KRLemmons African American History

December 4 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 4 *

1783 – George Washington’s farewell address to his troops is
held at Fraunces Tavern in New York City. The tavern
is owned by Samuel “Black Sam” Fraunces, a wealthy
West Indian of African and French descent who aided
Revolutionary forces with food and money.

1807 – Prince Hall, activist and Masonic leader, joins the
ancestors in Boston, Massachusetts.

1833 – The American Anti-Slavery Society is founded in
Philadelphia by James Barbados, Robert Purvis, James
McCrummell, James Forten, Jr., John B. Vashon and
others.

1895 – Fort Valley State College is established in Georgia.

1895 – The South Carolina Constitutional Convention adopted a
new constitution with “understanding clause” designed
to eliminate African American voters.

1899 – The Fifty-Sixth Congress convenes with only one African
American congressman, George H. White, from North
Carolina.

1906 – Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. is founded on the
campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York,
becoming the first African American Greek-letter
organization.

1909 – The New York “Amsterdam News” is founded by James
Anderson. Originally priced at two cents, it will grow
to a circulation of almost 35,000 by 1990.

1915 – The NAACP leads protest demonstrations against the
showing of the racist movie, “Birth of a Nation.”

1915 – The Ku Klux Klan receives its charter from Fulton
County, Georgia Superior Court. The modern Klan will
spread to Alabama and other Southern states and reach
the height of its influence in the twenties. By 1924,
the organization will be strong in Oklahoma, Indiana,
California, Oregon, Indiana, and Ohio, and have an
estimated four million members.

1927 – President Coolidge commutes Marcus Garvey’s sentence.
Garvey will be taken to New Orleans and deported to his
native Jamaica.

1927 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Anthony Overton,
publisher, insurance executive and cosmetics
manufacturer, for his achievements as a businessman.

1927 – Duke Ellington’s big band opens at the famed Cotton Club
in Harlem. It is the first appearance of the Duke’s
new and larger group. He will play the club until 1932.

1943 – Professional baseball’s commissioner Landis announces
that any club may sign Negroes to a playing contract.

1956 – Bernard King, professional basketball player (New York
Knicks, New Jersey Nets), is born.

1958 – Dahomey (Benin), and the Ivory Coast become autonomous
within the French Community of Nations.

1969 – The Pulitzer Prize for photography is awarded to Moneta
Sleet Jr. of Ebony magazine. He is the first African
American male cited by the Pulitzer committee.

1969 – Clarence Mitchell Jr., director of the Washington Bureau
of the NAACP, is awarded the Spingarn Medal “for the
pivotal role he….played in the enactment of civil
rights legislation.”

1969 – Two Black Panther leaders, Fred Hampton(Illinois State
Chairman) and Mark Clark, join the ancestors after
being killed in a Chicago police raid. The two men are
shot while sleeping in their beds. Fred Hampton is
just 20 years old.

1977 – Jean-Bedel Bokassa, ruler of the Central African Empire,
crowns himself.

1981 – According to South Africa, Ciskei gains independence,
but is not recognized as an independent country outside
South Africa.

1982 – Hershel Walker, a University of Georgia running back who
amassed an NCAA record of 5,097 yards in three seasons,
is named the Heisman Trophy winner. He is only the
seventh junior to win the award. He will go on to play
with the New Jersey Generals of the U.S. Football League
and the Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys in the NFL.

1990 – The Watts Health Foundation reports revenues in excess of
$100 million for the first year in its history.
Established in 1967, the Foundation grew from its initial
site on riot-torn 103rd Street to serve over 80,000
residents of the Greater Los Angeles area with its HMO,
United Health Plan, and its numerous community-based
programs. Led by CEO Dr. Clyde Oden, it is the largest
community-based health care system of its kind in the
nation.

