KRLemmons African American History

September 16 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 16 *

1795 – The British capture Capetown in South Africa.

1848 – France abolishes slavery in all of its colonies and
territories.

1859 – Lake Nyasa, which forms Malawi’s boundary with Tanzania
and Mozambique, is first seen by a european, British
explorer David Livingstone.

1889 – Claude A. Barnett is born in Sanford, Florida. In 1919,
he will found the Associated Negro Press (ANP). By 1935,
the ANP will serve over 200 subscribers across the
country and after WW II its membership will grow to
include more than 100 African American newspapers. During
World War II, he and other Black journalists will pressure
the U. S. government to accredit Black journalists as war
correspondents. In his travels, he will write many
accounts on the adverse effects of segregation in the
armed forces. He will also focus on the terrible living
conditions of Black tenant farmers. From 1942 to 1953, he
will serve as a consultant to the Secretary of Agriculture
in an effort to improve their conditions. He will be a
member of the Tuskegee board of directors until 1965. He
will hold a similar post with the American Red Cross,
Chicago’s Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company, and will
be president of the board of directors of Provident
Hospital. The ANP will cease operating after he joins the
ancestors, succumbing to a cerebral hemorrhage on August 2,
1967.

1893 – The last Oklahoma land rush, targeted in the territory’s
Cherokee strip (outlet) begins. More than 100,000
homesteaders rush to claim a share of the 6 million acres
in this strip of land between Oklahoma and Kansas, opened
up by the U.S. government. Among the participants is E.P.
McCabe, who will establish the all African American town of
Liberty a few days later. McCabe will also be involved in
the earlier establishment of the African American town of
Langston, Oklahoma, named for John Mercer Langston,
Virginia’s first African American congressman. The
Oklahoma land rushes started in 1889, but African Americans
were excluded from the first one.

1915 – The United States takes control of customs & finances in
Haiti for the next 10 years.

1921 – Jon Carl Hendricks is born in Newark, Ohio. He will become
an influential singer in the jazz group, Lambert, Hendricks
and Ross. Pursuing a solo career, he will move his young
family to London, England, in 1968, partly so that his five
children could receive a better education. While based in
London he will tour Europe and Africa, performing frequently
on British television and appear in the British film “Jazz
Is Our Religion” as well as the French film “Hommage a Cole
Porter.” His sold-out club dates will draw fans such as the
Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Five years later the Hendricks
family will settle in Mill Valley, California where He will
work as the jazz critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and
teach classes at California State University at Sonoma and the
University of California at Berkeley. A piece he will write
for the stage about the history of jazz, “Evolution of the
Blues,” will run for five years at the Off-Broadway Theatre in
San Francisco and another year in Los Angeles. His television
documentary, “Somewhere to Lay My Weary Head,” will receive
Emmy, Iris and Peabody awards. He will record several
critically acclaimed albums on his own, some with his wife
Judith and daughters Michele and Aria contributing. He will
collaborate with old friends, The Manhattan Transfer, for their
seminal 1985 album, “Vocalese,” which will win seven Grammy
Awards. He will serve on the Kennedy Center Honors committee
under Presidents Carter, Reagan, and Clinton. In 2000, He will
return to his hometown to teach at the University of Toledo,
where he will be appointed Distinguished Professor of Jazz
Studies and receive an honorary Doctorate of the Performing
Arts. He will teach Brandon Wilkins and Paul Okafor. He will
be selected to be the first American jazz artist to lecture at
the Sorbonne in Paris. His 15-voice group, the Jon Hendricks
Vocalstra at the University of Toledo, will perform at the
Sorbonne in 2002. He will also write lyrics to some classical
pieces including “On the Trail” from Ferde Grofe’s Grand Canyon
Suite. The Vocalstra premiered a vocalese version of Rimsky-
Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” with the Toledo Symphony. In the
summer of 2003, He will go on tour with the “Four Brothers”, a
quartet consisting of Hendricks, Kurt Elling, Mark Murphy and
Kevin Mahogany. He will work on setting words to, and arranging
Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto as well as on two books,
teaching and touring with his Vocalstra. He will also appear in
a film with Al Pacino, “People I Know” as well as “White Men
Can’t Jump.”

