Idaho Bulletin 230-5-2
February 8, 2005
SUBJECT:
EOP - National Black History Month
TO: All
Employees, NRCS, Idaho
Purpose. To provide information
on National Black History Month
Expiration Date.
September 30, 2005
The theme for National Black History Month 2005 is,
“The Niagara Movement 100th Anniversary 1905-2005.”
An organization of black intellectuals started the Niagara Movement as an effort
to promote full political, civil and social rights for black Americans. For more
on “the history” of Black History Month, see the attached information.
African Americans have made surprising and substantial contributions to the
laws, culture and society of Idaho. Important historic events (taken in part
from “Idaho Ebony: The Afro-American Presence in Idaho State History”) include:
1805 York travels with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark through Idaho.
York was Clark’s slave.
1860 Blacks are among the many miners, explorers, trappers, soldiers and
cowboys plying their way in Idaho. Rhodes Creek in Clearwater County is named
after miner
William Rhodes
whose fortune equaled $80,000.
1864 John West moves to Boise from Philadelphia, named “Dean of colored
Pioneers in Idaho.”
1870 The Desert Land Act encourages many Black Mormons to move to Idaho.
1879 George Washington Blackman, a miner, arrives in Hailey. Blackman Peak
in the White Cloud Mountains is named after him.
1892 The 25th Infantry Regiment, a black unit, is brought from Missoula,
Montana, to put down labor unrest in the Coeur d’Alene mining district.
1899 Jennie Hughes becomes the first black to graduate from the University
of Idaho.
1903 The African-American League and the Women’s Athenian Club, both of
which work for equal rights, are founded in Boise.
1908 St. Paul Baptist Church is founded in Boise.
1910 The census lists 135 Blacks living in Ada County.
1913 S.F. Bailey, a Boise lawyer, begins to practice.
1919 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People forms
Boise and Pocatello chapters.
1952 Reginald Reeves is the first black to graduate from the University of
Idaho law school. He joins an Idaho Falls law firm.
1964 Dorothy Johnson, a Pocatello resident, wins Miss Idaho USA.
1968 Idaho’s first Civil Rights rally held at the Statehouse after Martin
Luther King Jr.’s assassination.
1969 Idaho passes a Civil Rights bill. The Idaho Human Rights Commission
is created.
1972 Dr. Mamie Oliver is the first black professor at Boise State
University.
1973 Les Purce wins a seat on the Pocatello City Council, the first black
elected official in the state.
1974 Boise Mayor Dick Eardley declares Boise’s first Negro History Week.
1981 Les Purce is named director of the Idaho Department of Health and
Welfare.
1986 Cherie Buckner is the first black women to be a member of the Boise
Junior League.
2003 Joe B. McNeal, first Mountain Home, Idaho, black Mayor elected.
2004 Jerome Mapp re-elected Boise City Council President.
/s/ /s/
RICHARD SIMS
KIM GOLDEN
State Conservationist
Black Emphasis Program Manager
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