The National Council of Teachers of English is celebrating its 25th Annual African American Read-In. Information about this event can be found by clicking here.
Churches, community organizations, schools, libraries and bookstores can participate in this event. The event can be simple or elaborate, with the focus on literacy, using any works written by African Americans. The event must be held during the month of February. After the event, a brief report must be submitted to NCTE.
The Brown Bookshelf, a group of African American children’s and young adult authors and illustrators, hosts it annual 28 Days Later. 28 Days Later showcases some of the best African American children’s and young adult authors and illustrators.
Day 1 features Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of human rights activists, the late Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz. She is the author of Growing Up X and a children’s book, Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X. Read more about Ms. Shabazz by clicking here.
Today in Black History – February 1*
1810 – Charles Lenox Remond is born in Salem, Massachusetts to free
parents. He will become one of the most prominent of the
African American abolitionist crusaders. Charles Remond will
begin his activism in opposition to slavery while in his
twenties as an orator speaking at public gatherings and
conferences in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New York
and Pennsylvania. In 1838 the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery
Society, will choose him as one of its agents. As a delegate
from the American Anti-Slavery Society, he will go with William
Lloyd Garrison to the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London
in 1840. He will have a reputation as an eloquent lecturer and
reported to be the first Black public speaker on abolition.
He will recruit Black soldiers in Massachusetts for the Union
Army during the Civil War, particularly for the famed 54th and
55th Massachusetts Infantry. He will also be active in recruiting
for the U.S. Colored Troops. After the Civil War ends, he will
work as a clerk in the Boston Customs House, and as a street lamp
inspector. He will later purchase a farm in South Reading (now
Wakefield), Massachusetts. He will join the ancestors on December
22, 1873.
1810 – The first insurance company managed by African Americans, the
American Insurance Company of Philadelphia, is established.
1833 – Henry McNeal Turner is born in Newberry Courthouse, South Carolina.
He will become one of the first Bishops in the African American
Episcopal Church. He will also be an army chaplain, political
organizer, magazine editor, and college chancellor. He will be
inspired by a Methodist revival and swear to become a pastor. In
1858, he will transfer his membership to the African Methodist
Church and study the classics, Hebrew and divinity at Trinity
College. In 1880, he will become a bishop in the African Methodist
Episcopal Church. During the American Civil War, he will be
appointed a Chaplain to one of the first Federal regiments of Black
troops (Company B of the First United States Colored Troops). He
will be the first of only 14 Black Chaplains to be appointed during
the Civil War. This appointment will come directly from President
Abraham Lincoln in 1863. He will also be appointed by President
Andrew Johnson to work with the Freedman’s Bureau in Georgia during
Reconstruction. Following the Civil War, he will become steadily
more disenchanted with the lack of progress in the status of the
country’s African Americans. During this time, he will move to the
state of Georgia. It is here that he will become involved in Radical
Republican politics. He will help found the Republican Party of
Georgia. After attempts to overcome certain Supreme Court decisions,
he will become disgusted and end his attempts to bring equality to
the United States. Instead, he will become a proponent of the “back
to Africa” and “African American colonization” movements. He will
travel to Africa and be impressed by the differences in the attitude
of Africans who have never known the degradation of slavery. He will
organize four annual conferences in Africa. He will write extensively
about the Civil war and about the condition of his parishioners. He
will join the ancestors while visiting Windsor, Ontario on May 15, 1915.
He will be highly regarded in the Afro-American and the Afro-Canadian
community and a large number of churches will be named in his honor.
1865 – John S. Rock becomes the first African American attorney
allowed to practice before the United States Supreme Court.
Due to his poor health, he never actually argued a case
before the court, succumbing to tuberculosis at the age of
41.
1870 – Jonathan Jasper Wright is elected to the South Carolina
Supreme Court. He is the first African American to hold a
major judicial position.
1871 – Jefferson Franklin Long, Republican congressman from Georgia,
makes the first speech by an African American on the floor
of Congress. His text is to oppose leniency to former
Confederates.
1902 – Langston Hughes is born in Joplin, Missouri. He will be
known as one of the most prolific American poets of the
20th century and a leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance.
In addition to his poetry, Hughes will achieve success as
an anthologist and juvenile author, write plays and
librettos, found theater groups, and be a widely read
columnist and humorist. Among his honors will be the NAACP’s
Spingarn Medal in 1960. He will join the ancestors on May 22, 1967.
