KRLemmons African American History

February 11 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – February 11 *

1783 – Jarena Lee, the first woman to preach in an AME church, at
Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia, is born in Cape
May, New Jersey. She will chronicle her life’s work in her
book, “Religious Experiences and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee:
A Preachin’ Woman” (1849). Jarena Lee will be one of first
African American women to speak out publicly against slavery.
She will join the ancestors in 1849.

1790 – The Society of Friends (Quakers) presents a petition to
Congress calling for the abolition of slavery.

1958 – Mohawk Airlines schedules Ruth Carol Taylor on her initial
flight from Ithaca, New York to New York City. She becomes the
first African American flight attendant for a United States-
based air carrier.

1961 – Robert Weaver becomes the highest-ranking African American in
the federal government as he is sworn in as administrator of
the Housing and Home Finance Agency.

1966 – Willie Mays signs with the San Francisco Giants for $ 130,000
a year. At the time, this is one of the highest salaries in
professional baseball.

1977 – Clifford Alexander, Jr. is confirmed as the first African
American Secretary of the Army. He will hold the position
until the end of President Jimmy Carter’s term.

1977 – Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam is named head of state
in Ethiopia. He will rule Ethiopia and be backed by the
Soviet government until he loses the civil war in 1991 to the
forces supporting Meles Zenawi.

1989 – Rev. Barbara Clementine Harris becomes the first woman
consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal Church, in a ceremony
held in Boston.

1990 – Nelson Mandela is released from prison after being held for
nearly 27 years without trial by the South African government.
The founder and unofficial leader of the African National
Congress, Mandela became, during his imprisonment, a symbol
for the struggle of Black South Africans to overcome apartheid.

1990 – James “Buster” Douglas defeats Mike Tyson in a stunning upset
in Tokyo to win the heavyweight boxing championship. Almost two
years later to the day, Tyson will be convicted of rape and two
related charges filed by a Miss Black America contestant in
Indianapolis, Indiana.

2012 – Whitney Houston, the woman with the pitch-perfect voice who once
reigned as the queen of pop at the Grammys, joins the ancestors
at the age of 48.

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

KRLemmons African American History

February 10 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 10 *

1868 – Republican conservatives draft new constitution which
concentrates political power in the hands of the governor and
limits the impact of the Black vote. This is made possible by
Conservatives, aided by military forces, who seize the
convention hall and establish control over the reconstruction
process in Florida.

1927 – Mary Leontyne Violet Price, who will be acclaimed as one of the
world’s greatest operatic talents, is born in Laurel,
Mississippi. She will amass many operatic firsts, being the
first African American to sing opera on network television and
the first African American to receive the Presidential Medal
of Freedom. Among her honors will be the NAACP’s Spingarn
Medal, three Emmys, and Kennedy Center Honors.

1937 – Roberta Flack is born in Black Mountain (Asheville), North
Carolina. She will begin her professional singing career in
Washington, DC. She will go on to win Grammys for “The First
Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Where Is the Love,” and “Killing
Me Softly with His Song.”

1942 – Mary Lovelace O’Neal is born in Jackson, Mississippi. Educated
at Howard and Columbia universities, she will become a
professor of fine arts and head of the Art Department at
University of California at Berkeley. Academia will allow her
the freedom to become a painter who will exhibit her work
in museums in the United States, Morocco, and Chile.

1943 – Eta Phi Beta, the national business and professional sorority,
is incorporated in Detroit, Michigan. It will have chapters
throughout the United States and number among its members
civil rights activist Daisy Bates and artist Margaret T.
Burroughs.

1945 – The United States, Russia, Great Britain, and France approve a
peace treaty with Italy, under which Italy renounces all
rights and claims to Ethiopia and Eritrea.

1945 – The Chicago Defender reports that over a quarter of a million
African Americans migrated to California during the years 1942
and 1943. As the percentage of African Americans in
California increases from 1 1/2% to more than 10% of the
total population, so does the practice of racial segregation.

1971 – Bill White becomes the first African American major league
baseball announcer when he begins announcing for the New
York Yankees.

1989 – Ronald H. Brown, who had served as Jesse Jackson’s campaign
manager, becomes chairman of the Democratic National
Committee, the first African American to hold the position
in either party.

