KRLemmons African American History

December 3 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 3 *

1841 – Abolitionist Charles Lenox Remond returns to the United
States after a year and a half in Great Britain. He
had been serving as a delegate to the world Anti-
Slavery Convention in London. He brings with him an
“Address from the People of Ireland” including 60,000
signatures urging Irish-Americans to “oppose slavery by
peaceful means and to insist upon liberty for all
regardless of color, creed, or country.”

1843 – The Society of Colored People in Baltimore, is the first
African American Catholic association whose
documentation has been preserved. Their notebook will
begin today and continue until September 7, 1845.

1847 – Frederick Douglass and Martin R. Delaney begin the
publication of “The North Star” newspaper, one of the
leading abolitionist newspapers of its day.

1864 – The Twenty-Fifth Corps, the largest all African American
unit in the history of the U.S. Army, is established by
General Order # 297 of the War Department, Adjutant
General’s Office. The Colored Troops of the Department
of Virginia and North Carolina were organized into the
Twenty-Fifth Corps under the command of Major General G.
Weitzel.

1866 – John Swett Rock, a Massachusetts lawyer and dentist joins
the ancestors. He had become the first African American
certified to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase appointed Dr. Rock to
present cases before the Supreme Court on December 31,
1865.

1868 – The trial of ex-Confederacy president, Jefferson Davis
starts, marking the first United States trial with
African Americans included in the jury.

1883 – The Forty-Eighth Congress (1883-85) convenes. Only Two
African Americans are included as representatives. They
are James E. O’Hara of North Carolina and Robert Smalls
of South Carolina.

1883 – George L. Ruffin is appointed a city judge in Boston,
Massachusetts.

1922 – Ralph Alexander Gardner-Chavis is born in Cleveland, Ohio.
He will become a pioneer chemist whose research into
plastics leads to the development of so-called “hard
plastics.” His innovations in the manipulation of
catalytic chemicals will lead to the products for the
petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries as well as
plastics.

1951 – President Truman names a committee to monitor compliance
with anti-discrimination provisions in U.S. government
contracts and sub-contracts.

1956 – Wilt Chamberlain plays in his first collegiate basketball
game and scores 52 points.

1962 – Edith Spurlock Sampson is sworn in as the first African
American woman judge.

1964 – The Spingarn Medal is presented to NAACP executive
secretary Roy Wilkins for his contribution to “the
advancement of the American people and the national
purpose.”

1964 – The Independence Bank of Chicago is organized.

1964 – J. Raymond Jones is elected leader of the New York
Democratic organization (Tammany Hall).

1970 – Jennifer Josephine Hosten become the first African
American Miss World.

1979 – An University of Southern California running back,
Charles White, is named the Heisman Trophy winner for
1979. White, who gained a career regular season total
of 5,598 yards, will play professionally for the Los
Angeles Rams.

1982 – Thomas Hearns unifies the world boxing titles in the
junior middleweight division by capturing the WBC title
over Wilfredo Benitez.

1988 – Barry Sanders wins the Heisman Trophy.

1988 – In South Africa, 11 black funeral mourners are slain in
Natal Province in an attack blamed on security forces.

1990 – “Black Art – Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in
African American Art” opens at the Dallas Museum of Art.
United States and Caribbean artists represented among
the more than 150 works include Richmond Barthe’, John
Biggers, Aaron Douglas, Malvin Gray Johnson, Sargent
Johnson, and Houston Conwill.

1997 – President Clinton hosts his first town hall meeting on
America’s race relations in Akron, Ohio.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 13 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 13 *

1831 – Jo Anderson, a slave, helps invent the grain harvester
reaper.

1876 – Meharry Medical College, formally opens at Central
Tennessee College.

1901 – Edith Spurlock (later Sampson) is born in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. She will graduate from the John Marshall
Law School in Chicago in 1925 with a Bachelor of Laws
degree. In 1927, she will become the first African
American woman to receive a Masters of Laws degree from
Loyola University. She will become a member of the
Illinois bar in 1927, and be admitted to practice before
the Supreme Court in 1934. She will become the first
African American woman to be named a delegate to the
United Nations. She will serve from 1950 to 1953, first
as an appointee of President Harry S. Truman and later
during a portion of the Eisenhower Administration. She
will join the ancestors on October 8, 1979.

