KRLemmons African American History

March 17 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – March 17 *

1806 – Norbert Rillieux is born a free man in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Rillieux will become best known for his revolutionary
improvements in sugar refining methods. Awarded his second
patent for an evaporator, the invention will be widely used
throughout Louisiana and the West Indies, dramatically
increasing and modernizing sugar production. He will join
the ancestors on October 8. 1894 in Paris, France.

1865 – Aaron Anderson wins the Navy’s Medal of Honor for his heroic
actions aboard the USS Wyandank during the Civil War.

1886 – A massacre occurs in Carrollton, Mississippi. Twenty African
Americans are killed by white supremacists.

1891 – West Virginia State College is founded in Institute, West
Virginia.

1896 – C.B. Scott receives a patent for the street sweeper.

1898 – Blanche Kelso Bruce joins the ancestors in Washington, DC at
the age of 57.

1912 – Bayard Rustin is born in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He will
become a civil rights leader and peace activist. He will join
Martin Luther King Jr. in organizing the bus boycott that will
establish King as a national figure. For the next 10 years,
he will move back and forth between the world of the civil
rights movement and the world of peace activism. He will be
instrumental in helping A. Philip Randolph plan the 1963 March
on Washington. But due to his youthful ties to the Communist
Party, a wartime imprisonment, and an arrest in California on
public morals charges, Rustin will be obligated to limit his
public exposure to avoid problems for King and others whom
Southern white leaders (and the FBI) were attempting to
destroy. He will join the ancestors on August 24, 1987.

1919 – Nathaniel Adams Coles is born in Montgomery, Alabama. Better
known as Nat “King” Cole, he will start his musical career in
a band with his brother Eddie and in a production of “Shuffle
Along.” Leader of the King Cole Trio, he will achieve
international acclaim as a jazz pianist before becoming an
even more popular balladeer known for such songs as “Mona
Lisa,” “The Christmas Song” and “Unforgettable.” Cole will
also have the distinction of being the first African American
to host a network television variety show (1956-1957), a
pioneer in breaking down racial barriers in Las Vegas, and a
founding member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and
Sciences, which will honor him with a posthumous Lifetime
Achievement Grammy in 1989. He will join the ancestors on
February 15, 1965.

1933 – Myrlie Beasley is born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. She will
become the wife of civil rights activist Medgar Evers in 1951
and will work with him in order to combat discrimination and
segregation in Mississippi. Together, they will open and
manage the first NAACP Mississippi State Office. Her husband
will be assassinated in 1963, by white supremacist, Byron de
la Beckwith. She will later move to California where she will
graduate from Pomona College. She will work in the corporate
world as Director for Consumer Affairs at the Atlantic
Richfield Company and in government as a Commissioner of the
Los Angeles, California, Board of Public Works. She will be
the first African American woman to serve on that board. She
will be the author of the book, “For Us, the Living,” and the
recipient of numerous honorary degrees. She will later become
Mrs. Myrlie Evers-Williams and be elected vice-chairperson of
the NAACP in 1994, and in 1995 will become the first woman
chairperson. In 1998, she will be succeeded by Julian Bond as
Chair of the NAACP.

1970 – The United States casts its first veto in the U.N. Security
Council. The U.S. kills a resolution that would have condemned
Britain for failure to use force to overthrow the white-ruled
government of Rhodesia.

2000 – More than 300 members of a religious sect burn to death in a
makeshift church in southwestern Uganda.

2008 – David Paterson is sworn in as New York’s 55th governor. He is
New York’s first Black governor and the nation’s first legally
blind governor.

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

KRLemmons Women's History Month

Day 16 Woman of the Day: Betye Saar

Betye Saar, an assemblage artist, is Day 16 Woman of the Day.  Read more about this multi-talented artist below.

betye_saar_2011

Website: http://www.betyesaar.net/

NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6688207

New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/arts/design/12saar.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Youtube videos:  “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvJvyFBcvD4, Interview with Betye Saar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhq9o0KEsr4

KRLemmons African American History

March 16 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – March 16 *

1827 – With the assistance of James Varick, Richard Allen, Alexander
Crummel, and others, Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm
publish “Freedom’s Journal” in New York City. Operating
from space in Varick’s Zion Church, “Freedom’s Journal” is
the first African American newspaper. Russwurm says of the
establishment of the newspaper, “We wish to plead our own
cause. Too long have others spoken for us.”

1870 – Senator Hiram R. Revels argues against Georgia’s re-admission
to the Union without safeguards for African American citizens.
It is the first official speech by an African American before
Congress.

