KRLemmons African American History

April 19 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – April 19 *

1775 – With the assistance of African American soldiers, Minutemen
defeat the British at Concord Bridge in the initial battle
of the Revolutionary War.

1837 – Cheyney University is founded as the first historically
Black institution of higher learning in America. It is
also the first college in the United States to receive
official state certification as an institution of higher
academic education for African Americans. Cheyney will
begin its existence in Philadelphia as the Institute for
Colored Youth. The Institute for Colored Youth successfully
will provide a free classical education for qualified young
people. In 1902, the school will be moved to George
Cheyney’s farm, 24 miles west of Philadelphia. In 1913 the
name will be changed to Cheyney Training School for
Teachers; in 1921 to the Normal School at Cheyney; in 1951
Cheyney State Teachers College; and in 1959, Cheyney State
College. In 1983, Cheyney joined the State System of
Higher Education (SSHE) as Cheyney University of
Pennsylvania.

1866 – The African American citizens of Washington DC celebrate the
abolition of slavery. 4,000 to 5,000 people assemble at the
White House and are addressed by President Andrew Johnson.
Led by two African American regiments, the spectators and
the procession proceed up the Pennsylvania Avenue to
Franklin Square for religious services and speeches by
prominent politicians. The sign on top of the platform
reads: “We have received our civil rights. Give us the
right of suffrage and the work is done.”

1942 – Atlanta University’s first exhibition of African American
art is held. Organized by Hale Woodruff, artist and former
professor at the university, it will be popularly known as
the Atlanta Annual. Winners in the first show will be
Charles Alston and Lois Mailou Jones.

1960 – Maj. General Frederic E. Davidson assumes command of the
Eighth Infantry Division in Germany and becomes the first
African American to lead an army division.

1960 – A National Education Association study reveals that African
Americans had lost thirty thousand teaching jobs since 1954
in seventeen Southern and Border states because of
discrimination and desegregation.

1960 – The home of Z. Alexander Looby, counsel for 153 students
arrested in sit-in demonstrations, is destroyed by a
dynamite bomb. More than two thousand students march on
the Nashville City Hall in protest.

1971 – Walter Fauntroy takes office as the first elected
Congressional representative from the District of Columbia
since Reconstruction.

1975 – James B. Parsons becomes the first African American chief
judge of a federal court, the U.S. District Court in
Chicago. In 1961, Parsons became the first African American
district court judge.

1982 – Astronaut Guion S. Bluford Jr. becomes the first African
American to be selected for U.S. space missions. He will
not, however be the first person of African descent in
space. That honor belongs to Cuban cosmonaut, Arnaldo
Tamayo-Mendez, who went into space on a Russian mission
September 18, 1980 (Soyuz 38).

1994 – A Los Angeles jury awards $3.8 million to African American
motorist Rodney King in compensation/damages for the
beating he received at the hands of four Los Angeles
policemen.

1999 – Joseph Chebet of Kenya wins the Boston Marathon, in 2:9:52;
Fatuma Roba of Ethiopia wins the women’s race in 2:23:25.

2003 – Cholly Atkins, Tony Award-winning choreographer, joins the
ancestors after succumbing to pancreatic cancer at the age
of 89. He was choreographer for Marvin Gaye, The
Temptations and others.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 18 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – April 18 *

1818 – Andrew Jackson defeats a force of Indians and African
Americans at the Battle of Suwanee, ending the First
Seminole War.

1861 – Nicholas Biddle becomes the first African American in
uniform to be wounded in the Civil War.

1864 – The First Kansas Colored Volunteers break through
Confederate lines at Poison Spring, Arkansas. The
unit will sustain heavy losses when captured African
American soldiers are murdered by Confederate troops
as opposed to being taken as POWs, which is the
standard treatment for captured whites.

1877 – The American Nicodemus Town Company is founded by six
African American settlers in northwestern Kansas. The
town will be settled later in the year.

