KRLemmons African American History

April 3 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 3 *

1865 – The Fifth Massachusetts Colored Cavalry and units of the
Twenty-fifth Corps are in the vanguard of Union troops
entering Richmond. The Second Division of the Twenty-Fifth
Corps help to chase Robert E. Lee’s army from Petersburg to
Appomattox Court House, April 3-10. The African American
division and white Union soldiers are advancing on General
Lee’s trapped army with fixed bayonets when the Confederate
troops surrender.

1889 – The Savings Bank of the Order of True Reformers opens in
Richmond, Virginia.

1934 – Richard Mayhew is born in Amityville, New York. A student
at the Art Students League, Brooklyn Museum Art School, and
Columbia University, as well as the Academia in Florence,
Italy, Mayhew will be one of the most respected and
revolutionary landscape artists of the 20th century. He
will also form “Spiral,” a forum for artistic innovation
and exploration of African American artists’ relationships
to the civil rights movement, with fellow artists Romare
Bearden, Charles Alston, Hale Woodruff, and others.

1936 – James Harrell McGriff is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He will be surrounded by music as a child, with both parents
playing piano and cousins Benny Golson and Harold Melvin,
who were pursuing their own musical talents. He will be
influenced to play the organ by neighbor Richard “Groove”
Holmes, with whom he will study privately. He will also
study organ at Philadelphia’s Combe College of Music and at
Julliard. In addition, he will study with Milt Buckner and
with classical organist Sonny Gatewood. His first hit will
be with his arrangement of “I Got A Woman”, on the Sue
label, which made it to the top five on both Billboard’s
Rhythm and Blues and Pop charts. There will be close to 100
albums with Jimmy McGriff’s name at the top as leader. He
will record for Sue, Solid State, United Artists, Blue Note,
Groove Merchant, Milestone, Headfirst and Telarc. Over his
prolific career, he will record with George Benson, Kenny
Burrell, Frank Foster, J.J. Johnson and a two-organ jam
affair with the late “Groove” Holmes. He will join the
ancestors on May 24, 2008, succumbing to complications of
multiple sclerosis.

1944 – The U.S. Supreme Court (Smith v. Allwright) said that “white
primaries” that exclude African Americans are unconstitutional.

1950 – Carter G. Woodson, “the father of black history,” joins the
ancestors in Washington, DC at the age of 74.

1961 – Edward “Eddie” Regan Murphy is born in Brooklyn, New York. A
stand-up comedian and star of “Saturday Night Live” before
pursuing a movie career, Murphy will become one of the
largest African American box office draws. Among his most
successful movies will be “48 Hours,” “Trading Places,”
“Beverly Hills Cop,” “Coming to America,” and “Harlem
Nights.”

1963 – Led by Martin Luther King, Jr., the Birmingham anti-
segregation campaign begins. Before it is over, more than
2,000 demonstrators, including King, will be arrested. The
Birmingham Manifesto, issued by Fred Shuttlesworth of the
Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights the morning of
the campaign, summarizes the frustration and hopes of the
protesters: “The patience of an oppressed people cannot
endure forever…. This is Birmingham’s moment of truth in
which every citizen can play his part in her larger
destiny.”

1964 – Malcolm X speaks at a CORE-sponsored meeting on “The Negro
Revolt What Comes Next?” In his speech “The Ballot or
Bullet,” Malcolm warns of a growing black nationalism that
will no longer tolerate patronizing white political action.

1968 – Less than 24 hours before he is assassinated in Memphis,
Tennessee, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
delivers his famous “mountaintop” speech to a rally of
striking sanitation workers.

1990 – Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan joins the ancestors in suburban
Los Angeles, California, at the age of 66.

1996 – Ron Brown will join the ancestors when an Air Force jetliner
carrying the Commerce Secretary and American business
executives crashes in Croatia, killing all 35 people aboard.