1956 – Ozzie Newsome is born in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He will
become a stand-out football player for the University of
Alabama, and the first African American star athlete for a
major school in the south. Newsome will be drafted by the
Cleveland Browns and start 176 out of 182 games in 13 years.
He will be the all-time leading receiver in Cleveland history
and the all-time receiver among tight ends in the NFL. He
will be fourth among receivers in NFL history with a record
of 662 catches. He will earn three trips to the Pro Bowl and
will be named to the All-NFL Teams of the ’80’s. Newsome
will remain with the Cleveland Browns in an administrative
position after his retirement. In 1994 he will be inducted
into the College Football Hall of Fame and in 1999 to the Pro
Football Hall of Fame.

1956 – Former heavyweight champion Joe Louis, makes his debut as a
pro wrestler. He knocks out 320-pound cowboy Rocky Lee.
Jersey Joe Walcott, the referee, is another former
heavyweight champ.

1960 – San Antonio, Texas becomes the first major southern city to
integrate lunch counters.

1966 – Rodney Peete is born in Mesa, Arizona. He will become a NFL
quarterback playing for the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia
Eagles and later, the Washington Redskins.

1970 – Tammi Terrell (Tammy Montgomery), best known for her duets
with Marvin Gaye, joins the ancestors at Graduate Hospital
in Philadelphia after undergoing six brain tumor operations
in 18 months. Doctors first discovered Terrell’s brain
tumor after she collapsed in Gaye’s arms onstage in 1967.

1975 – Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker, jazz and blues singer, blues
guitarist, composer and pianist, joins the ancestors at the
age of 64. He was best known for his hits “Stormy Monday”
and “T-Bone Shuffle.”

1988 – President Ronald Reagan vetoes a civil rights bill that would
restore protections invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s
1984 ruling in Grove City College v. Bell. Reagan’s veto
will be overridden by Congress less than a week later.

1989 – The U.S. Senate agrees to try U.S. District Court Judge Alcee
Hastings on fraud, corruption, and perjury charges stemming
from a 1981 bribery conspiracy case. Hastings, appointed by
President Jimmy Carter as the first African American judge
to serve on the federal bench in Florida, will be convicted
of eight of the original articles and impeached in October.

1991 – Soon Ja Du, a Korean American grocery store owner, shoots to
death Latasha Harlins, a fifteen-year old African American
girl, after Ms. Du accused the girl of trying to steal a
$1.79 bottle of orange juice. A security camera in the
store captures the shooting on videotape. The shooting
exacerbates racial and ethnic tensions in Los Angeles in the
wake of the Rodney King beating.

1995 – Mississippi ratifies the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery,
some 130 years after the rest of the country got around to
it.

1996 – Mike Tyson regains a piece of the heavyweight championship by
defeating WBC champion Frank Bruno by TKO in the third round
to reclaim the heavyweight boxing title in Las Vegas.

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

KRLemmons Uncategorized

Happiness as a Social Justice Issue in Latin@ Kid Lit

missdguzman's avatarLatinxs in Kid Lit

By Sonia Alejandra Rodriguez

In the years that I’ve been researching and writing about Latina/o kid’s literature, I’ve gone back and forth about the impact that “happy endings” have on the stories and young readers. Because I focus specifically on realistic fiction, narratives that capture lived experiences, I found the happy endings to be a bit misleading. Real stories on deportation and family separation, for example, do not always get a happy ending and especially not as immediately as books make it seem. In general, happy endings are an essential component of children’s illustrated texts. That is, picture books for children tend to have happy endings because a book that tells children, for example, that “life sucks” and encourages them to give up would probably not fare well in the industry. Within this genre, happy endings also function as a way to preserve a child’s innocence. There is something both beautiful…

View original post 863 more words

KRLemmons Uncategorized

Freep Film Festival: Internal Combustion Saturday, March 21st 6:30pm Detroit Film Theatre

Camille Mitchell's avatarncmenterprises

 Freep Film Festival:   Internal Combustion 
Saturday, March 21st 6:30pm 
Detroit Film Theatre
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–
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Director Steve Faigenbaum’s return to Detroit after a 25-year absence jolts him into a introspective and expansive exploration of the collapse of a once-great city as he compares it to touchstones in his own family’s history: The Jewish immigrant experience against the African-American experience, the riots of 1943 and 1967, fears surrounding the Vietnam War, white flight to the suburbs, the auto industry’s ebbs and flows, and the ultimate question of whether or not Detroit can rise again. Using archival footage,
 –
Faigenbaum effectively portrays Detroit as a complicated city so often at war with itself. It’s a good reminder that city’s problems – and its optimism – go back much further than the recent past of bankruptcy, Kwame and the Great Recession. Modern-day testimony around the 1969 violence between Republic of New Africa…

