Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 6, 1994 TAG: 9402070252
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By CONSTANCE PRATER KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Sammy Davis Jr. was the first black entertainer to sleep in the White House. It was 1969, and Richard Nixon was president.
The first three-time-winning jockey in the Kentucky Derby was a black man, Isaac Murphy, who won in 1884, 1890 and 1891. In 1940, Booker T. Washington was the first African-American on a U.S. postage stamp. And supermodel Beverly Johnson was the first black woman to appear on the cover of a major fashion magazine.
These and nearly 3,000 other tidbits are chronicled in ``Black Firsts: 2,000 Years of Extraordinary Achievement,'' a new book by Jessie Carney Smith of Nashville ($16.95, Visible Ink Press).
The concept for the book came from the publisher of Smith's award-winning 1992 release, ``Notable Black American Women'' (Gale Research, $75). But even to a university research librarian like Smith, the new project didn't sound very interesting.
``I thought it might have been a boring book,'' recalls Smith, who collects scraps of information like determined grocery shoppers hoard coupons. ``I think that maybe what I had in mind at first was something where you just go through literature and identify firsts and make a list.''
But once she started uncovering tidbits of information on famous and little-known people and places, she was hooked.
For two years - from the fall of 1991 through the fall of 1993 - she combed through magazines, books and other publications. Helping in the research were a colleague of hers at Fisk University, assistant professor of modern languages Robert Johns, and retired Atlanta librarian Casper Jordan.
What they amassed was a mountain of information on people, places and events.
Many of the firsts are easily recognized because they're recent and got a lot of attention when they occurred: Vanessa Williams' crowning and resignation as Miss America in 1983, Debi Thomas' Winter Olympic figure skating medal in the 1988 games and Toni Morrison's Nobel Prize in literature last year.
Others are little-known milestones in the evolution of African-American history: Johnnie Mae Gibson became the first black woman FBI agent in 1976; Selma Hortense Burke was the first black sculptor to design a U.S. coin, in 1943.
Smith said she tried to choose items from a cross-section of America so that various regions are represented.
Michigan and Detroit have numerous entries:
\ Alvin Loving Sr.: the first black Detroit high school teacher. He taught in 1935.
\ WGPR-TV: the nation's first black-owned and operated television station, 1975.
\ Coleman Young: Detroit's first black mayor, 1974.
\ Barbara Wilson: first black woman automobile dealer, 1987.
\ Carole Gist: first black Miss U.S.A., 1990.
\ Charles Diggs Jr.: Michigan's first black state senator, 1951.
\ Otis Smith: first black to win statewide office in Michigan. He was elected auditor general in 1960.
\ Richard Austin: first black Michigan secretary of state, 1970, and first black to hold that position nationally in modern times.
\ Aretha Franklin: first black woman inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, 1986.
``The book will appeal to people at many, many ages,'' Smith says. ``The very young ... even those who are down in the lower grades who are interested in black history, and on up through just about any age. It's the kind of book you can just sit down and read.
``I could see it serving many purpose: a reference guide, a book of general reading or for a student writing a term paper who can't decide on a topic,'' says Smith.
A native of Greensboro, N.C., she has lived and worked in Nashville the past 25 years. Smith earned a master's degree in child development from Michigan State University in 1955 and a doctorate in library science from the University of Illinois.
Smith said one of the difficulties she and other researchers encountered in compiling the data was finding verifiable firsts. Often, people are identified as firsts with a lot of fanfare even though someone else may have come before them with little or no recognition.
The book's preface notes the difficulty of tracking down the truth when relying on publications that may or may not be correct.
``This is as accurate as we say history is when we're not going to primary sources,'' she said. ``What we're saying is, this is what the sources said. We were not there. We're going by what someone said happened.''
Thus, she acknowledges, some entries may prove to be inaccurate.
Smith welcomes those who can document earlier firsts and hinted that publishers may already be considering a sequel.
Smith agreed some readers might be reluctant to call attention to black firsts. Some may see it as almost an insult to be noted as a ``first black'' because, they say, it makes the achievement seem less important than being the first of any race.
Still, Smith said she felt it was important to document black accomplishments.
``When you think about the first black to achieve something years ago in the 1800s, that was seen as something significant,'' Smith says. ``Some people say, `Let's don't even say ``black''; just say ``first person.''' That's fine, but I happen to want to know who the first black person was.''
Indeed, Spelman College President Johnnetta Cole writes in the book's foreword: ``For many African Americans, the first person to achieve a goal and gain recognition is ever so important as a symbol of hope and a beacon for the future. These women and men become living proof that it is possible to crack what seems to be a monolithic system of oppression.''
by CNB