KRLemmons African American History

November 23 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 23 *

1867 – The Louisiana constitutional convention (forty-nine
white delegates and forty-nine African American
delegates) meets in Mechanics Institute in New
Orleans, Louisiana.

1897 – J.L. Love receives a patent for the pencil sharpener.

1897 – Andrew J. Beard receives a patent for the “jerry
coupler,” still is use today to connect railroad
cars.

1905 – Henry Watson Furness, an Indiana physician, is named
minister to Haiti. He will be the last African
American minister to Haiti during this period in
history.

1934 – “Imitation of Life” premieres in New York City. Starring
Claudette Colbert, Louise Beavers, and Fredi Washington,
it is the story of a white woman and an African American
woman who build a pancake business while the latter’s
daughter makes a desperate attempt to pass for white.

1944 – Eugene Washington is born in LaPorte, Texas. He will become a
professional football player, playing wide receiver. He will
play for the Minnesota Vikings (1967–1972) and the Denver
Broncos (1973–1974). He will wear #84 for Minnesota and Denver.
He will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in
2011.

1965 – Mike Garrett, a University of Southern California
running back with 4,876 total yards and 3,221 yards
rushing, is announced as the Downtown Athletic Club’s
Heisman Trophy winner of 1965. He is the University of
Southern California’s first Heisman Trophy winner. He
will go on to play eight years in the pros, first with
the Kansas City Chiefs and later with the San Diego
Chargers, and be elected to the National Football Hall
of Fame in 1985.

1980 – One thousand persons from twenty five states gather in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and form the National Black
Independent Party.

1988 – Al Raby, the civil rights leader who convinced Martin
Luther King, Jr. to bring his movement to Chicago,
joins the ancestors succumbing to a heart attack.

1988 – South African President Pieter Botha gives a reprieve
to the Sharpeville Six.

1991 – Evander Holyfield retains the heavyweight boxing title,
by KO over Bert Cooper in the seventh round.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 22 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 22 *

1865 – The Mississippi legislature enacts “Black Codes” which
restrict the rights and freedom of movement of the
freedmen. The Black Codes enacted in Mississippi and
other Southern states virtually re-enslave the
freedmen. In some states, any white person could
arrest any African American. In other states, minor
officials could arrest African American “vagrants” and
“refractory and rebellious Negroes” and force them to
work on roads and levees without pay. “Servants” in
South Carolina were required to work from sunrise to
sunset, to be quiet and orderly and go to bed at
“reasonable hours.” It was a crime in Mississippi for
African Americans to own farm land. In South Carolina,
African Americans have to get a special license to
work outside the domestic and farm laborer categories.

1871 – Louisiana Lt. Governor Oscar J. Dunn, joins the
ancestors suddenly in the midst of a bitter struggle
for control of the state government. Dunn aides
charge that he was poisoned.

1884 – T. Thomas Fortune founds the “New York Freeman”, which
later becomes the “New York Age.”

1884 – The Philadelphia Tribune is founded by Christopher J.
Perry.

1893 – Alrutheus Ambush Taylor, teacher and historian, is
born in Washington, DC. He will become Fisk
University’s Dean. He and other local African American
historians will come under the influence of Dr. Carter
G. Woodson, who spoke in Nashville on several occasions.
In 1941, Taylor will publish a Tennessee study from the
African American perspective. Taylor titled his study,
“The Negro in Tennessee, 1865-1880.” Taylor’s book
will go beyond slavery and cover Reconstruction history
and various aspects of African American life, including
business and politics. He will join the ancestors in
June, 1954 after succumbing to a cerebral hemorrhage.

1930 – The Nation of Islam is founded in Detroit.

1942 – Guion S. Bluford, Jr. is born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. He will become a Colonel in the United
States Air Force, an astronaut and the first African
American to fly in space (four times – STS 8, STS 61A,
STS 39, STS 53).

1957 – The Miles Davis Quintet debuts with a jazz concert at
Carnegie Hall in New York.

1961 – Frank Robinson becomes the first baseball player to be
named “Most Valuable Player” in both major leagues.

