Dr. Vaughn’s patients swear by him for his medical skills. Historians marvel at him because of his talents as a researcher and writer on the subject of Black history. As a lecturer, he’s one of the most in-demand speakers in the nation. Like magic, Dr. Vaughn can rattle off facts on Black history like an orator recites a speech he has practiced on delivering for days. When it comes to reciting the roles Black people have played in world history, Dr. Vaughn has dazzled some of the most learned minds in America.
Confirmation of this fact can be found on the pages of this in-depth study on the subject. For instance, did you know that a Black man with only a sixth grade education named Garrett Morgan (1875-1963) invented the first traffic signal, the gas mask, and marketed the G. A. Morgan Refining Cream, which was the first hair straightening product?
Did you know that Garrett Morgan made so much money from his hair cream that he was able to purchase an automobile? In fact, traffic congestion while driving his new car was motivation for Morgan’s traffic signal invention.
Did you know that in 1721 an African slave named Onesimus taught his “master” the age-old African technique for smallpox inoculation in which a pustule from an infected person was ruptured with a thorn and then used to puncture the skin of a normal person?
Did anyone ever tell you that the original Haitians were called the Arawaks or Tainos before Christopher Columbus and that they were very generous and could swim long distances? Did you know that George Franklin Grant, a Black man, invented the golf tee in 1898 and patented it a year later? Grant, one of the first two African American graduates of the Harvard Dental School, took a liking to golf. He invented the golf tee because he didn’t like the way golfers had to mix dirt and water to make a mud mound for teeing off. Did anyone ever tell you that a Black man named John Lee Love invented the Love Pencil Sharpener in 1897, the kind most first-graders take to school today?
Did anyone ever tell you that Dr. Charles Richard Drew was the discoverer of successful blood plasma storage techniques that made blood banks possible? In 1941, the American Red Cross appointed Dr. Drew as the director of its first blood bank. Did anyone ever tell you that the collective contributions of Black Americans to science is so extensive that it is not possible to live a full day in any part of the United States, or the world for that matter, without sharing in the benefits of their contributions in such fields as: biology, chemistry, physics, space and nuclear science? Well, if you didn’t know these things, then keep on reading, and Dr. Vaughn will tell you about these and hundreds of other facts about Black history.
Other inventions patented by African Americans include the folding lawn chair, the doorstop, the ironing board with collapsible legs, and the bottle cap. In fact, there’s a long list of inventions made by Blacks during an age dominated by Whites. If Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, and Elgin Baylor had been born in the 18th or 19th century, we would never have known their names because of the concerted effort not to acknowledge the accomplishments of Black people.
Dr. Vaughn didn’t just decide to write a book on Black history. This has been his passion and his life’s mission! Academically, Dr. Vaughn has the knowledge and the talents to make his life’s work a reality on the pages of this book. Dr. Vaughn was rooted and grounded in Black history as a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1969 after a two-year premedical study tour at the University of Vienna in Austria. In addition to Dr. Vaughn, Morehouse College has produced some of the most prominent and learned scholars in the world including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, and Dr. Charles Finch. Dr. Benjamin Mays, one of the world’s most noted educators and a mentor to Dr. King, was president of Morehouse College from 1950 until 1967, and set an extremely high standard for all Morehouse graduates.
Medically speaking, Dr. Vaughn is tops in his field. He received his medical degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, where he also received the Franklin C. McClain Award in 1972 as the most outstanding Black medical student in the nation. He interned at the Department of Medicine in Chapel Hill, NC, and completed his ophthalmology fellowship and research training at Harvard University’s Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital in 1979. Dr. Vaughn was certified as a Diplomat of the American Board of Ophthalmology in 1978 after scoring in the top three percentile nationally on the written examination. Moreover, he was named as an Associate Examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology’s oral examinations in 1984.
In addition to a brilliant scholar, Dr. Vaughn is also a community leader. For giving his time and his talents to the community, he was honored by the late Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, L.A. County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, the State of California, and the Aesculapian Honorary Society et al.
Dr. Vaughn’s book should not only be required reading for Blacks, but for all people. Most of society still believes what historian Arnold Toynbee wrote in his 1934 history book: “It will be seen that when we classify mankind by color, the only primary race that has not made a creative contribution to any civilization is the Black race.” Dr. Vaughn sets the record straight on this lie and on so many other untruths about Black history. Vernon E. Jordan better known as a civil rights fighter, businessman, lawyer, and “first friend” of President Bill Clinton vividly illustrates the essence of Dr. Vaughn’s book when he wrote in his book entitled “Vernon Can Read! A Memoir:” “Black people have done wonderful things for this country (saved its soul, in fact), and we have been an example to the world in the process. That should never be forgotten, even as we continue to press ahead, in our many and varied ways, toward our future. If we did so much when we had so little, think of what we can do now that we have so much more.”
