KRLemmons African American History

January 12 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 12                *

1879 – British troops invade Zululand from Natal, confident that they
could crush the Zulu forces armed with spears and shields.
However, the well-trained Zulu army repulses the initial
attack, killing over 1300 British troops in the Battle of
Isandlwana. But that success will exhaust the Zulu army, and
before Cetshwayo could mount a counteroffensive into Natal,
British troops from around the Empire will be rushed to
southern Africa, where their advanced weaponry will bring them
ultimate victory in the six-month Anglo-Zulu war. The British
will conclude their aggressive venture by dividing up Zululand
among thirteen pro-British chiefs, effectively destroying the
Zulu kingdom.

1890 – Mordecai Wyatt Johnson is born in Paris, Tennessee.  He will
become the first African American president of Howard
University in 1926, a position he will hold for 34 years. He
will also be a recipient of the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal in 1929.
He will retire in 1960, and will join the ancestors on
September 11, 1976 in Washington, DC.

1920 – James Farmer is born in Marshall, Texas.  He will become an
African American civil rights leader and activist.  He will
found the Committee on Racial Equality in 1942 and later
change the name of the organization to the Congress of Racial
Equality. Farmer and CORE will be the architects of the
“Freedom Rides” that will lead to the desegregation of over
100 bus terminals in the South.  He will become a major player
during the Civil Rights movement.  He will be awarded the
Congressional Medal of Freedom in 1998 by President Bill
Clinton.  He will join the ancestors on July 9, 1999 in
Fredericksburg, Virginia, at the age of 79.

1944 – Joseph William “Joe” Frazier is born in Beaufort, South
Carolina. He will become a boxer and will win the Olympic Gold
Medal in 1964 in Tokyo, Japan.  He will go on to win the
heavyweight title on February 16, 1970, after knocking out
Jimmy Ellis in five rounds.  He will remain champion until
January 22, 1973, when he is knocked out in the second round
by George Foreman. He will be inducted into the Ring’s Boxing
Hall of Fame in 1980 and into the International Boxing Hall of
Fame in 1990. He will join the ancestors on November 7, 2011.

1946 – George Duke is born in San Rafael, California, and will be
reared in Marin City, a working class section of Marin County.
He will become a major recording artist, heavily influenced by
Miles Davis and the soul-jazz sound of Les McCann and Cal
Tjader.  He and a young singer named Al Jarreau will form a
group becoming the house band at San Francisco’s Half Note
Club.  Over the years, George will work with Sonny Rollins,
Dexter Gordon, Frank Zappa, Cannonball Adderley, Nancy Wilson,
Joe Williams, and Dizzy Gillespie.  He will be a prolific
songwriter and producer.

1948 – The United States Supreme Court decision (Sipuel v. Oklahoma
State Board of Regents) said a state must afford African
Americans “an opportunity to commence the study of law at a
state institution at the same time as [other] citizens.”

1951 – Ezzard Charles knocks out Lee Oma to retain the heavyweight
boxing crown.

1952 – The University of Tennessee admits its first African American
student.

1959 – Berry Gordy borrows $800 from a family loan fund to form Motown
Records.  The record company’s first releases will appear on
the Tamla label.

1960 – Jacques Dominique Wilkins is born in Paris, France. He will
become a NBA forward and play the majority of his career for
the Atlanta Hawks. He will be a nine-time NBA All-Star and the
winner of two NBA Slam Dunk Contests, register 26,668 points
(one of only 12 players to do so) and 7,169 rebounds in his
NBA career. He will not foul out during his final 957 games,
the third longest such streak (behind Moses Malone and Wilt
Chamberlain). He will be inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall
of Fame on April 3, 2004 and into the Naismith Memorial
Basketball Hall of Fame on April 3, 2006.

1964 – Leftist rebels in Zanzibar begin their successful revolt against
the government.

1965 – Noted playwright Lorraine Hansberry joins the ancestors, after
succumbing to cancer in New York City at the age of 34, while
her second play, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” is
playing on Broadway.  Her first and most famous work, “A
Raisin in the Sun,” brought her wide acclaim on Broadway,
earned her the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best
play, and became a motion picture starring Sidney Poitier,
Ruby Dee, and Claudia McNeil.

1971 – The Congressional Black Caucus is organized.

1982 – A commemorative stamp of Ralph Bunche is issued by the U.S.
Postal Service as part of its Great Americans series.

