Hero of the Week 61

Welcome back viewers

This week's hero is...

Deborah Sampson

Deborah Sampson was born on December 17, 1760, in Plympton, Massachusetts. She grew up in an impoverished house with six other siblings. Her father disappeared when she was only nine. As a result Sampson spent most her early life working as an indentured servant to wealthy New Englanders. When she turned 18, she worked as a teacher and as a weaver. By the time she was in her 20s, she began doing something almost unheard of and answer the call of duty.

By 1782, the American Revolution was entering its final phase. Deborah Sampson disguised herself as a man (under the guise of Robert Shurtleff) and enlisted in the 4th Massachusetts Regiment. She was assigned to West Point, New York, in Captain George Webb's Company of Light Infantry. Her tasks would be to conduct reconnaissance of neutral territories in order to determine the strength of the British in that area. Her operations also took her deep into enemy held territory in Manhattan. In June 1782, Sampson personally led 30 men on an expedition against American Loyalists. In the engagement that followed, Sampson and her unit successfully defeated the loyalists and took 15 prisoners.

During the engagement, Sampson received two bullet wounds to her leg. In order avoid her true identity being discovered she performed a dangerous self-surgery. She successfully cut out one of the bullets with a penknife (the other was too deep to remove) and sewed up the wound with a needle and thread. A couple months later, the British signed the Treaty of Paris and the American Revolution came to an end. In the summer of 1783, Deborah Sampson became sick during an epidemic and a doctor discovered her true identity. Much to her surprise, Sampson received an honorable discharge for her service during the revolution and faced no legal consequences. Upon her return to Massachusetts, she received a hero's welcome.

After the war, Deborah Sampson married a farmer named, Benjamin Gannett and had four children. In 1792, she requested and received a pension from the Massachusetts State Legislature (signed by Governor John Hancock). She spend the rest of her life giving lectures on the Revolution before passing away on April 29, 1826, at the age of 66.

Deborah Sampson truly was a remarkable individual who fought American liberty. Like so many before and after she answered the call to duty and fought with great courage and leadership. She is definitely someone to be held in high regard.

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/deborah-sampson

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/diary-sheds-light-deborah-sampson-who-fought-revolutionary-war-180972547/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Deborah-Sampson

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/deborah-sampson

Hero of the Week 60

Welcome back viewers

This week's hero is...

Dr. Hilary Koprowski

Dr. Hilary Koprowski was born on December 5, 1916, in Warsaw, Poland. He received his medical degree from Warsaw University in 1939. However, his medical career in Poland was cut short when Nazi Germany invaded that September. After the defeat of the Polish army, Dr. Koprowski fled with his parents and pregnant wife to Italy. From there they traveled to Brazil and finally, they immigrated to the United States. After settling in New York in 1944, he was finally able to continue his career in medicine. Little did he know, that he would end up making a much bigger contribution than he ever could have imagined.

Although he had already developed vaccines for Yellow Fever. His greatest contribution would be his development of vaccine to combat Polio. By the end of World War II, thousands of people across the US (mostly young children) had been diagnosed with Polio. In January of 1948, Dr. Koprowski  developed this vaccine by attenuating the polio virus in brain cells of a common rat. He than macerated a number of ingredients in an ordinary kitchen blender and poured the result into a beaker. He than proved his vaccine's effect by using it on orally administered attenuated polio viruses. On February 27, 1950, Dr. Koprowski administered his vaccine to 20 children at a home for the disabled (Letchworth Village). As a result, 17 of them developed antibodies to the Polio virus (the other three were immune) with no side effects or complications.

  

For the next decade, Dr. Koprowski's vaccine was administered to hundreds of thousands of patients on four continents. Eventually a researcher named Albert Sabin, used it to develop a more powerful oral vaccine that eventually eradicated the disease that had caused so much misery in the 20th century. For the rest of his life Dr. Hilary Koprowski continued to research and develop vaccines and improve the medical field. He passed away on April 11, 2013, at the age of 96.

The race to eradicate Polio involved some of history's greatest minds. These people spent thousands of hours researching and looking for ways to cure the disease and save countless lives. Dr. Hilary Korpowski was one of those people. I believe that he is definitely someone to be held in high regard.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/us/hilary-koprowski-developed-live-virus-polio-vaccine-dies-at-96.html

https://www.whatisbiotechnology.org/index.php/people/summary/Koprowski

https://web.archive.org/web/20121227061242/http://www.koprowski.net/documents/29.html

Hero of the Week 59

Welcome back viewers

This week we will honor two heroes who share a connection

They are...

Bessie Coleman and William Powell

Intro

These two individuals grew up during a very difficult time. They faced many challenges in order to follow their dreams and live their lives to the best of their ability. Both of them would end up making a major difference in breaking barriers on the long road to equality.

