Asa Philip Randolph – The CamaraIfe Maktaba

May 3, 2015 KRLemmons African American History

April 15 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 15 *

1861 – President Lincoln calls for 75,000 troops to put down
the rebellion. The Lincoln administration rejects
African American volunteers. For almost two years
straight African Americans fight for the right, as one
humorist puts it, “to be kilt”.

1889 – Asa Philip Randolph is born in Crescent Way, Florida.
He will become a labor leader and a tireless fighter for
civil rights. He will organize and lead the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters, the first predominantly African
American labor union (organized in 1925). In the early
Civil Rights Movement, he will lead the March on
Washington Movement, which will convince President
Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802 in
1941, banning discrimination in the defense industries
during World War II. The group will then successfully
pressure President Harry S. Truman to issue Executive
Order 9981 in 1948, ending segregation in the armed
services. In 1963, he will be the head of the March on
Washington, organized by Bayard Rustin, at which Reverend
Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his “I Have A Dream”
speech. He will inspire the Freedom budget, sometimes
called the “Randolph Freedom budget”, which will aim to
deal with the economic problems facing the black community.
In 1942, he will receive the NAACP Spingarn Medal. On
September 14, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson will
present him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He will
join the ancestors on May 16, 1979. He will be named
posthumously to the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame in
January, 2014.

1919 – Elizabeth Catlett (later Mora) is born in Washington, DC.
In 1940, she will become the first student to receive an
M.F.A. in sculpture at the University of Iowa School of
Art and Art History. While there, she will be influenced
by American landscape painter Grant Wood, who will urge
students to work with the subjects they knew best. For
her, this will mean black people, and especially black
women, and it will be at this point that her work begins
to focus on African Americans. Her piece ‘Mother and
Child,’ done in limestone in 1939 for her thesis, will
win first prize in sculpture at the American Negro
Exposition in Chicago in 1940. In 1946, she will receive
a Rosenwald Fund Fellowship that allows her to travel to
Mexico where she will study wood carving with Jose L.
Ruiz and ceramic sculpture with Francisco Zúñiga, at the
Escuela de Pintura y Escultura, Esmeralda, Mexico. She
will later emigrate to Mexico, marry, and become a
Mexican citizen. She will become an internationally
known printmaker and sculptor and embrace both African
and Mexican influences in her art. She will be best
known for the black, expressionistic sculptures and
prints she produced during the 1960s and 1970s, which
will be seen as politically charged. She will join the
ancestors on April 2, 2012 in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

1922 – Harold Washington is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will
serve in the Illinois House of Representatives and
Senate as well as two terms in Congress before becoming
the first African American mayor of Chicago. He will
join the ancestors after suffering a massive heart
attack on November 25, 1987 after being re-elected to a
second term as mayor.

1928 – Pioneering architect Norma Merrick (later Sklarek) is
born in New York City. She become one of the first black
women to be licensed as an architect in the United States,
and the first to be licensed in the states of New York
(1954) and California (1962). She will also become the
first African American woman to become a fellow in the
American Institute of Architects (1980). In 1985, she will
become the first African American female architect to form
her own architectural firm: Siegel, Sklarek, Diamond,
which will be the largest woman-owned and mostly woman-
staffed architectural firm in the United States. Among her
designs will be the San Bernardino City Hall in San
Bernardino, California, the Fox Plaza in San Francisco,
Terminal One at the Los Angeles International Airport and
the Embassy of the United States in Tokyo, Japan. Howard
University will offer the Norma Merrick Sklarek
Architectural Scholarship Award in her honor. She will join
the ancestors on February 6, 2012.

1947 – Baseball player Jackie Robinson plays his first major-
league baseball game (he had played exhibition games
previously) for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the
first African American in the major leagues since Moses
Fleetwood Walker played in 1885. The Brooklyn Dodgers
promoted him to the majors from the Montreal Royals.

