KRLemmons African American History

January 12 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 12 *

1879 – British troops invade Zululand from Natal, confident that they
could crush the Zulu forces armed with spears and shields.
However, the well-trained Zulu army repulses the initial
attack, killing over 1300 British troops in the Battle of
Isandlwana. But that success will exhaust the Zulu army, and
before Cetshwayo could mount a counteroffensive into Natal,
British troops from around the Empire will be rushed to
southern Africa, where their advanced weaponry will bring them
ultimate victory in the six-month Anglo-Zulu war. The British
will conclude their aggressive venture by dividing up Zululand
among thirteen pro-British chiefs, effectively destroying the
Zulu kingdom.

1890 – Mordecai Wyatt Johnson is born in Paris, Tennessee. He will
become the first African American president of Howard
University in 1926, a position he will hold for 34 years. He
will also be a recipient of the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal in 1929.
He will retire in 1960, and will join the ancestors on
September 11, 1976 in Washington, DC.

1920 – James Farmer is born in Marshall, Texas. He will become an
African American civil rights leader and activist. He will
found the Committee on Racial Equality in 1942 and later
change the name of the organization to the Congress of Racial
Equality. Farmer and CORE will be the architects of the
“Freedom Rides” that will lead to the desegregation of over
100 bus terminals in the South. He will become a major player
during the Civil Rights movement. He will be awarded the
Congressional Medal of Freedom in 1998 by President Bill
Clinton. He will join the ancestors on July 9, 1999 in
Fredericksburg, Virginia, at the age of 79.

1944 – Joseph William “Joe” Frazier is born in Beaufort, South
Carolina. He will become a boxer and will win the Olympic Gold
Medal in 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. He will go on to win the
heavyweight title on February 16, 1970, after knocking out
Jimmy Ellis in five rounds. He will remain champion until
January 22, 1973, when he is knocked out in the second round
by George Foreman. He will be inducted into the Ring’s Boxing
Hall of Fame in 1980 and into the International Boxing Hall of
Fame in 1990. He will join the ancestors on November 7, 2011.

1946 – George Duke is born in San Rafael, California, and will be
reared in Marin City, a working class section of Marin County.
He will become a major recording artist, heavily influenced by
Miles Davis and the soul-jazz sound of Les McCann and Cal
Tjader. He and a young singer named Al Jarreau will form a
group becoming the house band at San Francisco’s Half Note
Club. Over the years, George will work with Sonny Rollins,
Dexter Gordon, Frank Zappa, Cannonball Adderley, Nancy Wilson,
Joe Williams, and Dizzy Gillespie. He will be a prolific
songwriter and producer.

1948 – The United States Supreme Court decision (Sipuel v. Oklahoma
State Board of Regents) said a state must afford African
Americans “an opportunity to commence the study of law at a
state institution at the same time as [other] citizens.”

1951 – Ezzard Charles knocks out Lee Oma to retain the heavyweight
boxing crown.

1952 – The University of Tennessee admits its first African American
student.

1959 – Berry Gordy borrows $800 from a family loan fund to form Motown
Records. The record company’s first releases will appear on
the Tamla label.

1960 – Jacques Dominique Wilkins is born in Paris, France. He will
become a NBA forward and play the majority of his career for
the Atlanta Hawks. He will be a nine-time NBA All-Star and the
winner of two NBA Slam Dunk Contests, register 26,668 points
(one of only 12 players to do so) and 7,169 rebounds in his
NBA career. He will not foul out during his final 957 games,
the third longest such streak (behind Moses Malone and Wilt
Chamberlain). He will be inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall
of Fame on April 3, 2004 and into the Naismith Memorial
Basketball Hall of Fame on April 3, 2006.

1964 – Leftist rebels in Zanzibar begin their successful revolt against
the government.

1965 – Noted playwright Lorraine Hansberry joins the ancestors, after
succumbing to cancer in New York City at the age of 34, while
her second play, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” is
playing on Broadway. Her first and most famous work, “A
Raisin in the Sun,” brought her wide acclaim on Broadway,
earned her the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best
play, and became a motion picture starring Sidney Poitier,
Ruby Dee, and Claudia McNeil.

1971 – The Congressional Black Caucus is organized.

1982 – A commemorative stamp of Ralph Bunche is issued by the U.S.
Postal Service as part of its Great Americans series.

1988 – Willie Stargell, formally of the Pittsburgh Pirates, is elected
to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1990 – Civil Rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton is stabbed in Brooklyn,
New York, in Bensonhurst.

1995 – In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, an American soldier is killed and
another wounded during a shootout with a former Haitian army
officer who also was killed.

1995 – Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, is arrested in
Minneapolis, Minnesota on charges that she had tried to hire
a hit man to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. The
charges will later be dropped.

2002 – Jerry Rice, playing for the Oakland Raiders, becomes the oldest
player in the NFL to date, to score in a playoff game.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 2 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – September 2 *

1766 – Abolitionist, inventor, and entrepreneur, James Forten is
born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1833 – Oberlin College, one of the first colleges to admit
African Americans, is founded in Oberlin, Ohio.

1864 – In series of battles around Chaffin’s Farm in the suburbs
of Richmond, Virginia, African American troops capture
entrenchments at New Market Heights, make a gallant but
unsuccessful assault on Fort Gilmer and help repulse a
Confederate counterattack on Fort Harrison. The Thirty-
Ninth U.S. Colored Troops will win a Congressional Medal
of Honor in the engagements.

1902 – “In Dahomey” premieres at the Old Globe Theater in Boston,
Massachusetts. With music by Will Marion Cook and lyrics
by poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, it is the most successful
musical of its day.

