KRLemmons African American History

October 31 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – October 31 *

1893 – Football player, William Henry Lewis, is named as an All-
American, playing for Harvard College. This is the second
year in a row he is named to the All American Team. He is
the first African American athlete to be named All
American.

1900 – Ethel Waters is born in Chester, Pennsylvania. She will
become a famous blues singer, the first woman to perform
W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues,” and an actress known for
her roles in the movie “Cabin in the Sky” and such
stageplays as “Member of the Wedding”, for which she
will be nominated for a New York Drama Critics Award.
She will join the ancestors on September 1, 1977.

1935 – John Henry Lewis wins the world light heavyweight crown
in St. Louis, Missouri by defeating Bob Olin. He will
become the first American-born light heavyweight champion
to retire undefeated.

1945 – Educator, Booker T. Washington, is inducted into the Hall
of Fame for Great Americans.

1950 – Earl Lloyd becomes the first African American to play in
an NBA game when he takes the floor for the Washington
Capitols in Rochester, New York. Lloyd is actually one
of three African Americans to become NBA players in the
1950 season. The other two are Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton
and Chuck Cooper. Lloyd will play 9 solid NBA seasons
from 1950 to 1960.

1953 – John Harding Lucas II is born in Durham, North Carolina.
He will become a professional basketball player and play
guard for the Houston Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks. He
will become a NBA coach after retiring as a player. He
will coach the San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers and
Cleveland Cavaliers, each for less than two seasons,
compiling a 174 – 258 overall record. Prior to accepting
the head coaching position for the Cavaliers, he will be
an assistant coach for the Denver Nuggets for three
seasons.

1969 – A racially motivated civil disturbance occurs in
Jacksonville, Florida. The disturbance is caused by
tensions between whites and Blacks during civil rights
demonstrations.
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.

KRLemmons African American History

October 3 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – October 3 *

1856 – T. (Timothy) Thomas Fortune is born a slave in Marianna,
Florida. In Chicago on January 25, 1890, he will
co-found the militant National Afro-American League to
right wrongs against African Americans authorized by law
and sanctioned or tolerated by public opinion. The league
will fall apart after four years. When it is revived in
Rochester, New York on September 15, 1898, it will have
the new name of the “National Afro-American Council”,
with him as President. Those two organizations will play
a vital role in setting the stage for the Niagara Movement,
NAACP, and other civil rights organizations to follow. He
will also be the leading advocate of using “Afro-American”
to identify his people. Since they are “African in origin
and American in birth”, it is his argument that it most
accurately defines them. With himself at the helm as co-
owner with Emanuel Fortune, Jr. and Jerome B. Peterson, the
New York Age will become the most widely read of all Black
newspapers. It will stand at the forefront as a voice
agitating against the evils of discrimination, lynching,
mob violence, and disenfranchisement. Its popularity is due
to his editorials which condemn all forms of discrimination
and demand full justice for all African Americans. Ida B.
Wells’s newspaper “Memphis Free Speech and Headlight” will
have its printing press destroyed and building burned as
the result of an article published in it on May 25, 1892. He
will then give her a job and a new platform from which to
detail and condemn lynching. His book, “The Kind of Education
the Afro-American Most Needs” is published in 1898. He will
publish “Dreams of Life: Miscellaneous Poems” in 1905. After
a nervous breakdown, he will sell the New York Age to Fred R.
Moore in 1907, who will continue publishing it until 1960.
He will publish another book, “The New York Negro in
Journalism” in 1915. He will join the ancestors on June 2,
1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1904 – The Daytona Normal and Industrial School opens in Daytona
Beach, Florida. In 1923, the school merges with Cookman
Institute and becomes Bethune-Cookman College. One of
the leading institutions for training teachers, founder
Mary McLeod Bethune will later say the college was
started on “faith and a dollar and a half.”

1926 – Marques Haynes is born in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. He will
become a professional basketball player with the Harlem
Globetrotters after four years at Langston University. He
will be known as “The World’s Greatest Dribbler.” In the
publication, “Harlem Globetrotters: Six Decades of Magic”
(1988), he will be cited as dribbling the ball as many as
six times a second. He will retire in 1992 after a 46-year
professional career as player and coach. He will be
inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on October 2,
1998.