1902 – Arna Bontemps is born in Alexandria, Louisiana. He will
become a prolific poet, librarian, and author of
historical and juvenile fiction. Among his best-known
works will be “God Sends Sunday” and “Black Thunder”,
the juvenile books “We Have Tomorrow” and “The Story of
the Negro”, and “American Negro Poetry”, which he edited.
In 1943, after graduating from the University of Chicago
with a masters degree in library science, Bontemps was
appointed librarian at Fisk University in Nashville,
Tennessee. He will hold that position for 22 years and
will develop important collections and archives of
African American literature and culture. Through his
librarianship and bibliographic work, he will become a
leading figure in establishing African American
literature as a legitimate object of study and
preservation. He will join the ancestors on June 4, 1973.

1906 – J. Saunders Redding is born in Wilmington, Delaware. He
will become a literary and social critic and author of
non-fiction works on the African American experience. He
will earn an advanced degree in English at Brown
University (1932) and will be a professor at various
colleges and universities, including Morehouse, Hampton,
and Cornell. In 1949, his stint as a visiting professor
at Brown will make him the first African American to hold
a faculty position at an Ivy League university. He will
write many books and articles on African American culture
and other topics, including “To Make a Poet Black” (1939),
a landmark history of African American literature; “No Day
of Triumph” (1942), an autobiographical account of a
journey through southern black communities; and “Stranger
and Alone” (1950), a novel, as well as several more general
historical and sociological works. He will also edit with
Arthur P. Davis, an important anthology, “Cavalcade: Negro
American Writing from 1760 to the Present” (1971). He will
join the ancestors on March 2, 1988 at his home in Ithaca,
New York.

1914 – Garrett Augustus Morgan, the son of former slaves, receives
a patent for an invention he calls the “Safety Hood and
Smoke Protector,” which came to be known as a gas mask.

1925 – Garland Anderson’s “Appearances” opens at the Frolic Theatre
on Broadway. It is the first full-length Broadway play by
an African American.

1946 – Demond Wilson is born in Valdosta, Georgia. He will become
an actor and will be best known as Lamont Sanford on the
long-running television show, “Sanford & Son.”

1962 – Jerry Lee Rice is born in Crawford, Mississippi. He will
become a professional football player, selected as the
16th pick overall in the first round of the NFL draft by
the San Francisco 49ers in 1985. He will be considered to
be the greatest NFL receiver of all time. He will retire
as the leader in a number of statistics. His 1,549
receptions were 448 receptions ahead of the second place
record held by Cris Carter. His 22,895 receiving yards
were 7,961 yards ahead of the second place spot held by
his Raiders teammate Tim Brown. His 197 touchdown
receptions were 67 scores more than Carter’s 130, and his
207 total touchdowns were 32 scores ahead of Emmitt
Smith’s second place spot of 175. He will retire from the
NFL on August 24, 2006.

1979 – Clarence Muse joins the ancestors in Perris, California at
the age of 90. He was a pioneer film and stage actor who
appeared in 219 films. His first film was the second
talking movie ever made.

2000 – Isiah Thomas and Bob McAdoo are enshrined into the
Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 19 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – August 19 *

1791 – Benjamin Banneker sends a copy of his just-published
almanac to Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, along
with a letter confronting his hypocrisy-if not indeed the
hypocrisy of white America-in enslaving African Americans
while at the same time declaring the “true and invaluable
doctrine” of the “natural rights” of humankind.

1888 – The first beauty contest is held in Spa, Belgium. The
winner is an eighteen year old beauty from the West
Indies.

1926 – Theodore Flowers, known as the “Georgia Deacon,” wins the
world middleweight boxing title in New York City.

1940 – John Lester “Johnny” Nash, Jr. is born in Houston, Texas.
He will become a singer and will be known for his songs,
“I Can See Clearly Now,” “Stir It Up,” “Hold Me Tight,”
and “A Very Special Love.”

1946 – Charles F. Bolden, Jr., is born in Columbia, South
Carolina. A pilot who flew over 100 sorties in Southeast
Asia, Bolden will be named an astronaut in 1981. He will
become a veteran pilot of several missions, including the
Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1992, when he will participate
as a presenter of a special Academy Award to science-
fiction film producer George Lucas.

