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Black Herman
Benjamin Rucker (1892 – April 15, 1934) was an American stage magician, better known by his stage name Black Herman. He was the most prominent African-American magician of his time. He appears as a major character in Ishmael Reed's 1972 novel '' Mumbo-Jumbo''. Early life Rucker was born in Amherst, Virginia in 1892. Little is known about his origins, especially since Rucker told audiences of more exotic fictional backstories. He often claimed to have been born into a Zulu tribe and to have spent his childhood in the jungles of Africa. Career Rucker learned the art of staged illusions from a performer called Prince Herman, who was first his teacher and later his partner. The pair sold patent medicine as well as performing prestidigitation, making their act as much a medicine show as a stage show. When Prince Herman died in 1909, Rucker adopted the name "Black Herman" in homage to his late friend. Black Herman then continued to tour, focusing on the stage act and dropping the m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amherst, Virginia
Amherst (formerly Dearborn) is a town in Amherst County, Virginia, United States. The population was 2,231 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Amherst County. Amherst is part of the Lynchburg metropolitan area. History Amherst was founded in 1807. Originally known as "The Oaks" and "Seven Oaks", it began as a stagecoach station on the Charlottesville to Lynchburg road. Once Nelson County was separated from Amherst County in 1807, the community became the seat of Amherst County. It was at this time that the village decided to rename itself in honor of French and Indian War hero Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst. Major-General Amherst had been the hero of the Battle of Ticonderoga and later served as the governor of the Colony of Virginia from 1763 to 1768. In 1847, local planter William Waller, aged 58, walked from Amherst to Louisiana with about 20 slaves for sale. His letters home during the trip, held by the Virginia Historical Society, provide rare documenta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luck
Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The Naturalism (philosophy), naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at any time, both due to random and non-random natural and artificial processes, and that even improbable events can happen by random chance. In this view, the epithet "lucky" or "unlucky" is a descriptive label that refers to an event's positivity, negativity, or improbability. Supernatural interpretations of luck consider it to be an attribute of a person or object, or the result of a favorable or unfavorable view of a deity upon a person. These interpretations often ''prescribe'' how luckiness or unluckiness can be obtained, such as by carrying a lucky charm or offering sacrifices or prayers to a deity. Saying someone is "born lucky" may hold different meanings, depending on the interpretation: it could simply mean that they have been bor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burials At Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)
Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objects in it, and covering it over. A funeral is a ceremony that accompanies the final disposition. Evidence suggests that some Archaic humans, archaic and early modern humans buried their dead. Burial is often seen as indicating respect for the dead. It has been used to prevent the odor of decay, to give family members Closure (psychology), closure and prevent them from witnessing the decomposition of their loved ones, and in many cultures it has been seen as a necessary step for the deceased to enter the afterlife or to give back to the cycle of life. Methods of burial may be heavily ritualized and can include natural burial (sometimes called "green burial"); embalming or mummification; and the use of containers fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Vaudeville Performers
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label that was previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African-American Male Actors
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. African Americans constitute the second largest ethno-racial group in the U.S. after White Americans. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States. In 2023, an estimated 48.3 million people self-identified as Black, making up 14.4% of the country’s population. This marks a 33% increase since 2000, when there were 36.2 million Black people living in the U.S. African-American history began in the 16th century, with Africans being sold to European slave traders and transported across the Atlantic to the Western Hemisphere. They were sold as slaves to European colonists and put to work on plantations, particularly in the southern colonies. A few were able to achieve freedom throug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
People From Amherst, Virginia
