KRLemmons African American History

May 4 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 4 *

1864 – Ulysses S. Grant crosses the Rapidan and begins his duel
with Robert E. Lee. At the same time Ben Butler’s Army
of the James moves on Lee’s forces. An African American
division in Grant’s army did not play a prominent role
in the Wilderness Campaign, but Ben Butler gave his
African American infantrymen and his eighteen hundred
African American cavalrymen important assignments.
African American troops of the Army of the James were
the first Union Soldiers to take possession of James
River ports (at Wilson’s Wharf Landing, Fort Powhatan
and City Point).

1937 – Melvin Edwards is born in Houston, Texas. He will become
a sculptor and will have one-man exhibits at the Santa
Barbara Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center in
Minneapolis, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in
New York City. His work will be represented in private
collections as well as that of the Museum of Modern Art,
the Schomburg Collection of the New York Public Library,
and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.

1942 – Nickolas Ashford is born in Fairfield, South Carolina. He
will become a songwriter who, with his partner and wife
Valerie Simpson, will write such hits as “Reach out and
Touch (Somebody’s Hand),” “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real
Thing,” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Becoming a
solo act in 1973, Ashford and Simpson will have a string
of successful albums including “Send It,” “Solid,” and
“Real Love.” He and wife Valerie will perform at Nelson
Mandela’s 70th birthday celebration in London in 1988,
sing for President Clinton at the 52nd Presidential
Inauguration in 1992, perform at the White House for the
CISAC 39th World Congress, and in April of 1996 they will
be awarded ASCAP’s highest honor: The Founder’s Award, at
the Motown Cafe in New York. He will join the ancestors on
August 22, 2011.

1943 – William Tubman is elected president of Liberia.

1951 – Sigmund Esco Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. Better known as
“Jackie,” he will become the oldest of the pop group, “The
Jackson Five” and later “The Jacksons.”

1961 – Thirteen CORE-sponsored Freedom Riders begin a bus trip in
Washington, DC to cities throughout the south, to force
desegregation of terminals. Ten days later, the bus will be
bombed and its passengers attacked by white segregationists
near Anniston, Alabama.

1965 – Willie Mays’ 512th home run breaks Mel Ott’s 511th National
League home run record.

1969 – “No Place to Be Somebody” opens at the Public Theatre in New
York City. Charles Gordone’s powerful play will earn its
author the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

1985 – The famed Apollo Theatre, once the showcase for the nation’s
top African American performers, reopens after a renovation
that cost $10.4 million. The landmark building on West
125th Street in New York was the first place The Beatles
wanted to see on their initial visit to the United States.
Ed Sullivan used to frequent the Apollo in search of new
talent for his CBS show.

1990 – The South African government and the African National
Congress conclude historic talks in Cape Town with a joint
statement agreeing on a “common commitment toward the
resolution of the existing climate of violence.”

1999 – Five New York police officers go on trial for the torture
of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. One officer will later
plead guilty; a second officer will be convicted; and three
will be acquitted.

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

May 4 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 4 *

1864 – Ulysses S. Grant crosses the Rapidan and begins his duel
with Robert E. Lee. At the same time Ben Butler’s Army
of the James moves on Lee’s forces. An African American
division in Grant’s army did not play a prominent role
in the Wilderness Campaign, but Ben Butler gave his
African American infantrymen and his eighteen hundred
African American cavalrymen important assignments.
African American troops of the Army of the James were
the first Union Soldiers to take possession of James
River ports (at Wilson’s Wharf Landing, Fort Powhatan
and City Point).

1937 – Melvin Edwards is born in Houston, Texas. He will become
a sculptor and will have one-man exhibits at the Santa
Barbara Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center in
Minneapolis, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in
New York City. His work will be represented in private
collections as well as that of the Museum of Modern Art,
the Schomburg Collection of the New York Public Library,
and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.

