KRLemmons African American History

March 11 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – March 11 *

1861 – The Confederate Congress, meeting in Montgomery, Alabama,
adopts a constitution which declares that the passage of any
“law denying or impairing the right of property in Negro
slaves is prohibited.”

1870 – Moshweshwe, King of Basutoland (Lesotho) joins the ancestors.
Moshweshwe was the founder of Lesotho in the 1820’s. Lesotho
was landlocked by the Cape Colony (now South Africa). He was
able to develop a strong tribal organization from his mix of
peoples. He appeased the Zulu and Ndebele, led cattle raids
on surrounding people, defeated the British in 1852 and
conducted frequent wars with the Orange Free State. Because
of repeated attacks by the Cape Colony, Moshweshwe asked the
British for protection and Lesotho will become a protectorate
in 1868. Upon his death, the country was annexed to Cape
Colony, but was returned to the status of British protectorate
in 1884. When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910,
the British honored the desire of Lesotho (“Basutoland”) to
remain independent. A protectorate continued until 1968,
protecting Lesotho from incursions from South Africa.

1874 – Frederick Douglass is named president of the failing Freedmen’s
Bank.

1884 – William Edouard Scott is born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He will
study with Henry O. Tanner at the Art Institute of Chicago.
He later will go to Paris, France and study at the Julien and
Colarossi academies. He will also study under Tanner again in
Paris (Tanner had emigrated there) and become best known for
his portrait studies of Haitians, rural life, and landscapes.
Many of his murals are on the walls of public buildings in
Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, and New York (135th Street
YMCA). In 1943, he will be the only African American artist
chosen to create a mural for the Recorder of Deeds Building in
Washington, D.C. By the end of his life, he will create over
seventy-five murals celebrating black history and culture. In
2007, the Indiana State Museum will organize the traveling
retrospective: “Our Own Artist: Paintings by Indiana’s William
Edouard Scott, 1884-1964.” He will join the ancestors in 1964.

1919 – Mercer Ellington is born in Washington, DC, the only child of
Edward “Duke” Ellington and his wife, Edna. He will become
“the keeper of the flame,” the charge his father will give him
and one he will readily accept. In doing so, he will lead the
Duke Ellington Orchestra for over twenty years after replacing
his father. In the early 1980s, he will become the first
conductor for a Broadway musical of his father’s music,
“Sophisticated Ladies.” His “Digital Duke” will win the 1988
Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. He will join
the ancestors on February 8, 1996 in Copenhagen, Denmark, after
succumbing to a heart attack.

1926 – Ralph David Abernathy is born in Linden, Alabama. He will
become a famed minister, civil rights advocate, and confidant
of Martin Luther King, Jr. After King’s assassination, he
will become the president of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference and write an autobiography that will attract
widespread criticism for his comments on King’s alleged
womanizing. He will join the ancestors on April 17, 1990.

1935 – “The Conjure Man Dies,” a play by Rudolph Fisher, premieres on
Broadway at the Lafayette Theatre. Fisher, who had joined the
ancestors over a year before the play’s premiere, had adapted
the play from his 1932 short story “The Conjure-Man Dies: A
Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem,” considered the first detective
fiction by an African American.

1948 – Reginald Weir becomes the first African American to play in the
U.S. Indoor Lawn Tennis Association Championship. He will win
his first match, but will be eliminated on March 13.

1950 – Robert “Bobby” McFerrin is born in New York City. He will be
known for his versatile and innovative a cappella jazz vocals
and for his hit song “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” which will sell
over ten million copies and earn him three Grammy awards in
1989 in addition to a Grammy for best jazz vocalist.

1956 – A manifesto denouncing the Supreme Court ruling on segregation
in public schools, is issued by one hundred southern senators
and representatives.

1959 – “A Raisin in the Sun” becomes the first play written by an
African American woman, Lorraine Hansberry, to open on
Broadway. The play will run for 19 months at the Ethel
Barrymore Theatre, and be named “Best Play” by the New York
Drama Critics Circle, and bring Lloyd Richards to Broadway as
the first African American director in modern times.

1965 – After civil rights demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, the
Reverend James J. Reeb, a white minister from Boston, dies,
succumbing to his beating by segregationist whites.

1968 – Otis Redding posthumously receives a gold record for the single
“(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.”

