Benjamin Banneker - Mathematician, Astronomer

Photo from Africawithin.com
1731 - 1806

Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), an African American mathematician and amateur astronomer, calculated ephemeredes for almanacs for the years 1792 through 1797 that were widely distributed.

On Nov. 9, 1731, Benjamin Banneker was born in Baltimore County, Md. He was the son of an African slave named Robert, who had bought his own freedom, and of Mary Banneky, who was the daughter of an Englishwoman and a free African slave. Benjamin lived on his father's farm and attended a nearby Quaker country school for several seasons. He received no further formal education but enjoyed reading and taught himself literature, history, and mathematics. He worked as a tobacco planter for most of his life.

In 1761, at the age of 30, Banneker constructed a striking wooden clock without having seen a clock before that time, although he had examined a pocket watch. The clock operated successfully until the time of his death.

At the age of 58 Banneker became interested in astronomy through the influence of a neighbor, George Ellicott, who lent him several books on astronomy as well as a telescope and drafting instruments. Without further guidance or assistance, Banneker taught himself the science of astronomy; he made projections for solar and lunar eclipses and computed ephemeredes (tables of the locations of celestial bodies) for an almanac.

In February 1791 Maj. Andrew Ellicott was appointed to survey the 10-mile square of the Federal Territory for a new national capital, and Banneker worked in the field as his scientific assistant for several months. After the base lines and boundaries had been established and Banneker had returned home, he prepared an ephemeris for the following year, which was published in Baltimore in Benjamin Banneker's Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris, for the Year of Our Lord, 1792; Being Bissextile, or Leap-Year, and the Sixteenth Year of American Independence, which commenced July 4, 1776.

Banneker forwarded a manuscript copy of his calculations to Thomas Jefferson, then secretary of state, with a letter rebuking Jefferson for his proslavery views and urging the abolishment of slavery of the African American, which he compared to the enslavement of the American colonies by the British crown. Jefferson acknowledged Banneker's letter and forwarded the manuscript to the Marquis de Condorcet, the secretary of the Academie des Sciences in Paris. The exchange of letters between Banneker and Jefferson was published as a separate pamphlet and given wide publicity at the time the first almanac was published. The two letters were reprinted in Banneker's almanac for 1793, which also included "A Plan for an Office of Peace," which was the work of Dr. Benjamin Rush. The abolition societies of Maryland and Pennsylvania were largely instrumental in the publication of Banneker's almanacs, which were widely distributed as an example of the work of an African American that demonstrated the equal mental abilities of the races.

The last known issue of Banneker's almanacs appeared for the year 1797, because of diminishing interest in the antislavery movement; nevertheless, he prepared ephemeredes for each year until 1804. He also published a treatise on bees and computed the cycle of the 17-year locust.

Banneker never married. He died on Oct. 9, 1806, and was buried in the family burial ground near his house. Among the memorabilia preserved was his commonplace book and the manuscript journal in which he had entered astronomical calculations and personal notations.

Banneker's memory was kept alive by writers who described his achievements as the first African American scientist. Recent studies have verified Banneker's status as an extremely competent mathematician and amateur astronomer. "n.p. Africa Within. www.africawithin.com, n.d. Web. 16 May20 11."

Angela Davis -Author, Educator and Activist

Photo from Speakoutnow.org

Through her activism and her scholarship over the last decades, Angela Davis has been deeply involved in our nation’s quest for social justice. Her work as an educator – both at the university level and in the larger public sphere – has always emphasized the importance of building communities of struggle for economic, racial, and gender equality. 

Professor Davis’ teaching career has taken her to San Francisco State University, Mills College, and UC Berkeley. She has also taught at UCLA, Vassar, the Claremont Colleges, and Stanford University. She has spent the last fifteen years at the University of California Santa Cruz where she is now Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness, an interdisciplinary Ph.D program, and Professor of Feminist Studies. 

