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 28 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 28 *

1818 – Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, trader and founder of
Chicago, joins the ancestors.

1921 – Second Pan-African Congress meets in London, Brussels and
Paris, from August 28 to September 6. Of the 113
delegates, 39 are from Africa and 36 were from the United
States.

1949 – Paul Robeson’s scheduled singing appearance at the
Lakeland picnic grounds near Peekskill in Westchester
County, New York, is disrupted by a riot instigated and
provoked by whites angry at Robeson’s political stands.

1945 – Brooklyn Dodgers’ owner Branch Rickey and future baseball
great Jackie Robinson meet. They will discuss the
difficulties Robinson, an African American athlete, would
face in major-league baseball. Robinson will receive
$600 a month and a $3,500 signing bonus to play for
Montreal of the International League. He would quickly
move up and enjoy a brilliant career with the Brooklyn
Dodgers.

1955 – Fourteen-year-old Chicago youngster Emmett Till is
kidnapped in Money, Mississippi. Four days later he is
found brutally mutilated and murdered, allegedly for
whistling at a white woman. Two whites will be acquitted
of the crime by an all-white jury. The incident will
receive national publicity and highlight racism and
brutality toward African Americans. This incident is
chronicled on tape # 1 in the “Eyes on the Prize” series.

1962 – Seventy-five ministers and laymen–African American and
whites–primarily from the North, are arrested after
prayer demonstration in downtown Albany, Georgia.

1963 – Over 250,000 African-Americans and whites converge on the
Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, the
largest single protest demonstration in United States
history. The march, organized to support sweeping civil
rights measures, will also be the occasion of Martin
Luther King, Jr.’s most famous speech, “I have a Dream.”

1964 – A racially motivated civil disobedience riot occurs in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1966 – The National Guard is mobilized to protect Milwaukee,
Wisconsin marchers protesting a judge’s membership in
lily-white club.

1968 – Rev. Channing E. Philips of Washington, DC, becomes the
first African American to have his/her name placed in
nomination for president by a major national party.
Philips’ name is placed in nomination as the favorite
son candidate by the District of Columbia delegation at
the Democratic convention in Chicago and will receive 67
1/2 votes.

1984 – The Jacksons’ Victory Tour broke the record for concert
ticket sales. The group surpasses the 1.1 million mark
in only two months.

1988 – Beah Richards wins an Emmy for outstanding guest
performance in the comedy series “Frank’s Place.” It is
one of the many acting distinctions for the Vicksburg,
Mississippi native, including her Academy Award
nomination for best supporting actress in “Guess Who’s
Coming to Dinner.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 2 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 2 *

1847 – William A. Leidesdorff, born in the Danish West Indies to
a Danish father and a Black native mother, opens the first
commercial steamship service on San Francisco Bay.

1920 – Marcus Garvey presents his “Back To Africa” program in New
York City.

1924 – James Arthur Baldwin is born in New York City. He will
become one of the most prolific and influential African
American authors of fiction. His essays, such as
the collection “Notes of a Native Son” (1955), explore
palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and
class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in
mid-20th-century America, and their inevitable if unnamable
tensions with personal identity, assumptions, uncertainties,
yearning, and questing. Some of his essays are book-length,
for instance “The Fire Next Time” (1963), “No Name in the
Street” (1972), and “The Devil Finds Work” (1976). His
novels and plays fictionalize fundamental personal questions
and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures
thwarting the equitable integration of not only blacks, but
also gay men — depicting as well some internalized
impediments to such individuals’ quest for acceptance —
namely in his second novel, “Giovanni’s Room” (1956),
written well before gay equality was widely espoused in
America. His best-known novel is his first, “Go Tell It on
the Mountain” (1953). In 1948, disillusioned by American
prejudice against blacks and gays, He will leave the United
States and depart for Paris, France. He will live as an
expatriate in France for most of his later life. He will
also spend some time in Switzerland and Turkey. He will
join the ancestors on December 1, 1987.

1945 – Jewell Jackson (later McCabe) is born in Washington, DC.
She will become president of the Coalition of 100 Black
Women, whose mission is to develop a forum for African
American women leaders.

