KRLemmons African American History

June 2 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 2 *

1863 – Harriet Tubman leads a group of Union troops into
Confederate territory.

1875 – James A. Healy is consecrated in a cathedral in Portland,
Maine, becoming the first African American Roman Catholic
bishop (Diocese of Maine).

1899 – African Americans observe a day of fasting called by the
National Afro-American Council to protest lynchings and
racial massacres.

1907 – Dorothy West is born in Boston, Massachusettts. She will
become a writer at age of seven when the Boston Globe
publishes her short story, “Promise and Fulfillment.” She
will become a leading writer during the Harlem Renaissance
and will also become a performer, working as a cast member
of the play, “Porgy.” She will found two literary journals,
“Challenge,” and “New Challenge.” She will move to Martha’s
Vineyard in 1945 and will live there for the remainder of
her life, while producing the works “Living Is Easy,” “The
Wedding,” and more than sixty short stories. She will join
the ancestors in Boston, Massachusetts in August, 1998.

1911 – Claudio Brindis de Salas joins the ancestors in Buenos
Aires, Argentina at the age of 58. He was an Afro-Cuban
violinist and composer renown worldwide as a virtuoso. He
had been referred to as “The Black Paganini” and “The King
of the the Octaves.”

1943 – The 99th Pursuit Squadron (Tuskegee Airmen), the first
African American Army Air Corps unit, flies its first
combat mission in the Mediterranean, strafing enemy
positions on the Italian island of Pantelleria.

1951 – Kenneth I. Chenault is born in Mineola (Long Island), New
York. He will become an attorney and join American Express
in 1981, where he will become president of the company’s
Consumer Card and Financial Services Group in 1989 and one
of the highest-ranking African Americans in corporate
America.

1951 – Sergeant Cornelius H. Charlton, a member of Company C, 24th
Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, is mortally
wounded during the Korean War while his platoon was
attacking heavily defended hostile positions on commanding
ground. After his platoon leader was wounded and evacuated,
Sgt. Charlton assumed command, rallied the men, and
spearheaded the assault against the hill. Personally
eliminating 2 hostile positions and killing 6 of the enemy
with his rifle fire and grenades, he continued up the slope
until the unit suffered heavy casualties and became pinned
down. Regrouping the men he led them forward only to be
again hurled back by a shower of grenades. Despite a severe
chest wound, Sgt. Charlton refused medical attention and
led a third daring charge which carried to the crest of the
ridge. Observing that the remaining emplacement which had
retarded the advance was situated on the reverse slope, he
charged it alone, was again hit by a grenade but raked the
position with a devastating fire which eliminated it and
routed the defenders. He will be posthumously awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery on March 19, 1952.

1953 – Cornel West is born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He will grow up in
Sacramento, California and be influenced by the Black
Panther Party and the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr.
and Malcolm X. He will graduate from Harvard University
magna cum laude in 1973, and will receive his M.A. and
Ph.D. from Princeton University. After teaching at Yale
Divinity School, Union Theological Seminary and Princeton,
he will join the faculty of Harvard University in 1994.
Considered a leading African American intellectual, he will
be the author of thirteen books, including the two-volume
“Beyond Eurocentrism and Multiculturalism” (Common Courage
Press, 1993), “Breaking Bread” (South End Press, 1991),
“Race Matters” (Beacon Press, 1993), “Keeping Faith”
(Routledge, 1993), “Jews and Blacks Let the Healing Begin”
(Putnam Books, 1995), co-authored with Michael Lerner, and
“Restoring Hope: Conversations on the Future of Black
America” (Beacon Press, October 1997). Besides his numerous
publications, he will be a well-respected and highly
popular lecturer. His speaking style, formed by his roots
in the Baptist Church, will provide a blend of drama,
knowledge, and inspiration.

1967 – The first of three days of race riots occurs in the Roxbury
section of Boston, Massachusetts. Dozens are injured and
more are arrested after welfare mothers barricade themselves
in protest against welfare policies.

1985 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar becomes the all-time leading point scorer
in the National Basketball Association playoffs. He rings
up a total of 4,458 points, smashing the previous record
held by Jerry West, also of the Los Angeles Lakers.

1993 – South Africa’s Supreme Court upholds Winnie Mandela’s
conviction for kidnapping four young blacks, but said she
would not have to serve her five-year prison term.

1999 – South Africans go to the polls in their second post-apartheid
election, giving the African National Congress a decisive
victory. Retiring President Nelson Mandela is succeeded by
Thabo Mbeki.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 1 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 1 *

1835 – The Fifth National Negro Convention recommends that Blacks
remove the word “African” from the titles of their
organizations and discontinue referring to themselves as
“colored.”

1843 – Sojourner Truth leaves New York and begins her career as an
anti-slavery activist.