1971 – Whitney M. Young, Jr., executive director of the National Urban
League, joins the ancestors after drowning while swimming
during a visit to Lagos, Nigeria.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 19 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 19 *

1918 – John Harold Johnson is born in Arkansas City, Arkansas.
He will become the founder and president of Johnson
Publishing Company, Inc., the most prosperous African
American publishing company in America. His company will
publish the “Negro Digest”(his first), “Ebony,” “Jet,”
“Black Star,” “Black World” and “Ebony Jr.” magazines. He
will receive numerous awards, including the Horatio Alger
Award, the NAACP Spingarn Medal and the National Newspaper
Publishers Association’s Henry Johnson Fisher Award for
outstanding contributions to publishing. He will be the
first Black person to appear on the Forbes 400 Rich List,
and have a fortune estimated at close to $500 million. He
will join the ancestors on August 8, 2005.

1952 – The PGA Tournament Committee votes to allow African American
golfers to compete in sanctioned golf tournaments.

1959 – In a letter to her mother shortly before the opening of her
first play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” Lorraine Hansberry says
“Mama, it is a play that tells the truth about people,
Negroes, and life and I think it will help a lot of people
to understand how we are just as complicated as they are–
and just as mixed up–but above all, that we have among our
miserable and downtrodden ranks–people who are the very
essence of human dignity. That is what, after all the
laughter and tears, the play is supposed to say.”

1970 – The California state board of regents fires Angela Davis
from her teaching position at the University of California
at Los Angeles for being a Communist. This will be done at
the urging of then Governor Ronald Reagan. Her dismissal
will be overturned later by the courts, but the board of
regents will refuse to renew her contract at the end of the
1969-1970 academic year.

1983 – In its “State of Black America” annual report, the National
Urban League warns that the recession had disproportionately
hurt African Americans: “A major question facing the nation
in 1983 is whether the inevitable restructuring of the
American economy will include Black people.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 12 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 12 *

1879 – British troops invade Zululand from Natal, confident that they
could crush the Zulu forces armed with spears and shields.
However, the well-trained Zulu army repulses the initial
attack, killing over 1300 British troops in the Battle of
Isandlwana. But that success will exhaust the Zulu army, and
before Cetshwayo could mount a counteroffensive into Natal,
British troops from around the Empire will be rushed to
southern Africa, where their advanced weaponry will bring them
ultimate victory in the six-month Anglo-Zulu war. The British
will conclude their aggressive venture by dividing up Zululand
among thirteen pro-British chiefs, effectively destroying the
Zulu kingdom.

1890 – Mordecai Wyatt Johnson is born in Paris, Tennessee. He will
become the first African American president of Howard
University in 1926, a position he will hold for 34 years. He
will also be a recipient of the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal in 1929.
He will retire in 1960, and will join the ancestors on
September 11, 1976 in Washington, DC.

1920 – James Farmer is born in Marshall, Texas. He will become an
African American civil rights leader and activist. He will
found the Committee on Racial Equality in 1942 and later
change the name of the organization to the Congress of Racial
Equality. Farmer and CORE will be the architects of the
“Freedom Rides” that will lead to the desegregation of over
100 bus terminals in the South. He will become a major player
during the Civil Rights movement. He will be awarded the
Congressional Medal of Freedom in 1998 by President Bill
Clinton. He will join the ancestors on July 9, 1999 in
Fredericksburg, Virginia, at the age of 79.

1944 – Joseph William “Joe” Frazier is born in Beaufort, South
Carolina. He will become a boxer and will win the Olympic Gold
Medal in 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. He will go on to win the
heavyweight title on February 16, 1970, after knocking out
Jimmy Ellis in five rounds. He will remain champion until
January 22, 1973, when he is knocked out in the second round
by George Foreman. He will be inducted into the Ring’s Boxing
Hall of Fame in 1980 and into the International Boxing Hall of
Fame in 1990. He will join the ancestors on November 7, 2011.

1946 – George Duke is born in San Rafael, California, and will be
reared in Marin City, a working class section of Marin County.
He will become a major recording artist, heavily influenced by
Miles Davis and the soul-jazz sound of Les McCann and Cal
Tjader. He and a young singer named Al Jarreau will form a
group becoming the house band at San Francisco’s Half Note
Club. Over the years, George will work with Sonny Rollins,
Dexter Gordon, Frank Zappa, Cannonball Adderley, Nancy Wilson,
Joe Williams, and Dizzy Gillespie. He will be a prolific
songwriter and producer.

