KRLemmons African American History

June 7 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 7 *

1863 – Three African American regiments and small detachment of white
troops repulse a division of Texans in a hand-to-hand battle
at Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana.

1917 – Gwendolyn Brooks is born in Topeka, Kansas. She will become the
first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize (1950). She
will win this award for “Annie Allen,” which is about the coming
of age of a young African American and her feelings of loneliness,
loss, death and poverty. In 1963-1969 she will teach poetry and
fiction workshops and also freshman English and 20th century
literature. In 1967, she will organize a poetry writing workshop
for a gang, and her home soon became a meeting place for young
people interested in arts and politics. In 1985, she will become
the first African American woman to take the position of Poetry
Consultant to the Library of Congress. Her job will be to give a
lecture in autumn and a poetry reading in the spring. She will
be the 29th and last Poetry Consultant. In 1988, she will become
the second Poet Laureate of Illinois. She also will be inducted
into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She will join the ancestors
on December 3, 2000.

1931 – David C. Driskell is born in Eatonton, Georgia. An artist and
professor of art at several universities, Driskell will be acclaimed
as one of the foremost art historians and curators of African
American art exhibits.

1943 – Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr. is born in Knoxville, Tennessee.
She will become a poet and author that will be known for her
books “Black Feeling”, “Black Talk”, and “Black Judgment,” and the
name “Nikki.” In 1973, she will establish NikTom, Ltd., a
communications company that will edit and publish “Night Comes Softly,”
an anthology of poetry by black women, “Re: Creation,” “Poem of Angela
Yvonne Davis,” and her other prominent works. In the mid 1980’s, her
opposition to the boycott of South Africa will lead to her being
blacklisted by TransAfrica and subsequently to bomb and death threats.
She will receive at least six honorary doctorate degrees and a myriad
of literary awards.

1946 – U.S. Supreme Court bans discrimination in interstate travel.

1950 – U.S. Supreme Court avoids a general ruling on “separate but equal”
doctrine.

1958 – Prince Rogers Nelson is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He
will become a singer and prolific songwriter and producer
known to the public as “Prince.” An incurable movie fan, he
will have a passion for drama (and comedy). His own films
will include “Purple Rain,” “Under the Cherry Moon,”
and “Grafitti Bridge.” “Purple Rain” (1984) will be hailed
by some critics as the best rock movie ever made and earn
Prince an Oscar for best original song score and soundtrack
album. Because of his desire to have complete artistic control
over his music, he will endure several years of a contract
dispute with his label, Warner Brothers, which results in him
appearing in public with the word SLAVE written on his face.
In 1993, he will change his name to “The Artist Formerly Known
As Prince” (TAFKAP or The Artist). He will come out of the
Warner Brothers conflict happily. He will establish a new
relationship with EMI Records that will allow him to record
and produce whatever he wants to release.

1966 – The voter registration march from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson,
Mississippi is continued by Martin Luther King, Jr. and other
civil rights groups and will register almost 4,000 African
Americans. The march had been interrupted the previous day by
the shooting of James Meredith, by a white sniper.

1987 – Mae Jemison, becomes the first African American woman astronaut.
Jemison entered Stanford University as a 16-year-old National
Achievement Scholarship student. She majored in Chemical
Engineering and Afro-American Studies, graduating in 1977. She
then went on to Cornell University to get a M.D. in 1981. She
worked as a medical intern in Los Angeles, California in 1981.
Later, she served as a staff doctor with Peace Corps in West
Africa 1983-1985. Then she worked as a general practitioner
for CIGNA Health Plans of California in Los Angeles from 1985
to 1987. After her internship, she joined the Peace Corps for
two years in West Africa giving medical attention to Peace Corps
volunteers and State Department employees in Sierra Leone and
Liberia. Finally, she became an astronaut for the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Houston, Texas
in 1987.

1987 – Lloyd Richards wins a Tony as best director for the August
Wilson play “Fences”. The play wins three other Tony awards,
for best play, best performance by an actor (James Earl Jones),
and best performance by a featured actress (Mary Alice).

1998 – In a crime that shocks the nation, James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old
African American man, joins the ancestors after being chained to
a pickup truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. Three
men, white supremacists, are arrested in the case. The atrocity
will prompt President Clinton to issue a press release condemning
the act. Two of the killers will be sentenced to death for the
crime, a third to life in prison.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 6 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 6 *

1716 – The first slaves arrive in Louisiana.

