhythmic suppleness of his vocal style were important influences on singers from Billie Holiday to Bing Crosby.

Movies and other works

In most of Armstrong's movie, radio, and television appearances, he was featured as a good-humoured entertainer. He played a rare dramatic role in the film New Orleans (1947), in which he also performed in a Dixieland band. This prompted the formation of Louis Armstrong's All-Stars, a Dixieland band that at first included such other jazz greats as Hines and trombonist Jack Teagarden. For most of the rest of Armstrong's life, he toured the world with changing All-Stars sextets; indeed, "Ambassador Satch" in his later years was noted for his almost nonstop touring schedule. It was the period of his greatest popularity; he produced hit recordings such as "Mack the Knife" and "Hello, Dolly!" and outstanding albums such as his tributes to W.C. Handy and Fats Waller. In his last years ill health curtailed his trumpet playing, but he continued as a singer. His last film appearance was in Hello, Dolly! (1969).

Legacy

More than a great trumpeter, Armstrong was a bandleader, singer, soloist, film star, and comedian. One of his most remarkable feats was his frequent conquest of the popular market with recordings that thinly disguised authentic jazz with Armstrong's contagious humour. He nonetheless made his greatest impact on the evolution of jazz itself, which at the start of his career was popularly considered to be little more than a novelty. With his great sensitivity, technique, and capacity to express emotion, Armstrong not only ensured the survival of jazz but led in its development into a fine art.

Armstrong's autobiographies included Swing That Music (1936) and Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans (1954). The house that he shared with his fourth wife, Lucille Wilson, in Queens, New York City, from 1943 until his death in 1971 was preserved as the Louis Armstrong House Museum, which also maintained his archives.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica.

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Louis Armstrong | Biography, Facts, What a Wonderful World, Nickname, & Songs

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Louis Armstrong, the leading trumpeter and one of the most influential artists in jazz history. He was also a bandleader, singer, film star, and comedian. With his great sensitivity, technique, and capacity to express emotion, Armstrong led in the development of jazz into a fine art.

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Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901. He was raised by his mother Mayann in a neighborhood so dangerous it was called “The Battlefield.” He only had a fifth-grade education, dropping out of school early to go to work. An early job working for the Jewish Karnofsky fami…

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Facts, images and videos about Winston Churchill for primary-school homework projects.

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Kids learn about the biography of Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister during World War II. A great leader and statesman.

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Churchill featured in two media polls. He was ranked as the greatest British prime minister of the twentieth century by 20 prominent historians, politicians and commentators. They were asked by BBC Radio 4's The Westminster Hour to rank the 19 prime ministers from Lord Salisbury at the turn of the century through to John Major in the 1990s.

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Biography

Go here to watch avideo about George Washington Carver.

George Washington Carver by Arthur Rothstein

Occupation: Scientist and educator

Born: January 1864 in Diamond Grove, Missouri

Died: January 5, 1943 in Tuskegee, Alabama

Best known for: Discovering many ways to use the peanut

Biography:

Where did George grow up?

George was born in 1864 on a small farm in Diamond Grove, Missouri. His mother Mary was a slave owned by Moses and Susan Carver. One night slave raiders came and stole George and Mary from the Carvers. Moses Carver went searching for them, but only found George left by the side of the road.

George was raised by the Carvers. Slavery had been abolished by the13th amendment and the Carvers had no children of their own. They took care of George and his brother James like their own children teaching them to read and write.

Growing up George liked to learn about things. He was especially interested in animals and plants. He also liked to read the Bible.

Going to School

George wanted to go to school and learn more. However, there weren't any schools for black children close enough to home for him to attend. George ended up traveling around the midwest in order to go to school. He eventually graduated from high school in Minneapolis, Kansas.

George enjoyed science and art. He initially thought he may want to be an artist. He took some art classes at Simpson College in Iowa where he really enjoyed drawing plants. A teacher of his suggested he combine his love for science, art, and plants and study to become a botanist. A botanist is a scientist that studies plants.

George enrolled in Iowa State to study botany. He was the first African-American student at Iowa State. After earning a bachelor's degree in science, he continued on and earned his master's degree as well. George became known as an expert in botany from the research he conducted at the school.

Professor Carver

After getting his masters, George began to teach as a professor at Iowa State. He was the first African-American professor at the college. However, in 1896 George was contacted byBooker T. Washington. Booker had opened an all-black college in Tuskegee, Alabama. He wanted George to come teach at his school. George agreed and moved to Tuskegee to head up the agricultural department. He would teach there for the rest of his life.

Crop Rotation

One of the main crops in the south was cotton. However, growing cotton year after year can remove nutrients from the soil. Eventually, the cotton crop will grow weak. Carver taught his students to use crop rotation. One year they would grow cotton, followed by other crops such as sweet potatoes and soybeans. By rotating the crops the soil stayed enriched.

Carver's research and education into crop rotation helped the farmers of the south be more successful. It also helped to diversify the products that they produced.

The Peanut

Another problem for farmers was the boll weevil. This insect would eat cotton and destroy their crops. Carver discovered that boll weevils don't like peanuts. However, farmers weren't so sure that they could make a good living off of peanuts. Carver began to come up with products that could be made from peanuts. He introduced hundreds of new peanut products including cooking oil, dyes for clothing, plastics, fuel for cars, and peanut butter.

George working in his lab
Source: USDA

In addition to his work with peanuts, Carver invented products that could be made from other important crops such as the soybean and sweet potato. By making these crops more profitable, farmers could rotate their crops and get more production from their land.

An Expert on Agriculture

Carver became known around the world as an expert on agriculture. He advisedPresident Theodore Roosevelt and the U.S. Congress on matters of agriculture. He even worked with Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi to help with growing crops in India.

Legacy

George Washington Carver was known throughout the south as the "farmer's best friend". His work on crop rotation and innovative products helped many farmers to survive and make a good living. His interest was in science and helping others, not in getting rich. He didn't even patent most of his work because he considered his ideas as gifts from God. He thought they should be free to others.

George died on January 5, 1943 after falling down the stairs at his home. Later, congress would name January 5th as George Washington Carver Day in his honor.

George working at the Tuskegee Institute
Source: Library of Congress

Interesting Facts about George Washington Carver

Growing up George had been known as Carver's George. When he started school he went by George Carver. He later added the W in the middle telling his friends it stood for Washington.

People in the south at the time called peanuts "goobers".

Carver would sometimes take his classes out to the farms and teach farmers directly what they could do to improve their crops.

His nickname later in life was the "Wizard of Tuskegee".

He wrote up a pamphlet called "Help for Hard Times" that instructed farmers on what they could do to improve their crops.

It takes over 500 peanuts to make one 12-ounce jar of peanut butter.

Activities

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Other Inventors and Scientists:

Works Cited

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Learn about the biography of George Washington Carver, scientist and botanist who worked with peanuts and helped the southern farmer.

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To George Washington Carver, peanuts were like paintbrushes: They were tools to express his imagination. Carver was a scientist and an inventor who found hundreds of uses for peanuts. He experimented with the legumes to make lotions, flour, soups, dyes, plastics, and gasoline-though not peanut butter!

Carver was born an enslaved person in the 1860s in Missouri. The exact date of his birth is unclear, but some historians believe it was around 1864, just before slavery was abolished in 1865. As a baby, George, his mother, and his sister were kidnapped from the man who enslaved them, Moses Carver. The kidnappers were slave raiders who planned to sell them. Moses Carver found George before he could be sold, but not his mother and sister. George never saw them again.

After slavery was abolished, George was raised by Moses Carver and his wife. He worked on their farm and in their garden, and became curious about plants, soils, and fertilizers. Neighbors called George "the plant doctor" because he knew how to nurse sick plants back to life. When he was about 13, he left to attend school and worked hard to get his education.

In 1894 he became the first Black person to graduate from Iowa State College, where he studied botany and fungal diseases, and later earned a master's degree in agriculture. In 1896, Booker T. Washington offered him a teaching position at Tuskegee Institute, a college for African Americans.

There, Carver's research with peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans flourished. He made agricultural advancements to help improve the lives of poor Black farmers like himself. With the help of his mobile classroom, the Jesup Wagon, he brought his lessons to former enslaved farmworkers and used showmanship to educate and entertain people about agriculture.

On January 5, 1943, Carver died after falling down some stairs. But his contributions to the field of agriculture would not be forgotten. Carver became the first Black scientist to be memorialized in a national monument, which was erected near his birthplace in Diamond Grove, Missouri.

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How this scientist nurtured the land-and people's minds

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George Washington Carver ( c. 1864 - January 5, 1943) was an African American agricultural scientist and inventor. He taught southern farmers to plant crops other than cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion. Apart from his work to improve the lives of farmers, Carver was also a leader in promoting environmentalism. He received numerous honors for his work, including the Spingarn Medal of the NAACP.

Early years

George Washington Carver was born into slavery in Diamond Grove, Newton County, near Crystal Place, now known as Diamond, Missouri, during the early to mid 1860s. The exact date of his birth is uncertain and was not known to Carver - however, it was before slavery was eliminated in Missouri in January 1865, after the American Civil War. His master, Moses Carver, was a German-American immigrant who had purchased George's parents, Mary and Giles, from William P. McGinnis on October 9, 1855, for $700.

When George was only a week old, he, a sister, and his mother were kidnapped by night raiders from Arkansas. George's brother, James, was rushed to safety from the kidnappers. The kidnappers sold the slaves in Kentucky. Moses Carver hired a Union scout named John Bentley to find them, but Bentley was only able to locate the infant George. Moses made a deal with the raiders for George's return and rewarded Bentley for finding him. After slavery was eliminated, Moses Carver and his wife Susan raised George and his older brother James as their own children. They encouraged George in his schooling, and "Aunt Susan" taught him the basics of reading and writing.

Black people were not allowed to attend the public school in Diamond Grove. George decided to go to a school for black children 10 miles (16 km) south in Neosho. When he reached the town, he found the school closed for the night, so he slept in a nearby barn. The next morning he met a kind woman, Mariah Watkins, from whom he wished to rent a room. When he introduced himself as "Carver's George," as he had done his whole life, she replied that from now on his name was "George Carver." George liked Mariah Watkins, and her words, "You must learn all you can, then go back out into the world and give your learning back to the people," made a great impression on him.

At the age of 13, due to his desire to attend the academy in Fort Scott, Kansas, he relocated to the home of another foster family there. He attended several schools before earning his diploma at Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kansas.

