KRLemmons African American History

July 8 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – July 8 *

1753 – Lemuel Haynes is born in West Hartford, Connecticut. He is
born to a African American father he never knew and a
white mother who refused to acknowledge him. As a child,
he will be made an indentured servant to a white family in
Granville, Massachusetts, who will treat him as one of
their children. His indenture will end in 1774, when he
will become a Minuteman in the Continental Army. During
the Revolutionary War, he will fight at the siege of Boston
and Fort Ticonderoga. After the war, he will study Latin and
Greek with local ministers and be ordained by the
Congregationalists, becoming the first African American
ordained by a mainstream white denomination. Throughout the
next five decades he ministered to white congregations in
New England and New York. Haynes also received considerable
attention for a sermon he preached rebutting Hosea Ballou’s
theory of universal salvation from a Calvinist perspective.
Haynes’s book “Universal Salvation, A Very Ancient Doctrine”,
ran some 70 editions. In 1804, Middlebury College awarded
Haynes an honorary master’s degree becoming the first
African American to receive that honor from any institution.
He will join the ancestors on September 28, 1833.

1876 – White terrorists attack African American Republicans in
Hamburg, South Carolina, killing five.

1910 – Govan Archibald Munyelwa Mbeki is born in Nqamakwe, Transkei,
South Africa. He will become a political activist, leading
member of the African National Congress (ANC) and a member
of the South African Communist Party (SACP). After attending
a mission school, he will attend the University of Fort Hare,
in Alice, and will obtain his bachelor of arts degree in
1937. He will join the ANC while a student in 1935. While
teaching at Adams College, he will be dismissed for political
activity. He will then manage a cooperative store and edit
the Territorial Magazine from 1938 to 1944. In 1943 he will
be elected to the United Transkeian General Council, or
Bunga. In the same year, Mbeki will assist the ANC prepare a
document called African Claims, which will be a response to
the Atlantic Charter, the declaration of human rights issued
during World War II (1939-1945) by the United States and
Great Britain. African Claims became the basis for the ANC
Freedom Charter of 1955. After returning to teaching, Mbeki
will be dismissed again for political activity, and will
become the Port Elizabeth editor of New Age, a left-wing
paper, in 1955 and will make no secret of his left-wing
sympathies. Mbeki will become deeply involved in ANC politics
and stand trial with Nelson Mandela and others for treason,
charged with conspiring to overthrow the government. In 1964,
he will be sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island.
The same year, his book “The Peasants’ Revolt” is published
in Great Britain and banned in South Africa. In 1977, while
on Robben Island, Mbeki will have an honorary doctorate of
social sciences conferred on him by the University of
Amsterdam for the publication. After being released on
November 5, 1987 by the South African government, he will
continue to be a member of both the ANC and the SACP. He will
resume his place on the executive committee of the ANC in
1990. In May, 1994, Mbeki will be elected deputy president of
the Senate. His son Thabo Mbeki, the future president of
South Africa, will be elected deputy president of South
Africa. He will join the ancestors on August 30, 2001.

1914 – William Clarence (“Billy”) Eckstine is born in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. He will become famous in the 1950s as the
smooth-voiced baritone singer of such hits as “Fools Rush In”
and “Skylark,” but music critics and serious jazz fans know
him as the man whose big-band launched such renowned
performers as Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker,
Dexter Gordon, and Sarah Vaughan. He will begin his musical
career on a piano his father had bought for his two sisters.
After attending Howard University, he will begin singing with
various groups, touring in the Midwest before settling in
Chicago in 1939, where he will join the band led by Earl
“Fatha” Hines. It was with Hines that he will have his first
hit, the blues song “Jelly Jelly,” which he will write and
sing. In 1944, he will form his own big-band. The band,
always a favorite with other musicians, will help to pioneer
the then-new bebop sound. Its avant-garde musicianship often
overshadowed his more traditional vocals, and the band
suffered from being badly recorded. His solo career will take
off after the band dissolves in 1947. With his deep, romantic
voice, elegant presence, and matinee-idol good looks, he
becomes a popular performer. Often referred to as “Mr. B,” he
will also garner several film roles in the following decades,
and many will refer to him as the first Black sex symbol. He
will join the ancestors on March 8, 1993.

1938 – Julia Mae Porter (later Carson) is born in Louisville,
Kentucky. She will be raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1965,
while working as a secretary for the United Auto Workers union,
she will be hired by Indiana congressman Andrew Jacobs Jr. She
will work on his staff for eight years. In 1972, she will be
elected to the Indiana House of Representatives, and in 1976,
she will be elected to the Indiana Senate, where she will serve
on the Finance Committee and the Health Committee. In 1990, she
will be elected trustee of Center Township and direct an agency
that provides assistance to the needy. After congressman Jacobs
retires in 1996, Carson will run successfully for his position.
She will win 52 percent of the vote and become the first African
American to represent Indianapolis. She will represent Indiana’s
Tenth Congressional District. It is located in the city of
Indianapolis and includes a mixture of African American and
white neighborhoods. In 1997, Carson will be assigned seats on
the Banking and Financial Services Committee and the Veterans’
Affairs Committee. She will also be a member of the
Congressional Black Caucus. She will be a member of the United
States House of Representatives for Indiana’s 7th congressional
district from 1997 until she joins the ancestors on December 15,
2007.

1943 – Alyce Faye Wattleton is born in St. Louis, Missouri. She will
become the president of Planned Parent Federation of America
in 1978 and be known for almost 14 years as an outspoken
champion of women’s reproductive rights. She will use her
position in Planned Parenthood to advocate reproductive rights.
Along with other abortion-rights groups, she will fight to
secure federal funding for birth control and prenatal programs;
to forbid states from restricting abortions; and to legalize
the sale in the United States of RU-486, the French-made pill
that induces abortions. Her efforts and the efforts of others
encounter a number of setbacks, including the Supreme Court’s
1989 decision in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services to
allow states to restrict abortions. She will use such defeats
to further mobilize activists and donors. She will leave
Planned Parenthood in 1992 to develop her own talk show, in
Chicago, Illinois, devoted to discussions of women’s issues.
She will be a 1993 inductee into the National Women’s Hall of
Fame. In 1996, she will publish her autobiography, Life on the
Line. She will later serve as the President of the Center for
the Advancement of Women. At this time, she is the managing
director at an international consulting firm.

