KRLemmons African American History

January 18 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 18 *

1856 – Dr. Daniel Nathan Hale Williams is born in Hollidaysburg,
Pennsylvania. He will graduate from Chicago Medical
College in 1883 and begin his practice on Chicago’s South
Side. After 8 years of frustration, not being able to use
the facilities at the white hospitals in Chicago, he will
found Provident Hospital in 1891 and open it to patients of
all races. He will make his mark in medical history on
July 10, 1893, when he performs the world’s first successful
open heart surgery.

1948 – The first courses begin at the University of Ibadan in
Nigeria.

1949 – Congressman William Dawson is elected chairman of the House
Expenditure Committee. He is the first African American to
head a standing committee of Congress.

1958 – Willie Eldon O’Ree becomes the first person of African
descent to play in the NHL, when he debuts with the Boston
Bruins in a 3-0 win over Montreal in the Forum.

1961 – Zanzibar’s Afro-Shirazi party wins 1 seat by a single vote
and control Parliament by a single seat.

1962 – Southern University is closed because of demonstrations
protesting the expulsion of student sit-in activists.

1966 – Robert C. Weaver takes the oath of office as Secretary of the
Department of Housing and Urban Development. Appointed by
President Lyndon B. Johnson, Weaver becomes the first
African American to serve in a U.S. President’s Cabinet.

1975 – “The Jeffersons,” one of the first TV shows about an African
American family, is seen for the first time. The Jeffersons,
who move to Manhattan’s posh East Side, are the former
neighbors of the Bunkers in the sitcom “All in the Family.”
The Jeffersons will be the first show to introduce the
subject of mixed marriages humorously and tastefully in
prime time TV. Sherman Hemsley plays George Jefferson and
Isabelle Sanford the role of Louise, his wife.

1989 – Otis Redding, The Temptations, and Stevie Wonder are inducted
into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

1990 – The South African government announces that it is
reconsidering a ban on the African National Congress.

1990 – Washington, DC mayor Marion Barry is arrested for allegedly
purchasing and using crack cocaine in a Washington, DC hotel
room. The circumstances surrounding his arrest, trial, and
conviction on one count of misdemeanor cocaine possession
will be hotly debated by African American and white citizens
of the District and elsewhere.

1995 – South African President Nelson Mandela’s cabinet denies
amnesty sought by 3,500 police officers in apartheid’s
waning days.

2000 – Jester Hairston, who appeared on radio and TV’s “Amos ‘n’
Andy,” but who was better known to younger fans as the wise
old church member Rolly on the sitcom “Amen,” joins the
ancestors in Los Angeles, California at the age of 98.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 17 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 17 *

1759 – Paul Cuffee is born in Cuttyhunk, Massachusetts. He will
become a successful shipowner, philanthropist, and a force
in the movement for African Americans’ repatriation to
Africa. He was of Aquinnah Wampanoag and African Ashanti
descent and helps to colonize Sierra Leone. He will build a
lucrative shipping empire and establish the first racially
integrated school in Westport, Massachusetts. He will join
the ancestors on September 9, 1817.

1874 – Armed white Democrats seize the Texas government and put an
end to Radical Reconstruction in Texas.

1917 – The United States pays $ 25 million for the Danish Virgin
Islands.

1923 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to George Washington
Carver, head of the department of research, Tuskegee
Institute, for his pioneering work in agricultural
chemistry.

1923 – The first session of the Third Pan-African Congress convenes
in London, England. The second session will be held in
Lisbon.

1924 – Jewel Plummer Cobb is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will
be a prominent cancer research biologist before becoming a
professor and administrator at Connecticut College and
Rutgers University and, in 1990, president of California
State University, Fullerton, the first African American
woman to hold such a position in the CSU system.

