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T
wenty-seven years ago when Black Firsts broke virgin ground, the pref-
ace described the struggle encountered in documenting the lives of first
black achievers. So often we speak of the rich and deep history of African
Americans and note the anxiety that frequently comes with knowing that
something important needs to be done with that information. Then the time
comes when someone demonstrates that not only did it need to be done
but that it was, in fact, successfully undertaken. This led to the inaugural
edition of Black Firsts.
To accomplish our task, I remembered the story of fishermen at sea
who wanted to bring in a big haul; to be successful, they cast their nets widely
and brought in an enormous catch that included more than they anticipated
or predicted. Such was the case with that first edition. Thus, the subtitle,
“2,000 Years of Extraordinary Achievement,” seemed appropriate and was
added. Some of the results demonstrated that many pioneers scarcely knew
that they were successes, much less realized the importance of their work to
black American history and culture, as well as to the entire world.
The research also revealed conscious fabrications of some events. Ref-
erence sources led me to question what was reported because of the inaccu-
racies and incompleteness of so-called scholarship that was all that I had to
go on. For example, a missing date for a presumed first could not persuade
me that the event or person was the first. Yet, when I could document that the
event occurred previously on a specific date and in a different place, I felt
comfortable enough to call that a first. As I recorded what some called a first,
at times it was necessary to conclude that this was the first documented hap-
pening, or the first in 100 years, but perhaps not the first technically. What-
ever the results, I knew then, and remembered, that I reported the actual first,
and concluded that the work of our people has been extraordinary. There are
times when I repeat that clarification in the current edition of this book. |
