KRLemmons African American History

February 23 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 23 *

***********************************************************************
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* Black Facts every day of the year.
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1763 – A major slave rebellion occurs in the Dutch South American
colony of Berbice (part of present-day Guyana). Slaves,
led by Cuffy, Atta, Accara, and others, fire a rebellion at
Plantation Magalenenburg because of the harsh and inhumane
treatment of the slave population. Cuffy, proclaims himself
Governor of Berbice and orders the Dutch Governor, Hoogenheim,
to leave with the white inhabitants. The slaves will control
the territory for months. Major resistance will continue
beyond October, 4th. There will be a split at the leadership
level of the rebellion. The final collapse of the revolution
will occur just before the trial of the last resisters on
March 16, 1764.

1868 – William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois is born in Great
Barrington, Massachusetts. He will become one of the
greatest men of letters of his time, serving as an editor,
teacher, political theorist, and novelist. His
accomplishments will include founding and editing the NAACP
“Crisis Magazine,” writing the influential “Souls of Black
Folk,” being one of the founding fathers of the NAACP, and
the first African American to become a member of the National
Institute of Arts and Letters. He will join the ancestors on
August 27, 1963 in Accra, Ghana.

1942 – Don Luther Lee is born in Little Rock, Arkansas. He will become
a major African American literary critic, author of nonfiction
and poetry, and founder of the influential Third World Press
known as Haki Madhubuti. The Chicago State University
professor, poet, and publisher will score a hit for his Third
World Press with his own “Groundwork: Selected and New Poems
1966-1996.” “Groundwork” and the second volume of Gwendolyn
Brooks’ autobiography-along with continuing sales of
Madhubuti’s 1995 “Million Man March/Day of Absence”, will
increase the number of successful titles at Third World Press
to 25 by 1997.

1964 – Roberto Martin Antonio “Bobby” Bonilla is born in New York
City. He will become a major league baseball player in 1981
and will play for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago White Sox,
New York Mets, and the Baltimore Orioles, before ending up
with the Florida Marlins in 1996.

1968 – Wilt Chamberlain becomes the first NBA player to score 25,000
points.

1970 – Guyana becomes a republic. The Republic of Guyana changes its
name to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. February 23 is
chosen to celebrate the start of the Berbice Slave Revolt of
1763, which was led by Cuffy, a slave who became a national
hero. One of the first actions of the new republic will be
to nationalize foreign-owned companies.

1977 – “Roots,” an adaptation of Alex Haley’s best-selling novel, is
viewed by more Americans than any other program since the
invention of television. Approximately 130 million people
watched at least part of the series. The final episode was
watched by a reported 80 million viewers. Alex Haley spent
twelve years researching and writing the book. While the
show attracted many African American viewers, ratings
companies reported that millions of whites as well as
African Americans watched the show.

1979 – Colonel Frank E. Peterson, Jr. becomes the first African
American promoted to the rank of general in the Marine Corps.
He also was the first African American pilot to win Marine
Corps wings. He will retire in 1988 as commanding general
of the Marine Development Education Command in Quantico,
Virginia.

1990 – Comer J. Cottrell, President of Pro-Line Corporation, pays
$1.5 million for the Bishop College campus, traditionally
an African American college, in a bankruptcy auction.
Cottrell’s actions result in the relocation of Paul Quinn
College in Waco, another African American campus, to the
Dallas site.

1999 – Hughie Lee-Smith, a painter and former teacher at the Art
Students League in New York, joins the ancestors after
succumbing to cancer at the age of 83 in Albuquerque, New
Mexico. Lee-Smith was known for his paintings that
frequently included symbolic figurative scenes. His works
often included settings suggestive of theater stages or
bleak urban or seaside landscapes. In 1953, he won a
prize for his work from the Detroit Institute of Arts.
While serving in the Navy he did a mural titled, “History
of the Negro in the U.S. Navy.” He taught at the Art
Students League for 15 years, beginning in 1958. In 1963,
he became the second African American member elected to
the National Academy of Design in New York City. He became
a full member four years later. His paintings are in many
public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
the Detroit Institute of Arts, the National Gallery of Art in
Washington and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Culture in New York City.

1999 – A jury in Jasper, Texas convicts white supremacist John
William King of murder in the gruesome dragging death of an
African American man, James Byrd Jr. King will be sentenced
to death two days later.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 20 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 20 *

1664 – Maryland enacts the first anti-amalgamation law to prevent
widespread intermarriage of English women and African
American men. Other colonies passed similar laws:
Virginia, 1691; Massachusetts 1705; North Carolina, 1715;
South Carolina, 1717; Delaware, 1721; Pennsylvania, 1725.

