Day: June 19, 2015

* Today in Black History – June 18 *

1889 – William H. Richardson receives a patent for a baby
carriage whose body can be raised from its frame.

1939 – Louis Clark “Lou” Brock is born in El Dorado, Arkansas.
He will become a professional baseball player with the
Chicago Cubs in 1961. Three years later, in 1964, he
will be traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. Brock will
have an immediate impact with the Cardinals entering the
starting lineup. He will record 12 homeruns, 44 RBI, an
amazing .348 batting average, and blister the baselines
stealing 44 bases in his first season with St. Louis.
During his 19-year career, the outfielder will steal an
unprecedented 938 bases and break several World Series
records, including hitting .391 in over 20 World Series
games. Exemplifying the spirit of baseball on and off
the field, Brock will earn the Roberto Clemente and the
Jackie Robinson Awards, among many others. A Cardinal
for the remainder of his career, Lou Brock will enter the
Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 1985.

1941 – President Roosevelt confers with A. Philip Randolph and
other leaders of a “March on Washington” movement and
urges them to call off a scheduled demonstration. Randolph
refuses.

1942 – Bernard W. Robinson, of Harvard Medical School, becomes a
Naval Reserve ensign. He is the first African American to
earn a U.S. Navy commission.

1953 – Egypt becomes a republic after the forced abdication of
King Farouk I. General Neguib becomes president.

1963 – Bruce Bernard Smith is born in Norfolk, Viriginia. He will
become a defensive end for the NFL Buffalo Bills. He will
spend his last few years with the Washington Redskins where
he will break Reggie White’s record for sacks. The holder
of the NFL career record for quarterback sacks, he will be
enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009, his
first year of eligibility

1963 – 3,000 African Americans boycott Boston public schools as
a protest against defacto segregation.

1968 – The U.S. Supreme Court bans racial discrimination in the
sale and rental of housing.

1966 – Samuel Nabrit becomes the first African American scientist
to serve on the Atomic Energy Commission.

1982 – The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is extended for an additional
twenty-five years by Senate vote of 85-8. The Voting Rights
Act protects citizens’ ability to vote, not the right to
vote. All U.S. citizens have the right to vote, but state
and local jurisdictions are prevented from interfering with
the voters’ ability to vote. It outlaws such practices as
poll taxes, reciting the preamble to the U.S. Constitution,
etc. as a condition to vote.

1985 – Patrick Ewing becomes one of 11 basketball centers to be
chosen in the first round of the National Basketball
Association draft of college players. Ewing is picked by
— and will become a major star for — the New York Knicks.

1991 – City Auditor, Wellington Webb is elected mayor of Denver,
Colorado. He becomes the first African American to hold the
post.

2003 – Larry Doby joins the ancestors at age 79 after a long
illness. He was a Hall of Fame pitcher for the Cleveland
Indians and Chicago White Sox and second African American
player in the modern major leagues. Jackie Robinson was the
first.

2011 – Clarence Clemons joins the ancestors at the age of 69. Also
known as “the Big Man,” he was the saxophonist in the “E
Street Band,” Bruce Springsteen’s back up band. He succumbed
to complications from a stroke. Bruce Springsteen’s statement:
“Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love
of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and
extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and
gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage. His
loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have
known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for
nearly forty years. He was my great friend, my partner, and
with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a
story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His
life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and
in our band.”

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

* Today in Black History – June 17 *

1775 – Former slave Peter Salem shoots and kills British
Commander Major John Pitcairn, becoming the hero of
the Battle of Bunker Hill. Salem, along with Seasor,
Pharoah, Salem Poor, Barzaillai Lew, and Cuff
Whittmore, fights in the battles of Bunker Hill and
Breed’s Hill. Pitcairn was the major who ordered
British soldiers to fire on the Minutemen at
Lexington.

1822 – In New York City, the first elders of the newly
founded African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church
are ordained.

1871 – James William Johnson is born in Jacksonville, Florida.
He will become a writer (“Autobiography of an Ex-Colored
Man”), poet, first African American admitted to the
Florida bar, diplomat, executive secretary of the NAACP,
and professor. He will change his middle name to Weldon
in 1913. He also will write the words and his brother
J. Rosamond Johnson will write the music to “Lift Every
Voice And Sing”, referred to as the “Negro National
Anthem.” He will join the ancestors on June 26, 1938 near
his summer home in Wiscasset, Maine, when the car in which
he will be driving, is struck by a train.

