KRLemmons African American History

December 10 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – December 10 *

1810 – Tom Cribb of Great Britain defeats beats African
American Tom Molineaux in the first interracial boxing
championship. The fight lasted 40 rounds at Copthall
Common in England.

1846 – Norbert Rillieux invents the evaporating pan, which
revolutionizes the sugar industry.

1854 – Edwin C. Berry is born in Oberlin, Ohio. He will become
a hotel entrepreneur and erects a 22-room hotel, Hotel
Berry, in Athens, Ohio. He will be known, at the time
of his retirement in 1921, as the most successful
African American small-city hotel operator in the
United States. He will join the ancestors in Athens, Ohio
on March 12, 1931.

1864 – A mixed cavalry force, including Fifth and Sixth Colored
Cavalry regiments, invades southwest Virginia and
destroys salt mines at Saltville. The Sixth Cavalry
was especially brilliant in an engagement near Marion,
Virginia.

1910 – Smarting from the humiliation of seeing the Ty Cobb-led
Detroit Tigers tie the Negro Havana Stars in a six game
series 3-3, the “Indianapolis Freeman” states: “The
American scribes refused to write on the matter, it cut
so deep and was kept quiet.” Not quiet enough, however,
to prevent a ban on Negro teams, even the Cuban-named
clubs, from playing whites.

1943 – Theodore Wilson is born in New York City. He will become
an actor and will star on television in “That’s My Mama”
(Earl the Postman), and “Sanford Arms”.

1950 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is the first African American to be
presented the Nobel Prize. He is awarded the Peace Prize
for his efforts as under-secretary of the United Nations,
working for peace in the middle east.

1963 – Zanzibar becomes independent within the British
Commonwealth.

1964 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. receives the Nobel Peace Prize.
In his acceptance speech, he dramatically rejects racism
and war and reaffirms his commitment to “unarmed truth
and unconditional love.” He is the youngest person to
earn the award.

1965 – Sugar Ray Robinson permanently retires from boxing with
six victories in title bouts to his credit.

1967 – Otis Redding and four members of the Bar-Kays (Otis’
backup group) join the ancestors after being killed in
the crash of a private plane near Madison, Wisconsin.
Redding is 26 years old. His signature song, “(Sittin’
On) The Dock of the Bay” was recorded just three days
before his death. It will be #1 for four weeks beginning
February 10, 1968.

1982 – Pamela McAllister Johnson becomes the first African
American woman publisher of a mainstream newspaper, the
“Ithaca Journal.”

1984 – South African Anglican Bishop, Desmond Tutu receives the
Nobel Peace Prize.

1999 – Actress Shirley Hemphill joins the ancestors in West
Covina, California at the age of 52. She was best known
for her role as the “waitress with an attitude” on the
television series, “What’s Happening!”

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 9 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – December 9 *

1867 – The Georgia constitutional convention, consisting of 33
African American and 137 whites, opens in Atlanta,
Georgia.

1872 – P. B. S. Pinchback is sworn in as governor of Louisiana
after H.C. Warmoth is impeached “for high crimes and
misdemeanors.” He becomes the first African American
governor of a state.

1919 – Roy Rudolph DeCarava is born in New York City. He will
become a leading photographer of the African American
experience. He will win a scholarship to study at the
Cooper Union School of Art (1938–40), but will leave
after two years to attend the more congenial Harlem
Community Art Center (1940–42), where he will have
access to such figures as the artists Romare Bearden
and Jacob Lawrence and the poet Langston Hughes, He
will then attend the George Washington Carver Art
School (1944–45), where he will study with the Social
Realist, Charles White. He will initially take up
photography to record images he would use in his
painting, but he will come to prefer the camera to the
brush. In the late 1940s he will begin a series of
scenes of his native Harlem, aiming for “a creative
expression, the kind of penetrating insight and
understanding of Negroes which I believe only a Negro
photographer can interpret.” Edward Steichen, then
curator of photography for the Museum of Modern Art in
New York City, will attend his first solo show in 1950
and purchase several prints for the museum’s collection.
In 1952, he will be awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship,
the first African American photographer to receive the
grant. Many of the photos enabled by this award will be
compiled in the book, “The Sweet Flypaper of Life” (1955;
reissued 1988), with text written by Langston Hughes. In
1958, he will become a freelance photographer. His
interest in education will lead him to found “A
Photographer’s Gallery” (1955–57), which will attempt to
gain public recognition for photography as an art form,
and a workshop for African American photographers in
1963. He will also teach at the Cooper Union School of
Art from 1969 to 1972. In 1975, he will join the faculty
at Hunter College. He will be perhaps best known for his
portraits of jazz musicians, which capture the essence
of such legends as Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Duke
Ellington, and Billie Holiday in the midst of performances.
These portraits, which he will begin in 1956, will be
shown in 1983 in an exhibit at Harlem’s Studio Museum.
Many of his jazz portraits will be published in “The Sound
I Saw: Improvisation on a Jazz Theme” (2001). In 1996, the
Museum of Modern Art will organize a DeCarava retrospective
that will travel to several cities and introduce his work
to a new generation. He will receive a National Medal of
Arts in 2006, the highest award given to artists by the
United States Government. He will join the ancestors on
October 27, 2009.

