KRLemmons African American History

October 1 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – October 1 *

1851 – William “Jerry” Henry, a runaway slave and craftsman who had
settled in Syracuse, New York, is arrested by a United
States Marshal and scheduled to be returned to slavery.
Ten thousand citizens of the city will storm the sheriff’s
office and courthouse, free Henry, and aid his escape to
Canada via the underground railroad.

1872 – Morgan State College (now University) is founded in
Baltimore, Maryland.

1886 – Kentucky State College (now University) is founded in
Frankfort, Kentucky.

1897 – Virginia Proctor Powell, first female African American
librarian is born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. She will
follow in her mother’s footsteps and continue her education
at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. In 1919, She will earn
her Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Oberlin.
She will move back to Pittsburgh where, although having
adequate training and experience, she was unable to pursue her
desired goal of teaching and spent some time working at her
aunt’s salon as a beautician. Aware of her passion for children
and books, Charles Wilbur Florence, her future husband, will
encourage her to pursue a career in librarianship. During a
time when African Americans were rarely considered for
admission into predominantly white universities, she will be
considered for admission into the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library
School (now the University of Pittsburgh School of Information
Sciences). There is much debate about allowing a Black person
into the program. School officials were concerned with how
white students might react to having a Black peer and the
likelihood that she would not find work upon completion of the
program. She will finish the program in 1923. OVer time she
would work as a librarian in Richmond, Virginia and Washington,
D.C. She will join the ancestors in Richmond, Virginia in 1991.

1937 – The Pullman Company formally recognizes the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters.

1937 – The Spingarn Medal is awarded to Walter White, NAACP
secretary, for his leadership and work in the anti-
lynching movement.

1945 – Donny Hathaway is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will be
an influential pop and Rhythm & Blues singer of the 1970s
whose hit songs will include “The Ghetto” and “The Closer
I Get to You” (with Roberta Flack). His collaborations with
Roberta Flack will score high on the charts and win him the
Grammy Award for “Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with
Vocal” for the duet, “Where Is the Love” in 1973. He will join
the ancestors, after commiting suicide, on January 13, 1979.

1945 – Rodney Cline “Rod” Carew, baseball Hall of Famer, is born in Gatún,
Panama, (formally Panama Canal Zone). He will win the American
League’s Rookie of the Year award in 1967 and be elected to the
first of 18 consecutive All-Star game appearances. He will steal
home seven times in the 1969 season to lead the majors, just
missing Ty Cobb’s Major League record of eight and the most in the
major leagues since Pete Reiser stole seven for the Brooklyn
Dodgers in 1946. His career total of 17 steals of home currently
puts him tied for 17th on the list with former New York Giant MVP
Larry Doyle and fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Collins. In 1972, He
will lead the American League in batting, hitting .318, and
remarkably, without hitting a single home run for the only time in
his career. He is, to date, the only player in the American League
or in the modern era to win the batting title with no home runs.
In 1975, he will join Ty Cobb as the only players to lead both the
American and National Leagues in batting average for three
consecutive seasons. In the 1977 season, he will bat .388, which is
the highest since Boston’s Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, and win
the American League’s Most Valuable Player award. He will be
inducted into MLB Hall of Fame in 1991. He will also be inducted
into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame.

1945 – Heavyweight champion, Joe Louis, is discharged from the
army.

1947 – United States’ control of Haitian Custom Service and
governmental revenue ends.

1948 – The California Supreme Court voids state statute banning
interracial marriages.

1948 – Edward Dudley is named Ambassador to Liberia.

1951 – The 24th Infantry Regiment, last of the all African
American military units authorized by Congress in 1866,
is deactivated in Korea.

1954 – The British colony of Nigeria becomes a federation.

1955 – Howard Hewitt is born in Akron, Ohio. He will move to Los
Angeles where he would eventually meet Soul Train dancer
and future first wife Rainey Riley-Cunningham, then a
secretary of the show’s creator and original host Don
Cornelius. It was Cornelius who introduced him to fellow
Soul Train dancers Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel, and
their group, Shalamar, was born. The trio is best known
for songs such as “Second Time Around”, “A Night to
Remember”, “Dancing in the Sheets” and the ballad “This Is
For The Lover In You”. He will be the group’s lead singer
from 1979 until 1985. When Shalamar breaks up in the mid
1980s, he will go on to pursue a solo career. In 1986 he
will be arrested and indicted in Miami with his fiance Mori
Molina for possession with an intent to distribute cocaine.
He subsequently married Molina who will be convicted and
serve prison time. He will then be acquitted of the charges.
He will sign with Elektra Records and record 1986’s I Commit
To Love (R&B #12), a relatively solid urban album that will
yielded two R&B hits, “I’m For Real” (R&B #2) and “Stay”
(R&B #8). The album will also include “Say Amen”, a gospel
tune that became a surprise hit on the Gospel charts and is
his signature song. He will contribute vocals to La Toya
Jackson’s Hot 100 hit single “Heart Don’t Lie” in 1984.

1960 – Nigeria proclaims its independence from Great Britain.

1961 – East & West Cameroon merge and become the Federal
Republic of Cameroon.

1963 – Nigeria becomes a republic within the British
Commonwealth.

1966 – The Black Panther party is founded in Oakland, California
by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

1977 – Brazilian soccer great, Pele’, retires with 1,281 goals
in 1,363 games.

1989 – Dallas Cowboy, Ed “Too Tall” Jones records his 1,000th
NFL tackle.

1991 – Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell assumes her duties as dean of
New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. A noted
art historian, Schmidt had previously served as
commissioner of cultural affairs, director of the
Studio of Harlem, and chair of the Smithsonian
Institution’s Advisory Committee that recommended
creation of a national African American museum.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 5 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 5 *

1804 – Absalom Jones is ordained a priest in the Protestant
Episcopal Church.

1846 – John Wesley Cromwell is born into slavery in Portsmouth,
Virginia. After receiving freedom, he and his family
will move to Philadelphia. In 1865, he will return to
Portsmouth to open a private school, which will fail due
to racial harassment. He will enter Howard University in
Washington, DC in 1871. He will receive a law degree and
be admitted to the bar in 1874. He will be the first
African American to practice law for the Interstate
Commerce Commission. He will found the weekly paper, “The
People’s Advocate” in 1876. In 1881, he will be elected
President of Bethel Library and Historical Association in
Washington, DC. He will use this position to generate
interest in African American history. He will inspire the
foundation of the Association for the Study of Negro Life
and History in 1915. He will also be the Secretary of the
American Negro Academy. He will join the ancestors on
April 14, 1927.

1859 – “Our Nig” by Harriet E. Wilson is published. It is the
first novel published in the United States by an African
American woman and will be lost to readers for years
until reprinted with a critical essay by noted African
American scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in 1983.

1877 – African Americans from the Post-Civil-War South, led by
Benjamin ‘Pap’ Singleton, settle in Kansas and establish
towns like Nicodemus, to take advantage of free land
offered by the United States government through the
Homestead Act of 1860.

1895 – George Washington Murray is elected to Congress from South
Carolina.

1916 – Novelist Frank Yerby is born in Augusta, Georgia. A student
at Fisk University and the University of Chicago, Yerby’s
early short story “Health Card” will win the O. Henry
short story award. He will later turn to adventure novels
and become a best-selling author in the 1940’s and 1950’s
with “The Foxes of Harrow”, “The Vixens” and many others.
His later novels will include “Goat Song”, “The Darkness
at Ingraham’s Crest-A Tale of the Slaveholding South”,
and “Devil Seed”. In total, Yerby will publish over 30
novels that sell over 20 million copies. He will leave
the United States in 1955 in protest against racial
discrimination, moving to Spain where he will remain for
the rest of his life. He will join the ancestors on
November 29, 1991, after succumbing to congestive heart
failure in Madrid. He will be interred there in the
Cementerio de la Almudena.

1960 – Cassius Clay of Louisville, Kentucky, wins the gold medal
in light heavyweight boxing at the Olympic Games in Rome,
Italy. Clay will later change his name to Muhammad Ali
and become one of the great boxing champions in the world.
In 1996, at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia,
Muhammad Ali will have the honor of lighting the Olympic
flame.

1960 – Leopold Sedar Senghor, poet, politician, is elected
President of Senegal.

1972 – Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway win a gold record — for
their duet, “Where is the Love”. The song gets to number
five on the pop music charts and is one of two songs for
the duo to earn gold. The other will be “The Closer I Get
To You” (1978).

1995 – O.J. Simpson jurors hear testimony that police detective
Mark Fuhrman had uttered a racist slur, and advocated the
killing of Blacks.
Information retrieved from the  Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.

KRLemmons African American History

October 1 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 1 *

1851 – William “Jerry” Henry, a runaway slave and craftsman who had
settled in Syracuse, New York, is arrested by a United
States Marshal and scheduled to be returned to slavery.
Ten thousand citizens of the city will storm the sheriff’s
office and courthouse, free Henry, and aid his escape to
Canada via the underground railroad.

1872 – Morgan State College (now University) is founded in
Baltimore, Maryland.

1886 – Kentucky State College (now University) is founded in
Frankfort, Kentucky.

1897 – Virginia Proctor Powell, first female African American
librarian is born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. She will
follow in her mother’s footsteps and continue her education
at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. In 1919, She will earn
her Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Oberlin.
She will move back to Pittsburgh where, although having
adequate training and experience, she was unable to pursue her
desired goal of teaching and spent some time working at her
aunt’s salon as a beautician. Aware of her passion for children
and books, Charles Wilbur Florence, her future husband, will
encourage her to pursue a career in librarianship. During a
time when African Americans were rarely considered for
admission into predominantly white universities, she will be
considered for admission into the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library
School (now the University of Pittsburgh School of Information
Sciences). There is much debate about allowing a Black person
into the program. School officials were concerned with how
white students might react to having a Black peer and the
likelihood that she would not find work upon completion of the
program. She will finish the program in 1923. OVer time she
would work as a librarian in Richmond, Virginia and Washington,
D.C. She will join the ancestors in Richmond, Virginia in 1991.

1937 – The Pullman Company formally recognizes the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters.

1937 – The Spingarn Medal is awarded to Walter White, NAACP
secretary, for his leadership and work in the anti-
lynching movement.

1945 – Donny Hathaway is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will be
an influential pop and Rhythm & Blues singer of the 1970s
whose hit songs will include “The Ghetto” and “The Closer
I Get to You” (with Roberta Flack). His collaborations with
Roberta Flack will score high on the charts and win him the
Grammy Award for “Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with
Vocal” for the duet, “Where Is the Love” in 1973. He will join
the ancestors, after commiting suicide, on January 13, 1979.

1945 – Rodney Cline “Rod” Carew, baseball Hall of Famer, is born in Gatún,
Panama, (formally Panama Canal Zone). He will win the American
League’s Rookie of the Year award in 1967 and be elected to the
first of 18 consecutive All-Star game appearances. He will steal
home seven times in the 1969 season to lead the majors, just
missing Ty Cobb’s Major League record of eight and the most in the
major leagues since Pete Reiser stole seven for the Brooklyn
Dodgers in 1946. His career total of 17 steals of home currently
puts him tied for 17th on the list with former New York Giant MVP
Larry Doyle and fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Collins. In 1972, He
will lead the American League in batting, hitting .318, and
remarkably, without hitting a single home run for the only time in
his career. He is, to date, the only player in the American League
or in the modern era to win the batting title with no home runs.
In 1975, he will join Ty Cobb as the only players to lead both the
American and National Leagues in batting average for three
consecutive seasons. In the 1977 season, he will bat .388, which is
the highest since Boston’s Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, and win
the American League’s Most Valuable Player award. He will be
inducted into MLB Hall of Fame in 1991. He will also be inducted
into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame.

1945 – Heavyweight champion, Joe Louis, is discharged from the
army.

1947 – United States’ control of Haitian Custom Service and
governmental revenue ends.

1948 – The California Supreme Court voids state statute banning
interracial marriages.

1948 – Edward Dudley is named Ambassador to Liberia.

1951 – The 24th Infantry Regiment, last of the all African
American military units authorized by Congress in 1866,
is deactivated in Korea.

1954 – The British colony of Nigeria becomes a federation.

1955 – Howard Hewitt is born in Akron, Ohio. He will move to Los
Angeles where he would eventually meet Soul Train dancer
and future first wife Rainey Riley-Cunningham, then a
secretary of the show’s creator and original host Don
Cornelius. It was Cornelius who introduced him to fellow
Soul Train dancers Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel, and
their group, Shalamar, was born. The trio is best known
for songs such as “Second Time Around”, “A Night to
Remember”, “Dancing in the Sheets” and the ballad “This Is
For The Lover In You”. He will be the group’s lead singer
from 1979 until 1985. When Shalamar breaks up in the mid
1980s, he will go on to pursue a solo career. In 1986 he
will be arrested and indicted in Miami with his fiance Mori
Molina for possession with an intent to distribute cocaine.
He subsequently married Molina who will be convicted and
serve prison time. He will then be acquitted of the charges.
He will sign with Elektra Records and record 1986’s I Commit
To Love (R&B #12), a relatively solid urban album that will
yielded two R&B hits, “I’m For Real” (R&B #2) and “Stay”
(R&B #8). The album will also include “Say Amen”, a gospel
tune that became a surprise hit on the Gospel charts and is
his signature song. He will contribute vocals to La Toya
Jackson’s Hot 100 hit single “Heart Don’t Lie” in 1984.

1960 – Nigeria proclaims its independence from Great Britain.

1961 – East & West Cameroon merge and become the Federal
Republic of Cameroon.

1963 – Nigeria becomes a republic within the British
Commonwealth.

1966 – The Black Panther party is founded in Oakland, California
by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

1977 – Brazilian soccer great, Pele’, retires with 1,281 goals
in 1,363 games.

1989 – Dallas Cowboy, Ed “Too Tall” Jones records his 1,000th
NFL tackle.

1991 – Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell assumes her duties as dean of
New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. A noted
art historian, Schmidt had previously served as
commissioner of cultural affairs, director of the
Studio of Harlem, and chair of the Smithsonian
Institution’s Advisory Committee that recommended
creation of a national African American museum.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 5 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 5 *

1804 – Absalom Jones is ordained a priest in the Protestant
Episcopal Church.

1846 – John Wesley Cromwell is born into slavery in Portsmouth,
Virginia. After receiving freedom, he and his family
will move to Philadelphia. In 1865, he will return to
Portsmouth to open a private school, which will fail due
to racial harassment. He will enter Howard University in
Washington, DC in 1871. He will receive a law degree and
be admitted to the bar in 1874. He will be the first
African American to practice law for the Interstate
Commerce Commission. He will found the weekly paper, “The
People’s Advocate” in 1876. In 1881, he will be elected
President of Bethel Library and Historical Association in
Washington, DC. He will use this position to generate
interest in African American history. He will inspire the
foundation of the Association for the Study of Negro Life
and History in 1915. He will also be the Secretary of the
American Negro Academy. He will join the ancestors on
April 14, 1927.

1859 – “Our Nig” by Harriet E. Wilson is published. It is the
first novel published in the United States by an African
American woman and will be lost to readers for years
until reprinted with a critical essay by noted African
American scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in 1983.

1877 – African Americans from the Post-Civil-War South, led by
Benjamin ‘Pap’ Singleton, settle in Kansas and establish
towns like Nicodemus, to take advantage of free land
offered by the United States government through the
Homestead Act of 1860.

1895 – George Washington Murray is elected to Congress from South
Carolina.

1916 – Novelist Frank Yerby is born in Augusta, Georgia. A student
at Fisk University and the University of Chicago, Yerby’s
early short story “Health Card” will win the O. Henry
short story award. He will later turn to adventure novels
and become a best-selling author in the 1940’s and 1950’s
with “The Foxes of Harrow”, “The Vixens” and many others.
His later novels will include “Goat Song”, “The Darkness
at Ingraham’s Crest-A Tale of the Slaveholding South”,
and “Devil Seed”. In total, Yerby will publish over 30
novels that sell over 20 million copies. He will leave
the United States in 1955 in protest against racial
discrimination, moving to Spain where he will remain for
the rest of his life. He will join the ancestors on
November 29, 1991, after succumbing to congestive heart
failure in Madrid. He will be interred there in the
Cementerio de la Almudena.

1960 – Cassius Clay of Louisville, Kentucky, wins the gold medal
in light heavyweight boxing at the Olympic Games in Rome,
Italy. Clay will later change his name to Muhammad Ali
and become one of the great boxing champions in the world.
In 1996, at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia,
Muhammad Ali will have the honor of lighting the Olympic
flame.

1960 – Leopold Sedar Senghor, poet, politician, is elected
President of Senegal.

1972 – Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway win a gold record — for
their duet, “Where is the Love”. The song gets to number
five on the pop music charts and is one of two songs for
the duo to earn gold. The other will be “The Closer I Get
To You” (1978).

1995 – O.J. Simpson jurors hear testimony that police detective
Mark Fuhrman had uttered a racist slur, and advocated the
killing of Blacks.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 1 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 1             *

1851 – William “Jerry” Henry, a runaway slave and craftsman who had
settled in Syracuse, New York, is arrested by a United
States Marshal and scheduled to be returned to slavery.
Ten thousand citizens of the city will storm the sheriff’s
office and courthouse, free Henry, and aid his escape to
Canada via the underground railroad.

1872 – Morgan State College (now University) is founded in
Baltimore, Maryland.

1886 – Kentucky State College (now University) is founded in
Frankfort, Kentucky.

1897 – Virginia Proctor Powell, first female African American
librarian is born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. She will
follow in her mother’s footsteps and continue her education
at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. In 1919, She will earn
her Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Oberlin.
She will move back to Pittsburgh where, although having
adequate training and experience, she was unable to pursue her
desired goal of teaching and spent some time working at her
aunt’s salon as a beautician. Aware of her passion for children
and books, Charles Wilbur Florence, her future husband, will
encourage her to pursue a career in librarianship. During a
time when African Americans were rarely considered for
admission into predominantly white universities, she will be
considered for admission into the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library
School (now the University of Pittsburgh School of Information
Sciences). There is much debate about allowing a Black person
into the program. School officials were concerned with how
white students might react to having a Black peer and the
likelihood that she would not find work upon completion of the
program. She will finish the program in 1923. OVer time she
would work as a librarian in Richmond, Virginia and Washington,
D.C. She will join the ancestors in Richmond, Virginia in 1991.

1937 – The Pullman Company formally recognizes the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters.

1937 – The Spingarn Medal is awarded to Walter White, NAACP
secretary, for his leadership and work in the anti-
lynching movement.

1945 – Donny Hathaway is born in Chicago, Illinois.  He will be
an influential pop and Rhythm & Blues singer of the 1970s
whose hit songs will include “The Ghetto” and “The Closer
I Get to You” (with Roberta Flack). His collaborations with
Roberta Flack will score high on the charts and win him the
Grammy Award for “Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with
Vocal” for the duet, “Where Is the Love” in 1973. He will join
the ancestors, after commiting suicide, on January 13, 1979.