1924 – Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown is born in Vinton, Louisiana.
He will become a blues musician and will be inspired by
the sounds of T-Bone Walker, Count Basie and Duke
Ellington. He will become a Grammy winner and be
nominated six times. He will be unrivaled in his
ability to seamlessly combine blues, country, soul and
jazzy Rhythm & Blues. He will be best known for his
hits, “Okie Dokie Stomp,” “Boogie Rambler,” “Just
Before Dawn,” “Dirty Work At The Crossroads,” and
“Gatemouth Boogie.”

1941 – Bus companies in New York City agree to hire African
American drivers and mechanics. This agreement ends a
four-week boycott.

1941 – Dr. Robert Weaver is named director of Office of
Production Management section, charged with integrating
African Americans into the National Defense Program.

1955 – The Bandung Conference of leaders of “colored” nations
of Africa and Asia opens in Indonesia. Hosted by
Indonesian President Sukarno, the conference is
attended by representatives of 29 African and Asian
countries. Its main objective was to express their
opposition to the colonialist and imperialist policies
of First World nations.

1961 – James Benton Parsons is the first African American judge
of a U.S. district court in the continental United
States. Chicago attorney Parsons is appointed judge of
the U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois.

1983 – Alice Walker is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for “The
Color Purple.” Ten days later, the novel will also win
the American Book Award for fiction.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 17 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – April 17 *

1758 – Frances Williams, the first African American to graduate
from a college in the Western Hemisphere, publishes a
collection of Latin poems.

1818 – For unknown reasons, Daniel Coker is expelled from the
AME Church. Coker had been a key organizer in the
church’s early history and was elected its first bishop,
a position he declined possibly because of his fair
complexion.

1947 – Jackie Robinson bunts safely for his 1st major league
hit.

1978 – Thomas W. Turner, founder of the Federation of Colored
Catholics, civil rights pioneer and charter member of
the NAACP, joins the ancestors in Washington, DC, at
the age of 101.

1980 – Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, gains its
independence. Reggae stars Bob Marley and the Wailers
and others perform in the celebration festivities.
Robert Mugabe will be sworn in the following day as
prime minister of the newly formed nation.

1987 – Julius Erving becomes the 3rd NBA player to score 30,000
points.

1990 – Reverend Ralph Abernathy, civil rights activist, joins
the ancestors at the age of 64 in Atlanta, Georgia.

1991 – African American and African leaders meet in Abidjan,
Ivory Coast, in the first Summit Meeting of Africans
and African Americans. The summit, organized by the
Reverend Leon H. Sullivan, calls for closer ties
between Africans and African Americans and urges
Western governments to cancel Africa’s foreign debt.
“Hold on, Africa!” the Rev. Sullivan says in his
keynote speech. “We are coming! Home of our heritage,
land of our past, we can help. We have 2 million
college graduates in America. We earn $300 billion a
year. Three centuries ago they took us away in a boat,
but today we have come back in an airplane.”

1993 – A federal jury in Los Angeles convicts two former police
officers of violating the civil rights of beaten
motorist Rodney King. Two other officers are acquitted.

2003 – Earl King, Rhythm & Blues guitarist, joins the ancestors
at age 69 after succumbing to complications of diabetes.
His hits include the Mardi Gras favorite “Big Chief”
and “Come On (Let the Good Times Roll.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 16 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – April 16 *

1862 – Slavery is abolished in Washington, DC, and $993,407 in
compensation is paid to slave owners for their lost
“property.”

1868 – Louisiana voters approve a new constitution and elect
state officers, including the first African American
lieutenant governor, Oscar J. Dunn, and the first
African American state treasurer, Antoine Dubuclet.
Article Thirteen of the new constitution bans
segregation in public accommodation: “All the persons
shall enjoy equal rights and privileges upon any
conveyances of a public character; and all places of
business, or of public resort, or for which a license
is required by either State, Parish or municipal
authority, shall be deemed places of a public
character and shall be opened to the accommodation and
patronage of all persons, without distinction or
discrimination on account of race or color.”