1943 – Nebraska’s first African American newspaper, “The Omaha Star”,
is founded by Mildred Brown.

1966 – King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi is deposed by his son
Prince Charles Ndizi.

1966 – John H. Johnson wins the Spingarn Medal for his “contributions
to the enhancement of the Negro’s self-image” through his
publications including “Negro Digest”, “Ebony”, and “Jet”
magazines, and books such as “Before the Mayflower”, written
by historian Lerone Bennett, Jr.

1982 – Senegalese Trotskyist political party LCT is legally recognized.

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

KRLemmons African American History

July 7 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – July 7 *

1781 – James Armistead, an American slave, infiltrates the
headquarters of General Cornwallis and becomes a servant
hired to spy on the Americans. In reality, Armistead is
a cunning double agent working for the French ally
General Lafayette and reports on the movements and troop
strength of the British. His reports are critical to the
surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

1791 – The nondenominational African Church is founded by Richard
Allen, Absalom Jones, and Benjamin Rush.

1851 – Charles Albert Tindley, African American Methodist preacher
and songwriter is born in Berlin, Maryland. He will be
is known as one of the “founding fathers of American
Gospel music.” The son of slaves, he will teach himself to
read and write at the age of 17. He will be a driven young
man, working as a janitor while attending night school,
and earning his divinity degree through a correspondence
course. In 1902, he will become pastor of the Calvary
Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
the church where he had earlier been the janitor.
Tindley’s “I’ll Overcome Some Day” was the basis for the
American civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome,”
popularized in the 1960’s. His most enduring gospel hymns
include ‘Stand By Me,’ ‘Nothing Between,’ ‘Leave It There’
and ‘By and By.’ He will compose over 47 gospel standards.
At the time he joins the ancestors in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania on July 26, 1933, his church will have 12,500
members. The Tindley Temple United Methodist Church in
Philadelphia will be named after him.

1906 – Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige, baseball pitcher, (Negro
League and American League) is born in Mobile, Alabama.
(His birth year is an estimate) In 1965, 59 years after
Paige’s supposed birthday, he took the mound for the last
time, throwing three shut-out innings for the Kansas City
Athletics. He will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of
Fame in Cooperstown, New York in 1971. He will join the
ancestors on June 8, 1982.

1915 – Margaret Abigail Walker (later Alexander) is born in
Birmingham, Alabama. In 1935, She will receive her
Bachelors of Arts Degree from Northwestern University and
in 1936 she will begin work with the Federal Writers’
Project under the Works Progress Administration. In 1942,
she will receive her master’s degree in creative writing
from the University of Iowa. Encouraged by Langston Hughes
and others, Walker will become a writer best known for her
volume of poetry ‘For My People,’ her novel ‘Jubilee,’ and
a biography of novelist Richard Wright. In 1965, she will
return to the University of Iowa to earn her Ph.D. She will
serve for a time as a professor at Jackson State College
(now University). She will join the ancestors on November
30, 1998 after succumbing to breast cancer.

1921 – Ezzard Mack Charles is born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He will
become a boxer and will be undefeated as an amateur,
winning the 1939 AAU National middleweight title before
turning professional in 1940. After military service during
World War II, he will defeat Hall-of-Famer Archie Moore and
avenge losses to Lloyd Marshall and Jimmy Bivins to earn a
No. 2 ranking at light heavyweight in 1946. He will fight
five light heavyweight champions, beating four of them, but
will never challenge for the light heavyweight crown. He
will finally win the vacant NBA heavyweight title by
defeating Jersey Joe Walcott in 1949. He will earn worldwide
recognition as heavyweight king the next year by decisioning
an aged Joe Louis. After three successful defenses of the
undisputed crown, he will lose the title in a third battle
with Walcott. Charles will announce his retirement from the
ring on December 1, 1956. He will join the ancestors on May
28, 1975 after succumbing to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He will be
enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.

1941 – Vernard R. Gray is born in Washington, DC. He will become a
pioneer in the Black Arts Movement. He will begin in the
1960’s as a photographer/videographer documenting African
American culture in the Washington, DC metropolitan area
and around the world. He will found the Miya Gallery in
downtown DC in 1976, introducing the community to various
manifestations of African culture over twenty-five years
and from 1996 will serve as an Internet developer for many
artists, small businesses and non-profit organizations at
Vernard Gray Technology Services at :
http://www.connectdc.com.

1945 – Fern Logan is born in Jamaica (Queens), New York. A graduate
of Pratt Institute, she will study photography in the mid
1970’s with master photographer Paul Caponigro. She will
also receive a Bachelor’s Degree fro State University of
New York and a Masters in Fine Arts Degree from the School
of the Art Institute of Chicago. Among her best-known works
will be the renowned “Artists Portrait Series” of African
American artists such as Romare Bearden, Roy deCarava, and
Jacob Lawrence as well as commanding landscapes and scenes
of nature. She is currently retired (Emerita) from
Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois and
resides in the Greater St. Louis, MO area.

1948 – The Cleveland Indians sign Leroy “Satchel” Paige at the age
of 42. He will be the American League ‘Rookie of the Year’.

