Day: June 19, 2015

* Today in Black History – June 9 *

1877 – Meta Vaux Warwick (later Fuller) is born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. She will become a sculptor who will train at
the Pennsylvania Museum and School for Industrial Arts and
travel to Paris to study with Auguste Rodin. Her sculptures
will be exhibited at the salon in Paris as well as
extensively in the U.S. for 60 years. Her most famous works
will include “Ethiopia Awakening,” “Mary Turner (A Silent
Protest Against Mob Violence),” and “The Talking Skull.” She
will join the ancestors on March 18, 1968.

1934 – Jack Leroy “Jackie” Wilson, entertainer who will be known as “Mr.
Excitement,” is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will be important
in the transition of Rhythm and Blues into Soul. He will be
considered a master showman, and one of the most dynamic and
influential singers and performers in R&B and Rock n’ Roll
history. Gaining fame in his early years as a member of the R&B
vocal group Billy Ward and His Dominoes, he will go solo in 1957
and record over 50 hit singles that span R&B, pop, soul, doo-wop
and easy listening. During a 1975 benefit concert, he will
collapse on stage from a heart attack and subsequently fall into
a coma that persists for nearly nine years until he joins the
ancestors on January 21, 1984, at the age of 49. By this time,
he will be one of the most influential artists of his generation.
A two-time Grammy Hall of Fame Inductee, he will be inducted in
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2004, Rolling Stone
magazine will rank him #69 on their list of the 100 Greatest
Artists of All Time.

1948 – Oliver W. Hill becomes the first African American to be
elected to the Richmond, Virginia City Council.

1963 – Fannie Lou Hamer and five other voter registration workers
were arrested in Winona, Mississippi on their way home from
a workshop in Charleston, SC. They were held in the Winona
jail for four days, during which they were severely beaten
with nightsticks and fists by policemen, and with leather
straps by prison trustees under the direction of police
officers.

1978 – Larry Holmes wins the WBC heavyweight title by defeating Ken
Norton in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1980 – Comedian Richard Pryor suffers almost fatal burns at his San
Fernando Valley, California home, when a mixture of “free-
base” cocaine explodes.

1983 – Scott Joplin, noted jazz musician and composer of ragtime
music, is the sixth African-American depicted in the U.S.
Postal Service’s Black Heritage USA commemorative series of
postage stamps.

1998 – Three white men are charged in Jasper, Texas, with the brutal
dragging death of James Byrd Jr., an African American.

1998 – Artist Lois Mailou Jones joins the ancestors in Washington,
DC.

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

* Today in Black History – June 8 *

1886 – The first Civil Rights Act is passed.

1892 – Homer Adolph Plessy, an African American shoemaker from New
Orleans, Louisiana, is arrested for sitting in a “whites
only” railroad car. Judge John Ferguson will find him
guilty of the crime of refusing to leave the white railroad
car. Plessy will appeal to the Supreme Courts of both
Louisiana and the United States, and both will uphold
Ferguson’s decision and the “separate but equal” doctrine
(Plessy vs. Ferguson).

1924 – George Kirby is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will become a
comedian and, impressionist and delight audiences for more
than 40 years. Kirby will begin his career in Chicago and
will go to Las Vegas in 1952 as part of the Count Basie
show, one of the first African American acts to play Vegas.
He will be best known for impressions of stars such as Jerry
Lewis, John Wayne and Walter Brennan, and for his dead-on
takes of women, notably Pearl Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald and
Sarah Vaughan. He will join the ancestors on September 20,
1995.

1928 – Edward Joseph Perkins is born in Sterlington, Louisiana. He
will become the first African American ambassador to South
Africa (1986-1989). A veteran foreign service professional,
he will serve as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Liberia
(1985 – 1986), Director of the Office of West African
Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S.
Department of State (1983 – 1985), Deputy Chief of Mission
at the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia (1981-1983),
Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in
Accra, Ghana (1978 – 1981), and ambassador to the United
Nations.

1939 – Bernie Casey is born in Wyco, West Virginia. He will be the
first-round draft pick for the San Francisco 49ers and play
wide receiver. Before retiring from the NFL, he will also
play for the Los Angeles Rams and be named an NFL All-Pro
wide receiver. After the NFL, he will have his acting debut
in “Guns of the Magnificent Seven,” and have more than 40
roles to his credit, including Mr. Walter in “Once Upon A
Time…When We Were Colored,” Commander Hudson in the TV
series “Star Trek,” “Deep Space Nine” and Commander Harris
in “Under Siege.” He will have his directorial debut with
the film, “The Dinner (1997). He also will become an
accomplished artist with paintings part of permanent
collections at the California Museum of African American
Art and the Ankrum Gallery in Los Angeles. His works will
also appear in The Hirshorn Museum in Washington, DC, the
Lowe Gallery in Atlanta and the John Bolles Gallery in San
Francisco. He will earn a doctoral degree in humanities
from the Savannah College of Art and Design and serve as
chairman of its board of trustees.