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KRLemmons Women's History Month

Day 15 Woman of the Day: Vashti Murphy Mackenzie

Vashti Murphy Mackenzie, first female bishop of the African American Episcopal Church, is Day 15 Woman of the Day.  Read more about this pioneer woman below.

vashti-murphy-mckenzieBlack Past.org: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/mckenzie-vashti-murphy-1947

History Makers: http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/bishop-vashti-mckenzie-23

Books written by Vashti Murphy Mackenzie: Not Without a Struggle, Strength in the Struggle, Journey to the Well,  Swapping Housewives, Not Without a Struggle Revised and Those Sisters Can Preach.

Tenth District: http://www.10thdistrictame.org/bishop.html

Washington National Cathedral: http://www.cathedral.org/staff/PE-46ER5-V0000I.shtml

Youtube videos: Smith Chapel AME: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0SPZGEQwpk, Michigan State University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3vwzk0JlZA

KRLemmons African American History

March 15 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – March 15 *

1809 – Joseph J. Roberts is born free in Norfolk, Virginia. He will
leave Virginia with his family for the West African coast in
1829, part of the colonization effort of the American
Colonization Society. He will become the first president of
Liberia in 1848 and the seventh president of Liberia in 1872.
He will join the ancestors on February 24, 1876.

1842 – Robert C. DeLarge is born in Aiken, South Carolina. He will
defeat a white opponent by 986 votes out of 32,000 cast to
earn a seat as a South Carolina representative to the United
States Congress in 1870. He will serve in the House of
Representatives from March 4, 1871 until January 24, 1873
when the seat will be declared vacant as the result of an
election challenge initiated by Christopher C. Bowen. After
leaving Congress he will serve as a local magistrate until he
joins the ancestors in Charleston, South Carolina on February
14, 1874.

1897 – The Fifty-fifth Congress (1897-99) convenes. Only one African
American congressman is in attendance: George H. White, of
North Carolina.

1912 – Sam John Hopkins is born in Centerville, Texas. He will become a
blues guitarist, better known as Lightnin’ Hopkins, and be
considered one of the last blues singers in the grand
tradition of “Blind” Lemon Jefferson, with whom he played as
a child. I n addition to being a blues guitarist, he will be a
country blues singer, songwriter and occasional pianist. Rolling
Stone magazine will include him at number 71 on their list of
the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. Musicologist Robert
“Mack” McCormick will state that he “is the embodiment of the
jazz-and-poetry spirit, representing its ancient form in the
single creator whose words and music are one act”. He will join
the ancestors on January 30, 1982 after succumbing to cancer.

1933 – The NAACP begins a coordinated attack on segregation and
discrimination, filing a suit against the University of North
Carolina on behalf of Thomas Hocutt. The case is lost on a
technicality after the president of an African American
college refuses to certify the records of the plaintiff.

1933 – The Los Angeles Sentinel is founded by Leon H. Washington.

1933 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to YMCA secretary Max
Yergan for his achievements as a missionary in South Africa,
“representing the gift of cooperation…American Negroes may
send back to their Motherland.”

1933 – Cecil Percival Taylor is born in New York City. He will
become a international jazz pianist concert artist and
composer. He will also teach African American music and lead
the Black Music Ensemble at the University of Wisconsin,
Antioch College, and Glassboro State (in New Jersey). He is
considered to be one of the most controversial figures in
“jazz”. For many observers, his work ranks as some of the
most profound art ever produced. Classically trained, he is
generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz.

1938 – Emilio Cruz is born in New York City. He will become a painter
who will study in his teens with the influential African
American artist Bob Thompson, study European masters in
Italy, Paris, London, and Amsterdam and become noted in the
United States for both his figurative and abstract paintings.
His work will be exhibited or collected by the Museum of
Modern Art, National Museum of American Art, the Studio
Museum of Harlem, and prestigious private galleries. He will
join the ancestors on December 10, 2004 in New York City
after succumbing to pancreatic cancer.

1944 – Sylvester “Sly Stone” Stewart is born in Dallas, Texas. He
will become a popular disc jockey in the San Francisco Bay
area. This popularity will fuel his career as a musician and
singer. He will achieve fame with his group: Sly & The
Family Stone and record the hits “Dance to the Music,”
“Everyday People,” “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” “Thank You,”
and “Family Affair.” In 2010, he will file suit, claiming that
manager Gerald Goldstein and attorney Glenn Stone in the late
1980s, induced him to sign an employment and shareholder
agreement with Even Street Productions, but that they instead
used the arrangement to divert millions in royalties, leaving
him unable to get the money he said was due him. In 2015, a
jury in Los Angeles Superior Court, will award him 2.5 million
dollars in damages against Even St. Productions, 2.45 million
dollars against Goldstein and 50,000 dollars against attorney
Glenn Stone.