1927 – Eartha Mae Keith is born in North, South Carolina. She will
start her career at the age of 16 as a professional dancer
with the Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe, which will take her
to Paris, where she will tour as a nightclub singer. She
will become known as Eartha Kitt. She will eventually
return to the United States and roles on Broadway and in
films. In 1968, her career will take a sudden turn when, at
a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson, she will
speak out against the Vietnam War. For many years
afterward, she will be blacklisted by many in the U.S.
entertainment industry and be forced to work abroad where
her status will remain undiminished. In 2007, She will
celebrate her 80th birthday. This remarkable milestone will
be celebrated with a special performance at New York’s
Carnegie Hall in June. She will join the ancestors on December
25, 2008.

1931 – James Earl Jones is born in Arkabutla, Mississippi. He will
become renowned as an actor, both on the stage and the
screen, earning a Tony award in 1969 for his portrayal of
boxing great Jack Johnson in the “The Great White Hope” as
well as acclaim for his Broadway roles in “A Lesson From
Aloes,” “Fences,” and many others. Among his film and
television credits will be the voice of Darth Vader in
“Star Wars” and leading roles in “Paris” and “Gabriel’s
Fire.”

1931 – Lawrence Douglas Wilder is born in Richmond, Virginia. He
will graduate from Virginia Union University and serve in
the U.S. Army in Korea, where he will receive the Bronze
Star for heroism. He will attend and graduate from, the
Howard University School of Law and become a successful
trial attorney. In 1969, he will be elected as Virginia’s
first African American state senator since Reconstruction.
In 1985, he will become Virginia’s first African American
Lieutenant Governor. He will make history for a third time
on January 13, 1990, when he takes office as the first
elected African American governor in U.S. history.

1942 – Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. is born in Louisville, Kentucky.
Early in his boxing career, Clay converts to Islam. As
Muhammad Ali, he is one of the first African American
athletes to intermingle political and social consciousness
with sports. He will become the dominant heavyweight boxer
of the 1960s and 1970s, winning an Olympic gold medal,
capturing the professional world heavyweight championship
on three separate occasions, and defend his title
successfully 19 times. Ali’s extroverted, colorful style,
both in and out of the ring, will introduce a new mode of
media-conscious athletic celebrity. Through his strong
assertions of Black pride, his conversion to the Muslim
faith, and his outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War, Ali
will become a highly controversial symbol of the turbulent
1960s.

1961 – Patrice Lumumba, African revolutionary and first Congolese
Premier of the Republic of Congo, joins the ancestors after
being murdered at the age of 36, by the secessionist
Tshombe’s soldiers.

1966 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. opens his civil rights campaign
in Chicago, Illinois. This marks the first time, during the
civil rights movement, that the campaign takes place in a
northern city.

1970 – John M. Burgess is installed as bishop of the Protestant
Episcopal diocese of Massachusetts.

1978 – Dr. Ronald McNair is named by NASA as a participant on a
space mission.

1989 – The Phoenix Suns/Miami Heat game is cancelled, due to racial
unrest in Miami.

1990 – The Four Tops, Hank Ballard, and The Platters are inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

1996 – Former U.S. Representative Barbara Jordan joins the ancestors
in Austin, Texas, at the age of 59.

1998 – Louis Stokes, the first African American congressman from the
state of Ohio, announces his retirement from Congress at the
age of 73. He has been a congressman for three decades.

2000 – Nearly 50,000 people march to South Carolina’s Statehouse on
Martin Luther King Day to demand the Confederate battle flag
be taken down. They are protesting the Confederate flag as a
symbol of slavery and racism.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 16 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 16 *

1776 – The Continental Congress approves General George Washington’s
order on the enlistment of free African Americans.

1865 – General William T. Sherman issues his Field Order No. 15,
setting aside “the islands from Charleston, south, the
abandoned rice fields along the river for thirty miles back
from the sea, and the country bordering the St. John’s River,
Florida,” for exclusive settlement by African Americans. The
order provides that “each family should have a plot of not
more than forty (40) acres of tillable ground…in the
possession of which land the military authorities will afford
them protection until such time as they can protect
themselves….” General Rufus Saxton, South Carolina
Freedmen’s Bureau director, will later settle some 40,000
African Americans on forty-acre tracts in the area. In
South Carolina and other states, African American settlers
will be given possessory titles pending final action on the
confiscated and abandoned lands of Confederate rebels. Many
will never see their land, because President Johnson will
reverse the policy implemented by the Freedmen’s Bureau.