1830 – The National Negro Convention, a group of 38 free African
Americans from eight states, meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, at the Bethel A.M.E. Church, with the
express purpose of abolishing slavery and improving the
social status of African Americans. They will elect
Richard Allen president and agree to boycott slave-
produced goods.

1847 – William A. Leidesdorff is elected to San Francisco town
council receiving the third highest vote. Leidesdorff,
who was one of the first African American elected
officials, becomes the town treasurer in 1848.

1850 – Slave trade is abolished in Washington, DC, but slavery
will be allowed to continue until 1862.

1890 – Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe (“Jelly Roll” Morton) is born
in Gulfport (New Orleans), Louisiana. He will become a
renown jazz pianist and composer. Morton, whose fabulous
series of 1938 recordings for the Library of Congress are
a gold mine of information about early jazz, was a
complex man. Vain, ambitious, and given to exaggeration,
he was a pool shark, hustler and gambler, as well as a
brilliant pianist and composer. His greatest talent,
perhaps was for organizing and arranging. The series of
records he made with his “Red Hot Peppers” between 1926
and 1928 stands, alongside King Oliver’s as the crowning
glory of the New Orleans tradition and one of the great
achievements in Jazz. He will join the ancestors on
July 10, 1941

1915 – Hughie Lee-Smith is born in Eustis, Florida. He will
become a painter known for such surrealistic landscapes
as “Man with Balloons”, “Man Standing on His Head” and
“Big Brother”. He will join the ancestors on February 23,
1999.

1943 – Sani Abacha is born in Kano, Nigeria. After being educated
in his home state, will become a soldier and go to England
for advanced military education. He will achieve many
promotions as a soldier and by the mid-1980s, will enter
Nigeria’s military elite. In 1983 he will be among those
who will overthrow Shehu Shagari, leader of the Second
Republic, in a coup which led to the military rule of
Muhammadu Buhari. In 1985, Abacha will participate in a
second coup, which will replace Buhari with General
Ibrahim Babangida. As head of state, Babangida will
announce that free elections will be held in the early
1990s. In 1993, however, after Babangida nullifies the
results of these belated free elections, Abacha will
stage a third coup and oust his former ally. His regime
will be characterized by a concern with security that
verges on paranoia. Abacha will schedule elections for
August, 1998, but months beforehand, all five legal
parties nominate him as their “consensus candidate.” On
June 8, 1998, he will join the ancestors when he succumbs
unexpectedly to a heart attack.

1958 – Martin Luther King Jr. is stabbed in the chest by a
deranged African American woman while he is autographing
books in a Harlem department store. The woman is placed
under mental observation.

1962 – Mississippi’s governor, Ross Barnett, personally refuses
to admit James Meredith to University of Mississippi as
its first African American student. (Meredith is later
admitted.)

1962 – The Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) is banned in an
order issued by Sir Edgar Whitehead, the prime minister of
Southern Rhodesia.

1973 – Willie Mays announces his retirement from major league
baseball at the end of the 1973 baseball season.

1979 – A bloodless coup overthrows Jean-Bedel Bokassa, self-styled
head of the Central African Empire, in a French-supported
coup while he is visiting Libya.

1984 – NBC-TV debuts “The Cosby Show”. Bill Cosby plays Dr.
Heathcliff (Cliff) Huxtable. His lovely wife, Clair, is
played by Phylicia Rashad. The Huxtable kids were Sondra,
age 20 (Sabrina Le Beauf), Denise, age 16 (Lisa Bonet),
Theodore, age 14 (Malcom-Jamal Warner), Vanessa, age 8
(Tempestt Bledsoe) and Rudy, age 5 (Keshia Knight Pulliam).
The premiere is the most watched show of the week and the
show goes on to become an Emmy Award-winner and one of the
most popular on television for eight years. The series,
which had been rejected by other network television
executives, will become one of the most popular in
television history.

1987 – Alfre Woodard wins an Emmy for outstanding guest performance
in the dramatic series “L.A. Law”. It is her second Emmy
award, her first having been for a supporting role in “Hill
Street Blues” in 1984.

1987 – Walter Payton scores the NFL record 107th rushing touchdown.

1999 – Lawrence Russell Brewer becomes the second white supremacist
to be convicted in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in
Jasper, Texas. He will be later sentenced to death.