1897 – William Frank Powell, a New Jersey educator, is
named minister to Haiti.

1957 – A major boycott begins in Tuskegee, Alabama. African
Americans boycott city stores in protest against an
act of the state legislature which deprives them of
municipal votes by placing their homes outside city
limits.

1966 – Stokely Carmichael calls for the Black Power Movement
at a Greenwood, Mississippi rally.

1967 – Six days of racially motivated disturbances end in
Newark, New Jersey, in the worst urban violence since
the Watts Rebellion of 1965.

1969 – Jazz musician, Charles Mingus, comes out of a two-year,
self-imposed retirement to make a concert appearance at
the Village Vanguard in New York City.

1972 – Frank Wills, a Washington, DC security guard, foils
break-in at offices of the Democratic National Committee.
The offices at the Watergate complex, are targeted for
the placement of surveillance equipment. This will be the
first event of the Watergate conspiracy. Mr. Wills will
be rewarded for his actions by losing his job and
becoming unable to get another security job in the
Washington area.

1990 – South African Black nationalist Nelson Mandela and his
wife, Winnie, arrive in Ottawa, Canada, en route to an
11-day tour of the United States.

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

* Today in Black History – June 16 *

1822 – Denmark Vesey’s slave rebellion in South Carolina is aborted
when his plans are revealed to authorities by slave George
Wilson. After 10 of the conspirators are arrested, one of
them, Monday Gell, informs on the others. Although an
estimated 9,000 are involved, only 67 are convicted of any
offense. Denmark and over 30 others will be hanged.

1858 – In a speech in Springfield, Illinois, Senate candidate
Abraham Lincoln says the slavery issue has to be resolved,
declaring, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

1939 – Chick Webb, famous jazz drummer and band leader joins the
ancestors. Webb discovered singer Ella Fitzgerald after
she won an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater. She
performed with his band until his death. After his death,
Ella will take over the band until she starts her solo
career in 1942.

1941 – Lamont Dozier is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will become
part of the legendary songwriting team of Holland, Dozier &
Holland. Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland will
write and produce many of the songs that are most closely
identified with Motown. These include “Stop! In the Name of
Love” and “You Can’t Hurry Love” (the Supremes), “Heat Wave”
and “Jimmy Mack” (Martha and the Vandellas), “Reach Out I’ll
Be There” and “Baby I Need Your Loving” (the Four Tops), and
“Can I Get a Witness” and “How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by
You” (Marvin Gaye). These classics are only the tip of the
iceberg, insofar as Holland-Dozier-Holland’s ten-year output
at Motown is concerned. In their behind-the-scenes roles as
staff producers and songwriters, Holland-Dozier-Holland were
as responsible as any of the performers for Motown’s
spectacular success. Dozier and the Holland brothers will be
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

1942 – Edward “Eddie” Levert is born in Canton. Ohio. He will become a
Rhythm & Blues singer and will form the group, The O’Jays
with William Powell, Walter Williams, Bobby Massey and Bill
Isles. The group had more than one name until they were
named by Cleveland disc jockey Eddie O’Jay. They will
become a trio in 1971 without Bill Isles and Bobby Massey.
They will record many hit songs including “Back Stabbers,”
“Love Train,” “Put Your Hands Together,” “Time To Get Down,”
“For The Love Of Money,” “Give The People What They Want,”
“I Love Music,” “Livin’ For The Weekend,” “Message In Our
Music,” and “Use Ta Be My Girl.” Eddie will remain with the
group for over fifty years. In 2009, he and The O’Jays will win
the BET Lifetime Achievement Award.

1943 – A race riot occurs in Beaumont, Texas, resulting in two
deaths.

1969 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the suspension of Adam
Clayton Powell Jr. from the House of Representatives is
unconstitutional.

1970 – Kenneth A. Gibson is elected mayor of Newark, New Jersey. He
is the first African American to serve in the position and
the first of a major northeastern city. In 1976 he will be
elected the first African American president of the U.S.
Conference of Mayors.

1970 – A racially motivated civil disturbance occurs in Miami,
Florida.

