KRLemmons African American History

December 21 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 21 *

1872 – Robert Scott Duncanson joins the ancestors in Detroit,
Michigan. He suffers a severe mental breakdown and ends
his life in the Michigan State Retreat. Duncanson
avoided painting in an ethnic style, favoring still
lifes and landscapes including “Mount Healthy,” “Ohio,”
“Blue Hole,” “Little Miami River,” and “Falls of
Minnehaha. The Detroit Tribune, on December 26, 1872,
refers to Duncanson as “an artist of rare
accomplishments”.

1911 – Joshua “Josh” Gibson is born in Buena Vista, Georgia. He
will become a professional baseball player in the Negro
Leagues. Gibson will begin playing in the Negro leagues
in 1930, at age 18. A catcher, he will play mostly for
teams in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, including
the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords. He will
also play winter baseball in Puerto Rico and the Dominican
Republic. He will join the ancestors suddenly in early
1947, the year that Jackie Robinson will become the first
African American player in the major leagues. In
recognition of his accomplishments, Gibson will be
inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. He will
be referred to as the “Negro Babe Ruth” hitting 800+ Home
Runs. Some say that Babe Ruth should have been referred
to as the “white Josh Gibson.”

1921 – P.B.S. Pinchback, a major Reconstruction politician, joins
at the ancestors at the age of 84.

1959 – Delorez Florence Griffith is born in Los Angeles,
California. As Florence Griffith Joyner, she will bring
glamour to women’s track and field. A world-classrunner,
“FloJo” will win three gold medals (in the 100-meter, 200-
meter and 400-meter races) at the 1988 Summer Olympic
Games in Seoul and a silver medal in the 1600-meter relay.
She will join the ancestors on September 21, 1998.

1959 – Citizens of Deerfield, Illinois block the building of
interracial housing.

1969 – Diana Ross makes her final television appearance as a
member of the Supremes on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

1976 – Patricia R. Harris is named Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development.

1986 – While seeking a tow for his disabled car in Howard Beach
(Queens), New York, Michael Griffith is struck by an
automobile and killed as he attempts to escape from a mob
of whites who were beating him. The incident will spark
a controversy that will further divide factions in New
York City, already troubled by racially motivated violence.

1988 – Jesse Jackson, in a speech in Chicago, urges the use of the
term “African American”: “Every ethnic group in this
country has reference to some land base, some historical
cultural base. African Americans have hit that level of
maturity.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 9 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 9 *

1867 – The Georgia constitutional convention, consisting of 33
African American and 137 whites, opens in Atlanta,
Georgia.

1872 – P. B. S. Pinchback is sworn in as governor of Louisiana
after H.C. Warmoth is impeached “for high crimes and
misdemeanors.” He becomes the first African American
governor of a state.

1919 – Roy deCarava is born in New York City. He will become a
leading photographer of the African American experience.
The first African American photographer to be awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship, his first book, “The Sweet
Flypaper of Life,” will be a collaboration with poet
Langston Hughes. He will also found and direct Kamoinge
Workshop for African American photographers in 1963.

1922 – John Elroy (Redd Foxx) Sanford, is born in St. Louis,
Missouri. His off-color records and concerts will
catapult him to fame and his own television show,
“Sanford and Son,” and a later series, “The Royal
Family,” his last before he suddenly joins the ancestors
on October 11, 1991.

1938 – The first public service programming aired when Jack L.
Cooper launches the “Search for Missing Persons” show.
In 1929, he debuted “The All-Negro Hour on WSBC in Chicago.
He is considered to be the first African American disc
jockey and radio announcer.

1953 – Lloyd B. Free is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will
become a professional basketball player and will later
change his name to World B. Free. He will be a NBA
guard with the Philadelphia 76ers, San Diego Clippers,
Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, and the
Houston Rockets. He will leave the NBA in 1988 with
17,955 career points and a career scoring average of
20.3 points per game.

1961 – Tanganyika gains independence from Great Britain and
takes the name Tanzania.

1961 – Wilt Chamberlain of the NBA Philadelphia Warriors scores
67 points vs. the New York Knicks.

1962 – Tanzania becomes a republic within the British
Commonwealth.

1963 – Zanzibar gains independence from Great Britain.