1951 – While manning his machine gun during a surprise attack on
his platoon, private first class William Henry Thompson of
Company M, Twenty-fourth Infantry Regiment, becomes the
first African American to earn the Congressional Medal of
Honor in the Korean conflict.

1964 – A racially motivated disturbance begins in Jersey City, New
Jersey.

1966 – The Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School, later
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, is
chartered in Los Angeles, California. It is the only
African American-focused medical school west of the
Mississippi.

1967 – “In the Heat of the Night”, starring Sidney Portier and Rod
Steiger, premieres.

1967 – Claude A. Barnett, who founded the Associated Negro Press,
joins the ancestors at the age of 78.

1980 – Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns wins the WBA Welterweight title.
This is one of five weight classes in which he wins a
boxing title, making him the first African American to win
boxing titles in five different weight classes.

1982 – Jackie Robinson, the first African American to break the
color barrier in major league baseball, is honored by a
commemorative stamp issued by the Postal Service, the
fifth in its Black Heritage USA series.

1986 – Jackie Joyner-Kersee (United States) sets record for the
heptathlon (7161 pts).

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

KRLemmons African American History

July 3 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – July 3 *

1848 – Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now the U.S.
Virgin Islands).

1871 – Joseph H. Douglass, grandson of Frederick Douglass, is
born in Washington, DC. A student of the New England
Conservatory of Music in Boston, Douglass will become a
noted violinist.

1915 – U.S. military forces occupy Haiti, and remain until 1934.

1917 – Three days of racial riots end in East St. Louis, Illinois.
At least 40 and as many as 200 African Americans are
killed and hundreds more are wounded.

1928 – Charles Waddell Chestnutt, author of “The Conjure Woman”
and other works, is awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal
for his “work as a literary artist depicting the life and
struggle of Americans of Negro descent.”

1940 – Fontella Bass is born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother is
Martha Bass (of the Clara Ward Singers) who exposed her to
music at an early age. She was singing in her church’s
choir at six years old, but as a teenager, she will be
attracted by more secular music. Throughout high school she
will be singing R&B songs at local contests and fairs. She
will eventually move to Chicago and sign with Chess Records.
She will record the song, “Rescue Me,” which will shoot up
the charts in the fall and winter of 1965. After a month at
the top of the Rhythm & Blues charts, the song will reach
#4 at the pop charts. Her only album with Chess Records,
“The New Look,” will sell reasonably well, but she will
decide to leave the label after only two years, in 1967. In
1970 she will record two albums with the Art Ensemble of
Chicago, “The Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass”
and “Les Stances A Sophie.” The latter is the soundtrack
from the French movie of the same title. Her vocals, backed
by the powerful, pulsating push of the band has allowed the
“Theme De YoYo” to remain an underground cult classic ever
since. The next few years will find her at a number of
different labels, but with no notable successes. After her
second album, “Free,” flopped in 1972, she will retire from
music. She will return occasionally, being featured as a
background vocalist on several recordings, including those
of her husband, Lester Bowie, a jazz trumpeter and member
of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. In the 1990s she will host
a short-lived Chicago radio talk show, and will release
several gospel records on independent labels. She will be
inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

1947 – The Cleveland Indians purchase the contract of Larry Doby,
the first African American to play in the American League.

1962 – Jackie Robinson, who broke the color line in professional
baseball, is the first African American inducted into the
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, in Cooperstown,
New York.

1966 – NAACP officially disassociates itself from the “Black Power”
doctrine.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 10 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – May 10 *

1652 – John Johnson, a free African American, is granted 550 acres
in Northampton County, Virginia, for importing eleven
persons to work as indentured servants.

1775 – Lemuel Haynes, Epheram Blackman, and Primas Black, in the
first aggressive action of American forces against the
British, help capture Fort Ticonderoga as members of
Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys.

