KRLemmons African American History

June 21 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 21 *

1821 – The African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church is
formally constituted in New York City at its first annual
conference. Nineteen clergymen were present, representing
six African American churches from New York City,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New Haven, Connecticut and
Newark, New Jersey. They voted to separate from the
white-controlled Methodist Episcopal Church, which had
insisted on ultimate control of the church’s leadership and
property. To distinguish between the two African Methodist
Episcopal organizations, as well as to honor their original
congregation, in 1848 they will vote to add Zion to their
name.

1832 – Joseph Haynes Rainey is born in Georgetown, South Carolina.
He will become the first African American elected to the
U.S. House of Representatives, where he will serve five
terms.

1859 – Henry Ossawa Tanner is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Son
of AME bishop Benjamin Tanner, young Tanner will forgo the
ministry to take up painting. Constantly facing the tension
between racial stereotypes and his art, Tanner will
eventually emigrate to France to pursue his art, considered
by many the finest produced by an African American. He will
be known for his commanding use of light and color in his
seascapes, scenes of everyday life, and religious paintings.
He will join the ancestors in Paris, France on May 25, 1937.

1868 – John Hope is born in Augusta, Georgia. He will become the
first African American president of Atlanta Baptist (later
Morehouse) College in 1906. He will be a pioneer in the
field of education. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown
University, He will encourage an intellectual climate
comparable to what he had known at his alma mater and will
openly challenge Booker T. Washington’s view that education
for African Americans should emphasize vocational and
agricultural skills. He will join the ancestors in 1936.

1923 – Marcus Garvey is sentenced by the U.S. government to 5 years
in prison for using the U.S. mail to defraud. He is
railroaded by a government that is terrified by the control
that one magnificent orator had over African Americans.
They did not want their major source of cheap labor in
America to leave for Africa.

1927 – Carl B. Stokes, the first African American elected mayor of
a major American city is born. Stokes will be elected to
two terms as mayor of Cleveland, Ohio at a time of urban
riots and racial unrest in many major U.S. cities. Civil
rights leaders said his election was an advance, both
symbolic and genuine, for the cause of black political
empowerment. He is instrumental in getting through a law
requiring city contractors to have minority employment
programs. President Clinton will appoint him, in 1994, as
ambassador to the Seychelles, an island nation in the
Indian Ocean. He will join the ancestors on April 3, 1996.

1945 – Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African
American to command a U.S. Army Air Force base when he
takes command of the 477th Composite Group of Godman Field
in Kentucky.

1951 – PFC William H. Thompson is posthumously awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor. He is the first African
American recipient since the Spanish-American War.

1964 – In Neshoba County in central Mississippi, three civil rights
field workers disappear after investigating the burning of
an African American church by the Ku Klux Klan. Michael
Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, both white New Yorkers, had
traveled to heavily segregated Mississippi in 1964 to help
organize civil rights efforts on behalf of the Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE). The third man, James Chaney, was a
local African American man who had joined CORE in 1963. The
disappearance of the three young men garnered national
attention and led to a massive FBI investigation that was
code-named MIBURN, for “Mississippi Burning.” They are later
found murdered.

1965 – Arthur Ashe leads UCLA to the NCAA tennis championship.

1990 – Little Richard gets a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

1997 – Patrice Rushen receives an NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award
for her contributions in the field of music.

2001 – Famed blues man John Lee Hooker joins the ancestors at the
age of 83 of natural causes in Los Altos, California. The
veteran blues singer from the Mississippi Delta estimated
that he recorded more than 100 albums over nearly seven
decades. He won a Grammy Award for a version of “I’m In The
Mood,” was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
1991 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2000
Grammys. Through it all, Hooker’s music remained hypnotic
and unchanged — his rich and sonorous voice, full of
ancient hurt, coupled with a brooding, rhythmic guitar. He
sang of loneliness and confusion. Neither polished nor
urbane, his music was raw, primal emotion.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 10 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 10 *

1854 – James Augustine Healy is ordained as a Catholic priest in
ceremonies at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, France at the
age of 24. He will later become the first African American
Roman Catholic bishop.

