KRLemmons African American History

September 14 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 14 *

1874 – White Democrats seize the statehouse in a Louisiana coup
d’etat. President Grant orders the revolutionaries to
disperse, and the rebellion collapses. Twenty-seven
persons (sixteen whites and eleven Blacks) are killed in
battles between the Democrats and Republicans.

1891 – John Adams Hyman joins the ancestors in Washington, DC.
He was the first African American congressman from the
state of North Carolina.

1921 – Constance Baker Motley is born in New Haven, Connecticut.
She will achieve many distinctions in her career,
including being the first African American woman elected
to the New York Senate in 1964, the first woman Manhattan
borough president, and the first African American woman to be
named as a federal court judge in 1966. She will later
serve as chief judge of the Southern District of New
York until she joins the ancestors on September 28, 2005.

1940 – African Americans are allowed to enter all branches of
the United States Military Service, when President
Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Selective Service Act.

1964 – Leontyne Price and A. Philip Randolph are among the
recipients of the Medal of Freedom awarded by President
Lyndon B. Johnson.

1970 – One African American is killed and two whites are injured
in shoot-out between activists and police officers in a
New Orleans housing project.

2003 – Yetunde Price, the oldest sister of tennis stars Venus
and Serena Williams, joins the ancestors at the age of
31 after being killed in a shooting at her place of
business.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 13 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 13 *

1663 – The first known slave revolt in the thirteen American
colonies is planned in Gloucester County, Virginia.
The conspirators, both white servants and African
American slaves, are betrayed by fellow indentured
servants.

1867 – Gen. E.R.S. Canby orders South Carolina courts to
impanel African American jurors.

1881 – Louis Latimer patents an electric lamp with a carbon
filament.

1886 – Alain Leroy Locke is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He will graduate from Harvard University in 1907 with a
degree in philosophy and become the first African
American Rhodes scholar, studying at Oxford University
from 1907-10 and the University of Berlin from 1910-11.
He will receive his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard in
1918. For almost 40 years, until retirement in 1953 as
head of the department of philosophy, Locke will teach
at Howard University, Washington, DC. He will be best
known for his involvement with the Harlem Renaissance,
although his work and influence extend well beyond.
Through “The New Negro”, published in 1925, Locke
popularized and most adequately defined the Renaissance
as a movement in Black arts and letters. He will join
the ancestors on June 9, 1954.

1915 – The first historically black and Catholic university for
African Americans in the United States, Xavier
University, is founded by Blessed Katherine Drexel and
the religious order she established, the “Sisters of
the Blessed Sacrament,” in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1948 – Nell Ruth Hardy is born in Birmingham, Alabama. She will
be better known as Nell Carter and become a Broadway
sensation as a singer and actress in Broadway’s
“Bubbling Brown Sugar”, “Ain’t Misbehavin’ “(for which
she will win a Tony), and for five seasons in
television’s “Gimme a Break”. She will join the ancestors
on January 23, 2003 after succumbing to heart disease
complicated by diabetes and obesity.

1962 – Mississippi Governor Ross R. Barnett defies the federal
government in an impassioned speech on statewide radio-
television hookup, saying he would “interpose” the
authority of the state between the University of
Mississippi and federal judges who had ordered the
admission of James H. Meredith. Barnett says, “There is
no case in history where the Caucasian race has survived
social integration.” He promises to go to jail, if
necessary, to prevent integration at the state
university. His defiance set the stage for the gravest
federal/state crisis since the Civil War.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy denounces the burning of
churches in Georgia and supports voter registration
drives in the South.

1965 – Willie Mays hits his 500th career home run.

1967 – Michael Johnson is born in Dallas, Texas. He will become
a world class sprinter, Olympic athlete, and the first
person to break 44 (43.65) seconds for the 400-meter run.
At the Atlanta Olympics, he also will become the first
man to win the double gold in the 400 ad 200 meters.

1971 – Two hundred troopers and officers storm the Attica
Correctional Facility in upstate New York under orders
from Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Thirty-three
convicts and ten guards are killed. Later investigations
show that nine of the ten guards were killed by the
storming party. This riot will focus national attention
on corrections departments nationwide and the practice
of imprisonment in the United States. A National
Conference on Corrections will be convened in December,
1971 resulting in the formation of the National
Institute of Corrections in 1974.

