Floyd Patterson – The CamaraIfe Maktaba

March 14, 2015 KRLemmons African American History

March 13 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – March 13 *

1779 – Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, an explorer of African descent,
from Santo Domingo (Haiti), builds the first permanent
settlement at the mouth of the river, just east of the present
Michigan Avenue Bridge on the north bank, of what is now the
city of Chicago, Illinois.

1861 – Jefferson Davis signs a bill authorizing the use of slaves as
soldiers in the Confederate army.

1862 – Congress forbids Union officers and soldiers from aiding in the
capture and return of fugitive slaves, ending what one
historian called the “military slave hunt.”

1869 – Arkansas legislature passes anti-Ku Klux Klan legislation.

1914 – James Reese Europe explains the significance of his Clef Club
Symphony Orchestra, consisting of the best African American
musicians in New York City: “… we colored people have our
own music that is a part of us. It’s the product of our
souls; it’s been created by the sufferings and miseries of our
race.”

1918 – John Rhoden is born in Birmingham, Alabama. An art student who
will study with Richmond Barthe’ and at Talledega College,
Rhoden’s sculptures will have strong romantic and classical
elements. He will receive commissions for Harlem Hospital and
Metropolitan Hospital in New York City, exhibit his work at
the Atlanta University annuals, the Art Institute of Chicago,
and the Whitney Museum and be represented in museums in the
United States and Europe. Among his major works will be
“Safari,” “Eve,” and “Quarter Horse.” He will join the ancestors
on January 4, 2001.

1930 – Richard Allen “Blue” Mitchell is born in Miami, Florida. The
trumpeter will make his name as a member of Horace Silver’s
Quintet. From 1974, he will play as a soloist or as an
accompanist for Tony Bennett and Lena Horne. He will join the
ancestors on May 21, 1979 succumbing to cancer.

1932 – The “Atlanta World” becomes the first African American daily
newspaper in modern times, when it begins daily publication.
It was founded on August 3, 1928, by William A. Scott, III
and became a bi-weekly in 1930.

1943 – Frank Dixon becomes the first great African American miler in
track as he wins the Columbian Mile in New York City. Dixon
runs the mile in the record time of 4 minutes, 9.6 seconds.

1946 – Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African
American to command an United States Air Force base, when he
assumes command of Lockbourne Air Force Base in Ohio.

1961 – Floyd Patterson knocks out Ingemar Johannson to retain the
heavyweight boxing championship.

1984 – James L. Usry is elected the first African American mayor of
Atlantic City, New Jersey. He will serve as mayor until 1990.
A former member of the Harlem Globetrotters, he became an
educator before entering politics.

1999 – Evander Holyfield, the WBA and IBF champion, and Lennox Lewis,
the WBC champion, keep their respective titles after fighting
to a controversial draw in New York.

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

January 4, 2015 KRLemmons African American History

January 4 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 4 *

1787 – Prince Hall, founder of the first African American Masonic
lodge, and others petition the Massachusetts legislature for
funds to return to Africa. The plan is the first recorded
effort by African Americans to return to their homeland.

1832 – A major insurrection of slaves on Trinidad occurs.

1901 – Cyril Lionel Richard James is born in Tunapuna, Trinidad. He
will become a writer, historian, Marxist social critic, and
activist who deeply influenced the intellectual underpinnings
of West Indian and African movements for independence. He was
born into an educated family in colonial Trinidad. At the age
of nine He earned a scholarship to Queen’s Royal College, in
Port of Spain, Trinidad, and graduated in 1918. In 1932 James
left Trinidad for England. He will become involved in socialist
politics, gravitating toward a faction of anti-Stalinist
Marxists. He applied Leon Trotsky’s views about a worldwide
workers’ revolution to his colonial home. The result, in part,
was “The Life of Captain Cipriani: An Account of British
Government in the West Indies” (1932), in which he called for
Caribbean independence. For a time in the 1970s he taught at
Federal City College in Washington, D.C. He lived the last
years of his life in London. Three volumes of his collected
works appeared as “The Future in the Present” (1977), “Spheres
of Existence” (1980), and “At the Rendezvous of Victory”
(1984). He will join the ancestors on May 31, 1989 in London,
England.