1815 – Henry Walton Bibb is born a slave in Shelby County,
Kentucky. He will escape to Canada, return to get his
first wife, be recaptured in Cincinnati, escape again, be
recaptured again and sold into slavery in New Orleans. He
will be removed to Arkansas, where he will escape yet
again, this time for good in 1842. He will make his way
to Detroit, Michigan and will become an active
abolitionist. He will publish his autobiography, “Narrative
of The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American
Slave” in 1849. This narrative of his life will be so
suspenseful that an investigation is conducted that will
substantiate Bibb’s account. In 1850, the U.S. Congress
will pass the Fugitive Slave Act which will force his
immigration to Canada with his second wife. In 1851, he
will found the “Voice of the Fugitive”, the first Black
newspaper in Canada. He will join the ancestors in 1854 at
the age of 39.

1837 – Pinckney Benton Steward (P.B.S.) Pinchback is born near
Macon, Georgia. During the Civil War, he will recruit and
command a company of the “Corps d’Afrique,” a calvary unit
from Louisiana. He will resign his commission in 1863 after
unsuccessful demands that African American officers and
enlisted men be treated the same as white military
personnel. In 1868, he will be elected to the Louisiana
legislature as a Senator. In 1871, he will be elected
President Pro Temp of the Louisiana Senate, and will become
Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana in 1872 after the death of
Oscar Dunn. He will serve briefly (two months) as the
appointed Governor. He will be elected to the U.S. Senate
in 1873, but never be seated by that body, due to supposed
election irregularities. After the end of Reconstruction
and his political career, Pinchback will use his resources
to work as an advocate for African Americans as Southern
Democrats endeavor to take away the civil rights gained by
Blacks after the Civil War. He will publish the newspaper
“The Louisianan,” using it as a venue to help influence
public opinion. He will also become the leader of the
precursor to the Associated Negro Press, the Convention of
Colored Newspaper Men. At the age of sixty, he will
relocate to Washington, DC where he will live until he
joins the ancestors in 1921.

1876 – The American Centennial Exposition opens in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Included are works by four African American
artists, among them Edmonia Lewis’ “The Dying Cleopatra”
and Edward Bannister’s “Under the Oaks.” Bannister’s
painting will win the bronze medal, a distinct and
controversial achievement for the renowned painter.

1919 – A race riot occurs in Charleston, South Carolina. Two
African Americans are killed.

1935 – Larry Williams is born. He will become a rhythm and blues
singer and will be known for his record hits “Short Fat
Fannie,” “Bony Maronie,” and “Dizzy Miss Lizzie.”

1936 – Jayne Cortez is born in Fort Huachuca, Arizona. She will
grow up in the Watts section of Los Angeles, California
and will marry jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman in 1954.
After divorcing him in 1960, she will study drama and
poetry. She will become active in the civil rights
movement, registering African Americans to vote in
Mississippi as a worker for the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee. She will then become a poet and
performance artist that will integrate the rhythms and
foundations of jazz into her written works. She will
found the Watts Repertory Theater and be its artistic
director from 1964 through 1970. She will establish Bola
Press in New York City in 1972 and will be a
writer-in-residence at Rutgers University from 1977 to
1983. She will be known for her collections of poetry
“Pisstained Stairs and Monkey Man’s Wares,” “Festivals
and Funerals,” “Coagulations: New and Selected Poems,”
and “Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere.” She will also be
known for her poetry reading recordings with jazz
musicians “There It Is,” “Maintain Control,” and “Taking
the Blues Back Home: Poetry and Music.”

1944 – Judith Jamison is born in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania. She
will begin her dancing career at the age of six. She
will complete her dance training at the Philadelphia
Dance Company (later the University of Arts). She will
make her debut with the Alvin Ailey American Dance
Theatre in Chicago, dancing in Talley Beaty’s Congo
Tango Palace. She will become the troupe’s premier dancer
in 1967 and will tour the world exhibiting her signature
dance “Cry.” She will win a Dance Magazine award for her
performances in 1972. She will leave the Ailey
troupe in 1980 to perform on Broadway and will choreograph
many of her own works such as “Divining,” Ancestral Rites”
and “Hymn.” She will form the twelve member group, The
Jamison Project, in 1987. After Alvin Ailey’s health
declines in 1988, she will rejoin the Ailey troupe as
artistic associate and will become artistic director upon
his death in 1989. She will continue the company’s
tradition of performing early works choreographed by
African Americans for many years.

