KRLemmons African American History

December 13 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – December 13 *

1903 – Ella Baker is born in Norfolk, Virginia. A civil rights
worker who will direct the New York branch of the NAACP,
Baker will become executive director of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference in the 1960’s during
student integration of lunch counters in the southern
states. She also will play a key role in the formation
of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and its
voter registration drive in Mississippi. She will join
the ancestors on December 13, 1986 in New York City.

1913 – Archibald Lee Wright is born in Benoit, Mississippi.
Better known as Archie Moore, he will become a boxer and
win the light heavyweight crown in 1952. He will reign
as champion until 1959 and again in 1961. His will be one
of the longest professional careers in the history of
boxing. In 2002, he will be inducted into the St. Louis
Walk of Fame. In 2006, he will become a California Boxing
Hall of Fame Inductee and Ring Magazine will name him
boxing’s fourth Ring Magazine Best Punchers of all time
in 2003. He will join the ancestors on December 9, 1998.
He still holds the record for the most career knockouts
by any boxer, at 145.

1924 – Lawrence Eugene “Larry” Doby is born in Camden, South
Carolina. He will become the first African American in
baseball’s American League, playing for the Cleveland
Indians. He will be the 1954 RBI leader. His career
statistics include a .283 career average with 253 home
runs and 970 RBI in 1533 games. He will hit at least 20
homers in each season from 1949-56, leading the league in
1952 (32) and 1954 (32), and appearing between the top
ten leaders in seven seasons (1949, 1951-56). He will hit
for the cycle (1952), and also lead the league in runs in
1952 (104), RBI in 1954 (126), on base percentage in 1950
(.442), slugging average in 1952 (.541), and OPS in 1950
(.986). He will be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
in 1998. He will join the ancestors on June 18, 2003 in
Montclair, New Jersey.

1944 – The first African American women complete officer training
for the WAVES (Women’s Auxiliary Volunteers for Emergency
Service). They had been admitted to the corps two months
earlier.

1958 – Tim Moore, an actor best known for his portrayal of
Kingfish on the Amos ‘n’ Andy television show, joins the
ancestors at the age of 70.

1981 – Popular African American comedian Dewey “Pigmeat” Markham
joins the ancestors after a stroke at the age of 75. He
became famous in mainstream America, late in his life for
his “here comes de judge” routine popularized in
television’s “Laugh-In.”

1989 – President De Klerk of South Africa meets with imprisoned
Nelson Mandela, at de Klerk’s office in Cape Town, to talk
about the end of apartheid.

1997 – Charles Woodson, of the University of Michigan, is awarded
the Heisman Trophy. He is the first defensive player ever
to win the coveted prize.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 12 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – December 12 *

1870 – Joseph Hayne Rainey is the first African American to serve
in Congress representing South Carolina. He is sworn in
to fill an unexpired term.

1872 – U.S. Attorney General George Williams sends a telegram to
“Acting Governor Pinchback,” saying that the African
American politician “was recognized by the President as
the lawful executive of Louisiana.”

1892 – Minnie Evans, visual artist and painter, is born in Pender
County, North Carolina. One of her more famous works will
be “Lion of Judah.” She will be inducted into the
Wilmington, NC “Walk of Fame.” She will join the ancestors
on December 16, 1987.

1899 – Boston native, dentist, and avid golfer, George F. Grant
receives a patent for a wooden golf tee. Prior to the
use of the tee, wet sand was used to make a small mound
to place the ball. Grant’s invention will revolutionize
the manner in which golfers swing at the ball.

1912 – Henry Melody Jackson, Jr. is born in Columbus, Mississippi.
He will move with his family to St. Louis, Missouri and
become a boxer known as Henry Armstrong. In 1938 he will
become the first boxer to hold three titles at the same
time after winning the lightweight boxing championship.
He will be inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame as well
as the International Boxing Hall of Fame. His boxing record
at the time of his retirement in 1945 will be 150 wins, 101
wins by knockout, 21 losses, and 10 draws. After retiring
from boxing, he will become a Baptist minister and will
teach young upcoming fighter how to box. He will join
the ancestors on October 22, 1988 in Los Angeles, California.

1913 – James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens is born in Oakville, Alabama.
He will become a world-class athlete in college, setting
world records in many events. He will go on to win 4 gold
medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, spoiling Hitler’s
plans to showcase Aryan sports supremacy. He will join the
ancestors on March 31, 1980.

