KRLemmons African American History

August 19 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 19 *

1791 – Benjamin Banneker sends a copy of his just-published
almanac to Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, along
with a letter confronting his hypocrisy-if not indeed the
hypocrisy of white America-in enslaving African Americans
while at the same time declaring the “true and invaluable
doctrine” of the “natural rights” of humankind.

1888 – The first beauty contest is held in Spa, Belgium. The
winner is an eighteen year old beauty from the West
Indies.

1926 – Theodore Flowers, known as the “Georgia Deacon,” wins the
world middleweight boxing title in New York City.

1940 – John Lester “Johnny” Nash, Jr. is born in Houston, Texas.
He will become a singer and will be known for his songs,
“I Can See Clearly Now,” “Stir It Up,” “Hold Me Tight,”
and “A Very Special Love.”

1946 – Charles F. Bolden, Jr., is born in Columbia, South
Carolina. A pilot who flew over 100 sorties in Southeast
Asia, Bolden will be named an astronaut in 1981. He will
become a veteran pilot of several missions, including the
Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1992, when he will participate
as a presenter of a special Academy Award to science-
fiction film producer George Lucas.

1950 – Edith Spurlock Sampson becomes the first African American
appointed to serve on the United States delegation to the
United Nations.

1954 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is named undersecretary of the United
Nations.

1982 – Renaldo Nehemiah of the United States sets record for the
110 meter hurdles in 12.93 seconds.

1989 – Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu is among
hundreds of Black demonstrators who are whipped and
sandblasted from helicopters as they attempt to picnic on
a “whites-only” beach near Capetown, South Africa.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 18 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 18 *

1791 – Benjamin Banneker publishes his first Almanac.

1909 – Howard Swanson is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He will become
a classical composer who will study in the United States
and Paris, France, and will write music for orchestra,
solo voice, piano, and chamber ensembles. His initial
training will be at the Cleveland Institute of Music. After
studying with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, France (1938), He
will spend two intensive periods studying and traveling in
New York. He will finally settle in New York City in 1966.
Thanks to Marian Anderson’s 1949 performance of his song
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” his music will begin to gain
national attention. He will win several awards, including
the Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Academy of Arts
and Letters grant. His neo-classical compositional method
will be appealing to a wide range of listeners, with
graceful melodies and a touch of jazz and idioms of black
American folk music. He will join the ancestors on November
12, 1978.
1934 – Roberto Clemente is born in Carolina, Puerto Rico. He will
win the Gold Glove award TWELVE consecutive years and play
in twelve All-Star games. He will be the National League’s
Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1966, the MVP in the 1971
World Series, win four separate National League batting
titles, post a .317 career batting average, and play
eighteen seasons, amassing 3,000 hits and hammering 240
home runs. He will join the ancestors at the age of 38, on
a mercy mission to deliver relief supplies to the victims
of a Nicaraguan earthquake. Tragically, his plane,
carrying food, clothing and medical supplies, will crash
moments after takeoff from San Juan, Puerto Rico on
December 31, 1972.

1935 – Rafer Lewis Johnson is born in Hillsboro, Texas. He will
become a decathlete, winning gold in the 1955 Pan-American
Games, a silver medal in the 1956 Olympics and a gold medal
in the in the 1960 Summer Games in Rome. He will light the
torch in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

1941 – Matt Snell is born in Garfield, Georgia. He will become a
professional football player (running back for the New York
Jets). He will be one of the key players in the Jets
victory in Super Bowl III over the Baltimore Colts.

1954 – James E. Wilkins becomes the first African American to
attend a U.S. presidential cabinet meeting. He is
Assistant Secretary of Labor and attends because the
Secretary and Under-Secretary are away.

1963 – James Meredith becomes the first African American to
graduate from the University of Mississippi.

1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games because of
its apartheid policies.

1970 – Malcolm-Jamal Warner is born in Jersey City, New Jersey.
He will become an child actor and will star on the “The
Cosby Show” as Theodore “Theo” Huxtable. He will also star
as “Here and Now’s” Alexander James and “Malcolm and
Eddie’s” Malcolm.

1976 – Vice Admiral Samuel L. Gravely Jr. assumes command of the
U.S. Third Fleet.

1977 – Steven Biko, one of the most influential Black student
leaders in South Africa, is arrested in Port Elizabeth
on charges of fomenting unrest among blacks in the city
through his writings. Biko will join the ancestors in
police detention less than a month later, as a result of
a beating by the police.

1981 – Football running back, Herschel Walker, of the University
of Georgia, takes out an insurance policy with Lloyd’s of
London. The All-American is insured for one million
dollars.