1868 – The Texas constitutional convention convenes in Austin with
eighty-one whites and nine African Americans in attendance.

1868 – The Florida General Assembly meets in Tallahassee with
fifty-seven whites and nineteen African Americans in
attendance.

1868 – Solomon George Washington Dill, white ally of African
American Republicans, is assassinated in his home by white
terrorists. Dill had allegedly made “incendiary speeches”
to South Carolina African Americans.

1921 – A major race riot occurs in the Greenwood section of Tulsa,
Oklahoma. Twenty-one whites and sixty African Americans
will be killed according to some sources. The destruction
caused in the area referred to as “Black Wall Street,”
prompts the first American Red Cross response to a man-
made disaster. The Red Cross will report that 1115 houses
and businesses belonging to African Americans were burned
down, and another 314 were looted. Their statistics will
also show that 300 persons were killed, a much higher
figure than chronicled by other historical sources. For
more information about the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, go to
http://www.informationman.com/blkwallst.htm

1921 – Paul Raymond Jones is born in Bessemer, Alabama. He will
become a major collector of African American art. During the
early 1960’s, he will decide to purchase his first three
paintings forming the beginning of his collection. They were
by artists, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, and Chagall. After
collecting for a couple of years, he will realize that African
American art was “abundant and affordable” yet hardly ever
represented in the collections of museums. As the years pass,
his collection of African American art and his reputation will
grow. His collection will be featured at several different
museums over the course of his lifetime. Currently, the Paul R.
Jones Collection resides at the University of Delaware where it
is a tool to educate and foster enjoyment. The University of
Alabama will also establish an art collection in his name after
receiving some 1,700 pieces valued at $5 million in 2008. He
will join the ancestors on January 26, 2010.

1935 – Frederick Eikerenkoetter is born in Ridgeland, South
Carolina. He will receive a B.A. in Theology from the
American Bible College in Chicago, Illinois in 1955 and
become a minister better known as “Reverend Ike.” He will
be the first African American minister with a television
show and will report a following of close to 7,000,000 by
1982.

1937 – Morgan Freeman is born in Memphis, Tennessee. Making his
acting debut in an all African American cast of “Hello
Dolly” in 1968, Freeman will also have a major role in the
television program “The Electric Company” before breaking
into movies. He will receive an Academy Award nomination
for his role in “Street Smart,” and star in “Clean and
Sober” and Lean on Me.” He will be nominated again for a
supporting role in “Glory” and for his starring role in
“Driving Miss Daisy.” He will make his directing debut in
1993 with the film, “Bopha,” a drama set in South Africa
under the policy of apartheid.

1941 – The first African American tank battalion, the 758th, is
activated.

1942 – The Marine Corps begins enlistment of African Americans at
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

1948 – Johnny Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson joins the ancestors in
Chicago, Illinois at the age of 34 after being murdered on
the front steps of his home. He was a master of the blues
harmonica and transformed the instrument from a novelty
into a major component of Chicago-style blues. He will be
inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 1980.

1966 – Approximately 2,400 persons attend a White House Conference
on Civil Rights.

1973 – WGPR-TV (Channel 62) in Detroit, Michigan, is granted a
permit to operate. It is the first television station
owned by African Americans.

1997 – Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, is fatally burned in a
fire set by her 12-year-old grandson in her Yonkers, New
York, apartment.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 31 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – May 31 *

1870 – The first civil rights Enforcement Act, which protects the
voting and civil rights of African Americans, is passed by
Congress. It provides stiff penalties for public officials
and private citizens who deprive citizens of the suffrage
and civil rights. The measure authorizes the use of the
U.S. Army to protect these rights.

1909 – The first NAACP conference is held at the United Charities
Building in New York City with 300 African Americans and
whites in attendance. Ida B. Wells-Barnett, while speaking
at the conference, condemns lynching as a “blight upon our
nation, mocking our laws and disgracing our Christianity.”

1917 – One of the first jazz records, “The Darktown Strutter’s
Ball,” is released. It was written by songwriter and
musician, Shelton Brooks. It will become Brooks’ most
famous song.

1931 – Shirley Verrett is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. She will
become an operatic mezzo-soprano known worldwide for her
compelling performance in Carmen. She will be a star at the
world’s great opera houses, including the Metropolitan
Opera, La Scala, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the
Bolshoi Opera, the Paris Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the
Vienna Staatsoper, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She will
appear at the Metropolitan opera for more than two decades.
She will be the recipient of many honors and awards, among
them the Marian Anderson Award, Naumburg Award, and the
Sullivan Award; and fellowships from numerous foundations
including Ford, John Hay Whitney, and Martha Baird
Rockefeller. She will receive honorary doctorates from Holy
Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Northeastern
University in Boston. She will join the faculty at the
University of Michigan in 1996, becoming the James Earl
Jones Distinguished University Professor of Music. She will
join the ancestors on November 5, 2010.

