African American History – Page 98 – The CamaraIfe Maktaba

February 21, 2013February 21, 2013 KRLemmons African American History

February 20 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 20 *

***********************************************************************
* “Once a year we go through the charade of February being ‘Black *
* History Month.’ Black History Month needs to be a 12-MONTH THING. *
* When we all learn about our history, about how much we’ve *
* accomplished while being handicapped with RACISM, it can only *
* inspire us to greater heights, knowing we’re on the giant shoulders *
* of our ANCESTORS.” Subscribe to the Munirah Chronicle and receive *
* Black Facts every day of the year. *
* To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]> *
* In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name *
***********************************************************************

1864 – Confederate troops defeat three African American and six white
regiments at the Battle of Olustee, about fifty miles from
Jacksonville, Florida. The African-American units are the
8th U.S. Colored Troops, the 35th U.S. Colored Infantry, and
the famous 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry. It is the
54th Massachusetts’ fighting that allowed General Truman
Seymour’s Union forces to retreat. One white veteran of the
battle states: ” The colored troops went in grandly, and they
fought like devils.” A regrettable episode in the aftermath
of the battle is the apparent mistreatment of Union African
American soldiers by the Confederates.

1895 – Frederick Douglass, famous African American abolitionist and
diplomat, joins the ancestors in Washington, DC at the age of
78. His home in Washington will be later turned into a
national monument under the auspices of the National Park
Service.

1911 – Frances Ellen Watkins Harper joins the ancestors in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of 85. She had been a
writer and antislavery, women’s rights, and temperance
activist.

1925 – Alex La Guma is born in Cape Town, South Africa. He will
become a novelist whose writings reflect the lives of the
ghetto dwellers in the ‘Coloured’ sections of Capetown,
portrayed best in his novel, “A Walk in the Night.” The
ghettos and shanties of the Cape were his milieu, and he will
never depict the lives of the impoverished with either
rancor or self-pity. The powerful strokes of his pen will
paint a picture of the starkness and reality of their lives.
He allowed the tin and hessian fabrics of the rat-infested,
leaking hovels to spell it out. He will become involved
with the South African Coloured People’s Organisation,
playing a very active part in its affairs. He will be
exiled in 1966 and move with his family to London. At the
time he joins the ancestors in 1985, he was the Chief
Representative of the African National Congress in Cuba.

1927 – Sidney Poitier is born prematurely in Miami, Florida, weighing
only three pounds. His parents are on a regular trip to the
U.S. to sell tomatoes and other produce. He will be raised
in the Bahamas and return to the United States as a teenager
to live with his older brother in Miami. He will move to New
York City in 1945 to study acting. He will become one of the
modern movies’ leading men, making his screen debut in 1950
and earning praise in such films as “Cry the Beloved Country,”
“Blackboard Jungle,” “Porgy and Bess,” “A Raisin in the Sun,”
“To Sir With Love,” “In the Heat of the Night,” and “Guess
Who’s Coming to Dinner.” His 1965 role in “Lilies of the
Field” will earn him an Oscar, the first for an African
American in a leading role.

1929 – Writer Wallace Thurman’s play “Harlem” opens in New York City.
It is the first successful play by an African American
playwright.

1936 – John Hope, president of Atlanta University, joins the ancestors
at the age of sixty seven.

1937 – Nancy Wilson is born in Chillicothe, Ohio. She will become a
well-known jazz and pop singer, singing with Cannonball
Adderly, George Shearing, Art Farmer and Chick Corea, among
others. She will make more than 50 albums, including “With My
Lover Beside Me,” featuring the lyrics of Johnny Mercer and
the music of Barry Manilow.

1951 – Emmett L. Ashford, one of baseball’s most popular figures,
becomes the first African American umpire in organized
baseball. Ashford is certified to be a substitute in the
Southwestern International League. He will later (1966)
become the first African American major league umpire, working
in the American League.

1963 – Baseball great, Willie “The Say Hey Kid” Mays, signs with the
San Francisco Giants as baseball’s highest paid player (at
that time). He will earn $100,000 a year.

