Day: August 30, 2015

* Today in Black History – July 4 *

1776 – The Declaration of Independence is adopted. A section
written by Thomas Jefferson denouncing slavery is deleted.

1779 – Colonel Arent Schuyler De Puyster notes the presence of
“Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, a handsome Negro, well-
educated and settled at Eschikagou.” It is the first
recorded mention of “DuSable, who settled the area that
will become known as Chicago.

1827 – New York State abolishes slavery.

1845 – Edmonia “Wildfire” Lewis is born in Greenwich, New York. After
living with Chippewa relatives, she will enroll in Oberlin
College’s preparatory and college program. Changing her
name to Mary Edmonia Lewis, she will travel to Boston and
abroad where she will become one of the most outstanding
sculptors of her day. Among her most famous works will be
“Forever Free,” “Hagar in Her Despair in the Wilderness”
and “Death of Cleopatra.” She will join the ancestors on
September 17, 1907 in London, England.

1875 – White Democrats kill several African Americans in terrorist
attacks in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1881 – Tuskegee Institute opens in Tuskegee, Alabama, with Booker
T. Washington as its first president.

1892 – Arthur George Gaston is born in a log cabin, built by his
grandparents, former slaves, in Marengo County, Alabama,
near Demopolis. He will drop out of school after the
tenth grade and will become one of the most successful
proponents of Booker T. Washington’s brand of capitalism.
A Washington disciple as a child, he will become a self-made
millionaire and one of the richest African American men in
America in the 1950s. His many businesses thrived on the
social separateness legislated by the Jim Crow laws in
segregated Alabama. He will make it his personal mission to
urge African Americans to seek “green power,” a term he
remembered Washington using. His quiet role in the civil
rights movement will also be noted, saying once that
African Americans needed a Martin Luther King, Jr. of
economics to fire them up the way King had about integration.
He will make the following statement that sums up his
position on economic empowerment for people of color — “It
doesn’t do any good to arrive at first-class citizenship, if
you arrive broke.” He will live to the age of 103, when he
joins the ancestors on January 19, 1996.

1910 – Jack Johnson KOs James Jeffries in 15 rounds, ending
Jeffries’ come-back try.

1938 – William Harrison “Bill” Withers, Jr. is born the youngest
of nine children in the coal mining town of in Slab Fork,
West Virginia. He will become a Rhythm and Blues singer
and songwriter who will perform and record from the late
1960s until the mid 1980s. Some of his best-known songs
will include “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Use Me,” “Lean on Me”,
“Grandma’s Hands”, and “Just the Two of Us”.

1959 – The Cayman Islands, separated from Jamaica, becomes a
British Crown Colony.

1963 – Marian Anderson and Ralph Bunche receive the first Medals
of Freedom from President John F. Kennedy, the creator of
the award.

1970 – 100 persons are injured in racially motivated disturbances
in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

1990 – “2 Live Crew” release “Banned in the USA”; the lyrics quote
“The Star Spangled Banner” & “The Gettysburg Address.”

1991 – The National Civil Rights Museum officially opens at the
Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, the site of the
assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King,
Jr.

1994 – Rwandan Tutsi rebels seize control of most of their
country’s capital, Kigali, and continue advancing on areas
held by the Hutu-led government.

2003 – Barry White, Rhythm & Blues balladeer, joins the ancestors
at the age of 58 after succumbing to complications of high
blood pressure, kidney disease and a mild stroke. His
hits included “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love,” “Babe” and
“I’ve Got So Much to Give.”

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

* Today in Black History – July 3 *

1848 – Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now the U.S.
Virgin Islands).

