KRLemmons African American History

September 21 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 21         *

1814 – African American troops are cited for bravery in the
Battle of New Orleans.

1872 – John Henry Conyers of South Carolina becomes first
African American student at U.S. Naval Academy
(Annapolis).  He will later resign.

1905 – The Atlanta Life Insurance Company is founded by Alonzo
F. Herndon.

1909 – Kwame Nkrumah is born in Nkroful, Ghana.  A leader in
African colonial liberation, Nkrumah will be the first
prime minister of Ghana (1958-1966), but will be forced
into exile following a coup.

1932 – Melvin Van Peebles, playwright and director(Watermelon
Man), is born.

1948 – Artis Gilmore, who will become a professional basketball
all-star, is born.

1967 – Walter Washington is nominated by President Lyndon B.
Johnson as the first mayor of the newly reorganized
municipal government of Washington, DC. In 1974, he
will be elected to the post, another first for an
African American.

1970 – The Oakland Athletics’s Vida Blue pitches a no-hitter
against the Minneapolis Twins, 6-0.

1971 – Alfonso Ribeiro, actor/pianist (Alfonso-“Silver Spoons”,
“Fresh Prince of Bel Air”), is born.

1981 – Belize gains independence from Great Britain.

1985 – Michael Spinks becomes the first light heavyweight to
defeat the reigning heavyweight champion when he defeats
Larry Holmes.

1989 – Army General Colin Powell receives Senate confirmation as
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest
military position in the United States, thereby becoming
the military’s highest-ranking African American.

1990 – Pittsburgh Pirate Barry Bonds is the second person to hit
30 home runs and steal 50 bases in the same season.

2009 – The Rev. John “Bootsie” Wilson, a former lead singer and
last surviving member of the soul group, The Silhouettes,
joins the ancestors at the age of 69.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 26 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 26          *

1867 – Maggie Lena Walker is born in Richmond, Virginia.  She
will become a noted businesswoman, civil leader, and
founder and president of Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank.
As a result, she will be the first woman president of a
bank in America.

1907 – The People’s Savings Bank is incorporated in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Founded by former African American
congressman George H. White, of North Carolina, the bank
will help hundreds of African Americans buy homes and
start businesses until the illness of its founder forces
its closure in 1918.

1937 – Bessie Smith joins the ancestors in Clarksville,
Mississippi, after succumbing to injuries sustained in
a automobile accident. She was one of the nation’s
greatest blues singers and was nicknamed “the Empress of
the Blues.” In 1925, Smith and Louis Armstrong made the
definitive rendition of W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues,”
and in 1929 she made her only movie appearance in the
movie of the same name.

1947 – Lucius Oliver Allen, Jr. (born on September 26, 1947 in
Kansas City, Kansas) is a former professional basketball
player. Prior to his NBA career, he was part of one of
John Wooden’s legendary UCLA teams. He was drafted by the
Seattle SuperSonics in the 1st round (3rd pick) of the
1969 NBA Draft and retired in 1979. Allen played 10 years
in the NBA for four different teams. His highest scoring
average was when he averaged 19.5 points per game during
the 1974-1975 campaign in which he was traded to the Los
Angeles Lakers mid-season after playing with the Milwaukee
Bucks from the 1970-1971 season. During his playing days,
Allen was often referred to by former Bucks announcer
Eddie Doucette as “jack rabbit” because of his speed and
jumping ability.

1957 – The order alerting regular army units for possible riot
duty in other Southern cities is cancelled by Army
Secretary Wilbur M. Brucker.

1962 – A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., becomes the first African
American member of the Federal Trade Commission.  It is
one of the Trenton, New Jersey, native’s many
accomplishments, including appointment as a federal
district judge and U.S. Circuit Judge of the Third
Circuit.

1962 – Los Angeles Dodger Maury Wills becomes the 1st baseball
player to steal 100 bases (will go on to steal 104).

1962 – Mississippi bars James Meredith for the third time. Lt.
Gov. Paul Johnson and a blockade of state patrolmen turn
back Meredith and federal marshals about four hundred
yards from the gate of the school.

1968 – The Studio Museum of Harlem opens in New York City.
Conceived by Frank Donnelly and Carter Burden, the
Studio Museum will become an influential venue for
exhibitions of African American artists in all media.

1968 – St. Louis Cardinals’ Bob Gibson’s completes his 13th
shutout, and ends the season with a 1.12 ERA.

1994 – Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, President Clinton
announces that he has lifted most U.S. sanctions against
Haiti and urges other nations to follow suit.

1994 – Jury selection begins in Los Angeles for the murder trial
of O.J. Simpson.