1965 – Muhammad Ali defeats Floyd Patterson. Ali, a recent
convert to the Muslim faith, taunts the former champ
and ends the fight in 12 rounds to win the world
heavyweight title.

1968 – A portrait of Frederick Douglass appears on the cover
of Life magazine. The cover story, “Search for a Black
Past,” will be the first in a four-part series of
stories in which the magazine examines African
Americans, a review of the last 50 years of struggle
and interviews with Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond,
Eldridge Cleaver, Dick Gregory, and others.

1986 – 24 year-old George Branham wins the Brunswick Memorial
World Open. It is the first time an African American
wins a Professional Bowlers Association title.

1986 – Mike Tyson, 20 years, 4 months old, becomes the
youngest to wear the world heavyweight boxing crown
after knocking out Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas.

1988 – Bob Watson is named assistant general manager of the
Houston Astros, the team where he began his
professional career in 1965. One of a select few
African American assistant general managers in the
sport, Watson’s spikes hang in the Baseball Hall of
Fame for scoring baseball’s 1,000,000th run in 1976.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 21 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 21 *

1654 – Richard Johnson, a free African American, is granted 550
acres in Northampton County, Virginia.

1784 – James Armistead is cited by French General Lafayette for
his valuable service to the American forces in the
Revolutionary War. Armistead, who was born into slavery
24 years earlier, had worked as a double agent for the
Americans while supposedly employed as a servant of
British General Cornwallis.

1865 – Shaw University is founded in Raleigh, North Carolina.

1878 – Marshall “Major” Taylor is born in Indianapolis, Indiana.
He will become an international cycling star who will be
the first native-born African American to win a national
sports title. During his career, Taylor will win over 100
professional races and one-on-one matches in the U.S. and
nine other countries.

1893 – Granville T. Woods, inventor, receives a patent for the
“Electric Railway Conduit.”

1904 – Coleman Hawkins is born in St. Joseph, Missouri. He will
virtually create the presence of the tenor saxophone in
jazz.

1918 – Henry B. Delany is elected saffragan bishop of the
Protestant Episcopal diocese of North Carolina.

1944 – Earl “the Pearl” Monroe, NBA Guard (New York Knicks,
Baltimore Bullets), is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1984 – TransAfrica’s Randall Robinson, DC congressional delegate
Walter Fauntroy, and U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Mary
Frances Berry are arrested at a sit-in demonstration in
front of the South African Embassy in Washington, DC.
Their demonstration against apartheid will be repeated and
spread to New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other
cities, and involve such notables as Jesse Jackson, Arthur
Ashe, Harry Belafonte, and Stevie Wonder. Their efforts
will play a large part in the passage of the Anti-Apartheid
Act of 1986, which will impose economic sanctions against
South Africa.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 20 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 20 *

1865 – African Americans hold a protest convention in Zion
Church in Charleston, South Carolina and demand equal
rights and repeal of the “Black Codes.”

1878 – Charles Sidney Gilpin, is born in Richmond, Virginia.
In the early 1920s, Gilpin will secure his place in
American theater history by creating the title — and
only major — role in Eugene O’Neill’s’ “The Emperor
Jones.” Gilpin’s portrayal in the long one-act play
becomes a box-office sensation in New York’s Greenwich
Village. The play and its principal actor will transfer
to Broadway and will later go on tour. After the post-
Broadway tour, which played Richmond to great acclaim,
Gilpin’s insistence on eliminating racial epithets from
the play will anger O’Neill. O’Neill, who at one time
is said to be writing a play especially for Gilpin, will
cast budding actor Paul Robeson in the London production
of Emperor Jones. Robeson will also play Jones on film.
Except for Ira Aldridge, who lived and performed mostly
in Europe before the Civil War, Gilpin will be the first
African American to be widely lauded as a serious actor
on America’s mainstream stage. He will lose his voice
in 1929 and join the ancestors at his home in Eldridge,
New Jersey in 1930.

1910 – Pauli Murray is born. A lawyer and author of “Song in a
Weary Throat,” “Proud Shoes,” and “Dark Testament and
Other Poems,” she will also be a powerful theologian and
the first African American woman priest to be ordained
in the Episcopal Church.