1988 – Willie Stargell, formally of the Pittsburgh Pirates, is elected
to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1990 – Civil Rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton is stabbed in Brooklyn,
New York, in Bensonhurst.

1995 – In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, an American soldier is killed and
another wounded during a shootout with a former Haitian army
officer who also was killed.

1995 – Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, is arrested in
Minneapolis, Minnesota on charges that she had tried to hire
a hit man to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. The
charges will later be dropped.

2002 – Jerry Rice, playing for the Oakland Raiders, becomes the oldest
player in the NFL to date, to score in a playoff game.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 11 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 11                 *

1870 – The first reconstruction legislature meets in Jackson,
Mississippi. Thirty one of the 106 representatives and five
of the 33 senators are African American.

1892 – William D. McCoy, of Indiana, is appointed United States
Minister to Liberia.

1902 – Acknowledging the increasing attention African American
athletes receive, the Baltimore “Afro-American” states, “Mr.
[Joe] Gans gets more space in the white papers than all the
respectable colored people in the state.” Gans is the world
lightweight boxing champion and first native African
American world title holder.

1924 – James Moore is born in Lobdell, Louisiana (outside of Baton
Rouge).  During the 1940’s Moore will teach himself how to
play the harmonica and begin working jukes, clubs, parties,
and picnics in Louisiana.  Moore will work professionally
with Lightnin’ Slim and will be known as “Slim Harpo.” 
Harpo will be a big influence on British blues-rockers of
the mid-Sixties.

1936 – Charles W. Anderson enters the Kentucky House of
Representatives as its first elected African American member.
He will serve for six consecutive terms and will help to
dismantle legal segregation in his state, when his bill
allowing African American and white nurses to go to the same
school is passed in 1948.

1947 – Evangelina Rodriguez joins the ancestors in San Pedro de
Macoris, Dominican Republic. She had been the first woman to
graduate from medical school in the Dominican Republic,
becoming the first woman physician to practice in that
country.

1957 – Darryl Dawkins is born in Orlando, Florida.  He will become
one of only five players to enter the NBA right out of high
school and survive. He will go on to play for fourteen
seasons as a center for the New Jersey Nets and Philadelphia
76’ers.

1960 – Chad declares its independence from France.

1961 – Racially motivated disturbance erupts on the University of
Georgia campus as a result of civil rights demonstrations by
African American students. African American students
Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes are suspended but will
be reinstated by a federal court order. Hunter-Gault will
become an Emmy award-winning journalist with “The
MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour.”

1962 – Nelson Mandela leaves South Africa, traveling to Ethiopia,
Algeria, and England to speak out against apartheid in South
Africa.

1985 – Reuben V. Anderson is appointed as judge on the Mississippi
Supreme Court.  Anderson is the first African American named
to the court.

1986 – L. Douglas Wilder, of Virginia, is sworn in as the first
African American Lt. Governor since reconstruction.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 10 African American Historical Events

 Today in Black History – January 10                *

1768 – James Varick is born in Orange County, New York.  Racism in
New York City will lead Varick, a licensed clergyman, and 
30 other African Americans to leave the famous and
predominantly white John Street Methodist Episcopal Church
and establish the first African American church in New York
City.  He will later become the founder and first bishop of
the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. He will join
the ancestors on July 22, 1827. His remains now rest in the
crypt of the Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
in the village of Harlem in New York City.

1811 – African Americans in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania hold meetings
at Bethel Church to protest The American Colonization
Society’s campaign “to exile us from the land of our
nativity.”

1811 – Slaves in Louisiana rebel in two parishes about thirty-five
miles from New Orleans.  The revolt is suppressed by U.S.
troops.

1870 – The legislature in the state of Georgia reconvenes and admits
African American representatives and senators.

1889 – The Ivory Coast is declared a protectorate of France.

1925 – Drummer Maxwell Lemuel “Max” Roach is born in Newland, North
Carolina. He will become an influential figure in the development
of modern jazz, playing with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie,
and Clifford Brown before forming his own groups in the
1950’s.  He will achieve wide acclaim for his superb musical
innovation.  He also will be an educator, teaching at
Lennox, Massachusetts School of Jazz, Yale University, and
Professor of Music at the University of Massachusetts
(Amherst). He will join the ancestors on August 16, 2007.

1938 – Willie McCovey is born in Mobile, Alabama.  He will become a
professional baseball player in 1959.  In more than two
decades later, Willie will end his career, and garner an
impressive array of baseball’s most coveted awards: Rookie
of the Year in 1959; MVP in 1969; six times an All-Star and
once the All-Star Game MVP; Comeback Player of the Year in
1977 and the National League’s all-time left-handed home run
hitter.

