KRLemmons African American History

March 11 African American Historical Events

 Today in Black History – March 11     *

1861 – The Confederate Congress, meeting in Montgomery, Alabama,
adopts a constitution which declares that the passage of any
“law denying or impairing the right of property in Negro
slaves is prohibited.”

1870 – Moshweshwe, King of Basutoland (Lesotho) joins the ancestors. 
Moshweshwe was the founder of Lesotho in the 1820’s.  Lesotho
was landlocked by the Cape Colony (now South Africa).  He was
able to develop a strong tribal organization from his mix of
peoples.  He appeased the Zulu and Ndebele, led cattle raids
on surrounding people, defeated the British in 1852 and
conducted frequent wars with the Orange Free State.  Because
of repeated attacks by the Cape Colony, Moshweshwe asked the
British for protection and Lesotho will become a protectorate
in 1868.  Upon his death, the country was annexed to Cape
Colony, but was returned to the status of British protectorate
in 1884.  When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910,
the British honored the desire of Lesotho (“Basutoland”) to
remain independent.  A protectorate continued until 1968,
protecting Lesotho from incursions from South Africa.

1874 – Frederick Douglass is named president of the failing Freedmen’s
Bank. 

1884 – William Edouard Scott is born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He will
study with Henry O. Tanner at the Art Institute of Chicago. 
He later will go to Paris, France and study at the Julien and
Colarossi academies.  He will also study under Tanner again in
Paris (Tanner had emigrated there) and become best known for
his portrait studies of Haitians, rural life, and landscapes.
Many of his murals are on the walls of public buildings in
Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, and New York (135th Street
YMCA).

1919 – Mercer Ellington is born in Washington, DC, the only child of
Edward “Duke” Ellington and his wife, Edna.  He will become
“the keeper of the flame,” the charge his father will give him
and one he will readily accept.  In doing so, he will lead the
Duke Ellington Orchestra for over twenty years after replacing
his father.

1926 – Ralph David Abernathy is born in Linden, Alabama.  He will
become a famed minister, civil rights advocate, and confidant
of Martin Luther King, Jr.  After King’s assassination, he
will become the president of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference and write an autobiography that will attract
widespread criticism for his comments on King’s alleged
womanizing.

1935 – “The Conjure Man Dies,” a play by Rudolph Fisher, premieres on
Broadway at the Lafayette Theatre.  Fisher, who had joined the
ancestors over a year before the play’s premiere, had adapted
the play from his 1932 short story “The Conjure-Man Dies: A
Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem,” considered the first detective
fiction by an African American.

1948 – Reginald Weir becomes the first African American to play in the
U.S. Indoor Lawn Tennis Association Championship.  He will win
his first match, but will be eliminated on March 13.

1950 – Robert “Bobby” McFerrin is born in New York City.  He will be
known for his versatile and innovative a cappella jazz vocals
and for his hit song “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” which will sell
over ten million copies and earn him three Grammy awards in
1989 in addition to a Grammy for best jazz vocalist.

1956 – A manifesto denouncing the Supreme Court ruling on segregation
in public schools, is issued by one hundred southern senators
and representatives.

1959 – “A Raisin in the Sun” becomes the first play written by an
African American woman, Lorraine Hansberry, to open on
Broadway. The play will run for 19 months at the Ethel
Barrymore Theatre, and be named “Best Play” by the New York
Drama Critics Circle, and bring Lloyd Richards to Broadway as
the first African American director in modern times.

1965 – After civil rights demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, the
Reverend James J. Reeb, a white minister from Boston, dies,
succumbing to his beating by segregationist whites.

1968 – Otis Redding posthumously receives a gold record for the single
“(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.”

1971 – Whitney M. Young, Jr., executive director of the National Urban
League, joins the ancestors after drowning while swimming
during a visit to Lagos, Nigeria.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 10 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 10 *

1850 – Hallie Quinn Brown is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She
will become a Black educator and elocutionist who will
pioneer the movement for Black women’s clubs in the United
States. The daughter of former slaves, she will receive a
B.S. from Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1873. She will
then teach on plantations and in the public schools of
Mississippi and South Carolina. After graduating from the
Chautauqua Lecture School, and teaching in Dayton, Ohio,
and in Alabama, she will return to Wilberforce to teach
elocution. At that time she will begin her extensive travels
as an elocutionist and lecturer, speaking in Europe as well
as the United States on topics of the life of Blacks in
America. She will assist in founding the earliest women’s
clubs for Blacks and, from 1905 to 1912, will serve as
president of the Ohio State Federation of Colored Women’s
Clubs. She will also help to found the Colored Women’s
League of Washington, D.C., a predecessor of
the National Association of Colored Women. She will also
author “Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction,”
a 1926 collection of biographical sketches of notable
African American women. She will join the ancestors on
September 16, 1949, in Wilberforce, Ohio.

