KRLemmons African American History

January 21 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 21 *

1830 – The African American population in Portsmouth, Ohio is
forcibly deported by order of city officials.

1913 – Fanny M. Jackson Coppin joins the ancestors in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. She was a pioneering educator and missionary
and the first African American woman to graduate from an
American college (Oberlin, 1865). Coppin State College (now
University) in Baltimore, Maryland will be named after her.

1938 – Jack and Jill of America, Inc. is founded in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, by Marion Turner Stubbs Thomas. Dedicated to
providing educational, cultural, civic, and social programs
for African American youth, Jack and Jill will grow to have
180 chapters nationwide.

1941 – Richard “Richie” P. Havens is born in Brooklyn, New York.
He will grow up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant community, the
eldest of nine children. He will become a folk singer,
influenced in his early days by Nina Simone. It will be as
a live performer, that he will first earn widespread notice.
Richie will play the 1966 Newport Folk Festival, the 1967
Monterey Jazz Festival, the January 1968 Woody Guthrie
Memorial Concert at Carnegie Hall, the December 1968 Miami
Pop Festival, the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival, and of course,
the 1969 Woodstock festival in upstate New York.

1950 – Leslie Sebastien Charles in born in Fyzabad, Trinidad. He
will emigrate to England at the age of eight and will later
become a popular singer known as “Billy Ocean.” He will
release hits such as “Suddenly,” “Caribbean Queen,” “Get
Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car,” “When The Going Gets
Tough, The Tough Get Going” (which was featured in the
movie, The Jewel Of The Nile), and “To Make You Cry.”

1963 – Akeem Abdul Olajuwon is born in Lagos, Nigeria. He will
become one of five boys born to his parents with one sister.
He will come to the United States and play collegiate
basketball for the University of Houston. He will be
selected by the Houston Rockets in the first round (first
pick overall) of the 1984 NBA Draft. After twelve years of
play in the NBA, he will be selected in 1996 as one of the
50 Greatest Players in NBA History. Olajuwon will add a “H”
to his first name on 3/9/1991 and become an United States
citizen on 4/2/1993. The University of Houston will retire
his jersey, # 34, on 2/12/97.

1964 – Carl T. Rowan is named director of the U.S. Information
Agency, the highest position ever held by an African
American. By virtue of his position, he also becomes the
first African American to sit on the National Security
Council.

1971 – Twelve African American congressmen boycott Richard Nixon’s
State of the Union Address because of his “consistent
refusal” to respond to the petitions of African Americans.

1982 – Blues guitar singer B.B. King donates his entire record
collection to the University of Mississippi’s Center for
the Study of Southern Culture. The collection includes
about 7,000 rare blues records he played when he worked as
a disc jockey in Memphis. Born Riley B. King, he called
himself the “Beale Street Blues Boy,” later shortened to
“B.B.” B.B. King is considered one of the most influential
blues musicians in history.

1990 – Quincy Jones is awarded the French Legion of Honor for his
contributions to music as a trumpeter, composer, arranger,
and record producer.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 11 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 11           *

1831 – Nat Turner is executed for organizing and leading the
armed slave insurrection in Jerusalem, Southampton
County, Virginia. One of our greatest freedom fighters
joins the ancestors.

1890 – D. McCree is granted a patent for the portable fire
escape.

1895 – Bechuanaland becomes part of the Cape Colony in Africa.

1915 – Claude Clark, Sr. is born near Rockingham, Georgia.  He
will study at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the
Barnes Foundation, and the University of California,
Berkeley, and become a renowned artist whose studies of
urban life and social realism will be exhibited widely,
including the New York World’s Fair of 1939, the
Sorbonne, the Oakland Museum, the Museum of African
American Art in Los Angeles and in the major group
exhibits Hidden Heritage: Afro-American Art 1800-1950
and Two Centuries of Black American Art.

1918 – The Armistice is signed, ending World War I.  Official
records listed 370,000 African American soldiers and
1400 African American commissioned officers.  A little
more than half of of these soldiers served in the
European Theater.  Three African American regiments —
the 369th, 371st, and 372nd — received the Croix de
Guerre for valor.  The 369th was the first American
unit to reach the Rhine river (which separates France
from Germany).  The first American soldiers to be
decorated for bravery in France were Henry Johnson and
Needham Roberts of the 369th Infantry Regiment.

1925 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to James Weldon
Johnson, former U.S. consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua
and NAACP executive secretary, for his work as an
author, diplomat and leader.

1928 – Ernestine Anderson is born in Houston, Texas.  Her
introduction to jazz singing will begin at age 12 at
the Eldorado Ballroom in Houston.  She will perform
with Russell Jaquet, Johnny Otis, and Lionel Hampton
and be known for her warm, blues-influenced vocals.

1929 – LaVern Baker is born in Chicago, Illinois.  She will
become a rhythm & blues vocalist.  She will be known
for her recordings of “Tweedly Dee”, “I Cried a Tear”,
and “Jim Dandy.”

1946 – Corrine Brown is born in Jacksonville, Florida. She will
receive a bachelor’s degree in 1969 and a master’s
degree in 1971 from Florida A&M University. She will
also receive an education specialist degree from the
University of Florida in 1974 and an honorary doctorate
in law from Edward Waters College. She will be a
college professor, a guidance counselor, and owner of a
travel agency before entering politics. In 1982 she will
be elected to the Florida House of Representatives,
where she will serve for ten years. In 1992 she will be
elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from
Florida’s Third Congressional District.

1950 – Otis Armstrong is born.  He will become a NFL runningback
and the AFC’s leading rusher in 1974 with the Denver
Broncos.

1965 – Prime Minister Ian D. Smith of Rhodesia proclaims
independence from Great Britain.

1968 – Ronnie Devoe is born.  He will become a singer with the
groups “New Edition” and “Bell, Biv, and Devoe.”

1972 – Carl T. Rowan, journalist, becomes the first African
American elected to the ‘Gridiron Club.’

1975 – Angola gains independence from Portugal after 500 years
of colonial rule.  Angola, in southeastern Africa, had
been waging guerrilla warfare against Portuguese rule
since 1961. In 1974, back in Portugal, a group of young
military officers overthrew the government.  The new
government quickly granted independence to Portugal’s
colonies. Thus, on November 11, 1975 Angola officially
became an independent republic.

1979 – The Bethune Museum and Archives is established in
Washington, DC.  The goal of the museum, which is
housed in the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, is to
serve as a depository and center for African American
women’s history.

1984 – Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. dies of a heart attack
in Atlanta, Georgia.  Better known as “Daddy King,” he
was the father of famed civil rights leader Martin
Luther King, Jr. and was himself, an early civil rights
leader.  The elder King was pastor of Ebenezer Baptist
Church in Atlanta, the center for much of his son’s
civil rights activity.

1985 – The city of Yonkers, New York is found guilty of
segregating in schools & housing.

1989 – The Civil Rights Memorial is dedicated in Montgomery,
Alabama.

1995 – The European Union’s 15 member states decide to pull
their envoys out of Lagos to show their anger at
Nigeria’s execution of human rights leaders.

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