KRLemmons African American History

January 26 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 26 *

1863 – The War Department authorizes the governor of Massachusetts
to enlist African American troops to fight in the Civil
War. The 54th and 55th Volunteer Infantry are the result.

1893 – Bessie Coleman was born in Altanta, Texas, the tenth of
thirteen children. She will grow up to become the first
African American female pilot (June 15, 1921) and the first
woman to obtain an international flying license (from the
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale). She will join the
ancestors on April 30, 1926, after being thrown from her
airplane in Jacksonville, Florida.

1932 – George H. Clements is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will
become a priest in the Washington, DC area nationally known
for his anti-drug activism and involvement in the group “One
Church, One Addict.” In 1981, he will gain public attention
when he becomes the first Roman Catholic priest to adopt a
child. The same year, he will found the “One Church,
One Child” Program in Chicago at the Holy Angels Church, a
predominantly black Catholic church. His goal will be to
recruit black adoptive parents through local churches. Rev.
Clements will be named to the National Committee for
Adoption’s Hall of Fame in 1989 for his outstanding
leadership and the great interest he generated in black
adoptions. The One Church, One Child program will become a
national recruiting effort in 1988, and 32 states will use
all or portions of the program. Its originally envisioned
mission is to combine the resources of the church and the
state to the end of recruiting black adoptive parents to
provide permanent homes for Black children awaiting
adoption.

1934 – The Apollo Theatre opens in New York City as a ‘Negro
vaudeville theatre’. It will become the showplace for many
of the great African American entertainers, singers, groups
and instrumentalists in the country. The saying will
become common “If you made it… you played it…” at the
Apollo Theatre.

1934 – Huey “Piano” Smith is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He will
become a Rhythm and Blues pianist and will be best known for
his recording of “Having a Good Time.” In 2000, he will be
honored with a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues
Foundation.

1943 – Sherian Grace Cadoria is born in Marksville, Louisiana. She
will make her career in the United States Army after
graduating from Southern University in Louisiana. In 1985,
she will be promoted to brigadier general, making her the
highest ranking African American woman in the U.S. military. She will be the first woman elevated to that rank in the
Provost Marshal Corps. She will eventually become Director
of Manpower and Personnel for the Organization of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff. General Cadoria will say that she has
“gotten more pressure from being a woman in a man’s world
than from being black.” She will accomplish many firsts:
she will be the first woman to command a battalion; the
first woman to command a criminal investigation brigade; the
first African American woman director for the Joint Chiefs
of Staff; and the first woman to attend the Army’s top
colleges, Command and General Staff College and the U.S.
Army War College. She will be the senior African American
female general in the U.S. Armed Forces upon her retirement
in November 1990 after serving 29 years. Following
retirement, General Cadoria will found her own business,
Cadoria Speaker and Consultancy Service. On November 11,
2002, she will become the first woman and the first African
American inducted into the Louisiana Military Veterans Hall
of Honor.

1944 – Angela Yvonne Davis is born in Birmingham, Alabama. Active
in civil rights demonstrations and in the Student Non-
Violent Coordinating Committee, she will be fired twice
from the University of California at Los Angeles because of
her Communist Party affiliation and she will successfully
sue for reinstatement. A philosopher and author, she will
flee the law after being implicated in the 1970 Soledad
Brothers shooting. After sixteen months in jail, she will
be acquitted of all charges.

1958 – Anita Baker is born in Toledo, Ohio. A singer of ballads
and jazz-inspired Rhythm and Blues, her 1986 album “Rapture”
will sell five million copies and earn her a 1987 Grammy.
She will win two more in 1989.