College education

Carver applied to several colleges before being accepted at Highland University in Highland, Kansas. When he arrived, however, they rejected him because of his race. In August 1886, Carver traveled by wagon from Highland to Eden Township in Ness County, Kansas. He homesteaded a claim near Beeler, where he maintained a small conservatory (a building or room where plants are grown) of plants and flowers and a geological collection. He manually plowed 17 acres (69,000 m ²) of the claim, planting rice, corn, Indian corn, and garden produce, as well as various fruit trees, forest trees, and shrubbery. He also earned money by performing odd jobs in town and working as a ranch hand.

In early 1888, Carver obtained a $300 loan at the Bank of Ness City for education, and by June he left the area. In 1890, Carver started studying art and piano at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. His art teacher, Etta Budd, recognized Carver's talent for painting flowers and plants; she encouraged him to study botany at Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in Ames.

When he began there in 1891, he was the first black student at Iowa State. Carver's Bachelor's thesis for a degree in Agriculture was "Plants as Modified by Man," dated 1894. Iowa State University professors Joseph Budd (Etta's father) and Louis Pammel convinced Carver to continue there for his master's degree. Carver did research at the Iowa Experiment Station under Pammel during the next two years. His work at the experiment station in plant pathology and mycology caused Americans to recognize and respect him as a botanist. Carver received his master of science degree in 1896 and taught as the first black faculty member at Iowa State.

Tuskegee Institute

In 1896, Booker T. Washington invited Carver to head the Agriculture Department at Tuskegee Institute. Carver taught there for 47 years, developing the department into a strong research center. Carver accomplished much during his time at Tuskegee Institute: He taught methods of crop rotation. He introduced several other cash crops for farmers that would also improve the soil of areas that only grew cotton. He started research into crop products and taught generations of black students farming methods for self-sufficiency.

Carver was as concerned with his students' character development as he was with their intellectual development. He wrote a list of eight virtues for his students to strive toward:

Be clean both inside and out.

Neither look up to the rich nor down on the poor.

Lose, if need be, without squealing.

Win without bragging.

Always be considerate of women, children, and older people.

Be too brave to lie.

Be too generous to cheat.

Take your share of the world and let others take theirs.

Carver designed a mobile classroom to take education out to farmers. He called it a "Jesup wagon" after the New York financier and philanthropist Morris Ketchum Jesup, who gave Carver money to support the program.

Rise to fame

Carver developed ways to improve soils in which the nitrogen was used up by repeated plantings of cotton. Together with other agricultural experts, he urged farmers to put nitrogen back into their soils by practicing organized crop rotation: alternating cotton crops with plantings of sweet potatoes or legumes (such as peanuts, soybeans, and cowpeas). These crops restore nitrogen to the soil and are good for people to eat. Farmers who rotated their crops benefitted in two ways: their cotton grew better than before and they also had alternative cash crops. To train farmers to successfully rotate and cultivate the new crops, Carver developed an agricultural program for Alabama that was similar to the one at Iowa State.

Carver founded a research laboratory in which he and his assistants worked to make the new crops popular by developing hundreds of uses for them. They did original research and shared the crops' usefulness and recipes that they had collected from others. Carver distributed his information as agricultural bulletins. He wanted as many people as possible to have access to this valuable information.

Carver became one of the most well-known African Americans of his time. His work was known by officials in the national capital before he became a public figure. President Theodore Roosevelt publicly admired his work. In 1916, Carver was made a member of the Royal Society of Arts in England, one of only a handful of Americans at that time to receive this honor. Carver's promotion of peanuts gained him the most notice. The United Peanut Associations of America invited Carver to speak at their 1920 convention. He discussed "The Possibilities of the Peanut" and showed 145 peanut products.

From 1915 to 1923, Carver concentrated on researching and experimenting with new uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans, pecans, and other crops, as well as having his assistants research existing uses. This work, and especially his testifying to Congress, made him widely known as a public figure. Carver noticed that U.S. peanut farmers were not making much money because the price of imported peanuts was less than the peanuts grown in the U.S. This caused him to speak before Congress in support of a tariff on imported peanuts, which Congress passed in 1922.

Life while famous

During the last two decades of his life, Carver seemed to enjoy his celebrity status. He was often on the road promoting Tuskegee Institute, peanuts, and racial harmony. Although he only published six agricultural bulletins after 1922, he published articles in peanut industry journals and wrote a newspaper column, "Professor Carver's Advice." Business leaders came to seek his help, and he often responded with free advice. Three American presidents- Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, and Franklin Roosevelt-met with him, and the Crown Prince of Sweden studied with him for three weeks. From 1923 to 1933, Carver toured white Southern colleges for the Commission on Interracial Cooperation.

With his increasing notability, Carver became the subject of biographies and articles. In 1932 it was written that Carver and his peanut products were almost solely responsible for the rise in U.S. peanut production after the boll weevil devastated the American cotton crop beginning about 1892.

From 1935 to 1937, Carver participated in the USDA Disease Survey. Carver had specialized in plant diseases for his master's degree. In 1937, Carver attended two chemurgy (the chemical and industrial use of organic raw materials) conferences during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, concerned with developing new products from crops. He was invited by Henry Ford to speak at a conference and they developed a close friendship.

Upon returning home one day, Carver took a bad fall down a flight of stairs; he was found unconscious by a maid who took him to a hospital. Carver died January 5, 1943, at the age of 78 from complications resulting from this fall. He was buried next to Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee University.

On his grave is written: He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world.

Carver's life savings totaled $60,000, all of which he donated to the Carver Museum and to the George Washington Carver Foundation.

The George Washington Carver Museum at Tuskegee Institute was approved in 1938, built, and dedicated in 1941. The Museum held Dr. Carver's large collections of native plants, minerals, birds and vegetables; his products from the peanut, sweet potato and clays; and his many paintings, drawings, and textile art. In December 1947, a fire broke out in the Carver Museum, and much of the collection was damaged. Time magazine reported that all but three of the 48 Carver paintings at the museum were destroyed.

A movement to establish a U.S. national monument to Carver began before his death. Because of World War II, spending that did not help pay for the war had been banned by order of the President. Missouri senator Harry S. Truman sponsored a bill in favor of a monument. The bill was passed and on July 14, 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated $30,000 for the George Washington Carver National Monument west-southwest of Diamond, Missouri, the area where Carver had spent time in his childhood. This was the first national monument dedicated to an African American and the first to honor someone other than a president. The 210-acre (0.8 km ²) national monument complex includes a bust of Carver, a ¾-mile nature trail, a museum, the 1881 Moses Carver house, and the Carver cemetery. The national monument opened in July 1953.

Carver was featured on U.S. 1948 commemorative stamps. From 1951 to 1954, he was pictured on a commemorative half dollar coin. A second stamp honoring Carver, with a value of 32¢, was issued on February 3, 1998, as part of the Celebrate the Century stamp sheet series.

In 1977, Carver was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. In 1990, Carver was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In 1994, Iowa State University awarded Carver a Doctor of Humane Letters. In 2000, Carver was a charter inductee in the USDA Hall of Heroes as the "Father of Chemurgy." In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed George Washington Carver as one of 100 Greatest African Americans.

In 2005, Carver's research at the Tuskegee Institute was made a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society. On February 15, 2005, an episode of Modern Marvels included scenes from within Iowa State University's Food Sciences Building and about Carver's work.

Two ships, the Liberty ship SS George Washington Carver and the nuclear submarine USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-656), were named in his honor. Many institutions continue to honor George Washington Carver. A garden and statue of him are dedicated in the famous Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis. Dozens of elementary schools and high schools are named after him. National Basketball Association star David Robinson and his wife, Valerie, founded an academy named after Carver; it opened on September 17, 2001, in San Antonio, Texas. The Carver Community Cultural Center, a historic center located in San Antonio, is named for him.

George Washington Carver quotes

"Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses."

"Learn to do common things uncommonly well."

"There is no shortcut to achievement. Life requires thorough preparation-veneer isn't worth anything."

"It is simply service that measures success."

"Start where you are, with what you have. Make something of it and never be satisfied."

"I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour if we will only tune in."

"Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God."

"The secret of my success? It is simple. It is found in the Bible."

Interesting facts about George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver was famous for his work in Alabama but was born in Missouri.

Carver considered many weeds "nature's vegetables" and would eat sandwiches made with them.

George Washington Carver was the first African American to have a national park named after him.

Carver possessed the hidden talents of a pianist and painter. His art was shown at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.

He encouraged black farmers to grow peanuts. He developed and promoted many products made from peanuts, but none became successful in stores.

Carver is often mistakenly given the credit for the invention of peanut butter. In fact, he did not do that.

Carver helped Henry Ford make peanut rubber that was to be used for cannons.

Carver believed that peanut oil could help those who suffered from polio, but no scientific evidence proved it.

In 1941, magazine named Carver a "Black Leonardo."

He was widely recognized and praised in the white community for his many achievements and talents.

In Spanish: George Washington Carver para niños

Images for kids

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Learn George Washington Carver facts for kids

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Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 - October 24, 1972) was the first African-American Major League Baseball (MLB) player of modern times. Robinson broke the baseball color barrier, also called the color line, when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He was the first black man to openly play in the major leagues since the 1880s. He had a big role in bringing racial segregation to an end in professional baseball. For sixty years until that point, African-Americans could only play in Negro leagues. Robinson's character and skills made people think about the usual basis of segregation. Robinson and his abilities added much to the civil rights movement.

Robinson had an overall good baseball career. Over ten seasons, he played in six World Series and helped in the Dodgers' 1955 World Championship. From 1949 to 1954, he was selected for all six All-Star Games. Robinson received the first MLB Rookie of the Year Award in 1947. He also won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949. He was the first black player to win this award. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. In 1997, Major League Baseball retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams.

Robinson was born on January 31, 1919. His middle name was in honor of former President Theodore Roosevelt, who died twenty-five days before Robinson was born.

In 1935, Robinson graduated from Washington Junior High School. He then entered Muir Tech (now called John Muir High School). Seeing that Robinson was good at sports, his older brothers inspired Jackie to follow his interest in them. At Muir Tech, Robinson played several sports at the varsity level.

Robinson lettered in four sports: football, basketball, track, and baseball. Jackie played shortstop and catcher on the baseball team, quarterback on the football team, and guard on the basketball team. With the track and field team, he won awards in the broad jump. He was also part of the tennis team.

In 1936, Robinson won the junior boys singles championship in the yearly Pacific Coast Negro Tennis Tournament. He also won a place on the Pomona baseball tournament all-star team. In late January 1937, the Pasadena Star-News newspaper wrote that Robinson "for two years has been the outstanding athlete at Muir, starring in football, basketball, track, baseball, and tennis."