1871 – Jefferson F. Long, of Georgia, is sworn in as the second
African American congressman.

1901 – Hiram Revels joins the ancestors in Aberdeen, Mississippi, at
the age of 73. He held the distinction of being the first
African American elected to serve in the U.S. Senate.

1938 – Lionel Hampton and Teddy Wilson become the first African
Americans to perform at Carnegie Hall, in New York City.
Benny Goodman leads a historic jazz concert, later considered
to be one of the first “serious” jazz concerts. Goodman
refuses to perform without the two African American members
of his band. Carnegie Hall officials will relent and the
integrated band performs to critical praise with Hampton on
vibraphone and Wilson on piano.

1941 – The War Department announces formation of the first Army Air
Corps squadron for African American cadets. The 99th Pursuit
Squadron is formed and the Tuskegee Training Program is
established. The 99th will fly more than 500 missions and
more than 3,700 sorties during one year of combat before
being combined with the 332nd Fighter Group.

1941 – Dr. Charles Richard Drew sets up and runs the pioneer blood
plasma bank in Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. This
bank will serve as one of the models for the system of banks
operated later by the American Red Cross.

1962 – A suit accusing the New York City Board of Education of using
“racial quotas” is filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of
African American and Puerto Rican children.

1966 – Harold R. Perry becomes the second African American Roman
Catholic bishop in U.S. history.

1967 – Lucius D. Amerson, a former army paratrooper, becomes the first
African American sheriff in the South since Reconstruction,
when he is sworn in at Tuskegee (Macon County), Alabama.

1967 – The first Black government is installed in the Commonwealth of
the Bahamas.

1974 – Heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali, is named the
Associated Press “Athlete of the Year.”

1978 – NASA names Major Frederick D. Gregory, Major Guion Bluford,
and Dr. Ronald McNair to its astronaut program.

1988 – Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, a self-styled oddsmaker and expert
on sports, is fired as a CBS Sports commentator after making
controversial remarks about athletes of African descent.

1989 – Racially motivated disturbances erupt in Miami, Florida after
a police officer fatally shoots an African American
motorcyclist, causing a crash that kills a passenger.

2012 – Today marks the first King holiday where visitors can celebrate
the legacy of the civil rights leader at the Martin Luther King,
Jr. Memorial, since it was dedicated in the fall of 2011. The
National Park Service will lay a wreath at the site and offer
educational programs throughout the day._

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 15 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 15 *

1865 – An African American division, under the command of Major
General Charles Paine, participates in the Fort Fisher,
North Carolina expedition, which will close the Confederacy’s
last major seaport.

1908 – Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority is founded at Howard University in
Washington, DC. The culmination of efforts by Ethel Hedgeman
(Lyle) and eight other undergraduates, it is the first Greek-
letter organization for African American women.

1929 – Michael Luther King is born in Atlanta, Georgia. His father
will have both of their names changed to Martin Luther King,
Sr. and Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will become a Baptist
minister, world-renowned civil rights leader, and an advocate
of non-violence. His efforts, beginning with the Montgomery
bus boycott in 1955 and continuing for the next 13 years,
will fundamentally change civil rights for African Americans
and earn him a number of honors and awards, including the
Nobel Peace Prize (1964), Medal of Freedom, and the NAACP’s
Spingarn Medal (1957). He will join the ancestors on April 4,
1968 after being assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in
Memphis, Tennessee.

1941 – Yancey Williams, a Howard University student, asked a federal
court to order the Secretary of War and other government
officials to consider his application for enlistment in the
Army Air Corps as a flying cadet.

1950 – More than 4,000 delegates from one hundred national
organizations attend the National Emergency Civil Rights
Conference in Washington, DC.