1863 – Two U.S. African American infantry regiments, the First and
Second South Carolina Volunteers, capture and occupy
Jacksonville, Florida, causing panic along the Southern
seaboard. These regiments are not to be confused with the
confederate army First South Carolina Volunteers Infantry
Regiment.

1910 – The Pittsburgh Courier begins publishing. It will become one
of the most influential African American newspapers in the
country. In 1966, it will change its name to the “New
Pittsburgh Courier,” and continue to operate as a semi-weekly
publication. In 1987, the Courier will be the winner of the
John B. Russwurm award for excellence in responsible
journalism given by the National Newspaper Publishers
Association to the top African American Newspapers in America.

1913 – Harriet Tubman joins the ancestors in Auburn, New York. An
escaped slave, Tubman was known to the Underground Railroad as
“Black Moses” for her heroic trips south to free hundreds of
slaves. During the Civil War, she served as a scout, spy,
cook, and nurse.

1963 – Jasmine Guy is born in Boston, Massachusetts. She will become
an actress on television and will be best known for her role
as “Whitley” in the series “A Different World.”

1969 – James Earl Ray pleads guilty in the first degree to the murder
of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. and will be sentenced to 99 years
in prison. The House Select Committee on Assassinations will
later state that although it believes Ray shot King, Ray was
part of a larger conspiracy. Ray will later repudiate that
plea, maintaining his innocence until his death.

1972 – Three thousand delegates and five thousand observers attend
the first African American political convention in Gary,
Indiana. The NAACP and other groups withdraw from the
convention after the adoption of resolutions that are critical
of busing and the state of Israel.

1990 – Haitian ruler Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril resigns during a popular
uprising against his military regime.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 9 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 9 *

1841 – Sengbe Pieh, known as Joseph Cinque, and the surviving African
slaves who revolted on the ship Amistad are ordered freed by
the United States Supreme Court and return to Africa after
successfully appealing their mutiny conviction on grounds that
they were kidnapped by outlawed slave traders. Their defense
attorney is John Quincy Adams, former President of the United
States and a Massachusetts senator. Before reaching the
Supreme Court, U.S. President Martin Van Buren appeals twice
the decision of lower courts to free the slaves. View the
original documents of the U.S. Supreme Court at:
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/amistad/supreme-court-statement.html

1871 – Oscar De Priest is born in Florence, Alabama. He will be the
first congressman elected from a northern state. He will
represent Illinois and be an active advocate for pensions for
African American ex-slaves, lynching prevention, and civil
rights improvements.

1891 – The North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University is
founded in Greensboro.

1892 – Three friends of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, prominent African
American businessmen, are lynched in Memphis, Tennessee after
an incident that stemmed from their opening a grocery store
across the street from a white-owned grocery store.

1911 – White firemen of the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific
Railroad struck to protest the hiring of African American
firemen. (For those who don’t remember steam engines, firemen
worked in the engine stoking the fire, which kept the steam
generator going)

1914 – The “New” Southern University campus opens in Scotlandville,
Louisiana near Baton Rouge with nine teachers and 47 students.

1930 – Ornette Coleman is born in Fort Worth, Texas. He will become a
self-taught musician, beginning on alto saxophone when he is
fourteen and moving on to the tenor saxophone when he is
sixteen. He will be influenced by Charlie Parker, Illinois
Jacquet and Big Jay McNeely. A born improvisionalist, he
found it difficult to fit into his school band as well as the
mainstream groups that he will later join. It wasn’t until
the late 1950’s that he will be recognized for his jazz
innovations. He will name his musical method “harmolodics.”
Many musicians and critics and jazz listeners will reject his
new jazz as formless and abstract. However, critics of his
method will recognize his importance as a composer. Critics
will praise his compositions, including “Peace,” “Lonely
Woman,” and “Beauty Is a Rare Thing.” In 1967 he will win
a Guggenheim fellowship, the first granted to a jazz musician.
He will compose and perform film scores, including “Chappaqua”
(1965), “Box Office” (1981), and “Naked Lunch” (1991). In
1997 the New York Philharmonic will perform his “Skies of
America,” a large-scale work that was first recorded by the
London Symphony Orchestra in 1972.