1948 – Edna Griffin, her infant daughter Phyllis, John Bibbs and
Leonard Hudson, will enter the Katz Drug Store in downtown
Des Moines, Iowa, sit at the lunch counter and order ice
cream. They will be refused service and Griffin will soon
organize a protest against the drugstore’s policy of
refusing service to blacks. Criminal charges will be filed
against Katz for violating Iowa’s 1884 Civil Rights Act.
The law prohibits discrimination in public accommodation.
Katz will be found guilty and will appeal the verdict to
the Iowa Supreme Court, which affirms the decision a year
later. The case will be settled with Griffin receiving a
one dollar settlement and the drugstore forced to change
its ways.

1960 – Ralph Lee Sampson is born in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He
will become arguably the most heavily recruited (for both
college and the NBA) basketball prospect of his generation.
Playing for the University of Virginia, he will become one
of only two male players in the history of college
basketball to receive the Naismith Award as the National
Player of the Year three times. He will be the only player
to win the Wooden award twice. He will become a
professional basketball player with the Houston Rockets. In
the 1985-86 NBA season, Sampson will (in his third season
with the Rockets) lift the Rockets from 14-68 in the
1982-83 season before his arrival to one of the best in the
NBA. In Game 5 of the 1986 NBA Western Conference Finals,
his last second tip-in at the buzzer will beat the Los
Angeles Lakers and send the Rockets to only their 2nd NBA
Finals appearance in franchise history. His NBA career will
quickly deteriorate as he becomes burdened with numerous
knee injuries. In 1988, by the time he is traded to the
Golden State Warriors, the rest of his career will become
very limited. In 1989, he will be traded to the Sacramento
Kings where he will basically be a third-string player. He
will average 4.2 points per game and 3.0 points per game
for the 1989-90 and 1990-91 seasons respectively. He will
play one final season with the Washington Bullets in
1991-92 where he averages two points per game. He will
win numerous individual awards in the short period of time
he was healthy, but will never win a national or NBA
championship.

1975 – “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the
Rainbow is Not Enuf,” a play by 26-year-old Ntozake Shange,
premieres in New York City.

1994 – Panama withdraws its offer to the United States to accept
thousands of Haitian refugees.

1997 – Harvey Johnson is sworn in as the first African American
mayor in Jackson, Mississippi.

1998 – Imprisoned Nigerian opposition leader Moshood Abiola joins
the ancestors before he can be released from his political
imprisonment. The government indicates that he succumbed
from an apparent heart attack.

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

KRLemmons African American History

July 6 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – July 6 *

1853 – A National Black convention meets in Rochester, New York,
with 140 delegates from nine states. James W.C.
Pennington of New York is elected president of this
meeting, generally considered the largest and most
representative of the early African American conventions.

1853 – William Wells Brown publishes “Clotel,” the first novel by
an African American.

1854 – The Republican Party is organized to oppose the extension
of slavery.

1864 – John Wesley Gilbert is born in Hepzibah, Georgia to a slave
family. He will attend Paine College and will later earn
B.A. (1888) and M.A. (1891) degrees in Greek at Brown
University. He will be the first African American to
receive a graduate degree from Brown University. While
working on his Masters degree, he will be awarded a
fellowship to attend the American School of Classical
Studies in Athens, Greece in 1890, the first person of
African descent to do so, and will help to draw a map of
Eretria (American Journal of Archaeology, 1891). He will
teach Greek at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia until
he joins the ancestors on November 19, 1923.

1868 – Eighty-five African Americans and 70 white representatives
meet in Columbia, South Carolina, at the opening of the
state’s General Assembly. It is the first and last U.S.
legislature with an African American majority.

1869 – African American candidate for Lt. Governor of Virginia,
Dr. J.H. Harris, is defeated by a vote of 120,068 to
99,600.

1930 – Donald McKayle is born in the village of Harlem in New York
City. McKayle will make his debut, at 22, in “Her Name was
Harriet” (a dance tribute to Harriet Tubman) and go on to
dance in or choreograph “House of Flowers”, “The Bill Cosby
Special” (1968), the 1970 Academy Awards, the movie version
of “The Great White Hope,” and “Sophisticated Ladies” on
Broadway. Named one of “America’s Irreplaceable Dance
Treasures” by the Library of Congress and the Dance Heritage
Coalition, McKayle made his professional debut in 1948 with
New York’s New Dance Company and later performed in the
companies of Sophie Maslow, Jean Erdman, Martha Graham,
Merce Cunningham and Anna Sokolow. In addition to “West Side
Story,” McKayle appeared in Broadway productions of “Bless
You All” (1950), “House of Flowers” (1954) and “Copper and
Brass” (1957). McKayle has choreographed more than 50 works
for companies in the United States, Europe, Israel and South
America. Early pieces include the classic “Games” (1950),
which examines the dangers faced by urban schoolchildren, as
well as the popular “Rainbow ÔRound My Shoulder” (1959) and
“District Storyville” (1962), which remain in the repertory
of the Alvin Ailey Company. Following a stint as artistic
director for the Inner City Repertory Dance Company of Los
Angeles, McKayle returned to Broadway, directing “Raisin”
(1974), “Dr. Jazz” (1975) and “Sophisticated Ladies” (1981),
the latter based on the life of Duke Ellington. Other
theatrical works include “N’Orleans” (1981), a musical play
co-written with Toni Morrison and Dorothea Freitag, “Emperor
Jones” (1984) and “Stardust” (1990). Beginning in the
mid-1960s, McKayle began to choreograph dance sequences for
film and television. Credits include “The Bill Cosby
Special” (CBS, 1967), “The Motown Special” (NBC, 1968), The
Great White Hope” (1969), “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” (1970),
“The 49th Annual Academy Awards” (ABC, 1977) and “The Jazz
Singer” (1980), among others. He directed the first few
episodes of “Good Times” in 1974. McKayle’s numerous honors
include five Tony Award nominations; the NAACP Image Award
(for “Sophisticated Ladies”); an Emmy Award nomination; the
Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award; the Capezio
Award; the Heritage Award; the Living Legend Award and
the Outer Critics Circle Award. McKayle currently serves as
professor of dance at the University of California, Irvine,
and maintains relationships with several distinguished
troupes.