Angela Davis is the author of eight books and has lectured throughout the United States as well as in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America. In recent years a persistent theme of her work has been the range of social problems associated with incarceration and the generalized criminalization of those communities that are most affected by poverty and racial discrimination. She draws upon her own experiences in the early seventies as a person who spent eighteen months in jail and on trial, after being placed on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted List.” She has also conducted extensive research on numerous issues related to race, gender and imprisonment. Her most recent books are Abolition Democracy and Are Prisons Obsolete? She is now completing a book on Prisons and American History. 

Angela Davis works with Justice Now, which provides legal assistance to women in prison and engages in advocacy for the abolition of imprisonment as the dominant strategy for addressing social problems. Internationally, she is affiliated with Sisters Inside, a similar organization based in Queensland, Australia. 

Like many other educators, Professor Davis is especially concerned with the general tendency to devote more resources and attention to the prison system than to educational institutions. Having helped to popularize the notion of a “prison industrial complex,” she now urges her audiences to think seriously about the future possibility of a world without prisons and to help forge a 21st century abolitionist movement. 


Speak Out Now



n.p. speakoutnow.org. speak out now, n.d. Web. 03 May 2011.

George Crum - Inventor

Photo from thefreegeorge.com

Inventor of the Potato Chip

Every time a person crunches into a potato chip, he or she is enjoying the delicious taste of one of the world's most famous snacks – a treat that might not exist without the contribution of black inventor George Crum.

The son of an African-American father and a Native American mother, Crum was working as the chef in the summer of 1853 when he incidentally invented the chip. It all began when a patron who ordered a plate of French-fried potatoes sent them back to Crum's kitchen because he felt they were too thick and soft.

To teach the picky patron a lesson, Crum sliced a new batch of potatoes as thin as he possibly could, and then fried them until they were hard and crunchy. Finally, to top them off, he added a generous heaping of salt. To Crum's surprise, the dish ended up being a hit with the patron and a new snack was born!

Years later, Crum opened his own restaurant that had a basket of potato chips on every table. Though Crum never attempted to patent his invention, the snack was eventually mass-produced and sold in bags – providing thousands of jobs nationwide.  "n.p. Famous Black Inventors. Famous Black Inventors, 2008. Web. 17 Mar 2011."

Fascinating facts about George Crum inventor of the Potato Chip in 1853.

Photo from The Great Idea Finder

AT A GLANCE:

In the summer of 1853, Native American George Crum was employed as a chef at an elegant resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. One dinner guest found Crum's French fries too thick for his liking and rejected the order. Crum decided to rile the guest by producing fries too thin and crisp to skewer with a fork. The plan backfired. The guest was ecstatic over the browned, paper-thin potatoes, and other diners began requesting Crum's potato chips

Inventor: George Crum (a.k.a. George Speck*)

Criteria:    First to invent.

Birth:        1822 Saratoga Lake, New York

Death:      1914 Saratoga Lake, New York

Nationality: Native American

Invention: Potato Chips in 1853

Definition: noun / po·ta·to chips

Function: Snack food made of a thin slice of white potato that has been cooked until crisp and then usually salted. Also known as Saratoga Chips or potato crisps.

Patent: Never patented.

Milestones:

1853 George Crum invents the Saratoga Chip, a thin French fry, now known as the potato chip

1960 Crum opened his own restaurant, featuring potato chips in a basket placed on every table.

1895 William Tappendon of Cleveland, Ohio begins selling potato chips as a food in grocery stores 

1908 Leominster Potato Chip Co., Leominster, MA (later changed the name to Tri-Sum) 

1910 Mikesell's Potato Chips, Dayton, Ohio. 

1910 George Dentler, Houston, Texas. 

1913 Dan Dee Pretzel and Potato Chip Company, Cleveland, Ohio. 

1918 Num Num, Cleveland, Ohio 

1919 Blue Bell - Illinois 

1921 Wise Delicatessen Company, Berwick, Pennsylvania 

1921 Utz - Hanover, Pennsylvania. started as the Hanover Home Brand Potato Chips

1921 Magic Food Co, later Golden Flake*, Birmingham, Alabama. 

1924 Moore's, Bristol, Virginia. 

1926 Scudder's - Monterey Park, California

1930 Better Made - Detroit, Michigan

1932 Lay's - founded by Herman Lay of Nashville, Tennessee

potato chips, potato chip, saratoga chip, potato crisps, george crum, george speck, native american, better made, wise, utz, frito-lay, invention, history, inventor of, history of, who invented, invention of, fascinating facts.