1935 – Ethiopia is invaded by Italy, despite Emperor Haile
Selasse’s pleas for help to the League of Nations.

1941 – Ernest Evans is born in Spring Gulley, South Carolina.
Later adopting the name “Chubby Checker” after the
renowned Fats Domino, his best-known recording will be
the 1960’s “The Twist,” which will spark the biggest
dance craze since the Charleston in the 1920’s. In
September 2008, “The Twist” will top Billboard
Magazine’s list of the most popular singles to have
appeared in the “Hot 100” since its debut in 1958.

1949 – The first African American owned radio station, WERD-AM
in Atlanta, Georgia, is founded by Jesse Blanton, Sr.

1950 – Ethel Waters becomes the first African American star in
a TV series, when “Beulah” is aired.

1951 – Dave Winfield is born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He will
be selected in four major sports league drafts in 1973
– NFL, NBA, ABA, and MLB. He will choose baseball and
play in 12 All-Star Games over a 20-year career with
the San Diego Padres, the New York Yankees, and the
California Angels.

1974 – Frank Robinson is named manager of the Cleveland Indians.
He becomes the first African American manager in major
league baseball.

1979 – Artist Charles White, joins the ancestors at the age of
61 in Los Angeles, California.

1989 – Art Shell is named head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders.
He is the first African American coach named in the
National Football League in over 60 years.

1994 – U.S. soldiers in Haiti raid the headquarters of a pro-
army militia that is despised by the general Haitian
population.

1994 – Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy announces his
resignation because of questions about gifts he had
received.

1994 – South African President Nelson Mandela addresses the
United Nations, urging the world to support his
country’s economy.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 1 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 1 *

1867 – Robert T. Freeman becomes the first African American
to graduate from Harvard Dental School.

1875 – White Democrats attacked Republicans at Yazoo City,
Mississippi. One white and three African-Americans were
killed.

1912 – Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, English-born composer of Hiawatha’s
Wedding Feast and professor of music at Trinity College of
Music in London, joins the ancestors in Croyden, England.
Coleridge-Taylor was the most important Black composer of
his day and toured the United States three times, where he
played with Will Marion Cook, Clarence Cameron White, and
collaborated with Paul Laurence Dunbar in setting several
of his poems to music.

1925 – Rosa Cuthbert (later Guy) is born in Trinidad. She will leave
Trinidad with her parents for America in 1932. During World
War II she will join the American Negro Theatre. She will
study theatre and writing at the University of New York. Most
of her books are about the dependability of family members
that care and love each other. She will be one of the founders
of The Harlem Writers guild (1950). Her works will include: “Bird
at My Window” (1966), “Children of Longing” (1971), “The Friends”
(1973), “Ruby” (1976), “Edith Jackson” (1978), “The Disappearance”
(1979), “Mirror of Her Own” (1981), “A Measure of Time (1983),
and New Guys Around the Block (1983), Paris, Pee Wee and Big Dog (1984), My Love, My Love, or the Peasant Girl (1985), And I Heard a Bird Sing (1987). She will become the author of
“The Friends,” “Ruby,” and “Edith Jackson.”

1937 – Ron O’Neal is born in Utica, New York. He will become an
actor and will star in movies during the 1970’s and be
best known for his role in “Superfly.”

1948 – William T. Coleman is appointed by Justice Frankfurter as a
clerk to the U.S. Supreme Court, the first African
American to hold the position. A Harvard Law School
graduate and Army Air Corps veteran, Coleman will again
enter public service, first as president of the NAACP
Legal Defense and Education Fund and, in 1975, as
Secretary of Transportation under President Gerald Ford.

1970 – Dr. Hugh S. Scott of Washington, DC, becomes the first
African American superintendent of schools in a major US.
city.

1971 – The Pittsburgh Pirates field an all African American team
in a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies.

1973 – George Foreman knocks out Jose Roman in the first round to
retain his heavyweight title.