1968 – Reporting the results of a “Jet” magazine poll, “The New York
Times” article “Negro History Week Stirs Up Semantic Debate”
indicates that 59% of those polled prefer the term Afro-
American or Black to Negro.

1970 – Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, the nearby crypt containing
the remains of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his boyhood home
are dedicated as part of a memorial to be known as the Martin
Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Change.

1970 – Biafra officially surrenders to the Nigerian government and is
reintegrated into Nigeria. Odumegwu Ojukwu had declared the
independence of the eastern province of Biafra in 1967 to
guarantee the survival of Igbos, Biafra’s ethnic majority
group. During the war with Nigeria, as many as 400,000
Biafrans died of starvation.

1990 – George Foreman knocks out Gerry Cooney in 2 rounds, at the age
of forty two.

1998 – The Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s (SCLC) National
President Joseph E. Lowery, steps down from his post and
Martin Luther King, III is named the new president, the actual
birthday of SCLC Founding President, Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 14 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 14 *

1868 – The South Carolina constitutional convention, the first
official assembly in the western hemisphere with an African
American majority, meets in the Charleston Clubhouse with
seventy-six African American delegates and forty-eight white
delegates. Two-thirds of the African American delegates are
former slaves. A New York Herald reporter writes: “Here in
Charleston is being enacted the most incredible, hopeful, and
yet unbelievable experiment in all the history of mankind.”

1868 – The North Carolina constitutional convention meets in Raleigh,
with fifteen African American and one hundred eighteen whites
in attendance.

1873 – P.B.S. Pinchback is elected to the U.S. Senate. Since he had
previously been elected to Congress, he went to Washington
with the unique distinction of being both a senator-elect and
a congressman-elect.

1874 – I.D. Shadd is elected Speaker of the Lower House of the
Mississippi legislature.

1916 – Author John Oliver Killens is born in Macon, Georgia. Among
his books will be the novels “Youngblood,” and “And Then We
Heard the Thunder,” biographies of Denmark Vesey, John Henry,
and Aleksandr Pushkin, and the script for “Odds Against
Tomorrow,” a 1959 movie starring Harry Belafonte. He will join
the ancestors on October 27, 1987.

1930 – Biologist and pioneer of cell division, Ernest E Just, is named
Vice-President of the American Zoological Society.

1940 – Horace Julian Bond is born in Nashville, Tennessee. He will be
one of several hundred students from across the South who will
found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
He will become SNCC’s communications director. He will spend
over twenty years of service in the Georgia General Assembly,
after having his first elective seats denied him in the
mid-sixties. Bond will be known also for his narration of many
civil rights oriented programs, most notably, the critically
acclaimed 1987 and 1990 PBS series, “Eyes on the Prize.” He
will become Chairman of the NAACP in February, 1998.

1948 – Carl Weathers is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He will
become an actor and is best known for his portrayal of
fictional boxer Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” movies.

1970 – Diana Ross and the Supremes perform their last concert
together, at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas.

1975 – William T. Coleman is named Secretary of Transportation by
President Gerald R. Ford. He is the second African American
to hold a Cabinet-level position.

1979 – After much pressure from civil rights leaders and others,
President Jimmy Carter proposes Martin Luther King Jr.’s
birthday become a federal holiday.

1981 – James Frank, president of Lincoln University in Jefferson City,
Missouri, is installed as the first African American president
of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

1987 – The National Urban League’s report “State of Black America”
blasts President Reagan’s policies, stating, “Black Americans
enter 1987 besieged by the resurgence of raw racism,
persistent economic depression and the continue erosion of
past gains.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 13 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 13 *

1869 – A National Convention of African American leaders meets in
Washington, DC. Frederick Douglass is elected president.

1869 – The first African American labor convention is held when the
Convention of the Colored National Labor Union takes place.

1873 – P.B.S. Pinchback relinquishes the office of governor, saying
at the inauguration of the new Louisiana governor: “I now have
the honor to formally surrender the office of governor, with
the hope that you will administer the government in the
interests of all the people [and that] your administration
will be as fair toward the class that I represent, as mine has
been toward the class represented by you.”