1938 – Sherman Hemsley is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He
will become an actor and will known for his roles in the TV
shows “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons,” and “Amen.”
1948 – James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. is born in Buffalo, New York. He
will become a singer, songwriter, producer, and musician
working under the name “Rick James.” He will be best known
for his recording of “Super Freak” and produce Teena Marie,
the gold-certified Mary Jane Girls, Eddie Murphy, and others.
He will join the ancestors on August 6, 2004.
1957 – P.H. Young becomes the first African American pilot, flying on
an United States scheduled passenger airline.
1960 – Four African American college students from North Carolina A&T
College in Greensboro, North Carolina sit at a “whites-only”
Woolworth’s lunch counter and refuse to leave when denied
service, beginning a sit-in protest.
1963 – Nyasaland (now Malawi) becomes a self-governing nation.
1965 – More than seven hundred demonstrators, including Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr., are arrested in Selma, Alabama.
1965 – Ruby Dee becomes the first African American thespian to play a
major role at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford,
Connecticut.
1978 – The first stamp of the United States Postal Service’s Black
Heritage USA series honors Harriet Tubman, famed abolitionist
and “conductor” on the Underground Railroad.
1982 – The nations of Senegal & Gambia form a loose confederation
named Senegambia.
1991 – President F.W. de Klerk of South Africa, states that he will
repeal all apartheid laws.
1992 – Barry Bonds signs baseball’s highest single year contract to
date ($4.7 million).
1997 – BET Holdings and Encore Media Corp. launch BET Movie/Starz,
the first 24 hour African American movie channel.
2003 – Lt. Colonel Michael P. Anderson, NASA astronaut, joins the
ancestors at the age of 43, when the Space Shuttle Columbia
explodes during re-entry.
2003 – Ramon “Mongo” Santamaria, joins the ancestors in Miami,
Florida from stroke complications at the age of 85. He had
been considered one of the most influential percussionists of
his generation.
2012 – Don Cornelius, the founder of the “Soul Train” television show,
joins the ancestors, succumbing to an apparent self-inflicted
gunshot wound to his head, at the age of 75.
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.
Today in Black History – January 31 *
1863 – The first African American Civil War regiment, the South
Carolina Volunteers, are mustered into the United States
Army.
1865 – Congress abolishes slavery with the 13th Amendment to the
Constitution. The vote in the House is 121 to 24.
1914 – Arnold Raymond Cream is born in Merchantville, New Jersey.
He will become “Jersey Joe Walcott” and World Heavyweight
Champion at the age of 37. After retiring from boxing, he
will stay active in boxing as a referee and later will
become chairman of the New Jersey Athletic Commission. He
will be elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame
in 1990. He will join the ancestors on February 25, 1994.
1919 – Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson, the first African American
to break racial barriers in modern major league baseball,
is born in Cairo, Georgia. He will start playing baseball
in the Negro Leagues in preparation for a career as a
physical education coach. His major league baseball career
with the Brooklyn Dodgers will begin in 1947 and he will
play for nine years before leaving baseball to become a bank
official, land developer, and director of programs to
fight drug addiction. Among his honors will be the NAACP’s
Spingarn Medal in 1956. He will join the ancestors
on October 24, 1972 in Stamford, Connecticut after succumbing
to complications of diabetes.
1920 – Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity is incorporated at Howard
University.
1925 – Benjamin Hooks is born in Memphis, Tennessee. He will
become a public defender and minister after graduating
from DePaul University Law School. Through this work, he
will become a prominent leader in the civil rights
movement. In 1965, he will become the first African
American criminal court judge in Tennessee. He will also
become the first African American to become a commissioner
on the Federal Communications Commission. In 1977, he will
become the executive director of the NAACP. He will join the
ancestors on April 15, 2010.
1928 – Harold “Chuck” Willis is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He will
become a rhythm and blues singer and be best known for his
recording of “C.C. Rider” in 1957. He will join the
ancestors in 1958 after succumbing to peritonitis.
1931 – Ernest “Ernie” Banks is born in Dallas, Texas. He will
become the first African American baseball player to wear
a Chicago Cubs uniform (September 17, 1953). Banks will
also be quick to say “Let’s play two!” Banks will be the
Cubs’ outstanding shortstop from 1954 to 1960. In 1961 he
will be moved to left field, then to first base, where he
will spend the rest of his career. In 1969, Ernie Banks
will be voted the Cub’s best player ever by Chicago fans.