1955 – The U.S. Supreme Court passes a second desegregation ruling,
demanding “all deliberate speed” be used in the
desegregation of public schools.

1961 – Judge Irving Kaufman orders the Board of Education of New
Rochelle, New York to integrate their schools.

1961 – Chuck Berry’s amusement park, Berryland, opens near Saint
Louis, Missouri.

1979 – Zimbabwe proclaims its independence.

1987 – John Dotson is named publisher of the Boulder, Colorado,
“Daily Camera.” It is one of many distinctions for the
noted journalist, including being the first African
American reporter for Newsweek magazine and founding, in
the mid-1970’s, the Institute for Journalism Education,
dedicated to training minority journalists.

1989 – Cito Gaston is named manager of the Toronto Blue Jays of
baseball’s American League.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 30 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – May 30 *

1822 – Denmark Vesey’s conspiracy to free the slaves of Charleston,
South Carolina, and surrounding areas is thwarted when a
house slave betrays the plot to whites. Vesey’s bold plan
had attracted over 9,000 slaves and freemen of the area
including Peter Poyas, a ship’s carpenter, Gullah Jack,
Blind Phillip, Ned Bennett and Mingo Harth. Later it will
be considered one of the most complex and elaborate slave
liberation plans ever undertaken.

1831 – James Walker Hood is born in Kennett Township, Chester
County, Pennsylvania. He will become a minister in New
York City in the A.M.E. Zion Church. He will become the
first African American to publish a collection of sermons
when he publishes “The Negro in the Christian Pulpit.” His
other works will include “One Hundred Years of the African
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church,” and “The Plan of The
Apocalypse.” He will join the ancestors on October 30, 1918.

1854 – The Kansas-Nebraska Act repeals the Missouri Compromise and
opens the Northern territory to slavery.

1902 – Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry is born in Key West,
Florida. He will become the first real African American
film star known as “Stepin Fetchit.” Many sources will
cite 1892, 1896, or 1898 as his birth date, but he will
maintain his birth date as 1902. He will star in many films,
among which are “Amazing Grace,” “The Sun Shines Bright,”
“Miracle in Harlem,” and “Judge Priest.” His humbling,
ingratiating style of acting will appeal to the movie-going
public of his day, but unfortunately becomes a stereotype
for African American actors in the early years of cinema.
He will join the ancestors on November 19, 1985.

1903 – Countee Cullen is born in Louisville, Kentucky. Many sources
will state that his birthplace is New York City, but Cullen
will be reared in New York City by his paternal grandmother
until 1918, when he is adopted by the Reverend Frederick
Asbury Cullen, minister of Salem M.E. Church, one of the
largest congregations in Harlem. This will be a turning
point in his life, for he will be introduced into the very
center of black activism and achievement. He will win a
citywide poetry contest as a schoolboy and see his winning
stanzas widely reprinted. He will attend New York
University (B.A., 1925), win the Witter Bynner Poetry Prize,
and be elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Major American literary
magazines will accept his poems regularly, and his first
collection of poems, “Color” (1925), will be published to
critical acclaim before he finishes college. His several
volumes of poetry will include “Copper Sun” (1927); “The
Black Christ” (1929); and “On These I Stand” (published
posthumously, 1947), his selection of poems by which he
wished to be remembered. Cullen will also write a novel
dealing with life in Harlem, “One Way to Heaven” (1931),
and a children’s book, “The Lost Zoo” (1940). He will join
the ancestors on January 9, 1946.

1910 – Ralph Harold Metcalfe is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He will
become a world record holder in the 100-yard and 200-yard
dashes and win a bronze medal in the 1932 Olympic Games
and gold and silver medals in the 1936 Games. He will also
become a four-term congressman representing Illinois’s 1st
District. He will join the ancestors on October 10, 1978.

1915 – Henry Aaron Hill is born in St. Joseph, North Carolina. He
will become a trained chemist and will receive his Ph.D.
in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in 1942. He will become founder and president of the
Riverside Research Laboratory in 1961. In 1977, he will
become the first African American president of the American
Chemical Society. He will join the ancestors on March 17,
1979.

1943 – James Earl Chaney is born in Meridian, Mississippi. He will
become a civil rights activist and joins the Congress For
Racial Equality. During Freedom Summer (1964 – when civil
rights organizations begin an extensive voter registration
and desegregation campaign in Mississippi), he will join
the ancestors on June 21, 1964, after being killed by the
Ku Klux Klan in Greenwood along with two white civil rights
activists.

1943 – Gale Sayers is born in Wichita, Kansas. He will become an
outstanding running back and a first-round draft pick of
the Chicago Bears in 1965. He will set the individual game
record for touchdowns scored (six). He will be elected to
the Football Hall of Fame in 1977, the youngest player ever
to receive the honor.