1957 – Evelyn Ashford is born in Shreveport, Louisiana. She
will grow up in Roseville, California becoming a track
star specializing in sprinting. She will be a four-
time winner of Olympic gold medals and one silver in
1976, 1984, 1988, and 1992. In 1979, she will set a
world record in the 200-meter dash. In 1989 she will
receive the Flo Hyman Award from the Woman’s Sports
Foundation. In 1992, the U.S. Olympic team will ask her
to carry the flag during the opening ceremonies in the
Barcelona Olympics. She will retire from track and
field in 1993 at the age of 36.

1958 – African Freedom Day is declared at the All-African
People’s Conference in Accra, Ghana.

1960 – The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is
formed on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh,
North Carolina.

1985 – Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns wins the World Middleweight
title. This is one of five weight classes in which he
will win a boxing title making him the first African
American to win boxing titles in five different weight
classes.

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

December 8, 2014December 8, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

December 5 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 5 *

1784 – African American poet Phyllis Wheatley joins the
ancestors in Boston at the age of 31. Born in Africa
and brought to the American Colonies at the age of
eight in 1761, Wheatley was quick to learn both English
and Latin. Her first poem was published in 1770 and
she continued to write poems and eulogies. A 1773
trip to England secured her success there, where she
was introduced to English society. Her book, “Poems on
Various Subjects, Religious and Moral”, was published
late that year. Married for six years to John Peters,
Wheatley and her infant daughter died hours apart in a
Boston boarding house, where she worked.

1832 – Sarah Gorham, the first woman appointed by the African
Methodist Episcopal Church to serve as a foreign
missionary in 1881, is born.

1881 – The Forty-Seventh Congress (1881-83) convenes. Only two
African American congressmen have been elected, Robert
Smalls of South Carolina and John Roy Lynch of
Mississippi.

1895 – Elbert Frank Cox is born in Evansville, Indiana. He will
become the first African American to earn a doctorate
degree in mathematics (Cornell University – 1925). He
will spend most of his life as a professor at Howard
University in Washington, D.C., where he will be known
as an excellent teacher. During his life, he will
overcome various difficulties which will arise because
of his race. In his honor, the National Association of
Mathematicians will establish the Cox-Talbot Address,
which will be annually delivered at the NAM’s national
meetings. The Elbert F. Cox Scholarship Fund, which will
be used to help black students pursue studies, is named
in his honor as well. He will continue teaching until
his retirement in 1966 – three years before he joins the
ancestors on November 28, 1969, at age 73 in Washington, DC.

1917 – Charity Adams (later Earley) is born in Kittrell, North
Carolina. She will become the first African American
commissioned officer in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps
in 1942. She will serve as the commanding officer and
battalion commander of the first battalion of African
American women (6888th Central Postal Direction) to serve
overseas during WWII, in England. She will serve in the
Army for four years and hold the rank of Lt. Colonel
at the time of her release from active duty. She will
join the ancestors on January 13, 2002.

1931 – James Cleveland is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will
sing his first gospel solo at the age of eight in a
choir directed by famed gospel pioneer Thomas Dorsey.
He will later sing with Mahalia Jackson, The Caravans,
and other groups before forming his own group, The
Gospel Chimes, in 1959. His recording of “Peace Be
Still” with the James Cleveland Singers and the 300-
voice Angelic Choir of Nutley, New Jersey, will earn him
the title “King of Gospel.” He will join the ancestors
on February 9, 1991.

1932 – Richard Wayne Penniman is born in Macon, Georgia. He will
become a Rhythm and Blues singer and composer. He will be
known for his flamboyant singing style, which will be
influential to many Rhythm and Blues and British artists.
His songs will include “Good Golly Miss Molly”, “Tutti
Frutti”, and “Lucille.” He will be honored by many
institutions, including inductions into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He will be
the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from The
Recording Academy and the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. His
“Tutti Frutti” (1955) will be included in the Library of
Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2010, claiming
the “unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat
announced a new era in music.”

