Black History Month

I am fortunate to attend the YMCA on 14th Street and 6th Avenue in New York City. The following information comes from the Y’s posters celebrating Black History Month.

Jackie Robinson, William Hunton, Anthony Bowen. Are any of these names familiar to you?

In 1947 Jackie Robinson was the first Black major league baseball player. He and Roy Campanella volunteered at the Harlem YMCA.

William Hunton, the son of a freed slave, was the first employed YMCA secretary at a “Colored YMCA”. Mr. Hunton worked among the soldiers during the Spanish American War.

Anthony Bowen was a freed slave and the first Black clerk in the U. S. patent office. He founded the first YMCA for the Black community in Washington D. C.