1998 – Grammy-winning jazz singer Betty Carter joins the
ancestors in New York City at age 69.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 20 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 20          *

1664 – Maryland enacts the first anti-amalgamation law to prevent
widespread intermarriage of English women and African
American men. Other colonies passed similar laws:
Virginia, 1691; Massachusetts 1705; North Carolina, 1715;
South Carolina, 1717; Delaware, 1721; Pennsylvania, 1725.

1830 – The National Negro Convention, a group of 38 free African
Americans from eight states, meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, at the Bethel A.M.E. Church, with the
express purpose of abolishing slavery and improving the
social status of African Americans.  They will elect
Richard Allen president and agree to boycott slave-
produced goods.

1847 – William A. Leidesdorff is elected to San Francisco town
council receiving the third highest vote.  Leidesdorff,
who was one of the first African American elected
officials, becomes the town treasurer in 1848.

1850 – Slave trade is abolished in Washington, DC, but slavery
will be allowed to continue until 1862.

1885 – Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe (“Jelly Roll” Morton) is born
in Gulfport (New Orleans), Louisiana. He will become a
renown jazz pianist and composer. Morton, whose fabulous
series of 1938 recordings for the Library of Congress are
a gold mine of information about early jazz, was a
complex man. Vain, ambitious, and given to exaggeration,
he was a pool shark, hustler and gambler, as well as a
brilliant pianist and composer.  His greatest talent,
perhaps was for organizing and arranging.  The series of
records he made with his “Red Hot Peppers” between 1926
and 1928 stands, alongside King Oliver’s as the crowning
glory of the New Orleans tradition and one of the great
achievements in Jazz.

1915 – Hughie Lee-Smith is born in Eustis, Florida. He will
become a painter known for such surrealistic landscapes
as “Man with Balloons”, “Man Standing on His Head” and
“Big Brother”.

1943 – Sani Abacha is born in Kano, Nigeria.  After being educated
in his home state, will become a soldier and go to England
for advanced military education. He will achieve many
promotions as a soldier and by the mid-1980s, will enter
Nigeria’s military elite. In 1983 he will be among those
who will overthrow Shehu Shagari, leader of the Second
Republic, in a coup which led to the military rule of
Muhammadu Buhari. In 1985, Abacha will participate in a
second coup, which will replace Buhari with General
Ibrahim Babangida. As head of state, Babangida will
announce that free elections will be held in the early
1990s. In 1993, however, after Babangida nullifies the
results of these belated free elections, Abacha will
stage a third coup and oust his former ally. His regime
will be characterized by a concern with security that
verges on paranoia.  Abacha will schedule elections for
August, 1998, but months beforehand, all five legal
parties nominate him as their “consensus candidate.”  In
June, 1998, Abacha will join the ancestors when he dies
unexpectedly of a heart attack.

1958 – Martin Luther King Jr. is stabbed in the chest by a
deranged African American woman while he is autographing
books in a Harlem department store.  The woman is placed
under mental observation.

1962 – Mississippi’s governor, Ross Barnett, personally refuses
to admit James Meredith to University of Mississippi as
its first African American student. (Meredith is later
admitted.)

1962 – The Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) is banned in an
order issued by Sir Edgar Whitehead, the prime minister of
Southern Rhodesia.

1973 – Willie Mays announces his retirement from major league
baseball at the end of the 1973 baseball season.

1979 – A bloodless coup overthrows Jean-Bedel Bokassa, self-styled
head of the Central African Empire, in a French-supported
coup while he is visiting Libya.

1984 – NBC-TV debuts “The Cosby Show”.  Bill Cosby plays Dr.
Heathcliff (Cliff) Huxtable. His lovely wife, Clair, is
played by Phylicia Rashad.  The Huxtable kids were Sondra,
age 20 (Sabrina Le Beauf), Denise, age 16 (Lisa Bonet),
Theodore, age 14 (Malcom-Jamal Warner), Vanessa, age 8
(Tempestt Bledsoe) and Rudy, age 5 (Keshia Knight Pulliam).
The premiere is the most watched show of the week and the
show goes on to become an Emmy Award-winner and one of the
most popular on television for eight years. The series,
which had been rejected by other network television
executives, will become one of the most popular in
television history.

1987 – Alfre Woodard wins an Emmy for outstanding guest performance
in the dramatic series “L.A. Law”.  It is her second Emmy
award, her first having been for a supporting role in “Hill
Street Blues” in 1984.

1987 – Walter Payton scores the NFL record 107th rushing touchdown.