1935 – The National Council of Negro Women is established by Mary
McLeod Bethune.

1935 – Langston Hughes’s play, “The Mulatto”, begins a long run
on Broadway.

1935 – Mary McLeod Bethune is awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal
for her work as founder-president of Bethune Cookman
College and her national leadership.

1946 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Thurgood Marshall,
director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund,
“for his distinguished service as a lawyer before the
Supreme Court.”

1946 – President Truman created The Committee on Civil Rights by
Executive Order No. 9808. Sadie M. Alexander and Channing
H. Tobias were two African Americans who will serve as
members of the committee.

1947 – Jersey Joe Wolcott defeats Joe Louis for the heavyweight
boxing title. It is also the first time a heavyweight
championship boxing match is televised.

1949 – Ezzard Charles defeats Jersey Joe Walcott for the
heavyweight boxing title.

1955 – The Montgomery bus boycott begins as a result of Rosa
Parks’ refusal to ride in the back of a city bus four
days earlier. At a mass meeting at the Holt Street
Baptist Church, Martin Luther King Jr. is elected
president of the boycott organization. The boycott will
last a little over a year and be the initial victory in
the civil rights struggle of African Americans in the
United States.

1955 – Asa Philip Randolph and Willard S. Townsend are elected
vice-presidents of the AFL-CIO.

1955 – Carl Murphy, publisher of the Baltimore Afro-American, is
awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for his contributions
as a publisher and civil rights leader.

1957 – New York City becomes the first city to legislate against
racial or religious discrimination in housing market
(Fair Housing Practices Law).

1957 – Martin Luther King Jr. is awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn
Medal for his leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1981 – Marcus Allen, tailback for the University of Southern
California, wins the Heisman Trophy. Six years later,
Tim Brown of the Notre Dame “Fightin’ Irish” will win
the award.

1984 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, at age 37, is the oldest player in
the National Basketball Association. He decides to push
those weary bones one more year by signing with the Los
Angeles Lakers – for $2 million.

2013 – Nelson Mandela, a South African anti-apartheid
revolutionary who was imprisoned and then became a
politician and philanthropist who served as President of
South Africa from 1994 to 1999, joins the ancestors at
the age of 95. He was the first black South African to
hold the office, and the first elected in a fully
representative, multiracial election.

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

November 5, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

November 3 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 3 *

1868 – John W. Menard, of Louisiana, is elected as the African
American representative to Congress. Menard defeats a
white candidate, 5,107 to 2,833, in an election in
Louisiana’s Second Congressional District to fill an
unexpired term in the Fortieth Congress.

1874 – James Theodore Holly, an African American who emigrated
to Haiti in 1861, is elected bishop of Haiti.

1883 – Race riots occur in Danville, Virginia, resulting in the
death of four African Americans.

1896 – South Carolina State College is established.

1905 – Artist Lois Mailou Jones is born in Boston, Massachusetts.
She will win her first award in 1926 and have major
exhibitions at the Harmon Foundation, the Salon des
Artistes Francais in Paris, the National Academy of
Design, and many others. Despite her long career, she
will not have a major retrospective of her work until
the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston mounts a show in her
honor in 1973. She will join the ancestors on June 9,
1998.

1920 – “Emperor Jones” opens at the Provincetown Theater with
Charles Gilpin in the title role.

1933 – Louis Wade Sullivan is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He will
become the founder and first dean of the Morehouse
School of Medicine and Secretary of Health and Human
Services, the highest-ranking African American in the
Bush Administration.

1942 – William L. Dawson is elected to Congress from Chicago.

1942 – Black and white advocates of direct, nonviolent action
organized the Congress of Racial Equality in Chicago.
Three CORE members stage a sit-in at Stoner’s Restaurant
in Chicago’s Loop.