The Story

As a world food, potatoes are second in human consumption only to rice. And as thin, salted, crisp chips, they are America's favorite snack food. Potato chips originated in New England as one man's variation on the French-fried potato, and their production was the result not of a sudden stroke of culinary invention but of a fit of pique.

In the summer of 1853, Native American George Crum was employed as a chef at an elegant resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. On Moon Lake Lodge's restaurant menu were French-fried potatoes, prepared by Crum in the standard, thick-cut French style that was popularized in 1700s France and enjoyed by Thomas Jefferson as ambassador to that country. Ever since Jefferson brought the recipe to America and served French fries to guests at Monticello, the dish was popular and serious dinner fare.

At Moon Lake Lodge, one dinner guest found chef Crum's French fries too thick for his liking and rejected the order. Crum cut and fried a thinner batch, but these, too, met with disapproval. Exasperated, Crum decided to rile the guest by producing French fries too thin and crisp to skewer with a fork. The plan backfired. The guest was ecstatic over the browned, paper-thin potatoes, and other diners requested Crum's potato chips, which began to appear on the menu as Saratoga Chips, a house specialty.

In 1860 George opened his own restaurant in a building on Malta Avenue near Saratoga Lake, and within a few years was catering to wealthy clients including William Vanderbilt, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, and Henry Hilton. His restaurant closed around 1890 and he died in 1914 at the age of 92.

The idea of making them as a food item for sale in grocery stores came to many people at around the same time, but perhaps the first was William Tappendon of Cleveland, OH, in 1895.   He began making chips in his kitchen and delivering to neighborhood stores but later converted a barn in the rear of his house into "one of the first potato chip factories" in the country.

At that time, potatoes were tediously peeled and sliced by hand. It was the invention of the mechanical potato peeler in the 1920s that paved the way for potato chips to soar from a small specialty item to a top-selling snack food. For several decades after their creation, potato chips were largely a Northern dinner dish.

In 1921, Bill and Sallie Utz started the Hanover Home Brand Potato Chips in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Salie Utz used her knowledge of good Pennsylvania Dutch cooking to make the chips in a small summer house behind their home. The hand-operated equipment Salie used made about fifty pounds of potato chips per hour. While Salie stayed home making chips, Bill delivered them to "mom and pop" grocery stores and farmer's markets in the Hanover, PA and Baltimore, MD area.

Out in Monterey Park, California  the Scudders company started making potato chips in 1926. Laura Scudder is credited with developing the wax paper bag for potato chips which made a wider distribution possible because of its preserving properties.  Prior to this bag potato chips were dispensed in bulk from barrels or glass display cases. 

In 1932, Herman Lay founded Lay's in Nashville, Tenn., which distributed potato chips from a factory in Atlanta, Ga. Herman Lay, a traveling salesman in the South, helped popularize the food from Atlanta to Tennessee. Lay peddled potato chips to Southern grocers out of the trunk of his car, building a business and a name that would become synonymous with the thin, salty snack. Lay's potato chips became the first successfully marketed national brand.

The industry that George Crum launched in 1853 continues to grow and prosper. Potato chips have become America's favorite snack. U.S. retail sales of potato chip are over $6 billion a year.  In 2003 the U.S. potato chip industry employed more than 65,000 people.

*George Speck was born to Abraham and Catherine Speck. George also used the name Crum, as his father did while working as a jockey. "

N.D. The Great Idea Finder. N.D., 20 Apr 2007 . Web. 17 Mar 2011."

Regina Benjamin - Current U.S. Surgeon General

Photo from U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services

Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA is the 18^th Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service. As America’s Doctor, she provides the public with the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and the health of the nation. Dr. Benjamin also oversees the operational command of 6,500 uniformed health officers who serve in locations around the world to promote, protect, and advance the health of the American People.