After attending Muir, Robinson went to Pasadena Junior College (PJC). There he continued his sports career by playing basketball, football, baseball, and track. While playing football at PJC, Robinson fractured his ankle. Issues from this would later delay his deployment status while in the military. Despite his injury, Jackie Robinson was one of the best athletes at Pasadena Junior College. He broke school broad jump records that had been held by his brother, Mack.

As at Muir Hugh School, most of Jackie's teammates at PJC were white. In 1938, he was elected to the All-Southland Junior College Team for baseball. He was also selected as the region's Most Valuable Player. That year, Robinson was one of ten students named to the school's Order of the Mast and Dagger ( Omicron Mu Delta). This was awarded to students performing "outstanding service to the school and whose scholastic and citizenship record is worthy of recognition." It showed that Jackie not only excelled in sports but that he also was intelligent and had excellent character.

After graduating from PJC in the spring of 1939, Robinson transferred to UCLA, where he met his future bride. There he became the school's first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track. He was one of four African-Americans on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team. This made UCLA college football's most integrated team.

Military career

In 1942, Robinson was drafted and assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit in Fort Riley, Kansas. Having the necessary requirements, Robinson and several other black soldiers applied for entrance to an Officer Candidate School (OCS) then located at Fort Riley. The men were accepted into OCS. Upon finishing OCS, Robinson was commissioned as a second lieutenant in January of 1943. After receiving his commission, Robinson was moved to Fort Hood, Texas. There he joined the 761st "Black Panthers" Tank Battalion.

After he left the army, Robinson returned to his old football club, the Los Angeles Bulldogs, for a short time. Robinson then took an offer to be the athletic director at Sam Huston College in Austin. The job included coaching the school's basketball team for the 1944-45 season. Robinson was respected as a coach who made his players work hard. He received the respect of, among others, basketball player Marques Haynes, a future member of the Harlem Globetrotters.

On February 10, 1946, Jackie married his fiance, Rachel Isum, a nursing student he had met at UCLA. They went on to have three children: Jackie Jr., Sharon, and David. His family provided the emotional support he needed during the difficult times he faced as a black baseball player.

Baseball career

In early 1945, while Robinson was at Sam Huston College, the Kansas City Monarchs sent him a written offer to play professional baseball in the Negro leagues. Robinson accepted a contract for $400 ($6,021 in 2023) per month. This was a big deal for him at the time. In all, Robinson played 47 games for the Monarchs.

Rickey committed to officially signing Robinson before November 1, 1945. On October 23, it was announced that Robinson would be assigned to the Royals for the 1946 season. On the same day, with officials of the Royals (minor league) and Dodgers (major league) present, Robinson signed his contract with the Royals. In what was later referred to as "The Noble Experiment," Robinson was the first black baseball player in the International League since the 1880s.

Six days before the start of the 1947 season, the Dodgers brought Robinson up to the major leagues. On April 15, 1947, Robinson played his first major league game at Ebbets Field in front of a crowd of 26,623 spectators. More than 14,000 black fans attended the game. Robinson became the first player since the 1880s to openly break the major league baseball color line.

Post-baseball life

Robinson retired from baseball on January 5, 1957. Later that year, after he complained about a lot of physical problems, his doctors diagnosed Robinson with diabetes. Robinson started an insulin injection schedule. However, the quality of medicine at the time could not control the disease as well as the medicine we have today.

In 1962, Jackie was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame, becoming the first African-American inducted into the Cooperstown museum.

In 1965, Robinson served as an analyst for ABC's Major League Baseball Game of the Week telecasts. He was the first black person to do so. On June 4, 1972, the Dodgers retired his uniform number, 42. Retiring a number means that nobody on that team can use that number anymore. He was the first black person to serve as vice president of a major American company. Robinson always considered his business career as advancing the cause of African-Americans in business.

Problems with heart disease and diabetes made Robinson weak. He was almost blind by the end of his life. On October 24, 1972, at age 53, he died of a heart attack at home in Stamford, Connecticut.

2,500 people attended Robinson's funeral service on October 27, 1972, at New York City's Riverside Church. Many of his former teammates and other famous black baseball players served as pallbearers (people who carry the coffin when necessary. The Reverend Jesse Jackson gave the eulogy. Tens of thousands of people lined the procession route that followed to Robinson's gravesite site at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. He is buried next to his son Jackie and mother-in-law Zellee Isum.

After Robinson's death, his widow founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation, which advances higher education by providing scholarships for those who work hard. She stepped down as chairman of the board of directors, but still remains an officer as of 2022. Robinson's daughter Sharon serves as vice-chair of the board. As of 2022, funds are still being raised to open the Jackie Robinson Museum, which will be located at One Hudson Square in New York City.

Robinson's major league debut brought an end to almost sixty years of segregation in professional baseball, known as the baseball color line. Robinson's breaking of the baseball color line and his professional success meant big changes and showed that the fight for equality was more than just a political matter. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that he was "a legend and a symbol in his own time." In 1999, Jackie Robinson was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

Robinson said about himself, "I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me ... all I ask is that you respect me as a human being."

Awards and recognition

According to a poll conducted in 1947, Robinson was the second most popular man in the country, behind Bing Crosby. In 1999, he was named by magazine on its list of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century. Also in 1999, he ranked number 44 on the Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.

Robinson has also been recognized outside of baseball. In December 1956, the NAACP recognized him with the Spingarn Medal, which it awards annually for the highest achievement by an African-American. President Ronald Reagan awarded Robinson the Presidential Medal of Freedom on March 26, 1984, after Robinson's death.

On March 2, 2005, President George W. Bush gave Robinson's widow the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award given by Congress. Robinson was only the second baseball player to receive the award. On August 20, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, announced that Robinson was inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento.

A number of buildings have been named in Robinson's honor. The New York Public School system has named a middle school after Robinson. In 1976, his home in Brooklyn, the Jackie Robinson House, was declared a National Historic Landmark. Robinson also has an asteroid named after him, 4319 Jackierobinson. In 1997, the United States Mint issued a Jackie Robinson commemorative silver dollar and a five-dollar gold coin.

Jackie Robinson quotes

"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."

"I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... all I ask is that you respect me as a human being."

"Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life."

"There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free."

"The most luxurious possession, the richest treasure anybody has, is his personal dignity."

"Relationships may change throughout the gift of time, memories stay the same forever in my mind."

Interesting facts about Jackie Robinson

While Jackie was stationed in Fort Hood, he became friends with Joe Louis.

Robinson's brother Mack raced with Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics.

He was arrested twice: once in 1938 for arguing with a police officer about the arrest of a black friend and again in 1944 by military police for refusing to go the back of an army bus.

Larry Doby became the second black player in the Major League. Robinson and Doby spoke regularly.

Robinson was an excellent bunter: Robinson laid down 46 bunts in 1947 and all except four resulted in either a base hit or a sacrifice.

Jackie starred as himself in the 1950 Hollywood film "The Jackie Robinson Story."

Images for kids

Lobby card for The Jackie Robinson Story, 1950, with Minor Watson (left, playing Dodgers president Branch Rickey) and Robinson

Depiction of Robinson in lobby card for the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story

In Spanish: Jackie Robinson para niños

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Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 - October 24, 2005) was an African-American civil rights activist. She has been called "the mother of the modern-day American civil rights movement" and "the mother of the freedom movement." She was a member of the local chapter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Parks is best known for what she did in her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955. While she sat in a seat in the middle of the bus behind the 10 front seats that were saved for white passengers, the bus driver told her to move to the back of the bus so a white passenger could take the seat toward the middle of the bus. During this time, when the seats reserved for white people on a bus were full, black people were told to get up from their seats. Parks refused to move. Like so many others, she was tired of being treated as a lower-class person because of her skin color.

Early Years

Rosa's father left home to find work when she was 2 years old. Her mother taught school in another town. Rosa and her brother Sylvester were raised by their grandparents.

Rosa started school in 1919 when she was 6 years old. At that time, schools were segregated. There were schools for black children and schools for white children. Later, Parks remembered how buses took white students to their school, but black students had to walk to theirs:

I'd see the bus pass every day... But to me, that was a way of life; we had no choice but to accept what was the custom. The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white world.

In 1924, she went to the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls in Montgomery, Alabama. After 5 years, she left school and went to work in a shirt factory. She also took care of her grandmother.

In 1932, Rosa married Raymond Parks, a barber from Montgomery. Rosa worked many jobs, ranging from domestic worker to hospital aide. At her husband's urging, she finished her high school studies in 1933.

On December 1, 1955, Parks got onto a city bus to go home after work. She paid her 10¢ and sat down in the first row of seats behind the painted line on the floor that marked the beginning of the "colored" section. After several stops, more white passengers got on the bus and filled the first 10 seats that were saved for white passengers. The bus driver ordered Parks and three other black people to give up their seats so the rest of the white people could sit down closer to the front of the bus. The other three black people moved to the back of the bus, but Parks slid over to the window. She said she was following the law by sitting in the right section of the bus.

The driver stopped the bus and called the police. Two police officers arrested Parks and took her to jail for violating Alabama's bus laws.

Her mother called upon Edgar Nixon to bail her out. Nixon was the president of the local NAACP chapter. Rosa was a member of that chapter and Nixon's secretary. Nixon knew the danger Parks was in and immediately arranged her bail.

The local NAACP had been looking for a test case to challenge the bus segregation laws. Parks was a respected working woman. She was well-spoken, and her case would be a good way to challenge the law. It was decided that on December 5, the day that Rosa was scheduled to appear in court, a boycott of all the buses in Montgomery would be held.

The word was spread throughout the black community of the intended bus boycott. Black ministers told their congregations to support the boycott. On Monday, December 5th, Rosa Parks appeared in court and black passengers stayed off the Montgomery buses. The streets of Montgomery were filled with black people walking. That same morning, all Montgomery buses were assigned two motorcycle policemen to guard against any black gangs scaring passengers. There were no black gangs. The black community simply cooperated with the boycott. The buses remained empty all day. White passengers who feared trouble stayed off the buses as well.

Parks appealed her conviction. Her attorney, Fred Gray, and others in the NAACP brought an appeal named Browder v. Gayle. The appeals court ruled on June 19, 1956, in favor of the black citizens of Montgomery. The city, however, asked the Supreme Court to review the decision.