1931 – Deloreese Patricia Early is born in Detroit, Michigan. She
will become a singer known as Della Reese. As a teen-ager,
she will tour with gospel great Mahalia Jackson and, at
the age of 18, will form the Meditation Singers and become
the first performer to take gospel music to the casinos of
Las Vegas. She will become the first African American
female to host a daytime television talk show (1969-70)
and will appear in numerous television series, including
“Sanford and Son,” “The A-Team” and, on the CBS Television
Network, “Crazy Like a Fox” and “Picket Fences.” She will
also star as a series regular in “Charlie & Company” and
“The Royal Family”, both on the CBS Network. In September,
1994, she became a regular on the award winning show,
“Touched By An Angel.”

1957 – Althea Gibson becomes the first African American tennis
player to win a Wimbledon singles title, defeating fellow
American Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2. She will also team up
with Darlene Hard to win the doubles championship.

1964 – Malawi (then Nyasaland) gains independence from Great
Britain.

1966 – Malawi becomes a republic.

1967 – The Biafran War erupts as Nigerian troops invade. The war
will last more than two years, claiming some 600,000
lives.

1971 – Louis Armstrong joins the ancestors in Corona, Queens, in
New York City. Armstrong had been one of the most popular
and influential jazz musicians since his 1929 hit “Ain’t
Misbehavin” and had enjoyed an immensely successful
performing and recording career.

1975 – The Comoros Islands declare independence from France. The
deputies of Mayotte refuse, and thus that island nation
remains under French control. The official languages in
Comoros are Arabic and French, but the vernacular is a
Comorian variant of Swahili. It is an island nation
located in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar approximately
250 miles off the coast of Africa.

1984 – Michael Jackson and his brothers start their “Victory Tour”
in Kansas City, Missouri’s Arrowhead Stadium. The tour
turns out to be a victory for the Jacksons when the
nationwide concert tour concludes months later.

1990 – Jesse Owens is honored on a stamp issued by the U.S. Postal
Service. Owens was a four-time Olympic gold medal winner
in the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin.

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

KRLemmons African American History

July 5 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – July 5 *

1852 – At a meeting sponsored by the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-
Slavery Society, in Rochester Hall, Rochester, New
York, Frederick Douglass illustrates the full shame
of slavery, delivering a speech that takes aim at
the pieties of the nation — the cherished memories
of its revolution, its principles of liberty, and its
moral and religious foundation. The Fourth of July,
a day celebrating freedom, is used by Douglass to
remind his audience of liberty’s unfinished business.
“What to the American Slave is Your Fourth of July?”:
“To him your celebration is a sham…to cover up
crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.
There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices
more shocking and bloody than are the people of the
United States at this very hour.” The text of this
speech can be seen on the Information Man’s web site
http://www.informationman.com/douglass.htm .

1892 – Andrew Beard is issued patent number 478,271 for his
rotary engine.

1899 – Anna Arnold (later Hedgeman) is born in Marshalltown,
Iowa. She will become the first African American
woman to serve in the cabinet of a New York City mayor
(1954), a special projects coordinator for the
Commission on Religion and Race of the National Council
of Churches, and recruiter of 40,000 Protestant
churchmen to participate in the 1963 March on Washington.
She will serve as teacher, lecturer, and consultant to
numerous educational centers, boards, and colleges and
universities, particularly in the area of African American
studies. She will travel to Africa and lecture throughout
the United States, especially in black schools and
colleges, as an example of a black hero. She will stress
to students the importance of understanding history as a
basis to achieve equality. She will hold memberships in
numerous organizations, such as the Child Study
Association, Community Council of the City of New York,
National Urban League, NAACP, United Nations Association,
Advisory Committee on Alcoholism, Advisory Committee on
Drug Addiction, and the National Conference of Christians
and Jews. She will author “The Trumpet Sounds” (1964),
“The Gift of Chaos” (1977), and articles in numerous
organizational publications, newspapers, and journals.
She will join the ancestors on January 17, 1990.
1913 – Overton Amos Lemons is born in Dequincy, Louisiana. He will
become a rhythm and blues vocalist better known as Smiley
Lewis. He will be best rememberd for his song, “I Hear You
Knockin’.” He will join the ancestors on October 7, 1966
after succumbing to stomach cancer.

1947 – The first African American baseball player in the American
League joins the lineup of the Cleveland Indians. Larry
Doby plays his first game against the Chicago White Sox.
He will play for both the Indians and the White Sox
during his 13-year, major-league career.

1949 – The New York Giants purchase the contracts of Monty Irvin
& Henry Thompson, their first African American players.

1966 – Three nights of race rioting in Omaha, Nebraska, result
in the calling out of the National Guard.

1969 – Tom Mboya, Economics Minister, joins the ancestors after
being assassinated in Narobi, Kenya.

1975 – Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to win the
Wimbledon Men’s Singles Championship when he defeats
Jimmy Conners.

1975 – The Cape Verde Islands gain independence after 500 years
of Portuguese rule.

1975 – Forty persons are injured in racial disturbances in Miami,
Florida.

1989 – Barry Bond’s home run sets father-son (Bobby) HR record at
408.

1990 – Zina Garrison upsets Steffi Graf in the Wimbledon semi-
finals.

1994 – In an attempt to halt a surge of Haitian refugees, the
Clinton administration announces it is refusing entry to
new Haitian boat people.

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

KRLemmons African American History

July 4 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – July 4 *

1776 – The Declaration of Independence is adopted. A section
written by Thomas Jefferson denouncing slavery is deleted.

1779 – Colonel Arent Schuyler De Puyster notes the presence of
“Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, a handsome Negro, well-
educated and settled at Eschikagou.” It is the first
recorded mention of “DuSable, who settled the area that
will become known as Chicago.