1970 – Kirk Franklin is born in Ft. Worth, Texas. He will become a
Grammy Award winning, platinum-selling musician who will
blend gospel, hip hop, and Rhythm & Blues in the 1990s. He
will release his first gospel album, “Kirk Franklin &
Family,” in 1993, and will be known as the leader of
contemporary gospel choirs such as Kirk Franklin & the
Family, Kirk Franklin’s Nu Nation, God’s Property and Kirk
Franklin Presents 1NC. He will integrate hip hop styles
with gospel themes in albums such as “The Nu Nation Project
and God’s Property, which will achieve success on the
Billboard Pop Album, Rhythm & Blues and gospel charts. He
will collaborate with the biggest names in gospel music,
including Mary Mary, Tonex, Donnie McClurkin, Richard
Smallwood, Crystal Lewis, Pastor Shirley Caesar, tobyMac,
Jaci Valesquez, and Willie Neal Johnson. He will also
display a willingness to collaborate with artists from the
secular realm, including Bono, Mary J. Blige, and R. Kelly
on the hit single from his album Nu Nation Project, “Lean
on Me.”

1990 – Elaine Weddington Steward is named assistant general manager
of the Boston Red Sox. She becomes the first African
American female executive of a professional baseball
organization.

2005 – Dr. Condoleezza Rice is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as
Secretary of State. She becomes the first African American
woman to hold this post.

2010 – Paul R. Jones, a collector of African American art who donated
thousands of works to universities in Delaware and Alabama,
joins the ancestors in Atlanta, Georgia, at the age of 81.
“My goal has been to incorporate African American art into
American art,” he told The Tuscaloosa News in 2008 when he
made his donation to the University of Alabama with a plan for
it to be part of the curriculum. He embraced the school even
though he was turned down by the University of Alabama Law
School in 1949 after it discovered he was Black.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 25 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 25 *

1851 – Sojourner Truth addresses the first African American Women’s
Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

1890 – The National Afro-American League is founded at an organizing
meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Joseph Price, the president
of Livingston College, is elected the first president of
what will come to be considered a pioneering African
American protest organization.

1938 – Jamesetta Hawkins is born in Los Angeles, California. She
will become a rhythm and blues singer known as “Etta James.”
She will be described as “one of the great forces in
American Music.” She will become a star scoring her first
national pop hit, “Roll With Me, Henry”, at age sixteen, and
be recognized as a master in the fields of blues, R&B, jazz,
and pop, crossing genres time and again. Between 1955 and
1975, Etta will create a dozen Top-10 Rhythm & Blues hits
and more than 25 chart hits. They will include such soulful
performances as “All I Could Do Was Cry” (1960), “At Last”
(1961), “Trust in Me” (1961), “Stop the Wedding” (1962),
“Tell Mama” (1967), and “Security” (1968). She will be
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. She
will be nominated for six Grammy Awards and will win the
award for her 1994 recording of “Mystery Lady,” saluting
Billie Holiday. She will be inducted into the Blues Hall of
Fame in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in both 1999 and
2008. Rolling Stone will ranked her number 22 on their list
of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and number 62 on the
list of the 100 Greatest Artists. She will join the ancestors
on January 20, 2012.

1942 – Carl Eller is born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He will
become a professional football player, spending many of his
years with the Minnesota Vikings. On the Vikings team, he will
play in four Super Bowl games (IV, VIII, IX, XI), in losing
efforts. He will be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame
in 2004.

1950 – Gloria Naylor is born in New York City. She will become a
Jehovah Witnesses minister and ‘pioneer’ over a period of
seven years. After leaving the Witnesses and suffering a
nervous breakdown, she will read Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest
Eye”, and be inspired to become a writer. She will complete
her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and become a major writer
and is best known for her work, “The Women of Brewster
Place.”

1966 – Constance Baker Motley becomes the first African American
woman to be appointed to a federal judgeship.

1972 – Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm begins her campaign for
President of the United States. Although she will
ultimately be unsuccessful, she will make known the concerns
of African Americans across the country.

1980 – Black Entertainment Television, better known as BET, begins
broadcasting from Washington, DC. Robert L. Johnson, who
established the company with a $ 15,000 personal loan, will
make BET one of the most successful cable television
networks, with 25 million subscribers by its tenth
anniversary and, in 1991, the first African American-owned
company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

1989 – Michael Jordan scores his 10,000th NBA point in his 5th
season, the second fastest NBA climb to that position behind
Wilt Chamberlain.

