KRLemmons African American History

March 12 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 12 *

1791 – Benjamin Banneker and Pierre Charles L’Enfant are commissioned
to plan and develop Washington, DC.

1868 – Great Britain gives Basutoland, the status of protectorate at
the request of King Moshweshwe. The request of protection was
to prevent attacks by the Cape Colony.

1877 – The British annex Walvis Bay, an important deep water port in
South West Africa.

1888 – Hall Johnson is born in Athens, Georgia. In 1925, he will
organize and direct the Hall Johnson Choir as well as have
significant success as an arranger. One of his early stage
successes will be as choral director for the 1930 Broadway
play “The Green Pastures” and the 1933 play, “Run Little
Chillun,” for which he will write the book and music. Johnson
and his choir will move to Hollywood in 1936 to make the film
version of “The Green Pastures.”

1926 – The Savoy Ballroom, nicknamed the “Home of Happy Feet,” opens
in New York City.

1932 – Andrew Young is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He will become
a minister, influential leader in the civil rights movement,
first African American ambassador to the United Nations, and
mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.

1936 – Virginia Hamilton is born in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She will
become an award-winning author of juvenile fiction including
“House of Dies Drear,” “M.C. Higgins the Great,” and “Sweet
Whispers, Brother Rush.”

1940 – Alwyn Lopez “Al” Jarreau is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He
will become a singer and will be known for his recording of
the theme for the television show, “Moonlighting”. Al Jarreau
will become the first vocalist in musical history to win
Grammy Awards in three different categories (Rhythm & Blues,
Jazz, and Pop).

1945 – New York becomes the first state to prohibit discrimination by
race and creed in employment.

1955 – Charlie Parker joins the ancestors in New York City at the age
of 34. He had been one of the founders of the modern jazz
movement.

1962 – Darryl Strawberry is born in Los Angeles, California. He will
become a professional baseball player and will play right field
for the New York Mets, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San
Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees. He will set the
New York Mets all-time records for most runs (662), most RBIs
(733) and most home runs (252). He will be a member of the
winning World Series championship teams in 1986 and 1996.

1964 – Malcolm X resigns from the Nation of Islam.

1982 – Charles Fuller wins the Pulitzer Prize for “A Soldier’s Play.”

2003 – Lynne Thigpen, actress, joins the ancestors at age 54 after
succumbing to complications from an enlarged heart. She played
“the chief” on “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?”

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

KRLemmons African American Plays, African American Playwrights, Lesson Plans, Resources

March 11 Woman of the Day: Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Hansberry, who wrote the play, “A Raisin in the Sun”, is March 11 Woman of the Day. “A Raisin in the Sun” was the first African American play when it opened on Broadway on March 11, 1959.  More information about Hansberry and her play can be found by clicking here:

Biography from About.com: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/aframerwriters/p/hansberry.htm

Lesson plan on “A Raisin in the Sun” from EdSITEment: http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/raisin-sun-quest-american-dream

Shmoop: http://www.shmoop.com/a-raisin-in-the-sun/

Audio Patricia Marx interviews Lorraine Hansberry: http://www.wnyc.org/story/lorraine-hansberry/

KRLemmons African American History

March 11 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 11 *

1861 – The Confederate Congress, meeting in Montgomery, Alabama,
adopts a constitution which declares that the passage of any
“law denying or impairing the right of property in Negro
slaves is prohibited.”

1870 – Moshweshwe, King of Basutoland (Lesotho) joins the ancestors.
Moshweshwe was the founder of Lesotho in the 1820’s. Lesotho
was landlocked by the Cape Colony (now South Africa). He was
able to develop a strong tribal organization from his mix of
peoples. He appeased the Zulu and Ndebele, led cattle raids
on surrounding people, defeated the British in 1852 and
conducted frequent wars with the Orange Free State. Because
of repeated attacks by the Cape Colony, Moshweshwe asked the
British for protection and Lesotho will become a protectorate
in 1868. Upon his death, the country was annexed to Cape
Colony, but was returned to the status of British protectorate
in 1884. When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910,
the British honored the desire of Lesotho (“Basutoland”) to
remain independent. A protectorate continued until 1968,
protecting Lesotho from incursions from South Africa.

1874 – Frederick Douglass is named president of the failing Freedmen’s
Bank.

1884 – William Edouard Scott is born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He will
study with Henry O. Tanner at the Art Institute of Chicago.
He later will go to Paris, France and study at the Julien and
Colarossi academies. He will also study under Tanner again in
Paris (Tanner had emigrated there) and become best known for
his portrait studies of Haitians, rural life, and landscapes.
Many of his murals are on the walls of public buildings in
Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, and New York (135th Street
YMCA).

1919 – Mercer Ellington is born in Washington, DC, the only child of
Edward “Duke” Ellington and his wife, Edna. He will become
“the keeper of the flame,” the charge his father will give him
and one he will readily accept. In doing so, he will lead the
Duke Ellington Orchestra for over twenty years after replacing
his father.