1986 – Earl Campbell, the ‘Tyler Rose’, announces his retirement
from professional football. Campbell, the 1977 Heisman
Trophy winner, played eight seasons in the National
Football League — and was a star for the Houston Oilers.
He will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on
July 27, 1991.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 12 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 12    *

1791 – Benjamin Banneker and Pierre Charles L’Enfant are commissioned
to plan and develop Washington, DC.

1868 – Great Britain gives Basutoland, the status of protectorate at
the request of King Moshweshwe.  The request of protection was
to prevent attacks by the Cape Colony.

1877 – The British annex Walvis Bay, an important deep water port in
South West Africa.

1888 – Hall Johnson is born in Athens, Georgia.  In 1925, he will
organize and direct the Hall Johnson Choir as well as have
significant success as an arranger.  One of his early stage
successes will be as choral director for the 1930 Broadway
play “The Green Pastures” and the 1933 play, “Run Little
Chillun,” for which he will write the book and music. Johnson
and his choir will move to Hollywood in 1936 to make the film
version of “The Green Pastures.”

1926 – The Savoy Ballroom, nicknamed the “Home of Happy Feet,” opens
in New York City.

1932 – Andrew Young is born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He will become
a minister, influential leader in the civil rights movement,
first African American ambassador to the United Nations, and
mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.

1936 – Virginia Hamilton is born in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She will
become an award-winning author of juvenile fiction including
“House of Dies Drear,” “M.C. Higgins the Great,” and “Sweet
Whispers, Brother Rush.”

1940 – Alwyn Lopez “Al” Jarreau is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  He
will become a singer and will be known for his recording of
the theme for the television show, “Moonlighting”.  Al Jarreau
will become the first vocalist in musical history to win
Grammy Awards in three different categories (Rhythm & Blues,
Jazz, and Pop).

1945 – New York becomes the first state to prohibit discrimination by
race and creed in employment.

1955 – Charlie Parker joins the ancestors in New York City at the age
of 34. He had been one of the founders of the modern jazz
movement.

1962 – Darryl Strawberry is born in Los Angeles, California.  He will
become a professional baseball player and will play right field
for the New York Mets, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San
Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees.  He will set the
New York Mets all-time records for most runs (662), most RBIs
(733) and most home runs (252).  He will be a member of the
winning World Series championship teams in 1986 and 1996.

1964 – Malcolm X resigns from the Nation of Islam.

1982 – Charles Fuller wins the Pulitzer Prize for “A Soldier’s Play.”

2003 – Lynne Thigpen, actress, joins the ancestors at age 54 after
succumbing to complications from an enlarged heart. She played
“the chief” on “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?”

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 9 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 9           *

1731 – Benjamin Banneker is born free in Ellicott Mills (now
Ellicott City), Maryland.  He will become the builder
of the first clock made in America.  He also will
become the key figure in the design of Washington, DC
after Pierre L’Enfant quit and took his plans for DC
with him.  Banneker was able to save the project by
reproducing the plans from memory, in two days, a
complete layout of the streets, parks, and major
buildings.  From 1792 to 1802, Banneker will publish
an annual Farmer’s Almanac, for which he did all the
calculations himself.  He will join the ancestors in
1806.

1868 – The Howard University Medical School opens with eight
students.

1868 – Arkansas Governor Powell Clayton, declares martial law
in ten counties and mobilizes the state militia in a
Ku Klux Klan crisis.

1923 – Dorothy Dandridge is born in Cleveland, Ohio.  She will
try vaudeville and a stint at the Cotton Club before
finding her most noteworthy success as an actress.
She will appear in such works as “Porgy and Bess” and
minor movie roles before her big break in a series of
low-budget movies including “Tarzan’s Perils”.  While
simultaneously maintaining a singing career, Dandridge
will have her greatest success in “Carmen Jones”
opposite Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, Diahann
Carroll, and Brock Peters, which will earn her an
Academy Award nomination, a first for an African
American actress. She will join the ancestors on
September 8, 1965.

1925 – Oscar Micheaux’s movie “Body and Soul” is released. It
marks the film debut of Paul Robeson.

1931 – Eugene “Big Daddy” Lipscomb is born.  He will become a
professional football star with the old Baltimore
Colts.  He will enter the NFL without ever playing
college football. He will be considered one of the
greatest defensive tackles in NFL history.  He will
join the ancestors in May, 1963.

1935 – Robert “Bob” Gibson is born in Omaha, Nebraska.  He will
become a professional baseball player and pitcher for
the St. Louis Cardinals.  He will be the National
League MVP in 1968.  During his career, he will amass
3,000 career strike-outs, win the Cy Young Award in
1968 and 1970, win the Baseball Writers Award in 1968,
pitch in the 1964, 1967, and 1968 World Series, and win
Nine Gold Glove Awards.  He will enter the National
Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.