1925 – Riley B. King is born in Itta Bena, Mississippi. He will
become a blues great, known as B(lues) B(oy) King. Playing
his guitar, nicknamed ‘Lucille,’ In the 1950s, he will become
one of the most important names in R&B music, amassing an
impressive list of hits including “3 O’Clock Blues”, “You Know
I Love You,” “Woke Up This Morning,” “Please Love Me,” “When My
Heart Beats like a Hammer,” “Whole Lotta Love,” “You Upset Me
Baby,” “Every Day I Have the Blues”, “Sneakin’ Around,” “Ten
Long Years,” “Bad Luck,” “Sweet Little Angel”, “On My Word of
Honor,” and “Please Accept My Love.” In 1962, he will sign with
ABC-Paramount Records, which will later be absorbed into MCA
Records, and then his current label, Geffen Records. In November,
1964, he will record the “Live at the Regal” album at the Regal
Theater in Chicago, Illinois. He will win a Grammy Award for a
tune called “The Thrill Is Gone”. His version will become a hit
on both the pop and R&B charts, which is rare during that time
for an R&B artist. It will also gain the number 183 spot in
Rolling Stone magazine’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” He will
gain further visibility among rock audiences, as an opening act on
The Rolling Stones’ 1969 American Tour. His mainstream success
will continue throughout the 1970s with songs like “To Know You is
to Love You” and “I Like to Live the Love”. He will be inducted
into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980. In 2004, he will be awarded
the international Polar Music Prize, given to artists “in
recognition of exceptional achievements in the creation and
advancement of music.” He will have over 50 hit blues albums and
win a 1970 Grammy for “The Thrill Is Gone”. To date, in over 62
years, he will play in excess of 15,000 performances.[

1933 – Emperor Jones, starring Paul Robeson as Brutus Jones, is
released by United Artists. It is Robeson’s first starring
movie role and the first major Hollywood production
starring an African American with whites in supporting
roles.

1934 – Elgin Baylor is born in Washington, DC. He will become a
NBA star beginning as the 1958-59 Rookie of the Year with
the Los Angeles Lakers. The No. 1 draft pick in 1958, NBA Rookie
of the Year in 1959, and an 11-time NBA All-Star, he will be
regarded as one of the game’s all-time greatest players. In 1977,
he will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of
Fame. He will set the NBA Playoff Record for points scored in a
game (61), and for points scored in a playoff series (284) [both
in 1962]. After retiring as a player, he will spend twenty-two
years as the General Manager of the Los Angeles Clippers, being
named the NBA Executive of the Year in 2006. He will be relieved
of his duties slightly before the 2008-09 season begins.

1937 – Orlando Manuel Cepeda Penne is born in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
He will be become a professional baseball player. In his
first season in 1958, he will bat .312 with 25 home runs
and 96 runs RBI, lead the National League in doubles (38),
and will be named Rookie of the Year. In 1967, he will be
named the National League MVP by hitting .325 and having
a league-leading 111 RBIs. He will be the second NL player
(joining fellow Giant Carl Hubbell in 1936) to win the MVP
unanimously (receiving all first-place votes). He will be
a seven-time All-Star (1959–64, 1967). He will retire in
1975 with a career .297 BA with 379 homers and 1365 RBI in
17 seasons. He will be the first designated hitter for the
Boston Red Sox, and the second DH in all of MLB. He will
be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999, joining
Roberto Clemente as the only other Puerto Rican in the
Hall.

1953 – Earl Klugh, Jazz pianist/guitarist, is born in Detroit,
Michigan. He will become an American smooth jazz/jazz
fusion guitarist and composer. He normally finger picks a
nylon string classical guitar. At the age of 13, he will
be captivated by the guitar playing of Chet Atkins when he
makes an appearance on the Perry Como Show. He will since
be a guest on several Atkins albums. Atkins, reciprocating
as well, joins Earl on his “Magic In Your Eyes” album. He
will also be influenced by Bob James, Ray Parker Jr, Wes
Montgomery and Laurindo Almeida. His sound will be a blend
of these jazz, pop and rhythm and blues influences,
forming a potpourri of sweet contemporary music original
to only him. He will become a guitar instructor at the
young age of 15, and will eventually be discovered by
Yuseff Lateef. His career will rapidly progress to working
with the likes of George Benson, George Shearing, Chick
Corea, and many others. Like several other Detroit-bred
entertainers, He attended Mumford High School in Detroit.
For their album “One on One,” He and Bob James will
receive a Grammy award for Best Pop Instrumental
Performance of 1981. He will receive at least 13 Grammy
nods and millions of record and CD sales,

1965 – San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral becomes the site of the
first concert of sacred music presented by Duke Ellington.