1949 – Lydell Douglas Mitchell is born in Salem, New Jersey. He
will become a football player and All-American running back
at Pennsylvania State University in 1971. He will go on to
play for the Baltimore Colts from 1972 to 1977. While at
Baltimore, he will set the Colts’ record for rushing
attempts (1391) and rushing yards (5487). After his
successful career run in Baltimore, Mitchell will be traded
to the San Diego Chargers after the 1977 season. He will
turn in a solid season in 1978 with the Dan Fouts-led
Chargers and will finish his career in 1980 appearing in
two games with the Los Angeles Rams. He will be inducted
into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

1953 – Eric Arthur “Dooley” Wilson joins the ancestors in Los
Angeles, California at the age of 59. He was a popular
jazz drummer in Europe and America. He also worked as an
actor, his most notable part playing the pianist “Sam” in
the movie “Casablanca.” He also appeared in the movies
“Stormy Monday” and “Night in New Orleans.”

1956 – African Americans begin a bus boycott in Tallahassee,
Florida with the goal of desegregating bus seating.

1965 – Vivian Malone becomes the first African American to graduate
from the University of Alabama, a college that had been one
of the last bastions of racial segregation in the South.

1967 – The state of Biafra secedes and declares its independence
from Nigeria. Biafra is inhabited primarily by Igbos (also
spelled Ibos) who live in southeastern Nigeria. Two months
after independence, Nigeria will attack Biafra and start a
war that will last until 1970 with Biafra’s surrender. Over
a million people will die due to war and famine.

1971 – Willie Mays scores his 1,950th run.

1993 – Herman “Sonny” Blount joins the ancestors in Birmingham,
Alabama at the age of 79. He had been a prominent jazz
bandleader, arranger and pianist. He was better known as
“Sun Ra,” and was the founder of Saturn Records. Three
documentaries produced about Sun Ra were “The Cry of Jazz”
(1959), “Space is the Place” (1971) and “Sun Ra: A Joyful
Noise” (1980).

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 29 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – May 29 *

1938 – Ronald Milner is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will become
trained as a writer and will exhibit his skills as a
playwright when he produces his first play , “Who’s Got
His Own” on Broadway in 1966. In 1969, he will help start
“The Black Theater Movement,” which will promote plays in
which African Americans could represent their lives on
stage. His works will include “What The Wine-Sellers Buy,”
“Jazz Set,” “Don’t Get God Started,” and “Checkmates.” He
will join the ancestors on July 16, 2004.

1944 – Maurice Bishop is born in Aruba and will be raised in
Grenada. While attending college in England during the
early 1960s, he will become involved in the Black Power
Movement and be heavily influenced by Malcolm X, Martin
Luther King, Jr. Kwame Nkrumah, and Walter Rodney, the
Guyanese activist. After returning to Grenada in 1970, he
will cofound a political organization, “Movement for
Assemblies of the People.” This organization will later
merge with another political group, forming the “New Jewel
Movement.” After constant conflict with, and harassment by,
Grenada’s ruling regime, Bishop will become the minority
leader in the Grenadian government in 1976. In 1979, Bishop
will become the Prime Minister after leading a bloodless
coup. He will develop close ties with Castro’s Cuba and
will obtain government funding from Cuba and the Soviet
Union. These relationships will cause the United States to
impose sanctions against Grenada which led to internal
turmoil in the Grenadian ruling party. After a party split,
Bishop and his primary supporters will be executed on
October 19, 1983. Using this event as an excuse to involve
themselves in the politics of the region, the United States
will invade Grenada and keep a “peacekeeping” mission on
the island until 1985.

1950 – Maureen “Rebbie” Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. Rebbie
will make her professional debut at the MGM Grand in Las
Vegas with her siblings, the Jackson’s. In the late 70s,
she will begin to consider a solo career. Artists such as
Betty Wright and Wanda Hutchinson of the Emotions will
mentor her, but it will be her brother Michael who pens
and produces her very first hit, “Centipede.” As the
title track of Rebbie’s 1984 debut, “Centipede,” introduces
the pop world to a Jackson most never knew existed.

1956 – La Toya Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. She will become a
singer and one of the most controversial members of the
Jackson family. She will be referred to as “The Rebel With
A Cause.” She will cause a big stir, when she poses for
Playboy Magazine. Her book, “La Toya: Growing Up in the
Jackson Family,” will be on the New York Times Best Seller
List for nine weeks. She will attract full capacity
audiences in her performances all over the world.

1962 – Buck (John) O’Neil becomes the first African American coach
in major-league baseball. He accepts the job with the
Chicago Cubs. O’Neil had previously been a scout with the
Cubs organization. He had been a notable first baseman in
Black baseball.

