Did you know who were the first African-American in Government?

The first African-American in Government were...



Local elected official: John Mercer Langston, 1855, town clerk of Brownhelm Township, Ohio.















State elected official: Alexander Lucius Twilight, 1836, the Vermont legislature.
















Mayor of major city: Carl Stokes, Cleveland, Ohio, 1967–1971.












The first black woman to serve as a mayor of a major U.S. city was Sharon Pratt Dixon Kelly, Washington, DC, 1991–1995.







Governor (appointed): P.B.S. Pinchback served as governor of Louisiana from Dec. 9, 1872–Jan. 13, 1873, during impeachment proceedings against the elected governor.
















Governor (elected): L. Douglas Wilder, Virginia, 1990–1994.








The only other elected black governor has been Deval Patrick, Massachusetts, 2007–











U.S. Representative: Joseph Rainey became a Congressman from South Carolina in 1870 and was reelected four more times.










The first black female U.S. Representative was Shirley Chisholm, Congresswoman from New York, 1969–1983.


















U.S. Senator: Hiram Revels became Senator from Mississippi from Feb. 25, 1870, to March 4, 1871, during Reconstruction.
















Edward Brooke became the first African-American Senator since Reconstruction, 1966–1979.











Carol Mosely Braun became the first black woman Senator serving from 1992–1998 for the state of Illinois.











(There have only been a total of five black senators in U.S. history: the remaining two are Blanche K. Bruce [1875–1881] and







Barack Obama (2005–2008 ).












U.S. cabinet member: Robert C. Weaver, 1966–1968, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Lyndon Johnson;






the first black female cabinet minister was Patricia Harris, 1977, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under Jimmy Carter.










U.S. Secretary of State: Gen. Colin Powell, 2001–2004.









The first black female Secretary of State was Condoleezza Rice, 2005–.








Major Party Nominee for President: Sen. Barack Obama, 2008. The Democratic Party selected him as its presidential nominee and he became the first black President 2008

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Did you know that More than 5 billion crayons are produced each year

Did you know that more than 5 billion crayons are produced each year
More than 100 billion crayons have been produced so far. The first crayons consisted of a mixture of charcoal and oil. In the early 1900s, cousins Edwin Binney and Harold Smith developed a nontoxic wax crayon. Binney's wife, Alice, attached the French word for chalk, craie, with "ola," from oily, to form the Crayola name. Their first box of Crayola crayons were sold for a nickel in 1903.
The first Crayola crayons came in a box of eight colours: black, blue, brown, green, orange, purple, red and yellow. By 1957, 40 new colours were introduced. Today there are more than 120 crayon colours, including Atomic Tangerine, Blizzard Blue, Mango Tango, Outrageous Orange, Laser Lemon, Screamin' Green and Shocking Pink. Over 5 billion crayons are produced each year.

Did you know these facts about the Constitution

Did you know these facts about the Constitution

Established on November 26, 1789, the first national "Thanksgiving Day" was originally created by George Washington as a way of "giving thanks" for the Constitution.

One of the amendments in the original Bill of Rights that the states considered was a requirement that each representative in the House of Representatives only represent 50,000 people. It did not pass and that is a good thing because that would mean today that we would 5,990 representatives! Today we have 435 representatives because that is the number of chairs that will fit in the House chambers in the U.S. Capitol. So every ten years, after the census is taken, Congress divides the population by 435 and decides how many representatives each state gets.

Virginia was the most populous state when the Constitution was ratified and today it is California. Six states have only one representative. Rhode Island, which was the least populated in 1787, now has two representatives.

At 81, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania was the oldest delegate at the Constitutional Convention and at 26, Jonathon Dayton of New Jersey was the youngest.

The original Constitution is on display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, it was moved to Fort Knox for safekeeping.

More than 11,000 amendments have been introduced in Congress. Thirty three have gone to the states to be ratified and twenty seven have received the necessary approval from the states to actually become amendments to the Constitution.

Did you know that these Three Newspapers Endorse Obama

Did you know that these three newspapers endorsed Obama? Many people and corporation like the fact that Obama's appeal transcends racial and party lines.

