East Carolinian

Issue date: 2/10/09 Section: Features

On Feb. 12, 2009, the NAACP will mark its 100th anniversary. Spurred by growing racial violence in the early 20th century, and particularly by race riots in Springfield, Ill. in 1908, a group of African-American leaders joined together to form a new permanent civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Feb. 12, 1909 was chosen because it was the centennial anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.

John Mercer Langston was the first black man to become a lawyer in Ohio when he passed the Bar in 1854. When he was elected to the post of town clerk for Brownhelm, Ohio in 1855, Langston became one of the first African-Americans ever elected to public office in the United States. Langston was also the great uncle of Langston Hughes, famed poet of the Harlem Renaissance.
Thurgood Marshall was the first African-American ever appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. He was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and served on the Supreme Court from 1967 to 1991.
George Washington Carver developed 300 derivative products from peanuts, including cheese, milk, coffee, flour, ink, dyes, plastics, wood stains, soap, linoleum, medicinal oils and cosmetics.
Not only did he research 300 products made from peanuts and 118 products from the sweet potato, but 75 from the pecan as well.

Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African-American ever elected to the U.S. Senate. He represented the state of Mississippi from February 1870 to March 1871.
Shirley Chisholm was the first African-American woman elected to the House of Representatives. She was elected in 1968 and represented the state of New York. She broke ground again four years later in 1972 when she was the first major party African-American candidate and the first female candidate for president of the U.S.
In 1940, Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American performer to win an Academy Award (the film industry's highest honor) for her portrayal of a loyal slave governess in "Gone With the Wind."

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