KRLemmons African American History

March 16 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 16 *

1827 – With the assistance of James Varick, Richard Allen, Alexander
Crummel, and others, Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm
publish “Freedom’s Journal” in New York City. Operating
from space in Varick’s Zion Church, “Freedom’s Journal” is
the first African American newspaper. Russwurm says of the
establishment of the newspaper, “We wish to plead our own
cause. Too long have others spoken for us.”

1870 – Senator Hiram R. Revels argues against Georgia’s re-admission
to the Union without safeguards for African American citizens.
It is the first official speech by an African American before
Congress.

1956 – Ozzie Newsome is born in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He will
become a stand-out football player for the University of
Alabama, and the first African American star athlete for a
major school in the south. Newsome will be drafted by the
Cleveland Browns and start 176 out of 182 games in 13 years.
He will be the all-time leading receiver in Cleveland history
and the all-time receiver among tight ends in the NFL. He
will be fourth among receivers in NFL history with a record
of 662 catches. He will earn three trips to the Pro Bowl and
will be named to the All-NFL Teams of the ’80’s. Newsome
will remain with the Cleveland Browns in an administrative
position after his retirement. In 1994 he will be inducted
into the College Football Hall of Fame and in 1999 to the Pro
Football Hall of Fame.

1956 – Former heavyweight champion Joe Louis, makes his debut as a
pro wrestler. He knocks out 320-pound cowboy Rocky Lee.
Jersey Joe Walcott, the referee, is another former
heavyweight champ.

1960 – San Antonio, Texas becomes the first major southern city to
integrate lunch counters.

1966 – Rodney Peete is born in Mesa, Arizona. He will become a NFL
quarterback playing for the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia
Eagles and later, the Washington Redskins.

1970 – Tammi Terrell (Tammy Montgomery), best known for her duets
with Marvin Gaye, joins the ancestors at Graduate Hospital
in Philadelphia after undergoing six brain tumor operations
in 18 months. Doctors first discovered Terrell’s brain
tumor after she collapsed in Gaye’s arms onstage in 1967.

1975 – Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker, jazz and blues singer, blues
guitarist, composer and pianist, joins the ancestors at the
age of 64. He was best known for his hits “Stormy Monday”
and “T-Bone Shuffle.”

1988 – President Ronald Reagan vetoes a civil rights bill that would
restore protections invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s
1984 ruling in Grove City College v. Bell. Reagan’s veto
will be overridden by Congress less than a week later.

1989 – The U.S. Senate agrees to try U.S. District Court Judge Alcee
Hastings on fraud, corruption, and perjury charges stemming
from a 1981 bribery conspiracy case. Hastings, appointed by
President Jimmy Carter as the first African American judge
to serve on the federal bench in Florida, will be convicted
of eight of the original articles and impeached in October.

1991 – Soon Ja Du, a Korean American grocery store owner, shoots to
death Latasha Harlins, a fifteen-year old African American
girl, after Ms. Du accused the girl of trying to steal a
$1.79 bottle of orange juice. A security camera in the
store captures the shooting on videotape. The shooting
exacerbates racial and ethnic tensions in Los Angeles in the
wake of the Rodney King beating.

1995 – Mississippi ratifies the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery,
some 130 years after the rest of the country got around to
it.

1996 – Mike Tyson regains a piece of the heavyweight championship by
defeating WBC champion Frank Bruno by TKO in the third round
to reclaim the heavyweight boxing title in Las Vegas.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 1 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 1 *

1739 – The British sign a peace treaty with the Black “Chimarrones”
in Jamaica.

1780 – Pennsylvania becomes the first state to abolish slavery.

1841 – Blanche Kelso Bruce, the first African American to serve a
full term in the United States Senate, is born a slave in
Prince Edward County, Virginia. He will join the ancestors on
March 17, 1898.