On September 13, 1956, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the appeals court's ruling. After 381 days, the bus boycott ended. Black citizens of Montgomery could ride the buses and sit where they chose. Rosa Parks rode the bus again on December 21, 1956. This time it was an integrated bus. Ironically, she had the same bus driver who had her arrested the year before. In an interview, Parks said, "He didn't react (pause) and neither did I."

After the Boycott

After the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Parks went through many difficulties. She lost her job at the department store. Her husband was forced to quit his job.

In 1957, Parks and her husband left Montgomery for Hampton, Virginia, to find work. In Hampton, Parks found a job as a hostess in an inn at Hampton Institute, a historically black college.

In 1999, President Bill Clinton awarded Parks a Congressional Gold Medal. This is the United States' highest honor (most important award) for civilians.

Rosa and her husband Raymond never had children. They spent their entire lives dedicated to each other, their respective careers, and civil rights activities.

Parks died on October 24, 2005, at her home in Detroit due to dementia. On October 30, her casket lay in honor in the United States Capitol. This is a great honor for people in the United States.

Rosa Parks is still considered a heroine of the black community. While she didn't do it alone, her actions sparked a fire that led to great changes.

Rosa Parks quotes

"You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right."

"Each person must live their life as a model for others."

"I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move."

"Differences of race, nationality, or religion should not be used to deny any human being citizenship rights or privileges."

"I believe there is only one race - the human race."

"The only tired I was, was tired of giving in."

Interesting Facts about Rosa Parks

Rosa earned her high school diploma at a time when less than 7% of African Americans earned them.

Rosa Parks was an activist for civil rights 12 years before she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger.

The bus driver, James Blake, had driven away without her on purpose 12 years before she refused to give up her seat.

Rosa Parks was not the first person to refuse to give up her seat on a Montgomery public bus. 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was the first to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat and Parks was involved in raising funds for Colvin's defense.

Parks was not physically tired when she refused to give up her seat. She explained that she was "tired of giving in."

Rosa Parks became the secretary of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP and served on the board of Planned Parenthood.

Rosa Parks and her husband, along with her mother, moved to Detroit.

Bus seats were left empty in New York City, Washington, D.C., and other cities on the 50th anniversary of Rosa's arrest to honor her and the results of her civil disobedience.

Questions kids ask about Rosa Parks

What is Rosa Parks famous for?
When she refused to give her bus seat to a white man, she helped initiate the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

How is Rosa Parks a hero?
She was brave to peacefully refuse to leave her seat. She knew it wasn't right for her to have to give up her seat to a white passenger, but she also knew she would probably be arrested.

What was Rosa Parks's job?
Rosa Parks worked as a seamstress. She worked at the Montgomery Fair department store and was going home from there on the day she was arrested.

Why did Rosa Parks not give up her seat?
She was tired of having to give up a seat for which she had paid. She believed she shouldn't have to move just because of her race.

Where is Rosa Parks buried?
Woodlawn Cemetery (Detroit, Michigan), United States.

What did the Montgomery bus boycott lead to?
The boycott led to the Supreme Court declaring that Montgomery's segregation laws on buses were unconstitutional.

What is Rosa Parks's full name?
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks.

Who did Rosa Parks marry?
Rosa married Raymond Parks, a barber, in 1932.

Images for kids

In Spanish: Rosa Parks para niños

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Margaret Mitchell wrote the bestselling 1936 novel 'Gone With the Wind,' which was made into an enduring classic film.

Who Was Margaret Mitchell?

Margaret Mitchell was an American novelist. After a broken ankle immobilized her in 1926, Mitchell started writing a novel that would become Gone With the Wind. Published in 1936, Gone With the Wind made Mitchell an instant celebrity and earned her the Pulitzer Prize. The film version, also lauded far and wide, came out just three years later. More than 30 million copies of Mitchell's Civil War-era masterpiece have been sold worldwide, and it has been translated into 27 languages. Mitchell was struck by a car and died in 1949, leaving behind Gone With the Wind as her only novel.

Early Life

Mitchell was born on November 8, 1900, in Atlanta, Georgia, into an Irish-Catholic family. At an early age, even before she could write, Mitchell loved to make up stories, and she would later write her own adventure books, crafting their covers out of cardboard. She wrote hundreds of books as a child, but her literary endeavors weren't limited to novels and stories. At the private Woodberry School, Mitchell took her creativity in new directions, directing and acting in plays she wrote.

In 1918, Mitchell enrolled at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Four months later, tragedy would strike when Mitchell's mother died of influenza. Mitchell finished out her freshman year at Smith and then returned to Atlanta to prepare for the upcoming debutante season, during which she met Berrien Kinnard Upshaw. The couple was married in 1922, but it ended abruptly four months later when Upshaw left for the Midwest and never returned.

'Gone With the Wind'

The same year she was married, Mitchell landed a job with the Atlanta Journal Sunday magazine, where she ended up writing nearly 130 articles. Mitchell would get married a second time during this period, wedding John Robert Marsh in 1925. As seemed to be the case in Mitchell's life, though, yet another good thing was to come to an end too quickly, as her journalist career ended in 1926 due to complications from a broken ankle.

With her broken ankle keeping Mitchell off her feet, in 1926 she began writing Gone With the Wind. Perched at an old sewing table, and writing the last chapter first and the other chapters randomly, she finished most of the book by 1929. A romantic novel about the Civil War and Reconstruction, Gone With the Wind is told from a Southern point of view, informed by Mitchell's family and steeped in the history of the South and the tragedy of the war.

Photo: New York World-Telegram/Al Aumuller

In July 1935, New York publisher Macmillan offered her a $500 advance and 10 percent royalty payments. Mitchell set to finalizing the manuscript, changing characters' names (Scarlett was Pansy in earlier drafts), cutting and rearranging chapters and finally naming the book Gone With the Wind, a phrase from "Cynara!, a favorite Ernest Dowson poem. Gone With the Wind was published in 1936 to huge success and took home the 1937 Pulitzer. Mitchell became an overnight celebrity, and the landmark film based on her novel came out just three years later and went on to become a classic, winning eight Oscars and two special Oscars.

Later Years and Death

During World War II (1941-45), Mitchell had no time to write, as she worked for the American Red Cross. On August 11, 1949, she was struck by a car while crossing a street and died five days later. Mitchell was inducted into Georgia Women of Achievement in 1994 and into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2000. Gone With the Wind was her only novel.

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Margaret Mitchell wrote the bestselling 1936 novel 'Gone With the Wind,' which was made into an enduring classic film. Margaret Mitchell was an American novelist. After a broken ankle immobilized her in 1926, Mitchell started writing a novel that would become Gone With the Wind.

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Table of Contents

1. Henry Ford: Early Life & Engineering Career

2. Henry Ford: Birth of Ford Motor Company and the Model T

3. Henry Ford: Production & Labor Innovations

4. Henry Ford: Later Career & Controversial Views

While working as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit, Henry Ford (1863-1947) built his first gasoline-powered horseless carriage, the Quadricycle, in the shed behind his home. In 1903, he established the Ford Motor Company, and five years later the company rolled out the first Model T. In order to meet overwhelming demand for the revolutionary vehicle, Ford introduced revolutionary new mass-production methods, including large production plants, the use of standardized, interchangeable parts and, in 1913, the world's first moving assembly line for cars. Enormously influential in the industrial world, Ford was also outspoken in the political realm. Ford drew controversy for his pacifist stance during the early years of World War I and earned widespread criticism for his anti-Semitic views and writings.

Henry Ford: Early Life & Engineering Career

Born in 1863, Henry Ford was the first surviving son of William and Mary Ford, who owned a prosperous farm in Dearborn, Michigan. At 16, he left home for the nearby city of Detroit, where he found apprentice work as a machinist. He returned to Dearborn and work on the family farm after three years, but continued to operate and service steam engines and work occasional stints in Detroit factories. In 1888, he married Clara Bryant, who had grown up on a nearby farm.

Did you know? The mass production techniques Henry Ford championed eventually allowed Ford Motor Company to turn out one Model T every 24 seconds.

In the first several years of their marriage, Ford supported himself and his new wife by running a sawmill. In 1891, he returned with Clara to Detroit, where he was hired as an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company. Rising quickly through the ranks, he was promoted to chief engineer two years later. Around the same time, Clara gave birth to the couple's only son, Edsel Bryant Ford. On call 24 hours a day for his job at Edison, Ford spent his irregular hours on his efforts to build a gasoline-powered horseless carriage, or automobile. In 1896, he completed what he called the "Quadricycle," which consisted of a light metal frame fitted with four bicycle wheels and powered by a two-cylinder, four-horsepower gasoline engine.

Henry Ford: Birth of Ford Motor Company and the Model T

Determined to improve upon his prototype, Ford sold the Quadricycle in order to continue building other vehicles. He received backing from various investors over the next seven years, some of whom formed the Detroit Automobile Company (later the Henry Ford Company) in 1899. His partners, eager to put a passenger car on the market, grew frustrated with Ford's constant need to improve, and Ford left his namesake company in 1902. (After his departure, it was reorganized as the Cadillac Motor Car Company.) The following year, Ford established the Ford Motor Company.

A month after the Ford Motor Company was established, the first Ford car-the two-cylinder, eight-horsepower Model A-was assembled at a plant on Mack Avenue in Detroit. At the time, only a few cars were assembled per day, and groups of two or three workers built them by hand from parts that were ordered from other companies. Ford was dedicated to the production of an efficient and reliable automobile that would be affordable for everyone; the result was the Model T, which made its debut in October 1908.

Henry Ford: Production & Labor Innovations

The "Tin Lizzie," as the Model T was known, was an immediate success, and Ford soon had more orders than the company could satisfy. As a result, he put into practice techniques of mass production that would revolutionize American industry, including the use of large production plants; standardized, interchangeable parts; and the moving assembly line. Mass production significantly cut down on the time required to produce an automobile, which allowed costs to stay low. In 1914, Ford also increased the daily wage for an eight-hour day for his workers to $5 (up from $2.34 for nine hours), setting a standard for the industry.

Even as production went up, demand for the Tin Lizzie remained high, and by 1918, half of all cars in America were Model Ts. In 1919, Ford named his son Edsel as president of Ford Motor Company, but he retained full control of the company's operations. After a court battle with his stockholders, led by brothers Horace and John Dodge, Henry Ford bought out all minority stockholders by 1920. In 1927, Ford moved production to a massive industrial complex he had built along the banks of the River Rouge in Dearborn, Michigan. The plant included a glass factory, steel mill, assembly line and all other necessary components of automotive production. That same year, Ford ceased production of the Model T, and introduced the new Model A, which featured better horsepower and brakes, among other improvements. By that time, the company had produced some 15 million Model Ts, and Ford Motor Company was the largest automotive manufacturer in the world. Ford opened plants and operations throughout the world.