1950 – Jackie Robinson appears on the cover of Life magazine. It
is the first time an African American has been featured on
the magazine’s cover in its 13-year history.

1951 – Z. Alexander Looby is the first African American elected to
the Nashville City Council.

1952 – Canada Lee joins the ancestors in England at the age of 45.
He had become an actor in 1933 after a professional boxing
match left him blind in one eye. He was able to be cast in
non-traditional roles for African Americans at a time when
most were cast in stereotypical parts. He was best known
for his portrayal of “Bigger Thomas” in the play “Native
Son” in 1940 and 1941. He was blacklisted by the House
Committee on Un-American Activities and the FBI for his
outspoken views on the stereotyping of African Americans
in Hollywood and Broadway.

1962 – Southern School News reports that 246,988 or 7.6 per cent of
the African American pupils in public schools in seventeen
Southern and Border States and the District of Columbia
attended integrated classes in 1962.

1963 – Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth announces agreement on a limited
integration plan which will end the Birmingham
demonstrations.

1974 – “Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely” earns a gold record for the
group, The Main Ingredient. The trio began as the Poets
in 1964. Cuba Gooding is the lead singer. (Gooding’s
son, Cuba Jr., will star in the 1991 film “Boyz N The Hood”
and will win an Academy award for his role in the movie
“Jerry Maguire in 1997.) The Main Ingredient’s biggest
hit, “Everybody Plays The Fool,” will make it to number
three on the pop charts in 1972.

1986 – Navy Lt. Commander Donnie Cochran becomes the first African
American pilot to fly with the celebrated Blue Angels
precision aerial demonstration team.

1994 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as president of South Africa.
In an historic exchange of power, former political
prisoner Nelson Mandela becomes the first Black president
of South Africa. In his acceptance speech, he says, “We
enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in
which all South Africans, both black and white, will be
able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts–a
rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.”

1998 – Jose’ Francisco Pena Gomez joins the ancestors at the age
of 61 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic after succumbing
to pancreatic cancer. He had led a successful civil-
military revolt in 1965 which was curtailed by the
interference of United States Marines sent to the Dominican
Republic to put down the rebellion. He was later forced
into exile. He later returned to the Dominican Republic and
be heavily involved in politics as leader of the Partido
Revolucionario Dominicano. He ran for president
unsuccessfully three times.

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 17 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – April 17 *

1758 – Frances Williams, the first African American to graduate
from a college in the Western Hemisphere, publishes a
collection of Latin poems.

1818 – For unknown reasons, Daniel Coker is expelled from the
AME Church. Coker had been a key organizer in the
church’s early history and was elected its first bishop,
a position he declined possibly because of his fair
complexion.

1947 – Jackie Robinson bunts safely for his 1st major league
hit.

1978 – Thomas W. Turner, founder of the Federation of Colored
Catholics, civil rights pioneer and charter member of
the NAACP, joins the ancestors in Washington, DC, at
the age of 101.

1980 – Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, gains its
independence. Reggae stars Bob Marley and the Wailers
and others perform in the celebration festivities.
Robert Mugabe will be sworn in the following day as
prime minister of the newly formed nation.

1987 – Julius Erving becomes the 3rd NBA player to score 30,000
points.

1990 – Reverend Ralph Abernathy, civil rights activist, joins
the ancestors at the age of 64 in Atlanta, Georgia.

1991 – African American and African leaders meet in Abidjan,
Ivory Coast, in the first Summit Meeting of Africans
and African Americans. The summit, organized by the
Reverend Leon H. Sullivan, calls for closer ties
between Africans and African Americans and urges
Western governments to cancel Africa’s foreign debt.
“Hold on, Africa!” the Rev. Sullivan says in his
keynote speech. “We are coming! Home of our heritage,
land of our past, we can help. We have 2 million
college graduates in America. We earn $300 billion a
year. Three centuries ago they took us away in a boat,
but today we have come back in an airplane.”