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

KRLemmons African American History

February 23 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 23 *

1763 – A major slave rebellion occurs in the Dutch South American
colony of Berbice (part of present-day Guyana). Slaves,
led by Cuffy, Atta, Accara, and others, fire a rebellion at
Plantation Magalenenburg because of the harsh and inhumane
treatment of the slave population. Cuffy, proclaims himself
Governor of Berbice and orders the Dutch Governor, Hoogenheim,
to leave with the white inhabitants. The slaves will control
the territory for months. Major resistance will continue
beyond October, 4th. There will be a split at the leadership
level of the rebellion. The final collapse of the revolution
will occur just before the trial of the last resisters on
March 16, 1764.

1868 – William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois is born in Great
Barrington, Massachusetts. He will become one of the
greatest men of letters of his time, serving as an editor,
teacher, political theorist, and novelist. His
accomplishments will include founding and editing the NAACP
“Crisis Magazine,” writing the influential “Souls of Black
Folk,” being one of the founding fathers of the NAACP, and
the first African American to become a member of the National
Institute of Arts and Letters. He will join the ancestors on
August 27, 1963 in Accra, Ghana.

1942 – Don Luther Lee is born in Little Rock, Arkansas. He will become
a major African American literary critic, author of nonfiction
and poetry, and founder of the influential Third World Press
known as Haki Madhubuti. The Chicago State University
professor, poet, and publisher will score a hit for his Third
World Press with his own “Groundwork: Selected and New Poems
1966-1996.” “Groundwork” and the second volume of Gwendolyn
Brooks’ autobiography-along with continuing sales of
Madhubuti’s 1995 “Million Man March/Day of Absence”, will
increase the number of successful titles at Third World Press
to 25 by 1997.

1964 – Roberto Martin Antonio “Bobby” Bonilla is born in New York
City. He will become a major league baseball player in 1981
and will play for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago White Sox,
New York Mets, and the Baltimore Orioles, before ending up
with the Florida Marlins in 1996.

1968 – Wilt Chamberlain becomes the first NBA player to score 25,000
points.

1970 – Guyana becomes a republic. The Republic of Guyana changes its
name to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. February 23 is
chosen to celebrate the start of the Berbice Slave Revolt of
1763, which was led by Cuffy, a slave who became a national
hero. One of the first actions of the new republic will be
to nationalize foreign-owned companies.

1977 – “Roots,” an adaptation of Alex Haley’s best-selling novel, is
viewed by more Americans than any other program since the
invention of television. Approximately 130 million people
watched at least part of the series. The final episode was
watched by a reported 80 million viewers. Alex Haley spent
twelve years researching and writing the book. While the
show attracted many African American viewers, ratings
companies reported that millions of whites as well as
African Americans watched the show.

1979 – Colonel Frank E. Peterson, Jr. becomes the first African
American promoted to the rank of general in the Marine Corps.
He also was the first African American pilot to win Marine
Corps wings. He will retire in 1988 as commanding general
of the Marine Development Education Command in Quantico,
Virginia.

1990 – Comer J. Cottrell, President of Pro-Line Corporation, pays
$1.5 million for the Bishop College campus, traditionally
an African American college, in a bankruptcy auction.
Cottrell’s actions result in the relocation of Paul Quinn
College in Waco, another African American campus, to the
Dallas site.

1999 – Hughie Lee-Smith, a painter and former teacher at the Art
Students League in New York, joins the ancestors after
succumbing to cancer at the age of 83 in Albuquerque, New
Mexico. Lee-Smith was known for his paintings that
frequently included symbolic figurative scenes. His works
often included settings suggestive of theater stages or
bleak urban or seaside landscapes. In 1953, he won a
prize for his work from the Detroit Institute of Arts.
While serving in the Navy he did a mural titled, “History
of the Negro in the U.S. Navy.” He taught at the Art
Students League for 15 years, beginning in 1958. In 1963,
he became the second African American member elected to
the National Academy of Design in New York City. He became
a full member four years later. His paintings are in many
public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
the Detroit Institute of Arts, the National Gallery of Art in
Washington and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Culture in New York City.

1999 – A jury in Jasper, Texas convicts white supremacist John
William King of murder in the gruesome dragging death of an
African American man, James Byrd Jr. King will be sentenced
to death two days later.