1920 – Andrew “Rube” Foster organizes the Negro National Baseball
League.

1935 – Floyd Patterson is born in Waco, North Carolina. He will become
a boxer, winning a gold medal in the 1952 Summer Olympic Games
in the middleweight class. He will become the first gold
medalist to win a world professional title. He will join the
ancestors on May 11, 2006.

1937 – Grace Ann Bumbry is born in St. Louis, Missouri. She will grow
up at 1703 Goode Avenue in the city. She will join the Union
Memorial Methodist Church’s choir at eleven, and sing at Sumner
High School. She will be a 1954 winner on the “Arthur Godfrey
Talent Scouts” show. After her concert debut in London in 1959,
Bumbry debuts with the Paris Opera the next year. In 1961,
Richard Wagner’s grandson features her in Bayreuth, Germany’s
Wagner Festival. The first person of African descent to sing
there, Bumbry will be an international sensation and win the
Wagner Medal. A mezzo-soprano who also successfully sang the
soprano repertoire, Grace Bumbry will record on four labels and
sing in concerts world wide. Her honors will include induction
into the St. Louis Walk of Fame, the UNESCO Award, the
Distinguished Alumna Award from the Academy of Music of the
West, Italy’s Premio Giuseppe Verdi, and being named Commandeur
des Arts et Lettres by the French government.

1944 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is appointed the first African American
official in the U.S. State Department.

1971 – Dr. Melvin H. Evans is inaugurated as the first elected governor
of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

1985 – Congressman William H. Gray is elected chairman of the House
Budget Committee, the highest congressional post, to date, held
by an African American.

1986 – David Robinson blocks a N.C.A.A. record 14 shots while playing
for the U.S. Naval Academy.
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Mr. Rene’ A. Perry.

November 30, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

November 30 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 30 *

1869 – John Roy Lynch is elected to the Mississippi House of
Representatives.

1912 – Gordon Parks, Sr. is born in Fort Scott, Kansas. In the
late 1930’s, while working as a railroad porter, he
will become interested in photography and launch his
career as a photographer and photojournalist. From
1943 to 1945, he will be a correspondent for the Office
of War Information, giving national exposure to his
work. This will lead to him becoming a staff
photographer for Life magazine in 1948. He will branch
off into film and television in the 1950’s and in 1968
will produce, direct, and write the script and music
for the production of his book, “The Learning Tree.”
He will also direct and write the music scores for the
movies “Shaft,” “Shaft’s Big Score,” The Super Cops,”
“Leadbelly,” “Odyssey of Solomon Northrup” and “Moments
Without Proper Names.” He will also direct “Superfly,”
“Three The Hard Way,” “Aaron Loves Angela,” and be
called a “Twentieth Century Renaissance Man” by the
NAACP, who will award him its Spingarn Medal in 1972.
The Library of Congress will honor him in 1982 with the
National Film Registry Classics designation for his
film, “The Learning Tree.” He will join the ancestors
on March 7, 2006.

1924 – Shirley Anita St. Hill (later Chisholm) is born in
Brooklyn, New York. While an education consultant for New
York City’s day-care division, she will become active in
community and political activities that included the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) and her district’s Unity Democratic Club. She
will begin her political career at the age of 40, when she
is elected to the state assembly. In 1968, she will be the
first African American woman elected to Congress,
defeating civil-rights leader James Farmer, who had
asserted in his campaign that African American voters
needed “a man’s voice in Washington.” She will run for
President in 1972 and continue her Congressional duties
until 1982.

1933 – Sam Gilliam is born in Tupelo, Mississippi. He will become
an artist known for his unique manipulation of materials
that result in painted sculpture or suspended paintings.
His work will be shown at the 36th Venice Miennale as well
as in the exhibit “African-American Artists 1880-1987.”

1937 – Robert Guillaume (Williams) is born in St. Louis, Missouri.
He will become an actor and be best known for his roles in
the sit-coms “Soap” and “Benson”.

1944 – Luther Ingram is born in Jackson, Mississippi. He will
become a rhythm and blues musician and singer and will be
best known for the song, “(If Lovin’ You is Wrong) I Don’t
Want to be Right.”

