KRLemmons African American History

November 20 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 20 *

1865 – African Americans hold a protest convention in Zion
Church in Charleston, South Carolina and demand equal
rights and repeal of the “Black Codes.”

1878 – Charles Sidney Gilpin, is born in Richmond, Virginia.
In the early 1920s, Gilpin will secure his place in
American theater history by creating the title — and
only major — role in Eugene O’Neill’s’ “The Emperor
Jones.” Gilpin’s portrayal in the long one-act play
becomes a box-office sensation in New York’s Greenwich
Village. The play and its principal actor will transfer
to Broadway and will later go on tour. After the post-
Broadway tour, which played Richmond to great acclaim,
Gilpin’s insistence on eliminating racial epithets from
the play will anger O’Neill. O’Neill, who at one time
is said to be writing a play especially for Gilpin, will
cast budding actor Paul Robeson in the London production
of Emperor Jones. Robeson will also play Jones on film.
Except for Ira Aldridge, who lived and performed mostly
in Europe before the Civil War, Gilpin will be the first
African American to be widely lauded as a serious actor
on America’s mainstream stage. He will lose his voice
in 1929 and join the ancestors at his home in Eldridge,
New Jersey in 1930.

1910 – Pauli Murray is born. A lawyer and author of “Song in a
Weary Throat,” “Proud Shoes,” and “Dark Testament and
Other Poems,” she will also be a powerful theologian and
the first African American woman priest to be ordained
in the Episcopal Church.

1919 – Jane Cooke Wright is born in New York City, one of two
daughters of Dr. Louis Tompkins Wright and Corinne Cook
Wright. Her father was a physician who practiced in New
York City and later established the Cancer Research
Foundation at Harlem Hospital. She will live in New York
City until 1938 when she leaves to enroll in Smith
College. She will begin college intending to major in
art, but will switch to pre-medicine. She will graduate
from Smith in 1942, one of only two graduates in that
class later accepted to medical school. She will bring
the field of chemotherapy to the forefront of cancer
treatment, publishing over 130 papers. Her research team
will focus on the investigation of a wide variety of
anticancer drugs and develop procedures for the sequential
use of these drugs in cancer treatment. She will be
awarded a full scholarship to New York Medical School and
receive an M.D. degree upon graduating with honors, third
in her class. In 1945. She will intern at Bellevue
Hospital, followed by two residencies at Harlem Hospital.
At this point, she will set up private practice since no
medical institution will offer her a position. In 1949 She
will join the medical staff at the Cancer Research
Foundation at Harlem Hospital as a clinician and research
scientist and begin her work in cancer research. After her
father joins the ancestors in 1952, she will become
director of the foundation. In 1955 she will move to New
York University Medical Center as director of cancer
chemotherapy research and instructor of research surgery.
In 1964, she will be appointed to President Lyndon
Johnson’s Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke.
Her subcommittee’s recommendation to develop regional
centers will be an important outcome of this commission.
By 1967, Jane Wright will be promoted to associate dean
and professor of surgery at NYU Medical Center where she
will continue to be active in research until retiring in
1987. Her honors will include the Spirit of Achievement
Award of the Women’s Division of the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine (1965); the Hadassah Myrtle Wreath
(1967); the Smith Medal from Smith College (1968);
featured by Ciba Geigy on its Exceptional Black Scientist
poster (1980); and be honored by the American Association
for Cancer Research (1975). She will receive several
honorary degrees and serve on boards of trustees for
various organizations.

1922 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Mary B. Talbert,
the former president of the National Association of
Colored Women, for service to African American women and
for the restoration of the Frederick Douglas home in
Southeast Washington, DC.

1923 – Garrett A. Morgan receives a patent for his three-way
traffic signal. The device, which will revolutionize
traffic control, is one of many inventions for the Paris,
Kentucky, native, which include a hair-straightening
process and the gas mask.

