KRLemmons African American History

September 30 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 30 *

1935 – John Royce “Johnny” Mathis is born in San Francisco,
California. He will become a romantic pop singer who will
amass more than 50 gold and platinum records for such hits
as “Misty”. He will also have the distinction of having
an album on the Billboard pop charts for the longest
period, 560 weeks.

1935 – “Porgy and Bess,” a folk opera by composer George Gershwin,
has its premiere in Boston at the Colonial Theatre. It
was a flop! It was revived in 1942 and ran longer than any
revival in the history of American musical theater.

1942 – Franklin Joseph “Frankie” Lymon is born in New York City.
He will become the lead singer of Frankie Lymon and the
Teenagers and will record his signature song, “Why Do Fools
Fall in Love?,” at age fourteen. He will develop a serious
drug problem before he turns twenty and will join the
ancestors after succumbing to a drug overdose on the
bathroom floor of his grandmother’s apartment at age 25,
on February 27, 1968.

1943 – Marilyn McCoo (Davis) is born in Jersey City, New Jersey.
She will become a singer with the group, “The Fifth
Dimensions”. Some of the hits with the group will be “Up,
Up and Away,” and “Aquarius.” She will have a solo hit,
“One Less Bell to Answer,” and will record “You Don’t
Have to be a Star” with her husband, Billy Davis, Jr. She
will later become a TV hostess for “Solid Gold” from
1981-1984, and from 1986-88. She will also be a TV music
reporter for “Preview.”

1962 – A large force of federal marshals escorts James H. Meredith
to the campus of the University of Mississippi. President
Kennedy federalizes the Mississippi National Guard.
University of Mississippi students and adults from Oxford,
Mississippi, and other southern communities riot on the
university campus. Two persons are killed and one hundred
or more are wounded.

1966 – Bechuanaland becomes the independent Republic of Botswana
with Sir Seretse Khama as its first President.

1975 – Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier square off in a fight billed
as “The Thrilla in Manila”. Ali will win the fight and
retain his world heavyweight title when, after 14 rounds,
Frazier’s trainer refuses to let him continue.

1976 – Two Centuries of Black American Art opens at the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art. The exhibit features over 60
lithographers, painters, and sculptors including 19th
century masters Joshua Johnston, Edward Bannister, and
Henry O. Tanner as well as modern artists Charles White,
Romare Bearden, and Elizabeth Catlett. The introduction
to the exhibit’s catalogue asserts that the assembled
artists’ work proves that the human creative impulse can
triumph in the face of impossible odds, and at times even
because of them.

1991 – President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first freely
elected president, is overthrown by a military junta.
The three-member junta that takes over begins a campaign
of terror and violence that in a three-year period will
cause the deaths of over 5000 Haitians and force tens of
thousands to flee the island by boat. Jean-Bertrand
Aristide sat in the presidency for only seven months.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 26 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 26 *

1867 – Maggie Lena Walker is born in Richmond, Virginia. She
will become a noted businesswoman, civil leader, and
founder and president of Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank.
As a result, she will be the first woman president of a
bank in America.

1907 – The People’s Savings Bank is incorporated in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Founded by former African American
congressman George H. White, of North Carolina, the bank
will help hundreds of African Americans buy homes and
start businesses until the illness of its founder forces
its closure in 1918.

1937 – Bessie Smith joins the ancestors in Clarksville,
Mississippi, after succumbing to injuries sustained in
a automobile accident. She was one of the nation’s
greatest blues singers and was nicknamed “the Empress of
the Blues.” In 1925, Smith and Louis Armstrong made the
definitive rendition of W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues,”
and in 1929 she made her only movie appearance in the
movie of the same name.

1947 – Lucius Oliver Allen, Jr. (born on September 26, 1947 in
Kansas City, Kansas) is a former professional basketball
player. Prior to his NBA career, he was part of one of
John Wooden’s legendary UCLA teams. He was drafted by the
Seattle SuperSonics in the 1st round (3rd pick) of the
1969 NBA Draft and retired in 1979. Allen played 10 years
in the NBA for four different teams. His highest scoring
average was when he averaged 19.5 points per game during
the 1974-1975 campaign in which he was traded to the Los
Angeles Lakers mid-season after playing with the Milwaukee
Bucks from the 1970-1971 season. During his playing days,
Allen was often referred to by former Bucks announcer
Eddie Doucette as “jack rabbit” because of his speed and
jumping ability.