Henry Ford: Later Career & Controversial Views

The Model A proved to be a relative disappointment, and was outsold by both Chevrolet (made by General Motors) and Plymouth (made by Chrysler); it was discontinued in 1931. In 1932, Ford introduced the first V-8 engine, but by 1936 the company had dropped to number three in sales in the automotive industry. Despite his progressive policies regarding the minimum wage, Ford waged a long battle against unionization of labor, refusing to come to terms with the United Automobile Workers (UAW) even after his competitors did so. In 1937, Ford security staff clashed with UAW organizers in the so-called "Battle of the Overpass," at the Rouge plant, after which the National Labor Relations Board ordered Ford to stop interfering with union organization. Ford Motor Company signed its first contract with UAW in 1941, but not before Henry Ford considered shutting down the company to avoid it.

Ford's political views earned him widespread criticism over the years, beginning with his campaign against U.S. involvement in World War I. He made a failed bid for a U.S. Senate seat in 1918, narrowly losing in a campaign marked by personal attacks from his opponent. In the Dearborn Independent, a local newspaper he bought in 1918, Ford published a number of anti-Semitic writings that were collected and published as a four volume set called The International Jew. Though he later renounced the writings and sold the paper, he expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and Germany, and in 1938 accepted the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the Nazi regime's highest medal for a foreigner.

Edsel Ford died in 1943, and Henry Ford returned to the presidency of Ford Motor Company briefly before handing it over to his grandson, Henry Ford II, in 1945. He died two years later at his Dearborn home, at the age of 83.

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Henry Ford - Biography, Inventions & Assembly Line

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Henry Ford established the Ford Motor Company in 1903, and five years later the company rolled out the first Model T. Ford introduced revolutionary new mass-production methods, including large production plants, the use of standardized, interchangeable parts and the world's first moving assembly line for cars.

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Ford Motor Company Founder

Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, was born in Springwells Township, Wayne County, Michigan, on July 30, 1863, to Mary (Litogot) and William Ford. He was the eldest of six children in a family of four boys and two girls. His father was a native of County Cork, Ireland, who came to America in 1847 and settled on a farm in Wayne County.

Young Henry Ford showed an early interest in mechanics. By the time he was 12, he was spending most of his spare time in a small machine shop he had equipped himself. There, at 15, he constructed his first steam engine.

Later, he became a machinist's apprentice in Detroit in the shops of James F. Flower and Brothers, and in the plant of the Detroit Dry Dock Company. After completing his apprenticeship in 1882, he spent a year setting up and repairing Westinghouse steam engines in southern Michigan. In July 1891, he was employed as an engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit. He became chief engineer on November 6, 1893. Thomas Edison would become a lifelong mentor and friend to Henry Ford.

On April 11, 1888, Henry married Clara Jane Bryant of Greenfield, Michigan, the daughter of Martha (Bench) and Melvin Bryant, a Wayne County farmer. Clara lived to the age of 84 and died on September 29, 1950. They had one child, son Edsel Bryant Ford was born on November 6, 1893.

Henry Ford's career as a builder of automobiles dated from the winter of 1893 when his interest in internal combustion engines led him to construct a small one-cylinder gasoline model. The first Ford engine sputtered its way to life on a wooden table in the kitchen of the Ford home at 58 Bagley Avenue in Detroit. A later version of that engine powered his first automobile, which was essentially a frame fitted with four bicycle wheels. This first Ford car, the Quadricycle, was completed in June 1896.

On August 19, 1899, he resigned from the Edison Illuminating Company and, with others, organized the Detroit Automobile Company, which went into bankruptcy about 18 months later. Meanwhile, Henry Ford designed and built several racing cars. In one of them, called Sweepstakes, he defeated Alexander Winton on a track in Grosse Pointe, Michigan on October 10, 1901. One month later, Henry Ford founded his second automobile venture, the Henry Ford Company. He would leave that enterprise, which would become the Cadillac Motor Car Company, in early 1902. In another of his racing cars, the 999, he established a world record for the mile, covering the distance in 39.4 seconds on January 12, 1904 on the winter ice of Lake St. Clair.

On June 16, 1903, Henry and 12 others invested $28,000 and created Ford Motor Company. The first car built by the Company was sold July 15, 1903. Henry owned 25.5% of the stock in the new organization. He became president and controlling owner in 1906. In 1919, Henry, Clara, and Edsel Ford acquired the interest of all minority stockholders for $105,820,894 and became the sole owners of the Company. Edsel, who succeeded his father as president in 1919, occupied that position until his death in 1943, when Henry Ford returned to the post.

In September, 1945, when he resigned the presidency for a second time, Henry Ford recommended that his grandson, Henry Ford II, be elected to the position. The board of directors followed his recommendation.

In 1946, Henry Ford was lauded at the Automotive Golden Jubilee for his contributions to the automotive industry. In July of that same year, 50,000 people cheered for him in Dearborn at a giant 83rd birthday party. Later that year, the American Petroleum Institute awarded him its first Gold Medal annual award for outstanding contributions to the welfare of humanity. The United States government honored him in 1965 by featuring his likeness with a Model T on a postage stamp as part of their Prominent Americans series. In 1999, Fortune magazine named Henry Ford the Businessman of the Century.

In collaboration with Samuel Crowther, he wrote My Life and Work (1922), Today and Tomorrow (1926), and Moving Forward (1930), which described the development of Ford Motor Company and outlined his industrial and social theories. He also published Edison, As I Know Him (1930), with the same collaborator. Doctor of Engineering degrees were conferred on him by the University of Michigan and Michigan State College (now Michigan State University), and he received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from Colgate University.

Henry Ford died at his residence, Fair Lane Estate in Dearborn, at 11:40pm on Monday, April 7, 1947, following a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 83 years old. At his bedside were Clara Ford and members of their household staff. At the time of his death, flooding on the Rouge River, which flows through the grounds of Fair Lane, had cut off electrical power. Old-fashioned kerosene lamps and candles were the only sources of light in the house, creating a scene similar to his birth in the same county many years before.

Funeral services were held at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral in Detroit, Michigan, and Henry Ford was laid to rest in the family cemetery at St. Martha's Episcopal Church, in Detroit.

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"The only true test of values, either of men or of things, is that of their ability to make the world a better place in which to live." - Henry Ford, Founder, Ford Motor Company

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Kids learn about Henry Ford's biography including his early life, the founding of the Ford Motor company, and how he helped to develop the assembly line for mass production.

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While Jesse Owens famously won four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin to shatter Adolf Hitler's notions of Aryan athletic supremacy, his journey reflected the fleeting thrills of fame and the struggles of African Americans in a still-segregated 20th century United States. Here are five facts from the life of this groundbreaking athlete.

1. As a child, Owens nearly died from what likely was a fibrous tumor

Owens struggled with poor health as a child, regularly reeling from such illnesses as chronic bronchial congestion and pneumonia. But it was a lump on the frail 5-year-old's chest that swelled over the course of several days that concerned his family the most. With no money to see a doctor, Owens' mother, Emma, eventually cut the lump off herself with a kitchen knife. The golfball-sized incision spurted blood for days, but Owens survived.

2. In 1935, a rival had supplanted Owens as America's best hope for track and field gold

Ohio State's Owens burst into the national spotlight in May 1935 when he set three world records and tied another at the Big Ten Championships, but that summer he often found himself on the heels of Temple University's Eulace Peacock. Peacock bested Owens in the long jump and the 100 meters on July 4th, and at one point he beat Owens in five consecutive races. Former Olympic gold medalist Charles Paddock noted that Peacock was the only clear-cut choice for an Olympic berth, and Owens himself wondered how he could beat his new rival. But Peacock suffered a pulled hamstring later that summer and tore the hamstring the following April and never got the chance to compete in the Olympics.

Photo: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images

3. Owens was the first prominent Adidas pitchman

The shoe line that would eventually be known as "Adidas" was founded in 1924 by German brothers Rudolf and Adolf "Adi" Dassler. Adi Dassler sought to promote his athletic footwear among the world's top athletes at the 1936 Olympics, with Owens reportedly one of his top targets. It is unclear exactly how Owens came into possession of the shoes; some stories indicate that Dassler approached him in the Olympic Village; others note that he asked German coach Jo Waitzer to pass on a few pairs to the American star. Whatever the means, Owens raced into the record books with his new shoes, which quickly became a popular brand, thanks to its association with the gold medalist.

4. One of the most famous moments of his record-breaking Olympics was a myth

Owens fouled the first two attempts of the broad jump, leaving him with just one opportunity to nail a clean jump to advance to the next round. According to the legend, German champion Luz Long helped Owens pinpoint a spot well behind the takeoff board, helping the American safely make his final attempt and setting the stage for their spectacular duel. It's a great anecdote about the triumph of sportsmanship and humanity, but unfortunately it wasn't true. Famed sportswriter Grantland Rice watched Owens through his binoculars during the qualifying round and never saw Owens and Long interact. Years later, when asked point blank about the moment by Tom Ecker, author of Olympic Facts and Fables, Owens admitted to fudging the truth. But the heart-lifting camaraderie between the two competitors wasn't entirely a myth, as cameras captured them walking arm-in-arm after Owens outlasted Luz to win the gold medal.

5. Owens made a triumphant return to Berlin in 1951

The post-Olympic years were difficult for the decorated champion, who competed in such sideshow events as racing horses and accepted several demeaning jobs to earn a living. Now touring with the Harlem Globetrotters, Owens received a rousing ovation before speaking to 75,000 fans at the Olympic Stadium. Acting mayor of West Berlin Walter Schreiber then took the microphone to proclaim, "Hitler wouldn't shake your hand-I give you both hands!" and reached for Owens' arms. Although the stories about Hitler refusing to acknowledge the African American Olympian may also have been exaggerated, the dramatic moment fit right into Owens' wheelhouse, and he filed it away for use in what eventually became a successful public-speaking career.

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Jesse Owens: 5 Facts About the Groundbreaking Olympic Athlete

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While Jesse Owens famously won four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin to shatter Adolf Hitler's notions of Aryan athletic supremacy, his journey reflected the fleeting thrills of fame and the struggles of African Americans in a still-segregated 20th century United States.