1948 – The Negro National League (Professional Baseball) officially
disbands. Although black teams will continue to play for
several years, they will no longer be major league caliber.
The demise of the Negro Leagues was inevitable as the
younger black players were signed by the white major league
franchises.

1953 – Albert Michael Espy is born in Yazoo City, Mississippi. In
1987, he will be sworn in as the state’s first African
American congressman since John Roy Lynch more than 100
years before. He will become Secretary of Agriculture
during the Bill Clinton administration. Leaving the
cabinet under fire and indicted for corruption, he will
later be vindicated when he is found not guilty.

1956 – Archie Moore is defeated by Floyd Patterson, as Patterson
wins the heavyweight boxing title vacated by the retired
Rocky Marciano. At the age of 21, Patterson becomes the
youngest boxer to be named heavyweight champion.

1962 – Bo Jackson is born in Bessemer, Alabama. The 1985 Heisman
Trophy winner will be one of the few professional athletes
to play in two sports – football and baseball.

1965 – Judith Jamison makes her debut with Alvin Ailey’s American
Dance Theatre in Chicago, dancing in Talley Beaty’s Congo
Tango Palace. Jamison will rejoin the company in 1988 as
artistic associate due to the failing health of Alvin
Ailey. she will become the company’s artistic director in
1989 upon Ailey’s death.

1966 – Barbados gains its independence from Great Britain.

1975 – The state of Dahomey becomes the People’s Republic of
Benin.

1981 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Coleman A. Young
“in recognition of his singular accomplishments as mayor
of the City of Detroit.”

1990 – Ruth Washington, long-time publisher of the Los Angeles
Sentinel, joins the ancestors. Following the death of
her husband Chester, Washington acted as publisher of the
weekly newspaper, founded in 1933, for sixteen years.

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

October 26, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

September 25 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 25 *

1861 – The Secretary of the Navy authorizes the enlistment of
African Americans in the Union Navy. The enlistees could
achieve no rank higher than “boys” and receive pay of
one ration per day and $10 per month.

1886 – Peter “The Black Prince” Jackson wins the Australian
heavyweight title, becoming the very first man of
African descent to win a national boxing crown.

1911 – Dr. Eric Williams, former prime minister of Trinidad and
Tobago, is born.

1924 – In a letter to his friend Alain Locke, Langston Hughes
writes “I’ve done a couple of new poems. I have no more
paper, so I’m sending you one on the back of this
letter.” The poem, “I, Too”, will be published two years
later and be among his most famous.

1951 – Robert Allen “Bob” McAdoo, Jr. is born in Greensboro, North
Carolina. He will become a one of the best-shooting big
men of all time in professional basketball. He will win
Rookie of the Year, a Most Valuable Player Award and three
consecutive scoring championships, all in his first four
years in the NBA. Over fourteen seasons, He will score
18,787 points and average 22.1 point per game. A five-time
NBA All Star, he will shoot .503 from the field and .754
from the line, scoring in double figures in all but one
season.

1957 – With 300 U.S. Army troops standing guard, nine African
American children forced to withdraw the previous day
from Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas,
because of unruly white crowds, are escorted to back to
class.

1962 – Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson in the first round
to become the world heavyweight boxing champion.

1962 – An African American church is destroyed by fire in Macon,
Georgia. This is the eighth African American church
burned in Georgia in one month.

1962 – Governor Ross Barnett again defies court orders and
personally denies James Meredith admission to the
University of Mississippi.

1965 – Willie Mays hits his fiftieth home run of the baseball
season, making him the oldest player to accomplish this.
He was 34 years old. Ten years before this, at the age
of 24, he was the youngest man to accomplish the same
feat.

1965 – Scottie Maurice Pippen is born in Hamburg, Arkansas. He
will become a professional basketball player and will be
traded to the Houston Rockets in 1998 after 11
distinguished seasons with the Chicago Bulls, for whom he
averaged 18.0 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists in 833
NBA games. He will earn All-NBA First Team honors three
times in his career and All-Defensive First Team honors in
each of seven seasons (1992-1999. In addition, he will
earn NBA World Championships in six of the eight years and
Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 1996. He will be selected
as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996.
He will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball
Hall of Fame on August 13, 2010.

