Althea Gibson – The CamaraIfe Maktaba

October 26, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

September 28 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 28 *

1829 – “Walker’s Appeal (To the Coloured Citizens of the World),”
a racial antislavery pamphlet, is published in Boston,
Massachusetts, by David Walker.

1833 – Lemuel Haynes, Revolutionary War veteran and first African
American to be ordained by the Congregational Church,
joins the ancestors at the age of 80.

1912 – W.C. Handy’s ground-breaking “Memphis Blues” is published
in Memphis, Tennessee. The composition was originally
entitled “Mr. Crump” and was written for the 1909
political campaign of Edward H. “Boss” Crump.

1938 – Benjamin Earl “Ben E.” King is born in Henderson, North
Carolina. He will become a rhythm and blues singer and
will be best known for his song, “Stand By Me.”

1941 – Charles Robert “Charley” Taylor is born in Grand Prairie,
Texas. He will become a NFL wide receiver/running back with
the Washington Redskins. He will be inducted into the Pro
Football Hall of Fame in 1984.

1945 – Todd Duncan debuts with the New York City Opera as Tonio
in Il Pagliacci. He is the first African American to
sing a leading role with a major American company, almost
ten years before Marian Anderson sings with the
Metropolitan Opera.

1961 – Ossie Davis’s “Purlie Victorious” opens on Broadway. The
play stars Davis, Ruby Dee, Godfrey Cambridge, Alan Alda,
and Beah Richards.

1961 – Atlanta’s segregated restaurants and other public
facilities are peacefully integrated, part of a plan
adopted by city officials earlier in the year.

1967 – Walter Washington takes office as the first mayor of the
District of Columbia.

1972 – The Secretary of the Army repeals the dishonorable
discharges of 167 soldiers involved in the Brownsville
(Texas) Raid. The soldiers, members of the 25th Infantry
who were involved in a riot with the city’s police and
merchants, were dishonorably discharged by President
Theodore Roosevelt without a trial.

1976 – Muhammad Ali retains the heavyweight boxing championship
in a close 15-round decision over Ken Norton at Yankee
Stadium.

1979 – Larry Holmes retains the heavyweight boxing championship
by knocking out Ernie Shavers in 11 rounds.

1981 – Joseph Paul Franklin, avowed racist, is sentenced to life
in prison for killing 2 African American joggers in Salt
Lake City, Utah.

1987 – The National Museum of African Art, now a part of the
Smithsonian Institution, opens on the National Mall in
Washington, DC. Founded by Warren M. Robbins in 1964 as
a private educational institution, it is the only museum
in the United States devoted exclusively to the
collection, study, and exhibition of the art of sub-
Saharan Africa.

1990 – Marvin Gaye gets a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

1991 – Miles Davis, jazz musician, joins the ancestors at the age
of 65 from pneumonia.

2003 – Althea Gibson, pioneering tennis player, joins the
ancestors at the age of 76 after succumbing to
respiratory failure. She was the first African American
woman to win the Wimbledon championship and was also a
professional golfer.

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

September 8, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

September 8 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 8 *

1866 – Charles Harrison Mason is born on the Prior Farm near
Memphis, Tennessee. He will be inspired by the
autobiography of evangelist Amanda Berry Smith in 1893.
He and Charles Price Jones will form a fellowship of
churches, named “Church of God.” He will rename the
group the “Church of God in Christ,” to distinguish the
group from the other “Church of God” forming around that
time. After attending the “Azusa Street Revival” in Los
Angeles, California, he will adopt the new Pentecostal
teachings of Elder William Seymour, such as ‘speaking in
tongues.’ After the opposition of Charles Jones in these
new beliefs, they will split and he will win the legal
rights to the “Church of God in Christ” name. He will be
elected General Overseer of the Church in Memphis,
Tennessee in 1907, later becoming the Senior Bishop (now
referred to as Presiding Bishop). He will lead the COGIC
group of churches until he joins the ancestors on November
17, 1961. At this time, the Church membership totals
around 400,000. Afterwards, the Church will grow
exponentially, until in 2000, it is estimated over 6
million people were members of the denomination.