1999 – Lawrence Russell Brewer becomes the second white supremacist
to be convicted in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in
Jasper, Texas. He will be later sentenced to death.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 19 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 19         *

1865 – Atlanta University is founded.

1868 – White Democrats attack demonstrators, who are marching
from Albany to Camilla, Georgia, and kill nine African
Americans. Several whites are wounded.

1931 – Benjamin Franklin Peay is born in Camden, South Carolina.
He will become a rhythm and blues singer better known as
Brook Benton. He  will amass 16 gold records and be best
known for the songs “A Rainy Night in Georgia” and “It’s
Just a Matter of Time.” He will join the ancestors on
April 9, 1988.

1945 – Freda Charcelia Payne is born in Detroit, Michigan. She
will become a singer whose hits will include “Band of
Gold” in 1970.

1947 – Lawrence “Larry” Brown is born in Clairton Pennsylvania.
He will become a Washington Redskins’ running back and
the third NFL player to rush over 4,000 yards in his
first four professional seasons.

1956 – The first international conference of Black Writers &
Artists meets at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France.

1965 – Debbye Turner is born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She will become
Miss America in 1990, becoming the third African American
woman to wear the crown.

1981 – More than 300,000 demonstrators from labor and civil
rights organizations protest the social policies of the
Reagan administration in a Solidarity Day March in
Washington, DC.

1989 – Gordon Parks’s film “The Learning Tree” is selected among
the first films to be registered by the National Film
Registry of the Library of Congress. The National Film
Registry was formed by an act of Congress the previous
year to recognize films that are “culturally,
historically, or aesthetically significant.”  Parks’s
1969 movie joins other classic films such as
“Casablanca,” “Gone With the Wind,” and “The Wizard of
Oz.”

1989 – The first issue of Emerge magazine goes on sale.  Emerge,
founded by Wilmer C. Ames, Jr., covers domestic and
international news and issues from an African American
perspective.

1994 – U.S. troops peacefully enter Haiti to enforce the return
of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 18 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 18          *

1850 – Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act, a part of the
Compromise of 1850, which allows slave owners to reclaim
slaves who had escaped to other states. The act also
offers federal officers a fee for captured slaves.

1895 – Booker T. Washington makes a speech at the Cotton States
and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia. Known
as the “Atlanta Compromise” speech, Washington advocates
acceptance of a subordinate role for African Americans,
espouses peaceful coexistence with white Southerners,
and calls agitation over the question of social equality
“the extremist folly.”  The speech, which reportedly
leaves some African American listeners in tears and will
incur the wrath of W.E.B. Du Bois and others, secures
Washington’s reputation among whites as a successor to
Frederick Douglass.

1905 – Eddie Anderson is born in Oakland, California. He will
become an actor and will be best known for his role on
of ‘Rochester’ on “The Jack Benny Show.”

1945 – 1000 white students walk out of three Gary, Indiana
schools to protest integration.  There were similar
disturbances in Chicago, Illinois and other Northern and
Western metropolitan areas.

1948 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is confirmed by the United Nations
Security Council as acting United Nations’ mediator in
Palestine.

1951 – Dr. Benjamin Solomon Carson, Sr., neurosurgeon, is born
in Detroit, Michigan.  He will graduate from the
University of Michigan Medical School in 1977 and will
become the first African American neurosurgery resident
at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
He will receive the American Black Achievement Award
from Ebony and the Paul Harris Fellow Award from Rotary
International. He will become best known for his
separation of Siamese twins in 1989.

1962 – Rwanda, Burundi, Jamaica & Trinidad-Tobago are admitted
(105th-108th countries) to the United Nations.

1964 – Holly Robinson (Peete) , actress (“21 Jump Street”,
“Hanging with Mr. Cooper”), is born.

1967 – Ricky Bell, rhythm-and-blues singer, (Bell Biv Devoe and
New Edition), is born.

1970 – Rock guitarist Jimi (James Marshall) Hendrix joins the
ancestors at age 27 after aspirating on his own vomit
in London.  Contrary to many news accounts, he did not
succumb to a drug overdose. No trace of drugs was found
in his body. A self-taught musician who blended rock,
jazz, and blues with British avant-garde rock, Hendrix
redefined the use of the electric guitar.  His musical
career deeply influenced modern musicians. His songs,
“Purple Haze” and “Foxy Lady” will become anthems for a
generation at war in Vietnam.

1972 – Art Williams becomes the first African American National
League umpire (Los Angeles vs. San Diego).

1980 – Cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez, a Cuban, becomes the
first person of African descent sent on a mission in
space (Soyuz 38).