1971 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, Nobel Peace Prize winner and
Undersecretary of the United Nations from 1955 to his
retirement in October, 1971, joins the ancestors in New
York City at the age of 67.

1971 – Bill Pickett becomes the first African American elected
to the National Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame. He is the
cowboy that invented the bulldogging event famous in
today’s rodeos.

1976 – Tony Dorsett is awarded the Heisman Trophy. Dorsett, a
running back for the University of Pittsburgh, amasses
a total of 6,082 total yards and will go on to play
with the Dallas Cowboys and help lead them to the Super
Bowl.

1984 – The Jackson’s Victory Tour comes to a close at Dodger
Stadium in Los Angeles, after 55 performances in 19
cities. The production is reported to be the world’s
greatest rock extravaganza and one of the most
problematic. The Jackson brothers receive about $50
million during the five-month tour of the United States
– before some 2.5 million fans.

1984 – Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears records another first
as he runs six plays, as quarterback. He is intercepted
twice, but runs the ball himself on four carries. The
Green Bay Packers still win 20-14. Payton says after
the game, “It was OK, but I wouldn’t want to do it for a
living.”

1984 – Eric Dickerson, of the Los Angeles Rams, becomes only the
second pro football player to run for more than 2,000
yards (2,105) in a season. He passes O.J. Simpson’s
record of 2,003 as the Rams beat the Houston Oilers
27-16.

1989 – Craig Washington wins a special congressional election in
Texas’ 18th District to fill the seat vacated by the
death of George “Mickey” Leland.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 6 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – December 6 *

1806 – The African Meeting House is established in Boston,
Massachusetts and will become the oldest African
American house of worship still standing in the United
States. This house of worship will be constructed
almost entirely by African American laborers and
craftsmen, but funds will be contributed by the white
community. Because of the leadership role its
congregation takes in the early struggle for civil
rights, the African Meeting House will become known as
the Abolition Church and Black Faneuil Hall. Frederick
Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison will be speakers
there.

1849 – Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland. She
will return to the South nineteen times and bring out
more than three hundred slaves.

1865 – Ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, abolishing slavery is completed. The
proclamation of its acceptance will take place on
December 18, 1865.

1869 – The National Black labor convention meets in Washington,
DC.

1870 – Joseph H Rainey becomes the first African American in
the House of Representatives, from the state of South
Carolina.

1871 – P.B.S. Pinchback is elected president pro tem of the
Louisiana Senate and acting lieutenant governor. He is
the first African American to serve in these positions
in state government.

1875 – The Forty-Fourth Congress of 1875-1877 convenes with a
high of eight African Americans taking office. They are
Senator Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi and congressmen
Jeremiah Haralson of Alabama, Josiah T. Walls of Florida,
John Roy Lynch of Mississippi, John A. Hyman of North
Carolina, Charles E. Nash of Louisiana,; and Joseph H.
Rainey and Robert Smalls of South Carolina.

1892 – Theodore K. Lawless is born in Thibodeaux, Louisiana. He
will receive his medical degree from Northwestern
University, hold a fellowship at Massachusetts General
Hospital and receive further training at the University
of Paris’s premier Dermatology program. He will become a
dermatologist, medical researcher, and philanthropist.
He will known for his work related to leprosy and
syphilis. He will also be involved in various charitable
causes including Jewish causes. He will create the
Lawless Department of Dermatology in Beilison Hospital,
Tel-Aviv, Israel, the T. K. Lawless Student Summer
Program at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot,
Israel; the Lawless Clinical and Research Laboratory in
Dermatology of the Hebrew Medical School, Jerusalem;
Roosevelt University’s Chemical Laboratory and Lecture
Auditorium, Chicago; and Lawless Memorial Chapel,
Dillard University, New Orleans. His philantrophy in
Israel was ingratitude for the support received from
Jewish doctors in obtaining his appointment to his
position at the University of Paris. A shrewd investor
and businessman, he will have a remarkable business
career. He will be director of both the Supreme Life
Insurance Company and Marina City Bank. He will also be
a charter member, associate founder, and president of
Service Federal Savings and Loan in Chicago. He will
become a self-made millionaire. He will join the
ancestors in Chicago, Illinois on May 1, 1971.