1957 – The order alerting regular army units for possible riot
duty in other Southern cities is cancelled by Army
Secretary Wilbur M. Brucker.

1962 – A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., becomes the first African
American member of the Federal Trade Commission. It is
one of the Trenton, New Jersey, native’s many
accomplishments, including appointment as a federal
district judge and U.S. Circuit Judge of the Third
Circuit.

1962 – Los Angeles Dodger Maury Wills becomes the 1st baseball
player to steal 100 bases (will go on to steal 104).

1962 – Mississippi bars James Meredith for the third time. Lt.
Gov. Paul Johnson and a blockade of state patrolmen turn
back Meredith and federal marshals about four hundred
yards from the gate of the school.

1968 – The Studio Museum of Harlem opens in New York City.
Conceived by Frank Donnelly and Carter Burden, the
Studio Museum will become an influential venue for
exhibitions of African American artists in all media.

1968 – St. Louis Cardinals’ Bob Gibson’s completes his 13th
shutout, and ends the season with a 1.12 ERA.

1994 – Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, President Clinton
announces that he has lifted most U.S. sanctions against
Haiti and urges other nations to follow suit.

1994 – Jury selection begins in Los Angeles for the murder trial
of O.J. Simpson.

1998 – Grammy-winning jazz singer Betty Carter joins the
ancestors in New York City at age 69.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 25 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 25 *

1861 – The Secretary of the Navy authorizes the enlistment of
African Americans in the Union Navy. The enlistees could
achieve no rank higher than “boys” and receive pay of
one ration per day and $10 per month.

1886 – Peter “The Black Prince” Jackson wins the Australian
heavyweight title, becoming the very first man of
African descent to win a national boxing crown.

1911 – Dr. Eric Williams, former prime minister of Trinidad and
Tobago, is born.

1924 – In a letter to his friend Alain Locke, Langston Hughes
writes “I’ve done a couple of new poems. I have no more
paper, so I’m sending you one on the back of this
letter.” The poem, “I, Too”, will be published two years
later and be among his most famous.

1951 – Robert Allen “Bob” McAdoo, Jr. is born in Greensboro, North
Carolina. He will become a one of the best-shooting big
men of all time in professional basketball. He will win
Rookie of the Year, a Most Valuable Player Award and three
consecutive scoring championships, all in his first four
years in the NBA. Over fourteen seasons, He will score
18,787 points and average 22.1 point per game. A five-time
NBA All Star, he will shoot .503 from the field and .754
from the line, scoring in double figures in all but one
season.

1957 – With 300 U.S. Army troops standing guard, nine African
American children forced to withdraw the previous day
from Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas,
because of unruly white crowds, are escorted to back to
class.

1962 – Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson in the first round
to become the world heavyweight boxing champion.

1962 – An African American church is destroyed by fire in Macon,
Georgia. This is the eighth African American church
burned in Georgia in one month.

1962 – Governor Ross Barnett again defies court orders and
personally denies James Meredith admission to the
University of Mississippi.

1965 – Willie Mays hits his fiftieth home run of the baseball
season, making him the oldest player to accomplish this.
He was 34 years old. Ten years before this, at the age
of 24, he was the youngest man to accomplish the same
feat.

1965 – Scottie Maurice Pippen is born in Hamburg, Arkansas. He
will become a professional basketball player and will be
traded to the Houston Rockets in 1998 after 11
distinguished seasons with the Chicago Bulls, for whom he
averaged 18.0 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists in 833
NBA games. He will earn All-NBA First Team honors three
times in his career and All-Defensive First Team honors in
each of seven seasons (1992-1999. In addition, he will
earn NBA World Championships in six of the eight years and
Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 1996. He will be selected
as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996.
He will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball
Hall of Fame on August 13, 2010.