2007 – Eddie Robinson, the longtime Grambling University coach who
transformed a small, Black college into a football power
that sent hundreds of players to the NFL, joins the
ancestors at the age of 88. The soft-spoken coach spent 57
years at Grambling State University, where he set a
standard for victories with 408 and nearly every season
relished seeing his top players drafted by NFL teams.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 1 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 1 *

***********************************************************************
* The Nguzo Saba – The seven principles of Kwanzaa – Principle for *
* Day #7 – Imani (ee-MAH-nee) Faith: To believe with all our hearts *
* in our parents, our teachers, our leaders, our people and the *
* righteousness and victory of our struggle. *
***********************************************************************

1788 – The Quakers in Pennsylvania emancipate their slaves.

1804 – Haiti achieves independence from France.

1808 – The slave trade is outlawed in the United States. This stopped
the legal importation of African slaves, but did not stop
domestic trading in slaves.

1831 – William Lloyd Garrison publishes the first issue of “The
Liberator” in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper will become
a major influence in the movement to abolish slavery in the
United States.

1856 – Bridget “Biddy” Mason and her children are granted their freedom
by the California courts. After gaining her freedom, she will
move to Los Angeles, where she will become a major landowner and
be known for her philanthropy to the poor.

1863 – President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation,
declaring freedom for slaves living in the states that joined
the rebellion that will become known as the Civil War.

1900 – The British protectorates of Northern & Southern Nigeria are
established.

1916 – The first issue of the “Journal of Negro History” is published
with Carter G. Woodson as editor.

1956 – Sudan becomes independent.

1959 – Chad becomes an autonomous republic within the French Community.

1960 – Cameroon gains independence from France.

1962 – Rwanda is granted internal self-government by Belgium.

1964 – The Federation of Rhodesia & Nyasaland is dissolved.

1973 – The West African Economic Community is formed with Benin, Ivory
Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Upper Volta as
members.

1986 – Aruba becomes an independent part of Kingdom of the Netherlands.

1990 – David Dinkins is sworn in as first African American mayor of
New York City.

2005 – Shirley Chisholm, an advocate for minority rights who became the
first African American woman elected to Congress and later the
first African American to seek a major party’s nomination for
the U.S. presidency, joins the ancestors at the age of 80. The
Rev. Jesse Jackson calls her a “woman of great courage.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 19 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 19 *

1798 – Portrait painter Joshua Johnston places an ad in the
“Baltimore Intelligencer” describing himself as “a self-
taught genius.” Johnston, a freeman, will paint portraits
of some of the most successful merchant families in
Maryland and Virginia. Only three of his subjects will
be African American, among them “Portrait of an Unknown
Man” and “Reverend Daniel Coker.”

1875 – Carter G. Woodson is born in New Canton, Virginia. A
founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life
and History, of the “Journal of Negro History,” and Negro
History Week, Woodson will write many books on African
American history. The most popular of his books will be,
“The Negro in Our History,” which will be used extensively
in high schools throughout the United States. He will join
the ancestors on April 3, 1950.

1886 – Clementine Rubin (later Hunter) is born in Clourtierville,
Louisiana. Because there were no birth certificates
issued in rural Louisiana during this time, there is much
controversy about her exact date of birth. Sources mention
her birth in December 1886 and January 1887. The only
real documentation of her earliest existence is a
christening document dated March, 1887. She will become a
painter in the 1930’s after spending years working on the
Melrose Plantation, a haven for many rural Southern
artists. Her first artistic medium will be quilt making,
and her first piece will be in 1938 exhibiting the
hardships of plantation life. Her first painting will be
completed in 1939. In 1955, she will become the first
African American artist to have a one person show at the
Delgado Museum (now known as the New Orleans Museum of
Art). Her folk-art style will earn her the nickname “the
Black Grandma Moses.” By the time she joins the ancestors
on January 1, 1988, she will be considered one of the
twentieth century’s leading folk artists.

1891 – Charles Randolph Uncles becomes the first African American
Catholic priest ordained in the United States. He is
ordained in Baltimore, Maryland.

1910 – The first city ordinance requiring white and black
residential areas is passed by the Baltimore City Council.
Similar laws will be passed in Norfolk, Richmond, Roanoke,
Greensboro, St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Dallas and
Louisville.

1910 – The Pittsburgh Courier newspaper is founded.

1910 – North Carolina College is founded in Durham, North Carolina.

1910 – The Norfolk Journal and Guide is established under the
leadership of P. B. Young Sr.

1930 – James Weldon Johnson resigns as executive secretary of
NAACP citing health reasons.