1961 – The Professional Golfers Association eliminates their
Caucasians only rule.

1965 – Willie Mays is named the National League’s Most Valuable
Player.

1970 – William L. Dawson, Democratic congressman and party
leader, in Chicago, Illinois, joins the ancestors at
the age of 84.

1976 – The United Nations General Assembly endorses 10
resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa,
including one that says the white-only government is
“illegitimate.”

1982 – Sugar Ray Leonard retires from professional boxing for
the first time, because of a recurring eye problem
sustained in a welterweight title match.

1990 – Freedom Bank in New York City, one of the largest
African American-owned banks in the nation, is
declared insolvent.  Its losses in 1988-1989 totaled
$4.7 million, and it was expected to lose $2 million
in 1990.  A last-minute effort to revive the bank by
raising funds from the local Harlem community will
fail to meet the government-imposed deadline.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 25 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 25           *

1806 – Benjamin Banneker joins the ancestors at the age of 74
in Ellicott Mills, Maryland.  Banneker was a self-
taught mathematician and builder (at age 21) of the
first striking clock built in the United States.  An
amateur astronomer, Banneker’s calculations for solar
and lunar eclipses appeared in 29 editions of his
almanacs, published from 1792 to 1797.

1915 – Attorney James L. Curtis is named minister to Liberia.

1926 – Crisis magazine, led by editor W.E.B. DuBois, awards its
first prizes in literature and art.  Among the winners
will be Arna Bontemps’ poem “Nocturne at Bethesda,”
Countee Cullen’s poem “Thoughts in a Zoo,” Aaron
Douglas’ painting “African Chief” and a portrait by
Hale Woodruff.

1940 – The Committee on the Participation of Negroes in the
National Defense Program met with President Roosevelt.

1940 – The National Newspaper Publishers Association is
founded.

1940 – The Spingarn Medal is presented to Dr. Louis T. Wright
for his civil rights leadership and his contributions
as a surgeon.

1940 – Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr. is promoted to Brigadier
General, the first African American to attain that rank
in the United States Army or any other branch of the
Armed Forces.

1958 – Ten thousand students, led by Jackie Robinson, Harry
Belfonte and A. Phillip Randolph, participate in the
Youth March for integrated schools in Washington, DC.

1958 – Daisy Bates, head of the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP,
and the nine students who integrated Little Rocks’s
Central High School are awarded the Spingarn Medal for
their courage and leadership in the civil rights
struggle.

1962 – Uganda is admitted as the 110th member of the United
Nations.

1968 – The city of Chicago officially recognizes Jean Baptiste
Pointe du Sable as its first settler.

1973 – Abebe Bikila, Ethiopian marathoner who won the Olympic
Gold Medal in 1960 and 1964, joins the ancestors at
the age of 46.

1976 – Clarence “Willie” Norris, the last surviving member of
the nine Scottsboro Boys, who were convicted in 1931
of the alleged rape of two white women on a freight
train, is pardoned by Governor George Wallace.  Norris
had spent 15 years in prison and had been a fugitive
fleeing parole in Alabama in 1946.

1983 – Mary Francis Berry, professor of history and law at
Howard University, and two other members of the Civil
Rights Commission are fired by President Ronald Reagan.
Considered a champion of minority concerns on the
Commission, Berry will charge the administration with
attempting to “shut up” criticism. She will later sue
and be reinstated.

1983 – The United States and six other Caribbean nations
invade the island nation of Grenada.

1988 – Two units of the Ku Klux Klan and eleven individuals
are ordered to pay $1 million to African Americans who
were attacked during a brotherhood rally in
predominately white Forsythe County, Georgia.

1990 – Evander Holyfield knocks out James “Buster” Douglas in
the third round of their twelve-round fight to become
the undisputed world heavyweight champion.
Holyfield’s record stood at 25-0, with 21 knockouts.

1997 – The Million Woman March, organized by grass root sisters,
led by Sister Phile Chionesu and Sister Asia Coney,
takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  The event
is attended by 1.3 million attendees (300,000 to 1
million according to Philadelphia officials).  The MWM
had been promoted by word of mouth and avoided
traditional media and mainstream groups, such as
sororities and many civil rights groups.  Sis. Chionesu
calls the march “a declaration of independence from
ignorance, poverty, enslavement, and all the things
that have happened to us that has helped to bring about
the confusion and disharmony that we experience with
one another.”

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