1913 – Delta Sigma Theta Sorority is founded on the campus of Howard
University. The sorority will grow, from the original 22
founders, to over 175,000 members in over 800 chapters in the
United States, West Germany, the Caribbean, Liberia, and the
Republic of South Korea.

1953 – Don Barksdale becomes the first African American person to play
in an NBA All-Star Game.

1966 – Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American appointed
to a presidential cabinet position, when President Lyndon B.
Johnson names him to head the newly created Department of
Housing and Urban Development.

1979 – A commemorative stamp of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is issued
by the U.S. Postal Service as part of its Black Heritage USA
commemorative series. The stamp of the slain civil rights
leader is the second in the series.

1979 – Singer Donnie Hathaway joins the ancestors after jumping from
the 15th floor of New York’s Essex House hotel.

1982 – Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson are elected to the Baseball Hall
of Fame.

1983 – Citing Muhammad Ali’s deteriorating physical condition, the AMA
calls for the banning of prizefighting because new evidence
suggests that chronic brain damage is prevalent in boxers.

1989 – Sterling Allen Brown joins the ancestors in Washington, DC. He
had devoted his life to the development of an authentic black
folk literature. He was one of the first scholars to identify
folklore as a vital component of the black aesthetic and to
recognize its validity as a form of artistic expression. He
worked to legitimatize this genre in several ways. As a
critic, he exposed the shortcomings of white literature that
stereotyped blacks and demonstrated why black authors are best
suited to describe the Black experience. As a poet, he mined
the rich vein of black Southern culture, replacing primitive
or sentimental caricatures with authentic folk heroes drawn
from Afro-American sources. He was associated with Howard
University for almost sixty years.

1990 – L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia is inaugurated as governor and
becomes the first elected African American governor in the
United States. Wilder won the election in Virginia by a mere
7,000 votes in a state once the heart of the Confederacy.
Later in the year, he will receive the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal
for his lifetime achievements.

1999 – Michael Jordan, considered the best player to ever play in the
NBA, retires from professional basketball after thirteen
seasons. This is the second time ‘His Airness’ has retired.
He leaves the game after leading the Chicago Bulls to six NBA
championships and winning five MVP awards.

2010 – Rhythm & Blues singer Teddy Pendergrass, one of the most electric
and successful figures in music until a car crash 28 years ago
left him in a wheelchair, joins the ancestors after
succumbing to colon cancer at the age of 59.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 12 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 12                *

1879 – British troops invade Zululand from Natal, confident that they
could crush the Zulu forces armed with spears and shields.
However, the well-trained Zulu army repulses the initial
attack, killing over 1300 British troops in the Battle of
Isandlwana. But that success will exhaust the Zulu army, and
before Cetshwayo could mount a counteroffensive into Natal,
British troops from around the Empire will be rushed to
southern Africa, where their advanced weaponry will bring them
ultimate victory in the six-month Anglo-Zulu war. The British
will conclude their aggressive venture by dividing up Zululand
among thirteen pro-British chiefs, effectively destroying the
Zulu kingdom.

1890 – Mordecai Wyatt Johnson is born in Paris, Tennessee.  He will
become the first African American president of Howard
University in 1926, a position he will hold for 34 years. He
will also be a recipient of the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal in 1929.
He will retire in 1960, and will join the ancestors on
September 11, 1976 in Washington, DC.

1920 – James Farmer is born in Marshall, Texas.  He will become an
African American civil rights leader and activist.  He will
found the Committee on Racial Equality in 1942 and later
change the name of the organization to the Congress of Racial
Equality. Farmer and CORE will be the architects of the
“Freedom Rides” that will lead to the desegregation of over
100 bus terminals in the South.  He will become a major player
during the Civil Rights movement.  He will be awarded the
Congressional Medal of Freedom in 1998 by President Bill
Clinton.  He will join the ancestors on July 9, 1999 in
Fredericksburg, Virginia, at the age of 79.