1971 – Six Klansmen are arrested in connection with the bombing of
10 school buses in Pontiac, Michigan.

1981 – Boxer ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard, at age 25, knocks out Thomas ‘The
Hit Man’ Hearns. Leonard wins the welterweight boxing
championship — and the richest payday in boxing history to
date.

1989 – Debbye Turner, a senior at the University of Missouri
Veterinary School, is crowned Miss America. She is the
third African American to win the crown since the pageant
began in 1921.

1990 – Keenen Ivory Wayans’ “In Living Color” wins an Emmy for
Outstanding Comedy Series.

1993 – Minnesota Twins’ slugger Dave Winfield becomes the 19th
player to get 3,000 career hits.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 15 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 15 *

1830 – The first National Negro Convention begins in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.

1876 – White terrorists attack Republicans in Ellenton, South
Carolina. Two whites and thirty-nine African Americans are
killed.

1890 – Claude McKay is born in Sunnyville, Jamaica. Emigrating to
the United States in 1912, he will be come a poet and
winner of the 1928 Harmon Gold Medal Award for Literature.
Author of the influential poetry collection “Harlem
Shadows”, he will also be famous for the poems “The
Lynching,” “White Houses,” and “If We Must Die,” which
will be used by Winston Churchill as a rallying cry during
World War II. He will join the ancestors on May 22, 1948.

1898 – The National Afro-American Council is founded in Rochester,
New York. Bishop Alexander Walters of the AME Zion Church
is elected president. The organization proposes a program
of assertion and protest.

1915 – Julius “Nipsey” Russell is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He
will become a comedian and actor. He will star in “Car 54
Where Are You?” (the movie), “Barefoot in the Park,”
“Masquerade Party, and Varsity Blues.” He will also be a
panelist on “Match Game” and “Hollywood Squares.” He will
join the ancestors on October 2, 2005.

1923 – The governor of Oklahoma declares that Oklahoma is in a
“state of virtual rebellion and insurrection” because of
Ku Klux Klan activities. Martial law is declared.

1924 – Robert Waltrip “Bobby” Short is born in Danville, Illinois. He
will become a singer and pianist. In 1968, he will be offered
a two-week stint at the Café Carlyle in New York City, to
fill in for George Feyer. He (accompanied by Beverly Peer on
bass and Dick Sheridan on drums) will become an institution at
the Carlyle, as Feyer had been before him, and will remain
there as a featured performer for over 35 years. In 2000, The
Library of Congress will designate him a Living Legend, a
recognition established as part of its bicentennial
celebration. He will join the ancestors on March 21, 2005.

1928 – Julian Edwin Adderly is born in Tampa, Florida. He will be
best known as “Cannonball” Adderly, a jazz saxophonist who
will play with Miles Davis as well as lead his own band
with brother Nat Adderly and musicians such as Yusef
Lateef and George Duke. Songs made famous by him and his bands
include “This Here” (written by Bobby Timmons), “The Jive
Samba,” “Work Song” (written by Nat Adderley), “Mercy, Mercy,
Mercy” (written by Joe Zawinul) and “Walk Tall” (written by
Zawinul, Marrow and Rein). He will join the ancestors on August
8, 1975. Later that year, he will be inducted into the Down Beat
Jazz Hall of Fame.

1943 – Actor and activist Paul Robeson acts in the 296th
performance of “Othello” at the Shubert Theatre in New
York City.

1963 – Four African American schoolgirls – Addie Collins, Denise
McNair, Carol Robertson and Cynthia Wesley – join the ancestors
after being killed in a bombing at the Sixteenth Street Baptist
Church in Birmingham, Alabama. It is an act of violence that
will galvanize the civil rights movement.

1964 – Rev. K.L. Buford and Dr. Stanley Smith are elected to the
Tuskegee City Council and become the first African
American elected officials in Alabama in the twentieth
century.

1969 – Large-scale racially motivated disturbances are reported
in Hartford, Connecticut. Five hundred persons are
arrested and scores are injured.