1931 – Walter F. White is named NAACP executive secretary.

1933 – Lloyd Price is born in Kenner, Louisiana. He will become a
successful Rhythm & Blues artist and will record “Lawdy Miss
Clawdy” (’52 #1 R&B), “Oooh, Oooh, Oooh” (’52 #4 R&B), “Ain’t
It A Shame” (’53 #4 R&B), “Just Because” (’57 #3 R&B, #29
Pop), “Stagger Lee” (’58 #1 R&B, #1 Pop), “Where Were You (On
Our Wedding Day)” (’59 #4 R&B, #23 Pop), Personality” (’59 #1
R&B, #2 Pop), and fifteen other hits.

1948 – Jeffrey Osborne is born in Providence, Rhode Island. He will
become an accomplished rhythm and blues singer performing as
lead singer for the group LTD. He will later become a
successful solo artist.

1964 – Miriam Zenzi Makeba speaks before the United Nations about the
apartheid system in South Africa.

1965 – Three white Unitarian ministers, including the Rev. James J.
Reeb, are attacked with clubs on the streets of Selma,
Alabama, while participating in a civil rights demonstration.
Reeb will later die in a Birmingham, Alabama hospital.

1966 – Andrew F. Brimmer becomes the first African American governor
on the Federal Reserve Board.

1971 – Emmanuel Lewis is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will become
a child actor and will be best known for his television role
as “Webster.”

1997 – The popular “gangsta rapper” Notorious B.I.G., whose real name
is Christopher Wallace, joins the ancestors after being killed
in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California at the age
of 24.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 8 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 8 *

1825 – Alexander Thomas Augusta is born free in Norfolk, Virginia. He
will graduate from Trinity Medical College in Toronto, Canada
in 1856, serve his medical apprenticeship in Philadelphia,
and join the Union Army in 1863 with the rank of major. In
1865 he becomes the first African American to head any
hospital in the United States, when the Freedmen Bureau
establishes Freedmen’s Hospital at Howard University with
Augusta in charge. In 1868, Howard University opens its own
medical school, with Augusta as demonstrator of anatomy. He
will be the first African American to receive an honorary
degree from Howard University (1869). He will join the ancestors
on December 21, 1890.

1873 – The United States Senate refuses to seat P.B.S. Pinchback of
Louisiana because of alleged election irregularities.

1898 – Louise Beavers is born in Cincinnati, Ohio. She will become
an actress and will be cast as the Henderson’s maid in “The
Beulah Show,” the first network show on television to have an
African American female in the title role. She will join the
ancestors on October 26, 1962. She will be inducted posthumously
into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1976.

1942 – Richard Anthony “Dick” Allen is born in Wampum, Pennsylvania.
He will become a professional baseball player with the
Philadelphia Phillies in 1963. He will play in the major
leagues for 14 years.

1945 – Phyllis Mae Daley, a graduate of Lincoln School for Nurses in
New York, receives her commission as an ensign in the Navy
Nurse Corps. She is the first of four African American Navy
nurses (including Helen Turner, Ella Lucille Stimley, and
Edith De Voe) to serve on active duty in World War II.

1971 – Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali in a heavyweight boxing
championship match billed as the “fight of the century.” Ali
was previously undefeated. Both Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali
collect $2,500,000 for the fight.

1977 – Henry L. Marsh, III is elected the first African American
mayor of Richmond, Virginia.

1991 – “New Jack City,” a film directed by Mario Van Peebles, actor
and son of director Melvin Van Peebles, premieres. Produced
by African Americans George Jackson and Doug McHenry, the
film, which tells the violent story of the rise and fall of a
drug lord played by Wesley Snipes, will suffer from
widespread violence among moviegoers.

