KRLemmons African American History

March 13 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – March 13 *

1779 – Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, an explorer of African descent,
from Santo Domingo (Haiti), builds the first permanent
settlement at the mouth of the river, just east of the present
Michigan Avenue Bridge on the north bank, of what is now the
city of Chicago, Illinois.

1861 – Jefferson Davis signs a bill authorizing the use of slaves as
soldiers in the Confederate army.

1862 – Congress forbids Union officers and soldiers from aiding in the
capture and return of fugitive slaves, ending what one
historian called the “military slave hunt.”

1869 – Arkansas legislature passes anti-Ku Klux Klan legislation.

1914 – James Reese Europe explains the significance of his Clef Club
Symphony Orchestra, consisting of the best African American
musicians in New York City: “… we colored people have our
own music that is a part of us. It’s the product of our
souls; it’s been created by the sufferings and miseries of our
race.”

1918 – John Rhoden is born in Birmingham, Alabama. An art student who
will study with Richmond Barthe’ and at Talledega College,
Rhoden’s sculptures will have strong romantic and classical
elements. He will receive commissions for Harlem Hospital and
Metropolitan Hospital in New York City, exhibit his work at
the Atlanta University annuals, the Art Institute of Chicago,
and the Whitney Museum and be represented in museums in the
United States and Europe. Among his major works will be
“Safari,” “Eve,” and “Quarter Horse.” He will join the ancestors
on January 4, 2001.

1930 – Richard Allen “Blue” Mitchell is born in Miami, Florida. The
trumpeter will make his name as a member of Horace Silver’s
Quintet. From 1974, he will play as a soloist or as an
accompanist for Tony Bennett and Lena Horne. He will join the
ancestors on May 21, 1979 succumbing to cancer.

1932 – The “Atlanta World” becomes the first African American daily
newspaper in modern times, when it begins daily publication.
It was founded on August 3, 1928, by William A. Scott, III
and became a bi-weekly in 1930.

1943 – Frank Dixon becomes the first great African American miler in
track as he wins the Columbian Mile in New York City. Dixon
runs the mile in the record time of 4 minutes, 9.6 seconds.

1946 – Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African
American to command an United States Air Force base, when he
assumes command of Lockbourne Air Force Base in Ohio.

1961 – Floyd Patterson knocks out Ingemar Johannson to retain the
heavyweight boxing championship.

1984 – James L. Usry is elected the first African American mayor of
Atlantic City, New Jersey. He will serve as mayor until 1990.
A former member of the Harlem Globetrotters, he became an
educator before entering politics.

1999 – Evander Holyfield, the WBA and IBF champion, and Lennox Lewis,
the WBC champion, keep their respective titles after fighting
to a controversial draw in New York.

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

KRLemmons Women's History Month

Day 12 Woman of the Day: Nancy Wilson

Vocalist Nancy Wilson is Day 12 Woman of the day.  Read about this multitalented woman below.

nancywilsonBiography: http://www.biography.com/people/nancy-wilson-21442799

All Music: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/nancy-wilson-mn0000368367/biography

NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95307007, http://www.npr.org/people/2101390/nancy-wilson

Kennedy Center: http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/artists/?entity_id=3495&source_type=A

Youtube videos: “Guess Who I Saw Today” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wPKzLvqKDg. “How Glad I Am” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHVZ51o6ZNE

KRLemmons African American History

March 12 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – March 12 *

1791 – Benjamin Banneker and Pierre Charles L’Enfant are commissioned
to plan and develop Washington, DC.

1868 – Great Britain gives Basutoland, the status of protectorate at
the request of King Moshweshwe. The request of protection was
to prevent attacks by the Cape Colony.

1877 – The British annex Walvis Bay, an important deep water port in
South West Africa.

1888 – Hall Johnson is born in Athens, Georgia. As a boy, he will teach
himself to play the violin after hearing a violin recital given
by Joseph Henry Douglass, grandson of Frederick Douglass. He
will go on to play the violin and viola professionally,
including in the orchestra for the 1921 musical, “Shuffle Along.”
In 1925, he will organize and direct the Hall Johnson Choir as
well as have significant success as an arranger. One of his
early stage successes will be as choral director for the 1930
Broadway play “The Green Pastures” and the 1933 play, “Run
Little Chillun,” for which he will write the book and music. He
and his choir will move to Hollywood in 1936 to make the film
version of “The Green Pastures.” He will become fluent in both
German and French. Among the singers he coaches will be Marian
Anderson, Robert McFerrin and Shirley Verrett. His arrangements
of the spirituals have been recorded by some of the world’s
finest artists. He will join the ancestors after succumbing
during a fire at his New York apartment, on April 30, 1970. In
1975, he will be posthumously honored for his work in films by
being elected to the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

1926 – The Savoy Ballroom, nicknamed the “Home of Happy Feet,” opens
in New York City.

1932 – Andrew Young is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He will become
a minister, influential leader in the civil rights movement,
first African American ambassador to the United Nations, and
mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.