1968 – Will Smith is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He
will become a rapper at the age of 12 and will be known
for his hits “Nightmare on My Street” and “Parents Just
Don’t Understand.” In 1990 he will start his acting
career with a six-year run as the “Fresh Prince of Bel
Air.” He will go to become a major motion picture box
office attraction, starring in “Six Degrees of
Separation,” “Made in America,” “Independence Day,”
“Men In Black,” and “Wild, Wild West.”

1974 – Barbara W. Hancock is the first African American woman
to be named a White House Fellow.

1988 – Florence Griffith Joyner runs 100 meters in record
Olympic time of 10.54 seconds.

1991 – Pioneer filmmaker Spencer Williams’s 1942 movie “Blood
of Jesus”, a story of the African American religious
experience, is among the third group of twenty-five
films added to the Library of Congress’s National Film
Registry. Williams, best known for his role of Andy in
the television series “Amos ‘n’ Andy”, was more
importantly, an innovative film director and a
contemporary of Oscar Micheaux. Williams’s film joins
other classics like “Lawrence of Arabia” and “2001: A
Space Odyssey”.

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

July 1, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

June 26 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – June 26 *

1893 – William Lee Conley “Big Bill” Broonzy, blues singer,
is born in Scott, Mississippi.

1894 – The American Railway Union, led by Eugene Debs, calls
a general strike in sympathy with Pullman workers.

1934 – W.E.B. Du Bois resigns from the NAACP over the
association’s policies and strategies. Du Bois had
been editor of the association’s “Crisis” magazine and
director of publicity and research. The resignation
brings control of the magazine under the leadership of
chief executive Walter White and its new editor and
NAACP assistant secretary, Roy Wilkins.

1938 – James Weldon Johnson, joins the ancestors after
succumbing to injuries received in an automobile
accident near his summer home in Wiscosset, Maine.

1940 – Billy Davis Jr., singer with the 5th Dimension, is
born in St. Louis, Missouri. He will later leave the
group with his wife, Marilyn McCoo, with whom he will
enjoy continued success as a duo.

1950 – The American Medical Association seats the first
African American delegates at its convention.

1952 – The African National Congress begins its Defiance of
Unjust Laws campaign in South Africa.

1956 – Jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown joins the ancestors
after being killed in an auto accident on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike. Founder of the Brown-Roach
Quintet with Max Roach two years earlier, Brown had
built a reputation as one of the finest jazz
trumpeters of his day as a major proponent of hard bop.

1959 – Prince Edward County, Virginia, abandons (closes) the
public school system in an attempt to prevent school
desegregation.

1959 – Floyd Paterson loses the Heavyweight Boxing
Championship to Ingemar Johansson of Sweden.

1966 – The 220-mile voter registration march from Memphis,
Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi ends with a rally of
some thirty thousand at the Mississippi state capitol.

1970 – Frank Robinson hits 2 grand slams as Baltimore Orioles
beat the Washington Senators 12-2.

1960 – Madagascar becomes independent from France.

1978 – “Girl,” a single-sentence two page short story of a
mother’s preachy advice to her daughter, appears in the
“New Yorker” magazine. Written by Jamaica Kincaid, the
story will make her a literary celebrity and will be
followed by short story collections and the novels
“Annie John” and “Lucy”.

1979 – Muhammad Ali announces that he was retiring as world
heavyweight boxing champion. The 37-year-old fighter
said, “Everything gets old, and you can’t go on like
years ago.” The “Float like a butterfly, sting like a
bee” act was no more.

1990 – African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela
addresses the U.S. Congress, asking for “material
resources” to hasten the end of white-led rule in South
Africa.

1995 – During a state visit to Ethiopia, Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak escapes an attempt on his life.

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

June 20, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

June 20 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – June 20 *

1858 – Charles Waddell Chestnutt is born in Cleveland, Ohio. He
will at one time maintain four careers simultaneously –
stenographer, lawyer, author, and lecturer. He will also
serve three years as principal of the Fayetteville State
Colored Normal School in North Carolina. His most famous
literary works will be a biography of Frederick Douglass
and the short story collection “The Conjure Woman”. In
1928, he will receive the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for his
literacy accomplishments. He will join the ancestors on
November 15, 1932.