1869 – Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett is appointed Consul General
to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the first African
American to serve in a diplomatic position for the
United States. Bassett will hold the post for 12
years.

1947 – Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. is born in New York City.
He will become one of the finest basketball players in
history, first with UCLA, then with the Milwaukee Bucks
and, from 1975 to his retirement in 1990, with the Los
Angeles Lakers. After his conversion to Islam in
1971, he will change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
early in his professional career. The all-time leading
scorer in the NBA, he will lead the Lakers to five NBA
championships, including back-to-back titles in 1987
and 1988.

1962 – Three Louisiana segregationists are excommunicated by
Archbishop Joseph Rummel for continuing their
opposition to his order for integration of New Orleans
parochial schools.

1965 – Maj. General Benjamin O. Davis Jr., assistant deputy
chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, is named
lieutenant general, the highest rank attained by an
African American to date in the armed services.

1973 – Lelia Smith Foley becomes the first African American
female to be elected mayor of a U.S. city when she
takes office in the small town of Taft, Oklahoma. She
will hold the position for 13 years.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 15 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – April 15 *

1861 – President Lincoln calls for 75,000 troops to put down
the rebellion. The Lincoln administration rejects
African American volunteers. For almost two years
straight African Americans fight for the right, as one
humorist puts it, “to be kilt”.

1889 – Asa Philip Randolph is born in Crescent Way, Florida.
He will become a labor leader, the organizer of the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, and a
tireless fighter for civil rights. He will join the
ancestors in 1979.

1919 – Elizabeth Catlett is born in Washington, DC. She will
become an internationally known printmaker and sculptor
who will emigrate to Mexico and embrace both African
and Mexican influences in her art.

1922 – Harold Washington is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will
serve in the Illinois House of Representatives and
Senate as well as two terms in Congress before becoming
the first African American mayor of Chicago. He will
join the ancestors after suffering a massive heart
attack on November 25, 1987 after being re-elected to a
second term as mayor.

1928 – Pioneering architect Norma Merrick (later Sklarek) is
born in New York City. Sklarek will be the first
licensed woman architect in the United States and the
first African American woman to become a fellow in the
American Institute of Architects (1980).

1947 – Baseball player Jackie Robinson plays his first major-
league baseball game (he had played exhibition games
previously) for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the
first African American in the major leagues since Moses
Fleetwood Walker played in 1885. The Brooklyn Dodgers
promoted him to the majors from the Montreal Royals.

1957 – Evelyn Ashford is born in Shreveport, Louisiana. She
will grow up in Roseville, California becoming a track
star specializing in sprinting. She will be a four-
time winner of Olympic gold medals and one silver in
1976, 1984, 1988, and 1992. In 1979, she will set a
world record in the 200-meter dash. In 1989 she will
receive the Flo Hyman Award from the Woman’s Sports
Foundation. In 1992, the U.S. Olympic team will ask her
to carry the flag during the opening ceremonies in the
Barcelona Olympics. She will retire from track and
field in 1993 at the age of 36.

1958 – African Freedom Day is declared at the All-African
People’s Conference in Accra, Ghana.

1960 – The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is
formed on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh,
North Carolina.

1985 – Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns wins the World Middleweight
title. This is one of five weight classes in which he
will win a boxing title making him the first African
American to win boxing titles in five different weight
classes.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 14 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 14 *

1775 – The first U.S. abolitionist society, the Pennsylvania
Society for the Abolition of Slavery, is formed in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by Quakers. Benjamin
Franklin serves as its first president.

1868 – South Carolina voters approve a new constitution, 70,758
to 27,228, and elect state officers, including the
first African American cabinet officer, Francis L.
Cardozo, secretary of state. The new constitution
requires integrated education and contains a strong
bill of rights section: “Distinctions on account of
race or color, in any case whatever, shall be
prohibited, and all classes of citizens shall enjoy
equally all common, public, legal and political
privileges.”