1942 – Nickolas Ashford is born in Fairfield, South Carolina. He
will become a songwriter who, with his partner and wife
Valerie Simpson, will write such hits as “Reach out and
Touch (Somebody’s Hand),” “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real
Thing,” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Becoming a
solo act in 1973, Ashford and Simpson will have a string
of successful albums including “Send It,” “Solid,” and
“Real Love.” He and wife Valerie will perform at Nelson
Mandela’s 70th birthday celebration in London in 1988,
sing for President Clinton at the 52nd Presidential
Inauguration in 1992, perform at the White House for the
CISAC 39th World Congress, and in April of 1996 they will
be awarded ASCAP’s highest honor: The Founder’s Award, at
the Motown Cafe in New York. He will join the ancestors on
August 22, 2011.

1943 – William Tubman is elected president of Liberia.

1951 – Sigmund Esco Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. Better known as
“Jackie,” he will become the oldest of the pop group, “The
Jackson Five” and later “The Jacksons.”

1961 – Thirteen CORE-sponsored Freedom Riders begin a bus trip in
Washington, DC to cities throughout the south, to force
desegregation of terminals. Ten days later, the bus will be
bombed and its passengers attacked by white segregationists
near Anniston, Alabama.

1965 – Willie Mays’ 512th home run breaks Mel Ott’s 511th National
League home run record.

1969 – “No Place to Be Somebody” opens at the Public Theatre in New
York City. Charles Gordone’s powerful play will earn its
author the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

1985 – The famed Apollo Theatre, once the showcase for the nation’s
top African American performers, reopens after a renovation
that cost $10.4 million. The landmark building on West
125th Street in New York was the first place The Beatles
wanted to see on their initial visit to the United States.
Ed Sullivan used to frequent the Apollo in search of new
talent for his CBS show.

1990 – The South African government and the African National
Congress conclude historic talks in Cape Town with a joint
statement agreeing on a “common commitment toward the
resolution of the existing climate of violence.”

1999 – Five New York police officers go on trial for the torture
of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. One officer will later
plead guilty; a second officer will be convicted; and three
will be acquitted.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 26 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 26 *

1863 – The War Department authorizes the governor of Massachusetts
to enlist African American troops to fight in the Civil
War. The 54th and 55th Volunteer Infantry are the result.

1893 – Bessie Coleman was born in Altanta, Texas, the tenth of
thirteen children. She will grow up to become the first
African American female pilot (June 15, 1921) and the first
woman to obtain an international flying license (from the
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale). She will join the
ancestors on April 30, 1926, after being thrown from her
airplane in Jacksonville, Florida.

1932 – George H. Clements is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will
become a priest in the Washington, DC area nationally known
for his anti-drug activism and involvement in the group “One
Church, One Addict.” In 1981, he will gain public attention
when he becomes the first Roman Catholic priest to adopt a
child. The same year, he will found the “One Church,
One Child” Program in Chicago at the Holy Angels Church, a
predominantly black Catholic church. His goal will be to
recruit black adoptive parents through local churches. Rev.
Clements will be named to the National Committee for
Adoption’s Hall of Fame in 1989 for his outstanding
leadership and the great interest he generated in black
adoptions. The One Church, One Child program will become a
national recruiting effort in 1988, and 32 states will use
all or portions of the program. Its originally envisioned
mission is to combine the resources of the church and the
state to the end of recruiting black adoptive parents to
provide permanent homes for Black children awaiting
adoption.

1934 – The Apollo Theatre opens in New York City as a ‘Negro
vaudeville theatre’. It will become the showplace for many
of the great African American entertainers, singers, groups
and instrumentalists in the country. The saying will
become common “If you made it… you played it…” at the
Apollo Theatre.

1934 – Huey “Piano” Smith is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He will
become a Rhythm and Blues pianist and will be best known for
his recording of “Having a Good Time.” In 2000, he will be
honored with a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues
Foundation.