1965 – Ralph Boston sets a world record in the broad jump at 27
feet, 4-3/4 inches, at a meet held in Modesto, California.

1969 – Artist and art educator James V. Herring joins the ancestors
in Washington, DC. Herring organized the first American
art gallery to be directed and controlled by African
Americans on the Howard University campus in 1930, founded
and directed the university’s art department and, with
Alonzo Aden, opened the famed Barnett-Aden Gallery in
Washington, DC, in 1943.

1973 – Tom Bradley is elected the first African American mayor of
Los Angeles, California. Winning after a bitter defeat
four years earlier by incumbent mayor Sam Yorty, Bradley,
a Texas native and former Los Angeles Police Department
veteran, will serve an unprecedented five terms.

1980 – Vernon E. Jordan Jr., President of the National Urban League,
is critically injured in an attempted assassination in Fort
Wayne, Indiana.

1999 – Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Nigeria’s first civilian president
in 15 years, after a series of military regimes.

2003 – Wallace Terry joins the ancestors at the age of 65 after
succumbing to inflammation of blood vessels. He was a
journalist and author of “Bloods: An Oral History of the
Vietnam War by Black Veterans.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 28 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – May 28 *

1863 – The first African American regiment from the North leaves Boston
to fight in the Civil War.

1910 – Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker is born in Linden, Texas. He will
become a creator of the modern blues and a pioneer in the
development of the electric guitar sound that will shape
virtually all of popular music in the post-World War II period.
Equally important, Walker will be the quintessential blues
guitarist. He will influence virtually every major post-World
War II guitarist, including B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Freddie
King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Eric Clapton, and Stevie
Ray Vaughan. He will join the ancestors on March 16, 1975.

1936 – Betty Sanders is born in Detroit, Michigan. She will become the
wife of El Hajj Malik Shabazz (Malcolm X), Hajja Betty Bahiyah
Shabazz. After the assassination of Malcolm, she will show
herself to be a very strong individual in her own right. She will
face the difficulty of raising six children after witnessing
Malcom’s tragic death. In order to support herself and her
children, she will go back to school, earning three degrees
including a doctorate in education from the University of
Massachusetts. She will teach others and become an international
figure of dignity and discipline. She will work on Jesse Jackson’s
campaigns for the presidency, and will work in the African
liberation struggle to free Angola, Namibia and South Africa, and
to bring democracy to Haiti. She will join the ancestors on June
23, 1997 after succumbing to injuries received in a fire at her
New York home. At the time she will be the director of
Institutional Advancement and Public Relations at Medgar Evers
College in Brooklyn, New York.

1944 – Gladys Knight is born in Atlanta, Georgia. Making her first
public appearance at age four, she will win first place on Ted
Mack’s Original Amateur Hour at seven. A member of the “Gladys
Knight and the Pips” since the early 1950’s, Knight will remain
with the popular group for over 30 years before pursuing a
successful solo career.

1951 – Willie Mays gets his first major league hit, a home run.

1962 – A suit alleging de facto school segregation is filed in Rochester,
New York, by the NAACP.

1966 – Percy Sledge hits number one with his first — and what turned out
to be his biggest — hit. “When a Man Loves a Woman” would stay
at the top of the pop music charts for two weeks. It will be the
singer’s only hit to make the top ten and a million seller.

1974 – Cicely Tyson wins two Emmy awards for best actress in a special
and best actress in a drama for her portrayal of a strong
Southern matriarch in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.”

1974 – Richard Pryor wins an Emmy for his writing contributions on the
Lily Tomlin special “Lily.”

1981 – Mary Lou Williams joins the ancestors in Durham, North Carolina at
the age of 71. A jazz pianist who played with Louis Armstrong,
Tommy Dorsey, Earl “Fatha” Hines, and Benny Goodman, she formed
her own band in 1943. Williams was known for her jazz masses
including one “Mary Lou’s Mass” that was choreographed by the
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1971.

1991 – Journalist Ethel L. Payne joins the ancestors in Washington, DC at
the age of 79.

2003 – Janet Collins, ballerina, joins the ancestors at age 86. She was
the first African American artist to perform at the Metropolitan
Opera House.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 27 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – May 27 *

1863 – Captain Andre’ Callioux and his Native Guard Regiment, which had once
fought for the Confederacy, charge Port Hudson, Louisiana. The Union
Army Guard, intent on disproving white contentions that “Negroes”
lacked the intelligence for combat, will make six different assaults
on the stronghold.

1917 – One African American is killed and hundreds are left homeless in race
riots in East St. Louis, Illinois.