1999 – Jury selection begins in Jasper, Texas, in the trial of white
supremacist John William King, charged in the dragging death
of African American James Byrd Jr.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 24 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 24 *

1885 – Martin R. Delany joins the ancestors at the age of 72 in
Wilberforce, Ohio. Delany served as a physician and was
the first commissioned African American officer in the
Union Army during the Civil War. He also was a leader in
the fight to end racial job discrimination. Delany will
encourage African Americans to seek their own identity and
is considered by some historians to be the father of
American Black nationalism. He is the author of “Search
for a Place: Black Separatism and Africa,” and “The
Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the
Colored People in the United States.”

1941 – Aaron Neville is born in New Orleans Louisiana. He will
become a rhythm and blues singer and will enjoy his first
hit in 1967, “Tell It Like It Is.” He will win a Grammy for
his 1990 single, a duet with Linda Ronstadt, “Don’t Know
Much.” He will become equally well known for performing
vocals and keyboards with the group The Neville Brothers,
together with his three musically accomplished siblings.
Their albums, reflecting rock, R&B, soul, and jazz
influences, will be compiled in “Treacherous: A History of
the Neville Brothers, 1955-85” (1986).

1977 – Howard T. Ward becomes Georgia’s first African American
Superior Court Judge.

1985 – Four-term Los Angeles mayor Thomas Bradley is awarded the
NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for his long career as a public
servant and for “demonstrating…that the American dream
not only can be pursued but realized.”

1988 – Forty-eight African American writers and literary critics
sign a controversial statement that appears in “The New York
Times Book Review” supporting author Toni Morrison and
protesting her failure to win the “keystone honors of the
National Book Award or the Pulitzer Prize.”

1989 – Reverend Barbara Harris’ election as suffragan bishop is
ratified by the Diocese of Massachusetts. Her election and
consecration occur amid widespread controversy regarding the
role of women bishops in the Episcopal Church. She will be
the first female bishop in the church’s 450-year history.

1993 – Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court
Justice, joins the ancestors in Washington, DC. He will be
buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He was one of the
most well-known figures in the history of civil rights in
America and served on the Supreme Court for 24 years.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 23 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 23 *

1837 – Amanda Berry Smith is born into slavery in Long Green,
Maryland. She will be widowed twice, after which she will
attempt to minister to her people. Unable to preach in the
AME Church, which did not ordain women ministers, Smith
will become an independent missionary and travel throughout
the United States and three continents. She will publish
her autobiography, “Amanda Smith’s Story – The Story of the
Lord’s Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith, The Colored
Evangelist,” in 1893. She will join the ancestors on
February 24, 1915.

1891 – Provident Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, the first African
American hospital, is founded by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams.
He also establishes the Provident Hospital School of Nursing
around the same time, because Emma Reynolds, an African
American, had been denied admission to every school of
nursing in the city of Chicago.

1941 – Richard Wright is awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for his
book, “Native Son.”

1943 – Duke Ellington’s band plays for a black-tie crowd at Carnegie
Hall in New York City. It is the first of what will become
an annual series of concerts for ‘The Duke’.

1945 – The Army Nurse Corps discontinues its color barrier and
starts admitting nurses without regard to race. This is due
primarily to the pressure applied by the National
Association of Colored Nursing Graduates (NACGN) and other
groups.

1962 – Demonstrations against discrimination in off-campus housing
are staged by students at the University of Chicago for
fourteen days. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
charges that the university operates segregated apartment
houses.

1964 – The 24th amendment to the United States’ Constitution,
abolishing the poll tax in federal elections, is ratified.
The poll tax had been used extensively in the South as a
means of preventing African Americans from voting.