1930 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Henry A. Hunt,
Principal, Fort Valley High and Industrial School, Fort
Valley, Georgia, for his pioneering work as an educator.

1930 – Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, founded at Howard University in
1913, is incorporated.

1933 – Cicely Tyson is born in the Village of Harlem in New York
City. She will pursue a modeling career, appearing on the
covers of both “Vogue” and “Harper’s Bazaar at the age of
23. She will later pursue acting and win acclaim for her
roles on the stage and on television, as well as in the
movie, Sounder (for which she will be named best actress
by the National Society of Film Critics and receive an
Academy Award nomination) and “The Autobiography of Miss
Jane Pittman,” for which she will win two Emmys.

1941 – Maurice White is born. He will become a singer, musician
(drummer) and founder of Earth, Wind & Fire. Some of his
hits include “Shining Star,” “Sing a Song,” “Got to Get
You into My Life,” “After the Love Has Gone,” and “Best of
My Love”.

1944 – Timothy Reid is born in Norfolk, Virginia. He will become
a comedian and known for his role as “Venus Flytrap” on
“WKRP in Cincinnati, as well as “Frank’s Place.”

1961 – Reggie White is born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He will
become an all-pro defensive lineman for the NFL
Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers. He will play
with Green Bay as they win the 1997 Super Bowl. He will
hold the NFL record of 198 sacks until it is broken by
Bruce Smith of the Washington Redskins in 2003. He will
retire from football at the end of the 1998-1999 season.
He will join the ancestors on December 26, 2004, after
succumbing to a cardiac arrhythmia caused by cardiac and
pulmonary sarcoidosis.

1962 – Nyasaland secedes from Rhodesia.

1977 – Jimmy Rogers, a bluesman who played guitar for the original
Muddy Waters band and who will be inducted into the Blues
Hall of Fame in 1994, joins the ancestors in Chicago at the
age of 73. He succumbs to colon cancer. He recorded a
string of solo hits beginning in the 1950s, including
“Walking by Myself,” “Chicago Bound” and “Sloppy Drunk.”
He played with Water’s Band in Chicago clubs and in the
studio for about a decade. In 1996, he won the W.C. Handy
award for male traditional blues artist.

1989 – Police in Jacksonville, Florida, disarm a parcel bomb at the
local NAACP office, the fourth in a series of mail bombs to
turn up in the Deep South. One bomb kills a Savannah,
Georgia, alderman, and another a federal judge in Alabama.
Walter L. Moody Jr. will be convicted in both bombings.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 5 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 5 *

1828 – Theodore Sedgwick Wright becomes the first African 
American person to get a Theology Degree in the United 
States, when he graduates from Princeton Theological 
Seminary.

1867 – First Reconstruction constitutional convention opens in
Montgomery, Alabama. It has eighteen African Americans 
and ninety whites in attendance.

1901 – Etta Moten (later Barnett) is born in San Antonio, Texas. 
She will become an actress starring in “Porgy and Bess” 
and have a successful career on Broadway. She will 
appear in the movie “Flying Down to Rio”(1933), singing 
and dancing the Carioca, and as a singer in “The Gold 
Diggers of 1933″(1933). In her later years, she will be 
active as an Advisory Board Member of The Black Academy 
of Arts and Letters. 

1917 – The Supreme Court (Buchanan vs Warley) rules that a 
Louisville, Kentucky, ordinance mandating blacks and 
whites live in separate areas is unconstitutional.

1926 – Negro History Week is initiated by Carter G. Woodson. 

1931 – Ike Turner is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He will 
become a singer, songwriter/pianist and will join forces
in 1960 with his wife, Tina Turner.

1935 – The Maryland Court of Appeals orders the University of 
Maryland to admit African American student, Donald 
Murray.

1956 – Art Tatum, joins the ancestors at age 46 in Los Angeles, 
California. Despite impaired vision, he received formal 
training in music and developed a unique improvisational 
style. He was an accomplished jazz pianist who impressed 
even classicist Vladimir Horowitz. Perhaps the most 
gifted technician of all jazzmen, Tatum had other assets 
as well, among them an harmonic sense so acute as to make 
him an almost infallible improviser. This aspect of his 
style, as well as his great rhythmic freedom, influenced 
the young players who became the founders of a new style 
called bebop.

