KRLemmons African American History

November 11 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 11 *

1831 – Nat Turner is executed for organizing and leading the
armed slave insurrection in Jerusalem, Southampton
County, Virginia. One of our greatest freedom fighters
joins the ancestors.

1890 – D. McCree is granted a patent for the portable fire
escape.

1895 – Bechuanaland becomes part of the Cape Colony in Africa.

1915 – Claude Clark, Sr. is born near Rockingham, Georgia. He
will study at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the
Barnes Foundation, and the University of California,
Berkeley, and become a renowned artist whose studies of
urban life and social realism will be exhibited widely,
including the New York World’s Fair of 1939, the
Sorbonne, the Oakland Museum, the Museum of African
American Art in Los Angeles and in the major group
exhibits Hidden Heritage: Afro-American Art 1800-1950
and Two Centuries of Black American Art.

1918 – The Armistice is signed, ending World War I. Official
records listed 370,000 African American soldiers and
1400 African American commissioned officers. A little
more than half of of these soldiers served in the
European Theater. Three African American regiments —
the 369th, 371st, and 372nd — received the Croix de
Guerre for valor. The 369th was the first American
unit to reach the Rhine river (which separates France
from Germany). The first American soldiers to be
decorated for bravery in France were Henry Johnson and
Needham Roberts of the 369th Infantry Regiment.

1925 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to James Weldon
Johnson, former U.S. consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua
and NAACP executive secretary, for his work as an
author, diplomat and leader.

1928 – Ernestine Anderson is born in Houston, Texas. Her
introduction to jazz singing will begin at age 12 at
the Eldorado Ballroom in Houston. She will perform
with Russell Jaquet, Johnny Otis, and Lionel Hampton
and be known for her warm, blues-influenced vocals.

1929 – LaVern Baker is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will
become a rhythm & blues vocalist. She will be known
for her recordings of “Tweedly Dee”, “I Cried a Tear”,
and “Jim Dandy.”

1946 – Corrine Brown is born in Jacksonville, Florida. She will
receive a bachelor’s degree in 1969 and a master’s
degree in 1971 from Florida A&M University. She will
also receive an education specialist degree from the
University of Florida in 1974 and an honorary doctorate
in law from Edward Waters College. She will be a
college professor, a guidance counselor, and owner of a
travel agency before entering politics. In 1982 she will
be elected to the Florida House of Representatives,
where she will serve for ten years. In 1992 she will be
elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from
Florida’s Third Congressional District.

1950 – Otis Armstrong is born. He will become a NFL runningback
and the AFC’s leading rusher in 1974 with the Denver
Broncos.

1965 – Prime Minister Ian D. Smith of Rhodesia proclaims
independence from Great Britain.

1968 – Ronnie Devoe is born. He will become a singer with the
groups “New Edition” and “Bell, Biv, and Devoe.”

1972 – Carl T. Rowan, journalist, becomes the first African
American elected to the ‘Gridiron Club.’

1975 – Angola gains independence from Portugal after 500 years
of colonial rule. Angola, in southeastern Africa, had
been waging guerrilla warfare against Portuguese rule
since 1961. In 1974, back in Portugal, a group of young
military officers overthrew the government. The new
government quickly granted independence to Portugal’s
colonies. Thus, on November 11, 1975 Angola officially
became an independent republic.

1979 – The Bethune Museum and Archives is established in
Washington, DC. The goal of the museum, which is
housed in the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, is to
serve as a depository and center for African American
women’s history.

1984 – Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. dies of a heart attack
in Atlanta, Georgia. Better known as “Daddy King,” he
was the father of famed civil rights leader Martin
Luther King, Jr. and was himself, an early civil rights
leader. The elder King was pastor of Ebenezer Baptist
Church in Atlanta, the center for much of his son’s
civil rights activity.

1985 – The city of Yonkers, New York is found guilty of
segregating in schools & housing.

1989 – The Civil Rights Memorial is dedicated in Montgomery,
Alabama.

1995 – The European Union’s 15 member states decide to pull
their envoys out of Lagos to show their anger at
Nigeria’s execution of human rights leaders.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 30 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – October 30 *

1831 – Nat Turner is remembered for his role in the slave
revolt that took place in Southampton county,
Virginia on August 21.

