Welcome to the Culture Corner!
Search for your drink’s name and learn a few facts about the people and events that’s within the name. Let’s celebrate greatness within the culture!
“Ace”
This drink is named after Althea Neale Gibson, an African American tennis player and professional golfer and one of the first black athletes to cross the color line of international tennis. In 1956, she became the first African American to win a Grand Slam title (the French Championship). She also became the first black player to compete on the Women's Professional Golf Tour.
“Aerospace”
This drink is named after Mary Jackson who was a mathematician and aerospace engineer at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. She also was the first black female engineer at NASA.
“AME”
This drink is named after Richard Allen who was a minister, educator, writer, and founder of the 1st independent black denomination in the US known as the African Methodist Episcopal church.
“Ball Method”
This drink is named after Alice Ball, a chemist who developed the Ball Method which was the most effective treatment for leprosy. She was the first woman and African American to receive a master's degree from the University of Hawaii and the first chemistry professor at that university.
“Big Bank”
This drink is named after Bernard S. Garrett who was a businessman, investor, and banker. He was one of the first wealthy African American entrepreneurs in America. He was also credited with being the first African American man to own banks in the U.S. specifically owning and controlling white banks in the state of Texas during the Civil Rights era.
“Black Anatomy”
This drink is named after Dr. Rebecca Crumpler who was the first African American female physician in the U.S. and an author.
“Black Panther”
This drink is named after Huey P. Newton who was the co-founder of the Black Panther Party.
“Blood Bank”
This drink is named after Dr. Charles Drew who was the inventor of the blood bank, which made it possible for the long-term storage of human plasma.
“Bloody Sunday”
This drink is named after John Lewis who was a civil rights leader, congressman for 33 years, and was one of the leaders on the march on Selma. He was beaten during the march on what is called "Bloody Sunday."
“Challenger 83”
This drink is named after Guion Bluford who was the first African American in space. He flew on the space shuttle "The Challenger" in 1983.
“Check-Up”
This drink is named after Dr. John W. Darden, Opelika’s first black doctor. There, he opened is own office and pharmacy which became a local meeting place for the black community. His services were extended to surrounding areas such as Auburn and rural areas of Lee County. He also treated inmates at the Lee County Jail.
“Fall Semester”
This drink is named after Booker T. Whatley who was a horticulturist and agricultural professor at Tuskegee University whose legacy was advocating for regenerative farming, a sustainable and organic farming method that focuses on regenerating soil and maximizing bio-diversity.
“Feelin’ Good”
This drink is named after Nina Simone who was a singer, songwriter, and civil rights activist.
“Garveyism”
This drink is named after Marcus Garvey who started the Universal Negro Improvement Association and began speaking out in favor of black unity and end colonialism.
“Home Run”
This drink is named Hank Aaron, nicknamed "Hammer" or "Hammerin' Hank", who was an African American professional baseball right fielder that played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1954 through 1976. He is regarded as one of the greatest baseball players of all time. His 755 career home runs broke the long-standing MLB record set by Babe Ruth and stood as the most for 33 years.
“Human Computer”
This drink is named after Katherine Johnson a mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first crewed space flight.
“Lifted”
This drink is named after Alice Coachman who won a 1948 Olympic Gold Medal in the High Jump thus becoming the very first black woman from any country to win such an award.
“Lolo”
This drink is named after Lolita Hixon, who was our inspiration for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. She is the mother of one of the owners of Melanin Cafe’ and she was among the first generation of children that was part of the full desegregation/integration in Alabama.
Mother Civil Rights”
This drink is named after Ella Baker who was the mother of the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the NAACP, SCLC, and SNCC.
“Peacemaker”
This drink is named after Ralph Bunche who was the prime mediator of the peace treaty that saw to an end of the war in the Middle East. For this, he became the first person of color to ever win a Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.
“Pose, Life, Vogue”
This drink is named after Gordon Parks who was an artist that became the first African American photographer for Life and Vogue magazine.
“Sci-fi”
This drink is named after Octavia Butler who was the first African American feminist, science fiction author who won a MacArthur genius grant
“Strongest Man”
This drink is named after John Henry who was steel driver tasked with hammering a steel drill into rock to make holes for explosives for railroad tunnels. He raced a machine, won, then died right after. He was considered as the strongest man.
“The Poet”
This drink is named after Phyllis Wheatley who was an African slave and poet. She was the first black woman to have her work published.
“Triple Threat”
This drink is named after John Pruitt, James Baker Jr., & Lucy Kirk who were the first black African Americans hired for the Opelika Police Department. John Pruitt and James Baker Jr. were both hired in 1967 and Lucy Kirk, the first black woman police officer, was hired in 1974.
“Well Organized”
This drink is named after Ida B. Wells who was a journalist, educator, leader of the civil rights movement, and one of the founders of the NAACP.
“Your Honor”
This drink is named after Jane Bolin who was the very first black woman graduate Yale Law School and the first woman of color to join the New York City Bar Association & the New York City Law Department. She would become the very first African American woman to serve as a judge in the United States.