1943 – Willie Davenport is born in Troy, Alabama. He will become a
star in track and field events, whose career will span five
Olympic Games from 1964 to 1980, during which he won a gold
and bronze medal. He will be one of only eight U.S. Olympic
athletes to have competed in both the summer and winter
games. Davenport will win the gold medal in the 110-meter
hurdles in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and the bronze in
the same event in Montreal, Quebec in 1976. After four
Olympic appearances in the hurdles, Davenport will compete
as the first African American member of the U.S. four-man
bobsled team in 1980. Davenport will coach the 1993 and
1994 U.S. Army Track Team to victory in the Armed Forces
Track & Field Championships. He will be the head coach of
the United States Army Track & Field Team for the 1996
Olympics. He will join the ancestors on June 17, 2002.

1953 – The Supreme Court rules that District of Columbia restaurants
cannot refuse to serve African Africans.

1958 – Keenen Ivory Wayans is born in New York City. He will become
a comedian, actor, writer, director, and producer. He will
become best known for his television show, “In Living
Color.”

1963 – Three bullets are fired into the Clarksdale, Mississippi home
of Dr. Aaron Henry, Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
candidate for governor.

1968 – James Earl Ray, the alleged assassin of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., is captured at London’s Heathrow airport.

1969 – Bill Cosby wins an Emmy for a variety special. It is his
fourth Emmy award.

1978 – Through the voice of its president, Spencer W. Kimball, the
Mormon Church reverses a 148-year-long policy of spiritual
discrimination against African American leadership within
the denomination (Official Declaration # 2).

1982 – Leroy “Satchel” Paige, a pitcher in the Negro Leagues and
the first African American pitcher in the American League,
joins the ancestors in Kansas City, Missouri at the age of
75. Paige is heralded as one of the greatest early African
American baseball players in a career that spanned more than
40 years and was enshrined in baseball’s Hall of Fame in
1971.

1998 – Military dictator of Nigeria, Sani Abacha joins the ancestors
at the age of 54.

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

* Today in Black History – June 7 *

1863 – Three African American regiments and small detachment of white
troops repulse a division of Texans in a hand-to-hand battle
at Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana.

1917 – Gwendolyn Brooks is born in Topeka, Kansas. She will become the
first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize (1950). She
will win this award for “Annie Allen,” which is about the coming
of age of a young African American and her feelings of loneliness,
loss, death and poverty. In 1963-1969 she will teach poetry and
fiction workshops and also freshman English and 20th century
literature. In 1967, she will organize a poetry writing workshop
for a gang, and her home soon became a meeting place for young
people interested in arts and politics. In 1985, she will become
the first African American woman to take the position of Poetry
Consultant to the Library of Congress. Her job will be to give a
lecture in autumn and a poetry reading in the spring. She will
be the 29th and last Poetry Consultant. In 1988, she will become
the second Poet Laureate of Illinois. She also will be inducted
into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She will join the ancestors
on December 3, 2000.

1931 – David C. Driskell is born in Eatonton, Georgia. An artist and
professor of art at several universities, Driskell will be acclaimed
as one of the foremost art historians and curators of African
American art exhibits. He will hold a Master of Fine Arts degree from
Catholic University and nine Honorary Doctoral degrees. In 2000, he
will be honored by President Bill Clinton as one of 12 recipients of
the National Humanities Medal. A publication, “David C. Driskell:
Artist and Scholar” by Julie L. McGee, will detail Driskell’s life
and work, wand will be published in 2006. He will be represented by
DC Moore Gallery. His first exhibition at the gallery will be held in
October 2006.

1943 – Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr. is born in Knoxville, Tennessee.
She will become a poet and author that will be known for her
books “Black Feeling”, “Black Talk”, and “Black Judgment,” and the
name “Nikki.” In 1973, she will establish NikTom, Ltd., a
communications company that will edit and publish “Night Comes Softly,”
an anthology of poetry by black women, “Re: Creation,” “Poem of Angela
Yvonne Davis,” and her other prominent works. In the mid 1980’s, her
opposition to the boycott of South Africa will lead to her being
blacklisted by TransAfrica and subsequently to bomb and death threats.
She will receive at least six honorary doctorate degrees and a myriad
of literary awards.

1946 – U.S. Supreme Court bans discrimination in interstate travel.

