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Showing posts with the label Louisiana

Thomas Nathaniel Burbridge (1921-1973)

Medical professor and civil rights leader Thomas Nathaniel Burbridge was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on July 12, 1921. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, in 1941. From 1942 through 1945, he served in the United States Navy. In 1948 Burbridge earned a medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He served in the United States Public Health Service as visiting lecturer in Indonesia from 1952 to 1955. The following year, he received a doctoral degree from UCSF and joined the faculty of the school of medicine as assistant professor of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics. His main research interests were alcohol metabolism, drug metabolism, and comparative pharmacology. Burbridge belonged to leading medical organizations in the 1960s, including the American Therapeutic Society and the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. He also worked to expand minority enrollment at UCSF, traveling fr...

Thomas Nathaniel Burbridge (1921-1973)

Medical professor and civil rights leader Thomas Nathaniel Burbridge was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on July 12, 1921. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, in 1941. From 1942 through 1945, he served in the United States Navy. In 1948 Burbridge earned a medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He served in the United States Public Health Service as visiting lecturer in Indonesia from 1952 to 1955. The following year, he received a doctoral degree from UCSF and joined the faculty of the school of medicine as assistant professor of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics. His main research interests were alcohol metabolism, drug metabolism, and comparative pharmacology. Burbridge belonged to leading medical organizations in the 1960s, including the American Therapeutic Society and the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. He also worked to expand minority enrollment at UCSF, traveling fr...

Thomas Nathaniel Burbridge (1921-1973)

Medical professor and civil rights leader Thomas Nathaniel Burbridge was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on July 12, 1921. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, in 1941. From 1942 through 1945, he served in the United States Navy. In 1948 Burbridge earned a medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He served in the United States Public Health Service as visiting lecturer in Indonesia from 1952 to 1955. The following year, he received a doctoral degree from UCSF and joined the faculty of the school of medicine as assistant professor of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics. His main research interests were alcohol metabolism, drug metabolism, and comparative pharmacology. Burbridge belonged to leading medical organizations in the 1960s, including the American Therapeutic Society and the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. He also worked to expand minority enrollment at UCSF, traveling fr...

Abner Leonard Howell (1877-1966)

Abner Leonard Howell was a star athlete in Utah whose accomplishments went largely ignored during the peak of his football career because of his race. Howell, born on August 9, 1877, moved with his family from Louisiana to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1890.  His father, Paul Cephas Howell, was appointed a police officer and detective. Both of Abner's parents, Paul Howell and his mother, Eliza Sharp, had been slaves. Howell’s athletic talent was obvious during high school. After one of the most important high school games, attended by 5,000 fans, the Desert News announced that “a colored fullback named Ab Howell was everything from the bandwagon to the steam calliope.” Howell led his team to a 32-0 victory against East Denver High. When the team went to a restaurant to celebrate, Abner was told that he would need to eat in the kitchen while the rest of the team enjoyed the dining area.  Teammate Nicholas Groesbeck Smith replied that they would all eat in the kitchen.  The...

St. Augustine Catholic Church, New Orleans, Louisiana (1841- )

St. Augustine Catholic Church of New Orleans was the first black church in Louisiana and the first black Catholic church in the United States. In the 1830's a group of free African-American New Orleanians began organizing to create a Catholic church in Tremé, a historically black and multicultural New Orleans neighborhood. With the blessing of Antoine Blanc, the first Archbishop of New Orleans, the parish was founded in 1841 and the first ceremony was held there on October 9, 1842. A group of white Catholics, angered that a Catholic church aimed at black New Orleanians was to be built, began a campaign to purchase pews in an attempt to outnumber the black parishioners. This effort was unsuccessful, as free blacks still greatly outnumbered whites. Additionally, reputedly a first in American history, black members pooled resources to purchase pews for slaves. In 2005 hurricane Katrina devastated the Archdiocese of New Orleans financially. Although St. Augustine was relatively...

The Colfax Massacre (1873)

The Colfax Massacre occurred on April 13, 1873. The battle-turned-massacre took place in the small town of Colfax, Louisiana as a clash between blacks and whites. Three whites and an estimated 150 blacks died in the conflict. The massacre took place against the backdrop of racial tensions following the hotly contested Louisiana governor's race of 1872.  While the Republicans narrowly won the contest and retained control of the state, white Democrats, angry over the defeat, vowed revenge.  In Colfax Parish (county) as in other areas of the state, they organized a white militia to directly challenge the mostly black state militia under the control of the governor.   Colfax Parish reflected the political and racial divide in Louisiana.  Its 4,600 voters in the 1872 election were split between approximately 2,400 hundred mostly black Republican voters and 2,200 white Democratic voters.  One incident however, touched off the Colfax massacre.  On...

Iron Eyes Cody

(born  Espera Oscar de Corti  April 3, 1904 – January 4, 1999)  He was an American  actor  born in Louisiana. Going by the name of Iron Eyes Cody, he portrayed  Native Americans  in  Hollywood  films.  In 1996, his 100 percent  Italian  ancestry was confirmed by his half-sister.   Cody was born  Espera Oscar de Corti  on April 3, 1904, in  Kaplan  in  Vermilion Parish , in southwestern  Louisiana , a second son of Antonio de Corti and his wife, Francesca Salpietra, immigrants from  Sicily . He had two brothers, Joseph William and Frank Henry, and a sister Victoria. His parents had a local grocery store in  Gueydan , Louisiana, where he grew up. His father left the family and moved to  Texas , where he anglicized his name as Tony Corti. His mother married Alton Abshire and had five more children with him. When the three de Corti brothers were teenagers, they joined their...