1971 – Tupac Shakur is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will move to
Baltimore, Maryland to attend the High School for Performing
Arts, where he will begin writing rap music. He will move
to Marin City, California, located near San Francisco,
continuing to write and record rap. He will release many
albums, with the album “All Eyez on Me” selling over 5
million copies. Tupac will join the ancestors on Friday,
September 13, 1996 after succumbing from wounds he will
receive as a result of a drive-by shooting.

1971 – A major racial disturbance occurs in Jacksonville, Florida
and will last through June 20.

1975 – Adam Wade hosts the nationally televised game show ‘Musical
Chairs’. He becomes the first African American game show
host.

1976 – Hector Petersen, a 13-year-old Soweto schoolboy, is the
first to join the ancestors in what will become known as the
‘Children’s Crusade,’ the first nationwide black South
African uprising in the 1970’s. The violence will last 16
months and result in 570 deaths, 3,900 injuries, and 5,900
detentions.

1984 – Edwin Moses wins his 100th consecutive 400-meter hurdles
race.

1985 – Willie Banks sets the triple jump record at 58 feet 11
inches in Indianapolis, Indiana at the USA championships.
Banks breaks the record that had been set by Brazil’s Joao
Oliveria in 1975.

1987 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar signs a two-year contract with the Los
Angeles Lakers for $5,000,000. The 18-year veteran of the
NBA becomes the highest paid player in any sport.

1990 – African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, welcomed by
a crowd in the Netherlands, thanks them for staunch Dutch
support of the anti-apartheid movement.

1991 – Natalie Cole’s album ‘Unforgettable’ is released. The album
consists of her rendition of 24 songs by her father, Nat
King Cole, and includes the title track, specially remixed
to include both father and daughter’s voices. It will be
her most successful album, selling over 4,000,000 copies,
and will sweep the Grammy Awards ceremonies in 1992.

1999 – Thabo Mbeki takes the oath as president of South Africa,
succeeding Nelson Mandela.

2002 – The late Rev. W.J. Hodge is honored at a service at the
church where he pastored, as the newest member of the
Gallery of Great Black Kentuckians. A framed poster that
will hang in the gallery is unveiled at the Fifth Street
Baptist Church, where Hodge’s son, the Rev. Phillip Hodge,
became pastor. W.J. Hodge joined the ancestors in December
2000 at age 80. The gallery is meant to teach young people
about Blacks’ influence in the state. Hodge became the 32nd
member. “If all of us did half of what Dr. Hodge did in his
life, this world would be a better place,” said Beverly
Watts, executive director of the Kentucky Commission on
Human Rights.

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

* Today in Black History – June 15 *

1864 – Congress passes a bill equalizing pay, arms, equipment
and medical services of African American troops.

1877 – Henry Ossian Flipper, born a slave in Thomasville,
Georgia in 1856, is the first African American cadet
to graduate from the United States Military Academy at
West Point, New York. Flipper, who was never spoken to
by a white cadet during his four years at West Point,
was appointed a second lieutenant in the all-African
American 10th Cavalry, stationed at Fort Sill in Indian
Territory. He will join the ancestors on May 3, 1940.

1921 – Bessie Coleman, a 28-year-old native of Amarillo,
Texas, who learned French in order to communicate with
instructors, receives a pilot’s certificate from the
Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France. She
is the first African American woman to become a licensed
pilot.

1921 – Erroll Garner is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He
will become an accomplished pianist who will play by ear.
Much of his early work will be lost because it will not
be written down. His best known composition will be
“Misty.” He will be an ASCAP Award-winning jazz pianist.
Some of his other hits will be “Dreamy,” “That’s My Kick,”
“Moment’s Delight,” and “Solitaire.” He will be honored
on a stamp by the U.S. Postal Service. He will join the
ancestors on January 2, 1977.

1938 – Billie Leo Williams, baseball player (Rookie of the Year
1961), and Chicago Cubs outfielder, is born in Whistler,
Alabama. After accumulating a lifetime .290 batting average
with 426 homers and 1475 runs batted in, he will be elected
to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987. His number 26 will be
retired at Wrigley Field. His will be the second number
retired by the Cubs, the first being Ernie Banks’ number 14.
Following his departure from the Cubs, the number has been
reassigned to other players from time to time, although he
will reclaim it during several intervals of coaching with
the Cubs after his playing days had ended. In 1999, he will
be named as a finalist to the Major League Baseball All-
Century Team. During the 2010 season, the Cubs will honor
him with a statue outside of Wrigley Field. The statue will
be unveiled in a pre-game ceremony before their game on
September 7 against the Houston Astros. In 2011, he will be
appointed as a member of the Hall of Fame’s Veterans
Committee “Golden Era” group.