1949 – George Foreman is born in Marshall, Texas.  He will become a
professional boxer and win the world heavyweight
championship in 1973.  He will retire from boxing in 1977
after a defeat by Jimmy Young. He will enter the ministry
and stay away from boxing for ten years.  He will return to
boxing in 1987 at the age of 37 and become the oldest
heavyweight champion at age 45 on November 5, 1994.

1966 – The Georgia House of Representatives refuses to seat African
American legislator Julian Bond, SNCC communications
director, because of his opposition to U.S. involvement in
the Vietnam War.  He will be seated almost one year later,
after a legal battle that will eventually be resolved by the
U.S. Supreme Court.

1967 – Edward Brooke, takes his seat as the first popularly elected
African American United States Senator.

1976 – Chester Arthur Burnett, better known as “Howlin’ Wolf,” joins
the ancestors in Hines, Illinois. He was a blues legend that
helped to bring the Delta Blues music from Mississippi to
Chicago during the 1950’s. This music was the basis for the
Chicago blues sound.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 9 African American Historical Events

 Today in Black History – January 9                 *

1866 – Fisk College is established in Nashville, Tennessee.  Rust
College is established in Holly Springs, Mississippi. 
Lincoln University is established in Jefferson City,
Missouri.

1901 – Edward Mitchell Bannister joins the ancestors in Providence,
Rhode Island. Challenged to become an artist after reading a
newspaper article deriding African Americans’ ability to
produce art, he disproved that statement throughout a
distinguished art career.

1906 – Poet and author, Paul Laurence Dunbar, joins the ancestors
after succumbing to tuberculosis. Dunbar was so talented and
versatile that he succeeded in two worlds.  He was so adept
at writing verse in Black English that he became known as the
“poet of his people,” while also cultivating a white audience
that appreciated the brilliance and value of his work. 
“Majors and Minors” (1895), Dunbar’s second collection of
verse, was a remarkable work containing some of his best poems
in both Black and standard English.  When the country’s
reigning literary critic, William Dean Howells reviewed
“Majors and Minors” favorably, Dunbar became famous.  And
Howells’ introduction in “Lyric of Lowly Life” (1896) helped
make Dunbar the most popular African American writer in
America at the time.

1914 – Phi Beta Sigma fraternity is founded at Howard University. 

1935 – Earl G. Graves is born in Brooklyn, New York.  He will become
president and chief executive officer of Earl G. Graves, Ltd.,
the publisher of “Black Enterprise” magazine, a successful
entrepreneur, and one of the strongest advocates for
African American business.

1942 – Joe Louis knocks out Buddy Baer in the first round in the 20th
title defense of his world heavyweight title in New York City.

1946 – Lyric poet, Countee Cullen joins the ancestors in New York City
at the age of 42.  His several volumes of poetry include
“Color” (1925); “Copper Sun” (1927); “The Black Christ” (1929);
and “On These I Stand” (published posthumously, 1947), his
selection of poems by which he wished to be remembered.  Cullen
also wrote a novel dealing with life in Harlem, “One Way to
Heaven” (1931), and a children’s book, “The Lost Zoo” (1940).

1958 – The University of Cincinnati’s Oscar Robertson scores 56 points
against Seton Hall University, whose team total is 54 points.

1965 – Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues is born in Baltimore, Maryland.  He will
become a high school standout at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High, on
same team that produced first round draft picks Reggie Williams
and the late Reggie Lewis along with former Hornets teammate
David Wingate.  He will play college basketball at Wake Forest
(where his jersey #14 will be retired) and become a NBA guard
with the Charlotte Hornets and Golden State Warriors.  All
these accomplishments and only five feet three inches tall.

1967 – The Georgia legislature, bowing to legal decisions and national
pressure, seats state Representative Julian Bond, a critic of
the Vietnam War.

1970 – After 140 years of unofficial racial discrimination, the Mormon
Church issues an official statement declaring that Blacks were
not yet to receive the priesthood “for reasons which we
believe are known to God, but which He has not made fully
known to man.”

1989 – Time, Inc. agrees to sell NYT Cable for $420 million to Comcast
Corporation, Lenfest Communications, and an investment group
led by African American entrepreneur J. Bruce Llewellyn.  It is
the largest cable TV acquisition by an African American.
           

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