1956 – The Nat King Cole Show premiers. The 15-minute show 
starring the popular singer will run until June 1957 and 
reappear in July in a half-hour format. The first network 
variety series hosted by an African American star, it was
canceled due to lack of support by advertisers. 

1968 – Eight African American males and the first African American 
female, Shirley Chisholm, are elected to the U.S. Congress. 
Including previously elected Massachusetts senator Edward 
Brooke, it is the largest number of African American 
representatives to serve in Congress since the 44th 
Congress of 1875-1877. 

1970 – The National Guard is mobilized in Henderson, North 
Carolina, as a result of racially motivated civil 
disturbances.

1974 – George Brown of Colorado and Mervyn Dymally of California 
are the first African American lieutenant governors elected
in the 20th century, while Walter Washington becomes the 
first African American to be elected mayor of the District 
of Columbia, and Harold Ford is elected to Congress from 
Tennessee, the first African American from the state. 

1974 – The Spingarn Medal is awarded to Damon J. Keith “in tribute 
to his steadfast defense of constitutional principles as 
revealed in a series of memorable decisions he handed down 
as a United States District Court judge.”

1989 – The first memorial to the civil rights movement in the 
United States is dedicated at a ceremony in Montgomery, 
Alabama. The memorial was commissioned by the Southern 
Poverty Law Center, a legal and educational organization 
located in Montgomery.

1994 – George Foreman, 45, becomes boxing’s oldest heavyweight 
champion by knocking out Michael Moorer in the 10th round 
of their WBA fight in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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

KRLemmons African American History

July 26 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – July 26 *

1847 – Twenty-five years after the first free African Americans
arrive at the colony of Cape Mesurado, the commonwealth
of Liberia declares itself an independent republic.
Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a Virginia native, becomes its
first president.

1865 – Catholic priest Patrick Francis Healy passes his final
Ph.D. examinations in philosophy at the University of
Louvrain in Belgium. He becomes the first African
American to earn a Ph.D.

1916 – Spottswood W. Robinson III is born in Richmond, Virginia.
He will pursue a distinguished career in law, in private
practice, as a representative of the NAACP Legal Defense
Fund, dean of the Howard University Law School, and as a
member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In 1966,
he will be named a U.S. Circuit Judge of the DC Circuit
by President Lyndon B. Johnson, becoming the first African
American jurist on that court. He will later become the
first African American Chief Judge of the District of
Columbia Circuit Court. He will join the ancestors on
October 11, 1998.

1918 – Two days after she moves into a predominantly, though not
exclusively, white Philadelphia neighborhood, an African
American woman’s house is stoned. The incident will set
off four days of riots in which one African American and
three whites are killed.

1926 – The Spingarn Medal is awarded to Carter G. Woodson for
“ten years of devoted service in collecting and
publishing the records of the Negro in America.”

1948 – President Harry S Truman issues Executive Order 9981,
directing “equality of treatment and opportunity for all
personnel without regard to race, color, religion or
national origin” in federal employment and the armed
forces.

1948 – Bob Howard becomes the first African American host of a
network show – CBS’ “The Bob Howard Show.”

1951 – The Army announces that it is disbanding the 24th Infantry
Regiment, its last and oldest all African American
regiment, in order to integrate all White and African
American troops in the Korean War zone.

1998 – Larry Doby, the first African American in major league
baseball’s American League, and Joe Rogan, a player in
the Negro Leagues, are inducted into Baseball’s Hall of
Fame.

2009 – Rickey Henderson, age 50 and Jim Rice, age 56, are inducted
into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Henderson lead the American League in steals 12 times and
holds the record for steals with 1,406, runs scored with
2,295, unintentional walks with 2,129, and homers leading
off a game with 81. He also set the modern major league
record for stolen bases with 130. Rice batted .298 with
382 home runs and 1,451 RBI from 1974 to 1989. He drove
in 100 or more runs eight times, batted over .300 seven
times, and topped 200 hits four times. Rice is also the
only player in major league history with at least 35 homers
and 200 hits in three consecutive seasons (1977-79).