1949 – Blues legend Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter joins the
ancestors in New York City.

1956 – Nelson Mandela and 156 others are jailed for political
activities in South Africa.

1960 – 500 store owners sign pledges of nondiscrimination in
Tucson, Arizona.

1961 – Dr. Frantz O. Fanon, noted author of “Black Skins, White
Masks” and “Wretched of the Earth”, joins the ancestors
in Washington, DC. He succumbs to leukemia at the
National Institutes of Health.

1977 – South Africa grants Bophuthatswana its independence.
The constitution, in effect after South Africa’s first
all-race elections in April 1994, will abolish this
black homeland, which will be reabsorbed into South
Africa.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 19 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – June 19 *

1809 – The first African Baptist Church in the U.S. became
an organized body in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1862 – Slavery is abolished in U.S. territories by Congress.

1864 – In a famous duel between the USS Kearsage and the CSS
Alabama off Cherbourg, France, a brave African American
sailor, Joachim Pease, displays “marked coolness” and
will win a Congressional Medal of Honor. The CSS
Alabama will be sunk.

1865 – Although the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in
1863, slavery will continue in Texas, until General
Gordon Granger arrives in Galveston with Union forces,
announcing that all slaves in Texas are free. One
third of the people in Texas are slaves. Juneteenth
will be celebrated annually with picnics and barbecues
at public emancipation grounds, some of which will be
used past year 2000. Juneteenth will become a legal
Texas state holiday in 1980. “JUNETEENTH” celebrations
will come to commemorate the emancipation of African
Americans everywhere.

1867 – P.B.S. Pinchback urges African Americans to use their
franchise privileges. “The Congress of the United
States has conferred upon our People the Elective
Franchise and it is our important duty to see that we
use it well….”

1868 – Maj. Gen. E.R.S. Canby removes the mayor and aldermen
of Columbia, South Carolina, and makes new appointments,
including three African Americans: C.M. Wilder, Joseph
Taylor and William Simonds.

1914 – Ernest Crichlow is born in Brooklyn, New York.
Studying at the Art Students League, Crichlow will be
associated with the Harlem Art Center during the 1930’s
as a noted painter and illustrator whose objectives will
be to advocate social commentary and communication
through art. He will join the ancestors on November 10,
2005.

1926 – DeFord Bailey becomes the first African American
musician to perform on Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry show.

1936 – Joe Louis is knocked out by Max Schmeling in the 12th
round of their heavyweight boxing match. The German boxer
earns his victory at Yankee Stadium in New York.

1946 – Joe Louis fights Billy Conn, in New York City, in the
first championship prize fight to be televised.

1948 – Phylicia Ayers-Allen Rashad, actress (best known for
playing the part of Clair opposite Bill Cosby on the long-
running “Cosby Show”) is born in Houston, Texas.

1953 – Albert W. Dent, president of Dillard University, is
elected president of the National Health Council.

1953 – A bus boycott begins in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

1959 – Mark DeBarge is born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He will
become a recording artist as a member of the rhythm & blues
group DeBarge. The group will be composed of three brothers,
Randy, James and Eldra and sister Bunny. They will actively
perform from 1978 to 1991.

1962 – Paula Julie Abdul, singer/choreographer, is born in Van
Nuys, California.

1964 – The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved by the Senate,
73-27, after surviving an 83-day filibuster.

1965 – “I Can’t Help Myself” by the Four Tops tops the pop and
Rhythm & Blues charts. The Motown group will get their second
and only other number one hit with “Reach Out I’ll Be There”
in 1966. Their other hits include: “It’s the Same Old Song”,
“Standing in the Shadows of Love”, “Bernadette” and “Ain’t No
Woman (Like the One I’ve Got)” (their only million seller).
The group calls Motown, Detroit, Michigan home and got their
start in 1953 as the Four Aims. Levi Stubbs, Renaldo ‘Obie’
Benson, Lawrence Payton and Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir will place 24
hits on the charts from 1964 to 1988. They first recorded as
The Four Tops for Leonard Chess and Chess Records in 1956;
then went to Red Top and Columbia before signing with Berry
Gordy’s Motown label in 1963. The Tops, who will have no
personnel changes in their more than 35 years together will
be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

1968 – Fifty thousand demonstrators participate in Solidarity Day
March of the Poor People’s Campaign. Marchers walk from the
Washington Monument to the Lincoln Monument, where they are
addressed by Vice President Hubert Humphrey, presidential
candidate Eugene McCarthy, Coretta Scott King and Ralph
Abernathy.