2012 – Jimmy Ellis, who belted out the dance anthem “Disco Inferno” in
the 1970s for the Trammps, joins the ancestors at the age of 74.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 7 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 7 *

1539 – The first person of African descent to traverse the southern
portion of, what is now, the United States is Estevanico, or
Esteban, explorer from Azamov, Morocco. He discovers Arizona
and New Mexico. His journey lasted eight years. He was
leading an advance scouting party when he joins the ancestors
after being killed at Hawikuh Pueblo, New Mexico.

1870 – Governor William W. Holden of North Carolina, denounces Klan
violence and issues a proclamation declaring Alamance County
in a state of insurrection.

1917 – Janet Collins is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. She will
become a prima ballerina and the first African American
ballerina to perform on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera
House in New York City. She will be one of the few classically
trained African American dancers of her generation. In 1951
she will win the Donaldson Award for best dancer on Broadway
for her work in Cole Porter’s “Out of This World” (musical).
She also will perform in Aida and Carmen. She will join the
ancestors on May 28, 2003 in Fort Worth, Texas.

1927 – In Nixon v. Hearn, the United States Supreme Court strikes
down a Texas law prohibiting African Americans from voting in
a “white” primary.

1930 – “The New York Times” capitalizes the word Negro “in recognition
of racial self-respect for those who have been for generations
in the lowercase.”

1941 – British troops invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia). This invasion will
result in the liberation of Ethiopia from fascist Italian
occupation (1936 – 1941).

1942 – The first five cadets graduate from the Tuskegee Flying School:
Captain Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. and Second Lieutenants Mac Ross,
Charles DeBow, L.R. Curtis, and George S. Roberts. They will
become part of the famous 99th Pursuit Squadron.

1945 – Photographer Anthony Bonair is born in Trinidad. He will emigrate
to the United States in 1969. A photographer since the early 1970’s,
Bonair’s work will explore dance, Carnival, and the streets as
well as new directions utilizing multiple-exposure techniques.

1950 – Franco Harris is born in Fort Dix, New Jersey. He will become
a NFL fullback for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle
Seahawks. In his career, he will be All-AFC three times, play
in eight Pro Bowls, MVP in Super Bowl IX, rush for 1,000 yards
for nine seasons, rush for 100 yards in 47 games, rush for
12,120 career yards, 91 touchdowns rushing, 9 TDs receiving,
14,622 combined net yards, and 1,556 yards rushing in 19 post-
season games. One of his most memorable plays will be “The
Immaculate Reception” in a Steeler win against the Oakland
Raiders. This play will be voted the play of the 20th Century
on Superbowl Sunday, January 30, 2000. He will be elected to
the Pro Football Hall of Fame on January 27, 1990 and enshrined
on August 8, 1990.

1951 – Ezzard Charles wins a 15-round heavyweight decision against
Jersey Joe Walcott.

1952 – Lynn Curtis Swann is born in Alcoa, Tennessee. He will become a
NFL wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He will be
elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993. Though
his professional career didn’t yield large statistics, he will
be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001. He will
also be selected to the NFL 1970s All-Decade Team by Hall of
Fame voters. After retiring from football, he will become a
network sportscaster.

1965 – John Lewis leads a group of civil rights marchers across the
Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where they are attacked
by Alabama state troopers and sheriff’s deputies with tear gas
and billy clubs. This violent confrontation will be known as
“Bloody Sunday,” and will spark the historic Selma-to-
Montgomery voting rights march led by Martin Luther King Jr.

1985 – The record “We Are the World” is released as a single. The
song, whose proceeds benefit African famine relief efforts, is
written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson and produced by
Quincy Jones, with the singing participants organized by Jones,
Harry Belafonte, and Ken Kragen. To insure that the all-night
recording session went off without a hitch and that the true
cause of the song was etched into the hearts and minds of the
wide array of internationally known talent performing, a hand-
written sign is placed outside the studio at A&M Records in
Hollywood which simply said, “Check Your Egos at the Door.”

1987 – World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champ, “Iron Mike” Tyson
becomes the youngest heavyweight titlist ever as he beats James
“Bonecrusher” Smith in a decision during a 12-round bout in Las
Vegas, Nevada.

2006 – Gordon Parks, renowned photographer, writer and director, joins
the ancestors at the age of 93.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 6 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 6 *

1479 – The Treaty of Alcacovas is signed. This will establish the
territorial domains of Portugal and Castile (Spain) along a
longitudinal line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands.
Spain, thereby, recognizes Portugal’s rights to explore the
African coast. Portugal becomes the first European nation to
exploit the West African slave trade.