1919 – Jane Cooke Wright is born in New York City, one of two
daughters of Dr. Louis Tompkins Wright and Corinne Cook
Wright. Her father was a physician who practiced in New
York City and later established the Cancer Research
Foundation at Harlem Hospital. She will live in New York
City until 1938 when she leaves to enroll in Smith
College. She will begin college intending to major in
art, but will switch to pre-medicine. She will graduate
from Smith in 1942, one of only two graduates in that
class later accepted to medical school. She will bring
the field of chemotherapy to the forefront of cancer
treatment, publishing over 130 papers. Her research team
will focus on the investigation of a wide variety of
anticancer drugs and develop procedures for the sequential
use of these drugs in cancer treatment. She will be
awarded a full scholarship to New York Medical School and
receive an M.D. degree upon graduating with honors, third
in her class. In 1945. She will intern at Bellevue
Hospital, followed by two residencies at Harlem Hospital.
At this point, she will set up private practice since no
medical institution will offer her a position. In 1949 She
will join the medical staff at the Cancer Research
Foundation at Harlem Hospital as a clinician and research
scientist and begin her work in cancer research. After her
father joins the ancestors in 1952, she will become
director of the foundation. In 1955 she will move to New
York University Medical Center as director of cancer
chemotherapy research and instructor of research surgery.
In 1964, she will be appointed to President Lyndon
Johnson’s Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke.
Her subcommittee’s recommendation to develop regional
centers will be an important outcome of this commission.
By 1967, Jane Wright will be promoted to associate dean
and professor of surgery at NYU Medical Center where she
will continue to be active in research until retiring in
1987. Her honors will include the Spirit of Achievement
Award of the Women’s Division of the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine (1965); the Hadassah Myrtle Wreath
(1967); the Smith Medal from Smith College (1968);
featured by Ciba Geigy on its Exceptional Black Scientist
poster (1980); and be honored by the American Association
for Cancer Research (1975). She will receive several
honorary degrees and serve on boards of trustees for
various organizations.

1922 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Mary B. Talbert,
the former president of the National Association of
Colored Women, for service to African American women and
for the restoration of the Frederick Douglas home in
Southeast Washington, DC.

1923 – Garrett A. Morgan receives a patent for his three-way
traffic signal. The device, which will revolutionize
traffic control, is one of many inventions for the Paris,
Kentucky, native, which include a hair-straightening
process and the gas mask.

1939 – Morgan State College is established in Baltimore,
Maryland, succeeding Morgan State Biblical College,
founded in 1857.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy issues an executive order
barring racial discrimination in federally financed
housing.

1962 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Robert C.
Weaver, economist and government official, for his
leadership in the movement for open housing.

1969 – Pele’, the Brazilian soccer star, scores his 1,000th
soccer goal.

1973 – The gravesite of Mary Seacole, a Jamaican nurse who
served in the Crimean War, is restored in England.
Traveling to the battlefield at her own expense, when
her expert services are rejected by English authorities
and Florence Nightingale, Seacole opens her own nursing
hotel, which she operates by day, serving as a
volunteer with Nightingale at night. Seacole’s skills
saved the lives of many soldiers wounded during the war
or infected with malaria, cholera, yellow fever, and
other illnesses.

1977 – Walter Payton, of the Chicago Bears, rushes for NFL
record 275 yards in one game.

1981 – The Negro Ensemble Company’s production of Charles
Fuller’s “A Soldier’s Play” opens the Theatre Four.
The play will win a New York Drama Critics Award for
best American play and the Pulitzer Prize.

1997 – A.C. Green sets the NBA “Iron Man” record for consecutive
games played at 907 games. The previous record had
stood for fifteen years. Iron Men from professional
baseball and professional hockey were present at
courtside to observe the record-breaking performance.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 19 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 19 *

1867 – South Carolina citizens endorse a constitutional
convention and select delegates. 66,418 African
Americans and 2350 whites vote for the convention and
2278 whites vote against holding a convention. The
total vote cast is 71,046. Not a single African
American votes against the convention.