1864 – Rebecca Lee becomes the first African American woman to
receive an American medical degree, when she graduates from
the New England Female Medical College in Boston. She,
along with Rebecca Cole and Susan McKinney, is one of the
first African American female physicians.

1871 – James Milton Turner is named minister to Liberia and becomes
the first African American diplomat accredited to an African
country. James W. Mason was named minister in March, 1870,
but never took his post.

1875 – The (first) Civil Rights Bill is passed by Congress. The bill,
which gives African Americans equal rights in inns, theaters,
public transportation, and other public amusements, will be
overturned by the Supreme Court in 1883.

1914 – Ralph Waldo Ellison is born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He
will become a well known author, best known for his book
“Invisible Man,” for which he will win the 1953 National Book
Award. He will join the ancestors on April 16, 1994.

1927 – Harry Belafonte is born in New York City. He will become a
successful folk singer, actor, and winner of the first Emmy
awarded to an African American. His commitment to civil and
human rights will lead him to march with Martin Luther King,
Jr. in Montgomery, Selma, and Washington, DC. Among his
achievements will be Kennedy Center Honors in 1989.

1940 – Richard Wright’s “Native Son” is published by Harper and
Brothers.

1949 – Joe Louis retires as heavyweight boxing champion after holding
the title for a record eleven years and eight months.

1960 – Four national chain stores announce on October 17 that
food counters in about 150 stores in 112 cities in North
Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Texas, Tennessee,
Missouri, Maryland, Florida and Oklahoma have been integrated.

1960 – The Alabama State Board of Education expels nine Alabama State
University students for participating in sit-in
demonstrations.

1960 – Montgomery, Alabama, police break up a protest demonstration
on the Alabama State University campus and arrest thirty-five
students, a teacher and her husband.

1960 – San Antonio, Texas, becomes the first major Southern city to
integrate lunch counters.

1960 – Pope John elevates Bishop Laurian Rugambwa of Tanganyika to
the College of Cardinals, the first cardinal of African
descent in the modern era.

1963 – Carl T. Rowan is named United States ambassador to Finland.

1967 – The House of Representatives votes to expel Adam Clayton
Powell, Jr. from the 90th Congress. (The Supreme Court will
rule in 1969 that Powell will have to be seated.)

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

KRLemmons African American History

February 17 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – February 17 *

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1870 – Congress passes a resolution readmitting Mississippi to the
Union on the condition that it will never change its
constitution to disenfranchise African Americans.

1918 – Charles Hayes is born in Cairo, Illinois. He will be elected
to the House of Representatives succeeding Harold Washington
in 1983.

1933 – Bobby Lewis is born. He will become a Rhythm and Blues singer,
who will be at his peak in the 1960’s, and will be best-known
for his recordings of “Tossin’ & Turnin’,” and “One Track
Mind.”

1936 – Jim Brown is born in Saint Simons, Georgia. He will be
considered one of the greatest offensive backs in the history
of football, establishing records with the Cleveland Browns,
for most yards gained and most touchdowns. Brown will also
develop a film career, establish the Negro Industrial and
Economic Union, and work with African American youth.

1938 – Mary Frances Berry is born in Nashville, Tennessee. She will
be an influential force in education and civil rights, become
the first woman of any race to serve as chancellor of a major
research university (University of Colorado in 1976), and a
member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

1941 – Joe Louis retains his world heavyweight boxing crown by
knocking out Gus Dorazio.

1942 – Huey P. Newton, a co-founder and minister of defense for the
Black Panther Party, is born in Monroe, Louisiana.

1962 – Wilt Chamberlain, of the NBA Philadelphia Warriors, scores 67
points against St. Louis.

1963 – Michael Jeffrey Jordan, who will be a star basketball player
for the University of North Carolina, the 1984 Olympic gold
medal team and the Chicago Bulls, is born in Brooklyn, New
York. Jordan’s phenomenal style and scoring ability will earn
him universal acclaim and selection on more than eight all-
star NBA teams and NBA Most Valuable Player more than four
times.