1775 – Prince Hall and fourteen other African Americans are initiated
into British Military Lodge No. 441 of the Masons at Fort
Independence, Massachusetts. Hall is a leather-dresser and
caterer. On July 3, 1775, African Lodge No. 1 will be
organized in Boston by this group of African American Masons.

1857 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules against citizenship for African
Americans in the Dred Scott decision. The Court rules that
Dred Scott, a slave, cannot sue for his freedom in a free
state because he is property and, as such, “has no rights a
white man has to respect.” This ruling also opens up the
northern territory to slavery.

1862 – President Lincoln sends message to Congress recommending
gradual and compensated emancipation of the slaves.

1901 – Virginia State University in Ettrick, Virginia (Outside of
Petersburg), is founded.

1909 – Obafemi Awolowo is born in Ikenne, Nigeria. He will become
the first Premier of Western Nigeria. He will also be a
strong antagonist of the north’s feudal system and its spread
to other parts of Nigeria and an advocate of the creation of
more states in Nigeria. Chief Awolowo and 28 other members
of his party will be later put on trial for treasonable
felony. He was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment, and,
on appeal to the Federal Court the sentence was upheld.
After spending just over three years in Calabar prison, he
will be released with a state pardon. Nine days later, amid
jubilation he was unanimously elected leader of the then
10,500,000 Yorubas and leader of the Western delegation to
the All Nigerian Conference on the future association of
Nigeria. Chief Awolowo will be an author whose publications
will include “Path to Nigerian Freedom, Thoughts on the
Nigerian Constitution”.

1923 – Charles Ethan Porter joins the ancestors in Rockville,
Connecticut. A student of the National Academy of Design in
New York City, the first African American artist in the
United States to graduate from a four-year school of art,
and member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Porter
did not receive the recognition that contemporaries Edward
Bannister and Henry Ossawa Tanner won. He will be best known
for the paintings “Still Life (Crock With Onions),”
“Strawberries,” and “Daisies,” but there will not be a major
retrospective of his work until 1987.

1941 – Wilver Dornel “Willie” Stargell is born in Earlsboro, Oklahoma.
He will become an all-star baseball player for the Pittsburgh
Pirates. He will hit 475 career home runs – twice leading
the National League with 48 in 1971 and with 44 in 1973. He
will drive in 1540 runs, score 1195 and have 2232 hits with a
lifetime batting average of .282. He will be inducted into
Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1988.

1944 – Mary Wilson is born in Greenville, Mississippi. In 1959, she
will begin singing with a group called the “Primettes”, a
sister group to a male group, The Primes.” The Primes will
become “The Temptations” and the Primettes will become “The
Supremes.” The Supremes will become the only American act to
have five consecutive number one hits! From their beginning
to the end of the group, the Supremes will have 33 songs
reach the top 40. After the group disbands in 1977, Mary
Wilson will become a successful businesswoman, author,
lecturer, actress, and singer of not just pop music, but
Jazz, Rock, R&B, and Dance. She will author the best-seller
“Dreamgirl-My Life as a Supreme.” In 1988, Mary Wilson will
become the first female rock star to accept her lifetime
achievement award from the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame.

1957 – Ghana becomes the first African nation to achieve freedom from
colonial rule when the Ashanti, Northern Protectorates, the
Gold Coast and British Togoland declare their independence.
The celebration ceremonies are attended by a number of
American dignitaries, including African American leaders
Ralph Bunche, A. Philip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.,
Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King.

1981 – Dr. Bernard Harleston, former dean of arts and sciences at
Tufts University, is appointed president of New York’s City
College.

2000 – Three white New York police officers are convicted of a cover-
up in the brutal police station attack on Haitian immigrant
Abner Louima.

2000 – “Earth, Wind and Fire” is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame.

2006 – Kirby Puckett joins the ancestors, one day after the Hall of
Fame outfielder had a stroke at his Arizona home, at the age
of 45. He carried the Minnesota Twins to World Series titles
in 1987 and 1991 before his career was cut short by glaucoma.
He played his entire career with the Twins and was an icon in
Minnesota.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 5 African American Historical Events

oday in Black History – March 5 *

1770 – Crispus Attucks joins the ancestors after becoming the first
of five persons killed in the Boston Massacre. Historians
have called him the first martyr of the American Revolution.