1873 – The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Slaughterhouse cases
begins process of diluting the Fourteenth Amendment.
The court says the Fourteenth Amendment protects
federal civil rights, not “civil rights heretofore
belonging exclusively to the states.”

1906 – The Azusa Street Revival — proto-mission out of which
the modern Pentecostal movement will spread world-wide
— officially begins when the services led by African
American evangelist William J. Seymour, 36, moves into
the building at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles,
California.

1915 – James Hutton Brew, “Pioneer of West African Journalism,”
joins the ancestors.

1943 – Howardena Pindell is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
She will become an accomplished artist. A student at
Boston and Yale universities, she will receive several
art fellowships and travel the world to create art that
reflects a clear artistic vision and an intense
commitment to issues of racial and social injustice.

1969 – The student Afro-American Society seizes the Columbia
College admissions office and demands a special
admissions board and staff.

1991 – A major retrospective of the late Romare Bearden’s
career and work opens at the Studio Museum of Harlem.
Entitled Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden
1940-1987, the exhibit includes 140 oil and watercolor
paintings as well as numerous collages that chronicle
his exploration of abstract expressionism, social
realism, and reinterpretation of classical themes in
art and literature.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 13 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 13 *

1723 – The governor of Massachusetts issues a proclamation on
the “fires which have been designedly and
industriously kindled by some villainous and desperate
Negroes or other dissolute people as appears by the
confession of some of them.”

1873 – The Colfax Massacre occurs on Easter Sunday morning, in
Grant Parish, Louisiana. More than sixty African
Americans are killed.

1891 – Nellie Walker is born in Chicago, Illinois to an African
American father and Danish mother. She will become a
writer known as Nella Larsen and one of the most
celebrated novelists of the Harlem Renaissance. She
will receive many awards for her writings, including
the Harmon Foundation’s bronze medal for literature in
1929, and the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1930. When she
receives the Guggenheim award, she becomes the first
African American woman recipient. She will best known
for her novels, “Quicksand” and “Passing.” She will
join the ancestors in 1964.

1906 – Riots occur in Brownsville, Texas, when African American
soldiers retaliate against white citizens for racial
slurs.

1907 – Harlem Hospital opens in New York with 150 beds. It will
become one of the early leading African American
hospitals.

1946 – Albert “Al” Green is born in Forrest City, Arkansas. He
will become one of the most popular soul and pop singers
of the 1970’s, known for his recordings “Tired of Being
Alone,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “Here I Am (Come and Take
Me)” and “I’m Still in Love with You.” Green will later
become a minister and return to performing as a gospel
singer, where he will win numerous Grammy awards.

1963 – Sidney Poitier receives an Oscar for best actor for his
performance in “Lilies of the Field.” He is the first
African American male to receive the Academy Award. He
will later become a director and make 1980’s “Stir
Crazy,” the largest-grossing movie by an African
American director ever.

1997 – Eldrick “Tiger” Woods wins the 61st Masters Tournament
in Augusta, Georgia at the age of 21 becoming the
youngest person and first person of Black African descent
to ever win this tournament.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 12 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 12 *

1787 – Richard Allen and Absalom Jones organize Philadelphia’s
Free African Society which W.E.B. Du Bois refers to,
over a century later, “the first wavering step of a
people toward a more organized social life.”

1825 – Richard Harvey Cain is born in Greenbrier, Virginia. He
will become an AME minister, an AME bishop, publisher,
member of the House of Representatives, and a founder
of Paul Quinn College in Waco, Texas.

1861 – The Civil War begins as Confederate troops attack Fort
Sumter, South Carolina.

1864 – Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest captures Fort
Pillow, Tennessee, and massacres the inhabitants,
sparing, the official report says, neither soldier nor
civilian, African American nor white, male or female.
The fort is defended by a predominantly African
American force.

1869 – The North Carolina legislature passes anti-Klan
legislation.

1898 – Sir Grantley H. Adams is born in Barbados. He will become
a political leader and will found the Barbados
Progressive League. The league will later become the
Barbados Labour Party. The B.L.P. will win the general
election of 1947 and Adams will be elected the first
premier of Barbados.