1934 – Virginia Hamilton is born in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She will
become an award-winning author of juvenile fiction including
“House of Dies Drear” and “Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush.” She
will write 41 books, including “M. C. Higgins, the Great” (1974),
for which she will win the U.S. National Book Award in the
Children’s Books category and the Newbery Medal in 1975. For
lifetime achievement she will win the international Hans
Christian Andersen Award for writing children’s literature in
1992 and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for her contributions to
American children’s literature in 1995. She will join the
ancestors on February 19, 2002.

1940 – Alwyn Lopez “Al” Jarreau is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He
will become a singer and will be known for his recording of
the theme for the television show, “Moonlighting”. Al Jarreau
will become the first vocalist in musical history to win
Grammy Awards in three different categories (Rhythm & Blues,
Jazz, and Pop).

1945 – New York becomes the first state to prohibit discrimination by
race and creed in employment.

1955 – Charlie Parker joins the ancestors in New York City at the age
of 34. He had been one of the founders of the modern jazz
movement.

1962 – Darryl Strawberry is born in Los Angeles, California. He will
become a professional baseball player and will play right field
for the New York Mets, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San
Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees. He will set the
New York Mets all-time records for most runs (662), most RBIs
(733) and most home runs (252). He will be a member of the
winning World Series championship teams in 1986 and 1996.

1964 – Malcolm X resigns from the Nation of Islam.

1982 – Charles Fuller wins the Pulitzer Prize for “A Soldier’s Play.”

2003 – Lynne Thigpen, actress, joins the ancestors at age 54 after
succumbing to complications from an enlarged heart. She played
“the chief” on “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?”

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 11 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – March 11 *

1861 – The Confederate Congress, meeting in Montgomery, Alabama,
adopts a constitution which declares that the passage of any
“law denying or impairing the right of property in Negro
slaves is prohibited.”

1870 – Moshweshwe, King of Basutoland (Lesotho) joins the ancestors.
Moshweshwe was the founder of Lesotho in the 1820’s. Lesotho
was landlocked by the Cape Colony (now South Africa). He was
able to develop a strong tribal organization from his mix of
peoples. He appeased the Zulu and Ndebele, led cattle raids
on surrounding people, defeated the British in 1852 and
conducted frequent wars with the Orange Free State. Because
of repeated attacks by the Cape Colony, Moshweshwe asked the
British for protection and Lesotho will become a protectorate
in 1868. Upon his death, the country was annexed to Cape
Colony, but was returned to the status of British protectorate
in 1884. When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910,
the British honored the desire of Lesotho (“Basutoland”) to
remain independent. A protectorate continued until 1968,
protecting Lesotho from incursions from South Africa.

1874 – Frederick Douglass is named president of the failing Freedmen’s
Bank.

1884 – William Edouard Scott is born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He will
study with Henry O. Tanner at the Art Institute of Chicago.
He later will go to Paris, France and study at the Julien and
Colarossi academies. He will also study under Tanner again in
Paris (Tanner had emigrated there) and become best known for
his portrait studies of Haitians, rural life, and landscapes.
Many of his murals are on the walls of public buildings in
Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, and New York (135th Street
YMCA). In 1943, he will be the only African American artist
chosen to create a mural for the Recorder of Deeds Building in
Washington, D.C. By the end of his life, he will create over
seventy-five murals celebrating black history and culture. In
2007, the Indiana State Museum will organize the traveling
retrospective: “Our Own Artist: Paintings by Indiana’s William
Edouard Scott, 1884-1964.” He will join the ancestors in 1964.

1919 – Mercer Ellington is born in Washington, DC, the only child of
Edward “Duke” Ellington and his wife, Edna. He will become
“the keeper of the flame,” the charge his father will give him
and one he will readily accept. In doing so, he will lead the
Duke Ellington Orchestra for over twenty years after replacing
his father. In the early 1980s, he will become the first
conductor for a Broadway musical of his father’s music,
“Sophisticated Ladies.” His “Digital Duke” will win the 1988
Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. He will join
the ancestors on February 8, 1996 in Copenhagen, Denmark, after
succumbing to a heart attack.

1926 – Ralph David Abernathy is born in Linden, Alabama. He will
become a famed minister, civil rights advocate, and confidant
of Martin Luther King, Jr. After King’s assassination, he
will become the president of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference and write an autobiography that will attract
widespread criticism for his comments on King’s alleged
womanizing. He will join the ancestors on April 17, 1990.

1935 – “The Conjure Man Dies,” a play by Rudolph Fisher, premieres on
Broadway at the Lafayette Theatre. Fisher, who had joined the
ancestors over a year before the play’s premiere, had adapted
the play from his 1932 short story “The Conjure-Man Dies: A
Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem,” considered the first detective
fiction by an African American.

1948 – Reginald Weir becomes the first African American to play in the
U.S. Indoor Lawn Tennis Association Championship. He will win
his first match, but will be eliminated on March 13.

1950 – Robert “Bobby” McFerrin is born in New York City. He will be
known for his versatile and innovative a cappella jazz vocals
and for his hit song “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” which will sell
over ten million copies and earn him three Grammy awards in
1989 in addition to a Grammy for best jazz vocalist.

1956 – A manifesto denouncing the Supreme Court ruling on segregation
in public schools, is issued by one hundred southern senators
and representatives.