1944 – Joseph William “Joe” Frazier is born in Beaufort, South
Carolina. He will become a boxer and will win the Olympic Gold
Medal in 1964 in Tokyo, Japan.  He will go on to win the
heavyweight title on February 16, 1970, after knocking out
Jimmy Ellis in five rounds.  He will remain champion until
January 22, 1973, when he is knocked out in the second round
by George Foreman. He will be inducted into the Ring’s Boxing
Hall of Fame in 1980 and into the International Boxing Hall of
Fame in 1990. He will join the ancestors on November 7, 2011.

1946 – George Duke is born in San Rafael, California, and will be
reared in Marin City, a working class section of Marin County.
He will become a major recording artist, heavily influenced by
Miles Davis and the soul-jazz sound of Les McCann and Cal
Tjader.  He and a young singer named Al Jarreau will form a
group becoming the house band at San Francisco’s Half Note
Club.  Over the years, George will work with Sonny Rollins,
Dexter Gordon, Frank Zappa, Cannonball Adderley, Nancy Wilson,
Joe Williams, and Dizzy Gillespie.  He will be a prolific
songwriter and producer.

1948 – The United States Supreme Court decision (Sipuel v. Oklahoma
State Board of Regents) said a state must afford African
Americans “an opportunity to commence the study of law at a
state institution at the same time as [other] citizens.”

1951 – Ezzard Charles knocks out Lee Oma to retain the heavyweight
boxing crown.

1952 – The University of Tennessee admits its first African American
student.

1959 – Berry Gordy borrows $800 from a family loan fund to form Motown
Records.  The record company’s first releases will appear on
the Tamla label.

1960 – Jacques Dominique Wilkins is born in Paris, France. He will
become a NBA forward and play the majority of his career for
the Atlanta Hawks. He will be a nine-time NBA All-Star and the
winner of two NBA Slam Dunk Contests, register 26,668 points
(one of only 12 players to do so) and 7,169 rebounds in his
NBA career. He will not foul out during his final 957 games,
the third longest such streak (behind Moses Malone and Wilt
Chamberlain). He will be inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall
of Fame on April 3, 2004 and into the Naismith Memorial
Basketball Hall of Fame on April 3, 2006.

1964 – Leftist rebels in Zanzibar begin their successful revolt against
the government.

1965 – Noted playwright Lorraine Hansberry joins the ancestors, after
succumbing to cancer in New York City at the age of 34, while
her second play, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” is
playing on Broadway.  Her first and most famous work, “A
Raisin in the Sun,” brought her wide acclaim on Broadway,
earned her the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best
play, and became a motion picture starring Sidney Poitier,
Ruby Dee, and Claudia McNeil.

1971 – The Congressional Black Caucus is organized.

1982 – A commemorative stamp of Ralph Bunche is issued by the U.S.
Postal Service as part of its Great Americans series.

1988 – Willie Stargell, formally of the Pittsburgh Pirates, is elected
to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1990 – Civil Rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton is stabbed in Brooklyn,
New York, in Bensonhurst.

1995 – In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, an American soldier is killed and
another wounded during a shootout with a former Haitian army
officer who also was killed.

1995 – Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, is arrested in
Minneapolis, Minnesota on charges that she had tried to hire
a hit man to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. The
charges will later be dropped.

2002 – Jerry Rice, playing for the Oakland Raiders, becomes the oldest
player in the NFL to date, to score in a playoff game.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 11 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 11                 *

1870 – The first reconstruction legislature meets in Jackson,
Mississippi. Thirty one of the 106 representatives and five
of the 33 senators are African American.

1892 – William D. McCoy, of Indiana, is appointed United States
Minister to Liberia.

1902 – Acknowledging the increasing attention African American
athletes receive, the Baltimore “Afro-American” states, “Mr.
[Joe] Gans gets more space in the white papers than all the
respectable colored people in the state.” Gans is the world
lightweight boxing champion and first native African
American world title holder.