1943 – Sherian Grace Cadoria is born in Marksville, Louisiana. She
will make her career in the United States Army after
graduating from Southern University in Louisiana. In 1985,
she will be promoted to brigadier general, making her the
highest ranking African American woman in the U.S. military.
She will be the first woman elevated to that rank in the
Provost Marshal Corps. She will eventually become Director
of Manpower and Personnel for the Organization of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff. General Cadoria will say that she has
“gotten more pressure from being a woman in a man’s world
than from being black.” She will accomplish many firsts:
she will be the first woman to command a battalion; the
first woman to command a criminal investigation brigade; the
first African American woman director for the Joint Chiefs
of Staff; and the first woman to attend the Army’s top
colleges, Command and General Staff College and the U.S.
Army War College. She will be the senior African American
female general in the U.S. Armed Forces upon her retirement
in November 1990 after serving 29 years. Following
retirement, General Cadoria will found her own business,
Cadoria Speaker and Consultancy Service. On November 11,
2002, she will become the first woman and the first African
American inducted into the Louisiana Military Veterans Hall
of Honor.

1944 – Angela Yvonne Davis is born in Birmingham, Alabama. Active
in civil rights demonstrations and in the Student Non-
Violent Coordinating Committee, she will be fired twice
from the University of California at Los Angeles because of
her Communist Party affiliation and she will successfully
sue for reinstatement. A philosopher and author, she will
flee the law after being implicated in the 1970 Soledad
Brothers shooting. After sixteen months in jail, she will
be acquitted of all charges.

1958 – Anita Baker is born in Toledo, Ohio. A singer of ballads
and jazz-inspired Rhythm and Blues, her 1986 album “Rapture”
will sell five million copies and earn her a 1987 Grammy.
She will win two more in 1989.

1970 – Kirk Franklin is born in Ft. Worth, Texas. He will become a
Grammy Award winning, platinum-selling musician who will
blend gospel, hip hop, and Rhythm & Blues in the 1990s. He
will release his first gospel album, “Kirk Franklin &
Family,” in 1993, and will be known as the leader of
contemporary gospel choirs such as Kirk Franklin & the
Family, Kirk Franklin’s Nu Nation, God’s Property and Kirk
Franklin Presents 1NC. He will integrate hip hop styles
with gospel themes in albums such as “The Nu Nation Project
and God’s Property, which will achieve success on the
Billboard Pop Album, Rhythm & Blues and gospel charts. He
will collaborate with the biggest names in gospel music,
including Mary Mary, Tonex, Donnie McClurkin, Richard
Smallwood, Crystal Lewis, Pastor Shirley Caesar, tobyMac,
Jaci Valesquez, and Willie Neal Johnson. He will also
display a willingness to collaborate with artists from the
secular realm, including Bono, Mary J. Blige, and R. Kelly
on the hit single from his album Nu Nation Project, “Lean
on Me.”

1990 – Elaine Weddington Steward is named assistant general manager
of the Boston Red Sox. She becomes the first African
American female executive of a professional baseball
organization.

2005 – Dr. Condoleezza Rice is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as
Secretary of State. She becomes the first African American
woman to hold this post.

2010 – Paul R. Jones, a collector of African American art who donated
thousands of works to universities in Delaware and Alabama,
joins the ancestors in Atlanta, Georgia, at the age of 81.
“My goal has been to incorporate African American art into
American art,” he told The Tuscaloosa News in 2008 when he
made his donation to the University of Alabama with a plan for
it to be part of the curriculum. He embraced the school even
though he was turned down by the University of Alabama Law
School in 1949 after it discovered he was Black.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 4 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 4 *

1864 – Ulysses S. Grant crosses the Rapidan and begins his duel
with Robert E. Lee. At the same time Ben Butler’s Army
of the James moves on Lee’s forces. An African American
division in Grant’s army did not play a prominent role
in the Wilderness Campaign, but Ben Butler gave his
African American infantrymen and his eighteen hundred
African American cavalrymen important assignments.
African American troops of the Army of the James were
the first Union Soldiers to take possession of James
River ports (at Wilson’s Wharf Landing, Fort Powhatan
and City Point).