1978 – Muhammad Ali wins the world heavyweight boxing championship
for a record third time by defeating Leon Spinks in New
Orleans, Louisiana.

1987 – Boxer, Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns, becomes the first African
American to win boxing titles in five different weight
classes.

1991 – San Diego State freshman, Marshall Faulk, sets the NCAA
single game rushing record of 386 yards.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 23 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 23 *

1837 – Amanda Berry Smith is born into slavery in Long Green,
Maryland. She will be widowed twice, after which she will
attempt to minister to her people. Unable to preach in the
AME Church, which did not ordain women ministers, Smith
will become an independent missionary and travel throughout
the United States and three continents. She will publish
her autobiography, “Amanda Smith’s Story – The Story of the
Lord’s Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith, The Colored
Evangelist,” in 1893. She will join the ancestors on
February 24, 1915.

1891 – Provident Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, the first African
American hospital, is founded by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams.
He also establishes the Provident Hospital School of Nursing
around the same time, because Emma Reynolds, an African
American, had been denied admission to every school of
nursing in the city of Chicago.

1941 – Richard Wright is awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for his
book, “Native Son.”

1943 – Duke Ellington’s band plays for a black-tie crowd at Carnegie
Hall in New York City. It is the first of what will become
an annual series of concerts for ‘The Duke’.

1945 – The Army Nurse Corps discontinues its color barrier and
starts admitting nurses without regard to race. This is due
primarily to the pressure applied by the National
Association of Colored Nursing Graduates (NACGN) and other
groups.

1962 – Demonstrations against discrimination in off-campus housing
are staged by students at the University of Chicago for
fourteen days. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
charges that the university operates segregated apartment
houses.

1964 – The 24th amendment to the United States’ Constitution,
abolishing the poll tax in federal elections, is ratified.
The poll tax had been used extensively in the South as a
means of preventing African Americans from voting.

1976 – Paul Robeson joins the ancestors, as the result of a stroke,
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had been a world-renown
actor and singer. He was perhaps the best known and most
widely respected African American of the 1930s and 1940s.
Robeson was also a staunch supporter of the Soviet Union,
and a man, later in his life, widely vilified and censored
for his frankness and unyielding views on issues to which
public opinion ran contrary. As a young man, Robeson was
virile, charismatic, eloquent, and powerful. He learned to
speak more than 20 languages in order to break down the
barriers of race and ignorance throughout the world, and
yet, as Sterling Stuckey pointed out in the “New York Times
Book Review,” for the last 25 years of his life, his was “a
great whisper and a greater silence in Black America.”

1977 – The first episode of “Roots,” adapted from the “New York
Times” bestseller by Alex Haley, is aired on ABC. Over the
next several nights, 130 million Americans will be
transfixed before their televisions as the story of Kunta
Kinte is told.

1985 – O.J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner to be
inducted into pro football’s Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Roger Staubach of the Dallas Cowboys, another Heisman
winner, is also elected, but is after O.J. in the sequence
of induction.

1986 – The first annual induction ceremony for the Rock ‘N’ Roll
Hall of Fame is held in New York City. Among those inducted
were Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, and Fats Domino.

1989 – In “City of Richmond vs. J.A. Croson Co.,” the United States
Supreme Court invalidates the city’s minority set-aside
program, a major setback for the concept’s proponents.

2003 – Nell Carter, Tony Award winner and television star, joins the
ancestors at the age of 54. She had suffered from diabetes
for years and underwent brain surgery in 1992 to remove an
aneurysm. She recovered and continued to perform, mostly on
stage.

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 18 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – October 18            *

1910 – Felix Houphouet-Boigny is born in the Ivory Coast when it
was part of French colonial West Africa. In 1960, after
the Ivory Coast (Cote’ d’Ivoire) gains independence from
France, he will become President, and hold that office
until he joins the ancestors in 1993.

1926 – Charles Edward Berry is born in St. Louis, Missouri. He
will become one of the foremost legends in rock and roll
and known as “Chuck” Berry. In the early Fifties, Berry
will lead a popular blues trio by night and work as a
beautician by day.  After befriending Muddy Waters, he
will be introduced to Leonard Chess of Chess Records, who
signs him to a recording contract.  Chuck Berry will also
be successful in crossing over to the largely white pop
market.  His hits will include “Maybellene,” “Rock and
Roll Music,” “School Days,” “Johnny B. Goode,” “Sweet
Little Sixteen,” “No Particular Place to Go,” “You Never
Can Tell,” “Promised Land,” and “My Ding-a-Ling.”  He
will inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
1986.