The term "the people" refers to the public or common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. In contrast, a people is any plurality of persons considered as a whole. Used in politics and law, the term "a people" refers to the collective or community of an ethnic group or nation. Concepts Legal Chapter One, Article One of the Charter of the United Nations states that "peoples" have the right to self-determination. Though the mere status as peoples and the right to self-determination, as for example in the case of Indigenous peoples (''peoples'', as in all groups of indigenous people, not merely all indigenous persons as in ''indigenous people''), does not automatically provide for independent sovereignty and therefore secession. Indeed, judge Ivor Jennings identified the inherent problems in the right of "peoples" to self-determination, as i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1934 Deaths
Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''), killing an estimated 6,000–10,700 people. * February 6 – 6 February 1934 crisis, French political crisis: The French far-right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon, in an attempted coup d'état against the French Third Republic, Third Republic. * February 9 ** Gaston Doumergue forms a new government in France. ** Second Hellenic Republic, Greece, Kingdom of Romania, Romania, Turkey and Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia form the Balkan Pact. * February 12–February 15, 15 – Austrian Civil War: The Fatherland Front (Austria), Fatherland Front consolidates its power in a series of clashes across the country. * February 16 – The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1889 Births
Events January * January 1 ** The total solar eclipse of January 1, 1889 is seen over parts of California and Nevada. ** Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka experiences a vision, leading to the start of the Ghost Dance movement in the Dakotas. * January 4 – An Act to Regulate Appointments in the Marine Hospital Service of the United States is signed by President Grover Cleveland. It establishes a Commissioned Corps of officers, as a predecessor to the modern-day U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. * January 8 – Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his electric tabulating machine in the United States. * January 15 – The Coca-Cola Company is originally incorporated as the Pemberton Medicine Company in Atlanta, Georgia. * January 22 – Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, D.C. * January 30 – Mayerling incident: Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, and his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera commit a double suicide (or a murder-suicide) at the Mayerling hun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lewis De Claremont
Lewis de Claremont, also spelled Louis de Clermont, was the pseudonym of an American author on occultism who flourished during the 1930s. Books attributed to de Claremont include ''7 Steps to Power'', ''7 Keys to Success'', ''The Ancient's Book of Magic'', ''The Ancient Book of Formulas'', and ''Legends of Incense, Herb, and Oil Magic''. Although authorship of his writings was claimed by the publisher Joseph Kay (Joseph Spitalnick) for purposes of copyright renewal,Carolyn Morrow Long. "Spiritual Merchants: Religion, Magic, and Commerce". University of Tennessee Press, 2001 this claim has been easily disproved, and it is speculated that the author was also the proprietor of the Oracle Products Company, a spiritual supply house specializing in African-American hoodoo goods in New York City, who also used the name Mr. Young.Lewis de Claremont. "Legends of Incense, Herb, and Oil Magic, Esoteric Students' Handbook of Legendary Formulas and Facts," restored edition edited by Catherine Y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bronx, New York City
The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County to its north; to its south and west, the New York City borough of Manhattan is across the Harlem River; and to its south and east is the borough of Queens, across the East River. The Bronx, the only New York City borough not primarily located on an island, has a land area of and a population of 1,472,654 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It has the fourth-largest area, fourth-highest population, and third-highest population density of the boroughs.New York State Department of Health''Population, Land Area, and Population Density by County, New York State – 2010'' retrieved on August 8, 2015. The Bronx is divided by the Bronx River into a hillier section in the West Bronx, west, and a flatter East Bronx, eastern section. East and west street names are divided by Jerome Avenue. The W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx
Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City and a designated National Historic Landmark. Located south of Woodlawn Heights, Bronx, New York City, it has the character of a rural cemetery. Woodlawn Cemetery opened during the Civil War in 1863, in what was then Yonkers, in an area that was annexed to New York City in 1874. It is notable in part as the final resting place of some well-known figures. Locale and grounds The Cemetery covers more than and is the resting place for more than 300,000 people. Built on rolling hills, its tree-lined roads lead to some unique memorials, some designed by famous architects: McKim, Mead & White, John Russell Pope, James Gamble Rogers, Cass Gilbert, Carrère and Hastings, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Beatrix Jones Farrand, and John La Farge. The cemetery contains seven Commonwealth war graves – six British and Canadian servicemen of World War I and an airman of the Royal Canadian Air Force of World War II.< ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