Covered in Dr. Vaughn’s book are the Ancient Period, After Christ, After 1492 (Columbus), After 1776 (Independence), After 1865 (slavery), and After 1900 (20th Century). If you really want to know about “Black People and Their Place in World History” then you should rush out and obtain a copy of Dr. Vaughn’s masterpiece before the sun goes down.
By:
BRAD PYE, JR.
Formerly (for thirty years): Los Angeles Sentinel Newspaper’s Sports Editor, Sports
Director for KGFJ, KACE, KJLH, and KDAY radio stations.
Currently Brad Pye, Jr. is sports columnist for the following publications:
Los Angeles Watts Times, Compton Bulletin, Inglewood Today and Inland News
Text From BPATPIWH – Pages 140-143 (minus photographs) – Youtube Reading
5 Black Presidents
Joel A. Rogers and Dr. Auset Bakhufu have both written books documenting that at least five former presidents of the United States had Black people among their ancestors. If one considers the fact that European men far outnumbered European women during the founding of this country, and that the rape and impregnation of an African female slave was not considered a crime, it is even more surprising that these two authors could not document Black ancestors among an ever larger number of former presidents. The presidents they name include Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Warren Harding, and Calvin Coolidge.
The best case for Black ancestry is against Warren G. Harding, our 29th president from 1921 until 1923. Harding himself never denied his ancestry. When Republican leaders called on Harding to deny the "Negro" history, he said, "How should I know whether or not one of my ancestors might have jumped the fence." William Chancellor, a White professor of economics and politics at Wooster College in Ohio, wrote a book on the Harding family genealogy and identified Black ancestors among both parents of President Harding. Justice Department agents allegedly bought and destroyed all copies of this book. Chancellor also said that Harding's only academic credentials included education at Iberia College, which was founded in order to educate fugitive slaves.
Andrew Jackson was our 7th president from 1829 to 1837. The Virginia Magazine of History, Volume 29, says that
Jackson was the son of a White woman from
Ireland who had intermarried with a Negro. The magazine also said that his eldest brother had been sold as a slave in
Carolina. Joel Rogers says that Andrew Jackson Sr. died long before President Andrew Jackson Jr. was born. He says the president's mother then went to live on the Crawford farm where there were Negro slaves and that one of these men was Andrew Jr.'s father. Another account of the "brother sold into slavery” story can be found in David Coyle's book
entitled "Ordeal of the Presidency" (1960).
Thomas Jefferson was our 3
rd president from 1801 to 1809. The chief attack on
Jefferson was in a book written by Thomas Hazard in 1867
called "The Johnny Cake Papers." Hazard interviewed Paris Gardiner, who said he was present during the 1796 presidential campaign, when one speaker states that Thomas Jefferson was “a mean-spirited son of a half-breed Indian squaw and a
Virginia mulatto father.” In his book
entitled "The Slave Children of Thomas Jefferson," Samuel Sloan wrote that
Jefferson destroyed all of the papers, portraits, and personal effects of his mother, Jane Randolph Jefferson, when she died on March 31, 1776. He even wrote letters to every person who had ever received a letter from his mother, asking them to return that letter. Sloan says, "There is something strange and even psychopathic about the lengths to which Thomas Jefferson went to destroy all remembrances of his mother, while saving over 18,000 copies of his own letters and other documents for posterity." One must ask, "What is it he was trying to hide?"
Abraham Lincoln was our 16th president from 1861 to 1865. J. A. Rogers quotes Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks, as saying that Abraham Lincoln was the illegitimate son of an African man. William Herndon, Lincoln's law partner, said that Lincoln had very dark skin and coarse hair and that his mother was from an Ethiopian tribe.
In Herndon's book
entitled "The Hidden Lincoln" he says that Thomas Lincoln could not have been Abraham Lincoln's father because he was sterile from childhood mumps and was later castrated.
Lincoln's presidential opponents made cartoon drawings depicting him as a Negro and nicknamed him “Abraham Africanus the First."
Calvin Coolidge was our 30th president, and he succeeded Warren Harding. He proudly admitted that his mother was dark because of mixed Indian ancestry. However, Dr. Bakhufu says that by 1800 the New England Indian was hardly any longer pure Indian, because they had mixed so often with Blacks. Calvin Coolidge's mother's maiden name was "Moor." In Europe the name "Moor" was given to all Black people just as the name Negro was used in America.
All of the presidents mentioned were able to pass for White and never acknowledged their Black ancestry. Millions of other children who were descendants of former slaves have also been able to pass for White. American society has had so much interracial mixing that books such
as “The Bell Curve” discussing IQ evaluations based solely on race, are totally unrealistic.
BPATPIWH Linkable to Amazon where possible Bibliography
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