KRLemmons African American History, Resources

March 10 Woman of the Day: Hallie Quinn Brown

Hallie Quinn Brown is March 10 Woman of the Day.  An educator, elocutionist, she will pioneer the movement for black women’s clubs in the United States.  More information about this pioneering woman can be found here:

Additional sources: About. com: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/aframer18631900/p/hallie_brown.htm

Hallie Quinn Brown Center: http://www.hallieqbrown.org/1099.html

Voices from the Gap, University of Minnesota: http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/brownHallie.php

Sage Publications: http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/11830_Chapter3.pdf

KRLemmons African American History

March 10 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 10 *

1850 – Hallie Quinn Brown is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She
will become a Black educator and elocutionist who will
pioneer the movement for Black women’s clubs in the United
States. The daughter of former slaves, she will receive a
B.S. from Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1873. She will
then teach on plantations and in the public schools of
Mississippi and South Carolina. After graduating from the
Chautauqua Lecture School, and teaching in Dayton, Ohio,
and in Alabama, she will return to Wilberforce to teach
elocution. At that time she will begin her extensive travels
as an elocutionist and lecturer, speaking in Europe as well
as the United States on topics of the life of Blacks in
America. She will assist in founding the earliest women’s
clubs for Blacks and, from 1905 to 1912, will serve as
president of the Ohio State Federation of Colored Women’s
Clubs. She will also help to found the Colored Women’s
League of Washington, D.C., a predecessor of
the National Association of Colored Women. She will also
author “Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction,”
a 1926 collection of biographical sketches of notable
African American women. She will join the ancestors on
September 16, 1949, in Wilberforce, Ohio.

1863 – Two U.S. African American infantry regiments, the First and
Second South Carolina Volunteers, capture and occupy
Jacksonville, Florida, causing panic along the Southern
seaboard. These regiments are not to be confused with the
confederate army First South Carolina Volunteers Infantry
Regiment.

1910 – The Pittsburgh Courier begins publishing. It will become one
of the most influential African American newspapers in the
country. In 1966, it will change its name to the “New
Pittsburgh Courier,” and continue to operate as a semi-weekly
publication. In 1987, the Courier will be the winner of the
John B. Russwurm award for excellence in responsible
journalism given by the National Newspaper Publishers
Association to the top African American Newspapers in America.

1913 – Harriet Tubman joins the ancestors in Auburn, New York. An
escaped slave, Tubman was known to the Underground Railroad as
“Black Moses” for her heroic trips south to free hundreds of
slaves. During the Civil War, she served as a scout, spy,
cook, and nurse.

1963 – Jasmine Guy is born in Boston, Massachusetts. She will become
an actress on television and will be best known for her role
as “Whitley” in the series “A Different World.”

1969 – James Earl Ray pleads guilty in the first degree to the murder
of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. and will be sentenced to 99 years
in prison. The House Select Committee on Assassinations will
later state that although it believes Ray shot King, Ray was
part of a larger conspiracy. Ray will later repudiate that
plea, maintaining his innocence until his death.

1972 – Three thousand delegates and five thousand observers attend
the first African American political convention in Gary,
Indiana. The NAACP and other groups withdraw from the
convention after the adoption of resolutions that are critical
of busing and the state of Israel.

1990 – Haitian ruler Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril resigns during a popular
uprising against his military regime.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 9 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 9 *

1841 – Sengbe Pieh, known as Joseph Cinque, and the surviving African
slaves who revolted on the ship Amistad are ordered freed by
the United States Supreme Court and return to Africa after
successfully appealing their mutiny conviction on grounds that
they were kidnapped by outlawed slave traders. Their defense
attorney is John Quincy Adams, former President of the United
States and a Massachusetts senator. Before reaching the
Supreme Court, U.S. President Martin Van Buren appeals twice
the decision of lower courts to free the slaves. View the
original documents of the U.S. Supreme Court at:
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/amistad/supreme-court-statement.html

1871 – Oscar De Priest is born in Florence, Alabama. He will be the
first congressman elected from a northern state. He will
represent Illinois and be an active advocate for pensions for
African American ex-slaves, lynching prevention, and civil
rights improvements.