1935 – Ramsey Lewis is born in Chicago, Illinois. While attending Chicago
Musical College, he will form the Gentlemen of Swing (later called
The Ramsey Lewis Trio) with The Cleff’s old rhythm section, Eldee
Young (bass) and Redd Holt (drums). Their weekend gig will catch the
attention of an influential deejay (Daddio-O-Dayle), who convinces
blues record company owner Phil Chess to expand into jazz and sign
the trio. From the start (1958) their records were popular, although
in the early days they had a strong jazz content. In 1958 Lewis will
also record with Max Roach and Lem Winchester. On the 1965 albums
“The In Crowd” and “Hang On Sloopy,” Ramsey will make the piano into
a major attraction and from that point on, his records will become
much more predictable and pop-oriented. In 1966, his trio’s personnel
will change with bassist Cleveland Eaton and drummer Maurice White
(later the founder of Earth, Wind and Fire) joining Lewis. In the
1970s Lewis will often play electric piano, although by later in the
decade, he was sticking to acoustic and hiring an additional
keyboardist. He plays melodic jazz when he wants to, but will stick
to easy-listening pop music during the his career.

1936 – Louis Gossett, Jr. is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will make his
acting debut at 17 in “Take a Giant Step” and act in numerous stage,
film and television roles including Fiddler in “Roots,” for which he
will win an Emmy. His portrayal of the tough drill instructor in “An
Officer and a Gentleman” will win him an Academy Award as best
supporting actor in 1982, the third African-American to win an Oscar
for acting.

1941 – A race riot begins in East St. Louis, Illinois. After four days of
rioting, one African American will be killed.

1942 – Dorie Miller, a messman from Waco, Texas, is awarded the Navy cross for
his heroic deeds at Pearl Harbor. The Cross is pinned on his chest by
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.

1958 – Ernest Green graduates from Little Rock’s Central High School with six
hundred white classmates, becoming the first of the “little Rock Nine”
to graduate from high school.

1961 – Ralph Boston of the United States, sets the long jump record.

1963 – Jomo Kenyatta is elected first prime minister of self-governing Kenya.
In the early 1950s, Kenyatta was sentenced to seven years of hard
labor for alleged links to the Mau Mau, a clandestine anti-British
organization. In 1964, Kenyatta will become the first president of
Kenya, remaining in that position until 1978.

1965 – Todd Bridges is born in San Francisco, California. He will become a
child actor and is best known for his roles in the TV series “Diff’rent
Strokes,” and “Fish.”

1968 – The Supreme Court orders schools to present a realistic desegregation
plan immediately. The ruling comes almost 13 years to the day after
the Court’s “all deliberate speed” desegregation order in 1955.

1975 – Ezzard Charles, former heavyweight boxing champion, joins the ancestors
in Chicago at the age of 53.

2011 – Gil Scott-Heron joins the ancestors at the age of 62. He was an American
soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, known primarily for his work
as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and ’80s. His collaborative
efforts with musician Brian Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz,
blues, and soul, as well as lyrical content concerning social and
political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic
vocal styles. His own term for himself was “bluesologist”, which he
defined as “a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues.”
His music, most notably on “Pieces of a Man and Winter in America” in
the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American
music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. He will be honored
posthumously as a 2012 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner by the
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 26 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 26 *

1799 – Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin is born in Moscow, Russia. He will be
first published in the journal, “The Messenger of Europe” in 1814.
Pushkin today is regarded as the Father of Russian Literature.

1899 – Aaron Douglas is born in Topeka, Kansas. He will become a world-
renowned painter and muralist whose work will embrace the African
ancestral arts and express pride in the African American image at
a time when doing so was highly unpopular. His most famous works
will be “Aspects of Negro Life,” “Let My People Go,” “Judgment Day”
and “Building More Stately Mansions.”

1907 – Elizabeth Keckley, seamstress and confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln,
joins the ancestors after succumbing to a paralytic stroke in
Washington, DC. Keckley was the author of “Behind the Scenes or
Thirty Years a Slave,” and “Four Years in the White House” (1868),
one of the first insider accounts of a White House Presidency.

1926 – Miles (Dewey) Davis is born in Alton, Illinois. For over four decades,
he will be one of the most innovative and influential jazz trumpeters,
known for his hard bop and jazz and fusion accomplishments. Most
noted for the albums “Sketches of Spain,” “Miles Smiles,” and “Kind of
Blue,” he will also win three Grammy awards for his albums “We Want
Miles,” “Decoy,” and “Tutu” and be awarded the French Legion d’Honneur
in 1991. He will join the ancestors on September 28, 1991, but
his music, style, and collaborators all continue to influence not
only jazz music, but popular culture as well.

1943 – President Edwin Barclay of Liberia, becomes the first African president
to pay an official visit to an American president, arriving at the
White House.

