KRLemmons African American History

January 29 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 29 *

1837 – Aleksandr Sereyevich Pushkin, a Russian of African ancestry
who is considered the “Shakespeare of Russian Literature,”
joins the ancestors after being killed in a duel.
Technically one-eighth African or an octoroon, Pushkin was
by all accounts Negroid in his appearance. His verse novel
“Eugene Onegin” and other works are considered classics of
Russian literature and inspiration for later great Russian
writers such as Gogol, Dostoyevski, and Tolstoy.

1850 – Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on
slavery which included the admission of California into the
Union as a free state.

1872 – Francis L. Cardoza is elected State Treasurer of South
Carolina.

1908 – Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, founded at Cornell University in
1906, is incorporated in the state of New York.

1913 – Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, founded at Howard University in
1908, is incorporated in Washington, DC.

1913 – African Americans celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the
Emancipation Proclamation. Major celebrations are held in
Jackson, Mississippi, New Orleans, Louisiana and Nashville,
Tennessee. Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey
appropriate money for official celebrations of the event.

1926 – Violette Neatley Anderson is the first African American woman
admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

1954 – Oprah Winfrey is born in Kosciusko, Mississippi. She will
become the first African American woman to host a nationally
syndicated talk show and will be nominated for an Academy
award for best supporting actress in 1985 for her role in
“The Color Purple.” Following in the footsteps of Oscar
Micheaux and others, she will also form her own film and
television production company, Harpo Studios, in Chicago,
Illinois. In 1988, Harpo Studios will take over ownership
and production of the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” making her the
first African American woman to own and produce her own
national talk show.

1966 – Charles Mahoney, the first African American delegate to the
United Nations, joins the ancestors.

1981 – William R. “Cozy” Cole joins the ancestors in Columbus, Ohio.
A jazz drummer who played with Cab Calloway and Louis
Armstrong, he was known as a versatile percussionist who
played in big bands, comedy jazz groups, and Broadway
musicals. In 1958, his recording of “Topsy” became the only
drum solo to sell more than one million records.

1999 – Ronnie Lott, formally of the San Francisco 49’ers, is elected
to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 15 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 15 *

1865 – An African American division, under the command of Major
General Charles Paine, participates in the Fort Fisher,
North Carolina expedition, which will close the Confederacy’s
last major seaport.

1908 – Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority is founded at Howard University in
Washington, DC. The culmination of efforts by Ethel Hedgeman
(Lyle) and eight other undergraduates, it is the first Greek-
letter organization for African American women.

1929 – Michael Luther King is born in Atlanta, Georgia. His father
will have both of their names changed to Martin Luther King,
Sr. and Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will become a Baptist
minister, world-renowned civil rights leader, and an advocate
of non-violence. His efforts, beginning with the Montgomery
bus boycott in 1955 and continuing for the next 13 years,
will fundamentally change civil rights for African Americans
and earn him a number of honors and awards, including the
Nobel Peace Prize (1964), Medal of Freedom, and the NAACP’s
Spingarn Medal (1957). He will join the ancestors on April 4,
1968 after being assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in
Memphis, Tennessee.

1941 – Yancey Williams, a Howard University student, asked a federal
court to order the Secretary of War and other government
officials to consider his application for enlistment in the
Army Air Corps as a flying cadet.

1950 – More than 4,000 delegates from one hundred national
organizations attend the National Emergency Civil Rights
Conference in Washington, DC.

1968 – Reporting the results of a “Jet” magazine poll, “The New York
Times” article “Negro History Week Stirs Up Semantic Debate”
indicates that 59% of those polled prefer the term Afro-
American or Black to Negro.

1970 – Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, the nearby crypt containing
the remains of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his boyhood home
are dedicated as part of a memorial to be known as the Martin
Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Change.

1970 – Biafra officially surrenders to the Nigerian government and is
reintegrated into Nigeria. Odumegwu Ojukwu had declared the
independence of the eastern province of Biafra in 1967 to
guarantee the survival of Igbos, Biafra’s ethnic majority
group. During the war with Nigeria, as many as 400,000
Biafrans died of starvation.

1990 – George Foreman knocks out Gerry Cooney in 2 rounds, at the age
of forty two.

1998 – The Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s (SCLC) National
President Joseph E. Lowery, steps down from his post and
Martin Luther King, III is named the new president, the actual
birthday of SCLC Founding President, Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr.

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