KRLemmons African American History

September 25 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 25           *

1861 – The Secretary of the Navy authorizes the enlistment of
African Americans in the Union Navy. The enlistees could
achieve no rank higher than “boys” and receive pay of
one ration per day and $10 per month.

1886 – Peter “The Black Prince” Jackson wins the Australian
heavyweight title, becoming the very first man of
African descent to win a national boxing crown.

1911 – Dr. Eric Williams, former prime minister of Trinidad and
Tobago, is born.

1924 – In a letter to his friend Alain Locke, Langston Hughes
writes “I’ve done a couple of new poems. I have no more
paper, so I’m sending you one on the back of this
letter.”  The poem, “I, Too”, will be published two years
later and be among his most famous.

1951 – Robert Allen “Bob” McAdoo, Jr. is born.  He will become a
one of the best-shooting big men of all time in
professional basketball. He will win Rookie of the Year,
a Most Valuable Player Award and three consecutive
scoring championships, all in his first four years in
the NBA. Over fourteen seasons, McAdoo will score 18,787
points and average 22.1 point per game. A five-time NBA
All Star, he will shoot .503 from the field and .754 from
the line, scoring in double figures in all but one season.

1957 – With 300 U.S. Army troops standing guard, nine African
American children forced to withdraw the previous day
from Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas,
because of unruly white crowds, are escorted to back to
class.

1962 – Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson in the first round
to become the world heavyweight boxing champion.

1962 – An African American church is destroyed by fire in Macon,
Georgia. This is the eighth African American church
burned in Georgia in one month.

1962 – Governor Ross Barnett again defies court orders and
personally denies James Meredith admission to the
University of Mississippi.

1965 – Willie Mays hits his fiftieth home run of the baseball
season, making him the oldest player to accomplish this.
He was 34 years old.  Ten years before this, at the age
of 24, he was the youngest man to accomplish the same
feat.

1965 – Scotty Pippen is born. He will become a professional
basketball player and will be traded to the Houston
Rockets in 1998 after 11 distinguished seasons with the
Chicago Bulls, for whom he averaged 18.0 points, 6.8
rebounds and 5.3 assists in 833 NBA games. He will earn
All-NBA First Team honors three times in his career and
All-Defensive First Team honors in each of seven seasons
(1992-1999. In addition, Pippen will earn NBA World
Championships in six of the eight years and Olympic gold
medals in 1992 and 1996. He will be selected as one of
the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996.

1968 – Will Smith is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He
will become a rapper at the age of 12 and will be known
for his hits “Nightmare on My Street” and “Parents Just
Don’t Understand.” In 1990 he will start his acting
career with a six-year run as the “Fresh Prince of Bel
Air.”  He will go to become a major motion picture box
office attraction, starring in “Six Degrees of
Separation,” “Made in America,” “Independence Day,”
“Men In Black,” and “Wild, Wild West.”

1974 – Barbara W. Hancock is the first African American woman
to be named a White House Fellow.

1988 – Florence Griffith Joyner runs 100 meters in record
Olympic time of 10.54 seconds.

1991 – Pioneer filmmaker Spencer Williams’s 1942 movie “Blood
of Jesus”, a story of the African American religious
experience, is among the third group of twenty-five
films added to the Library of Congress’s National Film
Registry.  Williams, best known for his role of Andy in
the television series “Amos ‘n’ Andy”, was more
importantly, an innovative film director and a
contemporary of Oscar Micheaux. Williams’s film joins
other classics like “Lawrence of Arabia” and “2001: A
Space Odyssey”.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 24 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 24          *

1825 – Frances Ellen Watkins Harper is born free in Baltimore,
Maryland. She will grow up to be one of the most famous
African American poets. Harper’s mother will join the
ancestors before she is three years old, leaving her an
orphan. Harper will be raised by her uncle, William
Watkins, a teacher at the Academy for Negro Youth and a
radical political figure in civil rights. Watkins will
be a major influence on Harper’s political, religious,
and social views. Harper will attend the Academy for
Negro Youth and the rigorous education she will receive,
along with the political activism of her uncle, will
affect and influence her poetry. In 1850, she will
become the first female to teach at Union Seminary in
Wilberforce, Ohio. After new laws pass in 1854, state
that African Americans entering through Maryland’s
northern border could be sold into slavery, Harper will
become an active abolitionist and writer. She will be
known for her writings, “Forest Leaves,” “Poems on
Miscellaneous Subjects,” “Moses: A Story of the Nile,”
“Achan’s Sin,” “Sketches of Southern Life,” “Light
Beyond the Darkness,” “Iola Leroy: Or Shadows Uplifted,”
“The Martyr of Alabama and Other Poems,” “Atlanta
Offering Poems,” and “Idylls of the Bible.” She will join
the ancestors on February 22, 1911.

