Black History
The Only African American Whose Signature Has Ever Been On The Country’s Money
Take a close look at Azie Taylor Morton’s name. Perhaps, you recognize it. For a span of 20 years between the late 1970s and close to 2000, money in United States bore her signature.
Morton remains the only African American to ever serve as the Treasurer of the United States. President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the position.
Taylor was born in Dale, Texas, on Feb. 1, 1936. Her hometown offered few opportunities, but she was not deterred. Her mother was deaf and mute, and Taylor attended the Texas School for the Blind, Deaf and Orphan even though was not blind or deaf. She enrolled at the school because there was not one for African American teenagers. She graduated at the top of the class when she was 16.
In 1952 Taylor enrolled at Hutson-Tillotson University which was an all-Black school in Austin, Texas. After graduation, she attempted to attend graduate school at the University of Texas but was denied acceptance on the basis of “insufficient undergraduate courses.”
Taylor taught at a school for delinquent girls until she was hired as the assistant to the president of Hutson-Tillotson. After working at the university for a few months, she joined the Texas AFL-CIO as an employee. President John F. Kennedy invited her to work on the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity in 1961.
Taylor’s historic career achievement came in 1977 when she accepted President Jimmy Carter’s invitation to serve as the nation’s 36th treasurer. She served for four years.
After her work in Washington, D.C., Taylor returned to Texas. In 2003 she suffered a massive stroke at her home and died the following day. She was a pioneer, a wife and the mother of two daughters.
Black History
Why the Statue of Liberty Sculptor Placed A Chain at Its Feet Instead of in the Left Hand
One of America’s most iconic landmarks includes an homage to slavery, and the little known
fact is raising eyebrows as Black Americans observe the Juneteenth and the Fourth of July
holidays.
The Statue of Liberty has stood on Liberty Island in New York Harbor as a “symbol of enlightenment … lighting the way to freedom and down the path of liberty” for 139 years. But few Americans are aware that a chain rests at the feet, and the original drawings reportedly placed them in the left hand of the statue.
When Frenchman Edouard de Laboulaye – an abolitionist – proposed presenting the statue to the United States as a gift from the people of France, sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi agreed with Laboulaye’s goodwill gesture and began to conceptualize the idea for the monument. Both men wanted to recognize the end of slavery, and Bartholdi had intended to place a chain in the statue’s left hand to represent the end of slavery and oppression.
Instead, he placed them at her feet to symbolize liberty breaking free from bondage.
During a recent interview, Dr. Joy DeGruy – an internationally known researcher and educator – stunned many African Americans with the background about the original drawings which triggered her reluctance to visit Liberty Island when a friend, who managed New York’s landmarks for the Interior Department, invited her.
DeGruy said, “When I go there, I’m going there with the knowledge that the Statue of Liberty was holding originally in her left hand broken chains – commissioned in 1865, a pretty important date – end of slavery, end of the Civil War, all of the things were why she was the Statue of Liberty.”
DeGruy recalled that she and her friend went “into the basement of the Statue of Liberty, and we find the document encased in glass behind figurines facing a wall in the hallway.”
Batholdi, the sculptor, had apparently encountered resistance to his idea of placing the chains in the left hand, which would have been a more visible display, but he insisted that the chains remain a part of the statue.
“The agreement was, ‘We will keep the chains, but we’ll make it so no one can see them,’” DeGruy explained.
According to The Statue of Liberty website, “To symbolize the end of slavery, Bartholdi placed a broken shackle and chains at the Statue’s foot.”
After DeGruy’s discovery and frustration that the chains were not mentioned during tours, she began to tell the story of the chain at the feet of the Statue of Liberty. Eventually, she said she received a call from the Interior Department’s staff, and they apologized, adding, “We have been negligent.”
Now, when tourists visit the Statue of Liberty, the park rangers include information about the chain and their significance.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order that will provide support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and establish a White House Initiative on HBCUs to “deliver high-quality education to a growing number of students.”
According to the White House, the Initiative will help develop private-sector partnerships, institutional development and workforce preparation in technology, health care, manufacturing and finance.
The president and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Dr. Harry L. Williams said, “Today’s executive order serves as strong reaffirmation of President Trump’s support of investment of historically Black colleges and universities. This executive order should serve as a call-to-action for corporations, foundations, members of Congress and state lawmakers to redouble their efforts to support HBCUs and their students. TMCF looks forward to continued engagement with the administration and Congress to deliver results for HBCUs and the students they serve via appropriations and other legislative actions.”
On the same day, Trump signed another executive order that removes safeguards for African American schoolchildren by eliminating an Obama-era initiative to protect Black schoolchildren from excessive disciplinary action.
During the Obama administration, the first Black president’s administration created guidelines that sought to prevent school discipline from having a disproportionate effect on minority students. Trump revoked the civil rights initiative during his first term and Biden did not formally restore it.
At his signing today, Trump said his decision was especially important to the current Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who held the signed order.
“Under the Biden-Harris Administration, schools were forced to consider equity and inclusion when imposing discipline,” McMahon said in a statement. “Their policies placed racial equity quotas over student safety – encouraging schools to turn a blind eye to poor or violent behavior in the name of inclusion.”
She added, “Disciplinary decisions should be based solely on students’ behavior and actions.
Studies show that Black students are punished more often than their white counterparts.
The I.R.S. Moves to Allow Churches to Endorse Political Candidates, Ending A Decades-long Ban
Why the Statue of Liberty Sculptor Placed A Chain at Its Feet Instead of in the Left Hand
Trump Signs Executive Orders That Will Impact HBCUs and Black Schoolchildren
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