Born a slave in Tennessee on May 15, 1832, Mary Fields grew up an orphan, never married and had any children. But she was admired and respected for holding her own and living her own way in a world where the odds were stacked against her. While African Americans and women of any race enjoyed little freedom anywhere in the world, Mary Fields enjoyed more freedom than most white men.
At the end of the Civil War, the 6-foot tall and 200 pounds Fields headed to Montana in search of opportunity and was hired to do heavy work for the nuns at a Catholic convent in Cascade. Fields carried a pair of six-shooters and a 10 gauge and loved the children of Cascade County. The tough, short-tempered woman had a standing bet that she could knock a man out with one punch, and she never lost a dime to anyone foolish enough to take her up on that bet. She was also the only woman of reputable character in Cascade allowed to drink in the local bar as ordered by the mayor. But this tough woman also had a caring side to her.
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Early Sunday, September 15, 1963, Bobby Frank Cherry, Thomas Blanton, Herman Frank Cash, and Robert “Dynamite Bob” Chambliss, members of United Klans of America, a Ku Klux Klan group (an organization created to protect the rights and interests of white Americans by means of violence and intimidation), planted 122 sticks of dynamite outside the basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
At about 10:22 a.m., the bomb exploded. Four little girls (pictured above L-R), Cynthia Wesley (aged 14), Carole Robertson (aged 14), Addie Mae Collins (aged 14) and Denise McNair (aged 11), were killed in the blast. Twenty-two others were injured. It was a crime that shocked the nation — and a defining moment in the history of America’s Civil Rights Movement.
Outrage at the bombing and the grief that followed resulted in violence across Birmingham, and two black boys were killed later that day. Sixteen-year-old Johnny Robinson was shot by police after throwing rocks at cars with white people inside, and two white teenage boys shot 13-year-old Virgil Wade, who was on a bike with his brother.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the eulogy for three of the girls (a separate service was held for Carole Robertson):
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( A doctor administers a blood test to an unidentified subject )
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment began in 1932, when the Public Health Service started working with the Tuskegee Institute to study the effects of syphilis on the human body. However, the nearly 400 poor black men who participated in the study were never informed they even had syphilis nor were they treated for it.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the men were told they were being treated for “bad blood”, a local term used to describe several illnesses, including syphilis, anemia and fatigue. In exchange for their participation, the men were given free medical exams, free meals and free burial insurance. Although originally projected to last 6 months, the study went on for 40 years.
Dr. Taliaferro Clark is credited with the origin of the study after he suggested the racial variation in the effects of syphilis so that Southern legislators would increase funding for treatment programs. Clark believed Macon County would be the perfect location for the study as it had one of the highest rates of syphilis in the nation.
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Artist and former professional football player Ernie Barnes has died. He was 70. Best known for his unique, figurative style of painting, Barnes is widely recognized as the foremost African-American artist today. Continue
