KRLemmons African American History

August 29 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – August 29 *

1920 – Charlie “Bird” (Charles Christopher) Parker is born in
Kansas City, Kansas. The jazz saxophonist will become one
of the leaders of the bebop movement and be noted for his
works “Ko Ko” and “In the Still of the Night,” among
others. He will receive numerous awards from Downbeat
magazine and have the famous jazz club, Birdland, in New
York City named in his honor. He will be commonly
considered one of the greatest jazz musicians, ranked with
such players as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Jazz
critic Scott Yanow speaks for many jazz fans and musicians
when he states that “Parker was arguably the greatest
saxophonist of all time.” A founding father of bebop, his
innovative approaches to melody, rhythm, and harmony were
enormously influential on his contemporaries, and his
music remains an inspiration and resource for musicians in
jazz as well as in other genres. Several of Parker’s songs
have become standards, such as “Billie’s Bounce,”
“Anthropology,” “Ornithology,” and “Confirmation”. He will
join the ancestors on March 12, 1955.

1924 – Ruth Lee Jones is born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She will be
better known as “Dinah Washington.” She will perform with
Lionel Hampton from 1943 to 1946 and become one of the
most popular Rhythm & Blues singers of the 1950’s and
early 1960’s. Her family will move to Chicago while she
is still a child. As a child in Chicago she will play
piano and direct her church choir. She will later study
in Walter Dyett’s renowned music program at DuSable High
School. There will be a period when she both performed in
clubs as Dinah Washington, while singing and playing piano
in Sallie Martin’s gospel choir as Ruth Jones. Her
penetrating voice, excellent timing, and crystal-clear
enunciation added her own distinctive style to every piece
she undertook. While making extraordinary recordings in
jazz, blues, R&B and light pop contexts, she will refuse
to record gospel music despite her obvious talent in
singing it. She believed it wrong to mix the secular and
spiritual, and after she enters the non-religious
professional music world, she will refuse to include
gospel in her repertoire. She will begin performing in
1942 and soon join Lionel Hampton’s band. There is some
dispute about the origin of her name. Some sources say
the manager of the Garrick Stage Bar gave her the name
Dinah Washington, while others say Hampton selected it.
In 1943, she will begin recording for Keynote Records and
release “Evil Gal Blues”, her first hit. By 1955, she will
release numerous hit songs on the R&B charts, including
“Baby, Get Lost”, “Trouble in Mind”, “You Don’t Know What
Love Is” (arranged by Quincy Jones), and a cover of “Cold,
Cold Heart” by Hank Williams. In March of 1957, she
marry tenor saxophonist Eddie Chamblee, (formerly on tour
with Lionel Hampton) who led the band behind her. In 1958,
she will make a well-received appearance at the Newport
Jazz Festival. With “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” in
1959, she will win a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and
Blues Performance. The song will be her biggest hit,
reaching #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. She will join the
ancestors on December 13, 1963.

1933 – Eloise Gwendolyn Sanford is born in New York City. She
will become an actress better known as Isabel Sanford and
will star as Louise on the long-running sitcom “The
Jeffersons”, “All in the Family”, and will star in many
movies including “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, “Original
Gangstas”, “South Beach”, “Love at First Bite”, “The
Photographer”, “The New Centurions”, “Pendulum”, and
“Buffalo Soldiers”. She will be the first African American
actress to win a Lead Actress Emmy (for Outstanding Lead
Actress in a Comedy Series in 1981), and will receive a
star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She will join the
ancestors on July 9, 2004, succumbing to cardiac arrest
and heart disease at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los
Angeles at the age of 86.

1945 – Wyomia Tyus, Olympic runner, who will become the first
woman sprinter to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in
the 100 meters (three total), is born in Griffin, Georgia.
She will also become a 10-time AAU National Champion and
an All-American Athlete in both the indoor and outdoor
competition. Tyus will compete in amateur and
professional track and field meets from 1960 – 1975. In
addition to her athletic achievements, Tyus will hold a
special place in Olympic history. At the XXIIIrd Olympic
Games in Los Angeles, Tyus will become the first woman
ever, in the history of the Olympic Games, to bear the
Olympic Flag.

