IMpossible men! -------- Thank you for sharing this David. The heroic military exploits and humble, inequitable chapters of Gina Genochio’s life is nothing short of miraculous and tragic. As an African American, U.S. Navy combat vet I am particularly sensitive and empathetic to being subjected to the awful contrast of serving with honor while simultaneously being dishonored by the narrow minded, fear-based, racial intolerance of others however the good news is by the grace of God I enjoyed a stellar, military career anyway! Unfortunately widespread, universal ignorance of Mr. Genochio’s inconspicuous life of nobility, contribution, fidelity and service is not the exception but the RULE: (thanks for your wonderful contribution to change that!) -Robert Smalls was an African-American born into slavery in Beaufort, S.C., but during and after the American Civil War, he became a ship’s pilot, sea captain, and politician. He freed himself, his crew and their families from slavery on May 13, 1862, when he led an uprising aboard a Confederate transport ship, the CSS Planter, in Charleston harbor, and sailed it north to freedom. His feat successfully helped persuade a very reluctant President Abraham Lincoln to accept African-American soldiers into the Union Army. -Born to sharecroppers on a farm in Nanjemoy, Md., Matthew Alexander Henson became the first African-American Arctic explorer, and is credited as well as challenged by many as the first man to reach the North Pole, in 1909. Henson was an associate of the American explorer Robert Peary on seven voyages over a period of nearly 23 years. Henson served as a navigator and craftsman, traded with Inuit and learned their language. He was known as Peary’s “first man” when it came to tackling the arduous expeditions. Martin Robison Delany was an African-American abolitionist, journalist, physician and writer. He was born free in Charles Town, W.Va. (then part of Virginia, a slave state). Delany was an outspoken Black nationalist, arguably the first; and is considered by some to be the grandfather of Black nationalism. He was also one of the first three Blacks admitted to Harvard Medical School. Trained as an assistant and a physician, he treated patients during the cholera epidemics of 1833 and 1854 in Pittsburgh, when many white doctors and residents fled the city. Active in recruiting Blacks for the United States Colored Troops, he was commissioned as a major in spite of suffering great indignities at the hands of his superiors and fellow soldiers, the first African-American field officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War. - A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. ~ Christopher Reeve
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 15:58:27 +0000
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