1976 – Paul Robeson joins the ancestors, as the result of a stroke,
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had been a world-renown
actor and singer. He was perhaps the best known and most
widely respected African American of the 1930s and 1940s.
Robeson was also a staunch supporter of the Soviet Union,
and a man, later in his life, widely vilified and censored
for his frankness and unyielding views on issues to which
public opinion ran contrary. As a young man, Robeson was
virile, charismatic, eloquent, and powerful. He learned to
speak more than 20 languages in order to break down the
barriers of race and ignorance throughout the world, and
yet, as Sterling Stuckey pointed out in the “New York Times
Book Review,” for the last 25 years of his life, his was “a
great whisper and a greater silence in Black America.”

1977 – The first episode of “Roots,” adapted from the “New York
Times” bestseller by Alex Haley, is aired on ABC. Over the
next several nights, 130 million Americans will be
transfixed before their televisions as the story of Kunta
Kinte is told.

1985 – O.J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner to be
inducted into pro football’s Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Roger Staubach of the Dallas Cowboys, another Heisman
winner, is also elected, but is after O.J. in the sequence
of induction.

1986 – The first annual induction ceremony for the Rock ‘N’ Roll
Hall of Fame is held in New York City. Among those inducted
were Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, and Fats Domino.

1989 – In “City of Richmond vs. J.A. Croson Co.,” the United States
Supreme Court invalidates the city’s minority set-aside
program, a major setback for the concept’s proponents.

2003 – Nell Carter, Tony Award winner and television star, joins the
ancestors at the age of 54. She had suffered from diabetes
for years and underwent brain surgery in 1992 to remove an
aneurysm. She recovered and continued to perform, mostly on
stage.

2015 – Ernie Banks, an American professional baseball player nicknamed “Mr. Cub” and “Mr. Sunshine”, joins the ancestors at the age of 83. He died of a heart attack at a Chicago hospital on January 23, 2015, shortly before his 84th birthday.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 22 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 22 *

1801 – Haitian liberator, Toussaint L’Ouverture, enters Santiago to
battle the French Armed Forces.

1891 – The “Lodge Bill,” which called for federal supervision of U.S.
elections, is abandoned in the Senate after a Southern
filibuster.

1906 – Twenty-eight-year-old Meta Vaux Warrick’s sculpture “Portraits
from Mirrors” is exhibited at the 101st Annual Exhibition of
the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Although it is one of the first major showings
of her work, the young Warrick (later Fuller) has already
studied sculpture with the legendary Auguste Rodin and had
her work exhibited in Paris at S. Bing’s Gallery Nouveau.

1920 – William Caesar Warfield is born in West Helena, Arkansas, the
eldest of five sons. He will become a singer and have his
recital debut in New York’s famous Town Hall on March 19,
1950, putting him into the front ranks of concert artists
overnight. His career will span almost fifty years and among
his frequent appearances in foreign countries, this artist
has made six separate tours for the U.S. Department of State,
more than any other American solo artist. He will receive
a Grammy in the “Spoken Word” category (1984) for his
outstanding narration of Aaron Copeland’s “A Lincoln Portrait”
accompanied by the Eastman Philharmonic Orchestra. He is
best known for his role in “Showboat.” He will join the
ancestors on August 26, 2002.

1924 – James Louis (J.J.) Johnson is born in Indianapolis, Indiana.
He will become one of the greatest trombonists and composers
in jazz. He will be originally influenced by Fred Beckett of
Harlan Leonard’s band. Soon thereafter, he will join Benny
Carter. He will play with Count Basie (1945-1946) and record
his first solo improvisation. During the 1954-1956 period,
J.J. Johnson will take a brief break from bands and team up
with Kai Winding for a commercially successful trombone duo.
He will prefer the use of pure tones when playing the trombone,
focusing on line, interval and accent. His solos will show
virtuosity because of their remarkable mobility, which many
artists find difficult to duplicate or imitate. These
endeavors will be fruitless in the early 1950s and for a
couple of years he will work as a blueprint inspector. In the
1970s, Johnson will move from New Jersey to California,
concentrating exclusively on film and television scoring. In
1984, Johnson will reenter the jazz scene with a tour of the
“European Festival Circuit.” He will be voted into the Down
Beat Hall of Fame in 1995. He will join the ancestors on
February 4, 2001, after committing suicide by shooting himself.