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Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 - August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel, published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel Gone with the Wind, for which she won the National Book Award for Fiction for Most Distinguished Novel of 1936 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. Long after her death, a collection of Mitchell's girlhood writings and a novella she wrote as a teenager, titled Lost Laysen, were published. A collection of newspaper articles written by Mitchell for The Atlanta Journal was republished in book form.

Family history

Margaret Mitchell was a Southerner, a native and lifelong resident of Georgia. She was born in 1900 into a wealthy and politically prominent family. Her father, Eugene Muse Mitchell, was an attorney, and her mother, Mary Isabel "Maybelle" Stephens, was a suffragist and Catholic activist. She had two brothers, Russell Stephens Mitchell, who died in infancy in 1894, and Alexander Stephens Mitchell, born in 1896.

Mitchell's family on her father's side were descendants of Thomas Mitchell, originally of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, who settled in Wilkes County, Georgia in 1777, and served in the American Revolutionary War. Thomas Mitchell was a surveyor by profession. He was on a surveying trip in Henry County, Georgia, at the home of Mr. John Lowe, about 6 miles from McDonough, Georgia, when he died in 1835 and is buried in that location. William Mitchell, born December 8, 1777, in Lisborn, Edgefield County, South Carolina, moved between 1834 and 1835, to a farm along the South River in the Flat Rock community in Georgia. William Mitchell died February 24, 1859, at the age of 81 and is buried in the family graveyard near Panola Mountain State Park. Her great-grandfather Issac Green Mitchell moved to farm along the Flat Shoals Road located in the Flat Rock community in 1839. Four years later he sold this farm to Ira O. McDaniel and purchased a farm 3 miles farther down the road on the north side of the South River in DeKalb County, Georgia.

Her grandfather, Russell Crawford Mitchell, of Atlanta, enlisted in the Confederate States Army on June 24, 1861, and served in Hood's Texas Brigade. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Sharpsburg, demoted for "inefficiency," and detailed as a nurse in Atlanta. After the Civil War, he made a large fortune supplying lumber for the rapid rebuilding of Atlanta. Russell Mitchell had thirteen children from two wives; the eldest was Eugene, who graduated from the University of Georgia Law School.

Mitchell's maternal great-grandfather, Philip Fitzgerald, emigrated from Ireland and eventually settled on a slaveholding plantation, Rural Home, near Jonesboro, Georgia, where he had one son and seven daughters with his wife, Elenor McGahan, who was from an Irish Catholic family with ties to Colonial Maryland. Mitchell's grandparents, married in 1863, were Annie Fitzgerald and John Stephens; he had also emigrated from Ireland and became a captain in the Confederate States Army. John Stephens was a prosperous real estate developer after the Civil War and one of the founders of the Gate City Street Railroad (1881), a mule-drawn Atlanta trolley system. John and Annie Stephens had twelve children together; the seventh child was May Belle Stephens, who married Eugene Mitchell. May Belle Stephens had studied at the Bellevue Convent in Quebec and completed her education at the Atlanta Female Institute.

Early influences

Margaret Mitchell spent her early childhood on Jackson Hill, east of downtown Atlanta. Her family lived near her maternal grandmother, Annie Stephens, in a Victorian house painted bright red with yellow trim. Mrs. Stephens had been a widow for several years prior to Margaret's birth; Captain John Stephens died in 1896. After his death, she inherited property on Jackson Street where Margaret's family lived.

Grandmother Annie Stephens was quite a character, both vulgar and a tyrant. After gaining control of her father Philip Fitzgerald's money after he died, she splurged on her younger daughters, including Margaret's mother, and sent them to finishing school in the north. There they learned that Irish Americans were not treated as equal to other immigrants. Margaret's relationship with her grandmother would become quarrelsome in later years as she entered adulthood. However, for Margaret, her grandmother was a great source of "eye-witness information" about the Civil War and Reconstruction in Atlanta prior to her death in 1934.

Girlhood on Jackson Hill

In an accident that was traumatic for her mother although she was unharmed, when Mitchell was about three years old, her dress caught fire on an iron grate. Fearing it would happen again, her mother began dressing her in boys' pants, and she was nicknamed "Jimmy", the name of a character in the comic strip, Little Jimmy. Her brother insisted she would have to be a boy named Jimmy to play with him. Having no sisters to play with, Mitchell said she was a boy named Jimmy until she was fourteen.

Stephens Mitchell said his sister was a tomboy who would happily play with dolls occasionally, and she liked to ride her Texas plains pony. As a little girl, Mitchell went riding every afternoon with a Confederate veteran and a young lady of "beau-age". She was raised in an era when children were "seen and not heard" and was not allowed to express her personality by running and screaming on Sunday afternoons while her family was visiting relatives. Mitchell learned the gritty details of specific battles from these visits with aging Confederate soldiers. But she didn't learn that the South had actually lost the war until she was 10 years of age: "I heard everything in the world except that the Confederates lost the war. When I was ten years old, it was a violent shock to learn that General Lee had been defeated. I didn't believe it when I first heard it and I was indignant. I still find it hard to believe, so strong are childhood impressions." Her mother would swat her with a hairbrush or a slipper as a form of discipline.

May Belle Mitchell was "hissing blood-curdling threats" to her daughter to make her behave the evening she took her to a women's suffrage rally led by Carrie Chapman Catt. Her daughter sat on a platform wearing a Votes-for-Women banner, blowing kisses to the gentlemen, while her mother gave an impassioned speech. She was nineteen years old when the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, which gave women the right to vote.

May Belle Mitchell was president of the Atlanta Woman's Suffrage League (1915), co-founder of Georgia's division of the League of Women Voters, chairwoman of press publicity for the Georgia Mothers' Congress and Parent Teacher Association, a member of the Pioneer Society, the Atlanta Woman's Club, and several Catholic and literary societies.

Mitchell's father was not in favor of corporal punishment in school. During his tenure as president of the educational board (1911-1912), corporal punishment in the public schools was abolished. Reportedly, Eugene Mitchell received a whipping on the first day he attended school and the mental impression of the thrashing lasted far longer than the physical marks.

Jackson Hill was an old, affluent part of the city. At the bottom of Jackson Hill was an area of African-American homes and businesses called " Darktown". The mayhem of the Atlanta Race Riot occurred over four days in September 1906 when Mitchell was five years old. Local white newspapers printed unfounded rumors that several white women had been assaulted by black men, prompting an angry mob of 10,000 to assemble in the streets, pulling black people from street cars, beating, killing dozens over the next three days.

As the rioting continued, rumors ran wild that black people would burn Jackson Hill. At his daughter's suggestion, Eugene Mitchell, who did not own a gun, stood guard with a sword. Though the rumors proved untrue and no attack arrived, Mitchell recalled twenty years later the terror she felt during the riot.

A few years after the riot, the Mitchell family decided to move away from Jackson Hill. In 1912, they moved to the east side of Peachtree Street just north of Seventeenth Street in Atlanta. Past the nearest neighbor's house was forest and beyond it the Chattahoochee River. Mitchell's former Jackson Hill home was destroyed in the Great Atlanta Fire of 1917.

Mitchell's father was of a Protestant background, while her mother was a devout Catholic; Mitchell was raised in a Catholic household. As a young woman, she spent time visiting the Sisters of Mercy convent affiliated with St. Joseph's Infirmary in downtown Atlanta. Her religious upbringing influenced her decision to make the O'Hara family in her novel Catholics in a Protestant-majority state. One of Mitchell's mother's cousins entered the Sisters of Mercy at St. Vincent's Convent in Savannah in 1883, becoming Sister Mary Melanie. The characters Melanie Hamilton and Careen O'Hara were probably based on this relation.

The South of Gone with the Wind

While "the South" exists as a geographical region of the United States, it is also said to exist as "a place of the imagination" of writers. An image of "the South" was fixed in Mitchell's imagination when at six years old her mother took her on a buggy tour through ruined plantations and "Sherman's sentinels", the brick and stone chimneys that remained after William Tecumseh Sherman's " March and torch" through Georgia.

From an imagination cultivated in her youth, Margaret Mitchell's defensive weapon would become her writing.

On summer vacations, she visited her maternal great-aunts, Mary Ellen ("Mamie") Fitzgerald and Sarah ("Sis") Fitzgerald, who still lived at her great-grandparents' plantation home in Jonesboro. Mamie had been twenty-one years old and Sis was thirteen when the Civil War began.

An avid reader

An avid reader, young Margaret read "boys' stories" by G.A. Henty, the Tom Swift series, and the Rover Boys series by Edward Stratemeyer. Her mother read Mary Johnston's novels to her before she could read. They both wept reading Johnston's The Long Roll (1911) and Cease Firing (1912). She also read the plays of William Shakespeare, and novels by Charles Dickens and Sir Walter Scott. Mitchell's two favorite children's books were by author Edith Nesbit: Five Children and It (1902) and The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904). She kept both on her bookshelf even as an adult and gave them as gifts. Another author whom Mitchell read as a teenager and who had a major impact in her understanding of the Civil War and Reconstruction was Thomas Dixon and his popular trilogy of novels The Leopard's Spots: A Romance of the White Man's Burden (1902), The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905) and The Traitor: A Story of the Rise and Fall of the Invisible Empire (1907). As a teenager, Mitchell liked Dixon's books so much that she organized the local children to put on dramatizations of his books. The picture the white supremacist Dixon drew of Reconstruction is now rejected as inaccurate, but at the time, the memory of the past was such it was widely believed by white Americans. In a letter to Dixon dated August 10, 1936, Mitchell wrote: "I was practically raised on your books, and love them very much."

Young storyteller

An imaginative and precocious writer, Margaret Mitchell began with stories about animals, then progressed to fairy tales and adventure stories. She fashioned book covers for her stories, bound the tablet paper pages together and added her own artwork. At age eleven she gave a name to her publishing enterprise: "Urchin Publishing Co." Later her stories were written in notebooks. Mary Belle Mitchell kept her daughter's stories in white enamel bread boxes and several boxes of her stories were stored in the house by the time Margaret went off to college.

"Margaret" is a character riding a galloping pony in The Little Pioneers, and plays "Cowboys and Indians" in When We Were Shipwrecked.

Romantic love and honor emerged as themes of abiding interest for Mitchell in The Knight and the Lady (ca. 1909), in which a "good knight" and a "bad knight" duel for the hand of the lady. In The Arrow Brave and the Deer Maiden (ca. 1913), a half-white Indian brave, Jack, must withstand the pain inflicted upon him to uphold his honor and win the girl. The same themes were treated with increasing artistry in Lost Laysen, the novella Mitchell wrote as a teenager in 1916, and, with much greater sophistication, in Mitchell's last known novel, Gone with the Wind, which she began in 1926.