1963 – Charles Barkley is born in Leeds, Alabama. He will forego his
senior year at Auburn University to enter the NBA as a forward
for the Philadelphia 76ers. Barkley will post averages of 20
or more points and at least 10 rebounds per game for 11
seasons. His achievements during that span will be remarkable.
He will be an All-NBA First Team selection in 1988, 1989,
1990, 1991 and 1993, an All-NBA Second Team pick in 1986,
1987, 1992, 1994 and 1995 and an All-NBA Third Team choice in
1996. He will be selected to 10 consecutive All-Star Games,
and receive more All Star votes than any other player in 1994,
and will be MVP in the 1991 All-Star classic.

1968 – State troopers use tear gas to stop civil rights demonstrations
at Alcorn A&M College in Mississippi.

1991 – African Americans win Grammys including Mariah Carey for
Best New Artist and female pop vocal, Anita Baker for female
R&B vocal, Luther Vandross for male R&B vocal, Living Colour
for best hard rock performance, M.C. Hammer for best rap solo
and best R&B song for “U Can’t Touch This,” and Chaka Khan and
Ray Charles for best R&B vocal by a duo or group. Quincy
Jones becomes the all-time non-classical Grammy winner when he
wins six awards at these 33rd annual Grammy Awards, including
album of the year, “Back on the Block.”

1997 – T. Uriah Butler joins the ancestors in Fyzabad, Trinidad at the
age of 100. Born in Grenada, he had been a major labor
organizer and politician in Trinidad. In 1975, he was awarded
Trinidad’s highest honor, The Trinity Cross.

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

February 19, 2013 KRLemmons African American History, African American Literature, Children's literature

28 Days Later Day 19 James Ransome

Read about this award winning illustrator of such books like Uncle Jed’s Barbershop, Visiting Day, and more at The Brown Bookshelf.

February 19, 2013 KRLemmons African American History

February 19 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 19 *

**********************************************************
“Once a year we go through the charade of February being ‘Black
History Month.’ Black History Month needs to be a 12-MONTH THING.
When we all learn about our history, about how much we’ve
accomplished while being handicapped with RACISM, it can only
inspire us to greater heights, knowing we’re on the giant shoulders
of our ANCESTORS.” Subscribe to the Munirah Chronicle and receive
Black Facts every day of the year.
To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]>
In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name
**********************************************************

1919 – The first Pan-African Congress, organized by W.E.B. Dubois,
opens in Paris, France. Fifty-seven delegates from 16
countries and colonies will meet for three days and declare
“The natives of Africa must be allowed to participate in the
government as fast as their development permits.” Blaise
Diagne of Senegal is elected president and Dubois is named
secretary. The Pan-African movement is started by these
African American, African and Caribbean intellectuals,
stressing the unity of Black people, whether living in Africa
or in the various parts of the world to which Africans had
been brought as slaves. African independence and nationalism
were its goals. These representatives from the Americas,
Europe, and Africa gather to discuss the situation of
Africans living under colonialism. Also taking place in Paris
at that time are the negotiations for the post-WWI Treaty of
Versailles. Since the fate of the European powers’ African
colonies is being discussed in these negotiations, Du Bois
hopes to influence the decisions that will come out of the
peace conference.

1940 – William “Smokey” Robinson is born in Detroit, Michigan. As
part of the Motown group “The Miracles” and in his solo
career, Robinson will be an enduring Rhythm and Blues and
pop performer. He will also become a Vice-President of Motown
Records.

1959 – Gabon adopts its constitution.

1987 – A racially motivated civil disturbance erupts in Tampa,
Florida, after a young African American man dies from
injuries resulting from a police chokehold.

1992 – John Singleton is nominated for two Academy Awards for best
director and best screenplay for his first film, “Boyz N the
Hood.” Singleton is the first African-American director ever
to be nominated for the Academy Award.

1995 – A day after being named the new chairwoman of the NAACP,
Myrlie Evers-Williams outlines her plans for revitalizing the
civil rights organization, saying she intended to take the
group back to its roots.

1999 – President Bill Clinton posthumously pardons Henry O. Flipper.
Flipper was the first African American to graduate from the
U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Flipper was acquitted
on charges of embezzlement of commissary funds, but was
found guilty of “conduct unbecoming an officer” for lying to
investigators. He received a dishonorable discharge in 1882.
He had been a victim of racism from the time he went to West
Point to the time he was railroaded out of the military. Mr.
Flipper joined the ancestors in 1940 at the age of 84.