1990 – South African President, Frederik Willem de Klerk announces
that Nelson Mandela will be set free on February 11th after
27 years in prison.

1992 – Alex Haley, author of “Roots,” and “Autobiography of Malcolm
X,” joins the ancestors while on a lecture tour in Seattle,
Washington at the age of 70.

1992 – Mike Tyson is convicted in Indianapolis, Indiana of raping a
contestant in the Miss Black America competition and
sentenced to six years in an Indiana prison.

1998 – Dr. David Satcher is confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become
Surgeon General.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 22 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 22 *

1801 – Haitian liberator, Toussaint L’Ouverture, enters Santiago to
battle the French Armed Forces.

1891 – The “Lodge Bill,” which called for federal supervision of U.S.
elections, is abandoned in the Senate after a Southern
filibuster.

1906 – Twenty-eight-year-old Meta Vaux Warrick’s sculpture “Portraits
from Mirrors” is exhibited at the 101st Annual Exhibition of
the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Although it is one of the first major showings
of her work, the young Warrick (later Fuller) has already
studied sculpture with the legendary Auguste Rodin and had
her work exhibited in Paris at S. Bing’s Gallery Nouveau.

1920 – William Caesar Warfield is born in West Helena, Arkansas, the
eldest of five sons. He will become a singer and have his
recital debut in New York’s famous Town Hall on March 19,
1950, putting him into the front ranks of concert artists
overnight. His career will span almost fifty years and among
his frequent appearances in foreign countries, this artist
has made six separate tours for the U.S. Department of State,
more than any other American solo artist. He will receive
a Grammy in the “Spoken Word” category (1984) for his
outstanding narration of Aaron Copeland’s “A Lincoln Portrait”
accompanied by the Eastman Philharmonic Orchestra. He is
best known for his role in “Showboat.” He will join the
ancestors on August 26, 2002.

1924 – James Louis (J.J.) Johnson is born in Indianapolis, Indiana.
He will become one of the greatest trombonists and composers
in jazz. He will be originally influenced by Fred Beckett of
Harlan Leonard’s band. Soon thereafter, he will join Benny
Carter. He will play with Count Basie (1945-1946) and record
his first solo improvisation. During the 1954-1956 period,
J.J. Johnson will take a brief break from bands and team up
with Kai Winding for a commercially successful trombone duo.
He will prefer the use of pure tones when playing the trombone,
focusing on line, interval and accent. His solos will show
virtuosity because of their remarkable mobility, which many
artists find difficult to duplicate or imitate. These
endeavors will be fruitless in the early 1950s and for a
couple of years he will work as a blueprint inspector. In the
1970s, Johnson will move from New Jersey to California,
concentrating exclusively on film and television scoring. In
1984, Johnson will reenter the jazz scene with a tour of the
“European Festival Circuit.” He will be voted into the Down
Beat Hall of Fame in 1995. He will join the ancestors on
February 4, 2001, after committing suicide by shooting himself.

1931 – Samuel “Sam” Cooke is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He will
grow up in Chicago, Illinois, after moving there with his
family in 1933. He will become a singer and be best known for
his recordings “You Send Me” and “Twisting the Night Away.”
Cooke will be one of the most popular singers of the 1960’s.
He will join the ancestors on December 11, 1964. He will be
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 23,
1986.

1960 – Sugar Ray Robinson loses the Middleweight Boxing Championship
to Paul Pender in a 15-round decision.

1961 – Wilma Rudolph, the 1960 Olympic gold medalist and track star,
sets a world indoor mark in the women’s 60-yard dash, with a
speedy 6.9 seconds in a meet held in Los Angeles, California.

1962 – Baseball Writers elect Jackie Robinson into the Baseball Hall
of Fame.

1973 – George Foreman takes the heavyweight boxing title away from
‘Smokin’ Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica in the second round.
Foreman will knock ‘Smokin’ Joe down six times on his way to
victory.

1981 – Samuel Pierce is named Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD). One of the few African Americans in the
Reagan administration, there will be high expectations for
his potential to effect change, but Pierce’s leadership will
be severely questioned as scandal rocks his department in
1989. An estimated $ 2 billion will be lost due to fraud and
mismanagement during Pierce’s tenure.

