Black History Month Fact

2/11/25:  As we all know, our Black History cannot be contained within one month, for we live “our” history 365 days a year, every year of our lives. So this week’s “Black History Moment” showcases the African American Baptist Church. The First African Baptist Church, located in Savannah, Georgia, is the oldest Black church in this country. Organized in 1777, they are still in existence and worshipping today. The 19th Street Baptist Church is the oldest Black church in Washington DC and was founded in 1839. The Ridgley Methodist Episcopal Church, founded in 1871, is the oldest Black church in Prince Georges County. It’s located on Central Avenue in Landover, Maryland, and is currently home to the New Rock Church.

This week’s “Moment in Black History” showcases Mr. Thomas A. Dorsey, the Father of Gospel Music. Dorsey, the son of a revivalist Baptist preacher, learned to play the piano at an early age, and by the age of 12, he was a professional Blues musician. In 1922, after attending a Baptist Convention in Chicago, he was so moved by the musical preacher that night that he had a conversion experience and coined the term “gospel music,” writing his first gospel song within a week. In August 1932, while away working, Dorsey received horrible news that both his wife and child died in childbirth. Wrecked by the news, he said that God led him to the piano where he penned “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” While still traveling the Blues circuit, he began having his gospel songs printed in sheet music form and selling them for 10 cents a piece to musicians and Pastors. He became the Choral Director at Pilgrim Baptist Church and founded the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses in Chicago in 1933, serving as its president for 40 years. He later composed such compelling gospel classics as “Peace in the Valley,” “On the Battlefield,” “The Old Ship of Zion,” “Walk All Over God’s Heaven,” and “The Lord Will Make a Way.”

2/23/25
This week’s “Black History Moment” showcases African American inventors. Dr. Mark E. Dean, an inventor and computer engineer, is the co-creator of the first IBM computer and color monitor, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1997. Garrett Augustus Morgan Sr., an American inventor and community leader, invented the 3-way traffic light. In 1966, because the crime rate in their Queens, NY neighborhood was very high and police were slow to arrive on the scene, Marie Van Brittan Brown and her husband Albert Brown invented their own home audio-video security system. Their invention laid the foundation for security systems that are in use today. Alexander Miles revolutionized the design for elevators, inventing the electric elevator in 1887 to make it safer than the old manual models. He also founded the United Brotherhood Life Insurance Company for Black people in 1899, and was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2007. George Crum, born George Speck, was a renowned NY chef who reportedly invented the potato chip in the mid 1800’s. However, his sister Catherine Wicks later claimed to be the real inventor of this tasty and popular invention.