KRLemmons African American History

December 7 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 7 *

1874 – White Democrats kill seventy-five Republicans in a
massacre at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1885 – The Forty-Ninth Congress (1885-87) is convened. Two
African American congressmen, James E. O’Hara of North
Carolina and Robert Smalls of South Carolina are in
attendance.

1931 – Comer Cottrell is born in Mobile, Alabama. In 1970, he
will become founder and president of Pro-line
Corporation in Los Angeles, California, which he will
start with $ 600 and a borrowed typewriter. He will move
the headquarters to Dallas, Texas in 1980, becoming the
largest African American-owned business in the southwest.
An entrepreneur with a wide range of interests, he will
become the first African American to own a part of a
major league baseball team, the Texas Rangers, in 1989.
He will also become sponsor of Miss Collegiate African
American Pageant in 1989, purchase the campus of bankrupt
Bishop College in Dallas, Texas in 1990, and persuade
Paul Quinn College to relocate to former grounds of
Bishop College. He will donate $25,000 to Spelman College
in Atlanta, Georgia and serve as part of an entourage of
black businessmen visiting the Republic of South Africa
in 1994. He will join the ancestors on October 3, 2014.

1941 – During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dorie Miller
of Waco, Texas, a messman aboard the battleship Arizona
who had never been instructed in firearms, heroically
downs three Japanese planes before being ordered to
leave the ship. Miller will be awarded the Navy Cross
for his bravery.

1941 – The Downtown Gallery in New York City presents the
exhibit “American Negro Art, 19th and 20th Century”.
Included in the exhibit is work by Robert Duncanson,
Horace Pippin, Eldzier Cortor, Richmond Barte’ and
others.

1941 – Lester Granger is named executive director of the
National Urban League.

1941 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to novelist
Richard Wright, “one of the most powerful of
contemporary writer,” for “his powerful depiction in
his books, ‘Uncle Tom’s Childre-n,’ and ‘Native Son,’
of the effect of proscription, segregation and denial
of opportunities to the American Negro.”

1942 – Reginald F. Lewis is born in Baltimore, Maryland. He will
receive his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1968.
He will eventually become a partner in Murphy, Thorpe &
Lewis, the first African American law firm on Wall
Street. In 1989, he will become president and CEO of
TLC Beatrice International Holding Inc. With TLC’s
leverage acquisition of Beatrice International Food
Company, Lewis becomes the head of the largest African
American-owned business in the United States. TLC
Beatrice had revenues of $1.54 billion in 1992. He will
join the ancestors in January, 1993, succumbing to brain
cancer.

1972 – W. Sterling Cary is elected president of the Nation
Council of Churches.

1978 – Billy Sims is awarded the Heisman Trophy at the annual
awards dinner sponsored by the Downtown Athletic Club.
The running back from the University of Oklahoma is the
sixth junior to win the award.

1981 – John Jacobs is named president of the National Urban
League.

1985 – Bo Jackson of Auburn University wins the Heisman Trophy.

1990 – Rhythm and Blues artist, Dee Clark, joins the ancestors in
Smyrna, Georgia at the age of 52.

1993 – The South African transitional executive council is set up.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 27 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 27 *

1863 – Captain Andre’ Callioux and his Native Guard Regiment, which had once
fought for the Confederacy, charge Port Hudson, Louisiana. The Union
Army Guard, intent on disproving white contentions that “Negroes”
lacked the intelligence for combat, will make six different assaults
on the stronghold.

1917 – One African American is killed and hundreds are left homeless in race
riots in East St. Louis, Illinois.

1935 – Ramsey Lewis is born in Chicago, Illinois. While attending Chicago
Musical College, he will form the Gentlemen of Swing (later called
The Ramsey Lewis Trio) with The Cleff’s old rhythm section, Eldee
Young (bass) and Redd Holt (drums). Their weekend gig will catch the
attention of an influential deejay (Daddio-O-Dayle), who convinces
blues record company owner Phil Chess to expand into jazz and sign
the trio. From the start (1958) their records were popular, although
in the early days they had a strong jazz content. In 1958 Lewis will
also record with Max Roach and Lem Winchester. On the 1965 albums
“The In Crowd” and “Hang On Sloopy,” Ramsey will make the piano into
a major attraction and from that point on, his records will become
much more predictable and pop-oriented. In 1966, his trio’s personnel
will change with bassist Cleveland Eaton and drummer Maurice White
(later the founder of Earth, Wind and Fire) joining Lewis. In the
1970s Lewis will often play electric piano, although by later in the
decade, he was sticking to acoustic and hiring an additional
keyboardist. He plays melodic jazz when he wants to, but will stick
to easy-listening pop music during his career.

1936 – Louis Gossett, Jr. is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will make his
acting debut at 17 in “Take a Giant Step” and act in numerous stage,
film and television roles including Fiddler in “Roots,” for which he
will win an Emmy. His portrayal of the tough drill instructor in “An
Officer and a Gentleman” will win him an Academy Award as best
supporting actor in 1982, the third African-American to win an Oscar
for acting.

1941 – A race riot begins in East St. Louis, Illinois. After four days of
rioting, one African American will be killed.

1942 – Dorie Miller, a messman from Waco, Texas, is awarded the Navy cross for
his heroic deeds at Pearl Harbor. The Cross is pinned on his chest by
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.

1958 – Ernest Green graduates from Little Rock’s Central High School with six
hundred white classmates, becoming the first of the “little Rock Nine”
to graduate from high school.

1961 – Ralph Boston of the United States, sets the long jump record.

1963 – Jomo Kenyatta is elected first prime minister of self-governing Kenya.
In the early 1950s, Kenyatta was sentenced to seven years of hard
labor for alleged links to the Mau Mau, a clandestine anti-British
organization. In 1964, Kenyatta will become the first president of
Kenya, remaining in that position until 1978.

1965 – Todd Bridges is born in San Francisco, California. He will become a
child actor and is best known for his roles in the TV series “Diff’rent
Strokes,” and “Fish.”

1968 – The Supreme Court orders schools to present a realistic desegregation
plan immediately. The ruling comes almost 13 years to the day after
the Court’s “all deliberate speed” desegregation order in 1955.

1975 – Ezzard Charles, former heavyweight boxing champion, joins the ancestors
in Chicago at the age of 53.

2011 – Gil Scott-Heron joins the ancestors at the age of 62. He was an American
soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, known primarily for his work
as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and ’80s. His collaborative
efforts with musician Brian Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz,
blues, and soul, as well as lyrical content concerning social and
political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic
vocal styles. His own term for himself was “bluesologist”, which he
defined as “a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues.”
His music, most notably on “Pieces of a Man and Winter in America” in
the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American
music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. He will be honored
posthumously as a 2012 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner by the
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 7 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 7 *

1874 – White Democrats kill seventy-five Republicans in a
massacre at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1885 – The Forty-Ninth Congress (1885-87) is convened. Two
African American congressmen, James E. O’Hara of North
Carolina and Robert Smalls of South Carolina are in
attendance.

1931 – Comer Cottrell is born in Mobile, Alabama. In 1970, he
will become founder and president of Pro-line
Corporation in Los Angeles, California, which he will
start with $ 600 and a borrowed typewriter. He will move
the headquarters to Dallas, Texas in 1980, becoming the
largest African American-owned business in the southwest.
An entrepreneur with a wide range of interests, he will
become the first African American to own a part of a
major league baseball team, the Texas Rangers, in 1989.
He will also become sponsor of Miss Collegiate African
American Pageant in 1989, purchase the campus of bankrupt
Bishop College in Dallas, Texas in 1990, and persuade
Paul Quinn College to relocate to former grounds of
Bishop College. He will donate $25,000 to Spelman College
in Atlanta, Georgia and serve as part of an entourage of
black businessmen visiting the Republic of South Africa
in 1994.

1941 – During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dorie Miller
of Waco, Texas, a messman aboard the battleship Arizona
who had never been instructed in firearms, heroically
downs three Japanese planes before being ordered to
leave the ship. Miller will be awarded the Navy Cross
for his bravery.

1941 – The Downtown Gallery in New York City presents the
exhibit “American Negro Art, 19th and 20th Century”.
Included in the exhibit is work by Robert Duncanson,
Horace Pippin, Eldzier Cortor, Richmond Barte’ and
others.

1941 – Lester Granger is named executive director of the
National Urban League.

1941 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to novelist
Richard Wright, “one of the most powerful of
contemporary writer,” for “his powerful depiction in
his books, ‘Uncle Tom’s Childre-n,’ and ‘Native Son,’
of the effect of proscription, segregation and denial
of opportunities to the American Negro.”

1942 – Reginald F. Lewis is born in Baltimore, Maryland. He will
receive his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1968.
He will eventually become a partner in Murphy, Thorpe &
Lewis, the first African American law firm on Wall
Street. In 1989, he will become president and CEO of
TLC Beatrice International Holding Inc. With TLC’s
leverage acquisition of Beatrice International Food
Company, Lewis becomes the head of the largest African
American-owned business in the United States. TLC
Beatrice had revenues of $1.54 billion in 1992. He will
join the ancestors in January, 1993, succumbing to brain
cancer.

1972 – W. Sterling Cary is elected president of the Nation
Council of Churches.

1978 – Billy Sims is awarded the Heisman Trophy at the annual
awards dinner sponsored by the Downtown Athletic Club.
The running back from the University of Oklahoma is the
sixth junior to win the award.

1981 – John Jacobs is named president of the National Urban
League.

1985 – Bo Jackson of Auburn University wins the Heisman Trophy.

1990 – Rhythm and Blues artist, Dee Clark, joins the ancestors in
Smyrna, Georgia at the age of 52.

1993 – The South African transitional executive council is set up.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 27 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – May 27 *

1863 – Captain Andre’ Callioux and his Native Guard Regiment, which had once
fought for the Confederacy, charge Port Hudson, Louisiana. The Union
Army Guard, intent on disproving white contentions that “Negroes”
lacked the intelligence for combat, will make six different assaults
on the stronghold.

1917 – One African American is killed and hundreds are left homeless in race
riots in East St. Louis, Illinois.

1935 – Ramsey Lewis is born in Chicago, Illinois. While attending Chicago
Musical College, he will form the Gentlemen of Swing (later called
The Ramsey Lewis Trio) with The Cleff’s old rhythm section, Eldee
Young (bass) and Redd Holt (drums). Their weekend gig will catch the
attention of an influential deejay (Daddio-O-Dayle), who convinces
blues record company owner Phil Chess to expand into jazz and sign
the trio. From the start (1958) their records were popular, although
in the early days they had a strong jazz content. In 1958 Lewis will
also record with Max Roach and Lem Winchester. On the 1965 albums
“The In Crowd” and “Hang On Sloopy,” Ramsey will make the piano into
a major attraction and from that point on, his records will become
much more predictable and pop-oriented. In 1966, his trio’s personnel
will change with bassist Cleveland Eaton and drummer Maurice White
(later the founder of Earth, Wind and Fire) joining Lewis. In the
1970s Lewis will often play electric piano, although by later in the
decade, he was sticking to acoustic and hiring an additional
keyboardist. He plays melodic jazz when he wants to, but will stick
to easy-listening pop music during the his career.

1936 – Louis Gossett, Jr. is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will make his
acting debut at 17 in “Take a Giant Step” and act in numerous stage,
film and television roles including Fiddler in “Roots,” for which he
will win an Emmy. His portrayal of the tough drill instructor in “An
Officer and a Gentleman” will win him an Academy Award as best
supporting actor in 1982, the third African-American to win an Oscar
for acting.

1941 – A race riot begins in East St. Louis, Illinois. After four days of
rioting, one African American will be killed.

1942 – Dorie Miller, a messman from Waco, Texas, is awarded the Navy cross for
his heroic deeds at Pearl Harbor. The Cross is pinned on his chest by
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.

