KRLemmons African American History

April 25 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 25 *

1905 – Doxey Alphonso Wilkerson is born in Excelsior Springs, Missouri.
He will become an educator at Howard University in Washington, DC
and Yeshiva University in New York City. In 1944, he will publish
an essay in the anthology, “What The Negro Wants,” which will
illustrate comparisons between the Allied struggle in Europe
during World War II and the civil rights struggle of African
Americans in the United States. As a member of the American
Communist Party, he will work as a civil rights activist. This
affiliation will cause him to be repeatedly investigated by
the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities. After
resigning from the Communist Party in 1957, he will continue to
be active in civil right activities and educational pursuits
until his retirement in 1984. He will join the ancestors on
June 17, 1993 in Norwalk, Connecticut.

1916 – Madeline M. Turner receives a patent for the fruit press.

1918 – Ella Fitzgerald is born in Newport News, Virginia. Discovered
at an amateur contest at the Apollo Theatre in 1934, she will
be a leading jazz vocalist of the swing era. Known for her
renditions of such songs as “A Tisket, A Tasket” (her first
million-seller), her unique scat styling and series of recordings
of great American songwriters will make her an enduring favorite
of jazz lovers. She will join the ancestors on June 15, 1996 in
Beverly Hills, California.

1942 – Ruby Doris Smith Robinson is born in Atlanta, Georgia. She will
become a civil rights activist and a founding member of The
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She will be
one of the original “Freedom Riders,” and will assist in creating
the policy of “jail, no bail,” employed by activists to fill
southern jails and bring national attention to the civil rights
struggle. After becoming SNCC’s first and only female executive
secretary, she will become ill with leukemia and joins the
ancestors on October 7, 1967 in Atlanta, Georgia.

1944 – The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is founded by Dr. Frederick
Douglass Patterson, then president of Tuskegee Institute, with 27
charter colleges and universities and a combined enrollment of
14,000 students.

1944 – George Herriman joins the ancestors in Los Angeles, California
at the age of 63. He had been a successful cartoonist who was
the author of the comic strip “Krazy Kat.” The comic strip ran
successfully from 1913 until this date.

1945 – The United Nations is founded at a San Francisco meeting
attended by African American consultants, most notably W.E.B.
Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ralph J. Bunche and Walter White.

1950 – At the NBA’s annual players draft, the Boston Celtics select
Charles “Chuck” Cooper. He is the first African American ever
drafted by an NBA team.

1960 – A consent judgment in a Memphis federal court ended restrictions
barring voters in Fayette County, Tennessee. This was the first
voting rights case under the Civil Rights Act.

1972 – Major General Frederick E. Davidson becomes the first African
American to lead an Army division when he is assigned command of
the 8th Infantry Division in Europe.

1979 – Olodum, an internationally recognized Afro-Brazilian Carnival
association, is founded in Bahia, Brazil. The music of this
group celebrates Black history and protests racial discrimination.
The name Olodum is derived from the name of the supreme Yoruba
deity, Olodumare’.

1990 – Tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon joins the ancestors in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of 67. A leading influence
in the bop movement along with Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie,
Gordon played in London in the early 1960’s and stayed until the
mid-1970’s. Elected to the Jazz Hall of Fame in 1980, his role in
the 1986 movie “‘Round Midnight” will revive interest in his music
and earn him an Academy Award nomination for best actor.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 12 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – June 12 *

1826 – Sarah Parker Remond is born in Salem, Massachusetts. She will
become a major abolitionist. She will also be an African
American physician, lecturer and agent of the American
Anti-Slavery Society. She will deliver speeches throughout
the United States on the horrors of slavery. Because of her
eloquence, she will be chosen to travel to England to gather
support for the abolitionist cause in the United States and,
after the American Civil War starts, for support of the
Union Army and the Union blockade of the Confederacy. She
is the sister of orator Charles Lenox Remond. She will join
the ancestors on December 13, 1894.

1840 – The World’s Anti-Slavery Convention convenes in
London, England. Among those in attendance will be
African American Charles Remond, who will refuse to be
seated at the meeting when he and the other delegates
learn that women are being segregated in the gallery.

1876 – A monument is dedicated to Richard Allen in
Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. It is the first known
monument erected by African Americans to honor one of
their heroes.