1969 – Illinois State troopers are ordered to Cairo, by the
governor, to quell racially motivated disturbances.

1971 – The mayor of Columbus, Georgia declares a state of emergency
due to racial disturbances.

1986 – Len Bias, a senior at the University of Maryland and the
1st-round pick of the Boston Celtics, joins the ancestors
after suffering a fatal cocaine-induced seizure.

1990 – Opening statements are presented in the drug and perjury
trial of Washington D.C. Mayor Marion S. Barry Jr. Barry is
later convicted of a single count of misdemeanor drug
possession, and sentenced to six months in prison. He will
resume a career in politics after prison, when he is elected
to the DC City Council representing Ward 8.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 20 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – May 20 *

1746 – Francois-Dominique Toussaint L’Ouverture is born into
slavery in Haiti. He will lead the revolution in his
country against French and English forces to free the
slaves. Although he will nominally rule in the name of
France, he will in actuality become political and
military dictator of the country. His success in freeing
the slaves in Haiti caused his name to become the biggest
influence in the slave cabins of the Americas. His name
will be whispered in Brazil, in the Caribbean, and the
United States. He will join the ancestors on April 7, 1803.

1868 – The Republican National Convention, meeting in Chicago,
nominates U.S. Grant for the presidency. The convention
marks the national debut of African American politicians.
P.B.S. Pinchback of Louisiana and James J. Harris were
delegates to the convention. Harris will be named to the
committee which informed Grant of his nomination. African
Americans also serve for the first time as presidential
electors. Robert Meacham will be a presidential elector
in Florida. The South Carolina electoral ticket will
include three African American Republican leaders, B.F.
Randolph, Stephen A. Swails, and Alonzo J. Ransier.

1951 – The New York branch of the NAACP honors Josephine Baker for
her work to combat racism. Baker, the American chanteuse
who was acclaimed in Europe, had led a personal crusade to
force integration of clubs where she appeared in Miami and
Las Vegas. She also campaigned against segregated railroad
facilities in Chicago and buses in Oakland.

1961 – A mob attacks freedom riders in Montgomery, Alabama.
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy dispatches four hundred
U.S. marshals to Montgomery to keep order in the freedom
rider controversy.

1964 – Buster Mathis defeats Joe Frazier to qualify for the U.S.
Olympic team.

1971 – A Pentagon report states that African Americans constituted
11 per cent of U.S. soldiers in Southeast Asia. The
report also states that 12.5 per cent of all soldiers
killed in Vietnam since 1961 were African American.

1985 – Larry Holmes retains the heavyweight boxing title of the
International Boxing Federation in Reno, Nevada — by
defeating Carl Wilson in 15 rounds. The fight marks the
first heavyweight title fight in Reno since Jack Johnson
and Jim Jeffries fought there in 1910.

2003 – Howard Sims, tap dancer, joins the ancestors at age 86. He
was known as “Sandman” and taught Gregory Hines, Ben Vereen
and others.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 14 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 14 *

1868 – The South Carolina constitutional convention, the first
official assembly in the western hemisphere with an African
American majority, meets in the Charleston Clubhouse with
seventy-six African American delegates and forty-eight white
delegates. Two-thirds of the African American delegates are
former slaves. A New York Herald reporter writes: “Here in
Charleston is being enacted the most incredible, hopeful, and
yet unbelievable experiment in all the history of mankind.”

1868 – The North Carolina constitutional convention meets in Raleigh,
with fifteen African American and one hundred eighteen whites
in attendance.

1873 – P.B.S. Pinchback is elected to the U.S. Senate. Since he had
previously been elected to Congress, he went to Washington
with the unique distinction of being both a senator-elect and
a congressman-elect.

1874 – I.D. Shadd is elected Speaker of the Lower House of the
Mississippi legislature.