2002 – Vonetta Flowers becomes the first Black athlete from any
country to win a gold medal in the Olympic Winter Games. She
and her partner win the women’s two-person bobsled event at
the Salt Lake City games. They finished their two runs in 1
minute 37.76 seconds.

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

February 18, 2013 KRLemmons African American History

February 18 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 18 *

1688 – The first formal protest against slavery by an organized white
body in the English American colonies is made by Germantown,
Pennsylvania Quakers and Mennonites at a monthly meeting. When
some members of the Quaker community began to buy slaves,
Francis Daniel Pastorius, the founder of Germantown, was
outraged. On this day, Pastorius will meet with three other
Germantown Quaker men to draft a denunciation of slavery.
Known as “The Germantown Protest,” it is regarded as the first
protest against slavery by whites in the American colonies.
The reasoning of the denunciation was based on the Golden
Rule: since white people did not want to be slaves themselves,
they had no right to enslave black African men and women.
Despite the Germantown Protest, some Quaker families continued
to keep slaves. Nonetheless, by the 19th century Quakers were
prominent in the movement to abolish slavery in the United
States.

1865 – Confederate Troops abandon Charleston, South Carolina. The
first Union troops to enter the city include the Twenty-first
U.S. Colored Troops, followed by two companies of the Fifty-
fourth Massachusetts Volunteers.

1867 – The Augusta Institute is founded in Georgia. It is established
as an institution of higher learning for African American
students, and moves to Atlanta in 1879. In 1913, the name is
changed to Morehouse College.

1894 – Paul Revere Williams is born in Los Angeles, California. He
will become one of the most famous African American
architects, designer of private residences in Los Angeles,
the Hollywood YMCA, the Beverly-Wiltshire Hotel, UCLA’s Botany
Building and many others. Among his many awards will be the
NAACP’s Spingarn Medal in 1953.

1931 – Toni Morrison is born in Lorain, Ohio. She will become one of
the most celebrated modern novelists of the 20th century,
winning the National Book Critics Award in 1978 for “Song of
Solomon” and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 for
“Beloved.” In 1993, she will become the first African
American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1965 – The Gambia gains its independence from Great Britain.

1973 – Palmer Hayden joins the ancestors in New York City. One of the
principal artists of the Harlem Renaissance who, like Henry 0.
Tanner and others, studied in Paris, his most enduring work
often depicted everyday scenes of African American life.

1979 – The miniseries “Roots: The Next Generations” premiers on ABC
TV.

1995 – The NAACP replaces veteran chairman William Gibson with Myrlie
Evers-Williams, the widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar
Evers, after the rank-and-file declared no confidence in
Gibson’s leadership.

2006 – Shani Davis, from Chicago’s South Side, becomes the first Black
athlete to claim an individual gold medal in Winter Olympic
history, winning the 1,000-meter speedskating race in 1 min.,
8.89 seconds.

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

February 17, 2013 KRLemmons African American History, Children's literature

28 Days Later Day 17 Arna Bontemps

Read about this award winning author at The Brown Bookshelf.

February 17, 2013 KRLemmons African American History

February 17 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – February 17 *

1870 – Congress passes a resolution readmitting Mississippi to the
Union on the condition that it will never change its
constitution to disenfranchise African Americans.

1918 – Charles Hayes is born in Cairo, Illinois. He will be elected
to the House of Representatives succeeding Harold Washington
in 1983.

1933 – Bobby Lewis is born. He will become a Rhythm and Blues singer,
who will be at his peak in the 1960’s, and will be best-known
for his recordings of “Tossin’ & Turnin’,” and “One Track
Mind.”

1936 – Jim Brown is born in Saint Simons, Georgia. He will be
considered one of the greatest offensive backs in the history
of football, establishing records with the Cleveland Browns,
for most yards gained and most touchdowns. Brown will also
develop a film career, establish the Negro Industrial and
Economic Union, and work with African American youth.

1938 – Mary Frances Berry is born in Nashville, Tennessee. She will
be an influential force in education and civil rights, become
the first woman of any race to serve as chancellor of a major
research university (University of Colorado in 1976), and a
member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

1941 – Joe Louis retains his world heavyweight boxing crown by
knocking out Gus Dorazio.

