KRLemmons African American History

May 8 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 8 *

1771 – Phillis Wheatley sails for England. Two years later, her
book of poetry, “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and
Moral,” will be published in London.

1858 – John Brown holds an antislavery convention, which is
attended by twelve whites and thirty-four African
Americans, in Chatham, Canada.

1858 – “The Escape,” first play by an African American, is
published by William Wells Brown.

1910 – Mary Elfrieda Scruggs is born in Atlanta, Georgia. She will
become a professional piano player at the age of 6 in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After marrying musician and band
leader, John Williams, she will perform as Mary Lou
Williams. She will become an accomplished arranger and
composer and be a music educator in her later years. In
1957, she will form Mary Records, becoming the first
woman to establish a record company. She will join the
ancestors on May 28, 1981 in Durham, North Carolina.

1911 – Robert Leroy Johnson is born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. He
will become a legendary blues musician while remaining
relatively obscure during his short lifetime. Recordings of
Johnson, made by by Columbia Records between 1936 and 1937,
will be the foundation for his reputation after he joins
the ancestors on August 18, 1938. The songs he recorded will
influence the bluesmen of the 1960’s during the revival of
the blues. He will be inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in 1986.

1915 – Henry McNeal Turner joins the ancestors in Windsor, Canada.
He was an influential minister in the AME Church and was
appointed the first African American chaplain in the U.S.
Army.

1917 – An African American, Jesse Washington, is burned alive in a
public square in Waco, Texas. Fifteen thousand will look
on in the incident known later as the “Waco Horror.”

1925 – A. Philip Randolph organizes the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters after failing to integrate the American Federation
of Labor.

1932 – Charles (Sonny) Liston is born in St. Frances County,
Arkansas. After spending time as juvenile delinquent, he
will be convicted of armed robbery in 1950 and sentenced to
prison. While in prison, he will develop an interest in
boxing. He will win the 1953 Golden Gloves championship,
after serving his sentence. He will become a professional
boxer and will win the World Heavyweight Boxing crown
in 1962 and defend it until he is defeated by Cassius Clay
(later named Muhammad Ali) in 1964. He will join the
ancestors on December 30, 1970 and be inducted into the
International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991.

1951 – Philip Bailey is born in Denver, Colorado. He will become a
Rhythm and Blues singer and will enjoy his first fame with
the group Earth, Wind and Fire, which he joins in 1972. He
will develop his unique four-octave voice into a trademark
sound and will be the hallmark of the group’s hits such as
“Reasons,” “Shining Star,” “All ‘N’ All,” and “After The
Love Has Gone.” In 1983, he will start his solo career and
will enjoy success in both Rhythm and Blues and Gospel
venues. On March 6, 2000 he will appear with Earth, Wind
and Fire when they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame.

1958 – President Eisenhower orders federalized National Guard
troops removed from Central High School in Little Rock,
Arkansas.

1965 – The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians is
founded by Muhal Richard Abrams.

1967 – Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in the U.S.
Army.

2003 – Sam Lacy joins the ancestors at the age of 99, after
succumbing to esophageal disorder. He had been one of the
nation’s first African American sportswriters and was a
chronicler of sports integration.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 1 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 1 *

1863 – The Confederate congress passes a resolution which brands
African American troops and their officers criminals. The
resolution, in effect, dooms captured African American
soldiers to death or slavery.

1866 – White Democrats and police attack freedmen and their white
allies in Memphis, Tennessee. Forty-six African Americans
and two white liberals are killed. More than seventy are
wounded. Ninety homes, twelve schools and four churches
are burned.

1867 – Reconstruction of the South begins with the registering of
African American and white voters in the South. Gen.
Philip H. Sheridan orders the registration to begin in
Louisiana on May 1 and to continue until June 30.
Registration will begin in Arkansas in May. Other states
follow in June and July. By the end of October, 1,363,000
citizens had registered in the South, including 700,000
African Americans. African American voters constitute a
majority in five states: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana,
Mississippi and South Carolina.