1916 – Author John Oliver Killens is born in Macon, Georgia. Among
his books will be the novels “Youngblood,” and “And Then We
Heard the Thunder,” biographies of Denmark Vesey, John Henry,
and Aleksandr Pushkin, and the script for “Odds Against
Tomorrow,” a 1959 movie starring Harry Belafonte. He will join
the ancestors on October 27, 1987.

1930 – Biologist and pioneer of cell division, Ernest E Just, is named
Vice-President of the American Zoological Society.

1940 – Horace Julian Bond is born in Nashville, Tennessee. He will be
one of several hundred students from across the South who will
found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
He will become SNCC’s communications director. He will spend
over twenty years of service in the Georgia General Assembly,
after having his first elective seats denied him in the
mid-sixties. Bond will be known also for his narration of many
civil rights oriented programs, most notably, the critically
acclaimed 1987 and 1990 PBS series, “Eyes on the Prize.” He
will become Chairman of the NAACP in February, 1998.

1948 – Carl Weathers is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He will
become an actor and is best known for his portrayal of
fictional boxer Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” movies.

1970 – Diana Ross and the Supremes perform their last concert
together, at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas.

1975 – William T. Coleman is named Secretary of Transportation by
President Gerald R. Ford. He is the second African American
to hold a Cabinet-level position.

1979 – After much pressure from civil rights leaders and others,
President Jimmy Carter proposes Martin Luther King Jr.’s
birthday become a federal holiday.

1981 – James Frank, president of Lincoln University in Jefferson City,
Missouri, is installed as the first African American president
of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

1987 – The National Urban League’s report “State of Black America”
blasts President Reagan’s policies, stating, “Black Americans
enter 1987 besieged by the resurgence of raw racism,
persistent economic depression and the continue erosion of
past gains.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 13 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 13 *

1869 – A National Convention of African American leaders meets in
Washington, DC. Frederick Douglass is elected president.

1869 – The first African American labor convention is held when the
Convention of the Colored National Labor Union takes place.

1873 – P.B.S. Pinchback relinquishes the office of governor, saying
at the inauguration of the new Louisiana governor: “I now have
the honor to formally surrender the office of governor, with
the hope that you will administer the government in the
interests of all the people [and that] your administration
will be as fair toward the class that I represent, as mine has
been toward the class represented by you.”

1913 – Delta Sigma Theta Sorority is founded on the campus of Howard
University. The sorority will grow, from the original 22
founders, to over 175,000 members in over 800 chapters in the
United States, West Germany, the Caribbean, Liberia, and the
Republic of South Korea.

1953 – Don Barksdale becomes the first African American person to play
in an NBA All-Star Game.

1966 – Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American appointed
to a presidential cabinet position, when President Lyndon B.
Johnson names him to head the newly created Department of
Housing and Urban Development.

1979 – A commemorative stamp of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is issued
by the U.S. Postal Service as part of its Black Heritage USA
commemorative series. The stamp of the slain civil rights
leader is the second in the series.

1979 – Singer Donnie Hathaway joins the ancestors after jumping from
the 15th floor of New York’s Essex House hotel.

1982 – Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson are elected to the Baseball Hall
of Fame.

1983 – Citing Muhammad Ali’s deteriorating physical condition, the AMA
calls for the banning of prizefighting because new evidence
suggests that chronic brain damage is prevalent in boxers.

1989 – Sterling Allen Brown joins the ancestors in Washington, DC. He
had devoted his life to the development of an authentic black
folk literature. He was one of the first scholars to identify
folklore as a vital component of the black aesthetic and to
recognize its validity as a form of artistic expression. He
worked to legitimatize this genre in several ways. As a
critic, he exposed the shortcomings of white literature that
stereotyped blacks and demonstrated why black authors are best
suited to describe the Black experience. As a poet, he mined
the rich vein of black Southern culture, replacing primitive
or sentimental caricatures with authentic folk heroes drawn
from Afro-American sources. He was associated with Howard
University for almost sixty years.

1990 – L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia is inaugurated as governor and
becomes the first elected African American governor in the
United States. Wilder won the election in Virginia by a mere
7,000 votes in a state once the heart of the Confederacy.
Later in the year, he will receive the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal
for his lifetime achievements.