1827 – New York State abolishes slavery.

1845 – Wildfire Lewis is born in Greenwich, New York. After
living with Chippewa relatives, she will enroll in Oberlin
College’s preparatory and college program. Changing her
name to Mary Edmonia Lewis, she will travel to Boston and
abroad where she will become one of the most outstanding
sculptors of her day. Among her most famous works will be
“Forever Free,” “Hagar in Her Despair in the Wilderness”
and “Death of Cleopatra.” She will join the ancestors in
1911.

1875 – White Democrats kill several African Americans in terrorist
attacks in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1881 – Tuskegee Institute opens in Tuskegee, Alabama, with Booker
T. Washington as its first president.

1892 – Arthur George Gaston is born in a log cabin, built by his
grandparents, former slaves, in Marengo County, Alabama,
near Demopolis. He will drop out of school after the
tenth grade and will become one of the most successful
proponents of Booker T. Washington’s brand of capitalism.
A Washington disciple as a child, Gaston became a self-made
millionaire and one of the richest African American men in
America in the 1950s. His many businesses thrived on the
social separateness legislated by the Jim Crow laws in
segregated Alabama. Gaston will make it his personal
mission to urge African Americans to seek “green power,” a
term he remembered Washington using. His quiet role in the
civil right movement was also noted, saying once that
African Americans needed a Martin Luther King, Jr. of
economics to fire them up the way King had about
integration. Gaston made the following statement that
summed up his position on economic empowerment for people
of color — “It doesn’t do any good to arrive at first-
class citizenship, if you arrive broke.” He will live to
the age of 103, when he joins the ancestors on January 19,
1996.

1910 – Jack Johnson KOs James Jeffries in 15 rounds, ending
Jeffries’ come-back try.

1938 – Bill Withers is born the youngest of nine children in the
coal mining town of in Slab Fork, West Virginia. He will
become a Rhythm and Blues singer and songwriter who will
perform and record from the late 1960s until the mid
1980s. Some of his best-known songs will include “Ain’t No
Sunshine,” “Use Me,” “Lean on Me”, “Grandma’s Hands”, and
“Just the Two of Us”.

1959 – The Cayman Islands, separated from Jamaica, are made a
British Crown Colony.

1963 – Marian Anderson and Ralph Bunche receive the first Medals
of Freedom from President John F. Kennedy, the creator of
the award.

1970 – 100 persons are injured in racially motivated disturbances
in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

1990 – “2 Live Crew” release “Banned in the USA”; the lyrics quote
“The Star Spangled Banner” & “The Gettysburg Address.”

1991 – The National Civil Rights Museum officially opens at the
Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, the site of the
assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King,
Jr.

1994 – Rwandan Tutsi rebels seize control of most of their
country’s capital, Kigali, and continue advancing on areas
held by the Hutu-led government.

2003 – Barry White, Rhythm & Blues balladeer, joins the ancestors
at the age of 58 after succumbing to complications of high
blood pressure, kidney disease and a mild stroke. His
hits included “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love,” “Babe” and
“I’ve Got So Much to Give.”

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

KRLemmons African American History, Resources

Frederick Douglass July 4th Speech

Frederick Douglass July 4th Speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” is a significant and thought provoking one.  You can read the entire speech by clicking here.

Other resources on this speech are:

The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927.html

Frederick Douglass Online Resources: http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/douglass/

EDSITEment’s 4th of July: Protest, Revolution, and Independence: http://edsitement.neh.gov/feature/edsitements-4th-july-protest-revolution-and-independence

As we celebrate Independence Day, we should pause for a moment and really think about what freedom in the United States means today.  Does freedom really mean we are free?

KRLemmons African American History

July 3 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – July 3 *

1848 – Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now the U.S.
Virgin Islands).

1871 – Joseph H. Douglass, grandson of Frederick Douglass, is
born in Washington, DC. A student of the New England
Conservatory of Music in Boston, Douglass will become a
noted violinist.

1915 – U.S. military forces occupy Haiti, and remain until 1934.

1917 – Three days of racial riots end in East St. Louis, Illinois.
At least 40 and as many as 200 African Americans are
killed and hundreds more are wounded.

1928 – Charles Waddell Chestnutt, author of “The Conjure Woman”
and other works, is awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal
for his “work as a literary artist depicting the life and
struggle of Americans of Negro descent.”

1940 – Fontella Bass is born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother is
Martha Bass (of the Clara Ward Singers) who exposed her to
music at an early age. She was singing in her church’s
choir at six years old, but as a teenager, she will be
attracted by more secular music. Throughout high school she
will be singing R&B songs at local contests and fairs. She
will eventually move to Chicago and sign with Chess Records.
She will record the song, “Rescue Me,” which will shoot up
the charts in the fall and winter of 1965. After a month at
the top of the Rhythm & Blues charts, the song will reach
#4 at the pop charts. Her only album with Chess Records,
“The New Look,” will sell reasonably well, but she will
decide to leave the label after only two years, in 1967. In
1970 she will record two albums with the Art Ensemble of
Chicago, “The Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass”
and “Les Stances A Sophie.” The latter is the soundtrack
from the French movie of the same title. Her vocals, backed
by the powerful, pulsating push of the band has allowed the
“Theme De YoYo” to remain an underground cult classic ever
since. The next few years will find her at a number of
different labels, but with no notable successes. After her
second album, “Free,” flopped in 1972, she will retire from
music. She will return occasionally, being featured as a
background vocalist on several recordings, including those
of her husband, Lester Bowie, a jazz trumpeter and member
of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. In the 1990s she will host
a short-lived Chicago radio talk show, and will release
several gospel records on independent labels. She will be
inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

1947 – The Cleveland Indians purchase the contract of Larry Doby,
the first African American to play in the American League.