1942 – Huey P. Newton, a co-founder and minister of defense for the
Black Panther Party, is born in Monroe, Louisiana.

1962 – Wilt Chamberlain, of the NBA Philadelphia Warriors, scores 67
points against St. Louis.

1963 – Michael Jeffrey Jordan, who will be a star basketball player
for the University of North Carolina, the 1984 Olympic gold
medal team and the Chicago Bulls, is born in Brooklyn, New
York. Jordan’s phenomenal style and scoring ability will earn
him universal acclaim and selection on more than eight all-
star NBA teams and NBA Most Valuable Player more than four
times.

1982 – Thelonious Monk, jazz pianist and composer, joins the ancestors
at the age of 64.

1989 – The African countries of Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia
& Libya form an economic common market.

1997 – The Virginia House of Delegates votes unanimously to retire the
state song, “Carry me back to Old Virginny,” a tune which
glorifies the institution of slavery.

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

February 16, 2013February 16, 2013 KRLemmons African American History

February 16 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 16 *

1801 – The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church officially
separates from its parent, the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The Zion church will be incorporated as the African Episcopal
Church of the City of New York. James Varick will be its first
pastor and will later become the first black African Methodist
Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) bishop. It will hold its first national
conference in 1821. The name Zion will not be added to the
church’s name until 1848.

1874 – Frederick Douglass is elected President of Freedman’s Bank and
Trust Company.

1923 – Bessie Smith makes her first recording for Columbia Records.
The record, “Down Hearted Blues,” written by Alberta Hunter
and Lovie Austin, will sell an incredible 800,000 copies and
be Columbia’s first popular hit.

1944 – The U.S. Navy starts its first officer training class of
African Americans at Camp Robert Smalls, Great Lakes, Illinois.
In March, 1944,

1951 – James Ingram is born in Akron, Ohio. He will be raised there
on Kelly Avenue. He will later become a rhythm and blues
singer and will earn at least three Grammy Awards and
seventeen Grammy nominations.

1951 – The New York City Council passes a bill prohibiting racial
discrimination in city-assisted housing developments.

1957 – LeVar Burton is born in Landstuhl, Germany. He will become an
actor, winning a landmark role in the award-winning mini-
series, “Roots,” as the enslaved African youth Kunta Kinte,
while attending USC. He will go on to become a producer,
director and writer for numerous television series and films.

1970 – Joe Frazier knocks outs Jimmy Ellis in the second round to
become the undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion.

1972 – Wilt Chamberlain scores his 30,000th point in his 940th game,
a basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the
Phoenix Suns. He is the first player in the NBA to score
30,000 points.

1992 – The Los Angeles Lakers retire Magic Johnson’s uniform, # 32.

1999 – Mary Elizabeth Roche, best known as Betty Roche, joins the
ancestors at the age of 81 in Pleasantville, New Jersey. She
was a singer who performed with Duke Ellington in the 1940s
and 1950s. She sang with the Savoy Sultans from 1941 to
1943, when she joined Ellington’s group. She scored high
marks from critics for the suite “Black, Brown and Beige,” at
Ellington’s first Carnegie Hall concert. She also performed
Ellington’s signature song “Take the A Train” in the 1943
film. “Reveille With Beverly.”

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

February 14, 2013 KRLemmons African American History

February 14 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 14 *

***********************************************************************
* “Once a year we go through the charade of February being ‘Black  History Month.’ Black History Month needs to be a 12-MONTH THING. When we all learn about our history, about how much we’ve accomplished while being handicapped with RACISM, it can only inspire us to greater heights, knowing we’re on the giant shoulders of our ANCESTORS.” Subscribe to the Munirah Chronicle and receive .
* Black Facts every day of the year.                                  *
* To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]>         *
* In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name        *
***********************************************************************

1760 – Richard Allen, is born into slavery in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. He will purchase his freedom in 1786 and will
become a preacher the same year. He will become the first
African American ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church
(1799), and founder of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME)
Church in 1816, and first bishop of the AME Church. He will
join the ancestors on March 26, 1831.

