KRLemmons African American History

April 27 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 27 *

1883 – Hubert Henry Harrison, is born in St. Croix, Virgin Islands.
He will become, by the 1920s, one of the nation’s most
prominent atheists. Harrison will recognize the connection
between racism and religion, and point this out quite
bluntly. The Bible was a slave master’s book in Harrison’s
eyes, which not only sanctioned the keeping of slaves, but
even gave advice on their handling. He will state that
any African American person who accepts Christianity was
either ignorant or crazy. He also will address Islam by
stating that the slave masters may have been largely
Christian, but many of the slave traders were Muslims,
apparently not deterred by their faith. He will join the
ancestors on December 17, 1927.

1903 – The publication of W.E.B. DuBois’s “The Souls of Black Folk”
crystallizes opposition to Booker T. Washington’s program
of social and political subordination.

1903 – Maggie L. Walker is named president of Richmond’s St. Luke
Penny Bank and Trust Company and becomes the first woman to
head a bank.

1903 – The U.S. Supreme Court upholds clauses in the Alabama state
constitution which disfranchises African Americans.

1927 – Coretta Scott is born in Marion, Alabama. She will marry
Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1953 and be an integral part of
his civil rights activities. After his assassination in
1968, she will continue her civil rights activities,
founding the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent
Change in Atlanta, Georgia. She will join the ancestors on
January 31, 2006 after succumbing to complications of a
stroke and heart attack.

1944 – Rhythm-and-blues singer Cuba Gooding is born.

1949 – Rhythm-and-blues singer Herbie Murrell (The Stylistics) is
born.

1960 – Togo achieves its independence from France. Sylvanus
Olymplo serves as its first prime minister.

1961 – Sierra Leone obtains its independence from Great Britain
with Dr. Milton Margai as its first prime minister.

1961 – Kwame Nkrumah, African statesman and the first president of
Ghana, joins the ancestors in exile, in Conarky, Guinea at
the age of 62.

1977 – Artist Charles Alston joins the ancestors in New York City.
After studying at Columbia University and Pratt Institute,
he had traveled to Europe and the Caribbean before
executing murals for Harlem Hospital and Golden State
Mutual Life Insurance Company in Los Angeles. A recipient
of the National Academy of Design Award, he also received
the first-place award of the Atlanta University
Collection’s 1942 show for his gouache “Farm Boy.” His
best known works are “Family” and “Walking.” Among his
other notable works are “School Girl,” “Frederick Douglass,”
and “Nobody Knows.”

1994 – The first “Freedom Day” takes place in South Africa.

 

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 26 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – April 26 *

1798 – James Pierson Beckwourth is born in Fredericksburg,
Virginia. He will become a legendary American Western
mountain man, trapper, warrior, Indian chief, and
trailblazer. He will maintain a lifelong friendship with
the Crow Indian nation. He will work as an Army scout
during the third Seminole War and will be a rider for the
Pony Express. In 1850, he will discover a pass through the
Sierra Nevada mountains that will enable settlers to more
easily reach California. The Beckwourth Pass is still in
use today by the Union Pacific Railroad and the U.S.
Interstate Highway System. He will join the ancestors in
1866.

1886 – William Levi Dawson is born in Albany, Georgia. A graduate
of Fisk University, he will move to Chicago, serve in the
365th Infantry in World War I, become an attorney and
initially be involved in Republican politics upon his
return to the city after the war. Elected to his first
term in the United States Congress in 1942, he will serve
27 years in the House, where he will become the first
African American representative to chair a committee of
Congress, the Committee on Expenditures in Executive
Departments, in 1949.

1886 – Gertrude Pritchett is born in Columbus, Georgia. She will
become a blues singer and vaudeville performer. She will
marry William “Pa” Rainey and will become the “Ma” half of
“Rainey and Rainey: The Assassinators of the Blues.”
Between 1923 and 1928, she will record 93 songs, many of
which were her own compositions. She will perform
nationwide and will have a loyal fan base, even after her
recording contract with Paramount is terminated. She will
have a great impact on performers who will follow her and
will be immortalized by being included in August Wilson’s
play, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and the poem of Sterling
Brown, “Ma Rainey.” She will join the ancestors on
December 22, 1939 and will be inducted into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

1964 – The African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form
Tanzania. The name is derived from the first syllable of
each country’s name.

