April 13 Poet of the Day is Etheridge Knight, who wrote poems while in prison. Read more about this fascinating poet here:
Additional resources on Etheridge Knight:
Poets.Org: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15411
Poetry readings: http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Knight.php
Black Past: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/knight-etheridge-1931-1991
Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/media/avfiles/EtheridgeKnight.ram
Margaret Abigail Walker is April 12 Poet of the Day, Best known for her poem, “For My People” and her novel, “Jubilee”, this fascinating woman was the daugher of a Methodist minister and an educator. Read more about this fascinating writer here:
Reading of the poem, “For My People”:http://www.loc.gov/poetry/poetry-of-america/american-identity/nikkyfinney-margaretwalker.html
Voices From the Gap: http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/alexanderMargaret.php
Poetry Foundation: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/margaret-walker
Robert Hayden is April 11 Poet of the Day. He is best known for the poems, “Those Winter Sundays” and “Middle Passage.” Read about this Detroit born, prolific poet here:
Additional resources on Robert Hayden:
Poets.Org: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/196
NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=208946759
C-SPAN: http://www.c-span.org/video/?315905-1/life-robert-hayden
Teacher Resources and Lesson Plans:
PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/foolingwithwords/lesson2.html
Shmoop: http://www.shmoop.com/those-winter-sundays/ (may need to register to access all the resources)
April 10 Poet of the Day is Opal Palmer Adisa. A world-renowned poet, writer, and educator, Adisa was born in Jamaica, but lives in the United States. Read about Adisa here:
Additional resources on Opal Palmer Adisa:
Website: http://www.opalpalmeradisa.com/
California College of the Arts: https://www.cca.edu/academics/faculty/oadisa
April 9 Poet of the Day is Sterling A. Brown. He is “best known for his writing rooted in folklore and authentic black dialect.” For more information about this fascinating poet, educator, and editor, click here:
Additional resources on Sterling A(llen) Brown:
Poets.Org: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/203
Poem Riverbank Blues on Poets.Org: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15489
Poem Southern Road on Poets.Org: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15490
Black Past: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/brown-sterling-1901-1989
April 8 Poet of the Day is Angelina Grimke Weld, was one of 14 children. She was an abolitionist, lecturer and advocate for women’s rights. Read more about this pioneer woman here:
More information about Angeline Grimke Weld:
National Women’s Hall of Fame: http://www.greatwomen.org/women-of-the-hall/search-the-hall/details/2/68-weld
The Black Past: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/grimke-angelina-weld-1880-1958
Speech at Pennsylvania Hall, PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2939t.html
April 7 Poet of the Day is also a novelist, Claude McKay. He was best known for his poem “If We Must Die.” For more information about this poet, click here:
Additional resources on Claude McKay
Poets.Org: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/25
The Poetry Foundation: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/claude-mckay
History Matters, “If We Must Die”: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5130/
Teacher Resource from Shmoop: http://www.shmoop.com/if-we-must-die/ (may need to register to access entire resource)
Teacher Resource from Annenberg Learner: http://www.learner.org/amerpass/unit10/authors-5.html
The Black Past: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/mckay-claude-1889-1948
* Today in Black History – April 13 *
1723 – The governor of Massachusetts issues a proclamation on
the “fires which have been designedly and
industriously kindled by some villainous and desperate
Negroes or other dissolute people as appears by the
confession of some of them.”
1873 – The Colfax Massacre occurs on Easter Sunday morning, in
Grant Parish, Louisiana. More than sixty African
Americans are killed.
1891 – Nellallitea “Nella” Walker is born in Chicago, Illinois
to an African American father and Danish mother. She
will become a writer known as Nella Larsen and one of
the most celebrated novelists of the Harlem Renaissance.
She will receive many awards for her writings, including
the Harmon Foundation’s bronze medal for literature in
1929, and the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1930. When she
receives the Guggenheim award, she becomes the first
African American woman recipient. She will best known
for her novels, “Quicksand” and “Passing.” She will
join the ancestors on March 30, 1964.
1906 – Riots occur in Brownsville, Texas, when African American
soldiers retaliate against white citizens for racial
slurs.
1907 – Harlem Hospital opens in New York with 150 beds. It will
become one of the early leading African American
hospitals.
1946 – Albert “Al” Green is born in Forrest City, Arkansas. He
will become one of the most popular soul and pop singers
of the 1970’s, known for his recordings “Tired of Being
Alone,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “Here I Am (Come and Take
Me)” and “I’m Still in Love with You.” Green will later
become a minister and return to performing as a gospel
singer, where he will win numerous Grammy awards.
1963 – Sidney Poitier receives an Oscar for best actor for his
performance in “Lilies of the Field.” He is the first
African American male to receive the Academy Award. He
will later become a director and make 1980’s “Stir
Crazy,” the largest-grossing movie by an African
American director ever.
1997 – Eldrick “Tiger” Woods wins the 61st Masters Tournament
in Augusta, Georgia at the age of 21, becoming the
youngest person and first person of Black African descent
to ever win this tournament.
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.
* Today in Black History – April 12 *
1787 – Richard Allen and Absalom Jones organize Philadelphia’s
Free African Society which W.E.B. Du Bois refers to,
over a century later, “the first wavering step of a
people toward a more organized social life.”
1825 – Richard Harvey Cain is born in Greenbrier County,
Virginia (now part of West Virginia). He will become
an AME minister, an AME bishop, publisher, a member of
the South Carolina Senate, member of the U.S. House of
Representatives, and a founder of Paul Quinn College
in Waco, Texas. He will join the ancestors on January
18, 1887.
1861 – The Civil War begins as Confederate troops attack Fort
Sumter, South Carolina.
1864 – Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest captures Fort
Pillow, Tennessee, and massacres the inhabitants,
sparing, the official report says, neither soldier nor
civilian, African American nor white, male or female.
The fort is defended by a predominantly African
American force.
1869 – The North Carolina legislature passes anti-Klan
legislation.
1940 – Herbert Jeffrey “Herbie” Hancock is born in Chicago,
Illinois. After graduating from college at age 20, he
will go to New York with Donald Byrd, who had heard him
perform in Chicago. While in New York, Byrd will
introduce Hancock to Blue Note Records executives. This
will lead to work with various established jazz
artists and later Hancock’s first solo album, “Taking
Off,” which includes appearances by Freddie Hubbard and
Dexter Gordon. Contained on this album is Hancock’s
first top 10 hit, “Watermelon Man.” It will not be long
before Hancock gets the attention of the legendary
Miles Davis, who will extend an invitation to Hancock
to join his new group. After working with Davis for
several years Herbie will decide to form his own band,
a sextet which will include Julian Priester, Buster
Williams, and Eddie Henderson. He will become one of
the most popular jazz artists, known for his
compositions “Watermelon Man” and “Chameleon,” as well
as his musical score for the movie “‘Round Midnight,”
for which he will win an Oscar in 1986.
1960 – Martin Luther King, Jr. denounces the Vietnam War which
he says is “rapidly degenerating into a sordid military
adventure.”
1968 – African American students occupy the administration
building at Boston University and demand Afro-American
history courses and additional African American
students.
1980 – Liberian President William R. Tolbert Jr. and twenty-
seven others join the ancestors after being killed in
a coup d’etat by army enlisted men led by Master
Sergeant Samuel K. Doe.
1983 – The people of Chicago, Illinois elect Harold Washington
as the city’s first African American mayor.
1989 – Former middleweight boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson
joins the ancestors in Culver City, California, at age
67.
1990 – August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” wins the Pulitzer
Prize for drama. It is the second Pulitzer Prize for
Wilson, who also won one for “Fences” in 1987 and was
awarded the New York Drama Critics’ Award for “Fences,”
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and “Joe Turner’s Come and
Gone.”
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.
* Today in Black History – April 11 *
1865 – President Lincoln recommends suffrage for African American veterans
and African Americans who are “very intelligent.”
1881 – Spelman College is founded with $100 and eleven former slaves
determined to learn to read and write. It is opened as the Atlanta
Baptist Female Seminary. The two female founders, Sophia B. Packard
and Harriet E. Giles are appalled by the lack of educational
opportunities for African American women at the time. They will
return to Boston determined to get support to change that and earned
what will prove to be the lifelong support of John D. Rockefeller,
who considers Spelman to be one of his family’s finest investments.
The name Spelman is adopted later in honor of Mrs. Rockefeller’s
parents.
1933 – William Anthony “Tony” Brown is born in Charleston, West Virginia.
He will become well known as executive producer, host, and moderator
of the Emmy-winning television series “Black Journal.” In 1971 he
will establish and become the first dean of Howard University’s School
of Communications, a post he will hold until 1974. In 2002, he will
be inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and
Sciences’ Silver Circle. He will become the dean of Hampton
University’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications
in 2004 and hold that position until 2009, when he will step down.
1955 – Roy Wilkins is elected the NAACP’s executive secretary following
the ancestral ascension of Walter White.
1956 – Singer Nat “King” Cole is attacked on the stage of a Birmingham
theater by white supremacists.
1966 – Emmett Ashford becomes the first African American major league
umpire, working in the American League. He had been the first
African American professional umpire in the minor leagues in
1951.
1967 – Harlem voters defy Congress and re-elect Congressman Adam Clayton
Powell Jr. after he had been expelled by the legislative body.
1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs what will become known as the
1968 Housing Act, which outlaws discrimination in the sale,
rental, or leasing of 80% of the housing in the United States.
Passed by the Senate and submitted by the House to Johnson in
the aftermath of the King assassination, the bill also protects
civil rights workers and makes it a federal crime to cross state
lines for the purpose of inciting a riot.
1972 – Benjamin L. Hooks, a Memphis lawyer and Baptist minister, becomes
the first African American to be named to the Federal Communications
Commission.
1979 – Idi Amin is deposed as president of Uganda. A combined force of
Tanzanian and Ugandan soldiers overthrew the dictator. Amin, who
attained power in 1971 after a coup against socialist-leaning
President Milton Obote, oversaw the killing of at least 100,000
people. It is believed that Idi Amin left Uganda to live in Saudi
Arabia.
1988 – Willie D. Burton becomes the first African American to win the
Oscar for sound when he receives the award for the movie “Bird.”
1997 – The Museum of African American History opens in Detroit. It will
become the largest of its kind in the world.
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.
The CamaraIfe Maktaba 