1971 – Frank Robinson hits his 500th career home run.

1972 – Two African Americans, Johnny Ford of Tuskegee and A.J.
Cooper of Prichard, are elected mayors in Alabama.

1979 – South Africa grants Venda independence (Not recognized
outside of South Africa). Venda is a homeland situated
in the north eastern part of the Transvaal Province of
South Africa.

1981 – Isabel Sanford wins an Emmy award as best comedic actress
for “The Jeffersons”.

1989 – Archbishop Desmond Tutu leads huge crowds of singing and
dancing people through central Cape Town in the biggest
anti-apartheid protest march in South Africa for 30
years.

1996 – Rap artist Tupac Shakur joins the ancestors six days after
being the target of a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas at
the age of 25.

1998 – Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hits his 61st and 62nd home
runs of the season, passing Roger Maris’ record and
pulling into a tie with St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire
in this years home run derby.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 12 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 12 *

1913 – James Cleveland Owens is born in Oakville, Alabama. He
will be better known as Jesse Owens, one of the greatest
track and field stars in history. Owens will achieve
fame at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, where
he will win four gold medals, dispelling Hitler’s notion
of the superior Aryan race and the inferiority of Black
athletes. Among his honors will be the Medal of Freedom,
presented to him by President Gerald Ford in 1976. He will
join the ancestors on March 31, 1980.

1935 – Richard Hunt is born in Chicago, Illinois. A graduate of
the Art Institute of Chicago, he will later study in
Europe and be considered one of the leading sculptors in
the United States. His work will be shown extensively
in the United States and abroad and his sculptures will
be collected by the National Museum of American Art, the
Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, and the Museum of the Twentieth Century in
Vienna. On April 29, 2009, he will be awarded the Lifetime
Achievement Award by the International Sculpture Center.
His web site is http://www.RichardHunt.us.

1944 – Barry White is born in Galveston, Texas. He will become a
singer and songwriter. Some of his hits will be “I’m
Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby”, “Can’t Get
Enough Of Your Love Babe”, and “Love’s Theme [with Love
Unlimited Orchestra]. He will join the ancestors on July
4, 2003 from complications of high blood pressure and
kidney disease.

1947 – The first African American baseball player in the major
leagues, Jackie Robinson, is named National League Rookie
of the Year.

1956 – African American students are barred from entering a Clay,
Kentucky elementary school. They will enter the school
under National Guard protection on September 17.

1958 – The United States Supreme Court orders a Little Rock,
Arkansas high school to admit African American students.

1964 – Ralph Boston of the United States, sets the long jump
record at 27′ 4”.

1974 – The beginning of court-ordered busing to achieve racial
integration in Boston’s public schools is marred by
violence in South Boston.

1974 – Eugene A. Marino, SSJ, is consecrated as the first
African American Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop in the
United States. He assumes his duties as auxiliary bishop
of Washington, DC.

1974 – Haile Selassie is deposed by military leaders after fifty-
eight years as the ruling monarch of Ethiopia.

1977 – Black South African student and civil rights leader Steven
Biko joins the ancestors after succumbing to severe
physical abuse while in police detention, triggering an
international outcry.

1980 – Lillian Randolph joins the ancestors at the age of 65. She
had been a film actress and had starred on television on
the “Amos ‘n’ Andy Show” and in the mini-series “Roots”.

1984 – Michael Jordan signs a seven-year contract to play
basketball with the Chicago Bulls. ‘Air’ Jordan will
become an NBA star for the Bulls and help make the team a
dominant force in the NBA.

1984 – Dwight Gooden, of the New York Mets, sets a rookie
strikeout record by striking out his 251st batter of the
season. He also leads the Mets to a 2-0 shutout over the
Pittsburgh Pirates.

1986 – The National Council of Negro Women sponsors its first
Black Family Reunion at the National Mall in Washington,
DC. The reunion, which will grow to encompass dozens of
cities and attract over one million people annually, is
held to celebrate and applaud the traditional values,
history, and culture of the African American family.

