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.

KRLemmons African American History

June 4 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 4 *

1832 – The third national Black convention meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania with twenty-nine delegates from eight states.
Henry Sipkins of New York is elected president.

1922 – Samuel Gravely is born in Richmond, Virginia. He will
become the first African American Admiral in the U.S. Navy,
He also will become the first African American to command a
U.S. warship, the USS Falgout, and will also command the
USS Taussig. He will join the ancestors on October 22, 2004,
at Bethesda Naval Hospital after a short illness.

1946 – Legislation authorizing the establishment of Mississippi
Valley State University in Itta Bena, Mississippi is
enacted.

1961 – Eldra Patrick ‘El’ Debarge is born in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
He will become a singer with the family group Debarge. He
will become a solo artist in the mid 1980’s.

1972 – Angela Davis is acquitted by 11 whites and one Mexican
American of murder, kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy
charges brought in connection with a 1970 courthouse shoot-
out in San Rafael, California.

1973 – Arna Bontemps, writer and educator, joins the ancestors in
Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 72.

1987 – Edwin Moses, who had won a total of 122 consecutive victories
in the 400-meter hurdles, is defeated by Danny Harris in
Madrid, Spain. It had been ten years since the last time
Moses lost the event.

1989 – Four African Americans win Tony awards for “Black and Blue,”
a musical revue featuring classic blues and tap-dance
routines. Winners are Ruth Brown (best actress in a musical),
Cholly Atkins, Henry LeTang, Frankie Manning, and Fayard
Nicholas (best choreography).

1991 – Baltimore Orioles manager Frank Robinson is named assistant
general manager of the club. He is the third African American
to become an assistant general manager, joining Elaine
Weddington of the Boston Red Sox and Bob Watson of the
Houston Astros.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 8 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 8 *

1922 – Carmen McRae is born in the village of Harlem in New York
City. She will study classical piano in her youth, even
though singing was her first love. She will win an
amateur contest at the Apollo Theater and begin her
singing career. She will be influenced by Billie
Holiday, who will become a lifelong friend and mentor.
She will devote her albums and the majority of her
nightclub acts to Lady Day’s memory. Her association
with jazz accordionist Matt Mathews will lead to her
first solo recordings in 1953-1954. In her later years,
McRae’s original style will influence singers Betty
Carter and Carol Sloane. Her best known recordings will
be “Skyliner” (1956) and “Take Five” with Dave Brubeck
(1961). She will also work in films and will appear in
“Hotel” (1967) and “Jo Jo Dancer Your Life is Calling”
(1986). She will receive six Grammy award nominations
and the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Jazz
Masters Fellowship Award in 1994. She will join the
ancestors on November 10, 1994.

1938 – Cornetist and bandleader Joe “King” Oliver joins the
ancestors in Savannah, Georgia. He was considered one
of the leading musicians of New Orleans-style jazz and
served as a mentor to Louis Armstrong, who played with
him in 1922 and 1923.

1953 – Louis “Sweet Lou” Dunbar is born in Houston, Texas. He will
become a professional basketball player (for 27 years) with
the Harlem Globetrotters. After his playing days, he will
become the Director of Player Personnel. He will be the 25th
person to receive the Globetrotter “Legends” Distinction,
awarded on February 9, 2007 at Houston’s Toyota Center. He
will also become a member of the National Basketball Retired
Players Association (Legends of Basketball).

1974 – Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th home run
against a pitch thrown by Los Angeles Dodger Al Downing
at a home game in Fulton County Stadium. Aaron’s home
run breaks the long-standing home run record of Babe
Ruth.

1975 – Frank Robinson, major league baseball’s first African
American manager, gets off to a winning start as his
team, the Cleveland Indians, defeat the New York
Yankees, 5-3.

1980 – State troopers are mobilized to stop racially motivated
civil disturbances in Wrightsville, Georgia. Racial
incidents are also reported in Chattanooga, Tennessee,
Oceanside, California, Kokomo, Indiana, Wichita, Kansas,
and Johnston County, North Carolina.

1987 – Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Al Campanis is fired
for alleged racially biased comments about the
managerial potential of African Americans.