1931 – Samuel “Sam” Cooke is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He will
grow up in Chicago, Illinois, after moving there with his
family in 1933. He will become a singer and be best known for
his recordings “You Send Me” and “Twisting the Night Away.”
Cooke will be one of the most popular singers of the 1960’s.
He will join the ancestors on December 11, 1964. He will be
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 23,
1986.

1960 – Sugar Ray Robinson loses the Middleweight Boxing Championship
to Paul Pender in a 15-round decision.

1961 – Wilma Rudolph, the 1960 Olympic gold medalist and track star,
sets a world indoor mark in the women’s 60-yard dash, with a
speedy 6.9 seconds in a meet held in Los Angeles, California.

1962 – Baseball Writers elect Jackie Robinson into the Baseball Hall
of Fame.

1973 – George Foreman takes the heavyweight boxing title away from
‘Smokin’ Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica in the second round.
Foreman will knock ‘Smokin’ Joe down six times on his way to
victory.

1981 – Samuel Pierce is named Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD). One of the few African Americans in the
Reagan administration, there will be high expectations for
his potential to effect change, but Pierce’s leadership will
be severely questioned as scandal rocks his department in
1989. An estimated $ 2 billion will be lost due to fraud and
mismanagement during Pierce’s tenure.

1988 – Heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson knocks out former
champion Larry Holmes in 4 rounds.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 21 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 21 *

1830 – The African American population in Portsmouth, Ohio is
forcibly deported by order of city officials.

1913 – Fanny M. Jackson Coppin joins the ancestors in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. She was a pioneering educator and missionary
and the first African American woman to graduate from an
American college (Oberlin, 1865). Coppin State College (now
University) in Baltimore, Maryland will be named after her.

1938 – Jack and Jill of America, Inc. is founded in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, by Marion Turner Stubbs Thomas. Dedicated to
providing educational, cultural, civic, and social programs
for African American youth, Jack and Jill will grow to have
180 chapters nationwide.

1941 – Richard “Richie” Pierce Havens is born in Brooklyn, New York.
He will grow up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community, the
eldest of nine children. He will become a folk singer,
influenced in his early days by Nina Simone. It will be as
a live performer, that he will first earn widespread notice.
Richie will play the 1966 Newport Folk Festival, the 1967
Monterey Jazz Festival, the January 1968 Woody Guthrie
Memorial Concert at Carnegie Hall, the December 1968 Miami
Pop Festival, the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival, and of course,
the 1969 Woodstock festival in upstate New York. He will
join the ancestors on April 22, 2013 after succumbing to a
heart attack.

1950 – Leslie Sebastien Charles in born in Fyzabad, Trinidad. He
will emigrate to England at the age of eight and will later
become a popular singer known as “Billy Ocean.” He will
release hits such as “Suddenly,” “Caribbean Queen,” “Get
Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car,” “When The Going Gets
Tough, The Tough Get Going” (which was featured in the
movie, “The Jewel Of The Nile”), and “To Make You Cry.”

1963 – Akeem Abdul Olajuwon is born in Lagos, Nigeria. He will
become one of five boys born to his parents with one sister.
He will come to the United States and play collegiate
basketball for the University of Houston. He will be
selected by the Houston Rockets in the first round (first
pick overall) of the 1984 NBA Draft. After twelve years of
play in the NBA, he will be selected in 1996 as one of the
50 Greatest Players in NBA History. Olajuwon will add a “H”
to his first name on 3/9/1991 and become an United States
citizen on 4/2/1993. The University of Houston will retire
his jersey, # 34, on 2/12/97.

1964 – Carl T. Rowan is named director of the U.S. Information
Agency, the highest position ever held by an African
American to date. By virtue of his position, he also becomes
the first African American to sit on the National Security
Council.

1971 – Twelve African American congressmen boycott Richard Nixon’s
State of the Union Address because of his “consistent
refusal” to respond to the petitions of African Americans.