1950 – U.S. Supreme Court avoids a general ruling on “separate but equal”
doctrine.

1958 – Prince Rogers Nelson is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He
will become a singer and prolific songwriter and producer
known to the public as “Prince.” An incurable movie fan, he
will have a passion for drama (and comedy). His own films
will include “Purple Rain,” “Under the Cherry Moon,”
and “Grafitti Bridge.” “Purple Rain” (1984) will be hailed
by some critics as the best rock movie ever made and earn
Prince an Oscar for best original song score and soundtrack
album. Because of his desire to have complete artistic control
over his music, he will endure several years of a contract
dispute with his label, Warner Brothers, which results in him
appearing in public with the word SLAVE written on his face.
In 1993, he will change his name to “The Artist Formerly Known
As Prince” (TAFKAP or The Artist). He will come out of the
Warner Brothers conflict happily. He will establish a new
relationship with EMI Records that will allow him to record
and produce whatever he wants to release.

1966 – The voter registration march from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson,
Mississippi is continued by Martin Luther King, Jr. and other
civil rights groups and will register almost 4,000 African
Americans. The march had been interrupted the previous day by
the shooting of James Meredith, by a white sniper.

1987 – Mae Jemison, becomes the first African American woman astronaut.
Jemison entered Stanford University as a 16-year-old National
Achievement Scholarship student. She majored in Chemical
Engineering and Afro-American Studies, graduating in 1977. She
then went on to Cornell University to get a M.D. in 1981. She
worked as a medical intern in Los Angeles, California in 1981.
Later, she served as a staff doctor with Peace Corps in West
Africa 1983-1985. Then she worked as a general practitioner
for CIGNA Health Plans of California in Los Angeles from 1985
to 1987. After her internship, she joined the Peace Corps for
two years in West Africa giving medical attention to Peace Corps
volunteers and State Department employees in Sierra Leone and
Liberia. Finally, she became an astronaut for the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Houston, Texas
in 1987.

1987 – Lloyd Richards wins a Tony as best director for the August
Wilson play “Fences”. The play wins three other Tony awards,
for best play, best performance by an actor (James Earl Jones),
and best performance by a featured actress (Mary Alice).

1998 – In a crime that shocks the nation, James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old
African American man, joins the ancestors after being chained to
a pickup truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. Three
men, white supremacists, are arrested in the case. The atrocity
will prompt President Clinton to issue a press release condemning
the act. Two of the killers will be sentenced to death for the
crime, a third to life in prison.

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

* Today in Black History – June 6 *

1716 – The first slaves arrive in Louisiana.

1779 – Haitian explorer Jean Baptiste-Pointe Du Sable founds the
first permanent settlement at the mouth of a river on the
north bank, that will become Chicago, Illinois.

1831 – The second national Black convention meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. There are fifteen delegates from five
states.

1869 – Dillard University is chartered in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1934 – Roy Innis is born in the U.S. Virgin Islands and will be
raised in New York City. He will become a civil rights
activist and will join the Harlem chapter of CORE
(Congress of Racial Equality) in 1963. He will become
chairman of CORE in 1968 and will remain in that position
for over 47 years.

1935 – Jesse Owens is elected Captain of the 1936 track team at
Ohio State University. He is the first African American to
hold such position on any Ohio State Team.

1935 – Robert Cornelius “Bobby” Mitchell is born in Hot Springs,
Arkansas. He will become a professional football player
starting as an eighth round draft selection by the
Cleveland Browns in 1958. He will play in four Pro Bowls
(one with Cleveland and three with Washington) over his
11-year playing career and is considered one of the NFL’s
all-time great multi-purpose players. When he is traded to
the Washington franchise in 1962, he becomes the first
African American to play for the team. He will become an
inductee to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983. He will
be a prominent part of the Washington Redskins
organization for over 41 years until he retires after the
2002-2003 season.

1936 – Levi Stubbless is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will become
a rhythm and blues singer better known as Levi Stubbs. He
will be a member of the group, “The Aims.” The group
will start as a backup group for Levi’s cousin, Jackie
Wilson. The group will change their name to “The Four
Tops” in 1956, to avoid confusion with a band. Berry Gordy
will sign the group in 1963 and launch their first hit,
“Baby, I Need Your Loving.” The group will stay together
over forty years, longer than any other popular group,
with the original personnel intact. He will join the
ancestors on October 17, 2008.

1939 – Marion Wright (later Edelman) is born in Bennettsville,
South Carolina. In addition to becoming the first African
American woman admitted to the bar in Mississippi, she
will direct the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund
in New York and Mississippi and will found the Children’s
Defense Fund in 1973.