1982 – Thelonious Monk, jazz pianist and composer, joins the ancestors
at the age of 64.

1989 – The African countries of Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia
& Libya form an economic common market.

1997 – The Virginia House of Delegates votes unanimously to retire the
state song, “Carry me back to Old Virginny,” a tune which
glorifies the institution of slavery.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 9 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 9 *

1866 – Fisk College is established in Nashville, Tennessee. Rust
College is established in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
Lincoln University is established in Jefferson City,
Missouri.

1901 – Edward Mitchell Bannister joins the ancestors in Providence,
Rhode Island. Challenged to become an artist after reading a
newspaper article deriding African Americans’ ability to
produce art, he disproved that statement throughout a
distinguished art career.

1906 – Poet and author, Paul Laurence Dunbar, joins the ancestors
after succumbing to tuberculosis. Dunbar was so talented and
versatile that he succeeded in two worlds. He was so adept
at writing verse in Black English that he became known as the
“poet of his people,” while also cultivating a white audience
that appreciated the brilliance and value of his work.
“Majors and Minors” (1895), Dunbar’s second collection of
verse, was a remarkable work containing some of his best poems
in both Black and standard English. When the country’s
reigning literary critic, William Dean Howells reviewed
“Majors and Minors” favorably, Dunbar became famous. And
Howells’ introduction in “Lyric of Lowly Life” (1896) helped
make Dunbar the most popular African American writer in
America at the time.

1914 – Phi Beta Sigma fraternity is founded at Howard University.

1935 – Earl G. Graves is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will become
president and chief executive officer of Earl G. Graves, Ltd.,
the publisher of “Black Enterprise” magazine, a successful
entrepreneur, and one of the strongest advocates for
African American business.

1942 – Joe Louis knocks out Buddy Baer in the first round in the 20th
title defense of his world heavyweight title in New York City.

1946 – Lyric poet, Countee Cullen joins the ancestors in New York City
at the age of 42. His several volumes of poetry include
“Color” (1925); “Copper Sun” (1927); “The Black Christ” (1929);
and “On These I Stand” (published posthumously, 1947), his
selection of poems by which he wished to be remembered. Cullen
also wrote a novel dealing with life in Harlem, “One Way to
Heaven” (1931), and a children’s book, “The Lost Zoo” (1940).

1958 – The University of Cincinnati’s Oscar Robertson scores 56 points
against Seton Hall University, whose team total is 54 points.

1965 – Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues is born in Baltimore, Maryland. He will
become a high school standout at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High, on
same team that produced first round draft picks Reggie Williams
and the late Reggie Lewis along with former Hornets teammate
David Wingate. He will play college basketball at Wake Forest
(where his jersey #14 will be retired) and become a NBA guard
with the Charlotte Hornets and Golden State Warriors. All
these accomplishments and only five feet three inches tall.

1967 – The Georgia legislature, bowing to legal decisions and national
pressure, seats state Representative Julian Bond, a critic of
the Vietnam War.

1970 – After 140 years of unofficial racial discrimination, the Mormon
Church issues an official statement declaring that Blacks were
not yet to receive the priesthood “for reasons which we
believe are known to God, but which He has not made fully
known to man.”

1989 – Time, Inc. agrees to sell NYT Cable for $420 million to Comcast
Corporation, Lenfest Communications, and an investment group
led by African American entrepreneur J. Bruce Llewellyn. It is
the largest cable TV acquisition by an African American.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 26 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 26           *

1868 – White terrorists kill several African Americans in St.
Bernard Parish, near New Orleans, Louisiana.

1868 – B.F. Randolph, state senator and chairman of the state
Republican party, is assassinated in broad daylight at
Hodges Depot in Abbeville, South Carolina.