1992 – United States troops land in the country of Somalia.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 3 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 3 *

1841 – Abolitionist Charles Lenox Remond returns to the United
States after a year and a half in Great Britain. He
had been serving as a delegate to the world Anti-
Slavery Convention in London. He brings with him an
“Address from the People of Ireland” including 60,000
signatures urging Irish-Americans to “oppose slavery by
peaceful means and to insist upon liberty for all
regardless of color, creed, or country.”

1843 – The Society of Colored People in Baltimore, is the first
African American Catholic association whose
documentation has been preserved. Their notebook will
begin today and continue until September 7, 1845.

1847 – Frederick Douglass and Martin R. Delaney begin the
publication of “The North Star” newspaper, one of the
leading abolitionist newspapers of its day.

1864 – The Twenty-Fifth Corps, the largest all African American
unit in the history of the U.S. Army, is established by
General Order # 297 of the War Department, Adjutant
General’s Office. The Colored Troops of the Department
of Virginia and North Carolina were organized into the
Twenty-Fifth Corps under the command of Major General G.
Weitzel.

1866 – John Swett Rock, a Massachusetts lawyer and dentist joins
the ancestors. He had become the first African American
certified to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase appointed Dr. Rock to
present cases before the Supreme Court on December 31,
1865.

1868 – The trial of ex-Confederacy president, Jefferson Davis
starts, marking the first United States trial with
African Americans included in the jury.

1883 – The Forty-Eighth Congress (1883-85) convenes. Only Two
African Americans are included as representatives. They
are James E. O’Hara of North Carolina and Robert Smalls
of South Carolina.

1883 – George L. Ruffin is appointed a city judge in Boston,
Massachusetts.

1922 – Ralph Alexander Gardner-Chavis is born in Cleveland, Ohio.
He will become a pioneer chemist whose research into
plastics leads to the development of so-called “hard
plastics.” His innovations in the manipulation of
catalytic chemicals will lead to the products for the
petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries as well as
plastics.

1951 – President Truman names a committee to monitor compliance
with anti-discrimination provisions in U.S. government
contracts and sub-contracts.

1956 – Wilt Chamberlain plays in his first collegiate basketball
game and scores 52 points.

1962 – Edith Spurlock Sampson is sworn in as the first African
American woman judge.

1964 – The Spingarn Medal is presented to NAACP executive
secretary Roy Wilkins for his contribution to “the
advancement of the American people and the national
purpose.”

1964 – The Independence Bank of Chicago is organized.

1964 – J. Raymond Jones is elected leader of the New York
Democratic organization (Tammany Hall).

1970 – Jennifer Josephine Hosten become the first African
American Miss World.

1979 – An University of Southern California running back,
Charles White, is named the Heisman Trophy winner for
1979. White, who gained a career regular season total
of 5,598 yards, will play professionally for the Los
Angeles Rams.

1982 – Thomas Hearns unifies the world boxing titles in the
junior middleweight division by capturing the WBC title
over Wilfredo Benitez.

1988 – Barry Sanders wins the Heisman Trophy.

1988 – In South Africa, 11 black funeral mourners are slain in
Natal Province in an attack blamed on security forces.

1990 – “Black Art – Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in
African American Art” opens at the Dallas Museum of Art.
United States and Caribbean artists represented among
the more than 150 works include Richmond Barthe’, John
Biggers, Aaron Douglas, Malvin Gray Johnson, Sargent
Johnson, and Houston Conwill.

1997 – President Clinton hosts his first town hall meeting on
America’s race relations in Akron, Ohio.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 2 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 2 *

1859 – John Brown, abolitionist who planned the failed attack
on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, is hanged at
Charles Town, West Virginia.

1866 – Harry T. Burleigh, singer and composer, is born in
Erie, Pennsylvania. He will be educated at the
National Conservatory of Music in New York City, where
he will meet and form a lasting friendship with Anton
Dvorak. He will eventually be awarded the NAACP’s
Spingarn Medal. Burleigh will be best known for his
arrangements of the Negro spiritual “Deep River”. He
will join the ancestors on December 12, 1949.