Part 1

Bessie Coleman was born on January 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas. When she was nine, her family had to leave their home due to a number of horrific crimes committed against African-Americans in the late 19th century. For much of her early life, Coleman spent her time picking cotton and washing laundry with her mother in order to make extra money. When she turned 18, Coleman attended the Colored Agricultural and Norman University (later Langston University). Unfortunately she was forced to drop out of college after just one semester due to her finances running low. After this setback, Coleman journeyed to Chicago to live with one of her brothers. Little did she know that she would finally find her calling.

Coleman arrived in Chicago in 1915. For the next four years she worked as a manicurist in a local barber shop. Four years later, her brother John returned home from service in World War I. One night he told her all about how people in France (including women) were learning to fly airplanes. He then joked about how African-American women would probably never get the same opportunity in the US. This ended up spurring Coleman to learn how to become a professional pilot. 

Although she tried to enroll in several flight schools, she was always denied because of her race and her gender. At the suggestion of one of her friends, Coleman decided to travel to France. After learning to speak the language she set off for Paris in November of 1920. Once there, she joined the Caudron Brothers' School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France. After seven months of flight training, Bessie Coleman received her international pilot's license in June 1921 from the International Aeronautic Federation. 

After she returned the United States, Coleman was astonished to be met by dozens of reporters who heralded her as the first aviatrix of her race. With her knew fame, Coleman deciding to become a barnstormer (stunt flier). For the next five years, she performed daring stunts before crowds that numbered in the thousands. Her stunts included: figure eights, loops-the-loops, near ground dips, and even tail spins. Although she very much enjoyed the attention and fame that came with her hobby, Coleman was also using her flying skills to campaign for equal rights. Whenever she was done flying she would give interviews encouraging other African-Americans to take to the air. Among those she would inspire was a young man named, William Powell.

Part II

William Powell was born on July 27, 1897. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois and originally planned to become an engineer at the University of Illinois. However, his plans were changed when World War I broke out. Powell then left school and joined the 370th Illinois regiment. During the fighting in France, he was severely wounded by a poison gas attack that left him with permanent lung injuries. 

However, his time in France also made him fascinated with the idea of flying airplanes. When he returned to the US at the end of the war, he immediately returned the university and graduated in 1922 with a degree in electrical engineering. For the next couple years of his life, Powell worked as gas station owner for cars. When he had earned enough money he attempted to enroll in the Chicago aviation school. Like Coleman before him, Powell was rejected due to his race. However, this did not stop him from trying his luck elsewhere. In 1928, he sold his gas station and moved to Los Angeles, California. Once there he enrolled in Warren school of Aeronautics.

In 1929, Powell decided to found a new club that encouraged and taught African-Americans to fly airplanes. He named it, the Bessie Coleman Aero Club, after the first black woman to take to the sky. It wasn't long before numerous people began to sign up and join. Powell further inspired people by taking well-known celebrities (at the time period) for rides in the sky. Among those he invited were, Congressman Oscar De Priest, Joe Louis, and Duke Ellington. On Labor Day of 1931, Powell held the first all-black air-show in the United States. It was attended by more than 15,000 people.

Epilogue

On April 20, 1926, Coleman was preparing for an air-show in Jacksonville, Florida. She (along with a mechanic named, William Wills) took off for a test run in a brand new JN-4. Unfortunately the plane suffered an engine failure, plunged into a nosedive, and crashed. Both Bessie Coleman and her mechanic were killed in the crash. She was only 34 years old. For most to he 20th century, her exploits were hardly acknowledged or simply forgotten. In 2006, Coleman was inducted into National Aviation Hall of Fame.

In 1933, William Powell was forced to close down the Coleman Aero Club due financial problems caused by the Great Depression. Despite this setback, he later published a fictionalized account of his life called, Black Wings where wrote about his dreams of flying and how African-Americans could fight for equal rights by taking to the air. His book would ultimately inspire thousands of men to enlist in the US military during World War II. Many would join the famous Tuskegee Airman unit. Like Bessie Coleman before him however, Powell too suffered a sad death. On July 12, 1942, Powell died due to complications from the poison gas he inhaled during World War I. He was 44 years old.

Both Bessie Coleman and William Powell truly were remarkable individuals. They grew up in a difficult period and spent their lives following their dreams and pushing the boundaries of society. Even though their lives were short, they still inspired thousands of people across the world. Both of them should be remembered as great pioneers for the age of early flight and the fight for equality. 

Sources:

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/bessie-coleman

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/flygirls-bessie-coleman/

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/obituaries/bessie-coleman-overlooked.html

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-nov-05-me-47380-story.html

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/people-african-american-history/william-j-powell-and-bessie-coleman-aero-1897-1942/

https://uh.edu/engines/epi987.htm