KRLemmons African American History

November 16 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 16 *

1873 – William Christopher Handy is born in Florence, Alabama.
He will be best known as a composer and blues musician
and earn the nickname “Father of the Blues.” Among
his most noteworthy compositions will be “Memphis
Blues,” “St. Louis Blues,” and “Beale Street Blues.”
He will also form a music publishing company with
Harry Pace and become one of the most important
influences in African-American music. His 1941
autobiography, “Father of the Blues,” will be a
sourcebook and reference on this uniquely African
American musical style. W.C. Handy will join the
ancestors on March 28, 1958 in New York City, the same
year “The St. Louis Blues”, an biographical movie of
his life debuts.

1873 – Richard T. Greener, who was the first African American
graduate of Harvard University, is named professor of
metaphysics at the University of South Carolina.

1873 – African Americans win three state offices in the
Mississippi election: Alexander K. Davis, Lieutenant
governor; James Hill, secretary of state; T.W. Cardozo,
superintendent of education. African Americans win 55
of the 115 seats in the house and 9 out of 37 seats in
the senate, 42 per cent of the total number.

1930 – Chinua Achebe is born in Ogidi, Nigeria. He will become
the internationally acclaimed author of the novel
“Things Fall Apart,” among others.

1931 – Hubert Sumlin is born on a farm near Greenwood,
Mississippi. Sumlin will leave home at seventeen to
tour clubs and taverns throughout the South with his
childhood friend James Cotton. The Jimmy Cotton band
will record for the Sun label in Memphis from 1950 to
1953. In 1954, Sumlin will join the Howlin’ Wolf band
and move to Chicago. It will be Howlin’ Wolf who
mentors Sumlin, prodding and encouraging him to find
his own style and develop as a performer. He will
perform with Howlin’ Wolf for twenty five years.

1962 – Wilt Chamberlain of the NBA San Francisco Warriors
scores 73 points against the New York Knicks.

1963 – Zina Garrison, professional tennis player (1988 Olympic
Gold, Bronze), is born in Houston, Texas.

1964 – Dwight Gooden, professional baseball pitcher (New York
Mets), is born. “The Doctor” will set the record for
most strikeouts in a rookie season and become Rookie
of the Year in 1984. He also will become the youngest
to achieve that award. He will receive the Cy Young
Award in 1985.

1967 – A one-man showing of 48 paintings by Henry O. Tanner is
presented at the Grand Central Galleries in New York
City. The presentation of the canvases, not in the
best of condition, is criticized by The New York Times
as an “injustice to a proud man.”

1967 – Lisa Bonet, actress (“The Cosby Show”, “A Different
World”, “Angel Heart”, Bank Robber”, “New Eden”, “Dead
Connection”) is born in San Francisco, California.

1972 – The Louisiana National Guard mobilizes after police
officers kill two students during demonstrations at
Southern University.

1975 – Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears rushes for 105 yards
in a game against the San Francisco ’49ers. It will
be Payton’s first game of 100 plus yards. He will
repeat this feat over 50 times throughout his career
and add two 200-yard games.

1989 – South African President F.W. de Klerk announces the
scrapping of the Separate Amenities Act, opening up
the country’s beaches to all races.

1996 – Texaco agrees to pay $176.9 million dollars to settle
a two-year old race discrimination class action suit.

1998 – The Supreme Court rules that union members can file
discrimination lawsuits against employers even when
labor contracts require arbitration.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 15 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 15 *

218 – Hannibal, North African military genius, crosses the
BC Alps with elephants and 26,000 men in an expedition
to capture Rome.

1805 – Explorers Lewis and Clark reach the mouth of the
Columbia River. Accompanying them on their expedition
is a slave named York, who, while technically Clark’s
valet, distinguished himself as a scout, interpreter,
and emissary to the Native Americans encountered on
the expedition.

1825 – African American feminist, Sarah Jane Woodson, is born
in Chillicothe, Ohio.

1884 – The Berlin Conference, of European nations, is organized
by German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck to decide issues
regarding the colonization of Africa. The Europeans
attending the conference, decide which parts of the
African continent would be “owned” by the participants,
“allowing” only Liberia and Ethiopia to remain free
countries. Representatives from Great Britain, France,
Germany, Portugal, and Belgium negotiate their claims
to African territory and establish a framework for
making and negotiating future claims. Obviously, there
is no one representing Africans at this conference. By
1900, nearly 90 percent of African territory will be
claimed by European states.