In her pre-teens, Mitchell also wrote stories set in foreign locations, such as The Greaser (1913), a cowboy story set in Mexico. In 1913 she wrote two stories with Civil War settings; one includes her notation that "237 pages are in this book".

School life

While the Great War carried on in Europe (1914-1918), Margaret Mitchell attended Atlanta's Washington Seminary (now The Westminster Schools), a "fashionable" private girls' school with an enrollment of over 300 students. She was very active in the Drama Club. Mitchell played the male characters: Nick Bottom in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Launcelot Gobbo in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, among others. She wrote a play about snobbish college girls that she acted in as well. She also joined the Literary Club and had two stories published in the yearbook: Little Sister and Sergeant Terry. Ten-year-old "Peggy" is the heroine in Little Sister.

Mitchell received encouragement from her English teacher, Mrs. Paisley, who recognized her writing talent. A demanding teacher, Paisley told her she had ability if she worked hard and would not be careless in constructing sentences. A sentence, she said, must be "complete, concise and coherent".

Mitchell read the books of Thomas Dixon, Jr., and in 1916, when the silent film, The Birth of a Nation, was showing in Atlanta, she dramatized Dixon's The Traitor: A Story of the Fall of the Invisible Empire (1907). As both playwright and actress, she took the role of Steve Hoyle. For the production, she made a Ku Klux Klan costume from a white crepe dress and wore a boy's wig. (Note: Dixon rewrote The Traitor as The Black Hood (1924) and Steve Hoyle was renamed George Wilkes.)

During her years at Washington Seminary, Mitchell's brother, Stephens, was away studying at Harvard College (1915-1917), and he left in May 1917 to enlist in the army, about a month after the U.S. declared war on Germany. He set sail for France in April 1918, participated in engagements in the Lagny and Marbache sectors, then returned to Georgia in October as a training instructor. While Margaret and her mother were in New York in September 1918 preparing for Margaret to attend college, Stephens wired his father that he was safe after his ship had been torpedoed en route to New York from France.

Stephens Mitchell thought college was the "ruination of girls". However, May Belle Mitchell placed a high value on education for women and she wanted her daughter's future accomplishments to come from using her mind. She saw education as Margaret's weapon and "the key to survival". The classical college education she desired for her daughter was one that was on par with men's colleges, and this type of education was available only at northern schools. Her mother chose Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts for Margaret because she considered it to be the best women's college in the United States.

Upon graduating from Washington Seminary in June 1918, Mitchell fell in love with a Harvard graduate, a young army lieutenant, Clifford West Henry, who was chief bayonet instructor at Camp Gordon from May 10 until the time he set sail for France on July 17. Henry was "slightly effeminate", "ineffectual", and "rather effete-looking" with "homosexual tendencies", according to biographer Anne Edwards. Before departing for France, he gave Mitchell an engagement ring.

On September 14, while she was enrolled at Smith College, Henry was mortally wounded in action in France and died on October 17. As Henry waited in the Verdun trenches, shortly before being wounded, he composed a poem on a leaf torn from his field notebook, found later among his effects. The last stanza of Lieutenant Clifford W. Henry's poem follows:

Henry repeatedly advanced in front of the platoon he commanded, drawing machine-gun fire so that the German nests could be located and wiped out by his men. Although wounded in the leg in this effort, his death was the result of shrapnel wounds from an air bomb dropped by a German plane. He was awarded the French Croix de guerre avec palme for his acts of heroism. From the President of the United States, the Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces, he was presented with the Distinguished Service Cross and an Oak Leaf Cluster in lieu of a second Distinguished Service Cross.

Clifford Henry was the great love of Margaret Mitchell's life, according to her brother. In a letter to a friend (A. Edee, March 26, 1920), Mitchell wrote of Clifford that she had a "memory of a love that had in it no trace of physical passion".

Mitchell had vague aspirations of a career in psychiatry, but her future was derailed by an event that killed over fifty million people worldwide, the 1918 flu pandemic. On January 25, 1919, her mother, May Belle Mitchell, succumbed to pneumonia from the "Spanish flu". Mitchell arrived home from college a day after her mother had died.

An average student at Smith College, Mitchell did not excel in any area of academics. She held a low estimation of her writing abilities. Even though her English professor had praised her work, she felt the praise was undue. After finishing her freshman year at Smith, Mitchell returned to Atlanta to take over the household for her father and never returned to college. In October 1919, while regaining her strength after an appendectomy, she confided to a friend that giving up college and her dreams of a "journalistic career" to keep house and take her mother's place in society meant "giving up all the worthwhile things that counted for-nothing!"

Margaret began using the name "Peggy" at Washington Seminary, and the abbreviated form "Peg" at Smith College, when she found an icon for herself in the mythological winged horse, " Pegasus", that inspires poets. Peggy made her Atlanta society debut in the 1920 winter season. In the "gin and jazz style" of the times, she did her "flapping" in the 1920s. At a 1921 Atlanta debutante charity ball, she performed an Apache dance. The dance included a kiss with her male partner that shocked Atlanta high society and led to her being blacklisted from the Junior League.

In April 1922, Mitchell was seeing two men almost daily: one was Berrien ("Red") Kinnard Upshaw (March 10, 1901 - January 13, 1949), whom she is thought to have met in 1917 at a dance hosted by the parents of one of her friends, and the other, Upshaw's roommate and friend, John Robert Marsh (October 6, 1895 - March 5, 1952), a copy editor from Kentucky who worked for the Associated Press. Upshaw was an Atlanta boy, a few months younger than Mitchell, whose family moved to Raleigh, North Carolina in 1916. In 1919 he was appointed to the United States Naval Academy, but resigned for academic deficiencies on January 5, 1920. He was readmitted in May, then 19 years old, and spent two months at sea before resigning a second time on September 1, 1920.

Although her family disapproved, Peggy and Red married on September 2, 1922; the best man at their wedding was John Marsh, who would become her second husband. The couple resided at the Mitchell home with her father. By December the marriage to Upshaw had dissolved and he left. Upshaw agreed to an uncontested divorce. Upshaw and Mitchell were divorced on October 16, 1924.

During this time, Mitchell left the Catholic Church and became an Episcopalian.

On July 4, 1925, 24-year-old Margaret Mitchell and 29-year-old John Marsh were married in the Unitarian-Universalist Church. The Marshes made their home at the Crescent Apartments in Atlanta, taking occupancy of Apt. 1, which they affectionately named "The Dump" (now the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum).

Reporter for The Atlanta Journal

While still legally married to Upshaw and needing income for herself, Mitchell got a job writing feature articles for The Atlanta Journal Sunday Magazine. She received almost no encouragement from her family or "society" to pursue a career in journalism, and had no prior newspaper experience.

Her first story, Atlanta Girl Sees Italian Revolution, by Margaret Mitchell Upshaw, appeared on December 31, 1922. She wrote on a wide range of topics, from fashions to Confederate generals and King Tut. In an article that appeared on July 1, 1923, Valentino Declares He Isn't a Sheik, she interviewed celebrity actor Rudolph Valentino, referring to him as "Sheik" from his film role.

Mitchell was quite thrilled when Valentino took her in his arms and carried her inside from the rooftop of the Georgian Terrace Hotel.

Many of her stories were vividly descriptive.

In another article, Georgia's Empress and Women Soldiers, she wrote short sketches of four notable Georgia women. One was the first woman to serve in the United States Senate, Rebecca Latimer Felton, a suffragist who held white supremacist views. The other women were: Nancy Hart, Lucy Mathilda Kenny (also known as Private Bill Thompson of the Confederate States Army) and Mary Musgrove. The article generated mail and controversy from her readers. Mitchell received criticism for depicting "strong women who did not fit the accepted standards of femininity."

Mitchell's journalism career, which began in 1922, came to an end less than four years later; her last article appeared on May 9, 1926. Several months after marrying John Marsh, Mitchell quit due to an ankle injury that would not heal properly and chose to become a full-time wife. During the time Mitchell worked for the Atlanta Journal, she wrote 129 feature articles, 85 news stories, and several book reviews.

Early works

Mitchell wrote a romance novella, Lost Laysen, when she was fifteen years old (1916). She gave Lost Laysen, which she had written in two notebooks, to a boyfriend, Henry Love Angel. He died in 1945 and the novella remained undiscovered among some letters she had written to him until 1994. The novella was published in 1996, eighty years after it was written, and became a New York Times Best Seller.

In Mitchell's teenage years, she is known to have written a 400-page novel about girls in a boarding school, The Big Four. The novel is thought to be lost; Mitchell destroyed some of her manuscripts herself and others were destroyed after her death.

In the 1920s Mitchell completed a novelette, Ropa Carmagin, about a Southern white girl who loves a biracial man. Mitchell submitted the manuscript to Macmillan Publishers in 1935 along with her manuscript for Gone with the Wind. The novelette was rejected; Macmillan thought the story was too short for book form.

Writing Gone with the Wind

Main page: Gone with the Wind (novel)

In May 1926, after Mitchell had left her job at the Atlanta Journal and was recovering at home from her ankle injury, she wrote a society column for the Sunday Magazine, "Elizabeth Bennet's Gossip", which she continued to write until August.

To aid her in her literary endeavors, John Marsh brought home a Remington Portable No. 3 typewriter (c. 1928). For the next three years Mitchell worked exclusively on writing a Civil War-era novel whose heroine was named Pansy O'Hara (prior to Gone with the Wind's publication Pansy was changed to Scarlett). She used parts of the manuscript to prop up a wobbly couch.

World War II

During World War II, Margaret Mitchell was a volunteer for the American Red Cross and she raised money for the war effort by selling war bonds. She was active in Home Defense, sewed hospital gowns and put patches on trousers. Her personal attention, however, was devoted to writing letters to men in uniform-soldiers, sailors, and marines, sending them humor, encouragement, and her sympathy.

The USS Atlanta (CL-51) was a light cruiser used as an anti-aircraft ship of the United States Navy sponsored by Margaret Mitchell and used in the naval Battle of Midway and the Eastern Solomons. The ship was heavily damaged during night surface action on November 13, 1942, during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal and subsequently scuttled on orders of her captain having earned five battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation as a "heroic example of invincible fighting spirit".

Mitchell sponsored a second light cruiser named after the city of Atlanta, the USS Atlanta (CL-104). On February 6, 1944, she christened Atlanta in Camden, New Jersey, and the cruiser began fighting operations in May 1945. Atlanta was a member of task forces protecting fast carriers, was operating off the coast of Honshū when the Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945, and earned two battle stars. She was finally sunk during explosive testing off San Clemente Island on October 1, 1970.