1942 – The Spingarn Medal is presented to Asa Philip Randolph
“for organizing the Sleeping Car Porters under the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and securing
recognition for them; and because of his fearless,
determined mobilization of mass opinion that resulted
in… Executive Order No. 8802, which banned racial
discrimination in defense industries and government work.”

1945 – Irving C. Mollison, a Chicago Republican, is sworn in as
U.S. Customs Court judge in New York City.

1945 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to Paul Robeson
“for his outstanding achievement in the theater, on the
concert stage, and in the general field of racial
welfare.”

1949 – Larry Holmes is born in Easton, Pennsylvania. He will
become a professional boxer and world heavyweight
champion from 1978 to 1985. During his reign, he will
defend his title more times than any other heavyweight
in history, with the exception of Joe Louis.

1953 – Jeffrey Banks is born in Washington, DC. He will become
an influential fashion designer and the youngest designer
to win the prestigious Coty Award, for his outstanding
fur designs.

1962 – Wilt Chamberlain of the NBA San Francisco Warriors, scores
72 points vs the Los Angeles Lakers.

1964 – John Conyers, Jr. is elected to the House of
Representatives from Detroit, Michigan.

1970 – Twelve African Americans are elected to the Ninety-second
Congress, including five new congressmen: Ralph H.
Metcalfe (Illinois), George Collins (Illinois), Charles
Rangel (New York), Ronald Dellums (California), and
Parren Mitchell (Maryland).

1970 – Wilson Riles is elected as the first African American
superintendent of Public Instruction in California.

1970 – Richard Austin is elected as the first African American
secretary of state in Michigan.

1974 – Harold G. Ford is elected U.S. Congressman from Tennessee.

1978 – Dominica is granted its independence by Great Britain.

1979 – Klansmen fire on an anti-Klan rally in Greensboro, North
Carolina, and kill five persons.

1981 – Coleman Young is re-elected mayor of Detroit. Thurman L.
Milner is elected mayor of Hartford, Connecticut. James
Chase is elected mayor of Spokane, Washington.

1983 – Reverend Jesse Jackson announces his candidacy for
President of the United States. Although unsuccessful in
this and a later 1988 campaign, Jackson will win many
Democratic state primaries. His candidacy will win him
national attention and a platform for increased
representation by African Americans in the Democratic
Party.

1992 – Carol Moseley Braun is the first African American woman to
be elected to the U.S. Senate.

1992 – James Clyburn is the first African American to represent
South Carolina since Reconstruction. He had previously
served for 18 years as South Carolina’s Human Affairs
Commissioner.

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.

May 18, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

May 16 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 16 *

1792 – Denmark abolishes the importation of slaves.

1857 – Juan Morel Campos is born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He will
become a musician and composer who will be one of the
first to integrate Afro-Caribbean styles and folk rhythms
into the classical European musical model. He will be
considered the father of the “danza.” He will join the
ancestors on May 12, 1896.

1917 – Harry T. Burleigh, composer, pianist, and singer, is
awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for excellence in the
field of creative music.

1929 – John Conyers, Jr. is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will
be elected to the House of Representatives from Michigan’s
1st District in 1964, where he will advocate home rule and
Congressional representation for the District of Columbia.
He will be the principal sponsor of the 1965 Voting Rights
Act and the 1983 Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday bill, as
well as a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus.

1930 – Lillie Mae Jones is born in Flint, Michigan. She will
become an uncompromising jazz singer using the stage name,
Betty Carter, who will earn the nickname “Betty Bebop” for
her bop improvisational style. She will tour with Lionel
Hampton and Miles Davis during her career. In 1997, she
will receive the National Medal of Arts award from
President Bill Clinton. She will join the ancestors on
September 26, 1998.

1966 – Stokely Carmichael (later named Kwame Ture) is elected
chairman of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, a group formed during the Freedom Marches and
dedicated to voter registration in the South.