1918 – Famed jazz singer Joe Williams is born in Cordele, Georgia.
Williams will sing for seven years in Count Basie’s band,
where he will record such hits as “Every Day I have the
Blues.” He will join the ancestors on March 29, 1980.

1929 – Vincent Dacosta Smith is born in New York City. He will
exhibit his works on four continents and be represented in
the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the National
Museum of American Art, and the National Museum of Afro-
American Artists in Boston. He will join the ancestors on
December 27, 2003.

1938 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Missouri that a state must
provide equal educational facilities for African Americans
within its boundaries. Lloyd Gaines, the plaintiff in the
case, disappears after the decision and is never seen
again.

1941 – Dionne Warwick is born in East Orange, New Jersey. Warwick
will sing in a gospel trio with her sister Dee Dee and
cousin Cissy Houston, and begin her solo career in 1960
singing the songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. She
will become a three-time Grammy winner.

1943 – Grover Washington, Jr. is born in Buffalo, New York. He
will become a renown jazz artist and famous for his
recording of “Mr. Magic.” He will join the ancestors on
December 17, 1999.

1961 – Martin Luther King Jr., along with over seven hundred
demonstrators is arrested in Albany, Ga., after five mass
marches on city hall to protest segregation. The arrests
trigger the militant Albany movement.

1963 – Kenya achieves its independence from Great Britain with
Jomo Kenyatta as its first prime minister.

1963 – Medgar Wiley Evers is awarded the Spingarn Medal
posthumously for his civil rights leadership.

1965 – Johnny Lee, an actor best known for his portrayal of
“Calhoun” on “The Amos ‘n’ Andy Show,” joins the ancestors
at the age of 67.

1965 – Gale Sayers, of the Chicago Bears, scores 6 touchdowns and
ties the NFL record.

1968 – Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to be ranked
Number One in tennis.

1975 – The National Association of Black Journalists is formed in
Washington, DC. Among its founding members are Max
Robinson, who will become the first African American anchor
of a national network news program, and Acel Moore, a
future Pulitzer Prize winner.

1979 – Rhodesia becomes the independent nation of Zimbabwe.

1986 – Bone Crusher Smith knocks out WBA champion Tim Witherspoon
in Madison Square Garden in New York City.

2007 – Ike Turner, whose role as one of rock’s critical architects
was overshadowed by his ogre-like image as the man who
brutally abused former wife and rock icon Tina Turner,
joins the ancestors at his home in suburban San Diego at the
age of 76.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 11 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 11 *

1872 – America’s first African American governor takes office as 
Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback became acting governor 
of Louisiana. 

1916 – John E. Bush, former slave and teacher, joins the 
ancestors. He had been appointed receiver of the United 
States Land Office in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1898. 

1917 – 13 African American soldiers are hanged for alleged 
participation in a Houston riot.

1917 – The Great Jazz migration begins as Joe Oliver leaves New 
Orleans and settles in Chicago, to be joined later by 
other stars.

1917 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to Harry T. 
Burleigh, composer and accomplished opera singer, for 
excellence in the field of music.

1926 – Willie Mae Thornton is born in Montgomery, Alabama. She 
will be better known as “Big Mama” Thornton, a blues 
singer whose recording of “Hound Dog” in 1952 will be 
mimicked by Elvis Presley, much to his success. She 
also recorded the hits “Ball & Chain,” and “Stronger 
than Dirt.” She will join the ancestors on July 25, 1984.

1928 – Lewis Latimore joins the ancestors in Flushing, New York. 
Employed as a chief draftsman, Mr. Latimore created the 
drawings for Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone in 1870.

1931 – The British Statute of Westminster gives complete 
legislative independence to South Africa.

1940 – Lev T. Mills, who will become an artist and chairman of 
the art department at Spelman College, is born in 
Tallahassee, Florida. His prints and mixed-media works 
will be collected by the Victoria & Albert and British 
Museums in London and the High Museum in Atlanta and 
include glass mosaic murals for an Atlanta subway station 
and the atrium floor of Atlanta’s City Hall.

1954 – Jermaine Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. He will become 
a singer and musician with his brothers and perform with 
their group, The Jackson Five.

1961 – U.S. Supreme Court reverses the conviction of sixteen 
sit-in students who had been arrested in Baton Rouge, 
Louisiana.

1961 – Langston Hughes’ musical, “Black Nativity,” opens on 
Broadway.

1964 – Sam Cooke joins the ancestors after being killed. Bertha 
Franklin, Manager of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles, 
claimed she killed the singer in self-defense after he’d 
tried to rape a 22-year-woman and then turned on Franklin. 