1975 – General Daniel (“Chappie”) James Jr. is promoted to the
rank of four-star general and named commander-in-chief of
the North American Air Defense Command. He is the first
African American to achieve this rank.

1977 – Ethel Waters, singer and actress, joins the ancestors in
Chatsworth, California at the age of 80. She was the
first African American entertainer to move from vaudeville
to ‘white’ entertainment. She starred in many movies such
as “Something Special” (1971), “Carib Gold” (1955), “The
Member of the Wedding” (1952), “Pinky” (1949), “Cabin in
the Sky” (1943), “Cairo” (1942), “Tales of Manhattan”
(1942), “Black Musical Featurettes, V. 1″ (1929), Short
Subjects V. 1” (1929), and “On With the Show” (1929).
She also was in the first network show to feature an
African American actress as the star (The Beulah Show-
1950).

1979 – Hazel W. Johnson becomes the first African American woman
to attain general officer rank in American military
history. Under her tenure as Chief, the Army Nurse Corps
continued to improve standards of education and training.
The Army Nurse Corps Standards of Nursing Practice were
published as an official Department of the Army Pamphlet
(DA PAM 40-5). She received the Distinguished Service
Medal, Legion Of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, and
the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster among
her awards and honors.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 31 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 31 *

1893 – Football player, William Henry Lewis, is named as an All-
American, playing for Harvard College. This is the second
year in a row he is named to the All American Team. He is
the first African American athlete to be named All
American.

1900 – Ethel Waters is born in Chester, Pennsylvania. She will
become a famous blues singer, the first woman to perform
W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues,” and an actress known for
her roles in the movie “Cabin in the Sky” and such
stageplays as “Member of the Wedding”, for which she
will be nominated for a New York Drama Critics Award.
She will join the ancestors on September 1, 1977.

1935 – John Henry Lewis wins the world light heavyweight crown
in St. Louis, Missouri by defeating Bob Olin. He will
become the first American-born light heavyweight champion
to retire undefeated.

1945 – Educator, Booker T. Washington, is inducted into the Hall
of Fame for Great Americans.

1950 – Earl Lloyd becomes the first African American to play in
an NBA game when he takes the floor for the Washington
Capitols in Rochester, New York. Lloyd is actually one
of three African Americans to become NBA players in the
1950 season. The other two are Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton
and Chuck Cooper. Lloyd will play 9 solid NBA seasons
from 1950 to 1960.

1953 – John Harding Lucas II is born in Durham, North Carolina.
He will become a professional basketball player and play
guard for the Houston Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks. He
will become a NBA coach after retiring as a player. He
will coach the San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers and
Cleveland Cavaliers, each for less than two seasons,
compiling a 174 – 258 overall record. Prior to accepting
the head coaching position for the Cavaliers, he will be
an assistant coach for the Denver Nuggets for three
seasons.

1969 – A racially motivated civil disturbance occurs in
Jacksonville, Florida. The disturbance is caused by
tensions between whites and Blacks during civil rights
demonstrations.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 3 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 3 *

1856 – T. (Timothy) Thomas Fortune is born a slave in Marianna,
Florida. In Chicago on January 25, 1890, he will
co-found the militant National Afro-American League to
right wrongs against African Americans authorized by law
and sanctioned or tolerated by public opinion. The league
will fall apart after four years. When it is revived in
Rochester, New York on September 15, 1898, it will have
the new name of the “National Afro-American Council”,
with him as President. Those two organizations will play
a vital role in setting the stage for the Niagara Movement,
NAACP, and other civil rights organizations to follow. He
will also be the leading advocate of using “Afro-American”
to identify his people. Since they are “African in origin
and American in birth”, it is his argument that it most
accurately defines them. With himself at the helm as co-
owner with Emanuel Fortune, Jr. and Jerome B. Peterson, the
New York Age will become the most widely read of all Black
newspapers. It will stand at the forefront as a voice
agitating against the evils of discrimination, lynching,
mob violence, and disenfranchisement. Its popularity is due
to his editorials which condemn all forms of discrimination
and demand full justice for all African Americans. Ida B.
Wells’s newspaper “Memphis Free Speech and Headlight” will
have its printing press destroyed and building burned as
the result of an article published in it on May 25, 1892. He
will then give her a job and a new platform from which to
detail and condemn lynching. His book, “The Kind of Education
the Afro-American Most Needs” is published in 1898. He will
publish “Dreams of Life: Miscellaneous Poems” in 1905. After
a nervous breakdown, he will sell the New York Age to Fred R.
Moore in 1907, who will continue publishing it until 1960.
He will publish another book, “The New York Negro in
Journalism” in 1915. He will join the ancestors on June 2,
1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1904 – The Daytona Normal and Industrial School opens in Daytona
Beach, Florida. In 1923, the school merges with Cookman
Institute and becomes Bethune-Cookman College. One of
the leading institutions for training teachers, founder
Mary McLeod Bethune will later say the college was
started on “faith and a dollar and a half.”