1926 – Ralph David Abernathy is born in Linden, Alabama. He will
become a famed minister, civil rights advocate, and confidant
of Martin Luther King, Jr. After King’s assassination, he
will become the president of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference and write an autobiography that will attract
widespread criticism for his comments on King’s alleged
womanizing.

1935 – “The Conjure Man Dies,” a play by Rudolph Fisher, premieres on
Broadway at the Lafayette Theatre. Fisher, who had joined the
ancestors over a year before the play’s premiere, had adapted
the play from his 1932 short story “The Conjure-Man Dies: A
Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem,” considered the first detective
fiction by an African American.

1948 – Reginald Weir becomes the first African American to play in the
U.S. Indoor Lawn Tennis Association Championship. He will win
his first match, but will be eliminated on March 13.

1950 – Robert “Bobby” McFerrin is born in New York City. He will be
known for his versatile and innovative a cappella jazz vocals
and for his hit song “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” which will sell
over ten million copies and earn him three Grammy awards in
1989 in addition to a Grammy for best jazz vocalist.

1956 – A manifesto denouncing the Supreme Court ruling on segregation
in public schools, is issued by one hundred southern senators
and representatives.

1959 – “A Raisin in the Sun” becomes the first play written by an
African American woman, Lorraine Hansberry, to open on
Broadway. The play will run for 19 months at the Ethel
Barrymore Theatre, and be named “Best Play” by the New York
Drama Critics Circle, and bring Lloyd Richards to Broadway as
the first African American director in modern times.

1965 – After civil rights demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, the
Reverend James J. Reeb, a white minister from Boston, dies,
succumbing to his beating by segregationist whites.

1968 – Otis Redding posthumously receives a gold record for the single
“(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.”

1971 – Whitney M. Young, Jr., executive director of the National Urban
League, joins the ancestors after drowning while swimming
during a visit to Lagos, Nigeria.

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

KRLemmons African American History, Resources

March 10 Woman of the Day: Hallie Quinn Brown

Hallie Quinn Brown is March 10 Woman of the Day.  An educator, elocutionist, she will pioneer the movement for black women’s clubs in the United States.  More information about this pioneering woman can be found here:

Additional sources: About. com: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/aframer18631900/p/hallie_brown.htm

Hallie Quinn Brown Center: http://www.hallieqbrown.org/1099.html

Voices from the Gap, University of Minnesota: http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/brownHallie.php

Sage Publications: http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/11830_Chapter3.pdf

KRLemmons African American History

March 10 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 10 *

1850 – Hallie Quinn Brown is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She
will become a Black educator and elocutionist who will
pioneer the movement for Black women’s clubs in the United
States. The daughter of former slaves, she will receive a
B.S. from Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1873. She will
then teach on plantations and in the public schools of
Mississippi and South Carolina. After graduating from the
Chautauqua Lecture School, and teaching in Dayton, Ohio,
and in Alabama, she will return to Wilberforce to teach
elocution. At that time she will begin her extensive travels
as an elocutionist and lecturer, speaking in Europe as well
as the United States on topics of the life of Blacks in
America. She will assist in founding the earliest women’s
clubs for Blacks and, from 1905 to 1912, will serve as
president of the Ohio State Federation of Colored Women’s
Clubs. She will also help to found the Colored Women’s
League of Washington, D.C., a predecessor of
the National Association of Colored Women. She will also
author “Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction,”
a 1926 collection of biographical sketches of notable
African American women. She will join the ancestors on
September 16, 1949, in Wilberforce, Ohio.

1863 – Two U.S. African American infantry regiments, the First and
Second South Carolina Volunteers, capture and occupy
Jacksonville, Florida, causing panic along the Southern
seaboard. These regiments are not to be confused with the
confederate army First South Carolina Volunteers Infantry
Regiment.

1910 – The Pittsburgh Courier begins publishing. It will become one
of the most influential African American newspapers in the
country. In 1966, it will change its name to the “New
Pittsburgh Courier,” and continue to operate as a semi-weekly
publication. In 1987, the Courier will be the winner of the
John B. Russwurm award for excellence in responsible
journalism given by the National Newspaper Publishers
Association to the top African American Newspapers in America.

1913 – Harriet Tubman joins the ancestors in Auburn, New York. An
escaped slave, Tubman was known to the Underground Railroad as
“Black Moses” for her heroic trips south to free hundreds of
slaves. During the Civil War, she served as a scout, spy,
cook, and nurse.

1963 – Jasmine Guy is born in Boston, Massachusetts. She will become
an actress on television and will be best known for her role
as “Whitley” in the series “A Different World.”

1969 – James Earl Ray pleads guilty in the first degree to the murder
of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. and will be sentenced to 99 years
in prison. The House Select Committee on Assassinations will
later state that although it believes Ray shot King, Ray was
part of a larger conspiracy. Ray will later repudiate that
plea, maintaining his innocence until his death.

1972 – Three thousand delegates and five thousand observers attend
the first African American political convention in Gary,
Indiana. The NAACP and other groups withdraw from the
convention after the adoption of resolutions that are critical
of busing and the state of Israel.