1968 – Students seize the administration building at Ohio State.

1984 – Jazz musician great William “Count” Basie, joins the
ancestors in Hollywood, Florida at the age of 77. NOTE:
Many sources will have 1904 for Count Basie’s birth year.
Our source for his birth and death is the Kennedy Center
Archives documenting “The Honors” bestowed on him in 1981.

1991 – Maryann Bishop Coffey is named the first woman and the first
African American co-chair of the National Conference of
Christians and Jews.

1992 – “Jelly’s Last Jam” opens at Virginia theater on Broadway.
Gregory Hines will portray the great jazz composer Jelly
Roll Morton and will receive a Tony award as best actor in
a musical in that role.

1994 – Voting begins in South Africa’s first all-race elections.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 25 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – April 25 *

1905 – Doxey Alphonso Wilkerson is born in Excelsior Springs, Missouri.
He will become an educator at Howard University in Washington, DC
and Yeshiva University in New York City. In 1944, he will publish
an essay in the anthology, “What The Negro Wants,” which will
illustrate comparisons between the Allied struggle in Europe
during World War II and the civil rights struggle of African
Americans in the United States. As a member of the American
Communist Party, he will work as a civil rights activist. This
affiliation will cause him to be repeatedly investigated by
the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities. After
resigning from the Communist Party in 1957, he will continue to
be active in civil right activities and educational pursuits
until his retirement in 1984. He will join the ancestors on
June 17, 1993 in Norwalk, Connecticut.

1916 – Madeline M. Turner receives a patent for the fruit press.

1918 – Ella Fitzgerald is born in Newport News, Virginia. Discovered
at an amateur contest at the Apollo Theatre in 1934, she will
be a leading jazz vocalist of the swing era. Known for her
renditions of such songs as “A Tisket, A Tasket” (her first
million-seller), her unique scat styling and series of recordings
of great American songwriters will make her an enduring favorite
of jazz lovers. She will join the ancestors on June 15, 1996 in
Beverly Hills, California.

1942 – Ruby Doris Smith Robinson is born in Atlanta, Georgia. She will
become a civil rights activist and a founding member of The
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She will be
one of the original “Freedom Riders,” and will assist in creating
the policy of “jail, no bail,” employed by activists to fill
southern jails and bring national attention to the civil rights
struggle. After becoming SNCC’s first and only female executive
secretary, she will become ill with leukemia and joins the
ancestors on October 7, 1967 in Atlanta, Georgia.

1944 – The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is founded by Dr. Frederick
Douglass Patterson, then president of Tuskegee Institute, with 27
charter colleges and universities and a combined enrollment of
14,000 students.

1944 – George Herriman joins the ancestors in Los Angeles, California
at the age of 63. He had been a successful cartoonist who was
the author of the comic strip “Krazy Kat.” The comic strip ran
successfully from 1913 until this date.

1945 – The United Nations is founded at a San Francisco meeting
attended by African American consultants, most notably W.E.B.
Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ralph J. Bunche and Walter White.

1950 – At the NBA’s annual players draft, the Boston Celtics select
Charles “Chuck” Cooper. He is the first African American ever
drafted by an NBA team.

1960 – A consent judgment in a Memphis federal court ended restrictions
barring voters in Fayette County, Tennessee. This was the first
voting rights case under the Civil Rights Act.

1972 – Major General Frederick E. Davidson becomes the first African
American to lead an Army division when he is assigned command of
the 8th Infantry Division in Europe.

1979 – Olodum, an internationally recognized Afro-Brazilian Carnival
association, is founded in Bahia, Brazil. The music of this
group celebrates Black history and protests racial discrimination.
The name Olodum is derived from the name of the supreme Yoruba
deity, Olodumare’.

1990 – Tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon joins the ancestors in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of 67. A leading influence
in the bop movement along with Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie,
Gordon played in London in the early 1960’s and stayed until the
mid-1970’s. Elected to the Jazz Hall of Fame in 1980, his role in
the 1986 movie “‘Round Midnight” will revive interest in his music
and earn him an Academy Award nomination for best actor.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 24 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – April 24 *

1867 – The first national meeting of the Ku Klux Klan is held at
the “Maxwell House” in Nashville, Tennessee.