Dr. Benjamin is Founder and Former CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in Alabama, former Associate Dean for Rural Health at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile, and immediate Past Chair of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States In 1995, she was the first physician under age 40 and the first African-American woman to be elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees. She served as President of the American Medical Association Education and Research Foundation and Chair of the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA). In 2002 she became President of the Medical Association State of Alabama, making her the first African American female president of a State Medical Society in the United States.

Dr. Benjamin has a BS in chemistry from Xavier University, New Orleans; MD degree from the University of Alabama, Birmingham; an MBA from Tulane University and eleven honorary doctorates. She attended Morehouse School of Medicine and completed her family medicine residency in Macon, Ga. She established a clinic in a small fishing village in Alabama to help its uninsured residents. Dr. Benjamin persevered through Hurricane Georges in 1998, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and a devastating fire, in 2006, often putting up her own money to cover expenses. She also became nationally prominent for her business acumen and humane approach to preventive medicine.

Dr. Benjamin is a member of the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She was a Kellogg National Fellow and a Rockefeller Next Generation Leader. Some of her numerous board memberships include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Catholic Health Association, and Morehouse School of Medicine.

In 1998 Dr Benjamin was the United States recipient of the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights. She was named by Time Magazine as one of the “Nation’s 50 Future Leaders Age 40 and Under.” She was featured in a New York Times article, “Angel in a White Coat,” in People Magazine, on the December 1999 cover of Clarity Magazine and was on the January 2003 cover of Reader’s Digest, She was also “Person of the Week” on ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, and “Woman of the Year’ by CBS This Morning. She received the 2000 National Caring Award which was inspired by Mother Teresa, received the papal honor Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice from Pope Benedict XVI and was awarded a MacArthur Genius Award Fellowship."n.p. SurgeonGeneral.gov. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d. Web. 16 Mar 2011."

Vonetta Flowers - Women's Olympic Bobsleder

Photo Courtsey of Wikimedia Commons

On February 19, 2002, people in Alabama were glued to their TV's, curious to see how the state's only bobsledder would perform against the rest of the world. In less than 1 minute 48 seconds, tears of joy began to flow, because the young woman from Birmingham, Alabamawho dared to try an untraditional sport had left her permanent foot prints in the snow by becoming the 1^st person of African descent to win a Gold Medal in the Winter Olympics.People from all over the world soon became familiar with the story of how a little girl's dream of competing in the Summer Olympics led her to tryout for the U.S. Women's Olympic Bobsled Team. In only 18 months after answering a help wanted ad, she would win the inaugural bobsled event and shatter the racial barrier in the process. Many were shocked to discover the struggles she encountered, others were encouraged by the sacrifices she made and all were inspired by her determination to pursue a life long dream of becoming an Olympian.

Inspired by Her Childhood Coach

In the summer of 1982, Coach DeWitt Thomas arrived at Jonesboro Elementary School with one goal in mind. He went there to recruit the fastest boys and girls for the Marvel City Striders (currently Alabama Striders). All of the students lined up in the middle of the parking lot and raced towards the finish line. In order to save time, Coach Thomas only recorded the 1^st initial and the last name on his time sheet. Once this list was compiled, he ranked each child according to his or her time and called the parents, hoping they would allow their son or daughter to compete on his track team.

According to the time sheet, V. Jeffery recorded the fastest time. Coach Thomas thought that the little boy's name might have been Victor or Vincent. It never crossed his mind that V. Jeffery was a girl. Coach Thomas was very surprised and excited to discover that V. Jeffery was a young girl who was extremely talented and easily motivated.

Coach Thomas describes Vonetta as "one in a million" and smiles each time he tells the story about the little girl with exceptional God given talent and a heart of gold. Coach Thomas truly believed that Vonetta would one day compete in the Olympics, but, he had no idea that the Olympic track where history would be made would be covered with ice and snow.

For the next 10 years, Coach Thomas watched a shy young girl develop into a very determined young lady. During that time, she would win almost every race that she entered.

She Became the First

In 1992 Vonetta graduated from P.D. Jackson Olin High School, where she participated in track and field, volleyball and basketball. Vonetta became the 1^st in her family to attend college, when she accepted a Track and Field scholarship to the University of Alabama atBirmingham. By the time she graduated, Vonetta was one of the university's most decorated athletes, with 35 conference titles and victories in the Penn Relays and The Olympic Festival, and its 1^st Seven-Time All-American.

