African-American History Project

A Collaborative work by: Airen Lowenstein, Brendan White, Kai Chen.

Airen Lowenstein 1956-1960

Tennessee Tornado: Wilma Golden Rudolph

Olympic Trials

Won the 100meters and the 200metes and qualified for the American Olympic Team and became the youngest member at age 16.

Melbourne, Australia

1956 Olympics Won bronze in the women's 400x4

relay.

1960 Rome Olympics

Won the 100meters and the 200meters

Anchored the U.S women’s 400x4 relay team to victory despite a bad baton pass.

July of 1961-1962

Moscow Equaled her previous world record

for the 100meters Again anchored the American relay

team to victory

Record Setting

Set a new Olympic record in the 200meters of 22.9seconds.

Tied the world record of 11.3 seconds in the 100meter semifinals.

400x4 relay, 44.5 seconds a new Olympic Record in the semifinals

Broke world record in the 100meter finals with 11.0 seconds

Achievements After Retirement

Became the first American Woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics

Voted into the Black Athletes Hall of Fame in 1973

Voted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1974

200meter finish with Wilma Rudolph in first place in the Rome Olympics

Rudolph holding her three gold medals won in the Rome Olympics

400meter finish in Rome

Kai Chen 1963March on Washington

Before the March

For 22 years A. Phillip Randolph dreamt of a large march on Washington D.C.

On August 28th, 1963, it came true with over two hundred thousand people coming.

One obstacle the organizers had to face was a bomb threat to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. When police checked it out, nothing was there.

America’s Nazis

In the morning of the march, American Nazi Party leader ordered thousands of people to protest against the marchers.

Unfortunately for him, only around a couple hundred came which looked tiny compared to the 200,000 some civil right protesters.

The police wouldn’t let his group demonstrate and he said, “I am ashamed of my race.”

The March

None of the people knew about the bomb threat or were aware of the Nazis.

When the leaders were late to lead the people from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, they did it themselves.

The musical performances by Bob Dylan and Mahalia Jackson and the speeches from Martin Luther King Jr. and other people in the Big Six made it an entertaining and inspirational day.

Martin Luther King Jr. Death

Brendan White 1968

Before King’s Death

Martin Luther King Jr. was threatened many times before his actual death. He said he would not live long

He was in Memphis Tennessee for a garbage man protest.

April 4th, 1968 King was shot on his hotel balcony in Memphis Tennessee.

James Earl Ray was convicted of his murder. Martin Luther was so important and well respected

that Edward Kennedy sent a plane to carry his body home.

The shot rang out at 6:01 pm on April 4th 1968. King’s funeral was huge. 800 family members came

from all over. The president came to his funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was buried on April 9th, his burial was all over.

After his death

The reaction of his death

At least 110 cities experienced violence and destruction. Around 50 million dollars were paid in the destruction.

39 people died, and 34 of them were white.Schools were closed for days, and workers took time off.In outrage of his murder, many blacks took the streets

across the country in massive riots.On April 13th 13,000 African Americans workers went on

strike.50,000 people crowed the church he was being buried

at.The public was outraged by this assassination.

Interesting Facts No one really knows who the actual murder was.

James Earl Ray was just convicted. There is no physical evidence that James Ray did it. King was in his hotel room, about to go down stairs

with his friends, when king said he would be down in a moment.

When his friends were going out the door, king said to his musician friend to play “Precious Lord Take My Hand”. Seconds later he was killed.

Kings family does not think James Earl Ray did it. Minutes after the shot was heard people rushed into

his room and pointed to where the shot came from. Unfortunately they pointed in all different directions.

The people pointing to where they thought they heard the shot come from

The riots, because of his death

A picture of Martin Luther King