1980 – George Rogers, a running back for the University of South 
Carolina, is awarded the Heisman Trophy. He achieved 21
consecutive 100-yard games with the gamecocks and led the 
nation in rushing.

1981 – Muhammad Ali’s boxes in his 61st & last fight, losing to 
Trevor Berbick.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 10 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – December 10 *

1810 – Tom Cribb of Great Britain defeats beats African
American Tom Molineaux in the first interracial boxing
championship. The fight lasted 40 rounds at Copthall
Common in England.

1846 – Norbert Rillieux invents the evaporating pan, which
revolutionizes the sugar industry.

1854 – Edwin C. Berry is born in Oberlin, Ohio. He will become
a hotel entrepreneur and erects a 22-room hotel, Hotel
Berry, in Athens, Ohio. He will be known, at the time
of his retirement in 1921, as the most successful
African American small-city hotel operator in the
United States. He will join the ancestors in Athens, Ohio
on March 12, 1931.

1864 – A mixed cavalry force, including Fifth and Sixth Colored
Cavalry regiments, invades southwest Virginia and
destroys salt mines at Saltville. The Sixth Cavalry
was especially brilliant in an engagement near Marion,
Virginia.

1910 – Smarting from the humiliation of seeing the Ty Cobb-led
Detroit Tigers tie the Negro Havana Stars in a six game
series 3-3, the “Indianapolis Freeman” states: “The
American scribes refused to write on the matter, it cut
so deep and was kept quiet.” Not quiet enough, however,
to prevent a ban on Negro teams, even the Cuban-named
clubs, from playing whites.

1943 – Theodore Wilson is born in New York City. He will become
an actor and will star on television in “That’s My Mama”
(Earl the Postman), and “Sanford Arms”.

1950 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is the first African American to be
presented the Nobel Prize. He is awarded the Peace Prize
for his efforts as under-secretary of the United Nations,
working for peace in the middle east.

1963 – Zanzibar becomes independent within the British
Commonwealth.

1964 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. receives the Nobel Peace Prize.
In his acceptance speech, he dramatically rejects racism
and war and reaffirms his commitment to “unarmed truth
and unconditional love.” He is the youngest person to
earn the award.

1965 – Sugar Ray Robinson permanently retires from boxing with
six victories in title bouts to his credit.

1967 – Otis Redding and four members of the Bar-Kays (Otis’
backup group) join the ancestors after being killed in
the crash of a private plane near Madison, Wisconsin.
Redding is 26 years old. His signature song, “(Sittin’
On) The Dock of the Bay” was recorded just three days
before his death. It will be #1 for four weeks beginning
February 10, 1968.

1982 – Pamela McAllister Johnson becomes the first African
American woman publisher of a mainstream newspaper, the
“Ithaca Journal.”

1984 – South African Anglican Bishop, Desmond Tutu receives the
Nobel Peace Prize.

1999 – Actress Shirley Hemphill joins the ancestors in West
Covina, California at the age of 52. She was best known
for her role as the “waitress with an attitude” on the
television series, “What’s Happening!”

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 9 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – December 9 *

1867 – The Georgia constitutional convention, consisting of 33
African American and 137 whites, opens in Atlanta,
Georgia.

1872 – P. B. S. Pinchback is sworn in as governor of Louisiana
after H.C. Warmoth is impeached “for high crimes and
misdemeanors.” He becomes the first African American
governor of a state.

