Jane Bolin

Jane Bolin was the first black woman to become judge in the United States (1932) . She was also the first black woman to earn a law degree from Yale, the first black woman to pass the New York State bar exam and the first to join the city's law department. Bolin worked to end segregation in child placement facilities and the assignment of probation officers based on race. She also helped create a racially integrated treatment center for delinquent boys.

Samuel R. Lowery

Samuel R. Lowery was born in Nashville, Tennessee to Peter and Ruth Lowery in December of 1832.  His mother died when he was only seven years old,  leaving Samuel to be raised by his father. Samuel’s father, Peter, had been born a slave, but purchased his own freedom.  As a Freedman, he ran a business, worked as a farmer, operated a livery stable, and served as a janitor at Franklin College.  The Reverend Talbot Fanning, white proprietor of Franklin College, would become tutor to both Peter and Samuel. In 1848, Samuel himself became a Christian Church minister. However, after a local race riot in December 1856 endangered the lives of many free black families, Samuel moved his family North.  He continued working as a pastor in Cincinnati, Ohio and organizing Christian Churches in Canada until the mid 1860′s, when Union forces occupied Nashville and Samuel returned from exile, between 1865 and 1875, Lowery was involved with the State Colored Men’s Conventions, the National  Emigration Society, and the Tennessee State Equal Rights League. He studied law under a white attorney in Rutherford County and began a law practice.  On February 2, 1880, Lowery was admitted to the bar of the U. S. Supreme Court, a first for Blacks in America. In the 1880s, he established a cooperative community, Loweryvale, in Jefferson County, Alabama, where he died around 1900.

Greensboro Sit-in

In the fall of 1959, four young men (Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr. and David Richmond) enrolled as freshmen at North Carolina A&T University. The four young men quickly became a close-knit group and met every evening in their dorm rooms for "bull sessions". It was during these nightly discussions that they considered challenging the institution of segregation. The breaking point for the group came after Christmas vacation when Joseph McNeil was returning to N.C. A&T after spending the holidays at home in New York. McNeil was denied service at a Greyhound bus station in Greensboro. McNeil's frustrating experience was shared by the group, and they were willing to make the necessary sacrifices - even if it meant their own lives - to provoke change in society. On that final night in January 1960 in Scott Hall, the four friends challenged each other to stop talking and take action. They didn't realize the journey they would take the next day would ignite a movement, change a nation and inspire a world. Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr. and David Richmond (The Greensboro Four) entered the F.W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, N.C., around 4:30 p.m. and purchased merchandise at several counters. They sat down at the store's "whites only" lunch counter and ordered coffee, and were denied service, ignored and then asked to leave. They remained seated at the counter until the store closed early at 5 p.m. The four friends immediately returned to campus and recruited others for the cause. It started on February 1 and ended on July 26, 1960 with more than 70,000 people had participated in sit-ins, which resulted in more than 3,000 arrests.
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Origins of Black History Month

The origins of Black History Month can be traced back to a man named Carter G. Woodson born on December 19, 1875, in New Canton, Virginia, to Anna Eliza and James Woodson. He of the first African Americans to receive a doctorate from Harvard, Woodson dedicated his career to the field of African-American history. Woodson chose the second week of February to celebrate Negro History Week because that week included the birthdays of two important men: President Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and Frederick Douglass (February 14). When Negro History Week turned into Black History Month in 1976, the celebrations during the second week of February expanded to the entire month of February.

Giant Panda Facts

High in dense bamboo forests in the misty, rainy mountains of southwestern China lives one of the world's rarest mammals: the giant panda, also called the panda. Only about 1,000 of these black-and-white relatives of bears survive in the wild. Pandas eat almost nothing but bamboo shoots and leaves. Occasionally they eat other vegetation, fish, or small animals, but bamboo accounts for 99 percent of their diets. Pandas eat fast, they eat a lot, and they spend about 12 hours a day doing it. The reason: They digest only about a fifth of what they eat. Overall, bamboo is not very nutritious. The shoots and leaves are the most valuable parts of the plants, so that's what a well-fed panda concentrates on eating. To stay healthy, they have to eat a lot—up to 15 percent of their body weight in 12 hours—so they eat fast. Pandas are shy; they don't venture into areas where people live. This restricts pandas to very limited areas. As people continue to farm, log, and develop land higher and higher up the mountain slopes, the pandas' habitat continues to shrink.