1883 – The National Black convention meets in Louisville,
Kentucky.

1894 – Sociologist and professor at Morehouse College, Fisk
University, and Howard University, E.(Edward) Franklin
Frazier is born in Baltimore, Maryland. He will organize
the Atlanta University School of Social Work (for African
Americans), later becoming its director. He will write
the controversial publication (1927) “The Pathology of
Race Prejudice” in Forum Magazine. His writings will
include “The Negro Family in the United States” (1939),
among the first sociological works on African Americans
researched and written by an African American. He will
also write “Negro Youth at the Crossways” (1940) and
“Race and Culture Contacts in the Modern World” (1957),
which deals with African studies. Frazier will have a
distinguished career at Howard University as chairman of
its sociology department as well as serving as the first
African American president of the American Sociological
Society. He will join the ancestors on May 17, 1962.

1931 – Cardiss Robertson (later Collins) is born in St. Louis,
Missouri. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1973
after the death of her husband, George, she will serve in
a leadership capacity often in her Congressional career,
most notably as chairman of the Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and
Competitiveness.

1935 – World Heavyweight Champion, Joe Louis, becomes the first
African American boxer to draw a million dollar gate.

1941 – John Mackey is born in New York City.  He will become a
football player in the National Football League in 1963
and will play all but one of his pro years with the
Baltimore Colts.  His career record will include 331
catches, 5,236 yards, and 38 touchdowns. He will be
enshrined in the Football Hall of Fame in 1992 (the
second tight end to be so honored).

1946 – Charles Edward “Mean Joe” Greene is born in Temple, Texas.
He will become a star football player for North Texas
State and will be a number one draft pick in the National
Football League in 1969 and will play his entire career
(1969-1981) with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He will become
the “cornerstone of franchise” that dominated the NFL in
the 1970s. He will be an exceptional team leader,
possessing size, speed, quickness, strength, and
determination. He will be NFL Defensive Player of The
Year twice (1972 and 1974). He will be All-Pro or All-
AFC nine years and will play in four Super Bowls (won
all four), six AFC title games, and 10 Pro Bowls.  He
will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in
1987. He will become a defensive line coach with
Pittsburgh after his retirement as an active player.

1953 – “Take a Giant Step”, a drama by playwright Louis Peterson,
opens on Broadway.

1954 – Patrick Kelly is born in Vicksburg, Mississippi.  A
fashion design student, Kelly will move to Paris, where
his innovative and outrageous women’s fashion designs,
featuring multiple buttons, bows and African American
baby dolls, will win him wide acclaim and make him the
first and only American designer admitted to an
exclusive organization of French fashion designers.

1957 – President Eisenhower makes an address on nationwide TV and
radio to explain why troops are being sent to Little Rock,
Arkansas. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, earlier in the
day sends 1,000 U.S. government paratroopers to Little
Rock to aid in the desegregation of the public schools.
The troops will escort nine school children to Central
High School in the first federally supported effort to
integrate the nation’s public schools. The nine Black
students who had entered Little Rock Central High School
in Arkansas were forced to withdraw because of a white
mob outside.

1962 – United States Circuit Court of Appeals orders the
Mississippi Board of Higher Education to admit James
Meredith to the University of Mississippi or be held in
contempt of court.

1973 – Leaders of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea
and Cape Verde (PAIGC) declare the independence of
Guinea-Bissau from Portugal.  Portugal will recognize this
independence the following year. The PAIGC was formed by
Amilcar Cabral and Raphael Barbosa in 1956. Luis Cabral,
Amilcar’s half-brother, will become Guinea-Bissau’s first
president.

1977 – Rev. John T. Walker is installed as the sixth — and first
African American bishop of the Episcopal Church when he
is installed in the diocese of Washington, DC.

1988 – Jackie Joyner-Kersee of the United States sets the
heptathlon woman’s record (7,291).

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 23 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 23          *

1667 – In Williamsburg, Virginia, a law was passed, barring
slaves from obtaining their freedom by converting to
Christianity.

1862 – A draft of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is
published in Northern Newspapers.

1863 – Mary Church (later Terrell) is born in Memphis,
Tennessee. She will become an educator, civil and
woman’s rights advocate, and U.S. delegate to the
International Peace Conference.  She will also be the
first African American to serve on the school board in
the District of Columbia.