1904 – William Hendrick Foster is born in Calvert, Texas. He will
become a star in the Negro Baseball League. He will play
for the Chicago American Giants from 1923-1937. A left-hander,
he will win 137 games, more than any other left-handed
pitcher. Throughout his career, he will regularly participate
in post-season play in the California Winter League and with
barnstorming squads of Negro Leagues all-stars. In exhibition
contests against major league stars, he will post a .600+ win
percentage. After his retirement from baseball, he will
pursue various coaching positions, ultimately landing the
post of head baseball coach and dean of men at his alma mater,
Alcorn College in Mississippi. He will join the ancestors on
September 16, 1978. He will be inducted into the Baseball
Hall Of Fame in 1996.

1935 – Ella Fitzgerald records her first record for Brunswick
Records. The songs on the record were “Love and Kisses”
and “I’ll Chase the Blues Away”. She is featured with
Chick Webb and his band. Ella is 17 years old at the
time and will conduct the Webb band for three years
after he joins the ancestors in 1939.

1961 – The Hinds County, Mississippi Board of Supervisors
announces that more than one hundred “Freedom Riders”
had been arrested.

1963 – Medgar Evers, field secretary for the Mississippi
NAACP, joins the ancestors after being killed in the
driveway outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi.
The African American civil rights leader is shot to
death by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith. During
World War II, Evers volunteered for the U.S. Army and
participated in the Normandy invasion. In 1952, he
joined the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP). As a field worker for the NAACP,
Evers traveled through his home state encouraging poor
African Americans to register to vote and recruiting
them into the civil rights movement. He was instrumental
in getting witnesses and evidence for the Emmitt Till
murder case, which brought national attention to the
+ plight of African Americans in the South. He will be
widely mourned throughout the civil rights movement and
posthumously receives the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal.

1963 – Civil rights group demonstrates at Harlem construction
sites to protest discrimination in the building trade
unions.

1967 – The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a Virginia
miscegenation law (marriage or cohabitation between
whites and non-whites). This decision establishes that
no state law can prohibit interracial marriages.

1967 – A racially motivated civil disturbance occurs in
Cincinnati, Ohio. Three hundred persons are arrested,
and the National Guard is mobilized.

1972 – The National Black MBA Association is incorporated.
An organization of over 2,000 minority holders of
advanced business degrees, the organization’s mission
is to assist the entry of interested minorities into
the business community.

1981 – Larry Holmes defends his heavyweight boxing title by
earning a third-round TKO (technical knockout) over
Leon Spinks in Detroit, Michigan.

1989 – The U.S. Supreme Court expands the abilities of white
males to challenge court-approved affirmative action
plans, even years after they take effect.

1995 – The Supreme Court deals a potentially crippling blow
to federal affirmative action programs, ruling Congress
was limited by the same strict standards as states in
offering special help to minorities.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 25 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 25 *

1905 – Doxey Alphonso Wilkerson is born in Excelsior Springs, Missouri.
He will become an educator at Howard University in Washington, DC
and Yeshiva University in New York City. In 1944, he will publish
an essay in the anthology, “What The Negro Wants,” which will
illustrate comparisons between the Allied struggle in Europe
during World War II and the civil rights struggle of African
Americans in the United States. As a member of the American
Communist Party, he will work as a civil rights activist. This
affiliation will cause him to be repeatedly investigated by
the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities. After
resigning from the Communist Party in 1957, he will continue to
be active in civil right activities and educational pursuits
until his retirement in 1984. He will join the ancestors on
June 17, 1993 in Norwalk, Connecticut.

1916 – Madeline M. Turner receives a patent for the fruit press.

1918 – Ella Fitzgerald is born in Newport News, Virginia. Discovered
at an amateur contest at the Apollo Theatre in 1934, she will
be a leading jazz vocalist of the swing era. Known for her
renditions of such songs as “A Tisket, A Tasket” (her first
million-seller), her unique scat styling and series of recordings
of great American songwriters will make her an enduring favorite
of jazz lovers. She will join the ancestors on June 15, 1996 in
Beverly Hills, California.

1942 – Ruby Doris Smith Robinson is born in Atlanta, Georgia. She will
become a civil rights activist and a founding member of The
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She will be
one of the original “Freedom Riders,” and will assist in creating
the policy of “jail, no bail,” employed by activists to fill
southern jails and bring national attention to the civil rights
struggle. After becoming SNCC’s first and only female executive
secretary, she will become ill with leukemia and joins the
ancestors on October 7, 1967 in Atlanta, Georgia.

