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 Mr. Rene’ A. Perry.

KRLemmons African American History

June 15 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – June 15 *

1864 – Congress passes a bill equalizing pay, arms, equipment
and medical services of African American troops.

1877 – Henry Ossian Flipper, born a slave in Thomasville,
Georgia in 1856, is the first African American cadet
to graduate from the United States Military Academy at
West Point, New York. Flipper, who was never spoken to
by a white cadet during his four years at West Point,
was appointed a second lieutenant in the all-African
American 10th Cavalry, stationed at Fort Sill in Indian
Territory. He will join the ancestors on May 3, 1940.

1921 – Bessie Coleman, a 28-year-old native of Amarillo,
Texas, who learned French in order to communicate with
instructors, receives a pilot’s certificate from the
Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France. She
is the first African American woman to become a licensed
pilot.

1921 – Erroll Garner is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He
will become an accomplished pianist who will play by ear.
Much of his early work will be lost because it will not
be written down. His best known composition will be
“Misty.” He will be an ASCAP Award-winning jazz pianist.
Some of his other hits will be “Dreamy,” “That’s My Kick,”
“Moment’s Delight,” and “Solitaire.” He will be honored
on a stamp by the U.S. Postal Service. He will join the
ancestors on January 2, 1977.

1938 – Billie Leo Williams, baseball player (Rookie of the Year
1961), and Chicago Cubs outfielder, is born in Whistler,
Alabama. After accumulating a lifetime .290 batting average
with 426 homers and 1475 runs batted in, he will be elected
to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987. His number 26 will be
retired at Wrigley Field. His will be the second number
retired by the Cubs, the first being Ernie Banks’ number 14.
Following his departure from the Cubs, the number has been
reassigned to other players from time to time, although he
will reclaim it during several intervals of coaching with
the Cubs after his playing days had ended. In 1999, he will
be named as a finalist to the Major League Baseball All-
Century Team. During the 2010 season, the Cubs will honor
him with a statue outside of Wrigley Field. The statue will
be unveiled in a pre-game ceremony before their game on
September 7 against the Houston Astros. In 2011, he will be
appointed as a member of the Hall of Fame’s Veterans
Committee “Golden Era” group.

1951 – Joe Louis knocks out Lee Savold in a closed-circuit TV
fight seen by fight fans in movie theatres in six cities.

1969 – O’Shea Jackson is born in Los Angeles, California. Known
later as “Ice Cube,” he will be the first member of the
seminal Californian rap group N.W.A. to leave, and he will
quickly establish himself as one of hip-hop’s best and
most controversial artists. From the outset of his career,
he will court controversy, since his rhymes were profane
and political. As a solo artist, his politics and social
commentary will sharpen substantially, and his first two
records, “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted” and “Death Certificate,”
will be equally praised and reviled for their lyrical
stance, which happens to be considerably more articulate
than many of his gangsta peers. As his career progresses,
Ice Cube’s influence begins to decline, particularly as he
tries to incorporate elements of contemporary groups like
Cypress Hill into his sound, but his stature never
diminished, and he will remain one of the biggest rap stars
throughout the ’90s. He will also become an actor and will
have his acting debut in John Singleton’s “Boyz N the Hood.”

1971 – The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of
closing Jackson, Mississippi, swimming pools rather than
integrating them. The ruling is considered by many to
indicate the Court’s resistance to increased integration.

1971 – Vernon E. Jordan Jr., former executive director of the
United Negro College Fund, is appointed executive director
of the National Urban League.

1987 – Michael Spinks defeats Gerry Cooney in round five of their
heavyweight boxing match in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

1990 – St. Clair Drake joins the ancestors after succumbing to a
heart attack in Palo Alto, California. The noted sociologist
and anthropologist was the author of numerous books,
including the important ‘Black Metropolis’ which he
co-authored with Horace Cayton. In 1969, he established and
served as Director of the African and Afro-American Studies
Program at Stanford University, a program often imitated by
other colleges and universities.

1996 – Ella Jane Fitzgerald joins the ancestors. Dubbed the
‘First Lady of Song,’ she was the most popular female jazz
singer in the United States for more than half a century.
During her lifetime, she sold over 40 million albums and won
13 Grammy awards. Born in Newport News, Virginia, Fitzgerald
began singing after impressing the audience at the Apollo
Theater’s Amateur Night in 1934. She could imitate every
instrument in an orchestra and worked with all the jazz
greats, from Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Nat King Cole
to Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie, and Benny Goodman. She
performed at top venues all over the world, and her
audiences were as diverse as her vocal range. She received
the National Medal of Arts, France’s Commander of Arts and
Letters Award, Kennedy Center Honors, and numerous honorary
doctorates for her continuing contributions to the arts.