1951 – Joe Louis knocks out Lee Savold in a closed-circuit TV
fight seen by fight fans in movie theatres in six cities.

1969 – O’Shea Jackson is born in Los Angeles, California. Known
later as “Ice Cube,” he will be the first member of the
seminal Californian rap group N.W.A. to leave, and he will
quickly establish himself as one of hip-hop’s best and
most controversial artists. From the outset of his career,
he will court controversy, since his rhymes were profane
and political. As a solo artist, his politics and social
commentary will sharpen substantially, and his first two
records, “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted” and “Death Certificate,”
will be equally praised and reviled for their lyrical
stance, which happens to be considerably more articulate
than many of his gangsta peers. As his career progresses,
Ice Cube’s influence begins to decline, particularly as he
tries to incorporate elements of contemporary groups like
Cypress Hill into his sound, but his stature never
diminished, and he will remain one of the biggest rap stars
throughout the ’90s. He will also become an actor and will
have his acting debut in John Singleton’s “Boyz N the Hood.”

1971 – The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of
closing Jackson, Mississippi, swimming pools rather than
integrating them. The ruling is considered by many to
indicate the Court’s resistance to increased integration.

1971 – Vernon E. Jordan Jr., former executive director of the
United Negro College Fund, is appointed executive director
of the National Urban League.

1987 – Michael Spinks defeats Gerry Cooney in round five of their
heavyweight boxing match in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

1990 – St. Clair Drake joins the ancestors after succumbing to a
heart attack in Palo Alto, California. The noted sociologist
and anthropologist was the author of numerous books,
including the important ‘Black Metropolis’ which he
co-authored with Horace Cayton. In 1969, he established and
served as Director of the African and Afro-American Studies
Program at Stanford University, a program often imitated by
other colleges and universities.

1996 – Ella Jane Fitzgerald joins the ancestors. Dubbed the
‘First Lady of Song,’ she was the most popular female jazz
singer in the United States for more than half a century.
During her lifetime, she sold over 40 million albums and won
13 Grammy awards. Born in Newport News, Virginia, Fitzgerald
began singing after impressing the audience at the Apollo
Theater’s Amateur Night in 1934. She could imitate every
instrument in an orchestra and worked with all the jazz
greats, from Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Nat King Cole
to Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie, and Benny Goodman. She
performed at top venues all over the world, and her
audiences were as diverse as her vocal range. She received
the National Medal of Arts, France’s Commander of Arts and
Letters Award, Kennedy Center Honors, and numerous honorary
doctorates for her continuing contributions to the arts.

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

* Today in Black History – June 14 *

1921 – Georgianna R. Simpson becomes the first African American
woman to receive a Ph.D. when she is awarded the degree,
in German, by the University of Chicago.

1931 – Margaret Bradley is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will
become a popular and enduring television personality known
as Marla Gibbs, notable for her roles as “Florence” in ‘The
Jeffersons’ and as “Mary” in the series ‘227’.

1941 – John Edgar Wideman is born in Washington, DC. He will become
the second African American to win a Rhodes Scholarship
(New College, Oxford, England), graduating in 1966. He will
also graduate from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the
University of Iowa. He is will become writer of such
fictional works as ‘Hurry Home’, ‘Damballah’, and
‘Philadelphia Fire’. He will become the only writer to be
awarded the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction twice– once in
1984 for his novel “Sent for You Yesterday” and again in 1990
for “Philadelphia Fire.” In 1990, he will also receive the
American Book Award for Fiction. He will be awarded the
Lannan Literary Fellowship for Fiction in 1991 and the
MacArthur Award in 1993. Other honors will include the St.
Botolph Literary Award (1993), the DuSable Museum Prize for
Nonfiction for Brothers and Keepers (1985), the Longwood
College Medal for Literary Excellence, and the National
Magazine Editors’ Prize for Short Fiction (1987). In 1996,
he will edit the annual anthology “The Best American Short
Stories” (Houghton Mifflin). His academic teaching positions
will include the University of Wyoming, University of
Pennsylvania – where he will found and chair the African
American Studies Department, and the University of
Massachusetts Amherst’s MFA Program for Poets & Writers and as
a professor at Brown University.