1898 – Hattie McDaniel is born in Wichita, Kansas. A vaudevillian,
she will begin her acting career at age 37 in the film ‘The
Golden West.’ She will go on to roles in over 70 films,
including ‘The Little Colonel’, ‘Show Boat’, and most
notably ‘Gone With The Wind’, which will earn her an Oscar
as best supporting actress in 1940. She will also star in
the radio program ‘Beulah’ from 1947 to 1951. She will join
the ancestors on October 26, 1952.
1899 – The Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
(I.B.P.O.E.) is founded in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1910 – Chester Arthur Burnett is born in White Station, Mississippi.
He will be better known as ‘Howlin Wolf’, a delta bluesman
whose recordings will inspire English rock bands to adopt
his style and material. He will join the ancestors on
January 10, 1976.

1940 – The famed Cotton Club in Harlem closes. Home to some of the
most important jazz talents of their day, including Duke
Ellington, Lena Horne, and many others, the club falls
victim to changing musical tastes and poor attendance.

1940 – Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey joins the ancestors in London,
England at the age of 52.

1946 – Jack Arthur Johnson, the first African American heavyweight
boxing champion, joins the ancestors after succumbing to
injuries from an automobile accident near Raleigh, North
Carolina at the age of 68. He will be buried in Graceland
Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.

1964 – The U.S. Senate imposes cloture for the first time on a civil
rights measure, ending a southern filibuster by a vote of
71-29.

1972 – Sammy Davis, Jr. earns his place at the top of the popular
music charts for the first time, after years in the
entertainment business with his first number one song, “The
Candy Man”. The song stayed at the top for three consecutive
weeks and stayed on the pop charts for 16 weeks.

1980 – Nelson Mandela, jailed for life by the apartheid government
of South Africa, has his writings smuggled from prison and
made public, continuing to spark the general population.

1985 – Herschel Walker, of the New Jersey Generals, breaks the 2,000
yard mark in rushing during the season as the Generals win
over Jacksonville 31-24. The effort sets a United States
Football League (USFL) record. This feat had only been
reached twice in the National Football League (NFL) — once
by O.J. Simpson in 1973 for 2,003 yards and Eric Dickerson
in 1984 for 2,105 yards.

1997 – Geronimo Pratt, political prisoner and ex-Black Panther, is
released from prison on bail. A judge agrees that had
Pratt’s original jury known that the prosecution key witness
was a FBI and police informant, the outcome may have been
different. In 1999, after winning his appeal of the decision
that ordered his release, charges against Pratt were dropped
by the Los Angeles District Attorney and no new trial was
sought.

2004 – Ray Charles, Keyboardist, Composer, and Singer who won 12
Grammy awards, joins the ancestors after succumbing to liver
disease at the age of 73.

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

KRLemmons African American History

February 8 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 8 *

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1865 – The first African American major in the United States Army is a
physician, Dr. Martin Robinson Delany.

1894 – Congress repeals the Enforcement Act, which makes it easier for
some states to disenfranchise African American voters.

1925 – Marcus Garvey is sent to federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia for
mail fraud in connection with the sale of stock in his Black
Star Line. His prosecution was vigorously advocated by several
prominent African American leaders, including Robert Sengstacke
Abbott and others. Garvey was railroaded because of the power
he had amassed over the African American population of America.

1925 – Students stage a strike at Fisk University to protest the
policies of the white administration at the school.

1944 – Harry S. McAlpin of the “Daily World” in Atlanta, Georgia, is
the first African American journalist accredited to attend
White House press conferences.

1965 – Dr. Joseph B. Danquah, Ghanaian political leader, joins the
ancestors. He had been the leader of the United Gold Coast
Convention, a political body which had pressed the British for
a gradual relinquishing of colonial rule.

1968 – Gary Coleman is born in Zion, Ohio. He will become a child
actor portraying “Arnold” in the television series, “Different
Strokes,” which aired from 1978 to 1986. He will join the ancestors
on May 28, 2010.