‘Mr. Cub’ will retire in 1971. He will be elected to the
Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977.
1934 – Etta Moten sings for President and Mrs. Franklin D.
Roosevelt at a White House dinner for family and friends.
Moten, a stage and screen star, sings songs from her role
in the movie “Golddiggers of 1933 and “Swing Low Sweet
Chariot.” It is the first time an African American
actress performs at the White House.
1962 – Lt. Commander Samuel L. Gravely assumes command of the
destroyer escort, USS Falgout. The Navy reports that he
is the first African American to command a U.S. warship.
1963 – James Baldwin’s influential collection of essays “The Fire
Next Time” is published.
1972 – Aretha Franklin sings “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” at
Mahalia Jackson’s funeral. Over 40,000 mourners view the
coffin.
1988 – Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams is named Most
Valuable Player for leading his team to a 42-10 win over
the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXII. He is the first
African American quarterback to play in a Super Bowl game.
2006 – Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
joins the ancestors after succumbing to complications of a
stroke and heart attack at the age of seventy eight.
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.
Today in Black History – January 30 *
1797 – Boston Masons, led by Prince Hall, establish the first
African American interstate organization, creating lodges
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Providence, Rhode Island.
1797 – Isabella Baumfree is born a slave in Swartekill, Ulster County,
New York. This is an approximation, since historians cannot
agree on the actual date of her birth. She will escape from
slavery with her infant daughter in 1826. After going to court
to gain custody of her son, she will become the first Black
woman to win such a case against a white man. She will become
an African American abolitionist and women’s rights activist,
naming herself ‘Sojourner Truth’ on June 1, 1843. Her best-known
extemporaneous speech on racial inequalities, “Ain’t I a Woman?,”
will be delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention
in Akron, Ohio. During the Civil War, she will help recruit
Black troops for the Union Army. After the war, she will try
unsuccessfully, to secure land grants from the federal government
for former slaves. She will speak about abolition, women’s rights,
prison reform, and will preach to the Michigan Legislature against
capital punishment. Not everyone welcomed her preaching and
lectures, but she will have many friends and staunch support among
many influential people at the time, including Amy Post, Parker
Pillsbury, Frances Gage, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison,
Laura Smith Haviland, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony.”
During her last days on earth, a reporter will come from the Grand
Rapids Eagle to interview her. “Her face was drawn and emaciated
and she was apparently suffering great pain. Her eyes were very
bright and mind alert although it was difficult for her to talk.”
She will join the ancestors on November 26, 1883, at her home in
Battle Creek, Michigan,
1797 – Congress refuses to accept the first recorded petitions from
African Americans.
1844 – Richard Theodore Greener becomes the first African American
to graduate from Harvard University.
1858 – William Wells Brown publishes the first drama by an African
American, “Leap to Freedom,” Brown is an escaped slave who
will also become noted as an abolitionist and author of
several early historical publications.
1927 – The Harlem Globetrotters, considered by many the most popular
basketball team in the world, is formed by Abe Saperstein.
Originally called the Savoy Five after their home court, the
Savoy Ballroom, in Chicago, Illinois, the team’s name will
be changed to the Harlem Globetrotters.
1928 – Ruth Brown is born in Portsmouth, Virginia. She will become a
Rhythm & Blues and jazz singer, recording “So Long,”
“Teardrops from My Eyes,” “Hours,” “Mambo Baby,” “Lucky
Lips,” and “This Little Girl’s Gone Rockin’.” She will be a
Tony Award winner and a Rhythm & Blues revolutionary–a
woman whose early successes earned her instant worldwide
fame and launched a career that has influenced such
legendary performers as Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington,
Little Richard and Stevie Wonder. She will be inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. She will join the
ancestors on November 16, 2006. A memorial concert for her
will be held on January 22, 2007 at the Abyssinian Baptist
Church in the village of Harlem in New York City.
1944 – Sharon Pratt is born in Washington, DC. In 1990, as Sharon
Pratt Dixon, she will be elected the first woman mayor of
Washington, DC. Her defeat of incumbent Marion Barry coupled
with her years of community involvement and activism will
raise the beleaguered city’s hopes for positive change.