1939 – Eddie Holland is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will
become one-third of an amazing songwriting and
production trio, Holland-Dozier-Holland. Eddie
Holland will not be as successful on his own as when
teamed with brother Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier.
Eddie Holland will score his biggest hit as a solo
artist back in 1962, with “Jamie” reaching number six
on the R&B charts and peaking at #30 pop. He recorded
three more songs for Motown in the mid-’60s, but none
of them were hits, and he then concentrated on
songwriting and production. The Holland-Dozier-
Holland trio will write numerous hits for Motown acts
through the ’60s before departing in 1968. They will
form their own label in 1970, Hot Wax/Invictus, and
will have success for a while with such acts as The
Chairmen Of The Board, Laura Lee, and the Honey Cone.
Some of the songs written by the trio are “Where Did
Our Love Go”, “Baby Love”, “Stop! In the Name of Love”,
“I Hear a Symphony”, “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”, “Reach
Out”, and “I’ll Be There.” Holland-Dozier-Holland will
be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

1941 – Otis Miles is born in Texarkana, Arkansas. He will
become a rhythm and blues singer known as Otis Williams
and will be one of the original members of the Motown
group, The Temptations. Some of their hits will be “I
Can’t Get Next to You”, “Cloud Nine”, “Runaway Child”,
“Running Wild”, “Just My Imagination”, “Papa was a
Rolling Stone”, and “Masquerade.”

1950 – Philip “Phil” Chenier is born in Berkeley, California.
He will become a professional basketball player and will
be best known as a member of the Washington Bullets
team.

1954 – The Defense Department announces that all units in the
armed forces are now integrated. The announcement comes
six years after President Harry S. Truman issued
Executive Order 9981.

1966 – Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, students at Oakland City
College in Oakland, California, create the Black Panther
Party for Self Defense.

1976 – Joseph H. Evans is elected president of the United Church
of Christ, the first African American to hold the post
in this predominantly white denomination.

1978 – Esther Rolle wins an Emmy Award for her role in “Summer
of my German Soldier.”

1979 – Richard Arrington is the first African American to be
elected mayor of Birmingham, Alabama.

1989 – Frank Mingo, CEO of the Mingo Group, joins the ancestors
in New York City. He, along with D. Parke Gibson,
Barbara Proctor of Proctor and Gardner, and Tom Burrell
of Burrell Advertising was one of the pioneering
advertising executives who specialized in targeting
African American consumers.

1991 – Led by President Robert L. Johnson, BET Holdings, Inc.,
the parent company of Black Entertainment Television,
sells 4.2 million shares of stock in an initial public
offering on the New York Stock Exchange. BET is the first
African American company listed on the “Big Board.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 2 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 2 *

1800 – Nat Turner is born in Southampton, Virginia. Believing
himself called by God to free his fellow bondsmen,
Turner will become a freedom fighter leader of one of
the most famous slave revolts, resulting in the death
of scores of whites and involving 60 to 80 slaves. He
will join the ancestors on November 11, 1831 after being
executed for his part in the rebellion.

1833 – The New York Anti-Slavery Society is organized.

1898 – Otis J. Rene’ is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. With
his younger brother Leon, he will move to Los Angeles,
California, and establish Exclusive and Excelsior
Records in the 1930’s. By the mid-1940’s, the brothers
will be leading independent record producers whose
artists will include Nat King Cole, Herb Jeffries, and
Johnny Otis. He will join the ancestors on April 5, 1970.

1929 – Moses Gunn is born in St. Louis, Missouri. He will become
an Obie Award-winning stage player, and co-found the Negro
Ensemble Company in the 1960s. His 1962 Broadway debut was
in Jean Genet’s “The Blacks.” He will be nominated for a
1976 Tony Award as Best Actor (Play) for “The Poison Tree”
and will play Othello on Broadway in 1970. He will also
appear in “Amityville II,” “Shaft,” and “Good Times.” He
will join the ancestors on December 17, 1993 after
succumbing to complications from asthma,

1932 – Maurice Morning ‘Maury’ Wills is born is Washington, DC.
He will become a professional baseball player and
shortstop for the Dodger organization. He will become
the National League Most Valuable Player in 1962.

1936 – Johnnie Cochran is born in Shreveport, Louisiana. He
will become a criminal defense attorney and will be
best known for his defense of Black Panther Party
member Geronimo Pratt and ex-NFL superstar O.J.
Simpson. He will join the ancestors on March 29, 2005.

1958 – The Republic of Guinea gains independence under the
leadership of Sekou Toure.

1965 – Bishop Harold Robert Perry of Lake Charles, Louisiana,
is named auxiliary bishop of New Orleans by Pope Paul
IV.