1948 – The United States Supreme Court decision (Sipuel v. Oklahoma
State Board of Regents) said a state must afford African
Americans “an opportunity to commence the study of law at a
state institution at the same time as [other] citizens.”

1951 – Ezzard Charles knocks out Lee Oma to retain the heavyweight
boxing crown.

1952 – The University of Tennessee admits its first African American
student.

1959 – Berry Gordy borrows $800 from a family loan fund to form Motown
Records. The record company’s first releases will appear on
the Tamla label.

1960 – Jacques Dominique Wilkins is born in Paris, France. He will
become a NBA forward and play the majority of his career for
the Atlanta Hawks. He will be a nine-time NBA All-Star and the
winner of two NBA Slam Dunk Contests, register 26,668 points
(one of only 12 players to do so) and 7,169 rebounds in his
NBA career. He will not foul out during his final 957 games,
the third longest such streak (behind Moses Malone and Wilt
Chamberlain). He will be inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall
of Fame on April 3, 2004 and into the Naismith Memorial
Basketball Hall of Fame on April 3, 2006.

1964 – Leftist rebels in Zanzibar begin their successful revolt against
the government.

1965 – Noted playwright Lorraine Hansberry joins the ancestors, after
succumbing to cancer in New York City at the age of 34, while
her second play, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” is
playing on Broadway. Her first and most famous work, “A
Raisin in the Sun,” brought her wide acclaim on Broadway,
earned her the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best
play, and became a motion picture starring Sidney Poitier,
Ruby Dee, and Claudia McNeil.

1971 – The Congressional Black Caucus is organized.

1982 – A commemorative stamp of Ralph Bunche is issued by the U.S.
Postal Service as part of its Great Americans series.

1988 – Willie Stargell, formally of the Pittsburgh Pirates, is elected
to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1990 – Civil Rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton is stabbed in Brooklyn,
New York, in Bensonhurst.

1995 – In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, an American soldier is killed and
another wounded during a shootout with a former Haitian army
officer who also was killed.

1995 – Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, is arrested in
Minneapolis, Minnesota on charges that she had tried to hire
a hit man to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. The
charges will later be dropped.

2002 – Jerry Rice, playing for the Oakland Raiders, becomes the oldest
player in the NFL to date, to score in a playoff game.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 19 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 19 *

1881 – Blanche Kelso Bruce is appointed Register of the Treasury
by President Garfield.

1925 – Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X and El Hajj
Malik El-Shabazz, is born in Omaha, Nebraska. In prison,
he is introduced to the Nation of Islam and begins
studies that will lead him to become one of the most
militant and electrifying black leaders of the 1950s and
1960s. On many occasions, he would indicate that he was
not for civil rights, but human rights. When asked about
the Nation of Islam undermining the efforts of
integrationists by preaching racial separation, Malcolm’s
response was “It is not integration in America that
Negroes want, it is human dignity.” Malcolm X regularly
criticized civil rights leaders for advocating the
integration of African Americans into white society. He
believed that African Americans should be building Black
institutions and businesses and defending themselves
against racist violence based opposition from both
conservative and liberals. Until he joined the ancestors,
Malcolm X was a staunch believer in Black Nationalism,
Black Self-determination and Black Self-organization. He
will begin to lobby with the newly independent African
nations to protest in the United Nations about the
American abuse of their Black citizens human rights,
when he was assassinated on February 21, 1965. His story
will be immortalized in the book “Autobiography of
Malcolm X,” ghostwritten by Alex Haley.

1930 – Lorraine Hansberry is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will
become a noted playwright and will be best known for her
play, “A Raisin in the Sun.” On March 11, 1959, when it
opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, it will become the
first Broadway play written by an African American woman.
Her other works will include “The Sign in Sidney
Brustein’s Window,” “To Be Young, Gifted and Black:
Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words,” “Les Blancs,” and
“The Movement: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality.”
She will join the ancestors on January 12, 1965.

1952 – Grace Mendoza is born in Spanishtown, Jamaica. She will
move with her family to Syracuse, New York at the age of
12. She will become a performance artist known as Grace
Jones and a transatlantic model for the Ford and
Wilhemina agencies. She will later write music and
perform as a singer. Her releases will extend from 1977
through 1998. She also will succeed as a movie star
appearing in the movies “A View to a Kill,” “Conan the
Destroyer,” and “Deadly Vengeance.”