Death and legacy

Margaret Mitchell was struck by a speeding automobile as she crossed Peachtree Street at 13th Street in Atlanta with her husband, John Marsh, while on her way to see the movie A Canterbury Tale on the evening of August 11, 1949. She died at age 48 at Grady Hospital five days later on August 16 without fully regaining consciousness.

The driver, Hugh Gravitt, was an off-duty taxi driver who was driving his personal vehicle when he struck Mitchell. After the collision, Gravitt was arrested for drunken driving and released on a $5,450 bond until Mitchell's death. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in November 1949 and sentenced to 18 months in jail. He served almost 11 months. Gravitt died in 1994 at the age of 74.

Margaret Mitchell was buried at Oakland Cemetery, Georgia. When her husband John died in 1952, he was buried next to his wife.

In 1978, Mitchell was inducted into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame, followed by the Georgia Women of Achievement in 1994, and the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2000.

In 1994, Shannen Doherty starred in the television film A Burning Passion: The Margaret Mitchell Story, a fictionalized account of Mitchell's life directed by Larry Peerce.

When Mitchell's nephew, Joseph Mitchell, died in 2011, he left fifty percent of trademark and literary rights of the Margaret Mitchell Estate, as well as some personal belongings of Mitchell's, to the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

In Spanish: Margaret Mitchell para niños

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African Americans In WW2 (Tuskegee Airman)

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African Americans In WW2 (Tuskegee Airman)

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Segregation was still an issue during World War II. When they were allowed to fight, black men had to serve in their own units apart from white soldiers.

Many black soldiers did not fight in active campaigns during the beginning of the war. They served in other ways such as cooks, maintenance men, and nurses.

Toward the end of the war, black men proved that they were skilled fighters and could serve their country well.

President Harry S. Truman ordered the desegregation of all U.S. armed forces in July 1948.

Segregation

Even though there were many African Americans who enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II, segregation was still an issue. Segregation is when different races are separated based on the color of their skin. There were units of the Army that were completely made up of black men and other units of the Army that were completely made up of white men.

Jobs of African-American Soldiers

At the beginning of the war, African Americans rarely fought but served the Army in other ways. Some were cooks, others did maintenance work, and some served as nurses. Toward the end of the war, black men were allowed to fight in active campaigns of the war.

The Tuskegee Airmen, the 761st Tank Battalion, and the 452nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion fought well during the war. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first group of African-American pilots to serve in the military. The 761st Tank Battalion was the first African-American tank unit to fight in the war. The 452nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, consisting of fewer than 1,000 soldiers, is credited with bringing down 88 German planes. They fought in nearly every major Allied land campaign during the war.

Famous African-American Soldiers

Benjamin O. Davis Jr. Served as commander of the Tuskegee Airmen. He later went on to become the first African-American general in the United States Air Force. His father had been the first African-American brigadier general in the U.S. Army.

Doris Miller, a Navy cook, was the first African American recipient of the Navy Cross. He was awarded for his actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor. When the Japanese planes were attacking, Miller ran to an anti-aircraft gun and fired at the Japanese aircraft, even though he had never been taught how to use the weapon.

Famous Firsts

The first African-American woman to serve in the Navy as a nurse was Phyllis Mae Dailey. She was the first of only four women to serve as a Navy nurse during World War II.

Joseph C. Jenkins became the first African-American commissioned officer in the United States Coast Guard.

The Golden Thirteen became the Navy's first African-American commissioned officers.

Frederick C. Branch became the first African-American United States Marine Corps officer.

Desegregation

During the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, General Eisenhower was severely short of replacement troops for the all-white companies. He allowed 2,000 black servicemen to serve in segregated platoons under the command of white lieutenants. The platoons served well. Not one black platoon received a ranking of "poor" by the white officers or soldiers that fought with them. 84% were ranked "very well" and 16% were ranked "fairly well." This was a small, but important step toward the permanent integration of black with white soldiers in the following wars. President Harry S. Truman ordered the desegregation of all U.S. armed forces in July 1948.

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African Americans in World War II Facts for Kids

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Segregation was still an issue during World War II. When they were allowed to fight, black men had to serve in their own units apart from white soldiers. Many black soldiers did not fight in active campaigns during the beginning of the war. They served in other ways such as cooks, maintenance men, and nurses.

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Discover how this remarkable woman helped change the lives of millions of African Americans and the history of her country in our Rosa Parks facts...
All people should be treated equally, right? Regardless of where you come from, what religion you follow, where you work, what language you speak or whether you're a boy or a girl. Well, sadly, this isn't always the case, and many groups of people around the world still suffer as a result of prejudices and discrimination.

Thankfully, there are some amazing people who have done incredible things to fight for equality. One such person was a civil rights activist called Rosa Parks.

Rosa Parks facts

Who was Rosa Parks?

Full name: Rosa Louise McCauley Parks
Born: 4 February 1913
Hometown: Tuskegee, Alabama, USA
Occupation: Civil rights activist
Died: 24 October 2005
Best known for: The Montgomery Bus Boycott

Rosa was born in the town of Tuskegee in Alabama, a state in southern USA. Her mother was a teacher and her father a carpenter, and she had a little brother called Sylvester. After her parents separated when she was just a little girl, Rosa and Sylvester moved with their mother to Alabama's capital city, Montgomery.

Rosa loved to learn and studied hard at high school. But, sadly, she had to leave school at 16 to care for her dying grandmother and, shortly after, her very sick mother. When she was 19 years old, Rosa married a barber called Raymond Parks, who encouraged her to return to high school to earn her diploma (an education certificate). And that's just what she did, before beginning work as a seamstress in Montgomery.

Racial segregation

Life for African Americans like Rosa was hard. At the time, the Southern United States operated under the ' Jim Crow laws' - a set of laws introduced in the late 19th century that claimed to give African Americans " separate but equal " status and treatment. But, in truth, there was no 'equality' whatsoever.

Created by white authorities who thought black people's lives didn't matter as much as theirs, these laws enforced racial segregation and allowed for discrimination against African Americans - referred to at that time as "colored" people.

The Jim Crow laws were introduced in different ways from state to state, but there was one common goal - to make sure black citizens and white citizens led very separate lives.

Among other things, they had separate schools, churches, libraries, restaurants, toilets, drinking fountains and waiting rooms. In some areas, there were laws banning black people from sports events and even forbidding them to work in the same office as a white person.

African Americans had far fewer rights, too. Racist laws known as ' Black Codes ' restricted them to low-paying jobs and made it incredibly difficult for them to vote. These laws also meant black people could be arrested for small things.

What did Rosa Parks do?

In the face of such racism, Rosa decided to make a stand for what was right. Together with her husband Raymond, she joined the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), working towards putting an end to discrimination and segregation.

But it was on the 1 December 1955 that Rosa truly sparked change. After a long day at work, Rosa boarded the bus home and took a seat. At that time in Montgomery, seats at the front of buses were reserved for white passengers, and the seats at the back for black passengers.

The bus quickly filled up and when a white man boarded, the driver told the African American passengers to give up their seats for him. Whilst the other black passengers obeyed, Rosa did not. The result? Rosa was arrested by the police and fined for breaking segregation laws! But Rosa refused to pay, and argued that it was the law that was wrong, not her behaviour.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

On news of Rosa's arrest, the black citizens of Montgomery came together and agreed to boycott the city's buses in protest. This meant that from 5 December 1955 (the date of Rosa's trial), African Americans refused to travel on buses. The boycott was managed by an organisation called the Montgomery Improvement Association, for which Dr Martin Luther King Jr was elected as leader.

The protest proved super effective, with more black people participating than had been expected. And since African Americans made up around 70% of bus users, the city's transport services made far less money and began to struggle. But it wasn't an easy protest for the black citizens. Many of them didn't own cars, and so they had to carpool together or walk long distances to get where they needed to go. What's more, the boycott was received with anger by members of the white population, who responded with aggressive and dangerous acts of violence.

Nevertheless, the protesters stuck together and fought for their cause - and on 13 November 1956 their efforts were finally rewarded. After 381 days of boycotting the buses, the Supreme Court ruled that Alabama's racial segregation laws were 'unconstitutional' - meaning they weren't valid and should not be recognised. In light of such a wonderful victory, Rosa became known as "the mother of the civil rights movement".

Rosa Parks' legacy

Sadly, despite the victory, life wasn't easy for Rosa and her fellow activists after the boycott. Faced with continued violence and threats by angry white groups, Rosa and Raymond moved to Detroit (a city in the northern US state of Michigan), to live with Rosa's brother.

There she continued to promote civil rights and help those suffering from discrimination and injustice. She continued to support the NAACP and many civil rights events, and in 1987 she co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development to provide career training for young people in Detroit.

Rosa received numerous awards for her strength, courage and her incredible work for civil rights - including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.

When did Rosa Parks die?

Rosa died of natural causes on 24 October 2005 at the age of 92. But she continues to be recognised all over the world as a symbol of freedom and equality. Today, commemorative statues stand (or 'sit' we should say!) in her honour, to remind us of her remarkable achievements that should never be forgotten.

What do you think of our Rosa Parks facts? Leave a comment below and let us know!

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Rosa Parks facts for kids | National Geographic Kids

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Learn all about the African American civil rights activist who fought for equality and freedom in the USA in our Rosa Parks facts...

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Kids learn about the biography of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play Major League Baseball. He was a Hall of Fame player for the Brooklyn Dodgers who wore number 42.

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The Tuskegee Airmen is the popular name for a group of African-American military pilots ( fighter and bomber) who fought in World War II. Formally, they formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces. The name also applies to the crew members and support personnel. Their units were all black and all segregated. They had an outstanding record. As fighter escorts they had the reputation that not a single bomber was lost to enemy action while being escorted by Tuskegee airmen.

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American military aviators in the United States Armed Forces. During World War II, Black Americans in many U.S. states were still subject to the Jim Crow laws. Most Tuskegee pilots were trained at Tuskegee Army Airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama. Training bomber crews took longer than training fighter pilots and the war was won before they finished. Navigators and other crew members trained at various army based in the US.

Images for kids

The Stearman Kaydet training aircraft used by the Tuskegee Airmen, bearing the name Spirit of Tuskegee

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The Tuskegee Airmen is the popular name for a group of African-American military pilots ( fighter and bomber) who fought in World War II. Formally, they formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces. The name also applies to the crew members and support personnel.