Category: African American History

* Today in Black History – August 9 *

1848 – The Free Soil party is organized at a Buffalo, New York
convention attended by African American abolitionists.

1898 – Robert Nelson Cornelius Nix, Sr. is born in Orangeburg,
South Carolina. An 11-term congressman, he will be the
first African American congressional representative
from Pennsylvania, when he is elected in 1958. He will
join only three other African Americans in Congress,
William Dawson of Illinois, and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
of New York and Charles Diggs, Jr. of Michigan. He will
join the ancestors on June 22, 1987.

1909 – George William Crockett, Jr., is born in Jacksonville,
Florida. He will become the first African American lawyer
with the U.S. Department of Labor. Crockett will begin
his judicial career in Michigan in 1966, when he is
elected to the Recorder’s Court, a post he will hold until
1978. He will also serve as a visiting judge in the
Michigan Court of Appeals and acting corporation counsel
for the city of Detroit. He will become a congressman in
1980 at the age of 71 and will be re-elected to serve each
succeeding term until his retirement in 1991. He will join
the ancestors on September 7, 1997.

1936 – Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal of the 1936 Berlin
Olympic Games in the 4×100-meter relay. His relay team set
a new world record of 39.8 seconds, which held for 20 years.
In their strong showing in track-and-field events at the
XIth Olympiad, Jesse Owens and other African American
athletes struck a propaganda blow against Nazi leader Adolf
Hitler, who planned to use the Berlin Games as a showcase
of supposed Aryan superiority.

1943 – Kenneth Howard Norton is born in Jacksonville, Illinois. He
will become a professional boxer. In 1973, he will fight
Muhammad Ali. He will break Ali’s jaw and go on to win by
a split decision. His victory over Ali will make him the
NABF Heavyweight Champion and it will be the second defeat
for “The Greatest” in his career. He will also win the WBC
heavyweight championship in 1978.

1955 – Douglas Lee Williams is born in Zachary, Louisiana. He will
become a NFL Quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and
Washington Redskins. While playing for the Redskins, he
will lead the team to a victory in Superbowl XXII and will
be named Most Valuable Player.

1960 – A racially motivated disturbance breaks out in Jacksonville,
Florida after ten days of sit-in demonstrations, resulting
in fifty persons injured.

1961 – James B. Parsons becomes the first African American
appointed to the U.S. District Court.

1963 – Whitney Elizabeth Houston is born in Newark, New Jersey. She
will achieve fame as a single artist with her 1985 debut
album, which will sell over nine million copies, have three
number-one singles and earn a Grammy for the song “Saving All
My Love For You.” In 2009, the Guinness World Records will
cite her as the most awarded female act of all time. She will
become one of the world’s best-selling music artists, selling
over 200 million records worldwide. She will release six
studio albums, one holiday album and three movie soundtrack
albums, all of which will achieve iamond, multi-platinum,
platinum or gold certification. Her crossover appeal on the
popular music charts, as well as her prominence on MTV,
starting with her video for “How Will I Know”, will influence
several African American female artists to follow in her
footsteps. She will be the only artist to chart seven
consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits. She will be the
second artist behind Elton John and the only female artist to
have two number-one Billboard 200 Album awards on the
Billboard magazine year-end charts. Her 1985 debut album
“Whitney Houston” will become the best-selling debut album by
a female act at the time of its release. The album will be
named Rolling Stone’s best album of 1986, and be ranked at
number 254 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums
of All Time. Her second studio album “Whitney” (1987) will
become the first album by a female artist to debut at number
one on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Her first acting role
will be as the star of the feature film “The Bodyguard” (1992).
The film’s original soundtrack will win the 1994 Grammy Award
for Album of the Year. Its lead single “I Will Always Love
You”, will become the best-selling single by a female artist
in music history. With that album, she will become the first
act (solo or group, male or female) to sell more than a million
copies of an album within a single week period under the
Nielsen SoundScan system. The album will make her the top
female act in the top 10 list of the best-selling albums of all
time, at number four. She will continue to star in movies and
contribute to their soundtracks, including the films “Waiting
to Exhale” (1995) and “The Preacher’s Wife” (1996). “The
Preacher’s Wife” soundtrack will become the best-selling gospel
album in history. In September 2011, The Hollywood Reporter
will announce that she will produce and star alongside Jordin
Sparks and Mike Epps in the remake of the 1976 film “Sparkle.”
In the film, she will portray Sparks’ “not-so encouraging
mother.” She will also be credited as an executive producer of
the film. On February 11, 2012, she will join the ancestors
after being found transitioned in her guest room at The Beverly
Hilton, in Beverly Hills, California. The official coroner’s
report will show that she had accidentally drowned in the
bathtub, with heart disease and cocaine use listed as
contributing factors. News of her transition will coincide with
the 2012 Grammy Awards and feature prominently in American and
international media. The movie “Sparkle,” will be released on
August 17, 2012 in the United States.