1891 – The North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University is
founded in Greensboro.

1892 – Three friends of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, prominent African
American businessmen, are lynched in Memphis, Tennessee after
an incident that stemmed from their opening a grocery store
across the street from a white-owned grocery store.

1911 – White firemen of the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific
Railroad struck to protest the hiring of African American
firemen. (For those who don’t remember steam engines, firemen
worked in the engine stoking the fire, which kept the steam
generator going)

1914 – The “New” Southern University campus opens in Scotlandville,
Louisiana near Baton Rouge with nine teachers and 47 students.

1930 – Ornette Coleman is born in Fort Worth, Texas. He will become a
self-taught musician, beginning on alto saxophone when he is
fourteen and moving on to the tenor saxophone when he is
sixteen. He will be influenced by Charlie Parker, Illinois
Jacquet and Big Jay McNeely. A born improvisionalist, he
found it difficult to fit into his school band as well as the
mainstream groups that he will later join. It wasn’t until
the late 1950’s that he will be recognized for his jazz
innovations. He will name his musical method “harmolodics.”
Many musicians and critics and jazz listeners will reject his
new jazz as formless and abstract. However, critics of his
method will recognize his importance as a composer. Critics
will praise his compositions, including “Peace,” “Lonely
Woman,” and “Beauty Is a Rare Thing.” In 1967 he will win
a Guggenheim fellowship, the first granted to a jazz musician.
He will compose and perform film scores, including “Chappaqua”
(1965), “Box Office” (1981), and “Naked Lunch” (1991). In
1997 the New York Philharmonic will perform his “Skies of
America,” a large-scale work that was first recorded by the
London Symphony Orchestra in 1972.

1931 – Walter F. White is named NAACP executive secretary.

1933 – Lloyd Price is born in Kenner, Louisiana. He will become a
successful Rhythm & Blues artist and will record “Lawdy Miss
Clawdy” (’52 #1 R&B), “Oooh, Oooh, Oooh” (’52 #4 R&B), “Ain’t
It A Shame” (’53 #4 R&B), “Just Because” (’57 #3 R&B, #29
Pop), “Stagger Lee” (’58 #1 R&B, #1 Pop), “Where Were You (On
Our Wedding Day)” (’59 #4 R&B, #23 Pop), Personality” (’59 #1
R&B, #2 Pop), and fifteen other hits.

1948 – Jeffrey Osborne is born in Providence, Rhode Island. He will
become an accomplished rhythm and blues singer performing as
lead singer for the group LTD. He will later become a
successful solo artist.

1964 – Miriam Zenzi Makeba speaks before the United Nations about the
apartheid system in South Africa.

1965 – Three white Unitarian ministers, including the Rev. James J.
Reeb, are attacked with clubs on the streets of Selma,
Alabama, while participating in a civil rights demonstration.
Reeb will later die in a Birmingham, Alabama hospital.

1966 – Andrew F. Brimmer becomes the first African American governor
on the Federal Reserve Board.

1971 – Emmanuel Lewis is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will become
a child actor and will be best known for his television role
as “Webster.”

1997 – The popular “gangsta rapper” Notorious B.I.G., whose real name
is Christopher Wallace, joins the ancestors after being killed
in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California at the age
of 24.

