Stories of Hidden & Visible Figures- Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Icons and leaders whose imprints are on the America fabric

Joseph Rainey, a South Carolinan was the first African American member of the House of Representative, and a proud republican,150 years ago, December 12, 1870 who took the oath and proceeded to helped passed legislation to suppress the KKK and defended the rights of newly freed African Americans. He was one of the radical Republicans who fought the Democrats for the rights of formerly enslaved persons. During this time, most Black Southerners were republicans and was loosing faith in the Republican leaders. President Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican, wanted to gain the Democratic support, and petitioned Joseph Rainey to gain African American’s support and in return he would pullout federal troops in 1877 from the south, this pull out led to the demise of reconstruction, and white supremacy made a comeback in the south. Many African Americans shunned the Democratic candidates who were associated with Southern bigotry. The entire shift for African American from Republican to the Democratic Party emerged with President Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat whose New Deal polices gave support to impoverished African American’s communities during the Great Depression. Republican strategists shifted to white voters in the south and suburbs.

Lloyd Austin, and Ex-Military’s General who is currently President elect Biden’s first choice as United States Secretary of Defense and Pentagon Leader, when installed would be the first Black to hold his office. Mr. Austin, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, served forty one years in uniform, a career military officer, and four-star Army General who has a reputation for sharp intellect, leadership and integrity. Notably, he was a commander in Baghdad of the Multinational Corps-Iraq in 2008, lead U.S. troops from 2010 to 2011, served 2012 as the Army’s first Black vice chief of staff, and U.S. Central Commander against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. As a recent retired General, for his installation under the Biden Administration as U.S. Secretary of Defense, a waiver needs to be approved by the Senate. Either way it goes, Mr. Austin military’s legacy is noteworthy.

Arnie Robinson, (1948–2020), Gold Medalist in the long jump at the 1976 Olympics who learned to long jump with a discarded mattress in his driveway of his San Diego home during his early years. With his talent, he defied gravity and bicycling through space to go 27 feet, 4/34 inches, a feat unheard of at that time. Beyond his world-class fame, other credits included, USA Outdoor Championships, the NCAA championships with San Diego State, the Pan American Games and more. He was a man of warmth, humility, serviced in the community in the shadows, lead by example, unassuming, and never wore his accomplishments on his shoulders but would role up his sleeve and do what was needed to make a difference. Rarely did he discuss his accomplishments, even his son didn’t realize the accomplishments of his father until he was seven years old.

With his accomplishments, no athletic or TV careers sought him out. When financial hardship set in, he learned construction and built his own home. He always looked forward and not backward as he spent $35,000 of his own funds to provide state-of-the-art timing equipment for a youth track in San Diego. He attended Morse High School onto Mesa College and San Diego State. Mr. Roberson fought all of his life for the betterment of himself and others quietly going abut making a difference in the shadow of his fame. He left a legacy to be reckoned with and be reminded of how tenacity and commitment paid off as he recently lost his fifteen year battle against aggressive brain tumor, December 1, 2020.

Ms. Rashida Jones will replace Phil Griffin as president of MSNBC, a cable news network, February 2021, becoming the first Black woman to run a major TV news operation. Prior, she was the senior vice president in charge of specials at NBC News since 2017 and covered breaking news, NBC and MSNBC major events, and oversaw dayside and weekend news programming. For seven years, she was managing editor and executive producer at MSNBC. Also, she instrumental in masterfully guiding NBC news coverage of the pandemic, the social justice protests and unrest, and the election. Even more noteworthy was her production of the two most viewed Democratic presidential debates in television history and helped lead the preparation for Kristen Welker’s role as a moderator of the second presidential debate between President Trump and President-elect Joe Biden. Ms. Jones is a trailblazing innovator whose abilities at the helm of MSNBC will continue to speak for themselves.

Charley Pride, 1934–2020, the Jackie Robinson of country music, was an athlete turned music’s first Black superstar trailblazer, a guitarist who changed his young life at the age of fourteen when he bought his first guitar from Sears Roebuck for ten dollars but had been singing country music from the age of five. He was the son of a Mississippi sharecropper and one of eleven siblings who had to pick cotton. His musicianship begun as he was inspired by the Grand Ole Opry’s broadcast, the Louvin Brothers and Eddie Hill. Mr. Pride went on to sell millions of albums and became country music’s first Black superstar, the first member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the first and only Black musician to receive the Country Music Awards’ Entertainer of the Year award in 1971, first and only Black entertainer to receive the CMA’s Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award, 2020). He was known for his congenial manner, smooth, and baritone vocals on many hits, namely, “Is Anybody Goin to San Antone.” His voice broke down barriers in country music. Sports and music remained his passion up until his death and his last performance was in November, a month before he succumbed to COVID-19 in December.

Mr. Pride pursued an athletic career in baseball with the Negro and minor leagues (Memphis Red Sox)and signed with the New York Yankees’ Class C team, ut was sidelined due to injury and worked in a Montana plant as he occasionally performed club gigs that landed him on the line-up for a concert in Helena, Montana in 1962 where he performed two songs, “Heartaches” and “Lovesick Blues.” Red Sovine, a Grand Ole Opry star was impressed by him and advised him to take his talents to Nashville music scene where this lead him to his long time manager, Jack Johnson, producer Jack Clement and a RCA contract. He broke into the Top Ten list with “Just Between You and Me”, and “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin”. As time past, he acquired twenty four №1 hits on the Billboard country singles chart and became the second best-selling ever RCA act, only surpassed by Elvis Presley.

Mr. Pride’s interview, confronting the race question: “How it felt to be the first colored country singer or the first Negro country singer or the first Black country singer, or the first African American country singer? For which he replied, “Feels the same as it did when I was colored.”

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