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

KRLemmons African American History

February 23 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 23 *

***********************************************************************
* “Once a year we go through the charade of February being ‘Black *
* History Month.’ Black History Month needs to be a 12-MONTH THING. *
* When we all learn about our history, about how much we’ve *
* accomplished while being handicapped with RACISM, it can only *
* inspire us to greater heights, knowing we’re on the giant shoulders *
* of our ANCESTORS.” Subscribe to the Munirah Chronicle and receive *
* Black Facts every day of the year. *
* To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]> *
* In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name *
***********************************************************************

1763 – A major slave rebellion occurs in the Dutch South American
colony of Berbice (part of present-day Guyana). Slaves,
led by Cuffy, Atta, Accara, and others, fire a rebellion at
Plantation Magalenenburg because of the harsh and inhumane
treatment of the slave population. Cuffy, proclaims himself
Governor of Berbice and orders the Dutch Governor, Hoogenheim,
to leave with the white inhabitants. The slaves will control
the territory for months. Major resistance will continue
beyond October, 4th. There will be a split at the leadership
level of the rebellion. The final collapse of the revolution
will occur just before the trial of the last resisters on
March 16, 1764.

1868 – William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois is born in Great
Barrington, Massachusetts. He will become one of the
greatest men of letters of his time, serving as an editor,
teacher, political theorist, and novelist. His
accomplishments will include founding and editing the NAACP
“Crisis Magazine,” writing the influential “Souls of Black
Folk,” being one of the founding fathers of the NAACP, and
the first African American to become a member of the National
Institute of Arts and Letters. He will join the ancestors on
August 27, 1963 in Accra, Ghana.

1942 – Don Luther Lee is born in Little Rock, Arkansas. He will become
a major African American literary critic, author of nonfiction
and poetry, and founder of the influential Third World Press
known as Haki Madhubuti. The Chicago State University
professor, poet, and publisher will score a hit for his Third
World Press with his own “Groundwork: Selected and New Poems
1966-1996.” “Groundwork” and the second volume of Gwendolyn
Brooks’ autobiography-along with continuing sales of
Madhubuti’s 1995 “Million Man March/Day of Absence”, will
increase the number of successful titles at Third World Press
to 25 by 1997.

1964 – Roberto Martin Antonio “Bobby” Bonilla is born in New York
City. He will become a major league baseball player in 1981
and will play for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago White Sox,
New York Mets, and the Baltimore Orioles, before ending up
with the Florida Marlins in 1996.

1968 – Wilt Chamberlain becomes the first NBA player to score 25,000
points.

1970 – Guyana becomes a republic. The Republic of Guyana changes its
name to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. February 23 is
chosen to celebrate the start of the Berbice Slave Revolt of
1763, which was led by Cuffy, a slave who became a national
hero. One of the first actions of the new republic will be
to nationalize foreign-owned companies.

1977 – “Roots,” an adaptation of Alex Haley’s best-selling novel, is
viewed by more Americans than any other program since the
invention of television. Approximately 130 million people
watched at least part of the series. The final episode was
watched by a reported 80 million viewers. Alex Haley spent
twelve years researching and writing the book. While the
show attracted many African American viewers, ratings
companies reported that millions of whites as well as
African Americans watched the show.

1979 – Colonel Frank E. Peterson, Jr. becomes the first African
American promoted to the rank of general in the Marine Corps.
He also was the first African American pilot to win Marine
Corps wings. He will retire in 1988 as commanding general
of the Marine Development Education Command in Quantico,
Virginia.

1990 – Comer J. Cottrell, President of Pro-Line Corporation, pays
$1.5 million for the Bishop College campus, traditionally
an African American college, in a bankruptcy auction.
Cottrell’s actions result in the relocation of Paul Quinn
College in Waco, another African American campus, to the
Dallas site.

1999 – Hughie Lee-Smith, a painter and former teacher at the Art
Students League in New York, joins the ancestors after
succumbing to cancer at the age of 83 in Albuquerque, New
Mexico. Lee-Smith was known for his paintings that
frequently included symbolic figurative scenes. His works
often included settings suggestive of theater stages or
bleak urban or seaside landscapes. In 1953, he won a
prize for his work from the Detroit Institute of Arts.
While serving in the Navy he did a mural titled, “History
of the Negro in the U.S. Navy.” He taught at the Art
Students League for 15 years, beginning in 1958. In 1963,
he became the second African American member elected to
the National Academy of Design in New York City. He became
a full member four years later. His paintings are in many
public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
the Detroit Institute of Arts, the National Gallery of Art in
Washington and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Culture in New York City.

