KRLemmons African American History

March 16 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 16 *

1827 – With the assistance of James Varick, Richard Allen, Alexander
Crummel, and others, Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm
publish “Freedom’s Journal” in New York City. Operating
from space in Varick’s Zion Church, “Freedom’s Journal” is
the first African American newspaper. Russwurm says of the
establishment of the newspaper, “We wish to plead our own
cause. Too long have others spoken for us.”

1870 – Senator Hiram R. Revels argues against Georgia’s re-admission
to the Union without safeguards for African American citizens.
It is the first official speech by an African American before
Congress.

1956 – Ozzie Newsome is born in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He will
become a stand-out football player for the University of
Alabama, and the first African American star athlete for a
major school in the south. Newsome will be drafted by the
Cleveland Browns and start 176 out of 182 games in 13 years.
He will be the all-time leading receiver in Cleveland history
and the all-time receiver among tight ends in the NFL. He
will be fourth among receivers in NFL history with a record
of 662 catches. He will earn three trips to the Pro Bowl and
will be named to the All-NFL Teams of the ’80’s. Newsome
will remain with the Cleveland Browns in an administrative
position after his retirement. In 1994 he will be inducted
into the College Football Hall of Fame and in 1999 to the Pro
Football Hall of Fame.

1956 – Former heavyweight champion Joe Louis, makes his debut as a
pro wrestler. He knocks out 320-pound cowboy Rocky Lee.
Jersey Joe Walcott, the referee, is another former
heavyweight champ.

1960 – San Antonio, Texas becomes the first major southern city to
integrate lunch counters.

1966 – Rodney Peete is born in Mesa, Arizona. He will become a NFL
quarterback playing for the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia
Eagles and later, the Washington Redskins.

1970 – Tammi Terrell (Tammy Montgomery), best known for her duets
with Marvin Gaye, joins the ancestors at Graduate Hospital
in Philadelphia after undergoing six brain tumor operations
in 18 months. Doctors first discovered Terrell’s brain
tumor after she collapsed in Gaye’s arms onstage in 1967.

1975 – Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker, jazz and blues singer, blues
guitarist, composer and pianist, joins the ancestors at the
age of 64. He was best known for his hits “Stormy Monday”
and “T-Bone Shuffle.”

1988 – President Ronald Reagan vetoes a civil rights bill that would
restore protections invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s
1984 ruling in Grove City College v. Bell. Reagan’s veto
will be overridden by Congress less than a week later.

1989 – The U.S. Senate agrees to try U.S. District Court Judge Alcee
Hastings on fraud, corruption, and perjury charges stemming
from a 1981 bribery conspiracy case. Hastings, appointed by
President Jimmy Carter as the first African American judge
to serve on the federal bench in Florida, will be convicted
of eight of the original articles and impeached in October.

1991 – Soon Ja Du, a Korean American grocery store owner, shoots to
death Latasha Harlins, a fifteen-year old African American
girl, after Ms. Du accused the girl of trying to steal a
$1.79 bottle of orange juice. A security camera in the
store captures the shooting on videotape. The shooting
exacerbates racial and ethnic tensions in Los Angeles in the
wake of the Rodney King beating.

1995 – Mississippi ratifies the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery,
some 130 years after the rest of the country got around to
it.

1996 – Mike Tyson regains a piece of the heavyweight championship by
defeating WBC champion Frank Bruno by TKO in the third round
to reclaim the heavyweight boxing title in Las Vegas.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 20 African American Historical Events

 

* Today in Black History – October 20 *

1895 – Rex Ingram is born near Cairo, Illinois. He will attend
medical school and earn a Phi Beta Kappa key but forsake
medicine for the stage, becoming a powerful actor on the
stage and screen, most notably as “De Lawd” in the 1936
film “The Green Pastures.” He will also appear in
“Cabin in the Sky” and “Anna Lucasta.”

1898 – North Carolina Mutual Life and Provident Association is
organized by seven African Americans: John Merrick, Dr.
Aaron M. Moore, P.W. Dawkins, D.T. Watson, W.G. Pearson,
E.A. Johnson, and James E. Shepard. Each invests $50 in
the company, which will grow to become North Carolina
Mutual Life Insurance Company and have over $211 million
in assets and over $8 billion of insurance in force by
1991.

1924 – The “First Colored World Series” of baseball is held in
Kansas City, Missouri. The series, which pits the Kansas
City Monarchs against the Hillsdale team from Darby,
Pennsylvania, is won by the Monarchs, five games to four,
and was organized by Rube Foster.

1932 – Roosevelt Brown is born in Charlottesville, Virginia. He
will become a football star at Morgan State College in
Baltimore, Maryland, and will be drafted in the 27th
round by the New York Giants in 1953. Over his career
he will be All-NFL for eight straight years (1956-1963),
play in nine Pro Bowl games, and named NFL’s Lineman of
Year (1956). He will play for the Giants for 13 seasons
and will be elected to the NFL Hall of Fame in 1975.

1942 – Sixty leading southern African Americans issued the
“Durham Manifesto”, calling for fundamental changes in
race relations after a Durham, North Carolina, meeting.