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

KRLemmons African American History, Resources

March 8 Woman of the Day: Phyllis Mae Dailey, African American Nurse

Born on this day in 1945, Phyllis Mae Dailey becomes one of the first African American nurses commissioned to serve in the U.S. Navy Reserve.  To read more about her and other African American nurses, click here:

Additional information about Phyllis Mae Daley:                                                                      Photo from National Archives: http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/?dod-date=308

KRLemmons African American History

March 8 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 8 *

1825 – Alexander Thomas Augusta is born free in Norfolk, Virginia. He
will graduate from Trinity Medical College in Toronto, Canada
in 1856, serve his medical apprenticeship in Philadelphia,
and join the Union Army in 1863 with the rank of major. In
1865 he becomes the first African American to head any
hospital in the United States, when the Freedmen Bureau
establishes Freedmen’s Hospital at Howard University with
Augusta in charge. In 1868, Howard University opens its own
medical school, with Augusta as demonstrator of anatomy. He
will be the first African American to receive an honorary
degree from Howard University (1869). He will join the ancestors
on December 21, 1890.

1873 – The United States Senate refuses to seat P.B.S. Pinchback of
Louisiana because of alleged election irregularities.

1898 – Louise Beavers is born in Cincinnati, Ohio. She will become
an actress and will be cast as the Henderson’s maid in “The
Beulah Show,” the first network show on television to have an
African American female in the title role. She will join the
ancestors on October 26, 1962. She will be inducted posthumously
into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1976.

1942 – Richard Anthony “Dick” Allen is born in Wampum, Pennsylvania.
He will become a professional baseball player with the
Philadelphia Phillies in 1963. He will play in the major
leagues for 14 years.

1945 – Phyllis Mae Daley, a graduate of Lincoln School for Nurses in
New York, receives her commission as an ensign in the Navy
Nurse Corps. She is the first of four African American Navy
nurses (including Helen Turner, Ella Lucille Stimley, and
Edith De Voe) to serve on active duty in World War II.

1971 – Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali in a heavyweight boxing
championship match billed as the “fight of the century.” Ali
was previously undefeated. Both Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali
collect $2,500,000 for the fight.

1977 – Henry L. Marsh, III is elected the first African American
mayor of Richmond, Virginia.

1991 – “New Jack City,” a film directed by Mario Van Peebles, actor
and son of director Melvin Van Peebles, premieres. Produced
by African Americans George Jackson and Doug McHenry, the
film, which tells the violent story of the rise and fall of a
drug lord played by Wesley Snipes, will suffer from
widespread violence among moviegoers.

2012 – Jimmy Ellis, who belted out the dance anthem “Disco Inferno” in
the 1970s for the Trammps, joins the ancestors at the age of 74.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 7 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 7 *

1539 – The first person of African descent to traverse the southern
portion of, what is now, the United States is Estevanico, or
Esteban, explorer from Azamov, Morocco. He discovers Arizona
and New Mexico. His journey lasted eight years. He was
leading an advance scouting party when he joins the ancestors
after being killed at Hawikuh Pueblo, New Mexico.

1870 – Governor William W. Holden of North Carolina, denounces Klan
violence and issues a proclamation declaring Alamance County
in a state of insurrection.

1917 – Janet Collins is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. She will
become a prima ballerina and the first African American
ballerina to perform on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera
House in New York City. She will be one of the few classically
trained African American dancers of her generation. In 1951
she will win the Donaldson Award for best dancer on Broadway
for her work in Cole Porter’s “Out of This World” (musical).
She also will perform in Aida and Carmen. She will join the
ancestors on May 28, 2003 in Fort Worth, Texas.

1927 – In Nixon v. Hearn, the United States Supreme Court strikes
down a Texas law prohibiting African Americans from voting in
a “white” primary.

1930 – “The New York Times” capitalizes the word Negro “in recognition
of racial self-respect for those who have been for generations
in the lowercase.”

1941 – British troops invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia). This invasion will
result in the liberation of Ethiopia from fascist Italian
occupation (1936 – 1941).

1942 – The first five cadets graduate from the Tuskegee Flying School:
Captain Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. and Second Lieutenants Mac Ross,
Charles DeBow, L.R. Curtis, and George S. Roberts. They will
become part of the famous 99th Pursuit Squadron.