1939 – Morgan State College is established in Baltimore,
Maryland, succeeding Morgan State Biblical College,
founded in 1857.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy issues an executive order
barring racial discrimination in federally financed
housing.

1962 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Robert C.
Weaver, economist and government official, for his
leadership in the movement for open housing.

1969 – Pele’, the Brazilian soccer star, scores his 1,000th
soccer goal.

1973 – The gravesite of Mary Seacole, a Jamaican nurse who
served in the Crimean War, is restored in England.
Traveling to the battlefield at her own expense, when
her expert services are rejected by English authorities
and Florence Nightingale, Seacole opens her own nursing
hotel, which she operates by day, serving as a
volunteer with Nightingale at night. Seacole’s skills
saved the lives of many soldiers wounded during the war
or infected with malaria, cholera, yellow fever, and
other illnesses.

1977 – Walter Payton, of the Chicago Bears, rushes for NFL
record 275 yards in one game.

1981 – The Negro Ensemble Company’s production of Charles
Fuller’s “A Soldier’s Play” opens the Theatre Four.
The play will win a New York Drama Critics Award for
best American play and the Pulitzer Prize.

1997 – A.C. Green sets the NBA “Iron Man” record for consecutive
games played at 907 games. The previous record had
stood for fifteen years. Iron Men from professional
baseball and professional hockey were present at
courtside to observe the record-breaking performance.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 1 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – October 1 *

1851 – William “Jerry” Henry, a runaway slave and craftsman who had
settled in Syracuse, New York, is arrested by a United
States Marshal and scheduled to be returned to slavery.
Ten thousand citizens of the city will storm the sheriff’s
office and courthouse, free Henry, and aid his escape to
Canada via the underground railroad.

1872 – Morgan State College (now University) is founded in
Baltimore, Maryland.

1886 – Kentucky State College (now University) is founded in
Frankfort, Kentucky.

1897 – Virginia Proctor Powell, first female African American
librarian is born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. She will
follow in her mother’s footsteps and continue her education
at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. In 1919, She will earn
her Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Oberlin.
She will move back to Pittsburgh where, although having
adequate training and experience, she was unable to pursue her
desired goal of teaching and spent some time working at her
aunt’s salon as a beautician. Aware of her passion for children
and books, Charles Wilbur Florence, her future husband, will
encourage her to pursue a career in librarianship. During a
time when African Americans were rarely considered for
admission into predominantly white universities, she will be
considered for admission into the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library
School (now the University of Pittsburgh School of Information
Sciences). There is much debate about allowing a Black person
into the program. School officials were concerned with how
white students might react to having a Black peer and the
likelihood that she would not find work upon completion of the
program. She will finish the program in 1923. OVer time she
would work as a librarian in Richmond, Virginia and Washington,
D.C. She will join the ancestors in Richmond, Virginia in 1991.

1937 – The Pullman Company formally recognizes the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters.

1937 – The Spingarn Medal is awarded to Walter White, NAACP
secretary, for his leadership and work in the anti-
lynching movement.

1945 – Donny Hathaway is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will be
an influential pop and Rhythm & Blues singer of the 1970s
whose hit songs will include “The Ghetto” and “The Closer
I Get to You” (with Roberta Flack). His collaborations with
Roberta Flack will score high on the charts and win him the
Grammy Award for “Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with
Vocal” for the duet, “Where Is the Love” in 1973. He will join
the ancestors, after commiting suicide, on January 13, 1979.