1970 – Cheryl Adrienne Brown, Miss Iowa, becomes the first
African American to compete in the Miss America beauty
pageant.

1971 – The Justice Department files suit against the St. Louis
suburb of Black Jack, charging the community with illegally
using municipal procedures to block an integrated housing
development.

1989 – Congressman William Gray, chairman of the House Democratic
Caucus, is elected Democratic Whip of the House of
Representatives, the highest ranking leadership position
ever held by an African American in Congress.

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

* Today in Black History – June 13 *

1774 – Rhode Island prohibits the importation of slaves, the
first state to do so.

1866 – The House of Representatives passes the 14th Amendment,
guaranteeing civil rights for African Americans.

1868 – Ex-slave Oscar T. Dunn is installed as Lieutenant
Governor of Louisiana. It is the highest executive
office held by an African American at that time.

1870 – Richard T. Greener becomes the first African American
to graduate from Harvard University.

1893 – T.W. Stewart patents a mop.

1937 – Eleanor Holmes (later Norton) is born in Washington,
DC. A graduate of the Yale University School of Law,
Norton will become chairperson of the New York City
Commission on Human Rights, and a Georgetown University
law professor before being elected a non-voting delegate
to Congress representing the District of Columbia.

1967 – President Lyndon Johnson appoints U.S. Court of Appeals
Judge Thurgood Marshall to fill the seat of retiring
Supreme Court Associate Justice Tom C. Clark. On August
30, after a heated debate, the Senate will confirm
Marshall’s nomination by a vote of 69 to 11. Two days
later, he will be sworn in by Chief Justice Earl Warren,
making him the first African American in history to sit
on America’s highest court.

1977 – The convicted assassin of civil rights leader Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr., James Earl Ray, is recaptured following
his escape three days earlier from a Tennessee prison.

1989 – Kareem Abdul Jabbar plays in his final NBA game as the
Detroit Pistons sweep the Los Angeles Lakers for the NBA
title.

1990 – The United Nations calls on South Africa to free Nelson
Mandela.

1990 – Bernadette Locke becomes the first female on-court men’s
basketball coach when she is named assistant coach of the
University of Kentucky men’s basketball team.

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

* Today in Black History – June 12 *

1826 – Sarah Parker Remond is born in Salem, Massachusetts. She will
become a major abolitionist. She will also be an African
American physician, lecturer and agent of the American
Anti-Slavery Society. She will deliver speeches throughout
the United States on the horrors of slavery. Because of her
eloquence, she will be chosen to travel to England to gather
support for the abolitionist cause in the United States and,
after the American Civil War starts, for support of the
Union Army and the Union blockade of the Confederacy. She
is the sister of orator Charles Lenox Remond. She will join
the ancestors on December 13, 1894.

1840 – The World’s Anti-Slavery Convention convenes in
London, England. Among those in attendance will be
African American Charles Remond, who will refuse to be
seated at the meeting when he and the other delegates
learn that women are being segregated in the gallery.

1876 – A monument is dedicated to Richard Allen in
Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. It is the first known
monument erected by African Americans to honor one of
their heroes.

1904 – William Hendrick Foster is born in Calvert, Texas. He will
become a star in the Negro Baseball League. He will play
for the Chicago American Giants from 1923-1937. A left-hander,
he will win 137 games, more than any other left-handed
pitcher. Throughout his career, he will regularly participate
in post-season play in the California Winter League and with
barnstorming squads of Negro Leagues all-stars. In exhibition
contests against major league stars, he will post a .600+ win
percentage. After his retirement from baseball, he will
pursue various coaching positions, ultimately landing the
post of head baseball coach and dean of men at his alma mater,
Alcorn College in Mississippi. He will join the ancestors on
September 16, 1978. He will be inducted into the Baseball
Hall Of Fame in 1996.

1935 – Ella Fitzgerald records her first record for Brunswick
Records. The songs on the record were “Love and Kisses”
and “I’ll Chase the Blues Away”. She is featured with
Chick Webb and his band. Ella is 17 years old at the
time and will conduct the Webb band for three years
after he joins the ancestors in 1939.

1961 – The Hinds County, Mississippi Board of Supervisors
announces that more than one hundred “Freedom Riders”
had been arrested.