1993 – A federal jury in Los Angeles convicts two former police
officers of violating the civil rights of beaten
motorist Rodney King. Two other officers are acquitted.

2003 – Earl King, Rhythm & Blues guitarist, joins the ancestors
at age 69 after succumbing to complications of diabetes.
His hits include the Mardi Gras favorite “Big Chief”
and “Come On (Let the Good Times Roll.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

April 15 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – April 15 *

1861 – President Lincoln calls for 75,000 troops to put down
the rebellion. The Lincoln administration rejects
African American volunteers. For almost two years
straight African Americans fight for the right, as one
humorist puts it, “to be kilt”.

1889 – Asa Philip Randolph is born in Crescent Way, Florida.
He will become a labor leader, the organizer of the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, and a
tireless fighter for civil rights. He will join the
ancestors in 1979.

1919 – Elizabeth Catlett is born in Washington, DC. She will
become an internationally known printmaker and sculptor
who will emigrate to Mexico and embrace both African
and Mexican influences in her art.

1922 – Harold Washington is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will
serve in the Illinois House of Representatives and
Senate as well as two terms in Congress before becoming
the first African American mayor of Chicago. He will
join the ancestors after suffering a massive heart
attack on November 25, 1987 after being re-elected to a
second term as mayor.

1928 – Pioneering architect Norma Merrick (later Sklarek) is
born in New York City. Sklarek will be the first
licensed woman architect in the United States and the
first African American woman to become a fellow in the
American Institute of Architects (1980).

1947 – Baseball player Jackie Robinson plays his first major-
league baseball game (he had played exhibition games
previously) for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the
first African American in the major leagues since Moses
Fleetwood Walker played in 1885. The Brooklyn Dodgers
promoted him to the majors from the Montreal Royals.

1957 – Evelyn Ashford is born in Shreveport, Louisiana. She
will grow up in Roseville, California becoming a track
star specializing in sprinting. She will be a four-
time winner of Olympic gold medals and one silver in
1976, 1984, 1988, and 1992. In 1979, she will set a
world record in the 200-meter dash. In 1989 she will
receive the Flo Hyman Award from the Woman’s Sports
Foundation. In 1992, the U.S. Olympic team will ask her
to carry the flag during the opening ceremonies in the
Barcelona Olympics. She will retire from track and
field in 1993 at the age of 36.

1958 – African Freedom Day is declared at the All-African
People’s Conference in Accra, Ghana.

1960 – The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is
formed on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh,
North Carolina.

1985 – Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns wins the World Middleweight
title. This is one of five weight classes in which he
will win a boxing title making him the first African
American to win boxing titles in five different weight
classes.

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

KRLemmons African American History

February 4 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 4 *

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1794 – Slavery is abolished by France. France will have a very lukewarm
commitment to abolition and will, under Napoleon, reestablish
slavery in 1802, along with the reinstitution of the “Code
Noir,” prohibiting blacks, mulattos and other people of color
from entering French colonial territory or intermarrying with
whites.

1822 – The American Colonization Society founds the African colony for
free African Americans that will become the country of Liberia,
West Africa.

1913 – Rosa Louise McCauley is born in Tuskegee, Alabama. In 1932,
she will marry Raymond Parks. She will work at a number of
jobs, ranging from domestic worker to hospital aide. At her
husband’s urging, she will finish high school studies in 1933,
at a time when less than 7% of African Americans had a high
school diploma. Despite the Jim Crow laws that made political
participation by Black people difficult, she will succeed in
registering to vote on her third try. In December 1943, she
will become active in the Civil Rights Movement, joining the
Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. When the seamstress and
NAACP member refuses to yield her seat to a white man on a
Montgomery, Alabama bus on December 1, 1955, her actions will
spark a 382-day boycott of the buses in Montgomery, halting
business and services in the city and become the initial act
of non-violent disobedience of the American Civil Rights
movement. She will be honored with the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal
for her heroism and later work with Detroit youth(1979) and
be called the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” She will
join the ancestors on October 24, 2005. The United States
Senate will pass a resolution on October 27, 2005 to honor
Mother Parks by allowing her body to lie in honor in the U.S.
Capitol Rotunda. The House of Representatives approved the
resolution on October 28. Since the founding of the practice
of lying in state in the Rotunda in 1852, She will be the
31st person, the first woman, the first American who had not
been a U.S. government official, and the second non-
government official (after Frenchman Pierre L’Enfant). On
October 30, 2005 President George W. Bush will issue a
Proclamation ordering that all flags on U.S. public areas
both within the country and abroad be flown at half-staff on
the day of her funeral. On February 5, 2006, at Super Bowl XL,
played at Detroit’s Ford Field, the late Coretta Scott King
and Mother Parks, who had been a long-time resident of “The
Motor City”, will be remembered and honored by a moment of
silence.