1990 – Atlanta, Georgia is selected as the site of the XXV
Olympiad Summer Games.  Mayor Maynard H. Jackson says
the 1996 Summer Games will be the “single biggest
continuous infusion of economic development to Atlanta
in the history of the city under any circumstances.”
It is the second time the city to host the games, is
led by an African American mayor.

1999 – Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs becomes the first player
in major league baseball history to reach 60 homers in
a season twice.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 17 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 17         *

1787 – The U.S. Constitution is approved at the Constitutional
Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with three
clauses protecting slavery.

1861 – The first day-school for ex-slaves is opened in Fortress
Monroe, Virginia under the tutelage of an African
American schoolteacher, Mary S. Peake.  The school will
later become Hampton Institute (now University) in 1868.

1879 – Andrew “Rube” Foster is born in Calvert, Texas. He will
become an American baseball player, manager, and
executive in the Negro Leagues. He will be considered by
historians to have been perhaps the best African American
pitcher of the 1900s. He will also found and manage the
Chicago American Giants, one of the most successful Black
baseball teams of the pre-integration era. Most notably,
he will organize the Negro National League, the first
lasting professional league for African American ball
players, which will operate from 1920 to 1931. He will
adopted his longtime nickname “Rube” as his official
middle name later in life. He will join the ancestors on
December 9, 1930 and will be posthumously elected to the
Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.

1953 – Ernie Banks becomes the first African American baseball
player to wear a Chicago Cubs uniform.  Banks is also
quick to say “Let’s play two!”  Banks will be the Cubs’
outstanding shortstop from 1954 to 1960.  In 1961 he will
be moved to left field, then to first base, where he will
spend the rest of his career. In 1969, Ernie Banks will
be voted the Cub’s best player ever by Chicago fans. ‘Mr.
Cub’ will retire in 1971. He will elected to the Baseball
Hall of Fame in 1977, the first year of his eligibility.

1956 – African American students are admitted to a Clay, Kentucky
elementary school under National Guard protection. They
had previously been barred by local authorities on
September 12.

1962 – The Justice Department files the first suit to end racial
segregation in public schools. The fourth African American
church is burned near Dawson, Georgia. Three white men
later admitted burning the church. They were sentenced to
seven year prison terms.

1967 – Abdul-Malik Kashie Yoba is born in the Bronx, New York. He
will become an actor best known for his role as the star
of the popular Fox Television police drama “New York
Undercover” from 1994 to 1998. He will also appear in
films such as “Cool Runnings” and “Criminal.” He will
make appearances on the Fox television series “Arrested
Development” as Ice, a bounty hunter and party planner.
He will also be a recurring character, Brock Harris, on
the UPN sitcom “Girlfriends.” He will also appear in the
FX Networks crime drama “Thief.” In 2007, he will appear
in NBC’s crime drama “Raines” alongside Jeff Goldblum.

1968 – “Julia” premieres on NBC with Diahann Carroll in the title
role. It is the first television show to star an African
American woman since “Beulah” in the 1950’s.

1970 – “The Flip Wilson Show” premieres on NBC.  Starring the New
Jersey comedian born as Clerow Wilson, it is the first
prime-time variety show starring an African American male
since “The Nat King Cole Show”.

1973 – Illinois becomes the first state to honor Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.’s birthday as a holiday.

1983 – Vanessa Williams, Miss New York State, is named Miss
America in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the first African
American winner in the history of the pageant. Williams
will relinquish her crown after a 1984 scandal and later
stage a remarkable comeback through a stellar recording
career, which will include her multimillion-selling album,
“The Right Stuff”.

1984 – New York Met’s, Dwight Goodin, becomes the 2nd person to
strike out 32 batters over 2 consecutive games.

1990 – “The Content of Our Character” is published by San Jose
State University professor Shelby Steele. The book will
attract controversy because of its provocative positions
on affirmative action and race relations and win a 1992
National Book Award.

1991 – Ground is broken for the Harold Washington wing of the
DuSable Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by artist
and poet Margaret T. Burroughs in 1961, the DuSable is
one of the oldest African American museums in the United
States.

1994 – As some 20 warships sit off the coast of Haiti, former
President Jimmy Carter, Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and
retired Gen. Colin Powell arrive in the Caribbean nation
in an 11th-hour bid to avert a U.S.-led invasion.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 16 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 16          *

1795 – The British capture Capetown in South Africa.

1848 – France abolishes slavery in all of its colonies and
territories.

1859 – Lake Nyasa, which forms Malawi’s boundary with Tanzania
and Mozambique, is first seen by a european, British
explorer David Livingstone.