1945 – Photographer Anthony Bonair is born in Trinidad. He will emigrate
to the United States in 1969. A photographer since the early 1970’s,
Bonair’s work will explore dance, Carnival, and the streets as
well as new directions utilizing multiple-exposure techniques.

1950 – Franco Harris is born in Fort Dix, New Jersey. He will become
a NFL fullback for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle
Seahawks. In his career, he will be All-AFC three times, play
in eight Pro Bowls, MVP in Super Bowl IX, rush for 1,000 yards
for nine seasons, rush for 100 yards in 47 games, rush for
12,120 career yards, 91 touchdowns rushing, 9 TDs receiving,
14,622 combined net yards, and 1,556 yards rushing in 19 post-
season games. One of his most memorable plays will be “The
Immaculate Reception” in a Steeler win against the Oakland
Raiders. This play will be voted the play of the 20th Century
on Superbowl Sunday, January 30, 2000. He will be elected to
the Pro Football Hall of Fame on January 27, 1990 and enshrined
on August 8, 1990.

1951 – Ezzard Charles wins a 15-round heavyweight decision against
Jersey Joe Walcott.

1952 – Lynn Curtis Swann is born in Alcoa, Tennessee. He will become a
NFL wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He will be
elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993. Though
his professional career didn’t yield large statistics, he will
be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001. He will
also be selected to the NFL 1970s All-Decade Team by Hall of
Fame voters. After retiring from football, he will become a
network sportscaster.

1965 – John Lewis leads a group of civil rights marchers across the
Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where they are attacked
by Alabama state troopers and sheriff’s deputies with tear gas
and billy clubs. This violent confrontation will be known as
“Bloody Sunday,” and will spark the historic Selma-to-
Montgomery voting rights march led by Martin Luther King Jr.

1985 – The record “We Are the World” is released as a single. The
song, whose proceeds benefit African famine relief efforts, is
written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson and produced by
Quincy Jones, with the singing participants organized by Jones,
Harry Belafonte, and Ken Kragen. To insure that the all-night
recording session went off without a hitch and that the true
cause of the song was etched into the hearts and minds of the
wide array of internationally known talent performing, a hand-
written sign is placed outside the studio at A&M Records in
Hollywood which simply said, “Check Your Egos at the Door.”

1987 – World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champ, “Iron Mike” Tyson
becomes the youngest heavyweight titlist ever as he beats James
“Bonecrusher” Smith in a decision during a 12-round bout in Las
Vegas, Nevada.

2006 – Gordon Parks, renowned photographer, writer and director, joins
the ancestors at the age of 93.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 6 African American Historical Events

    Today in Black History – March 6      *

1479 – The Treaty of Alcacovas is signed.  This will establish the
territorial domains of Portugal and Castile (Spain) along a
longitudinal line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands.
Spain, thereby, recognizes Portugal’s rights to explore the
African coast.  Portugal becomes the first European nation to
exploit the West African slave trade.

1775 – Prince Hall and fourteen other African Americans are initiated
into British Military Lodge No. 441 of the Masons at Fort
Independence, Massachusetts.  Hall is a leather-dresser and
caterer.  On July 3, 1775, African Lodge No. 1 will be
organized in Boston by this group of African American Masons.

1857 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules against citizenship for African
Americans in the Dred Scott decision. The Court rules that
Dred Scott, a slave, cannot sue for his freedom in a free
state because he is property and, as such, “has no rights a
white man has to respect.”  This ruling also opens up the
northern territory to slavery.

1862 – President Lincoln sends message to Congress recommending
gradual and compensated emancipation of the slaves.

1901 – Virginia State University in Ettrick, Virginia (Outside of
Petersburg), is founded.