1897 – The American Negro Academy is founded by Alexander Crummel.
The purpose of the organization is the promotion of
literature, science, art, the fostering of higher education,
and the defense of the Negro.

1920 – Leontine Turpeau Current Kelly is born in Washington, DC. In
1984, she will become the first African American woman to be
named a bishop of a major religious organization, the United
Methodist Church.

1938 – Fred “The Hammer” Williamson is born in Gary, Indiana. He
will become a professional football player after training in
college to be an architect. He will play for the San
Francisco 49’ers from 1962 to 1964, the Kansas City Chiefs
from 1964 to 1967 (played in Super Bowl I), and the Oakland
Raiders from 1967 to 1971. After football, he will become a
sportscaster on ABC’s Monday Night Football with Howard Cosell
for one year. He will then become active in Hollywood as an
actor, director, producer, and writer.

1954 – Marsha Warfield is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will become
an actress and comedian and best known for her role as “Roz
Russell” on NBC’s “Night Court” from 1986 to 1992.

1981 – The United States government grants the city of Atlanta $1
million to finance mental health and social programs in the
wake of a mysterious series of abductions and slayings
involving at least twenty two African American youths.

1985 – The Mary McLeod Bethune commemorative stamp is issued by the
U.S. Postal Service as the eighth stamp in its Black Heritage
USA series.

1991 – Reggie Miller, of the Indiana Pacers begins a NBA free throw
streak of 52 games.

1999 – Avery C. Alexander, a patriarch of the New Orleans’ civil
rights movement, who was arrested 20 times before he lost
count, joins the ancestors at the age of 88. A Baptist
minister and six-term Democratic state representative,
Alexander championed anti-discrimination, voter registration,
labor, closer police oversight and environmental regulation.
In the 1950s, he served as an adviser to Gov. deLesseps “Chep”
Morrison, helping African Americans get their first chance at
political patronage in menial, janitor-level jobs. He went on
to become the first African American to hold seats on parish
and state Democratic Party committees. In 1963, New Orleans
police dragged him by his heels down the steps of City Hall
after he led an unsuccessful effort to integrate its
cafeteria.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 4 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 4 *

1837 – The second major African American newspaper, the “Weekly
Advocate” changes its name to the “Colored American.”

1869 – The forty-second Congress convenes (1871-73) with five
African American congressmen: Joseph H. Rainey, Robert
Carlos Delarge, and Robert Brown Elliott from South Carolina;
Benjamin S. Turner, of Alabama; Josiah T. Walls of Florida.
Walls is elected in an at-large election and is the first
African American congressman to represent an entire state.

1889 – The fifty-first Congress convenes. Three Black congressmen:
Henry P. Cheatham of North Carolina; Thomas E. Miller of
South Carolina; and John Mercer Langston of Virginia.

1897 – Willie Covan is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He will become one
of the earliest successful tap dancers, appearing in the
original production of “Shuffle Along” as well as with the
Four Covans.

1901 – The congressional term of George H. White, last of the post
Reconstruction congressmen, ends.

1922 – Theater legend Bert Williams joins the ancestors at the age of
46 in New York City. He was considered the foremost African
American vaudeville performer, teaming first with George
Walker in 1895, most notably in “In Dahomey,” and later as a
soloist with the Ziegfeld Follies.

1932 – Miriam Zenzi Makeba, “Empress of African Song,” is born in
Prospect Township, South Africa. Although exiled from her
homeland, Makeba will become an internationally known
singer and critic of apartheid. Throughout her life and
singing career, She will use her voice to to draw the attention
of the world to the music of South Africa and to its oppressive
system of racial separation. After appearing in the
semi-documentary antiapartheid film, “Come Back, Africa,” she
will attract international attention. This will include
meeting Harry Belafonte, who will become her sponsor and
promoter in the United States. Because her music always
contained a political component – the denunciation of
apartheid, her South African passport will be revoked in 1960.
Her career in the United States will be crippled by her
marriage to Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture’), who was
active in the Black Panther Party. Her career will continue
to flourish in Europe. She will later become a United Nations
delegate from Guinea and will continue to record and perform.
She will return to her homeland, South Africa, in 1990 and in
1991, will make her first performance there in over thirty
years. She will join the ancestors on November 10, 2008 after
succumbing to a heart attack suffered after singing her hit
song “Pata Pata” during a concert organized to support writer
Robert Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like
organization in the Campania region of Italy.