1988 – Heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson knocks out former
champion Larry Holmes in 4 rounds.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 22 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 22 *

1865 – The Mississippi legislature enacts “Black Codes” which
restrict the rights and freedom of movement of the
freedmen. The Black Codes enacted in Mississippi and
other Southern states virtually re-enslave the
freedmen. In some states, any white person could
arrest any African American. In other states, minor
officials could arrest African American “vagrants” and
“refractory and rebellious Negroes” and force them to
work on roads and levees without pay. “Servants” in
South Carolina were required to work from sunrise to
sunset, to be quiet and orderly and go to bed at
“reasonable hours.” It was a crime in Mississippi for
African Americans to own farm land. In South Carolina,
African Americans have to get a special license to
work outside the domestic and farm laborer categories.

1871 – Louisiana Lt. Governor Oscar J. Dunn, joins the
ancestors suddenly in the midst of a bitter struggle
for control of the state government. Dunn aides
charge that he was poisoned.

1884 – T. Thomas Fortune founds the “New York Freeman”, which
later becomes the “New York Age.”

1884 – The Philadelphia Tribune is founded by Christopher J.
Perry.

1893 – Alrutheus Ambush Taylor, teacher and historian, is
born in Washington, DC. He will become Fisk
University’s Dean. He and other local African American
historians will come under the influence of Dr. Carter
G. Woodson, who spoke in Nashville on several occasions.
In 1941, Taylor will publish a Tennessee study from the
African American perspective. Taylor titled his study,
“The Negro in Tennessee, 1865-1880.” Taylor’s book
will go beyond slavery and cover Reconstruction history
and various aspects of African American life, including
business and politics.

1930 – The Nation of Islam is founded in Detroit.

1942 – Guion S. Bluford, Jr. is born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. He will become a Colonel in the United
States Air Force, an astronaut and the first African
American to fly in space (four times – STS 8, STS 61A,
STS 39, STS 53).

1957 – The Miles Davis Quintet debuts with a jazz concert at
Carnegie Hall in New York.

1961 – Frank Robinson becomes the first baseball player to be
named “Most Valuable Player” in both major leagues.

1965 – Muhammad Ali defeats Floyd Patterson. Ali, a recent
convert to the Muslim faith, taunts the former champ
and ends the fight in 12 rounds to win the world
heavyweight title.

1968 – A portrait of Frederick Douglass appears on the cover
of Life magazine. The cover story, “Search for a Black
Past,” will be the first in a four-part series of
stories in which the magazine examines African
Americans, a review of the last 50 years of struggle
and interviews with Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond,
Eldridge Cleaver, Dick Gregory, and others.

1986 – 24 year-old George Branham wins the Brunswick Memorial
World Open. It is the first time an African American
wins a Professional Bowlers Association title.

1986 – Mike Tyson, 20 years, 4 months old, becomes the
youngest to wear the world heavyweight boxing crown
after knocking out Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas.

1988 – Bob Watson is named assistant general manager of the
Houston Astros, the team where he began his
professional career in 1965. One of a select few
African American assistant general managers in the
sport, Watson’s spikes hang in the Baseball Hall of
Fame for scoring baseball’s 1,000,000th run in 1976.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 1 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 1 *

1619 – Twenty African “Negroes” became the first Blacks to land in
Protestant America at Jamestown, Virginia. Surviving
evidence suggests that the twenty Africans were accorded
the status of indentured servants.

1834 – Slavery is abolished in the British Empire by the royal
ascent of the King of England after having been voted by
Parliament the previous year.

1838 – British slaves in the Bahamas are emancipated.

1852 – San Francisco Methodists establish the first African
American Zion Methodist Church.

1867 – African Americans vote for the first time in a state
election, in Tennessee, helping the Republicans sweep the
election.

1867 – General Philip H. Sheridan dismisses the board of aldermen
in New Orleans and named new appointees, including several
African Americans.

1868 – Governor Henry C. Warmoth of Louisiana endorses a joint
resolution of the legislature calling for federal military
aid. Warmoth says there had been 150 political
assassinations in June and July.