1884 – Moses Fleetwood Walker becomes the first African American
in the Major Leagues when he plays for the Toledo Blue
Stockings in the American Association. A catcher, he goes
0-for-3 in his debut, allowing 2 passed balls and
committing 4 errors, as his team bows to Louisville 5-1. He
will do better in 41 subsequent games before injuries force
Toledo to release him in late September. In July he will be
joined by his brother Welday, an outfielder. Racial bigotry
will prevent his return to major league ball. No other
African American player will appear in a major league
uniform until Jackie Robinson in 1947.

1901 – Sterling Allen Brown is born on the campus of Howard University
in Washington, DC. He will become a poet, literary critic,
editor of “The Negro in American Fiction” and “Negro Poetry
and Drama,” and the co-editor of the anthology, “The Negro
Caravan.” He will begin his teaching career with positions at
several universities, including Lincoln University and Fisk
University, before returning to Howard University in 1929. He
will be a professor there for forty years. His poetry will
use the south for its setting and show slave experiences of
the African American people. He will often imitate southern
African American speech using “variant spellings and
apostrophes to mark dropped consonants.” He will teach and
write about African American literature and folklore. He will
be a pioneer in the appreciation of this genre. He will have
an “active, imaginative mind” when writing and “have a natural
gift for dialogue, description and narration.” He will be
known for introducing his students to concepts popular in
jazz, which along with blues, spirituals and other forms of
black music will form an integral component of his poetry. In
addition to his career at Howard University, he will serve as
a visiting professor at Vassar College, New York University,
Atlanta University, and Yale University. Some of his notable
students will include Toni Morrison, Kwame Ture (Stokely
Carmichael), Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sowell, Ossie Davis, and
Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones). He will retire from his
faculty position at Howard in 1969 and devote full-time to
poetry. He will join the ancestors on January 13, 1989.

1941 – A. Philip Randolph issues a call for 100,000 African
Americans to march on Washington, DC, to protest armed
forces and defense industry discrimination. In response,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who attempted to persuade
Randolph and others to cancel the demonstration, will issue
Executive Order 8802, to ban federal discrimination, before
Randolph finally yields.

1946 – Mrs. Emma Clarissa Clement is named “American Mother of the
Year” by the Golden Rule Foundation.

1948 – Glenn H. Taylor, U.S. Senator from Idaho and Vice-
presidential candidate of the Progressive party, is
arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, for trying to enter a
meeting through a door marked “for Negroes.”

1950 – Gwendolyn Brooks becomes the first African American to win a
Pulitzer Prize for her book of poetry “Annie Allen.”

1975 – A commemorative stamp of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar is issued
by the U.S. Postal Service as part of its American Arts
series.

1981 – Dr. Clarence A. Bacote, historian and political scientist,
joins the ancestors in Atlanta, Georgia at the age of 75.

1990 – Robert Guillaume, former star of the Benson TV series,
premieres in the title role in “Phantom of the Opera” at
the Music Center in Los Angeles. Guillaume continues the
role that had been played to critical acclaim by the
English star, Michael Crawford.

1991 – Rickey Henderson steals his 939th base in the Oakland A’s
game against the New York Yankees, breaking Lou Brock’s
major league record.

1995 – Charges that Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X,
had plotted to murder Nation of Islam leader Louis
Farrakhan are dropped as jury selection for her trial is
about to begin in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

1998 – Eldridge Cleaver, the fiery Black Panther leader who later
renounced his past and became a Republican, joins the
ancestors in Pomona, California, at age 62.

1998 – Former Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda, pleads guilty
to charges stemming from the 1994 genocide of more than
500,000 Tutsis.

2000 – Bobby Eggleston is sworn in as the new sheriff of Drew
County, Arkansas. He becomes the first African American
sheriff in Arkansas since Reconstruction.

2011 – “Obama Gets Osama”. President Barack Obama authorizes a
military special operations to capture the founder and
leader of terrorist organization al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden.
This operation resulted in his death and the removal of
his body from his sanctuary in Pakistan.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 31 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – March 31 *

1850 – The Massachusetts Supreme Court rejects the argument of
Charles Sumner in the Boston school integration suit and
established the “separate but equal” precedent.

1853 – At concert singer Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield’s New York
debut in Metropolitan Hall, African Americans are not
allowed to attend. Angered and embarrassed at the exclusion
of her race, Greenfield will perform in a separate concert
at the Broadway Tabernacle for five African American
congregations.