1889 – Claude A. Barnett is born in Sanford, Florida. In 1919,
he will found the Associated Negro Press (ANP). By 1935,
the ANP will serve over 200 subscribers across the
country and after WW II its membership will grow to
include more than 100 African American newspapers. During
World War II, he and other Black journalists will pressure
the U. S. government to accredit Black journalists as war
correspondents. In his travels, he will write many
accounts on the adverse effects of segregation in the
armed forces. He will also focus on the terrible living
conditions of Black tenant farmers. From 1942 to 1953, he
will serve as a consultant to the Secretary of Agriculture
in an effort to improve their conditions. He will be a
member of the Tuskegee board of directors until 1965. He
will hold a similar post with the American Red Cross,
Chicago’s Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company, and will
be president of the board of directors of Provident
Hospital. The ANP will cease operating after he joins the
ancestors, succumbing to a cerebral hemorrhage in 1967.

1893 – The last Oklahoma land rush, targeted in the territory’s
Cherokee strip (outlet) begins. More than 100,000
homesteaders rush to claim a share of the 6 million acres
in this strip of land between Oklahoma and Kansas, opened
up by the U.S. government. Among the participants is E.P.
McCabe, who will establish the all African American town of
Liberty a few days later. McCabe will also be involved in
the earlier establishment of the African American town of
Langston, Oklahoma, named for John Mercer Langston,
Virginia’s first African American congressman.  The
Oklahoma land rushes started in 1889, but African Americans
were excluded from the first one.

1915 – The United States takes control of customs & finances in
Haiti for the next 10 years.

1921 – Jon Carl Hendricks is born in Newark, Ohio.  He will become
an influential singer in the jazz group, Lambert, Hendricks
and Ross. Pursuing a solo career, he will move his young
family to London, England, in 1968, partly so that his five
children could receive a better education. While based in
London he will tour Europe and Africa, performing frequently
on British television and appear in the British film “Jazz
Is Our Religion” as well as the French film “Hommage a Cole
Porter.” His sold-out club dates will draw fans such as the
Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Five years later the Hendricks
family will settle in Mill Valley, California where He will
work as the jazz critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and
teach classes at California State University at Sonoma and the
University of California at Berkeley. A piece he will write
for the stage about the history of jazz, “Evolution of the
Blues,” will run for five years at the Off-Broadway Theatre in
San Francisco and another year in Los Angeles. His television
documentary, “Somewhere to Lay My Weary Head,” will receive
Emmy, Iris and Peabody awards. He will record several
critically acclaimed albums on his own, some with his wife
Judith and daughters Michele and Aria contributing. He will
collaborate with old friends, The Manhattan Transfer, for their
seminal 1985 album, “Vocalese,” which will win seven Grammy
Awards. He will serve on the Kennedy Center Honors committee
under Presidents Carter, Reagan, and Clinton. In 2000, He will
return to his hometown to teach at the University of Toledo,
where he will be appointed Distinguished Professor of Jazz
Studies and receive an honorary Doctorate of the Performing
Arts. He will teach Brandon Wilkins and Paul Okafor. He will
be selected to be the first American jazz artist to lecture at
the Sorbonne in Paris. His 15-voice group, the Jon Hendricks
Vocalstra at the University of Toledo, will perform at the
Sorbonne in 2002. He will also write lyrics to some classical
pieces including “On the Trail” from Ferde Grofe’s Grand Canyon
Suite. The Vocalstra premiered a vocalese version of Rimsky-
Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” with the Toledo Symphony. In the
summer of 2003, He will go on tour with the “Four Brothers”, a
quartet consisting of Hendricks, Kurt Elling, Mark Murphy and
Kevin Mahogany. He will work on setting words to, and arranging
Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto as well as on two books,
teaching and touring with his Vocalstra. He will also appear in
a film with Al Pacino, “People I Know” as well as “White Men
Can’t Jump.”