1874 – Charles Clinton Spaulding is born in Columbus County, North
Carolina. He will become a businessman who will rise to the
presidency of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance
Company. His business acumen will help the company survive
the years of the Great Depression. Also active in the
Durham, North Carolina community where the corporation is
located, he will work to increase the numbers of registered
African American voters and convince the city to hire
African American police officers. He will lead the company
from 1900 until he joins the ancestors on August 1, 1952.

1879 – Mary Eliza Mahoney graduates from the nursing program at the
New England Hospital for Women and Children. She is the
first African American to graduate from a nursing school and
becomes the first African American in history to earn a
professional nursing license.

1894 – Benjamin Elijah Mays is born in Epworth, South Carolina. He
will become a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bates College in
Maine. He will serve as pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church from
1921-1923 in Atlanta, Georgia. Recruited by Morehouse President
John Hope, Mays will join the faculty as a mathematics teacher
and debate coach. He will obtain a master’s degree in 1925 and
in 1935 a Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago. In 1934,
he will be appointed dean of the School of Religion at Howard
University and serve until 1940. He will become president of
Morehouse College in 1940 and launch a 27-year tenure that
will shepherd the institution into international prominence. He
will upgrade the faculty, secure a Phi Beta Kappa chapter and
sustain enrollment during World War II. After retiring as the
president of Morehouse, he will be elected to the school board
of Atlanta, Georgia and later serve as its president. In
1982, he will be awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal. He
will join the ancestors on March 28, 1984.

1914 – Marcus Garvey establishes the Universal Negro Movement
Improvement and Conservation Association and African
Communities’ League, later shortened to UNIA. In New York
City six years later to the day, the UNIA will meet in
Madison Square Garden as Garvey presents his “Back to
Africa” plan and a formal Declaration of Rights for Black
people worldwide.

1918 – Theodore Juson Jemison, Sr. is born in Selma, Alabama. He
will become a Baptist minister and will later be elected
president of the National Baptist Convention USA, serving
from 1982 to 1994. It is the largest African American
religious organization. He will oversee the construction of
the Baptist World Center in Nashville, Tennessee, the
headquarters for the Convention. In 1953, while minister of
a large church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he will help lead
the first civil rights boycott of bus service. The
organization of free rides, coordinated by churches, was a
model used later by the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama,
which started in 1955. He will be one of the founders of
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. In
2003 the 50th anniversary of the Baton Rouge bus boycott will
be honored with three days of events, organized by a young
resident born two decades after the action.

1920 – The national convention of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro
Improvement Association opens in Liberty Hall in Harlem.
The next night Garvey addresses twenty-five thousand Blacks
in Madison Square Garden. Garvey’s nationalist movement
reaches its height in 1920-21.

1925 – The National Bar Association, dedicated to “advance the
science of jurisprudence, uphold the honor of the legal
profession…and protect the civil and political rights of
all citizens of the several states of the United States,”
is formally organized in Des Moines, Iowa by 12 African
American legal pioneers including George H. Woodson, S.
Joe Brown, and Gertrude E. Rush.