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 3 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 3 *

1865 – The Fifth Massachusetts Colored Cavalry and units of the
Twenty-fifth Corps are in the vanguard of Union troops
entering Richmond. The Second Division of the Twenty-Fifth
Corps help to chase Robert E. Lee’s army from Petersburg to
Appomattox Court House, April 3-10. The African American
division and white Union soldiers are advancing on General
Lee’s trapped army with fixed bayonets when the Confederate
troops surrender.

1889 – The Savings Bank of the Order of True Reformers opens in
Richmond, Virginia.

1934 – Richard Mayhew is born in Amityville, New York. A student
at the Art Students League, Brooklyn Museum Art School, and
Columbia University, as well as the Academia in Florence,
Italy, Mayhew will be one of the most respected and
revolutionary landscape artists of the 20th century. He
will also form “Spiral,” a forum for artistic innovation
and exploration of African American artists’ relationships
to the civil rights movement, with fellow artists Romare
Bearden, Charles Alston, Hale Woodruff, and others.

1936 – James Harrell McGriff is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He will be surrounded by music as a child, with both parents
playing piano and cousins Benny Golson and Harold Melvin,
who were pursuing their own musical talents. He will be
influenced to play the organ by neighbor Richard “Groove”
Holmes, with whom he will study privately. He will also
study organ at Philadelphia’s Combe College of Music and at
Julliard. In addition, he will study with Milt Buckner and
with classical organist Sonny Gatewood. His first hit will
be with his arrangement of “I Got A Woman”, on the Sue
label, which made it to the top five on both Billboard’s
Rhythm and Blues and Pop charts. There will be close to 100
albums with Jimmy McGriff’s name at the top as leader. He
will record for Sue, Solid State, United Artists, Blue Note,
Groove Merchant, Milestone, Headfirst and Telarc. Over his
prolific career, he will record with George Benson, Kenny
Burrell, Frank Foster, J.J. Johnson and a two-organ jam
affair with the late “Groove” Holmes.

1944 – The U.S. Supreme Court (Smith v. Allwright) said that “white
primaries” that exclude African Americans are
unconstitutional.

1950 – Carter G. Woodson, “the father of black history,” joins the
ancestors in Washington, DC at the age of 74.

1961 – Edward “Eddie” Regan Murphy is born in Brooklyn, New York. A
stand-up comedian and star of “Saturday Night Live” before
pursuing a movie career, Murphy will become one of the
largest African American box office draws. Among his most
successful movies will be “48 Hours,” “Trading Places,”
“Beverly Hills Cop,” “Coming to America,” and “Harlem
Nights.”

1963 – Led by Martin Luther King, Jr., the Birmingham anti-
segregation campaign begins. Before it is over, more than
2,000 demonstrators, including King, will be arrested. The
Birmingham Manifesto, issued by Fred Shuttlesworth of the
Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights the morning of
the campaign, summarizes the frustration and hopes of the
protesters: “The patience of an oppressed people cannot
endure forever…. This is Birmingham’s moment of truth in
which every citizen can play his part in her larger
destiny.”

1964 – Malcolm X speaks at a CORE-sponsored meeting on “The Negro
Revolt What Comes Next?” In his speech “The Ballot or
Bullet,” Malcolm warns of a growing black nationalism that
will no longer tolerate patronizing white political action.

1968 – Less than 24 hours before he is assassinated in Memphis,
Tennessee, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
delivers his famous “mountaintop” speech to a rally of
striking sanitation workers.

1990 – Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan joins the ancestors in suburban
Los Angeles, California, at the age of 66.

1996 – An Air Force jetliner carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown
and American business executives crashes in Croatia,
killing all 35 people aboard.

2007 – Eddie Robinson, the longtime Grambling University coach who
transformed a small, Black college into a football power
that sent hundreds of players to the NFL, joins the
ancestors at the age of 88. The soft-spoken coach spent 57
years at Grambling State University, where he set a
standard for victories with 408 and nearly every season
relished seeing his top players drafted by NFL teams.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 19 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 19 *

1798 – Portrait painter Joshua Johnston places an ad in the
“Baltimore Intelligencer” describing himself as “a self-
taught genius.” Johnston, a freeman, will paint portraits
of some of the most successful merchant families in
Maryland and Virginia. Only three of his subjects will
be African American, among them “Portrait of an Unknown
Man” and “Reverend Daniel Coker.”

1875 – Carter G. Woodson is born in New Canton, Virginia. A
founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life
and History, of the “Journal of Negro History,” and Negro
History Week, Woodson will write many books on African
American history. The most popular of his books will be,
“The Negro in Our History,” which will be used extensively
in high schools throughout the United States. He will join
the ancestors on April 3, 1950.

1886 – Clementine Rubin (later Hunter) is born in Clourtierville,
Louisiana. Because there were no birth certificates
issued in rural Louisiana during this time, there is much
controversy about her exact date of birth. Sources mention
her birth in December 1886 and January 1887. The only
real documentation of her earliest existence is a
christening document dated March, 1887. She will become a
painter in the 1930’s after spending years working on the
Melrose Plantation, a haven for many rural Southern
artists. Her first artistic medium will be quilt making,
and her first piece will be in 1938 exhibiting the
hardships of plantation life. Her first painting will be
completed in 1939. In 1955, she will become the first
African American artist to have a one person show at the
Delgado Museum (now known as the New Orleans Museum of
Art). Her folk-art style will earn her the nickname “the
Black Grandma Moses.” By the time she joins the ancestors
on January 1, 1988, she will be considered one of the
twentieth century’s leading folk artists.

1891 – Charles Randolph Uncles becomes the first African American
Catholic priest ordained in the United States. He is
ordained in Baltimore, Maryland.

1910 – The first city ordinance requiring white and black
residential areas is passed by the Baltimore City Council.
Similar laws will be passed in Norfolk, Richmond, Roanoke,
Greensboro, St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Dallas and
Louisville.

1910 – The Pittsburgh Courier newspaper is founded.

1910 – North Carolina College is founded in Durham, North Carolina.

1910 – The Norfolk Journal and Guide is established under the
leadership of P. B. Young Sr.

1930 – James Weldon Johnson resigns as executive secretary of
NAACP citing health reasons.

1930 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Henry A. Hunt,
Principal, Fort Valley High and Industrial School, Fort
Valley, Georgia, for his pioneering work as an educator.

1930 – Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, founded at Howard University in
1913, is incorporated.

1933 – Cicely Tyson is born in the Village of Harlem in New York
City. She will pursue a modeling career, appearing on the
covers of both “Vogue” and “Harper’s Bazaar at the age of
23. She will later pursue acting and win acclaim for her
roles on the stage and on television, as well as in the
movie, Sounder (for which she will be named best actress
by the National Society of Film Critics and receive an
Academy Award nomination) and “The Autobiography of Miss
Jane Pittman,” for which she will win two Emmys.

1941 – Maurice White is born. He will become a singer, musician
(drummer) and founder of Earth, Wind & Fire. Some of his
hits include “Shining Star,” “Sing a Song,” “Got to Get
You into My Life,” “After the Love Has Gone,” and “Best of
My Love”.

1944 – Timothy Reid is born in Norfolk, Virginia. He will become
a comedian and known for his role as “Venus Flytrap” on
“WKRP in Cincinnati, as well as “Frank’s Place.”

1961 – Reggie White is born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He will
become an all-pro defensive lineman for the NFL
Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers. He will play
with Green Bay as they win the 1997 Super Bowl. He will
hold the NFL record of 198 sacks until it is broken by
Bruce Smith of the Washington Redskins in 2003. He will
retire from football at the end of the 1998-1999 season.
He will join the ancestors on December 26, 2004, after
succumbing to a cardiac arrhythmia caused by cardiac and
pulmonary sarcoidosis.

1962 – Nyasaland secedes from Rhodesia.

1977 – Jimmy Rogers, a bluesman who played guitar for the original
Muddy Waters band and who will be inducted into the Blues
Hall of Fame in 1994, joins the ancestors in Chicago at the
age of 73. He succumbs to colon cancer. He recorded a
string of solo hits beginning in the 1950s, including
“Walking by Myself,” “Chicago Bound” and “Sloppy Drunk.”
He played with Water’s Band in Chicago clubs and in the
studio for about a decade. In 1996, he won the W.C. Handy
award for male traditional blues artist.