1962 – Jackie Robinson, who broke the color line in professional
baseball, is the first African American inducted into the
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, in Cooperstown,
New York.

1966 – NAACP officially disassociates itself from the “Black Power”
doctrine.

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

KRLemmons African American History

July 2 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – July 2 *

1777 – Vermont, not one of the original 13 states, becomes the
first U.S. territory to abolish slavery.

1822 – Denmark Vesey, slave freedom fighter, and 5 aides are
hanged in Blake’s Landing, Charleston, South Carolina.

1908 – Thurgood Marshall is born in Baltimore, Maryland. He
will have the most distinguished legal career of any
African American as the NAACP’s national counsel,
director-counsel of the organization’s Legal Defense
and Educational Fund, and leader of some of the most
important legal challenges for African Americans’
constitutional rights, including “Brown v. Board of
Education” in 1954. In addition to sitting as a circuit
judge for the Second Circuit, Marshall will be named
U.S. Solicitor General in 1965 and associate justice of
the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967, where he will serve for
24 years.

1925 – Patrice Lumumba, revolutionary and first prime minister
of the Republic of the Congo, is born in Stanleyville,
Belgian Congo.

1927 – George Fisher is born in New York City of African and West
Indian parentage. He will become an actor and will be
known as Brock Peters. He will set his sights on a show
business career as early as age ten. A product of New
York City’s famed Music and Arts High School, he
initially fielded more odd jobs than acting jobs as he
worked his way up from Harlem poverty. Landing a stage
role in Porgy and Bess in 1949, he will quit physical
education studies at City College of New York and go on
tour with the acclaimed musical. His film debut will come
in Carmen Jones in 1954, but he really began to make a
name for himself in such films as “To Kill a Mockingbird”
and “The L-Shaped Room.” He will receive a Tony nomination
for his starring stint in Broadway’s “Lost in the Stars.”
He will work with Charlton Heston on several theater
productions in the 1940s and 1950s. The two will befriend
each other and subsequently work together on several
films, including “Major Dundee,” “Soylent Green,” and “Two
Minute Warning.” He will join the ancestors on August 23,
2005 after succumbing to pancreatic cancer at the age of
78.

1930 – Frederick Russell Jones is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
A child prodigy who will begin to play the piano at the age
of 3, he will begin formal studies at age 7. While in high
school, he will complete the equivalent of college master
classes under the noted African American concert singer and
teacher Mary Caldwell Dawson and pianist James Miller. He
will join the musicians union at the age of 14, and begin
touring upon graduation from Westinghouse High School at
the age of 17, drawing critical acclaim for his solos. In
1950, he will form his first trio, The Three Strings.
Performing at New York’s The Embers club, Record Producer
John Hammond “discovers” The Three Strings and signed them
to Okeh Records (a division of Columbia, now Sony, Records).
He will change his name to Ahmad Jamal in 1952 when he
converts to Islam. He will be one of Miles Davis’s favorite
pianists and a key influence on the trumpeter’s 1st classic
quintet (featuring John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red
Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe
Jones on drums). Davis had long admired Jamal’s use of
space and dynamics. He will score a major popular “hit” in
his version of Poinciana, recorded while live on tour from
The Pershing nightclub in Chicago. His style will change
steadily over time – from the lighter, breezy style heard
on his 50s sides to the funk + Caribbean stylings of the
70s and onto the large open voicings and bravura-laden
playing of the nineties. He will always be distinctive
however for his use of space, his dramatic crescendos, and
for a very staccato orientation with chords. In addition
to being an excellent pianist, Jamal is also very adept
with both the Rhodes electric piano and the Wurlitzer 200
electric piano.

1932 – Samuel Black is born in Paterson, New Jersey. He will become
a singer known as Sammy Turner. He will briefly achieve
fame in the late 50s as a rock ‘n’ roll balladeer, whose
specialty was recycled pop songs of the past, particularly
those by Guy Lombardo. His most notable record was a remake
of a Sammy Kaye hit from 1949, “Lavender Blue” (number 14
R&B/number 3 pop), in 1959. Three follow-ups were similarly
remakes of old pop hits: “Always” (number 2 R&B/number 20
pop), a frequently recorded pop song; “Symphony” (number 82
pop) and “Paradise” (number 13 R&B/number 46 pop). Turner’s
only success in the United Kingdom was with “Always”, which
went to number 26. Although essentially a pop performer,
because of his African American heritage he will also
garner considerable success on the R&B charts. However, he
will be unable to make the transition into the soul era,
and will rapidly fade as a recording artist after 1960.

1943 – Lt. Charles B. Hall of Indiana, flies the first combat
mission of the 99th Fighter Squadron (Tuskegee Airmen)
which was attached to the 33rd Fighter Group flying out of
Fardjouna (Cap Bon, Tunisia). He is flying as wingman on
this first mission to Pantelleria.

1946 – Anthony Overton, lawyer, judge, publisher, cosmetics
manufacturer and banker, joins the ancestors in Chicago,
Illinois at the age of 81.

1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Bill,
which includes public accommodation and fair employment
sections. The Civil Rights Act prohibits segregation in
employment, education, and public accommodation on the
basis of race, sex, age, national origin or religion.

1986 – The U.S. Supreme Court upholds affirmative action in two
rulings.

1990 – “Devil in a Blue Dress”, a mystery novel by Walter Moseley
set in South-Central Los Angeles, is published. Its
realism and strong African American characters will earn
its author enthusiastic praise and a nomination for best
novel by the Mystery Writers of America.

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

KRLemmons African American History

July 1 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – July 1 *

1863 – The Dutch West Indies abolishes slavery.

1870 – James W. Smith is the first African American to enter
the U.S. Military Academy (West Point).

1873 – Henry O. Flipper of Georgia is the second African
American to enter West Point .

1889 – Frederick Douglass is named minister to Haiti.