1944 – The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is founded by Dr. Frederick
Douglass Patterson, then president of Tuskegee Institute, with 27
charter colleges and universities and a combined enrollment of
14,000 students.

1944 – George Herriman joins the ancestors in Los Angeles, California
at the age of 63. He had been a successful cartoonist who was
the author of the comic strip “Krazy Kat.” The comic strip ran
successfully from 1913 until this date.

1945 – The United Nations is founded at a San Francisco meeting
attended by African American consultants, most notably W.E.B.
Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ralph J. Bunche and Walter White.

1950 – At the NBA’s annual players draft, the Boston Celtics select
Charles “Chuck” Cooper. He is the first African American ever
drafted by an NBA team.

1960 – A consent judgment in a Memphis federal court ended restrictions
barring voters in Fayette County, Tennessee. This was the first
voting rights case under the Civil Rights Act.

1972 – Major General Frederick E. Davidson becomes the first African
American to lead an Army division when he is assigned command of
the 8th Infantry Division in Europe.

1979 – Olodum, an internationally recognized Afro-Brazilian Carnival
association, is founded in Bahia, Brazil. The music of this
group celebrates Black history and protests racial discrimination.
The name Olodum is derived from the name of the supreme Yoruba
deity, Olodumare’.

1990 – Tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon joins the ancestors in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of 67. A leading influence
in the bop movement along with Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie,
Gordon played in London in the early 1960’s and stayed until the
mid-1970’s. Elected to the Jazz Hall of Fame in 1980, his role in
the 1986 movie “‘Round Midnight” will revive interest in his music
and earn him an Academy Award nomination for best actor.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 12 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 12 *

1826 – Sarah Parker Remond is born in Salem, Massachusetts. She will
become a major abolitionist. She will also be an African
American physician, lecturer and agent of the American
Anti-Slavery Society. She will deliver speeches throughout
the United States on the horrors of slavery. Because of her
eloquence, she will be chosen to travel to England to gather
support for the abolitionist cause in the United States and,
after the American Civil War starts, for support of the
Union Army and the Union blockade of the Confederacy. She
is the sister of orator Charles Lenox Remond. She will join
the ancestors on December 13, 1894.

1840 – The World’s Anti-Slavery Convention convenes in
London, England. Among those in attendance will be
African American Charles Remond, who will refuse to be
seated at the meeting when he and the other delegates
learn that women are being segregated in the gallery.

1876 – A monument is dedicated to Richard Allen in
Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. It is the first known
monument erected by African Americans to honor one of
their heroes.

1904 – William Hendrick Foster is born in Calvert, Texas. He will
become a star in the Negro Baseball League. He will play
for the Chicago American Giants from 1923-1937. A left-hander,
he will win 137 games, more than any other left-handed
pitcher. Throughout his career, he will regularly participate
in post-season play in the California Winter League and with
barnstorming squads of Negro Leagues all-stars. In exhibition
contests against major league stars, he will post a .600+ win
percentage. After his retirement from baseball, he will
pursue various coaching positions, ultimately landing the
post of head baseball coach and dean of men at his alma mater,
Alcorn College in Mississippi. He will join the ancestors on
September 16, 1978. He will be inducted into the Baseball
Hall Of Fame in 1996.

1935 – Ella Fitzgerald records her first record for Brunswick
Records. The songs on the record were “Love and Kisses”
and “I’ll Chase the Blues Away”. She is featured with
Chick Webb and his band. Ella is 17 years old at the
time and will conduct the Webb band for three years
after he joins the ancestors in 1939.

1961 – The Hinds County, Mississippi Board of Supervisors
announces that more than one hundred “Freedom Riders”
had been arrested.

1963 – Medgar Evers, field secretary for the Mississippi
NAACP, joins the ancestors after being killed in the
driveway outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi.
The African American civil rights leader is shot to
death by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith. During
World War II, Evers volunteered for the U.S. Army and
participated in the Normandy invasion. In 1952, he
joined the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP). As a field worker for the NAACP,
Evers traveled through his home state encouraging poor
African Americans to register to vote and recruiting
them into the civil rights movement. He was instrumental
in getting witnesses and evidence for the Emmitt Till
murder case, which brought national attention to the
+ plight of African Americans in the South. He will be
widely mourned throughout the civil rights movement and
posthumously receives the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal.