1946 – Robert “Bob” Beamon is born in Jamaica, New York. He
will become a star in track and field, He will specialize
in the long jump and will win the 1968 Olympic gold medal
in the long jump and set the world record of 29 feet, 2
1/2 inches. His record will stand for twenty three years
until it is broken by Mike Powell at the World
Championships in Tokyo in 1991. His jump is still the
Olympic record to date. He will be inducted into the
National Track and Field Hall of Fame, and when the United
States Olympic Hall of Fame starts to induct athletes in
1983, he will be one of the first inductees.

1957 – The Civil Rights Act of 1957 is passed by Congress. It is
the first civil rights legislation since 1875. The bill
establishes a civil rights commission and a civil rights
division in the Justice Department. It also gave the
Justice Department authority to seek injunctions against
voting rights infractions.

1958 – Michael Joseph Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. First
with the family group the Jackson Five and later as a
solo artist, Jackson will be one of pop and Rhythm &
Blues’ foremost stars. His solo album “Off the Wall”
(1979) will sell 7 million copies worldwide, surpassed
only by “Thriller”, his largest-selling album (also the
biggest selling album of all time). He will be commonly
known as “MJ” as well as the “King of Pop”. His successful
career and controversial personal life will be a part of
pop culture for at least 40 years. He will be widely
regarded as one of the greatest entertainers and most
popular recording artists in history, displaying
complicated physical techniques, such as the robot and the
moonwalk, that have redefined mainstream dance and
entertainment. His achievements in the music industry will
include a revolutionary transformation of music videos,
establishing high-profile album releases and sales as a
new trend for record companies to generate profits,
dominating pop music during the 1980s, and becoming the
first Black entertainer to amass a strong following on MTV
while leading the relatively young channel out of
obscurity. His distinctive style, moves, and vocals will
inspire, influence, and spawn a whole generation of hip
hop, pop, and Rhythm & Blues artists. He will join the
ancestors on June 25, 2009.

1962 – Mal Goode becomes the first African American television
news commentator when he begins broadcasting on ABC.

1962 – Carl E. Banks, Jr. is born in Flint, Michigan. He will
become a star NFL linebacker with the New York Giants. He
will play for three teams from 1984 to 1995, the New York
Giants, the Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Browns.
He will make the Pro Bowl in 1987, have 39.5 career
quarterback sacks, and be a member of the NFL’s 1980’s
All-Decade Team. He will attend Michigan State University
and be the 3rd overall pick in the 1984 NFL draft. He will
be a member of the Giants teams that win Super Bowls XXI
and XXV. Banks will be a standout in their Super Bowl XXI
victory in which he records 14 total tackles, including 10
solo tackles.

1970 – Black Panthers confront the police in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. One policeman is killed and six are wounded
in a racial confrontation.

1971 – Hank Aaron becomes the first baseball player in the
National League to drive in 100 or more runs in each of
11 seasons.

1977 – St. Louis Cardinal Lou Brock eclipses Ty Cobb’s 49-year-
old career stolen base record at 893.

1979 – The first completely Black-owned radio network in the
world, “Mutual Black Network” is purchased by the
Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation.

1984 – Edwin Moses wins the 400-meter hurdles in track competition
in Europe. It is the track star’s 108th consecutive
victory.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 28 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 28 *

1818 – Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, trader and founder of
Chicago, joins the ancestors.

1921 – Second Pan-African Congress meets in London, Brussels and
Paris, from August 28 to September 6. Of the 113
delegates, 39 are from Africa and 36 were from the United
States.

1949 – Paul Robeson’s scheduled singing appearance at the
Lakeland picnic grounds near Peekskill in Westchester
County, New York, is disrupted by a riot instigated and
provoked by whites angry at Robeson’s political stands.

1945 – Brooklyn Dodgers’ owner Branch Rickey and future baseball
great Jackie Robinson meet. They will discuss the
difficulties Robinson, an African American athlete, would
face in major-league baseball. Robinson will receive
$600 a month and a $3,500 signing bonus to play for
Montreal of the International League. He would quickly
move up and enjoy a brilliant career with the Brooklyn
Dodgers.

1955 – Fourteen-year-old Chicago youngster Emmett Till is
kidnapped in Money, Mississippi. Four days later he is
found brutally mutilated and murdered, allegedly for
whistling at a white woman. Two whites will be acquitted
of the crime by an all-white jury. The incident will
receive national publicity and highlight racism and
brutality toward African Americans. This incident is
chronicled on tape # 1 in the “Eyes on the Prize” series.