1999 – A jury in Jasper, Texas convicts white supremacist John
William King of murder in the gruesome dragging death of an
African American man, James Byrd Jr. King will be sentenced
to death two days later.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 20 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 20          *

1664 – Maryland enacts the first anti-amalgamation law to prevent
widespread intermarriage of English women and African
American men. Other colonies passed similar laws:
Virginia, 1691; Massachusetts 1705; North Carolina, 1715;
South Carolina, 1717; Delaware, 1721; Pennsylvania, 1725.

1830 – The National Negro Convention, a group of 38 free African
Americans from eight states, meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, at the Bethel A.M.E. Church, with the
express purpose of abolishing slavery and improving the
social status of African Americans.  They will elect
Richard Allen president and agree to boycott slave-
produced goods.

1847 – William A. Leidesdorff is elected to San Francisco town
council receiving the third highest vote.  Leidesdorff,
who was one of the first African American elected
officials, becomes the town treasurer in 1848.

1850 – Slave trade is abolished in Washington, DC, but slavery
will be allowed to continue until 1862.

1885 – Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe (“Jelly Roll” Morton) is born
in Gulfport (New Orleans), Louisiana. He will become a
renown jazz pianist and composer. Morton, whose fabulous
series of 1938 recordings for the Library of Congress are
a gold mine of information about early jazz, was a
complex man. Vain, ambitious, and given to exaggeration,
he was a pool shark, hustler and gambler, as well as a
brilliant pianist and composer.  His greatest talent,
perhaps was for organizing and arranging.  The series of
records he made with his “Red Hot Peppers” between 1926
and 1928 stands, alongside King Oliver’s as the crowning
glory of the New Orleans tradition and one of the great
achievements in Jazz.

1915 – Hughie Lee-Smith is born in Eustis, Florida. He will
become a painter known for such surrealistic landscapes
as “Man with Balloons”, “Man Standing on His Head” and
“Big Brother”.

1943 – Sani Abacha is born in Kano, Nigeria.  After being educated
in his home state, will become a soldier and go to England
for advanced military education. He will achieve many
promotions as a soldier and by the mid-1980s, will enter
Nigeria’s military elite. In 1983 he will be among those
who will overthrow Shehu Shagari, leader of the Second
Republic, in a coup which led to the military rule of
Muhammadu Buhari. In 1985, Abacha will participate in a
second coup, which will replace Buhari with General
Ibrahim Babangida. As head of state, Babangida will
announce that free elections will be held in the early
1990s. In 1993, however, after Babangida nullifies the
results of these belated free elections, Abacha will
stage a third coup and oust his former ally. His regime
will be characterized by a concern with security that
verges on paranoia.  Abacha will schedule elections for
August, 1998, but months beforehand, all five legal
parties nominate him as their “consensus candidate.”  In
June, 1998, Abacha will join the ancestors when he dies
unexpectedly of a heart attack.

1958 – Martin Luther King Jr. is stabbed in the chest by a
deranged African American woman while he is autographing
books in a Harlem department store.  The woman is placed
under mental observation.

1962 – Mississippi’s governor, Ross Barnett, personally refuses
to admit James Meredith to University of Mississippi as
its first African American student. (Meredith is later
admitted.)

1962 – The Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) is banned in an
order issued by Sir Edgar Whitehead, the prime minister of
Southern Rhodesia.

1973 – Willie Mays announces his retirement from major league
baseball at the end of the 1973 baseball season.

1979 – A bloodless coup overthrows Jean-Bedel Bokassa, self-styled
head of the Central African Empire, in a French-supported
coup while he is visiting Libya.

1984 – NBC-TV debuts “The Cosby Show”.  Bill Cosby plays Dr.
Heathcliff (Cliff) Huxtable. His lovely wife, Clair, is
played by Phylicia Rashad.  The Huxtable kids were Sondra,
age 20 (Sabrina Le Beauf), Denise, age 16 (Lisa Bonet),
Theodore, age 14 (Malcom-Jamal Warner), Vanessa, age 8
(Tempestt Bledsoe) and Rudy, age 5 (Keshia Knight Pulliam).
The premiere is the most watched show of the week and the
show goes on to become an Emmy Award-winner and one of the
most popular on television for eight years. The series,
which had been rejected by other network television
executives, will become one of the most popular in
television history.

1987 – Alfre Woodard wins an Emmy for outstanding guest performance
in the dramatic series “L.A. Law”.  It is her second Emmy
award, her first having been for a supporting role in “Hill
Street Blues” in 1984.

1987 – Walter Payton scores the NFL record 107th rushing touchdown.

1999 – Lawrence Russell Brewer becomes the second white supremacist
to be convicted in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in
Jasper, Texas. He will be later sentenced to death.

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