The Black History Buff Podcast

Miss Lala was born Anna Olga Albertina Brown to Wilhelm Brown and Marie Christine Borchardt, on April 21, 1858, in the former German (but now Polish) city of Stettin (Szczecin).

Miss Lala though possessed incredible strength, an all-around circus performer she worked at various times as a wire walker, trapeze artist, hand balancer, strong woman and incredibly enough an iron jaw performer. 

This Episode Is about Bill Richmond. When we think about black sports stars we often go to names such as Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, perhaps Kareem Abdul Jabbar or even Jack Johnson, however, if we dig a little deeper and look a little harder we might come across the Legend of Bill Richmond the first black sports star. 

Cisero Murphy (1937–1996) was an American professional pool player. Murphy was the first African-American professional pocket billiards player to ever win world and U.S. national titles.

This recording was provided by Tyriek Murphy and he does an amazing job of honouring his ancestor.  

Unedited and raw, this recording is a conversation I was privileged enough to have with Figure Skating legend Rory Flack. She has a fantastic story and is the first African American to perform a black flip on Ice in a professional setting.