1875 – The governor of Mississippi requests federal troops to
protect African American voters. Attorney General Edward
Pierrepont refuses the request and says “the whole
public are tired of these annual autumnal outbreaks in
the South…”

1925 – Ossian Sweet, a prominent Detroit doctor, is arrested on
murder charges after shots are fired into a mob in front
of the Sweet home in a previously all-white area. Sweet
is defended by Clarence Darrow, who won an acquittal in
the second trial.

1940 – Willie Tyler is born in Red Level, Alabama. He will
become a well known ventriloquist along with his wooden
partner, Lester.

1956 – Maurice Cheeks is born. He will become a professional
basketball player and will play guard for the New York
Knicks and the Philadelphia ’76ers.

1957 – Tennis champion, Althea Gibson, becomes the first
African American athlete to win a U.S. national tennis
championship.

1965 – Dorothy Dandridge, nominated for an Oscar for her
performance in “Carmen Jones,” joins the ancestors at
the age of 41 in Hollywood, California.

1968 – Black Panther Huey Newton is convicted of voluntary
manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an Oakland
policeman. He will later begin a 2 to l5-year jail
sentence.

1968 – Saundra Williams is crowned the first Miss Black America
in a contest held exclusively for African American
women in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

1973 – Hank Aaron sets the record for most Home Runs in 1
league (709).

1975 – The city of Boston begins court ordered citywide busing
of public schools amid scattered incidents of violence.

1981 – Roy Wilkins, longtime and second executive director of
the NAACP, joins the ancestors.

1990 – Marjorie Judith Vincent of Illinois is selected as Miss
America in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Haitian
native, a third-year law student at Duke University,
is the fourth woman of African descent to become Miss
America.

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

September 1, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

August 25 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 25 *

1862 – The Secretary of War authorizes General Rufus Saxton to
arm up to five thousand slaves.

1886 – Some six hundred delegates organize the American National
Baptist Convention at a St. Louis meeting. Rev.
William J. Simmons is elected president.

1886 – Kentucky State College (now University), chartered in May,
1886 as the State Normal School for Colored Persons and
only the second state-supported institution of higher
learning in Kentucky, is founded in Frankfort, Kentucky.
It will become a land grant college in 1890.

1925 – A. Phillip Randolph organizes the Sleeping Car Porters’
Union (Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters) at a mass
meeting in the Elks’ Hall in Harlem. He is elected
president.

1927 – Althea Gibson is born in Silver, South Carolina. She will
grow up to be a pioneer in the field of tennis, becoming
the first African American to play tennis at the U.S.
Open in 1950 and at Wimbledon the following year. In
1957, she will win the singles and doubles titles at
Wimbledon, another first for an African American. In 1964,
she will become the first African American woman to play
in the Ladies Professional Golf Association. However, she
will be too old to be successful and only play for a few
years. In 1971, she will be inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame, and in 1975, she will
be appointed the New Jersey state commissioner of
athletics. After 10 years on the job, she will go on to
work in other public service positions, including serving
on the governor’s council on physical fitness. She will
join the ancestors on September 28, 2003.

1950 – Sugar Ray Robinson knocks out Jose Basora to retain the
Pennsylvania Middleweight Title.

1964 – Blair Underwood is born in Tacoma, Washington. He will
become an actor and will star in “Downtown,” and will be
best known for his role as “L.A. Law’s” Jonathan Rollins.

1965 – James M. Nabrit Jr. is named ambassador and assigned to
the United Nations’ delegation.

1991 – African Americans receive seven Emmy awards, a record
number up to that time.

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

August 22, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

August 22 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – August 22 *

1788 – The British settlement in Sierra Leone is founded to
provide a home in Africa for freed slaves and homeless
Africans from England.

1791 – The Haitian Revolution begins with revolt of slaves in the
northern province.