1968 – Will Smith is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He
will become a rapper at the age of 12 and will be known
for his hits “Nightmare on My Street” and “Parents Just
Don’t Understand.” In 1990 he will start his acting
career with a six-year run as the “Fresh Prince of Bel
Air.” He will go to become a major motion picture box
office attraction, starring in “Six Degrees of
Separation,” “Made in America,” “Independence Day,”
“Men In Black,” and “Wild, Wild West.”

1974 – Barbara W. Hancock is the first African American woman
to be named a White House Fellow.

1988 – Florence Griffith Joyner runs 100 meters in record
Olympic time of 10.54 seconds.

1991 – Pioneer filmmaker Spencer Williams’s 1942 movie “Blood
of Jesus”, a story of the African American religious
experience, is among the third group of twenty-five
films added to the Library of Congress’s National Film
Registry. Williams, best known for his role of Andy in
the television series “Amos ‘n’ Andy”, was more
importantly, an innovative film director and a
contemporary of Oscar Micheaux. Williams’s film joins
other classics like “Lawrence of Arabia” and “2001: A
Space Odyssey”.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 18 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 18 *

1791 – Benjamin Banneker publishes his first Almanac.

1909 – Howard Swanson is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He will become
a classical composer who will study in the United States
and Paris, France, and will write music for orchestra,
solo voice, piano, and chamber ensembles. His initial
training will be at the Cleveland Institute of Music. After
studying with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, France (1938), He
will spend two intensive periods studying and traveling in
New York. He will finally settle in New York City in 1966.
Thanks to Marian Anderson’s 1949 performance of his song
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” his music will begin to gain
national attention. He will win several awards, including
the Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Academy of Arts
and Letters grant. His neo-classical compositional method
will be appealing to a wide range of listeners, with
graceful melodies and a touch of jazz and idioms of black
American folk music. He will join the ancestors on November
12, 1978.

1934 – Roberto Clemente is born in Carolina, Puerto Rico. He will
win the Gold Glove award TWELVE consecutive years and play
in twelve All-Star games. He will be the National League’s
Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1966, the MVP in the 1971
World Series, win four separate National League batting
titles, post a .317 career batting average, and play
eighteen seasons, amassing 3,000 hits and hammering 240
home runs. He will join the ancestors at the age of 38, on
a mercy mission to deliver relief supplies to the victims
of a Nicaraguan earthquake. Tragically, his plane,
carrying food, clothing and medical supplies, will crash
moments after takeoff from San Juan, Puerto Rico on
December 31, 1972.

1935 – Rafer Lewis Johnson is born in Hillsboro, Texas. He will
become a decathlete, winning gold in the 1955 Pan-American
Games, a silver medal in the 1956 Olympics and a gold medal
in the in the 1960 Summer Games in Rome. He will light the
torch in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

1941 – Matt Snell is born in Garfield, Georgia. He will become a
professional football player (running back for the New York
Jets). He will be one of the key players in the Jets
victory in Super Bowl III over the Baltimore Colts.

1954 – James E. Wilkins becomes the first African American to
attend a U.S. presidential cabinet meeting. He is
Assistant Secretary of Labor and attends because the
Secretary and Under-Secretary are away.

1963 – James Meredith becomes the first African American to
graduate from the University of Mississippi.

1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games because of
its apartheid policies.

1970 – Malcolm-Jamal Warner is born in Jersey City, New Jersey.
He will become an child actor and will star on the “The
Cosby Show” as Theodore “Theo” Huxtable. He will also star
as “Here and Now’s” Alexander James and “Malcolm and
Eddie’s” Malcolm.

1976 – Vice Admiral Samuel L. Gravely Jr. assumes command of the
U.S. Third Fleet.

1977 – Stephen Biko, one of the most influential Black student
leaders in South Africa, is arrested in Port Elizabeth
on charges of fomenting unrest among blacks in the city
through his writings. Biko will join the ancestors in
police detention less than a month later, as a result of
a beating by the police.

1981 – Football running back, Herschel Walker, of the University
of Georgia, takes out an insurance policy with Lloyd’s of
London. The All-American is insured for one million
dollars.