1963 – Medgar Evers, field secretary for the Mississippi
NAACP, joins the ancestors after being killed in the
driveway outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi.
The African American civil rights leader is shot to
death by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith. During
World War II, Evers volunteered for the U.S. Army and
participated in the Normandy invasion. In 1952, he
joined the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP). As a field worker for the NAACP,
Evers traveled through his home state encouraging poor
African Americans to register to vote and recruiting
them into the civil rights movement. He was instrumental
in getting witnesses and evidence for the Emmitt Till
murder case, which brought national attention to the
+ plight of African Americans in the South. He will be
widely mourned throughout the civil rights movement and
posthumously receives the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal.

1963 – Civil rights group demonstrates at Harlem construction
sites to protest discrimination in the building trade
unions.

1967 – The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a Virginia
miscegenation law (marriage or cohabitation between
whites and non-whites). This decision establishes that
no state law can prohibit interracial marriages.

1967 – A racially motivated civil disturbance occurs in
Cincinnati, Ohio. Three hundred persons are arrested,
and the National Guard is mobilized.

1972 – The National Black MBA Association is incorporated.
An organization of over 2,000 minority holders of
advanced business degrees, the organization’s mission
is to assist the entry of interested minorities into
the business community.

1981 – Larry Holmes defends his heavyweight boxing title by
earning a third-round TKO (technical knockout) over
Leon Spinks in Detroit, Michigan.

1989 – The U.S. Supreme Court expands the abilities of white
males to challenge court-approved affirmative action
plans, even years after they take effect.

1995 – The Supreme Court deals a potentially crippling blow
to federal affirmative action programs, ruling Congress
was limited by the same strict standards as states in
offering special help to minorities.

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

* Today in Black History – June 11 *

1799 – Richard Allen, the first African American bishop in
the United States, is ordained a deacon of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania by Bishop Francis Asbury.

1915 – Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, the first African American in
the United States to be named a judge, joins the
ancestors in Little Rock, Arkansas at the age of 87.

1920 – Hazel Dorothy Scott is born in Port-of-Spain,
Trinidad and raised in New York City from the age of
four. A child prodigy, she will enroll at New York
City’s Juilliard School of Music and star in
nightclubs, Broadway shows, and films. A fixture in
jazz society uptown and downtown in New York, most
notably for her jazz improvisations on familiar
classical works, she will be credited with putting
the “swing in European classical music.” She will be
the first African American woman to have her own
television show, “The Hazel Scott Show”. The show will
be short-lived because she will publicly oppose
McCarthyism and racial segregation, and the show will be
cancelled in 1950 when she is accused of being a
Communist sympathizer. She will be married to Adam
Clayton Powell, Jr. from 1945 to 1956, with whom she will
have one child before their divorce. She will join the
ancestors after succumbing to cancer at the age of 61 on
October 2, 1981 in New York City.

1930 – Charles Rangel is born in New York City. He will defeat
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. for the latter’s Congressional
seat in the 16th District and serve on the House Judiciary
Committee hearings on the impeachment of President Richard
M. Nixon. He will also chair the Congressional Black
Caucus and be a strong advocate in the war on drugs and
drug crime as chairman of the House Select Committee on
Narcotics Abuse and Control.

1937 – Amalya Lyle Kearse is born in Vaux Hall, New Jersey. She
will become the first African American woman judge on the
U.S. Court of Appeals, Second District of New York. She
will earn her undergraduate degree at Wellesley College
and her law degree at University of Michigan Law School.
She will be active in legal circles, the National Urban
League, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

1937 – Johnny Brown is born in St. Petersburg, Florida. He will
become a comedian and will be known for his roles on “Good
Times,” and “The Jeffersons,” “Family Matters,” and
“Martin.”

1951 – Mozambique becomes an oversea province of Portugal.

1963 – Vivian Malone and James Hood, accompanied by U.S. Deputy
Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, attempt to register at
the University of Alabama. They are met by Governor George
Wallace, who bodily blocks their entrance to a campus
building. When National Guardsmen return later in the day
with Malone and Hood to enter the building, Wallace steps
aside.

1964 – In South Africa, Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life
imprisonment for allegedly attempting to sabotage the white
South African government.

1967 – A race riot occurs in Tampa, Florida. The Florida National
Guard is mobilized to suppress the violence.