1919 – Roy Rudolph DeCarava is born in New York City. He will
become a leading photographer of the African American
experience. He will win a scholarship to study at the
Cooper Union School of Art (1938–40), but will leave
after two years to attend the more congenial Harlem
Community Art Center (1940–42), where he will have
access to such figures as the artists Romare Bearden
and Jacob Lawrence and the poet Langston Hughes, He
will then attend the George Washington Carver Art
School (1944–45), where he will study with the Social
Realist, Charles White. He will initially take up
photography to record images he would use in his
painting, but he will come to prefer the camera to the
brush. In the late 1940s he will begin a series of
scenes of his native Harlem, aiming for “a creative
expression, the kind of penetrating insight and
understanding of Negroes which I believe only a Negro
photographer can interpret.” Edward Steichen, then
curator of photography for the Museum of Modern Art in
New York City, will attend his first solo show in 1950
and purchase several prints for the museum’s collection.
In 1952, he will be awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship,
the first African American photographer to receive the
grant. Many of the photos enabled by this award will be
compiled in the book, “The Sweet Flypaper of Life” (1955;
reissued 1988), with text written by Langston Hughes. In
1958, he will become a freelance photographer. His
interest in education will lead him to found “A
Photographer’s Gallery” (1955–57), which will attempt to
gain public recognition for photography as an art form,
and a workshop for African American photographers in
1963. He will also teach at the Cooper Union School of
Art from 1969 to 1972. In 1975, he will join the faculty
at Hunter College. He will be perhaps best known for his
portraits of jazz musicians, which capture the essence
of such legends as Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Duke
Ellington, and Billie Holiday in the midst of performances.
These portraits, which he will begin in 1956, will be
shown in 1983 in an exhibit at Harlem’s Studio Museum.
Many of his jazz portraits will be published in “The Sound
I Saw: Improvisation on a Jazz Theme” (2001). In 1996, the
Museum of Modern Art will organize a DeCarava retrospective
that will travel to several cities and introduce his work
to a new generation. He will receive a National Medal of
Arts in 2006, the highest award given to artists by the
United States Government. He will join the ancestors on
October 27, 2009.

1922 – John Elroy (Redd Foxx) Sanford, is born in St. Louis,
Missouri. His off-color records and concerts will
catapult him to fame and his own television show,
“Sanford and Son,” and a later series, “The Royal
Family,” his last before he suddenly joins the ancestors
on October 11, 1991.

1938 – The first public service programming aired when Jack L.
Cooper launches the “Search for Missing Persons” show.
In 1929, he debuted “The All-Negro Hour on WSBC in Chicago.
He is considered to be the first African American disc
jockey and radio announcer.

1953 – Lloyd B. Free is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will
become a professional basketball player and will later
change his name to World B. Free. He will be a NBA
guard with the Philadelphia 76ers, San Diego Clippers,
Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, and the
Houston Rockets. He will leave the NBA in 1988 with
17,955 career points and a career scoring average of
20.3 points per game.

1961 – Tanganyika gains independence from Great Britain and
takes the name Tanzania.

1961 – Wilt Chamberlain of the NBA Philadelphia Warriors scores
67 points vs. the New York Knicks.

1962 – Tanzania becomes a republic within the British
Commonwealth.

1963 – Zanzibar gains independence from Great Britain.

1971 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, Nobel Peace Prize winner and
Undersecretary of the United Nations from 1955 to his
retirement in October, 1971, joins the ancestors in New
York City at the age of 67.

1971 – Bill Pickett becomes the first African American elected
to the National Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame. He is the
cowboy that invented the bulldogging event famous in
today’s rodeos.

1976 – Tony Dorsett is awarded the Heisman Trophy. Dorsett, a
running back for the University of Pittsburgh, amasses
a total of 6,082 total yards and will go on to play
with the Dallas Cowboys and help lead them to the Super
Bowl.

1984 – The Jackson’s Victory Tour comes to a close at Dodger
Stadium in Los Angeles, after 55 performances in 19
cities. The production is reported to be the world’s
greatest rock extravaganza and one of the most
problematic. The Jackson brothers receive about $50
million during the five-month tour of the United States
– before some 2.5 million fans.

1984 – Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears records another first
as he runs six plays, as quarterback. He is intercepted
twice, but runs the ball himself on four carries. The
Green Bay Packers still win 20-14. Payton says after
the game, “It was OK, but I wouldn’t want to do it for a
living.”

1984 – Eric Dickerson, of the Los Angeles Rams, becomes only the
second pro football player to run for more than 2,000
yards (2,105) in a season. He passes O.J. Simpson’s
record of 2,003 as the Rams beat the Houston Oilers
27-16.

1989 – Craig Washington wins a special congressional election in
Texas’ 18th District to fill the seat vacated by the
death of George “Mickey” Leland.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 8 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 8 *

1850 – The first African American woman to graduate from
college is Lucy Ann Stanton. She completes the two-year
ladies’ course and receives the Bachelor of Literature
degree from Oberlin College in Ohio.

1863 – President Abraham Lincoln issues his Proclamation on
Amnesty and Reconstruction for the restoration of the
Confederate states into the Union. He offers them a full
pardon and restoration of their rights if they are
willing to take an oath of loyalty to the Union and
accept the end of slavery.