1911 – Mahalia Jackson is born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Known
as the “Gospel Queen,” Jackson will become instrumental
in the popularization of gospel music and songs.
Jackson’s traditional gospel audiences transcended
beyond African American churchgoers through her
recordings, radio performances and concert tours in
America and abroad. Her recordings will sell millions of
copies. She will join the ancestors on January 27, 1972.

1919 – Edward William Brooke III is born in Washington, DC.
After serving in World War II and obtaining a law degree
from Boston University, he will be elected attorney
general of the State of Massachusetts and serve a term
of four years before being elected to the United States
Senate as a Republican in 1966, the first African
American Senator elected since Reconstruction. In the
Senate, Brooke will oppose President Nixon’s policies in
Southeast Asia, advocate low-income housing, and oppose
quotas to meet affirmative action goals.  Among his
awards will be the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal in 1967.

1921 – Solomon Porter Hood is named minister to Liberia.

1934 – At a New York City conference, representatives of the
NAACP and the American Fund for Public Service plan a
coordinated legal campaign against segregation and
discrimination.  Charles H. Houston, Vice-dean of the
Howard University Law School, is named director of the
NAACP legal campaign.

1950 – Walter E. “Chuck” Foreman is born in Frederick, Maryland.
He will become a star running back for the Minnesota
Vikings.  He will be NFC Rookie of the Year in 1973 and
NFC Player of the Year in 1974 and 1976.  He will also
play in losing efforts in Super Bowls VIII, IX, and XI.

1951 – William Collins is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He will
become a rhythm and blues performer and bandleader known
as “Bootsy” Collins.   He will form his first group, the
Pacesetters, in 1968.  From 1969 to 1971, the group will
function as James Brown’s backup band and will be dubbed
the JB’s. In 1972, Bootsy will join George Clinton’s
Parliament/Funkadelic. He will launch Bootsy’s Rubber
Band as a spin-off of P-Funk in 1976.  He will record
with Warner Brothers from 1976 through 1982.  After a
six year hiatus, he will sign with Columbia Records in
1988 and actively record into the 1990s.

1951 – Joe Louis is defeated by Rocky Marciano in the eighth
round in a bout at Madison Square Garden.

1962 – Louise Beavers, who starred in more than 100 films,
including “Imitation of Life”, “The Jackie Robinson
Story”, and “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House”,
joins the ancestors in Los Angeles, California.

1970 – Following 3 1/2 years of forced isolation from boxing,
Muhammad Ali returns to the ring and beats Jerry Quarry
in Atlanta, Georgia.

1976 – Trinidad & Tobago becomes a republic.

1977 – Dr. Clifford R. Wharton Jr. is named chancellor of the
State University of New York.

1980 – Ten African American Roman Catholic bishops issue a
pastoral letter asserting that “the Church must seize
the initiative to ‘share the gift of our blackness with
the Church in the United States.'”
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry

KRLemmons African American History

September 27 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 27           *

1785 – David Walker, who will become an abolitionist and write
the famous “Walker’s Appeal,” is born free in Wilmington,
North Carolina. He will join the ancestors on June 28, 1830.

1822 – Hiram R. Revels, is born free in Fayetteville, North
Carolina. He will become the first African American U.S.
Senator, elected from Mississippi.

1862 – The First Louisiana Native Guards, the first African
American regiment to receive official recognition, is
mustered into the Union army. The Regiment is composed of
free African Americans from the New Orleans area.

1867 – Louisiana voters endorse the constitutional convention and
elect delegates in the first election under The
Reconstruction Acts. The vote was 75,000 for the
convention and 4,000 against.

1875 – Branch Normal College opens in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.  A
segregated unit of the state university, the college is
established by Joseph C. Corbin.

1876 – Edward Mitchell Bannister wins a bronze medal for his
painting “Under the Oaks” at the American Centennial
Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  The award to
Bannister will cause controversy among whites who think
African Americans incapable of artistic excellence.

1877 – John Mercer Langston is named Minister to Haiti.

1934 – Greg Morris is born in Cleveland, Ohio. He will come to
Hollywood in the early 1960s to become an actor after
some minor stage experience in Seattle. He will have
guest roles on such series as “Dr. Kildare,” “The Dick Van
Dyke Show” and “The Twilight Zone” before being cast in
“Mission: Impossible.” He will be one of the first African
American actors to star in a hit series during the 1960s,
playing Barney Collier, the quiet, efficient electronics
expert on “Mission: Impossible,” which ran from 1966 to
1973.  In 1979, he will go to Las Vegas to film the
television series “Vega$,” in which he plays Lt. David
Nelson. He will like the city so much he will decide to
make it his home. He will join the ancestors after
succumbing to cancer there in 1996.

1936 – Don Cornelius is born.  He will become the creator,
producer, and host of the TV show, “Soul Train” in 1970.
The show will become the longest running program
originally produced for first-run syndication in the
entire history of television. The show’s resounding
success will position it as the cornerstone of the Soul
Train franchise which includes the annual specials: “Soul
Train Music Awards,” the “Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards”
and the “Soul Train Christmas Starfest.”

1940 – African American leaders protest discrimination in the U.S.
Armed Forces and war industries at a White House meeting
with President Roosevelt.

1944 – Stephanie Pogue is born in Shelby, North Carolina.  She
will become an artist and art professor whose works will
be collected by New York City’s Whitney Museum of American
Art and the Studio Museum of Harlem while she will exhibit
widely in the United States, Europe, Japan, and South
America.

1950 – Heavyweight champion Ezzard Charles defeats Joe Louis.

1953 – Diane Abbott is born in the working-class neighborhood of
Paddington in London, England.  Her mother (a nurse) and
father (a welder) had moved there in 1951 from Jamaica. A
graduate of Cambridge University, she will make history on
June 11, 1987, becoming the first female of African
descent to be a member of the British Parliament. Her
outspoken criticism of racism and her commitment to
progressive politics will make her a controversial figure
in Great Britain’s Labour Party.

1954 – Public school integration begins in Washington, DC and
Baltimore, Maryland.

1961 – Sierre Leone becomes the 100th member of the United Nations.

1967 – Washington, DC’s Anacostia Museum, dedicated to informing
the community of the contributions of African Americans to
United States social, political and cultural history,
opens its doors to the public.

1988 – Several athletes, among them black Canadian sprinter Ben
Johnson, are expelled from the Olympic Games for anabolic
steroid use.  Johnson’s gold medal, won in the 100-meter
dash, is awarded to African American Carl Lewis, the
second-place finisher.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 24 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 24          *

1825 – Frances Ellen Watkins Harper is born free in Baltimore,
Maryland. She will grow up to be one of the most famous
African American poets. Harper’s mother will join the
ancestors before she is three years old, leaving her an
orphan. Harper will be raised by her uncle, William
Watkins, a teacher at the Academy for Negro Youth and a
radical political figure in civil rights. Watkins will
be a major influence on Harper’s political, religious,
and social views. Harper will attend the Academy for
Negro Youth and the rigorous education she will receive,
along with the political activism of her uncle, will
affect and influence her poetry. In 1850, she will
become the first female to teach at Union Seminary in
Wilberforce, Ohio. After new laws pass in 1854, state
that African Americans entering through Maryland’s
northern border could be sold into slavery, Harper will
become an active abolitionist and writer. She will be
known for her writings, “Forest Leaves,” “Poems on
Miscellaneous Subjects,” “Moses: A Story of the Nile,”
“Achan’s Sin,” “Sketches of Southern Life,” “Light
Beyond the Darkness,” “Iola Leroy: Or Shadows Uplifted,”
“The Martyr of Alabama and Other Poems,” “Atlanta
Offering Poems,” and “Idylls of the Bible.” She will join
the ancestors on February 22, 1911.

1883 – The National Black convention meets in Louisville,
Kentucky.

1894 – Sociologist and professor at Morehouse College, Fisk
University, and Howard University, E.(Edward) Franklin
Frazier is born in Baltimore, Maryland. He will organize
the Atlanta University School of Social Work (for African
Americans), later becoming its director. He will write
the controversial publication (1927) “The Pathology of
Race Prejudice” in Forum Magazine. His writings will
include “The Negro Family in the United States” (1939),
among the first sociological works on African Americans
researched and written by an African American. He will
also write “Negro Youth at the Crossways” (1940) and
“Race and Culture Contacts in the Modern World” (1957),
which deals with African studies. Frazier will have a
distinguished career at Howard University as chairman of
its sociology department as well as serving as the first
African American president of the American Sociological
Society. He will join the ancestors on May 17, 1962.

1931 – Cardiss Robertson (later Collins) is born in St. Louis,
Missouri. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1973
after the death of her husband, George, she will serve in
a leadership capacity often in her Congressional career,
most notably as chairman of the Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and
Competitiveness.

1935 – World Heavyweight Champion, Joe Louis, becomes the first
African American boxer to draw a million dollar gate.

1941 – John Mackey is born in New York City.  He will become a
football player in the National Football League in 1963
and will play all but one of his pro years with the
Baltimore Colts.  His career record will include 331
catches, 5,236 yards, and 38 touchdowns. He will be
enshrined in the Football Hall of Fame in 1992 (the
second tight end to be so honored).

1946 – Charles Edward “Mean Joe” Greene is born in Temple, Texas.
He will become a star football player for North Texas
State and will be a number one draft pick in the National
Football League in 1969 and will play his entire career
(1969-1981) with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He will become
the “cornerstone of franchise” that dominated the NFL in
the 1970s. He will be an exceptional team leader,
possessing size, speed, quickness, strength, and
determination. He will be NFL Defensive Player of The
Year twice (1972 and 1974). He will be All-Pro or All-
AFC nine years and will play in four Super Bowls (won
all four), six AFC title games, and 10 Pro Bowls.  He
will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in
1987. He will become a defensive line coach with
Pittsburgh after his retirement as an active player.

1953 – “Take a Giant Step”, a drama by playwright Louis Peterson,
opens on Broadway.

1954 – Patrick Kelly is born in Vicksburg, Mississippi.  A
fashion design student, Kelly will move to Paris, where
his innovative and outrageous women’s fashion designs,
featuring multiple buttons, bows and African American
baby dolls, will win him wide acclaim and make him the
first and only American designer admitted to an
exclusive organization of French fashion designers.

1957 – President Eisenhower makes an address on nationwide TV and
radio to explain why troops are being sent to Little Rock,
Arkansas. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, earlier in the
day sends 1,000 U.S. government paratroopers to Little
Rock to aid in the desegregation of the public schools.
The troops will escort nine school children to Central
High School in the first federally supported effort to
integrate the nation’s public schools. The nine Black
students who had entered Little Rock Central High School
in Arkansas were forced to withdraw because of a white
mob outside.

1962 – United States Circuit Court of Appeals orders the
Mississippi Board of Higher Education to admit James
Meredith to the University of Mississippi or be held in
contempt of court.

1973 – Leaders of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea
and Cape Verde (PAIGC) declare the independence of
Guinea-Bissau from Portugal.  Portugal will recognize this
independence the following year. The PAIGC was formed by
Amilcar Cabral and Raphael Barbosa in 1956. Luis Cabral,
Amilcar’s half-brother, will become Guinea-Bissau’s first
president.

1977 – Rev. John T. Walker is installed as the sixth — and first
African American bishop of the Episcopal Church when he
is installed in the diocese of Washington, DC.

1988 – Jackie Joyner-Kersee of the United States sets the
heptathlon woman’s record (7,291).

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