KRLemmons African American History

February 12 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – February 12 *

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“Once a year we go through the charade of February being ‘Black
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1793 – Congress makes it a crime to hide or protect a runaway slave
by passing the first fugitive slave law.

1865 – Henry Highland Garnet, preacher and abolitionist, becomes the
first African American to preach in the rotunda of the
Capitol to the House of Representatives. It is on the
occasion of a Lincoln birthday memorial.

1896 – Isaac Burns Murphy, considered the greatest American jockey
of all time, joins the ancestors. He was the first jockey
to win the Kentucky Derby two years in a row and became the
first jockey to win the Kentucky Derby three times. In
1955, Isaac Murphy was the first jockey voted into the
Jockey Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing, in
Saratoga Springs, New York.

1900 – For a Lincoln birthday celebration, James Weldon Johnson
writes the lyrics for “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” With
music by his brother, J. Rosamond, the song is first sung
by 500 children in Jacksonville, Florida. It will become
known as the “Negro National Anthem.”

1909 – When six African Americans were killed and 200 others driven
out of town in race riots in Springfield, Illinois in the
summer of 1908, many Americans were shocked, because they
associated such violence only with racism in the south.
Springfield was not only a northern city, but the home of
Abraham Lincoln. Three people, Mary Ovington, William E.
Walling, and Dr. Henry Moskowitz, alarmed at the
deterioration of race relations, decided to open a campaign
to oppose the pervasive discrimination against racial
minorities. They issue a call for a national conference
on “the Negro question”, and for its symbolic value, they
will choose the centennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln,
February 12, 1909, as the date for the conference. Held in
New York City, it will draw an interracial group of 60
distinguished citizens, who will formulate plans for a
permanent organization devoted to fighting all forms of
racial discrimination. That organization will be the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
The NAACP will be the oldest and largest civil rights
organization in the U.S. With more than 2,200 branches
across the country, it will be in the forefront of the
struggle for voting rights, and an end to discrimination in
housing, employment, and education.

1934 – William Felton “Bill” Russell is born in Monroe, Louisiana.
He will become a star basketball player and high jumper at
the University of San Francisco. After college, he will
win a gold medal in the 1956 Olympics, as a member of the
United States basketball team. He will then play
professional basketball for the Boston Celtics for thirteen
seasons, winning eight straight NBA titles and eleven
championships. At the end of the 1965-66 season, he will
become the coach of the Boston Celtics.

1983 – Eubie Blake joins the ancestors at the age of 100 in Brooklyn,
New York. Blake was one of the last ragtime pianists and
composers whose most famous songs included “I’m Just Wild
About Harry.” With Noble Sissle, Blake was the composer of
the first all-African American Broadway musical, “Shuffle
Along,” which opened on Broadway in 1921.

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

KRLemmons African American History

February 11 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – February 11 *

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to the Munirah Chronicle and receive Black Facts every day
of the year.
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1783 – Jarena Lee, the first woman to preach in an AME church, at
Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia, is born in Cape
May, New Jersey. She will chronicle her life’s work in her
book, “Religious Experiences and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee:
A Preachin’ Woman” (1849). Jarena Lee will be one of first
African American women to speak out publicly against slavery.
She will join the ancestors in 1849.

1790 – The Society of Friends (Quakers) presents a petition to
Congress calling for the abolition of slavery.

1958 – Mohawk Airlines schedules Ruth Carol Taylor on her initial
flight from Ithaca, New York to New York City. She becomes the
first African American flight attendant for a United States-
based air carrier.

1961 – Robert Weaver becomes the highest-ranking African American in
the federal government as he is sworn in as administrator of
the Housing and Home Finance Agency.

1966 – Willie Mays signs with the San Francisco Giants for $ 130,000
a year. At the time, this is one of the highest salaries in
professional baseball.

1977 – Clifford Alexander, Jr. is confirmed as the first African
American Secretary of the Army. He will hold the position
until the end of President Jimmy Carter’s term.

1977 – Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam is named head of state
in Ethiopia. He will rule Ethiopia and be backed by the
Soviet government until he loses the civil war in 1991 to the
forces supporting Meles Zenawi.

1989 – Rev. Barbara Clementine Harris becomes the first woman
consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal Church, in a ceremony
held in Boston.

1990 – Nelson Mandela is released from prison after being held for
nearly 27 years without trial by the South African government.
The founder and unofficial leader of the African National
Congress, Mandela became, during his imprisonment, a symbol
for the struggle of Black South Africans to overcome apartheid.

1990 – James “Buster” Douglas defeats Mike Tyson in a stunning upset
in Tokyo to win the heavyweight boxing championship. Almost two
years later to the day, Tyson will be convicted of rape and two
related charges filed by a Miss Black America contestant in
Indianapolis, Indiana.

2012 – Whitney Houston, the woman with the pitch-perfect voice who once
reigned as the queen of pop at the Grammys, joins the ancestors
at the age of 48.

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

KRLemmons African American History

February 10 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – February 10 *
Subscribe to the Munirah Chronicle and receive Black Facts every day of the year. To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]> In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name

1868 – Republican conservatives draft new constitution which
concentrates political power in the hands of the governor and
limits the impact of the Black vote. This is made possible by
Conservatives, aided by military forces, who seize the
convention hall and establish control over the reconstruction
process in Florida.

1927 – Mary Leontyne Violet Price, who will be acclaimed as one of the
world’s greatest operatic talents, is born in Laurel,
Mississippi. She will amass many operatic firsts, being the
first African American to sing opera on network television and
the first African American to receive the Presidential Medal
of Freedom. Among her honors will be the NAACP’s Spingarn
Medal, three Emmys, and Kennedy Center Honors.