1868 – Henry Hugh Proctor is born near Fayetteville,
Tennessee. He will receive his degree from Fisk University,
graduating in 1891. In 1894, he will receive a Bachelor of
Divinity degree from Yale University and be ordained into
the Congregational ministry. He will become pastor of the
First Congregational Church in Atlanta. In 1903, He will
join George Washington Henderson, president of Straight
University, a black college in New Orleans, Louisiana, to
found the National Convention of Congregational Workers
Among Colored People, and he will become its first president.
In 1904, Clark University will award him a Doctor of Divinity
degree. After the Atlanta Race Riot in 1906, he and a white
attorney will work together to quell remaining tensions and
form the Interracial Committee of Atlanta. In the church,
he will provide amenities lacking to blacks such as a
library, a kindergarten, an employment bureau, a gymnasium, a
ladies’ reading parlor, a music room, counseling services and
a model kitchen and sewing room for girls. He will also help
open the first housing facility for young employed black
women. He will be a strong believer in self-improvement. He
will also found the Atlanta Colored Music Festival
Association, with concerts attended by both races, segregated
but under one roof, believing that music could quell racial
animosity. This festival continues to the present day as the
Atlanta Music Festival. In 1919, he will minister to the
black American troops remaining in Europe. Afterwards he will
lead the Nazarene Congregational Church in Brooklyn, New York,
the place where he will live the rest of his life. He will
join the ancestors on May 12, 1933 New York City, after
succumbing to blood poisoning.

1873 – The National Equal Rights Convention adopts a resolution
to include African Americans.

1896 – J.T. White patents the lemon squeezer.

1925 – Entertainer, Sammy Davis Jr. is born in New York City.
He will begin his career at the age of four in
vaudeville, performing with his father. Sammy will star
on Broadway in “Mr. Wonderful” and in movies with “Porgy
and Bess”, Ocean’s Eleven, and “Robin and the Seven
Hoods.” He will release over 40 albums and will win many
gold records. He will join the ancestors on May 16, 1990.

1925 – James Oscar “Jimmy” Smith is born in Norristown,
Pennsylvania. He will become a modern jazz organist with
hits such as “Walk on the Wild Side.” He will rule the
Hammond organ in the ’50s and ’60s. He will revolutionize
the instrument, showing it could be creatively used in a
jazz context and popularized in the process. His Blue
Note sessions from 1956 to 1963 were extremely
influential. He toured extensively through the ’60s and
’70s. His Blue Note recordings will include superb
collaborations with Kenny Burrell, Lee Morgan, Lou
Donaldson, Tina Brooks, Jackie McLean, Ike Quebec and
Stanley Turrentine among others. He will join the
ancestors on February 8, 2005.

1933 – Clerow Wilson is born in Jersey City, New Jersey. “Flip”
Wilson is the tenth in a family of twenty-four children,
eighteen of whom survived. He will become a popular
comedian and will star in his own prime time comedy show
on television, “The Flip Wilson Show.” He will join the
ancestors on November 25, 1998.

1936 – “Gibbs vs The Board of Education” in Montgomery County,
Maryland is the first of a succession of suits initiated
by the NAACP, that eliminated wage differentials between
African American and white teachers.

1936 – “The Michigan Chronicle” is founded by Louis E. Martin.

1936 – The Spingarn Medal is presented to John Hope, posthumously,
for his achievement as president of Morehouse College and
for his creative leadership in the founding of the Atlanta
University Center.

1939 – Jerry Butler is born in Sunflower, Mississippi. He will
become a rhythm and blues singer with his group, The
Impressions and will be best known for his songs, “Never
Give You Up”, “For Your Precious Love,” “He Will Break
Your Heart,” and “Only the Strong Survive.” He will
become involved in the election of Chicago’s first
African American mayor, Harold Washington, work as Cook
County Commissioner and will serve as a Chicago City
Alderman.

1962 – The Reverend John Melville Burgess is consecrated as
suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts — the first African
American bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church to
serve a predominantly white diocese.

1967 – Major Robert H. Lawrence, Jr., the first African American
astronaut, joins the ancestors when his F-104 Starfighter
crashes at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave
Desert.

1972 – Representative George Collins joins the ancestors in an
airplane crash, near Midway Airport in Chicago, Illinois,
at the age of 47.

1972 – Attorney Jewel Lafontant is named Deputy Solicitor General
of the United States.

1977 – Earl Campbell, a running back with the University of Texas,
is awarded the Heisman Trophy. Campbell will play for
the Houston Oilers and be elected to the Football Hall of
Fame in 1990.

1983 – Mike Rozier, of the University of Nebraska, is awarded the
Heisman Trophy.