1967 – Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African American
member of the United States Supreme Court when he is
sworn in by Chief Justice Earl Warren. As chief
counsel for the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the 1940s
and ’50s, Marshall was the architect and executor of
the legal strategy that ended the era of official
racial segregation. The great-grandson of a slave,
Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1908.
After being rejected from the University of Maryland
Law School on account of his race, he was accepted at
all-black Howard University in Washington, DC. At
Howard, he studied under the tutelage of civil
liberties lawyer Charles H. Houston and in 1933
graduated first in his class. In 1936, he joined the
legal division of the NAACP, of which Houston was
director, and two years later succeeded his mentor
in the organization’s top legal post.

1967 – Robert H. Lawrence, who was named the first African
American astronaut, joins the ancestors after being
killed in a plane crash before his first mission.

1968 – Bob Gibson, of the St. Louis Cardinals, sets a world
series record of 17 strikeouts.

1980 – Larry Holmes retains the WBC heavyweight boxing title
defeating Muhammad Ali.

1981 – Hazel Scott, renown jazz singer and pianist, joins
the ancestors at the age of 61 (succumbed to pancreatic
cancer).

1986 – The United States Senate overrides President Ronald
Reagan’s veto of legislation imposing economic
sanctions against South Africa. The override is seen
as the culmination of efforts by Trans-Africa’s
Randall Robinson, Rep. Mickey Leland, and others
begun almost two years earlier with Robinson’s
arrest before the South African Embassy in
Washington, DC.

1989 – “Jump Start” premiers in 40 newspapers in the United
States. The comic strip is the creation of 26-year-
old Robb Armstrong, the youngest African American to
have a syndicated comic strip. He follows in the
footsteps of Morrie Turner, the creator of “Wee Pals,”
the first African American syndicated comic strip.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 21 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – August 21 *

1831 – Responding to a vision commanding him to lead his people
to freedom, Nat Turner and a group of seven freedom-
fighting slaves kill five members of the Travis family
in Southampton County, Virginia. Turner’s revolt will
last two days, involve 60 to 80 freedom-fighting slaves
and result in the deaths of at least 57 whites before
they go into hiding. Nat Turner manages to escape
capture for over six weeks. After his capture, he
confesses to his actions, is tried, and executed. This
revolt is significant because it will make the problem
of slavery visible to the Northerners, who within the
next 30 years will fight and die to end America’s
“peculiar institution.”

1906 – William “Count” Basie is born in Redbank, New Jersey.
One of the most influential forces in jazz, he will
amass numerous awards, including three Grammys and
Kennedy Center Honors in 1981 . He will join the
ancestors on April 26, 1984. NOTE: Many sources will
have 1904 for Count Basie’s birth year. Our source for
his birth and death is the Kennedy Center Archives
documenting “The Honors” bestowed on him in 1981.

1927 – The Fourth Pan-African Congress meets in New York City.

1932 – Melvin Van Pebbles is born in Chicago, Illinois. A
writer and dramatist, he will produce some of the more
important African American feature films of the 1960’s
and 1970’s, including “Story of a Three Day Pass,”
“Watermelon Man,” “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadass Song” and
the classic, “Putney Swope.”

1936 – Wilton Norman Chamberlain is born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Achieving a height of 6’11” in high school,
he will be recruited to play basketball for Kansas
University. He will leave Kansas University in his third
year to play with the Harlem Globetrotters and join the
Philadelphia Warriors (later 76ers) in 1959. He will
join the Los Angeles Lakers in 1969 and become a player-
coach in 1968 for the San Diego Conquistadors of the
American Basketball Association. He will lead the NBA in
scoring seven times, accumulate a 4,029 season point
record and become a seven-time all-NBA first teamer. He
will join the ancestors on October 12, 1999.

1938 – The classic recording, “Ain’t Misbehavin” is made by Fats
Waller.

1939 – Clarence Williams III is born in New York City. He will
become an actor best known for his starring role in the
television series, “The Mod Squad” as Lincoln.

1943 – Harriet M. West becomes the first African American woman
major in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). She becomes chief
of planning in the Bureau Control Division at the WAC
headquarters in Washington, DC.

1945 – Willie Lanier (Pro Football Hall of Famer and Kansas City
Chiefs linebacker: Super Bowl IV), is born.

1954 – Archie Griffin (Heisman Trophy winner: Ohio State [1974 &
1975]; Cincinnati Bengals running back: Super Bowl XVI),
is born.

1968 – Marine James Anderson Jr. becomes the first African
American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor
for his service in the Vietnam War.

1972 – The Republican National Convention convenes in Miami Beach,
Florida, with fifty-six African American delegates, 4.2
\ per cent of the total.