1934 – Barbara McNair is born in Racine, Wisconsin. She will become a
singer and actress, and will host her own television program
(The Barbara McNair Show). The glamorous actress will
moonlight as a pop singer between TV and film roles during
the 1960s. She will be a classy addition to Berry Gordy’s
talent roster when his firm attempts to diversify its appeal.
She will cut a pair of albums for Motown in 1966 and 1969.

1944 – Robert Dwayne “Bobby” Womack is born in Cleveland, Ohio. He
will become a Rhythm and Blues performer, guitarist and
songwriter.

1954 – The first African American sub-cabinet member is appointed.
President Eisenhower names J. Earnest Wilkins of Chicago as
the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor.

1968 – Joe Frazier defeats Buster Mathis for the world heavyweight
boxing championship by knockout in the eleventh round.

1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr. announces plans for the Poor People’s
Campaign in Washington, DC. He says that he will lead a
massive civil disobedience campaign in the capital to pressure
the government to provide jobs and income for all Americans.
He tells a press conference that an army of poor white, poor
African Americans and Hispanics will converge on Washington
on April 20 and will demonstrate until their demands were met.

1981 – A jury in Salt Lake City convicts Joseph Paul Franklin, an
avowed racist, of violating the civil rights of two black men
who were shot to death.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 3 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 3 *

1820 – In an attempt to resolve the conflict between pro and
antislavery forces, the Missouri Compromise becomes law. In
the final law, Missouri joins the Union as a slave state
while Maine joins as a free one. The measure prohibits
slavery to the north of the southern boundary of Missouri.

1821 – Thomas L. Jennings receives a patent for an invention to “dry
scour” (dry clean) clothes. It is the earliest known patent
granted to an African American.

1865 – Congress establishes the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and
Abandoned Lands, commonly known as the Freedman’s Bureau, to
provide health and education to newly freed slaves displaced
by the Civil War.

1865 – Congress charters Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Bank with
business confined to African Americans.

1869 – The University of South Carolina is opened to all races. Two
African Americans, B.A. Boseman and Francis L. Cardozo were
elected to a seven-man board of trustees.

1896 – The South Carolina legislature passes a measure creating the
Colored Normal Industrial, Agricultural and Mechanical
College (later South Carolina State) in Orangeburg.

1931 – Cab Calloway records the classic “Minnie The Moocher,” a song
that would be forever linked to him. The song combined
scat-singing with nonsense syllables and lyrics of drug use,
recounting how Minnie and her cocaine-using lover, Smokey
Joe, went to Chinatown, where “he showed her how to kick the
gong around” – slang for opium smoking.

1962 – Jacqueline Joyner (later Kersee) is born in East Saint Louis,
Illinois. She will become an Olympic champion, winning two
medals (silver in 1984 and gold in 1988) in the heptathlon
and another gold medal in the long jump at the 1988 Games in
Seoul, South Korea.

1967 – Grenada gains partial independence from Great Britain.

1988 – Juanita Kidd Stout becomes the first African American woman to
serve on a state supreme court when she is sworn in as an
associate justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

1991 – Motorist Rodney King is severely beaten by four Los Angeles
police officers after a high-speed chase in a scene captured
on home video by George Holliday.

1998 – Larry Doby, the second African American to play major league
baseball and the first African American to play in the
American League (Cleveland Indians), is selected for
induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 2 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 2 *

1807 – “The importation of slaves into the United States or the
territories thereof” after January 1, 1808 is banned by
Congress. Although abolitionists will hail the ban, it will
not significantly affect the U.S. supply of slaves. Illegal
importation will continue through Florida and Texas. The law
also has no provision to restrict the internal slave trade,
and the reproduction rate of American slaves is high enough
to allow an active trade. Therefore the domestic slave trade
continues to prosper after 1808.

1867 – Howard University is chartered by Congress in Washington, DC.
Also founded or chartered are Talladega College in Talledega,
Alabama, Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland, Johnson
C. Smith College in Charlotte, North Carolina, and St.
Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina.

1867 – The first of a succession of Reconstruction acts is passed by
Congress. The acts divide the former Confederate states into
five military districts under the command of army generals.