1922 – John Elroy (Redd Foxx) Sanford, is born in St. Louis,
Missouri. His off-color records and concerts will
catapult him to fame and his own television show,
“Sanford and Son,” and a later series, “The Royal
Family,” his last before he suddenly joins the ancestors
on October 11, 1991.

1938 – The first public service programming aired when Jack L.
Cooper launches the “Search for Missing Persons” show.
In 1929, he debuted “The All-Negro Hour on WSBC in Chicago.
He is considered to be the first African American disc
jockey and radio announcer.

1953 – Lloyd B. Free is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will
become a professional basketball player and will later
change his name to World B. Free. He will be a NBA
guard with the Philadelphia 76ers, San Diego Clippers,
Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, and the
Houston Rockets. He will leave the NBA in 1988 with
17,955 career points and a career scoring average of
20.3 points per game.

1961 – Tanganyika gains independence from Great Britain and
takes the name Tanzania.

1961 – Wilt Chamberlain of the NBA Philadelphia Warriors scores
67 points vs. the New York Knicks.

1962 – Tanzania becomes a republic within the British
Commonwealth.

1963 – Zanzibar gains independence from Great Britain.

1971 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, Nobel Peace Prize winner and
Undersecretary of the United Nations from 1955 to his
retirement in October, 1971, joins the ancestors in New
York City at the age of 67.

1971 – Bill Pickett becomes the first African American elected
to the National Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame. He is the
cowboy that invented the bulldogging event famous in
today’s rodeos.

1976 – Tony Dorsett is awarded the Heisman Trophy. Dorsett, a
running back for the University of Pittsburgh, amasses
a total of 6,082 total yards and will go on to play
with the Dallas Cowboys and help lead them to the Super
Bowl.

1984 – The Jackson’s Victory Tour comes to a close at Dodger
Stadium in Los Angeles, after 55 performances in 19
cities. The production is reported to be the world’s
greatest rock extravaganza and one of the most
problematic. The Jackson brothers receive about $50
million during the five-month tour of the United States
– before some 2.5 million fans.

1984 – Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears records another first
as he runs six plays, as quarterback. He is intercepted
twice, but runs the ball himself on four carries. The
Green Bay Packers still win 20-14. Payton says after
the game, “It was OK, but I wouldn’t want to do it for a
living.”

1984 – Eric Dickerson, of the Los Angeles Rams, becomes only the
second pro football player to run for more than 2,000
yards (2,105) in a season. He passes O.J. Simpson’s
record of 2,003 as the Rams beat the Houston Oilers
27-16.

1989 – Craig Washington wins a special congressional election in
Texas’ 18th District to fill the seat vacated by the
death of George “Mickey” Leland.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 8 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 8 *

1850 – The first African American woman to graduate from
college is Lucy Ann Stanton. She completes the two-year
ladies’ course and receives the Bachelor of Literature
degree from Oberlin College in Ohio.

1863 – President Abraham Lincoln issues his Proclamation on
Amnesty and Reconstruction for the restoration of the
Confederate states into the Union. He offers them a full
pardon and restoration of their rights if they are
willing to take an oath of loyalty to the Union and
accept the end of slavery.

1868 – Henry Hugh Proctor is born near Fayetteville,
Tennessee. He will receive his degree from Fisk University,
graduating in 1891. In 1894, he will receive a Bachelor of
Divinity degree from Yale University and be ordained into
the Congregational ministry. He will become pastor of the
First Congregational Church in Atlanta. In 1903, He will
join George Washington Henderson, president of Straight
University, a black college in New Orleans, Louisiana, to
found the National Convention of Congregational Workers
Among Colored People, and he will become its first president.
In 1904, Clark University will award him a Doctor of Divinity
degree. After the Atlanta Race Riot in 1906, he and a white
attorney will work together to quell remaining tensions and
form the Interracial Committee of Atlanta. In the church,
he will provide amenities lacking to blacks such as a
library, a kindergarten, an employment bureau, a gymnasium, a
ladies’ reading parlor, a music room, counseling services and
a model kitchen and sewing room for girls. He will also help
open the first housing facility for young employed black
women. He will be a strong believer in self-improvement. He
will also found the Atlanta Colored Music Festival
Association, with concerts attended by both races, segregated
but under one roof, believing that music could quell racial
animosity. This festival continues to the present day as the
Atlanta Music Festival. In 1919, he will minister to the
black American troops remaining in Europe. Afterwards he will
lead the Nazarene Congregational Church in Brooklyn, New York,
the place where he will live the rest of his life. He will
join the ancestors on May 12, 1933 New York City, after
succumbing to blood poisoning.