1945 – Rodney Cline “Rod” Carew, baseball Hall of Famer, is born in Gatún,
Panama, (formally Panama Canal Zone). He will win the American
League’s Rookie of the Year award in 1967 and be elected to the
first of 18 consecutive All-Star game appearances. He will steal
home seven times in the 1969 season to lead the majors, just
missing Ty Cobb’s Major League record of eight and the most in the
major leagues since Pete Reiser stole seven for the Brooklyn
Dodgers in 1946. His career total of 17 steals of home currently
puts him tied for 17th on the list with former New York Giant MVP
Larry Doyle and fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Collins. In 1972, He
will lead the American League in batting, hitting .318, and
remarkably, without hitting a single home run for the only time in
his career. He is, to date, the only player in the American League
or in the modern era to win the batting title with no home runs.
In 1975, he will join Ty Cobb as the only players to lead both the
American and National Leagues in batting average for three
consecutive seasons. In the 1977 season, he will bat .388, which is
the highest since Boston’s Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, and win
the American League’s Most Valuable Player award. He will be
inducted into MLB Hall of Fame in 1991. He will also be inducted
into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame.

1945 – Heavyweight champion, Joe Louis, is discharged from the
army.

1947 – United States’ control of Haitian Custom Service and
governmental revenue ends.

1948 – The California Supreme Court voids state statute banning
interracial marriages.

1948 – Edward Dudley is named Ambassador to Liberia.

1951 – The 24th Infantry Regiment, last of the all African
American military units authorized by Congress in 1866,
is deactivated in Korea.

1954 – The British colony of Nigeria becomes a federation.

1955 – Howard Hewitt is born in Akron, Ohio. He will move to Los
Angeles where he would eventually meet Soul Train dancer
and future first wife Rainey Riley-Cunningham, then a
secretary of the show’s creator and original host Don
Cornelius. It was Cornelius who introduced him to fellow
Soul Train dancers Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel, and
their group, Shalamar, was born. The trio is best known
for songs such as “Second Time Around”, “A Night to
Remember”, “Dancing in the Sheets” and the ballad “This Is
For The Lover In You”. He will be the group’s lead singer
from 1979 until 1985. When Shalamar breaks up in the mid
1980s, he will go on to pursue a solo career. In 1986 he
will be arrested and indicted in Miami with his fiance Mori
Molina for possession with an intent to distribute cocaine.
He subsequently married Molina who will be convicted and
serve prison time. He will then be acquitted of the charges.
He will sign with Elektra Records and record 1986’s I Commit
To Love (R&B #12), a relatively solid urban album that will
yielded two R&B hits, “I’m For Real” (R&B #2) and “Stay”
(R&B #8). The album will also include “Say Amen”, a gospel
tune that became a surprise hit on the Gospel charts and is
his signature song. He will contribute vocals to La Toya
Jackson’s Hot 100 hit single “Heart Don’t Lie” in 1984.

1960 – Nigeria proclaims its independence from Great Britain.

1961 – East & West Cameroon merge and become the Federal
Republic of Cameroon.

1963 – Nigeria becomes a republic within the British
Commonwealth.

1966 – The Black Panther party is founded in Oakland, California
by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

1977 – Brazilian soccer great, Pele’, retires with 1,281 goals
in 1,363 games.

1989 – Dallas Cowboy, Ed “Too Tall” Jones records his 1,000th
NFL tackle.

1991 – Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell assumes her duties as dean of
New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. A noted
art historian, Schmidt had previously served as
commissioner of cultural affairs, director of the
Studio of Harlem, and chair of the Smithsonian
Institution’s Advisory Committee that recommended
creation of a national African American museum.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 20 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 20 *

1865 – African Americans hold a protest convention in Zion
Church in Charleston, South Carolina and demand equal
rights and repeal of the “Black Codes.”