1986 – More than 1,700 people die when toxic gas erupts from a
volcanic lake in the West African nation of Cameroon.

1998 – Juanita Kidd Stout, the first African American woman to
serve on the supreme court in any state (January, 1988),
joins the ancestors in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Stout
loses a battle against leukemia at Thomas Jefferson
Hospital.

2000 – Julian Richardson, the owner of a San Francisco book
store that served as a meeting place for black artists
and activists in the city, joins the ancestors after
succumbing to heart failure at the age of 84. He
established the Marcus Bookstore in 1960, naming it after
Black nationalist writer and activist Marcus Garvey. The
store was a staple of black culture and was a gathering
place for Black Panthers supporters during the civil
rights era. Through the years, writers such as Alice
Walker, Ishmael Reed, Terry MacMillan and Cornel West
came to the bookstore. He studied lithography in college
and opened his own printing business. He used his skills
to print books, pamphlets and manuscripts on black
culture that otherwise would have to have been ordered
from the East Coast.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 11 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 11 *

1831 – Nat Turner is executed for organizing and leading the
armed slave insurrection in Jerusalem, Southampton
County, Virginia. One of our greatest freedom fighters
joins the ancestors.

1890 – D. McCree is granted a patent for the portable fire
escape.

1895 – Bechuanaland becomes part of the Cape Colony in Africa.

1915 – Claude Clark, Sr. is born near Rockingham, Georgia. He
will study at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the
Barnes Foundation, and the University of California,
Berkeley, and become a renowned artist whose studies of
urban life and social realism will be exhibited widely,
including the New York World’s Fair of 1939, the
Sorbonne, the Oakland Museum, the Museum of African
American Art in Los Angeles and in the major group
exhibits Hidden Heritage: Afro-American Art 1800-1950
and Two Centuries of Black American Art.

1918 – The Armistice is signed, ending World War I. Official
records listed 370,000 African American soldiers and
1400 African American commissioned officers. A little
more than half of of these soldiers served in the
European Theater. Three African American regiments —
the 369th, 371st, and 372nd — received the Croix de
Guerre for valor. The 369th was the first American
unit to reach the Rhine river (which separates France
from Germany). The first American soldiers to be
decorated for bravery in France were Henry Johnson and
Needham Roberts of the 369th Infantry Regiment.

1925 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to James Weldon
Johnson, former U.S. consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua
and NAACP executive secretary, for his work as an
author, diplomat and leader.

1928 – Ernestine Anderson is born in Houston, Texas. Her
introduction to jazz singing will begin at age 12 at
the Eldorado Ballroom in Houston. She will perform
with Russell Jaquet, Johnny Otis, and Lionel Hampton
and be known for her warm, blues-influenced vocals.

1929 – LaVern Baker is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will
become a rhythm & blues vocalist. She will be known
for her recordings of “Tweedly Dee”, “I Cried a Tear”,
and “Jim Dandy.”

1946 – Corrine Brown is born in Jacksonville, Florida. She will
receive a bachelor’s degree in 1969 and a master’s
degree in 1971 from Florida A&M University. She will
also receive an education specialist degree from the
University of Florida in 1974 and an honorary doctorate
in law from Edward Waters College. She will be a
college professor, a guidance counselor, and owner of a
travel agency before entering politics. In 1982 she will
be elected to the Florida House of Representatives,
where she will serve for ten years. In 1992 she will be
elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from
Florida’s Third Congressional District.

1950 – Otis Armstrong is born. He will become a NFL runningback
and the AFC’s leading rusher in 1974 with the Denver
Broncos.

1965 – Prime Minister Ian D. Smith of Rhodesia proclaims
independence from Great Britain.

1968 – Ronnie Devoe is born. He will become a singer with the
groups “New Edition” and “Bell, Biv, and Devoe.”

1972 – Carl T. Rowan, journalist, becomes the first African
American elected to the ‘Gridiron Club.’

1975 – Angola gains independence from Portugal after 500 years
of colonial rule. Angola, in southeastern Africa, had
been waging guerrilla warfare against Portuguese rule
since 1961. In 1974, back in Portugal, a group of young
military officers overthrew the government. The new
government quickly granted independence to Portugal’s
colonies. Thus, on November 11, 1975 Angola officially
became an independent republic.

1979 – The Bethune Museum and Archives is established in
Washington, DC. The goal of the museum, which is
housed in the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, is to
serve as a depository and center for African American
women’s history.