1947 – Sanford Bishop is born in Mobile, Alabama. He will graduate
from Morehouse College and Emory University Law School. He
will specialize in civil rights law and will become a member
of the Georgia Legislature from 1977 to 1993 (House and
Senate). In 1993, he will be elected a member of the United
States House of Representatives from Georgia.

1952 – Jackie Robinson is named Director of Communication for WNBC in
New York City, becoming the first African American executive
of a major radio-TV network.

1965 – Joseph Danquah joins the ancestors in Nsawam Prison in Ghana at
the age of 69. He had been a Ghanaian scholar, lawyer and
nationalist. He had led the opposition against Kwame Nkrumah
who had him imprisoned.

1969 – The Popular Liberation Movement Of Angola begins an armed
struggle against Portugal.

1971 – The National Guard is mobilized to quell civil disobedience
events in Wilmington, North Carolina. Two persons are killed.

1971 – Major League Baseball announces a special Hall of Fame wing for
special displays about the Negro Leagues. These exhibits will
provide information on these most deserving but rarely
recognized contributors to Baseball.

1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps nineteen-year-old
newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst from her apartment in
Berkeley, California.

1980 – Camara Laye joins the ancestors in Senegal at the age of 52.
He was a Guinean novelist considered a pioneer of West African
literature.

1986 – A stamp of Sojourner Truth is issued by the United States
Postal Service as part of its Black Heritage USA commemorative
series. Truth was an abolitionist, woman’s rights activist and
a famous “conductor” on the Underground Railroad.

1996 – Congressman J.C. Watts (R-Oklahoma) becomes the first African
American selected to respond to a State of the Union address.

1997 – Sixteen months after O.J. Simpson was cleared of murder charges,
a civil trial jury blames him for the killings of his ex-wife
and her friend and orders him to pay millions in compensatory
damages.

2003 – Charlie Biddle, a leader of Montreal’s jazz scene in the 1950s
and ’60s who played bass with Thelonious Monk and Charlie
Parker, joins the ancestors after a battle with cancer at the
age of 76. Biddle was a native of Philadelphia who moved to
Canada in 1948. Over the next five decades, the World War II
veteran and former car salesman became synonymous with jazz in
Montreal. Biddle opened his own club, Uncle Charlie’s Jazz
Joint, in suburban Ste-Therese in 1958. He later performed in
such legendary Montreal nightspots as The Black Bottom and the
Penthouse, where he worked with the likes of Oscar Peterson,
Art Tatum, Charlie Parker and Lionel Hampton. When there were
no jobs in Montreal, he played smaller Quebec cities with a
group called Three Jacks and a Jill. Until the time of his
passing, he played four nights a week at Biddle’s Jazz and
Ribs, a Montreal landmark for nearly 25 years. In 1979, he
organized the three-day festival that some say paved the way
for the renowned Montreal International Jazz Festival.

2005 – Ossie Davis, renown actor and civil rights advocate, joins the
ancestors in Miami, FL, while on location for yet another
acting project at the age of 87.