1871 – John Arthur “Jack” Johnson is born in Galveston, Texas. He
will become a professional boxer and will become the first
African American to be crowned world heavyweight boxing
champion. His championship reign will last from 1908 to 1915.
He will join the ancestors on June 10, 1946 after succumbing
to injuries from an automobile accident. He will be inducted
into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954, and is on the roster of
both the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World
Boxing Hall of Fame. In 2005, the United States National Film
Preservation Board deemed the film of the 1910 Johnson-
Jeffries fight “historically significant” and will place it
in the National Film Registry.

1930 – President Hoover nominates Judge John J. Parker of North
Carolina for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. The NAACP
launches a national campaign against the appointment. Parker
is not confirmed by the Senate.

1948 – A. Phillip Randolph tells the Senate Armed Services Committee
that unless segregation and discrimination were banned in
draft programs he would urge African American youths to
resist induction by civil disobedience.

1949 – William Grant Still’s opera, “Troubled Island” receives its
world premiere at the New York City Opera. In addition to
marking Robert McFerrin’s debut as the first African American
male to sing with the company, the opera is the first ever
written by an African American to be produced by a major
opera company.

1967 – Jimi Hendrix begins the tradition of burning his guitar in
London, England.

1968 – The provisional government of the Republic of New Africa is
founded in Detroit, Michigan.

1973 – Ken Norton defeats Muhammad Ali in a 12 round split decision
in San Diego, California. Norton will break Ali’s jaw
during the bout.

1980 – Jesse Owens joins the ancestors in Tucson, Arizona at the age
of 66, and President Jimmy Carter adds his voice to the
tributes that pour in from around the world. Jesse won four
gold medals in track at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

1980 – Larry Holmes wins the vacant world heavyweight title by
knocking out Leroy Jones in the eighth round.

1988 – Toni Morrison wins the Pulitzer Prize for “Beloved,” a
powerful novel of a runaway slave who murders her daughter
rather than see her raised in slavery.

1995 – President Bill Clinton briefly visits Haiti, where he
declares the U.S. mission to restore democracy there a
“remarkable success.”

1999 – Four New York City police officers are charged with murder
for killing Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, in
a hail of bullets. They shot at him 41 times, hitting him
with 19 shots. The officers will later be acquitted of all
charges, even involuntary manslaughter.

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

KRLemmons African American Authors

February 20 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – February 20 *

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

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

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

1925 – Alex La Guma is born in Cape Town, South Africa. He will
become a novelist whose writings reflect the lives of the
ghetto dwellers in the ‘Coloured’ sections of Capetown,
portrayed best in his novel, “A Walk in the Night.” The
ghettos and shanties of the Cape were his milieu, and he will
never depict the lives of the impoverished with either
rancor or self-pity. The powerful strokes of his pen will
paint a picture of the starkness and reality of their lives.
He allowed the tin and hessian fabrics of the rat-infested,
leaking hovels to spell it out. He will become involved
with the South African Coloured People’s Organisation,
playing a very active part in its affairs. He will be
exiled in 1966 and move with his family to London. At the
time he joins the ancestors on October 11, 1985, he was the
Chief Representative of the African National Congress in Cuba.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 30 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 30 *

1869 – John Roy Lynch is elected to the Mississippi House of
Representatives.

1912 – Gordon Parks, Sr. is born in Fort Scott, Kansas. In the
late 1930’s, while working as a railroad porter, he
will become interested in photography and launch his
career as a photographer and photojournalist. From
1943 to 1945, he will be a correspondent for the Office
of War Information, giving national exposure to his
work. This will lead to him becoming a staff
photographer for Life magazine in 1948. He will branch
off into film and television in the 1950’s and in 1968
will produce, direct, and write the script and music
for the production of his book, “The Learning Tree.”
He will also direct and write the music scores for the
movies “Shaft,” “Shaft’s Big Score,” The Super Cops,”
“Leadbelly,” “Odyssey of Solomon Northrup” and “Moments
Without Proper Names.” He will also direct “Superfly,”
“Three The Hard Way,” “Aaron Loves Angela,” and be
called a “Twentieth Century Renaissance Man” by the
NAACP, who will award him its Spingarn Medal in 1972.
The Library of Congress will honor him in 1982 with the
National Film Registry Classics designation for his
film, “The Learning Tree.” He will join the ancestors
on March 7, 2006.