1925 – Riley B. King is born in Itta Bena, Mississippi.  He will
become a blues great, known as B(lues) B(oy) King. Playing
his guitar, nicknamed ‘Lucille,’ In the 1950s, he will become
one of the most important names in R&B music, amassing an
impressive list of hits including “3 O’Clock Blues”, “You Know
I Love You,” “Woke Up This Morning,” “Please Love Me,” “When My
Heart Beats like a Hammer,” “Whole Lotta Love,” “You Upset Me
Baby,” “Every Day I Have the Blues”, “Sneakin’ Around,” “Ten
Long Years,” “Bad Luck,” “Sweet Little Angel”, “On My Word of
Honor,” and “Please Accept My Love.” In 1962, he will sign with
ABC-Paramount Records, which will later be absorbed into MCA
Records, and then his current label, Geffen Records. In November,
1964, he will record the “Live at the Regal” album at the Regal
Theater in Chicago, Illinois. He will win a Grammy Award for a
tune called “The Thrill Is Gone”. His version will become a hit
on both the pop and R&B charts, which is rare during that time
for an R&B artist. It will also gain the number 183 spot in
Rolling Stone magazine’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” He will
gain further visibility among rock audiences, as an opening act on
The Rolling Stones’ 1969 American Tour. His mainstream success
will continue throughout the 1970s with songs like “To Know You is
to Love You” and “I Like to Live the Love”. He will be inducted
into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980. In 2004, he will be awarded
the international Polar Music Prize, given to artists “in
recognition of exceptional achievements in the creation and
advancement of music.” He will have over 50 hit blues albums and
win a 1970 Grammy for “The Thrill Is Gone”. To date, in over 62
years, he will play in excess of 15,000 performances.[

1933 – Emperor Jones, starring Paul Robeson as Brutus Jones, is
released by United Artists. It is Robeson’s first starring
movie role and the first major Hollywood production
starring an African American with whites in supporting
roles.

1934 – Elgin Baylor is born in Washington, DC. He will become a
NBA star beginning as the 1958-59 Rookie of the Year with
the Los Angeles Lakers. The No. 1 draft pick in 1958, NBA Rookie
of the Year in 1959, and an 11-time NBA All-Star, he will be
regarded as one of the game’s all-time greatest players. In 1977,
he will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of
Fame. He will set the NBA Playoff Record for points scored in a
game (61), and for points scored in a playoff series (284) [both
in 1962]. After retiring as a player, he will spend twenty-two
years as the General Manager of the Los Angeles Clippers, being
named the NBA Executive of the Year in 2006. He will be relieved
of his duties slightly before the 2008-09 season begins.

1937 – Orlando Manuel Cepeda Penne is born in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
He will be become a professional baseball player. In his
first season in 1958, he will bat .312 with 25 home runs
and 96 runs RBI, lead the National League in doubles (38),
and will be named Rookie of the Year. In 1967, he will be
named the National League MVP by hitting .325 and having
a league-leading 111 RBIs. He will be the second NL player
(joining fellow Giant Carl Hubbell in 1936) to win the MVP
unanimously (receiving all first-place votes). He will be
a seven-time All-Star (1959–64, 1967). He will retire in
1975 with a career .297 BA with 379 homers and 1365 RBI in
17 seasons. He will be the first designated hitter for the
Boston Red Sox, and the second DH in all of MLB. He will
be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999, joining
Roberto Clemente as the only other Puerto Rican in the
Hall.

1953 – Earl Klugh, Jazz pianist/guitarist, is born in Detroit,
Michigan. He will become an American smooth jazz/jazz
fusion guitarist and composer. He normally finger picks a
nylon string classical guitar. At the age of 13, he will
be captivated by the guitar playing of Chet Atkins when he
makes an appearance on the Perry Como Show. He will since
be a guest on several Atkins albums. Atkins, reciprocating
as well, joins Earl on his “Magic In Your Eyes” album. He
will also be influenced by Bob James, Ray Parker Jr, Wes
Montgomery and Laurindo Almeida. His sound will be a blend
of these jazz, pop and rhythm and blues influences,
forming a potpourri of sweet contemporary music original
to only him. He will become a guitar instructor at the
young age of 15, and will eventually be discovered by
Yuseff Lateef. His career will rapidly progress to working
with the likes of George Benson, George Shearing, Chick
Corea, and many others. Like several other Detroit-bred
entertainers, He attended Mumford High School in Detroit.
For their album “One on One,” He and Bob James will
receive a Grammy award for Best Pop Instrumental
Performance of 1981. He will receive at least 13 Grammy
nods and millions of record and CD sales,

1965 – San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral becomes the site of the
first concert of sacred music presented by Duke Ellington.

1971 – Six Klansmen are arrested in connection with the bombing of
10 school buses in Pontiac, Michigan.

1981 – Boxer ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard, at age 25, knocks out Thomas ‘The
Hit Man’ Hearns.  Leonard wins the welterweight boxing
championship — and the richest payday in boxing history to
date.

1989 – Debbye Turner, a senior at the University of Missouri
Veterinary School, is crowned Miss America. She is the
third African American to win the crown since the pageant
began in 1921.

1990 – Keenen Ivory Wayans’ “In Living Color” wins an Emmy for
Outstanding Comedy Series.