1791 – Mathematician Benjamin Banneker serves on commission which
will survey the District of Columbia.

1843 – Henry Highland Garnet issues a call for slave revolt in “An
Address to Slaves of the United States” before a national
convention of African Americans in Buffalo, New York.

1867 – Fisk University is established in Nashville, Tennessee.

1880 – George Herriman is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. A
perfectly ordinary-looking guy from beginning to end,
albeit with a few small quirks (such as never allowing a
picture to be taken of him without a hat). But behind that
relatively normal exterior lurked the unique genius who
created the cartoon Krazy Kat. His family moved to Los
Angeles, CA, when he was six years old, although from
various accounts, he seems to have kept his New Orleans
accent (very different from standard Southern) well into
adult life. He called Los Angeles his home town because it
was there that his family shed the labels that accrued to
them as a result of their partially African ancestry. He
will join the ancestors on April 25, 1944.

1917 – John Lee Hooker, who will become a renowned blues singer
and guitarist, is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

1950 – Althea Gibson becomes the first African American competitor
in national tennis competition.

1951 – The Harlem Globetrotters play in Olympic Stadium, Berlin,
Germany before 75,052 non-paying spectators. This is the
largest crowd to witness a basketball game (up to that
time).

1978 – Jomo Kenyatta (original name KAMAU NGENGI), president of
Kenya, joins the ancestors after succumbing to heart
failure in his sleep while vacationing in Mobasa, Kenya at
the age of 83. He was the leading force in Kenya’s
independence struggles.

1979 – 200 African American leaders meet in New York City in
support of Andrew Young (after he had resigned as U.N.
ambassador under pressure for “unauthorized” meeting with
the PLO) and demand that African Americans be given a voice
in shaping American foreign policy.

1984 – Evelyn Ashford of the United States ties the world women’s
mark for the 100 meters (10.76 seconds).

1984 – New York Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden becomes the 11th rookie
to strikeout 200 batters.

1989 – Huey Percy Newton joins the ancestors in Oakland,
California. The founder of the Black Panther Party is
shot to death outside a crack cocaine house, allegedly by
a drug dealer whom Newton had robbed (Gunman Tyrone
Robinson will sentenced later to 32 years to life in
prison).

2011 – Nickolas Ashford joins the ancestors at the age of 70, after
succumbing to complications of throat cancer. With Valerie
Simpson, his songwriting partner and later his wife, he wrote
some of Motown’s biggest hits, like “Ain’t No Mountain High
Enough” and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” before they
remade their careers as a recording and touring duo.

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

July 24, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

July 21 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – July 21 *

1864 – The New Orleans Tribune, first daily African American
newspaper, is published in English and French.

1896 – Mary Church Terrell organizes the National Association of
Colored Women in Washington, DC. The association is a
merger of the National Federation of Afro-American Women
and The Colored Women’s League. It is one of many
achievements for Terrell, which include being the first
African American woman to serve on a school’s board of
education, the first to hold membership in the American
Association of University Women, and at age 90, will lead
the desegregation of Washington, DC restaurants in 1953.

1934 – Edolphus Towns is born in Chadbourn, North Carolina. He
will graduate with a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina
A & T State University and a master’s degree in social
work from Adelphi University. He will become a longtime
local civic leader and congressman from New York’s 11th
District starting in 1983, and chairman of the
Congressional Black Caucus in 1990. He will have the
distinction of being the first African American to serve
as Deputy Brooklyn Borough President. Additionally, he and
his son, New York State Assemblyman Darryl Towns, will
become the first African American father/son tandem to
serve simultaneously in public office in New York State.
His varied professional background includes assignments as
an administrator at Beth Israel Medical Center, a
professor at New York’s Medgar Evers College and Fordham
University and a teacher in the New York City Public
School System. He is also a veteran of the United States
Army and an ordained Baptist minister.