1924 – Shirley Anita St. Hill (later Chisholm) is born in
Brooklyn, New York. While an education consultant for New
York City’s day-care division, she will become active in
community and political activities that included the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) and her district’s Unity Democratic Club. She
will begin her political career at the age of 40, when she
is elected to the state assembly. In 1968, she will be the
first African American woman elected to Congress,
defeating civil-rights leader James Farmer, who had
asserted in his campaign that African American voters
needed “a man’s voice in Washington.” She will run for
President in 1972 and continue her Congressional duties
until 1982.

1933 – Sam Gilliam is born in Tupelo, Mississippi. He will become
an artist known for his unique manipulation of materials
that result in painted sculpture or suspended paintings.
His work will be shown at the 36th Venice Miennale as well
as in the exhibit “African-American Artists 1880-1987.”

1937 – Robert Guillaume (Williams) is born in St. Louis, Missouri.
He will become an actor and be best known for his roles in
the sit-coms “Soap” and “Benson”.

1944 – Luther Ingram is born in Jackson, Mississippi. He will
become a rhythm and blues musician and singer and will be
best known for the song, “(If Lovin’ You is Wrong) I Don’t
Want to be Right.”

1948 – The Negro National League (Professional Baseball) officially
disbands. Although black teams will continue to play for
several years, they will no longer be major league caliber.
The demise of the Negro Leagues was inevitable as the
younger black players were signed by the white major league
franchises.

1953 – Albert Michael Espy is born in Yazoo City, Mississippi. In
1987, he will be sworn in as the state’s first African
American congressman since John Roy Lynch more than 100
years before. He will become Secretary of Agriculture
during the Bill Clinton administration. Leaving the
cabinet under fire and indicted for corruption, he will
later be vindicated when he is found not guilty.

1956 – Archie Moore is defeated by Floyd Patterson, as Patterson
wins the heavyweight boxing title vacated by the retired
Rocky Marciano. At the age of 21, Patterson becomes the
youngest boxer to be named heavyweight champion.

1962 – Bo Jackson is born in Bessemer, Alabama. The 1985 Heisman
Trophy winner will be one of the few professional athletes
to play in two sports – football and baseball.

1965 – Judith Jamison makes her debut with Alvin Ailey’s American
Dance Theatre in Chicago, dancing in Talley Beaty’s Congo
Tango Palace. Jamison will rejoin the company in 1988 as
artistic associate due to the failing health of Alvin
Ailey. she will become the company’s artistic director in
1989 upon Ailey’s death.

1966 – Barbados gains its independence from Great Britain.

1975 – The state of Dahomey becomes the People’s Republic of
Benin.

1981 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Coleman A. Young
“in recognition of his singular accomplishments as mayor
of the City of Detroit.”

1990 – Ruth Washington, long-time publisher of the Los Angeles
Sentinel, joins the ancestors. Following the death of
her husband Chester, Washington acted as publisher of the
weekly newspaper, founded in 1933, for sixteen years.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 13 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 13 *

1831 – Jo Anderson, a slave, helps invent the grain harvester
reaper.

1876 – Meharry Medical College, formally opens at Central
Tennessee College.

1901 – Edith Spurlock (later Sampson) is born in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. She will graduate from the John Marshall
Law School in Chicago in 1925 with a Bachelor of Laws
degree. In 1927, she will become the first African
American woman to receive a Masters of Laws degree from
Loyola University. She will become a member of the
Illinois bar in 1927, and be admitted to practice before
the Supreme Court in 1934. She will become the first
African American woman to be named a delegate to the
United Nations. She will serve from 1950 to 1953, first
as an appointee of President Harry S. Truman and later
during a portion of the Eisenhower Administration. She
will join the ancestors on October 8, 1979.