1999 – Michael Jordan, considered the best player to ever play in the
NBA, retires from professional basketball after thirteen
seasons. This is the second time ‘His Airness’ has retired.
He leaves the game after leading the Chicago Bulls to six NBA
championships and winning five MVP awards.

2010 – Rhythm & Blues singer Teddy Pendergrass, one of the most electric
and successful figures in music until a car crash 28 years ago
left him in a wheelchair, joins the ancestors after
succumbing to colon cancer at the age of 59.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 21 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 21           *

1872 – Robert Scott Duncanson joins the ancestors in Detroit,
Michigan. He suffers a severe mental breakdown and ends
his life in the Michigan State Retreat.  Duncanson
avoided painting in an ethnic style, favoring still
lifes and landscapes including “Mount Healthy,” “Ohio,”
“Blue Hole,” “Little Miami River,” and “Falls of
Minnehaha.  The Detroit Tribune, on December 26, 1872,
refers to Duncanson as “an artist of rare
accomplishments”.

1911 – Joshua “Josh” Gibson is born in Buena Vista, Georgia.  He
will become a professional baseball player in the Negro
Leagues. Gibson will begin playing in the Negro leagues
in 1930, at age 18. A catcher, he will play mostly for
teams in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, including
the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords. He will
also play winter baseball in Puerto Rico and the Dominican
Republic. He will join the ancestors suddenly in early
1947, the year that Jackie Robinson will become the first
African American player in the major leagues. In
recognition of his accomplishments, Gibson will be
inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. He will
be referred to as the “Negro Babe Ruth” hitting 800+ Home
Runs.  Some say that Babe Ruth should have been referred
to as the “white Josh Gibson.”

1921 – P.B.S. Pinchback, a major Reconstruction politician, joins
at the ancestors at the age of 84.

1959 – Delorez Florence Griffith is born in Los Angeles,
California. As Florence Griffith Joyner, she will bring
glamour to women’s track and field.  A world-classrunner,
“FloJo” will win three gold medals (in the 100-meter, 200-
meter and 400-meter races) at the 1988 Summer Olympic
Games in Seoul and a silver medal in the 1600-meter relay.
She will join the ancestors on September 21, 1998.

1959 – Citizens of Deerfield, Illinois block the building of
interracial housing.

1969 – Diana Ross makes her final television appearance as a
member of the Supremes on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

1976 – Patricia R. Harris is named Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development.

1986 – While seeking a tow for his disabled car in Howard Beach
(Queens), New York, Michael Griffith is struck by an
automobile and killed as he attempts to escape from a mob
of whites who were beating him.  The incident will spark
a controversy that will further divide factions in New
York City, already troubled by racially motivated violence.

1988 – Jesse Jackson, in a speech in Chicago, urges the use of the
term “African American”: “Every ethnic group in this
country has reference to some land base, some historical
cultural base. African Americans have hit that level of
maturity.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 9 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 9 *

1867 – The Georgia constitutional convention, consisting of 33
African American and 137 whites, opens in Atlanta,
Georgia.

1872 – P. B. S. Pinchback is sworn in as governor of Louisiana
after H.C. Warmoth is impeached “for high crimes and
misdemeanors.” He becomes the first African American
governor of a state.

1919 – Roy deCarava is born in New York City. He will become a
leading photographer of the African American experience.
The first African American photographer to be awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship, his first book, “The Sweet
Flypaper of Life,” will be a collaboration with poet
Langston Hughes. He will also found and direct Kamoinge
Workshop for African American photographers in 1963.

1922 – John Elroy (Redd Foxx) Sanford, is born in St. Louis,
Missouri. His off-color records and concerts will
catapult him to fame and his own television show,
“Sanford and Son,” and a later series, “The Royal
Family,” his last before he suddenly joins the ancestors
on October 11, 1991.

1938 – The first public service programming aired when Jack L.
Cooper launches the “Search for Missing Persons” show.
In 1929, he debuted “The All-Negro Hour on WSBC in Chicago.
He is considered to be the first African American disc
jockey and radio announcer.

1953 – Lloyd B. Free is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will
become a professional basketball player and will later
change his name to World B. Free. He will be a NBA
guard with the Philadelphia 76ers, San Diego Clippers,
Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, and the
Houston Rockets. He will leave the NBA in 1988 with
17,955 career points and a career scoring average of
20.3 points per game.

