KRLemmons African American History

December 2 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 2 *

1859 – John Brown, abolitionist who planned the failed attack
on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, is hanged at
Charles Town, West Virginia.

1866 – Harry T. Burleigh, singer and composer, is born in
Erie, Pennsylvania. He will be educated at the
National Conservatory of Music in New York City, where
he will meet and form a lasting friendship with Anton
Dvorak. He will eventually be awarded the NAACP’s
Spingarn Medal. Burleigh will be best known for his
arrangements of the Negro spiritual “Deep River”. He
will join the ancestors on December 12, 1949.

1884 – Granville T. Woods receives a patent for his first
electric device, an improved telephone transmitter.

1891 – North Carolina A&T College, Delaware State College and
West Virginia State College are established.

1891 – The Fifty-second Congress convenes. Only one African
American congressman has been elected – Henry P.
Cheatham of North Carolina.

1891 – Charles Harris Wesley, historian, educator, and
administrator, is born in Louisville, Kentucky. His
published works will include, “Neglected History,”
“Collapse of the Confederacy,” and “Negro Labor in the
United States,”and “1850-1925: A Study of American
Economic History.” He will join the ancestors on
August 16, 1987.

1908 – John Baxter “Doc” Taylor joins the ancestors as a result
of of typhoid pneumonia at the age of 26. Taylor had
been a record-setting quarter miler and the first
African American Olympic gold medal winner in the 4 x
400-meter medley in the 1908 London games.

1922 – Charles C. Diggs is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will
become an early member of the civil rights movement and
will attend the trial of Emmett Till’s murderers. In
1954, he will defeat incumbent U.S. Representative
George D. O’Brien in the Democratic Party primary
elections for Michigan’s 13th congressional district. He
will go on to win the general election to the 84th
Congress and be subsequently re-elected to the next
twelve Congresses. He will be the first African American
elected to Congress from the state of Michigan. He will
also be elected the first chairman of the Congressional
Black Caucus. He will serve as a congressman from January
3, 1955, until his resignation June 3, 1980. He will
resign from the United States House of Representatives
and serve 14 months of a three-year sentence for mail
fraud, although he maintained his innocence. He will join
the ancestors on August 24, 1998.

1923 – Roland Hayes becomes the first African American to sing
in the Symphony Hall in Boston, Massachusetts.

1940 – William Ferdie ‘Willie’ Brown is born in Yazoo City,
Mississippi. He will play college football at Grambling
State University and will not be drafted by any
professional team after leaving college in 1963. He will
be signed by the Houston Oilers of the American Football
League (AFL), but will be cut from the team during training
camp. He will then be signed by the AFL’s Denver Broncos
and became a starter by the middle of his rookie season. He
will win All-AFL honors in his second season and play in
the AFL All-Star Game, recording nine interceptions for 144
yards. In 1967, he will be traded to the AFL’s Oakland
Raiders and spend the remainder of his playing career there.
He will serve as defensive captain for 10 of his 12 years
with the team. He will be named to five AFL All-Star games
and four NFL Pro Bowls. He will also be named All-AFL three
times and All-NFL four times. His most memorable moment as
a Raider will come during Super Bowl XI, when he intercepts
a Fran Tarkenton pass and return it a Super Bowl-record 75
yards for a touchdown. His record will stand for 29 years.
He will retire after the 1978 season, and finish his Raiders’
career with 39 interceptions. He will finish his 16
professional football season seasons with 54 interceptions,
which he returned for 472 yards and two touchdowns. He will
also recover three fumbles. He will be a member of the
American Football League All-Time Team and be inducted into
the Pro Football Hall of Fame on July 28, 1984, his first
year of eligibility. In 1999, he will be ranked number 50 on
The Sporting News’ list of the 100 Greatest Football Players,
making him the highest-ranking Raiders player.

1943 – “Carmen Jones,” a contemporary reworking of the Bizet
opera “Carmen” by Oscar Hammerstein II with an all-black
cast, opens on Broadway.

1953 – Dr. Rufus Clement, president of Atlanta University, is
elected to the Atlanta Board of Education.

1975 – Ohio State running back Archie Griffin becomes the first
person ever to win the Heisman Trophy twice, when he is
awarded his second trophy in New York City. He amassed
a career record of 5,176 yards and 31 consecutive 100
yard plus games.