Vonetta also hold the honor of being the 1^st person of African descent (male or female) - -from any country - to win a GOLD medal in the Winter Olympics!

The Road to Gold

In both 1996 and 2000, Vonetta qualified for the Olympic Trials, held in Atlanta, Georgia andSacramento, California, respectively. At the 1996 trials, she competed in the 100 meter dash and the long jump but was unsuccessful in her quest to earn a spot on the team. Vonetta spent the next four years focusing all of her energy on training for an opportunity to compete at the 2000 Olympics in the long jump. She hoped to have an outstanding performance at the 2000 Olympic Trials, but just a few months before the trials began, Vonetta found herself lying on a hospital bed getting ready for her 5^th surgery in 8 years. Against all odds, she believed in herself and decided to lace up her spikes one last time, but it wasn't meant to be.After a disappointing performance at the 2000 trials, Vonetta felt it was time to retire from Track and Field, with hopes of starting a family.

Two days after the 2000 Olympic Trials, Vonetta's husband, Johnny, spotted a flyer urging Track and Field athletes to tryout for the U.S. bobsled team. The only thing Vonetta and Johnny knew about bobsledding was what they learned from the movie, "Cool Runnings."Johnny had also been an outstanding Track and Field athlete, even so, their chances seemed so slim that the idea of them making the team became more and more amusing.Regardless, Vonetta really was not interested. She was still dealing with the reality that she would not live out her lifelong dream of competing in the Olympics. After several hours of joking back and forth, however, she agreed to accompany Johnny as he tried out for the team. Shortly after the competition started, Johnny pulled his hamstring, and Vonetta agreed to live out his dream by completing the six-item test. That unselfish act would quickly change their lives.

Less than 2 months after stepping in for Johnny, Vonetta was competing for the U.S. in bobsled, traveling to foreign countries and eating foods the names of which she couldn't even pronounce. Vonetta's Track and Field background was an advantage in bobsled, and she quickly became the #1 brake woman in the U.S. By the end of her rookie season, Vonetta and her former teammate, Bonny Warner, were ranked 2^nd in the US and 3^rd in the world.

A year later Vonetta and her new partner, Jill Bakken, slid into history by winning the Gold Medal at the inaugural Women's Olympic bobsled event, which was the 1^st medal for a U.S. bobsled team in 46 years!

"n.p. VonettaFlowers.com. Vonetta Flowers.com, n.d. Web. 15 Mar 2011."

Mabel Fairbanks - Figure Skater

Courtesy of Harlick

She was born in New York City. As a young girl in the 1930s, Fairbanks discovered her lifetime passion watching a Sonia Henje movie. She then saw a pair of black skates in a pawnshop window and talked the guy down to $1.50. They were two sizes too big, but that didn't stop Fairbanks. She stuffed them with cotton, found her balance on blades by going up and down the stairs in her building, and took to the nearby frozen lake. It wasn't long before Fairbanks was sailing across the ice. When a passerby suggested she try out the rink in Central Park, she was soon skating and attaining solid 6.0 judging, but the pro clubs wouldn't have her because of her race.


"I remember they said to me, 'we don't have Negroes in ice shows.' "But I didn't let that get in my way, because I loved to skate."


Fairbanks continued to refine her skill and returned to the rink again and again. Then one day, the manager noted her persistence and the shiny pair of new skates her uncle bought her from the Macy's basement, and he let her inside. From then on, Fairbanks' ability and sparkle shattered the race barrier at that pivotal rink, and professional skaters started giving her free lessons. In the 1940s, Fairbanks came to Los Angeles and performed in nightclubs like Cyro's.


When Fairbanks was invited to skate on the road with the Rhapsody On Ice show, she jumped at the chance, even though they said they needed her as "someone to skate in the dark countries." She wowed international audiences, returning to Los Angeles only to find it still blind to her talent but not to her color. "They had a sign at the Pasadena Winter Gardens that read "Colored Trade Not Solicited," she remembers. "But it was a public place, so my uncle had newspaper articles written about it and passed them out everywhere until they finally let me in."