1986 – Earl Campbell, the ‘Tyler Rose’, announces his retirement
from professional football. Campbell, the 1977 Heisman
Trophy winner, played eight seasons in the National
Football League — and was a star for the Houston Oilers.
He will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on
July 27, 1991.

______________________________________________________________
Munirah Chronicle is edited by Rene’ A. Perry

KRLemmons African American History

June 6 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – June 6 *

1716 – The first slaves arrive in Louisiana.

1779 – Haitian explorer Jean Baptiste-Pointe Du Sable founds the
first permanent settlement at the mouth of a river on the
north bank, that will become Chicago, Illinois.

1831 – The second national Black convention meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. There are fifteen delegates from five
states.

1869 – Dillard University is chartered in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1934 – Roy Innis is born in the U.S. Virgin Islands and will be
raised in New York City. He will become a civil rights
activist and will join the Harlem chapter of CORE
(Congress of Racial Equality) in 1963. He will work with
the organization over the next 35 years in many capacities
including chairman.

1935 – Jesse Owens is elected Captain of the 1936 track team at
Ohio State University. He is the first African American to
hold such position on any Ohio State Team.

1935 – Robert Cornelius “Bobby” Mitchell is born in Hot Springs,
Arkansas. He will become a professional football player
starting as an eighth round draft selection by the
Cleveland Browns in 1958. He will play in four Pro Bowls
(one with Cleveland and three with Washington) over his
11-year playing career and is considered one of the NFL’s
all-time great multi-purpose players. When he is traded to
the Washington franchise in 1962, he becomes the first
African American to play for the team. He will become an
inductee to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983. He will
be a prominent part of the Washington Redskins
organization for over 41 years until he retires after the
2002-2003 season.

1936 – Levi Stubbless is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will become
a rhythm and blues singer better known as Levi Stubbs. He
will be a member of the group, “The Aims.” The group
will start as a backup group for Levi’s cousin, Jackie
Wilson. The group will change their name to “The Four
Tops” in 1956, to avoid confusion with a band. Berry Gordy
will sign the group in 1963 and launch their first hit,
“Baby, I Need Your Loving.” The group will stay together
over forty years, longer than any other popular group,
with the original personnel intact. He will join the
ancestors on October 17, 2008.

1939 – Marion Wright (later Edelman) is born in Bennettsville,
South Carolina. In addition to becoming the first African
American woman admitted to the bar in Mississippi, she
will direct the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund
in New York and Mississippi and will found the Children’s
Defense Fund in 1973.

1939 – Gary Levone Anderson is born in Jacksonville, Florida. He
will be raised in Norfolk, Virginia where he will become
a singer as a teenager, with a group called The Turks. He
will solo as Gary “U.S.” Bonds in 1960 recording the hit
“New Orleans.” His name will be inspired by a poster in a
Norfolk shop urging Americans to “Carry U. S. Bonds.” In
1961 when Bonds records his version of a local group’s
song, “A Night with Daddy G.,” it will be re-titled
“Quarter to Three” and will be a huge hit. He will record
three additional hits in the next year. After a twenty
year decline in his career, he will make a comeback after
his fan, Bruce Springsteen, begins to use “Quarter to
Three” as his encore.

1944 – The 320th Negro Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion
assists in the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France.

1944 – Tommie Smith is born in Clarksville, Texas. He will become
a track star (sprinter), and Olympic athlete/runner. He
will win the Olympic Gold medal in the 200 meters in the
1968 Olympics. It will be, on the winners platform, that he
and John Carlos will raise clinched fists as the national
anthem is played. He will be inducted into the National
Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1978.

1947 – Harrison Branch is born in New York City. A student at the
San Francisco Art Institute and Yale University School of
Art, he will become a professor of art and photographer
whose works will be exhibited and collected in the U.S.
and in Europe and will appear in the landmark photography
book, “An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography of Black
Photographers,” 1940-1988, edited by Deborah Wills Ryan.

1966 – James Meredith is wounded by a white sniper, as he walked
along U.S. Highway 51 near Hernando, Mississippi, on the
second day of the Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson,
Mississippi, voter registration march. Meanwhile,
Stokely Carmichael, using his newly adopted name of Kwame’
Toure, launches the Black Power movement. Toure will say
that the use of the term is not anti-white, but a phrase
to denote a political strategy.