1966 – Janet Damita Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. Sister of
the famous Jacksons of the Jackson 5 singing group, she
will have her own successful career, first in acting
(“Good Times,” “Diff’rent Strokes,” and “Fame”), then as
a solo recording artist. Her albums “Control” and
“Rhythm Nation 1814” will earn her five American Music
Awards and a Grammy award.

1966 – The National Welfare Rights Organization is organized.

1977 – Modibo Keita joins the ancestors in Bamako, Mali. He was
the first president of Mali, serving from 1960 to 1968.

1979 – Asa Philip Randolph, labor leader and civil rights pioneer,
joins the ancestors in New York at the age of 90.

1985 – Michael Jordan is named Rookie of the Year in the National
Basketball Association. Jordan, of the Chicago Bulls, was
the number three draft choice. At the time, Michael was
third in the league scoring a 28.2 average and fourth in
steals with 2.39 per game.

1990 – Sammy Davis Jr., actor, dancer, singer and world class
entertainer, joins the ancestors in Beverly Hills,
California at the age of 64 from throat cancer. Davis,
born in Harlem, was a member of the Hollywood “Rat Pack.”
He also had starring roles in a host of Broadway musicals
and motion pictures and had been an entertainer for over
sixty years.

1997 – In Zaire, President Mobutu Sese Seko ends 32 years of
autocratic rule, ceding control of the country to rebel
forces.

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

April 15, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

April 15 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 15 *

1889 – Asa Philip Randolph is born in Crescent Way, Florida.
He will become a labor leader, the organizer of the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, and a
tireless fighter for civil rights. He will join the
ancestors in 1979.

1919 – Elizabeth Catlett (later Mora) is born in Washington,
        DC. In 1940, she will become the first student to receive
        an M.F.A. in sculpture at the University of Iowa School of
        Art and Art History. While there, she will be influenced by
American landscape painter Grant Wood, who will urge
students to work with the subjects they knew best. For
her, this will mean black people, and especially black
women, and it will be at this point that her work begins
to focus on African Americans. Her piece ‘Mother and
Child,’ done in limestone in 1939 for her thesis, will
win first prize in sculpture at the American Negro
Exposition in Chicago in 1940. In 1946, she will receive
a Rosenwald Fund Fellowship that allows her to travel to
Mexico where she will study wood carving with Jose L.
Ruiz and ceramic sculpture with Francisco Zúñiga, at the
Escuela de Pintura y Escultura, Esmeralda, Mexico. She
will later emigrate to Mexico, marry, and become a
Mexican citizen. She will become an internationally
known printmaker and sculptor and embrace both African
and Mexican influences in her art. She will be best
known for the black, expressionistic sculptures and
prints she produced during the 1960s and 1970s, which
will be seen as politically charged. She will join the
ancestors on April 2, 2012 in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

1958 – African Freedom Day is declared at the All-African
People’s Conference in Accra, Ghana.

1960 – The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is
formed on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh,
North Carolina.

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

December 7, 2013 KRLemmons African American History

December 5 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 5 *

1832 – Sarah Gorham, the first woman appointed by the African
Methodist Episcopal Church to serve as a foreign
missionary in 1881, is born.

1881 – The Forty-Seventh Congress (1881-83) convenes. Only two
African American congressmen have been elected, Robert
Smalls of South Carolina and John Roy Lynch of
Mississippi.

1895 – Elbert Frank Cox is born in Evansville, Indiana. He will
become the first African American to earn a doctorate
degree in mathematics (Cornell University – 1925).

1918 – Charity Adams (later Earley) is born. She will become
the first African American commissioned officer in the
Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942. She will serve in
the Army for four years and hold the rank of Lt. Colonel
at the time of her release from active duty.

1932 – (“Little”) Richard Penniman is born in Macon, Georgia.
He will be known for his flamboyant singing style, which
will be influential to many Rhythm and Blues and British
artists.’ His songs will include “Good Golly Miss Molly”,
“Tutti Frutti”, and “Lucille.”