1972 – Hank Aaron, of the Atlanta Braves, ties Gil Hodges of the
Dodgers for the National League record for the most grand-
slam home runs in a career, with 14. The Braves will beat
the Philadelphia Phillies 15-3.

1978 – Joseph Freeman Jr. becomes the first African American
priest in the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
(Mormons).

1982 – Larry Holmes defeats Gerry Cooney to retain the WBC
heavyweight crown.

2003 – William Marshall, actor, joins the ancestors at the age of
78 after succumbing to complications from Alzheimer’s
disease. His roles ranged from Othello and Frederick
Douglas to a vampire in the 1972 movie “Blacula.”

2006 – Dr. James Cameron, who survived an attempted lynching by a
white mob in 1930 and went on to found America’s Black
Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, joins the
ancestors at the age of 92.

2014 – Ruby Dee joins the ancestors, at the age of 91, at her home
in New Rochelle, New York. She was an American actress, poet,
playwright, screenwriter, journalist and activist. She is
perhaps best known for co-starring in the film “A Raisin in
the Sun” (1961) and the film “American Gangster” (2007), for
which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actress. She was the recipient of Grammy, Emmy,
Obie, Drama Desk, Screen Actors Guild Award, Screen Actors
Guild Lifetime Achievement Awards as well as the National
Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors. She was married
to actor Ossie Davis until he joined the ancestors in 2005.

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

* Today in Black History – June 10 *

1854 – James Augustine Healy is ordained as a Catholic priest in
ceremonies at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, France at the
age of 24. He will later become the first African American
Roman Catholic bishop.

1898 – Hattie McDaniel is born in Wichita, Kansas. A vaudevillian,
she will begin her acting career at age 37 in the film ‘The
Golden West.’ She will go on to roles in over 70 films,
including ‘The Little Colonel’, ‘Show Boat’, and most
notably ‘Gone With The Wind’, which will earn her an Oscar
as best supporting actress in 1940. She will also star in
the radio program ‘Beulah’ from 1947 to 1951. She will join
the ancestors on October 26, 1952.

1899 – The Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
(I.B.P.O.E.) is founded in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1910 – Chester Arthur Burnett is born in White Station, Mississippi.
He will be better known as ‘Howlin Wolf’, a delta bluesman
whose recordings will inspire English rock bands to adopt
his style and material. He will join the ancestors on
January 10, 1976.

1940 – The famed Cotton Club in Harlem closes. Home to some of the
most important jazz talents of their day, including Duke
Ellington, Lena Horne, and many others, the club falls
victim to changing musical tastes and poor attendance.

1940 – Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey joins the ancestors in London,
England at the age of 52.

1946 – Jack Arthur Johnson, the first African American heavyweight
boxing champion, joins the ancestors after succumbing to
injuries from an automobile accident near Raleigh, North
Carolina at the age of 68. He will be buried in Graceland
Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.

1964 – The U.S. Senate imposes cloture for the first time on a civil
rights measure, ending a southern filibuster by a vote of
71-29.

1972 – Sammy Davis, Jr. earns his place at the top of the popular
music charts for the first time, after years in the
entertainment business with his first number one song, “The
Candy Man”. The song stayed at the top for three consecutive
weeks and stayed on the pop charts for 16 weeks.

1980 – Nelson Mandela, jailed for life by the apartheid government
of South Africa, has his writings smuggled from prison and
made public, continuing to spark the general population.

1985 – Herschel Walker, of the New Jersey Generals, breaks the 2,000
yard mark in rushing during the season as the Generals win
over Jacksonville 31-24. The effort sets a United States
Football League (USFL) record. This feat had only been
reached twice in the National Football League (NFL) — once
by O.J. Simpson in 1973 for 2,003 yards and Eric Dickerson
in 1984 for 2,105 yards.

1997 – Geronimo Pratt, political prisoner and ex-Black Panther, is
released from prison on bail. A judge agrees that had
Pratt’s original jury known that the prosecution key witness
was a FBI and police informant, the outcome may have been
different. In 1999, after winning his appeal of the decision
that ordered his release, charges against Pratt were dropped
by the Los Angeles District Attorney and no new trial was
sought.

2004 – Ray Charles, Keyboardist, Composer, and Singer who won 12
Grammy awards, joins the ancestors after succumbing to liver
disease at the age of 73.

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