1887 – Granville T. Woods receives a patent for the Synchronous
Multiplier Railway Telegraph.

1897 – Langston University, a public co-educational institution,
is founded in Langston, Oklahoma.

1897 – Voorhees College, a private co-educational institution
affiliated with the Episcopal Church, is founded in
Denmark, South Carolina.

1897 – John Mercer Langston joins the ancestors at the age of
67, in Washington, DC.

1928 – Roland Hayes opens his fifth American Tour at New York’s
Carnegie Hall packed with admirers.

1930 – Whitman Mayo, actor (Grady -“Sanford & Son”), is born in
New York City.

1937 – Yaphet Kotto, actor (“Brubaker”, “Alien”, “Raid on
Entebbe”, “Eye of the Tiger”, “Roots”, “Live and Let
Die”, “Midnight Run”, and TV’s “Homicide”), is born in
New York City.

1950 – Dr. Arthur Dorrington, a dentist, becomes the first
African American in organized hockey to suit up, a
member of the Atlantic City Seagulls of the Eastern
Amateur Hockey League.

1960 – Elgin Baylor, of the Los Angeles Lakers scores 71 points
against the New York Knicks.

1969 – The Amistad Research Center is incorporated as an
independent archive, library, & museum dedicated to
preserving African American & ethnic history and culture.
The center collects original source materials on the
history of the nation’s ethnic minorities and race
relations in the United States (over 10 million
documents). The Amistad was organized by the Race
Relations Department of Fisk University and the American
Missionary Association in 1966. The library is now
located in Tilton Hall on the campus of Tulane University
in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1976 – The Plains Baptist Church, home church of President Jimmy
Carter, votes to admit African American worshipers. The
church had been under pressure to admit African Americans
since Reverend Clennon King had announced his intentions
to join the congregation.

1979 – The Nobel Prize in economics is awarded to Professor
Arthur Lewis of Princeton University. He is the first
African American to receive the coveted prize in a
category other than peace.

1979 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Rosa L. Parks, who
was the Catalyst in the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott
of 1955-56.

1989 – President George Bush signs a bill to rename a Houston,
Texas, federal building after George Thomas “Mickey”
Leland, the Houston congressman who died in a plane crash
earlier in the year.

1998 – Kwame Ture succumbs to prostate cancer in Guinea and joins
the ancestors at age 57. He was born Stokely Carmichael
in the country of Trinidad (1941) and in 1966 coined the
phrase, “Black Power.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 14 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 14 *

1900 – In Washington, DC, a small group meets to form the
Washington Society of Colored Dentists. It is the
first society of African American dentists in the
United States.

1915 – Booker T. Washington, educator, orator, and founder of
Tuskegee Institute, joins the ancestors on the
college’s campus at the age of 59. He was one the
most famous African American educators and leaders of
the 19th century, whose message of acquiring practical
skills and emphasizing self-help over political rights
was popular among whites and segments of the African
American community. His 1901 autobiography, “Up From
Slavery”, which details his rise to success despite
numerous obstacles, became a best-seller and further
enhanced his public image as a self-made man. As
popular as he was in some quarters, Washington was
aggressively opposed by critics such as W.E.B. Du Bois
and William Monroe Trotter.

1920 – The New York Times and Tribune call Charles Gilpin’s
portrayal of Brutus Jones in “The Emperor Jones”, a
performance of heroic stature. Gilpin had premiered in
the play earlier in the month with the New York-based
Provincetown Players, which will influence his being
named one of the ten most important contributors to the
American theater of 1920 and the 1921 recipient of the
NAACP’s Spingarn Medal.

1934 – Ellis Marsalis is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. After
high school, Marsalis will enroll at Dillard University
(New Orleans) and graduate with a Bachelor of Arts
degree in music education. Marsalis will eventually
become New Orleans’ leading Jazz educator. He will
become a lecturer at Xavier University and an adjunct
teacher at Loyola University. Marsalis will enroll in
the graduate program at Loyola University and will
graduate with a Masters of Music Education. Marsalis’
teaching career will flower at the New Orleans Center
for Creative Arts (NOCCA). Many of his former students
will be professional musicians locally as well as
internationally. Three of his six sons, Branford,
Wynton and Delfeayo as well as trumpeter Terence
Blanchard, saxophonist Donald Harrison and pianist
Harry Connick, Jr. will attain worldwide acclaim with
recording contracts on major labels.

1934 – William Levi Dawson’s Symphony No. 1, Negro Folk
Symphony, is the first symphony on black folk themes by
an African American composer to be performed by a major
orchestra.

