KRLemmons African American History

May 30 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 30 *

1822 – Denmark Vesey’s conspiracy to free the slaves of Charleston,
South Carolina, and surrounding areas is thwarted when a
house slave betrays the plot to whites. Vesey’s bold plan
had attracted over 9,000 slaves and freemen of the area
including Peter Poyas, a ship’s carpenter, Gullah Jack,
Blind Phillip, Ned Bennett and Mingo Harth. Later it will
be considered one of the most complex and elaborate slave
liberation plans ever undertaken.

1831 – James Walker Hood is born in Kennett Township, Chester
County, Pennsylvania. He will become a minister in New
York City in the A.M.E. Zion Church. He will become the
first African American to publish a collection of sermons
when he publishes “The Negro in the Christian Pulpit.” His
other works will include “One Hundred Years of the African
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church,” and “The Plan of The
Apocalypse.” He will join the ancestors on October 30, 1918.

1854 – The Kansas-Nebraska Act repeals the Missouri Compromise and
opens the Northern territory to slavery.

1902 – Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry is born in Key West,
Florida. He will become the first real African American
film star known as “Stepin Fetchit.” Many sources will
cite 1892, 1896, or 1898 as his birth date, but he will
maintain his birth date as 1902. He will star in many films,
among which are “Amazing Grace,” “The Sun Shines Bright,”
“Miracle in Harlem,” and “Judge Priest.” His humbling,
ingratiating style of acting will appeal to the movie-going
public of his day, but unfortunately becomes a stereotype
for African American actors in the early years of cinema.
He will join the ancestors on November 19, 1985.

1903 – Countee Cullen is born in Louisville, Kentucky. Many sources
will state that his birthplace is New York City, but Cullen
will be reared in New York City by his paternal grandmother
until 1918, when he is adopted by the Reverend Frederick
Asbury Cullen, minister of Salem M.E. Church, one of the
largest congregations in Harlem. This will be a turning
point in his life, for he will be introduced into the very
center of black activism and achievement. He will win a
citywide poetry contest as a schoolboy and see his winning
stanzas widely reprinted. He will attend New York
University (B.A., 1925), win the Witter Bynner Poetry Prize,
and be elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Major American literary
magazines will accept his poems regularly, and his first
collection of poems, “Color” (1925), will be published to
critical acclaim before he finishes college. His several
volumes of poetry will include “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 will also write a novel
dealing with life in Harlem, “One Way to Heaven” (1931),
and a children’s book, “The Lost Zoo” (1940). He will join
the ancestors on January 9, 1946.

1910 – Ralph Harold Metcalfe is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He will
become a world record holder in the 100-yard and 200-yard
dashes and win a bronze medal in the 1932 Olympic Games
and gold and silver medals in the 1936 Games. He will also
become a four-term congressman representing Illinois’s 1st
District. He will join the ancestors on October 10, 1978.

1915 – Henry Aaron Hill is born in St. Joseph, North Carolina. He
will become a trained chemist and will receive his Ph.D.
in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in 1942. He will become founder and president of the
Riverside Research Laboratory in 1961. In 1977, he will
become the first African American president of the American
Chemical Society. He will join the ancestors on March 17,
1979.

1943 – James Earl Chaney is born in Meridian, Mississippi. He will
become a civil rights activist and joins the Congress For
Racial Equality. During Freedom Summer (1964 – when civil
rights organizations begin an extensive voter registration
and desegregation campaign in Mississippi), he will join
the ancestors on June 21, 1964, after being killed by the
Ku Klux Klan in Greenwood along with two white civil rights
activists.

1943 – Gale Sayers is born in Wichita, Kansas. He will become an
outstanding running back and a first-round draft pick of
the Chicago Bears in 1965. He will set the individual game
record for touchdowns scored (six). He will be elected to
the Football Hall of Fame in 1977, the youngest player ever
to receive the honor.

1949 – Lydell Douglas Mitchell is born in Salem, New Jersey. He
will become a football player and All-American running back
at Pennsylvania State University in 1971. He will go on to
play for the Baltimore Colts from 1972 to 1977. While at
Baltimore, he will set the Colts’ record for rushing
attempts (1391) and rushing yards (5487). After his
successful career run in Baltimore, Mitchell will be traded
to the San Diego Chargers after the 1977 season. He will
turn in a solid season in 1978 with the Dan Fouts-led
Chargers and will finish his career in 1980 appearing in
two games with the Los Angeles Rams. He will be inducted
into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

1953 – Eric Arthur “Dooley” Wilson joins the ancestors in Los
Angeles, California at the age of 59. He was a popular
jazz drummer in Europe and America. He also worked as an
actor, his most notable part playing the pianist “Sam” in
the movie “Casablanca.” He also appeared in the movies
“Stormy Monday” and “Night in New Orleans.”

1956 – African Americans begin a bus boycott in Tallahassee,
Florida with the goal of desegregating bus seating.

1965 – Vivian Malone becomes the first African American to graduate
from the University of Alabama, a college that had been one
of the last bastions of racial segregation in the South.

1967 – The state of Biafra secedes and declares its independence
from Nigeria. Biafra is inhabited primarily by Igbos (also
spelled Ibos) who live in southeastern Nigeria. Two months
after independence, Nigeria will attack Biafra and start a
war that will last until 1970 with Biafra’s surrender. Over
a million people will die due to war and famine.

1971 – Willie Mays scores his 1,950th run.

1993 – Herman “Sonny” Blount joins the ancestors in Birmingham,
Alabama at the age of 79. He had been a prominent jazz
bandleader, arranger and pianist. He was better known as
“Sun Ra,” and was the founder of Saturn Records. Three
documentaries produced about Sun Ra were “The Cry of Jazz”
(1959), “Space is the Place” (1971) and “Sun Ra: A Joyful
Noise” (1980).

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 29 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 29 *

1938 – Ronald Milner is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will become
trained as a writer and will exhibit his skills as a
playwright when he produces his first play , “Who’s Got
His Own” on Broadway in 1966. In 1969, he will help start
“The Black Theater Movement,” which will promote plays in
which African Americans could represent their lives on
stage. His works will include “What The Wine-Sellers Buy,”
“Jazz Set,” “Don’t Get God Started,” and “Checkmates.” He
will join the ancestors on July 16, 2004.

1944 – Maurice Bishop is born in Aruba and will be raised in
Grenada. While attending college in England during the
early 1960s, he will become involved in the Black Power
Movement and be heavily influenced by Malcolm X, Martin
Luther King, Jr. Kwame Nkrumah, and Walter Rodney, the
Guyanese activist. After returning to Grenada in 1970, he
will cofound a political organization, “Movement for
Assemblies of the People.” This organization will later
merge with another political group, forming the “New Jewel
Movement.” After constant conflict with, and harassment by,
Grenada’s ruling regime, Bishop will become the minority
leader in the Grenadian government in 1976. In 1979, Bishop
will become the Prime Minister after leading a bloodless
coup. He will develop close ties with Castro’s Cuba and
will obtain government funding from Cuba and the Soviet
Union. These relationships will cause the United States to
impose sanctions against Grenada which led to internal
turmoil in the Grenadian ruling party. After a party split,
Bishop and his primary supporters will join the ancestors
after being executed on October 19, 1983. Using this event
as an excuse to involve themselves in the politics of the
region, the United States will invade Grenada and keep a
“peacekeeping” mission on the island until 1985.

1950 – Maureen “Rebbie” Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. Rebbie
will make her professional debut at the MGM Grand in Las
Vegas with her siblings, the Jackson’s. In the late 70s,
she will begin to consider a solo career. Artists such as
Betty Wright and Wanda Hutchinson of the Emotions will
mentor her, but it will be her brother Michael who pens
and produces her very first hit, “Centipede.” As the
title track of Rebbie’s 1984 debut, “Centipede,” introduces
the pop world to a Jackson most never knew existed.

1956 – La Toya Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. She will become a
singer and one of the most controversial members of the
Jackson family. She will be referred to as “The Rebel With
A Cause.” She will cause a big stir, when she poses for
Playboy Magazine. Her book, “La Toya: Growing Up in the
Jackson Family,” will be on the New York Times Best Seller
List for nine weeks. She will attract full capacity
audiences in her performances all over the world.

1962 – Buck (John) O’Neil becomes the first African American coach
in major-league baseball. He accepts the job with the
Chicago Cubs. O’Neil had previously been a scout with the
Cubs organization. He had been a notable first baseman in
Black baseball.

1965 – Ralph Boston sets a world record in the broad jump at 27
feet, 4-3/4 inches, at a meet held in Modesto, California.

1969 – Artist and art educator James V. Herring joins the ancestors
in Washington, DC. Herring organized the first American
art gallery to be directed and controlled by African
Americans on the Howard University campus in 1930, founded
and directed the university’s art department and, with
Alonzo Aden, opened the famed Barnett-Aden Gallery in
Washington, DC, in 1943.

1973 – Tom Bradley is elected the first African American mayor of
Los Angeles, California. Winning after a bitter defeat
four years earlier by incumbent mayor Sam Yorty, Bradley,
a Texas native and former Los Angeles Police Department
veteran, will serve an unprecedented five terms.

1980 – Vernon E. Jordan Jr., President of the National Urban League,
is critically injured in an attempted assassination in Fort
Wayne, Indiana.

1999 – Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Nigeria’s first civilian president
in 15 years, after a series of military regimes.

2003 – Wallace Terry joins the ancestors at the age of 65 after
succumbing to inflammation of blood vessels. He was a
journalist and author of “Bloods: An Oral History of the
Vietnam War by Black Veterans.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 28 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 28 *

1863 – The first African American regiment from the North leaves Boston
to fight in the Civil War.

1910 – Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker is born in Linden, Texas. He will
become a creator of the modern blues and a pioneer in the
development of the electric guitar sound that will shape
virtually all of popular music in the post-World War II period.
Equally important, Walker will be the quintessential blues
guitarist. He will influence virtually every major post-World
War II guitarist, including B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Freddie
King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Eric Clapton, and Stevie
Ray Vaughan. He will join the ancestors on March 16, 1975.

1936 – Betty Sanders is born in Detroit, Michigan. She will become the
wife of El Hajj Malik Shabazz (Malcolm X), Hajja Betty Bahiyah
Shabazz. After the assassination of Malcolm, she will show
herself to be a very strong individual in her own right. She will
face the difficulty of raising six children after witnessing
Malcom’s tragic death. In order to support herself and her
children, she will go back to school, earning three degrees
including a doctorate in education from the University of
Massachusetts. She will teach others and become an international
figure of dignity and discipline. She will work on Jesse Jackson’s
campaigns for the presidency, and will work in the African
liberation struggle to free Angola, Namibia and South Africa, and
to bring democracy to Haiti. She will join the ancestors on June
23, 1997 after succumbing to injuries received in a fire at her
New York home. At the time she will be the director of
Institutional Advancement and Public Relations at Medgar Evers
College in Brooklyn, New York.

1944 – Gladys Knight is born in Atlanta, Georgia. Making her first
public appearance at age four, she will win first place on Ted
Mack’s Original Amateur Hour at seven. A member of the “Gladys
Knight and the Pips” since the early 1950’s, Knight will remain
with the popular group for over 30 years before pursuing a
successful solo career.

1951 – Willie Mays gets his first major league hit, a home run.

1962 – A suit alleging de facto school segregation is filed in Rochester,
New York, by the NAACP.

1966 – Percy Sledge hits number one with his first — and what turned out
to be his biggest — hit. “When a Man Loves a Woman” would stay
at the top of the pop music charts for two weeks. It will be the
singer’s only hit to make the top ten and a million seller.

1974 – Cicely Tyson wins two Emmy awards for best actress in a special
and best actress in a drama for her portrayal of a strong
Southern matriarch in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.”

1974 – Richard Pryor wins an Emmy for his writing contributions on the
Lily Tomlin special “Lily.”

1981 – Mary Lou Williams joins the ancestors in Durham, North Carolina at
the age of 71. A jazz pianist who played with Louis Armstrong,
Tommy Dorsey, Earl “Fatha” Hines, and Benny Goodman, she formed
her own band in 1943. Williams was known for her jazz masses
including one “Mary Lou’s Mass” that was choreographed by the
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1971.

1991 – Journalist Ethel L. Payne joins the ancestors in Washington, DC at
the age of 79.

2003 – Janet Collins, ballerina, joins the ancestors at age 86. She was
the first African American artist to perform at the Metropolitan
Opera House.

2014 – Legendary author and poetress, Maya Angelou joins the ancestors at
her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She leaves behind a
body of important artistic work that influenced several
generations. She will be praised by those who knew her as a good
person, a woman who pushed for justice and education and equality.
She will write staggeringly beautiful poetry. She will also write
a cookbook and be nominated for a Tony. She will deliver a poem at
a presidential inauguration. In 2010, President Barack Obama names
her a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s
highest civilian honor. She will be friends with Malcolm X and the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and inspire young adults and world
celebrities. She will be best known for her book “I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings,” which will bear witness to the brutality of a
Jim Crow South.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 27 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 27 *

1863 – Captain Andre’ Callioux and his Native Guard Regiment, which had once
fought for the Confederacy, charge Port Hudson, Louisiana. The Union
Army Guard, intent on disproving white contentions that “Negroes”
lacked the intelligence for combat, will make six different assaults
on the stronghold.

1917 – One African American is killed and hundreds are left homeless in race
riots in East St. Louis, Illinois.

1935 – Ramsey Lewis is born in Chicago, Illinois. While attending Chicago
Musical College, he will form the Gentlemen of Swing (later called
The Ramsey Lewis Trio) with The Cleff’s old rhythm section, Eldee
Young (bass) and Redd Holt (drums). Their weekend gig will catch the
attention of an influential deejay (Daddio-O-Dayle), who convinces
blues record company owner Phil Chess to expand into jazz and sign
the trio. From the start (1958) their records were popular, although
in the early days they had a strong jazz content. In 1958 Lewis will
also record with Max Roach and Lem Winchester. On the 1965 albums
“The In Crowd” and “Hang On Sloopy,” Ramsey will make the piano into
a major attraction and from that point on, his records will become
much more predictable and pop-oriented. In 1966, his trio’s personnel
will change with bassist Cleveland Eaton and drummer Maurice White
(later the founder of Earth, Wind and Fire) joining Lewis. In the
1970s Lewis will often play electric piano, although by later in the
decade, he was sticking to acoustic and hiring an additional
keyboardist. He plays melodic jazz when he wants to, but will stick
to easy-listening pop music during his career.

1936 – Louis Gossett, Jr. is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will make his
acting debut at 17 in “Take a Giant Step” and act in numerous stage,
film and television roles including Fiddler in “Roots,” for which he
will win an Emmy. His portrayal of the tough drill instructor in “An
Officer and a Gentleman” will win him an Academy Award as best
supporting actor in 1982, the third African-American to win an Oscar
for acting.

1941 – A race riot begins in East St. Louis, Illinois. After four days of
rioting, one African American will be killed.

1942 – Dorie Miller, a messman from Waco, Texas, is awarded the Navy cross for
his heroic deeds at Pearl Harbor. The Cross is pinned on his chest by
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.

1958 – Ernest Green graduates from Little Rock’s Central High School with six
hundred white classmates, becoming the first of the “little Rock Nine”
to graduate from high school.

1961 – Ralph Boston of the United States, sets the long jump record.

1963 – Jomo Kenyatta is elected first prime minister of self-governing Kenya.
In the early 1950s, Kenyatta was sentenced to seven years of hard
labor for alleged links to the Mau Mau, a clandestine anti-British
organization. In 1964, Kenyatta will become the first president of
Kenya, remaining in that position until 1978.

1965 – Todd Bridges is born in San Francisco, California. He will become a
child actor and is best known for his roles in the TV series “Diff’rent
Strokes,” and “Fish.”

1968 – The Supreme Court orders schools to present a realistic desegregation
plan immediately. The ruling comes almost 13 years to the day after
the Court’s “all deliberate speed” desegregation order in 1955.

1975 – Ezzard Charles, former heavyweight boxing champion, joins the ancestors
in Chicago at the age of 53.

2011 – Gil Scott-Heron joins the ancestors at the age of 62. He was an American
soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, known primarily for his work
as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and ’80s. His collaborative
efforts with musician Brian Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz,
blues, and soul, as well as lyrical content concerning social and
political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic
vocal styles. His own term for himself was “bluesologist”, which he
defined as “a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues.”
His music, most notably on “Pieces of a Man and Winter in America” in
the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American
music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. He will be honored
posthumously as a 2012 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner by the
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

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

KRLemmons Uncategorized

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elliottzetta's avatarFledgling

IMG_6331Sunday was a glorious spring day and I had a great time hanging out with Jacqueline Woodson (right), Kwame Alexander, and Bryan Collier (center) at the Studio Museum in Harlem book festival (photo by Andre Ware). My presentation wasn’t fantastic, but I’m learning to be more flexible—if you expected to present before a group of kids and instead you have an audience of adults, what do you do? Improvisation isn’t one of my strengths so I need to work on that. I’m heading to California in a few days and will have a chance to speak to a class of 3rd graders while I’m in Berkeley. Last week I presented before two fifth grade classes and they were amazing—lots of energy, lots of questions, and before I even began the principal handed me this letter:

jpeg603Not every class will have that reaction so I have to learn to feel out…

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KRLemmons Uncategorized

time to grow

elliottzetta's avatarFledgling

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000046_00045]Well, I had an opportunity today to test the elementary waters I wrote about yesterday. I went to Bushwick to drop off a book order at a school that I love—I’ve worked with this charter school for years and they always roll out the red carpet for me. Today I wasn’t expecting to stay long but the librarian wanted me to speak with the principal so I took a seat and watched as 25 first grade students buzzed about the room. There were a lot of small fires to put out but the librarian was up to the task. One boy came up to me and asked, “Are you Marshawn’s mom?” I explained that I was a visiting author and then pulled out the new books—within seconds I had a small cluster of kids around me and little hands reaching for the four books. They stroked the covers—“Oooh! They’re so…

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KRLemmons Multicultural literature

The 2014 Golden Baobab Prizes!

elliottzetta's avatarFledgling

logo_old.2.1

Dear Friend,

The 2014 Golden Baobab Prizes are making their final call for submissions. With about three weeks more to end the call, writers and illustrators are being encouraged to enter their story and illustration submissions, because this year’s prizes have more to offer.

The Prizes were earlier launched in February, 2014 and the deadline for submissions of all entries is Sunday, June 29th at exactly 23: 59 GMT. 

This year, Golden Baobab will award six prizes worth $20,000. These six prizes are:

  • The $5,000 Golden Baobab Prize for Picture Book
  • The $5,000 Golden Baobab Prize for Early Chapter Book
  • The $2,500 Golden Baobab Prize for Rising Writers
  • The $5,000 Golden Baobab Prize for Illustrators
  • The $2,500 Golden Baobab Prize for Rising Illustrators
  • The Golden Baobab Lifetime Achievement in Children’s Literature Award

The prize packages also include the opportunity to publish with and receive royalties from Golden Baobab and/or Golden Baobab’s…

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