1921 – Roy Campanella is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He will become one of the first African-American
baseball players signed to major league ball after
Jackie Robinson breaks the color line. He will become
the first African American catcher in Major League
history. Campanella will play for the Brooklyn Dodgers
and be the National League’s Most Valuable Player in
1951, 1953, and 1955. He was given the second MVP award
in 1953 on his birthday. His baseball career will end
when he is paralyzed in an automobile accident in
January, 1958. He will then work for many years in the
Dodger organization. He will be elected to the Baseball
Hall of Fame in 1969 and will join the ancestors on
June 26, 1993.

1949 – Ahmad Rashad, is born Bobby Moore in Portland, Oregon.
Rashad will be a first-round draft choice of the St.
Louis Football Cardinals in 1972. He will go on to play
for Buffalo and Seattle before settling in Minnesota in
1976 and playing the next seven seasons for the Vikings.
Rashad will hold the Viking career reception lead (400)
and be second in reception yardage. Overall, Rashad will
have 495 receptions in 10 seasons. Rashad — who played
his college football at the University of Oregon — will
be inducted into the state of Oregon Sports Hall of Fame
in 1987 and the University of Oregon Athletic Hall of
Fame in 1992. He will also be the author of a book,
“Rashad: Vikes, Mikes, and Something on the Backside,”
published by Viking Press. During the summer of 1991, he
will expand his broadcasting resume by handling
television play-by-play for the Seattle Seahawks pre-
season football games.

1955 – Carmen de Lavellade begins a contract for three seasons as
a dancer with the Metropolitan Opera.

1957 – Otis J. Anderson, NFL running back (NY Giants, 1990
Superbowl MVP), is born.

1984 – Dwight Gooden, of the New York Mets, at 20 years old,
becomes the youngest major-league pitcher to be named
Rookie of the Year in the National League. The Mets
pitcher led the majors with 276 strikeouts.

1985 – Comedic character actor Stepin Fetchit, born Lincoln
Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry joins the ancestors at the
age of 83.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 18 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 18 *

1797 – Abolitionist and orator, Sojourner Truth, is born a
New York slave on the plantation of Johannes
Hardenbergh. Her given name is Isabelle VanWagener
(some references use the name Isabelle Baumfree).
She will walk away from her last owner one year
prior to being freed by a New York law in 1827, which
proclaimed that all slaves twenty-eight years of age
and over were to be freed. Several years later, in
response to what she describes as a command from God,
she becomes an itinerant preacher and takes the name
Sojourner Truth. Among her most memorable appearances
will be at an 1851 women’s rights conference in Akron,
Ohio. In her famous “Ain’t I a woman?” speech she
forcefully attacks the hypocrisies of organized
religion, white privilege and everything in between.

1900 – Howard Thurman is born in Daytona Beach, Florida. A
theologian who studied at Morehouse with Martin L.
King, Sr., he will found the interracial Church of
Fellowship of All Peoples. The first African American
to hold a full-time faculty position at Boston
University (in 1953), Dr. Thurman will write 22 books
and become widely regarded as one of the greatest
spiritual leaders of the 20th century. He will join the
ancestors on April 10, 1981.

1936 – John Henry Kendricks is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will
become a prolific songwriter as well as a major rhythm
and blues singer better known as Hank Ballard. He will
perform with his group, The Midnighters, and make the
following songs popular: “There’s A Thrill Upon The Hill”
(Let’s Go, Let’s Go, Let’s Go), “The Twist”(made famous
later by Chubby Checker), “Finger Poppin’ Time”, “Work with
Me Annie”, “Sexy Ways”, and “Annie Had a Baby”. He will be
enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. He
will join the ancestors on March 2, 2003.

1949 – Jackie Robinson, of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is named the
National League’s Most Valuable Player.

1956 – Harold Warren Moon, professional football player
(Minnesota Vikings, Houston Oilers, and Seattle Seahawks
quarterback), is born in Los Angeles, California. He will
be the first undrafted quarterback and first African
American quarterback to be elected to the Football Hall
of Fame in 2006.

1964 – The head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar
Hoover, describes Martin Luther King as a “most
notorious liar”. This statement is indicative of the
agency head’s dislike of the civil rights leader.

1969 – The National Association of Health Services Executives is
incorporated. NAHSE’s goal is to elevate the quality of
health-care services rendered to poor and disadvantaged
communities.