Cheetahs Facts

            The cheetah is the world's fastest land mammal with acceleration that would leave most automobiles in the dust, a cheetah can go from 0 to 60 miles (96 kilometers) an hour in only three seconds. These big cats are quite nimble at high speed and can make quick and sudden turns in pursuit of prey, before unleashing their speed, cheetahs use exceptionally keen eyesight to scan their grassland environment for signs of prey—especially antelope and hares. This big cat is a daylight hunter that benefits from stealthy movement and a distinctive spotted coat that allows it to blend easily into high, dry grasses. When the moment is right a cheetah will sprint after its quarry and attempt to knock it down. Such chases cost the hunter a tremendous amount of energy and are usually over in less than a minute. If successful, the cheetah will often drag its kill to a shady hiding place to protect it from opportunistic animals that sometimes steal a kill before the cheetah can eat. Cheetahs need only drink once every three to four days. Female cheetahs typically have a litter of three cubs and live with them for one and a half to two years. Young cubs spend their first year learning from their mother and practicing hunting techniques with playful games. Male cheetahs live alone or in small groups, often with their littermates.

Elephants Facts

The elephant is the largest land animal on Earth. The African species stands about 8.2 to 13 feet (2.5 to 4 meters) tall and weighs 5,000 to 14,000 pounds (2,268 – 6,350 kilograms). Slightly smaller, the Asian elephant stands about 6.6 to 9.8 feet (2 to 3 m) tall and weighs 4,960 – 12,125 pounds (2,041 to 4,990 kg).

Elephants don't start out small like some mammals. Instead, a baby elephant typically stands about 3 feet (1 m) tall and weighs about 200 pounds (91 kg).

The most distinguishing features of the elephant are its long nose (or trunk) and large, floppy ears. The elephant's trunk does more than smelling and breathing like a normal nose — it's also used for drinking, snagging food and sending out loud trumpeting noises.

Elephants' floppy ears also do more than hear. With loads of tiny veins transecting their surfaces, carrying blood to the rest of the body, elephant ears act like a cooling system. As they flap their wet ears the blood in these veins is cooled, and the cooled blood is circulated around the elephant's body.

The average lifespan of an elephant in the wild is 60 to 70 years.

As herbivores, elephants eat bark, grasses, fruits and roots. An adult elephant can consume up to 300 pounds (136 kg) of food in one day.

http://www.livescience.com/27320-elephants.html

Quote for the day

Never Bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face.

                                                                                                                               -Helen Keller

Women in History

Helen Keller

She was a lecturer and writer, also she was an advocate for the deaf and blind. She spent much of her life working to improve the quality of life for the disabled. A childhood illness left her deaf, blind and mute, but her devoted tutor Anne Sullivan taught her to communicate. The first blind and deaf person to graduate from college, she mastered many languages and became a renowned author and lecturer. In 1964, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Australia Day

On January 26, 1788, the First Fleet of 11 ships from Great Britain arrived at Port Jackson, which now forms Sydney Harbour. The First Fleet was led by Captain Arthur Philip. He established the Colony of New South Wales, the first penal colony in Australia. By 1808, January 26 was being celebrated as “First Landing Day” or “Foundation Day” with drinking and merriment.

Thirty years after the arrival of the First Fleet, in 1818, the Governor of Australia ordered a 30-gun salute, hosted a dinner ball at Government House and gave government employees a holiday. In the following years, employees of banks and other organizations were also given holidays. In the following decades, horse racing and regattas were popular activities on January 26.

In 1838, Foundation Day was Australia's first public holiday. It was also the occasion of the first public celebrations of the founding of Australia. The shores of Sydney Harbour were crowded and there was a firework display. By 1888, January 26 had become known as 'Anniversary Day' was celebrated in all colonies except Adelaide. In 1888, the centenary of the arrival of the First Fleet was celebrated with ceremonies, exhibitions, banquets, regattas, fireworks and the unveiling of a statue of Queen Victoria.

By 1935, January 26 was known as Australia Day in all states except New South Wales, where it was still called Anniversary Day. In 1938, large scale celebrations were held. These included a re-enactment of the landing of the First Fleet, which did not mention the convict status of many of the passengers on these ships. The re-enactment is included the removal of a group of Aborigines. Shortly before the celebrations, a group of Aboriginal activists arranged a “Day of Mourning”. They used this to campaign for citizenship and equal rights for Aborigines.

From 1946, January 26 was known as Australia Day in all states. However, the public holiday was moved to the Monday nearest to January 26 to create a long weekend.  Since 1994, the Australia Day public holiday has been on January 26 in all states and territories.

The anniversary of the first permanent European settlement in Australia is not a cause for celebration for all citizens. Indigenous Australians often feel that the celebrations on Australia Day exclude them and their culture, which was thriving for thousands of years before the arrival of the First Fleet.