1871 – Joseph Henry Douglass, grandson of Frederick Douglass, is
born in Washington, DC. A student of the New England
Conservatory of Music in Boston, Douglass will become a
noted violinist. He will receive his first big break as a
concert violinist at the age of 22 when he performs
at the World’s Columbian Exposition, also known as the
Chicago World’s Fair. On August 25, 1893 performers will
join together to celebrate Colored American Day (which
Frederick Douglass helped plan). Included in the
celebrations will be readings of Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s
poetry and performances by Sidney Woodward and Deseria
Plato. He will also perform at Colored American Day,
garnering him a large audience for his talents. He will
join the ancestors in 1935.

1915 – U.S. military forces occupy Haiti, and remain until 1934.

1917 – Three days of racial riots end in East St. Louis, Illinois.
At least 40 and as many as 200 African Americans are
killed and hundreds more are wounded.

1928 – Charles Waddell Chestnutt, author of “The Conjure Woman”
and other works, is awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal
for his “work as a literary artist depicting the life and
struggle of Americans of Negro descent.”

1940 – Fontella Bass is born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother is
Martha Bass (of the Clara Ward Singers) who exposed her to
music at an early age. She was singing in her church’s
choir at six years old, but as a teenager, she will be
attracted by more secular music. Throughout high school she
will be singing R&B songs at local contests and fairs. She
will eventually move to Chicago and sign with Chess Records.
She will record the song, “Rescue Me,” which will shoot up
the charts in the fall and winter of 1965. After a month at
the top of the Rhythm & Blues charts, the song will reach
#4 at the pop charts. Her only album with Chess Records,
“The New Look,” will sell reasonably well, but she will
decide to leave the label after only two years, in 1967. In
1970 she will record two albums with the Art Ensemble of
Chicago, “The Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass”
and “Les Stances A Sophie.” The latter is the soundtrack
from the French movie of the same title. Her vocals, backed
by the powerful, pulsating push of the band has allowed the
“Theme De YoYo” to remain an underground cult classic ever
since. The next few years will find her at a number of
different labels, but with no notable successes. After her
second album, “Free,” flopped in 1972, she will retire from
music. She will return occasionally, being featured as a
background vocalist on several recordings, including those
of her husband, Lester Bowie, a jazz trumpeter and member
of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. In the 1990s she will host
a short-lived Chicago radio talk show, and will release
several gospel records on independent labels. She will be
inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame in the Loop in
May 2000. She will join the ancestors on December 26, 2012.

1947 – The Cleveland Indians purchase the contract of Larry Doby,
the first African American to play in the American League.

1962 – Jackie Robinson, who broke the color line in professional
baseball, is the first African American inducted into the
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, in Cooperstown,
New York.

1966 – NAACP officially disassociates itself from the “Black Power”
doctrine.

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

* Today in Black History – July 2 *

1777 – Vermont, not one of the original 13 states, becomes the
first U.S. territory to abolish slavery.

1822 – Denmark Vesey, slave freedom fighter, and 5 aides are
hanged in Blake’s Landing, Charleston, South Carolina.

1908 – Thurgood Marshall is born in Baltimore, Maryland. He
will have the most distinguished legal career of any
African American as the NAACP’s national counsel,
director-counsel of the organization’s Legal Defense
and Educational Fund, and leader of some of the most
important legal challenges for African Americans’
constitutional rights, including “Brown v. Board of
Education” in 1954. In addition to sitting as a circuit
judge for the Second Circuit, Marshall will be named
U.S. Solicitor General in 1965 and associate justice of
the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967, where he will serve for
24 years. He will join the ancestors on January 24, 1993.

1925 – Patrice Lumumba, revolutionary and first prime minister
of the Republic of the Congo, is born in Stanleyville,
Belgian Congo.