1818 – The birth of Frederick Douglass in Tuckahoe (Talbot County), Maryland, is attributed to this date. He will state, “I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any
authentic record containing it… and it is the wish of most
masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus
ignorant.” He will be a great African American leader and
“one of the giants of nineteenth century America. He was
born Frederick Bailey and will change his name to Douglass
after he escapes slavery in 1838. He will join the ancestors
on February 20, 1895 in Washington, DC.

1867 – Morehouse College is organized in Augusta, Georgia. The
school will be moved later to Atlanta.

1867 – New registration law in Tennessee abolishes racial
distinctions in voting.

1936 – The National Negro Congress is organized at a Chicago meeting attended by eight hundred seventeen delegates representing more than five hundred organizations. Asa Phillip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters is elected
president of the new organization.

1946 – Gregory Hines is born in New York City. A child tap-dancing star in the group Hines, Hines, and Dad, Hines will lead a
new generation of tap dancers that will benefit from the
advice and teaching of such tap legends as Henry Le Tang,
“Honi” Coles, Sandman Sims, the Nicholas Brothers, and Sammy
Davis, Jr. He will also become a successful actor in movies
including “White Knights,” “Tap,” and “A Rage in Harlem.” He
will join the ancestors on August 9, 2003.

1951 – Sugar Ray Robinson defeats Jake LaMotta and wins the
middleweight boxing title.

1957 – Lionel Hampton’s only major musical work, “King David”, makes its debut at New York’s Town Hall. The four-part symphony jazz suite was conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos.

1966 – Wilt Chamberlain breaks the NBA career scoring record at
20,884 points after only seven seasons as a pro basketball
player.

1978 – Maxima Corporation, a computer systems and management company, is incorporated. Headquartered in Lanham, Maryland, it will become one of the largest African American-owned companies and earn its founder, chairman and CEO, Joshua I. Smith, chairmanship of the U.S. Commission on Minority Business Development.

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

February 13, 2013February 14, 2013 KRLemmons African American History

February 13 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 13 *

***********************************************************************
* “Once a year we go through the charade of February being ‘Black     *
* History Month.’ Black History Month needs to be a 12-MONTH THING.   *
* When we all learn about our history, about how much we’ve           *
* accomplished while being handicapped with RACISM, it can only       *
* inspire us to greater heights, knowing we’re on the giant shoulders *
* of our ANCESTORS.” Subscribe to the Munirah Chronicle and receive   *
* Black Facts every day of the year.                                  *
* To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]>         *
* In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name        *
***********************************************************************

1818 – The first African American Episcopal priest ordained in the United States, Absalom Jones, joins the ancestors in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was an instrumental force in
the development of the early African American church and
benevolent society movements.

1882 – Henry Highland Garnet, abolitionist, preacher, diplomat and protest leader, joins the ancestors in Monrovia, Liberia at
the age of 66.

1892 – The first African American performers, the World’s Fair
Colored Opera Company, appear at New York City’s Carnegie
Hall less than one year after the hall’s opening. In the
company is concert singer Matilda Sissieretta Jones, who will
have her solo debut at Carnegie Hall two years later.

1907 – Wendell P. Dabney establishes “The Union.” The Cincinnati, Ohio paper’s motto is “For no people can become great without being united, for in union, there is strength.”

1919 – Eddie Robinson is born in Jackson, Louisiana. He will accept the head coaching position in 1941, at the Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute in Grambling, Louisiana
(later named Grambling State University. Over the next 54
years, he will become the winningest college football coach.
On October 7, 1995, he will win his 400th game, establishing
a record and securing his status as a legend. Sports
Illustrated will place Robinson on the cover of its October
14, 1995 issue, making him the first and only coach of an
historically Black university to appear on the cover of any
major sports publication in the United States. To his credit,
he will produce 113 NFL players, including four Pro Football
Hall of Famers. He will join the ancestors on April 3, 2007.

1920 – The National Association of Professional Baseball Clubs is
founded by Andrew “Rube” Foster. They will be called the
Negro National League. It will become the first successful
African American professional baseball league. Two other
leagues had previously been started, but failed to last more
than one season.