1967 – Deion Luwynn Sanders is born in Fort Myers, Florida. He will
attend Florida State University, where he will excel at both
football and baseball. After college, he will become a
National Football League cornerback and Major League baseball
outfielder. He will become a NFL All-Pro, and as a major
league center fielder, will lead both leagues in triples in
1992. He will be considered one of the most versatile
athletes in sporting history because he will play two sports
at multiple positions. In the NFL, he will play primarily at
cornerback, but also occasionally as a wide receiver, kick
returner, and punt returner. He will play for the Atlanta
Falcons, the San Francisco 49ers, the Dallas Cowboys, the
Washington Redskins, and the Baltimore Ravens, winning the
Super Bowl with both the 49ers and the Cowboys. In baseball,
he will play for the New York Yankees, the Atlanta Braves, the
Cincinnati Reds, and the San Francisco Giants. After his
playing days were over, he will become a NFL network analyst.
He will be inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton,
Ohio on August 6, 2011.

1971 – Le Roy (Satchel) Paige is inducted into the Baseball Hall of
Fame.

1984 – British decathlete Daley Thompson becomes the second man in
history to win the decathlon back-to-back in the Olympic
Games, while setting the record of 8,847 points.

1987 – Beatrice Foods, International is sold to TLC Group, a New York
investment firm led by Reginald Lewis, an African American
businessman and entrepreneur. It is the largest business
acquisition ever by an African American.

1987 – “Mean” Joe Greene and Gene Upshaw are inducted into the
Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

2003 – Gregory Hines, tap dancing virtuoso, joins the ancestors at
the age of 57 after succumbing to liver cancer. He
appeared on television, Broadway and in films.

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

* Today in Black History – August 8 *

1796 – Boston African Society is established with 44 charter
members.

1805 – The First African Baptist Church is organized in Boston,
Massachusetts, under the leadership of Thomas Paul. It
will be the first congregation to worship at the
African Meeting House, which will be established on
December 6, 1806 (It is the oldest church building in
the United States built for and by African Americans).

1843 – Natal (in South Africa) is made a British colony.

1866 – Matthew Alexander Henson is born in Nanjemoy, Maryland. He
will become an explorer and associate of Robert Peary
during various expeditions. The most famous will be the
1909 expedition on which he will become the first person
to reach the Geographic North Pole. In 1912, he will write
the book, “A Negro Explorer at the North Pole”, about his
arctic exploration. He will be largely ignored afterward
and will spend most of the next thirty years working as a
clerk in a federal customs house in New York. In 1944,
Congress will award him a duplicate of the silver medal
given to Admiral Peary in 1911. In 1947 he will collaborate
with Bradley Robinson on his biography, “Dark Companion.”
Presidents Harry S Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, will
both honor him prior to his death. He will join the
ancestors in the Bronx, New York, on March 9, 1955, at the
age of 88. He will be buried at Woodlawn Cemetery. In 1961,
a plaque will be installed to mark his Maryland birthplace.
In 1988, he and his wife’s remains will be exhumed and
reburied at Arlington National Cemetery, near the grave of
Admiral Peary and his wife.

1907 – Saxophonist Bennett Lester “Benny” Carter is born in New
York City. He will play initially at age 23 and form his
own big band in 1940. Carter will either play with,
conduct or write arrangements for Dizzy Gillespie, Duke
Ellington, Quincy Jones, and many others. He will be a
major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and
recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him
King. In 1958, he will perform with Billie Holiday at the
legendary Monterey Jazz Festival. The National Endowment
for the Arts willhonor him with its highest honor in jazz,
the NEA Jazz Masters Award for 1986. He will be awarded
the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, win the
Grammy Award in 1994 for his solo “Prelude to a Kiss”,
and also the same year, receive a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame. In 2000 he will receive the National
Endowment for the Arts’, “National Medal of Arts,”
presented by President Bill Clinton. He will join the
ancestors on July 12, 2003.

1921 – James John “Jimmy” Witherspoon is born in Gurdon, Arkansas.
He will become a blues singer and will be featured on over
200 albums and be best known for songs such as “Ain’t
Nobody’s Business If I Do,” “Some Of My Best Friends Are
the Blues” and “Blue Spoon.” He will join the ancestors on
September 18, 1997 after succumbing to throat cancer..

1933 – Joseph “Joe Tex” Arrington, Jr. is born in Baytown, Texas.
He will become a singer/songwriter. He will be known for
his recordings of “I Gotcha”, “Hold What You’ve Got”,
“Skinny Legs and All”, and “Ain’t Gonna Bump No More”(With
No Big Fat Woman.” After converting to the Muslim faith in
1966 and changing his name to Yusuf Hazziez, he will tour
as a spiritual lecturer. He will join the ancestors (at
home in Navasota, Texas) on August 13, 1982, succumbing to
a heart attack.

1934 – Julian Carey Dixon is born in Washington, D.C. He will be
elected to the California State Assembly as a Democrat in
1972, and serve in that body for three terms. He will be
elected to the House of Representatives, representing
California’s 28th District, in 1978. He will chair the
rules committee at the 1984 Democratic National Convention
and the ethics probe into House Speaker Jim Wright. Dixon
will win re-election to the 107th United States Congress,
will join the ancestors, after succumbing to a heart attack,
on December 8, 2000.