1968 – Highway Patrol Officers kill three South Carolina State
University students during a demonstration in Orangeburg,
South Carolina. Students are protesting against a whites-only
Orangeburg bowling alley.

1970 – Alonzo Mourning is born in Chesapeake, Virginia. He will become
a basketball star at Georgetown University and will go on to
play for the NBA Miami Heat. He will be praised for his
courage for making a comeback after undergoing a kidney
transplant and years later winning his first NBA Championship
with the Miami Heat in 2006. Prior to the Heat, he will play
for the Charlotte Hornets and New Jersey Nets.

1984 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Los Angeles Lakers scores 27 points
while leading his team to a 111-109 victory over the Boston
Celtics. Abdul-Jabbar passes Wilt Chamberlain’s NBA career
record of 12,682 field goals.

1986 – Oprah Winfrey becomes the first African American woman to host
a nationally syndicated talk show.

1986 – 5′ 7″ Spud Webb, of the Atlanta Hawks, wins the NBA Slam Dunk
Competition.

1990 – CBS News suspends resident humorist Andy Rooney for racial
comments he supposedly made to a gay magazine, comments
Rooney denies making.

1995 – The U.N. Security Council approves sending 7,000 peacekeepers
to Angola to cement an accord ending 19 years of civil war.

2000 – Edna Griffin, an Iowa civil-rights pioneer best known for
integrating lunch counters, joins the ancestors at the age of
90. In 1948, Griffin led the fight against Katz Drug Store in
downtown Des Moines, which refused to serve blacks at its
lunch counter. Griffin staged sit-ins, picketed in front of
the store and filed charges against the store’s owner, Maurice
Katz, who was fined. The Iowa Supreme Court then enforced the
law which made it illegal to deny service based on race. She
organized Iowans to attend the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s
1963 march on Washington, D.C., and helped start the former
radio station KUCB. On May 15, 1999, Des Moines’ mayor
proclaimed “Edna Griffin Day.” On February 5, 2000, Griffin
was inducted into the Iowa African American Hall of Fame.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 25 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 25 *

1841 – Thirty-five survivors of the “Amistad” return home to
Africa.

1922 – Marcus Garvey electrifies a crowd at Liberty Hall in
New York City as he states the goals and principles
of the Universal Negro Improvement Association
(UNIA): “We represent peace, harmony, love, human
sympathy, human rights and human justice…we are
marshaling the four hundred million Negroes of the
world to fight for the emancipation of the race and
for the redemption of the country of our fathers.”

1935 – Namahyoke Sokum Curtis, who led a team of 32 African
Americans to nurse yellow fever victims during the
Spanish-American War, joins the ancestors. She will
be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

1941 – Annie Mae Bullock is born in Nutbush, Tennessee. She
will meet Ike Turner in the early 1950’s at a St.
Louis, Missouri club. Soon after, she will begin
singing with his band on occasional engagements, and
in 1959, form the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. After
separating from Ike and the band, she will build an
even more successful career on her own, which will
include the multi-platinum album, “Private Dancer”
and five Grammy awards.

1949 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche receives the Spingarn Medal for
his contributions to the Myrdal study and his
achievements as UN mediator in the Palestine
conflict.

1949 – The St. Louis chapter of CORE presses a sit-in
campaign designed to end segregation in downtown St.
Louis facilities.

1955 – The Interstate Commerce Commission bans segregation
in interstate travel. The law affects buses and
trains as well as terminals and waiting rooms.

1987 – Harold Washington, the first African American mayor
of Chicago, Illinois, joins the ancestors, in office
at the age of 65.

1997 – Legendary Eddie Robinson, of Grambling State University,
coaches his last game as head coach. This will close
out a career spanning 57 years. He has the NCAA record
for wins at 402. The closest to Eddie Robinson’s record
is ‘Bear’ Bryant of the University of Alabama at 323
wins.

1998 – Comedian Flip Wilson joins the ancestors in Malibu,
California, at the age of 64.

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