1930 – Geoffrey Holder is born in Polrt of Spain, Trinidad. He will
become a Broadway dancer and actor and will be best known
for his performances in “Annie” and “The Wiz.” He will
teach at the Katherine Dunham School of Dance for two years.
He will be a principal dancer with the Metropolitan Opera
Ballet in New York from 1955 to 1956. In 1955, He will
marry dancer Carmen De Lavallade, whom he met when both
were in the cast of “House of Flowers,” a musical by Harold
Arlen (music and lyrics) and Truman Capote (lyrics and book).
They will be the subject of a 2004 film, “Carmen & Geoffrey.”
He will begin his movie career in the 1962 British film “All
Night Long,” a modern remake of Shakespeare’s Othello. He
will follow that with “Doctor Doolittle” (1967) as Willie
Shakespeare, leader of the natives of Sea-Star Island. This
will be a trying experience for him, as he had to contend
with casual racism from Rex Harrison’s then-wife, Rachel
Roberts, and his entourage. In 1972, he will be cast as the
Sorcerer in “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex*”
(*But Were Afraid to Ask). The following year he will be a
henchman – Baron Samedi – in the Bond movie “Live and Let Die,”
also contributing to the film’s choreography. In addition to
his movie appearances, he will become a spokesman for the 1970s
7 Up soft drink “uncola” advertising campaign. In 1975, he will
win two Tony Awards for direction and costume design of “The
Wiz,” the all-black musical version of The Wizard of Oz. He
will be the first black man to be nominated in either category.
He also win the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design.
The show will run for 1672 performances over a four-year period,
reviving in 1984. As a choreographer, he will create dance
pieces for many companies, including the Alvin Ailey American
Dance Theater, for which he will provide choreography, music
and costumes for “Prodigal Prince” (1967), and the Dance
Theatre of Harlem, for which he provided choreography, music
and costumes for “Dougla” (1974) and designed costumes for
“Firebird” (1982). In 1978, he will direct and choreograph the
Broadway musical “Timbuktu!” His 1957 piece “Bele” is also part
of the Dance Theater of Harlem repertory. In the 1982 film
version of the musical “Annie,” he will play the role of Punjab.
He will also be the voice of Ray in “Bear in the Big Blue House”
and provide narration for Tim Burton’s version of Roald Dahl’s
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” He will reprise his role
as the 7 Up Spokesman in the 2011 season finale of The Celebrity
Apprentice, where he will appear as himself in a commercial for
“7 Up Retro” for Marlee Matlin’s team. He will also be a
prolific painter, ardent art collector, book author and music
composer. As a painter, he will win a Guggenheim Fellowship. A
book of his photography, “Adam,” was published by Viking Press
in 1986.

1940 – Benjamin E. Mays, who has been called “the greatest school
master of his generation,” is named president of Morehouse
College.

1941 – Ronald H. Brown is born in Washington, DC. He will become
the first African American chairman of the Democratic
National Committee and Secretary of Commerce. He will join
the ancestors on April 3, 1996 in Croatia when his plane crashes
while on an official tour of the Balkans for the Department
of Commerce.

1943 – Race-related rioting erupts in New York City’s village of
Harlem, resulting in several deaths.

1944 – Adam Clayton Powell is elected to congress and becomes the
first African American congressman from the East.

1950 – The American Bowling Congress ends its all-white-males rule.

1952 – Charles Clinton Spaulding joins the ancestors in Durham,
North Carolina at the age of 78.

1960 – Benin changes its name to Dahomey and proclaims its
independence from France.

1960 – Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” is released. The song
inspires the dance craze of the ’60s.

1961 – Whitney Young Jr. is named executive director of the
National Urban League.

1964 – Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to be named
to the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team.

1970 – “Black Enterprise” magazine is first published.

1970 – Willie Stargell, of the Pittsburgh Pirates, ties the record
of 5 extra base hits in a game.

1973 – Tempestt Bledsoe, actress, “The Cosby Show’s” Vanessa
Huxtable, is born in Chicago, Illinois.

1977 – Benjamin L. Hooks becomes the Executive Director of the
NAACP.

1979 – James Patterson Lyke is installed as auxiliary bishop of
the Cleveland Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church.

1987 – Mike Tyson defeats Tony Tucker to become undisputed
Heavyweight Boxing Champion.

1992 – The Supreme Court permits the administration to continue
its special interdiction policy by which the U.S. Coast
Guard patrols international waters near Haiti to prevent
Haitian citizens from escaping from their country, and
Haiti is the only country in the world to receive such
treatment by the United States.

1992 – Gail Devers wins the women’s 100 meters at the Barcelona
Summer Games.

1993 – Ronald H. Brown, former chairman of the Democratic
National Committee, is appointed head of the Department
of Commerce by President Bill Clinton.

1994 – Supporters of Haiti’s military rulers declare their
intention to fight back in the face of a U.N. resolution
paving the way for a U.S.-led invasion.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 28 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 28 *

1770 – Anthony Benezet and other Quakers open a non-segregated
school for African American and white children in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1839 – Cinque, originally Sengbe, the son of a Mende king,
along with several other Africans, is kidnapped and sold
into slavery in Cuba. Cinque and his companions will
later carry out the famous successful revolt upon the
slave ship Amistad. The rebels were captured off Long
Island on August 26.