1975 – Calvin Murphy of the Houston Rockets, ends the NBA free
throw streak at 58 games.

1977 – Robert Edward Chambliss, a former KKK member, is
convicted of first-degree murder in connection with the
1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in
Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four African American
teenage girls.

1978 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to Ambassador
Andrew J. Young “in recognition of the deftness with
which he has handled relations between this nation and
other countries” and “for his major role in raising the
consciousness of American citizens to the significance
in world affairs of the massive African continent.”

1980 – Wally “Famous” Amos’ signature Panama hat and embroidered
shirt are donated to the National Museum of American
History’s Business Americana collection. It is the
first memorabilia added to the collection by an African
American entrepreneur and recognizes the achievement of
Amos, who built his company from a mom-and-pop
enterprise to a $250 million cookie manufacturing
business.

1983 – “Sweet Honey in the Rock,” a capella singers, perform
their 10th anniversary reunion concert in Washington, DC.

1994 – Bandleader Cab Calloway joins the ancestors in Hockessin,
Delaware, at age 86.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 17 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 17 *

1842 – Fugitive slave George Latimer, is captured in Boston.
His capture leads to the first of the fugitive slave
cases which strain relationships between the North and
South. Boston abolitionists will raise money to purchase
Latimer from his slave owner.

1911 – Omega Psi Phi Fraternity is founded on the campus of
Howard University.

1945 – Elvin Hayes, NBA star and Basketball Hall of Famer – “The
Big E” (San Diego, Houston Rockets, Baltimore Bullets;
5th on list of most games played in ABA/NBA; University
of Houston, All America in 1967 and 1968), is born.

1956 – Fullback Jim Brown of Syracuse University scores 43 pts
against Colgate, establishing a NCAA record.

1967 – Ronnie DeVoe, rhythm and blues singer (New Edition; Bell
Biv DeVoe), is born.

1978 – Two FBI agents testify before the House Select Committee
on Assassinations that the bureau’s long-term
surveillance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was based
solely on J. Edgar Hoover’s “hatred of the civil rights
leader” and not on the civil rights leader’s alleged
communist influences or linkages with radical groups.

1980 – Howard University’s WHMM-TV starts broadcasting. It is
the first African American-owned public-broadcasting
television station.

1990 – Itabari Njeri receives the American Book Award for
Outstanding Contribution in American Literature for her
book, “Every Good-bye Ain’t Gone.” Also honored is poet
Sonia Sanchez, who receives a lifetime achievement award.

1998 – Representative James Clyburn (D-SC) is elected as
chairperson of the Congressional Black Caucus. He is the
first Southerner to head the group, since it was founded
in 1971. He had been first elected to Congress in 1992,
the first African American to represent South Carolina
since Reconstruction.

1998 – Esther Rolle, the Emmy Award-winning actress, who won
acclaim on the hit CBS sitcom “Good Times” as well as on
stage and in the movies, joins the ancestors at her home
in Los Angeles, at the age of 78.

2006 – Ruth Brown, the gutsy Rhythm and Blues singer whose career
extended to acting and crusading for musicians’ rights,
joins the ancestors in Las Vegas at the age of 78
succumbing to complications of a heart attack and stroke
following surgery.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 16 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 16 *

1873 – William Christopher Handy is born in Florence, Alabama.
He will be best known as a composer and blues musician
and earn the nickname “Father of the Blues.” Among
his most noteworthy compositions will be “Memphis
Blues,” “St. Louis Blues,” and “Beale Street Blues.”
He will also form a music publishing company with
Harry Pace and become one of the most important
influences in African-American music. His 1941
autobiography, “Father of the Blues,” will be a
sourcebook and reference on this uniquely African
American musical style. W.C. Handy will join the
ancestors on March 28, 1958 in New York City, the same
year “The St. Louis Blues”, an biographical movie of
his life debuts.

1873 – Richard T. Greener, who was the first African American
graduate of Harvard University, is named professor of
metaphysics at the University of South Carolina.

1873 – African Americans win three state offices in the
Mississippi election: Alexander K. Davis, Lieutenant
governor; James Hill, secretary of state; T.W. Cardozo,
superintendent of education. African Americans win 55
of the 115 seats in the house and 9 out of 37 seats in
the senate, 42 per cent of the total number.