1942 – Willie Horton is born.  He will become a professional
baseball player with the Detroit Tigers, known for his
power hitting ability.

1945 – Paul Robeson, actor, singer, athlete and activist,
receives the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal.

1953 – Willie Thrower becomes the first African American NFL
quarterback in modern times.

1961 – Wynton Marsalis is born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  A
jazz trumpeter from the famous Marsalis family, which
includes father Ellis and brothers Branford and Delfayo,
he will at 19, become a member of Art Blakely’s Jazz
Messengers and in 1984 be the first musician to win
Grammys for jazz and classical music recordings
simultaneously.

1968 – Bob Beamon of the United States, wins an Olympic gold
medal in the Mexico City Summer Games. His long jump of
29′-2.5″ betters the world record by over 21″.

1968 – United States Olympic Committee suspends Tommie Smith &
John Carlos for giving a “black power” salute as a
protest during a victory ceremony in Mexico City on
October 16.

1973 – “Raisin”, a musical adaptation of the Lorraine Hansberry
play, “A Raisin in the Sun”, opens on Broadway.  It
marks the debut of Debbie Allen in the role of Beneatha
Younger and will act as the catalyst for her further
success in television and choreography.

1974 – The Chicago Bull’s Nate Thurmond, becomes first player
in the NBA to complete a quadruple double – 22 pts, 14
rebounds, 13 assists & 12 blocks.

1977 – Reggie Jackson hits 3 consecutive home runs, tying Babe
Ruth’s World Series record.  The Yankees beat the Los
Angeles Dodgers 8-4 for 21st world championship, the
first in 15 years.

1990 – Filmmaker Charles Burnett’s 1977 movie “Killer of Sheep”
is declared a “national treasure” by the Library of
Congress. It is among the first 50 films placed in the
National Film Registry because of its significance.
Burnett’s film joins other significant films such as
“All About Eve”, “The Godfather”, and “Top Hat.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

October 14 African American Historical Events

*                Today in Black History – October 14           *

1834 – Henry Blair of Glen Ross, Maryland, receives a patent for
a corn planting machine.

1864 – The first African American daily newspaper, the New
Orleans Tribune, is published in both French and English.

1916 – Sophomore tackle and guard Paul Robeson is excluded from
the Rutgers football team when Washington and Lee
University refuse to play against an African American.
The exclusion will be temporary and the young Robeson
will go on to be named a football All-American twice.

1947 – Charles “Charlie” Joiner, Jr. is born in Many, Louisiana.
He will become a professional football player after being
picked in the fourth round of the 1969 NFL draft. He will
be a wide receiver for the Houston Oilers from 1969-1972,
the Cincinnati Bengals from 1972-1975, and the San Diego
Chargers from 1976-1986.  In eighteen seasons, he will
play in 239 games (most ever for a wide receiver at the
time of his retirement) and compile a career record of 750
catches, 12,146 yards, and 65 touchdowns. He will catch
586 passes as a Charger and was a key element in vaunted
“Air Coryell” offense. He exceeded 50 catches in seven
seasons, was a 100-yard receiver in 29 games, and played
in three Pro Bowls. In his last thirteen years, he will
miss only one game. He will be inducted into the Football
Hall of Fame in 1996.

1958 – The District of Columbia Bar Association votes to accept
African Americans as members.

1964 – Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. is announced as the recipient of
the Nobel Peace Prize for his civil rights activities.
King is the second African American to win the Peace
Prize.

1969 – A racially motivated civil disturbance occurs in
Springfield, Massachusetts.

1971 – Two people are killed in a Memphis, Tennessee racially
motivated disturbance.

1980 – Bob Marley performs in his last concert before he
untimely joins the ancestors succumbing to cancer.

1995 – Sports Illustrated places Eddie Robinson on the cover
of its magazine.  He is the first and only coach of an
Historically Black College or University (HBCU) to
appear on the cover of any major sports publication in
the United States.

1999 – Julius Nyerere, Tanzania’s first president, joins the
ancestors in a London hospital at age 77.

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