1779 – Haitian explorer Jean Baptiste-Pointe Du Sable founds the
first permanent settlement at the mouth of a river on the
north bank, that will become Chicago, Illinois.

1831 – The second national Black convention meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. There are fifteen delegates from five
states.

1869 – Dillard University is chartered in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1934 – Roy Innis is born in the U.S. Virgin Islands and will be
raised in New York City. He will become a civil rights
activist and will join the Harlem chapter of CORE
(Congress of Racial Equality) in 1963. He will work with
the organization over the next 35 years in many capacities
including chairman.

1935 – Jesse Owens is elected Captain of the 1936 track team at
Ohio State University. He is the first African American to
hold such position on any Ohio State Team.

1935 – Robert Cornelius “Bobby” Mitchell is born in Hot Springs,
Arkansas. He will become a professional football player
starting as an eighth round draft selection by the
Cleveland Browns in 1958. He will play in four Pro Bowls
(one with Cleveland and three with Washington) over his
11-year playing career and is considered one of the NFL’s
all-time great multi-purpose players. When he is traded to
the Washington franchise in 1962, he becomes the first
African American to play for the team. He will become an
inductee to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983. He will
be a prominent part of the Washington Redskins
organization for over 41 years until he retires after the
2002-2003 season.

1936 – Levi Stubbless is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will become
a rhythm and blues singer better known as Levi Stubbs. He
will be a member of the group, “The Aims.” The group
will start as a backup group for Levi’s cousin, Jackie
Wilson. The group will change their name to “The Four
Tops” in 1956, to avoid confusion with a band. Berry Gordy
will sign the group in 1963 and launch their first hit,
“Baby, I Need Your Loving.” The group will stay together
over forty years, longer than any other popular group,
with the original personnel intact. He will join the
ancestors on October 17, 2008.

1939 – Marion Wright (later Edelman) is born in Bennettsville,
South Carolina. In addition to becoming the first African
American woman admitted to the bar in Mississippi, she
will direct the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund
in New York and Mississippi and will found the Children’s
Defense Fund in 1973.

1939 – Gary Levone Anderson is born in Jacksonville, Florida. He
will be raised in Norfolk, Virginia where he will become
a singer as a teenager, with a group called The Turks. He
will solo as Gary “U.S.” Bonds in 1960 recording the hit
“New Orleans.” His name will be inspired by a poster in a
Norfolk shop urging Americans to “Carry U. S. Bonds.” In
1961 when Bonds records his version of a local group’s
song, “A Night with Daddy G.,” it will be re-titled
“Quarter to Three” and will be a huge hit. He will record
three additional hits in the next year. After a twenty
year decline in his career, he will make a comeback after
his fan, Bruce Springsteen, begins to use “Quarter to
Three” as his encore.

1944 – The 320th Negro Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion
assists in the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France.

1944 – Tommie Smith is born in Clarksville, Texas. He will become
a track star (sprinter), and Olympic athlete/runner. He
will win the Olympic Gold medal in the 200 meters in the
1968 Olympics. It will be, on the winners platform, that he
and John Carlos will raise clinched fists as the national
anthem is played. He will be inducted into the National
Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1978.

1947 – Harrison Branch is born in New York City. A student at the
San Francisco Art Institute and Yale University School of
Art, he will become a professor of art and photographer
whose works will be exhibited and collected in the U.S.
and in Europe and will appear in the landmark photography
book, “An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography of Black
Photographers,” 1940-1988, edited by Deborah Wills Ryan.

1966 – James Meredith is wounded by a white sniper, as he walked
along U.S. Highway 51 near Hernando, Mississippi, on the
second day of the Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson,
Mississippi, voter registration march. Meanwhile,
Stokely Carmichael, using his newly adopted name of Kwame’
Toure, launches the Black Power movement. Toure will say
that the use of the term is not anti-white, but a phrase
to denote a political strategy.