1946 – Bobby Lee Bonds is born in Riverside, California. He will
become a major league baseball player and hit a grand slam in
his first Major League game on June 25,1968 against the Los
Angeles Dodgers. He will be a 3-time All-Star (1971 and 1973
in the National League and 1975 in the American League). He
will amass a total 332 home runs, 1,024 RBIs, 461 stolen
bases and a .268 batting average for 8 teams. He will hold
the Major League record for most HRs as a lead-off batter in
a game in a season with 11 in 1973. He will be named by The
Sporting News as the National League Player of the Year in
1973, hitting .283 with 39 homers, 96 RBI and 43 stolen
bases. He will join the ancestors on August 23, 2003 after
succumbing to complications of lung cancer and a brain tumor.

1946 – Howard E. Scott is born in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California.
He will become a Rhythm and Blues singer, guitarist, and be
best known for his performances as part of the Rhythm & Blues
group “War.” Scott will contribute lyrics, music, and
co-produced some of War’s greatest hits, such as ‘Cisco Kid,’
‘Slipping into Darkness’ and ‘Why Can’t We Be Friends?.’ He
will also be the frontman and leader of the group.

1958 – Cincinnati Royals basketball star Maurice Stokes collapses
during a playoff game suffering with encephalitis. It will
be determined that this was the result of an earlier injury,
when his head hit the floor, knocking him unconscious, in the
last game of the regular season. He will go into a coma and
become permanently disabled.

1959 – Saxophonist and major influence on the “Cool School” of jazz,
Lester “Prez” Young joins the ancestors at the age of 49 in
New York City.

1962 – Terence Trent D’Arby is born in New York City. He will become
a popular Rhythm and Blues singer, music producer, songwriter,
and composer. He will be best known for his recording
“Wishing Well.”

1962 – Wilt Chamberlain becomes the first and only player in NBA
history to score more than 4,000 points in a season (4,029).
He will average 50.4 points per game.

1968 – “LIFE” magazine calls Jimi Hendrix “the most spectacular
guitarist in the world.”

1968 – Bob Beamon sets an indoor long jump record as he leaps 27
feet, 2-3/4 inches.

1969 – St. Clair Drake is named director of the African and Afro
American Studies program at Stanford University. Drake’s
accomplishments in the position will form a model for such
programs across the country.

1970 – The musical, “Purlie” opens a run of 680 continuous
performances on Broadway in New York City.

1980 – Scores of people are injured in Klan-related incidents in
Georgia, Tennessee, California, Indiana and North Carolina.

1985 – Larry Holmes beats David Bey in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was
probably good for Bey, since no one had ever heard of him
before the fight. Holmes defends his International Boxing
Federation heavyweight boxing title with the win.

1991 – Four Los Angeles police officers-Sergeant Stacey Koon and
Officers Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Theodore Briseno-
are charged with felony assault and related charges arising
from the Rodney King beating.

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

KRLemmons Women's History Month

Day 14 Woman of the Day: Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler, the award-winning science fiction author, is Day 14 Woman of the Day.  Read more about this phenomenal woman below.

Website: http://oOctaviaButlerctaviabutler.org/

Biography: http://www.biography.com/people/octavia-e-butler-38207#synopsis

NPR: http://www.npr.org/2014/07/10/320746103/an-unexpected-treat-for-octavia-e-butler-fans

Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/2005/11/11/science_fiction_writer_octavia_butler_on

Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources on “Kindred”: http://www.webenglishteacher.com/butler.html

KRLemmons African American History

March 14 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – March 14 *

1794 – Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin, making it possible to clean
50 pounds of cotton a day, compared to a pound a day before the
invention. This will make cotton king and increase the demand
for slave labor.

1829 – African American editor John Russworm writes an editorial in
“Freedom’s Journal” supporting the colonization of Africa by
African Americans.

1889 – Menelik becomes ruler of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). Menelik II will
be the Ethiopian emperor (1889-1909) during the frantic race
for African protectorates by European countries. He will
transform the country from a collection of semi-independent
states into a united nation. As ruler of the kingdom of Shoa,
in central Ethiopia, he will conquer the Oromo people to the
south and annex their land. During Menelik’s reign he
suppressed the Ethiopian slave trade, curbed the feudal
nobility, and founded the city of Addis Ababa.