2007 – For the first time in Super Bowl history, two African American
coaches will lead their teams in the NFL Championship game.
The Chicago Bears will be coached by Lovie Lee Smith and the
Indianapolis Colts will be coached by Tony Dungee. The
Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears will be set to face
off in South Florida during Super Bowl XLI in a historic
meeting where both African American coaches will vie for the
Vince Lombardi Trophy. The winner will be the first African
American coach to win the Super Bowl.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 22 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 22 *

1801 – Haitian liberator, Toussaint L’Ouverture, enters Santiago to
battle the French Armed Forces.

1891 – The “Lodge Bill,” which called for federal supervision of U.S.
elections, is abandoned in the Senate after a Southern
filibuster.

1906 – Twenty-eight-year-old Meta Vaux Warrick’s sculpture “Portraits
from Mirrors” is exhibited at the 101st Annual Exhibition of
the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Although it is one of the first major showings
of her work, the young Warrick (later Fuller) has already
studied sculpture with the legendary Auguste Rodin and had
her work exhibited in Paris at S. Bing’s Gallery Nouveau.

1920 – William Caesar Warfield is born in West Helena, Arkansas, the
eldest of five sons. He will become a singer and have his
recital debut in New York’s famous Town Hall on March 19,
1950, putting him into the front ranks of concert artists
overnight. His career will span almost fifty years and among
his frequent appearances in foreign countries, this artist
has made six separate tours for the U.S. Department of State,
more than any other American solo artist. He will receive
a Grammy in the “Spoken Word” category (1984) for his
outstanding narration of Aaron Copeland’s “A Lincoln Portrait”
accompanied by the Eastman Philharmonic Orchestra. He is
best known for his role in “Showboat.” He will join the
ancestors on August 26, 2002.

1924 – James Louis (J.J.) Johnson is born in Indianapolis, Indiana.
He will become one of the greatest trombonists and composers
in jazz. He will be originally influenced by Fred Beckett of
Harlan Leonard’s band. Soon thereafter, he will join Benny
Carter. He will play with Count Basie (1945-1946) and record
his first solo improvisation. During the 1954-1956 period,
J.J. Johnson will take a brief break from bands and team up
with Kai Winding for a commercially successful trombone duo.
He will prefer the use of pure tones when playing the trombone,
focusing on line, interval and accent. His solos will show
virtuosity because of their remarkable mobility, which many
artists find difficult to duplicate or imitate. These
endeavors will be fruitless in the early 1950s and for a
couple of years he will work as a blueprint inspector. In the
1970s, Johnson will move from New Jersey to California,
concentrating exclusively on film and television scoring. In
1984, Johnson will reenter the jazz scene with a tour of the
“European Festival Circuit.” He will join the ancestors in
1991 from complications from a stroke.

1931 – Samuel “Sam” Cooke is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He will
grow up in Chicago, Illinois, after moving there with his
family in 1933. He will become a singer and be best known for
his recordings “You Send Me” and “Twisting the Night Away.”
Cooke will be one of the most popular singers of the 1960’s.
He will join the ancestors on December 11, 1964. He will be
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 23,
1986.

1960 – Sugar Ray Robinson loses the Middleweight Boxing Championship
to Paul Pender in a 15-round decision.

1961 – Wilma Rudolph, the 1960 Olympic gold medalist and track star,
sets a world indoor mark in the women’s 60-yard dash, with a
speedy 6.9 seconds in a meet held in Los Angeles, California.

1962 – Baseball Writers elect Jackie Robinson into the Baseball Hall
of Fame.

1973 – George Foreman takes the heavyweight boxing title away from
‘Smokin’ Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica in the second round.
Foreman will knock ‘Smokin’ Joe down six times on his way to
victory.

1981 – Samuel Pierce is named Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD). One of the few African Americans in the
Reagan administration, there will be high expectations for
his potential to effect change, but Pierce’s leadership will
be severely questioned as scandal rocks his department in
1989. An estimated $ 2 billion will be lost due to fraud and
mismanagement during Pierce’s tenure.

1988 – Heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson knocks out former
champion Larry Holmes in 4 rounds.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 5 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 5 *

1804 – Ohio begins the restriction of the rights and movements of
free African Americans by passing the first of several
“Black laws.” It is a trend that will be followed by most
Northern states.