1989 – Andre Ware of the University of Houston, becomes the
first African American quarterback to win the Heisman
Trophy.

1992 – Dr. Maya Angelou is asked to compose a poem for William
Jefferson Clinton’s presidential inauguration.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 21 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – August 21 *

1831 – Responding to a vision commanding him to lead his people
to freedom, Nat Turner and a group of seven freedom-
fighting slaves kill five members of the Travis family
in Southampton County, Virginia. Turner’s revolt will
last two days, involve 60 to 80 freedom-fighting slaves
and result in the deaths of at least 57 whites before
they go into hiding. Nat Turner manages to escape
capture for over six weeks. After his capture, he
confesses to his actions, is tried, and executed. This
revolt is significant because it will make the problem
of slavery visible to the Northerners, who within the
next 30 years will fight and die to end America’s
“peculiar institution.”

1906 – William “Count” Basie is born in Redbank, New Jersey.
One of the most influential forces in jazz, he will
amass numerous awards, including three Grammys and
Kennedy Center Honors in 1981 . He will join the
ancestors on April 26, 1984. NOTE: Many sources will
have 1904 for Count Basie’s birth year. Our source for
his birth and death is the Kennedy Center Archives
documenting “The Honors” bestowed on him in 1981.

1927 – The Fourth Pan-African Congress meets in New York City.

1932 – Melvin Van Pebbles is born in Chicago, Illinois. A
writer and dramatist, he will produce some of the more
important African American feature films of the 1960’s
and 1970’s, including “Story of a Three Day Pass,”
“Watermelon Man,” “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadass Song” and
the classic, “Putney Swope.”

1936 – Wilton Norman Chamberlain is born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Achieving a height of 6’11” in high school,
he will be recruited to play basketball for Kansas
University. He will leave Kansas University in his third
year to play with the Harlem Globetrotters and join the
Philadelphia Warriors (later 76ers) in 1959. He will
join the Los Angeles Lakers in 1969 and become a player-
coach in 1968 for the San Diego Conquistadors of the
American Basketball Association. He will lead the NBA in
scoring seven times, accumulate a 4,029 season point
record and become a seven-time all-NBA first teamer. He
will join the ancestors on October 12, 1999.

1938 – The classic recording, “Ain’t Misbehavin” is made by Fats
Waller.

1939 – Clarence Williams III is born in New York City. He will
become an actor best known for his starring role in the
television series, “The Mod Squad” as Lincoln.

1943 – Harriet M. West becomes the first African American woman
major in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). She becomes chief
of planning in the Bureau Control Division at the WAC
headquarters in Washington, DC.

1945 – Willie Lanier (Pro Football Hall of Famer and Kansas City
Chiefs linebacker: Super Bowl IV), is born.

1954 – Archie Griffin (Heisman Trophy winner: Ohio State [1974 &
1975]; Cincinnati Bengals running back: Super Bowl XVI),
is born.

1968 – Marine James Anderson Jr. becomes the first African
American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor
for his service in the Vietnam War.

1972 – The Republican National Convention convenes in Miami Beach,
Florida, with fifty-six African American delegates, 4.2
\ per cent of the total.

1986 – More than 1,700 people die when toxic gas erupts from a
volcanic lake in the West African nation of Cameroon.

1998 – Juanita Kidd Stout, the first African American woman to
serve on the supreme court in any state (January, 1988),
joins the ancestors in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Stout
loses a battle against leukemia at Thomas Jefferson
Hospital.

2000 – Julian Richardson, the owner of a San Francisco book
store that served as a meeting place for black artists
and activists in the city, joins the ancestors after
succumbing to heart failure at the age of 84. He
established the Marcus Bookstore in 1960, naming it after
Black nationalist writer and activist Marcus Garvey. The
store was a staple of black culture and was a gathering
place for Black Panthers supporters during the civil
rights era. Through the years, writers such as Alice
Walker, Ishmael Reed, Terry MacMillan and Cornel West
came to the bookstore. He studied lithography in college
and opened his own printing business. He used his skills
to print books, pamphlets and manuscripts on black
culture that otherwise would have to have been ordered
from the East Coast.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 2 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 2 *

1859 – John Brown, abolitionist who planned the failed attack
on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, is hanged at
Charles Town, West Virginia.

