Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – The CamaraIfe Maktaba

April 4, 2015 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.

February 4, 2015 KRLemmons African American History

January 17 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 17 *

1759 – Paul Cuffee is born in Cuttyhunk, Massachusetts. He will
become a successful shipowner, philanthropist, and a force
in the movement for African Americans’ repatriation to
Africa. He was of Aquinnah Wampanoag and African Ashanti
descent and helps to colonize Sierra Leone. He will build a
lucrative shipping empire and establish the first racially
integrated school in Westport, Massachusetts. He will join
the ancestors on September 9, 1817.

1874 – Armed white Democrats seize the Texas government and put an
end to Radical Reconstruction in Texas.

1917 – The United States pays $ 25 million for the Danish Virgin
Islands.

1923 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to George Washington
Carver, head of the department of research, Tuskegee
Institute, for his pioneering work in agricultural
chemistry.

1923 – The first session of the Third Pan-African Congress convenes
in London, England. The second session will be held in
Lisbon.

1924 – Jewel Plummer Cobb is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will
be a prominent cancer research biologist before becoming a
professor and administrator at Connecticut College and
Rutgers University and, in 1990, president of California
State University, Fullerton, the first African American
woman to hold such a position in the CSU system.

1927 – Eartha Mae Keith is born in North, South Carolina. She will
start her career at the age of 16 as a professional dancer
with the Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe, which will take her
to Paris, where she will tour as a nightclub singer. She
will become known as Eartha Kitt. She will eventually
return to the United States and roles on Broadway and in
films. In 1968, her career will take a sudden turn when, at
a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson, she will
speak out against the Vietnam War. For many years
afterward, she will be blacklisted by many in the U.S.
entertainment industry and be forced to work abroad where
her status will remain undiminished. In 2007, She will
celebrate her 80th birthday. This remarkable milestone will
be celebrated with a special performance at New York’s
Carnegie Hall in June. She will join the ancestors on December
25, 2008.

1931 – James Earl Jones is born in Arkabutla, Mississippi. He will
become renowned as an actor, both on the stage and the
screen, earning a Tony award in 1969 for his portrayal of
boxing great Jack Johnson in the “The Great White Hope” as
well as acclaim for his Broadway roles in “A Lesson From
Aloes,” “Fences,” and many others. Among his film and
television credits will be the voice of Darth Vader in
“Star Wars” and leading roles in “Paris” and “Gabriel’s
Fire.”

1931 – Lawrence Douglas Wilder is born in Richmond, Virginia. He
will graduate from Virginia Union University and serve in
the U.S. Army in Korea, where he will receive the Bronze
Star for heroism. He will attend and graduate from, the
Howard University School of Law and become a successful
trial attorney. In 1969, he will be elected as Virginia’s
first African American state senator since Reconstruction.
In 1985, he will become Virginia’s first African American
Lieutenant Governor. He will make history for a third time
on January 13, 1990, when he takes office as the first
elected African American governor in U.S. history.

1942 – Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. is born in Louisville, Kentucky.
Early in his boxing career, Clay converts to Islam. As
Muhammad Ali, he is one of the first African American
athletes to intermingle political and social consciousness
with sports. He will become the dominant heavyweight boxer
of the 1960s and 1970s, winning an Olympic gold medal,
capturing the professional world heavyweight championship
on three separate occasions, and defend his title
successfully 19 times. Ali’s extroverted, colorful style,
both in and out of the ring, will introduce a new mode of
media-conscious athletic celebrity. Through his strong
assertions of Black pride, his conversion to the Muslim
faith, and his outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War, Ali
will become a highly controversial symbol of the turbulent
1960s.

1961 – Patrice Lumumba, African revolutionary and first Congolese
Premier of the Republic of Congo, joins the ancestors after
being murdered at the age of 36, by the secessionist
Tshombe’s soldiers.

1966 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. opens his civil rights campaign
in Chicago, Illinois. This marks the first time, during the
civil rights movement, that the campaign takes place in a
northern city.

1970 – John M. Burgess is installed as bishop of the Protestant
Episcopal diocese of Massachusetts.

1978 – Dr. Ronald McNair is named by NASA as a participant on a
space mission.

1989 – The Phoenix Suns/Miami Heat game is cancelled, due to racial
unrest in Miami.

1990 – The Four Tops, Hank Ballard, and The Platters are inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

1996 – Former U.S. Representative Barbara Jordan joins the ancestors
in Austin, Texas, at the age of 59.