1893 – Walter Francis White, NAACP leader, is born in Atlanta,
Georgia. After graduating from Atlanta University in 1916,
he will become an official with the Standard Life Insurance
Company, one of the largest Black-owned businesses of its
day. He will also take part in civic affairs, helping to
found the Atlanta branch of the NAACP that same year. With
White as secretary, the branch will quickly score a victory
for educational equality by preventing the school board
from eliminating seventh grade in the Black public schools.
In 1917, James Weldon Johnson, field secretary for the
NAACP will visit Atlanta. He will be impressed with White’s
enthusiasm and political skills and will persuaded the
national board of directors to appoint him the assistant
secretary. In January, 1918 White will move to New York and
join the NAACP staff. For the next ten years his primary
responsibility will be conducting undercover investigations
of lynchings and race riots. Using his fair complexion to
his advantage, he will approach members of lynch mobs and
other whites who had witnessed or were involved in racial
violence. He will trick them into giving him candid
accounts that the NAACP would then publicize. During these
years he will investigate forty-one lynchings and eight
race riots, including the riots in Elaine, Arkansas, and
Chicago, Illinois, during the Red Summer of 1919. On more
than one occasion he will narrowly escape vigilantes who
discover his true identity. He will become the Executive
Director of the NAACP from 1931 until he joins the ancestors
on March 21, 1955.

1898 – The African American 10th Calvary charges Spanish
Forces at El Caney, Cuba, and relieves Teddy
Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders.”

1899 – Rev. Thomas Andrew Dorsey, “Father of Gospel Music” is
born in Villa Rica, Georgia. Although he will begin
touring with Ma Rainey, he will leave the blues in
1932 to work as a choir director for Pilgrim Baptist
Church. A gospel legend, among his most popular songs
will be “A Little Talk with Jesus.” His father was a minister
and his mother a piano teacher. He will learn to play blues
piano as a young man. After studying music formally in
Chicago, he will become an agent for Paramount Records. He
put together a band for Ma Rainey called the “Wild Cats Jazz
Band” in 1924. He will be credited with more than 400 blues
and jazz songs. Personal tragedy will lead Dorsey to leave
secular music behind and begin writing and recording what he
called “gospel” music. He was the first to use that term. His
first wife, Nettie, who had been Rainey’s wardrobe mistress,
died in childbirth in 1932 along with his first son. In his
grief, he wrote his most famous song, one of the most famous
of all gospel songs, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord”.
Unhappy with the treatment he received at the hands of
established publishers, he will open the first Black gospel
music publishing company, Dorsey House of Music. He will also
found his own gospel choir and will be a founder and first
president of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and
Choruses. His influence will not be limited to African
American music, as white musicians also follow his lead.
“Precious Lord” will be recorded by Elvis Presley, Mahalia
Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Clara Ward, Roy Rogers, and
Tennessee Ernie Ford, among hundreds of others. It will be a
favorite gospel song of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and
be sung at the rally the night before his assassination, and
at his funeral by Mahalia Jackson, per his request. It will
also be a favorite of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who will
requested it to be sung at his funeral. He wrote “Peace in
the Valley” for Mahalia Jackson in 1937, which will also
become a gospel standard. He will be the first African
American elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and
also the first in the Gospel Music Association’s Living Hall
of Fame. His papers will be preserved at Fisk University,
along with those of W.C. Handy, George Gershwin, and the Fisk
Jubilee Singers. He will join the ancestors in Chicago,
Illinois on January 23, 1993.
1915 – William James ‘Willie’ Dixon is born in Vickburg, Mississippi.
He will be a producer for Chess and Checker Records in
Chicago and considered one of the key figures in the creation
of Chicago blues. He worked with Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters,
Howlin’ Wolf, Led Zeppelin, Otis Rush, Bo Diddley, Little
Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Koko Taylor, Little Milton,
Eddie Boyd, Jimmy Witherspoon, Lowell Fulson, Willie Mabon,
Memphis Slim, Washboard Sam, Jimmy Rogers, and others.
His genius as a songwriter lay in refurbishing archaic
Southern motifs, in contemporary arrangements. This produced
songs with the backbone of the blues, and the agility of pop
music. British R&B bands of the 1960s will constantly draw
on the Dixon songbook for inspiration. In addition, as his
songwriting and production work started to take a backseat,
his organizational ability will be utilized, putting together
all-star, Chicago based blues ensembles for work in Europe.
His health will deteriorate in the 1970s and 1980s, due to
long-term diabetes, and eventually his leg will have to be
amputated. He will join the ancestors in Burbank,
California on January 29, 1992 and will be posthumously
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

1917 – A three day race riot starts in East St. Louis, Illinois.
Estimates of the number killed ranges from forty to two
hundred. There had been an earlier race riot that
occurred on May 27, 1917. Martial law is declared. A
congressional investigating committee will say, “It is
not possible to give accurately the number of dead. At
least thirty-nine Negroes and eight white people were
killed outright, and hundreds of Negroes were wounded
and maimed. ‘The bodies of the dead Negroes,’ testified
an eye witness, ‘were thrown into a morgue like so many
dead hogs.’ There were three hundred and twelve
buildings and forty-four railroad freight cars and their
contents destroyed by fire.”

1942 – Andrae Crouch, African American sacred music artist, is
born in Los Angeles, California. He will become a gospel
musician, recording artist, songwriter, arranger, and
producer. He will be a key figure in the Jesus Music
movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He will work as a
producer or arranger with Michael Jackson, Madonna (Like
A Prayer), Quincy Jones, Diana Ross, Elton John and Rick
Astley (Cry For Help). His film credits will include “Once
Upon A Forest,” “The Color Purple,” “The Lion King,” and
“Free Willy.” He will also appear as the television voice
of Dr. Seuss’s Yertle the Turtle. He will eventually serve
as Senior Pastor at the New Christ Memorial Church of God
in Christ in San Fernando, California, the church founded
by his parents. In 2004, he will be honored with a star on
the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He will be the third gospel
musician to appear on the walk. His most enduring gospel
songs will be “Soon and Very Soon,” “My Tribute”, “The
Blood” and “Through It All.”