1962 – Seventy-five ministers and laymen–African American and
whites–primarily from the North, are arrested after
prayer demonstration in downtown Albany, Georgia.

1963 – Over 250,000 African-Americans and whites converge on the
Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, the
largest single protest demonstration in United States
history. The march, organized to support sweeping civil
rights measures, will also be the occasion of Martin
Luther King, Jr.’s most famous speech, “I have a Dream.”

1964 – A racially motivated civil disobedience riot occurs in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1966 – The National Guard is mobilized to protect Milwaukee,
Wisconsin marchers protesting a judge’s membership in
lily-white club.

1968 – Rev. Channing E. Philips of Washington, DC, becomes the
first African American to have his/her name placed in
nomination for president by a major national party.
Philips’ name is placed in nomination as the favorite
son candidate by the District of Columbia delegation at
the Democratic convention in Chicago and will receive 67
1/2 votes.

1984 – The Jacksons’ Victory Tour broke the record for concert
ticket sales. The group surpasses the 1.1 million mark
in only two months.

1988 – Beah Richards wins an Emmy for outstanding guest
performance in the comedy series “Frank’s Place.” It is
one of the many acting distinctions for the Vicksburg,
Mississippi native, including her Academy Award
nomination for best supporting actress in “Guess Who’s
Coming to Dinner.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 27 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – August 27 *

1879 – African American publisher Robert Lee Vann is born in
Ahoskie, North Carolina. He will become an African
American publisher, lawyer and the nurturing editor of
the Black newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier. He will
attend Western University of Pennsylvania. He will
graduate from Law School in June, 1909. In 1910, he will
become the Pittsburgh Courier’s editor and publisher.
Under his leadership, The Courier will develop into one
of the leading Black newspapers of the era. By the 1930s,
it will be one of the highest circulated Black newspapers
in the United States. As many as 14 different editions
will be circulated throughout the country. He will become
involved in politics throughout his association with The
Courier. In 1918, he will be appointed the fourth
assistant city solicitor in Pittsburgh, the highest
position held by an African American in the city
government. Initially a Republican, he will grow
disillusioned with the party and convert to the
Democratic Party. On September 11, 1932, he will deliver
a famous speech at the St. James Literary Forum in
Cleveland, Ohio entitled “The Patriot and the Partisan”
and will urge African Americans throughout the nation to
turn away from the Republican party which had failed them,
and support the Democratic party of Franklin D. Roosevelt
in the 1932 election. He will support Franklin D.
Roosevelt in the 1932 election, and will subsequently be
named special assistant to the U.S. attorney general. In
1935, he will help campaign for the enactment of an equal
rights law in the State of Pennsylvania. He will serve as
editor and publisher of The Pittsburgh Courier until he
joins the ancestors on October 24, 1940.

1909 – Lester Young is born into a musical family in Woodville,
Mississippi. Young was taught several instruments by
his father. As a child he played drums in the family’s
band, but around 1928 he quit the group and switched to
tenor saxophone. His first engagements on this
instrument were with Art Bronson, in Phoenix, Arizona.
He stayed with Bronson until 1930, with a brief side
trip to play again with the family, then worked in and
around Minneapolis, Minnesota, with various bands. In
the spring of 1932 he joined the Original Blue Devils,
under the leadership of Walter Page, and was one of
several members of the band who joined Bennie Moten in
Kansas City towards the end of 1933. During the next
few years Young played in the bands of Moten, George E.
Lee, King Oliver, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Andy
Kirk and others. He will join the ancestors on March 15,
1959.

1918 – Dr. Joseph L. Johnson is named minister to Liberia.

1963 – W.E.B. DuBois joins the ancestors at age 95 in Accra,
Ghana. He was one of America’s foremost scholars, a
militant civil rights activist, founding father of the
NAACP, and leading proponent of Pan-Africanism.

1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have A Dream”
speech in Washington, DC during the 1963 March on
Washington.

1966 – A racially motivated civil disobedience riot occurs in
Waukegan, Illinois.

1975 – Haile Selassie, “Lion of Judah” and deposed Ethiopian
emperor, joins the ancestors at age 83 in Addis Ababa.