1973 – Barry White is awarded a gold record for “I’m Gonna Love
You Just a Little More Baby”. It is his first hit and his
first of five, number one, million sellers. White will
begin recording in 1960. He will form the group, Love
Unlimited, in 1969 and marry one of the group’s singers,
Glodean James. He will also form the 40-piece Love
Unlimited Orchestra which will have the number one hit,
“Love’s Theme.” He will join the ancestors on July 4,
2003 from complications of high blood pressure and kidney
disease.

1977 – Joseph Lawson Howze is installed as bishop of the Roman
Catholic diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi. He becomes the
first African American to head a U.S. diocese in the
Catholic Church in the twentieth century.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 5 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 5 *

1783 – Oliver Cromwell, an African American soldier who served in
the Revolutionary War, receives an honorable discharge
signed by George Washington. Cromwell, who will claim to
have been with Washington when he crossed the Delaware and
in the battles of Yorktown, Princeton, and Monmouth, is
cited by Washington as having earned “the Badge of Merit
for six years’ faithful service.”

1872 – The Republican National Convention meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. The meeting marks the first significant
participation of African American delegates: Robert B.
Elliot (chair of the South Carolina delegation); Joseph
Rainey, and John R. Lynch of Mississippi, who each make
addresses to the convention.

1920 – Marion Motley is born in Leesburg, Georgia. He will become
a NFL running back and all-time AAFC rusher for the
Cleveland Browns, ending his career with the Pittsburgh
Steelers. He will enter the NFL in 1946, making him one
of only four African Americans to desegregate the NFL in
the modern era. One of the largest running backs of his
era, Motley will rush for 4,720 yards in his career and
average an astounding 5.7 yards per carry, the highest in
pro football history. He will also be selected to the first
Pro Bowl in 1951. He will be enshrined in the NFL Hall of
Fame in 1968. He will join the ancestors in Cleveland, Ohio
on June 27, 1999.

1940 – The American Negro Theatre is organized in Harlem by
Frederick O’Neal, Abram Hill, and members of the McClendon
Players. Among the plays it will produce is “Anna Lucasta”,
which will be presented on Broadway in 1944 and feature
Canada Lee, Ossie Davis, and Ruby Dee.

1952 – Jersey Joe Walcott defeats Ezzard Charles for the
heavyweight boxing title.

1956 – A three-judge federal court rules that racial segregation on
Montgomery city buses is unconstitutional, ending the
Montgomery bus boycott.

1959 – U.S. Supreme Court undermines the legal foundations of
segregation in three landmark cases, Sweatt v. Painter,
McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents and Henderson v. United
States.

1969 – A race riot occurs in Hartford, Connecticut.

1973 – Doris A. Davis of Compton, California, becomes the first
African American female to govern a metropolitan city.

1973 – Cardiss R. Collins of Chicago, Illinois is elected to
Congress. She will succeed her late husband and spend over
twenty years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

1983 – Yannick Noah becomes the first Frenchman to win the French
Open since World War II.

1988 – Clarence M. Pendleton, Jr. joins the ancestors at the age of
58. He was the first African American chairman of the
United States Civil Rights Commission (1981-88). Following
President Ronald Reagan’s desires, he led the commission
toward a “color-blind” approach to matters of civil rights.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 4 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 4 *

1832 – The third national Black convention meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania with twenty-nine delegates from eight states.
Henry Sipkins of New York is elected president.

1922 – Samuel Gravely is born in Richmond, Virginia. He will
become the first African American Admiral in the U.S. Navy,
He also will become the first African American to command a
U.S. warship, the USS Falgout, and will also command the
USS Taussig. He will join the ancestors on October 22, 2004,
at Bethesda Naval Hospital after a short illness.

1946 – Legislation authorizing the establishment of Mississippi
Valley State University in Itta Bena, Mississippi is
enacted.

1961 – Eldra Patrick ‘El’ Debarge is born in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
He will become a singer with the family group Debarge. He
will become a solo artist in the mid 1980’s.

1972 – Angela Davis is acquitted by 11 whites and one Mexican
American of murder, kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy
charges brought in connection with a 1970 courthouse shoot-
out in San Rafael, California.

1973 – Arna Bontemps, writer and educator, joins the ancestors in
Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 72.

1987 – Edwin Moses, who had won a total of 122 consecutive victories
in the 400-meter hurdles, is defeated by Danny Harris in
Madrid, Spain. It had been ten years since the last time
Moses lost the event.