1926 – John Coltrane, brilliant jazz saxophonist and composer who
will be considered the father of avant-garde jazz, is
born in Hamlet, North Carolina.

1930 – Ray Charles (Robinson) is born in Albany, Georgia. Blind
by the age of six, he will study music and form his own
band at the age of 24. A recorded performance at the
Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 will establish his career
as one of the premier soul singers in the United States.
Among Charles’s achievements will be three Grammys and
Kennedy Center honors in 1986. He will join the ancestors
on June 10, 2004 after succumbing to liver disease.

1952 – Jersey Joe Walcott, loses his heavyweight title in the
13th round, to Rocky Marciano, in Philadelphia
Pennsylvania.  Pay Television for sporting events begins
with the Marciano-Walcott fight, coast to coast, in 49
theatres in 31 cities.

1954 – Playwright George C. Wolfe is born in Frankfort, Kentucky.
He will become critically acclaimed for the controversial
plays, “The Colored Museum”, “Jelly’s Last Jam”, and
“Spunk”.

1957 – Nine African American students, who had entered Little
Rock Central High School in Arkansas, are forced to leave
because of a white mob outside.

1961 – President Kennedy names Thurgood Marshall to the United
States Circuit Court of Appeals.

1962 – Los Angeles Dodger, Maury Wills, steals record setting
base #97 on his way to 104.

1979 – Lou Brock steals record 935th base and becomes the all-
time major league record holder.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 22 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 22        *

1853 – George Washington Murray is born a slave near Rembert,
South Carolina. A two-term congressman from his home
state, Murray will also be an inventor and holder of
eight patents for agricultural tools. He will join the
ancestors on April 21, 1926.

1862 – Five days after Union forces won the Battle of Antietam,
President Lincoln issues a preliminary emancipation
proclamation.  It states that if the rebelling states
did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863, he
would declare their slaves to be “forever free.”

1906 – Race riots occur in Atlanta, Georgia, killing 21 people.

1915 – Xavier University of Louisiana opens in New Orleans, the
first Catholic college for African Americans in the
United States.

1941 – Chester Lovelle Talton is born in Eldorado, Arkansas. At
49, he will become the first African American
Episcopalian bishop to be ordained in the western
United States. As suffragan bishop of the diocese of Los
Angeles, he becomes the religious leader of
Episcopalians in the fourth-largest diocese in the
United States.

1949 – Lee Harold Carmichael is born in Jacksonville, Florida. He
will become an American football wide receiver in the NFL.
He will play 13 seasons for the Philadelphia Eagles from
1971 to 1983, and one season for the Dallas Cowboys in
1984. He will play his college football at Southern
University. He will be selected to four Pro Bowls in his
NFL career, and will lead the league in receptions during
the 1973 season. He will also be the Eagles’ top receiver
of Super Bowl XV, with 6 catches for 91 yards. He will
end his career with 590 receptions for 8,985 yards with
79 career touchdown catches, along with 64 rushing yards
on 9 carries. He will rank 18th all-time in career
touchdown receptions. He will be selected to the NFL
1970s All-Decade Team by voters of the Pro Football Hall
of Fame. He will become Director of Player Programs for
the Philadelphia Eagles in 2006.

1950 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, director of the UN Trusteeship
division and former professor of political science at
Howard University, is awarded the Nobel Peace prize for
successful mediation of the Palestinian peace accord.

1954 – Shari Belafonte (Harper, now Behrens) is born in New York
City, New York. She will become is an American actress,
model, writer and singer. The daughter of singer Harry
Belafonte, she will be best known for her role as Julie
Gilette on the 1980s television series “Hotel” and as a
spokesperson for the diet supplement “Slim-Fast” during
the 1990s.

1960 – The Republic of Mali proclaims its independence.

1961 – The Interstate Commerce Commission issues regulation
prohibiting segregation on interstate buses and in
terminal facilities.

1969 – San Francisco Giant, Willie Mays, becomes the first player
since Babe Ruth to hit 600 home runs.

1985 – Robert Guillaume wins an Emmy for best leading actor in a
comedy for Benson while The Cosby Show wins for best
comedy series.

1989 – Edward Perkins, the first African American ambassador to
the Republic of South Africa, becomes director-general of
the United States Foreign Service. The first African
American named to the post, Perkins will be credited with
bringing more minorities into the foreign service.

1990 – Andre’ Dawson steals his 300th base & is only player other
than Willie Mays to have 300 HRs, 300 steals & 2,000 hits.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 21 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 21         *

1814 – African American troops are cited for bravery in the
Battle of New Orleans.