1943 – Captain Charles B, Hall, of Brazil, Indiana, becomes the
first African American pilot in World War II to shoot down
a Nazi plane. He is a member of the 99th Fighter Squadron
which is part of the 33rd Fighter Group. During his eighth
mission, while escorting B-25 bombers over Italy, Captain
Hall spots two Focke-Wulf FW 190s. He fires a long burst
at one as it turns left. After several hits the aircraft
will crash into the ground.

1943 – “Stormy Weather” premieres in New York City with Lena
Horne, Bill Robinson, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, the
Nicholas Brothers, and Katherine Dunham. A week before
the premiere, Horne said of African American actors, “All
we ask is that the Negro be portrayed as a normal person.
A worker in a union meeting, a voter in the polls…or an
elected official. Perhaps I’m being naive. Perhaps these
things will never be straightened out on the screen itself,
but will have to wait until..[they’re] solved in real
life.”

1945 – Alton H. Maddox, Jr. is born. He will become a New York
African American civil rights activist and attorney. He
will be best known for his representation of Tawana
Brawley (a black teenager who accused a group of white men
of abducting and sexually molesting her in Dutchess
County). He will be disbarred following his involvement in
the Tawana Brawley alleged hoax in 1990.

1950 – The first victory of the Korean War is won by African
American troops of the 24th Infantry Regiment, who
recapture Yechon after waging a 16-hour battle. The North
Koreans will launch a surprise invasion of South Korea on
25 June 1950. U.S. Army divisions stationed in Japan are
rushed to the defense of South Korea. The 25th Division is
ordered to South Korea on 5 July 1950. By mid July the
Division is fully deployed and ready to engage North
Korean forces. On 20 July 1950 the 3rd Battalion 24th
Infantry conducts the first combat action of the Division
when it attacks and destroys a well-dug-in North Korean
force which had seized the critical road hub of Yechon.
The recapture of Yechon is considered the first sizable
American ground victory of the war.

1957 – Althea Gibson becomes the first African American woman to
win a major U.S. tennis title. She won the Women’s
National clay court singles competition.

1960 – The country of Katanga forms in Africa.

1962 – 160 civil right activists jailed after demonstration in
Albany, Georgia.

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

July 8, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

July 6 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – July 6 *

1853 – A National Black convention meets in Rochester, New York,
with 140 delegates from nine states. James W.C.
Pennington of New York is elected president of this
meeting, generally considered the largest and most
representative of the early African American conventions.

1853 – William Wells Brown publishes “Clotel,” the first novel by
an African American.

1854 – The Republican Party is organized to oppose the extension
of slavery.

1864 – John Wesley Gilbert is born in Hepzibah, Georgia to a slave
family. He will attend Paine College and will later earn
B.A. (1888) and M.A. (1891) degrees in Greek at Brown
University. He will be the first African American to
receive a graduate degree from Brown University. While
working on his Masters degree, he will be awarded a
fellowship to attend the American School of Classical
Studies in Athens, Greece in 1890, the first person of
African descent to do so, and will help to draw a map of
Eretria (American Journal of Archaeology, 1891). He will
teach Greek at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia until
he joins the ancestors on November 19, 1923.

1868 – Eighty-five African Americans and 70 white representatives
meet in Columbia, South Carolina, at the opening of the
state’s General Assembly. It is the first and last U.S.
legislature with an African American majority.

1869 – African American candidate for Lt. Governor of Virginia,
Dr. J.H. Harris, is defeated by a vote of 120,068 to
99,600.