1867 – African American demonstrators stage ride-ins on Richmond,
Virginia streetcars. Troops were mobilized to restore
order.

1884 – The Medico-Chirurgical Society of the District of Columbia
is founded. It is the first African American medical
society.

1886 – Augustine Tolton is ordained as a Catholic priest after
studying at the College of the Propagation of the Faith in
Rome for five years. Tolton will distinguish himself as a
speaker and a pastor at Catholic churches in New Jersey,
New York City, Chicago, and Quincy, Illinois.

1895 – The National Association of Colored Physicians, Dentists and
Pharmacists is organized at the First Congregational Church
in Atlanta, Georgia. It will change its name to the
National Medical Association in 1903.

1937 – Joseph “Joe” Henderson is born in Lima, Ohio. He will make
his initial reputation in what might be called Blue Note
Records’ second classic phase in the early 1960s, when a
new generation of young musicians began to extend the basic
hard bop framework of the label’s seminal 1950s output in
more experimental directions. He will be one of the players
at the core of that development, both as a leader and in
recordings as a sideman with artists like Kenny Dorham, Lee
Morgan, Andrew Hill, McCoy Tyner, Larry Young and Horace
Silver, among others. His firm grasp of the root idiom
combined with his experimental nature made him an ideal
exponent of the new style, which did not abandon jazz
structures in as radical a fashion as the free jazz
movement. He will join the ancestors on June 30, 2001 in
San Francisco.

1943 – Speaking on race relations and racial equality at Wayne
State University, Langston Hughes says, “I am for the
Christianity that fights poll tax, race discrimination,
lynching, injustice and inequality of the masses. I don’t
feel that religion should be used to beat down Jews [and]
Negroes, and to persecute other minority groups.

1944 – In Smith v. Allwright, the Supreme Court rules that a
“white primary” law that excludes African Americans from
voting is a violation of the 15th Amendment and thus
unconstitutional.

1948 – James Melvin Washington is born in Knoxville, Tennessee.
He will become a leading theologian whose emphasis was the
African American religious experience. He will be a
professor at the Union Theological Seminary in New York
from 1975 until he joins the ancestors in 1997. His
published works will include “Frustrated Fellowship: The
Black Baptist Quest for Social Power” (1986), “A Testament
of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King Jr.”
(1986), and “Conversations with God: Two Centuries of
Prayers by African Americans” (1994).

1954 – Wesley Cook is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He will
become an activist during his teenage years and will be
arrested and beaten for demonstrating against presidential
candidate governor George Wallace of Alabama. He will be a
founding member of the Philadelphia chapter of the Black
Panther Party in 1968 and will be known as Mumia Abu-Jamal.
After spending the summer months in 1970 working on the BPP
newspaper in California, he will return to Philadelphia to
work as a radio journalist with the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting and will have his own talk show on station
WUHY. He will lose his position as a radio journalist after
his continual criticism of mayor Frank Rizzo and
specifically his coverage of the police treatment of the
militant organization MOVE. While working as a taxicab
driver, he will be accused of killing a Philadelphia
policeman, Daniel Faulkner in 1981. Faulkner is killed in
an altercation with Mumia’s brother, after wounding Mumia.
Mumia is presumed to be the shooter and will be convicted
of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. This
verdict is handed down ignoring testimony of witnesses who
saw the killer flee and irregularities during the trial.
On death row since the trial, Mumia will have numerous
appeals turned down. His case will attract worldwide
attention as a racist miscarriage of justice.

1965 – An armed revolt against the dictatorship in the Dominican
Republic is ended with an invasion by United States troops.
Participating in the revolt is Maximiliano Gomez Horatio,
the leader of the Dominican Popular Movement.

1972 – James M. Rodger, Jr., of Durham, North Carolina, is honored
in a White House ceremony as National Teacher of the Year.
He is the first African American to receive the honor.

1972 – Robert Wedgeworth is named director of the American Library
Association. He is the first African American to head the
organization.

1993 – Oliver Tambo joins the ancestors in Johannesburg, South
Africa at the age of 75. He was the former president of
the African National Congress (ANC), law partner of Nelson
Mandela and an important anti-apartheid leader.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 23 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – April 23 *

1856 – Granville T. Woods, who will become an inventor of steam
boilers, furnaces, incubators and auto air brakes and
holder of over 50 patents, is born in Columbus, Ohio.