1874 – The Freedmen’s Savings & Trust Company, because of
mismanagement, closes its doors causing over 60,000
African American depositors to lose their $ 3 million in
deposits.

1927 – Anthony Overton, president of Victory Life Insurance
Company, receives the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for “his
successful business career climaxed by admission of his
company as the first Negro organization permitted to do
business under the rigid requirements of the State of
New York.”

1935 – Mary McLeod Bethune, founder and president of Bethune-
Cookman College, receives the Spingarn Medal from the
NAACP. Bethune is honored for speaking out against
racism and injustice “in the South as well as in the
North, without compromise or fear.”

1936 – Major Owens, who will succeed Shirley Chisholm as
Congressional representative from New York, is born in
Memphis, Tennessee.

1946 – Thurgood Marshall receives the Spingarn Medal for his
“distinguished service as a lawyer before the Supreme
Court of the United States and inferior courts.”

1951 – The Amos ‘n’ Andy Show premieres on television. While
criticized for racial stereotyping, it is the first show
with an all African American cast to be successful on
the small screen.

1964 – Malcolm X founds the Organization for Afro-American Unity
in New York.

1978 – The Supreme Court hands down its “Bakke” decision, ruling
that the University of California at Davis Medical
College’s special admissions program for minority students
is illegal. As a result, Allan P. Bakke, a white student,
is ordered admitted to the college to prevent what the
Court considers reverse discrimination.

1990 – Jurors in the drug and perjury trial of Washington, DC,
Mayor Marion S. Barry Jr. view a videotape showing Barry
smoking crack cocaine during an FBI hotel-room sting
operation. Barry will be later convicted of a single
count of misdemeanor drug possession.

1997 – Mike Tyson “sets a new standard for bizarre behavior” in
the heavyweight boxing championship bout with Evander
Holyfield at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada,
when he bites off a one-inch chunk of Holyfield’s ear in
the third round. Tyson is disqualified, and Holyfield is
spirited away to a local hospital, where the piece of his
ear is re-attached after being located on the canvas of
the ring.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 27 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 27 *

1833 – The operator of an academy for African American females
in Canterbury, Connecticut, Prudence Crandall – a white
woman, is arrested for providing this service.

1872 – Paul Laurence Dunbar, short story writer, is born in
Dayton, Ohio. He will be so talented and versatile that he
will succeed in two worlds. He will be so adept at
writing verse in Black English that he will become 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, will be 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 reviews “Majors and Minors” favorably, Dunbar
becomes famous. And Howells’ introduction in “Lyric of
Lowly Life” (1896) will help make Dunbar the most popular
African American writer in America at the time. Dunbar will
join the ancestors after succumbing to tuberculosis on
February 9, 1906. The U.S. Postal Service will issue a
commemorative stamp in his honor on May 1, 1975.

1890 – George Dixon, a Canadian, becomes the first person of
African descent to win a world boxing championship. He
defeats Nunc Wallace to win the bantamweight title. He will
also become the first person of African descent to win an
American title in any sport, when he knocks out Cal McCarthy
in 1891.

1914 – The United States signs a treaty of commerce with Ethiopia.

1919 – Archibald H. Grimke’, noted lawyer and civil rights advocate
who had served as U.S. Consul in Santo Domingo, Dominican
Republic and president of the American Negro Academy among
his accomplishments, receives the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal.
An original member of the “Committee of Forty” that helped
establish the NAACP, Grimke’ is honored for his “years of
distinguished service to his race and country.”

1941 – Richard Wright is awarded the Spingarn Medal. He is cited
for the power of his books “Uncle Tom’s Children” and
“Native Son” in depicting “the effects of proscription,
segregation and denial of opportunities on the American
Negro.”

1960 – British Somaliland becomes part of Somalia.

1967 – A racially motivated disturbance occurs in Buffalo, New York.
200 persons are arrested. The disturbance will last four
days.

1970 – The Jackson Five: Marlon, Tito, Jackie, Jermaine and Michael,
jump to number one on the music charts with “The Love You
Save”. The song will stay at the top of the charts for a
two week run. It will be the third of four number-one hits
in a row for the group. The other three are: “I Want You
Back”, “ABC” and “I’ll Be There”. In 15 years, from 1969
to 1984, The Jackson Five/Jacksons will have 23 hits, score
two platinum singles (“Enjoy Yourself” and “Shake Your Body
[Down To The Ground]”) and one gold record (“State of
Shock”).