1930 – Donald McKayle is born in the village of Harlem in New York
City. McKayle will make his debut, at 22, in “Her Name was
Harriet” (a dance tribute to Harriet Tubman) and go on to
dance in or choreograph “House of Flowers”, “The Bill Cosby
Special” (1968), the 1970 Academy Awards, the movie version
of “The Great White Hope,” and “Sophisticated Ladies” on
Broadway. Named one of “America’s Irreplaceable Dance
Treasures” by the Library of Congress and the Dance Heritage
Coalition, McKayle made his professional debut in 1948 with
New York’s New Dance Company and later performed in the
companies of Sophie Maslow, Jean Erdman, Martha Graham,
Merce Cunningham and Anna Sokolow. In addition to “West Side
Story,” McKayle appeared in Broadway productions of “Bless
You All” (1950), “House of Flowers” (1954) and “Copper and
Brass” (1957). McKayle has choreographed more than 50 works
for companies in the United States, Europe, Israel and South
America. Early pieces include the classic “Games” (1950),
which examines the dangers faced by urban schoolchildren, as
well as the popular “Rainbow ÔRound My Shoulder” (1959) and
“District Storyville” (1962), which remain in the repertory
of the Alvin Ailey Company. Following a stint as artistic
director for the Inner City Repertory Dance Company of Los
Angeles, McKayle returned to Broadway, directing “Raisin”
(1974), “Dr. Jazz” (1975) and “Sophisticated Ladies” (1981),
the latter based on the life of Duke Ellington. Other
theatrical works include “N’Orleans” (1981), a musical play
co-written with Toni Morrison and Dorothea Freitag, “Emperor
Jones” (1984) and “Stardust” (1990). Beginning in the
mid-1960s, McKayle began to choreograph dance sequences for
film and television. Credits include “The Bill Cosby
Special” (CBS, 1967), “The Motown Special” (NBC, 1968), The
Great White Hope” (1969), “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” (1970),
“The 49th Annual Academy Awards” (ABC, 1977) and “The Jazz
Singer” (1980), among others. He directed the first few
episodes of “Good Times” in 1974. McKayle’s numerous honors
include five Tony Award nominations; the NAACP Image Award
(for “Sophisticated Ladies”); an Emmy Award nomination; the
Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award; the Capezio
Award; the Heritage Award; the Living Legend Award and
the Outer Critics Circle Award. McKayle currently serves as
professor of dance at the University of California, Irvine,
and maintains relationships with several distinguished
troupes.

1931 – Deloreese Patricia Early is born in Detroit, Michigan. She
will become a singer known as Della Reese. As a teen-ager,
she will tour with gospel great Mahalia Jackson and, at
the age of 18, will form the Meditation Singers and become
the first performer to take gospel music to the casinos of
Las Vegas. She will become the first African American
female to host a daytime television talk show (1969-70)
and will appear in numerous television series, including
“Sanford and Son,” “The A-Team” and, on the CBS Television
Network, “Crazy Like a Fox” and “Picket Fences.” She will
also star as a series regular in “Charlie & Company” and
“The Royal Family”, both on the CBS Network. In September,
1994, she became a regular on the award winning show,
“Touched By An Angel.”

1957 – Althea Gibson becomes the first African American tennis
player to win a Wimbledon singles title, defeating fellow
American Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2. She will also team up
with Darlene Hard to win the doubles championship.

1964 – Malawi (then Nyasaland) gains independence from Great
Britain.

1966 – Malawi becomes a republic.

1967 – The Biafran War erupts as Nigerian troops invade. The war
will last more than two years, claiming some 600,000
lives.

1971 – Louis Armstrong joins the ancestors in Corona, Queens, in
New York City. Armstrong had been one of the most popular
and influential jazz musicians since his 1929 hit “Ain’t
Misbehavin” and had enjoyed an immensely successful
performing and recording career.

1975 – The Comoros Islands declare independence from France. The
deputies of Mayotte refuse, and thus that island nation
remains under French control. The official languages in
Comoros are Arabic and French, but the vernacular is a
Comorian variant of Swahili. It is an island nation
located in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar approximately
250 miles off the coast of Africa.

1984 – Michael Jackson and his brothers start their “Victory Tour”
in Kansas City, Missouri’s Arrowhead Stadium. The tour
turns out to be a victory for the Jacksons when the
nationwide concert tour concludes months later.

1990 – Jesse Owens is honored on a stamp issued by the U.S. Postal
Service. Owens was a four-time Olympic gold medal winner
in the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin.

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

September 29, 2013 KRLemmons African American History