1963 – Civil rights group demonstrates at Harlem construction
sites to protest discrimination in the building trade
unions.

1967 – The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a Virginia
miscegenation law (marriage or cohabitation between
whites and non-whites). This decision establishes that
no state law can prohibit interracial marriages.

1967 – A racially motivated civil disturbance occurs in
Cincinnati, Ohio. Three hundred persons are arrested,
and the National Guard is mobilized.

1972 – The National Black MBA Association is incorporated.
An organization of over 2,000 minority holders of
advanced business degrees, the organization’s mission
is to assist the entry of interested minorities into
the business community.

1981 – Larry Holmes defends his heavyweight boxing title by
earning a third-round TKO (technical knockout) over
Leon Spinks in Detroit, Michigan.

1989 – The U.S. Supreme Court expands the abilities of white
males to challenge court-approved affirmative action
plans, even years after they take effect.

1995 – The Supreme Court deals a potentially crippling blow
to federal affirmative action programs, ruling Congress
was limited by the same strict standards as states in
offering special help to minorities.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 25 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – April 25 *

1905 – Doxey Alphonso Wilkerson is born in Excelsior Springs, Missouri.
He will become an educator at Howard University in Washington, DC
and Yeshiva University in New York City. In 1944, he will publish
an essay in the anthology, “What The Negro Wants,” which will
illustrate comparisons between the Allied struggle in Europe
during World War II and the civil rights struggle of African
Americans in the United States. As a member of the American
Communist Party, he will work as a civil rights activist. This
affiliation will cause him to be repeatedly investigated by
the U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities. After
resigning from the Communist Party in 1957, he will continue to
be active in civil right activities and educational pursuits
until his retirement in 1984. He will join the ancestors on
June 17, 1993 in Norwalk, Connecticut.

1916 – Madeline M. Turner receives a patent for the fruit press.

1918 – Ella Fitzgerald is born in Newport News, Virginia. Discovered
at an amateur contest at the Apollo Theatre in 1934, she will
be a leading jazz vocalist of the swing era. Known for her
renditions of such songs as “A Tisket, A Tasket” (her first
million-seller), her unique scat styling and series of recordings
of great American songwriters will make her an enduring favorite
of jazz lovers. She will join the ancestors on June 15, 1996 in
Beverly Hills, California.

1942 – Ruby Doris Smith Robinson is born in Atlanta, Georgia. She will
become a civil rights activist and a founding member of The
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She will be
one of the original “Freedom Riders,” and will assist in creating
the policy of “jail, no bail,” employed by activists to fill
southern jails and bring national attention to the civil rights
struggle. After becoming SNCC’s first and only female executive
secretary, she will become ill with leukemia and joins the
ancestors on October 7, 1967 in Atlanta, Georgia.

1944 – The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is founded by Dr. Frederick
Douglass Patterson, then president of Tuskegee Institute, with 27
charter colleges and universities and a combined enrollment of
14,000 students.

1944 – George Herriman joins the ancestors in Los Angeles, California
at the age of 63. He had been a successful cartoonist who was
the author of the comic strip “Krazy Kat.” The comic strip ran
successfully from 1913 until this date.

1945 – The United Nations is founded at a San Francisco meeting
attended by African American consultants, most notably W.E.B.
Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ralph J. Bunche and Walter White.

1950 – At the NBA’s annual players draft, the Boston Celtics select
Charles “Chuck” Cooper. He is the first African American ever
drafted by an NBA team.

1960 – A consent judgment in a Memphis federal court ended restrictions
barring voters in Fayette County, Tennessee. This was the first
voting rights case under the Civil Rights Act.

1972 – Major General Frederick E. Davidson becomes the first African
American to lead an Army division when he is assigned command of
the 8th Infantry Division in Europe.

1979 – Olodum, an internationally recognized Afro-Brazilian Carnival
association, is founded in Bahia, Brazil. The music of this
group celebrates Black history and protests racial discrimination.
The name Olodum is derived from the name of the supreme Yoruba
deity, Olodumare’.

1990 – Tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon joins the ancestors in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of 67. A leading influence
in the bop movement along with Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie,
Gordon played in London in the early 1960’s and stayed until the
mid-1970’s. Elected to the Jazz Hall of Fame in 1980, his role in
the 1986 movie “‘Round Midnight” will revive interest in his music
and earn him an Academy Award nomination for best actor.

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