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Katherine Johnson’s mathematical calculations helped guide some of America’s most important early space missions while she confronted the racial and gender barriers faced by Black women in twentieth-century America.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
Blanche K. Bruce House | |
 Blanche K. Bruce House in 2023 | |
Location within Washington, D.C. Location within the United States | |
| Location | 909 M St., NW, Washington, D.C. |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 38°54′21″N 77°1′29″W / 38.90583°N 77.02472°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1865 |
| Architectural style | Second Empire |
| NRHP reference No. | 75002046 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | May 15, 1975[1] |
| Designated NHL | May 15, 1975[2] |
| Designated DCIHS | April 29, 1975 |
The Blanche K. Bruce House is a historic house at 909 M Street NW in Washington, D.C. Built in 1865, it was a home of slave-born Blanche K. Bruce (1 March 1841 – 17 March 1898), who was the first African-American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate, and his wife Josephine.[2] It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975.[2][3] It was successfully nominated to the National Register of Historic Places by the Afro-American Bicentennial Corporation on May 15, 1975.[4]
The Blanche K. Bruce House is located in the southernmost part of Washington's Shaw neighborhood, on the north side of M Street between 9th and 10th Streets. It is one half of a duplex, a 3+1⁄2-story structure, with walls of brick and a brick foundation, and a slate mansard roof providing a full fourth floor. The two building units have virtually identical exteriors, with a three-bay ground floor with the entrance in the left bay, and two bays in each of the upper floors. Ground floor windows are set in rounded-arch openings, as are third-floor windows, which rise into the elongated mansard roof's steep section. The short fourth floor is capped by a dentillated edge at the transition between the roof sections.[3]
The house was built in 1865 and is fairly typical of the Second Empire architecture then popular; its designer is unknown. It was the home of Blanche Bruce, who represented Mississippi as a United States senator from 1875 to 1881. Bruce was the first African-American to serve a full term in the Senate; during his tenure he also briefly served as the Presiding Officer of the United States Senate in 1879, the only former slave to do so. During his term, Bruce advocated for the integration of the United States Army, and for policies supporting the needs of poor (and recently freed) African Americans. Bruce remained in Washington after his term ended in 1881, serving as the Register of the Treasury, the District's recorder of deeds, and as a trustee of Howard University.[3]
Media related to Blanche K. Bruce House at Wikimedia Commons
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Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
The Blanche K. Bruce House is a historic house at 909 M Street NW in Washington, D.C. Built in 1865, it was a home of slave-born Blanche K. Bruce (1 March 1841 – 17 March 1898), who was the first African-American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate, and his wife Josephine. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975. It was successfully nominated to the National Register of Historic Places by the Afro-American Bicentennial Corporation on May 15, 1975.
Blanche Kelso Bruce (March 1, 1841 – March 17, 1898) was an American politician who represented Mississippi as a Republican in the United States Senate from 1875 to 1881. Born into slavery in Prince Edward County, Virginia, he went on to become the first elected African American senator to serve a full term (Hiram R. Revels, also of Mississippi, was the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate but did not complete a full term). He was appointed as Recorder of Deeds in Washington D.C. during Benjamin Harrison's presidency. His home, the Blanche K. Bruce House, is a National Historic Landmark.
Bruce House may refer to: Blanche K. Bruce House, a historic house in Washington, D.C. Bruce House, London, a residential building in London Donald Bruce House, a historic plantation in South Carolina H. L. Bruce House, a historic house in Tennessee
The Register of the Treasury was an officer of the United States Treasury Department. The Register's duties included filing the accounting records of the government, transferring and cancelling federal debt securities, and filing the certificates of U.S.-registered ships. The signature of the Register of the Treasury was found on almost all United States currency until 1923, along with that of the Treasurer of the United States. Four of the five African Americans whose signatures have appeared on U.S. currency were Registers of the Treasury (Blanche K. Bruce, Judson W. Lyons, William T. Vernon and James C. Napier). After Woodrow Wilson appointed an African American, Adam E. Patterson, for the position in 1913, Southern senators (including Hoke Smith, James K. Vardaman, and Ben Tillman) expressed their opposition to Patterson on the grounds of his race, also saying that they opposed any African American for an office that would put them above Caucasian women. Patterson quickly withdrew his name, and Wilson appointed Gabe E. Parker, the first non-African American man to hold the position in fifteen years, to the Register of the Treasury, leaving African Americans dismayed. In 1919, the office of the Register became the Public Debt Service which, in 1940, became the Bureau of the Public Debt, and, in 2012, became the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Shirley Chisholm, elected in 1968.