1939 – Gary Levone Anderson is born in Jacksonville, Florida. He
will be raised in Norfolk, Virginia where he will become
a singer as a teenager, with a group called The Turks. He
will solo as Gary “U.S.” Bonds in 1960 recording the hit
“New Orleans.” His name will be inspired by a poster in a
Norfolk shop urging Americans to “Carry U. S. Bonds.” In
1961 when Bonds records his version of a local group’s
song, “A Night with Daddy G.,” it will be re-titled
“Quarter to Three” and will be a huge hit. He will record
three additional hits in the next year. After a twenty
year decline in his career, he will make a comeback after
his fan, Bruce Springsteen, begins to use “Quarter to
Three” as his encore.

1944 – The 320th Negro Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion
assists in the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France.

1944 – Tommie Smith is born in Clarksville, Texas. He will become
a track star (sprinter), and Olympic athlete/runner. He
will win the Olympic Gold medal in the 200 meters in the
1968 Olympics. It will be, on the winners platform, that he
and John Carlos will raise clinched fists as the national
anthem is played. He will be inducted into the National
Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1978.

1947 – Harrison Branch is born in New York City. A student at the
San Francisco Art Institute and Yale University School of
Art, he will become a professor of art and photographer
whose works will be exhibited and collected in the U.S.
and in Europe and will appear in the landmark photography
book, “An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography of Black
Photographers,” 1940-1988, edited by Deborah Wills Ryan.

1966 – James Meredith is wounded by a white sniper, as he walked
along U.S. Highway 51 near Hernando, Mississippi, on the
second day of the Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi,
voter registration march. Meanwhile, Stokely Carmichael,
using his newly adopted name of Kwame’ Toure, launches the
Black Power movement. Toure will say that the use of the
term is not anti-white, but a phrase to denote a political
strategy.

1973 – Barry White is awarded a gold record for “I’m Gonna Love
You Just a Little More Baby”. It is his first hit and his
first of five, number one, million sellers. White will
begin recording in 1960. He will form the group, Love
Unlimited, in 1969 and marry one of the group’s singers,
Glodean James. He will also form the 40-piece Love
Unlimited Orchestra which will have the number one hit,
“Love’s Theme.” He will join the ancestors on July 4,
2003 from complications of high blood pressure and kidney
disease.

1977 – Joseph Lawson Howze is installed as bishop of the Roman
Catholic diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi. He becomes the
first African American to head a U.S. diocese in the
Catholic Church in the twentieth century.

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

* Today in Black History – June 5 *

1783 – Oliver Cromwell, an African American soldier who served in
the Revolutionary War, receives an honorable discharge
signed by George Washington. Cromwell, who will claim to
have been with Washington when he crossed the Delaware and
in the battles of Yorktown, Princeton, and Monmouth, is
cited by Washington as having earned “the Badge of Merit
for six years’ faithful service.”

1872 – The Republican National Convention meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. The meeting marks the first significant
participation of African American delegates: Robert B.
Elliot (chair of the South Carolina delegation); Joseph
Rainey, and John R. Lynch of Mississippi, who each make
addresses to the convention.

1920 – Marion Motley is born in Leesburg, Georgia. He will become
a NFL running back and all-time AAFC rusher for the
Cleveland Browns, ending his career with the Pittsburgh
Steelers. He will enter the NFL in 1946, making him one
of only four African Americans to desegregate the NFL in
the modern era. One of the largest running backs of his
era, Motley will rush for 4,720 yards in his career and
average an astounding 5.7 yards per carry, the highest in
pro football history. He will also be selected to the first
Pro Bowl in 1951. He will be enshrined in the NFL Hall of
Fame in 1968. He will join the ancestors in Cleveland, Ohio
on June 27, 1999.

1940 – The American Negro Theatre is organized in Harlem by
Frederick O’Neal, Abram Hill, and members of the McClendon
Players. Among the plays it will produce is “Anna Lucasta”,
which will be presented on Broadway in 1944 and feature
Canada Lee, Ossie Davis, and Ruby Dee.

1952 – Jersey Joe Walcott defeats Ezzard Charles for the
heavyweight boxing title.

1956 – A three-judge federal court rules that racial segregation on
Montgomery city buses is unconstitutional, ending the
Montgomery bus boycott.

1959 – U.S. Supreme Court undermines the legal foundations of
segregation in three landmark cases, Sweatt v. Painter,
McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents and Henderson v. United
States.

1969 – A race riot occurs in Hartford, Connecticut.

1973 – Doris A. Davis of Compton, California, becomes the first
African American female to govern a metropolitan city.