1866 – Harry T. Burleigh, singer and composer, is born in
Erie, Pennsylvania. He will be educated at the
National Conservatory of Music in New York City, where
he will meet and form a lasting friendship with Anton
Dvorak. He will eventually be awarded the NAACP’s
Spingarn Medal. Burleigh will be best known for his
arrangements of the Negro spiritual “Deep River”. He
will join the ancestors on December 12, 1949.

1884 – Granville T. Woods receives a patent for his first
electric device, an improved telephone transmitter.

1891 – North Carolina A&T College, Delaware State College and
West Virginia State College are established.

1891 – The Fifty-second Congress convenes. Only one African
American congressman has been elected – Henry P.
Cheatham of North Carolina.

1891 – Charles Harris Wesley, historian, educator, and
administrator, is born in Louisville, Kentucky. His
published works will include, “Neglected History,”
“Collapse of the Confederacy,” and “Negro Labor in the
United States,”and “1850-1925: A Study of American
Economic History.” He will join the ancestors on
August 16, 1987.

1908 – John Baxter “Doc” Taylor joins the ancestors as a result
of of typhoid pneumonia at the age of 26. Taylor had
been a record-setting quarter miler and the first
African American Olympic gold medal winner in the 4 x
400-meter medley in the 1908 London games.

1922 – Charles C. Diggs is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will
become an early member of the civil rights movement and
will attend the trial of Emmett Till’s murderers. In
1954, he will defeat incumbent U.S. Representative
George D. O’Brien in the Democratic Party primary
elections for Michigan’s 13th congressional district. He
will go on to win the general election to the 84th
Congress and be subsequently re-elected to the next
twelve Congresses. He will be the first African American
elected to Congress from the state of Michigan. He will
also be elected the first chairman of the Congressional
Black Caucus. He will serve as a congressman from January
3, 1955, until his resignation June 3, 1980. He will
resign from the United States House of Representatives
and serve 14 months of a three-year sentence for mail
fraud, although he maintained his innocence. He will join
the ancestors on August 24, 1998.

1923 – Roland Hayes becomes the first African American to sing
in the Symphony Hall in Boston, Massachusetts.

1940 – William Ferdie ‘Willie’ Brown is born in Yazoo City,
Mississippi. He will play college football at Grambling
State University and will not be drafted by any
professional team after leaving college in 1963. He will
be signed by the Houston Oilers of the American Football
League (AFL), but will be cut from the team during training
camp. He will then be signed by the AFL’s Denver Broncos
and became a starter by the middle of his rookie season. He
will win All-AFL honors in his second season and play in
the AFL All-Star Game, recording nine interceptions for 144
yards. In 1967, he will be traded to the AFL’s Oakland
Raiders and spend the remainder of his playing career there.
He will serve as defensive captain for 10 of his 12 years
with the team. He will be named to five AFL All-Star games
and four NFL Pro Bowls. He will also be named All-AFL three
times and All-NFL four times. His most memorable moment as
a Raider will come during Super Bowl XI, when he intercepts
a Fran Tarkenton pass and return it a Super Bowl-record 75
yards for a touchdown. His record will stand for 29 years.
He will retire after the 1978 season, and finish his Raiders’
career with 39 interceptions. He will finish his 16
professional football season seasons with 54 interceptions,
which he returned for 472 yards and two touchdowns. He will
also recover three fumbles. He will be a member of the
American Football League All-Time Team and be inducted into
the Pro Football Hall of Fame on July 28, 1984, his first
year of eligibility. In 1999, he will be ranked number 50 on
The Sporting News’ list of the 100 Greatest Football Players,
making him the highest-ranking Raiders player.

1943 – “Carmen Jones,” a contemporary reworking of the Bizet
opera “Carmen” by Oscar Hammerstein II with an all-black
cast, opens on Broadway.

1953 – Dr. Rufus Clement, president of Atlanta University, is
elected to the Atlanta Board of Education.

1975 – Ohio State running back Archie Griffin becomes the first
person ever to win the Heisman Trophy twice, when he is
awarded his second trophy in New York City. He amassed
a career record of 5,176 yards and 31 consecutive 100
yard plus games.

1989 – Andre Ware of the University of Houston, becomes the
first African American quarterback to win the Heisman
Trophy.

1992 – Dr. Maya Angelou is asked to compose a poem for William
Jefferson Clinton’s presidential inauguration.

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