1902 – Arna Bontemps is born in Alexandria, Louisiana. He will
become a prolific poet, librarian, and author of
historical and juvenile fiction. Among his best-known
works will be “God Sends Sunday” and “Black Thunder”,
the juvenile books “We Have Tomorrow” and “The Story of
the Negro”, and “American Negro Poetry”, which he edited.
In 1943, after graduating from the University of Chicago
with a masters degree in library science, Bontemps was
appointed librarian at Fisk University in Nashville,
Tennessee. He will hold that position for 22 years and
will develop important collections and archives of
African American literature and culture. Through his
librarianship and bibliographic work, he will become a
leading figure in establishing African American
literature as a legitimate object of study and
preservation. He will join the ancestors on June 4, 1973.

1906 – J. Saunders Redding is born in Wilmington, Delaware. He
will become a literary and social critic and author of
non-fiction works on the African American experience. He
will earn an advanced degree in English at Brown
University (1932) and will be a professor at various
colleges and universities, including Morehouse, Hampton,
and Cornell. In 1949, his stint as a visiting professor
at Brown will make him the first African American to hold
a faculty position at an Ivy League university. He will
write many books and articles on African American culture
and other topics, including “To Make a Poet Black” (1939),
a landmark history of African American literature; “No Day
of Triumph” (1942), an autobiographical account of a
journey through southern black communities; and “Stranger
and Alone” (1950), a novel, as well as several more general
historical and sociological works. He will also edit with
Arthur P. Davis, an important anthology, “Cavalcade: Negro
American Writing from 1760 to the Present” (1971). He will
join the ancestors on March 2, 1988 at his home in Ithaca,
New York.

1914 – Garrett Augustus Morgan, the son of former slaves, receives
a patent for an invention he calls the “Safety Hood and
Smoke Protector,” which came to be known as a gas mask.

1925 – Garland Anderson’s “Appearances” opens at the Frolic Theatre
on Broadway. It is the first full-length Broadway play by
an African American.

1946 – Demond Wilson is born in Valdosta, Georgia. He will become
an actor and will be best known as Lamont Sanford on the
long-running television show, “Sanford & Son.”

1962 – Jerry Lee Rice is born in Crawford, Mississippi. He will
become a professional football player, selected as the
16th pick overall in the first round of the NFL draft by
the San Francisco 49ers in 1985. He will be considered to
be the greatest NFL receiver of all time. He will retire
as the leader in a number of statistics. His 1,549
receptions were 448 receptions ahead of the second place
record held by Cris Carter. His 22,895 receiving yards
were 7,961 yards ahead of the second place spot held by
his Raiders teammate Tim Brown. His 197 touchdown
receptions were 67 scores more than Carter’s 130, and his
207 total touchdowns were 32 scores ahead of Emmitt
Smith’s second place spot of 175. He will retire from the
NFL on August 24, 2006.

1979 – Clarence Muse joins the ancestors in Perris, California at
the age of 90. He was a pioneer film and stage actor who
appeared in 219 films. His first film was the second
talking movie ever made.

2000 – Isiah Thomas and Bob McAdoo are enshrined into the
Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

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.

1890 – 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. He will join the ancestors on
July 10, 1941

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”. He will join the ancestors on February 23,
1999.

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.” On
June 8, 1998, he will join the ancestors when he succumbs
unexpectedly to 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 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

August 13 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – August 13 *

1881 – The first African American nursing school opens at Spelman
College in Atlanta, Georgia.

1892 – The first issue of the Baltimore Afro-American is
published.

1906 – African American soldiers raid Brownsville, Texas in
retaliation for racial insults. One white man is killed,
two are wounded.

1911 – James B. Parsons is born in Kansas City, Missouri. After
an early career in music, he will become an attorney,
superior court judge in Cook County, Illinois, and
assistant U.S. Attorney, and in 1961, the first African
American appointed to a lifetime federal judgeship in the
continental United States. He will join the ancestors on
June 19, 1993.

1917 – Claudia McNeil is born in Baltimore, Maryland. She will
start her career as a singer and tour with Katherine
Dunham before finding fame as an actress. Among her most
notable roles will be as Lena Younger in both the play
and movie versions of “A Raisin in the Sun.” She will join
the ancestors on November 25, 1993.

1948 – Kathleen Battle is born in Portsmouth, Ohio. She will
become an operatic soprano, winner of Grammy awards in
1987 and 1988, and will be considered by many to be one
of the finest modern opera singers.