1982 – Rickey Henderson steals 119th base of season breaking Lou
Brock’s mark.

1983 – The second “March on Washington for Jobs, Peace, and
Freedom” is held.

1989 – ‘Johnny B Goode’ is performed by Chuck Berry for NASA
engineers and scientists in celebration of Voyager II’s
encounter with the planet Neptune.

1991 – Central Life Insurance Company, the last surviving
African American owned insurance company in the state of
Florida, is ordered liquidated by a Florida circuit
court judge.

2000 – Tiger Woods becomes the first male golfer since Johnny
Miller in 1975 to successfully defend three titles in
one year when he wins the NEC World Invitational.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 26 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 26 *

1874 – Sixteen African Americans are lynched in the state of
Tennessee.

1900 – Hale Woodruff is born in Cairo, Illinois. He will study art
in the United States, Paris and fresco painting with Diego
Rivera in Mexico. He will also start the influential
Atlanta University shows for African American artists in
the 1940’s.

1905 – George Washington joins the ancestors in Centralia,
Washington. An African American settler of a vast land
claim at the junction of the Shockumchuck and Chehalis
rivers in 1851, Washington endured schemes of white
settlers to take his land and the Indian Wars of 1853 to
found the town of Centerville (later Centralia),
Washington,in 1875.

1943 – William L. Dawson is elected as the Black Democratic Party
Vice President candidate.

1947 – Daniel Robert “Dan” Bankhead becomes the first African
American pitcher in major-league baseball. The Brooklyn
Dodger hurler helps his own cause by slamming a home run
in his first appearance at the plate.

1948 – Valerie Simpson (Ashford) is born in the Bronx, New York
City. She will become an accomplished singer, composer,
and producer. She will marry Nicholas ‘Nick’ Ashford and
perform with him for many years. She will lose her husband
and entertainment partner when he joins the ancestors after
succumbing to throat cancer on August 22, 2011.

1960 – Jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis is born in New Orleans,
Louisiana. He will begin his musical career with Art
Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, later playing with his
brother Wynton’s quintet, will record with Miles Davis,
Dizzy Gillespie, and Sting, and become musical director
for the Tonight Show in 1992.

1982 – Rickey Henderson ties Lou Brock’s 1974 record of 118
stolen bases in a season, as the Milwaukee Brewers down
the Kansas City Royals, 10-3.

1985 – Baltimore Oriole Eddie Murray knocks in 9 RBIs in a game
vs the California Angels.

1998 – Attorney General Janet Reno reopens the investigation of
the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., focusing on two allegations of a conspiracy
beyond James Earl Ray.

2000 – Sir Lynden Pindling, the father of Bahamas independence,
joins the ancestors after succumbing to prostate cancer.
Pindling had led the Black Progressive Liberal Party to
victory in 1967. Sir Lynden ruled the Bahamas for 25
years. He resigned from the House of Assembly in July
1997, ending 41 years of unbroken service as a legislator.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 25 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 25 *

1862 – The Secretary of War authorizes General Rufus Saxton to
arm up to five thousand slaves.

1886 – Some six hundred delegates organize the American National
Baptist Convention at a St. Louis meeting. Rev.
William J. Simmons is elected president.

1886 – Kentucky State College (now University), chartered in May,
1886 as the State Normal School for Colored Persons and
only the second state-supported institution of higher
learning in Kentucky, is founded in Frankfort, Kentucky.
It will become a land grant college in 1890.

1925 – A. Phillip Randolph organizes the Sleeping Car Porters’
Union (Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters) at a mass
meeting in the Elks’ Hall in Harlem. He is elected
president.

1927 – Althea Gibson is born in Silver, South Carolina. She will
grow up to be a pioneer in the field of tennis, becoming
the first African American to play tennis at the U.S.
Open in 1950 and at Wimbledon the following year. In
1957, she will win the singles and doubles titles at
Wimbledon, another first for an African American. In 1964,
she will become the first African American woman to play
in the Ladies Professional Golf Association. However, she
will be too old to be successful and only play for a few
years. In 1971, she will be inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame, and in 1975, she will
be appointed the New Jersey state commissioner of
athletics. After 10 years on the job, she will go on to
work in other public service positions, including serving
on the governor’s council on physical fitness. She will
join the ancestors on September 28, 2003.