1973 – Cardiss R. Collins of Chicago, Illinois is elected to
Congress. She will succeed her late husband and spend over
twenty years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

1983 – Yannick Noah becomes the first Frenchman to win the French
Open since World War II.

1988 – Clarence M. Pendleton, Jr. joins the ancestors at the age of
58. He was the first African American chairman of the
United States Civil Rights Commission (1981-88). Following
President Ronald Reagan’s desires, he led the commission
toward a “color-blind” approach to matters of civil rights.

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

* Today in Black History – June 4 *

1832 – The Third National Black convention meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania with twenty-nine delegates from eight states.
Henry Sipkins of New York is elected president.

1922 – Samuel Gravely is born in Richmond, Virginia. He will
become the first African American Admiral in the U.S. Navy,
He also will become the first African American to command a
U.S. warship, the USS Falgout, and will also command the
USS Taussig. He will join the ancestors on October 22, 2004,
at Bethesda Naval Hospital after a short illness.

1946 – Legislation authorizing the establishment of Mississippi
Valley State University in Itta Bena, Mississippi is
enacted.

1961 – Eldra Patrick ‘El’ Debarge is born in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
He will become a singer with the family group Debarge. He
will become a solo artist in the mid 1980’s.

1972 – Angela Davis is acquitted by 11 whites and one Mexican
American of murder, kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy
charges brought in connection with a 1970 courthouse shoot-
out in San Rafael, California.

1973 – Arna Bontemps, writer and educator, joins the ancestors in
Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 72.

1987 – Edwin Moses, who had won a total of 122 consecutive victories
in the 400-meter hurdles, is defeated by Danny Harris in
Madrid, Spain. It had been ten years since the last time
Moses lost the event.

1989 – Five African Americans win Tony awards for “Black and Blue,”
a musical revue featuring classic blues and tap-dance
routines. Winners are Ruth Brown (best actress in a musical),
Cholly Atkins, Henry LeTang, Frankie Manning, and Fayard
Nicholas (best choreography).

1991 – Baltimore Orioles manager Frank Robinson is named assistant
general manager of the club. He is the third African American
to become an assistant general manager, joining Elaine
Weddington of the Boston Red Sox and Bob Watson of the
Houston Astros.

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

* Today in Black History – June 3 *

1833 – The fourth national Black convention meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania with sixty-two delegates from eight states.
Abraham D. Shadd of Pennsylvania is elected president.

1854 – Two thousand United States troops escort celebrated fugitive
slave, Anthony Burns through the streets of Boston.

1871 – Miles Vandehurst Lynk is born near Brownsville, Tennessee. A
physician at 19, he founds the first African American medical
journal, the “Medical and Surgical Observer,” and will be one
of the organizers of what will later become the National
Medical Association. He will join the ancestors on
December 29, 1956.

1887 – Roland Hayes is born in Curryville, Tennessee. A noted
concert artist, Hayes will be the first African American to
give a concert in Boston’s Symphony Hall. His career will
take him throughout the U.S. and to London for a command
performance before King George V. He will be awarded the
Spingarn Medal in 1924 for his musical accomplishments. He
will join the ancestors 0n January 1, 1977.

1904 – Charles R. Drew, creator of the plasma method of blood
preservation, is born in Washington, DC. He will receive
the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for his contributions in 1944
and, in 1981, be posthumously honored by the U.S. Postal
Service with a commemorative stamp. He will join the
ancestors on April 1, 1950.

1906 – Freda McDonald is born in St. Louis, Missouri. She will
become a singer and entertainer known as Josephine Baker.
A chorus girl in the 1923 musical “Shuffle Along,” she will
travel to Paris, introduce “le jazz hot” in the show “La
Revue Negre,” and will cause a sensation with the Folies
Bergeres when she performs topless on a mirror, wearing a
rubber banana skirt. A World War II Red Cross volunteer,
Baker will perform for the Allied troops and in the 1950’s
she will tour the U.S., fighting for desegregated theaters
and restaurants. She will join the ancestors on April 12,
1975.

1919 – Liberty Life Insurance Company in Chicago, Illinois, the
first old-line legal reserve company organized by African
Americans in the North, is incorporated.