1973 – Barry White is awarded a gold record for “I’m Gonna Love
You Just a Little More Baby”. It is his first hit and his
first of five, number one, million sellers. White will
begin recording in 1960. He will form the group, Love
Unlimited, in 1969 and marry one of the group’s singers,
Glodean James. He will also form the 40-piece Love
Unlimited Orchestra which will have the number one hit,
“Love’s Theme.” He will join the ancestors on July 4,
2003 from complications of high blood pressure and kidney
disease.

1977 – Joseph Lawson Howze is installed as bishop of the Roman
Catholic diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi. He becomes the
first African American to head a U.S. diocese in the
Catholic Church in the twentieth century.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 10 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 10 *

1847 – John Roy Lynch is born a slave in Concordia Parish,
Louisiana. Becoming free during the American Civil War,
he will settle in Natchez, Mississippi. There he will
learn the photography business, attend night school, and
enter public life in 1869 as justice of the peace for
Natchez county. In November, 1869 Lynch will be elected
to the Mississippi House of Representatives, and re-
elected in 1871. Although Blacks never will be in the
majority in the Mississippi legislature, Lynch will be
chosen speaker of the House in 1872. He will be elected
to the U.s. House of Representatives in 1873. In 1884,
he will become the first African American to preside
over a national convention of a major U.S. political
party and deliver the keynote address, when he was
appointed temporary chairman. In his book, “The Facts
of Reconstruction” (1913), Lynch will attempt to dispel
the erroneous notion that Southern state governments
after the Civil War were under the control of Blacks.
He will join the ancestors on November 2, 1939 in
Chicago, Illinois.

1886 – Poet Georgia Douglas Johnson is born in Atlanta, Georgia.
(Editor’s Note: Her birth is uncertain, given as early as
1877 and as late as 1886). Among her books will be “Heart
of a Woman”, “Bronze”, “An Autumn Love Cycle”, and “Share
My Love”. She will be anthologized in Arna Bontemps’s
“American Negro Poetry” and Davis and Lee’s “Negro
Caravan,” among others. Her home in Washington, DC, will
become the center for African American literary
gatherings. She will join the ancestors on May 14, 1966.

1913 – George W. Buckner, a physician from Indiana, is named
minister to Liberia.

1913 – The Cleveland Call & Post newspaper is established.

1927 – Jacques E. Leeds in born in Baltimore, Maryland. He will
become a leading African American attorney in Baltimore.
He will become the first African American appointed a
commisioner on the Maryland Worker’s Compensation
Commission in 1991 (by governor William Donald Schaefer).

1930 – Charles E. Mitchell, certified public accountant and banker
from West Virginia, is named minister to Liberia.

1940 – Roy Ayers is born in Los Angeles, California. In high
school Ayers will form his first group, the Latin Lyrics,
and in the early 60s will begin working professionally
with flautist/saxophonist Curtis Amy. He will become a
popular jazz vibraphonist and vocalist, reaching the peak
of his commercial popularity during the mid-70s and early
80s.

1948 – Robert “Bob” Lanier is born in Buffalo, New York. He will
become a professional basketball player and will be a NBA
center for 14 years (10 years with the Detroit Pistons and
4 years with the Milwaukee Bucks). He will be an eight-
time NBA All-Star and will be elected to the Basketball
Hall of Fame in 1991.

1956 – Louisville, Kentucky integrates its public school system.

1960 – Running barefoot, Ethiopian Abebe Bikila wins the marathon
at the Rome Olympic Games.

1961 – Jomo Kenyatta returns to Kenya from exile to lead his
country.

1962 – Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black vacates an order of a
lower court, ruling that the University of Mississippi
had to admit James H. Meredith, an African American Air
Force veteran whose application for admission had been on
file and in the courts for fourteen months.

1963 – 20 African American students enter public schools in
Birmingham, Tuskegee and Mobile, Alabama, following a
standoff between federal authorities and Governor George
C. Wallace.

1965 – Father Divine joins the ancestors in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Divine, born George Baker, was the founder
of the Peace Mission, a religious group whose followers
worshiped Divine as God incarnate on earth.