1972 – Patricia Roberts Harris, the first African American U.S.
Ambassador, is named permanent chairman of the Democratic
National Convention. The Mattoon, Illinois native will
later break new ground as Secretary of Health and Human
Services and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

1977 – Djibouti gains independence from France. Djibouti is located
in East Africa, bordered by Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and
the Gulf of Aden.

1978 – Henry Rono of Kenya sets a world record for 3,000 meters,
running in 7 minutes 32 and 1/10 seconds.

1979 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules, in Weber v. Kaiser Aluminum
and Chemical Corporation, that employers and unions can
establish voluntary programs, including the use of quotas,
to aid minorities in employment.

1988 – Mike Tyson knocks out Michael Spinks in 91 seconds of the
first round, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

1989 – The Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays 16-6. Each
team is coached by an African American, Frank Robinson of
the Orioles and Cito Gaston of the Blue Jays. Robinson,
who will direct his team to an 87-75 season, will be named
manager of the year by both the Associated Press and the
United Press International.

1991 – Justice Thurgood Marshall, 82, the first African American on
the U.S. Supreme Court, announces his retirement after 24
years service, citing “advancing age and medical condition.”
As chief counsel for the NAACP, Marshall had played a major
role in the legal fight that led to the Brown v. Board of
Education decision, overturning legal segregation. In his
final dissent on the court on June 27, Marshall says that
the court’s conservative majority was recklessly overturning
decisions protecting the right of African Americans and
minorities.

1994 – U.S. Coast Guard cutters intercept 1,330 Haitian boat people
on the high seas in one of the busiest days since refugees
began leaving Haiti following a 1991 military coup.

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

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

February 10 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 10 *

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‘Black History Month.’ Black History Month needs to be a
12-MONTH THING. When we all learn about our history, about
how much we’ve accomplished while being handicapped with
RACISM, it can only inspire us to greater heights, knowing
we’re on the giant shoulders of our ANCESTORS.” Subscribe
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1868 – Republican conservatives draft new constitution which
concentrates political power in the hands of the governor and
limits the impact of the Black vote. This is made possible by
Conservatives, aided by military forces, who seize the
convention hall and establish control over the reconstruction
process in Florida.

1927 – Mary Leontyne Violet Price, who will be acclaimed as one of the
world’s greatest operatic talents, is born in Laurel,
Mississippi. She will amass many operatic firsts, being the
first African American to sing opera on network television and
the first African American to receive the Presidential Medal
of Freedom. Among her honors will be the NAACP’s Spingarn
Medal, three Emmys, and Kennedy Center Honors.

1937 – Roberta Flack is born in Black Mountain (Asheville), North
Carolina. She will begin her professional singing career in
Washington, DC. She will go on to win Grammys for “The First
Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Where Is the Love,” and “Killing
Me Softly with His Song.”

1942 – Mary Lovelace O’Neal is born in Jackson, Mississippi. Educated
at Howard and Columbia universities, she will become a
professor of fine arts and head of the Art Department at
University of California at Berkeley. Academia will allow her
the freedom to become a painter who will exhibit her work
in museums in the United States, Morocco, and Chile.

1943 – Eta Phi Beta, the national business and professional sorority,
is incorporated in Detroit, Michigan. It will have chapters
throughout the United States and number among its members
civil rights activist Daisy Bates and artist Margaret T.
Burroughs.

1945 – The United States, Russia, Great Britain, and France approve a
peace treaty with Italy, under which Italy renounces all
rights and claims to Ethiopia and Eritrea.

1945 – The Chicago Defender reports that over a quarter of a million
African Americans migrated to California during the years 1942
and 1943. As the percentage of African Americans in
California increases from 1 1/2% to more than 10% of the
total population, so does the practice of racial segregation.

1971 – Bill White becomes the first African American major league
baseball announcer when he begins announcing for the New
York Yankees.

1989 – Ronald H. Brown, who had served as Jesse Jackson’s campaign
manager, becomes chairman of the Democratic National
Committee, the first African American to hold the position
in either party.

