Curt gentry biography of abraham lincoln
ChicagoBears.com | The Official Website of the Chicago Bears
Few NFL players have accomplished more in their first 30 years on the planet than former Bears defensive back Curtis Gentry.
Prior to being selected by the Bears in the 17th round of the 1966 draft out of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Gentry played professional baseball and basketball, served in the Army and was a civil rights activist.
Gentry, who passed away Oct. 29, 2022, at the age of 85, is featured in an exhibit in the Halas Hall lobby celebrating Black History Month. The display chronicles his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and his Bears career and includes quotes from him and others.
"It's an unbelievable story," said Bears historical archives assistant Claire Blakemore, who helped create the exhibit. "He did all of that before he was 30. And it was the '60s. It's the height of the Civil Rights Act, LBJ (President Lyndon Baines Johnson), Vietnam; so much going on. That he experienced all of that and lived such a life before he was 30 I thought was really inspiring."
Gentry grew up in Portsmouth, Ohio. After graduating from Portsmouth High School in 1958, he enrolled at the Miami University (Ohio), where he played football and basketball. But Gentry dropped out and joined the Harlem Globe Satellites, a pro basketball team formed by former Harlem Globetrotter Rookie Brown.
Gentry later was signed by the Detroit Tigers and played for their Class D affiliate, the Commodores, ironically in Decatur, Ill., where the Bears were born in 1920 as the Decatur Staleys. In October 1960, Gentry was drafted into the army and served 22 months.
Gentry decided to return to college and resume his football career. He wrote letters to 14 Black colleges and the only reply he received came from Maryland Eastern Shore, which offered him a four-year scholarship without ever seeing him play.
Back home in Portsmouth during summer break in 1964—shortly after the Civil Rights Act FRANCIS GARY POWERS, JR. lectures internationally and appears regularly on C-SPAN, the History, Discovery, and A&E channels. He is the son of Francis Gary Powers, Sr. the U-2 pilot whose plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, triggering an international incident during the Cold War. Gary is the author of Letters from a Soviet Prison (2017), Spy Pilot (2019), Enemy Territory (2022), The Berlin Airlift (2024), Cold War Virginia (2024), and Protecting America: Cold War Defensive Sites (2024). He is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of The Cold War Museum located at Vint Hill, VA and was the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Cold War Theme Study which assisted the National Park Service to identify historic Cold War sites for preservation. In 2015, he consulted for a Steven Spielberg thriller, Bridge of Spies, about the 1962 spy exchange between KGB spy Rudolph Abel and CIA U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, Sr. Gary conducts Spy Tours of Washington, DC and Cold War Espionage Tours of Europe (www. SpyTour .com). He is a past Board Member of the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace and an Honorary Board Member of the International Spy Museum. Because of his efforts to honor Cold War veterans the Junior Chamber of Commerce selected him as one of the “Ten Outstanding Young Americans” for 2002. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy and Master's Degrees in Public Administration and U.S. History. also read
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Lincoln and the Water
By 1829, Abraham Lincoln saw his future on the river. The 20-year-old may also have seen rivers as his path to economic freedom. One of young Lincoln’s neighbors recalled: “Abe came to my house one day and stood around about timid & Shy. I Knew he wanted Something. I said to him – Abe what is your Case. “Uncle I want you to go to the [Ohio] River -and give me Some recommendation to some boat.” When the neighbor noted that Lincoln was not yet 21, young Lincoln replied: “I Know that, but I want a start.” The teenage Lincoln had already helped dig the “Louisville and Portland Canal” along the Ohio River.
Lincoln’s lifelong fascination with rivers began early and was deeply personal. His first dollar was earned earlier when he lived in Indiana and worked at Posey’s Landing at the confluence of Anderson Creek and the Ohio River. Around 1825, one day he rowed two men out to a steamer in the Ohio River on a boat he had built. Decades later Lincoln said: “I could scarcely credit that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day – that by honest work I had earned a dollar. The world seemed wider and fairer before me. I was a more hopeful and confident being from that time.” For many years, rivers would signify Lincoln’s quest for personal and economic freedom.
Working on the water also introduced young Lincoln to the intricacie