1993 – Minnesota Twins’ slugger Dave Winfield becomes the 19th
player to get 3,000 career hits.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 15 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 15            *

1830 – The first National Negro Convention begins in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.

1876 – White terrorists attack Republicans in Ellenton, South
Carolina. Two whites and thirty-nine African Americans are
killed.

1890 – Claude McKay is born in Sunnyville, Jamaica.  Emigrating to
the United States in 1912, he will be come a poet and
winner of the 1928 Harmon Gold Medal Award for Literature.
Author of the influential poetry collection “Harlem
Shadows”, he will also be famous for the poems “The
Lynching,” “White Houses,” and “If We Must Die,” which
will be used by Winston Churchill as a rallying cry during
World War II. He will join the ancestors on May 22, 1948.

1898 – The National Afro-American Council is founded in Rochester,
New York. Bishop Alexander Walters of the AME Zion Church
is elected president. The organization proposes a program
of assertion and protest.

1915 – Julius “Nipsey” Russell is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He
will become a comedian and actor. He will star in “Car 54
Where Are You?” (the movie), “Barefoot in the Park,”
“Masquerade Party, and Varsity Blues.”  He will also be a
panelist on “Match Game” and “Hollywood Squares.” He will
join the ancestors on October 2, 2005.

1923 – The governor of Oklahoma declares that Oklahoma is in a
“state of virtual rebellion and insurrection” because of
Ku Klux Klan activities.  Martial law is declared.

1924 – Robert Waltrip “Bobby” Short is born in Danville, Illinois. He
will become a singer and pianist. In 1968, he will be offered
a two-week stint at the Café Carlyle in New York City, to
fill in for George Feyer. He (accompanied by Beverly Peer on
bass and Dick Sheridan on drums) will become an institution at
the Carlyle, as Feyer had been before him, and will remain
there as a featured performer for over 35 years.  In 2000, The
Library of Congress will designate him a Living Legend, a
recognition established as part of its bicentennial
celebration. He will join the ancestors on March 21, 2005.

1928 – Julian Edwin Adderly is born in Tampa, Florida.  He will be
best known as “Cannonball” Adderly, a jazz saxophonist who
will play with Miles Davis as well as lead his own band
with brother Nat Adderly and musicians such as Yusef
Lateef and George Duke. Songs made famous by him and his bands
include “This Here” (written by Bobby Timmons), “The Jive
Samba,” “Work Song” (written by Nat Adderley), “Mercy, Mercy,
Mercy” (written by Joe Zawinul) and “Walk Tall” (written by
Zawinul, Marrow and Rein). He will join the ancestors on August
8, 1975. Later that year, he will be inducted into the Down Beat
Jazz Hall of Fame.

1943 – Actor and activist Paul Robeson acts in the 296th
performance of “Othello” at the Shubert Theatre in New
York City.

1963 – Four African American schoolgirls – Addie Collins, Denise
McNair, Carol Robertson and Cynthia Wesley – join the ancestors
after being killed in a bombing at the Sixteenth Street Baptist
Church in Birmingham, Alabama. It is an act of violence that
will galvanize the civil rights movement.

1964 – Rev. K.L. Buford and Dr. Stanley Smith are elected to the
Tuskegee City Council and become the first African
American elected officials in Alabama in the twentieth
century.

1969 – Large-scale racially motivated disturbances are reported
in Hartford, Connecticut. Five hundred persons are
arrested and scores are injured.

1978 – Muhammad Ali wins the world heavyweight boxing championship
for a record third time by defeating Leon Spinks in New
Orleans, Louisiana.

1987 – Boxer, Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns, becomes the first African
American to win boxing titles in five different weight
classes.

1991 – San Diego State freshman, Marshall Faulk, sets the NCAA
single game rushing record of 386 yards.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 14 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 14          *

1874 – White Democrats seize the statehouse in a Louisiana coup
        d’etat. President Grant orders the revolutionaries to
        disperse, and the rebellion collapses. Twenty-seven
        persons (sixteen whites and eleven Blacks) are killed in
        battles between the Democrats and Republicans.

1891 – John Adams Hyman joins the ancestors in Washington, DC.
        He was the first African American congressman from the
        state of North Carolina.

1921 – Constance Baker Motley is born in New Haven, Connecticut.
        She will achieve many distinctions in her career,
        including being the first African American woman elected
        to the New York Senate in 1964, the first woman Manhattan
        borough president, and the first African American woman to be
        named as a federal court judge in 1966. She will later
        serve as chief judge of the Southern District of New
        York until she joins the ancestors on September 28, 2005.

1940 – African Americans are allowed to enter all branches of
        the United States Military Service, when President
        Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Selective Service Act.