1926 – Marques Haynes is born in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. He will
become a professional basketball player with the Harlem
Globetrotters after four years at Langston University. He
will be known as “The World’s Greatest Dribbler.” In the
publication, “Harlem Globetrotters: Six Decades of Magic”
(1988), he will be cited as dribbling the ball as many as
six times a second. He will retire in 1992 after a 46-year
professional career as player and coach. He will be
inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on October 2,
1998.

1935 – Ethiopia is invaded by Italy, despite Emperor Haile
Selasse’s pleas for help to the League of Nations.

1941 – Ernest Evans is born in Spring Gulley, South Carolina.
Later adopting the name “Chubby Checker” after the
renowned Fats Domino, his best-known recording will be
the 1960’s “The Twist,” which will spark the biggest
dance craze since the Charleston in the 1920’s. In
September 2008, “The Twist” will top Billboard
Magazine’s list of the most popular singles to have
appeared in the “Hot 100” since its debut in 1958.

1949 – The first African American owned radio station, WERD-AM
in Atlanta, Georgia, is founded by Jesse Blanton, Sr.

1950 – Ethel Waters becomes the first African American star in
a TV series, when “Beulah” is aired.

1951 – Dave Winfield is born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He will
be selected in four major sports league drafts in 1973
– NFL, NBA, ABA, and MLB. He will choose baseball and
play in 12 All-Star Games over a 20-year career with
the San Diego Padres, the New York Yankees, and the
California Angels.

1974 – Frank Robinson is named manager of the Cleveland Indians.
He becomes the first African American manager in major
league baseball.

1979 – Artist Charles White, joins the ancestors at the age of
61 in Los Angeles, California.

1989 – Art Shell is named head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders.
He is the first African American coach named in the
National Football League in over 60 years.

1994 – U.S. soldiers in Haiti raid the headquarters of a pro-
army militia that is despised by the general Haitian
population.

1994 – Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy announces his
resignation because of questions about gifts he had
received.

1994 – South African President Nelson Mandela addresses the
United Nations, urging the world to support his
country’s economy.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 1 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 1 *

1867 – Robert T. Freeman becomes the first African American
to graduate from Harvard Dental School.

1875 – White Democrats attacked Republicans at Yazoo City,
Mississippi. One white and three African-Americans were
killed.

1912 – Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, English-born composer of Hiawatha’s
Wedding Feast and professor of music at Trinity College of
Music in London, joins the ancestors in Croyden, England.
Coleridge-Taylor was the most important Black composer of
his day and toured the United States three times, where he
played with Will Marion Cook, Clarence Cameron White, and
collaborated with Paul Laurence Dunbar in setting several
of his poems to music.

1925 – Rosa Cuthbert (later Guy) is born in Trinidad. She will leave
Trinidad with her parents for America in 1932. During World
War II she will join the American Negro Theatre. She will
study theatre and writing at the University of New York. Most
of her books are about the dependability of family members
that care and love each other. She will be one of the founders
of The Harlem Writers guild (1950). Her works will include: “Bird
at My Window” (1966), “Children of Longing” (1971), “The Friends”
(1973), “Ruby” (1976), “Edith Jackson” (1978), “The Disappearance”
(1979), “Mirror of Her Own” (1981), “A Measure of Time (1983),
and New Guys Around the Block (1983), Paris, Pee Wee and Big Dog (1984), My Love, My Love, or the Peasant Girl (1985), And I Heard a Bird Sing (1987). She will become the author of “The Friends,” “Ruby,” and “Edith Jackson.”