1989 – David Dinkins, Manhattan borough president, wins the New
York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, defeating
incumbent Mayor Ed Koch and two other candidates on his
way to becoming the city’s first African American mayor.

1992 – Mae C. Jemison becomes the first woman of color to go into
space when she travels on the space shuttle Endeavour.

1998 – Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs becomes the fourth major
league baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a single
season.

1999 – Serena and Venus Williams (sisters) take home the U.S.
Open Women’s Doubles Championship trophy. After losing
the first set, they bounce back to win the remaining two
sets against Chandra Rubin of the U.S. and Sandrine
Testud of France. The Williams sisters are the first
African Americans to win a U.S. Open Doubles
Championship.

2000 – James Perkins becomes the first African American mayor of
Selma, Alabama, defeating long-time mayor Joe Smitherman
with 60% of the vote. Smitherman had been mayor for
thirty six years. He was the mayor of Selma in 1965 when
sheriff’s deputies and state troopers attacked hundreds
of voting rights marchers on Selma’s Edmund Pettus
Bridge in what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 11 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 11 *

1740 – An issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette reports on a Negro
named Simon who reportedly can “bleed and draw teeth.”
It is the first mention of an African American doctor or
dentist in the American Colonies.

1885 – Moses A. Hopkins, minister and educator, is named minister
to Liberia.

1923 – Charles Evers is born in Decatur, Mississippi. He will
become a civil rights worker who will assume the post of
field director of the Mississippi NAACP after his
brother, Medgar, is assassinated in 1963. He will be
elected mayor of Fayette, Mississippi, in 1969.

1943 – Loletha Elaine “Lola” Falana is born in Camden, New
Jersey. She will become a dancer, most notably in
Broadway’s “Golden Boy”, and be a successful performer
on television and in Las Vegas, where she will be called
“The First Lady of Las Vegas.” In the late 1980s, she
will suffer from a relapse of multiple sclerosis. Her
relapse will be severe, leaving her left side paralyzed
and becoming partially blind with her voice and hearing
impaired. Recovery will last a year and a half, during
which she will spend most of her time praying. She will
attribute her recovery to a spiritual experience
described as “Being able to feel the presence of the
Lord.” She will convert to Roman Catholicism and work
her newly-found spirituality into her everyday life.
Though she will perform again in Las Vegas shows in 1987,
her practice of religion and faith will become the center
of her life. After another bout with multiple sclerosis
in 1996, she will return to Philadelphia and live with
her parents for a short time. No longer performing, she
will tour the country with a message of hope and
spirituality. When not on tour, she will live a quiet
life in Las Vegas, working on the apostolate she will
found, “The Lambs of God Ministry.” The ministry will be
focused on helping children who have been orphaned in
Sub-Saharan Africa, and will work closely with the group,
“Save Sub-Saharan Orphans.”

1953 – J. H. Jackson, pastor of Olivet Baptist Church, Chicago,
Illinois, is elected president of the National Baptist
Convention at its Miami meeting.

1956 – Cincinnati Red’s Frank Robinson ties the rookie record
with his 38th home run.

1959 – Duke Ellington receives the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for
his outstanding musical achievements and contributions
to the field of music.

1962 – Two youths involved in a voter registration drive in
Mississippi are wounded by shotgun blasts fired through
the window of a home in Ruleville. A spokesperson for
SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) asks
the president to “convene a special White House
Conference to discuss means of stopping the wave of
terror sweeping through the South, especially where
SNCC is working on voter registration.”

1977 – Quincy Jones wins an Emmy for outstanding achievement in
musical composition for the miniseries “Roots”. It is
one of nine Emmys for the series, an unprecedented
number.