1984 – Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. dies of a heart attack
in Atlanta, Georgia. Better known as “Daddy King,” he
was the father of famed civil rights leader Martin
Luther King, Jr. and was himself, an early civil rights
leader. The elder King was pastor of Ebenezer Baptist
Church in Atlanta, the center for much of his son’s
civil rights activity.

1985 – The city of Yonkers, New York is found guilty of
segregating in schools & housing.

1989 – The Civil Rights Memorial is dedicated in Montgomery,
Alabama.

1995 – The European Union’s 15 member states decide to pull
their envoys out of Lagos to show their anger at
Nigeria’s execution of human rights leaders.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 30 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 30 *

1831 – Nat Turner is remembered for his role in the slave
revolt that took place in Southampton county,
Virginia on August 21.

1939 – Eddie Holland is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will
become one-third of an amazing songwriting and
production trio, Holland-Dozier-Holland. Eddie
Holland will not be as successful on his own as when
teamed with brother Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier.
Eddie Holland will score his biggest hit as a solo
artist back in 1962, with “Jamie” reaching number six
on the R&B charts and peaking at #30 pop. He recorded
three more songs for Motown in the mid-’60s, but none
of them were hits, and he then concentrated on
songwriting and production. The Holland-Dozier-
Holland trio will write numerous hits for Motown acts
through the ’60s before departing in 1968. They will
form their own label in 1970, Hot Wax/Invictus, and
will have success for a while with such acts as The
Chairmen Of The Board, Laura Lee, and the Honey Cone.
Some of the songs written by the trio are “Where Did
Our Love Go”, “Baby Love”, “Stop! In the Name of Love”,
“I Hear a Symphony”, “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”, “Reach
Out”, and “I’ll Be There.” Holland-Dozier-Holland will
be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

1941 – Otis Miles is born in Texarkana, Arkansas. He will
become a rhythm and blues singer known as Otis Williams
and will be one of the original members of the Motown
group, The Temptations. Some of their hits will be “I
Can’t Get Next to You”, “Cloud Nine”, “Runaway Child”,
“Running Wild”, “Just My Imagination”, “Papa was a
Rolling Stone”, and “Masquerade.”

1950 – Philip “Phil” Chenier is born in Berkeley, California.
He will become a professional basketball player and will
be best known as a member of the Washington Bullets
team.

1954 – The Defense Department announces that all units in the
armed forces are now integrated. The announcement comes
six years after President Harry S. Truman issued
Executive Order 9981.

1966 – Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, students at Oakland City
College in Oakland, California, create the Black Panther
Party for Self Defense.

1976 – Joseph H. Evans is elected president of the United Church
of Christ, the first African American to hold the post
in this predominantly white denomination.

1978 – Esther Rolle wins an Emmy Award for her role in “Summer
of my German Soldier.”

1979 – Richard Arrington is the first African American to be
elected mayor of Birmingham, Alabama.

1989 – Frank Mingo, CEO of the Mingo Group, joins the ancestors
in New York City. He, along with D. Parke Gibson,
Barbara Proctor of Proctor and Gardner, and Tom Burrell
of Burrell Advertising was one of the pioneering
advertising executives who specialized in targeting
African American consumers.

1991 – Led by President Robert L. Johnson, BET Holdings, Inc.,
the parent company of Black Entertainment Television,
sells 4.2 million shares of stock in an initial public
offering on the New York Stock Exchange. BET is the first
African American company listed on the “Big Board.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 2 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 2 *

1800 – Nat Turner is born in Southampton, Virginia. Believing
himself called by God to free his fellow bondsmen,
Turner will become a freedom fighter leader of one of
the most famous slave revolts, resulting in the death
of scores of whites and involving 60 to 80 slaves. He
will join the ancestors on November 11, 1831 after being
executed for his part in the rebellion.

1833 – The New York Anti-Slavery Society is organized.

1898 – Otis J. Rene’ is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. With
his younger brother Leon, he will move to Los Angeles,
California, and establish Exclusive and Excelsior
Records in the 1930’s. By the mid-1940’s, the brothers
will be leading independent record producers whose
artists will include Nat King Cole, Herb Jeffries, and
Johnny Otis. He will join the ancestors on April 5, 1970.

1929 – Moses Gunn is born in St. Louis, Missouri. He will become
an Obie Award-winning stage player, and co-found the Negro
Ensemble Company in the 1960s. His 1962 Broadway debut was
in Jean Genet’s “The Blacks.” He will be nominated for a
1976 Tony Award as Best Actor (Play) for “The Poison Tree”
and will play Othello on Broadway in 1970. He will also
appear in “Amityville II,” “Shaft,” and “Good Times.” He
will join the ancestors on December 17, 1993 after
succumbing to complications from asthma,

1932 – Maurice Morning ‘Maury’ Wills is born is Washington, DC.
He will become a professional baseball player and
shortstop for the Dodger organization. He will become
the National League Most Valuable Player in 1962.