1989 – Four African Americans win Tony awards for “Black and Blue,”
a musical revue featuring classic blues and tap-dance
routines. Winners are Ruth Brown (best actress in a musical),
Cholly Atkins, Henry LeTang, Frankie Manning, and Fayard
Nicholas (best choreography).

1991 – Baltimore Orioles manager Frank Robinson is named assistant
general manager of the club. He is the third African American
to become an assistant general manager, joining Elaine
Weddington of the Boston Red Sox and Bob Watson of the
Houston Astros.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 3 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 3 *

1833 – The fourth national Black convention meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania with sixty-two delegates from eight states.
Abraham D. Shadd of Pennsylvania is elected president.

1854 – Two thousand United States troops escort celebrated fugitive
slave, Anthony Burns through the streets of Boston.

1871 – Miles Vandehurst Lynk is born near Brownsville, Tennessee. A
physician at 19, he founds the first African American medical
journal, the “Medical and Surgical Observer,” and will be one
of the organizers of what will later become the National
Medical Association. He will join the ancestors on
December 29, 1956.

1887 – Roland Hayes is born in Curryville, Tennessee. A noted
concert artist, Hayes will be the first African American to
give a concert in Boston’s Symphony Hall. His career will
take him throughout the U.S. and to London for a command
performance before King George V. He will be awarded the
Spingarn Medal in 1924 for his musical accomplishments. He
will join the ancestors 0n January 1, 1977.

1904 – Charles R. Drew, creator of the plasma method of blood
preservation, is born in Washington, DC. He will receive
the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for his contributions in 1944
and, in 1981, be posthumously honored by the U.S. Postal
Service with a commemorative stamp. He will join the
ancestors on April 1, 1950.

1906 – Freda McDonald is born in St. Louis, Missouri. She will
become a singer and entertainer known as Josephine Baker.
A chorus girl in the 1923 musical “Shuffle Along,” she will
travel to Paris, introduce “le jazz hot” in the show “La
Revue Negre,” and will cause a sensation with the Folies
Bergeres when she performs topless on a mirror, wearing a
rubber banana skirt. A World War II Red Cross volunteer,
Baker will perform for the Allied troops and in the 1950’s
she will tour the U.S., fighting for desegregated theaters
and restaurants. She will join the ancestors on April 12, 1975.

1919 – Liberty Life Insurance Company in Chicago, Illinois, the
first old-line legal reserve company organized by African
Americans in the North, is incorporated.

1932 – Dakota Staton

1942 – Curtis Mayfield is born in Chattanooga, Tennessee and will
be raised in Chicago, Illinois. He will become a singer,
songwriter, and producer. He will be a member of the group
The Impressions. He will write many hits for the group,
Jerry Butler and himself. He will start a successful solo
career in 1970. He will become paralyzed from the chest
down in 1990 when a stage lighting tower falls on him.
After recuperating, he will still continue to perform. He
will join the ancestors on Sunday, December 26, 1999.

1946 – In its “Morgan vs. Commonwealth of Virginia” ruling, the U.S.
Supreme Court bars segregation in interstate bus travel.

1949 – Wesley Anthony Brown becomes the first African American to
graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy.

1951 – Deniece Chandler is born in Gary, Indiana. She will become a
singer and will be known as Deniece Williams. She will get
her first break as a member of Stevie Wonder’s backup group
Wonderlove during 1972-75. She will grow into a successful
solo career in both secular and gospel music.

1997 – Harvey Johnson, who defeats the incumbent mayor in the
Democratic Primary, is elected Jackson, Mississippi’s first
African American mayor, defeating the Republican candidate
by more than two-to-one. Johnson, an urban planner and
former state tax commissioner, was making his second run to
head the city of about 200,000. He upset incumbent Kane
Ditto to earn the right to face GOP businesswoman Charlotte
Reeves in the general election.

1997 – Bro. Mosi Hoj issues the email that will establish the
beginning of the “Today in Black History” series that will
eventually be known as the “Munirah Chronicle.”

2009 – Cora Walton “KoKo” Taylor joins the ancestors at the age of 80,
after succumbing to complications from surgery for
gastrointestinal bleeding. She had been known as the “Queen
of the Blues,” over the course of her almost 50-year career.

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

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.