1950 – Edith Spurlock Sampson becomes the first African American
appointed to serve on the United States delegation to the
United Nations.

1954 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is named undersecretary of the United
Nations.

1982 – Renaldo Nehemiah of the United States sets record for the
110 meter hurdles in 12.93 seconds.

1989 – Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu is among
hundreds of Black demonstrators who are whipped and
sandblasted from helicopters as they attempt to picnic on
a “whites-only” beach near Capetown, South Africa.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 3 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 3 *

1841 – Abolitionist Charles Lenox Remond returns to the United
States after a year and a half in Great Britain. He
had been serving as a delegate to the world Anti-
Slavery Convention in London. He brings with him an
“Address from the People of Ireland” including 60,000
signatures urging Irish-Americans to “oppose slavery by
peaceful means and to insist upon liberty for all
regardless of color, creed, or country.”

1843 – The Society of Colored People in Baltimore, is the first
African American Catholic association whose
documentation has been preserved. Their notebook will
begin today and continue until September 7, 1845.

1847 – Frederick Douglass and Martin R. Delaney begin the
publication of “The North Star” newspaper, one of the
leading abolitionist newspapers of its day.

1864 – The Twenty-Fifth Corps, the largest all African American
unit in the history of the U.S. Army, is established by
General Order # 297 of the War Department, Adjutant
General’s Office. The Colored Troops of the Department
of Virginia and North Carolina were organized into the
Twenty-Fifth Corps under the command of Major General G.
Weitzel.

1866 – John Swett Rock, a Massachusetts lawyer and dentist joins
the ancestors. He had become the first African American
certified to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase appointed Dr. Rock to
present cases before the Supreme Court on December 31,
1865.

1868 – The trial of ex-Confederacy president, Jefferson Davis
starts, marking the first United States trial with
African Americans included in the jury.

1883 – The Forty-Eighth Congress (1883-85) convenes. Only Two
African Americans are included as representatives. They
are James E. O’Hara of North Carolina and Robert Smalls
of South Carolina.

1883 – George L. Ruffin is appointed a city judge in Boston,
Massachusetts.

1922 – Ralph Alexander Gardner-Chavis is born in Cleveland, Ohio.
He will become a pioneer chemist whose research into
plastics leads to the development of so-called “hard
plastics.” His innovations in the manipulation of
catalytic chemicals will lead to the products for the
petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries as well as
plastics.

1951 – President Truman names a committee to monitor compliance
with anti-discrimination provisions in U.S. government
contracts and sub-contracts.

1956 – Wilt Chamberlain plays in his first collegiate basketball
game and scores 52 points.

1962 – Edith Spurlock Sampson is sworn in as the first African
American woman judge.

1964 – The Spingarn Medal is presented to NAACP executive
secretary Roy Wilkins for his contribution to “the
advancement of the American people and the national
purpose.”

1964 – The Independence Bank of Chicago is organized.

1964 – J. Raymond Jones is elected leader of the New York
Democratic organization (Tammany Hall).

1970 – Jennifer Josephine Hosten become the first African
American Miss World.

1979 – An University of Southern California running back,
Charles White, is named the Heisman Trophy winner for
1979. White, who gained a career regular season total
of 5,598 yards, will play professionally for the Los
Angeles Rams.

1982 – Thomas Hearns unifies the world boxing titles in the
junior middleweight division by capturing the WBC title
over Wilfredo Benitez.

1988 – Barry Sanders wins the Heisman Trophy.

1988 – In South Africa, 11 black funeral mourners are slain in
Natal Province in an attack blamed on security forces.

1990 – “Black Art – Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in
African American Art” opens at the Dallas Museum of Art.
United States and Caribbean artists represented among
the more than 150 works include Richmond Barthe’, John
Biggers, Aaron Douglas, Malvin Gray Johnson, Sargent
Johnson, and Houston Conwill.

1997 – President Clinton hosts his first town hall meeting on
America’s race relations in Akron, Ohio.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 13 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 13 *

1831 – Jo Anderson, a slave, helps invent the grain harvester
reaper.

1876 – Meharry Medical College, formally opens at Central
Tennessee College.