1972 – Gayle Sayers, of the Chicago Bears, retires from pro
football.

1973 – A commemorative stamp of Henry Ossawa Tanner is issued by
the U.S. Postal Service. Part of its American Arts issue,
the stamp celebrates the work and accomplishments of
Tanner, the first African American artist elected to the
National Academy of Design.

1973 – Muhammad Ali defeats Ken Norton in a championship
heavyweight boxing match in Los Angeles — and avenges a
loss to Norton the previous March in San Diego.

1974 – Guinea-Bissau gains independence from Portugal.

1974 – Lou Brock, of the St. Louis Cardinals, breaks Maury Wills’
major league record for stolen bases in a season.
‘Lighting’ Lou Brock steals his 105th base on his way to
a career total of 938 stolen bases, a record which will
be later broken by Rickey Henderson.

1976 – Mordecai Johnson, the first African American president of
Howard University, joins the ancestors at age 86.

1986 – Sprinter, Evelyn Ashford is defeated for the first time in
eight years. Ashford loses to Valerie Brisco-Hooks in
the 200-meter run held in Rome, Italy.

2000 – At The 52nd Annual Primetime Emmy awards the following
quotes were made as Charles Dutton and Halle Berry
accepted their respective awards – “There goes my acting
career.” – Charles S. Dutton, accepting as outstanding
director of a miniseries or movie for HBO’s “The Corner.”
– “Wherever Dorothy Dandridge is right now, I know she is
standing tall and proud and smiling.” – Halle Berry,
accepting a best actress Emmy for the HBO movie
“Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 18 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 18 *

1791 – Benjamin Banneker publishes his first Almanac.

1909 – Howard Swanson is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He will become
a classical composer who will study in the United States
and Paris, France, and will write music for orchestra,
solo voice, piano, and chamber ensembles. His initial
training will be at the Cleveland Institute of Music. After
studying with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, France (1938), He
will spend two intensive periods studying and traveling in
New York. He will finally settle in New York City in 1966.
Thanks to Marian Anderson’s 1949 performance of his song
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” his music will begin to gain
national attention. He will win several awards, including
the Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Academy of Arts
and Letters grant. His neo-classical compositional method
will be appealing to a wide range of listeners, with
graceful melodies and a touch of jazz and idioms of black
American folk music. He will join the ancestors on November
12, 1978.
1934 – Roberto Clemente is born in Carolina, Puerto Rico. He will
win the Gold Glove award TWELVE consecutive years and play
in twelve All-Star games. He will be the National League’s
Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1966, the MVP in the 1971
World Series, win four separate National League batting
titles, post a .317 career batting average, and play
eighteen seasons, amassing 3,000 hits and hammering 240
home runs. He will join the ancestors at the age of 38, on
a mercy mission to deliver relief supplies to the victims
of a Nicaraguan earthquake. Tragically, his plane,
carrying food, clothing and medical supplies, will crash
moments after takeoff from San Juan, Puerto Rico on
December 31, 1972.

1935 – Rafer Lewis Johnson is born in Hillsboro, Texas. He will
become a decathlete, winning gold in the 1955 Pan-American
Games, a silver medal in the 1956 Olympics and a gold medal
in the in the 1960 Summer Games in Rome. He will light the
torch in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

1941 – Matt Snell is born in Garfield, Georgia. He will become a
professional football player (running back for the New York
Jets). He will be one of the key players in the Jets
victory in Super Bowl III over the Baltimore Colts.

1954 – James E. Wilkins becomes the first African American to
attend a U.S. presidential cabinet meeting. He is
Assistant Secretary of Labor and attends because the
Secretary and Under-Secretary are away.

1963 – James Meredith becomes the first African American to
graduate from the University of Mississippi.

1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games because of
its apartheid policies.

1970 – Malcolm-Jamal Warner is born in Jersey City, New Jersey.
He will become an child actor and will star on the “The
Cosby Show” as Theodore “Theo” Huxtable. He will also star
as “Here and Now’s” Alexander James and “Malcolm and
Eddie’s” Malcolm.

