KRLemmons African American History

July 18 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – July 18 *

1753 – Lemuel Haynes, colonial American Congregational clergyman,
is born in West Hartford, Connecticut. He will be
abandoned at five months old by his African father and
Anglo mother. He will be indentured to a white family in
Massachusetts. When he becomes a free man at age 21 in
1774, one of his first choices is to join freedom’s cause
and serve in a military unit from Connecticut. He will
not only fight on the battlefield, but will write about
freedom in poems and essays. He will be inspired by the
Declaration of Independence, and in 1776 will write an
essay about the need to extend freedom to Africans. His
essay is called, “Liberty Further Extended.” After the
American Revolutionary War, he will study Latin, Greek
and theology, and will be licensed to preach in 1780. In
1785, he will be ordained to a church in Torrington,
Connecticut, making him the first African American to
pastor a white congregation. He also will become the
first African American to receive an honorary degree
(M.A.) from a White college (Middlebury College), in 1804
at its second commencement. He will serve as pastor in
Bennington, Manchester, and Granville, New York, until he
joins the ancestors on September 28, 1833 at the age of
eighty.

1863 – The 54th Massachusetts Volunteers charge Fort Wagner in
Charleston, South Carolina. Although the Union forces
suffer great losses, Sergeant William H. Carney of Company
C exhibits bravery in battle by maintaining the colors
high despite three bullet wounds. Although cited for
bravery, it will take 37 years for Carney to receive the
Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions.

1899 – Patent number 629,286 is issued to L.C. Bailey for a
folding bed.

1905 – Granville T. Woods patents railway brakes.

1918 – Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is born near Umtata in Transkei,
South Africa in the Eastern Cape, into the royal family
of the Tembu, a Xhosa-speaking tribe. His father is Chief
Henry Mandela. He will be educated at University College
of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand and
qualifies to practice law in 1942. He will join the
African National Congress in 1944 and engage in resistance
against the ruling National Party’s apartheid policies
after 1948. He will go on trial for treason in 1956-1961
and be acquitted in 1961. After the banning of the ANC in
1960, he will argue for the setting up of a military wing
within the ANC. In June 1961, the ANC executive will
consider his proposal on the use of violent tactics and
agree that those members who wished to involve themselves
in his campaign would not be stopped from doing so by the
ANC. This will lead to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe.
He will be arrested in 1962 and sentenced to five years’
imprisonment with hard labor. In 1963, when many fellow
leaders of the ANC and the Umkhonto we Sizwe are arrested,
he will be brought to stand trial with them for plotting
to overthrow the government by violence. His statement
from the dock will receive considerable international
publicity. On June 12, 1964, he is among eight accused,
that will be sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1964 to
1982, he will be incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, off
the shore from Cape Town; thereafter, he will be at
Pollsmoor Prison, nearby on the mainland. He will be
released on February 11, 1990. After his release, he will
plunge himself wholeheartedly into his life’s work,
striving to attain the goals he and others had set out
almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first
national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa
after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela
will be elected President of the ANC while his lifelong
friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, will become the
organization’s National Chairperson. He will become the
first Black African President of South Africa on May 10,
1994 (Inauguration Date). Happy 95th birthday, President
Mandela.