1937 – Melvin Edwards is born in Houston, Texas. He will become
a sculptor and will have one-man exhibits at the Santa
Barbara Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center in
Minneapolis, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in
New York City. His work will be represented in private
collections as well as that of the Museum of Modern Art,
the Schomburg Collection of the New York Public Library,
and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.

1942 – Nickolas Ashford is born in Fairfield, South Carolina. He
will become a songwriter who, with his partner and wife
Valerie Simpson, will write such hits as “Reach out and
Touch (Somebody’s Hand),” “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real
Thing,” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Becoming a
solo act in 1973, Ashford and Simpson will have a string
of successful albums including “Send It,” “Solid,” and
“Real Love.” He and wife Valerie will perform at Nelson
Mandela’s 70th birthday celebration in London in 1988,
sing for President Clinton at the 52nd Presidential
Inauguration in 1992, perform at the White House for the
CISAC 39th World Congress, and in April of 1996 they will
be awarded ASCAP’s highest honor: The Founder’s Award, at
the Motown Cafe in New York. He will join the ancestors on
August 22, 2011.

1943 – William Tubman is elected president of Liberia.

1951 – Sigmund Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. Better known as
“Jackie,” he will become the oldest of the pop group, “The
Jackson Five” and later “The Jacksons.”

1961 – Thirteen CORE-sponsored Freedom Riders begin a bus trip in
Washington, DC to cities throughout the south, to force
desegregation of terminals. Ten days later, the bus will be
bombed and its passengers attacked by white segregationists
near Anniston, Alabama.

1965 – Willie Mays’ 512th home run breaks Mel Ott’s 511th National
League home run record.

1969 – “No Place to Be Somebody” opens at the Public Theatre in New
York City. Charles Gordone’s powerful play will earn its
author the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

1985 – The famed Apollo Theatre, once the showcase for the nation’s
top African American performers, reopens after a renovation
that cost $10.4 million. The landmark building on West
125th Street in New York was the first place The Beatles
wanted to see on their initial visit to the United States.
Ed Sullivan used to frequent the Apollo in search of new
talent for his CBS show.

1990 – The South African government and the African National
Congress conclude historic talks in Cape Town with a joint
statement agreeing on a “common commitment toward the
resolution of the existing climate of violence.”

1999 – Five New York police officers go on trial for the torture
of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. One officer will later
plead guilty; a second officer will be convicted; and three
will be acquitted.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 26 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 26 *

1863 – The War Department authorizes the governor of Massachusetts
to enlist African American troops to fight in the Civil
War. The 54th and 55th Volunteer Infantry are the result.

1893 – Bessie Coleman was born in Altanta, Texas, the tenth of
thirteen children. She will grow up to become the first
African American female pilot (June 15, 1921) and the first
woman to obtain an international flying license (from the
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale). She will join the
ancestors on April 30, 1926, after being thrown from her
airplane in Jacksonville, Florida.

1932 – George H. Clements is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will
become a priest in the Washington, DC area nationally known
for his anti-drug activism and involvement in the group “One
Church, One Addict.” In 1981, he will gain public attention
when he becomes the first Roman Catholic priest to adopt a
child. The same year, he will found the “One Church,
One Child” Program in Chicago at the Holy Angels Church, a
predominantly black Catholic church. His goal will be to
recruit black adoptive parents through local churches. Rev.
Clements will be named to the National Committee for
Adoption’s Hall of Fame in 1989 for his outstanding
leadership and the great interest he generated in black
adoptions. The One Church, One Child program will become a
national recruiting effort in 1988, and 32 states will use
all or portions of the program. Its originally envisioned
mission is to combine the resources of the church and the
state to the end of recruiting black adoptive parents to
provide permanent homes for Black children awaiting
adoption.