1940 – Herbert Jeffrey “Herbie” Hancock is born in Chicago,
Illinois. After graduating from college at age 20, he
will go to New York with Donald Byrd, who had heard him
perform in Chicago. While in New York, Byrd will
introduce Hancock to Blue Note Records executives. This
will lead to work with various established jazz
artists and later Hancock’s first solo album, “Taking
Off,” which includes appearances by Freddie Hubbard and
Dexter Gordon. Contained on this album is Hancock’s
first top 10 hit, “Watermelon Man.” It will not be long
before Hancock gets the attention of the legendary
Miles Davis, who will extend an invitation to Hancock
to join his new group. After working with Davis for
several years Herbie will decide to form his own band,
a sextet which will include Julian Priester, Buster
Williams, and Eddie Henderson. He will become one of
the most popular jazz artists, known for his
compositions “Watermelon Man” and “Chameleon,” as well
as his musical score for the movie “‘Round Midnight,”
for which he will win an Oscar in 1986.

1960 – Martin Luther King, Jr. denounces the Vietnam War which
he says is “rapidly degenerating into a sordid military
adventure.”

1968 – African American students occupy the administration
building at Boston University and demand Afro-American
history courses and additional African American
students.

1980 – Liberian President William R. Tolbert Jr. and twenty-
seven others join the ancestors after being killed in
a coup d’etat by army enlisted men led by Master
Sergeant Samuel K. Doe.

1983 – The people of Chicago, Illinois elect Harold Washington
as the city’s first African American mayor.

1989 – Former middleweight boxing champion Sugar Ray Robinson
joins the ancestors in Culver City, California, at age
67.

1990 – August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” wins the Pulitzer
Prize for drama. It is the second Pulitzer Prize for
Wilson, who also won one for “Fences” in 1987 and was
awarded the New York Drama Critics’ Award for “Fences,”
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and “Joe Turner’s Come and
Gone.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 11 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 11 *

1865 – President Lincoln recommends suffrage for African American veterans
and African Americans who are “very intelligent.”

1881 – Spelman College is founded with $100 and eleven former slaves
determined to learn to read and write. It is opened as the Atlanta
Baptist Female Seminary. The two female founders, Sophia B. Packard
and Harriet E. Giles are appalled by the lack of educational
opportunities for African American women at the time. They will
return to Boston determined to get support to change that and earned
what will prove to be the lifelong support of John D. Rockefeller,
who considers Spelman to be one of his family’s finest investments.
The name Spelman is adopted later in honor of Mrs. Rockefeller’s
parents.

1933 – Tony Brown is born in Charleston, West Virginia. He will become
well known as executive producer, host, and moderator of the
Emmy-winning television series “Black Journal.” In 1971 he will
establish and become the first dean of Howard University’s School
of Communications, a post he will hold until 1974.

1955 – Roy Wilkins is elected the NAACP’s executive secretary following
the ancestral ascension of Walter White.

1956 – Singer Nat “King” Cole is attacked on the stage of a Birmingham
theater by white supremacists.

1966 – Emmett Ashford becomes the first African American major league
umpire, working in the American League. He had been the first
African American professional umpire in the minor leagues in
1951.

1967 – Harlem voters defy Congress and re-elect Congressman Adam Clayton
Powell Jr. after he had been expelled by the legislative body.

1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs what will become known as the
1968 Housing Act, which outlaws discrimination in the sale,
rental, or leasing of 80% of the housing in the United States.
Passed by the Senate and submitted by the House to Johnson in
the aftermath of the King assassination, the bill also protects
civil rights workers and makes it a federal crime to cross state
lines for the purpose of inciting a riot.

1972 – Benjamin L. Hooks, a Memphis lawyer and Baptist minister, becomes
the first African American to be named to the Federal Communications
Commission.