1958 – Ernest Green graduates from Little Rock’s Central High School with six
hundred white classmates, becoming the first of the “little Rock Nine”
to graduate from high school.

1961 – Ralph Boston of the United States, sets the long jump record.

1963 – Jomo Kenyatta is elected first prime minister of self-governing Kenya.
In the early 1950s, Kenyatta was sentenced to seven years of hard
labor for alleged links to the Mau Mau, a clandestine anti-British
organization. In 1964, Kenyatta will become the first president of
Kenya, remaining in that position until 1978.

1965 – Todd Bridges is born in San Francisco, California. He will become a
child actor and is best known for his roles in the TV series “Diff’rent
Strokes,” and “Fish.”

1968 – The Supreme Court orders schools to present a realistic desegregation
plan immediately. The ruling comes almost 13 years to the day after
the Court’s “all deliberate speed” desegregation order in 1955.

1975 – Ezzard Charles, former heavyweight boxing champion, joins the ancestors
in Chicago at the age of 53.

2011 – Gil Scott-Heron joins the ancestors at the age of 62. He was an American
soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, known primarily for his work
as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and ’80s. His collaborative
efforts with musician Brian Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz,
blues, and soul, as well as lyrical content concerning social and
political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic
vocal styles. His own term for himself was “bluesologist”, which he
defined as “a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues.”
His music, most notably on “Pieces of a Man and Winter in America” in
the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American
music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. He will be honored
posthumously as a 2012 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner by the
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 7 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 7           *

1874 – White Democrats kill seventy-five Republicans in a
massacre at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1885 – The Forty-Ninth Congress (1885-87) is convened. Two
African American congressmen, James E. O’Hara of North
Carolina and Robert Smalls of South Carolina are in
attendance.

1931 – Comer Cottrell is born in Mobile, Alabama.  In 1970, he
will become founder and president of Pro-line
Corporation, the largest African American-owned business
in the southwest, which he will start with $ 600 and a
borrowed typewriter.  An entrepreneur with a wide range
of interests, Cottrell will also become the first
African American to own a part of a major league
baseball team, the Texas Rangers, in 1989.

1941 – During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dorie Miller
of Waco, Texas, a messman aboard the battleship Arizona
who had never been instructed in firearms, heroically
downs three Japanese planes before being ordered to
leave the ship.  Miller will be awarded the Navy Cross
for his bravery.

1941 – The Downtown Gallery in New York City presents the
exhibit “American Negro Art, 19th and 20th Century”.
Included in the exhibit is work by Robert Duncanson,
Horace Pippin, Eldzier Cortor, Richmond Barte’ and
others.

1941 – Lester Granger is named executive director of the
National Urban League.

1941 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to novelist
Richard Wright, “one of the most powerful of
contemporary writer,” for “his powerful depiction in
his books, ‘Uncle Tom’s Childre-n,’ and ‘Native Son,’
of the effect of proscription, segregation and denial
of opportunities to the American Negro.”

1942 – Reginald F. Lewis is born in Baltimore, Maryland. He will
receive his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1968.
He will eventually become a partner in Murphy, Thorpe &
Lewis, the first African American law firm on Wall
Street.  In 1989, he will become president and CEO of
TLC Beatrice International Holding Inc.  With TLC’s
leverage acquisition of Beatrice International Food
Company, Lewis becomes the head of the largest African
American-owned business in the United States.  TLC
Beatrice had revenues of $1.54 billion in 1992. He will
join the ancestors in January, 1993, succumbing to brain
cancer.

1972 – W. Sterling Cary is elected president of the Nation
Council of Churches.

1978 – Billy Sims is awarded the Heisman Trophy at the annual
awards dinner sponsored by the Downtown Athletic Club.
The running back from the University of Oklahoma is the
sixth junior to win the award.

1981 – John Jacobs is named president of the National Urban
League.

1985 – Bo Jackson of Auburn University wins the Heisman Trophy.

1990 – Rhythm and Blues artist, Dee Clark, joins the ancestors in
Smyrna, Georgia at the age of 52.

1993 – The South African transitional executive council is set up.

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