1965 – Patricia Harris is named U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg.
She is the first African American woman to become an
ambassador for the U.S.

1968 – Piano stylist and vocalist, Bobby Short, gains national
attention as he presents a concert with Mabel Mercer at
New York’s Town Hall. He will be a featured artist at
the intimate Hotel Carlisle from 1968 until the end of
2004.

1969 – Coleman Randolph Hawkins joins the ancestors in New York
City at the age of 65. He was responsible for the coming
of age of the tenor saxophone in jazz ensembles and
called the “father of the tenor saxophone.”

1973 – Stevie Wonder moves to the number one position on the
“Billboard” pop music chart with “You Are the Sunshine
of My Life”. It is the third number one song for Wonder,
following earlier successes with “Fingertips, Part 2” in
1963 and “Superstition” in 1973. He will have seven more
number one hits between 1973 and 1987: “You Haven’t Done
Nothin'”, “I Wish”, “Sir Duke”, “Ebony & Ivory” (with Paul
McCartney), “I Just Called to Say I Love You”, “Part-Time
Lover” and “That’s What Friends are for”.

1991 – Willy T. Ribbs becomes the first African American driver to
qualify for the Indianapolis 500. During the race, which
occurs the following week, Ribbs will be forced to drop
out due to engine failure.

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

KRLemmons African American Plays, African American Playwrights, Lesson Plans, Resources

March 11 Woman of the Day: Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Hansberry, who wrote the play, “A Raisin in the Sun”, is March 11 Woman of the Day. “A Raisin in the Sun” was the first African American play when it opened on Broadway on March 11, 1959.  More information about Hansberry and her play can be found by clicking here:

Biography from About.com: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/aframerwriters/p/hansberry.htm

Lesson plan on “A Raisin in the Sun” from EdSITEment: http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/raisin-sun-quest-american-dream

Shmoop: http://www.shmoop.com/a-raisin-in-the-sun/

Audio Patricia Marx interviews Lorraine Hansberry: http://www.wnyc.org/story/lorraine-hansberry/

KRLemmons African American History

March 11 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 11 *

1861 – The Confederate Congress, meeting in Montgomery, Alabama,
adopts a constitution which declares that the passage of any
“law denying or impairing the right of property in Negro
slaves is prohibited.”

1870 – Moshweshwe, King of Basutoland (Lesotho) joins the ancestors.
Moshweshwe was the founder of Lesotho in the 1820’s. Lesotho
was landlocked by the Cape Colony (now South Africa). He was
able to develop a strong tribal organization from his mix of
peoples. He appeased the Zulu and Ndebele, led cattle raids
on surrounding people, defeated the British in 1852 and
conducted frequent wars with the Orange Free State. Because
of repeated attacks by the Cape Colony, Moshweshwe asked the
British for protection and Lesotho will become a protectorate
in 1868. Upon his death, the country was annexed to Cape
Colony, but was returned to the status of British protectorate
in 1884. When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910,
the British honored the desire of Lesotho (“Basutoland”) to
remain independent. A protectorate continued until 1968,
protecting Lesotho from incursions from South Africa.

1874 – Frederick Douglass is named president of the failing Freedmen’s
Bank.

1884 – William Edouard Scott is born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He will
study with Henry O. Tanner at the Art Institute of Chicago.
He later will go to Paris, France and study at the Julien and
Colarossi academies. He will also study under Tanner again in
Paris (Tanner had emigrated there) and become best known for
his portrait studies of Haitians, rural life, and landscapes.
Many of his murals are on the walls of public buildings in
Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, and New York (135th Street
YMCA).

1919 – Mercer Ellington is born in Washington, DC, the only child of
Edward “Duke” Ellington and his wife, Edna. He will become
“the keeper of the flame,” the charge his father will give him
and one he will readily accept. In doing so, he will lead the
Duke Ellington Orchestra for over twenty years after replacing
his father.

1926 – Ralph David Abernathy is born in Linden, Alabama. He will
become a famed minister, civil rights advocate, and confidant
of Martin Luther King, Jr. After King’s assassination, he
will become the president of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference and write an autobiography that will attract
widespread criticism for his comments on King’s alleged
womanizing.

1935 – “The Conjure Man Dies,” a play by Rudolph Fisher, premieres on
Broadway at the Lafayette Theatre. Fisher, who had joined the
ancestors over a year before the play’s premiere, had adapted
the play from his 1932 short story “The Conjure-Man Dies: A
Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem,” considered the first detective
fiction by an African American.