1999 – Serena Williams wins the U.S. Open women’s title,
beating top-seeded Martina Hingis, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 10 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 10 *

1847 – John Roy Lynch is born a slave in Concordia Parish,
Louisiana. Becoming free during the American Civil War,
he will settle in Natchez, Mississippi. There he will
learn the photography business, attend night school, and
enter public life in 1869 as justice of the peace for
Natchez county. In November, 1869 Lynch will be elected
to the Mississippi House of Representatives, and re-
elected in 1871. Although Blacks never will be in the
majority in the Mississippi legislature, Lynch will be
chosen speaker of the House in 1872. He will be elected
to the U.s. House of Representatives in 1873. In 1884,
he will become the first African American to preside
over a national convention of a major U.S. political
party and deliver the keynote address, when he was
appointed temporary chairman. In his book, “The Facts
of Reconstruction” (1913), Lynch will attempt to dispel
the erroneous notion that Southern state governments
after the Civil War were under the control of Blacks.
He will join the ancestors on November 2, 1939 in
Chicago, Illinois.

1886 – Poet Georgia Douglas Johnson is born in Atlanta, Georgia.
(Editor’s Note: Her birth is uncertain, given as early as
1877 and as late as 1886). Among her books will be “Heart
of a Woman”, “Bronze”, “An Autumn Love Cycle”, and “Share
My Love”. She will be anthologized in Arna Bontemps’s
“American Negro Poetry” and Davis and Lee’s “Negro
Caravan,” among others. Her home in Washington, DC, will
become the center for African American literary
gatherings. She will join the ancestors on May 14, 1966.

1913 – George W. Buckner, a physician from Indiana, is named
minister to Liberia.

1913 – The Cleveland Call & Post newspaper is established.

1927 – Jacques E. Leeds in born in Baltimore, Maryland. He will
become a leading African American attorney in Baltimore.
He will become the first African American appointed a
commisioner on the Maryland Worker’s Compensation
Commission in 1991 (by governor William Donald Schaefer).

1930 – Charles E. Mitchell, certified public accountant and banker
from West Virginia, is named minister to Liberia.

1940 – Roy Ayers is born in Los Angeles, California. In high
school Ayers will form his first group, the Latin Lyrics,
and in the early 60s will begin working professionally
with flautist/saxophonist Curtis Amy. He will become a
popular jazz vibraphonist and vocalist, reaching the peak
of his commercial popularity during the mid-70s and early
80s.

1948 – Robert “Bob” Lanier is born in Buffalo, New York. He will
become a professional basketball player and will be a NBA
center for 14 years (10 years with the Detroit Pistons and
4 years with the Milwaukee Bucks). He will be an eight-
time NBA All-Star and will be elected to the Basketball
Hall of Fame in 1991.

1956 – Louisville, Kentucky integrates its public school system.

1960 – Running barefoot, Ethiopian Abebe Bikila wins the marathon
at the Rome Olympic Games.

1961 – Jomo Kenyatta returns to Kenya from exile to lead his
country.

1962 – Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black vacates an order of a
lower court, ruling that the University of Mississippi
had to admit James H. Meredith, an African American Air
Force veteran whose application for admission had been on
file and in the courts for fourteen months.

1963 – 20 African American students enter public schools in
Birmingham, Tuskegee and Mobile, Alabama, following a
standoff between federal authorities and Governor George
C. Wallace.

1965 – Father Divine joins the ancestors in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Divine, born George Baker, was the founder
of the Peace Mission, a religious group whose followers
worshiped Divine as God incarnate on earth.

1972 – Gayle Sayers, of the Chicago Bears, retires from pro
football.

1973 – A commemorative stamp of Henry Ossawa Tanner is issued by
the U.S. Postal Service. Part of its American Arts issue,
the stamp celebrates the work and accomplishments of
Tanner, the first African American artist elected to the
National Academy of Design.

1973 – Muhammad Ali defeats Ken Norton in a championship
heavyweight boxing match in Los Angeles — and avenges a
loss to Norton the previous March in San Diego.

1974 – Guinea-Bissau gains independence from Portugal.

1974 – Lou Brock, of the St. Louis Cardinals, breaks Maury Wills’
major league record for stolen bases in a season.
‘Lighting’ Lou Brock steals his 105th base on his way to
a career total of 938 stolen bases, a record which will
be later broken by Rickey Henderson.

1976 – Mordecai Johnson, the first African American president of
Howard University, joins the ancestors at age 86.