1998 – Louis Stokes, the first African American congressman from the
state of Ohio, announces his retirement from Congress at the
age of 73. He has been a congressman for three decades.

2000 – Nearly 50,000 people march to South Carolina’s Statehouse on
Martin Luther King Day to demand the Confederate battle flag
be taken down. They are protesting the Confederate flag as a
symbol of slavery and racism.

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

February 4, 2015 KRLemmons African American History

January 13 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 13 *

1869 – A National Convention of African American leaders meets in
Washington, DC. Frederick Douglass is elected president.

1869 – The first African American labor convention is held when the
Convention of the Colored National Labor Union takes place.

1873 – P.B.S. Pinchback relinquishes the office of governor, saying
at the inauguration of the new Louisiana governor: “I now have
the honor to formally surrender the office of governor, with
the hope that you will administer the government in the
interests of all the people [and that] your administration
will be as fair toward the class that I represent, as mine has
been toward the class represented by you.”

1913 – Delta Sigma Theta Sorority is founded on the campus of Howard
University. The sorority will grow, from the original 22
founders, to over 175,000 members in over 800 chapters in the
United States, West Germany, the Caribbean, Liberia, and the
Republic of South Korea.

1953 – Don Barksdale becomes the first African American person to play
in an NBA All-Star Game.

1966 – Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American appointed
to a presidential cabinet position, when President Lyndon B.
Johnson names him to head the newly created Department of
Housing and Urban Development.

1979 – A commemorative stamp of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is issued
by the U.S. Postal Service as part of its Black Heritage USA
commemorative series. The stamp of the slain civil rights
leader is the second in the series.

1979 – Singer Donnie Hathaway joins the ancestors after jumping from
the 15th floor of New York’s Essex House hotel.

1982 – Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson are elected to the Baseball Hall
of Fame.

1983 – Citing Muhammad Ali’s deteriorating physical condition, the AMA
calls for the banning of prizefighting because new evidence
suggests that chronic brain damage is prevalent in boxers.

1989 – Sterling Allen Brown joins the ancestors in Washington, DC. He
had devoted his life to the development of an authentic black
folk literature. He was one of the first scholars to identify
folklore as a vital component of the black aesthetic and to
recognize its validity as a form of artistic expression. He
worked to legitimatize this genre in several ways. As a
critic, he exposed the shortcomings of white literature that
stereotyped blacks and demonstrated why black authors are best
suited to describe the Black experience. As a poet, he mined
the rich vein of black Southern culture, replacing primitive
or sentimental caricatures with authentic folk heroes drawn
from Afro-American sources. He was associated with Howard
University for almost sixty years.

1990 – L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia is inaugurated as governor and
becomes the first elected African American governor in the
United States. Wilder won the election in Virginia by a mere
7,000 votes in a state once the heart of the Confederacy.
Later in the year, he will receive the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal
for his lifetime achievements.

1999 – Michael Jordan, considered the best player to ever play in the
NBA, retires from professional basketball after thirteen
seasons. This is the second time ‘His Airness’ has retired.
He leaves the game after leading the Chicago Bulls to six NBA
championships and winning five MVP awards.

2010 – Rhythm & Blues singer Teddy Pendergrass, one of the most electric
and successful figures in music until a car crash 28 years ago
left him in a wheelchair, joins the ancestors after
succumbing to colon cancer at the age of 59.

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

December 10, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

December 10 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – December 10 *

1810 – Tom Cribb of Great Britain defeats beats African
American Tom Molineaux in the first interracial boxing
championship. The fight lasted 40 rounds at Copthall
Common in England.

1846 – Norbert Rillieux invents the evaporating pan, which
revolutionizes the sugar industry.

1854 – Edwin C. Berry is born in Oberlin, Ohio. He will become
a hotel entrepreneur and erects a 22-room hotel, Hotel
Berry, in Athens, Ohio. He will be known, at the time
of his retirement in 1921, as the most successful
African American small-city hotel operator in the
United States. He will join the ancestors in Athens, Ohio
on March 12, 1931.

1864 – A mixed cavalry force, including Fifth and Sixth Colored
Cavalry regiments, invades southwest Virginia and
destroys salt mines at Saltville. The Sixth Cavalry
was especially brilliant in an engagement near Marion,
Virginia.