1989 – Police in Jacksonville, Florida, disarm a parcel bomb at the
local NAACP office, the fourth in a series of mail bombs to
turn up in the Deep South. One bomb kills a Savannah,
Georgia, alderman, and another a federal judge in Alabama.
Walter L. Moody Jr. will be convicted in both bombings.

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

KRLemmons African American History

July 26 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – July 26 *

1847 – Twenty-five years after the first free African Americans
arrive at the colony of Cape Mesurado, the commonwealth
of Liberia declares itself an independent republic.
Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a Virginia native, becomes its
first president.

1865 – Catholic priest Patrick Francis Healy passes his final
Ph.D. examinations in philosophy at the University of
Louvrain in Belgium. He becomes the first African
American to earn a Ph.D.

1916 – Spottiswood W. Robinson is born in Richmond, Virginia.
He will pursue a distinguished career in law, in private
practice, as a representative of the NAACP Legal Defense
Fund, dean of the Howard University Law School, and as a
member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In 1966,
he will be named a U.S. Circuit Judge of the DC Circuit
by President Lyndon B. Johnson, marking the beginning of
a successful judicial career.

1918 – Two days after she moves into a predominantly, though not
exclusively, white Philadelphia neighborhood, an African
American woman’s house is stoned. The incident will set
off four days of riots in which one African American and
three whites are killed.

1926 – The Spingarn Medal is awarded to Carter G. Woodson for
“ten years of devoted service in collecting and
publishing the records of the Negro in America.”

1948 – President Harry S Truman issues Executive Order 9981,
directing “equality of treatment and opportunity for all
personnel without regard to race, color, religion or
national origin” in federal employment and the armed
forces.

1948 – Bob Howard becomes the first African American host of a
network show – CBS’ “The Bob Howard Show.”

1951 – The Army announces that it is disbanding the 24th Infantry
Regiment, its last and oldest all African American
regiment, in order to integrate all White and African
American troops in the Korean War zone.

1998 – Larry Doby, the first African American in major league
baseball’s American League, and Joe Rogan, a player in
the Negro Leagues, are inducted into Baseball’s Hall of
Fame.

2009 – Rickey Henderson, age 50 and Jim Rice, age 56, are inducted
into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Henderson lead the American League in steals 12 times and
holds the record for steals with 1,406, runs scored with
2,295, unintentional walks with 2,129, and homers leading
off a game with 81. He also set the modern major league
record for stolen bases with 130. Rice batted .298 with
382 home runs and 1,451 RBI from 1974 to 1989. He drove
in 100 or more runs eight times, batted over .300 seven
times, and topped 200 hits four times. Rice is also the
only player in major league history with at least 35 homers
and 200 hits in three consecutive seasons (1977-79).

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 3 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 3 *

1865 – The Fifth Massachusetts Colored Cavalry and units of the
Twenty-fifth Corps are in the vanguard of Union troops
entering Richmond. The Second Division of the Twenty-Fifth
Corps help to chase Robert E. Lee’s army from Petersburg to
Appomattox Court House, April 3-10. The African American
division and white Union soldiers are advancing on General
Lee’s trapped army with fixed bayonets when the Confederate
troops surrender.

1889 – The Savings Bank of the Order of True Reformers opens in
Richmond, Virginia.

1934 – Richard Mayhew is born in Amityville, New York. A student
at the Art Students League, Brooklyn Museum Art School, and
Columbia University, as well as the Academia in Florence,
Italy, Mayhew will be one of the most respected and
revolutionary landscape artists of the 20th century. He
will also form “Spiral,” a forum for artistic innovation
and exploration of African American artists’ relationships
to the civil rights movement, with fellow artists Romare
Bearden, Charles Alston, Hale Woodruff, and others.