1948 – Reginald Weir becomes the first African American to play in the
U.S. Indoor Lawn Tennis Association Championship. He will win
his first match, but will be eliminated on March 13.

1950 – Robert “Bobby” McFerrin is born in New York City. He will be
known for his versatile and innovative a cappella jazz vocals
and for his hit song “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” which will sell
over ten million copies and earn him three Grammy awards in
1989 in addition to a Grammy for best jazz vocalist.

1956 – A manifesto denouncing the Supreme Court ruling on segregation
in public schools, is issued by one hundred southern senators
and representatives.

1959 – “A Raisin in the Sun” becomes the first play written by an
African American woman, Lorraine Hansberry, to open on
Broadway. The play will run for 19 months at the Ethel
Barrymore Theatre, and be named “Best Play” by the New York
Drama Critics Circle, and bring Lloyd Richards to Broadway as
the first African American director in modern times.

1965 – After civil rights demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, the
Reverend James J. Reeb, a white minister from Boston, dies,
succumbing to his beating by segregationist whites.

1968 – Otis Redding posthumously receives a gold record for the single
“(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.”

1971 – Whitney M. Young, Jr., executive director of the National Urban
League, joins the ancestors after drowning while swimming
during a visit to Lagos, Nigeria.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 19 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 19 *

1918 – John Harold Johnson is born in Arkansas City, Arkansas.
He will become the founder and president of Johnson
Publishing Company, Inc., the most prosperous African
American publishing company in America. His company will
publish the “Negro Digest”(his first), “Ebony,” “Jet,”
“Black Star,” “Black World” and “Ebony Jr.” magazines. He
will receive numerous awards, including the Horatio Alger
Award, the NAACP Spingarn Medal and the National Newspaper
Publishers Association’s Henry Johnson Fisher Award for
outstanding contributions to publishing. He will be the
first Black person to appear on the Forbes 400 Rich List,
and have a fortune estimated at close to $500 million. He
will join the ancestors on August 8, 2005.

1952 – The PGA Tournament Committee votes to allow African American
golfers to compete in sanctioned golf tournaments.

1959 – In a letter to her mother shortly before the opening of her
first play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” Lorraine Hansberry says
“Mama, it is a play that tells the truth about people,
Negroes, and life and I think it will help a lot of people
to understand how we are just as complicated as they are–
and just as mixed up–but above all, that we have among our
miserable and downtrodden ranks–people who are the very
essence of human dignity. That is what, after all the
laughter and tears, the play is supposed to say.”

1970 – The California state board of regents fires Angela Davis
from her teaching position at the University of California
at Los Angeles for being a Communist. This will be done at
the urging of then Governor Ronald Reagan. Her dismissal
will be overturned later by the courts, but the board of
regents will refuse to renew her contract at the end of the
1969-1970 academic year.

1983 – In its “State of Black America” annual report, the National
Urban League warns that the recession had disproportionately
hurt African Americans: “A major question facing the nation
in 1983 is whether the inevitable restructuring of the
American economy will include Black people.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 12 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 12                *

1879 – British troops invade Zululand from Natal, confident that they
could crush the Zulu forces armed with spears and shields.
However, the well-trained Zulu army repulses the initial
attack, killing over 1300 British troops in the Battle of
Isandlwana. But that success will exhaust the Zulu army, and
before Cetshwayo could mount a counteroffensive into Natal,
British troops from around the Empire will be rushed to
southern Africa, where their advanced weaponry will bring them
ultimate victory in the six-month Anglo-Zulu war. The British
will conclude their aggressive venture by dividing up Zululand
among thirteen pro-British chiefs, effectively destroying the
Zulu kingdom.

1890 – Mordecai Wyatt Johnson is born in Paris, Tennessee.  He will
become the first African American president of Howard
University in 1926, a position he will hold for 34 years. He
will also be a recipient of the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal in 1929.
He will retire in 1960, and will join the ancestors on
September 11, 1976 in Washington, DC.

1920 – James Farmer is born in Marshall, Texas.  He will become an
African American civil rights leader and activist.  He will
found the Committee on Racial Equality in 1942 and later
change the name of the organization to the Congress of Racial
Equality. Farmer and CORE will be the architects of the
“Freedom Rides” that will lead to the desegregation of over
100 bus terminals in the South.  He will become a major player
during the Civil Rights movement.  He will be awarded the
Congressional Medal of Freedom in 1998 by President Bill
Clinton.  He will join the ancestors on July 9, 1999 in
Fredericksburg, Virginia, at the age of 79.