1961 – Tanganyika gains independence from Great Britain and
takes the name Tanzania.

1961 – Wilt Chamberlain of the NBA Philadelphia Warriors scores
67 points vs. the New York Knicks.

1962 – Tanzania becomes a republic within the British
Commonwealth.

1963 – Zanzibar gains independence from Great Britain.

1971 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, Nobel Peace Prize winner and
Undersecretary of the United Nations from 1955 to his
retirement in October, 1971, joins the ancestors in New
York City at the age of 67.

1971 – Bill Pickett becomes the first African American elected
to the National Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame. He is the
cowboy that invented the bulldogging event famous in
today’s rodeos.

1976 – Tony Dorsett is awarded the Heisman Trophy. Dorsett, a
running back for the University of Pittsburgh, amasses
a total of 6,082 total yards and will go on to play
with the Dallas Cowboys and help lead them to the Super
Bowl.

1984 – The Jackson’s Victory Tour comes to a close at Dodger
Stadium in Los Angeles, after 55 performances in 19
cities. The production is reported to be the world’s
greatest rock extravaganza and one of the most
problematic. The Jackson brothers receive about $50
million during the five-month tour of the United States
– before some 2.5 million fans.

1984 – Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears records another first
as he runs six plays, as quarterback. He is intercepted
twice, but runs the ball himself on four carries. The
Green Bay Packers still win 20-14. Payton says after
the game, “It was OK, but I wouldn’t want to do it for a
living.”

1984 – Eric Dickerson, of the Los Angeles Rams, becomes only the
second pro football player to run for more than 2,000
yards (2,105) in a season. He passes O.J. Simpson’s
record of 2,003 as the Rams beat the Houston Oilers
27-16.

1989 – Craig Washington wins a special congressional election in
Texas’ 18th District to fill the seat vacated by the
death of George “Mickey” Leland.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 6 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 6           *

1806 – The African Meeting House is established in Boston,
Massachusetts and will become the oldest African
American house of worship still standing in the United
States.  This house of worship will be constructed
almost entirely by African American laborers and
craftsmen, but funds will be contributed by the white
community. Because of the leadership role its
congregation takes in the early struggle for civil
rights, the African Meeting House will become known as
the Abolition Church and Black Faneuil Hall. Frederick
Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison will be speakers
there.

1849 – Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland.  She
will return to the South nineteen times and bring out
more than three hundred slaves.

1865 – Ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, abolishing slavery is completed.  The
proclamation of its acceptance will take place on
December 18, 1865.

1869 – The National Black labor convention meets in Washington,
DC.

1870 – Joseph H Rainey becomes the first African American in
the House of Representatives, from the state of South
Carolina.

1871 – P.B.S. Pinchback is elected president pro tem of the
Louisiana Senate and acting lieutenant governor.  He is
the first African American to serve in these positions
in state government.

1875 – The Forty-Fourth Congress of 1875-1877 convenes with a
high of eight African Americans taking office.  They are
Senator Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi and congressmen
Jeremiah Haralson of Alabama, Josiah T. Walls of Florida,
John Roy Lynch of Mississippi, John A. Hyman of North
Carolina, Charles E. Nash of Louisiana,; and Joseph H.
Rainey and Robert Smalls of South Carolina.

1892 – Theodore Lawless is born.  He will become a medical
pioneer.

1932 – Don King is born.  He will become the most controversial
and best known boxing promoter in the history of the
sport.

1949 – Blues legend Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter joins the
ancestors in New York City.

1956 – Nelson Mandela and 156 others are jailed for political
activities in South Africa.

1960 – 500 store owners sign pledges of nondiscrimination in
Tucson, Arizona.

1961 – Dr. Frantz O. Fanon, noted author of “Black Skins, White
Masks” and “Wretched of the Earth”, joins the ancestors
in Washington, DC. He succumbs to leukemia at the
National Institutes of Health.

1977 – South Africa grants Bophuthatswana its independence.
The constitution in effect after South Africa’s first
all-race elections in April 1994 will abolish this
black homeland, which will be reabsorbed into South
Africa.

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