1909 – Obafemi Awolowo is born in Ikenne, Nigeria.  He will become
the first Premier of Western Nigeria.  He will also be a
strong antagonist of the north’s feudal system and its spread
to other parts of Nigeria and an advocate of the creation of
more states in Nigeria.  Chief Awolowo and 28 other members
of his party will be later put on trial for treasonable
felony.  He was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment, and,
on appeal to the Federal Court the sentence was upheld. 
After spending just over three years in Calabar prison, he
will be released with a state pardon. Nine days later, amid
jubilation he was unanimously elected leader of the then
10,500,000 Yorubas and leader of the Western delegation to
the All Nigerian Conference on the future association of
Nigeria.  Chief Awolowo will be an author whose publications
will include “Path to Nigerian Freedom, Thoughts on the
Nigerian Constitution”.

1923 – Charles Ethan Porter joins the ancestors in Rockville,
Connecticut. A student of the National Academy of Design in
New York City, the first African American artist in the
United States to graduate from a four-year school of art,
and member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Porter
did not receive the recognition that contemporaries Edward
Bannister and Henry Ossawa Tanner won. He will be best known
for the paintings “Still Life (Crock With Onions),”
“Strawberries,” and “Daisies,” but there will not be a major
retrospective of his work until 1987.

1941 – Wilver Dornel “Willie” Stargell is born in Earlsboro, Oklahoma.
He will become an all-star baseball player for the Pittsburgh
Pirates.   He will hit 475 career home runs – twice leading
the National League with 48 in 1971 and with 44 in 1973.  He
will drive in 1540 runs, score 1195 and have 2232 hits with a
lifetime batting average of .282.  He will be inducted into
Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1988.

1944 – Mary Wilson is born in Greenville, Mississippi. In 1959, she
will begin singing with a group called the “Primettes”, a
sister group to a male group, The Primes.” The Primes will
become “The Temptations” and the Primettes will become “The
Supremes.”  The Supremes will become the only American act to
have five consecutive number one hits!  From their beginning
to the end of the group, the Supremes will have 33 songs
reach the top 40. After the group disbands in 1977, Mary
Wilson will become a successful businesswoman, author,
lecturer, actress, and singer of not just pop music, but
Jazz, Rock, R&B, and Dance.   She will author the best-seller
“Dreamgirl-My Life as a Supreme.”  In 1988, Mary Wilson will
become the first female rock star to accept her lifetime
achievement award from the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame.

1957 – Ghana becomes the first African nation to achieve freedom from
colonial rule when the Ashanti, Northern Protectorates, the
Gold Coast and British Togoland declare their independence.
The celebration ceremonies are attended by a number of
American dignitaries, including African American leaders
Ralph Bunche, A. Philip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.,
Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King.

1981 – Dr. Bernard Harleston, former dean of arts and sciences at
Tufts University, is appointed president of New York’s City
College.

2000 – Three white New York police officers are convicted of a cover-
up in the brutal police station attack on Haitian immigrant
Abner Louima.

2000 – “Earth, Wind and Fire” is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame.

2006 – Kirby Puckett joins the ancestors, one day after the Hall of
Fame outfielder had a stroke at his Arizona home, at the age
of 45. He carried the Minnesota Twins to World Series titles
in 1987 and 1991 before his career was cut short by glaucoma.
He played his entire career with the Twins and was an icon in
Minnesota.

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

KRLemmons African American History, Resources

March 5 Woman of the Day: Leontine Turpeau Current Kelly

In 1920, Leontine Turpeau Current Kelly is born in Washington, DC.
Later, she will become the first African American woman to be named a bishop of the United Methodist Church. She joined the ancestors June 28, 2012.

Information about her, can be found at this link: http://www.post-gazette.com/obituaries/2012/07/11/Obituary-Leontine-T-C-Kelluy-First-black-woman-bishop-in-a-major-Christian-denomination/stories/201207110127 and this link: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/07/local/la-me-leontine-kelly-20120707

Video: http://www.visionaryproject.org/kellyleontine/