1982 – Blues guitar singer B.B. King donates his entire record
collection to the University of Mississippi’s Center for
the Study of Southern Culture. The collection includes
about 7,000 rare blues records he played when he worked as
a disc jockey in Memphis. Born Riley B. King, he called
himself the “Beale Street Blues Boy,” later shortened to
“B.B.” B.B. King is considered one of the most influential
blues musicians in history.

1990 – Quincy Jones is awarded the French Legion of Honor for his
contributions to music as a trumpeter, composer, arranger,
and record producer.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 20 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 20 *

1788 – The First African Baptist Church is organized in Savannah,
Georgia, with Andrew Bryan ordained as its pastor. It is
the first African American Baptist church in the United
States, as well as the first Baptist church, Black or white,
in Savannah.

1847 – William Reuben (W.R.) Pettiford is born in Granville County,
North Carolina. He will become the pastor of the Sixteenth
Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. As a leader
in the community, he will also become a businessman,
founding the Alabama Penny Savings Bank on October 15, 1890.
The Alabama Penny Savings Bank will be Alabama’s first
African American-owned bank and the first of three banks in
the nation, owned and operated by African Americans in the
early 1900s. He will join the ancestors on September 21,
1914. (Note: The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is also
known for the bombing during the Civil Rights movement,
on September 15, 1963, that killed four little girls.)

1868 – The Florida constitutional convention with eighteen African
Americans and twenty-seven whites meet in Tallahassee.

1870 – Hiram R. Revels is chosen by the Mississippi legislature to
fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat of Confederate president
Jefferson Davis. Although he will be challenged by the
Senate, Revels will take his seat one month later, becoming
the first African American U.S. Senator.

1895 – Eva Jessye is born in Coffeyville, Kansas. She will become
an influential choral director, working in King Vidor’s
“Hallelujah” and the original production of George
Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.” She will join the ancestors on
February 21, 1992.

1954 – The National Negro Network is formed by W. Leonard Evans.
Some 40 radio stations are charter members of the network.

1973 – Guinea-Bissau nationalist leader Amilcar Cabral joins the
ancestors after being assassinated in Conakry, Guinea, by
Portuguese agents. He had founded the PAIGC (African Party
for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde), the
organization that fought Portuguese colonial rule and
eventually led to the independence of Guinea-Bissau and
Cape Verde. Cabral is considered one of Africa’s most
important independentist leaders.

1977 – Clifford Alexander, Jr. is sworn in as the first African
American Secretary of the Army.

1986 – The inaugural issue of “American Visions” magazine hits the
newsstands nationwide. The magazine is dedicated to
exposing its readers to African American contributions to
history, literature, music, and the arts.

1986 – The United States observes the first federal holiday in
honor of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr.

2012 – Etta James, whose assertive, earthy voice lit up such hits
as “The Wallflower,” “Something’s Got a Hold on Me” and the
wedding favorite “At Last,” joins the ancestors at the age
of 73.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 19 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 19 *

1918 – John Harold Johnson is born in Arkansas City, Arkansas.
He will become the founder and president of Johnson
Publishing Company, Inc., the most prosperous African
American publishing company in America. His company will
publish the “Negro Digest”(his first), “Ebony,” “Jet,”
“Black Star,” “Black World” and “Ebony Jr.” magazines. He
will receive numerous awards, including the Horatio Alger
Award, the NAACP Spingarn Medal and the National Newspaper
Publishers Association’s Henry Johnson Fisher Award for
outstanding contributions to publishing. He will be the
first Black person to appear on the Forbes 400 Rich List,
and have a fortune estimated at close to $500 million. He
will join the ancestors on August 8, 2005.

1952 – The PGA Tournament Committee votes to allow African American
golfers to compete in sanctioned golf tournaments.

1959 – In a letter to her mother shortly before the opening of her
first play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” Lorraine Hansberry says
“Mama, it is a play that tells the truth about people,
Negroes, and life and I think it will help a lot of people
to understand how we are just as complicated as they are–
and just as mixed up–but above all, that we have among our
miserable and downtrodden ranks–people who are the very
essence of human dignity. That is what, after all the
laughter and tears, the play is supposed to say.”