1930 – Dakota Staton is born in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. She will attend George Westinghouse High School
and study music at the Filion School of Music in Pittsburgh.
She will later perform regularly in the Hill District, a jazz
hotspot, as a vocalist with the Joe Westray Orchestra, a popular
Pittsburgh orchestra. She will spend the next several years in
the nightclub circuit in Detroit, Indianapolis, Cleveland and
St. Louis. While in New York, she will be noticed singing at a
Harlem nightclub called the ‘Baby Grand’, by Dave Cavanaugh, a
producer for Capitol Records. She will be signed and will
release several singles. Her success will lead her to win Down
Beat magazine’s “Most Promising New Comer” award in 1955. In
1958, She will wed Talib Ahmad Dawud, a Black Antiguan Ahmadi
Muslim trumpeter and noted critic of Elijah Muhammad. Shw will
be known by the Muslim name Aliyah Rabia for a time, due to her
conversion to Islam as interpreted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim
Community. She will release several critically acclaimed albums
in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including: ‘The Late, Late
Show’ (1957), whose title track will be her biggest hit, ‘In the
Night’ (1957), a collaboration with pianist George Shearing,
‘Dynamic!’ (1958) and ‘Dakota at Storyville’ (1961), a live
album recorded at the Storyville jazz club in Boston. She will
move to England in the mid-1960s. She will continue to record
semi-regularly, her recordings taking an increasingly strong
gospel and blues influence. She will join the ancestors on April
10, 2007 in New York City at the age of 76.

1942 – Curtis Mayfield is born in Chattanooga, Tennessee and will
be raised in Chicago, Illinois. He will become a singer,
songwriter, and producer. He will be a member of the group
The Impressions. He will write many hits for the group,
Jerry Butler and himself. He will start a successful solo
career in 1970. He will become paralyzed from the chest
down in 1990 when a stage lighting tower falls on him.
After recuperating, he will still continue to perform. He
will join the ancestors on Sunday, December 26, 1999.

1946 – In its “Morgan vs. Commonwealth of Virginia” ruling, the U.S.
Supreme Court bars segregation in interstate bus travel.

1949 – Wesley Anthony Brown becomes the first African American to
graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy.

1951 – Deniece Chandler is born in Gary, Indiana. She will become a
singer and will be known as Deniece Williams. She will get
her first break as a member of Stevie Wonder’s backup group
Wonderlove during 1972-75. She will grow into a successful
solo career in both secular and gospel music.

1997 – Harvey Johnson, who defeats the incumbent mayor in the
Democratic Primary, is elected Jackson, Mississippi’s first
African American mayor, defeating the Republican candidate
by more than two-to-one. Johnson, an urban planner and
former state tax commissioner, was making his second run to
head the city of about 200,000. He upset incumbent Kane
Ditto to earn the right to face GOP businesswoman Charlotte
Reeves in the general election.

1997 – Rene’ A. Perry a.k.a. Bro. Mosi Hoj issues the email that will
establish the beginning of the “Today in Black History” series
that will eventually be known as “The Munirah Chronicle.”

2009 – Cora Walton “KoKo” Taylor joins the ancestors at the age of 80,
after succumbing to complications from surgery for
gastrointestinal bleeding. She had been known as the “Queen
of the Blues,” over the course of her almost 50-year career.

2013 – David D. ‘Deacon’ Jones joins the ancestors at the age of 74.
He specialized in quarterback sacks, a term attributed to him.
Nicknamed the “Secretary of Defense”, He is considered one of
the greatest defensive players ever. The Los Angeles Times
called him “Most Valuable Ram of All Time,” and former Rams
head coach George Allen called him the “Greatest Defensive
End of Modern Football.”

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

* Today in Black History – June 2 *

1863 – Harriet Tubman leads a group of Union troops into
Confederate territory.

1875 – James A. Healy is consecrated in a cathedral in Portland,
Maine, becoming the first African American Roman Catholic
bishop (Diocese of Maine).

1899 – African Americans observe a day of fasting called by the
National Afro-American Council to protest lynchings and
racial massacres.

1907 – Dorothy West is born in Boston, Massachusettts. She will
become a writer at age of seven when the Boston Globe
publishes her short story, “Promise and Fulfillment.” She
will become a leading writer during the Harlem Renaissance
and will also become a performer, working as a cast member
of the play, “Porgy.” She will found two literary journals,
“Challenge,” and “New Challenge.” She will move to Martha’s
Vineyard in 1945 and will live there for the remainder of
her life, while producing the works “Living Is Easy,” “The
Wedding,” and more than sixty short stories. She will join
the ancestors in Boston, Massachusetts on August 16, 1998.

1911 – Claudio Brindis de Salas joins the ancestors in Buenos
Aires, Argentina at the age of 58. He was an Afro-Cuban
violinist and composer renown worldwide as a virtuoso. He
had been referred to as “The Black Paganini” and “The King
of the the Octaves.”

1943 – The 99th Pursuit Squadron (Tuskegee Airmen), the first
African American Army Air Corps unit, flies its first
combat mission in the Mediterranean, strafing enemy
positions on the Italian island of Pantelleria.

