KRLemmons African American History

September 12 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 12 *

1913 – James Cleveland Owens is born in Oakville, Alabama. He
will be better known as Jesse Owens, one of the greatest
track and field stars in history. Owens will achieve
fame at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, where
he will win four gold medals, dispelling Hitler’s notion
of the superior Aryan race and the inferiority of Black
athletes. Among his honors will be the Medal of Freedom,
presented to him by President Gerald Ford in 1976. He will
join the ancestors on March 31, 1980.

1935 – Richard Hunt is born in Chicago, Illinois. A graduate of
the Art Institute of Chicago, he will later study in
Europe and be considered one of the leading sculptors in
the United States. His work will be shown extensively
in the United States and abroad and his sculptures will
be collected by the National Museum of American Art, the
Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, and the Museum of the Twentieth Century in
Vienna. On April 29, 2009, he will be awarded the Lifetime
Achievement Award by the International Sculpture Center.
His web site is http://www.RichardHunt.us.

1944 – Barry White is born in Galveston, Texas. He will become a
singer and songwriter. Some of his hits will be “I’m
Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby”, “Can’t Get
Enough Of Your Love Babe”, and “Love’s Theme [with Love
Unlimited Orchestra]. He will join the ancestors on July
4, 2003 from complications of high blood pressure and
kidney disease.

1947 – The first African American baseball player in the major
leagues, Jackie Robinson, is named National League Rookie
of the Year.

1956 – African American students are barred from entering a Clay,
Kentucky elementary school. They will enter the school
under National Guard protection on September 17.

1958 – The United States Supreme Court orders a Little Rock,
Arkansas high school to admit African American students.

1964 – Ralph Boston of the United States, sets the long jump
record at 27′ 4”.

1974 – The beginning of court-ordered busing to achieve racial
integration in Boston’s public schools is marred by
violence in South Boston.

1974 – Eugene A. Marino, SSJ, is consecrated as the first
African American Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop in the
United States. He assumes his duties as auxiliary bishop
of Washington, DC.

1974 – Haile Selassie is deposed by military leaders after fifty-
eight years as the ruling monarch of Ethiopia.

1977 – Black South African student and civil rights leader Steven
Biko joins the ancestors after succumbing to severe
physical abuse while in police detention, triggering an
international outcry.

1980 – Lillian Randolph joins the ancestors at the age of 65. She
had been a film actress and had starred on television on
the “Amos ‘n’ Andy Show” and in the mini-series “Roots”.

1984 – Michael Jordan signs a seven-year contract to play
basketball with the Chicago Bulls. ‘Air’ Jordan will
become an NBA star for the Bulls and help make the team a
dominant force in the NBA.

1984 – Dwight Gooden, of the New York Mets, sets a rookie
strikeout record by striking out his 251st batter of the
season. He also leads the Mets to a 2-0 shutout over the
Pittsburgh Pirates.

1986 – The National Council of Negro Women sponsors its first
Black Family Reunion at the National Mall in Washington,
DC. The reunion, which will grow to encompass dozens of
cities and attract over one million people annually, is
held to celebrate and applaud the traditional values,
history, and culture of the African American family.

1989 – David Dinkins, Manhattan borough president, wins the New
York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, defeating
incumbent Mayor Ed Koch and two other candidates on his
way to becoming the city’s first African American mayor.

1992 – Mae C. Jemison becomes the first woman of color to go into
space when she travels on the space shuttle Endeavour.

1998 – Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs becomes the fourth major
league baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a single
season.

1999 – Serena and Venus Williams (sisters) take home the U.S.
Open Women’s Doubles Championship trophy. After losing
the first set, they bounce back to win the remaining two
sets against Chandra Rubin of the U.S. and Sandrine
Testud of France. The Williams sisters are the first
African Americans to win a U.S. Open Doubles
Championship.

2000 – James Perkins becomes the first African American mayor of
Selma, Alabama, defeating long-time mayor Joe Smitherman
with 60% of the vote. Smitherman had been mayor for
thirty six years. He was the mayor of Selma in 1965 when
sheriff’s deputies and state troopers attacked hundreds
of voting rights marchers on Selma’s Edmund Pettus
Bridge in what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 27 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 27 *

1879 – African American publisher Robert Lee Vann is born in
Ahoskie, North Carolina. He will become an African
American publisher, lawyer and the nurturing editor of
the Black newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier. He will
attend Western University of Pennsylvania. He will
graduate from Law School in June, 1909. In 1910, he will
become the Pittsburgh Courier’s editor and publisher.
Under his leadership, The Courier will develop into one
of the leading Black newspapers of the era. By the 1930s,
it will be one of the highest circulated Black newspapers
in the United States. As many as 14 different editions
will be circulated throughout the country. He will become
involved in politics throughout his association with The
Courier. In 1918, he will be appointed the fourth
assistant city solicitor in Pittsburgh, the highest
position held by an African American in the city
government. Initially a Republican, he will grow
disillusioned with the party and convert to the
Democratic Party. On September 11, 1932, he will deliver
a famous speech at the St. James Literary Forum in
Cleveland, Ohio entitled “The Patriot and the Partisan”
and will urge African Americans throughout the nation to
turn away from the Republican party which had failed them,
and support the Democratic party of Franklin D. Roosevelt
in the 1932 election. He will support Franklin D.
Roosevelt in the 1932 election, and will subsequently be
named special assistant to the U.S. attorney general. In
1935, he will help campaign for the enactment of an equal
rights law in the State of Pennsylvania. He will serve as
editor and publisher of The Pittsburgh Courier until he
joins the ancestors on October 24, 1940.