1934 – The Apollo Theatre opens in New York City as a ‘Negro
vaudeville theatre’. It will become the showplace for many
of the great African American entertainers, singers, groups
and instrumentalists in the country. The saying will
become common “If you made it… you played it…” at the
Apollo Theatre.

1934 – Huey “Piano” Smith is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He will
become a Rhythm and Blues pianist and will be best known for
his recording of “Having a Good Time.” In 2000, he will be
honored with a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues
Foundation.

1943 – Sherian Grace Cadoria is born in Marksville, Louisiana. She
will make her career in the United States Army after
graduating from Southern University in Louisiana. In 1985,
she will be promoted to brigadier general, making her the
highest ranking African American woman in the U.S. military.
She will be the first woman elevated to that rank in the
Provost Marshal Corps. She will eventually become Director
of Manpower and Personnel for the Organization of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff. General Cadoria will say that she has
“gotten more pressure from being a woman in a man’s world
than from being black.” She will accomplish many firsts:
she will be the first woman to command a battalion; the
first woman to command a criminal investigation brigade; the
first African American woman director for the Joint Chiefs
of Staff; and the first woman to attend the Army’s top
colleges, Command and General Staff College and the U.S.
Army War College. She will be the senior African American
female general in the U.S. Armed Forces upon her retirement
in November 1990 after serving 29 years. Following
retirement, General Cadoria will found her own business,
Cadoria Speaker and Consultancy Service. On November 11,
2002, she will become the first woman and the first African
American inducted into the Louisiana Military Veterans Hall
of Honor.

1944 – Angela Yvonne Davis is born in Birmingham, Alabama. Active
in civil rights demonstrations and in the Student Non-
Violent Coordinating Committee, she will be fired twice
from the University of California at Los Angeles because of
her Communist Party affiliation and she will successfully
sue for reinstatement. A philosopher and author, she will
flee the law after being implicated in the 1970 Soledad
Brothers shooting. After sixteen months in jail, she will
be acquitted of all charges.

1958 – Anita Baker is born in Toledo, Ohio. A singer of ballads
and jazz-inspired Rhythm and Blues, her 1986 album “Rapture”
will sell five million copies and earn her a 1987 Grammy.
She will win two more in 1989.

1970 – Kirk Franklin is born in Ft. Worth, Texas. He will become a
Grammy Award winning, platinum-selling musician who will
blend gospel, hip hop, and Rhythm & Blues in the 1990s. He
will release his first gospel album, “Kirk Franklin &
Family,” in 1993, and will be known as the leader of
contemporary gospel choirs such as Kirk Franklin & the
Family, Kirk Franklin’s Nu Nation, God’s Property and Kirk
Franklin Presents 1NC. He will integrate hip hop styles
with gospel themes in albums such as “The Nu Nation Project
and God’s Property, which will achieve success on the
Billboard Pop Album, Rhythm & Blues and gospel charts. He
will collaborate with the biggest names in gospel music,
including Mary Mary, Tonex, Donnie McClurkin, Richard
Smallwood, Crystal Lewis, Pastor Shirley Caesar, tobyMac,
Jaci Valesquez, and Willie Neal Johnson. He will also
display a willingness to collaborate with artists from the
secular realm, including Bono, Mary J. Blige, and R. Kelly
on the hit single from his album Nu Nation Project, “Lean
on Me.”

1990 – Elaine Weddington Steward is named assistant general manager
of the Boston Red Sox. She becomes the first African
American female executive of a professional baseball
organization.

2005 – Dr. Condoleezza Rice is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as
Secretary of State. She becomes the first African American
woman to hold this post.

2010 – Paul R. Jones, a collector of African American art who donated
thousands of works to universities in Delaware and Alabama,
joins the ancestors in Atlanta, Georgia, at the age of 81.
“My goal has been to incorporate African American art into
American art,” he told The Tuscaloosa News in 2008 when he
made his donation to the University of Alabama with a plan for
it to be part of the curriculum. He embraced the school even
though he was turned down by the University of Alabama Law
School in 1949 after it discovered he was Black.

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