She landed a role on KTLA television's Frosty Follies show and continued to perform at local showrooms, yet Fairbanks still wasn't allowed to join professional skating clubs. She got herself and other Blacks in by sending for individual memberships from the United States Professional Skating Association (USPSA), without letting them know they were black.


Fairbanks opened the door for other young Blacks to compete in skating, but her pro years had passed, so she became a teacher and coach in Culver City and the Hollywood Polar Palace. Famed Olympic medalist Scott Hamilton learned from Fairbanks when he was just a young beginner, and she gave free lessons to those too poor to pay.


While at the Polar Palace, her students included many celebrities and their children, like Natalie Cole, Ricky Nelson, Danny Kaye, and Jimmy Durante. It was Fairbanks who paired the Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner while watching them skate. Many of her Black skating students went on to be Olympic gold medallists because she skated over, around and through walls of racism. Fairbanks' ability to do and teach has helped cultivate some of the finest skaters of the century. "If I had been allowed to go in to the Olympics or Ice Capades like I wanted to then, I may not have helped other Blacks like I did, and coached such wonderful skaters, and I think all that has been just as important and meaningful."


You could find Fairbanks rink side, coaching pro skaters at Iceland in Van Nuys. While the "official" skating world denied Fairbanks’ contributions, world-renowned skaters sought her out as a coach. Her students include the United States and World Champions Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner, Kristi Yamaguchi, Rudy Galindo, and Tiffany Chin. In 1998, Fairbanks was honored with the Silver Achievement Award, Sports Category, at the YWCA's Leader Luncheon at the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.


She taught and coached on the ice until she was 79 years old and was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis, a disease that weakens the muscles. Mabel Fairbanks died at 85 in September 2001 in Los Angeles.  "Lyman, Darryl. AfricanAmericanRegistry.com.  African American Registry, n.p. Web. 03 Mar 2011."

Mabel Fairbanks: Breaking Down Barriers

Since the 1940s, much of the progress made in breaking down the color barrier in U.S. figure skating can be directly attributed to Mabel Fairbanks. Prevented from skating competitively herself, Fairbanks nonetheless excelled as a professional performer and coach during her 60-year career.

In 1938, using a pair of skates that she purchased for a dollar in a pawnshop, Fairbanks began teaching herself on a small piece of ice in Harlem. She soon progressed to the local ice rink, although racial prejudice forced her to practice before the rink opened for the day. It was here that she caught the attention of nine-time national champion Maribel Vinson, who agreed to train her in secret and for free. By the mid-1940s, she had taken and passed all of the required competition tests, but, unable to join any of the clubs that sponsored figure skaters because of her color, she was ineligible for national or international competition. She turned instead to ice shows, but again found that, as an African-American, she was not welcome. Refusing to be defeated, she created her own shows and spent the 1940s and 1950s touring the United States and abroad as the principal skater.

During the 1950s and 1960s, she turned to coaching, and her students included many who subsequently went on to world and national competition success. Fairbanks saw the potential in partnering Tai Babalonia with Randy Gardner, and they later went on to win five national titles and the world pairs championship in 1979. She also was involved in shaping the early careers of Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamagucci; as well as Atoy Wilson, who became the first African-American to win a national title in 1966; and Richard Ewell and Michelle McCladdie, who together were the first African-Americans to win a national pairs title in 1972.

The racism that she encountered served only to make her more determined to carve out a skating career for herself. In this previously white-dominated sport, her legacy made it possible for today's minority skaters to be judged on their skill and performance alone. This was acknowledged in 1997 when Fairbanks became the first African-American to be inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame. She was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a muscular degenerative disease. Fairbanks passed away in October, just days before she would be inducted into The Women's Sports Foundation Hall of Fame at the 2001 Annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards Dinner. She will be remembered forever as a woman of remarkable strength and determination whose contribution to the sport has eased the path for today's African-American figure skaters. "n.p. Women's Sports Foundation.org. Women's Sports Foundation, n.d. Web. 03 Mar 2011."

Photo from NewsOne.com