1948 – Cleveland Indians rookie pitcher, Satchel Paige, throws
his first complete game in the major leagues at the age
of 42. He allows the Chicago White Sox only five hits in
the 5-0 shutout.

1953 – President Eisenhower establishes the Government Contract
Compliance Committee to supervise anti-discrimination
regulations in government contracts.

1963 – Noted civil rights and labor leader, A. Philip Randolph
strongly protests the AFL-CIO Executive Council’s failure
to endorse the August 28 March on Washington.

1979 – Lou Brock, of the St. Louis Cardinals, gets his 3,000th
career hit while leading the Cardinals past the Chicago
Cubs, 3-2.

1983 – Daley Thompson of Britain wins the decathlon championship
at the World Track and Field Championship in Helsinki,
Finland.

1989 – Searchers in Ethiopia find the wreckage of a plane which
had disappeared almost a week earlier while carrying
Texas Congressman Mickey Leland and 15 other people.
There are no survivors.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 18 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – June 18 *

1889 – William H. Richardson receives a patent for a baby
carriage whose body can be raised from its frame.

1939 – Louis Clark “Lou” Brock is born in El Dorado, Arkansas.
He will become a professional baseball player with the
Chicago Cubs in 1961. Three years later, in 1964, he
will be traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. Brock will
have an immediate impact with the Cardinals entering the
starting lineup. He will record 12 homeruns, 44 RBI, an
amazing .348 batting average, and blister the baselines
stealing 44 bases in his first season with St. Louis.
During his 19-year career, the outfielder will steal an
unprecedented 938 bases and break several World Series
records, including hitting .391 in over 20 World Series
games. Exemplifying the spirit of baseball on and off
the field, Brock will earn the Roberto Clemente and the
Jackie Robinson Awards, among many others. A Cardinal
for the remainder of his career, Lou Brock will enter the
Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 1985.

1941 – President Roosevelt confers with A. Philip Randolph and
other leaders of a “March on Washington” movement and
urges them to call off a scheduled demonstration. Randolph
refuses.

1942 – Bernard W. Robinson, of Harvard Medical School, becomes a
Naval Reserve ensign. He is the first African American to
earn a U.S. Navy commission.

1953 – Egypt becomes a republic after the forced abdication of
King Farouk I. General Neguib becomes president.

1963 – Bruce Bernard Smith is born in Norfolk, Viriginia. He will
become a defensive end for the NFL Buffalo Bills. He will
spend his last few years with the Washington Redskins where
he will break Reggie White’s record for sacks. The holder
of the NFL career record for quarterback sacks, he will be
enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009, his
first year of eligibility

1963 – 3,000 African Americans boycott Boston public schools as
a protest against defacto segregation.

1968 – The U.S. Supreme Court bans racial discrimination in the
sale and rental of housing.

1966 – Samuel Nabrit becomes the first African American scientist
to serve on the Atomic Energy Commission.

1982 – The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is extended for an additional
twenty-five years by Senate vote of 85-8. The Voting Rights
Act protects citizens’ ability to vote, not the right to
vote. All U.S. citizens have the right to vote, but state
and local jurisdictions are prevented from interfering with
the voters’ ability to vote. It outlaws such practices as
poll taxes, reciting the preamble to the U.S. Constitution,
etc. as a condition to vote.

1985 – Patrick Ewing becomes one of 11 basketball centers to be
chosen in the first round of the National Basketball
Association draft of college players. Ewing is picked by
— and will become a major star for — the New York Knicks.

1991 – City Auditor, Wellington Webb is elected mayor of Denver,
Colorado. He becomes the first African American to hold the
post.

2003 – Larry Doby joins the ancestors at age 79 after a long
illness. He was a Hall of Fame pitcher for the Cleveland
Indians and Chicago White Sox and second African American
player in the modern major leagues. Jackie Robinson was the
first.

2011 – Clarence Clemons joins the ancestors at the age of 69. Also
known as “the Big Man,” he was the saxophonist in the “E
Street Band,” Bruce Springsteen’s back up band. He succumbed
to complications from a stroke. Bruce Springsteen’s statement:
“Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love
of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and
extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and
gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage. His
loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have
known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for
nearly forty years. He was my great friend, my partner, and
with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a
story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His
life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and
in our band.”

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