1910 – Smarting from the humiliation of seeing the Ty Cobb-led
Detroit Tigers tie the Negro Havana Stars in a six game
series 3-3, the “Indianapolis Freeman” states: “The
American scribes refused to write on the matter, it cut
so deep and was kept quiet.” Not quiet enough, however,
to prevent a ban on Negro teams, even the Cuban-named
clubs, from playing whites.

1943 – Theodore Wilson is born in New York City. He will become
an actor and will star on television in “That’s My Mama”
(Earl the Postman), and “Sanford Arms”.

1950 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is the first African American to be
presented the Nobel Prize. He is awarded the Peace Prize
for his efforts as under-secretary of the United Nations,
working for peace in the middle east.

1963 – Zanzibar becomes independent within the British
Commonwealth.

1964 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. receives the Nobel Peace Prize.
In his acceptance speech, he dramatically rejects racism
and war and reaffirms his commitment to “unarmed truth
and unconditional love.” He is the youngest person to
earn the award.

1965 – Sugar Ray Robinson permanently retires from boxing with
six victories in title bouts to his credit.

1967 – Otis Redding and four members of the Bar-Kays (Otis’
backup group) join the ancestors after being killed in
the crash of a private plane near Madison, Wisconsin.
Redding is 26 years old. His signature song, “(Sittin’
On) The Dock of the Bay” was recorded just three days
before his death. It will be #1 for four weeks beginning
February 10, 1968.

1982 – Pamela McAllister Johnson becomes the first African
American woman publisher of a mainstream newspaper, the
“Ithaca Journal.”

1984 – South African Anglican Bishop, Desmond Tutu receives the
Nobel Peace Prize.

1999 – Actress Shirley Hemphill joins the ancestors in West
Covina, California at the age of 52. She was best known
for her role as the “waitress with an attitude” on the
television series, “What’s Happening!”

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

October 26, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

October 19 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – October 19 *

1859 – Byrd Prillerman is born a slave in Shady Grove,
Franklin County, Virginia. He will become an
educator, reformer, religious worker, political
figure, and lawyer. He will be best known as the co-
founder of the West Virginia Colored Institute in
1891. The school will be changed to the West
Virginia Collegiate Institute in 1915. The school,
under Prillerman’s leadership, will become the first
state school for African Americans to reach the rank
of an accredited college whose work is accepted by
the universities of the North. The school will
eventually become West Virginia State College, then
West Virginia State University. He will join the
ancestors on April 25, 1929.

1870 – The first African Americans are elected to the House
of Representatives. African American Republicans
won three of the four congressional seats in South
Carolina: Joseph H. Rainey, Robert C. DeLarge and
Robert B. Elliott. Rainey was elected to an un-
expired term in the Forty-first Congress and was the
first African American seated in the House.

1920 – Alberta Peal is born in Cleveland, Ohio. She will
become a television and movie actress better known as
LaWanda Page and will star in “Mausoleum,” “Women Tell
the Dirtiest Jokes,” “Shakes the Clown,” and “Don’t Be
a Menace.” She will be best known for her role as Aunt
Esther in the long-running television series, “Sanford
and Sons.” She will join the ancestors on September 14,
2002.

1924 – “From Dixie to Broadway” premieres at the Broadhurst
Theatre in New York City. The music is written by
Will Vodery, an African American, who arranged music
for the Ziegfeld Follies for 23 years.

1936 – Johnnetta Betsch (later Cole) is born in Jacksonville,
Florida. She will have a distinguished career as an
educator and administrator and will become the first
African American woman to head Spelman College.

1944 – Winston Hubert McIntosh is born in Westmoreland, Jamaica.
He will become a founding father of reggae music and be
part of the song writing magic of the Wailers, Bob
Marley’s group. He will be better known as Peter Tosh.
He will join the ancestors in September 11, 1987 after
being shot during a robbery attempt.

1944 – The Navy announces that African American women would be
allowed to become WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer
Emergency Service).

1946 – The first exhibition of the work of Josef Nassy, an
American citizen of Dutch-African descent, is held in
Brussels. The exhibit consists of 90 paintings and
drawings Nassy created while in a Nazi-controlled
internment camp during World War II.

1960 – Jennifer-Yvette Holiday is born in Riverside, Texas.
She will become a singer and actress and will have her
first big break as a star in the Broadway production
of “Dream Girls” in 1981. She will later become a
successful recording artist. She will be best known for
her debut single, the Dreamgirls showstopper and Grammy
Award-winning Rhythm & Blues/Pop hit, “And I Am Telling
You I’m Not Going.”