1964 – Leontyne Price and A. Philip Randolph are among the
        recipients of the Medal of Freedom awarded by President
        Lyndon B. Johnson.

1970 – One African American is killed and two whites are injured
        in shoot-out between activists and police officers in a
        New Orleans housing project.

2003 – Yetunde Price, the oldest sister of tennis stars Venus
        and Serena Williams, joins the ancestors at the age of
        31 after being killed in a shooting at her place of
        business.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 13 African American Historical Events

  Today in Black History – September 13         *

1663 – The first known slave revolt in the thirteen American
        colonies is planned in Gloucester County, Virginia.
        The conspirators, both white servants and African
        American slaves, are betrayed by fellow indentured
        servants.

1867 – Gen. E.R.S. Canby orders South Carolina courts to
        impanel African American jurors.

1881 – Louis Latimer patents an electric lamp with a carbon
        filament.

1886 – Alain Leroy Locke is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
        He will graduate from Harvard University in 1907 with a
        degree in philosophy and become the first African
        American Rhodes scholar, studying at Oxford University
        from 1907-10 and the University of Berlin from 1910-11.
        He will receive his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard in
        1918. For almost 40 years, until retirement in 1953 as
        head of the department of philosophy, Locke will teach
        at Howard University, Washington, DC. He will be best
        known for his involvement with the Harlem Renaissance,
        although his work and influence extend well beyond.
        Through “The New Negro”, published in 1925, Locke
        popularized and most adequately defined the Renaissance
        as a movement in Black arts and letters. He will join
        the ancestors on June 9, 1954.

1915 – The first historically black and Catholic university for
        African Americans in the United States, Xavier
        University, is founded by Blessed Katherine Drexel and
        the religious order she established, the “Sisters of
        the Blessed Sacrament,” in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1948 – Nell Ruth Hardy is born in Birmingham, Alabama. She will
        be better known as Nell Carter and become a Broadway
        sensation as a singer and actress in Broadway’s
        “Bubbling Brown Sugar”, “Ain’t Misbehavin’ “(for which
        she will win a Tony), and for five seasons in
        television’s “Gimme a Break”. She will join the ancestors
        on January 23, 2003 after succumbing to heart disease
        complicated by diabetes and obesity.

1962 – Mississippi Governor Ross R. Barnett defies the federal
        government in an impassioned speech on statewide radio-
        television hookup, saying he would “interpose” the
        authority of the state between the University of
        Mississippi and federal judges who had ordered the
        admission of James H. Meredith. Barnett says, “There is
        no case in history where the Caucasian race has survived
        social integration.” He promises to go to jail, if
        necessary, to prevent integration at the state
        university. His defiance set the stage for the gravest
        federal/state crisis since the Civil War.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy denounces the burning of
        churches in Georgia and supports voter registration
        drives in the South.

1965 – Willie Mays hits his 500th career home run.

1967 – Michael Johnson is born in Dallas, Texas.  He will become
        a world class sprinter, Olympic athlete, and the first
        person to break 44 (43.65) seconds for the 400-meter run.
        At the Atlanta Olympics, he also will become the first
        man to win the double gold in the 400 ad 200 meters.

1971 – Two hundred troopers and officers storm the Attica
        Correctional Facility in upstate New York under orders
        from Governor Nelson Rockefeller.   Thirty-three
        convicts and ten guards are killed. Later investigations
        show that nine of the ten guards were killed by the
        storming party. This riot will focus national attention
        on corrections departments nationwide and the practice
        of imprisonment in the United States. A National
        Conference on Corrections will be convened in December,
        1971 resulting in the formation of the National
        Institute of Corrections in 1974.

1971 – Frank Robinson hits his 500th career home run.

1972 – Two African Americans, Johnny Ford of Tuskegee and A.J.
        Cooper of Prichard, are elected mayors in Alabama.

1979 – South Africa grants Venda independence (Not recognized
        outside of South Africa). Venda is a homeland situated
        in the north eastern part of the Transvaal Province of
        South Africa.

1981 – Isabel Sanford wins an Emmy award as best comedic actress
        for “The Jeffersons”.

1989 – Archbishop Desmond Tutu leads huge crowds of singing and
        dancing people through central Cape Town in the biggest
        anti-apartheid protest march in South Africa for 30
        years.

1996 – Rap artist Tupac Shakur joins the ancestors six days after
        being the target of a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas at
        the age of 25.

1998 – Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hits his 61st and 62nd home
        runs of the season, passing Roger Maris’ record and
        pulling into a tie with St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire
        in this years home run derby.
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry