Prince Hall – The CamaraIfe Maktaba

March 7, 2015March 7, 2015 KRLemmons African American History

March 6 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – March 6

1479 – The Treaty of Alcacovas is signed. This will establish the
territorial domains of Portugal and Castile (Spain) along a
longitudinal line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands.
Spain, thereby, recognizes Portugal’s rights to explore the
African coast. Portugal becomes the first European nation to
exploit the West African slave trade.

1775 – Prince Hall and fourteen other African Americans are initiated
into British Military Lodge No. 441 of the Masons at Fort
Independence, Massachusetts. Hall is a leather-dresser and
caterer. On July 3, 1775, African Lodge No. 1 will be
organized in Boston by this group of African American Masons.

1857 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules against citizenship for African
Americans in the Dred Scott decision. The Court rules that
Dred Scott, a slave, cannot sue for his freedom in a free
state because he is property and, as such, “has no rights a
white man has to respect.” This ruling also opens up the
northern territory to slavery.

1862 – President Lincoln sends message to Congress recommending
gradual and compensated emancipation of the slaves.

1901 – Virginia State University in Ettrick, Virginia (Outside of
Petersburg), is founded.

1909 – Obafemi Awolowo is born in Ikenne, Nigeria. He will become
the first Premier of Western Nigeria. He will also be a
strong antagonist of the north’s feudal system and its spread
to other parts of Nigeria and an advocate of the creation of
more states in Nigeria. Chief Awolowo and 28 other members
of his party will be later put on trial for treasonable
felony. He was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment, and,
on appeal to the Federal Court the sentence was upheld.
After spending just over three years in Calabar prison, he
will be released with a state pardon. Nine days later, amid
jubilation he was unanimously elected leader of the then
10,500,000 Yorubas and leader of the Western delegation to
the All Nigerian Conference on the future association of
Nigeria. Chief Awolowo will be an author whose publications
will include “Path to Nigerian Freedom, Thoughts on the
Nigerian Constitution”. He will join the ancestors on
May 9, 1987.

1923 – Charles Ethan Porter joins the ancestors in Rockville,
Connecticut. A student of the National Academy of Design in
New York City, the first African American artist in the
United States to graduate from a four-year school of art,
and member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Porter
did not receive the recognition that contemporaries Edward
Bannister and Henry Ossawa Tanner won. He will be best known
for the paintings “Still Life (Crock With Onions),”
“Strawberries,” and “Daisies,” but there will not be a major
retrospective of his work until 1987.

1940 – Wilver Dornel “Willie” Stargell is born in Earlsboro, Oklahoma.
He will become an all-star baseball player for the Pittsburgh
Pirates. He will hit 475 career home runs – twice leading
the National League with 48 in 1971 and with 44 in 1973. He
will drive in 1540 runs, score 1195 and have 2232 hits with a
lifetime batting average of .282. He will be inducted into
Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1988. He will join the ancestors on
April 9, 2001.

1944 – Mary Wilson is born in Greenville, Mississippi. In 1959, she
will begin singing with a group called the “Primettes”, a
sister group to a male group, The Primes.” The Primes will
become “The Temptations” and the Primettes will become “The
Supremes.” The Supremes will become the only American act to
have five consecutive number one hits! From their beginning
to the end of the group, the Supremes will have 33 songs
reach the top 40. After the group disbands in 1977, Mary
Wilson will become a successful businesswoman, author,
lecturer, actress, and singer of not just pop music, but
Jazz, Rock, R&B, and Dance. She will author the best-seller
“Dreamgirl-My Life as a Supreme.” In 1988, Mary Wilson will
become the first female rock star to accept her lifetime
achievement award from the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame.

1957 – Ghana becomes the first African nation to achieve freedom from
colonial rule when the Ashanti, Northern Protectorates, the
Gold Coast and British Togoland declare their independence.
The celebration ceremonies are attended by a number of
American dignitaries, including African American leaders
Ralph Bunche, A. Philip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.,
Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King.

1981 – Dr. Bernard Harleston, former dean of arts and sciences at
Tufts University, is appointed president of New York’s City
College.

2000 – Three white New York police officers are convicted of a cover-
up in the brutal police station attack on Haitian immigrant
Abner Louima.

2000 – “Earth, Wind and Fire” is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame.

2006 – Kirby Puckett joins the ancestors, one day after the Hall of
Fame outfielder had a stroke at his Arizona home, at the age
of 45. He carried the Minnesota Twins to World Series titles
in 1987 and 1991 before his career was cut short by glaucoma.
He played his entire career with the Twins and was an icon in
Minnesota.

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

February 4, 2015 KRLemmons African American History

January 30 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 30 *

1797 – Boston Masons, led by Prince Hall, establish the first
African American interstate organization, creating lodges
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Providence, Rhode Island.

1797 – Isabella Baumfree is born a slave in Swartekill, Ulster County,
New York. This is an approximation, since historians cannot
agree on the actual date of her birth. She will escape from
slavery with her infant daughter in 1826. After going to court
to gain custody of her son, she will become the first Black
woman to win such a case against a white man. She will become
an African American abolitionist and women’s rights activist,
naming herself ‘Sojourner Truth’ on June 1, 1843. Her best-known
extemporaneous speech on racial inequalities, “Ain’t I a Woman?,”
will be delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention
in Akron, Ohio. During the Civil War, she will help recruit
Black troops for the Union Army. After the war, she will try
unsuccessfully, to secure land grants from the federal government
for former slaves. She will speak about abolition, women’s rights,
prison reform, and will preach to the Michigan Legislature against
capital punishment. Not everyone welcomed her preaching and
lectures, but she will have many friends and staunch support among
many influential people at the time, including Amy Post, Parker
Pillsbury, Frances Gage, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison,
Laura Smith Haviland, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony.”
During her last days on earth, a reporter will come from the Grand
Rapids Eagle to interview her. “Her face was drawn and emaciated
and she was apparently suffering great pain. Her eyes were very
bright and mind alert although it was difficult for her to talk.”
She will join the ancestors on November 26, 1883, at her home in
Battle Creek, Michigan,

1797 – Congress refuses to accept the first recorded petitions from
African Americans.

1844 – Richard Theodore Greener becomes the first African American
to graduate from Harvard University.

1858 – William Wells Brown publishes the first drama by an African
American, “Leap to Freedom,” Brown is an escaped slave who
will also become noted as an abolitionist and author of
several early historical publications.

1927 – The Harlem Globetrotters, considered by many the most popular
basketball team in the world, is formed by Abe Saperstein.
Originally called the Savoy Five after their home court, the
Savoy Ballroom, in Chicago, Illinois, the team’s name will
be changed to the Harlem Globetrotters.

1928 – Ruth Brown is born in Portsmouth, Virginia. She will become a
Rhythm & Blues and jazz singer, recording “So Long,”
“Teardrops from My Eyes,” “Hours,” “Mambo Baby,” “Lucky
Lips,” and “This Little Girl’s Gone Rockin’.” She will be a
Tony Award winner and a Rhythm & Blues revolutionary–a
woman whose early successes earned her instant worldwide
fame and launched a career that has influenced such
legendary performers as Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington,
Little Richard and Stevie Wonder. She will be inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. She will join the
ancestors on November 16, 2006. A memorial concert for her
will be held on January 22, 2007 at the Abyssinian Baptist
Church in the village of Harlem in New York City.

1944 – Sharon Pratt is born in Washington, DC. In 1990, as Sharon
Pratt Dixon, she will be elected the first woman mayor of
Washington, DC. Her defeat of incumbent Marion Barry coupled
with her years of community involvement and activism will
raise the beleaguered city’s hopes for positive change.
R1945 – Floyd Flake is born in Los Angeles, California. He will
become a congressman from New York’s 6th District.

1956 – The home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Montgomery bus
boycott leader, is bombed.

1962 – The United Nations General Assembly censures Portugal for its
widespread violations of human rights in Angola.

1965 – Leroy “Satchel” Paige, major league baseball player, is named
all-time outstanding player by the National Baseball
Congress.

1979 – Franklin A. Thomas becomes the first African American to head
a major U.S. charitable foundation when he is named
president of the Ford Foundation.

2009 – Michael Steele, the first African American lieutenant governor
of Maryland, is elected after six rounds of voting as the
chairperson of the Republican National Committee. He is the
first African American to hold that office.

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

January 4, 2015 KRLemmons African American History

January 4 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 4 *

1787 – Prince Hall, founder of the first African American Masonic
lodge, and others petition the Massachusetts legislature for
funds to return to Africa. The plan is the first recorded
effort by African Americans to return to their homeland.

1832 – A major insurrection of slaves on Trinidad occurs.

1901 – Cyril Lionel Richard James is born in Tunapuna, Trinidad. He
will become a writer, historian, Marxist social critic, and
activist who deeply influenced the intellectual underpinnings
of West Indian and African movements for independence. He was
born into an educated family in colonial Trinidad. At the age
of nine He earned a scholarship to Queen’s Royal College, in
Port of Spain, Trinidad, and graduated in 1918. In 1932 James
left Trinidad for England. He will become involved in socialist
politics, gravitating toward a faction of anti-Stalinist
Marxists. He applied Leon Trotsky’s views about a worldwide
workers’ revolution to his colonial home. The result, in part,
was “The Life of Captain Cipriani: An Account of British
Government in the West Indies” (1932), in which he called for
Caribbean independence. For a time in the 1970s he taught at
Federal City College in Washington, D.C. He lived the last
years of his life in London. Three volumes of his collected
works appeared as “The Future in the Present” (1977), “Spheres
of Existence” (1980), and “At the Rendezvous of Victory”
(1984). He will join the ancestors on May 31, 1989 in London,
England.

1920 – Andrew “Rube” Foster organizes the Negro National Baseball
League.

1935 – Floyd Patterson is born in Waco, North Carolina. He will become
a boxer, winning a gold medal in the 1952 Summer Olympic Games
in the middleweight class. He will become the first gold
medalist to win a world professional title. He will join the
ancestors on May 11, 2006.

1937 – Grace Ann Bumbry is born in St. Louis, Missouri. She will grow
up at 1703 Goode Avenue in the city. She will join the Union
Memorial Methodist Church’s choir at eleven, and sing at Sumner
High School. She will be a 1954 winner on the “Arthur Godfrey
Talent Scouts” show. After her concert debut in London in 1959,
Bumbry debuts with the Paris Opera the next year. In 1961,
Richard Wagner’s grandson features her in Bayreuth, Germany’s
Wagner Festival. The first person of African descent to sing
there, Bumbry will be an international sensation and win the
Wagner Medal. A mezzo-soprano who also successfully sang the
soprano repertoire, Grace Bumbry will record on four labels and
sing in concerts world wide. Her honors will include induction
into the St. Louis Walk of Fame, the UNESCO Award, the
Distinguished Alumna Award from the Academy of Music of the
West, Italy’s Premio Giuseppe Verdi, and being named Commandeur
des Arts et Lettres by the French government.

1944 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is appointed the first African American
official in the U.S. State Department.

1971 – Dr. Melvin H. Evans is inaugurated as the first elected governor
of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

1985 – Congressman William H. Gray is elected chairman of the House
Budget Committee, the highest congressional post, to date, held
by an African American.

1986 – David Robinson blocks a N.C.A.A. record 14 shots while playing
for the U.S. Naval Academy.
Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Mr. Rene’ A. Perry.

December 8, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

December 4 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 4 *

1783 – George Washington’s farewell address to his troops is
held at Fraunces Tavern in New York City. The tavern
is owned by Samuel “Black Sam” Fraunces, a wealthy
West Indian of African and French descent who aided
Revolutionary forces with food and money.

1807 – Prince Hall, activist and Masonic leader, joins the
ancestors in Boston, Massachusetts.

1833 – The American Anti-Slavery Society is founded in
Philadelphia by James Barbados, Robert Purvis, James
McCrummell, James Forten, Jr., John B. Vashon and
others.

1895 – Fort Valley State College is established in Georgia.

1895 – The South Carolina Constitutional Convention adopted a
new constitution with “understanding clause” designed
to eliminate African American voters.

1899 – The Fifty-Sixth Congress convenes with only one African
American congressman, George H. White, from North
Carolina.

1906 – Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. is founded on the
campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York,
becoming the first African American Greek-letter
organization.

1909 – The New York “Amsterdam News” is founded by James
Anderson. Originally priced at two cents, it will grow
to a circulation of almost 35,000 by 1990.

1915 – The NAACP leads protest demonstrations against the
showing of the racist movie, “Birth of a Nation.”

1915 – The Ku Klux Klan receives its charter from Fulton
County, Georgia Superior Court. The modern Klan will
spread to Alabama and other Southern states and reach
the height of its influence in the twenties. By 1924,
the organization will be strong in Oklahoma, Indiana,
California, Oregon, Indiana, and Ohio, and have an
estimated four million members.

1927 – President Coolidge commutes Marcus Garvey’s sentence.
Garvey will be taken to New Orleans and deported to his
native Jamaica.

1927 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Anthony Overton,
publisher, insurance executive and cosmetics
manufacturer, for his achievements as a businessman.

1927 – Duke Ellington’s big band opens at the famed Cotton Club
in Harlem. It is the first appearance of the Duke’s
new and larger group. He will play the club until 1932.

1943 – Professional baseball’s commissioner Landis announces
that any club may sign Negroes to a playing contract.

1956 – Bernard King, professional basketball player (New York
Knicks, New Jersey Nets), is born.

1958 – Dahomey (Benin), and the Ivory Coast become autonomous
within the French Community of Nations.

1969 – The Pulitzer Prize for photography is awarded to Moneta
Sleet Jr. of Ebony magazine. He is the first African
American male cited by the Pulitzer committee.

1969 – Clarence Mitchell Jr., director of the Washington Bureau
of the NAACP, is awarded the Spingarn Medal “for the
pivotal role he….played in the enactment of civil
rights legislation.”

1969 – Two Black Panther leaders, Fred Hampton(Illinois State
Chairman) and Mark Clark, join the ancestors after
being killed in a Chicago police raid. The two men are
shot while sleeping in their beds. Fred Hampton is
just 20 years old.

1977 – Jean-Bedel Bokassa, ruler of the Central African Empire,
crowns himself.

1981 – According to South Africa, Ciskei gains independence,
but is not recognized as an independent country outside
South Africa.

1982 – Hershel Walker, a University of Georgia running back who
amassed an NCAA record of 5,097 yards in three seasons,
is named the Heisman Trophy winner. He is only the
seventh junior to win the award. He will go on to play
with the New Jersey Generals of the U.S. Football League
and the Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys in the NFL.

1990 – The Watts Health Foundation reports revenues in excess of
$100 million for the first year in its history.
Established in 1967, the Foundation grew from its initial
site on riot-torn 103rd Street to serve over 80,000
residents of the Greater Los Angeles area with its HMO,
United Health Plan, and its numerous community-based
programs. Led by CEO Dr. Clyde Oden, it is the largest
community-based health care system of its kind in the
nation.

1992 – United States troops land in the country of Somalia.

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

October 26, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

October 17 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – October 17 *

1711 – Jupiter Hammon is born a slave on Long Island, New York. He
will become a poet and the first published Black writer in
America, a poem appearing in print in 1760. He will be
considered one of the founders of African American
literature. He will be a slave his entire life, owned by
several generations of the Lloyd family on Long Island.
However, he will be allowed to attend school, and unlike
many slaves, will be able to read and write. In 1786,
He will give his “Address to the Negroes of the State of
New York” before the African Society. He will write the
the speech at age seventy-six after a lifetime of slavery,
and it will contain his famous quote, “If we should ever
get to Heaven, we shall find nobody to reproach us for
being Black, or for being slaves.” The speech draws
heavily on Christian motifs and theology. For example, He
will say that Black people should maintain their high
moral standards precisely because being slaves on Earth
had already secured their place in heaven. His speech
also will promote the idea of a gradual emancipation as a
way of ending slavery. It will be thought that he stated
this plan because he knew that slavery was so entrenched
in American society that an immediate emancipation of all
slaves would be more difficult to achieve. The speech will
be later reprinted by several groups opposed to slavery.
It is widely believed that he joined the ancestors in
1806.

1787 – Boston African Americans, led by Prince Hall, submit to
the State Legislature in Boston, Massachusetts, a
petition asking for equal educational rights and
facilities. The petition is not granted.

1806 – Jean Jacques Dessalines, revolutionist and Emperor of
Haiti, joins the ancestors as a result of an
assassination.

1817 – Samuel Ringgold Ward is born on the Eastern Shore of
Maryland. He will be considered one of the finest
abolitionist orators. He will work for the Anti-Slavery
Society of Canada and will travel to Britain to further
the society’s work. His fundraising success in Britain
will provide the society to finance their support of
escaped slaves from the United States. After publishing
a book that will chronicle his anti-slavery achievements,
he will be able to retire to Jamaica, where he will join
the ancestors in 1866.

1871 – President Grant suspends the writ of habeas corpus and
declares martial law in nine South Carolina counties
affected by Ku Klux Klan disturbances.

1888 – The first African American bank, Capital Savings Bank of
Washington, DC, opens for business.

1894 – Ohio National Guard kills 3 members of a lynch mob while
rescuing an African American man.

1909 – William R. Cole is born in East Orange, New Jersey. He
will become a jazz drummer best known as “Cozy Cole.”
He will begin to play professionally as a teenager and
will make his first recording at age 20 with Jelly Roll
Morton’s Red Hot Peppers. Cozy Cole will join Cab
Calloway’s band in 1939 and will join CBS radio in 1943
to play in Raymond Scott’s Orchestra, becoming one of
the first African American musicians on a network
musical staff. In 1958, Cole will make a solo hit
record, “Topsy,” that sells more than a million copies.
He will join the ancestors on January 9, 1981.

1928 – James William “Junior” Gilliam is born in Nashville,
Tennessee. He will become a professional baseball player
for the Brooklyn Dodgers and will be the National League
Rookie of the Year in 1953. a key member of ten NL
championship teams from 1953 to 1978. The Dodgers’
leadoff hitter for most of the 1950s, he will score over
100 runs in each of his first four seasons and lead the
National League in triples and walks once each. He will
be the first switch hitter since the 19th century to
play regularly for the Dodgers for more than three years,
and will later became one of the first Black coaches in
the major leagues. He will join the ancestors on October
8, 1978 in Inglewood, California after succumbing to a
cerebral hemorrhage.

1956 – Mae C. Jemison is born in Decatur, Alabama. She will
grow up in Chicago, become a physician, serve in the
Peace Corps in Africa, and practice medicine in Los
Angeles, before being selected for the astronaut
training program in 1987.

1969 – Dr. Clifton R. Wharton Jr., is elected president of
Michigan State University and becomes the first African
American to head a major, predominantly white university
in the twentieth century.

1985 – Legendary jazz and blues singer Alberta Hunter joins the
ancestors in New York City. She achieved fame in
Chicago jazz clubs in the 1920’s, toured Europe in the
1930’s and, after over 20 years of anonymity as a nurse,
returned to performing in 1977.

1990 – Dr. Ralph Abernathy, civil rights leader, joins the
ancestors.

1991 – The 100th episode of “A Different World” airs on NBC.
The acclaimed show, a spin-off of “The Cosby Show” that
stars Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison, and an ensemble of
young African American actors, is directed by Debbie
Allen.

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

May 15, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

May 6 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 6 *

1787 – Prince Hall forms African Lodge 459, the first African
American Masonic Lodge in the United States.

1794 – Haiti, under Toussaint L’Ouverture, revolts against France.

1812 – Martin R. Delany is born free in Charlestown, Virginia. He
will become the first African American field officer to
serve in the Civil War. He will also be a noted physician,
author, explorer, and a newspaper editor.

1930 – Noted actor Charles Gilpin joins the ancestors. The founder
and manager of the Lafayette Theatre Company, one of the
earliest African American stock companies in New York,
Gilpin achieved fame for his performance as Brutus Jones
in Eugene O’Neill’s play “The Emperor Jones.” In 1921, he
won the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal in recognition of his
theatrical career.

1931 – Willie Mays is born in Westfield, Alabama. He will become a
professional baseball player at the age of 16, for the
Birmingham Black Barons. After graduating from high school,
he will be signed by the New York Giants. His 7095 putouts
will be the all-time record for an outfielder. His career
batting average will be .302. For eight consecutive years,
he will drive in more than 100 runs a year, and his 660 home
runs will put him in third place for the all-time home run
record. He will win the Gold Glove Award 12 times. He will
be voted Most Valuable Player in the National League in
both 1954 and 1965. He will be inducted into the Baseball
Hall of Fame in 1979.

1960 – The Civil Rights Act of 1960 is signed by President
Eisenhower. The act acknowledges the federal government’s
responsibility in matters involving civil rights and
reverses its customary “hands-off” policy.

1967 – Four hundred students seize the administration building at
Cheyney State College.

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

January 7, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

January 4 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 4 *

1832 – A major insurrection of slaves on Trinidad occurs.

1920 – Andrew “Rube” Foster organizes the Negro National Baseball
League.

1944 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is appointed the first African American
official in the U.S. State Department.

1971 – Dr. Melvin H. Evans is inaugurated as the first elected governor
of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

1985 – Congressman William H. Gray is elected chairman of the House
Budget Committee, the highest congressional post, to date, held
by an African American.

1986 – David Robinson blocks a N.C.A.A. record 14 shots while playing
for the U.S. Naval Academy.

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

December 4, 2013 KRLemmons African American History