1872 – Charlotte E. Ray becomes the first African American woman
lawyer in ceremonies held in Washington, DC admitting her
to practice before the bar. She had received her law degree
from Howard University on February 27.

1894 – Jimmy Noone is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He will
become a jazz clarinetist and a major influence on the
swing music of the 1930’s and 1940’s. He will be a band
leader and be best known as the leader of “Jimmy Noone’s
Apex Club Orchestra.” Two of the people most influenced by
Jimmy Noone’s style will be Benny Goodman and Jimmy Dorsey.
He will join the ancestors after suffering a fatal heart
attack, while performing with “Kid” Ory on April 19, 1944.

1895 – Jorge Mateus Vicente Lima is born in Alagoas, Brazil. He
will become a poet, novelist, essayist, painter, doctor,
and politician. He will become best known as a writer,
manipulating Brazilian subjects, at the same time analyzing
Afro-Brazilian culture and heritage. He will become a
fixture in the Brazilian experience during the 1920’s. Even
though he became a physician, he will exhibit his talents
as a writer in writings from his youth. His most famous
writing will be a poem, “Essa Nega Fulo” (That Black Girl
Fulo), written in 1928. The poem will explore the dynamics
between a slave master, the slave and her mistress. He
will join the ancestors in 1953 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

1898 – Alfredo da Rocha Viana Jr. is born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
He will become a composer and bandleader best known as
“Pixinguinha.” By the time he was a teenager, he will be
respected for his talent as a flutist. After traveling with
his first band to France in 1922, he will open the door of
Brazilian music to the world. He will be credited with
assisting to invent the “samba.” He is generally referred
to as the King of Samba and the Father of Musica Popular
Brasileira. He will join the ancestors on February 17, 1973
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

1913 – The National Urban League is incorporated in New York City.
The organization is founded in 1910 when the Committee on
Urban Conditions Among Negroes met in New York to discuss
means to assist rural African Americans in the transition
to urban life. Founders include Mrs. Ruth Standish Baldwin
and Dr. George Edmund Haynes, who becomes the league’s
first executive director.

1941 – New Yorkers are treated to a performance of Cafi Society at
Carnegie Hall by a group of jazz artists that includes
Albert “Jug” Ammons, Hazel Scott, and Art Tatum. It also
marks the first performance of Helena (later Lena) Horne,
who sings “Summertime,” among other songs.

1944 – The NAACP Youth Council and Committee for Unity in Motion
Pictures selects its first Motion Picture Award recipients.
Given to honor actors whose roles advance the image of
African Americans in motion pictures, awards go to Rex
Ingram for “Sahara,” Lena Horne for “As Thousands Cheer,”
Leigh Whipper for “The Oxbow Incident” and “Mission to
Moscow,” Hazel Scott for her debut in “Something to Shout
About” and Dooley Wilson for his role as Sam in
“Casablanca,” among others. The awards will be the fore-
runner to the NAACP’s Image Awards.

1948 – Charles Richard Johnson in born in Evanston, Illinois. He
will become an novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He
will begin his career after graduating from the State
University of New York at Stonybrook with a Ph.D. in
philosophy. He will be mentored by W.E.B. Du Bois, Ralph
Ellison, Jean Toomer, Richard Wright and John Gardner. He
will be known for his works, “Middle Passage,” “Oxherding
Tale,” “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” and “Being and Race:
Black Writing Since 1970.” He will win the 1990 National
Book Award for “Middle Passage.”

1954 – Hammerin’ Hank Aaron, of the Milwaukee Braves, hits the
first of what will be 755 career home runs, in a game
against the St. Louis Cardinals. The score will be 7-5 in
favor of the Braves.

1955 – U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review a lower court decision
which would ban segregation in intrastate bus travel.

1964 – James Baldwin’s play, “Blues for Mr. Charlie” opens on
Broadway. Starring Al Freeman, Jr., Diana Sands, and
others, the play reveals the plight of African Americans in
the South.

1971 – Columbia University operations are virtually ended for the
year by African American and white students who seize five
buildings on campus.

1971 – William Tubman, president of Liberia, joins the ancestors at
the age of 76. He had been president of Liberia since
1944.

1998 – James Earl Ray, who confessed to assassinating the Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and then insisted he was
framed, dies at a Nashville hospital at age 70.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 22 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – April 22 *

1526 – The first recorded slave revolt occurs in a settlement of
some five hundred Spaniards and one hundred slaves, located
on the Pedee River in what is now South Carolina.

1882 – Benjamin Griffith Brawley is born in Columbia, South
Carolina. He will become a prolific author and educator,
serving as a professor of English at Morehouse, Howard,
and Shaw universities. He will also serve as dean of
Morehouse. His books, among them “A Short History of the
American Negro” and “A New Survey of English Literature,”
will be landmark texts recommended at several colleges. He
will join the ancestors in 1939.

1922 – Charles Mingus is born in Nogales, Arizona. Raised in Watts,
California, he will play double bass with Charlie Parker,
Duke Ellington, and Bud Powell before becoming a bandleader
and composer in his own right. Although not as popular as
Miles Davis or Ellington, Mingus, who also will play piano,
will be considered one of the principal forces in modern
jazz. He will join the ancestors in 1979 succumbing to Lou
Gehrig’s disease.

1950 – Charles Hamilton Houston, architect of the NAACP legal
campaign, joins the ancestors in Washington, DC at the age
of 54.

1964 – A Trinity College student occupies the school administration
building to protest campus bias.

1964 – New York police arrest 294 civil rights demonstrators at the
opening of the World Fair.

1970 – Yale University students protest in support of the Black
Panthers.

1981 – The Joint Center for Political Studies reports that 2991
African Americans held elective offices in 45 states and
the District of Columbia, compared with 2621 in April, 1973,
and 1185 in 1969. The Center reports 108 African American
mayors. Michigan had the largest number of African American
elected officials (194), followed by Mississippi (191).

1981 – Brailsford Reese Brazeal, economist and former dean of
Morehouse College, joins the ancestors in Atlanta, Georgia,
at the age of 76.

1989 – Huey Newton, black activist and co-founder of the Black
Panther Party, joins the ancestors, after being killed at
age 47.

2000 – The Rev. R.F. Jenkins, a pastor active in civil-rights
organizations, who led his church for 25 years, joins the
ancestors in Omaha, Nebraska, after suffering a heart attack
at the age of 87. He was the first African American Lutheran
Church Missouri Synod minister in the Nebraska district. He
and his wife, Beatrice, had come to Omaha in 1954 after
serving pastorates in Alabama and North Carolina. He had
also previously served eight years as a faculty member at
Alabama Lutheran College. He had returned to his hometown of
Selma, Alabama, to take part in a civil-rights march in
1965. He served on the Omaha School District board from 1970
to 1976, and retired from the pulpit in 1979.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 21 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 21 *

1878 – The ship Azor leaves Charleston, South Carolina, on its
first trip, carrying 209 African Americans bound for
Liberia.

1892 – African American Longshoremen strike for higher wages in St.
Louis, Missouri.

1900 – Dumarsais Estime’ is born in Verrettes, Artibonite, Haiti.
He will become president of Haiti in 1946 and will be
regarded as a progressive leader and statesman. He will
join the ancestors in New York City in 1953.

1938 – The Harlem Suitcase Theatre opens with Langston Hughes’s
play “Don’t You Want to be Free?” The play’s star is a
young Robert Earl Jones, father of James Earl Jones.

1940 – Souleymane Cisse’ is born in Bamako, Mali. He will become
a filmmaker, graduating from the State Institute of Cinema
in Moscow in 1969. He will become one of the most popular
filmmakers in Africa.

1966 – Milton Olive, Jr. becomes the first African American to win
the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery during the
Vietnam War. He will be honored for saving the lives of his
fellow soldiers by falling on a live grenade while
participating in a search-and-destroy mission near Phu
Coung.

1965 – Pedro Albizu Campos joins the ancestors at the age of 71 in
San Juan, Puerto Rico. Campos was a Puerto Rican of
African descent who advocated Puerto Rico’s independence
and condemned United States imperialism and the 1898
invasion and occupation of Puerto Rico. Some Puerto Ricans
refer to him as “Don Pedro,” and one of the fathers of
Puerto Rican national identity.