1936 – Johnnie Cochran is born in Shreveport, Louisiana. He
will become a criminal defense attorney and will be
best known for his defense of Black Panther Party
member Geronimo Pratt and ex-NFL superstar O.J.
Simpson. He will join the ancestors on March 29, 2005.

1958 – The Republic of Guinea gains independence under the
leadership of Sekou Toure.

1965 – Bishop Harold Robert Perry of Lake Charles, Louisiana,
is named auxiliary bishop of New Orleans by Pope Paul
IV.

1967 – Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African American
member of the United States Supreme Court when he is
sworn in by Chief Justice Earl Warren. As chief
counsel for the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the 1940s
and ’50s, Marshall was the architect and executor of
the legal strategy that ended the era of official
racial segregation. The great-grandson of a slave,
Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1908.
After being rejected from the University of Maryland
Law School on account of his race, he was accepted at
all-black Howard University in Washington, DC. At
Howard, he studied under the tutelage of civil
liberties lawyer Charles H. Houston and in 1933
graduated first in his class. In 1936, he joined the
legal division of the NAACP, of which Houston was
director, and two years later succeeded his mentor
in the organization’s top legal post.

1967 – Robert H. Lawrence, who was named the first African
American astronaut, joins the ancestors after being
killed in a plane crash before his first mission.

1968 – Bob Gibson, of the St. Louis Cardinals, sets a world
series record of 17 strikeouts.

1980 – Larry Holmes retains the WBC heavyweight boxing title
defeating Muhammad Ali.

1981 – Hazel Scott, renown jazz singer and pianist, joins
the ancestors at the age of 61 (succumbed to pancreatic
cancer).

1986 – The United States Senate overrides President Ronald
Reagan’s veto of legislation imposing economic
sanctions against South Africa. The override is seen
as the culmination of efforts by Trans-Africa’s
Randall Robinson, Rep. Mickey Leland, and others
begun almost two years earlier with Robinson’s
arrest before the South African Embassy in
Washington, DC.

1989 – “Jump Start” premiers in 40 newspapers in the United
States. The comic strip is the creation of 26-year-
old Robb Armstrong, the youngest African American to
have a syndicated comic strip. He follows in the
footsteps of Morrie Turner, the creator of “Wee Pals,”
the first African American syndicated comic strip.

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

KRLemmons African American History

August 21 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 21 *

1831 – Responding to a vision commanding him to lead his people
to freedom, Nat Turner and a group of seven freedom-
fighting slaves kill five members of the Travis family
in Southampton County, Virginia. Turner’s revolt will
last two days, involve 60 to 80 freedom-fighting slaves
and result in the deaths of at least 57 whites before
they go into hiding. Nat Turner manages to escape
capture for over six weeks. After his capture, he
confesses to his actions, is tried, and executed. This
revolt is significant because it will make the problem
of slavery visible to the Northerners, who within the
next 30 years will fight and die to end America’s
“peculiar institution.”

1906 – William “Count” Basie is born in Redbank, New Jersey.
One of the most influential forces in jazz, he will
amass numerous awards, including three Grammys and
Kennedy Center Honors in 1981 . He will join the
ancestors on April 26, 1984. NOTE: Many sources will
have 1904 for Count Basie’s birth year. Our source for
his birth and death is the Kennedy Center Archives
documenting “The Honors” bestowed on him in 1981.

1927 – The Fourth Pan-African Congress meets in New York City.

1932 – Melvin Van Pebbles is born in Chicago, Illinois. A
writer and dramatist, he will produce some of the more
important African American feature films of the 1960’s
and 1970’s, including “Story of a Three Day Pass,”
“Watermelon Man,” “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadass Song” and
the classic, “Putney Swope.”

1936 – Wilton Norman Chamberlain is born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Achieving a height of 6’11” in high school,
he will be recruited to play basketball for Kansas
University. He will leave Kansas University in his third
year to play with the Harlem Globetrotters and join the
Philadelphia Warriors (later 76ers) in 1959. He will
join the Los Angeles Lakers in 1969 and become a player-
coach in 1968 for the San Diego Conquistadors of the
American Basketball Association. He will lead the NBA in
scoring seven times, accumulate a 4,029 season point
record and become a seven-time all-NBA first teamer. He
will join the ancestors on October 12, 1999.