1950 – Sugar Ray Robinson knocks out Jose Basora to retain the
Pennsylvania Middleweight Title.

1964 – Blair Underwood is born in Tacoma, Washington. He will
become an actor and will star in “Downtown,” and will be
best known for his role as “L.A. Law’s” Jonathan Rollins.

1965 – James M. Nabrit Jr. is named ambassador and assigned to
the United Nations’ delegation.

1991 – African Americans receive seven Emmy awards, a record
number up to that time.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 24 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 24 *

1854 – John VanSurley deGrasse, M.D., who received his medical
degree from Bowdoin College in 1849, becomes a member of
the Massachusetts Medical Society, a first for an African
American.

1854 – National Emigration Convention meets in Cleveland with one
hundred delegates. William C. Munroe of Michigan is
elected president.

1937 – Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola is born in Abeokuta,
Nigeria. He will a member of a very poor household of
Yoruba-speaking Muslims. He will attend the Islamic Nawar
Ud-Deen School and the Christian-run African Central
School. After graduating from the Baptist Boys’ High
School, he will work as a bank clerk and a civil servant.
He will go on to win a scholarship to Glasgow University
to study accounting. He will graduate with several awards
in 1965. He will return to Nigeria and will work for
major firms before launching his own company, Radio
Communications of Nigeria, in 1974. He will accumulate
great wealth in a short period of time. His business
interests will span 60 countries and include firms engaged
in banking, shipping, oil prospecting, agriculture,
publishing, air transportation, and entertainment. His
Nigerian companies alone will employ close to 20,000
workers. He will oppose the Nigerian military
dictatorship and on June 12, 1993, will be elected
president in a long awaited presidential election, only to
have the election results nullified by the country’s
military leader. When Abiola announces a year later that
he is the country’s legitimate leader, he will be
imprisoned by the current dictator, General Sani Abacha.
After Abacha joins the ancestors suddenly in 1998,
attempts were made to free Abiola, but he will also join
the ancestors on July 7, 1998, before his freedom becomes
a reality. His death will cause violence to occur and spur
anti-government anger throughout the country.

1965 – Reggie Miller is born. He will become a professional
basketball player and guard for the Indiana Pacers. He
will play on the ‘Dream Team’ in the 1996 Olympics.

1967 – Amanda Randolph joins the ancestors at the age of 65. She
had been an actress and was best known for her roles on
the Danny Thomas Show and television’s Amos ‘n’ Andy
(Mama).

1987 – Bayard Rustin, longtime civil rights activist, early
Freedom Rider, and a key organizer of the 1963 March on
Washington, joins the ancestors in New York City. A
Quaker, Rustin was best known as a civil rights advocate,
first as one of the founders of the Congress for Racial
Equality (CORE), then as a key advisor to a young Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 23 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – August 23 *

1826 – Edward A. Jones receives his B.A. degree from Amherst
College. John Brown Russwurm is considered to be the
first African American in America to graduate from
college. Two years after entering Bowdoin College, he
receives his baccalaureate degree on September 6, 1826.
Edward A. Jones, the lesser known of the two, graduates
just two weeks prior on this date in 1826 from Amherst
College. Both men will receive their Masters Degrees,
John in 1829 and Edward in 1830.

1833 – Great Britain frees 700,000 slaves in its colonies.

1892 – O.E. Brown, inventor, receives a patent for a horseshoe.

1900 – The National Negro Business League is formed in Boston,
Massachusetts. Sponsored by Booker T. Washington, the
organization is established to stimulate the development
of African American businesses.

1908 – Fifty-two nurses, led by Martha M. Franklin, form the
National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses.

1917 – A riot occurs in Houston, Texas, when the 24th Infantry
seeks revenge on the city’s white police after the brutal
beating of two of the regiment’s soldiers. After two
hours of violence, 15 whites, including four policemen,
will be killed and 12 more are injured. Four soldiers
will die as a result of the violence. One hundred and
eighteen soldiers will be charged in connection with the
riots and 19 executed, most in almost total secrecy, in
one of the most infamous court-martials ever involving
African Americans.

1989 – An African American teenager named Yusef Hawkins is chased
and beaten to death by a mob of 30 white youths from the
neighborhood of Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, New York. The
only provocation is that he is African American in an
all-white neighborhood.