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

June 15 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 15 *

1864 – Congress passes a bill equalizing pay, arms, equipment
and medical services of African American troops.

1877 – Henry Ossian Flipper, born a slave in Thomasville,
Georgia, in 1856, is the first African American cadet
to graduate from the United States Military Academy at
West Point, New York. Flipper, who was never spoken to
by a white cadet during his four years at West Point,
was appointed a second lieutenant in the all-African
American 10th Cavalry, stationed at Fort Sill in Indian
Territory. He will join the ancestors on May 3, 1940.

1921 – Bessie Coleman, a 28-year-old native of Amarillo,
Texas, who learned French in order to communicate with
instructors, receives a pilot’s certificate from the
Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France. She
is the first African American woman to become a licensed
pilot.

1921 – Erroll Garner is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He
will become an accomplished pianist who will play by ear.
Much of his early work will be lost because it will not
be written down. His best known composition will be
“Misty.” He will be an ASCAP Award-winning jazz pianist.
Some of his other hits will be “Dreamy,” “That’s My Kick,”
“Moment’s Delight,” and “Solitaire.” He will be honored
on a stamp by the U.S. Postal Service. He will join the
ancestors on January 2, 1977.

1938 – Billie Leo Williams, baseball player (Rookie of the Year
1961), and Chicago Cubs outfielder, is born in Whistler,
Alabama. After accumulating a lifetime .290 batting average
with 426 homers and 1475 runs batted in, he will be elected
to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987. His number 26 will be
retired at Wrigley Field. His will be the second number
retired by the Cubs, the first being Ernie Banks’ number 14.
Following his departure from the Cubs, the number has been
reassigned to other players from time to time, although he
will reclaim it during several intervals of coaching with
the Cubs after his playing days had ended. In 1999, he will
be named as a finalist to the Major League Baseball All-
Century Team. During the 2010 season, the Cubs will honor
him with a statue outside of Wrigley Field. The statue will
be unveiled in a pre-game ceremony before their game on
September 7 against the Houston Astros. In 2011, he will be
appointed as a member of the Hall of Fame’s Veterans
Committee “Golden Era” group.

1951 – Joe Louis knocks out Lee Savold in a closed-circuit TV
fight seen by fight fans in movie theatres in six cities.

1969 – O’Shea Jackson is born in Los Angeles, California. Known
later as “Ice Cube,” he will be the first member of the
seminal Californian rap group N.W.A. to leave, and he will
quickly establish himself as one of hip-hop’s best and
most controversial artists. From the outset of his career,
he will court controversy, since his rhymes were profane
and political. As a solo artist, his politics and social
commentary will sharpen substantially, and his first two
records, “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted” and “Death Certificate,”
will be equally praised and reviled for their lyrical
stance, which happens to be considerably more articulate
than many of his gangsta peers. As his career progresses,
Ice Cube’s influence begins to decline, particularly as he
tries to incorporate elements of contemporary groups like
Cypress Hill into his sound, but his stature never
diminished, and he will remain one of the biggest rap stars
throughout the ’90s. He will also become an actor and will
have his acting debut in John Singleton’s “Boyz N the Hood.”

1971 – The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of
closing Jackson, Mississippi, swimming pools rather than
integrating them. The ruling is considered by many to
indicate the Court’s resistance to increased integration.

1971 – Vernon E. Jordan Jr., former executive director of the
United Negro College Fund, is appointed executive director
of the National Urban League.

1987 – Michael Spinks defeats Gerry Cooney in round five of their
heavyweight boxing match in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

1990 – St. Clair Drake joins the ancestors after succumbing to a
heart attack in Palo Alto, California. The noted sociologist
and anthropologist was the author of numerous books,
including the important ‘Black Metropolis’ which he
co-authored with Horace Cayton. In 1969, he established and
served as Director of the African and Afro-American Studies
Program at Stanford University, a program often imitated by
other colleges and universities.

1996 – Ella Jane Fitzgerald joins the ancestors. Dubbed the
‘First Lady of Song,’ she was the most popular female jazz
singer in the United States for more than half a century.
During her lifetime, she sold over 40 million albums and won
13 Grammy awards. Born in Newport News, Virginia, Fitzgerald
began singing after impressing the audience at the Apollo
Theater’s Amateur Night in 1934. She could imitate every
instrument in an orchestra and worked with all the jazz
greats, from Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Nat King Cole
to Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie, and Benny Goodman. She
performed at top venues all over the world, and her
audiences were as diverse as her vocal range. She received
the National Medal of Arts, France’s Commander of Arts and
Letters Award, Kennedy Center Honors, and numerous honorary
doctorates for her continuing contributions to the arts.

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