1869 – Matilda Sissieretta Jones is born in Portsmouth, Virginia.
She will become a gifted singer (soprano), who will rise
to fame as a soloist and troupe leader during the later
part of the nineteenth century. She will be nicknamed
“Black Patti”, after a newspaper review mentioned her as
an African American equal to the acclaimed Italian soprano
Adelina Patti. American racism will prevent her from
performing with established white operatic groups. She will
tour Europe, South and North America and the West Indies as
a soloist. In 1896, she will form her own troupe, “Black
Patti’s Troubadours,” which will combine the elements of
opera and vaudeville, creating musical comedy. She will
join the ancestors on June 24, 1933.

1911 – Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity is founded on the campus of
Indiana University by Elder Watson Diggs, Byron Kenneth
Armstrong, and eight others. It will be the first African
American fraternity to be chartered as a national
organization.

1929 – Wilbert Harrison is born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He
will become a singer and will be best known for his
recordings “Kansas City,” and “Let’s Work Together.” In
2001, his recording of “Kansas City” will be given a Grammy
Hall of Fame Award. He will join the ancestors in Spencer,
North Carolina on October 26, 1994.

1931 – Alvin Ailey is born in Rogers, Texas and will move to Los
Angeles, California at the age of twelve. There, on a
junior high school class trip to the Ballet Russe de Monte
Carlo, he will fall in love with concert dance. In 1958, Mr.
Ailey will found his own company, the Alvin Ailey American
Dance Theater, which makes its debut in New York. Mr. Ailey
will have a vision of creating a company dedicated to the
preservation and enrichment of the American modern dance
heritage and the uniqueness of Black cultural expression.
In 1969, Alvin Ailey will found the Alvin Ailey American
Dance Center, the official school of the Ailey Company, and
he will go on to form the Repertory Ensemble, the second
company, in 1974. His commitment to education is the
foundation of the organization’s long-standing involvement
in arts-in-education programs, including AileyCamp. He will
join the ancestors on December 1, 1989 in New York City.

1938 – James Ngugi is born in Kamiriithu, Kenya. He will become a
writer whose works will depict events in colonial and post
colonial Kenya. He will integrate Marxist-Leninist beliefs
into his novels, which will include “Weep Not Child,” “The
River Between,” “A Grain of Wheat,” “Petals of Blood,” and
“Matigari ma Mjiruumgi.” He will later change his name to
Ngugi wa Thiong’o. His writings will cause him to be
imprisoned by the Kenyan government and he will later leave
the country for England and the United States.

1943 – George Washington Carver joins the ancestors after succumbing
to anemia at the age of 81. He was a pioneering plant
chemist and agricultural researcher noted for his work with
the peanut and soil restoration while at Tuskegee Institute.

1943 – William H. Hastie, civilian aide to the secretary of war,
resigns to protest segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces.

1947 – Ted Lange is born in Oakland, California. He will become an
actor and be best known for his role as ‘Isaac’ on the TV
series, “The Love Boat.”

1948 – A commemorative stamp of George Washington Carver is issued
by the U.S. Postal Service. The posthumous honor bestowed
upon the famed agricultural expert and researcher is only
one of the many awards he received, including the 1923
Spingarn Medal and membership in the NYU Hall of Fame.

1957 – Jackie Robinson announces his retirement from professional
baseball.

1971 – The Harlem Globetrotters lose 100-99 to the New Jersey Reds,
ending their 2,495-game win streak.

1975 – The Broadway premiere of “The Wiz” opens, receiving
enthusiastic reviews. The show, a Black version of “The
Wizard of Oz” will run for 1,672 shows at the Majestic
Theatre. Moviegoers, however, gave a thumbs down to the
cinema version of the play that starred Diana Ross and
Michael Jackson years later. One memorable song from the
show is “Ease on Down the Road.”

1987 – David Robinson becomes the first player in Naval Academy
history to score more than 2,000 points. This was
accomplished when the Midshipmen defeat East Carolina
91-66. He will go on to become a major star of the NBA.

1993 – Reggie Jackson is inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame with
94% of the votes.

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