1951 – Kenneth I. Chenault is born in Mineola (Long Island), New
York. He will become an attorney and join American Express
in 1981, where he will become president of the company’s
Consumer Card and Financial Services Group in 1989 and one
of the highest-ranking African Americans in corporate
America.

1951 – Sergeant Cornelius H. Charlton, a member of Company C, 24th
Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, is mortally
wounded during the Korean War while his platoon was
attacking heavily defended hostile positions on commanding
ground. After his platoon leader was wounded and evacuated,
Sgt. Charlton assumed command, rallied the men, and
spearheaded the assault against the hill. Personally
eliminating 2 hostile positions and killing 6 of the enemy
with his rifle fire and grenades, he continued up the slope
until the unit suffered heavy casualties and became pinned
down. Regrouping the men he led them forward only to be
again hurled back by a shower of grenades. Despite a severe
chest wound, Sgt. Charlton refused medical attention and
led a third daring charge which carried to the crest of the
ridge. Observing that the remaining emplacement which had
retarded the advance was situated on the reverse slope, he
charged it alone, was again hit by a grenade but raked the
position with a devastating fire which eliminated it and
routed the defenders. He will be posthumously awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery on March 19, 1952.

1953 – Cornel West is born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He will grow up in
Sacramento, California and be influenced by the Black
Panther Party and the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr.
and Malcolm X. He will graduate from Harvard University
magna cum laude in 1973, and will receive his M.A. and
Ph.D. from Princeton University. After teaching at Yale
Divinity School, Union Theological Seminary and Princeton,
he will join the faculty of Harvard University in 1994.
Considered a leading African American intellectual, he will
be the author of thirteen books, including the two-volume
“Beyond Eurocentrism and Multiculturalism” (Common Courage
Press, 1993), “Breaking Bread” (South End Press, 1991),
“Race Matters” (Beacon Press, 1993), “Keeping Faith”
(Routledge, 1993), “Jews and Blacks Let the Healing Begin”
(Putnam Books, 1995), co-authored with Michael Lerner, and
“Restoring Hope: Conversations on the Future of Black
America” (Beacon Press, October 1997). Besides his numerous
publications, he will be a well-respected and highly
popular lecturer. His speaking style, formed by his roots
in the Baptist Church, will provide a blend of drama,
knowledge, and inspiration.

1967 – The first of three days of race riots occurs in the Roxbury
section of Boston, Massachusetts. Dozens are injured and
more are arrested after welfare mothers barricade themselves
in protest against welfare policies.

1985 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar becomes the all-time leading point scorer
in the National Basketball Association playoffs. He rings
up a total of 4,458 points, smashing the previous record
held by Jerry West, also of the Los Angeles Lakers.

1993 – South Africa’s Supreme Court upholds Winnie Mandela’s
conviction for kidnapping four young blacks, but said she
would not have to serve her five-year prison term.

1999 – South Africans go to the polls in their second post-apartheid
election, giving the African National Congress a decisive
victory. Retiring President Nelson Mandela is succeeded by
Thabo Mbeki.

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

* Today in Black History – June 1 *

1835 – The Fifth National Negro Convention recommends that Blacks
remove the word “African” from the titles of their
organizations and discontinue referring to themselves as
“colored.”

1843 – Sojourner Truth leaves New York and begins her career as an
anti-slavery activist.

1868 – The Texas constitutional convention convenes in Austin with
eighty-one whites and nine African Americans in attendance.

1868 – The Florida General Assembly meets in Tallahassee with
fifty-seven whites and nineteen African Americans in
attendance.

1868 – Solomon George Washington Dill, white ally of African
American Republicans, is assassinated in his home by white
terrorists. Dill had allegedly made “incendiary speeches”
to South Carolina African Americans.

1921 – A major race riot occurs in the Greenwood section of Tulsa,
Oklahoma. Twenty-one whites and sixty African Americans
will be killed according to some sources. The destruction
caused in the area referred to as “Black Wall Street,”
prompts the first American Red Cross response to a man-
made disaster. The Red Cross will report that 1115 houses
and businesses belonging to African Americans were burned
down, and another 314 were looted. Their statistics will
also show that 300 persons were killed, a much higher
figure than chronicled by other historical sources. For
more information about the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, go to
http://www.informationman.com/blkwallst.htm

1921 – Paul Raymond Jones is born in Bessemer, Alabama. He will
become a major collector of African American art. During the
early 1960’s, he will decide to purchase his first three
paintings forming the beginning of his collection. They were
by artists, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, and Chagall. After
collecting for a couple of years, he will realize that African
American art was “abundant and affordable” yet hardly ever
represented in the collections of museums. As the years pass,
his collection of African American art and his reputation will
grow. His collection will be featured at several different
museums over the course of his lifetime. Currently, the Paul R.
Jones Collection resides at the University of Delaware where it
is a tool to educate and foster enjoyment. The University of
Alabama will also establish an art collection in his name after
receiving some 1,700 pieces valued at $5 million in 2008. He
will join the ancestors on January 26, 2010.