1917 – The first training camp for “colored” officers is established
by the U.S. Army in Des Moines, Iowa, after a long lobbying
effort by the NAACP, led by Joel E. Spingarn and James Weldon
Johnson. The camp will issue 678 officer commissions to
African Americans, compared to 380,000 African American
enlisted men mobilized in World War l.

1933 – Quincy Delight Jones is born in Chicago, Illinois. A trumpeter
and record producer, he will collaborate with many major
American and French recording artists, including Michael
Jackson on the latter’s “Thriller” and “Bad” albums, two of
the most successful records during the 1980’s. A musical
innovator, in 1991, Jones will receive two Grammy awards for
producer of the year and album of the year for “Back on the
Block.” To date, he will accumulate over 25 Grammy awards,
Grammy’s Trustees Award in 1989, and the Grammy’s Legends
Award in 1990. He will also be Musical Director for Mercury
Records, then Vice President. He will also establish Qwest
Records.

1934 – Shirley Scott is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She will
become an accomplished jazz organist, with a blues orientation
to most of her presentations. She started her career playing
with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis in 1956 and continued until 1960.
She will record most of her work with her ex-husband, Stanley
Turrentine from 1961 to 1970. She will join the ancestors on
March 10, 2002, succumbing to heart failure. Her heart failure
will be hastened by the diet drug fen-phen. She will win an
$8 million settlement in February, 2000 against American Home
Products, the manufacturers of the drug cocktail.

1946 – Wes Unseld is born in Louisville, Kentucky. His early career
plans will include becoming a teacher, but that thought will
be put on hold when he becomes the second overall pick in the
1968 draft by the NBA’s Baltimore Bullets. In 1969, Unseld’s
debut will be memorable. He becomes only the second NBA
player besides Wilt Chamberlain to be named Rookie of the Year
and MVP in the same season. During a solid 13-year NBA career,
spent entirely with the Bullets organization, Unseld will
become a superb position rebounder and retire as the NBA’s
seventh all-time leading rebounder with 13,769 boards, a 14.0
per game average. Unseld, who will play in five NBA All-Star
games, ranks as the Bullets all-time leader in minutes played
(35,832) and rebounds. He is only one of 20 players in NBA
history to score more than 10,000 points (10,624) and grab more
than 10,000 rebounds. The pinnacle of Unseld’s career will
come in 1978, when he and fellow Hall of Famer Elvin Hayes lead
Washington past Seattle for the NBA championship. For his
efforts, Unseld will be named MVP of the championship series.
After his retirement from the NBA, he will become the coach of
the Bullets.

1947 – William J. Jefferson is born in Lake Providence, Louisiana. He
will become a Louisiana state senator in 1979 and, in 1990,
the first African American congressman elected from the state
since Charles Edmund Nash left office in 1876. On November 13,
2009, he will be sentenced to thirteen years in federal prison
for bribery after a corruption investigation, the longest
sentence ever handed down to a congressman for bribery or any
other crime. He will begin serving that sentence in May, 2012 at
a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility in Beaumont, Texas.

1960 – Kirby Puckett is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will become a
major league baseball outfielder. He will be selected by the
Minnesota Twins in the first round (third overall) of the
January 1982 free-agent draft and will spend his entire 14-year
professional career in the Twins organization. Not only will
he become a 10-time All-Star, in 1993 he will become the first
Twins player ever to win the All-Star Game MVP Award. He will
be the Twins’ all-time leader in hits, runs, doubles and total
bases. He will retire on July 12, 1996, after losing vision in
his right eye due to glaucoma, and will become the Twins’
executive vice president of baseball. He will join the
ancestors in Phoenix, AZ, on March 6, 2006 after succumbing to
a stroke.

1967 – In the first NFL-AFL common draft, the Baltimore Colts pick
Bubba Smith as the first pick.

1985 – Bill Cosby captures four of the People’s Choice Awards for “The
Cosby Show.” The awards were earned from results of a
nationwide Gallup Poll.

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

KRLemmons Women's History Month

Day 13 Woman of the Day: Renita Weems

Renita Weems, a bible scholar and ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, is Day 13 Woman of the day.  Read about this powerful woman below:

RenitaWeemsBiography: http://www.somethingwithin.com/biography.html

Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3431000061.html

Youtube videos: “Just in Case” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gM5bhqpPxY, “The Gospel of Mary” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLlHsPqqNz8, “Trayvon Martin” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gPB-w2XP5Y

Books by Renita Weems on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Renita-J.-Weems/e/B000APSONU