1936 – James Harrell McGriff is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He will be surrounded by music as a child, with both parents
playing piano and cousins Benny Golson and Harold Melvin,
who were pursuing their own musical talents. He will be
influenced to play the organ by neighbor Richard “Groove”
Holmes, with whom he will study privately. He will also
study organ at Philadelphia’s Combe College of Music and at
Julliard. In addition, he will study with Milt Buckner and
with classical organist Sonny Gatewood. His first hit will
be with his arrangement of “I Got A Woman”, on the Sue
label, which made it to the top five on both Billboard’s
Rhythm and Blues and Pop charts. There will be close to 100
albums with Jimmy McGriff’s name at the top as leader. He
will record for Sue, Solid State, United Artists, Blue Note,
Groove Merchant, Milestone, Headfirst and Telarc. Over his
prolific career, he will record with George Benson, Kenny
Burrell, Frank Foster, J.J. Johnson and a two-organ jam
affair with the late “Groove” Holmes.

1944 – The U.S. Supreme Court (Smith v. Allwright) said that “white
primaries” that exclude African Americans are
unconstitutional.

1950 – Carter G. Woodson, “the father of black history,” joins the
ancestors in Washington, DC at the age of 74.

1961 – Edward “Eddie” Regan Murphy is born in Brooklyn, New York. A
stand-up comedian and star of “Saturday Night Live” before
pursuing a movie career, Murphy will become one of the
largest African American box office draws. Among his most
successful movies will be “48 Hours,” “Trading Places,”
“Beverly Hills Cop,” “Coming to America,” and “Harlem
Nights.”

1963 – Led by Martin Luther King, Jr., the Birmingham anti-
segregation campaign begins. Before it is over, more than
2,000 demonstrators, including King, will be arrested. The
Birmingham Manifesto, issued by Fred Shuttlesworth of the
Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights the morning of
the campaign, summarizes the frustration and hopes of the
protesters: “The patience of an oppressed people cannot
endure forever…. This is Birmingham’s moment of truth in
which every citizen can play his part in her larger
destiny.”

1964 – Malcolm X speaks at a CORE-sponsored meeting on “The Negro
Revolt What Comes Next?” In his speech “The Ballot or
Bullet,” Malcolm warns of a growing black nationalism that
will no longer tolerate patronizing white political action.

1968 – Less than 24 hours before he is assassinated in Memphis,
Tennessee, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
delivers his famous “mountaintop” speech to a rally of
striking sanitation workers.

1990 – Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan joins the ancestors in suburban
Los Angeles, California, at the age of 66.

1996 – An Air Force jetliner carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown
and American business executives crashes in Croatia,
killing all 35 people aboard.

2007 – Eddie Robinson, the longtime Grambling University coach who
transformed a small, Black college into a football power
that sent hundreds of players to the NFL, joins the
ancestors at the age of 88. The soft-spoken coach spent 57
years at Grambling State University, where he set a
standard for victories with 408 and nearly every season
relished seeing his top players drafted by NFL teams.

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

KRLemmons African American History

February 7 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 7 *

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1712 – Twenty-one slaves are executed after killing nine whites when
a slave revolt occurs in New York City.

1872 – The doors of Alcorn Agricultural & Mechanical College open.

1883 – James Hubert “Eubie” Blake is born in Baltimore, Maryland. He
will become a pianist, who will be an instrumental part of the
creation of a new music movement named ‘ragtime.’ He will
form a song-writing team with Noble Sissle that will create
many Broadway musicals. He will temporarily retire after
` World War II and will see a resurgence of his career in the
1960’s, with renewed public interest in ragtime. He will
remain active as a jazz pianist and composer until his
ninety-ninth year. He will join the ancestors on February 12,
1983 in New York City.

1926 – The first Negro History Week begins. Originated by Dr. Carter
G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and
History, the Sunday kickoff celebration involves ministers,
teachers, professionals, and business people in highlighting
the “achievements of the Negro.” The concept will win
increasing popularity and be expanded in 1976 to an entire
month of local and national events exploring African American
culture.

1946 – A filibuster in the United States Senate kills the Fair
Employment Practices Commission bill.

1974 – Grenada achieves its independence from Great Britain.

1986 – Haiti’s President-for-Life, Jean-Claude Duvalier loses control
of his country to strikes, led by students. The U.S.
government asked him to resign and helped him flee to exile
in France. Henri Namphy becomes leader of Haiti.

1991 – The Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide is sworn in as Haiti’s first
democratically elected president.

2000 – Tiger Woods gains his sixth straight PGA Tour victory with an
astonishing comeback to win the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am,
becoming the first player since Ben Hogan in 1948 to win six
in a row.

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