1935 – Frederick Eikerenkoetter is born in Ridgeland, South
Carolina. He will receive a B.A. in Theology from the
American Bible College in Chicago, Illinois in 1955 and
become a minister better known as “Reverend Ike.” He will
be the first African American minister with a television
show and will report a following of close to 7,000,000 by
1982. His ministry will reach its peak in the mid 1970s, when
his weekly radio sermons will be carried by hundreds of stations
across the United States. He will be famous for his Blessing
Plan–radio listeners will send him money and in return he
will bless them. He will say doing this would make radio
listeners who did it more prosperous. In the 1990s, he will be
active on the Internet and in a syndicated television programs.
He will join the ancestors on July 28, 2009.

1937 – Morgan Freeman is born in Memphis, Tennessee. Making his
acting debut in an all African American cast of “Hello
Dolly” in 1968, Freeman will also have a major role in the
television program “The Electric Company” before breaking
into movies. He will receive an Academy Award nomination
for his role in “Street Smart,” and star in “Clean and
Sober” and Lean on Me.” He will be nominated again for a
supporting role in “Glory” and for his starring role in
“Driving Miss Daisy.” He will make his directing debut in
1993 with the film, “Bopha,” a drama set in South Africa
under the policy of apartheid.

1941 – The first African American tank battalion, the 758th, is
activated.

1942 – The Marine Corps begins enlistment of African Americans at
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

1948 – Johnny Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson joins the ancestors in
Chicago, Illinois at the age of 34 after being murdered on
the front steps of his home. He was a master of the blues
harmonica and transformed the instrument from a novelty
into a major component of Chicago-style blues. He will be
inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 1980.

1966 – Approximately 2,400 persons attend a White House Conference
on Civil Rights.

1973 – WGPR-TV (Channel 62) in Detroit, Michigan, is granted a
permit to operate. It is the first television station
owned by African Americans.

1997 – Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, is fatally burned in a
fire set by her 12-year-old grandson in her Yonkers, New
York, apartment.

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

* Today in Black History – May 31 *

1870 – The first civil rights Enforcement Act, which protects the
voting and civil rights of African Americans, is passed by
Congress. It provides stiff penalties for public officials
and private citizens who deprive citizens of the suffrage
and civil rights. The measure authorizes the use of the
U.S. Army to protect these rights.

1909 – The first NAACP conference is held at the United Charities
Building in New York City with 300 African Americans and
whites in attendance. Ida B. Wells-Barnett, while speaking
at the conference, condemns lynching as a “blight upon our
nation, mocking our laws and disgracing our Christianity.”

1917 – One of the first jazz records, “The Darktown Strutter’s
Ball,” is released. It was written by songwriter and
musician, Shelton Brooks. It will become Brooks’ most
famous song.

1931 – Shirley Verrett is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. She will
become an operatic mezzo-soprano known worldwide for her
compelling performance in Carmen. She will be a star at the
world’s great opera houses, including the Metropolitan
Opera, La Scala, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the
Bolshoi Opera, the Paris Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the
Vienna Staatsoper, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She will
appear at the Metropolitan opera for more than two decades.
She will be the recipient of many honors and awards, among
them the Marian Anderson Award, Naumburg Award, and the
Sullivan Award; and fellowships from numerous foundations
including Ford, John Hay Whitney, and Martha Baird
Rockefeller. She will receive honorary doctorates from Holy
Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Northeastern
University in Boston. She will join the faculty at the
University of Michigan in 1996, becoming the James Earl
Jones Distinguished University Professor of Music. She will
join the ancestors on November 5, 2010.

1955 – The U.S. Supreme Court passes a second desegregation ruling,
demanding “all deliberate speed” be used in the
desegregation of public schools.

1961 – Judge Irving Kaufman orders the Board of Education of New
Rochelle, New York to integrate their schools.

1961 – Chuck Berry’s amusement park, Berryland, opens near Saint
Louis, Missouri.

1979 – Zimbabwe proclaims its independence.

1987 – John Dotson is named publisher of the Boulder, Colorado,
“Daily Camera.” It is one of many distinctions for the
noted journalist, including being the first African
American reporter for Newsweek magazine and founding, in
the mid-1970’s, the Institute for Journalism Education,
dedicated to training minority journalists.

1989 – Cito Gaston is named manager of the Toronto Blue Jays of
baseball’s American League.

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