1937 – Ron O’Neal is born in Utica, New York. He will become an
actor and will star in movies during the 1970’s and be
best known for his role in “Superfly.”

1948 – William T. Coleman is appointed by Justice Frankfurter as a
clerk to the U.S. Supreme Court, the first African
American to hold the position. A Harvard Law School
graduate and Army Air Corps veteran, Coleman will again
enter public service, first as president of the NAACP
Legal Defense and Education Fund and, in 1975, as
Secretary of Transportation under President Gerald Ford.

1970 – Dr. Hugh S. Scott of Washington, DC, becomes the first
African American superintendent of schools in a major US.
city.

1971 – The Pittsburgh Pirates field an all African American team
in a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies.

1973 – George Foreman knocks out Jose Roman in the first round to
retain his heavyweight title.

1975 – General Daniel (“Chappie”) James Jr. is promoted to the
rank of four-star general and named commander-in-chief of
the North American Air Defense Command. He is the first
African American to achieve this rank.

1977 – Ethel Waters, singer and actress, joins the ancestors in
Chatsworth, California at the age of 80. She was the
first African American entertainer to move from vaudeville
to ‘white’ entertainment. She starred in many movies such
as “Something Special” (1971), “Carib Gold” (1955), “The
Member of the Wedding” (1952), “Pinky” (1949), “Cabin in
the Sky” (1943), “Cairo” (1942), “Tales of Manhattan”
(1942), “Black Musical Featurettes, V. 1″ (1929), Short
Subjects V. 1” (1929), and “On With the Show” (1929).
She also was in the first network show to feature an
African American actress as the star (The Beulah Show-
1950).

1979 – Hazel W. Johnson becomes the first African American woman
to attain general officer rank in American military
history. Under her tenure as Chief, the Army Nurse Corps
continued to improve standards of education and training.
The Army Nurse Corps Standards of Nursing Practice were
published as an official Department of the Army Pamphlet
(DA PAM 40-5). She received the Distinguished Service
Medal, Legion Of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, and
the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster among
her awards and honors.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 31 African American Historical Events

*               Today in Black History – October 31            *

1893 – Football player, William Henry Lewis, is named as an All-
American, playing for Harvard College. This is the second
year in a row he is named to the All American Team. He is
the first African American athlete to be named All
American.

1900 – Ethel Waters is born in Chester, Pennsylvania.  She will
become a famous blues singer, the first woman to perform
W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues,” and an actress known for
her roles in the movie “Cabin in the Sky” and such
stageplays as “Member of the Wedding”, for which she
will be nominated for a New York Drama Critics Award.
She will join the ancestors on September 1, 1977.

1935 – John Henry Lewis wins the world light heavyweight crown
in St. Louis, Missouri by defeating Bob Olin.  He will
become the first American-born light heavyweight champion
to retire undefeated.

1945 – Educator, Booker T. Washington, is inducted into the Hall
of Fame for Great Americans.

1950 – Earl Lloyd becomes the first African American to play in
an NBA game when he takes the floor for the Washington
Capitols in Rochester, New York. Lloyd is actually one
of three African Americans to become NBA players in the
1950 season. The other two are Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton
and Chuck Cooper. Lloyd will play 9 solid NBA seasons
from 1950 to 1960.

1953 – John Harding Lucas II is born in Durham, North Carolina.
He will become a professional basketball player and play
guard for the Houston Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks.  He
will become a NBA coach after retiring as a player. He
will coach the San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers and
Cleveland Cavaliers, each for less than two seasons,
compiling a 174 – 258 overall record. Prior to accepting
the head coaching position for the Cavaliers, he will be
an assistant coach for the Denver Nuggets for three
seasons.