2003 – Bobby Bonds joins the ancestors at the age of 57 after
succumbing to lung cancer. He was a former San Francisco
Giant player.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 22 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 22 *

1788 – The British settlement in Sierra Leone is founded to
provide a home in Africa for freed slaves and homeless
Africans from England.

1791 – The Haitian Revolution begins with revolt of slaves in the
northern province.

1791 – Mathematician Benjamin Banneker serves on commission which
will survey the District of Columbia.

1843 – Henry Highland Garnet issues a call for slave revolt in “An
Address to Slaves of the United States” before a national
convention of African Americans in Buffalo, New York.

1867 – Fisk University is established in Nashville, Tennessee.

1880 – George Herriman is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. A
perfectly ordinary-looking guy from beginning to end,
albeit with a few small quirks (such as never allowing a
picture to be taken of him without a hat). But behind that
relatively normal exterior lurked the unique genius who
created the cartoon Krazy Kat. His family moved to Los
Angeles, CA, when he was six years old, although from
various accounts, he seems to have kept his New Orleans
accent (very different from standard Southern) well into
adult life. He called Los Angeles his home town because it
was there that his family shed the labels that accrued to
them as a result of their partially African ancestry. He
will join the ancestors on April 25, 1944.

1917 – John Lee Hooker, who will become a renowned blues singer
and guitarist, is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

1950 – Althea Gibson becomes the first African American competitor
in national tennis competition.

1951 – The Harlem Globetrotters play in Olympic Stadium, Berlin,
Germany before 75,052 non-paying spectators. This is the
largest crowd to witness a basketball game (up to that
time).

1978 – Jomo Kenyatta (original name KAMAU NGENGI), president of
Kenya, joins the ancestors after succumbing to heart
failure in his sleep while vacationing in Mobasa, Kenya at
the age of 83. He was the leading force in Kenya’s
independence struggles.

1979 – 200 African American leaders meet in New York City in
support of Andrew Young (after he had resigned as U.N.
ambassador under pressure for “unauthorized” meeting with
the PLO) and demand that African Americans be given a voice
in shaping American foreign policy.

1984 – Evelyn Ashford of the United States ties the world women’s
mark for the 100 meters (10.76 seconds).

1984 – New York Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden becomes the 11th rookie
to strikeout 200 batters.

1989 – Huey Percy Newton joins the ancestors in Oakland,
California. The founder of the Black Panther Party is
shot to death outside a crack cocaine house, allegedly by
a drug dealer whom Newton had robbed (Gunman Tyrone
Robinson will sentenced later to 32 years to life in
prison).

2011 – Nickolas Ashford joins the ancestors at the age of 70, after
succumbing to complications of throat cancer. With Valerie
Simpson, his songwriting partner and later his wife, he wrote
some of Motown’s biggest hits, like “Ain’t No Mountain High
Enough” and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” before they
remade their careers as a recording and touring duo.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 21 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 21 *

1831 – Responding to a vision commanding him to lead his people
to freedom, Nat Turner and a group of seven freedom-
fighting slaves kill five members of the Travis family
in Southampton County, Virginia. Turner’s revolt will
last two days, involve 60 to 80 freedom-fighting slaves
and result in the deaths of at least 57 whites before
they go into hiding. Nat Turner manages to escape
capture for over six weeks. After his capture, he
confesses to his actions, is tried, and executed. This
revolt is significant because it will make the problem
of slavery visible to the Northerners, who within the
next 30 years will fight and die to end America’s
“peculiar institution.”

1906 – William “Count” Basie is born in Redbank, New Jersey.
One of the most influential forces in jazz, he will
amass numerous awards, including three Grammys and
Kennedy Center Honors in 1981 . He will join the
ancestors on April 26, 1984. NOTE: Many sources will
have 1904 for Count Basie’s birth year. Our source for
his birth and death is the Kennedy Center Archives
documenting “The Honors” bestowed on him in 1981.

1927 – The Fourth Pan-African Congress meets in New York City.

1932 – Melvin Van Pebbles is born in Chicago, Illinois. A
writer and dramatist, he will produce some of the more
important African American feature films of the 1960’s
and 1970’s, including “Story of a Three Day Pass,”
“Watermelon Man,” “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadass Song” and
the classic, “Putney Swope.”