1952 – The Mau Mau uprising against British rule in Kenya begins,
with attacks against both British settlers and Africans
who refused to join the rebellion. Although British rule
is widely resented in Kenya, the Mau Mau fighters are
mostly members of the Kikuyu ethnic group, whose land had
been taken over by British settlers. The British will
respond harshly to the rebellion, killing nearly 11,000
rebels and confining 80,000 Kikuyus in detention camps.
Although it will be a military failure, the Mau Mau
rebellion will bring international attention to the
Africans’ grievances, and contribute to Kenya’s
independence in 1963.

1953 – Jomo Kenyatta and five other Mau Mau leaders are refused
an appeal of their prison terms in British East Africa
(Kenya). Members of the Mau Mau guerilla troops all took
an oath to commit themselves to expelling all white
settlers in Kenya and to eliminate the Africans who
cooperated with or benefited from colonial rule.

1963 – Jim Brown, of the Cleveland Browns, sets the then NFL
all-time rushing record, 8,390 yds.

1963 – South Africa begins the trial of Nelson Mandela & eight
others on charges of conspiracy.

1967 – An all-white federal jury in Meridian, Mississippi
convicts 7 white men in the murder of 3 civil rights
workers. They are convicted of civil rights’ violations.

1968 – Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux, joins the ancestors at
the age of 84. His church services were broadcast weekly,
first on radio, then on television. The theme song of his
broadcasts was “Happy am I, I’m always happy!”

1976 – New York Nets’ (ABA), Julius “Dr. J” Erving is traded to
the Philadelphia 76ers. This will be the beginning of his
All-Star career in the NBA.

1989 – The Senate convicts U.S. District Judge Alcee L. Hastings
of perjury and conspiracy and removes him from office. The
conviction will be overturned and Hastings is later
elected to the House of Representatives.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 20 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 20            *

1895 – Rex Ingram is born near Cairo, Illinois.  He will attend
medical school and earn a Phi Beta Kappa key but forsake
medicine for the stage, becoming a powerful actor on the
stage and screen, most notably as “De Lawd” in the 1936
film “The Green Pastures.”  He will also appear in
“Cabin in the Sky” and “Anna Lucasta.”

1898 – North Carolina Mutual Life and Provident Association is
organized by seven African Americans: John Merrick, Dr.
Aaron M. Moore, P.W. Dawkins, D.T. Watson, W.G. Pearson,
E.A. Johnson, and James E. Shepard.  Each invests $50 in
the company, which will grow to become North Carolina
Mutual Life Insurance Company and have over $211 million
in assets and over $8 billion of insurance in force by
1991.

1924 – The “First Colored World Series” of baseball is held in
Kansas City, Missouri.  The series, which pits the Kansas
City Monarchs against the Hillsdale team from Darby,
Pennsylvania, is won by the Monarchs, five games to four,
and was organized by Rube Foster.

1932 – Roosevelt Brown is born in Charlottesville, Virginia.  He
will become a football star at Morgan State College in
Baltimore, Maryland, and will be drafted in the 27th
round by the New York Giants in 1953.  Over  his career
he will be All-NFL for eight straight years (1956-1963),
play in nine Pro Bowl games, and named NFL’s Lineman of
Year (1956). He will play for the Giants for 13 seasons
and will be elected to the NFL Hall of Fame in 1975.

1942 – Sixty leading southern African Americans issued the
“Durham Manifesto”, calling for fundamental changes in
race relations after a Durham, North Carolina, meeting.

1952 – The Mau Mau uprising against British rule in Kenya begins,
with attacks against both British settlers and Africans
who refused to join the rebellion.  Although British rule
is widely resented in Kenya, the Mau Mau fighters are
mostly members of the Kikuyu ethnic group, whose land had
been taken over by British settlers. The British will
respond harshly to the rebellion, killing nearly 11,000
rebels and confining 80,000 Kikuyus in detention camps.
Although it will be a military failure, the Mau Mau
rebellion will bring international attention to the
Africans’ grievances, and contribute to Kenya’s
independence in 1963.

1953 – Jomo Kenyatta and five other Mau Mau leaders are refused
an appeal of their prison terms in British East Africa
(Kenya). Members of the Mau Mau guerilla troops all took
an oath to commit themselves to expelling all white
settlers in Kenya and to eliminate the Africans who
cooperated with or benefited from colonial rule.

1963 – Jim Brown, of the Cleveland Browns, sets the then NFL
all-time rushing record, 8,390 yds.

1963 – South Africa begins the trial of Nelson Mandela & eight
others on charges of conspiracy.

1967 – An all-white federal jury in Meridian, Mississippi
convicts 7 white men in the murder of 3 civil rights
workers.  They are convicted of civil rights’ violations.

1968 – Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux, joins the ancestors at
the age of 84.  His church services were broadcast weekly,
first on radio, then on television.  The theme song of his
broadcasts was “Happy am I, I’m always happy!”

1976 – New York Nets’ (ABA), Julius “Dr. J” Erving is traded to
the Philadelphia 76ers.  This will be the beginning of his
All-Star career in the NBA.

1989 – The Senate convicts U.S. District Judge Alcee L. Hastings
of perjury and conspiracy and removes him from office. The
conviction will be overturned and Hastings is later
elected to the House of Representatives.

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