September 4 African American Historical Events

 Today in Black History – September 4            *

1781 – California’s second pueblo near San Gabriel, Nuestra Senora
        la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula (Los Angeles,
        California) is founded by forty-four settlers, of whom at
        least twenty-six were descendants of Africans.  Among the
        settlers of African descent, according to H.H. Bancroft’s
        authoritative “History of California,” were “Joseph Moreno,
        Mulatto, 22 years old, wife a Mulattress, five children;
        Manuel Cameron, Mulatto, 30 years old, wife Mulattress;
        Antonio Mesa, Negro, 38 years old, wife Mulattress, six
        children; Jose Antonio Navarro, Mestizo, 42 years old,
        wife, Mulattress, three children; Basil Rosas, Indian, 68
        years old, wife, Mulattress, six children.”

1848 – Louis H. Latimer is born in Chelsea, Massachusetts.  A one-
        time draftsman and preparer of patents for Alexander
        Graham Bell, he will later join the United States Electric
        Company, where he will patent a carbon filament for the
        incandescent lamp. When he joins the ancestors on December
        11, 1928, he will be eulogized by his co-workers as a
        valuable member of the “Edison Pioneers,” a group of men
        and women who advanced electrical light usage in the
        United States. He will join the ancestors on December 11,
        1928.

1865 – Bowie State College (now University) is established in
        Bowie, Maryland.

1875 – The Clinton Massacre occurs in Clinton, Mississippi. Twenty
        to thirty African Americans are killed over a two-day
        period.

1908 – Richard Wright,  who will become the author of the best-
        selling “Native Son,” “Uncle Tom’s Children,” and “Black
        Boy,” is born near Natchez, Mississippi. Wright will be
        among the first African American writers to protest white
        treatment of African Americans. He will join the ancestors
        on November 28, 1960.

1942 – Merald ‘Bubba’ Knight is born in Atlanta, Georgia.  He will
        become a singer with his sister Gladys Knight as part of
        her background group, The Pips.  They will record many
        songs including “Midnight Train to Georgia,” “Best Thing
        That Ever Happened to Me,” “I Heard It Through the
        Grapevine,” “Every Beat of My Heart,” “Letter Full of
        Tears,” and “The Way We Were/Try to Remember” medley.

1953 – Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs is born in New York City.  He will
        become an actor and will star in “Alien Nation,”
        “Rituals,” “Roots,” “Welcome Back, Kotter,” “Quiet Fire,”
        “L.A. Heat,” and “L.A. Vice.”

1957 – The governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, calls out the
        National Guard to stop nine African American students
        from entering Central High School in Little Rock,
        Arkansas.  Three weeks later, President Dwight Eisenhower
        sends a force of 1,000 U.S. Army paratroopers (The 101st
        Airborne) to Little Rock to guarantee the peaceful
        desegregation of the public school.

1960 – Damon Kyle Wayans is born in New York City, New york.  He
        will become an actor/comedian and will star in “In Living
        Color,” “Major Payne,” “Blankman,” “Celtic Pride,”
        “The Great White Hype” and many others.

Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.