1941 – Martha Reeves is born in Eufaula, Alabama. Her family will
move to Detroit, Michigan before her first birthday. As a
child, she will sing in her grandfather’s church and in
school, and continue her vocal training through high school.
After graduating in 1959, she will join a girl group called
the Fascinations, and the following year co-founds the
Del-Phis, whose membership will include the future
Vandellas. In 1961, she will win a talent contest as a solo
act and get a nightclub engagement performing as Martha
LaVaille. There she will be noticed by Motown executive
William “Mickey” Stevenson, who will invite her to stop by
the label’s offices. She will not land an audition right
away, but will parlay her visit into a secretarial job in
the A&R department. She will catch a lucky break when backup
singers are needed for a recording session, and the Del-Phis
will wind up supporting Marvin Gaye on his first hit, 1962’s
“Stubborn Kind of Fellow.” Stevenson will be impressed
enough to record a Del-Phis (renamed the Vels) single,
“You’ll Never Cherish a Love So True (‘Til You Lose It),”
and release it on Motown’s Mel-O-Dy subsidiary. One day,
Mary Wells fails to show up for a recording session, and
musicians’ union rules demand that a lead vocalist be
present on the microphone — so she will be hastily tapped
to sing “I’ll Have to Let Him Go.” That song will become
the first single credited to the newly renamed Martha & the
Vandellas in 1963. Their second single, the ballad “Come
and Get These Memories,” will reach the Rhythm & Blues Top
Five. Martha & the Vandellas will rack up an impressive
slate of Motown classics that will include the Top Five
smashes “(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave” and “Dancing in the
Street,” plus “Nowhere to Run,” “I’m Ready for Love,”
“Jimmy Mack,” and “Honey Chile,” all of which will make the
Rhythm & Blues Top Five. Martha & the Vandellas’ run of
success will continue through 1967. They will continue to
perform and record for several more years, but will never
match their past success and will disband in December 1972
after a farewell concert in Detroit. She will eventually
leave Motown and record for other labels with minimal
success. In 1989, she will reunite with original Vandellas
Annette Sterling and Rosalind Holmes and cut the single
“Step Into My Shoes” for British producer Ian Levine’s
Motor City label. However, she will continue to make her
primary living on the nostalgia circuit. She will be
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

1951 – Jersey Joe Walcott, at age 37, becomes oldest boxer to date,
to win the World Heavyweight Championship knocking out
Ezzard Charles in five rounds.

1959 – William Wright becomes the first African American to win a
a USGA title, the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship.
He is 23 and a senior at Western Washington University.

1964 – Racially motivated disturbances occur in Harlem in New York
City. The civil unrest will last until July 22 and will
spread into the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

1970 – Willie Mays gets his 3,000th base hit.

1998 – The “Spirit of Freedom Memorial” and “Theme Park” is
unveiled in Washington, DC to honor the U. S. Colored
Troops, who fought in the U.S. Civil War.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 23 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – April 23 *

1856 – Granville T. Woods, who will become an inventor of steam
boilers, furnaces, incubators and auto air brakes and
holder of over 50 patents, is born in Columbus, Ohio.

1872 – Charlotte E. Ray becomes the first African American woman
lawyer in ceremonies held in Washington, DC admitting her
to practice before the bar. She had received her law degree
from Howard University on February 27.

1894 – Jimmy Noone is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He will
become a jazz clarinetist and a major influence on the
swing music of the 1930’s and 1940’s. He will be a band
leader and be best known as the leader of “Jimmy Noone’s
Apex Club Orchestra.” Two of the people most influenced by
Jimmy Noone’s style will be Benny Goodman and Jimmy Dorsey.
He will join the ancestors after suffering a fatal heart
attack, while performing with “Kid” Ory on April 19, 1944.

1895 – Jorge Mateus Vicente Lima is born in Alagoas, Brazil. He
will become a poet, novelist, essayist, painter, doctor,
and politician. He will become best known as a writer,
manipulating Brazilian subjects, at the same time analyzing
Afro-Brazilian culture and heritage. He will become a
fixture in the Brazilian experience during the 1920’s. Even
though he became a physician, he will exhibit his talents
as a writer in writings from his youth. His most famous
writing will be a poem, “Essa Nega Fulo” (That Black Girl
Fulo), written in 1928. The poem will explore the dynamics
between a slave master, the slave and her mistress. He
will join the ancestors in 1953 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

1898 – Alfredo da Rocha Viana Jr. is born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
He will become a composer and bandleader best known as
“Pixinguinha.” By the time he was a teenager, he will be
respected for his talent as a flutist. After traveling with
his first band to France in 1922, he will open the door of
Brazilian music to the world. He will be credited with
assisting to invent the “samba.” He is generally referred
to as the King of Samba and the Father of Musica Popular
Brasileira. He will join the ancestors on February 17, 1973
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

1913 – The National Urban League is incorporated in New York City.
The organization is founded in 1910 when the Committee on
Urban Conditions Among Negroes met in New York to discuss
means to assist rural African Americans in the transition
to urban life. Founders include Mrs. Ruth Standish Baldwin
and Dr. George Edmund Haynes, who becomes the league’s
first executive director.

