1754: "Benjamin Banneker, the first African American astronomer, is credited with making the first clock to strike the hour. People come from miles around to see and hear it sound the hours. President George Washington appoints him in 1789 to the Capitol Com- mission. While on the Commission he helps l%u2019Enfant draw up the plans for the city of Washington, DC. For some reason the plans come up missing, and he draws them again, totally from memory, to the astonishment of his associates. On August 19, 1791, Banneker sent a letter to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson in which he criticizes the peculiar American institution of slavery and Jefferson's hypocrisy as stated in the American Declaration of Independence. Jefferson's response to Banneker's entreaty is paternalistic and insulting."
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