1936 – Wilton Norman Chamberlain is born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Achieving a height of 6’11” in high school,
he will be recruited to play basketball for Kansas
University. He will leave Kansas University in his third
year to play with the Harlem Globetrotters and join the
Philadelphia Warriors (later 76ers) in 1959. He will
join the Los Angeles Lakers in 1969 and become a player-
coach in 1968 for the San Diego Conquistadors of the
American Basketball Association. He will lead the NBA in
scoring seven times, accumulate a 4,029 season point
record and become a seven-time all-NBA first teamer. He
will join the ancestors on October 12, 1999.

1938 – The classic recording, “Ain’t Misbehavin” is made by Fats
Waller.

1939 – Clarence Williams III is born in New York City. He will
become an actor best known for his starring role in the
television series, “The Mod Squad” as Lincoln.

1943 – Harriet M. West becomes the first African American woman
major in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). She becomes chief
of planning in the Bureau Control Division at the WAC
headquarters in Washington, DC.

1945 – Willie Lanier (Pro Football Hall of Famer and Kansas City
Chiefs linebacker: Super Bowl IV), is born.

1954 – Archie Griffin (Heisman Trophy winner: Ohio State [1974 &
1975]; Cincinnati Bengals running back: Super Bowl XVI),
is born.

1968 – Marine James Anderson Jr. becomes the first African
American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor
for his service in the Vietnam War.

1972 – The Republican National Convention convenes in Miami Beach,
Florida, with fifty-six African American delegates, 4.2
\ per cent of the total.

1986 – More than 1,700 people die when toxic gas erupts from a
volcanic lake in the West African nation of Cameroon.

1998 – Juanita Kidd Stout, the first African American woman to
serve on the supreme court in any state (January, 1988),
joins the ancestors in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Stout
loses a battle against leukemia at Thomas Jefferson
Hospital.

2000 – Julian Richardson, the owner of a San Francisco book
store that served as a meeting place for black artists
and activists in the city, joins the ancestors after
succumbing to heart failure at the age of 84. He
established the Marcus Bookstore in 1960, naming it after
Black nationalist writer and activist Marcus Garvey. The
store was a staple of black culture and was a gathering
place for Black Panthers supporters during the civil
rights era. Through the years, writers such as Alice
Walker, Ishmael Reed, Terry MacMillan and Cornel West
came to the bookstore. He studied lithography in college
and opened his own printing business. He used his skills
to print books, pamphlets and manuscripts on black
culture that otherwise would have to have been ordered
from the East Coast.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 20 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 20 *

1565 – Artisans and farmers of African descent aid explorer
Menendez in the building of St. Augustine, Florida.

1619 – The first group of 20 Africans is brought by the Dutch
to the colony at Jamestown, Virginia. The early
African arrivals will be considered indentured servants,
and indeed records in the Chesapeake area will show
many freed people of African descent. In 1650, the laws
will be changed to make servitude permanent for Africans
and their offspring.

1856 – Wilberforce University is established in Wilberforce,
Ohio. It will become the nation’s oldest, private
African American university.

1931 – Donald “Don” King is born in Cleveland, Ohio. He will
become a boxing promoter who will control the heavyweight
title from 1978-1990 while Larry Holmes and Mike Tyson
are champions. He will gain fame in 1974 by sponsoring
the boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman
in Zaire, popularly known as “The Rumble in the Jungle.”
He will solidify his position as an influential promoter
the next year by sponsoring a third match for Ali against
Joe Frazier in Manila, the capital of the Philippines,
which King named the “Thrilla In Manila.” He will also
promote one of the final fights of Ali’s career against
Larry Holmes. He will be known for his flamboyant manner
and outrageous hair styled to stand straight up. He will
promote the fights of such fighters as Sugar Ray Leonard,
Leon Spinks, Roberto Durán, Julio César Chávez, Mike
Tyson, Evander Holyfield, and Felix Trinidad. His
financial success will continue into the 1980s and ’90s.
In 1983, he will promote 12 world championship bouts.
In 1994, he will promote 47 such bouts. He will be
heavily criticized, however, for a business strategy
that results in his control over many of the top boxers,
especially in the lucrative heavyweight division. He will
use a contractual clause that requires a boxer who wished
to challenge a fighter belonging to King to agree to be
promoted by King in the future should he win. Thus, no
matter which boxer won, he represented the winner. Those
who were unwilling to sign contracts with this obligatory
clause found it very difficult to obtain fights,
especially title fights, with boxers who were promoted by
him. He will be the focus of a myriad of criminal
investigations and will be indicted numerous times. In
1999, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation seized
thousands of records from his offices that concerned
alleged payoffs by him to the president of the
International Boxing Federation for the purpose of
procuring more favorable rankings for his boxers. He will
be a mixed blessing to the sport. On one hand, he will
organize some of the largest purses in the history of the
sport and creatively promote boxing and his bouts. On the
other hand, his legal problems and controversial tactics
will reinforce the public perception of boxing as a
corrupt sport.