1990 – South African President, Frederik Willem de Klerk announces
that Nelson Mandela will be set free on February 11th after
27 years in prison.

1992 – Alex Haley, author of “Roots,” and “Autobiography of Malcolm
X,” joins the ancestors while on a lecture tour in Seattle,
Washington at the age of 70.

1992 – Mike Tyson is convicted in Indianapolis, Indiana of raping a
contestant in the Miss Black America competition and
sentenced to six years in an Indiana prison.

1998 – Dr. David Satcher is confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become
Surgeon General.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 22 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 22 *

1801 – Haitian liberator, Toussaint L’Ouverture, enters Santiago to
battle the French Armed Forces.

1891 – The “Lodge Bill,” which called for federal supervision of U.S.
elections, is abandoned in the Senate after a Southern
filibuster.

1906 – Twenty-eight-year-old Meta Vaux Warrick’s sculpture “Portraits
from Mirrors” is exhibited at the 101st Annual Exhibition of
the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Although it is one of the first major showings
of her work, the young Warrick (later Fuller) has already
studied sculpture with the legendary Auguste Rodin and had
her work exhibited in Paris at S. Bing’s Gallery Nouveau.

1920 – William Caesar Warfield is born in West Helena, Arkansas, the
eldest of five sons. He will become a singer and have his
recital debut in New York’s famous Town Hall on March 19,
1950, putting him into the front ranks of concert artists
overnight. His career will span almost fifty years and among
his frequent appearances in foreign countries, this artist
has made six separate tours for the U.S. Department of State,
more than any other American solo artist. He will receive
a Grammy in the “Spoken Word” category (1984) for his
outstanding narration of Aaron Copeland’s “A Lincoln Portrait”
accompanied by the Eastman Philharmonic Orchestra. He is
best known for his role in “Showboat.” He will join the
ancestors on August 26, 2002.

1924 – James Louis (J.J.) Johnson is born in Indianapolis, Indiana.
He will become one of the greatest trombonists and composers
in jazz. He will be originally influenced by Fred Beckett of
Harlan Leonard’s band. Soon thereafter, he will join Benny
Carter. He will play with Count Basie (1945-1946) and record
his first solo improvisation. During the 1954-1956 period,
J.J. Johnson will take a brief break from bands and team up
with Kai Winding for a commercially successful trombone duo.
He will prefer the use of pure tones when playing the trombone,
focusing on line, interval and accent. His solos will show
virtuosity because of their remarkable mobility, which many
artists find difficult to duplicate or imitate. These
endeavors will be fruitless in the early 1950s and for a
couple of years he will work as a blueprint inspector. In the
1970s, Johnson will move from New Jersey to California,
concentrating exclusively on film and television scoring. In
1984, Johnson will reenter the jazz scene with a tour of the
“European Festival Circuit.” He will join the ancestors in
1991 from complications from a stroke.

1931 – Samuel “Sam” Cooke is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He will
grow up in Chicago, Illinois, after moving there with his
family in 1933. He will become a singer and be best known for
his recordings “You Send Me” and “Twisting the Night Away.”
Cooke will be one of the most popular singers of the 1960’s.
He will join the ancestors on December 11, 1964. He will be
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 23,
1986.

1960 – Sugar Ray Robinson loses the Middleweight Boxing Championship
to Paul Pender in a 15-round decision.

1961 – Wilma Rudolph, the 1960 Olympic gold medalist and track star,
sets a world indoor mark in the women’s 60-yard dash, with a
speedy 6.9 seconds in a meet held in Los Angeles, California.

1962 – Baseball Writers elect Jackie Robinson into the Baseball Hall
of Fame.

1973 – George Foreman takes the heavyweight boxing title away from
‘Smokin’ Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica in the second round.
Foreman will knock ‘Smokin’ Joe down six times on his way to
victory.

1981 – Samuel Pierce is named Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD). One of the few African Americans in the
Reagan administration, there will be high expectations for
his potential to effect change, but Pierce’s leadership will
be severely questioned as scandal rocks his department in
1989. An estimated $ 2 billion will be lost due to fraud and
mismanagement during Pierce’s tenure.

1988 – Heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson knocks out former
champion Larry Holmes in 4 rounds.

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