1990 – Haitian ruler Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril resigns during a popular
uprising against his military regime.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 9 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 9 *

1841 – Sengbe Pieh, known as Joseph Cinque, and the surviving African
slaves who revolted on the ship Amistad are ordered freed by
the United States Supreme Court and return to Africa after
successfully appealing their mutiny conviction on grounds that
they were kidnapped by outlawed slave traders. Their defense
attorney is John Quincy Adams, former President of the United
States and a Massachusetts senator. Before reaching the
Supreme Court, U.S. President Martin Van Buren appeals twice
the decision of lower courts to free the slaves. View the
original documents of the U.S. Supreme Court at:
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/amistad/supreme-court-statement.html

1871 – Oscar De Priest is born in Florence, Alabama. He will be the
first congressman elected from a northern state. He will
represent Illinois and be an active advocate for pensions for
African American ex-slaves, lynching prevention, and civil
rights improvements.

1891 – The North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University is
founded in Greensboro.

1892 – Three friends of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, prominent African
American businessmen, are lynched in Memphis, Tennessee after
an incident that stemmed from their opening a grocery store
across the street from a white-owned grocery store.

1911 – White firemen of the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific
Railroad struck to protest the hiring of African American
firemen. (For those who don’t remember steam engines, firemen
worked in the engine stoking the fire, which kept the steam
generator going)

1914 – The “New” Southern University campus opens in Scotlandville,
Louisiana near Baton Rouge with nine teachers and 47 students.

1930 – Ornette Coleman is born in Fort Worth, Texas. He will become a
self-taught musician, beginning on alto saxophone when he is
fourteen and moving on to the tenor saxophone when he is
sixteen. He will be influenced by Charlie Parker, Illinois
Jacquet and Big Jay McNeely. A born improvisionalist, he
found it difficult to fit into his school band as well as the
mainstream groups that he will later join. It wasn’t until
the late 1950’s that he will be recognized for his jazz
innovations. He will name his musical method “harmolodics.”
Many musicians and critics and jazz listeners will reject his
new jazz as formless and abstract. However, critics of his
method will recognize his importance as a composer. Critics
will praise his compositions, including “Peace,” “Lonely
Woman,” and “Beauty Is a Rare Thing.” In 1967 he will win
a Guggenheim fellowship, the first granted to a jazz musician.
He will compose and perform film scores, including “Chappaqua”
(1965), “Box Office” (1981), and “Naked Lunch” (1991). In
1997 the New York Philharmonic will perform his “Skies of
America,” a large-scale work that was first recorded by the
London Symphony Orchestra in 1972.

1931 – Walter F. White is named NAACP executive secretary.

1933 – Lloyd Price is born in Kenner, Louisiana. He will become a
successful Rhythm & Blues artist and will record “Lawdy Miss
Clawdy” (’52 #1 R&B), “Oooh, Oooh, Oooh” (’52 #4 R&B), “Ain’t
It A Shame” (’53 #4 R&B), “Just Because” (’57 #3 R&B, #29
Pop), “Stagger Lee” (’58 #1 R&B, #1 Pop), “Where Were You (On
Our Wedding Day)” (’59 #4 R&B, #23 Pop), Personality” (’59 #1
R&B, #2 Pop), and fifteen other hits.

1948 – Jeffrey Osborne is born in Providence, Rhode Island. He will
become an accomplished rhythm and blues singer performing as
lead singer for the group LTD. He will later become a
successful solo artist.

1964 – Miriam Zenzi Makeba speaks before the United Nations about the
apartheid system in South Africa.

1965 – Three white Unitarian ministers, including the Rev. James J.
Reeb, are attacked with clubs on the streets of Selma,
Alabama, while participating in a civil rights demonstration.
Reeb will later die in a Birmingham, Alabama hospital.

1966 – Andrew F. Brimmer becomes the first African American governor
on the Federal Reserve Board.

1971 – Emmanuel Lewis is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will become
a child actor and will be best known for his television role
as “Webster.”

1997 – The popular “gangsta rapper” Notorious B.I.G., whose real name
is Christopher Wallace, joins the ancestors after being killed
in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California at the age
of 24.

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

KRLemmons Multicultural literature

Yes, Comics Can Empower Black Girls!

elliottzetta's avatarFledgling

I’m thrilled that comics scholar Qiana Whitted took the time to write this amazing guest post—enjoy and please share!

***

aya001It is unlikely that anyone who reads comics regularly will be surprised by Zetta Elliott’s answer to the question posed in her January 6, 2014 post, “Do Comics Empower Black Girls?” She’s doubtful, and understandably so, given the hypersexualized objectification of women that dominates superhero comics. Nevertheless, comics can tell deeply rewarding, complex stories about black women that affirm their intelligence, compassion, strength, and beauty on multiple visual and verbal registers. So I come away from the question with a different response, not only as someone who studies race and comics, but also as a black girl who has found much to love in a comic book!

Let’s be clear, though, about the term “comics.” Critics often take issue with the depiction of women in superhero titles produced by Marvel…

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