4 Kick-Ass Black People Who've Contributed to US History

Black people have such a rich history in the United States. But unfortunately a lot of it is untold. If you haven't been living under a rock lately, then you know with all the anti-CRT bills getting passed back and forth in the southern parts of the US, some people would rather none of it gets told. Well, too bad. History can't stay hidden for long, and this article intends to dig up some of the most interesting black folks in the US. Yeah, you may have heard of pioneers like George Washington Carver or Benjamin Banneker, but let's branch out a bit. There's a lot more where that came from, because Black folks are lit. This list takes a look at some names who might not be as well-known, but their kick-ass contributions to history are not only important, but fascinating as well.

4. James Reese Europe

James Reese Europe is one of the most influential musicians in American musical history. You may not of heard of him before, but you know what he's influenced. Born in 1881 to parents of musicians, Europe was meant to play music. His family even lived a block away from composer John Philip Sousa. After studying violin as a kid, Europe moved to New York where he started his career as a musician and songwriter.

While there, he founded The Clef Club, a union that helped find bookings for musicians, and traveled extensively with the club's orchestra. He helped popularize the foxtrot to Americans when he teamed up with dancers Vernon and Irene Castle as their bandleader. It was while he was with the Castles that he added a saxophone to his orchestra's repertoire, elevating the importance of the novelty instrument in serious music. So if you're a fan of the sexy sax in 1980's movie soundtracks, then you have Europe to thank for that.

After the US entered World War I, Europe signed up with the all-black 369th U.S. Infantry Regiment, and formed a military band at the request of his commanding officer. Instructed to find the best musicians, he enlisted performers of all stripes from New York to Puerto Rico, including dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. Known as the 369th "Harlem Hellfighters" band, it became the most popular part of the 369th Infantry, performing for troops, military and civilian officials, as well as the French public, whom he introduced to his version of syncopated jazz.

After the war, the 369th returned home to a ticker tape parade with Europe and his band leading the veterans down Harlem's Lexington Ave., cheered on by thousands of New Yorkers both black and white. Sadly, Europe was killed not long after his return when one of his bandmembers cut his jugular with a penknife during a dispute. Europe was buried on May 13, 1919 in a public ceremony, one of the first for a black man, with thousands turning out to pay their respect. He's laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, well deserving for the man who helped make sexy sax possible.

3. Mary Ellen Pleasant

Mary Ellen Pleasant was born a slave possibly in 1812 or 1814 depending on which accounts you read, and later became a major player in early San Francisco history. After spending life as a freedwoman married to abolitionist James W. Smith in New England, she fled to San Francisco in 1849 after her husband's death and her own abolitionist activism made her suspect under the newly passed Fugitive Slave Act.

Using her cooking skills to her advantage, she worked for wealthy clients as a housekeeper, then opened and operated restaurants and bordinghouses. Not content to just cleaning rich people's drawers, Pleasant decided she wanted some of that bag too by instructing her employees to spy on her wealthy patrons, then using their trading tips to invest her money. With her business partner and lover, Thomas Bell, acting as a front, Pleasant racked up nearly $30 million.

Pleasant was also a philanthropist and civil rights activist. She continued to help the abolitionist cause by providing shelter and jobs to fleeing slaves and financially supported John Brown and his crusade (she narrowly escaped back to San Francisco after Brown and his men were captured and executed at Harper's Ferry, and only because the local authorities misread her initials on her handwritten note to Brown and thought she was a dude). She also launched the earliest anti-discrimination lawsuits in California against San Francisco streetcar owners, earning the nickname "The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement in California." Unfortunately, she was also dubbed Mammy Pleasant by the local racist tabloids, which she absolutely hated (both the name and the tabloids).

Toward the end of her life, Pleasant became mired in scandal and gossip (she really hated those tabloids). By the time of her death, she was destitute, her philanthropic work largely forgotten. Her headstone in Napa, California reads, as per her request: "She was a friend of John Brown." Several plaques in San Francisco commemorate this American entrepreneur for shaping the city's unique character.

2. William Alexander Liedesdorff

Another San Francisco unknown legend is William Alexander Liedesdorff, who has the distinction of doing the first of …well, everything in San Francisco history. Born on the Virgin Islands to a Danish sugar planter and a native Virgin Islander, Liedesdorff left his home as a young man and got involved in maritime trade in New Orleans, where he made a comfortable fortune. A fan of the sea, Liedesdorff bought a 106-ton schooner called the "Julia Ann," which would make a famous 1841 trading voyage to the Pacific. During this trip, the thirty-one year old landed on Yerba Buena Cove and settled down in the small town that would eventually become San Francisco.