1960 – Ivory Coast declares independence from France.

1968 – A racially motivated disturbance breaks out in Miami,
Florida.

1974 – Roberta Flack receives a gold record for the single, “Feel
Like Makin’ Love”. Flack, born in Asheville, North
Carolina and raised in Arlington, Virginia, had been
awarded a music scholarship to Howard University in
Washington, D.C., at the age of 15. One of her
classmates, Donny Hathaway, became a singing partner on
several hit songs. He joined her on “You’ve Got a Friend”,
“Where is the Love” and “The Closer I Get to You”. She will
have 10 hits on the pop charts in the 1970s and ’80s.

1975 – Julian “Cannonball” Adderley joins the ancestors at the age
of 47 in Gary, Indiana.

1984 – Carl Lewis wins the 3rd (200 meter sprint) of 4 gold medals
at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

2005 – Publisher John H. Johnson, whose Ebony and Jet magazines
countered stereotypical coverage of African Americans
after World War II and turned him into one of the most
influential African American leaders in America, joins the
ancestors at the age of 87.

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

* Today in Black History – August 7 *

1846 – Frederick Douglass is speaker at the World’s Temperance
convention in London, England.

1904 – Ralph Johnson Bunche is born in Detroit, Michigan. A
political social scientist, he will achieve fame as the
first African American Nobel Prize winner (1950) for his
role as U.N. mediator of the armistice agreements between
Israel and her Arab neighbors in the Middle East wars of
1948, for which he will be awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn
Medal (1949). He will serve as the undersecretary of the
United Nations from 1955 until he joins the ancestors in
1971.

1932 – Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia becomes the first man to win the
Olympic marathon twice (running barefoot).

1936 – Rahsaan Ronald Kirk is born in Columbus, Ohio. Blind from
the age of two, he will begin playing the tenor saxophone
professionally in Rhythm & Blues bands before turning to
jazz. He will be compelled by a dream to transpose two
letters in his first name to make Roland. After another
dream in 1970, he will add Rahsaan to his name. Rahsaan
Roland Kirk will be best known for his ability to play more
than one instrument at once, his self-made jazz instruments,
and for his creative improvisational skills. Rahsaan will
also become an activist in getting support for what he will
term “Black Classical Music.” He will participate in
several takeovers of television talk shows during which he
would demand more exposure for black jazz artists. He will
join the ancestors on December 5, 1977.

1945 – Alan Cedric Page is born in Canton, Ohio. He will become a
6-time NFL All Pro and 1971 NFL Player of the Year while
playing for the Minnesota Vikings. In 1988, he will be
inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and become the
first native of the Hall’s home city of Canton to have been
inducted. He will obtain his law degree from the University
of Minnesota while playing pro football full-time. After a
few years in private practice, he will become an Assistant
Attorney General. In 1992, he will be elected as an
associate justice on the Minnesota State Supreme Court. He
will be re-elected in 1998 and 2004. On January 7, 2009, he
will be appointed by Chief Justice Eric Magnuson to select
the three-judge panel that will hear the election contest
brought by Norm Coleman in the 2008 U.S. Senate election. He
will be re-elected for a final time in 2010. Minnesota has
mandatory retirement for judges at age 70.

1946 – First coin bearing portrait of an African American (Booker T.
Washington) is authorized.

1948 – Alice Coachman becomes the first African American woman to
win an Olympic gold medal. She will win her medal in Track
and Field competition (the high jump) during the Summer
Games in London. She also will be the only American woman
to win an Olympic gold medal that year. She will later
become inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of
Fame.

1954 – Charles H. Mahoney is confirmed by the Senate and becomes the
first African American to serve as a full-time delegate to
the United Nations.

1960 – African American and white students stage kneel-in
demonstrations in Atlanta churches.

1966 – A racially motivated disturbance starts in Lansing, Michigan.

1970 – Four persons, including the presiding judge, are killed in
courthouse shoot-out in San Rafael, Marin County, California.
Police charge that activist Angela Davis helped provide the
weapons used by the convicts and will be sought for arrest
and become one of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s
“most wanted criminals.” She will be arrested in New York
City in October 1970, returned to California to face charges
of kidnapping, murder, and conspiracy and will be acquitted
of all charges by an all-white jury.

1989 – Congressman George Thomas “Mickey” Leland, members of his
staff and State Department officials die in a plane crash in
the mountains near Gambela, Ethiopia. Leland, the
Democratic successor to Barbara Jordan, had established the
Select Committee on Hunger in 1984 and was chairman of the
Congressional Black Caucus during the 99th Congress. A
successful campaigner for stronger sanctions against South
Africa, Leland was on a visit to a United Nations refugee
camp at the time he joins the ancestors.

2005 – Frederick Douglas “Fritz” Pollard is inducted posthumously
into the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. He was the
first African American player and coach in the NFL. He was
also a two-time All-American at Brown University and was the
first African American to play in the Rose Bowl (1916).

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