1871 – Ku Klux Klan trials begin in federal court in Oxford,
Mississippi. Many whites, including doctors, lawyers,
ministers and college professors, are arrested and jailed
in the anti-Klan campaign. Of the 930 indicted in
Mississippi, 243 will be tried and found guilty. Some 1180
are indicted in South Carolina and 1849 are indicted in
North Carolina.

1911 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People is incorporated in New York City. It had been
founded on February 12, 1909.

1926 – Mordecai W. Johnson becomes the first African American
president of Howard University.

1929 – “Hot Chocolates” premieres at the Hudson Theatre in New
York City. With music by Fats Waller and lyrics by Andy
Razaf, the musical will introduce the songs “Ain’t
Misbehaving” and “Black and Blue”.

1936 – Jesse Owens of the United States sets the 100 meter record
at 10.2 seconds.

1943 – Thirty-four persons are killed in race riots in Detroit,
Michigan. Federal troops are called in to control the
violence, which stems from African Americans’ frustration
over exclusion from civilian defense jobs.

1946 – Andre’ Watts is born in Nuremburg, Germany. He will
make his debut as a concert pianist at age nine, have his
New York Philharmonic debut in 1963, and become a world-
famous classical pianist. In 2004 he will join the faculty
at Indiana University, where he will hold the Jack I. and
Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in The Jacob School of Music.

1949 – Lionel Ritchie is born in Tuskegee, Alabama. He will be
one of the most successful singers/songwriters in
contemporary popular music, known for his efforts in Pop,
Rhythm & Blues, and country music. Once a member of the
Commodores, Richie will establish a solo career, win
Grammys in 1982 and 1984, and be a featured performer at
the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in
Los Angeles.

1950 – Willie Mays graduates from high school and immediately
signs with the New York Giants for a $6,000 bonus. ‘The
Say Hey Kid’ would play most of his career for the Giants
— in both New York and San Francisco — becoming a
baseball legend. As his career comes to a close, Mays
will be traded to the New York Mets. Mays, an all-star
center fielder, will be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of
Fame in his first year of eligibility – 1979.

1960 – Harry Belafonte wins an Emmy for his variety special
“Tonight with Harry Belafonte”. It is the first Emmy
awarded to an African American.

1960 – Floyd Patterson wins back the world heavyweight title by
knocking out Ingemar Johanson of Sweden in round five of
a title bout at the Polo Grounds in New York City.

1967 – Muhammad Ali is convicted in Houston, Texas, in federal
court for violating the Selective Service Act by refusing
induction into the armed services. He is fined $10,000
and sentenced to five years in prison. Ali, an opponent
of the Vietnam War, had refused to report for service on
grounds that he was a Muslim minister. The U.S. Supreme
Court will later overturn his conviction.

1969 – 150,000 people attend the Newport Jazz Festival. Jimi
Hendrix gets $125,000 to appear on the program. This is
the largest paycheck for a single concert appearance at
the time.

1988 – The Supreme Court upholds a law that made it illegal for
private clubs to discriminate against women and minorities.

1987 – Whitney Houston’s album, “Whitney”, debuts on “Billboard”
magazine’s album charts at number one. Houston becomes the
first female to have a LP debut at the top.

1990 – South African Black nationalist Nelson Mandela and his
wife, Winnie, arrive in New York City for a ticker-tape
parade in their honor as they begin an eight-city United
States tour.

1997 – Lawrence Payton, occasional songwriter and member of the
“Four Tops,” joins the ancestors after succumbing to liver
cancer at his Southfield, Michigan home at the age of 59.
In 1953, he joined the Four Aims, which consisted of him,
Levi Stubbs, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Abdul “Duke” Fakir.
They changed their name to the Four Tops in order to avoid
confusion with the Ames Brothers. In 1956, they signed with
Chess Records and subsequently moved on to the Red Top,
Riverside and Columbia labels. They were part of Billy
Eckstine’s Las Vegas Revue in 1960 and in 1963 were signed
to Motown Records where they were teamed with the
production team of Holland, Dozier & Holland. Their last
label signing was to Arista in 1988. In 1990, they were
inducted into the Rock ‘n” Roll of Fame.

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

March 15, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

March 13 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 13 *