Paige broke many baseball barriers
Leroy “Satchel” Paige was the first Negro Leagues player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. After a full career pitching for teams that included the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Kansas City Monarchs, Paige became a Major League Baseball rookie with the Cleveland Indians in 1948. He was 42 years old at the time. The announcement of his Hall of Fame induction in 1971 called Paige the “ageless patriarch of the pitching mound.” That wasn’t hyperbole. He pitched his final MLB game on Sept. 25, 1965, at age 59.
“Fences” and “The Piano Lesson” are part of a cycle of plays by August Wilson set in what city?
A) Atlanta
B) Cleveland
C) Kansas City
D) Pittsburgh
Answer: “Fences” and “The Piano Lesson” are part of August Wilson’s “Pittsburgh Cycle.”
Artist painted rare Florida tribe
When soldier-explorer Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere sailed from France to Florida in 1564, his crew included artist Jacques Le Moyne. While Laudonniere organized the French settlement at Fort Caroline (in what is now Jacksonville, Florida), Le Moyne documented the expedition in sketches and watercolors, including rare portraits of the local Timucua people, who eventually were wiped out by Spanish conquerors. In fact, the Spanish invaded Fort Caroline as well. Le Moyne’s drawings were lost in the fight, so he returned to France and recreated them from memory.
Fort Knox is named for a man who held what position?
A) Governor of Kentucky
B) Secretary of the treasury C) Secretary of war
D) Vice president of the United States
Answer: Fort Knox is named for Henry Knox, America’s first secretary of war.
History of Black History Month
Since 1976, February has been officially recognized as Black History Month in the United States, but its origin goes back to 1926, when historian Carter G. Woodson proposed the idea of Negro History Week to commemorate the historic achievements of black Americans. A Harvard Ph.D., educator and author, Woodson was a man of many achievements himself. He chose the second week of February for the commemoration because it included the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln, Feb. 12, and Frederick Douglass, Feb. 14.