“Balance”
This drink is named after Dianne Patrice Durham an African American artistic gymnast. In 1983, she won the all-around senior title at the women's US National Championship, becoming the first African American athlete to do so.
“Black Owned”
This drink is named after Black Wall Street, a thriving community in Greenwood, OK in the early 1900s that was founded by O. W. Gurley, a wealthy black land owner. This was a community that had bustling black owned businesses, theaters, schools, social health, and a strong distribution of wealth among its middle and upper classes. On May 31, 1921. police arrested 60% of black residents living in Black Wall Street, mobs burned black owned businesses and homes, and murdered hundreds of black citizens.
“Chicago Defender”
This drink is named after Robert Abbott who was a lawyer, newspaper publisher, and editor. He founded the Chicago Defender which was a major black newspaper.
“Heat of the Nite”
This drink is named after Sidney Poitier an actor and first African American to win the Academy Award for best actor.
“Heavyweight”
This drink is named after John Arthur Johnson, nicknamed the "Galveston Giant", was an American boxer who, at the height of the Jim Crow era, became the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion (1908–1915). Widely regarded as one of the most influential boxers of all time.
Skool Daze
This drink is named after Spike Lee, a film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor who set the stage for black cinema.
“Speedy”
This drink is named after Florence Joyner, known as Flo-Jo, an African American track and field athlete. She is the fastest woman of all time; the world records she set in 1988 for both the100 m and 200 m still stand.
“Stolen Cells”
This drink is named after Henrietta Lacks whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line. Her cell line became the first immortalized human cell line and is the most important cell line in scientific research.
“The Resistance”
This drink is named after Geronimo Pratt, a decorated army veteran and high ranking member of the Black Panther Party who was falsely accused of killing a white woman. He was convicted and sentenced to 27 years, but had his conviction vacated after it was exposed that the prosecution had concealed evidence of his innocence.
“Iconic Bonds”
This drink is named after Marie Maynard Daly a biochemist and the first black woman in the US to earn a PhD in chemistry.
“Iron Chef”
This drink is named after James Hemings a slave to Thomas Jefferson, who was the first American to train as a chef in France and the first American chef to cook at an American diplomatic embassy. He also is the creator of America’s favorite dish, mac and cheese, and an influential black chef for many professionals.
“Lone Ranger”
This drink is named after Bass Reeves, who was a law enforcement officer, the first black deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi river, and considered as the real lone ranger.
“HBCU”
This drink is named after Cheyney University, the nation’s first black institute for higher learning established in Pennsylvania. It was first known as the African Institute then was soon renamed the Institute for Colored Youth. It provided training in trades and agriculture, which were the predominant skills needed in the general economy. In 1914, it was renamed the Cheyney Training School for Teachers, became an institution of higher learning, and awarded its first degree. It paved the way for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
“Top Flight Security”
This drink is named after Marie Van Brittan Brown, a black woman who invented the home security system. She felt uneasy in her neighborhood and the police were unreliable. So, she took matters in her own hands and patented the modern home security system.
“Tune Up”
This drink is named after CR Patterson & Sons, founded by Charles Patterson, a man born into slavery in Virginia. It was the first and only black owned and operated automobile company in American history.
“2D”
This drink is named after Jackie Ormes, the first African-American woman cartoonist and creator of Torchy Brown comic strip and the Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger Panel
“Kowaliga”
This drink is named after Kowaliga, AL. This town was founded by John Benson and was a thriving black town that had a black college and first black owned railroad. It was flooded when Martin Dam was completed to form Lake Martin. The town lies underneath the lake.
“Mrs. President”
This drink is named after Shirley Chisholm who was a politician, educator, author, and the first black woman elected to US Congress and first black candidate to run for a major party for president.
“The Bluest Eyez”
This drink is named after Toni Morrison who was a novelist, essayist, book editor, and college professor and won a Pulitzer prize and Nobel prize in literature.
“Watchin’ God”
This drink is named after Zora Neale Hurston, an author, anthropologist, and filmmaker who wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God.
“Power to the People”
This drink is named after Angela Davis, an activist, philosopher, professor, author, and part of the black panther party.
“Express Yo Self”
This drink is named after Jean-Michel Basquiat, a neo- expressionist artist whose art focused on wealth vs poverty, integration vs segregation, and inner vs outer experience.
“Broadway Sun”
This drink is named after Lorraine Hansberry, a playwright and writer who wrote a Raisin in the Sun and was the first African American female author to have a play performed on Broadway.
“Wealthy Shipping”
This drink is named after Paul Cuffe, a Massachusetts shipping magnate of the early 19th century. He was the wealthiest African American of his era.
“Rebel”
This drink is named after after Nat Turner, a slave who led the only effective and sustained slave rebellion.
“Black Ice”
This drink is named after Matthew Henson, the first man and black man to reach the north pole.