1941 – New Yorkers are treated to a performance of Cafi Society at
Carnegie Hall by a group of jazz artists that includes
Albert “Jug” Ammons, Hazel Scott, and Art Tatum. It also
marks the first performance of Helena (later Lena) Horne,
who sings “Summertime,” among other songs.

1944 – The NAACP Youth Council and Committee for Unity in Motion
Pictures selects its first Motion Picture Award recipients.
Given to honor actors whose roles advance the image of
African Americans in motion pictures, awards go to Rex
Ingram for “Sahara,” Lena Horne for “As Thousands Cheer,”
Leigh Whipper for “The Oxbow Incident” and “Mission to
Moscow,” Hazel Scott for her debut in “Something to Shout
About” and Dooley Wilson for his role as Sam in
“Casablanca,” among others. The awards will be the fore-
runner to the NAACP’s Image Awards.

1948 – Charles Richard Johnson in born in Evanston, Illinois. He
will become an novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He
will begin his career after graduating from the State
University of New York at Stonybrook with a Ph.D. in
philosophy. He will be mentored by W.E.B. Du Bois, Ralph
Ellison, Jean Toomer, Richard Wright and John Gardner. He
will be known for his works, “Middle Passage,” “Oxherding
Tale,” “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” and “Being and Race:
Black Writing Since 1970.” He will win the 1990 National
Book Award for “Middle Passage.”

1954 – Hammerin’ Hank Aaron, of the Milwaukee Braves, hits the
first of what will be 755 career home runs, in a game
against the St. Louis Cardinals. The score will be 7-5 in
favor of the Braves.

1955 – U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review a lower court decision
which would ban segregation in intrastate bus travel.

1964 – James Baldwin’s play, “Blues for Mr. Charlie” opens on
Broadway. Starring Al Freeman, Jr., Diana Sands, and
others, the play reveals the plight of African Americans in
the South.

1971 – Columbia University operations are virtually ended for the
year by African American and white students who seize five
buildings on campus.

1971 – William Tubman, president of Liberia, joins the ancestors at
the age of 76. He had been president of Liberia since
1944.

1998 – James Earl Ray, who confessed to assassinating the Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and then insisted he was
framed, dies at a Nashville hospital at age 70.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 2 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 2 *

1859 – John Brown, abolitionist who planned the failed attack
on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, is hanged at
Charles Town, West Virginia.

1866 – Harry T. Burleigh, singer and composer, is born in
Erie, Pennsylvania. He will be educated at the
National Conservatory of Music in New York City, where
he will meet and form a lasting friendship with Anton
Dvorak. He will eventually be awarded the NAACP’s
Spingarn Medal. Burleigh will be best known for his
arrangements of the Negro spiritual “Deep River”.

1884 – Granville T. Woods receives a patent for his first
electric device, an improved telephone transmitter.

1891 – North Carolina A&T College, Delaware State College and
West Virginia State College are established.

1891 – The Fifty-second Congress convenes. Only one African
American congressman has been elected – Henry P.
Cheatham of North Carolina.

1891 – Charles Harris Wesley, historian, educator, and
administrator, is born. His published works include,
“Neglected History,” “Collapse of the Confederacy,”
“Negro Labor in the United States,”and “1850-1925: A
Study of American Economic History.”

1908 – John Baxter “Doc” Taylor joins the ancestors as a result
of of typhoid pneumonia at the age of 26. Taylor had
been a record-setting quarter miler and the first
African American Olympic gold medal winner in the 4 x
400-meter medley in the 1908 London games.

1912 – Henry Armstrong is born in Columbus, Mississippi, Better
known as “Hammering Hank,” Armstrong will become the
only man to hold three boxing titles at once in the
featherweight, welterweight, and lightweight divisions.

1922 – Congressman, Charles C. Diggs is born.

1923 – Roland Hayes becomes the first African American to sing
in the Symphony Hall in Boston, Massachusetts.

1940 – Willie Brown, NFL defensive back for the Denver Broncos
and the Oakland Raiders, is born.

1943 – “Carmen Jones,” a contemporary reworking of the Bizet
opera “Carmen” by Oscar Hammerstein II with an all-black
cast, opens on Broadway.

1953 – Dr. Rufus Clement, president of Atlanta University, is
elected to the Atlanta Board of Education.

1975 – Ohio State running back Archie Griffin becomes the first
person ever to win the Heisman Trophy twice, when he is
awarded his second trophy in New York City. He amassed
a career record of 5,176 yards and 31 consecutive 100
yard plus games.

1989 – Andre Ware of the University of Houston, becomes the
first African American quarterback to win the Heisman
Trophy.

1992 – Dr. Maya Angelou is asked to compose a poem for William
Jefferson Clinton’s presidential inauguration.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 21 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 21 *

1654 – Richard Johnson, a free African American, is granted 550
acres in Northampton County, Virginia.

1784 – James Armistead is cited by French General Lafayette for
his valuable service to the American forces in the
Revolutionary War. Armistead, who was born into slavery
24 years earlier, had worked as a double agent for the
Americans while supposedly employed as a servant of
British General Cornwallis.

1865 – Shaw University is founded in Raleigh, North Carolina.

1878 – Marshall “Major” Taylor is born in Indianapolis, Indiana.
He will become an international cycling star who will be
the first native-born African American to win a national
sports title. During his career, Taylor will win over 100
professional races and one-on-one matches in the U.S. and
nine other countries.

1893 – Granville T. Woods, inventor, receives a patent for the
“Electric Railway Conduit.”

1904 – Coleman Hawkins is born in St. Joseph, Missouri. He will
virtually create the presence of the tenor saxophone in
jazz.

1918 – Henry B. Delany is elected saffragan bishop of the
Protestant Episcopal diocese of North Carolina.

1944 – Earl “the Pearl” Monroe, NBA Guard (New York Knicks,
Baltimore Bullets), is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1984 – TransAfrica’s Randall Robinson, DC congressional delegate
Walter Fauntroy, and U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Mary
Frances Berry are arrested at a sit-in demonstration in
front of the South African Embassy in Washington, DC.
Their demonstration against apartheid will be repeated and
spread to New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other
cities, and involve such notables as Jesse Jackson, Arthur
Ashe, Harry Belafonte, and Stevie Wonder. Their efforts
will play a large part in the passage of the Anti-Apartheid
Act of 1986, which will impose economic sanctions against
South Africa.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 15 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 15           *

218  – Hannibal, North African military genius, crosses the
BC      Alps with elephants and 26,000 men in an expedition
to capture Rome.

1805 – Explorers Lewis and Clark reach the mouth of the
Columbia River. Accompanying them on their expedition
is a slave named York, who, while technically Clark’s
valet, distinguished himself as a scout, interpreter,
and emissary to the Native Americans encountered on
the expedition.

1825 – African American feminist, Sarah Jane Woodson, is born
in Chillicothe, Ohio.

1884 – The Berlin Conference, of European nations, is organized
by German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck to decide issues
regarding the colonization of Africa.  The Europeans
attending the conference, decide which parts of the
African continent would be “owned” by the participants,
“allowing” only Liberia and Ethiopia to remain free
countries.  Representatives from Great Britain, France,
Germany, Portugal, and Belgium negotiate their claims
to African territory and establish a framework for
making and negotiating future claims. Obviously, there
is no one representing Africans at this conference. By
1900, nearly 90 percent of African territory will be
claimed by European states.

1887 – Granville T. Woods receives a patent for the Synchronous
Multiplier Railway Telegraph.

1897 – Langston University, a public co-educational institution,
is founded in Langston, Oklahoma.

1897 – Voorhees College, a private co-educational institution
affiliated with the Episcopal Church, is founded in
Denmark, South Carolina.

1897 – John Mercer Langston joins the ancestors at the age of
67, in Washington, DC.

1928 – Roland Hayes opens his fifth American Tour at New York’s
Carnegie Hall packed with admirers.

1930 – Whitman Mayo, actor (Grady -“Sanford & Son”), is born in
New York City.

1937 – Yaphet Kotto, actor (“Brubaker”, “Alien”, “Raid on
Entebbe”, “Eye of the Tiger”, “Roots”, “Live and Let
Die”, “Midnight Run”, and TV’s “Homicide”), is born in
New York City.

1950 – Dr. Arthur Dorrington, a dentist, becomes the first
African American in organized hockey to suit up, a
member of the Atlantic City Seagulls of the Eastern
Amateur Hockey League.

1960 – Elgin Baylor, of the Los Angeles Lakers scores 71 points
against the New York Knicks.

1969 – The Amistad Research Center is incorporated as an
independent archive, library, & museum dedicated to
preserving African American & ethnic history and culture.
The center collects original source materials on the
history of the nation’s ethnic minorities and race
relations in the United States (over 10 million
documents).  The Amistad was organized by the Race
Relations Department of Fisk University and the American
Missionary Association in 1966.  The library is now
located in Tilton Hall on the campus of Tulane University
in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1976 – The Plains Baptist Church, home church of President Jimmy
Carter, votes to admit African American worshipers.  The
church had been under pressure to admit African Americans
since Reverend Clennon King had announced his intentions
to join the congregation.

1979 – The Nobel Prize in economics is awarded to Professor
Arthur Lewis of Princeton University.  He is the first
African American to receive the coveted prize in a
category other than peace.

1979 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Rosa L. Parks, who
was the Catalyst in the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott
of 1955-56.

1989 – President George Bush signs a bill to rename a Houston,
Texas, federal building after George Thomas “Mickey”
Leland, the Houston congressman who died in a plane crash
earlier in the year.

1998 – Kwame Ture succumbs to prostate cancer in Guinea and joins
the ancestors at age 57.  He was born Stokely Carmichael
in the country of Trinidad (1941) and in 1966 coined the
phrase, “Black Power.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 10 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 10         *

1891 – Granville T. Woods obtains a patent for the electric
railway.

1898 – A race riot occurs in Wilmington, North Carolina
resulting in the death of eight African Americans.

1898 – The National Benefit Life Insurance Company is
organized in Washington, DC, by Samuel W. Rutherford.
National Benefit will be the largest African American
insurance company for several years.

1919 – Moise Tshombe is born.  He will lead a secessionist
movement in Katanga, the Congo’s (Zaire) richest
province in 1960, following independence from Belgium.
Tshombe will end his secession and accept a
UN-brokered National Conciliation Plan in January 1963.
Eighteen months of further negotiations will lead to
him being appointed Prime Minister, but he will go
into exile in 1965. He will join the ancestors in 1969.

1930 – Clarence Pendleton is born in Louisville, Kentucky.  He
will become the first African American chairman of the
United States Civil Rights Commission in 1981(through
1988), where he will oppose affirmative action and
busing to achieve school desegregation.

1951 – Hosea Richardson becomes the first African American
jockey to ride in Florida.

1956 – David Adkin is born in Benton Harbor, Michigan.  He will
become a comedian and actor, better known as “Sinbad.”
He will get his big break on television’s “Star Search”
in 1984.  He will appear in the television series
“Different World,” and become the emcee of “Showtime at
the Apollo.”  His movie credits will include “Necessary
Roughness,” “The Meteor Man,” “Coneheads,” “Sinbad-Afros
and Bellbottoms,” “The Frog Prince,” “The Cherokee Kid,”
“Jingle All The Way,” “First Kid,” ” and “Good Burger.”
He will also produce and emcee the successful “Soul
Music Festivals” held annually in Caribbean countries.

1957 – Charlie Sifford becomes the first African American to
win a major professional golf tournament, by winning the
Long Beach Open.

1960 – Andrew Hatcher is named associate press secretary to
President John F. Kennedy.  He is the highest-ranking
African American, appointed to date, in the executive
branch.

1968 – Ida Cox, blues singer of such songs as “Wild Women Don’t
Have the Blues,” joins the ancestors in Knoxville,
Tennessee.

1989 – The Rhythm and Blues Foundation presents its first
lifetime achievement awards in Washington DC.  Among the
honorees are bluesmen Charles Brown, Ruth Brown, Percy
Sledge (“When a Man Loves a Woman”), and Mary Wells (“My
Guy”).

2006 – Gerald Levert, the fiery singer of passionate Rhythm &
Blues love songs and the son of O’Jays singer Eddie
Levert, joins the ancestors at the age of 40, at his
home in Cleveland, Ohio.

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