1949 – Philip Michael Thomas is born in Columbus Ohio. He will become an
actor and will be best known for his role in the TV series, “Miami
Vice.” He also will have roles in the movies “Homeboy,” “Stigma,”
“Streetfight,” “Black Fist,” “Miami Vice-The Movie,” “Miami Vice 2 –
The Prodigal Son,” “A Fight For Jenny,” “Death Drug,” “A Little Piece
Of Sunshine,” “Sparkle,” and “The Wizard of Speed and Time.”

1949 – Pam Grier is born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She will be
raised on military bases in England and Germany. During her teen
years the family will settle in Denver, Colorado, where at the
age of 18, Grier entered the Miss Colorado Universe pageant.
Named first runner-up, she attracted the attention of Hollywood
agent David Baumgarten, who signed her to a contract. She will
move to Hollywood and after struggling for a few years will
become the reigning queen of the 1970s blaxploitation genre. She
will be best known for her 1974 role as “Foxy Brown.” She will
make a comback in 1988 in the Steven Segal movie “Above the Law,”
and will star in a variety of major films through year 2000.

1961 – The Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee is established in Atlanta,
Georgia.

1968 – Ruth A. Lucas is promoted to Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, the first
African American woman to achieve this rank.

1968 – Arthur Ashe wins the National Men’s Singles in the U.S. Lawn Tennis
Association Open Tournament, becoming the first African American male
to win a major tennis title.

1969 – The National Black Economic Development Conference adopts a manifesto
in a Detroit meeting, calling for $500 Million in reparations from
white churches.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 25 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – May 25 *

1878 – Tapdancing legend Bill “Bojangles” (Luther) Robinson is born in
Richmond, Virginia. He will star in vaudeville and in many movies
such as “The Littliest Rebel,” “In Old Kentucky,” “Rebecca of
Sunnybrook Farm,” and “The Little Colonel”. He will join the
ancestors on November 25, 1949.

1905 – Dorothy Burnett (later Porter) is born in Warrenton, Virginia. She
will become a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the first African American
woman to receive a Masters of Library Science degree from Columbia
University, and will author several African American historical
works. She will be a long-time librarian at the Howard University
Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and will be responsible for
developing it into one of the world’s largest collections of material
authored by and about people of African descent. She will join the
ancestors on December 17, 1995.

1906 – Martin Dihigo is born in Havana, Cuba. He will become a baseball
player in the Negro Leagues and will be considered by some to be the
greatest all-around player of all-time of African descent. He will be
elected to the Cuban and Mexican Halls of Fame during his lifetime, and
will be posthumously elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in
1977. He will join the ancestors on May 20, 1971.

1919 – Millionaire Madame C.J. Walker joins the ancestors at the age of 52 at
Irvington-on-the-Hudson, New York. She was the founder of the Madame
C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, the largest African American
haircare company of its time. After her death, a substantial portion
of her business’s proceeds will be donated to African American
organizations and scholarships.

1932 – K.C. Jones is born in San Francisco, California. He will become a member
of the Olympic basketball team and help win the 1956 Olympic Gold Medal.
He will then become a professional basketball player with the Boston
Celtics, where he will help win eight NBA titles. He will then win two
championships as the coach of the Celtics. He will also be the head
coach of the Washington Bullets and the Seattle Supersonics. He will
have 522 wins as a NBA coach and in 1997 will become the coach of
American Basketball League women’s team, the New England Blizzard.
After the league disbands, he will join the coaching staff of the
women’s basketball team at the University of Rhode Island, at the age of
67.

1935 – This is “the greatest day in the history of track,” according to “The
New York Times.” Jesse Owens of Ohio State University breaks two
world sprint records, ties a third, and breaks a long jump world
record in a meet at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, all in
one hour.

1936 – David Levering Lewis is born in Little Rock, Arkansas. He will become
a historian and biographer. Professor Lewis will receive his Ph.D. in
modern European history from the London School of Economics and
Political Science in 1962. His research and publications will focus
on African American history, conceptions of race and racism, and the
dynamics of European colonialism, especially in Africa. He will author
a biography of Du Bois entitled “W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race,”
which will win a Pulitzer prize in 1994. His other works include “King:
A Biography” (1970), “Prisoners of Honor: The Dreyfus Affair” (1975),
“When Harlem Was in Vogue” (1982), “The Race to Fashoda: European
Colonialism and the African Resistance to the Scramble for Africa”
(1987), and “W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader” (1995).

1943 – Leslie Uggams is born in Washington Heights, New York. She will make
her acting debut on television’s “Beulah” and be a regular on The
Mitch Miller Show before achieving acclaim in Broadway’s “Hallelujah
Baby” and TV’s “Roots.”

1943 – A riot, started by white workers, occurs in a Mobile, Alabama shipyard
over the job upgrading of twelve African American workers.

1959 – The U.S. Supreme Court declares a Louisiana law enforcing a ban on
bouts between African American and white boxers to be unconstitutional.

1963 – The first observance of African Liberation Day occurs. It begins at
the founding conference of the Organization of African Unity in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia.

1964 – The closing of schools to avoid desegregation is ruled unconstitutional
by the U.S. Supreme Court. Prince Edward County, Virginia will have to
reopen and desegregate its schools.

1965 – A very short heavyweight title fight occurs in Lewiston, Maine. Cassius
Clay (later Muhammad Ali) knocks out challenger, Sonny Liston, in one
minute and 56 seconds of the first round. Liston never sees the punch
coming. Neither did an unbelieving crowd at ringside, nor those in
theatres all over the world watching the fight on closed-circuit TV.

1971 – A young African American woman, Jo Etha Collier, joins the ancestors
after being killed in Drew, Mississippi by a bullet fired from a passing
car. Three whites are arrested on May 26 and charged with the unprovoked
attack.

1994 – The United Nations Security Council lifts a 10-year-old ban on weapons
exports from South Africa, ending the last of its apartheid-era
embargos.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 24 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – May 24 *

1854 – Anthony Burns, celebrated fugitive slave, is arrested by United States
Deputy Marshals in Boston, Massachusetts.

1861 – Major General Benjamin F. Butler declare slaves “contraband of war.”

1864 – Two regiments, the First and Tenth U.S. Colored Troops, repulse an
attack by rebel General Fitzhugh Lee. Also participating in battle
at Wilson’s Wharf Landing, on the bank of the James River, were a
small detachment of white Union troops and a battery of light
artillery.

1881 – Paul Quinn College is chartered in the State of Texas. The college,
founded in 1872, had moved from its original site in Austin to Waco in
1877.

1918 – Coleman Alexander Young is born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He will fight
as a bombardier-navigator with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II
and will settle in Detroit and work as an auto worker after the war.
In 1948, he will become the first African American elected to the
Wayne County Council of the AFL-CIO. He will found the National Negro
Labor Council in 1951. Walter Reuther and other white leaders of the
labor movement will refer to the NNLC as a tool of the Soviet Union
and cause Young to be called to testify before the House Committee on
Un-American Activities in 1952. He will reach the pinnacle of his
political career when, as a state senator, he is elected the first
African American mayor of the city of Detroit, Michigan in 1973. He
will revitalize Detroit, integrate the police and fire departments,
and will significantly increase the number of city contracts with
minority businesses. He will be elected mayor for an unprecedented
five terms. He will step down as mayor in 1993 at the age of 75. He
will join the ancestors on November 29, 1997, succumbing to
respiratory failure.

1937 – Archie Shepp is born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He will become a
renowned avant-garde jazz saxophonist and play with a variety of jazz
greats including John Coltrane, Bobby Hutcherson, and Donald Cherry.
He also will be a composer of jazz instrumental compositions and the
play “Lady Day: A Musical Tragedy.” He will use free jazz as a vehicle
for political expression and will be an important factor in the growing
acceptance of African American identity. He will become an Associate
Professor at the University of Massachusetts but will continue his
concert career at the same time, working mostly in Europe. He will be a
seminal figure in the development of the New Music and influence many
saxophonists of the avant-garde.

1944 – Patricia Louise Holt is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She will be
better known as Patti LaBelle, organizer and lead singer of Patti LaBelle
and the Bluebells in 1960. In the 1970’s, she will reconfigure the group
and later reteam with Nona Hendryx and Sara Dash as LaBelle. In 1976,
LaBelle will pursue a solo career, gain even more critical and popular
acclaim, and win a 1992 Grammy.

1951 – Racial segregation in Washington, DC, restaurants is ruled illegal by the
Municipal Court of Appeals.

1954 – Peter Marshall Murray is installed as president of the New York County
Medical Society. He is the first African American physician to head an
AMA affiliate.

1961 – Twenty-seven Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi.

1963 – The Organization of African Unity is founded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

1974 – Edward “Duke” Ellington joins the ancestors in New York City at the age
of 75. For nearly half a century, Duke Ellington led the premier American
big-band, and is considered by many sources to be the greatest composer
in the history of jazz.

1983 – Jesse L. Jackson becomes the first African American to address a joint
session of a state legislature in the 20th century, when he talks to the
Alabama legislature.

1984 – Ralph Sampson of the Houston Rockets becomes the first unanimous choice
for NBA Rookie of the Year since Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabar) of
the Los Angeles Lakers in 1970.

1991 – Hal McRae is named manager of the Kansas City Royals. He will become one
of two African American managers serving in major league baseball.

1993 – The African nation of Eritrea gains independence from Ethiopia.

2000 – Isiah Thomas and Bob McAdoo are elected to be enshrined in the 2000 class
of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

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