1960 – Ghana becomes a republic. Italian Somalia gains
independence, and unites with the Somali Republic.

1960 – Evelyn “Champagne” King is born in the Bronx, New York City,
New York. In her teens, she will relocate to Philadelphia
with her mother, and begin singing in several groups. To
make ends meet, she and her mother will become cleaning
women. For a teenager, King’s voice will be quite mature.
Many, at first thought will think she is a grown woman.
While working at Gamble & Huff’s recording studio as a
cleaner, she will be “discovered” by producer T. Life, and
will go on to become one of the most popular Rhythm & Blues
and disco singers of the late seventies and early eighties.
She will be best known for the disco classic “Shame”, her
Top 10 1978 Gold record. She will score an additional Top 40
hit and Gold record, with “I Don’t Know If It’s Right” in
1979. “Shame” and “I Don’t Know If It’s Right” will both be
tracks released from her 1977 debut album Smooth Talk. On
September 20, 2004, her signature song “Shame” will become
among the first records to be inducted into the newly formed
Dance Music Hall of Fame at a ceremony held in New York’s
Spirit club.

1961 – Frederick Carlton “Carl” Lewis is born in Birmingham, Alabama.
He will be raised in Willingboro, New Jersey. He will become
an athlete who will win 10 Olympic medals (9 golds) during
his career (1984 to 1996), and 8 World Championship gold
medals, and 1 bronze (1983 to 1993). He will become only the
third Olympian to win four consecutive titles in an individual
event.

1962 – Burundi & Rwanda gain independence from Belgium (National Days).

1976 – Newark mayor Kenneth Gibson is elected as the first African
American president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

1991 – Former chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
and judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Clarence Thomas is
nominated by President George H. Bush as associate justice of
the Supreme Court to replace retiring justice Thurgood
Marshall. Thomas’ Senate confirmation hearings will be the
most controversial in history and will include charges of
sexual harassment by a former employee, Professor Anita Hill.

1997 – Audrey F. Manley begins her appointment as president of Spelman
College. She is the first alumna of Spelman to be named
president in the college’s 116-year history. Formerly acting
surgeon general of the United States, Manley had served in key
leadership positions in the U.S. Public Health Service for the
previous 20 years.

2005 – Grammy award winner Luther Vandross joins the ancestors at John
F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey at the age of
54. He never really recovered from a stroke suffered in his
Manhattan home on April 16, 2003. He amazingly managed to
continue his recording career, and in 2004, captured four
Grammys as a sentimental favorite, including best song for the
bittersweet “Dance With My Father.” He had battled weight
problems for years while suffering from diabetes and
hypertension. He was arguably the most celebrated Rhythm &
Blues balladeer of his generation. He made women swoon with
his silky yet forceful tenor, which he often revved up like a
motor engine before reaching his beautiful crescendos. He was
a four-time Grammy winner in the best male R&B performance
category, taking home the trophy in 1990 for the single “Here
and Now,” in 1991 for his album “Power of Love,” in 1996 for
the track “Your Secret Love” and a last time for “Dance With
My Father.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 30 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 30 *

1881 – Henry Highland Garnet, former abolitionist leader and
Presbyterian minister, is named Minister to Liberia.
He will join the ancestors in Monrovia shortly after
his arrival.

1906 – John Hope becomes the first African American president
of Morehouse College.

1917 – Lena Horne is born in Brooklyn, New York. She will
begin her career at 16 as a chorus girl at the Cotton
Club in Harlem, appear in the movies “Cabin in the Sky”
and “Stormy Weather” and have a successful Broadway
career culminating in her one-woman show. Horne will
also be a strong civil rights advocate, refusing to
perform in clubs where African Americans are not
admitted and marching during the civil rights movement
in the 1960s. She will join the ancestors on May 9, 2010.

1921 – Charles S. Gilpin becomes the first actor to receive the
NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for his portrayal of Emperor
Jones in the Eugene O’Neill play of the same name.

1940 – John T. Scott is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He will
become a professor of art and a sculptor whose works will
be exhibited widely in the U.S. and at the exhibit of
“Art of Black America in Japan, Afro-American Modernism:
1937-1987.”

1958 – Alabama courts fined the NAACP $ 100,000 for contempt, for
refusing to divulge membership. The U.S. Supreme Court
will reverse the decision.

1960 – Zaire proclaims its independence from Belgium.

1966 – Michael Gerard “Mike” Tyson, former heavyweight champion of
the world and youngest (at age 19) to win that title (WBC
in 1986), is born in Brooklyn, New York.

1967 – Maj. Robert H. Lawrence Jr. becomes the first African
American astronaut. He will join the ancestors after
being killed during a training flight accident on December
8, 1967.

1969 – Jacob Lawrence receives the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal “in
testimony to his eminence among American painters.”

1974 – Alberta King, mother of the late Martin Luther King Jr.,
joins the ancestors after being assassinated during a
church service in Atlanta, Georgia. The assailant, Marcus
Chennault of Dayton, Ohio, is later convicted and sentenced
to death.

1978 – Larry Doby becomes the manager of the Chicago White Sox
baseball team. He will have a win-loss record of 37-50 and
will be fired at the end of the season (October 19).

1980 – Coleman A. Young is awarded the Spingarn Medal for his
“singular accomplishment as Mayor of the City of Detroit,”a
position he had held since 1973.

2001 – Saxophonist Joe Henderson joins the ancestors in San
Francisco. His improvisational style and compositions have
influenced jazz musicians everywhere. He had been suffering
from emphysema, and became ill at his home in San Francisco,
but did not go to the hospital until the following day, where
he died of heart failure.

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