1959 – “A Raisin in the Sun” becomes the first play written by an
African American woman, Lorraine Hansberry, to open on
Broadway. The play will run for 19 months at the Ethel
Barrymore Theatre, and be named “Best Play” by the New York
Drama Critics Circle, and bring Lloyd Richards to Broadway as
the first African American director in modern times.

1965 – After civil rights demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, the
Reverend James J. Reeb, a white minister from Boston, dies,
succumbing to his beating by segregationist whites.

1968 – Otis Redding posthumously receives a gold record for the single
“(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.”

1971 – Whitney M. Young, Jr., executive director of the National Urban
League, joins the ancestors after drowning while swimming
during a visit to Lagos, Nigeria.

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

KRLemmons Women's History Month

Day 10 Woman of the Day: Charlotta Spears Bass

Bass-CharlottaCharlotta Spears Bass was a newspaper publisher-editor and civil rights activist.  She was also the first African American woman to run for the U.S. Vice President under the Progressive Party ticket.  Read more about this revolutionary woman below.

PBS: http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/bass.html

Women of the West: http://theautry.org/explore/exhibits/suffrage/bass_full.html

Black Past.org: http://www.blackpast.org/aaw/bass-charlotta-1879-1969

Black History Now: http://blackhistorynow.com/charlotta-bass/

Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2874200015.html

KRLemmons Uncategorized

Libros Latin@s: Talking with Mother Earth / Hablando con Madre Tierra

missdguzman's avatarLatinxs in Kid Lit

By Marianne Snow

349744DESCRIPTION OF THE BOOK (from Goodreads): Tetl’s skin is brown, his eyes are black, and his hair is long. He’s different from the other children, whose taunts wound him deeply, leaving him confused and afraid. But Tetl’s grandmother knows the ancient teachings of their Aztec ancestors, and how they viewed the earth as alive with sacred meaning. With her help, he learns to listen to the mountains, wind, corn, and stones. Tetl’s journey from self-doubt to proud acceptance of his Nahuatl heritage is told in a series of powerful poems, beautifully expressed in both English and Spanish. Vivid illustrations celebrate nature’s redemptive powers, offering a perfect complement to the poignant story.

MY TWO CENTS: History books and other nonfiction texts often speak of the Americas’ original inhabitants in the past tense, as if they completely disappeared after Europeans swept across the land. For example, I remember learning…

View original post 805 more words

KRLemmons African American History

March 10 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – March 10 *

1850 – Hallie Quinn Brown is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She
will become a Black educator and elocutionist who will
pioneer the movement for Black women’s clubs in the United
States. The daughter of former slaves, she will receive a
B.S. from Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1873. She will
then teach on plantations and in the public schools of
Mississippi and South Carolina. After graduating from the
Chautauqua Lecture School, and teaching in Dayton, Ohio,
and in Alabama, she will return to Wilberforce to teach
elocution. At that time she will begin her extensive travels
as an elocutionist and lecturer, speaking in Europe as well
as the United States on topics of the life of Blacks in
America. She will assist in founding the earliest women’s
clubs for Blacks and, from 1905 to 1912, will serve as
president of the Ohio State Federation of Colored Women’s
Clubs. She will also help to found the Colored Women’s
League of Washington, D.C., a predecessor of
the National Association of Colored Women. She will also
author “Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction,”
a 1926 collection of biographical sketches of notable
African American women. She will join the ancestors on
September 16, 1949, in Wilberforce, Ohio.

1863 – Two U.S. African American infantry regiments, the First and
Second South Carolina Volunteers, capture and occupy
Jacksonville, Florida, causing panic along the Southern
seaboard. These regiments are not to be confused with the
confederate army First South Carolina Volunteers Infantry
Regiment.

1910 – The Pittsburgh Courier begins publishing. It will become one
of the most influential African American newspapers in the
country. In 1966, it will change its name to the “New
Pittsburgh Courier,” and continue to operate as a semi-weekly
publication. In 1987, the Courier will be the winner of the
John B. Russwurm award for excellence in responsible
journalism given by the National Newspaper Publishers
Association to the top African American Newspapers in America.

1913 – Harriet Tubman joins the ancestors in Auburn, New York. An
escaped slave, Tubman was known to the Underground Railroad as
“Black Moses” for her heroic trips south to free hundreds of
slaves. During the Civil War, she served as a scout, spy,
cook, and nurse.

1963 – Jasmine Guy is born in Boston, Massachusetts. She will become
an actress on television and will be best known for her role
as “Whitley” in the series “A Different World.”

1969 – James Earl Ray pleads guilty in the first degree to the murder
of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. and will be sentenced to 99 years
in prison. The House Select Committee on Assassinations will
later state that although it believes Ray shot King, Ray was
part of a larger conspiracy. Ray will later repudiate that
plea, maintaining his innocence until his death.

1972 – Three thousand delegates and five thousand observers attend
the first African American political convention in Gary,
Indiana. The NAACP and other groups withdraw from the
convention after the adoption of resolutions that are critical
of busing and the state of Israel.

1990 – Haitian ruler Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril resigns during a popular
uprising against his military regime.

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