KRLemmons African American History

August 6 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – August 6 *

1795 – Absalom Jones is ordained a deacon in the Protestant
Episcopal Church.

1816 – Peter Salem, Battle of Bunker Hill hero, joins the
ancestors in Framingham, Massachusetts.

1861 – Congress passes The First Confiscation Act, authorizing
the appropriation of the property, including slaves, of
rebel slaveholders.

1925 – African American lawyers organize the National Bar
Association and name George H. Woodson of Des Moines,
Iowa, as President, and Wendell Gree of Chicago,
Illinois, as Secretary.

1930 – Anna Marie Wooldridge is born in Chicago, Illinois. She
will become a jazz vocalist, songwriter, and actress
known as Abbey Lincoln. She will be widely respected for
her writing skills. She will be one of many singers
influenced by Billie Holiday. She will have a very long
and productive career. With Ivan Dixon, she will co-star
in “Nothing But a Man” (1964), an independent film written
and directed by Michael Roemer. She also will co-star with
Sidney Poitier and Beau Bridges in 1968’s “For Love of
Ivy.” She will also appear in the 1956 film “The Girl
Can’t Help It.” She will continue to perform and
will often be found at the Blue Note in New York City. She
will perform until 2007. She will join the ancestors on
August 14, 2010.

1934 – United States troops leave Haiti, which it had occupied
since 1915.

1941 – An African American private and a white military policeman
are shot to death on a bus in North Carolina during a
fight between African American and white soldiers. This
is the first of a series of serious racial incidents
(between African American and white soldiers and African
American soldiers and white civilians) which will
continue throughout the war.

1952 – Satchel Paige, at age 46, becomes the oldest pitcher to
complete a major-league baseball game. Paige, pitching
for the Cleveland Indians, shuts out the Detroit Tigers
1-0 in a 12-inning game.

1962 – Jamaica becomes independent after 300 years of British
rule.

1965 – The Voting Rights Act is signed by President Lyndon B.
Johnson in the same room that Abraham Lincoln signed the
Emancipation Proclamation. Rosa Parks, Martin Luther
King, Jr., and a host of others witness the signing of
the act, which suspends the use of literary tests and
calls for federal examiners to ensure fair elections in
the South.

1965 – David Maurice Robinson is born in Key West, Florida.. He
will become a NBA center (San Antonio Spurs), NBA Rookie
of Year (1990), and will lead the NBA in scoring in 1994.
He will help lead the Spurs to the NBA Championship in
1999.

1969 – The Learning Tree, directed by Gordon Parks, Jr., premieres.
The film is the first directed by an African American in
modern times.

1973 – Stevie Wonder is nearly killed in an automobile accident
near Durham, North Carolina, where he was to perform in a
benefit concert. Wonder suffers severe brain contusions
and a broken skull and will be in a coma for ten days as a
result of his injuries.

1984 – Carl Lewis wins 2nd (long jump) of 4 gold medals in the
Summer Olympics.

1988 – Once accused by African American artists of racism, MTV,
the 24-hour cable music channel, premieres “Yo! MTV Raps.”
It will become one of the station’s most popular programs.

1994 – In Wedowee, Alabama, an apparent arson fire destroys
Randolph County High School, which had been the focus of
tensions over the principal’s stand against interracial
dating.

1996 – U.S. Officials announce that the Air Force had punished 16
officers in connection with the crash that killed Commerce
Secretary Ron Brown and 34 others the previous April.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 14 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 14 *

1862 – President Lincoln receives the first group of African
Americans to confer with a U.S. president on a matter of
public policy. He urges African Americans to emigrate to
Africa or Central America and is bitterly criticized by
northern African Americans.

1876 – Prairie View State University is founded.

1883 – Ernest Everett Just is born in Charleston, South Carolina.
After graduating magna cum laude from Dartmouth College
in 1907, he will become a teacher at Howard University.
He will spend summers working as a research assistant at
the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole,
Massachusetts. He will receive his Ph.D. from the
University of Chicago in 1916. He will become a noted
marine biologist and the head of the physiology
department at Howard. He will be awarded the NAACP’s
first Spingarn Medal (1915) for his research in biology.
In his early days at Howard University, he will be one
of the founders of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and faculty
advisor. He will join the ancestors in October, 1941.

1908 – A race riot occurs in Springfield Illinois and will last
for five days. Army troops are called out. This riot
will stir the conscience of American civil rights leaders
and will lead to the founding of the NAACP.

1929 – Richard “Dick Tiger” Ihetu is born in Nkwerre Orlu, Imo
State, Nigeria. He will become a professional boxer and a
world champion middleweight from 1962-63 and 1964. He
will be the world lightweight champion from 1965 to 1968.
He will join the ancestors on December 14, 1971 after
succumbing to liver cancer. He will be inducted into to
the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991.

1938 – Niara Sudarkasa is born in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She
will be an anthropologist and groundbreaking educator,
becoming the first African American professor to receive
tenure at the University of Michigan, and the first woman
president of Lincoln University, a traditionally male
African American college.

1946 – Larry Graham is born. He will become a musician (bassist)
and singer. He will perform with Sly and the Family
Stone and Graham Central Station. He will leave Graham
Central Station, start a solo career, and will be known
for his songs, “One in a Million” and “I Never Forgot
Your Eyes.”