1944 – Joseph William “Joe” Frazier is born in Beaufort, South
Carolina. He will become a boxer and will win the Olympic Gold
Medal in 1964 in Tokyo, Japan.  He will go on to win the
heavyweight title on February 16, 1970, after knocking out
Jimmy Ellis in five rounds.  He will remain champion until
January 22, 1973, when he is knocked out in the second round
by George Foreman. He will be inducted into the Ring’s Boxing
Hall of Fame in 1980 and into the International Boxing Hall of
Fame in 1990. He will join the ancestors on November 7, 2011.

1946 – George Duke is born in San Rafael, California, and will be
reared in Marin City, a working class section of Marin County.
He will become a major recording artist, heavily influenced by
Miles Davis and the soul-jazz sound of Les McCann and Cal
Tjader.  He and a young singer named Al Jarreau will form a
group becoming the house band at San Francisco’s Half Note
Club.  Over the years, George will work with Sonny Rollins,
Dexter Gordon, Frank Zappa, Cannonball Adderley, Nancy Wilson,
Joe Williams, and Dizzy Gillespie.  He will be a prolific
songwriter and producer.

1948 – The United States Supreme Court decision (Sipuel v. Oklahoma
State Board of Regents) said a state must afford African
Americans “an opportunity to commence the study of law at a
state institution at the same time as [other] citizens.”

1951 – Ezzard Charles knocks out Lee Oma to retain the heavyweight
boxing crown.

1952 – The University of Tennessee admits its first African American
student.

1959 – Berry Gordy borrows $800 from a family loan fund to form Motown
Records.  The record company’s first releases will appear on
the Tamla label.

1960 – Jacques Dominique Wilkins is born in Paris, France. He will
become a NBA forward and play the majority of his career for
the Atlanta Hawks. He will be a nine-time NBA All-Star and the
winner of two NBA Slam Dunk Contests, register 26,668 points
(one of only 12 players to do so) and 7,169 rebounds in his
NBA career. He will not foul out during his final 957 games,
the third longest such streak (behind Moses Malone and Wilt
Chamberlain). He will be inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall
of Fame on April 3, 2004 and into the Naismith Memorial
Basketball Hall of Fame on April 3, 2006.

1964 – Leftist rebels in Zanzibar begin their successful revolt against
the government.

1965 – Noted playwright Lorraine Hansberry joins the ancestors, after
succumbing to cancer in New York City at the age of 34, while
her second play, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” is
playing on Broadway.  Her first and most famous work, “A
Raisin in the Sun,” brought her wide acclaim on Broadway,
earned her the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best
play, and became a motion picture starring Sidney Poitier,
Ruby Dee, and Claudia McNeil.

1971 – The Congressional Black Caucus is organized.

1982 – A commemorative stamp of Ralph Bunche is issued by the U.S.
Postal Service as part of its Great Americans series.

1988 – Willie Stargell, formally of the Pittsburgh Pirates, is elected
to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1990 – Civil Rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton is stabbed in Brooklyn,
New York, in Bensonhurst.

1995 – In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, an American soldier is killed and
another wounded during a shootout with a former Haitian army
officer who also was killed.

1995 – Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, is arrested in
Minneapolis, Minnesota on charges that she had tried to hire
a hit man to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. The
charges will later be dropped.

2002 – Jerry Rice, playing for the Oakland Raiders, becomes the oldest
player in the NFL to date, to score in a playoff game.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 19 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – May 19 *

1881 – Blanche Kelso Bruce is appointed Register of the Treasury
by President Garfield.

1925 – Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X and El Hajj
Malik El-Shabazz, is born in Omaha, Nebraska. In prison,
he is introduced to the Nation of Islam and begins
studies that will lead him to become one of the most
militant and electrifying black leaders of the 1950s and
1960s. On many occasions, he would indicate that he was
not for civil rights, but human rights. When asked about
the Nation of Islam undermining the efforts of
integrationists by preaching racial separation, Malcolm’s
response was “It is not integration in America that
Negroes want, it is human dignity.” Malcolm X regularly
criticized civil rights leaders for advocating the
integration of African Americans into white society. He
believed that African Americans should be building Black
institutions and businesses and defending themselves
against racist violence based opposition from both
conservative and liberals. Until he joined the ancestors,
Malcolm X was a staunch believer in Black Nationalism,
Black Self-determination and Black Self-organization. He
will begin to lobby with the newly independent African
nations to protest in the United Nations about the
American abuse of their Black citizens human rights,
when he was assassinated in 1965. His story will be
immortalized in the book “Autobiography of Malcolm X,”
ghostwritten by Alex Haley.