1986 – Sprinter, Evelyn Ashford is defeated for the first time in
eight years. Ashford loses to Valerie Brisco-Hooks in
the 200-meter run held in Rome, Italy.

2000 – At The 52nd Annual Primetime Emmy awards the following
quotes were made as Charles Dutton and Halle Berry
accepted their respective awards – “There goes my acting
career.” – Charles S. Dutton, accepting as outstanding
director of a miniseries or movie for HBO’s “The Corner.”
– “Wherever Dorothy Dandridge is right now, I know she is
standing tall and proud and smiling.” – Halle Berry,
accepting a best actress Emmy for the HBO movie
“Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 9 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 9 *

1739 – Led by a slave named Jemmy (Cato), a slave revolt occurs
in Stono, South Carolina. Twenty-five whites are killed
before the insurrection is put down.

1806 – Sarah Mapps Douglass is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
She is the daughter of renowned abolitionists Robert
Douglass, Sr. and Grace Bustill Douglass. As a child, she
enjoys life among Philadelphia’s elite and will be well
educated by a private tutor. She will become a teacher in
New York, but will return to Philadelphia where she will
operate a successful private school for Black women,
giving women of color the opportunity to receive a high
school education. As the daughter of one of the
Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society’s founding
members, she will become active in the abolitionist
movement at a young age. She will develop a distaste for
the prejudices of white Quakers early on and will devote
much of her life to combating slavery and racism. She
will develop a close friendship with white Quaker
abolitionists Sarah and Angelina Grimke. At the urgings
of the Grimke sisters, She will attend the Anti-Slavery
Convention of American Women, held in New York in
1837–the first national convention of American
antislavery women to integrate Black and white members–
and serve on the ten-member committee on arrangements for
the convention. Throughout her abolitionist career, she
will also serve as recording secretary, librarian, and
manager for the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society,
contribute to both the Liberator and the Anglo-African
Magazine, become a fundraiser for the Black press, give
numerous public lectures, and serve as vice-president of
the women’s branch of the Freedmen’s Aid Society. From
1853 to 1877, she will serve as a supervisor at the
Institute for Colored Youth, a Quaker-sponsored
establishment. During this time, she will also acquire
basic medical training at the Female Medical College of
Pennsylvania and at Pennsylvania Medical University,
where she will study female health and hygiene–subjects
on which she will lecture in evening classes and at
meetings of the Banneker Institute. In 1855, she will
marry African American Episcopal clergyman William
Douglass. She will join the ancestors on September 8, 1882.

1816 – Rev. John Gregg Fee, the son of white slaveholders, is
born in Bracken County, Kentucky. He will become member
of the American Missionary Association, and will found a
settlement called “Berea” on land donated to him by an
admirer, Cassius Marcellus Clay. It will be later that
he will be inspired to build a college, adjacent to the
donated land – Berea College, the first interracial
college in the state. During the American Civil War, He
will work at Camp Nelson to have facilities constructed
to support freedmen and their families, and to provide
them with education and preaching while the men were being
taught to be soldiers. He died on January 11, 1901.

1817 – Captain Paul Cuffe, entrepreneur and civil rights
activist, joins the ancestors at the age of 58, in Westport,
Masschusetts. Cuffe was a Massachusetts shipbuilder and
sea captain. He also was one of the most influential
African American freedmen of the eighteenth century. In
1780, Cuffe and six other African Americans refused to
pay taxes util they were granted citizenship.
Massachusetts gave African Americans who owned property
the vote three years later. Although Cuffe became
wealthy, he believed that most African Americans would
never be completely accepted in white society. In 1816,
Cuffe began one of the first experiments in colonizing
African Americans in Africa when he brought a group to
Sierra Leone. Cuffe’s experiment helped inspire the
founding of the American Colonization Society later
that year.

1823 – Alexander Lucius Twilight, becomes the first African
American to earn a baccalaureate degree in the United
States, when he graduates from Middlebury College with
a BA degree.