1970 – The California state board of regents fires Angela Davis
from her teaching position at the University of California
at Los Angeles for being a Communist. This will be done at
the urging of then Governor Ronald Reagan. Her dismissal
will be overturned later by the courts, but the board of
regents will refuse to renew her contract at the end of the
1969-1970 academic year.

1983 – In its “State of Black America” annual report, the National
Urban League warns that the recession had disproportionately
hurt African Americans: “A major question facing the nation
in 1983 is whether the inevitable restructuring of the
American economy will include Black people.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 18 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 18 *

1856 – Dr. Daniel Nathan Hale Williams is born in Hollidaysburg,
Pennsylvania. He will graduate from Chicago Medical
College in 1883 and begin his practice on Chicago’s South
Side. After 8 years of frustration, not being able to use
the facilities at the white hospitals in Chicago, he will
found Provident Hospital in 1891 and open it to patients of
all races. He will make his mark in medical history on
July 10, 1893, when he performs the world’s first successful
open heart surgery.

1948 – The first courses begin at the University of Ibadan in
Nigeria.

1949 – Congressman William Dawson is elected chairman of the House
Expenditure Committee. He is the first African American to
head a standing committee of Congress.

1958 – Willie Eldon O’Ree becomes the first person of African
descent to play in the NHL, when he debuts with the Boston
Bruins in a 3-0 win over Montreal in the Forum.

1961 – Zanzibar’s Afro-Shirazi party wins 1 seat by a single vote
and control Parliament by a single seat.

1962 – Southern University is closed because of demonstrations
protesting the expulsion of student sit-in activists.

1966 – Robert C. Weaver takes the oath of office as Secretary of the
Department of Housing and Urban Development. Appointed by
President Lyndon B. Johnson, Weaver becomes the first
African American to serve in a U.S. President’s Cabinet.

1975 – “The Jeffersons,” one of the first TV shows about an African
American family, is seen for the first time. The Jeffersons,
who move to Manhattan’s posh East Side, are the former
neighbors of the Bunkers in the sitcom “All in the Family.”
The Jeffersons will be the first show to introduce the
subject of mixed marriages humorously and tastefully in
prime time TV. Sherman Hemsley plays George Jefferson and
Isabelle Sanford the role of Louise, his wife.

1989 – Otis Redding, The Temptations, and Stevie Wonder are inducted
into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

1990 – The South African government announces that it is
reconsidering a ban on the African National Congress.

1990 – Washington, DC mayor Marion Barry is arrested for allegedly
purchasing and using crack cocaine in a Washington, DC hotel
room. The circumstances surrounding his arrest, trial, and
conviction on one count of misdemeanor cocaine possession
will be hotly debated by African American and white citizens
of the District and elsewhere.

1995 – South African President Nelson Mandela’s cabinet denies
amnesty sought by 3,500 police officers in apartheid’s
waning days.

2000 – Jester Hairston, who appeared on radio and TV’s “Amos ‘n’
Andy,” but who was better known to younger fans as the wise
old church member Rolly on the sitcom “Amen,” joins the
ancestors in Los Angeles, California at the age of 98.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 17 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 17 *

1759 – Paul Cuffee is born in Cuttyhunk, Massachusetts. He will
become a successful shipowner, philanthropist, and a force
in the movement for African Americans’ repatriation to
Africa. He was of Aquinnah Wampanoag and African Ashanti
descent and helps to colonize Sierra Leone. He will build a
lucrative shipping empire and establish the first racially
integrated school in Westport, Massachusetts. He will join
the ancestors on September 9, 1817.

1874 – Armed white Democrats seize the Texas government and put an
end to Radical Reconstruction in Texas.

1917 – The United States pays $ 25 million for the Danish Virgin
Islands.

1923 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to George Washington
Carver, head of the department of research, Tuskegee
Institute, for his pioneering work in agricultural
chemistry.