1946 – Antonio Juan Fargas is born in the Bronx in New York City.
He will become an actor and will be best known for his role
as “Huggy Bear” in the TV series, “Starsky & Hutch.”

1956 – Jackee Harry is born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
She will become an actress and will star as “Sandra” in
the television series “227” and the adoptive mother of
one of a pair of twins in the television series “Sister,
Sister.”

1959 – Earvin Johnson is born in Lansing, Michigan. Better known
as “Magic,” he will lead Michigan State University to the
NCAA championship in 1979. After two years of college, he
will enter the NBA and be picked first in the draft by the
Los Angeles Lakers. He will become one of the best point
guards in NBA history. After retiring from basketball, he
will concentrate on his business ventures and will have
success developing stadium-style movie theaters in inner
city underserved areas.

1968 – Halle Maria Berry is born in Cleveland, Ohio. She will
become Miss World USA in 1986 and will have a successful
acting career, starring in the mini-series “Queen” and the
movie “Boomerang.” In 2002, she will win the Best Actress
Oscar for her role in “Monster’s Ball.”

1970 – City University of New York (CUNY) inaugurates its open
admissions policy designed to increase the number of poor
and minority students.

1971 – Bob Gibson, of the St. Louis Cardinals, pitches a no-hitter
against the Pittsburgh Pirates. It is the first no-hitter
against the Pirates since 1955.

1992 – The White House announces that the Pentagon will begin
emergency airlifts of food to Somalia to alleviate mass
deaths by starvation.

2010 – Abbey Lincoln (born Anna Marie Wooldridge), renown jazz
vocalist, songwriter and actress, joins the ancestors i
Manhattan, New York. She had been suffering deteriorating
health for years following open heart surgery in 2007.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 6 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 6 *

1795 – Absalom Jones is ordained a deacon in the Protestant
Episcopal Church.

1816 – Peter Salem, Battle of Bunker Hill hero, joins the
ancestors in Framingham, Massachusetts.

1861 – Congress passes The First Confiscation Act, authorizing
the appropriation of the property, including slaves, of
rebel slaveholders.

1925 – African American lawyers organize the National Bar
Association and name George H. Woodson of Des Moines,
Iowa, as President, and Wendell Gree of Chicago,
Illinois, as Secretary.

1930 – Anna Marie Wooldridge is born in Chicago, Illinois. She
will become a jazz vocalist, songwriter, and actress
known as Abbey Lincoln. She will be widely respected for
her writing skills. She will be one of many singers
influenced by Billie Holiday. She will have a very long
and productive career. With Ivan Dixon, she will co-star
in “Nothing But a Man” (1964), an independent film written
and directed by Michael Roemer. She also will co-star with
Sidney Poitier and Beau Bridges in 1968’s “For Love of
Ivy.” She will also appear in the 1956 film “The Girl
Can’t Help It.” She will continue to perform and
will often be found at the Blue Note in New York City. She
will perform until 2007. She will join the ancestors on
August 14, 2010.

1934 – United States troops leave Haiti, which it had occupied
since 1915.

1941 – An African American private and a white military policeman
are shot to death on a bus in North Carolina during a
fight between African American and white soldiers. This
is the first of a series of serious racial incidents
(between African American and white soldiers and African
American soldiers and white civilians) which will
continue throughout the war.

1952 – Satchel Paige, at age 46, becomes the oldest pitcher to
complete a major-league baseball game. Paige, pitching
for the Cleveland Indians, shuts out the Detroit Tigers
1-0 in a 12-inning game.

1962 – Jamaica becomes independent after 300 years of British
rule.

1965 – The Voting Rights Act is signed by President Lyndon B.
Johnson in the same room that Abraham Lincoln signed the
Emancipation Proclamation. Rosa Parks, Martin Luther
King, Jr., and a host of others witness the signing of
the act, which suspends the use of literary tests and
calls for federal examiners to ensure fair elections in
the South.

1965 – David Maurice Robinson is born in Key West, Florida.. He
will become a NBA center (San Antonio Spurs), NBA Rookie
of Year (1990), and will lead the NBA in scoring in 1994.
He will help lead the Spurs to the NBA Championship in
1999.

1969 – The Learning Tree, directed by Gordon Parks, Jr., premieres.
The film is the first directed by an African American in
modern times.

1973 – Stevie Wonder is nearly killed in an automobile accident
near Durham, North Carolina, where he was to perform in a
benefit concert. Wonder suffers severe brain contusions
and a broken skull and will be in a coma for ten days as a
result of his injuries.

1984 – Carl Lewis wins 2nd (long jump) of 4 gold medals in the
Summer Olympics.

1988 – Once accused by African American artists of racism, MTV,
the 24-hour cable music channel, premieres “Yo! MTV Raps.”
It will become one of the station’s most popular programs.

1994 – In Wedowee, Alabama, an apparent arson fire destroys
Randolph County High School, which had been the focus of
tensions over the principal’s stand against interracial
dating.

1996 – U.S. Officials announce that the Air Force had punished 16
officers in connection with the crash that killed Commerce
Secretary Ron Brown and 34 others the previous April.

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