1915 – A group of visionary scholars (George Cleveland Hall,
W.B. Hartgrove, Alexander L. Jackson, and James E.
Stamps) led by Dr. Carter G. Woodson found the
Association for the Study of Negro Life and History
(ASNLH) in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Woodson is convinced
that among scholars, the role of his own people in
American history and in the history of other cultures
was being either ignored or misrepresented. Dr. Woodson
realizes the need for special research into the
neglected past of the Negro. The association is the
only organization of its kind concerned with preserving
African American history.

1928 – Silvio Cator of Haiti, sets the then long jump record at
26′ 0″.

1934 – Sonia Sanchez is born in Birmingham, Alabama. She will
become a noted poet, playwright, short story writer, and
author of children’s books. She will be most noted for
her poetry volumes “We a BaddDDD People”, “A Blues Book
for Blue Black Magical Women”, and anthologies she will
edit including “We Be Word Sorcerers: 25 Stories by
Black Americans.”

1941 – Otis Redding is born in Dawson, Georgia, the son of a
Baptist minister. He will become a rhythm and blues
musician and singer and will be best known for his
recording of “[Sittin’ on] The Dock of the Bay,” which
will be released after he joins the ancestors. Some of
his other hits were “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long”,
“Respect”, and “Try A Little Tenderness.” He will join
the ancestors on December 10, 1967 after his plane
crashes en route to a concert in Madison, Wisconsin.

1942 – Inez Foxx is born in Greensboro, North Carolina. She will
become a rhythm and blues singer and will perform as
part of a duuo act with her brother, Charlie. Their
biggest hit will be “Mockingbird” in 1963. They will
record together until 1967.

1942 – Luther Simmons is born in New York City, New York. He
will become a rhythm and blues singer with the group
“The Main Ingredient.” They will be best known for
their hit, “Everybody Plays the Fool.”

1945 – Dione LaRue is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She
will become a rhythm and blues singer better known as
“Dee Dee Sharp.” Her first hit will be “It’s Mashed
Potato Time” in 1962. She will also record “Gravy” [For
My Mashed Potatoes], “Ride!”, “Do the Bird”, and “Slow
Twistin’ “(with Chubby Checker).

1957 – President Eisenhower signs the first civil rights bill
passed by Congress since Reconstruction.

1957 – Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth is mobbed when he attempts to
enroll his daughters in a “white” Birmingham school.

1957 – Nashville’s new Hattie Cotton Elementary School with
enrollment of one African American and 388 whites is
virtually destroyed by a dynamite blast.

1962 – Two churches are burned near Sasser, Georgia. African
American leaders ask the president to stop the “Nazi-
like reign of terror in southwest Georgia.”

1963 – Alabama Governor George Wallace is served a federal
injunction when he orders state police to bar African
American students from enrolling in white schools.

1968 – Arthur Ashe becomes the first (and first African
American) Men’s Singles Tennis Champion of the newly
established U.S. Open tennis championships at Forest
Hills, New York.

1971 – More than 1,200 inmates at the Attica Correctional
Facility in upstate New York gain control of the
facility in a well-planned takeover. During the initial
violence, 50 correctional officers and civilian
employees are beaten and taken hostage. Correctional
officer William Quinn receives the roughest beating and
is soon freed by the inmates due to the severity of his
injuries. Police handling of the takeover will result
in the deaths of many inmates and will turn the nation’s
interest toward the conditions in U.S. penal
institutions.

1979 – Robert Guillaume wins an Emmy award for ‘Best Actor in a
Comedy Series’ for his performances in “Soap”.

1981 – Vernon E. Jordan resigns as president of the National
Urban League and announces plans to join a Washington DC
legal firm. He will be succeeded by John E. Jacob,
executive vice president of the league.

1984 – Walter Payton, of the Chicago Bears, breaks Jim Brown’s
combined yardage record — by reaching 15,517 yards.

1985 – President Reagan orders sanctions against South Africa
because of that country’s apartheid policies.

1990 – Liberian President Samuel K. Doe is captured and joins
the ancestors after being killed by rebel forces. In
1985, he was elected president, but Charles Taylor and
followers overthrew his government in 1989, which will
spark a seven-year long civil war.

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