1945 – Floyd Flake is born in Los Angeles, California. He will
become a congressman from New York’s 6th District.
1956 – The home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Montgomery bus
boycott leader, is bombed.
1962 – The United Nations General Assembly censures Portugal for its
widespread violations of human rights in Angola.
1965 – Leroy “Satchel” Paige, major league baseball player, is named
all-time outstanding player by the National Baseball
Congress.
1979 – Franklin A. Thomas becomes the first African American to head
a major U.S. charitable foundation when he is named
president of the Ford Foundation.
2009 – Michael Steele, the first African American lieutenant governor
of Maryland, is elected after six rounds of voting as the
chairperson of the Republican National Committee. He is the
first African American to hold that office.
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.
Today in Black History – January 29 *
1837 – Aleksandr Sereyevich Pushkin, a Russian of African ancestry
who is considered the “Shakespeare of Russian Literature,”
joins the ancestors after being killed in a duel.
Technically one-eighth African or an octoroon, Pushkin was
by all accounts Negroid in his appearance. His verse novel
“Eugene Onegin” and other works are considered classics of
Russian literature and inspiration for later great Russian
writers such as Gogol, Dostoyevski, and Tolstoy.
1850 – Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on
slavery which included the admission of California into the
Union as a free state.
1872 – Francis L. Cardoza is elected State Treasurer of South
Carolina.
1908 – Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, founded at Cornell University in
1906, is incorporated in the state of New York.
1913 – Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, founded at Howard University in
1908, is incorporated in Washington, DC.
1913 – African Americans celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the
Emancipation Proclamation. Major celebrations are held in
Jackson, Mississippi, New Orleans, Louisiana and Nashville,
Tennessee. Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey
appropriate money for official celebrations of the event.
1926 – Violette Neatley Anderson is the first African American woman
admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.
1954 – Oprah Winfrey is born in Kosciusko, Mississippi. She will
become the first African American woman to host a nationally
syndicated talk show and will be nominated for an Academy
award for best supporting actress in 1985 for her role in
“The Color Purple.” Following in the footsteps of Oscar
Micheaux and others, she will also form her own film and
television production company, Harpo Studios, in Chicago,
Illinois. In 1988, Harpo Studios will take over ownership
and production of the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” making her the
first African American woman to own and produce her own
national talk show.
1966 – Charles Mahoney, the first African American delegate to the
United Nations, joins the ancestors.
1981 – William R. “Cozy” Cole joins the ancestors in Columbus, Ohio.
A jazz drummer who played with Cab Calloway and Louis
Armstrong, he was known as a versatile percussionist who
played in big bands, comedy jazz groups, and Broadway
musicals. In 1958, his recording of “Topsy” became the only
drum solo to sell more than one million records.
1999 – Ronnie Lott, formally of the San Francisco 49’ers, is elected
to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.
PBS CELEBRATES BLACK HISTORY MONTH WITH NEW PROGRAMS AND A DIGITAL CAMPAIGN THAT UNITES MORE THAN A CENTURY OF HISTORY AND CULTURE
PBS Black Culture Connection Website Partners with Eunique Jones Gibson to Showcase the Making of the Because of Them, We Can™ Campaign
ARLINGTON, VA – January 16, 2014 – In commemoration of Black History Month and as part of its year-round commitment to provide diverse programming and resources for all Americans, PBS today announced new shows and online content celebrating the African American experience past, present and future. From an AMERICAN MASTERS profile of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, to an INDEPENDENT LENS documentary about the secret spy agency created to maintain segregation in 1950’s Mississippi, Black History Month on PBS will provide programs that educate, inform and inspire viewers to learn more about the rich culture of our nation.
The lineup begins on February 3 at…
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This week, the Zora Neale Hurston Organization is hosting its annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival in Eatonville, Florida. This is the 25th year of the festival and it is a week-long celebration with workshops, activities, and other events. I mention this festival as a segue into my review of the children’s book, Zora and Me.
Zora and Me, written by Victoria Simon and T.R. Simon, imagines the childhood of Zora in Eatonville, Florida. The story is narrated by Carrie and Zora’s storytelling gives Carrie plenty to say. When a decapitated body is found on a railroad track, Zora creates a believable yet scary story that she is willing to tell anyone who wants to hear it. In fact, Zora also believes she knows the murderer, and, recruiting Carrie and her friend Teddy, goes to many lengths to prove her theory.