1966 – His Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie visits Kingston,
Jamaica.

1971 – Francois Duvalier, known as “Papa Doc,” joins the ancestors
in Port-au-Prince, Haiti at the age of 64. He had been
president-for-life of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. He will be
succeeded in power by his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier.

1974 – By winning the Monsanto Open in Pensacola, Florida, Lee
Elder becomes the first African American professional golfer
to qualify for the Masters Tournament. It will be one of
four PGA tour victories for the Dallas, Texas, native,
including the Houston Open in 1976 and the Greater Milwaukee
Open and Westchester Classic in 1978. Elder’s career
earnings of $2 million will place him among the top three
African American golfers, along with Calvin Peete ($2.3
million and 12 PGA tournament victories) and Charlie Sifford
($1 million).

2003 – Nina Simone, “High Priestess of Soul”, joins the ancestors in
Carry-le-Rouet (South of France) at the age of 70. As she
wished, her ashes will be spread in different African
countries. She gained fame in the 1960s for her civil rights
songs.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 20 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 20 *

1853 – Harriet Tubman starts as a conductor on the Underground
Railroad.

1871 – Third Enforcement Act defines Klan conspiracy as a rebellion
against the United States and empowers the president to
suspend the writ of habeas corpus and declare martial law
in rebellious areas.

1877 – Federal troops are withdrawn from public buildings in New
Orleans, Louisiana. Democrats then take over the state
government.

1908 – Lionel Hampton is born in Louisville, Kentucky. He will
become trained as a drummer and starts his musical career
on this instrument. In 1930, while in a recording session
with Louis Armstrong, He will become fall in love with the
sound of a vibraphone that was used only to play the famous
NBC bing-bang-bong station identification. This will lead
to Armstrong asking Hampton to add the instrument to the
score they were about to record. “Memories of You”, the
song premiering Hampton on the vibraphone, will become a
classic. He will go on to become the best-known jazz master
of the vibraphone. He will join the ancestors on August 31,
2002.

1920 – Mary J. Reynolds invents a hoisting/loading mechanism.

1926 – Harriet Elizabeth Byrd is born in Cheyenne, Wyoming. She
will become a teacher and in 1981, the first African
American legislator in Wyoming’s state history.

1951 – Luther Vandross is born in New York City. An early backup
singer and commercial jingle writer, his big break as a
solo artist will come in 1981 when his album “Never Too
Much” will reveal his talents to both Rhythm & Blues and
pop audiences. He will make a string of hit albums,
earning seven consecutive platinum and double-platinum
albums and achieve his greatest crossover success with the
albums “The Best of Luther Vandross” and “Power of Love,”
which will earn him three Grammy awards. He will join the
ancestors from complications of diabetes and a stroke on
July 1, 2005.

1964 – Cleveland school officials report that 86 per cent of the
African American students in the school system participated
in one-day boycott.

1965 – President Lyndon Johnson awards the Medal of Freedom to
Leontyne Price, for “Her singing has brought light to her
land.”

1969 – James Earl Jones wins a Tony for his portrayal of
controversial heavyweight champion Jack Johnson in “The
Great White Hope.”

1971 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously that busing is a
constitutionally acceptable method of integrating public
schools.

2010 – Dorothy Height, the leading female voice of the 1960s civil
rights movement and a participant in historic marches with
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, joins the ancestors
at the age of 98. Dr. Height, whose activism on behalf of
women and minorities dates to the New Deal, led the National
Council of Negro Women for 40 years. She continued actively
speaking out into her 90s, often getting rousing ovations at
events around Washington, where she was immediately recognized
by the bright, colorful hats she almost always wore. In a
statement, President Barack Obama calls her “the godmother of
the civil rights movement” and a hero to Americans. “Dr. Height
devoted her life to those struggling for equality … and
served as the only woman at the highest level of the Civil
Rights Movement _ witnessing every march and milestone along
the way,” Obama said.

2011 – Gerard Smith joins the ancestors at the age of 36, succumbing to
lung cancer. He was an American visual artist, musician, and
member of the celebrated Brooklyn-based band “TV on the Radio.”
He recorded an album of original music as “A Rose Parade” with
Shannon Funchess of Light Asylum and also produced music with
Midnight Masses.

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

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.