1990 – Percy Julian, who helped create drugs to combat glaucoma
and methods to mass produce cortisone, and agricultural
scientist George Washington Carver are the first African
American inventors admitted into the National Inventors
Hall of Fame in the hall’s 17-year history.

1992 – Tennis great Arthur Ashe announces at a New York news
conference that he had AIDS. He contracted the virus
from a transfusion needed for an earlier heart surgery.
Ashe will join the ancestors in February 1993 of
AIDS-related pneumonia at age 49.

2001 – Tiger Woods becomes the first golfer to hold all four
major professional golf titles at one time when he wins
the 2001 Masters tournament.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 8 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 8             *

1878 – Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor is born in Indianapolis,
Indiana.  He will become the world’s fastest bicycle
racer for 12 years,

1920 – Esther Rolle is born in Pompano Beach, Florida.  She
will become an actress, primarily on television.  She
will win an Emmy Award for her role in “Summer of My
German Soldier”. She will be best-known, however, for
her role as Florida, in the television sit-com, “Good
Times.”  Even though Ms. Rolle will play characters who
worked as maids, off-stage, she will be a tireless
crusader against black stereotypes in Hollywood.  She
will join the ancestors in 1998 at the age of 78.  Note:
At the time of her death, her manager will give her date
of birth as November 8, 1920, though some references
list the year as 1922.

1932 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Robert R. Moton,
president of Tuskegee Institute, for his “thoughtful
leadership in conservative opinion and action.”

1938 – Crystal Bird Fauset of Philadelphia, is elected to the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives.  She is the first
African American woman elected to a state legislature.

1947 – Minnie Ripperton is born in Chicago, Illinois.  She will
study opera under Marion Jeffrey.  She will spend months
and months learning how to breathe and listening to and
holding vowels.  Eventually, she will begin singing
operas and operettas with a show tune every so often.
Despite her natural talent (a pure five to six octave
soprano) for opera, Minnie will be more attracted to
“Rock N Roll” and the promise of a touring career. She
will eventually discontinue her classical training to
follow her dream of becoming a famous songstress.  It
will, however, be her classical training which will
bring her recording success. She will be best known for
her recording of “Loving You.” She will join the
ancestors in July, 1979 at the age of 31 after
succumbing to breast cancer.

1953 – Alfre Woodard is born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  She will
become an actress after her education at Boston
University, School of Fine Arts.  She will receive a
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television
Miniseries/Movie, an Emmy Award for Best Actress, as
well as ACE and Screen Actors Guild Awards for Best
Actress for her performance in the 1997 HBO original
movie, “Miss Evers’ Boys.”  Woodard’s many feature
film credits include “Star Trek: First Contact,”
“Heart and Souls,” “Primal Fear” opposite Richard Gere,
the ensemble film “How to Make An American Quilt,” Spike
Lee’s family drama, Crooklyn,” Dr. Maya Angelou’s “Down
in the Delta” starring Wesley Snipes, and “Passionfish,”
for which she will receive a 1998 Golden Globe
Nomination for Best Actress. In 1984, she will receive
an Academy Award nomination for her performance in
Martin Ritt’s “Cross Creek.”

1959 – Elgin Baylor of the Minneapolis Lakers, scores 64 points
and sets a National Basketball Association scoring record.

1960 – Otis M. Smith is elected auditor general of Michigan and
becomes the first African American chosen in a statewide
election since Reconstruction.

1966 – Edward W. Brooke (Republican, Massachusetts), is elected
to the U.S. Senate and becomes the first African American
senator since Reconstruction and the first African
American senator elected by popular vote.

1966 – Frank Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles, the American
League’s batting and home-run champion, is named the
league’s Most Valuable Player.

1966 – John H. Johnson, publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines,
is awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal “for his productive
imagination…in the perilous field of publishing” and
“for his contributions to the enhancement of the Negro’s
self-image through his publications.”

1983 – W. Wilson Goode of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Harvey Gantt
of Charlotte, North Carolina, and James A. Sharp, Jr. of
Flint, Michigan, are the first African Americans elected
mayor of their respective cities.