Zora and Me is beautifully written, with Carrie’s voice that draws one into the mystery. Carrie and Teddy are fully developed characters and just the right friends for the imaginative Zora. Other characters are developed, too, and the issues of race, particularly passing, racism, poverty, and equality are woven carefully in the story as the mystery unfolds and reveals the killer.
Zora and Me has won a few awards, including the The Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe New Talent Award.
A discussion guide and lesson plans are available for this book. The discussion guide can be accessed by clicking here: http://www.candlewick.com/book_files/0763643009.bdg.1.pdf
The lesson plan, and other resources can be found on The Teaching Books.Net: http://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=21622&a=1
Zora and Me, 192 pages. Hardcover: 978-0763643003; Paperback: 978-0763658144 Grades 5 and up.
Today in Black History – January 28 *
1858 – John Brown organizes the raid on the federal arsenal at
Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. The raid was an attempt to
obtain arms and ammunition to free African Americans from
slavery by force.
1901 – James Richmond Barthe’ is born in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
Educated at the Art Institute of Chicago, he will begin to
attain critical acclaim as a sculptor at 26. He will drop
the use of his first name when producing his works of art
and will be best known as Richmond Barthe. His first
commissions will be of Henry O. Tanner and Toussaint
L’Ouverture. He will also become the first African
American commissioned to produce a bust for the NYU Hall of
Fame (of Booker T. Washington). He wil join the ancestors
on March 5, 1989.
1938 – Crystal Byrd Fauset is elected to the Pennsylvania House of
Representatives, becoming the first African American woman
to be elected to a state legislature.
1944 – Matthew Henson is a recipient of a joint medal by Congress
for his role as co-discoverer of the North Pole. It is the
U.S. government’s first official recognition of the explorer
who accompanied Commander Robert Peary on his 1909
expedition.
1958 – Brooklyn Dodger catcher Roy Campanella’s career ends when he
loses control of his car on a slick highway. He will become
a paraplegic and be confined to a wheelchair the remainder
of his life. The accident ends his ten-year playing career
with the Dodgers, where he had been named the National
League’s MVP three times, but he will remain a part of the
Dodgers organization for many years. He will join the
ancestors on June 26, 1993.
1960 – Zora Neale Hurston joins the ancestors in Fort Pierce,
Florida at the age of 71. She had been a prominent figure
during the Harlem Renaissance.
1970 – Arthur Ashe is denied entry to compete on the U.S. Team for
the South African Open Tennis Championships due to Ashe’s
sentiments on South Africa’s racial policies.
1972 – Scott Joplin’s Opera “Treemonisha,” published 61 years
earlier, has its world premiere with Robert Shaw and
Katherine Dunham directing.
1986 – The space shuttle “Challenger” explodes 73 seconds after
lift-off at Cape Canaveral, Florida. One of the seven
crew members killed is physicist Dr. Ronald McNair, the
only African American aboard.
1997 – The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa
announces that as part of their petition for amnesty,
five Afrikaner police had admitted to killing Steve Biko.
The announcement confirms what his admirers and followers
had never doubted: Steve Biko was a martyr to the struggle
against the apartheid government. Steve Biko was one of
the major figures in the struggle against South Africa’s
system of apartheid. Founder and leader of the Black
Consciousness Movement, the charismatic Biko was the first
president of the all-black South African Students
Organization before organizing the Black People’s
Convention, a coalition of over 70 black organizations
committed to ending apartheid. In 1977, Biko was arrested.
While in custody in Port Elizabeth, on the Indian Ocean
coast, he was apparently severely beaten. He was denied
medical attention and driven in the back of a police van
nearly 700 miles to Pretoria, where he died, naked and
shackled in a police hospital at the age of 29. The police
first claimed that Biko starved himself to death, then that
he died of self-inflicted injuries.
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.
Today in Black History – January 27 *
1869 – William Mercer Cook (later Will Marion Cook), who will become
a noted composer and conductor, is born in Washington, DC.
Beginning study of the violin at age 13, at 15 he will win a
scholarship to study at the Oberlin Conservatory. Among other
accomplishments, he will introduce syncopated ragtime to New
York City theatergoers in his operetta “Clorinda.” In 1890,
he will become director of a chamber orchestra touring the East
Coast. He will prepare Scenes from the Opera of Uncle Tom’s
Cabin for performance. The performance, which is to take place
at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, is cancelled. “Clorindy; or,
The Origin of the Cakewalk” — a musical sketch comedy in
collaboration with Paul Laurence Dunbar — is the next piece he
will compose, in 1898. It will be the first all-Black show to
play in a prestigious Broadway house, Casino Theatre’s Roof
Garden. After this period, he will be composer-in-chief and
musical director for the George Walker-Bert Williams Company. As
he continues to write, he will produce many successful musicals.
Best known for his songs, he will use folk elements in an
original and distinct manner. Many of these songs will first
appear in his musicals. The songs will be written for choral
groups or for solo singers. Some are published in “A Collection
of Negro Songs” (1912). Later in his career, he will be an
active choral and orchestral conductor. He will produce several
concerts and organize many choral societies in both New York and
in Washington, D.C. The New York Syncopated Orchestra, that he
creates, will tour the United States in 1918 and then go to
England in 1919 for a command performance for King George V.
Among his company will be assistant director Will Tyers, jazz
clarinetist Sidney Bechet, and Cook’s wife, Abbie Mitchell. One
of his last shows will be “Swing Along” (1929), written with Will
Vodery. He will join the ancestors on July 19, 1944.
1894 – Frederick Douglass ‘Fritz’ Pollard is born in Chicago,
Illinois. He will become a football star at Brown
University in 1915 and lead them to the first Rose Bowl
game, played on January 1, 1916. This will make him the
first African American to play in the Rose Bowl. He will
also become the first African American named an All-American.
After leaving Brown University, he will become one of the
first African Americans to play professional football and
will become the first African American quarterback and the
first African American head coach, both with the NFL Akron
Indians. When the NFL bans African American players from
its ranks in 1933, Pollard will organize the first African
American professional football team, the Brown Bombers of
Harlem. After fifteen years in professional football,
Pollard will establish the first all African American
investment company in the country, and run New York City’s
first African American tabloid newspaper. He will also be
involved in the production of some of America’s first
all-African American movies. He will join the ancestors on
May 11, 1986.
1915 – The United States Marines occupy Haiti. This occupation
will continue until 1934. Americans will serve as officials
of the Haitian government and control its finances, police
force, and public works.
1930 – Robert Calvin (Bobby ‘Blue’) Bland is born in Rosemark,
Tennessee. He will become a singer and start his career as
a member of The Beale Streeters with Johnny Ace. He will
become a solo artist with the Malaco label and record “That’s
the Way Love Is,” “Call on Me,” “Turn on Your Love Light,”
and “Ain’t Nothin’ You Can Do.” Along with such artists as
Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, and Junior Parker, he will develope
a sound that mixes gospel with the Blues and Rhythm & Blues.
He will be inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and receive the Grammy
Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.
1952 – Ralph Ellison’s powerful novel “Invisible Man” wins the
National Book Award.
1961 – Leontyne Price makes her debut at the Metropolitan Opera
House in New York City. She sings in the role of Leonora
in “Il Trovatore”. Price is the seventh African American
singer to make a debut at the Met. Marian Anderson will be
the first in 1955.
1972 – Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer, joins the ancestors in
Evergreen Park, Illinois at the age of 60. Born in New
Orleans, Louisiana, she began her singing career with the
Salem Baptist Choir in Chicago, Illinois. She achieved
national fame with her recording of “Move on Up A Little
Higher,” which sold over a million copies. Many considered
her rich contralto voice the best in gospel music.
1972 – In Columbia, South Carolina, the white and African American
United Methodist conferences of South Carolina — separated
since the Civil War — vote in their respective meetings to
adopt a plan of union.
1984 – Carl Lewis betters his own two-year-old record by 9-1/4
inches when he sets a new, world, indoor-record with a long
jump mark of 28 feet, 10-1/4 inches in New York City.
1984 – Singer Michael Jackson’s hair catches on fire during the
filming of a Pepsi commercial in Los Angeles at the Shrine
Auditorium. Pyrotechnics did not operate on cue, injuring
the singer. Jackson is hospitalized for a few days and fans
from around the world send messages of concern.
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.
The CamaraIfe Maktaba 