1979 – Idi Amin is deposed as president of Uganda. A combined force of
Tanzanian and Ugandan soldiers overthrew the dictator. Amin, who
attained power in 1971 after a coup against socialist-leaning
President Milton Obote, oversaw the killing of at least 100,000
people. It is believed that Idi Amin left Uganda to live in Saudi
Arabia.

1988 – Willie D. Burton becomes the first African American to win the
Oscar for sound when he receives the award for the movie “Bird.”

1997 – The Museum of African American History opens in Detroit. It will
become the largest of its kind in the world.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 10 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – April 10 *

1816 – Richard Allen is elected Bishop of the A.M.E. Church, one day
after the church is organized at its first general convention.

1872 – The first National Black Convention meets in New Orleans,
Louisiana. Frederick Douglass will be elected president.

1877 – Federal troops withdraw from Columbia, South Carolina. This
action will allow the white South Carolina Democrats to take
over the state government.

1926 – Johnnie Tillmon (later Blackston) is born in Scott, Arkansas. A
welfare rights champion, Tillmon will become the founding
chairperson and director of the National Welfare Rights
Organization.

1932 – The James Weldon Johnson Literary Guild announces the winners of
its first annual nationwide poetry contest for children. The
judges – Jessie Fauset and Countee Cullen, among others – select
in the teen category a 16-year-old Liberian youth and Margaret
Walker of New Orleans, who receives an honorable mention for her
poem “When Night Comes.”

1938 – Nana Annor Adjaye, Pan-Africanist, joins the ancestors in West
Nzima, Ghana.

1943 – Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. is born in Richmond, Virginia. He will
become a professional tennis player and will be one of the first
African American male tennis stars. He will be the first African
American to win a spot on the American Davis Cup tennis team,
the first to win the U.S. Open and the men’s singles title at
Wimbledon, in 1975. Over his 11-year career he will play in 304
tournaments, winning 51, including the 1970 Australian Open and
Wimbledon in 1975. He will be the number one ranked player in the
world in 1975. A life-threatening heart condition will force him
to retire in 1980 and he will continue to serve as the non-playing
captain of that year’s U.S. Davis Cup team. In 1985 he will become
the second African American inducted into the International Tennis
Hall of Fame. The first was Althea Gibson in 1971. After his career
in tennis, he will become an eloquent spokesperson against racial
intolerance and a critic of South Africa’s racist system of
apartheid. In the United States, he will create tennis programs to
benefit inner-city youth. He will write a three-volume history of
the African American athlete entitled “A Hard Road To Glory” (1988).
Suffering complications from AIDS, contracted from a blood
transfusion during a heart bypass operation, he will join the
ancestors in New York on February 6, 1993.

1958 – W.C. Handy, composer and musician, joins the ancestors at the
age of 84 in New York City.

1959 – Kenneth Edmonds is born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He will
become a professional musician and will begin work in the business
producing music, with his friend Antonio Reid, for Carrie Lucas,
The Whispers, and Dynasty. Since then, they’ve produced hits for
many others. During the 1990s, his dominance will extend beyond
the production arena and into the performing circle. His hit
“Tender Lover” crossed him over into pop territory and eventually
sold more than two million copies. The singles “Whip Appeal” and
“It’s No Crime” were Top Ten R&B and pop hits. He will hit his
peak in 1995, producing hits for artists like Boyz II Men, Madonna
and Whitney Houston and coordinated the “Waiting to Exhale”
soundtrack. In the fall of 1996, he will released “Day,” his first
solo album since 1993 to strong reviews. He will successfully
produce the film “Soul Food” in 1997.

1968 – U.S. Congress passes a Civil Rights Bill banning racial
discrimination in the sale or rental of approximately 80 per cent
of the nation’s housing. The bill also made it a crime to
interfere with civil rights workers and to cross state lines to
incite a riot.

1975 – Lee Elder becomes the first African American to tee off as an
entrant in the Masters’ Tournament in Augusta, Georgia.

2003 – Eva “Little Eva” Boyd, singer, joins the ancestors at age 59
after succumbing to cancer. She recorded the 1960s pop hit “The
Locomotion.”

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