1938 – The classic recording, “Ain’t Misbehavin” is made by Fats
Waller.

1939 – Clarence Williams III is born in New York City. He will
become an actor best known for his starring role in the
television series, “The Mod Squad” as Lincoln.

1943 – Harriet M. West becomes the first African American woman
major in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). She becomes chief
of planning in the Bureau Control Division at the WAC
headquarters in Washington, DC.

1945 – Willie Lanier (Pro Football Hall of Famer and Kansas City
Chiefs linebacker: Super Bowl IV), is born.

1954 – Archie Griffin (Heisman Trophy winner: Ohio State [1974 &
1975]; Cincinnati Bengals running back: Super Bowl XVI),
is born.

1968 – Marine James Anderson Jr. becomes the first African
American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor
for his service in the Vietnam War.

1972 – The Republican National Convention convenes in Miami Beach,
Florida, with fifty-six African American delegates, 4.2
\ per cent of the total.

1986 – More than 1,700 people die when toxic gas erupts from a
volcanic lake in the West African nation of Cameroon.

1998 – Juanita Kidd Stout, the first African American woman to
serve on the supreme court in any state (January, 1988),
joins the ancestors in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Stout
loses a battle against leukemia at Thomas Jefferson
Hospital.

2000 – Julian Richardson, the owner of a San Francisco book
store that served as a meeting place for black artists
and activists in the city, joins the ancestors after
succumbing to heart failure at the age of 84. He
established the Marcus Bookstore in 1960, naming it after
Black nationalist writer and activist Marcus Garvey. The
store was a staple of black culture and was a gathering
place for Black Panthers supporters during the civil
rights era. Through the years, writers such as Alice
Walker, Ishmael Reed, Terry MacMillan and Cornel West
came to the bookstore. He studied lithography in college
and opened his own printing business. He used his skills
to print books, pamphlets and manuscripts on black
culture that otherwise would have to have been ordered
from the East Coast.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 11 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 11           *

1831 – Nat Turner is executed for organizing and leading the
armed slave insurrection in Jerusalem, Southampton
County, Virginia. One of our greatest freedom fighters
joins the ancestors.

1890 – D. McCree is granted a patent for the portable fire
escape.

1895 – Bechuanaland becomes part of the Cape Colony in Africa.

1915 – Claude Clark, Sr. is born near Rockingham, Georgia.  He
will study at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the
Barnes Foundation, and the University of California,
Berkeley, and become a renowned artist whose studies of
urban life and social realism will be exhibited widely,
including the New York World’s Fair of 1939, the
Sorbonne, the Oakland Museum, the Museum of African
American Art in Los Angeles and in the major group
exhibits Hidden Heritage: Afro-American Art 1800-1950
and Two Centuries of Black American Art.

1918 – The Armistice is signed, ending World War I.  Official
records listed 370,000 African American soldiers and
1400 African American commissioned officers.  A little
more than half of of these soldiers served in the
European Theater.  Three African American regiments —
the 369th, 371st, and 372nd — received the Croix de
Guerre for valor.  The 369th was the first American
unit to reach the Rhine river (which separates France
from Germany).  The first American soldiers to be
decorated for bravery in France were Henry Johnson and
Needham Roberts of the 369th Infantry Regiment.

1925 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to James Weldon
Johnson, former U.S. consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua
and NAACP executive secretary, for his work as an
author, diplomat and leader.

1928 – Ernestine Anderson is born in Houston, Texas.  Her
introduction to jazz singing will begin at age 12 at
the Eldorado Ballroom in Houston.  She will perform
with Russell Jaquet, Johnny Otis, and Lionel Hampton
and be known for her warm, blues-influenced vocals.

1929 – LaVern Baker is born in Chicago, Illinois.  She will
become a rhythm & blues vocalist.  She will be known
for her recordings of “Tweedly Dee”, “I Cried a Tear”,
and “Jim Dandy.”

1946 – Corrine Brown is born in Jacksonville, Florida. She will
receive a bachelor’s degree in 1969 and a master’s
degree in 1971 from Florida A&M University. She will
also receive an education specialist degree from the
University of Florida in 1974 and an honorary doctorate
in law from Edward Waters College. She will be a
college professor, a guidance counselor, and owner of a
travel agency before entering politics. In 1982 she will
be elected to the Florida House of Representatives,
where she will serve for ten years. In 1992 she will be
elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from
Florida’s Third Congressional District.