1930 – Chinua Achebe is born in Ogidi, Nigeria. He will become
the internationally acclaimed author of the novel
“Things Fall Apart,” among others.

1931 – Hubert Sumlin is born on a farm near Greenwood,
Mississippi. Sumlin will leave home at seventeen to
tour clubs and taverns throughout the South with his
childhood friend James Cotton. The Jimmy Cotton band
will record for the Sun label in Memphis from 1950 to
1953. In 1954, Sumlin will join the Howlin’ Wolf band
and move to Chicago. It will be Howlin’ Wolf who
mentors Sumlin, prodding and encouraging him to find
his own style and develop as a performer. He will
perform with Howlin’ Wolf for twenty five years.

1962 – Wilt Chamberlain of the NBA San Francisco Warriors
scores 73 points against the New York Knicks.

1963 – Zina Garrison, professional tennis player (1988 Olympic
Gold, Bronze), is born in Houston, Texas.

1964 – Dwight Gooden, professional baseball pitcher (New York
Mets), is born. “The Doctor” will set the record for
most strikeouts in a rookie season and become Rookie
of the Year in 1984. He also will become the youngest
to achieve that award. He will receive the Cy Young
Award in 1985.

1967 – A one-man showing of 48 paintings by Henry O. Tanner is
presented at the Grand Central Galleries in New York
City. The presentation of the canvases, not in the
best of condition, is criticized by The New York Times
as an “injustice to a proud man.”

1967 – Lisa Bonet, actress (“The Cosby Show”, “A Different
World”, “Angel Heart”, Bank Robber”, “New Eden”, “Dead
Connection”) is born in San Francisco, California.

1972 – The Louisiana National Guard mobilizes after police
officers kill two students during demonstrations at
Southern University.

1975 – Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears rushes for 105 yards
in a game against the San Francisco ’49ers. It will
be Payton’s first game of 100 plus yards. He will
repeat this feat over 50 times throughout his career
and add two 200-yard games.

1989 – South African President F.W. de Klerk announces the
scrapping of the Separate Amenities Act, opening up
the country’s beaches to all races.

1996 – Texaco agrees to pay $176.9 million dollars to settle
a two-year old race discrimination class action suit.

1998 – The Supreme Court rules that union members can file
discrimination lawsuits against employers even when
labor contracts require arbitration.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 15 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 15 *

218 – Hannibal, North African military genius, crosses the
BC Alps with elephants and 26,000 men in an expedition
to capture Rome.

1805 – Explorers Lewis and Clark reach the mouth of the
Columbia River. Accompanying them on their expedition
is a slave named York, who, while technically Clark’s
valet, distinguished himself as a scout, interpreter,
and emissary to the Native Americans encountered on
the expedition.

1825 – African American feminist, Sarah Jane Woodson, is born
in Chillicothe, Ohio.

1884 – The Berlin Conference, of European nations, is organized
by German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck to decide issues
regarding the colonization of Africa. The Europeans
attending the conference, decide which parts of the
African continent would be “owned” by the participants,
“allowing” only Liberia and Ethiopia to remain free
countries. Representatives from Great Britain, France,
Germany, Portugal, and Belgium negotiate their claims
to African territory and establish a framework for
making and negotiating future claims. Obviously, there
is no one representing Africans at this conference. By
1900, nearly 90 percent of African territory will be
claimed by European states.

1887 – Granville T. Woods receives a patent for the Synchronous
Multiplier Railway Telegraph.

1897 – Langston University, a public co-educational institution,
is founded in Langston, Oklahoma.

1897 – Voorhees College, a private co-educational institution
affiliated with the Episcopal Church, is founded in
Denmark, South Carolina.

1897 – John Mercer Langston joins the ancestors at the age of
67, in Washington, DC.

1928 – Roland Hayes opens his fifth American Tour at New York’s
Carnegie Hall packed with admirers.

1930 – Whitman Mayo, actor (Grady -“Sanford & Son”), is born in
New York City.