1909 – Lester Young is born into a musical family in Woodville,
Mississippi. Young was taught several instruments by
his father. As a child he played drums in the family’s
band, but around 1928 he quit the group and switched to
tenor saxophone. His first engagements on this
instrument were with Art Bronson, in Phoenix, Arizona.
He stayed with Bronson until 1930, with a brief side
trip to play again with the family, then worked in and
around Minneapolis, Minnesota, with various bands. In
the spring of 1932 he joined the Original Blue Devils,
under the leadership of Walter Page, and was one of
several members of the band who joined Bennie Moten in
Kansas City towards the end of 1933. During the next
few years Young played in the bands of Moten, George E.
Lee, King Oliver, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Andy
Kirk and others. He will join the ancestors on March 15,
1959.

1918 – Dr. Joseph L. Johnson is named minister to Liberia.

1963 – W.E.B. DuBois joins the ancestors at age 95 in Accra,
Ghana. He was one of America’s foremost scholars, a
militant civil rights activist, founding father of the
NAACP, and leading proponent of Pan-Africanism.

1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have A Dream”
speech in Washington, DC during the 1963 March on
Washington.

1966 – A racially motivated civil disobedience riot occurs in
Waukegan, Illinois.

1975 – Haile Selassie, “Lion of Judah” and deposed Ethiopian
emperor, joins the ancestors at age 83 in Addis Ababa.

1982 – Rickey Henderson steals 119th base of season breaking Lou
Brock’s mark.

1983 – The second “March on Washington for Jobs, Peace, and
Freedom” is held.

1989 – ‘Johnny B Goode’ is performed by Chuck Berry for NASA
engineers and scientists in celebration of Voyager II’s
encounter with the planet Neptune.

1991 – Central Life Insurance Company, the last surviving
African American owned insurance company in the state of
Florida, is ordered liquidated by a Florida circuit
court judge.

2000 – Tiger Woods becomes the first male golfer since Johnny
Miller in 1975 to successfully defend three titles in
one year when he wins the NEC World Invitational.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 21 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – April 21 *

1878 – The ship Azor leaves Charleston, South Carolina, on its
first trip, carrying 209 African Americans bound for
Liberia.

1892 – African American Longshoremen strike for higher wages in St.
Louis, Missouri.

1900 – Dumarsais Estime’ is born in Verrettes, Artibonite, Haiti.
He will become president of Haiti in 1946 and will be
regarded as a progressive leader and statesman. He will
be the first black head of state since the U.S. occupation
of Haiti ended in 1934. He will join the ancestors in New
York City on July 20, 1953.

1938 – The Harlem Suitcase Theatre opens with Langston Hughes’s
play “Don’t You Want to be Free?” The play’s star is a
young Robert Earl Jones, father of James Earl Jones.

1940 – Souleymane Cisse’ is born in Bamako, Mali. He will become
a filmmaker, graduating from the State Institute of Cinema
in Moscow in 1969. He will become one of the most popular
filmmakers in Africa.

1966 – Milton Olive, Jr. becomes the first African American to win
the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery during the
Vietnam War. He will be honored for saving the lives of his
fellow soldiers by falling on a live grenade while
participating in a search-and-destroy mission near Phu
Coung.

1965 – Pedro Albizu Campos joins the ancestors at the age of 71 in
San Juan, Puerto Rico. Campos was a Puerto Rican of
African descent who advocated Puerto Rico’s independence
and condemned United States imperialism and the 1898
invasion and occupation of Puerto Rico. Some Puerto Ricans
refer to him as “Don Pedro,” and one of the fathers of
Puerto Rican national identity.

1966 – His Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie visits Kingston,
Jamaica.

1971 – Francois Duvalier, known as “Papa Doc,” joins the ancestors
in Port-au-Prince, Haiti at the age of 64. He had been
president-for-life of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. He will be
succeeded in power by his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier.

1974 – By winning the Monsanto Open in Pensacola, Florida, Lee
Elder becomes the first African American professional golfer
to qualify for the Masters Tournament. It will be one of
four PGA tour victories for the Dallas, Texas, native,
including the Houston Open in 1976 and the Greater Milwaukee
Open and Westchester Classic in 1978. Elder’s career
earnings of $2 million will place him among the top three
African American golfers, along with Calvin Peete ($2.3
million and 12 PGA tournament victories) and Charlie Sifford
($1 million).

2003 – Nina Simone, “High Priestess of Soul”, joins the ancestors in
Carry-le-Rouet (South of France) at the age of 70. As she
wished, her ashes will be spread in different African
countries. She gained fame in the 1960s for her civil rights
songs.

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