1878 – Charles Sidney Gilpin, is born in Richmond, Virginia.
In the early 1920s, Gilpin will secure his place in
American theater history by creating the title — and
only major — role in Eugene O’Neill’s’ “The Emperor
Jones.” Gilpin’s portrayal in the long one-act play
becomes a box-office sensation in New York’s Greenwich
Village. The play and its principal actor will transfer
to Broadway and will later go on tour. After the post-
Broadway tour, which played Richmond to great acclaim,
Gilpin’s insistence on eliminating racial epithets from
the play will anger O’Neill. O’Neill, who at one time
is said to be writing a play especially for Gilpin, will
cast budding actor Paul Robeson in the London production
of Emperor Jones. Robeson will also play Jones on film.
Except for Ira Aldridge, who lived and performed mostly
in Europe before the Civil War, Gilpin will be the first
African American to be widely lauded as a serious actor
on America’s mainstream stage. He will lose his voice
in 1929 and join the ancestors at his home in Eldridge,
New Jersey in 1930.

1910 – Pauli Murray is born. A lawyer and author of “Song in a
Weary Throat,” “Proud Shoes,” and “Dark Testament and
Other Poems,” she will also be a powerful theologian and
the first African American woman priest to be ordained
in the Episcopal Church.

1919 – Jane Cooke Wright is born in New York City, one of two
daughters of Dr. Louis Tompkins Wright and Corinne Cook
Wright. Her father was a physician who practiced in New
York City and later established the Cancer Research
Foundation at Harlem Hospital. She will live in New York
City until 1938 when she leaves to enroll in Smith
College. She will begin college intending to major in
art, but will switch to pre-medicine. She will graduate
from Smith in 1942, one of only two graduates in that
class later accepted to medical school. She will bring
the field of chemotherapy to the forefront of cancer
treatment, publishing over 130 papers. Her research team
will focus on the investigation of a wide variety of
anticancer drugs and develop procedures for the sequential
use of these drugs in cancer treatment. She will be
awarded a full scholarship to New York Medical School and
receive an M.D. degree upon graduating with honors, third
in her class. In 1945. She will intern at Bellevue
Hospital, followed by two residencies at Harlem Hospital.
At this point, she will set up private practice since no
medical institution will offer her a position. In 1949 She
will join the medical staff at the Cancer Research
Foundation at Harlem Hospital as a clinician and research
scientist and begin her work in cancer research. After her
father joins the ancestors in 1952, she will become
director of the foundation. In 1955 she will move to New
York University Medical Center as director of cancer
chemotherapy research and instructor of research surgery.
In 1964, she will be appointed to President Lyndon
Johnson’s Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke.
Her subcommittee’s recommendation to develop regional
centers will be an important outcome of this commission.
By 1967, Jane Wright will be promoted to associate dean
and professor of surgery at NYU Medical Center where she
will continue to be active in research until retiring in
1987. Her honors will include the Spirit of Achievement
Award of the Women’s Division of the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine (1965); the Hadassah Myrtle Wreath
(1967); the Smith Medal from Smith College (1968);
featured by Ciba Geigy on its Exceptional Black Scientist
poster (1980); and be honored by the American Association
for Cancer Research (1975). She will receive several
honorary degrees and serve on boards of trustees for
various organizations.

1922 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Mary B. Talbert,
the former president of the National Association of
Colored Women, for service to African American women and
for the restoration of the Frederick Douglas home in
Southeast Washington, DC.

1923 – Garrett A. Morgan receives a patent for his three-way
traffic signal. The device, which will revolutionize
traffic control, is one of many inventions for the Paris,
Kentucky, native, which include a hair-straightening
process and the gas mask.

1939 – Morgan State College is established in Baltimore,
Maryland, succeeding Morgan State Biblical College,
founded in 1857.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy issues an executive order
barring racial discrimination in federally financed
housing.

1962 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Robert C.
Weaver, economist and government official, for his
leadership in the movement for open housing.

1969 – Pele’, the Brazilian soccer star, scores his 1,000th
soccer goal.

1973 – The gravesite of Mary Seacole, a Jamaican nurse who
served in the Crimean War, is restored in England.
Traveling to the battlefield at her own expense, when
her expert services are rejected by English authorities
and Florence Nightingale, Seacole opens her own nursing
hotel, which she operates by day, serving as a
volunteer with Nightingale at night. Seacole’s skills
saved the lives of many soldiers wounded during the war
or infected with malaria, cholera, yellow fever, and
other illnesses.

1977 – Walter Payton, of the Chicago Bears, rushes for NFL
record 275 yards in one game.

1981 – The Negro Ensemble Company’s production of Charles
Fuller’s “A Soldier’s Play” opens the Theatre Four.
The play will win a New York Drama Critics Award for
best American play and the Pulitzer Prize.

1997 – A.C. Green sets the NBA “Iron Man” record for consecutive
games played at 907 games. The previous record had
stood for fifteen years. Iron Men from professional
baseball and professional hockey were present at
courtside to observe the record-breaking performance.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 20 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 20 *

1865 – African Americans hold a protest convention in Zion
Church in Charleston, South Carolina and demand equal
rights and repeal of the “Black Codes.”

1878 – Charles Sidney Gilpin, is born in Richmond, Virginia.
In the early 1920s, Gilpin will secure his place in
American theater history by creating the title — and
only major — role in Eugene O’Neill’s’ “The Emperor
Jones.” Gilpin’s portrayal in the long one-act play
becomes a box-office sensation in New York’s Greenwich
Village. The play and its principal actor will transfer
to Broadway and will later go on tour. After the post-
Broadway tour, which played Richmond to great acclaim,
Gilpin’s insistence on eliminating racial epithets from
the play will anger O’Neill. O’Neill, who at one time
is said to be writing a play especially for Gilpin, will
cast budding actor Paul Robeson in the London production
of Emperor Jones. Robeson will also play Jones on film.
Except for Ira Aldridge, who lived and performed mostly
in Europe before the Civil War, Gilpin will be the first
African American to be widely lauded as a serious actor
on America’s mainstream stage. He will lose his voice
in 1929 and join the ancestors at his home in Eldridge,
New Jersey in 1930.

1910 – Pauli Murray is born. A lawyer and author of “Song in a
Weary Throat,” “Proud Shoes,” and “Dark Testament and
Other Poems,” she will also be a powerful theologian and
the first African American woman priest to be ordained
in the Episcopal Church.

1919 – Jane Cooke Wright is born in New York City, one of two
daughters of Dr. Louis Tompkins Wright and Corinne Cook
Wright. Her father was a physician who practiced in New
York City and later established the Cancer Research
Foundation at Harlem Hospital. She will live in New York
City until 1938 when she leaves to enroll in Smith
College. She will begin college intending to major in
art, but will switch to pre-medicine. She will graduate
from Smith in 1942, one of only two graduates in that
class later accepted to medical school. She will bring
the field of chemotherapy to the forefront of cancer
treatment, publishing over 130 papers. Her research team
will focus on the investigation of a wide variety of
anticancer drugs and develop procedures for the sequential
use of these drugs in cancer treatment. She will be
awarded a full scholarship to New York Medical School and
receive an M.D. degree upon graduating with honors, third
in her class. In 1945. She will intern at Bellevue
Hospital, followed by two residencies at Harlem Hospital.
At this point, she will set up private practice since no
medical institution will offer her a position. In 1949 She
will join the medical staff at the Cancer Research
Foundation at Harlem Hospital as a clinician and research
scientist and begin her work in cancer research. After her
father joins the ancestors in 1952, she will become
director of the foundation. In 1955 she will move to New
York University Medical Center as director of cancer
chemotherapy research and instructor of research surgery.
In 1964, she will be appointed to President Lyndon
Johnson’s Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke.
Her subcommittee’s recommendation to develop regional
centers will be an important outcome of this commission.
By 1967, Jane Wright will be promoted to associate dean
and professor of surgery at NYU Medical Center where she
will continue to be active in research until retiring in
1987. Her honors will include the Spirit of Achievement
Award of the Women’s Division of the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine (1965); the Hadassah Myrtle Wreath
(1967); the Smith Medal from Smith College (1968);
featured by Ciba Geigy on its Exceptional Black Scientist
poster (1980); and be honored by the American Association
for Cancer Research (1975). She will receive several
honorary degrees and serve on boards of trustees for
various organizations.

1922 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Mary B. Talbert,
the former president of the National Association of
Colored Women, for service to African American women and
for the restoration of the Frederick Douglas home in
Southeast Washington, DC.

1923 – Garrett A. Morgan receives a patent for his three-way
traffic signal. The device, which will revolutionize
traffic control, is one of many inventions for the Paris,
Kentucky, native, which include a hair-straightening
process and the gas mask.

1939 – Morgan State College is established in Baltimore,
Maryland, succeeding Morgan State Biblical College,
founded in 1857.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy issues an executive order
barring racial discrimination in federally financed
housing.

1962 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Robert C.
Weaver, economist and government official, for his
leadership in the movement for open housing.

1969 – Pele’, the Brazilian soccer star, scores his 1,000th
soccer goal.

1973 – The gravesite of Mary Seacole, a Jamaican nurse who
served in the Crimean War, is restored in England.
Traveling to the battlefield at her own expense, when
her expert services are rejected by English authorities
and Florence Nightingale, Seacole opens her own nursing
hotel, which she operates by day, serving as a
volunteer with Nightingale at night. Seacole’s skills
saved the lives of many soldiers wounded during the war
or infected with malaria, cholera, yellow fever, and
other illnesses.

1977 – Walter Payton, of the Chicago Bears, rushes for NFL
record 275 yards in one game.

1981 – The Negro Ensemble Company’s production of Charles
Fuller’s “A Soldier’s Play” opens the Theatre Four.
The play will win a New York Drama Critics Award for
best American play and the Pulitzer Prize.

1997 – A.C. Green sets the NBA “Iron Man” record for consecutive
games played at 907 games. The previous record had
stood for fifteen years. Iron Men from professional
baseball and professional hockey were present at
courtside to observe the record-breaking performance.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 1 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 1             *

1851 – William “Jerry” Henry, a runaway slave and craftsman who had
settled in Syracuse, New York, is arrested by a United
States Marshal and scheduled to be returned to slavery.
Ten thousand citizens of the city will storm the sheriff’s
office and courthouse, free Henry, and aid his escape to
Canada via the underground railroad.

1872 – Morgan State College (now University) is founded in
Baltimore, Maryland.

1886 – Kentucky State College (now University) is founded in
Frankfort, Kentucky.

1897 – Virginia Proctor Powell, first female African American
librarian is born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. She will
follow in her mother’s footsteps and continue her education
at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. In 1919, She will earn
her Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Oberlin.
She will move back to Pittsburgh where, although having
adequate training and experience, she was unable to pursue her
desired goal of teaching and spent some time working at her
aunt’s salon as a beautician. Aware of her passion for children
and books, Charles Wilbur Florence, her future husband, will
encourage her to pursue a career in librarianship. During a
time when African Americans were rarely considered for
admission into predominantly white universities, she will be
considered for admission into the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library
School (now the University of Pittsburgh School of Information
Sciences). There is much debate about allowing a Black person
into the program. School officials were concerned with how
white students might react to having a Black peer and the
likelihood that she would not find work upon completion of the
program. She will finish the program in 1923. OVer time she
would work as a librarian in Richmond, Virginia and Washington,
D.C. She will join the ancestors in Richmond, Virginia in 1991.

1937 – The Pullman Company formally recognizes the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters.

1937 – The Spingarn Medal is awarded to Walter White, NAACP
secretary, for his leadership and work in the anti-
lynching movement.

1945 – Donny Hathaway is born in Chicago, Illinois.  He will be
an influential pop and Rhythm & Blues singer of the 1970s
whose hit songs will include “The Ghetto” and “The Closer
I Get to You” (with Roberta Flack). His collaborations with
Roberta Flack will score high on the charts and win him the
Grammy Award for “Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with
Vocal” for the duet, “Where Is the Love” in 1973. He will join
the ancestors, after commiting suicide, on January 13, 1979.

1945 – Rodney Cline “Rod” Carew, baseball Hall of Famer, is born in Gatún,
Panama, (formally Panama Canal Zone). He will win the American
League’s Rookie of the Year award in 1967 and be elected to the
first of 18 consecutive All-Star game appearances. He will steal
home seven times in the 1969 season to lead the majors, just
missing Ty Cobb’s Major League record of eight and the most in the
major leagues since Pete Reiser stole seven for the Brooklyn
Dodgers in 1946. His career total of 17 steals of home currently
puts him tied for 17th on the list with former New York Giant MVP
Larry Doyle and fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Collins. In 1972, He
will lead the American League in batting, hitting .318, and
remarkably, without hitting a single home run for the only time in
his career. He is, to date, the only player in the American League
or in the modern era to win the batting title with no home runs.
In 1975, he will join Ty Cobb as the only players to lead both the
American and National Leagues in batting average for three
consecutive seasons. In the 1977 season, he will bat .388, which is
the highest since Boston’s Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, and win
the American League’s Most Valuable Player award. He will be
inducted into MLB Hall of Fame in 1991. He will also be inducted
into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame.

1945 – Heavyweight champion,  Joe Louis, is discharged from the
army.

1947 – United States’ control of Haitian Custom Service and
governmental revenue ends.

1948 – The California Supreme Court voids state statute banning
interracial marriages.

1948 – Edward Dudley is named Ambassador to Liberia.

1951 – The 24th Infantry Regiment, last of the all African
American military units authorized by Congress in 1866,
is deactivated in Korea.

1954 – The British colony of Nigeria becomes a federation.

1955 – Howard Hewitt is born in Akron, Ohio. He will move to Los
Angeles where he would eventually meet Soul Train dancer
and future first wife Rainey Riley-Cunningham, then a
secretary of the show’s creator and original host Don
Cornelius. It was Cornelius who introduced him to fellow
Soul Train dancers Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel, and
their group, Shalamar, was born. The trio is best known
for songs such as “Second Time Around”, “A Night to
Remember”, “Dancing in the Sheets” and the ballad “This Is
For The Lover In You”. He will be the group’s lead singer
from 1979 until 1985. When Shalamar breaks up in the mid
1980s, he will go on to pursue a solo career. In 1986 he
will be arrested and indicted in Miami with his fiance Mori
Molina for possession with an intent to distribute cocaine.
He subsequently married Molina who will be convicted and
serve prison time. He will then be acquitted of the charges.
He will sign with Elektra Records and record 1986’s I Commit
To Love (R&B #12), a relatively solid urban album that will
yielded two R&B hits, “I’m For Real” (R&B #2) and “Stay”
(R&B #8). The album will also include “Say Amen”, a gospel
tune that became a surprise hit on the Gospel charts and is
his signature song. He will contribute vocals to La Toya
Jackson’s Hot 100 hit single “Heart Don’t Lie” in 1984.

1960 – Nigeria proclaims its independence from Great Britain.

1961 – East & West Cameroon merge and become the Federal
Republic of Cameroon.

1963 – Nigeria becomes a republic within the British
Commonwealth.

1966 – The Black Panther party is founded in Oakland, California
by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

1977 – Brazilian soccer great, Pele’, retires with 1,281 goals
in 1,363 games.

1989 – Dallas Cowboy, Ed “Too Tall” Jones records his 1,000th
NFL tackle.

1991 – Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell assumes her duties as dean of
New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. A noted
art historian, Schmidt had previously served as
commissioner of cultural affairs, director of the
Studio of Harlem, and chair of the Smithsonian
Institution’s Advisory Committee that recommended
creation of a national African American museum.

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