1976 – Vice Admiral Samuel L. Gravely Jr. assumes command of the
U.S. Third Fleet.

1977 – Steven Biko, one of the most influential Black student
leaders in South Africa, is arrested in Port Elizabeth
on charges of fomenting unrest among blacks in the city
through his writings. Biko will join the ancestors in
police detention less than a month later, as a result of
a beating by the police.

1981 – Football running back, Herschel Walker, of the University
of Georgia, takes out an insurance policy with Lloyd’s of
London. The All-American is insured for one million
dollars.

1986 – Earl Campbell, the ‘Tyler Rose’, announces his retirement
from professional football. Campbell, the 1977 Heisman
Trophy winner, played eight seasons in the National
Football League — and was a star for the Houston Oilers.
He will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on
July 27, 1991.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 6 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 6 *

1716 – The first slaves arrive in Louisiana.

1779 – Haitian explorer Jean Baptiste-Pointe Du Sable founds the
first permanent settlement at the mouth of a river on the
north bank, that will become Chicago, Illinois.

1831 – The second national Black convention meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. There are fifteen delegates from five
states.

1869 – Dillard University is chartered in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1934 – Roy Innis is born in the U.S. Virgin Islands and will be
raised in New York City. He will become a civil rights
activist and will join the Harlem chapter of CORE
(Congress of Racial Equality) in 1963. He will work with
the organization over the next 35 years in many capacities
including chairman.

1935 – Jesse Owens is elected Captain of the 1936 track team at
Ohio State University. He is the first African American to
hold such position on any Ohio State Team.

1935 – Robert Cornelius “Bobby” Mitchell is born in Hot Springs,
Arkansas. He will become a professional football player
starting as an eighth round draft selection by the
Cleveland Browns in 1958. He will play in four Pro Bowls
(one with Cleveland and three with Washington) over his
11-year playing career and is considered one of the NFL’s
all-time great multi-purpose players. When he is traded to
the Washington franchise in 1962, he becomes the first
African American to play for the team. He will become an
inductee to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983. He will
be a prominent part of the Washington Redskins
organization for over 41 years until he retires after the
2002-2003 season.

1936 – Levi Stubbless is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will become
a rhythm and blues singer better known as Levi Stubbs. He
will be a member of the group, “The Aims.” The group
will start as a backup group for Levi’s cousin, Jackie
Wilson. The group will change their name to “The Four
Tops” in 1956, to avoid confusion with a band. Berry Gordy
will sign the group in 1963 and launch their first hit,
“Baby, I Need Your Loving.” The group will stay together
over forty years, longer than any other popular group,
with the original personnel intact. He will join the
ancestors on October 17, 2008.

1939 – Marion Wright (later Edelman) is born in Bennettsville,
South Carolina. In addition to becoming the first African
American woman admitted to the bar in Mississippi, she
will direct the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund
in New York and Mississippi and will found the Children’s
Defense Fund in 1973.

1939 – Gary Levone Anderson is born in Jacksonville, Florida. He
will be raised in Norfolk, Virginia where he will become
a singer as a teenager, with a group called The Turks. He
will solo as Gary “U.S.” Bonds in 1960 recording the hit
“New Orleans.” His name will be inspired by a poster in a
Norfolk shop urging Americans to “Carry U. S. Bonds.” In
1961 when Bonds records his version of a local group’s
song, “A Night with Daddy G.,” it will be re-titled
“Quarter to Three” and will be a huge hit. He will record
three additional hits in the next year. After a twenty
year decline in his career, he will make a comeback after
his fan, Bruce Springsteen, begins to use “Quarter to
Three” as his encore.

1944 – The 320th Negro Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion
assists in the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France.

1944 – Tommie Smith is born in Clarksville, Texas. He will become
a track star (sprinter), and Olympic athlete/runner. He
will win the Olympic Gold medal in the 200 meters in the
1968 Olympics. It will be, on the winners platform, that he
and John Carlos will raise clinched fists as the national
anthem is played. He will be inducted into the National
Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1978.

1947 – Harrison Branch is born in New York City. A student at the
San Francisco Art Institute and Yale University School of
Art, he will become a professor of art and photographer
whose works will be exhibited and collected in the U.S.
and in Europe and will appear in the landmark photography
book, “An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography of Black
Photographers,” 1940-1988, edited by Deborah Wills Ryan.