1960 – Four African American girls are escorted by U.S. Marshals
and parents to two New Orleans schools being
desegregated.

1966 – Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) defeats Cleveland
Williams by TKO in the third round in front of Boxing’s
largest indoor crowd, assembled in the Houston Astrodome.
He retains his world heavyweight title.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 13 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 13 *

1839 – The first anti-slavery political party (Liberty Party) is
organized and convenes in Warsaw, New York. Samuel
Ringgold Ward and Henry Highland Garnet are two of the
earliest supporters of the new political party.

1910 – Painter and printmaker, Wilmer Angier Jennings, is born in
Atlanta, Georgia. A graduate of Morehouse College and
student of Hale Woodruff, Jennings will be employed by the
Public Works for Art Project and Works Progress
Administration in the 1930’s, where he will paint murals
and landscape paintings, and produce prints.

1913 – Dr Daniel Hale Williams, the first physician to perform
open heart surgery, becomes a member of the American
College of Surgeons.

1940 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Hansberry vs. Lee
that whites cannot bar African Americans from white
neighborhoods. The Supreme Court’s ruling in the case
brought by wealthy real-estate broker Carl Hansberry of
Chicago, allows the Hansberry family, including 10-year-
old daughter Lorraine, to move into a white neighborhood.

1949 – Caryn Johnson is born in New York City. She will grow up
in the ghettos of New York, overcome drug addiction and
poverty, and become known as Whoopi Goldberg, multi-
talented comedian and actress and Academy Award winner
for her supporting role performance in “Ghost” in 1991.

1951 – Janet Collins, becomes the first African American ballerina
to appear with the Metropolitan Opera Company.

1956 – The Supreme Court upholds a lower court decision banning
segregation on city buses in Montgomery, Alabama. The
Court establishes grounds for challenging bus segregation
in nine states that have violated the 15th Amendment.

1956 – Dancer Geoffrey Holder begins a contract with the
Metropolitan Opera. Holder will dance in 26 performances,
including “Aida” and “La Perichole”, and his career will
include dance, acting, and art collecting.

1967 – Carl Stokes becomes the first African American mayor of a
major U.S. city when he is inaugurated mayor of Cleveland,
Ohio.

1973 – Reggie Jackson, of the Oakland Athletics, unanimously wins
the American League MVP award.

1985 – Dwight Gooden, the youngest 20 game winner in Major League
baseball history, wins the Cy Young award.

1992 – Riddick Bowe wins the undisputed heavyweight boxing title
in Las Vegas with a unanimous decision over Evander
Holyfield.

1996 – A grand jury in St. Petersburg, Florida, declines to indict
police officer Jim Knight, who had shot African American
motorist TyRon Lewis to death the previous month. The
decision prompts angry mobs to return to the streets.

1996 – An all-white jury in Pittsburgh acquits a suburban police
officer, John Vojtas, in the death of African American
motorist Johnny Gammage in a verdict that angers African
American activists.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 12 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 12 *

1775 – General George Washington issues an order forbidding
recruiting officers from enlisting African Americans.

1779 – Twenty slaves petition New Hampshire’s legislature to
abolish slavery. They argue that “the god of nature
gave them life and freedom upon the terms of most
perfect equality with other men; that freedom is an
inherent right of the human species, not to be
surrendered but by consent.”

1882 – Lane College is founded in Jackson, Tennessee.

1896 – 1st Sgt. Moses Williams (Ninth Calvary) is awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery in the Battle
of Cuchillo Negro Mountains, in New Mexico, fought on
August 16, 1881.

1922 – Sigma Gamma Rho sorority is founded in Indianapolis,
Indiana, by seven school teachers: Mary Lou Allison
(Gardner Little), Bessie Mae Downey (Martin), Hattie
Mae Annette Dulin (Redford), Nannie Mae Gahn (Johnson),
Dorothy Hanley (Whiteside), Cubena McClure, and Vivian
White (Marbury). Founder Vivian White Marbury was able
to witness the progress of the sisterhood she helped
create until she joins the ancestors on July 30, 2000.

1941 – Opera instructor Mary Cardwell Dawson and coloratura
Lillian Evanti establish the National Negro Opera
Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to provide more
opportunities for African Americans to sing and study
opera. The company’s first opera, Verdi’s “Aida”, will
be staged the following August at the annual meeting of
the National Association of Negro Musicians. In its
21-year history, its performers will include Evanti,
Minto Cato, and Robert McFerrin.