1924 – James Moore is born in Lobdell, Louisiana (outside of Baton
Rouge).  During the 1940’s Moore will teach himself how to
play the harmonica and begin working jukes, clubs, parties,
and picnics in Louisiana.  Moore will work professionally
with Lightnin’ Slim and will be known as “Slim Harpo.” 
Harpo will be a big influence on British blues-rockers of
the mid-Sixties.

1936 – Charles W. Anderson enters the Kentucky House of
Representatives as its first elected African American member.
He will serve for six consecutive terms and will help to
dismantle legal segregation in his state, when his bill
allowing African American and white nurses to go to the same
school is passed in 1948.

1947 – Evangelina Rodriguez joins the ancestors in San Pedro de
Macoris, Dominican Republic. She had been the first woman to
graduate from medical school in the Dominican Republic,
becoming the first woman physician to practice in that
country.

1957 – Darryl Dawkins is born in Orlando, Florida.  He will become
one of only five players to enter the NBA right out of high
school and survive. He will go on to play for fourteen
seasons as a center for the New Jersey Nets and Philadelphia
76’ers.

1960 – Chad declares its independence from France.

1961 – Racially motivated disturbance erupts on the University of
Georgia campus as a result of civil rights demonstrations by
African American students. African American students
Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes are suspended but will
be reinstated by a federal court order. Hunter-Gault will
become an Emmy award-winning journalist with “The
MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour.”

1962 – Nelson Mandela leaves South Africa, traveling to Ethiopia,
Algeria, and England to speak out against apartheid in South
Africa.

1985 – Reuben V. Anderson is appointed as judge on the Mississippi
Supreme Court.  Anderson is the first African American named
to the court.

1986 – L. Douglas Wilder, of Virginia, is sworn in as the first
African American Lt. Governor since reconstruction.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 10 African American Historical Events

 Today in Black History – January 10                *

1768 – James Varick is born in Orange County, New York.  Racism in
New York City will lead Varick, a licensed clergyman, and 
30 other African Americans to leave the famous and
predominantly white John Street Methodist Episcopal Church
and establish the first African American church in New York
City.  He will later become the founder and first bishop of
the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. He will join
the ancestors on July 22, 1827. His remains now rest in the
crypt of the Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
in the village of Harlem in New York City.

1811 – African Americans in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania hold meetings
at Bethel Church to protest The American Colonization
Society’s campaign “to exile us from the land of our
nativity.”

1811 – Slaves in Louisiana rebel in two parishes about thirty-five
miles from New Orleans.  The revolt is suppressed by U.S.
troops.

1870 – The legislature in the state of Georgia reconvenes and admits
African American representatives and senators.

1889 – The Ivory Coast is declared a protectorate of France.

1925 – Drummer Maxwell Lemuel “Max” Roach is born in Newland, North
Carolina. He will become an influential figure in the development
of modern jazz, playing with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie,
and Clifford Brown before forming his own groups in the
1950’s.  He will achieve wide acclaim for his superb musical
innovation.  He also will be an educator, teaching at
Lennox, Massachusetts School of Jazz, Yale University, and
Professor of Music at the University of Massachusetts
(Amherst). He will join the ancestors on August 16, 2007.

1938 – Willie McCovey is born in Mobile, Alabama.  He will become a
professional baseball player in 1959.  In more than two
decades later, Willie will end his career, and garner an
impressive array of baseball’s most coveted awards: Rookie
of the Year in 1959; MVP in 1969; six times an All-Star and
once the All-Star Game MVP; Comeback Player of the Year in
1977 and the National League’s all-time left-handed home run
hitter.

1949 – George Foreman is born in Marshall, Texas.  He will become a
professional boxer and win the world heavyweight
championship in 1973.  He will retire from boxing in 1977
after a defeat by Jimmy Young. He will enter the ministry
and stay away from boxing for ten years.  He will return to
boxing in 1987 at the age of 37 and become the oldest
heavyweight champion at age 45 on November 5, 1994.