1923 – The first African American professional basketball team “The Renaissance” is organized by Robert J. Douglas. It is named
after its home court, the Renaissance Casino. They will
play from 1923 to 1939 and have a record of 1,588 wins
against 239 losses. They will become the first African
American team in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

1957 – The Southern Leadership Conference is founded at a meeting ofministers in New Orleans, Louisiana. Martin Luther King, Jr. is elected its first president. Later in the year its name
will be changed to the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference.

1976 – General Murtala Mohammed, head of Nigeria, who came to power in 1975 after General Gowon is ousted, joins the ancestors after being killed in an unsuccessful counter-coup. His
chief of staff, General Olusegun Obasanjo, will assume
Mohammed’s post and his promise to hand over political power
to civilian rule.

1996 – Minister Louis Farrakhan, of the Nation of Islam, visits Iran to celebrate its 1979 revolution ousting the Shah.

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

February 12, 2013 KRLemmons African American History

February 12 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 12 *

***********************************************************
“Once a year we go through the charade of February being ‘Black
History Month.’ Black History Month needs to be a 12-MONTH THING.
When we all learn about our history, about how much we’ve
accomplished while being handicapped with RACISM, it can only
inspire us to greater heights, knowing we’re on the giant shoulders
of our ANCESTORS.” Subscribe to the Munirah Chronicle and receive
Black Facts every day of the year.
To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]>
In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name
***********************************************************

1793 – Congress makes it a crime to hide or protect a runaway slave
by passing the first fugitive slave law.

1865 – Henry Highland Garnet, preacher and abolitionist, becomes the
first African American to preach in the rotunda of the
Capitol to the House of Representatives. It is on the
occasion of a Lincoln birthday memorial.

1896 – Isaac Burns Murphy, considered the greatest American jockey
of all time, joins the ancestors. He was the first jockey
to win the Kentucky Derby two years in a row and became the
first jockey to win the Kentucky Derby three times. In
1955, Isaac Murphy was the first jockey voted into the
Jockey Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing, in
Saratoga Springs, New York.

1900 – For a Lincoln birthday celebration, James Weldon Johnson
writes the lyrics for “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” With
music by his brother, J. Rosamond, the song is first sung
by 500 children in Jacksonville, Florida. It will become
known as the “Negro National Anthem.”

1909 – When six African Americans were killed and 200 others driven
out of town in race riots in Springfield, Illinois in the
summer of 1908, many Americans were shocked, because they
associated such violence only with racism in the south.
Springfield was not only a northern city, but the home of
Abraham Lincoln. Three people, Mary Ovington, William E.
Walling, and Dr. Henry Moskowitz, alarmed at the
deterioration of race relations, decided to open a campaign
to oppose the pervasive discrimination against racial
minorities. They issue a call for a national conference
on “the Negro question”, and for its symbolic value, they
will choose the centennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln,
February 12, 1909, as the date for the conference. Held in
New York City, it will draw an interracial group of 60
distinguished citizens, who will formulate plans for a
permanent organization devoted to fighting all forms of
racial discrimination. That organization will be the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
The NAACP will be the oldest and largest civil rights
organization in the U.S. With more than 2,200 branches
across the country, it will be in the forefront of the
struggle for voting rights, and an end to discrimination in
housing, employment, and education.

1934 – William Felton “Bill” Russell is born in Monroe, Louisiana.
He will become a star basketball player and high jumper at
the University of San Francisco. After college, he will
win a gold medal in the 1956 Olympics, as a member of the
United States basketball team. He will then play
professional basketball for the Boston Celtics for thirteen
seasons, winning eight straight NBA titles and eleven
championships. At the end of the 1965-66 season, he will
become the coach of the Boston Celtics.

1983 – Eubie Blake joins the ancestors at the age of 100 in Brooklyn,
New York. Blake was one of the last ragtime pianists and
composers whose most famous songs included “I’m Just Wild
About Harry.” With Noble Sissle, Blake was the composer of
the first all-African American Broadway musical, “Shuffle
Along,” which opened on Broadway in 1921.

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

	KRLemmons on 365 Black Books Hattie McDanie…
	Jackie on 365 Black Books Hattie McDanie…
	KRLemmons on 365 Black Books Hattie McDanie…
	Jackie on 365 Black Books Hattie McDanie…
	KRLemmons on 365 Black Books Hattie McDanie…