While in Yerba Buena, Liedesdorff started making the first of many changes that helped shape the still growing town. He launched the first steamboat sail on the San Francisco Bay, opened profitable mercantile businesses that developed import-export routes between San Francisco and Honolulu, built the first cargo warehouse, and lumberyard; opened the first hotel, which he named the "City Hotel," and the first public school. He was a member of the town's first council, and, in 1847, staged the first horse race.

In 1844 Liedesdorff became a naturalized citizen to buy a land grant for thirty-five acres, a common practice during this time, and built a ranch which he called "Rio De Los Americanos." The following year he was appointed Vice Consul to Mexico and served under Consul Thomas Oliver Larkin. While in office, he provided aid to the Americans during the Bear Flag Revolt in Sonoma in 1846. His San Franciscan home on the corner of California and Montgomery Streets became the site of lavish dinners for American and Mexican dignitaries.

In 1848, Liedesdorff died unexpectedly of typhoid fever at the age of thirty-eight, which means he accomplished more in seven years of living in San Francisco than most people do in their lifetimes! He was such a kick-ass that military barracks and vessels hung flags at half-mast in his honor, and the city gave his funeral procession a gun salute as it passed through the streets of Mission Dolores where he was buried. Today a street in San Francisco located near the financial district and a block away from the site of his former home is named in his honor. Seven years!

1. Walter White

There was Heisenberg and then there was Walter White, the real life pioneering civil rights activist who put himself in dangerous situations that even his fictional counterpart couldn't get out of. Born in 1893 in Atlanta, Georgia, White's blonde hair and blue eyes would have made life easier for him to pass for white in a racist society, but his family, which also included President William Henry Harrison, who fathered White's enslaved grandmother, raised him to be proud of his racial heritage (though probably not about their slave owning presidential great-granddaddy!). In 1916, White graduated from Atlanta University and worked in insurance before turning to political activism.

After founding a local chapter of the NAACP, White joined the national organization when author and executive secretary James Weldon Johnson tapped him to be his assistant secretary. White used this position to investigate lynchings in the American South. Because of his appearance, he fooled white folks in southern society to interview local politicians and murder suspects. The information he collected bolstered arguments for anti-lynching legislation. Investigating more than 40 lynchings and eight race riots, he often put his own life in jeopardy. In 1919, he posed as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News to interview participants in a deadly race riot, then hightailed it out of town when locals found out about his true identity.

In 1931, White became the NAACP executive secretary after Weldon Johnson stepped down and continued to fight for civil rights. He kept segrationist Judge John J. Parker from being confirmed for a Supreme Court bench and, through his friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, lobbied for anti-lynching, anti-segregration, and anti-poll tax bills through Congress. He also staged opera singer Marian Anderson's celebrated performance in Washington after the Daughters of the Revolution denied her the use of Constitution Hall for the concert.

Along with union organizer A. Philip Randolph, he pushed President Roosevelt to sign the 1941 Fair Employment Practices executive order, which prevented hiring discrimination in the defense industry during WWII. His 1945 book A Rising Wind, taken from his reports as a war correspondent about the treatment of black soldiers, helped influence Harry Truman's decision to desegregate the armed forces in 1948. He also persuaded Truman to hold a commission for civil rights, whose findings would become a Democratic party platform in the same year.

Concerned with international politics, White became an advisor for both the United States delegation in the conference to found the United Nations and the 1948 General Assembly session in Paris. He took two trips around the world, lecturing, investigating discrimination, and gaining allies. White died from a heart attack in 1955, but his pioneering work in civil rights set the stage for the modern civil rights movement. Now that's a real bad ass!

Cynthia C. Scott is the author of The Book of Dreams, The Naxos Academy of Psychic Studies for Colored Girls, Immortal, My Love, and The Haunted Child. Her short story, "Ruby's Paradox," was the 2018 Fairfield Writing contest winning, which appears in Here to Now: A Time Travel Anthology. She is also the author of numerous essays, reviews, articles, and short stories published in various publications such as Strange Horizons, Fiyah Magazine, and her own substack newsletter, The Portal.