1872 – John Henry Conyers of South Carolina becomes first
African American student at U.S. Naval Academy
(Annapolis).  He will later resign.

1905 – The Atlanta Life Insurance Company is founded by Alonzo
F. Herndon.

1909 – Kwame Nkrumah is born in Nkroful, Ghana.  A leader in
African colonial liberation, Nkrumah will be the first
prime minister of Ghana (1958-1966), but will be forced
into exile following a coup.

1932 – Melvin Van Peebles, playwright and director(Watermelon
Man), is born.

1948 – Artis Gilmore, who will become a professional basketball
all-star, is born.

1967 – Walter Washington is nominated by President Lyndon B.
Johnson as the first mayor of the newly reorganized
municipal government of Washington, DC. In 1974, he
will be elected to the post, another first for an
African American.

1970 – The Oakland Athletics’s Vida Blue pitches a no-hitter
against the Minneapolis Twins, 6-0.

1971 – Alfonso Ribeiro, actor/pianist (Alfonso-“Silver Spoons”,
“Fresh Prince of Bel Air”), is born.

1981 – Belize gains independence from Great Britain.

1985 – Michael Spinks becomes the first light heavyweight to
defeat the reigning heavyweight champion when he defeats
Larry Holmes.

1989 – Army General Colin Powell receives Senate confirmation as
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest
military position in the United States, thereby becoming
the military’s highest-ranking African American.

1990 – Pittsburgh Pirate Barry Bonds is the second person to hit
30 home runs and steal 50 bases in the same season.

2009 – The Rev. John “Bootsie” Wilson, a former lead singer and
last surviving member of the soul group, The Silhouettes,
joins the ancestors at the age of 69.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 26 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 26          *

1867 – Maggie Lena Walker is born in Richmond, Virginia.  She
will become a noted businesswoman, civil leader, and
founder and president of Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank.
As a result, she will be the first woman president of a
bank in America.

1907 – The People’s Savings Bank is incorporated in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Founded by former African American
congressman George H. White, of North Carolina, the bank
will help hundreds of African Americans buy homes and
start businesses until the illness of its founder forces
its closure in 1918.

1937 – Bessie Smith joins the ancestors in Clarksville,
Mississippi, after succumbing to injuries sustained in
a automobile accident. She was one of the nation’s
greatest blues singers and was nicknamed “the Empress of
the Blues.” In 1925, Smith and Louis Armstrong made the
definitive rendition of W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues,”
and in 1929 she made her only movie appearance in the
movie of the same name.

1947 – Lucius Oliver Allen, Jr. (born on September 26, 1947 in
Kansas City, Kansas) is a former professional basketball
player. Prior to his NBA career, he was part of one of
John Wooden’s legendary UCLA teams. He was drafted by the
Seattle SuperSonics in the 1st round (3rd pick) of the
1969 NBA Draft and retired in 1979. Allen played 10 years
in the NBA for four different teams. His highest scoring
average was when he averaged 19.5 points per game during
the 1974-1975 campaign in which he was traded to the Los
Angeles Lakers mid-season after playing with the Milwaukee
Bucks from the 1970-1971 season. During his playing days,
Allen was often referred to by former Bucks announcer
Eddie Doucette as “jack rabbit” because of his speed and
jumping ability.

1957 – The order alerting regular army units for possible riot
duty in other Southern cities is cancelled by Army
Secretary Wilbur M. Brucker.

1962 – A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., becomes the first African
American member of the Federal Trade Commission.  It is
one of the Trenton, New Jersey, native’s many
accomplishments, including appointment as a federal
district judge and U.S. Circuit Judge of the Third
Circuit.

1962 – Los Angeles Dodger Maury Wills becomes the 1st baseball
player to steal 100 bases (will go on to steal 104).

1962 – Mississippi bars James Meredith for the third time. Lt.
Gov. Paul Johnson and a blockade of state patrolmen turn
back Meredith and federal marshals about four hundred
yards from the gate of the school.

1968 – The Studio Museum of Harlem opens in New York City.
Conceived by Frank Donnelly and Carter Burden, the
Studio Museum will become an influential venue for
exhibitions of African American artists in all media.

1968 – St. Louis Cardinals’ Bob Gibson’s completes his 13th
shutout, and ends the season with a 1.12 ERA.

1994 – Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, President Clinton
announces that he has lifted most U.S. sanctions against
Haiti and urges other nations to follow suit.

1994 – Jury selection begins in Los Angeles for the murder trial
of O.J. Simpson.

1998 – Grammy-winning jazz singer Betty Carter joins the
ancestors in New York City at age 69.

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