1945 – Rodney Cline “Rod” Carew, baseball Hall of Famer, is born in Gatún,
Panama, (formally Panama Canal Zone). He will win the American
League’s Rookie of the Year award in 1967 and be elected to the
first of 18 consecutive All-Star game appearances. He will steal
home seven times in the 1969 season to lead the majors, just
missing Ty Cobb’s Major League record of eight and the most in the
major leagues since Pete Reiser stole seven for the Brooklyn
Dodgers in 1946. His career total of 17 steals of home currently
puts him tied for 17th on the list with former New York Giant MVP
Larry Doyle and fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Collins. In 1972, He
will lead the American League in batting, hitting .318, and
remarkably, without hitting a single home run for the only time in
his career. He is, to date, the only player in the American League
or in the modern era to win the batting title with no home runs.
In 1975, he will join Ty Cobb as the only players to lead both the
American and National Leagues in batting average for three
consecutive seasons. In the 1977 season, he will bat .388, which is
the highest since Boston’s Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, and win
the American League’s Most Valuable Player award. He will be
inducted into MLB Hall of Fame in 1991. He will also be inducted
into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame.

1945 – Heavyweight champion,  Joe Louis, is discharged from the
army.

1947 – United States’ control of Haitian Custom Service and
governmental revenue ends.

1948 – The California Supreme Court voids state statute banning
interracial marriages.

1948 – Edward Dudley is named Ambassador to Liberia.

1951 – The 24th Infantry Regiment, last of the all African
American military units authorized by Congress in 1866,
is deactivated in Korea.

1954 – The British colony of Nigeria becomes a federation.

1955 – Howard Hewitt is born in Akron, Ohio. He will move to Los
Angeles where he would eventually meet Soul Train dancer
and future first wife Rainey Riley-Cunningham, then a
secretary of the show’s creator and original host Don
Cornelius. It was Cornelius who introduced him to fellow
Soul Train dancers Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel, and
their group, Shalamar, was born. The trio is best known
for songs such as “Second Time Around”, “A Night to
Remember”, “Dancing in the Sheets” and the ballad “This Is
For The Lover In You”. He will be the group’s lead singer
from 1979 until 1985. When Shalamar breaks up in the mid
1980s, he will go on to pursue a solo career. In 1986 he
will be arrested and indicted in Miami with his fiance Mori
Molina for possession with an intent to distribute cocaine.
He subsequently married Molina who will be convicted and
serve prison time. He will then be acquitted of the charges.
He will sign with Elektra Records and record 1986’s I Commit
To Love (R&B #12), a relatively solid urban album that will
yielded two R&B hits, “I’m For Real” (R&B #2) and “Stay”
(R&B #8). The album will also include “Say Amen”, a gospel
tune that became a surprise hit on the Gospel charts and is
his signature song. He will contribute vocals to La Toya
Jackson’s Hot 100 hit single “Heart Don’t Lie” in 1984.

1960 – Nigeria proclaims its independence from Great Britain.

1961 – East & West Cameroon merge and become the Federal
Republic of Cameroon.

1963 – Nigeria becomes a republic within the British
Commonwealth.

1966 – The Black Panther party is founded in Oakland, California
by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

1977 – Brazilian soccer great, Pele’, retires with 1,281 goals
in 1,363 games.

1989 – Dallas Cowboy, Ed “Too Tall” Jones records his 1,000th
NFL tackle.

1991 – Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell assumes her duties as dean of
New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. A noted
art historian, Schmidt had previously served as
commissioner of cultural affairs, director of the
Studio of Harlem, and chair of the Smithsonian
Institution’s Advisory Committee that recommended
creation of a national African American museum.

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