1966 – The Georgia House of Representatives refuses to seat African
American legislator Julian Bond, SNCC communications
director, because of his opposition to U.S. involvement in
the Vietnam War.  He will be seated almost one year later,
after a legal battle that will eventually be resolved by the
U.S. Supreme Court.

1967 – Edward Brooke, takes his seat as the first popularly elected
African American United States Senator.

1976 – Chester Arthur Burnett, better known as “Howlin’ Wolf,” joins
the ancestors in Hines, Illinois. He was a blues legend that
helped to bring the Delta Blues music from Mississippi to
Chicago during the 1950’s. This music was the basis for the
Chicago blues sound.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 9 African American Historical Events

 Today in Black History – January 9                 *

1866 – Fisk College is established in Nashville, Tennessee.  Rust
College is established in Holly Springs, Mississippi. 
Lincoln University is established in Jefferson City,
Missouri.

1901 – Edward Mitchell Bannister joins the ancestors in Providence,
Rhode Island. Challenged to become an artist after reading a
newspaper article deriding African Americans’ ability to
produce art, he disproved that statement throughout a
distinguished art career.

1906 – Poet and author, Paul Laurence Dunbar, joins the ancestors
after succumbing to tuberculosis. Dunbar was so talented and
versatile that he succeeded in two worlds.  He was so adept
at writing verse in Black English that he became known as the
“poet of his people,” while also cultivating a white audience
that appreciated the brilliance and value of his work. 
“Majors and Minors” (1895), Dunbar’s second collection of
verse, was a remarkable work containing some of his best poems
in both Black and standard English.  When the country’s
reigning literary critic, William Dean Howells reviewed
“Majors and Minors” favorably, Dunbar became famous.  And
Howells’ introduction in “Lyric of Lowly Life” (1896) helped
make Dunbar the most popular African American writer in
America at the time.

1914 – Phi Beta Sigma fraternity is founded at Howard University. 

1935 – Earl G. Graves is born in Brooklyn, New York.  He will become
president and chief executive officer of Earl G. Graves, Ltd.,
the publisher of “Black Enterprise” magazine, a successful
entrepreneur, and one of the strongest advocates for
African American business.

1942 – Joe Louis knocks out Buddy Baer in the first round in the 20th
title defense of his world heavyweight title in New York City.

1946 – Lyric poet, Countee Cullen joins the ancestors in New York City
at the age of 42.  His several volumes of poetry include
“Color” (1925); “Copper Sun” (1927); “The Black Christ” (1929);
and “On These I Stand” (published posthumously, 1947), his
selection of poems by which he wished to be remembered.  Cullen
also wrote a novel dealing with life in Harlem, “One Way to
Heaven” (1931), and a children’s book, “The Lost Zoo” (1940).

1958 – The University of Cincinnati’s Oscar Robertson scores 56 points
against Seton Hall University, whose team total is 54 points.

1965 – Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues is born in Baltimore, Maryland.  He will
become a high school standout at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High, on
same team that produced first round draft picks Reggie Williams
and the late Reggie Lewis along with former Hornets teammate
David Wingate.  He will play college basketball at Wake Forest
(where his jersey #14 will be retired) and become a NBA guard
with the Charlotte Hornets and Golden State Warriors.  All
these accomplishments and only five feet three inches tall.

1967 – The Georgia legislature, bowing to legal decisions and national
pressure, seats state Representative Julian Bond, a critic of
the Vietnam War.

1970 – After 140 years of unofficial racial discrimination, the Mormon
Church issues an official statement declaring that Blacks were
not yet to receive the priesthood “for reasons which we
believe are known to God, but which He has not made fully
known to man.”

1989 – Time, Inc. agrees to sell NYT Cable for $420 million to Comcast
Corporation, Lenfest Communications, and an investment group
led by African American entrepreneur J. Bruce Llewellyn.  It is
the largest cable TV acquisition by an African American.
           

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