1942 – Isaac Lee Hayes is born in Covington, Tennessee. He will
begin his recording career in 1962, soon playing saxophone
for The Mar-Keys. After writing a string of hit songs at
Stax Records with songwriting partner David Porter,
including “Soul Man” and “Hold On I’m Comin” for Sam and
Dave, he will release his debut album “Presenting Isaac
Hayes.” A moderate success, the album will be recorded
immediately following a wild party. The top-selling “Hot
Buttered Soul” (1969) will be a breakthrough album, and
establish his image (gold jewelry, sunglasses, etc) which
eventually will become a template for much of the fashion
of gangsta rap and similar trends in the 1980s and 90s.
His biggest hit will be 1971’s soundtrack to the movie
“Shaft.” The title song will win an Oscar (the first for
a Black composer), and will clearly presaged disco.
“Black Moses” (1971) will become almost as successful. By
1975, he will leave Stax Records and form his own label
called Hot Buttered Soul Records. A series of unsuccessful
albums will lead to bankruptcy in 1976. The late 1970s
will see a major comeback for him, following the release
of “A Man and a Woman” (1977, with Dionne Warwick). In
spite of moderate success as a singer, his records will
not sell very well. He will also forge a career as an
actor in TV shows and feature films. He will be inducted
into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. On June 9,
2005, he will be inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of
Fame. He will also voice the character “Chef”, a singing
ladies’ man and elementary school cook, on the popular
animated sitcom “South Park” from 1997 until 2006. He will
join the ancestors on August 10, 2008.

1954 – Albert Lincoln “Al” Roker, co-anchor of the “Today” show,
is born in Queens, New York. He will attend the State
University of New York at Oswego, where he will double
major in graphic design and broadcasting/journalism. He
will work in television around the Cleveland and New York
areas before becoming a weatherman for WNBC in New York.
He will get more exposure, especially when David Letterman
asks him to do an elevator race with him in one episode of
his talk show, “Late Night with David Letterman.” That
will lead to him getting a job as the weekend weatherman
for “Weekend Today,” where he will do the weather for
nine years. He will also substitute on the weekday edition
of “Today” when Willard Scott is ill or away. In 1996,
Scott will announce his semi-retirement from the show, and
Al will receive the weekday weatherman position on
“Today.” He will become popular for doing his forecasts
outside of the studio, interviewing audience members and
giving some of them camera time. One of his best known
lines from the show will be “…and here’s what’s
happening in your neck of the woods.”

1964 – The Economic Opportunity Act is signed by President Lyndon
B. Johnson. The act initiates what will popularly be
called the “War on Poverty.”

1989 – The first National Black Theater Festival closes in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Organized by Larry Leon
Hamlin, the festival will draw over 20,000 people to
performances of African American classical and
contemporary plays by groups such as the Crossroads
Theater from New Brunswick, New Jersey and the Inner City
Cultural Center of Los Angeles.

1993 – Dr. David Satcher is named director of the Centers for
Disease Control.

1994 – Benjamin Chavis, Jr. is terminated as head of the NAACP
after a turbulent 16-month tenure.

2000 – Eldrick “Tiger” Woods beats Bob May in a three-hole
playoff to win the P.G.A. Championship. Woods is the
first golfer since Ben Hogan in 1953, to win three major
championships in a year. He also becomes the first repeat
winner of the championship since 1936.

2012 – Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a strongman in the
troubled Horn of Africa and a key United States ally, joins
the ancestors at the age of 57.

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