1966 – James Meredith is wounded by a white sniper, as he walked
along U.S. Highway 51 near Hernando, Mississippi, on the
second day of the Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson,
Mississippi, voter registration march. Meanwhile,
Stokely Carmichael, using his newly adopted name of Kwame’
Toure, launches the Black Power movement. Toure will say
that the use of the term is not anti-white, but a phrase
to denote a political strategy.

1973 – Barry White is awarded a gold record for “I’m Gonna Love
You Just a Little More Baby”. It is his first hit and his
first of five, number one, million sellers. White will
begin recording in 1960. He will form the group, Love
Unlimited, in 1969 and marry one of the group’s singers,
Glodean James. He will also form the 40-piece Love
Unlimited Orchestra which will have the number one hit,
“Love’s Theme.” He will join the ancestors on July 4,
2003 from complications of high blood pressure and kidney
disease.

1977 – Joseph Lawson Howze is installed as bishop of the Roman
Catholic diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi. He becomes the
first African American to head a U.S. diocese in the
Catholic Church in the twentieth century.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 26 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 26          *

1867 – Maggie Lena Walker is born in Richmond, Virginia.  She
will become a noted businesswoman, civil leader, and
founder and president of Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank.
As a result, she will be the first woman president of a
bank in America.

1907 – The People’s Savings Bank is incorporated in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Founded by former African American
congressman George H. White, of North Carolina, the bank
will help hundreds of African Americans buy homes and
start businesses until the illness of its founder forces
its closure in 1918.

1937 – Bessie Smith joins the ancestors in Clarksville,
Mississippi, after succumbing to injuries sustained in
a automobile accident. She was one of the nation’s
greatest blues singers and was nicknamed “the Empress of
the Blues.” In 1925, Smith and Louis Armstrong made the
definitive rendition of W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues,”
and in 1929 she made her only movie appearance in the
movie of the same name.

1947 – Lucius Oliver Allen, Jr. (born on September 26, 1947 in
Kansas City, Kansas) is a former professional basketball
player. Prior to his NBA career, he was part of one of
John Wooden’s legendary UCLA teams. He was drafted by the
Seattle SuperSonics in the 1st round (3rd pick) of the
1969 NBA Draft and retired in 1979. Allen played 10 years
in the NBA for four different teams. His highest scoring
average was when he averaged 19.5 points per game during
the 1974-1975 campaign in which he was traded to the Los
Angeles Lakers mid-season after playing with the Milwaukee
Bucks from the 1970-1971 season. During his playing days,
Allen was often referred to by former Bucks announcer
Eddie Doucette as “jack rabbit” because of his speed and
jumping ability.

1957 – The order alerting regular army units for possible riot
duty in other Southern cities is cancelled by Army
Secretary Wilbur M. Brucker.

1962 – A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., becomes the first African
American member of the Federal Trade Commission.  It is
one of the Trenton, New Jersey, native’s many
accomplishments, including appointment as a federal
district judge and U.S. Circuit Judge of the Third
Circuit.

1962 – Los Angeles Dodger Maury Wills becomes the 1st baseball
player to steal 100 bases (will go on to steal 104).

1962 – Mississippi bars James Meredith for the third time. Lt.
Gov. Paul Johnson and a blockade of state patrolmen turn
back Meredith and federal marshals about four hundred
yards from the gate of the school.

1968 – The Studio Museum of Harlem opens in New York City.
Conceived by Frank Donnelly and Carter Burden, the
Studio Museum will become an influential venue for
exhibitions of African American artists in all media.

1968 – St. Louis Cardinals’ Bob Gibson’s completes his 13th
shutout, and ends the season with a 1.12 ERA.

1994 – Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, President Clinton
announces that he has lifted most U.S. sanctions against
Haiti and urges other nations to follow suit.

1994 – Jury selection begins in Los Angeles for the murder trial
of O.J. Simpson.

1998 – Grammy-winning jazz singer Betty Carter joins the
ancestors in New York City at age 69.

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