[1] They moved north as part of the Great Migration of African Americans out of the Southern United States to seek better jobs and to escape racism and prejudice in the South.

[1] According to Blackmon's sister, Lyla M.Washington, their parents arrived in Albion on October 13, 1912, "a young teen-age husband and wife".

[3] Blackmon left Washington Gardner High School in Albion in 1937 in the tenth grade to look for work together with his father.

[1] He served with the U.S. Army 585th Engineers Company from 1943 to 1945 during World War II, mostly in the Pacific Theater (New Guinea, Southern Philippines, Luzon).

He claims to have been cured of acute chronic gastritis after the preacher said that God would heal anyone in the congregation if had faith in his divine power.

[2] In 1974, he moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and settled there where he ran his own small laundry and tailoring businesses including the Revival Center Shoe Repair and Shine Parlor in the Sydney Hih building.

Using house paint, he increasingly embellished his signs with imagery including biblical scenes and symbols of deliverance and retribution, along with visual commentary on social marginalization.