1987 – Kurt Lidell Schmoke is inaugurated as the first African
American mayor of Baltimore, Maryland.

1988 – Barry Sanders, a running back with Oklahoma State
University, is awarded the Heisman Trophy.

1991 – Tap dancing legends Fayard and Harold Nicholas and six
others receive Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, DC.

1998 – Nkem Chukwu, a Nigerian American, delivers Ebuka, the
first of eight children at Texas Children’s Hospital in
Houston, Texas. In what doctors consider a medical first,
the other seven siblings will be delivered on December 20.
Only seven will survive.

1999 – A Memphis, Tennessee jury hearing a lawsuit filed by the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s family, finds that the civil
rights leader had been the victim of a vast murder
conspiracy, not a lone assassin.

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

KRLemmons Multicultural literature

“A poet, América knows, belongs everywhere”: Healing & Latin@ Children’s Literature

missdguzman's avatarLatinxs in Kid Lit

By Sonia Alejandra Rodriguez

As a child what I desired most was to be rescued from the violence I experienced at home. I was undocumented and domestic violence was far too common. While I now know that these are real experiences for many Latino homes, these were secrets that I walked around with for fear that my family would be separated if I said anything. Retrospectively, what I probably needed, aside from the violence to stop, was to understand why the violence was happening in the first place. There was nothing or no one around to explain my feelings of anxiety, fear, and/or self-hate around the violence I witnessed and then internalized. At the time, shows like “Boy Meets World,” “Saved by the Bell,” and “Full House” only reaffirmed for me that my family was different, did not belong, or that there was something wrong us. I was reading a…

View original post 1,278 more words

KRLemmons African American History

December 7 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 7 *

1874 – White Democrats kill seventy-five Republicans in a
massacre at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1885 – The Forty-Ninth Congress (1885-87) is convened. Two
African American congressmen, James E. O’Hara of North
Carolina and Robert Smalls of South Carolina are in
attendance.

1931 – Comer Cottrell is born in Mobile, Alabama. In 1970, he
will become founder and president of Pro-line
Corporation in Los Angeles, California, which he will
start with $ 600 and a borrowed typewriter. He will move
the headquarters to Dallas, Texas in 1980, becoming the
largest African American-owned business in the southwest.
An entrepreneur with a wide range of interests, he will
become the first African American to own a part of a
major league baseball team, the Texas Rangers, in 1989.
He will also become sponsor of Miss Collegiate African
American Pageant in 1989, purchase the campus of bankrupt
Bishop College in Dallas, Texas in 1990, and persuade
Paul Quinn College to relocate to former grounds of
Bishop College. He will donate $25,000 to Spelman College
in Atlanta, Georgia and serve as part of an entourage of
black businessmen visiting the Republic of South Africa
in 1994. He will join the ancestors on October 3, 2014.

1941 – During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dorie Miller
of Waco, Texas, a messman aboard the battleship Arizona
who had never been instructed in firearms, heroically
downs three Japanese planes before being ordered to
leave the ship. Miller will be awarded the Navy Cross
for his bravery.

1941 – The Downtown Gallery in New York City presents the
exhibit “American Negro Art, 19th and 20th Century”.
Included in the exhibit is work by Robert Duncanson,
Horace Pippin, Eldzier Cortor, Richmond Barte’ and
others.

1941 – Lester Granger is named executive director of the
National Urban League.

1941 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to novelist
Richard Wright, “one of the most powerful of
contemporary writer,” for “his powerful depiction in
his books, ‘Uncle Tom’s Childre-n,’ and ‘Native Son,’
of the effect of proscription, segregation and denial
of opportunities to the American Negro.”

1942 – Reginald F. Lewis is born in Baltimore, Maryland. He will
receive his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1968.
He will eventually become a partner in Murphy, Thorpe &
Lewis, the first African American law firm on Wall
Street. In 1989, he will become president and CEO of
TLC Beatrice International Holding Inc. With TLC’s
leverage acquisition of Beatrice International Food
Company, Lewis becomes the head of the largest African
American-owned business in the United States. TLC
Beatrice had revenues of $1.54 billion in 1992. He will
join the ancestors in January, 1993, succumbing to brain
cancer.

1972 – W. Sterling Cary is elected president of the Nation
Council of Churches.

1978 – Billy Sims is awarded the Heisman Trophy at the annual
awards dinner sponsored by the Downtown Athletic Club.
The running back from the University of Oklahoma is the
sixth junior to win the award.

1981 – John Jacobs is named president of the National Urban
League.