1927 – George Fisher is born in New York City of African and West
Indian parentage. He will become an actor and will be
known as Brock Peters. He will set his sights on a show
business career as early as age ten. A product of New
York City’s famed Music and Arts High School, he
initially fielded more odd jobs than acting jobs as he
worked his way up from Harlem poverty. Landing a stage
role in Porgy and Bess in 1949, he will quit physical
education studies at City College of New York and go on
tour with the acclaimed musical. His film debut will come
in Carmen Jones in 1954, but he really began to make a
name for himself in such films as “To Kill a Mockingbird”
and “The L-Shaped Room.” He will receive a Tony nomination
for his starring stint in Broadway’s “Lost in the Stars.”
He will work with Charlton Heston on several theater
productions in the 1940s and 1950s. The two will befriend
each other and subsequently work together on several
films, including “Major Dundee,” “Soylent Green,” and “Two
Minute Warning.” He will join the ancestors on August 23,
2005, after succumbing to pancreatic cancer at the age of
78.

1930 – Frederick Russell Jones is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
A child prodigy who will begin to play the piano at the age
of 3, he will begin formal studies at age 7. While in high
school, he will complete the equivalent of college master
classes under the noted African American concert singer and
teacher Mary Caldwell Dawson and pianist James Miller. He
will join the musicians union at the age of 14, and begin
touring upon graduation from Westinghouse High School at
the age of 17, drawing critical acclaim for his solos. In
1950, he will form his first trio, The Three Strings.
Performing at New York’s The Embers club, Record Producer
John Hammond “discovers” The Three Strings and signed them
to Okeh Records (a division of Columbia, now Sony, Records).
He will change his name to Ahmad Jamal in 1952 when he
converts to Islam. He will be one of Miles Davis’s favorite
pianists and a key influence on the trumpeter’s 1st classic
quintet (featuring John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red
Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe
Jones on drums). Davis had long admired his use of
space and dynamics. He will score a major popular “hit” in
his version of Poinciana, recorded while live on tour from
The Pershing nightclub in Chicago. His style will change
steadily over time – from the lighter, breezy style heard
on his 50s sides to the funk + Caribbean stylings of the
70s and onto the large open voicings and bravura-laden
playing of the nineties. He will always be distinctive
however for his use of space, his dramatic crescendos, and
for a very staccato orientation with chords. In addition
to being an excellent pianist, he is also very adept
with both the Rhodes electric piano and the Wurlitzer 200
electric piano.

1932 – Samuel Black is born in Paterson, New Jersey. He will become
a singer known as Sammy Turner. He will briefly achieve
fame in the late 50s as a rock ‘n’ roll balladeer, whose
specialty was recycled pop songs of the past, particularly
those by Guy Lombardo. His most notable record was a remake
of a Sammy Kaye hit from 1949, “Lavender Blue” (number 14
R&B/number 3 pop), in 1959. Three follow-ups were similarly
remakes of old pop hits: “Always” (number 2 R&B/number 20
pop), a frequently recorded pop song; “Symphony” (number 82
pop) and “Paradise” (number 13 R&B/number 46 pop). Turner’s
only success in the United Kingdom was with “Always”, which
went to number 26. Although essentially a pop performer,
because of his African American heritage he will also
garner considerable success on the R&B charts. However, he
will be unable to make the transition into the soul era,
and will rapidly fade as a recording artist after 1960.

1943 – Lt. Charles B. Hall of Indiana, flies the first combat
mission of the 99th Fighter Squadron (Tuskegee Airmen)
which was attached to the 33rd Fighter Group flying out of
Fardjouna (Cap Bon, Tunisia). He is flying as wingman on
this first mission to Pantelleria.

1946 – Anthony Overton, lawyer, judge, publisher, cosmetics
manufacturer and banker, joins the ancestors in Chicago,
Illinois at the age of 81.

1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Bill,
which includes public accommodation and fair employment
sections. The Civil Rights Act prohibits segregation in
employment, education, and public accommodation on the
basis of race, sex, age, national origin or religion.

1986 – The U.S. Supreme Court upholds affirmative action in two
rulings.

1990 – “Devil in a Blue Dress”, a mystery novel by Walter Moseley
set in South-Central Los Angeles, is published. Its
realism and strong African American characters will earn
its author enthusiastic praise and a nomination for best
novel by the Mystery Writers of America.

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