1960 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is arrested in an Atlanta,
Georgia sit-in demonstration.

1962 – Evander Holyfield is born in Atmore, Alabama. He will
become a professional boxer. Over the course of his
career, he will become IBF Heavyweight Champion, WBA
Heavyweight Champion, three time World Champion, and
Undisputed Cruiserweight Champion.

1981 – The Martin Luther King, Jr. Library and Archives opens
in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded by Coretta Scott King,
the facility, is the largest repository in the world
of primary resource material on Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., nine major civil rights organizations, and
the American civil rights movement.

1983 – Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop joins the
ancestors after being assassinated after refusing to
share leadership of the New Jewel Movement with his
deputy, Bernard Coard. This event will indirectly
lead to the invasion of Grenada by the United States
and six Caribbean nations.

1983 – The U.S. Senate approves the establishment of the
Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday on the third
Monday in January.

1988 – South African anti-apartheid leader, Walter Sisulu wins
a $100,000 Human Rights prize.

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

September 1, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

August 27 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 27 *

1879 – African American publisher Robert Lee Vann is born in
Ahoskie, North Carolina. He will become an African
American publisher, lawyer and the nurturing editor of
the Black newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier. He will
attend Western University of Pennsylvania. He will
graduate from Law School in June, 1909. In 1910, he will
become the Pittsburgh Courier’s editor and publisher.
Under his leadership, The Courier will develop into one
of the leading Black newspapers of the era. By the 1930s,
it will be one of the highest circulated Black newspapers
in the United States. As many as 14 different editions
will be circulated throughout the country. He will become
involved in politics throughout his association with The
Courier. In 1918, he will be appointed the fourth
assistant city solicitor in Pittsburgh, the highest
position held by an African American in the city
government. Initially a Republican, he will grow
disillusioned with the party and convert to the
Democratic Party. On September 11, 1932, he will deliver
a famous speech at the St. James Literary Forum in
Cleveland, Ohio entitled “The Patriot and the Partisan”
and will urge African Americans throughout the nation to
turn away from the Republican party which had failed them,
and support the Democratic party of Franklin D. Roosevelt
in the 1932 election. He will support Franklin D.
Roosevelt in the 1932 election, and will subsequently be
named special assistant to the U.S. attorney general. In
1935, he will help campaign for the enactment of an equal
rights law in the State of Pennsylvania. He will serve as
editor and publisher of The Pittsburgh Courier until he
joins the ancestors on October 24, 1940.

1909 – Lester Young is born into a musical family in Woodville,
Mississippi. Young was taught several instruments by
his father. As a child he played drums in the family’s
band, but around 1928 he quit the group and switched to
tenor saxophone. His first engagements on this
instrument were with Art Bronson, in Phoenix, Arizona.
He stayed with Bronson until 1930, with a brief side
trip to play again with the family, then worked in and
around Minneapolis, Minnesota, with various bands. In
the spring of 1932 he joined the Original Blue Devils,
under the leadership of Walter Page, and was one of
several members of the band who joined Bennie Moten in
Kansas City towards the end of 1933. During the next
few years Young played in the bands of Moten, George E.
Lee, King Oliver, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Andy
Kirk and others. He will join the ancestors on March 15,
1959.

1918 – Dr. Joseph L. Johnson is named minister to Liberia.

1963 – W.E.B. DuBois joins the ancestors at age 95 in Accra,
Ghana. He was one of America’s foremost scholars, a
militant civil rights activist, founding father of the
NAACP, and leading proponent of Pan-Africanism.

1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have A Dream”
speech in Washington, DC during the 1963 March on
Washington.

1966 – A racially motivated civil disobedience riot occurs in
Waukegan, Illinois.

1975 – Haile Selassie, “Lion of Judah” and deposed Ethiopian
emperor, joins the ancestors at age 83 in Addis Ababa.

1982 – Rickey Henderson steals 119th base of season breaking Lou
Brock’s mark.

1983 – The second “March on Washington for Jobs, Peace, and
Freedom” is held.

1989 – ‘Johnny B Goode’ is performed by Chuck Berry for NASA
engineers and scientists in celebration of Voyager II’s
encounter with the planet Neptune.

1991 – Central Life Insurance Company, the last surviving
African American owned insurance company in the state of
Florida, is ordered liquidated by a Florida circuit
court judge.

2000 – Tiger Woods becomes the first male golfer since Johnny
Miller in 1975 to successfully defend three titles in
one year when he wins the NEC World Invitational.