1923 – The first session of the Third Pan-African Congress convenes
in London, England. The second session will be held in
Lisbon.

1924 – Jewel Plummer Cobb is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will
be a prominent cancer research biologist before becoming a
professor and administrator at Connecticut College and
Rutgers University and, in 1990, president of California
State University, Fullerton, the first African American
woman to hold such a position in the CSU system.

1927 – Eartha Mae Keith is born in North, South Carolina. She will
start her career at the age of 16 as a professional dancer
with the Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe, which will take her
to Paris, where she will tour as a nightclub singer. She
will become known as Eartha Kitt. She will eventually
return to the United States and roles on Broadway and in
films. In 1968, her career will take a sudden turn when, at
a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson, she will
speak out against the Vietnam War. For many years
afterward, she will be blacklisted by many in the U.S.
entertainment industry and be forced to work abroad where
her status will remain undiminished. In 2007, She will
celebrate her 80th birthday. This remarkable milestone will
be celebrated with a special performance at New York’s
Carnegie Hall in June. She will join the ancestors on December
25, 2008.

1931 – James Earl Jones is born in Arkabutla, Mississippi. He will
become renowned as an actor, both on the stage and the
screen, earning a Tony award in 1969 for his portrayal of
boxing great Jack Johnson in the “The Great White Hope” as
well as acclaim for his Broadway roles in “A Lesson From
Aloes,” “Fences,” and many others. Among his film and
television credits will be the voice of Darth Vader in
“Star Wars” and leading roles in “Paris” and “Gabriel’s
Fire.”

1931 – Lawrence Douglas Wilder is born in Richmond, Virginia. He
will graduate from Virginia Union University and serve in
the U.S. Army in Korea, where he will receive the Bronze
Star for heroism. He will attend and graduate from, the
Howard University School of Law and become a successful
trial attorney. In 1969, he will be elected as Virginia’s
first African American state senator since Reconstruction.
In 1985, he will become Virginia’s first African American
Lieutenant Governor. He will make history for a third time
on January 13, 1990, when he takes office as the first
elected African American governor in U.S. history.

1942 – Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. is born in Louisville, Kentucky.
Early in his boxing career, Clay converts to Islam. As
Muhammad Ali, he is one of the first African American
athletes to intermingle political and social consciousness
with sports. He will become the dominant heavyweight boxer
of the 1960s and 1970s, winning an Olympic gold medal,
capturing the professional world heavyweight championship
on three separate occasions, and defend his title
successfully 19 times. Ali’s extroverted, colorful style,
both in and out of the ring, will introduce a new mode of
media-conscious athletic celebrity. Through his strong
assertions of Black pride, his conversion to the Muslim
faith, and his outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War, Ali
will become a highly controversial symbol of the turbulent
1960s.

1961 – Patrice Lumumba, African revolutionary and first Congolese
Premier of the Republic of Congo, joins the ancestors after
being murdered at the age of 36, by the secessionist
Tshombe’s soldiers.

1966 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. opens his civil rights campaign
in Chicago, Illinois. This marks the first time, during the
civil rights movement, that the campaign takes place in a
northern city.

1970 – John M. Burgess is installed as bishop of the Protestant
Episcopal diocese of Massachusetts.

1978 – Dr. Ronald McNair is named by NASA as a participant on a
space mission.

1989 – The Phoenix Suns/Miami Heat game is cancelled, due to racial
unrest in Miami.

1990 – The Four Tops, Hank Ballard, and The Platters are inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

1996 – Former U.S. Representative Barbara Jordan joins the ancestors
in Austin, Texas, at the age of 59.

1998 – Louis Stokes, the first African American congressman from the
state of Ohio, announces his retirement from Congress at the
age of 73. He has been a congressman for three decades.

2000 – Nearly 50,000 people march to South Carolina’s Statehouse on
Martin Luther King Day to demand the Confederate battle flag
be taken down. They are protesting the Confederate flag as a
symbol of slavery and racism.

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