1901 – Edith Spurlock (later Sampson) is born in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. She will graduate from the John Marshall
Law School in Chicago in 1925 with a Bachelor of Laws
degree. In 1927, she will become the first African
American woman to receive a Masters of Laws degree from
Loyola University. She will become a member of the
Illinois bar in 1927, and be admitted to practice before
the Supreme Court in 1934. She will become the first
African American woman to be named a delegate to the
United Nations. She will serve from 1950 to 1953, first
as an appointee of President Harry S. Truman and later
during a portion of the Eisenhower Administration. She
will join the ancestors on October 8, 1979.

1902 – Arna Bontemps is born in Alexandria, Louisiana. He will
become a prolific poet, librarian, and author of
historical and juvenile fiction. Among his best-known
works will be “God Sends Sunday” and “Black Thunder”,
the juvenile books “We Have Tomorrow” and “The Story of
the Negro”, and “American Negro Poetry”, which he edited.
In 1943, after graduating from the University of Chicago
with a masters degree in library science, Bontemps was
appointed librarian at Fisk University in Nashville,
Tennessee. He will hold that position for 22 years and
will develop important collections and archives of
African American literature and culture. Through his
librarianship and bibliographic work, he will become a
leading figure in establishing African American
literature as a legitimate object of study and
preservation. He will join the ancestors on June 4, 1973.

1906 – J. Saunders Redding is born in Wilmington, Delaware. He
will become a literary and social critic and author of
non-fiction works on the African American experience. He
will earn an advanced degree in English at Brown
University (1932) and will be a professor at various
colleges and universities, including Morehouse, Hampton,
and Cornell. In 1949, his stint as a visiting professor
at Brown will make him the first African American to hold
a faculty position at an Ivy League university. He will
write many books and articles on African American culture
and other topics, including “To Make a Poet Black” (1939),
a landmark history of African American literature; “No Day
of Triumph” (1942), an autobiographical account of a
journey through southern black communities; and “Stranger
and Alone” (1950), a novel, as well as several more general
historical and sociological works. He will also edit with
Arthur P. Davis, an important anthology, “Cavalcade: Negro
American Writing from 1760 to the Present” (1971). He will
join the ancestors on March 2, 1988 at his home in Ithaca,
New York.

1914 – Garrett Augustus Morgan, the son of former slaves, receives
a patent for an invention he calls the “Safety Hood and
Smoke Protector,” which came to be known as a gas mask.

1925 – Garland Anderson’s “Appearances” opens at the Frolic Theatre
on Broadway. It is the first full-length Broadway play by
an African American.

1946 – Demond Wilson is born in Valdosta, Georgia. He will become
an actor and will be best known as Lamont Sanford on the
long-running television show, “Sanford & Son.”

1962 – Jerry Lee Rice is born in Crawford, Mississippi. He will
become a professional football player, selected as the
16th pick overall in the first round of the NFL draft by
the San Francisco 49ers in 1985. He will be considered to
be the greatest NFL receiver of all time. He will retire
as the leader in a number of statistics. His 1,549
receptions were 448 receptions ahead of the second place
record held by Cris Carter. His 22,895 receiving yards
were 7,961 yards ahead of the second place spot held by
his Raiders teammate Tim Brown. His 197 touchdown
receptions were 67 scores more than Carter’s 130, and his
207 total touchdowns were 32 scores ahead of Emmitt
Smith’s second place spot of 175. He will retire from the
NFL on August 24, 2006.

1979 – Clarence Muse joins the ancestors in Perris, California at
the age of 90. He was a pioneer film and stage actor who
appeared in 219 films. His first film was the second
talking movie ever made.

2000 – Isiah Thomas and Bob McAdoo are enshrined into the
Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 19 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 19 *

1791 – Benjamin Banneker sends a copy of his just-published
almanac to Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, along
with a letter confronting his hypocrisy-if not indeed the
hypocrisy of white America-in enslaving African Americans
while at the same time declaring the “true and invaluable
doctrine” of the “natural rights” of humankind.

1888 – The first beauty contest is held in Spa, Belgium. The
winner is an eighteen year old beauty from the West
Indies.

1926 – Theodore Flowers, known as the “Georgia Deacon,” wins the
world middleweight boxing title in New York City.