1930 – Lorraine Hansberry is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will
become a noted playwright and will be best known for her
play, “A Raisin in the Sun.” On March 11, 1959, when it
opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, it will become the
first Broadway play written by an African American woman.
Her other works will include “The Sign in Sidney
Brustein’s Window,” “To Be Young, Gifted and Black:
Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words,” “Les Blancs,” and
“The Movement: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality.”
She will join the ancestors on January 12, 1965.

1952 – Grace Mendoza is born in Spanishtown, Jamaica. She will
move with her family to Syracuse, New York at the age of
12. She will become a performance artist known as Grace
Jones and a transatlantic model for the Ford and
Wilhemina agencies. She will later write music and
perform as a singer. Her releases will extend from 1977
through 1998. She also will succeed as a movie star
appearing in the movies “A View to a Kill,” “Conan the
Destroyer,” and “Deadly Vengeance.”

1965 – Patricia Harris is named U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg.
She is the first African American woman to become an
ambassador for the U.S.

1968 – Piano stylist and vocalist, Bobby Short, gains national
attention as he presents a concert with Mabel Mercer at
New York’s Town Hall. He has been the featured artist at
the intimate Hotel Carlisle for years.

1969 – Coleman Randolph Hawkins joins the ancestors in New York
City at the age of 65. He was responsible for the coming
of age of the tenor saxophone in jazz ensembles and
called the “father of the tenor saxophone.”

1973 – Stevie Wonder moves to the number one position on the
“Billboard” pop music chart with “You Are the Sunshine
of My Life”. It is the third number one song for Wonder,
following earlier successes with “Fingertips, Part 2” in
1963 and “Superstition” in 1973. He will have seven more
number one hits between 1973 and 1987: “You Haven’t Done
Nothin'”, “I Wish”, “Sir Duke”, “Ebony & Ivory” (with Paul
McCartney), “I Just Called to Say I Love You”, “Part-Time
Lover” and “That’s What Friends are for”.

1991 – Willy T. Ribbs becomes the first African American driver to
qualify for the Indianapolis 500. During the race, which
occurs the following week, Ribbs will be forced to drop
out due to engine failure.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 19 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 19 *

1918 – John Harold Johnson is born in Arkansas City, Arkansas.
He will become the founder and president of Johnson
Publishing Company, Inc., the most prosperous African
American publishing company in America. His company will
publish the “Negro Digest”(his first), “Ebony,” “Jet,”
“Black Star,” “Black World” and “Ebony Jr.” magazines. He
will receive numerous awards, including the Horatio Alger
Award, the NAACP Spingarn Medal and the National Newspaper
Publishers Association’s Henry Johnson Fisher Award for
outstanding contributions to publishing. He will be the
first Black person to appear on the Forbes 400 Rich List,
and have a fortune estimated at close to $500 million. He
will join the ancestors on August 8, 2005.

1952 – The PGA Tournament Committee votes to allow African American
golfers to compete in sanctioned golf tournaments.

1959 – In a letter to her mother shortly before the opening of her
first play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” Lorraine Hansberry says
“Mama, it is a play that tells the truth about people,
Negroes, and life and I think it will help a lot of people
to understand how we are just as complicated as they are–
and just as mixed up–but above all, that we have among our
miserable and downtrodden ranks–people who are the very
essence of human dignity. That is what, after all the
laughter and tears, the play is supposed to say.”

1970 – The California state board of regents fires Angela Davis
from her teaching position at the University of California
at Los Angeles for being a Communist. This will be done at
the urging of then Governor Ronald Reagan. Her dismissal
will be overturned later by the courts, but the board of
regents will refuse to renew her contract at the end of the
1969-1970 academic year.

1983 – In its “State of Black America” annual report, the National
Urban League warns that the recession had disproportionately
hurt African Americans: “A major question facing the nation
in 1983 is whether the inevitable restructuring of the
American economy will include Black people.”

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