Black History Database

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Baker started a business with several other men to manufacture the heater. The Friction Heat & Boiler Company was established in 1904, in St. Joseph, with Baker on the board of directors. The company worked up to $136,000 in capital, equal to over $4.95 million in 2026.

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After twenty-three years, the invention was perfected in the form of two metal cylinders, one inside of the other, with a spinning core in the center made of wood, that produced the friction.

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Baker worked over the span of decades on his product, attempting several different forms of friction, including rubbing two bricks together mechanically, as well as using various types of metals.

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Baker worked with wagons and linchpins, which sparked an interest in mechanical sciences.

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He was the youngest of five children, Susie, Peter, Annie, and Ellen, all of whom were freed after the Civil War. Baker later received an education at Franklin College. His father was employed as an express agent, and once Baker turned fifteen, he became his assistant.

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Baker was born into slavery on August 3, 1859, in Savannah, Missouri. His mother, Betsy Mackay, died when he was three months old, leaving him to be brought up by the wife of his owner, Sallie Mackay, and his father, Abraham Baker.

Charles S. Lewis Baker (August 3, 1859 – May 5, 1926) was an American inventor who patented the friction heater. 🧵

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Douglass also posed for countless photographs, which he considered less susceptible to artists’ racial prejudices.

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Aware of the power of telling one’s own story, he frequently spoke about his life, published three genre-defining autobiographies, and founded the influential newspaper the North Star in 1847.

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True art was an engine of social change, he argued, and true artists were activists: “They see what ought to be by the reflection of what is, and endeavor to remove the contradiction."

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He explained how this “true art” (as opposed to pernicious caricatures) captured the essential humanity of each subject.

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Douglass became the most photographed American of the nineteenth century and remains a public face of the nation. As an art critic, he wrote extensively on portrait photography and understood its power.

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During the Civil War, he befriended and advised President Abraham Lincoln and met every subsequent president through Grover Cleveland. He was also the first African American to receive a federal appointment requiring Senate approval (U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia).

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Over six decades, Douglass published three autobiographies, hundreds of essays, and a novella; delivered thousands of speeches; and edited the longest-running Black newspaper in the nineteenth century, The North Star (later Frederick Douglass’ Paper and Douglass’ Monthly).

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Born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1818, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was the son of Harriet Bailey, an enslaved woman, and an unknown white father. He escaped bondage in 1838 and changed his surname to Douglass.

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), the preeminent African American voice of the nineteenth century, is remembered as one of the nation’s greatest orators, writers, and picture makers. 🧵

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At the time of her death, Walker was considered the wealthiest African-American businesswoman and wealthiest self-made Black woman in America.

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Walker became known also for her philanthropy and activism. Walker made financial donations to numerous organizations such as the NAACP and became a patron of the arts. Villa Lewaro Walker's lavish estate in Irvington New York served as a social gathering place for the African-American community

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Walker made her fortune by developing and marketing a line of cosmetics and hair care products for Black women through the business she founded, Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company.

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Multiple sources mention that although other women (like Mary Ellen Pleasant) might have been the first, their wealth is not as well-documented.

Madam C. J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove; December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919), was an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. Walker is recorded as the first female self-made millionaire in America in the Guinness Book of World Records. 🧵

Jesse Jackson, Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 84 — TIME “Our father was a servant leader—not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked.

““Our father was a servant leader—not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the statement read.

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…. It was a reminder of what Dr. King called the beloved community can look like... There's room for everybody here. And that I think is where we win."

President Barack Obama: “Bad Bunny's halftime show... This is what a community is. People who did not speak Spanish and have never been to Puerto Rico, they saw that elderly woman serving a drink and the kids dancing with their grandmas. It was intergenerational…. 🧵

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While Black history had been celebrated for decades, this law cemented the official federal recognition of the month-long observance. It was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on February 11, 1986.

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The purpose of Public Law 99-244 was to formally recognize and celebrate the 60th annual public and private tribute to Black History, which began on February 1, 1986. It was a joint resolution (S.J. Res. 74) passed by the 99th Congress.

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It authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation urging Americans to observe the month with appropriate ceremonies and activities to honor the contributions of Black Americans.

Public Law 99-244, approved on February 11, 1986, officially designated February 1986 as "National Black (Afro-American) History Month". 🧵

Don Lemon speaks outside of the courtroom after release: "I have spent my entire life covering the news. I will not stop now ... I will not be silenced."