1985 – Bo Jackson of Auburn University wins the Heisman Trophy.

1990 – Rhythm and Blues artist, Dee Clark, joins the ancestors in
Smyrna, Georgia at the age of 52.

1993 – The South African transitional executive council is set up.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 6 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 6 *

1806 – The African Meeting House is established in Boston,
Massachusetts and will become the oldest African
American house of worship still standing in the United
States. This house of worship will be constructed
almost entirely by African American laborers and
craftsmen, but funds will be contributed by the white
community. Because of the leadership role its
congregation takes in the early struggle for civil
rights, the African Meeting House will become known as
the Abolition Church and Black Faneuil Hall. Frederick
Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison will be speakers
there.

1849 – Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland. She
will return to the South nineteen times and bring out
more than three hundred slaves.

1865 – Ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, abolishing slavery is completed. The
proclamation of its acceptance will take place on
December 18, 1865.

1869 – The National Black labor convention meets in Washington,
DC.

1870 – Joseph H Rainey becomes the first African American in
the House of Representatives, from the state of South
Carolina.

1871 – P.B.S. Pinchback is elected president pro tem of the
Louisiana Senate and acting lieutenant governor. He is
the first African American to serve in these positions
in state government.

1875 – The Forty-Fourth Congress of 1875-1877 convenes with a
high of eight African Americans taking office. They are
Senator Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi and congressmen
Jeremiah Haralson of Alabama, Josiah T. Walls of Florida,
John Roy Lynch of Mississippi, John A. Hyman of North
Carolina, Charles E. Nash of Louisiana,; and Joseph H.
Rainey and Robert Smalls of South Carolina.

1892 – Theodore K. Lawless is born in Thibodeaux, Louisiana. He
will receive his medical degree from Northwestern
University, hold a fellowship at Massachusetts General
Hospital and receive further training at the University
of Paris’s premier Dermatology program. He will become a
dermatologist, medical researcher, and philanthropist.
He will known for his work related to leprosy and
syphilis. He will also be involved in various charitable
causes including Jewish causes. He will create the
Lawless Department of Dermatology in Beilison Hospital,
Tel-Aviv, Israel, the T. K. Lawless Student Summer
Program at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot,
Israel; the Lawless Clinical and Research Laboratory in
Dermatology of the Hebrew Medical School, Jerusalem;
Roosevelt University’s Chemical Laboratory and Lecture
Auditorium, Chicago; and Lawless Memorial Chapel,
Dillard University, New Orleans. His philantrophy in
Israel was ingratitude for the support received from
Jewish doctors in obtaining his appointment to his
position at the University of Paris. A shrewd investor
and businessman, he will have a remarkable business
career. He will be director of both the Supreme Life
Insurance Company and Marina City Bank. He will also be
a charter member, associate founder, and president of
Service Federal Savings and Loan in Chicago. He will
become a self-made millionaire. He will join the
ancestors in Chicago, Illinois on May 1, 1971.

1949 – Blues legend Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter joins the
ancestors in New York City.

1956 – Nelson Mandela and 156 others are jailed for political
activities in South Africa.

1960 – 500 store owners sign pledges of nondiscrimination in
Tucson, Arizona.

1961 – Dr. Frantz O. Fanon, noted author of “Black Skins, White
Masks” and “Wretched of the Earth”, joins the ancestors
in Washington, DC. He succumbs to leukemia at the
National Institutes of Health.

1977 – South Africa grants Bophuthatswana its independence.
The constitution, in effect after South Africa’s first
all-race elections in April 1994, will abolish this
black homeland, which will be reabsorbed into South
Africa.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 5 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 5 *

1784 – African American poet Phyllis Wheatley joins the
ancestors in Boston at the age of 31. Born in Africa
and brought to the American Colonies at the age of
eight in 1761, Wheatley was quick to learn both English
and Latin. Her first poem was published in 1770 and
she continued to write poems and eulogies. A 1773
trip to England secured her success there, where she
was introduced to English society. Her book, “Poems on
Various Subjects, Religious and Moral”, was published
late that year. Married for six years to John Peters,
Wheatley and her infant daughter died hours apart in a
Boston boarding house, where she worked.

1832 – Sarah Gorham, the first woman appointed by the African
Methodist Episcopal Church to serve as a foreign
missionary in 1881, is born.

1881 – The Forty-Seventh Congress (1881-83) convenes. Only two
African American congressmen have been elected, Robert
Smalls of South Carolina and John Roy Lynch of
Mississippi.