1867 – African Americans vote in municipal election in Alexandria,
Virginia, for perhaps the first time in the South. The
election commissioners refuse to count the fourteen hundred
votes and military officials suspend local elections pending
clarification of the status of the freedmen.

1867 – Elections are ordered for constitutional conventions and
freedmen are enfranchised. Commanders in some states change
the status of African Americans by military orders. Major
General E.R.S. Canby opens the jury box to African Americans.
African Americans are named policemen in Mobile, Alabama.

1885 – George W. Williams, minister, lawyer and historian, is named
minister to Haiti. The appointment is vacated by the new
administration.

1896 – In the battle of Aduwa, Abyssinia (Ethiopia) defeats the
troops of the invading Italians.

1919 – Claude A. Barnett establishes the Associated Negro Press (ANP),
the first national news service for African American
newspapers. The goal of the ANP is to provide national news
releases to African American publishers. The ANP will operate
for the next 48 years and have, at one time, 95% of all
African American newspapers as subscribers.

1921 – Harry Pace establishes Pace Phonograph Corporation to produce
records on the Black Swan label. It is the first African
American owned and operated record company and will record
blues, jazz, spirituals, and operatic arias.

1957 – Mark Dean is born in Jefferson City, Tennessee. He will
receive a BSEE degree from the University of Tennessee in
1979, a MSEE degree from Florida Atlantic University in
1982, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford
University in 1992. He will become an engineer for the IBM
Corporation. During his career with IBM, he will hold
several engineering positions in the area of computer
system hardware architecture and design. He will work on
establishing the strategy, architecture, design and
business plan for proposed video server offerings and
studyd the technology and business opportunity for settop
boxes. He will also be chief engineer for the development
of the IBM PC/AT, ISA systems bus, PS/2 Model 70 & 80, the
Color Graphics Adapter and numerous other subsystems. He
will become an IBM Fellow and Vice President of Systems in
IBM Research. He will be responsible for the research and
application of systems technologies spanning circuits to
operating environments. Key technologies in his research
team will include cellular systems structures (Blue Gene),
digital visualization, DA tools, Linux optimizations for
Pervasive, SMPs & Clusters, Settop Box integration, MXT,
S/390 & PowerPC processors, super dense servers, formal
verification methods and high speed low power circuits.
His awards will include induction as a member of the
National Academy of Engineering, the Black Engineer of the
Year Award, the NSBE Distinguished Engineer award, the
Black Engineer of the Year President’s Award, induction
into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame in Akron, OH and
recipient of the Ronald H. Brown American Innovators Award
in Washington, DC. He will be appointed to IBM Fellow in
1995, IBM’s highest technical honor. Only 50 out of
310,000 IBM employees have the level of IBM Fellow. He will
also be a member of the IBM Academy of Technology, serving
on the Technology Council Board. He will receive several
academic and IBM awards, including thirteen Invention
Achievement Awards and six Corporate Awards. He will also
have more than 30 patents or patents pending.

1961 – 180 African American students and a white minister are arrested
in Columbia, South Carolina after anti-segregation march.

1962 – Philadelphia 76er Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in an NBA
game against the New York Knicks. It is a feat Chamberlain
will repeat but one which has not been equaled by another NBA
player to date.

1963 – Suzette DeGaetano is born in Mays Landing, New Jersey. As
Suzette Charles, she will represent New Jersey in the 1984
Miss America competition. She will win the preliminary talent
competition but will finish as first runner-up to Vanessa Lynn
Williams. When Williams is asked to resign her crown after
nude photographs of her came to light, Charles will be
declared to be the second Miss America for 1984, making her
the second African American Miss America after Williams.

1980 – Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns wins the vacant USBA Welterweight
title. This is one of five weight classes in which he wins
a boxing title, making him the first African American to win
boxing titles in five different weight classes.

1986 – Sidney Barthelemy is elected mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana,
succeeding Ernest Morial as the second African American mayor
of the city.

1988 – J. Saunders Redding, author, joins the ancestors in Ithaca,
New York at the age of 81.

1990 – Carole Gist, of Detroit, Michigan, is crowned Miss USA. She
becomes the first African American to win the title.

2003 – Hank Ballard, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, joins the
ancestors after succumbing to throat cancer in Los Angeles,
California. He wrote “The Twist” and other hits.

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