St. Petersburg Times:
In Clinton, we see the past; in Obama, we see a fresh start. Clinton is a divisive political figure; Obama's appeal transcends racial and party lines. She exudes competence; he radiates optimism. She came to the campaign with a sense of entitlement; he came to it with a sense of possibilities. She can be evasive, even misleading; he can be refreshingly candid about his own shortcomings and his political mistakes. She represents business as usual in politics; he at least offers the hope of something better.

The Gainesville Sun:
As much as any candidate in either party, Obama has electrified audiences, engaged those who normally disdain politics and captured the imagination of younger Americans who need to be more engaged. The biracial candidate who rarely talks about race, he resonates the politics of hope and personifies the politics of change.


The Tuscaloosa News:
[H]e has leadership qualities beyond his years. He is a brilliant and persuasive speaker. He is a unifier who honestly hopes to break the capital's partisan gridlock. And while some of his rivals for the nomination have more years of experience, Obama has quickly learned the territory in his relatively short time in Washington.

Did you know who's birthday is today, Oct 18?

Hey John did you know who was Born today:
1974 Peter Svensson - guitarist (The Cardigans)
1962 Vincent Spano - actor
1961 Wynton Marsalis - trumpeter, bandleader
1961 Erin Moran - actress
1960 Jean Claude Van Damme - actor
1958 Thomas 'Hit Man' Hearns - boxer
1952 Keith Knudsen - drummer (The Doobie Brothers)
1951 Pam Dawber - actress (Mork & Mindy)
1947 Laura Nyro - singer
1947 Joe Morton - actor
1943 Russ Giguere - guitarist, singer (The Association)
1942 Willie Horton - baseball player
1939 Mike Ditka - football player, coach, sportscaster
1934 Inger Stevens - actress
1933 Forrest Gregg - football player
1933 Peter Boyle - actor
1928 Keith Jackson - sportscaster
1927 George C. Scott - actor (Oscar® winner, 1970)
1926 Chuck Berry - singer, guitarist
1925 Melina Mercouri - actress
1919 Pierre Trudeau - Canadian Prime Minister (1968-79)
1918 Bobby Troup - actor, composer (Emergency!)
1902 Miriam Hopkins - actress

Did you know who's birthday is today, Oct 17?

Did you know who was Born today:

1972 Eminem (Marshall Mathers) - rapper, actor
1972 Wyclef Jean - singer
1971 Chris Kirkpatrick - singer (N Sync)
1968 Ziggy Marley - reggae singer
1963 Norm Macdonald - comedian, actor
1958 Alan Jackson - country singer
1955 Sam Bottoms - actor
1948 George Wendt - actor (Cheers)
1948 Margot Kidder - actress
1947 Michael McKean - actor
1946 Jim Tucker - guitarist (The Turtles)
1942 Gary Puckett - singer (Gary Puckett and The Union Gap)
1941 Alan Howard - bassist (Brian Poole and The Tremeloes)
1940 James Seals - singer, guitarist (Seals and Crofts)
1938 Evel Knievel - motorcycle daredevil
1927 Tom Poston - actor
1926 Beverly Garland - actress
1920 Montgomery Clift - actor

1918 Rita Hayworth - actress
1915 Arthur Miller - playwright
1912 John Paul I (Albino Luciani) - Roman Catholic pope, died 33 days into his term
1909 Cozy Cole - jazz drummer; played with Louis Armstrong
1902 Irene Ryan - actress (The Beverly Hillbillies)
1900 Jean Arthur - actress
1880 Charles Kraft - Kraft Food Company co-founder
1837 Richard Johnson - 9th US Vice President (1837-41)

Did you know there was a convicted felons in Congress

Did you know there was a convicted felon in Congress? Now currently there are no felons in Congress.Upon conviction you get expelled. I had to look it up Larry Craig had a misdeameanor. Jim Traficant was the last member to be expelled after being convicted on 10 felony counts. Interestingly he ran for his old seat while in prison serving an 8 year jail sentance and got 15% of the vote. It seems while you can't be a convicted felon and vote but you can run for office as one. Now W G. Bush has never been convicted of a felony. His convictions were all misdeameanors.

Did you know that the state of Illinois has passed legislation that if any elected official is convicted of a felony, he or she automatically forfeits retirement benefits. Such a law discourages taking kickbacks and bribes.