1895 – Elbert Frank Cox is born in Evansville, Indiana. He will
become the first African American to earn a doctorate
degree in mathematics (Cornell University – 1925). He
will spend most of his life as a professor at Howard
University in Washington, D.C., where he will be known
as an excellent teacher. During his life, he will
overcome various difficulties which will arise because
of his race. In his honor, the National Association of
Mathematicians will establish the Cox-Talbot Address,
which will be annually delivered at the NAM’s national
meetings. The Elbert F. Cox Scholarship Fund, which will
be used to help black students pursue studies, is named
in his honor as well. He will continue teaching until
his retirement in 1966 – three years before he joins the
ancestors on November 28, 1969, at age 73 in Washington, DC.

1917 – Charity Adams (later Earley) is born in Kittrell, North
Carolina. She will become the first African American
commissioned officer in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps
in 1942. She will serve as the commanding officer and
battalion commander of the first battalion of African
American women (6888th Central Postal Direction) to serve
overseas during WWII, in England. She will serve in the
Army for four years and hold the rank of Lt. Colonel
at the time of her release from active duty. She will
join the ancestors on January 13, 2002.

1931 – James Cleveland is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will
sing his first gospel solo at the age of eight in a
choir directed by famed gospel pioneer Thomas Dorsey.
He will later sing with Mahalia Jackson, The Caravans,
and other groups before forming his own group, The
Gospel Chimes, in 1959. His recording of “Peace Be
Still” with the James Cleveland Singers and the 300-
voice Angelic Choir of Nutley, New Jersey, will earn him
the title “King of Gospel.” He will join the ancestors
on February 9, 1991.

1932 – Richard Wayne Penniman is born in Macon, Georgia. He will
become a Rhythm and Blues singer and composer. He will be
known for his flamboyant singing style, which will be
influential to many Rhythm and Blues and British artists.
His songs will include “Good Golly Miss Molly”, “Tutti
Frutti”, and “Lucille.” He will be honored by many
institutions, including inductions into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He will be
the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from The
Recording Academy and the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. His
“Tutti Frutti” (1955) will be included in the Library of
Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2010, claiming
the “unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat
announced a new era in music.”

1935 – The National Council of Negro Women is established by Mary
McLeod Bethune.

1935 – Langston Hughes’s play, “The Mulatto”, begins a long run
on Broadway.

1935 – Mary McLeod Bethune is awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal
for her work as founder-president of Bethune Cookman
College and her national leadership.

1946 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Thurgood Marshall,
director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund,
“for his distinguished service as a lawyer before the
Supreme Court.”

1946 – President Truman created The Committee on Civil Rights by
Executive Order No. 9808. Sadie M. Alexander and Channing
H. Tobias were two African Americans who will serve as
members of the committee.

1947 – Jersey Joe Wolcott defeats Joe Louis for the heavyweight
boxing title. It is also the first time a heavyweight
championship boxing match is televised.

1949 – Ezzard Charles defeats Jersey Joe Walcott for the
heavyweight boxing title.

1955 – The Montgomery bus boycott begins as a result of Rosa
Parks’ refusal to ride in the back of a city bus four
days earlier. At a mass meeting at the Holt Street
Baptist Church, Martin Luther King Jr. is elected
president of the boycott organization. The boycott will
last a little over a year and be the initial victory in
the civil rights struggle of African Americans in the
United States.

1955 – Asa Philip Randolph and Willard S. Townsend are elected
vice-presidents of the AFL-CIO.

1955 – Carl Murphy, publisher of the Baltimore Afro-American, is
awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for his contributions
as a publisher and civil rights leader.

1957 – New York City becomes the first city to legislate against
racial or religious discrimination in housing market
(Fair Housing Practices Law).

1957 – Martin Luther King Jr. is awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn
Medal for his leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1981 – Marcus Allen, tailback for the University of Southern
California, wins the Heisman Trophy. Six years later,
Tim Brown of the Notre Dame “Fightin’ Irish” will win
the award.

1984 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, at age 37, is the oldest player in
the National Basketball Association. He decides to push
those weary bones one more year by signing with the Los
Angeles Lakers – for $2 million.

2013 – Nelson Mandela, a South African anti-apartheid
revolutionary who was imprisoned and then became a
politician and philanthropist who served as President of
South Africa from 1994 to 1999, joins the ancestors at
the age of 95. He was the first black South African to
hold the office, and the first elected in a fully
representative, multiracial election.

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