1937 – Yaphet Kotto, actor (“Brubaker”, “Alien”, “Raid on
Entebbe”, “Eye of the Tiger”, “Roots”, “Live and Let
Die”, “Midnight Run”, and TV’s “Homicide”), is born in
New York City.

1950 – Dr. Arthur Dorrington, a dentist, becomes the first
African American in organized hockey to suit up, a
member of the Atlantic City Seagulls of the Eastern
Amateur Hockey League.

1960 – Elgin Baylor, of the Los Angeles Lakers scores 71 points
against the New York Knicks.

1969 – The Amistad Research Center is incorporated as an
independent archive, library, & museum dedicated to
preserving African American & ethnic history and culture.
The center collects original source materials on the
history of the nation’s ethnic minorities and race
relations in the United States (over 10 million
documents). The Amistad was organized by the Race
Relations Department of Fisk University and the American
Missionary Association in 1966. The library is now
located in Tilton Hall on the campus of Tulane University
in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1976 – The Plains Baptist Church, home church of President Jimmy
Carter, votes to admit African American worshipers. The
church had been under pressure to admit African Americans
since Reverend Clennon King had announced his intentions
to join the congregation.

1979 – The Nobel Prize in economics is awarded to Professor
Arthur Lewis of Princeton University. He is the first
African American to receive the coveted prize in a
category other than peace.

1979 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Rosa L. Parks, who
was the Catalyst in the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott
of 1955-56.

1989 – President George Bush signs a bill to rename a Houston,
Texas, federal building after George Thomas “Mickey”
Leland, the Houston congressman who died in a plane crash
earlier in the year.

1998 – Kwame Ture succumbs to prostate cancer in Guinea and joins
the ancestors at age 57. He was born Stokely Carmichael
in the country of Trinidad (1941) and in 1966 coined the
phrase, “Black Power.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 14 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 14 *

1900 – In Washington, DC, a small group meets to form the
Washington Society of Colored Dentists. It is the
first society of African American dentists in the
United States.

1915 – Booker T. Washington, educator, orator, and founder of
Tuskegee Institute, joins the ancestors on the
college’s campus at the age of 59. He was one the
most famous African American educators and leaders of
the 19th century, whose message of acquiring practical
skills and emphasizing self-help over political rights
was popular among whites and segments of the African
American community. His 1901 autobiography, “Up From
Slavery”, which details his rise to success despite
numerous obstacles, became a best-seller and further
enhanced his public image as a self-made man. As
popular as he was in some quarters, Washington was
aggressively opposed by critics such as W.E.B. Du Bois
and William Monroe Trotter.

1920 – The New York Times and Tribune call Charles Gilpin’s
portrayal of Brutus Jones in “The Emperor Jones”, a
performance of heroic stature. Gilpin had premiered in
the play earlier in the month with the New York-based
Provincetown Players, which will influence his being
named one of the ten most important contributors to the
American theater of 1920 and the 1921 recipient of the
NAACP’s Spingarn Medal.

1934 – Ellis Marsalis is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. After
high school, Marsalis will enroll at Dillard University
(New Orleans) and graduate with a Bachelor of Arts
degree in music education. Marsalis will eventually
become New Orleans’ leading Jazz educator. He will
become a lecturer at Xavier University and an adjunct
teacher at Loyola University. Marsalis will enroll in
the graduate program at Loyola University and will
graduate with a Masters of Music Education. Marsalis’
teaching career will flower at the New Orleans Center
for Creative Arts (NOCCA). Many of his former students
will be professional musicians locally as well as
internationally. Three of his six sons, Branford,
Wynton and Delfeayo as well as trumpeter Terence
Blanchard, saxophonist Donald Harrison and pianist
Harry Connick, Jr. will attain worldwide acclaim with
recording contracts on major labels.

1934 – William Levi Dawson’s Symphony No. 1, Negro Folk
Symphony, is the first symphony on black folk themes by
an African American composer to be performed by a major
orchestra.

1960 – Four African American girls are escorted by U.S. Marshals
and parents to two New Orleans schools being
desegregated.

1966 – Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) defeats Cleveland
Williams by TKO in the third round in front of Boxing’s
largest indoor crowd, assembled in the Houston Astrodome.
He retains his world heavyweight title.

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