1884 – Granville T. Woods receives a patent for his first
electric device, an improved telephone transmitter.

1891 – North Carolina A&T College, Delaware State College and
West Virginia State College are established.

1891 – The Fifty-second Congress convenes. Only one African
American congressman has been elected – Henry P.
Cheatham of North Carolina.

1891 – Charles Harris Wesley, historian, educator, and
administrator, is born in Louisville, Kentucky. His
published works will include, “Neglected History,”
“Collapse of the Confederacy,” and “Negro Labor in the
United States,”and “1850-1925: A Study of American
Economic History.” He will join the ancestors on
August 16, 1987.

1908 – John Baxter “Doc” Taylor joins the ancestors as a result
of of typhoid pneumonia at the age of 26. Taylor had
been a record-setting quarter miler and the first
African American Olympic gold medal winner in the 4 x
400-meter medley in the 1908 London games.

1922 – Charles C. Diggs is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will
become an early member of the civil rights movement and
will attend the trial of Emmett Till’s murderers. In
1954, he will defeat incumbent U.S. Representative
George D. O’Brien in the Democratic Party primary
elections for Michigan’s 13th congressional district. He
will go on to win the general election to the 84th
Congress and be subsequently re-elected to the next
twelve Congresses. He will be the first African American
elected to Congress from the state of Michigan. He will
also be elected the first chairman of the Congressional
Black Caucus. He will serve as a congressman from January
3, 1955, until his resignation June 3, 1980. He will
resign from the United States House of Representatives
and serve 14 months of a three-year sentence for mail
fraud, although he maintained his innocence. He will join
the ancestors on August 24, 1998.

1923 – Roland Hayes becomes the first African American to sing
in the Symphony Hall in Boston, Massachusetts.

1940 – William Ferdie ‘Willie’ Brown is born in Yazoo City,
Mississippi. He will play college football at Grambling
State University and will not be drafted by any
professional team after leaving college in 1963. He will
be signed by the Houston Oilers of the American Football
League (AFL), but will be cut from the team during training
camp. He will then be signed by the AFL’s Denver Broncos
and became a starter by the middle of his rookie season. He
will win All-AFL honors in his second season and play in
the AFL All-Star Game, recording nine interceptions for 144
yards. In 1967, he will be traded to the AFL’s Oakland
Raiders and spend the remainder of his playing career there.
He will serve as defensive captain for 10 of his 12 years
with the team. He will be named to five AFL All-Star games
and four NFL Pro Bowls. He will also be named All-AFL three
times and All-NFL four times. His most memorable moment as
a Raider will come during Super Bowl XI, when he intercepts
a Fran Tarkenton pass and return it a Super Bowl-record 75
yards for a touchdown. His record will stand for 29 years.
He will retire after the 1978 season, and finish his Raiders’
career with 39 interceptions. He will finish his 16
professional football season seasons with 54 interceptions,
which he returned for 472 yards and two touchdowns. He will
also recover three fumbles. He will be a member of the
American Football League All-Time Team and be inducted into
the Pro Football Hall of Fame on July 28, 1984, his first
year of eligibility. In 1999, he will be ranked number 50 on
The Sporting News’ list of the 100 Greatest Football Players,
making him the highest-ranking Raiders player.

1943 – “Carmen Jones,” a contemporary reworking of the Bizet
opera “Carmen” by Oscar Hammerstein II with an all-black
cast, opens on Broadway.

1953 – Dr. Rufus Clement, president of Atlanta University, is
elected to the Atlanta Board of Education.

1975 – Ohio State running back Archie Griffin becomes the first
person ever to win the Heisman Trophy twice, when he is
awarded his second trophy in New York City. He amassed
a career record of 5,176 yards and 31 consecutive 100
yard plus games.

1989 – Andre Ware of the University of Houston, becomes the
first African American quarterback to win the Heisman
Trophy.

1992 – Dr. Maya Angelou is asked to compose a poem for William
Jefferson Clinton’s presidential inauguration.

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