1940 – John Lester “Johnny” Nash, Jr. is born in Houston, Texas.
He will become a singer and will be known for his songs,
“I Can See Clearly Now,” “Stir It Up,” “Hold Me Tight,”
and “A Very Special Love.”

1946 – Charles F. Bolden, Jr., is born in Columbia, South
Carolina. A pilot who flew over 100 sorties in Southeast
Asia, Bolden will be named an astronaut in 1981. He will
become a veteran pilot of several missions, including the
Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1992, when he will participate
as a presenter of a special Academy Award to science-
fiction film producer George Lucas.

1950 – Edith Spurlock Sampson becomes the first African American
appointed to serve on the United States delegation to the
United Nations.

1954 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is named undersecretary of the United
Nations.

1982 – Renaldo Nehemiah of the United States sets record for the
110 meter hurdles in 12.93 seconds.

1989 – Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu is among
hundreds of Black demonstrators who are whipped and
sandblasted from helicopters as they attempt to picnic on
a “whites-only” beach near Capetown, South Africa.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 3 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – December 3 *

1841 – Abolitionist Charles Lenox Remond returns to the United
States after a year and a half in Great Britain. He
had been serving as a delegate to the world Anti-
Slavery Convention in London. He brings with him an
“Address from the People of Ireland” including 60,000
signatures urging Irish-Americans to “oppose slavery by
peaceful means and to insist upon liberty for all
regardless of color, creed, or country.”

1843 – The Society of Colored People in Baltimore, is the first
African American Catholic association whose
documentation has been preserved. Their notebook will
begin today and continue until September 7, 1845.

1847 – Frederick Douglass and Martin R. Delaney begin the
publication of “The North Star” newspaper, one of the
leading abolitionist newspapers of its day.

1864 – The Twenty-Fifth Corps, the largest all African American
unit in the history of the U.S. Army, is established by
General Order # 297 of the War Department, Adjutant
General’s Office. The Colored Troops of the Department
of Virginia and North Carolina were organized into the
Twenty-Fifth Corps under the command of Major General G.
Weitzel.

1866 – John Swett Rock, a Massachusetts lawyer and dentist joins
the ancestors. He had become the first African American
certified to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase appointed Dr. Rock to
present cases before the Supreme Court on December 31,
1865.

1868 – The trial of ex-Confederacy president, Jefferson Davis
starts, marking the first United States trial with
African Americans included in the jury.

1883 – The Forty-Eighth Congress (1883-85) convenes. Only Two
African Americans are included as representatives. They
are James E. O’Hara of North Carolina and Robert Smalls
of South Carolina.

1883 – George L. Ruffin is appointed a city judge in Boston,
Massachusetts.

1922 – Ralph Alexander Gardner-Chavis is born in Cleveland, Ohio.
He will become a pioneer chemist whose research into
plastics leads to the development of so-called “hard
plastics.” His innovations in the manipulation of
catalytic chemicals will lead to the products for the
petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries as well as
plastics.

1951 – President Truman names a committee to monitor compliance
with anti-discrimination provisions in U.S. government
contracts and sub-contracts.

1956 – Wilt Chamberlain plays in his first collegiate basketball
game and scores 52 points.

1962 – Edith Spurlock Sampson is sworn in as the first African
American woman judge.

1964 – The Spingarn Medal is presented to NAACP executive
secretary Roy Wilkins for his contribution to “the
advancement of the American people and the national
purpose.”

1964 – The Independence Bank of Chicago is organized.

1964 – J. Raymond Jones is elected leader of the New York
Democratic organization (Tammany Hall).

1970 – Jennifer Josephine Hosten become the first African
American Miss World.

1979 – An University of Southern California running back,
Charles White, is named the Heisman Trophy winner for
1979. White, who gained a career regular season total
of 5,598 yards, will play professionally for the Los
Angeles Rams.

1982 – Thomas Hearns unifies the world boxing titles in the
junior middleweight division by capturing the WBC title
over Wilfredo Benitez.

1988 – Barry Sanders wins the Heisman Trophy.

1988 – In South Africa, 11 black funeral mourners are slain in
Natal Province in an attack blamed on security forces.