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

November 2, 2013 KRLemmons African American History

October 27 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 27 *

1891 – Charles H. Garvin is born in Jacksonville, Florida. He
will become the first African American physician
commissioned in World War I.

1891 – Philip B. Downing, invents the street letter box and is
awarded patent # 462,093.

1924 – Ruby Dee is born in Cleveland, Ohio. She will become one
of the foremost actresses in America, beginning her
career on Broadway in the early 1940’s. She will marry
actor Ossie Davis and have a strong personal career with
such notable stage roles as “A Raisin in the Sun”,
“Purlie Victorious”, and “The Taming of the Shrew” as
well as work in numerous television series and movies
including “Raisin”, “Do the Right Thing”, and “Jungle
Fever.”

1951 – Jayne Kennedy is born in Washington, DC. She will become
an actress, writer and producer. Her movie credits will
include “Fighting Mad,” “Body and Soul,” “Mysterious
Island of Beautiful Women,” “Cover Girls,” “The Muthers,”
and “Group Marriage.”

1954 – Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African American
general in the history of the United States Air Force.
He is designated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

1960 – Martin Luther King Jr. is released on bond from the
Georgia State Prison in Reidsville. Political observers
say the John F. Kennedy call for King’s release increased
the number of African American voters who ensured his
election.

1971 – The Republic of the Congo becomes the Republic of Zaire.

1978 – President Carter signs the Hawkins-Humphrey full
employment bill.

1979 – St Vincent & the Grenadines becomes independent of Great
Britain.

1981 – Andrew Young, former United Nations Ambassador, is elected
mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.

2003 – Walter Washington, ex-mayor of Washington, DC, joins the
ancestors at age 88. He was the first elected mayor of
the nation’s capital in modern times and the first
African American to head the government of a major U.S.
city.

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

October 19, 2013 KRLemmons African American History

October 19 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – October 19 *

1944 – The Navy announces that African American women would be
allowed to become WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer
Emergency Service).

1960 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is arrested in an Atlanta,
Georgia sit-in demonstration.

1983 – The U.S. Senate approves the establishment of the
Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday on the third
Monday in January.

1988 – South African anti-apartheid leader, Walter Sisulu wins
a $100,000 Human Rights prize.

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

October 14, 2013 KRLemmons African American History

October 14 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 14 *

1834 – Henry Blair of Glen Ross, Maryland, receives a patent for
a corn planting machine.

1864 – The first African American daily newspaper, the New
Orleans Tribune, is published in both French and English.

1916 – Sophomore tackle and guard Paul Robeson is excluded from
the Rutgers football team when Washington and Lee
University refuse to play against an African American.
The exclusion will be temporary and the young Robeson
will go on to be named a football All-American twice.

1947 – Charles “Charlie” Joiner, Jr. is born in Many, Louisiana.
He will become a professional football player after being
picked in the fourth round of the 1969 NFL draft. He will
be a wide receiver for the Houston Oilers from 1969-1972,
the Cincinnati Bengals from 1972-1975, and the San Diego
Chargers from 1976-1986. In eighteen seasons, he will
play in 239 games (most ever for a wide receiver at the
time of his retirement) and compile a career record of 750
catches, 12,146 yards, and 65 touchdowns. He will catch
586 passes as a Charger and was a key element in vaunted
“Air Coryell” offense. He exceeded 50 catches in seven
seasons, was a 100-yard receiver in 29 games, and played
in three Pro Bowls. In his last thirteen years, he will
miss only one game. He will be inducted into the Football
Hall of Fame in 1996.

1958 – The District of Columbia Bar Association votes to accept
African Americans as members.

1964 – Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. is announced as the recipient of
the Nobel Peace Prize for his civil rights activities.
King is the second African American to win the Peace
Prize.

1969 – A racially motivated civil disturbance occurs in
Springfield, Massachusetts.

1971 – Two people are killed in a Memphis, Tennessee racially
motivated disturbance.

1980 – Bob Marley performs in his last concert before he
untimely joins the ancestors succumbing to cancer.

1995 – Sports Illustrated places Eddie Robinson on the cover
of its magazine. He is the first and only coach of an
Historically Black College or University (HBCU) to
appear on the cover of any major sports publication in
the United States.

1999 – Julius Nyerere, Tanzania’s first president, joins the
ancestors in a London hospital at age 77.

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

September 8, 2013 KRLemmons African American History

August 27 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – August 27 *