KRLemmons African American History

March 18 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 18 *

1895 – 200 African Americans leave Savannah, Georgia for Liberia.

1901 – William Henry Johnson is born. The Florence, South Carolina
native will leave his home for New York and Europe, where
he will develop a deliberate and controversial primitive
painting style.  Among his more famous works will be “Chain
Gang,” “Calvary,” and “Descent from the Cross.”

1939 – Charley Pride is born in Sledge, Mississippi. Intent on a
career in baseball, he will begin his country music career
in 1960, singing between innings at a company-sponsored
baseball game where he is a player.  A recording contract
will follow in 1964 and a debut with the “Grand Ole Opry”
in 1967.  Pride will become the first African American to
become a successful country music star.  His awards will
include a 1972 Grammy.

1941 – Wilson Pickett is born in Prattville, Alabama.  He will become
Rhythm & Blues singer and will begin his career as the lead
tenor with The Falcons (“I Found a Love” – 1962).  He will
become a solo artist and release the hits, “Funky Broadway,”
“In the Midnight Hour,” “Land of 1000 Dances,” “Mustang
Sally,” “It’s Too Late,” and “Don’t Knock My Love.” He will
be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. He
will join the ancestors on January 19, 2006.

1943 – William Hastie wins the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal.  A former
federal judge and law school dean, Hastie, a civilian aide
to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, had resigned his
position earlier in the year over the armed forces’
discriminatory practices.

1959 – Irene Cara is born in New York City.   She will become an
actress, singer, and songwriter.  She will receive an Academy
Award, two Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, plus numerous
other awards emanating from every aspect of the industry. Her
performance in the ground breaking 1980’s picture Fame (1980)
will catapult her into world wide stardom and motivate a
generation of young people to become involved in the
performing arts. 

1963 – Vanessa L. Williams is born in Millwood, New York (Westchester
County).  She will become the first African American Miss
America.  She will later become a popular singer, major
recording star, and movie actress.  She will star in the
Tony Award-winning musical “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” the
mini-series “Odyssey,” and the movies “Eraser,” “Hoodlum,”
“Soul Food,” and “Shut Up and Dance.”

1972 – The USS Jesse L. Brown, the first U.S. naval ship to be named
after an African American naval officer, is launched at
Westwego, Louisiana.  Brown was the first African American
pilot in the U.S. Naval Reserve and was the first African
American pilot killed in the Korean War (1950).   Editor’s
Note:  This was not the first naval vessel named after an
African American.  The USS Harmon was named after an enlisted
man, Leonard Roy Harmon, during World War II (1944).

1982 – Singer Teddy Pendergrass is paralyzed as a result of an
automobile accident.

1991 – The Philadelphia ’76ers retire Wilt Chamberlain’s #13 jersey.
 
1991 – Reggie Miller, of the Indiana Pacers ends his NBA free throw
streak of 52 games.

1992 – Donna Summers gets a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. 

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

KRLemmons African American History, Resources

March 17 Woman of the Day: Myrlie Beasley

March 17 Woman of the Day is Myrlie Beasley, who was born on March 17 1933, later marries Medgar Evers, and later becomes the first woman Chairperson of the NAACP.  More information about this amazing woman can be found here:

Other resources:                                                                                                                  History.com:http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/myrlie-evers-williams      

PBS Interview with Tavis Smiley: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/civil-rights-advocate-myrlie-evers-williams/     

NPR Interview: http://www.npr.org/2012/12/15/167271915/a-civil-rights-figures-long-road-to-carnegie-hall   

Speech on the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington: http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/myrlie-evers-williams-march-washington-anniversary-freedom-free-20095511

 

KRLemmons African American History

March 17 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 17 *

1806 – Norbert Rillieux is born a free man in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Rillieux will become best known for his revolutionary
improvements in sugar refining methods.  Awarded his second
patent for an evaporator, the invention will be widely used
throughout Louisiana and the West Indies, dramatically
increasing and modernizing sugar production.

1865 – Aaron Anderson wins the Navy’s Medal of Honor for his heroic
actions aboard the USS Wyandank during the Civil War.

1886 – A massacre occurs in Carrollton, Mississippi. Twenty African
Americans are killed by white supremacists.

1891 – West Virginia State College is founded in Institute, West
Virginia.

1896 – C.B. Scott receives a patent for the street sweeper.

1898 – Blanche Kelso Bruce joins the ancestors in Washington, DC at
the age of 57.

1912 – Bayard Rustin is born in West Chester, Pennsylvania.  He will
become a civil rights leader and peace activist.  He will join
Martin Luther King Jr. in organizing the bus boycott that will
establish King as a national figure.  For the next 10 years,
he will move back and forth between the world of the civil
rights movement and the world of peace activism.  He will be
instrumental in helping A. Philip Randolph plan the 1963 March
on Washington. But due to his youthful ties to the Communist
Party, a wartime imprisonment, and an arrest in California on
public morals charges, Rustin will be obligated to limit his
public exposure to avoid problems for King and others whom
Southern white leaders (and the FBI) were attempting to
destroy. He will join the ancestors on August 24, 1987.

1919 – Nathaniel Adams Coles is born in Montgomery, Alabama.  Better
known as Nat “King” Cole, he will start his musical career in
a band with his brother Eddie and in a production of “Shuffle
Along.”  Leader of the King Cole Trio, he will achieve
international acclaim as a jazz pianist before becoming an
even more popular balladeer known for such songs as “Mona
Lisa,” “The Christmas Song” and “Unforgettable.”  Cole will
also have the distinction of being the first African American
to host a network television variety show (1956-1957), a
pioneer in breaking down racial barriers in Las Vegas, and a
founding member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and
Sciences, which will honor him with a posthumous Lifetime
Achievement Grammy in 1989. He will join the ancestors on
February 15, 1965.

1933 – Myrlie Beasley is born in Vicksburg, Mississippi.  She will
become the wife of civil rights activist Medgar Evers in 1951
and will work with him in order to combat discrimination and
segregation in Mississippi.  Together, they will open and
manage the first NAACP Mississippi State Office.  Her husband
will be assassinated in 1963, by white supremacist, Byron de
la Beckwith.  She will later move to California where she will
graduate from Pomona College. She will work in the corporate
world as Director for Consumer Affairs at the Atlantic
Richfield Company and in government as a Commissioner of the
Los Angeles, California, Board of Public Works. She will be
the first African American woman to serve on that board. She
will be the author of the book, “For Us, the Living,” and the
recipient of numerous honorary degrees.  She will later become
Mrs. Myrlie Evers-Williams and be elected vice-chairperson of
the NAACP in 1994, and in 1995 will become the first woman
chairperson. In 1998, she will be succeeded by Julian Bond as
Chair of the NAACP.

1970 – The United States casts its first veto in the U.N. Security
Council. The U.S. kills a resolution that would have condemned
Britain for failure to use force to overthrow the white-ruled
government of Rhodesia.

2000 – More than 300 members of a religious sect burn to death in a
makeshift church in southwestern Uganda.

2008 – David Paterson is sworn in as New York’s 55th governor. He is
New York’s first Black governor and the nation’s first legally
blind governor.

           Munirah Chronicle is edited by Rene’ A. Perry