1969 – A racially motivated civil disturbance occurs in
Jacksonville, Florida.  The disturbance is caused by
tensions between whites and Blacks during civil rights
demonstrations.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 3 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 3            *

1856 – T. (Timothy) Thomas Fortune is born a slave in Marianna,
Florida. In Chicago on January 25, 1890, he will
co-found the militant National Afro-American League to
right wrongs against African Americans authorized by law
and sanctioned or tolerated by public opinion. The league
will fall apart after four years. When it is revived in
Rochester, New York on September 15, 1898, it will have
the new name of the “National Afro-American Council”,
with him as President. Those two organizations will play
a vital role in setting the stage for the Niagara Movement,
NAACP, and other civil rights organizations to follow. He
will also be the leading advocate of using “Afro-American”
to identify his people. Since they are “African in origin
and American in birth”, it is his argument that it most
accurately defines them. With himself at the helm as co-
owner with Emanuel Fortune, Jr. and Jerome B. Peterson, the
New York Age will become the most widely read of all Black
newspapers. It will stand at the forefront as a voice
agitating against the evils of discrimination, lynching,
mob violence, and disenfranchisement. Its popularity is due
to his editorials which condemn all forms of discrimination
and demand full justice for all African Americans. Ida B.
Wells’s newspaper “Memphis Free Speech and Headlight” will
have its printing press destroyed and building burned as
the result of an article published in it on May 25, 1892. He
will then give her a job and a new platform from which to
detail and condemn lynching. His book, “The Kind of Education
the Afro-American Most Needs” is published in 1898. He will
publish “Dreams of Life: Miscellaneous Poems” in 1905. After
a nervous breakdown, he will sell the New York Age to Fred R.
Moore in 1907, who will continue publishing it until 1960.
He will publish another book, “The New York Negro in
Journalism” in 1915. He will join the ancestors on June 2,
1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1904 – The Daytona Normal and Industrial School opens in Daytona
Beach, Florida. In 1923, the school merges with Cookman
Institute and becomes Bethune-Cookman College.  One of
the leading institutions for training teachers, founder
Mary McLeod Bethune will later say the college was
started on “faith and a dollar and a half.”

1926 – Marques Haynes is born in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. He will
become a professional basketball player with the Harlem
Globetrotters after four years at Langston University. He
will be known as “The World’s Greatest Dribbler.” In the
publication, “Harlem Globetrotters: Six Decades of Magic”
(1988), he will be cited as dribbling the ball as many as
six times a second. He will retire in 1992 after a 46-year
professional career as player and coach.  He will be
inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on October 2,
1998.

1935 – Ethiopia is invaded by Italy, despite Emperor Haile
Selasse’s pleas for help to the League of Nations.

1941 – Ernest Evans is born in Spring Gulley, South Carolina.
Later adopting the name “Chubby Checker” after the
renowned Fats Domino, his best-known recording will be
the 1960’s “The Twist,” which will spark the biggest
dance craze since the Charleston in the 1920’s. In
September 2008, “The Twist” will top Billboard
Magazine’s list of the most popular singles to have
appeared in the “Hot 100” since its debut in 1958.

1949 – The first African American owned radio station, WERD-AM
in Atlanta, Georgia, is founded by Jesse Blanton, Sr.

1950 – Ethel Waters becomes the first African American star in
a TV series, when “Beulah” is aired.

1951 – Dave Winfield is born in St. Paul, Minnesota.   He will
be selected in four major sports league drafts in 1973
– NFL, NBA, ABA, and MLB.  He will choose baseball and
play in 12 All-Star Games over a 20-year career with
the San Diego Padres, the New York Yankees, and the
California Angels.

1974 – Frank Robinson is named manager of the Cleveland Indians.
He becomes the first African American manager in major
league baseball.

1979 – Artist Charles White, joins the ancestors at the age of
61 in Los Angeles, California.

1989 – Art Shell is named head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders.
He is the first African American coach named in the
National Football League in over 60 years.

1994 – U.S. soldiers in Haiti raid the headquarters of a pro-
army militia that is despised by the general Haitian
population.

1994 – Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy announces his
resignation because of questions about gifts he had
received.

1994 – South African President Nelson Mandela addresses the
United Nations, urging the world to support his
country’s economy.

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