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 13 African American Historical Events

  Today in Black History – September 13         *

1663 – The first known slave revolt in the thirteen American
        colonies is planned in Gloucester County, Virginia.
        The conspirators, both white servants and African
        American slaves, are betrayed by fellow indentured
        servants.

1867 – Gen. E.R.S. Canby orders South Carolina courts to
        impanel African American jurors.

1881 – Louis Latimer patents an electric lamp with a carbon
        filament.

1886 – Alain Leroy Locke is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
        He will graduate from Harvard University in 1907 with a
        degree in philosophy and become the first African
        American Rhodes scholar, studying at Oxford University
        from 1907-10 and the University of Berlin from 1910-11.
        He will receive his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard in
        1918. For almost 40 years, until retirement in 1953 as
        head of the department of philosophy, Locke will teach
        at Howard University, Washington, DC. He will be best
        known for his involvement with the Harlem Renaissance,
        although his work and influence extend well beyond.
        Through “The New Negro”, published in 1925, Locke
        popularized and most adequately defined the Renaissance
        as a movement in Black arts and letters. He will join
        the ancestors on June 9, 1954.

1915 – The first historically black and Catholic university for
        African Americans in the United States, Xavier
        University, is founded by Blessed Katherine Drexel and
        the religious order she established, the “Sisters of
        the Blessed Sacrament,” in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1948 – Nell Ruth Hardy is born in Birmingham, Alabama. She will
        be better known as Nell Carter and become a Broadway
        sensation as a singer and actress in Broadway’s
        “Bubbling Brown Sugar”, “Ain’t Misbehavin’ “(for which
        she will win a Tony), and for five seasons in
        television’s “Gimme a Break”. She will join the ancestors
        on January 23, 2003 after succumbing to heart disease
        complicated by diabetes and obesity.

1962 – Mississippi Governor Ross R. Barnett defies the federal
        government in an impassioned speech on statewide radio-
        television hookup, saying he would “interpose” the
        authority of the state between the University of
        Mississippi and federal judges who had ordered the
        admission of James H. Meredith. Barnett says, “There is
        no case in history where the Caucasian race has survived
        social integration.” He promises to go to jail, if
        necessary, to prevent integration at the state
        university. His defiance set the stage for the gravest
        federal/state crisis since the Civil War.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy denounces the burning of
        churches in Georgia and supports voter registration
        drives in the South.

1965 – Willie Mays hits his 500th career home run.

1967 – Michael Johnson is born in Dallas, Texas.  He will become
        a world class sprinter, Olympic athlete, and the first
        person to break 44 (43.65) seconds for the 400-meter run.
        At the Atlanta Olympics, he also will become the first
        man to win the double gold in the 400 ad 200 meters.

1971 – Two hundred troopers and officers storm the Attica
        Correctional Facility in upstate New York under orders
        from Governor Nelson Rockefeller.   Thirty-three
        convicts and ten guards are killed. Later investigations
        show that nine of the ten guards were killed by the
        storming party. This riot will focus national attention
        on corrections departments nationwide and the practice
        of imprisonment in the United States. A National
        Conference on Corrections will be convened in December,
        1971 resulting in the formation of the National
        Institute of Corrections in 1974.

1971 – Frank Robinson hits his 500th career home run.

1972 – Two African Americans, Johnny Ford of Tuskegee and A.J.
        Cooper of Prichard, are elected mayors in Alabama.

1979 – South Africa grants Venda independence (Not recognized
        outside of South Africa). Venda is a homeland situated
        in the north eastern part of the Transvaal Province of
        South Africa.

1981 – Isabel Sanford wins an Emmy award as best comedic actress
        for “The Jeffersons”.

1989 – Archbishop Desmond Tutu leads huge crowds of singing and
        dancing people through central Cape Town in the biggest
        anti-apartheid protest march in South Africa for 30
        years.

1996 – Rap artist Tupac Shakur joins the ancestors six days after
        being the target of a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas at
        the age of 25.

1998 – Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hits his 61st and 62nd home
        runs of the season, passing Roger Maris’ record and
        pulling into a tie with St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire
        in this years home run derby.
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry