KRLemmons African American History

March 14 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – March 14 *

1794 – Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin, making it possible to clean
50 pounds of cotton a day, compared to a pound a day before the
invention. This will make cotton king and increase the demand
for slave labor.

1829 – African American editor John Russworm writes an editorial in
“Freedom’s Journal” supporting the colonization of Africa by
African Americans.

1889 – Menelik becomes ruler of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). Menelik II will
be the Ethiopian emperor (1889-1909) during the frantic race
for African protectorates by European countries. He will
transform the country from a collection of semi-independent
states into a united nation. As ruler of the kingdom of Shoa,
in central Ethiopia, he will conquer the Oromo people to the
south and annex their land. During Menelik’s reign he
suppressed the Ethiopian slave trade, curbed the feudal
nobility, and founded the city of Addis Ababa.

1917 – The first training camp for “colored” officers is established
by the U.S. Army in Des Moines, Iowa, after a long lobbying
effort by the NAACP, led by Joel E. Spingarn and James Weldon
Johnson. The camp will issue 678 officer commissions to
African Americans, compared to 380,000 African American
enlisted men mobilized in World War l.

1933 – Quincy Delight Jones is born in Chicago, Illinois. A trumpeter
and record producer, he will collaborate with many major
American and French recording artists, including Michael
Jackson on the latter’s “Thriller” and “Bad” albums, two of
the most successful records during the 1980’s. A musical
innovator, in 1991, Jones will receive two Grammy awards for
producer of the year and album of the year for “Back on the
Block.” To date, he will accumulate over 25 Grammy awards,
Grammy’s Trustees Award in 1989, and the Grammy’s Legends
Award in 1990. He will also be Musical Director for Mercury
Records, then Vice President. He will also establish Qwest
Records.

1934 – Shirley Scott is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She will
become an accomplished jazz organist, with a blues orientation
to most of her presentations. She started her career playing
with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis in 1956 and continued until 1960.
She will record most of her work with her ex-husband, Stanley
Turrentine from 1961 to 1970. She will join the ancestors on
March 10, 2002, succumbing to heart failure. Her heart failure
will be hastened by the diet drug fen-phen. She will win an
$8 million settlement in February, 2000 against American Home
Products, the manufacturers of the drug cocktail.

1946 – Wes Unseld is born in Louisville, Kentucky. His early career
plans will include becoming a teacher, but that thought will
be put on hold when he becomes the second overall pick in the
1968 draft by the NBA’s Baltimore Bullets. In 1969, Unseld’s
debut will be memorable. He becomes only the second NBA
player besides Wilt Chamberlain to be named Rookie of the Year
and MVP in the same season. During a solid 13-year NBA career,
spent entirely with the Bullets organization, Unseld will
become a superb position rebounder and retire as the NBA’s
seventh all-time leading rebounder with 13,769 boards, a 14.0
per game average. Unseld, who will play in five NBA All-Star
games, ranks as the Bullets all-time leader in minutes played
(35,832) and rebounds. He is only one of 20 players in NBA
history to score more than 10,000 points (10,624) and grab more
than 10,000 rebounds. The pinnacle of Unseld’s career will
come in 1978, when he and fellow Hall of Famer Elvin Hayes lead
Washington past Seattle for the NBA championship. For his
efforts, Unseld will be named MVP of the championship series.
After his retirement from the NBA, he will become the coach of
the Bullets.

1947 – William J. Jefferson is born in Lake Providence, Louisiana. He
will become a Louisiana state senator in 1979 and, in 1990,
the first African American congressman elected from the state
since Charles Edmund Nash left office in 1876. On November 13,
2009, he will be sentenced to thirteen years in federal prison
for bribery after a corruption investigation, the longest
sentence ever handed down to a congressman for bribery or any
other crime. He will begin serving that sentence in May, 2012 at
a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility in Beaumont, Texas.

1960 – Kirby Puckett is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will become a
major league baseball outfielder. He will be selected by the
Minnesota Twins in the first round (third overall) of the
January 1982 free-agent draft and will spend his entire 14-year
professional career in the Twins organization. Not only will
he become a 10-time All-Star, in 1993 he will become the first
Twins player ever to win the All-Star Game MVP Award. He will
be the Twins’ all-time leader in hits, runs, doubles and total
bases. He will retire on July 12, 1996, after losing vision in
his right eye due to glaucoma, and will become the Twins’
executive vice president of baseball. He will join the
ancestors in Phoenix, AZ, on March 6, 2006 after succumbing to
a stroke.

1967 – In the first NFL-AFL common draft, the Baltimore Colts pick
Bubba Smith as the first pick.

1985 – Bill Cosby captures four of the People’s Choice Awards for “The
Cosby Show.” The awards were earned from results of a
nationwide Gallup Poll.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 6 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 6

1479 – The Treaty of Alcacovas is signed. This will establish the
territorial domains of Portugal and Castile (Spain) along a
longitudinal line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands.
Spain, thereby, recognizes Portugal’s rights to explore the
African coast. Portugal becomes the first European nation to
exploit the West African slave trade.

1775 – Prince Hall and fourteen other African Americans are initiated
into British Military Lodge No. 441 of the Masons at Fort
Independence, Massachusetts. Hall is a leather-dresser and
caterer. On July 3, 1775, African Lodge No. 1 will be
organized in Boston by this group of African American Masons.

1857 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules against citizenship for African
Americans in the Dred Scott decision. The Court rules that
Dred Scott, a slave, cannot sue for his freedom in a free
state because he is property and, as such, “has no rights a
white man has to respect.” This ruling also opens up the
northern territory to slavery.

1862 – President Lincoln sends message to Congress recommending
gradual and compensated emancipation of the slaves.

1901 – Virginia State University in Ettrick, Virginia (Outside of
Petersburg), is founded.

1909 – Obafemi Awolowo is born in Ikenne, Nigeria. He will become
the first Premier of Western Nigeria. He will also be a
strong antagonist of the north’s feudal system and its spread
to other parts of Nigeria and an advocate of the creation of
more states in Nigeria. Chief Awolowo and 28 other members
of his party will be later put on trial for treasonable
felony. He was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment, and,
on appeal to the Federal Court the sentence was upheld.
After spending just over three years in Calabar prison, he
will be released with a state pardon. Nine days later, amid
jubilation he was unanimously elected leader of the then
10,500,000 Yorubas and leader of the Western delegation to
the All Nigerian Conference on the future association of
Nigeria. Chief Awolowo will be an author whose publications
will include “Path to Nigerian Freedom, Thoughts on the
Nigerian Constitution”. He will join the ancestors on
May 9, 1987.

1923 – Charles Ethan Porter joins the ancestors in Rockville,
Connecticut. A student of the National Academy of Design in
New York City, the first African American artist in the
United States to graduate from a four-year school of art,
and member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Porter
did not receive the recognition that contemporaries Edward
Bannister and Henry Ossawa Tanner won. He will be best known
for the paintings “Still Life (Crock With Onions),”
“Strawberries,” and “Daisies,” but there will not be a major
retrospective of his work until 1987.

1940 – Wilver Dornel “Willie” Stargell is born in Earlsboro, Oklahoma.
He will become an all-star baseball player for the Pittsburgh
Pirates. He will hit 475 career home runs – twice leading
the National League with 48 in 1971 and with 44 in 1973. He
will drive in 1540 runs, score 1195 and have 2232 hits with a
lifetime batting average of .282. He will be inducted into
Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1988. He will join the ancestors on
April 9, 2001.

1944 – Mary Wilson is born in Greenville, Mississippi. In 1959, she
will begin singing with a group called the “Primettes”, a
sister group to a male group, The Primes.” The Primes will
become “The Temptations” and the Primettes will become “The
Supremes.” The Supremes will become the only American act to
have five consecutive number one hits! From their beginning
to the end of the group, the Supremes will have 33 songs
reach the top 40. After the group disbands in 1977, Mary
Wilson will become a successful businesswoman, author,
lecturer, actress, and singer of not just pop music, but
Jazz, Rock, R&B, and Dance. She will author the best-seller
“Dreamgirl-My Life as a Supreme.” In 1988, Mary Wilson will
become the first female rock star to accept her lifetime
achievement award from the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame.

1957 – Ghana becomes the first African nation to achieve freedom from
colonial rule when the Ashanti, Northern Protectorates, the
Gold Coast and British Togoland declare their independence.
The celebration ceremonies are attended by a number of
American dignitaries, including African American leaders
Ralph Bunche, A. Philip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.,
Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King.

1981 – Dr. Bernard Harleston, former dean of arts and sciences at
Tufts University, is appointed president of New York’s City
College.

2000 – Three white New York police officers are convicted of a cover-
up in the brutal police station attack on Haitian immigrant
Abner Louima.

2000 – “Earth, Wind and Fire” is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame.

2006 – Kirby Puckett joins the ancestors, one day after the Hall of
Fame outfielder had a stroke at his Arizona home, at the age
of 45. He carried the Minnesota Twins to World Series titles
in 1987 and 1991 before his career was cut short by glaucoma.
He played his entire career with the Twins and was an icon in
Minnesota.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 14 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 14 *

1867 – A riot occurs in Mobile, Alabama, after an African American
mass meeting. One African American and one white are
killed.

1885 – Erskine Henderson wins the Kentucky Derby riding Joe Cotton.
The horse’s trainer is another African-American, Alex
Perry.

1897 – Sidney Joseph Bechet is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. A
member of both Duke Ellington’s and Noble Sissle’s
orchestras, Bechet moved to France and there achieved the
greatest success of his career. He had been the greatest
jazz soloist of the 1920s along with Louis Armstrong. He
will join the ancestors on May 14, 1959.

1898 – Arthur James ‘Zutty’ Singleton is born in Bunkie, Louisiana.
He will become a percussion musician and bandleader. He
will start as a drummer at the age of 15 and will work in
a variety of bands until he forms his own in 1920. He will
eventually make his way to Chicago and will become part of
the “Chicago School of Jazz.” He will be primarily
remembered for introducing sock cymbals and wire brushes
as percussion accessories. These innovations will place
him in demand as an accompanist for jazz greats like Louis
Armstrong, Fats Waller, Dizzy Gillespie, Jelly Roll Morton,
and Charlie Parker. He will perform primarily in New York
City from 1953 until 1970. He will join the ancestors on
July 14, 1975.

1906 – Ngwazi Hastings Kamuzu Banda is born near Kasungu, British
Central African Protectorate. Even though his official
birthdate is cited as 1906, many sources show his birth
date as 1898. He will become Malawi’s first prime minister
after independence in 1963. In 1966, he will elected
Malawi’s president in 1966. He will lead Malawi until
1994. He will join the ancestors in Johannesburg, South
Africa on November 25, 1997.

1913 – Clara Stanton Jones is born in St. Louis, Missouri. She
will become the first African American director of the
Detroit Public Library and the first African American
president of the American Library Association. She will
join the ancestors on September 30, 2012.

1943 – Tania J. Leon is born in Havana, Cuba. She will become a
pianist, composer, and orchestral conductor. Her music
style will encompass Afro-Cuban rhythm and elements of
jazz and gospel. She will emigrate to the United States
in 1967 and in 1969 will join the Dance Theater of Harlem
as a pianist. She will later become the artistic director
of the troupe. Some her compositions for the Dance
Theater of Harlem will include “Tones,” “Beloved,” and
“Dougla.” She will debut as a conductor in 1971 and
starting in 1980 when she leaves the Dance Theater of
Harlem, will serve as guest conductor and composer with
orchestras in the United States and Europe. In 1993, she
will become an advisor to the New York Philharmonic
conductor, Kurt Masur on contemporary music.

1959 – Soprano saxophonist Sidney Joseph Bechet joins the
ancestors in Paris, France on his sixty second birthday
after succumbing to cancer.

1961 – A bus, with the first group of Freedom Riders, is bombed
and burned by segregationists outside Anniston, Alabama.
The group is attacked in Anniston and Birmingham.

1963 – Twenty-year-old Arthur Ashe becomes the first African
American to make the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team.

1966 – Georgia Douglas Johnson joins the ancestors in Washington,
DC at the age of 88. She was a poet and playwright. While
she never lived in Harlem, she is associated with the
Harlem Renaissance because her home was a regular oasis
for many of the writers of that literary movement. Her
home hosted writer workshops and discussion groups while
also being a place of lodging for those writers when they
visited Washington, DC. Her own poetry and plays were
very popular with African American audiences during the
1920s.

1969 – John B. McLendon becomes the first African American coach
in the ABA when he signs a two-year contract with the
Denver Nuggets.

1970 – Two students are killed by police officers in a major
racial disturbance at Jackson State University in
Jackson, Mississippi.

1986 – Reggie Jackson hits his 537th home run passing Mickey
Mantle into 6th place of all time home run hitters.

1989 – Kirby Puckett becomes the first professional baseball
player since 1948 to hit 6 consecutive doubles.

1995 – Myrlie Evers-Williams (widow of Medgar Evers) is sworn in
to head the NAACP, pledging to lead the civil rights group
away from its recent troubles and restore it as a
political and social force.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 14 African American Historical Events:

* Today in Black History – March 14 *

1794 – Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin, making it possible to clean
50 pounds of cotton a day, compared to a pound a day before the
invention. This will make cotton king and increase the demand
for slave labor.

1829 – African American editor John Russworm writes an editorial in
“Freedom’s Journal” supporting the colonization of Africa by
African Americans.

1889 – Menelik becomes ruler of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). Menelik II will
be the Ethiopian emperor (1889-1909) during the frantic race
for African protectorates by European countries. He will
transform the country from a collection of semi-independent
states into a united nation. As ruler of the kingdom of Shoa,
in central Ethiopia, he will conquer the Oromo people to the
south and annex their land. During Menelik’s reign he
suppressed the Ethiopian slave trade, curbed the feudal
nobility, and founded the city of Addis Ababa.

1917 – The first training camp for “colored” officers is established
by the U.S. Army in Des Moines, Iowa, after a long lobbying
effort by the NAACP, led by Joel E. Spingarn and James Weldon
Johnson. The camp will issue 678 officer commissions to
African Americans, compared to 380,000 African American
enlisted men mobilized in World War l.

1933 – Quincy Delight Jones is born in Chicago, Illinois. A trumpeter
and record producer, he will collaborate with many major
American and French recording artists, including Michael
Jackson on the latter’s “Thriller” and “Bad” albums, two of
the most successful records during the 1980’s. A musical
innovator, in 1991, Jones will receive two Grammy awards for
producer of the year and album of the year for “Back on the
Block.” To date, he will accumulate over 25 Grammy awards,
Grammy’s Trustees Award in 1989, and the Grammy’s Legends
Award in 1990. He will also be Musical Director for Mercury
Records, then Vice President. He will also establish Qwest
Records.

1934 – Shirley Scott is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She will
become an accomplished jazz organist, with a blues orientation
to most of her presentations. She started her career playing
with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis in 1956 and continued until 1960.
She will record most of her work with her ex-husband, Stanley
Turrentine from 1961 to 1970.

1946 – Wes Unseld is born in Louisville, Kentucky. His early career
plans will include becoming a teacher, but that thought will
be put on hold when he becomes the second overall pick in the
1968 draft by the NBA’s Baltimore Bullets. In 1969, Unseld’s
debut will be memorable. He becomes only the second NBA
player besides Wilt Chamberlain to be named Rookie of the Year
and MVP in the same season. During a solid 13-year NBA career,
spent entirely with the Bullets organization, Unseld will
become a superb position rebounder and retire as the NBA’s
seventh all-time leading rebounder with 13,769 boards, a 14.0
per game average. Unseld, who will play in five NBA All-Star
games, ranks as the Bullets all-time leader in minutes played
(35,832) and rebounds. He is only one of 20 players in NBA
history to score more than 10,000 points (10,624) and grab more
than 10,000 rebounds. The pinnacle of Unseld’s career will
come in 1978, when he and fellow Hall of Famer Elvin Hayes lead
Washington past Seattle for the NBA championship. For his
efforts, Unseld will be named MVP of the championship series.
After his retirement from the NBA, he will become the coach of
the Bullets.

1947 – William J. Jefferson is born in Lake Providence, Louisiana. He
will become a Louisiana state senator in 1979 and, in 1990,
the first African American congressman elected from the state
since Charles Edmund Nash left office in 1876.

1960 – Kirby Puckett is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will become a
major league baseball outfielder. He will be selected by the
Minnesota Twins in the first round (third overall) of the
January 1982 free-agent draft and will spend his entire 14-year
professional career in the Twins organization. Not only will
he become a 10-time All-Star, in 1993 he will become the first
Twins player ever to win the All-Star Game MVP Award. He will
be the Twins’ all-time leader in hits, runs, doubles and total
bases. He will retire on July 12, 1996, after losing vision in
his right eye due to glaucoma, and will become the Twins’
executive vice president of baseball. He will join the
ancestors in Phoenix, AZ, on March 6, 2006 after succumbing to
a stroke.

1967 – In the first NFL-AFL common draft, the Baltimore Colts pick
Bubba Smith as the first pick.

1985 – Bill Cosby captures four of the People’s Choice Awards for “The
Cosby Show.” The awards were earned from results of a
nationwide Gallup Poll.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 6 African American Historical Events

    Today in Black History – March 6      *

1479 – The Treaty of Alcacovas is signed.  This will establish the
territorial domains of Portugal and Castile (Spain) along a
longitudinal line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands.
Spain, thereby, recognizes Portugal’s rights to explore the
African coast.  Portugal becomes the first European nation to
exploit the West African slave trade.

1775 – Prince Hall and fourteen other African Americans are initiated
into British Military Lodge No. 441 of the Masons at Fort
Independence, Massachusetts.  Hall is a leather-dresser and
caterer.  On July 3, 1775, African Lodge No. 1 will be
organized in Boston by this group of African American Masons.

1857 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules against citizenship for African
Americans in the Dred Scott decision. The Court rules that
Dred Scott, a slave, cannot sue for his freedom in a free
state because he is property and, as such, “has no rights a
white man has to respect.”  This ruling also opens up the
northern territory to slavery.

1862 – President Lincoln sends message to Congress recommending
gradual and compensated emancipation of the slaves.

1901 – Virginia State University in Ettrick, Virginia (Outside of
Petersburg), is founded.

1909 – Obafemi Awolowo is born in Ikenne, Nigeria.  He will become
the first Premier of Western Nigeria.  He will also be a
strong antagonist of the north’s feudal system and its spread
to other parts of Nigeria and an advocate of the creation of
more states in Nigeria.  Chief Awolowo and 28 other members
of his party will be later put on trial for treasonable
felony.  He was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment, and,
on appeal to the Federal Court the sentence was upheld. 
After spending just over three years in Calabar prison, he
will be released with a state pardon. Nine days later, amid
jubilation he was unanimously elected leader of the then
10,500,000 Yorubas and leader of the Western delegation to
the All Nigerian Conference on the future association of
Nigeria.  Chief Awolowo will be an author whose publications
will include “Path to Nigerian Freedom, Thoughts on the
Nigerian Constitution”.

1923 – Charles Ethan Porter joins the ancestors in Rockville,
Connecticut. A student of the National Academy of Design in
New York City, the first African American artist in the
United States to graduate from a four-year school of art,
and member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Porter
did not receive the recognition that contemporaries Edward
Bannister and Henry Ossawa Tanner won. He will be best known
for the paintings “Still Life (Crock With Onions),”
“Strawberries,” and “Daisies,” but there will not be a major
retrospective of his work until 1987.

1941 – Wilver Dornel “Willie” Stargell is born in Earlsboro, Oklahoma.
He will become an all-star baseball player for the Pittsburgh
Pirates.   He will hit 475 career home runs – twice leading
the National League with 48 in 1971 and with 44 in 1973.  He
will drive in 1540 runs, score 1195 and have 2232 hits with a
lifetime batting average of .282.  He will be inducted into
Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1988.

1944 – Mary Wilson is born in Greenville, Mississippi. In 1959, she
will begin singing with a group called the “Primettes”, a
sister group to a male group, The Primes.” The Primes will
become “The Temptations” and the Primettes will become “The
Supremes.”  The Supremes will become the only American act to
have five consecutive number one hits!  From their beginning
to the end of the group, the Supremes will have 33 songs
reach the top 40. After the group disbands in 1977, Mary
Wilson will become a successful businesswoman, author,
lecturer, actress, and singer of not just pop music, but
Jazz, Rock, R&B, and Dance.   She will author the best-seller
“Dreamgirl-My Life as a Supreme.”  In 1988, Mary Wilson will
become the first female rock star to accept her lifetime
achievement award from the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame.

1957 – Ghana becomes the first African nation to achieve freedom from
colonial rule when the Ashanti, Northern Protectorates, the
Gold Coast and British Togoland declare their independence.
The celebration ceremonies are attended by a number of
American dignitaries, including African American leaders
Ralph Bunche, A. Philip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.,
Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King.

1981 – Dr. Bernard Harleston, former dean of arts and sciences at
Tufts University, is appointed president of New York’s City
College.

2000 – Three white New York police officers are convicted of a cover-
up in the brutal police station attack on Haitian immigrant
Abner Louima.

2000 – “Earth, Wind and Fire” is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame.

2006 – Kirby Puckett joins the ancestors, one day after the Hall of
Fame outfielder had a stroke at his Arizona home, at the age
of 45. He carried the Minnesota Twins to World Series titles
in 1987 and 1991 before his career was cut short by glaucoma.
He played his entire career with the Twins and was an icon in
Minnesota.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 14 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – May 14 *

1867 – A riot occurs in Mobile, Alabama, after an African American
mass meeting. One African American and one white are
killed.

1885 – Erskine Henderson wins the Kentucky Derby riding Joe Cotton.
The horse’s trainer is another African-American, Alex
Perry.

1897 – Sidney Joseph Bechet is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. A
member of both Duke Ellington’s and Noble Sissle’s
orchestras, Bechet moved to France and there achieved the
greatest success of his career. He had been the greatest
jazz soloist of the 1920s along with Louis Armstrong. He
will join the ancestors on May 14, 1959.

1898 – Arthur James ‘Zutty’ Singleton is born in Bunkie, Louisiana.
He will become a percussion musician and bandleader. He
will start as a drummer at the age of 15 and will work in
a variety of bands until he forms his own in 1920. He will
eventually make his way to Chicago and will become part of
the “Chicago School of Jazz.” He will be primarily
remembered for introducing sock cymbals and wire brushes
as percussion accessories. These innovations will place
him in demand as an accompanist for jazz greats like Louis
Armstrong, Fats Waller, Dizzy Gillespie, Jelly Roll Morton,
and Charlie Parker. He will perform primarily in New York
City from 1953 until 1970. He will join the ancestors on
July 14, 1975.

1906 – Ngwazi Hastings Kamuzu Banda is born near Kasungu, British
Central African Protectorate. Even though his official
birthdate is cited as 1906, many sources show his birth
date as 1898. He will become Malawi’s first prime minister
after independence in 1963. In 1966, he will elected
Malawi’s president in 1966. He will lead Malawi until
1994. He will join the ancestors in Johannesburg, South
Africa in 1997.

1913 – Clara Stanton Jones is born in St. Louis, Missouri. She
will become the first African American director of the
Detroit Public Library and the first African American
president of the American Library Association. She will
join the ancestors on September 30, 2012.

1943 – Tania J. Leon is born in Havana, Cuba. She will become a
pianist, composer, and orchestral conductor. Her music
style will encompass Afro-Cuban rhythm and elements of
jazz and gospel. She will emigrate to the United States
in 1967 and in 1969 will join the Dance Theater of Harlem
as a pianist. She will later become the artistic director
of the troupe. Some her compositions for the Dance
Theater of Harlem will include “Tones,” “Beloved,” and
“Dougla.” She will debut as a conductor in 1971 and
starting in 1980 when she leaves the Dance Theater of
Harlem, will serve as guest conductor and composer with
orchestras in the United States and Europe. In 1993, she
will become an advisor to the New York Philharmonic
conductor, Kurt Masur on contemporary music.

1959 – Soprano saxophonist Sidney Joseph Bechet joins the
ancestors in Paris, France on his sixty second birthday
after succumbing to cancer.

1961 – A bus, with the first group of Freedom Riders, is bombed
and burned by segregationists outside Anniston, Alabama.
The group is attacked in Anniston and Birmingham.

1963 – Twenty-year-old Arthur Ashe becomes the first African
American to make the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team.

1966 – Georgia Douglas Johnson joins the ancestors in Washington,
DC at the age of 88. She was a poet and playwright. While
she never lived in Harlem, she is associated with the
Harlem Renaissance because her home was a regular oasis
for many of the writers of that literary movement. Her
home hosted writer workshops and discussion groups while
also being a place of lodging for those writers when they
visited Washington, DC. Her own poetry and plays were
very popular with African American audiences during the
1920s.

1969 – John B. McLendon becomes the first African American coach
in the ABA when he signs a two-year contract with the
Denver Nuggets.

1970 – Two students are killed by police officers in a major
racial disturbance at Jackson State University in
Jackson, Mississippi.

1986 – Reggie Jackson hits his 537th home run passing Mickey
Mantle into 6th place of all time home run hitters.

1989 – Kirby Puckett becomes the first professional baseball
player since 1948 to hit 6 consecutive doubles.

1995 – Myrlie Evers-Williams (widow of Medgar Evers) is sworn in
to head the NAACP, pledging to lead the civil rights group
away from its recent troubles and restore it as a
political and social force.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 14 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 14 *

1794 – Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin, making it possible to clean
50 pounds of cotton a day, compared to a pound a day before the
invention. This will make cotton king and increase the demand
for slave labor.

1829 – African American editor John Russworm writes an editorial in
“Freedom’s Journal” supporting the colonization of Africa by
African Americans.

1889 – Menelik becomes ruler of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). Menelik II will
be the Ethiopian emperor (1889-1909) during the frantic race
for African protectorates by European countries. He will
transform the country from a collection of semi-independent
states into a united nation. As ruler of the kingdom of Shoa,
in central Ethiopia, he will conquer the Oromo people to the
south and annex their land. During Menelik’s reign he
suppressed the Ethiopian slave trade, curbed the feudal
nobility, and founded the city of Addis Ababa.

1917 – The first training camp for “colored” officers is established
by the U.S. Army in Des Moines, Iowa, after a long lobbying
effort by the NAACP, led by Joel E. Spingarn and James Weldon
Johnson. The camp will issue 678 officer commissions to
African Americans, compared to 380,000 African American
enlisted men mobilized in World War l.

1933 – Quincy Delight Jones is born in Chicago, Illinois. A trumpeter
and record producer, he will collaborate with many major
American and French recording artists, including Michael
Jackson on the latter’s “Thriller” and “Bad” albums, two of
the most successful records during the 1980’s. A musical
innovator, in 1991, Jones will receive two Grammy awards for
producer of the year and album of the year for “Back on the
Block.” To date, he will accumulate over 25 Grammy awards,
Grammy’s Trustees Award in 1989, and the Grammy’s Legends
Award in 1990. He will also be Musical Director for Mercury
Records, then Vice President. He will also establish Qwest
Records.

1934 – Shirley Scott is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She will
become an accomplished jazz organist, with a blues orientation
to most of her presentations. She started her career playing
with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis in 1956 and continued until 1960.
She will record most of her work with her ex-husband, Stanley
Turrentine from 1961 to 1970.

1946 – Wes Unseld is born in Louisville, Kentucky. His early career
plans will include becoming a teacher, but that thought will
be put on hold when he becomes the second overall pick in the
1968 draft by the NBA’s Baltimore Bullets. In 1969, Unseld’s
debut will be memorable. He becomes only the second NBA
player besides Wilt Chamberlain to be named Rookie of the Year
and MVP in the same season. During a solid 13-year NBA career,
spent entirely with the Bullets organization, Unseld will
become a superb position rebounder and retire as the NBA’s
seventh all-time leading rebounder with 13,769 boards, a 14.0
per game average. Unseld, who will play in five NBA All-Star
games, ranks as the Bullets all-time leader in minutes played
(35,832) and rebounds. He is only one of 20 players in NBA
history to score more than 10,000 points (10,624) and grab more
than 10,000 rebounds. The pinnacle of Unseld’s career will
come in 1978, when he and fellow Hall of Famer Elvin Hayes lead
Washington past Seattle for the NBA championship. For his
efforts, Unseld will be named MVP of the championship series.
After his retirement from the NBA, he will become the coach of
the Bullets.

1947 – William J. Jefferson is born in Lake Providence, Louisiana. He
will become a Louisiana state senator in 1979 and, in 1990,
the first African American congressman elected from the state
since Charles Edmund Nash left office in 1876.

1960 – Kirby Puckett is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will become a
major league baseball outfielder. He will be selected by the
Minnesota Twins in the first round (third overall) of the
January 1982 free-agent draft and will spend his entire 14-year
professional career in the Twins organization. Not only will
he become a 10-time All-Star, in 1993 he will become the first
Twins player ever to win the All-Star Game MVP Award. He will
be the Twins’ all-time leader in hits, runs, doubles and total
bases. He will retire on July 12, 1996, after losing vision in
his right eye due to glaucoma, and will become the Twins’
executive vice president of baseball. He will join the
ancestors in Phoenix, AZ, on March 6, 2006 after succumbing to
a stroke.

1967 – In the first NFL-AFL common draft, the Baltimore Colts pick
Bubba Smith as the first pick.

1985 – Bill Cosby captures four of the People’s Choice Awards for “The
Cosby Show.” The awards were earned from results of a
nationwide Gallup Poll.

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

KRLemmons African American History

March 6 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 6 *

1479 – The Treaty of Alcacovas is signed. This will establish the
territorial domains of Portugal and Castile (Spain) along a
longitudinal line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands.
Spain, thereby, recognizes Portugal’s rights to explore the
African coast. Portugal becomes the first European nation to
exploit the West African slave trade.

1775 – Prince Hall and fourteen other African Americans are initiated
into British Military Lodge No. 441 of the Masons at Fort
Independence, Massachusetts. Hall is a leather-dresser and
caterer. On July 3, 1775, African Lodge No. 1 will be
organized in Boston by this group of African American Masons.

1857 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules against citizenship for African
Americans in the Dred Scott decision. The Court rules that
Dred Scott, a slave, cannot sue for his freedom in a free
state because he is property and, as such, “has no rights a
white man has to respect.” This ruling also opens up the
northern territory to slavery.

1862 – President Lincoln sends message to Congress recommending
gradual and compensated emancipation of the slaves.

1901 – Virginia State University in Ettrick, Virginia (Outside of
Petersburg), is founded.

1909 – Obafemi Awolowo is born in Ikenne, Nigeria. He will become
the first Premier of Western Nigeria. He will also be a
strong antagonist of the north’s feudal system and its spread
to other parts of Nigeria and an advocate of the creation of
more states in Nigeria. Chief Awolowo and 28 other members
of his party will be later put on trial for treasonable
felony. He was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment, and,
on appeal to the Federal Court the sentence was upheld.
After spending just over three years in Calabar prison, he
will be released with a state pardon. Nine days later, amid
jubilation he was unanimously elected leader of the then
10,500,000 Yorubas and leader of the Western delegation to
the All Nigerian Conference on the future association of
Nigeria. Chief Awolowo will be an author whose publications
will include “Path to Nigerian Freedom, Thoughts on the
Nigerian Constitution”.

1923 – Charles Ethan Porter joins the ancestors in Rockville,
Connecticut. A student of the National Academy of Design in
New York City, the first African American artist in the
United States to graduate from a four-year school of art,
and member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Porter
did not receive the recognition that contemporaries Edward
Bannister and Henry Ossawa Tanner won. He will be best known
for the paintings “Still Life (Crock With Onions),”
“Strawberries,” and “Daisies,” but there will not be a major
retrospective of his work until 1987.

1941 – Wilver Dornel “Willie” Stargell is born in Earlsboro, Oklahoma.
He will become an all-star baseball player for the Pittsburgh
Pirates. He will hit 475 career home runs – twice leading
the National League with 48 in 1971 and with 44 in 1973. He
will drive in 1540 runs, score 1195 and have 2232 hits with a
lifetime batting average of .282. He will be inducted into
Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1988.

1944 – Mary Wilson is born in Greenville, Mississippi. In 1959, she
will begin singing with a group called the “Primettes”, a
sister group to a male group, The Primes.” The Primes will
become “The Temptations” and the Primettes will become “The
Supremes.” The Supremes will become the only American act to
have five consecutive number one hits! From their beginning
to the end of the group, the Supremes will have 33 songs
reach the top 40. After the group disbands in 1977, Mary
Wilson will become a successful businesswoman, author,
lecturer, actress, and singer of not just pop music, but
Jazz, Rock, R&B, and Dance. She will author the best-seller
“Dreamgirl-My Life as a Supreme.” In 1988, Mary Wilson will
become the first female rock star to accept her lifetime
achievement award from the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame.

1957 – Ghana becomes the first African nation to achieve freedom from
colonial rule when the Ashanti, Northern Protectorates, the
Gold Coast and British Togoland declare their independence.
The celebration ceremonies are attended by a number of
American dignitaries, including African American leaders
Ralph Bunche, A. Philip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.,
Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King.

1981 – Dr. Bernard Harleston, former dean of arts and sciences at
Tufts University, is appointed president of New York’s City
College.

2000 – Three white New York police officers are convicted of a cover-
up in the brutal police station attack on Haitian immigrant
Abner Louima.

2000 – “Earth, Wind and Fire” is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame.

2006 – Kirby Puckett joins the ancestors, one day after the Hall of
Fame outfielder had a stroke at his Arizona home, at the age
of 45. He carried the Minnesota Twins to World Series titles
in 1987 and 1991 before his career was cut short by glaucoma.
He played his entire career with the Twins and was an icon in
Minnesota.

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