1937 – Roberta Cleopatra Flack is born in Black Mountain (Asheville),
North Carolina. She will begin her professional singing career
in Washington, DC. She will go on to win Grammys for “The First
Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Where Is the Love,” and “Killing
Me Softly with His Song.”

1942 – Mary Lovelace O’Neal is born in Jackson, Mississippi. Educated
at Howard and Columbia universities, she will become a
professor of fine arts and head of the Art Department at
University of California at Berkeley. Academia will allow her
the freedom to become a painter who will exhibit her work
in museums in the United States, Morocco, and Chile.

1943 – Eta Phi Beta, the national business and professional sorority,
is incorporated in Detroit, Michigan. It will have chapters
throughout the United States and number among its members
civil rights activist Daisy Bates and artist Margaret T.
Burroughs.

1945 – The United States, Russia, Great Britain, and France approve a
peace treaty with Italy, under which Italy renounces all
rights and claims to Ethiopia and Eritrea.

1945 – The Chicago Defender reports that over a quarter of a million
African Americans migrated to California during the years 1942
and 1943. As the percentage of African Americans in
California increases from 1 1/2% to more than 10% of the
total population, so does the practice of racial segregation.

1971 – Bill White becomes the first African American major league
baseball announcer when he begins announcing for the New
York Yankees.

1989 – Ronald H. Brown, who had served as Jesse Jackson’s campaign
manager, becomes chairman of the Democratic National
Committee, the first African American to hold the position
in either party.

1990 – South African President, Frederik Willem de Klerk announces
that Nelson Mandela will be set free on February 11th after
27 years in prison.

1992 – Alex Haley, author of “Roots,” and “Autobiography of Malcolm
X,” joins the ancestors while on a lecture tour in Seattle,
Washington at the age of 70.

1992 – Mike Tyson is convicted in Indianapolis, Indiana of raping a
contestant in the Miss Black America competition and
sentenced to six years in an Indiana prison.

1998 – Dr. David Satcher is confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become
Surgeon General.

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

KRLemmons African American History

February 9 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – February 9 *

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* Black Facts every day of the year.
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* In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name
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1906 – Never fully recovering from a bout of pneumonia in 1899, poet
and author Paul Laurence Dunbar joins the ancestors in Dayton,
Ohio, at the age of 33. He nonetheless produced three novels
(including “The Sport of the Gods”), three books of verse,
three collections of short stories, two unpublished plays,
and lyric pieces set to music by Will Marion Cook.

1944 – Alice Walker is born In Eatonton, Georgia. Best known for “The
Color Purple,” which will win the American Book Award and the
Pulitzer Prize, she will also write a variety of other
critically praised and award-winning works including poetry
and children’s books and edit a book on Zora Neale Hurston,
whom she will credit as her role model.

1944 – John Rozelle is born in St. Louis, Missouri. He will become an
artist and professor at the Art Institute of Chicago. His
work reflects his self identification as an “African American
sentinel,” or visual historian, guide, and advocate of
contemporary African American culture.

1951 – Dennis “Dee Tee” Thomas is born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He will
become a rhythm and blues musician with the group, ‘Kool & the
Gang.’

1953 – Gary Franks is born in Waterbury, Connecticut. In 1990, he
will be elected to Congress from Connecticut’s 5th District
and become the first African American Republican congressman
since Oscar De Priest left office in 1934.

1962 – Jamaica signs an agreement with Great Britain to become
independent.

1964 – Arthur Ashe, Jr. becomes the first African American on a United
States Davis Cup Team.

1964 – A speech by U.S. Representative Martha Griffiths in Congress,
on sex discrimination, results in civil rights protection for
women being added to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

1971 – Satchel Paige becomes the first African American elected to
professional baseball’s Hall of Fame for his career in the
Negro Leagues.

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

KRLemmons Uncategorized

Civil Rights Pioneer Ruby Bridges on Ferguson and Eric Garner. Her unique perspective is most insightful

Camille Mitchell's avatarncmenterprises

Hello  Everyone:
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There was a story I came across where a police officer drew his gun, cursing and frisked (ordered them get down on their knees with there hands up) a couple of African-American teens during a snowball fight.  It was video taped and it’s heart breaking. 
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I did not include it because the short video video below with Ruby Bridges puts the Ferguson and Eric Garner cases sums up these sad situations and her unique perspective nails it..  
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​The Problem We All Live With

artist, Norman Rockwell_1964
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As soon as Ruby entered the school, white parents pulled their own children out; all the teachers refused to teach while a black child was enrolled. Only one person agreed to…

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KRLemmons Uncategorized

Book Birthday: WHEN REASON BREAKS

missdguzman's avatarLatinxs in Kid Lit

By Cindy L. Rodriguez

Reason Breaks Blended CollageToday is the official release day of When Reason Breaks, my debut young adult contemporary novel published by Bloomsbury! Yay! The novel is about two girls, both sophomores in high school, who struggle with depression in different ways. Here’s part of the official description:

A Goth girl with an attitude problem, Elizabeth Davis must learn to control her anger before it destroys her. Emily Delgado appears to be a smart, sweet girl, with a normal life, but as depression clutches at her, she struggles to feel normal. Both girls are in Ms. Diaz’s English class, where they connect to the words of Emily Dickinson. Both are hovering on the edge of an emotional precipice. One of them will attempt suicide. And with Dickinson’s poetry as their guide, both girls must conquer their personal demons to ever be happy.

To celebrate my journey, which started…

View original post 999 more words