1974 – South Africa is suspended from the U.N. General Assembly
over its racial policies.

1977 – Ernest N. (Dutch) Morial is elected mayor of New Orleans,
Louisiana. He is the first African American to hold
that post.

1977 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Alexander P.
Haley “for his unsurpassed effectiveness in portraying
the legendary story of an American of African descent.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 11 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 11 *

1831 – Nat Turner is executed for organizing and leading the
armed slave insurrection in Jerusalem, Southampton
County, Virginia. One of our greatest freedom fighters
joins the ancestors.

1890 – D. McCree is granted a patent for the portable fire
escape.

1895 – Bechuanaland becomes part of the Cape Colony in Africa.

1915 – Claude Clark, Sr. is born near Rockingham, Georgia. He
will study at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the
Barnes Foundation, and the University of California,
Berkeley, and become a renowned artist whose studies of
urban life and social realism will be exhibited widely,
including the New York World’s Fair of 1939, the
Sorbonne, the Oakland Museum, the Museum of African
American Art in Los Angeles and in the major group
exhibits Hidden Heritage: Afro-American Art 1800-1950
and Two Centuries of Black American Art.

1918 – The Armistice is signed, ending World War I. Official
records listed 370,000 African American soldiers and
1400 African American commissioned officers. A little
more than half of of these soldiers served in the
European Theater. Three African American regiments —
the 369th, 371st, and 372nd — received the Croix de
Guerre for valor. The 369th was the first American
unit to reach the Rhine river (which separates France
from Germany). The first American soldiers to be
decorated for bravery in France were Henry Johnson and
Needham Roberts of the 369th Infantry Regiment.

1925 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to James Weldon
Johnson, former U.S. consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua
and NAACP executive secretary, for his work as an
author, diplomat and leader.

1928 – Ernestine Anderson is born in Houston, Texas. Her
introduction to jazz singing will begin at age 12 at
the Eldorado Ballroom in Houston. She will perform
with Russell Jaquet, Johnny Otis, and Lionel Hampton
and be known for her warm, blues-influenced vocals.

1929 – LaVern Baker is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will
become a rhythm & blues vocalist. She will be known
for her recordings of “Tweedly Dee”, “I Cried a Tear”,
and “Jim Dandy.”

1946 – Corrine Brown is born in Jacksonville, Florida. She will
receive a bachelor’s degree in 1969 and a master’s
degree in 1971 from Florida A&M University. She will
also receive an education specialist degree from the
University of Florida in 1974 and an honorary doctorate
in law from Edward Waters College. She will be a
college professor, a guidance counselor, and owner of a
travel agency before entering politics. In 1982 she will
be elected to the Florida House of Representatives,
where she will serve for ten years. In 1992 she will be
elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from
Florida’s Third Congressional District.

1950 – Otis Armstrong is born. He will become a NFL runningback
and the AFC’s leading rusher in 1974 with the Denver
Broncos.

1965 – Prime Minister Ian D. Smith of Rhodesia proclaims
independence from Great Britain.

1968 – Ronnie Devoe is born. He will become a singer with the
groups “New Edition” and “Bell, Biv, and Devoe.”

1972 – Carl T. Rowan, journalist, becomes the first African
American elected to the ‘Gridiron Club.’

1975 – Angola gains independence from Portugal after 500 years
of colonial rule. Angola, in southeastern Africa, had
been waging guerrilla warfare against Portuguese rule
since 1961. In 1974, back in Portugal, a group of young
military officers overthrew the government. The new
government quickly granted independence to Portugal’s
colonies. Thus, on November 11, 1975 Angola officially
became an independent republic.

1979 – The Bethune Museum and Archives is established in
Washington, DC. The goal of the museum, which is
housed in the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, is to
serve as a depository and center for African American
women’s history.

1984 – Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. dies of a heart attack
in Atlanta, Georgia. Better known as “Daddy King,” he
was the father of famed civil rights leader Martin
Luther King, Jr. and was himself, an early civil rights
leader. The elder King was pastor of Ebenezer Baptist
Church in Atlanta, the center for much of his son’s
civil rights activity.

1985 – The city of Yonkers, New York is found guilty of
segregating in schools & housing.

1989 – The Civil Rights Memorial is dedicated in Montgomery,
Alabama.

1995 – The European Union’s 15 member states decide to pull
their envoys out of Lagos to show their anger at
Nigeria’s execution of human rights leaders.

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