Recorded in Dundalk, Baltimore, for the Baltimore Museum of Industry, in conjunction with Bethlehem Steel oral history project.
Part of the "Be Here: Baltimore" project created by the Peale Center for Baltimore History and Architecture and the MuseWeb Foundation, created to share stories about the people and places of the city.
Talk about your work.
Speaker 1: So fast forward up to the day you're doing more computer programming.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm actually designing a virtual Bethlehem Steel that you will be able to interact with the mill. You'll put on VR glasses to interact with the mill. I'm actually creating software. In fact, I have a history software right now that I'm designing because what amazed me was that if you... This is some of my history software.
Speaker 1: Yeah, anything you want to know about U.S. History is right there, in there.
Speaker 2: Oh, Wow.
Speaker 1: It's independent of the Internet.
Speaker 2: Oh, and you cultivated it?
Speaker 1: I designed it. I wrote the software. I even wrote the algorithms for the audio, the video files. That's independent of Microsoft.
Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
Speaker 1: You could put it on anybody's computer and it'll work.
Speaker 2: What are you planning on doing with this in terms of moving forward?
Speaker 1: Eventually, I'm going to market it. This one here is for African American history. What gave me the idea was I asked a bunch of young men, "Name me the first woman to run for president of the United States."
Speaker 2: Shirley Chisholm.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: No. Shirley Chisholm ran for Congress. The first woman to run for president was in the 1800s. Her name was Victoria Woodhall, but what's most prominent about her is the person that she nominated for Vice President.
Speaker 2: Which was?
Speaker 1: Frederick Douglass.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: I asked people how many constitutions did we have in this country?
Speaker 2: A couple of different versions.
Speaker 1: The constitution was ratified in 1776, but what did we have before the constitution? We had the Articles of the Federation where Congress enacted presidents for one-year terms. President Obama is the first black president under the Constitution of the United States, but the very first black president of the country is John Hansel, from Calvert County, Maryland.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: George Washington is the eighth president of the United States, the very first president under the constitution. Then I asked them and this was back in early June. I asked some young people, I said, "Have you ever seen The Longest Day?" "Yeah, yeah, yeah." I said, "Have you seen Saving Private Ryan?" "Yes, yes, yes." Then I asked them, I said, "Well, how many blacks did you see storm the beaches of Normandy?" "None." I said, "Well, can you name me one black battalion that stormed the beaches of Normandy?"
Speaker 2: Is that common knowledge [crosstalk 00:04:09]?
Speaker 1: They looked at me "No, no." I said, "Well, the 320th Airborne, a barrage battalion, stormed the beaches of Normandy." One of the very first people that came off of the barges of the 320th was Waverly B. Woodson. Waverly B Woodson was a medic, got shrapnel in his stomach, but went on that beach and saved 300 American soldiers and did amputations on the beach, but they did not give him the Congressional Medal of Honor because he was black.
Asset ID: 8242