1990 – “Black Art – Ancestral Legacy: The African Impulse in
African American Art” opens at the Dallas Museum of Art.
United States and Caribbean artists represented among
the more than 150 works include Richmond Barthe’, John
Biggers, Aaron Douglas, Malvin Gray Johnson, Sargent
Johnson, and Houston Conwill.

1997 – President Clinton hosts his first town hall meeting on
America’s race relations in Akron, Ohio.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 13 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 13           *

1831 – Jo Anderson, a slave, helps invent the grain harvester
reaper.

1876 – Meharry Medical College, formally opens at Central
Tennessee College.

1901 – Edith Spurlock (later Sampson) is born in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. She will graduate from the John Marshall
Law School in Chicago in 1925 with a Bachelor of Laws
degree.  In 1927, she will become the first African
American woman to receive a Masters of Laws degree from
Loyola University. She will become a member of the
Illinois bar in 1927, and be admitted to practice before
the Supreme Court in 1934.  She will become the first
African American woman to be named a delegate to the
United Nations. She will serve from 1950 to 1953, first
as an appointee of President Harry S. Truman and later
during a portion of the Eisenhower Administration. She
will join the ancestors on October 8, 1979.

1902 – Arna Bontemps is born in Alexandria, Louisiana.  He will
become a prolific poet, librarian, and author of
historical and juvenile fiction.  Among his best-known
works will be “God Sends Sunday” and “Black Thunder”,
the juvenile books “We Have Tomorrow” and “The Story of
the Negro”, and “American Negro Poetry”, which he edited.
In 1943, after graduating from the University of Chicago
with a masters degree in library science, Bontemps was
appointed librarian at Fisk University in Nashville,
Tennessee. He will hold that position for 22 years and
will develop important collections and archives of
African American literature and culture. Through his
librarianship and bibliographic work, he will become a
leading figure in establishing African American
literature as a legitimate object of study and
preservation. He will join the ancestors on June 4, 1973.

1906 – J. Saunders Redding is born in Wilmington, Delaware.  He
will become a literary and social critic and author of
non-fiction works on the African American experience. He
will earn an advanced degree in English at Brown
University (1932) and will be a professor at various
colleges and universities, including Morehouse, Hampton,
and Cornell. In 1949, his stint as a visiting professor
at Brown will make him the first African American to hold
a faculty position at an Ivy League university. He will
write many books and articles on African American culture
and other topics, including “To Make a Poet Black” (1939),
a landmark history of African American literature; “No Day
of Triumph” (1942), an autobiographical account of a
journey through southern black communities; and “Stranger
and Alone” (1950), a novel, as well as several more general
historical and sociological works. He will also edit with
Arthur P. Davis, an important anthology, “Cavalcade: Negro
American Writing from 1760 to the Present” (1971). He will
join the ancestors on March 2, 1988 at his home in Ithaca,
New York.

1914 – Garrett Augustus Morgan, the son of former slaves, receives
a patent for an invention he calls the “Safety Hood and
Smoke Protector,” which came to be known as a gas mask.

1925 – Garland Anderson’s “Appearances” opens at the Frolic Theatre
on Broadway.  It is the first full-length Broadway play by
an African American.

1946 – Demond Wilson is born in Valdosta, Georgia.  He will become
an actor and will be best known as Lamont Sanford on the
long-running television show, “Sanford & Son.”

1962 – Jerry Lee Rice is born in Crawford, Mississippi.  He will
become a professional football player, selected as the
16th pick overall in the first round of the NFL draft by
the San Francisco 49ers in 1985. He will be considered to
be the greatest NFL receiver of all time. He will retire
as the leader in a number of statistics. His 1,549
receptions were 448 receptions ahead of the second place
record held by Cris Carter. His 22,895 receiving yards
were 7,961 yards ahead of the second place spot held by
his Raiders teammate Tim Brown. His 197 touchdown
receptions were 67 scores more than Carter’s 130, and his
207 total touchdowns were 32 scores ahead of Emmitt
Smith’s second place spot of 175. He will retire from the
NFL on August 24, 2006.

1979 – Clarence Muse joins the ancestors in Perris, California at
the age of 90. He was a pioneer film and stage actor who
appeared in 219 films. His first film was the second
talking movie ever made.

2000 – Isiah Thomas and Bob McAdoo are enshrined into the
Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

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