1873 – The National Equal Rights Convention adopts a resolution
to include African Americans.

1896 – J.T. White patents the lemon squeezer.

1925 – Entertainer, Sammy Davis Jr. is born in New York City.
He will begin his career at the age of four in
vaudeville, performing with his father. Sammy will star
on Broadway in “Mr. Wonderful” and in movies with “Porgy
and Bess”, Ocean’s Eleven, and “Robin and the Seven
Hoods.” He will release over 40 albums and will win many
gold records. He will join the ancestors on May 16, 1990.

1925 – James Oscar “Jimmy” Smith is born in Norristown,
Pennsylvania. He will become a modern jazz organist with
hits such as “Walk on the Wild Side.” He will rule the
Hammond organ in the ’50s and ’60s. He will revolutionize
the instrument, showing it could be creatively used in a
jazz context and popularized in the process. His Blue
Note sessions from 1956 to 1963 were extremely
influential. He toured extensively through the ’60s and
’70s. His Blue Note recordings will include superb
collaborations with Kenny Burrell, Lee Morgan, Lou
Donaldson, Tina Brooks, Jackie McLean, Ike Quebec and
Stanley Turrentine among others. He will join the
ancestors on February 8, 2005.

1933 – Clerow Wilson is born in Jersey City, New Jersey. “Flip”
Wilson is the tenth in a family of twenty-four children,
eighteen of whom survived. He will become a popular
comedian and will star in his own prime time comedy show
on television, “The Flip Wilson Show.” He will join the
ancestors on November 25, 1998.

1936 – “Gibbs vs The Board of Education” in Montgomery County,
Maryland is the first of a succession of suits initiated
by the NAACP, that eliminated wage differentials between
African American and white teachers.

1936 – “The Michigan Chronicle” is founded by Louis E. Martin.

1936 – The Spingarn Medal is presented to John Hope, posthumously,
for his achievement as president of Morehouse College and
for his creative leadership in the founding of the Atlanta
University Center.

1939 – Jerry Butler is born in Sunflower, Mississippi. He will
become a rhythm and blues singer with his group, The
Impressions and will be best known for his songs, “Never
Give You Up”, “For Your Precious Love,” “He Will Break
Your Heart,” and “Only the Strong Survive.” He will
become involved in the election of Chicago’s first
African American mayor, Harold Washington, work as Cook
County Commissioner and will serve as a Chicago City
Alderman.

1962 – The Reverend John Melville Burgess is consecrated as
suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts — the first African
American bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church to
serve a predominantly white diocese.

1967 – Major Robert H. Lawrence, Jr., the first African American
astronaut, joins the ancestors when his F-104 Starfighter
crashes at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave
Desert.

1972 – Representative George Collins joins the ancestors in an
airplane crash, near Midway Airport in Chicago, Illinois,
at the age of 47.

1972 – Attorney Jewel Lafontant is named Deputy Solicitor General
of the United States.

1977 – Earl Campbell, a running back with the University of Texas,
is awarded the Heisman Trophy. Campbell will play for
the Houston Oilers and be elected to the Football Hall of
Fame in 1990.

1983 – Mike Rozier, of the University of Nebraska, is awarded the
Heisman Trophy.

1987 – Kurt Lidell Schmoke is inaugurated as the first African
American mayor of Baltimore, Maryland.

1988 – Barry Sanders, a running back with Oklahoma State
University, is awarded the Heisman Trophy.

1991 – Tap dancing legends Fayard and Harold Nicholas and six
others receive Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, DC.

1998 – Nkem Chukwu, a Nigerian American, delivers Ebuka, the
first of eight children at Texas Children’s Hospital in
Houston, Texas. In what doctors consider a medical first,
the other seven siblings will be delivered on December 20.
Only seven will survive.

1999 – A Memphis, Tennessee jury hearing a lawsuit filed by the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s family, finds that the civil
rights leader had been the victim of a vast murder
conspiracy, not a lone assassin.

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