1950 – Otis Armstrong is born.  He will become a NFL runningback
and the AFC’s leading rusher in 1974 with the Denver
Broncos.

1965 – Prime Minister Ian D. Smith of Rhodesia proclaims
independence from Great Britain.

1968 – Ronnie Devoe is born.  He will become a singer with the
groups “New Edition” and “Bell, Biv, and Devoe.”

1972 – Carl T. Rowan, journalist, becomes the first African
American elected to the ‘Gridiron Club.’

1975 – Angola gains independence from Portugal after 500 years
of colonial rule.  Angola, in southeastern Africa, had
been waging guerrilla warfare against Portuguese rule
since 1961. In 1974, back in Portugal, a group of young
military officers overthrew the government.  The new
government quickly granted independence to Portugal’s
colonies. Thus, on November 11, 1975 Angola officially
became an independent republic.

1979 – The Bethune Museum and Archives is established in
Washington, DC.  The goal of the museum, which is
housed in the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, is to
serve as a depository and center for African American
women’s history.

1984 – Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. dies of a heart attack
in Atlanta, Georgia.  Better known as “Daddy King,” he
was the father of famed civil rights leader Martin
Luther King, Jr. and was himself, an early civil rights
leader.  The elder King was pastor of Ebenezer Baptist
Church in Atlanta, the center for much of his son’s
civil rights activity.

1985 – The city of Yonkers, New York is found guilty of
segregating in schools & housing.

1989 – The Civil Rights Memorial is dedicated in Montgomery,
Alabama.

1995 – The European Union’s 15 member states decide to pull
their envoys out of Lagos to show their anger at
Nigeria’s execution of human rights leaders.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 30 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 30          *

1831 – Nat Turner is remembered for his role in the slave
revolt that took place in Southampton county,
Virginia on August 21.

1939 – Eddie Holland is born in Detroit, Michigan.  He will
become one-third of an amazing songwriting and
production trio, Holland-Dozier-Holland.  Eddie
Holland will not be as successful on his own as when
teamed with brother Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier.
Eddie Holland will score his biggest hit as a solo
artist back in 1962, with “Jamie” reaching number six
on the R&B charts and peaking at #30 pop. He recorded
three more songs for Motown in the mid-’60s, but none
of them were hits, and he then concentrated on
songwriting and production.  The Holland-Dozier-
Holland trio will write numerous hits for Motown acts
through the ’60s before departing in 1968. They will
form their own label in 1970, Hot Wax/Invictus, and
will have success for a while with such acts as The
Chairmen Of The Board, Laura Lee, and the Honey Cone.
Some of the songs written by the trio are “Where Did
Our Love Go”, “Baby Love”, “Stop! In the Name of Love”,
“I Hear a Symphony”, “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”, “Reach
Out”, and “I’ll Be There.”  Holland-Dozier-Holland will
be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

1941 – Otis Miles is born in Texarkana, Arkansas.  He will
become a rhythm and blues singer known as Otis Williams
and will be one of the original members of the Motown
group, The Temptations. Some of their hits will be “I
Can’t Get Next to You”, “Cloud Nine”, “Runaway Child”,
“Running Wild”, “Just My Imagination”, “Papa was a
Rolling Stone”, and “Masquerade.”

1950 – Philip “Phil” Chenier is born in Berkeley, California.
He will become a professional basketball player and will
be best known as a member of the Washington Bullets
team.

1954 – The Defense Department announces that all units in the
armed forces are now integrated. The announcement comes
six years after President Harry S. Truman issued
Executive Order 9981.

1966 – Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, students at Oakland City
College in Oakland, California, create the Black Panther
Party for Self Defense.

1976 – Joseph H. Evans is elected president of the United Church
of Christ, the first African American to hold the post
in this predominantly white denomination.

1978 – Esther Rolle wins an Emmy Award for her role in “Summer
of my German Soldier.”

1979 – Richard Arrington is the first African American to be
elected mayor of Birmingham, Alabama.

1989 – Frank Mingo, CEO of the Mingo Group, joins the ancestors
in New York City. He, along with D. Parke Gibson,
Barbara Proctor of Proctor and Gardner, and Tom Burrell
of Burrell Advertising was one of the pioneering
advertising executives who specialized in targeting
African American consumers.

1991 – Led by President Robert L. Johnson, BET Holdings, Inc.,
the parent company of Black Entertainment Television,
sells 4.2 million shares of stock in an initial public
offering on the New York Stock Exchange. BET is the first
African American company listed on the “Big Board.”
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.