1911 – Romare Bearden is born in Charlotte, North Carolina. His
family will move to the village of Harlem in New York
City in 1914. He will call New York his home for the
rest of his life. A student at New York University, the
American Artists School, Columbia University, and the
Sorbonne, Bearden’s depiction of the rituals and social
customs of African American life will be imbued with an
eloquence and power that will earn him accolades as one
of the finest artists of the 20th century and a master
of collage. Among his honors will be election to the
American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National
Institute of Arts and Letters, and receiving the
President’s National Medal of Arts in 1987. He will join
the ancestors on March 12, 1988 after succumbing to
complications of bone cancer.

1928 – Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver is born in Norwalk,
Connecticut. He will become a jazz pianist, bandleader,
and composer who will initially lead the Jazz Messengers
with drummer Art Blakey before forming his own band in
1956. A pioneer of the hard bop style, he will attract
to his band the talents of Art Farmer, Donald Byrd, and
Blue Mitchell, among others.

1945 – The end of World War II (V-J Day). A total of 1,154,720
African Americans have been inducted or drafted into the
armed forces. Official records list 7,768 African
American commissioned officers on August 31, 1945. At
the height of the conflict, 3,902 African American women
(115 officers) were enrolled in the Women’s Army
Auxiliary Corps (WACS) and 68 were in the Navy auxiliary,
the WAVES. The highest ranking African American women
were Major Harriet M. West and Major Charity E. Adams.
Distinguished Unit Citations were awarded to the 969th
Field Artillery Battalion, the 614th Tank Destroyer
Battalion, and the 332nd Fighter Group (Tuskegee Airmen).

1946 – William Everett “Billy” Preston is born in Houston, Texas.
He will become a musician songwriter and singer. His hits
will include “Will It Go Round in Circles”, “Nothing from
Nothing”, “Outa-Space”, “Get Back” (with The Beatles),
and “With You I’m Born Again”(with Syreeta). He also will
appear in film: “St. Louis Blues” and play with Little
Richard’s Band. He will collaborate with some of the
greatest names in the music industry, including the
Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Little Richard, Ray Charles,
George Harrison, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Sam
Cooke, King Curtis, Sammy Davis Jr., Sly Stone, Aretha
Franklin, the Jackson 5, Quincy Jones, Richie Sambora,
and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He will play the electric
piano on the Get Back sessions in 1969 and is one of
several people sometimes credited as the “Fifth Beatle”.
He is one of only two non-Beatles to receive label
performance credit on any Beatles record. He will join
the ancestors on June 6, 2006 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

1956 – The Tennessee National Guard is sent to Clinton, Tennessee,
to quell white mobs demonstrating against school
integration.

1960 – Eric Dickerson is born in Sealy, Texas. He will become a
professional football player and will become NFC Rookie
of the Year in 1983. He will also set a NFL single-
season rushing record of 2,105 yards in 1984.

1963 – Alabama Governor George Wallace blocks the integration of
Tuskegee High School in Tuskegee, Alabama.

1965 – Lennox Claudius Lewis, former WBC boxing champ, is born
in West Ham, London, England.

1966 – Frank Robinson is named Most Valuable Player of the
American League.

1971 – Cheryl White becomes the first African American woman
jockey to win a sanctioned horse race.

1975 – Joseph W. Hatchett sworn in as first African American
state supreme court justice in the South (Florida) in
the twentieth century.

1978 – Reggie Jackson is 19th player to hit 20 home runs in 11
straight years.

1989 – Rev. Al Sharpton leads a civil rights march through the
Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 2 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 2 *

1766 – Abolitionist, inventor, and entrepreneur, James Forten is
born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1833 – Oberlin College, one of the first colleges to admit
African Americans, is founded in Oberlin, Ohio.

1864 – In series of battles around Chaffin’s Farm in the suburbs
of Richmond, Virginia, African American troops capture
entrenchments at New Market Heights, make a gallant but
unsuccessful assault on Fort Gilmer and help repulse a
Confederate counterattack on Fort Harrison. The Thirty-
Ninth U.S. Colored Troops will win a Congressional Medal
of Honor in the engagements.

1902 – “In Dahomey” premieres at the Old Globe Theater in Boston,
Massachusetts. With music by Will Marion Cook and lyrics
by poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, it is the most successful
musical of its day.

1911 – Romare Bearden is born in Charlotte, North Carolina. His
family will move to the village of Harlem in New York
City in 1914. He will call New York his home for the
rest of his life. A student at New York University, the
American Artists School, Columbia University, and the
Sorbonne, Bearden’s depiction of the rituals and social
customs of African American life will be imbued with an
eloquence and power that will earn him accolades as one
of the finest artists of the 20th century and a master
of collage. Among his honors will be election to the
American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National
Institute of Arts and Letters, and receiving the
President’s National Medal of Arts in 1987. He will join
the ancestors in 1988.

1928 – Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver is born in Norwalk,
Connecticut. He will become a jazz pianist, bandleader,
and composer who will initially lead the Jazz Messengers
with drummer Art Blakey before forming his own band in
1956. A pioneer of the hard bop style, he will attract
to his band the talents of Art Farmer, Donald Byrd, and
Blue Mitchell, among others.

1945 – The end of World War II (V-J Day). A total of 1,154,720
African Americans have been inducted or drafted into the
armed forces. Official records list 7,768 African
American commissioned officers on August 31, 1945. At
the height of the conflict, 3,902 African American women
(115 officers) were enrolled in the Women’s Army
Auxiliary Corps (WACS) and 68 were in the Navy auxiliary,
the WAVES. The highest ranking African American women
were Major Harriet M. West and Major Charity E. Adams.
Distinguished Unit Citations were awarded to the 969th
Field Artillery Battalion, the 614th Tank Destroyer
Battalion, and the 332nd Fighter Group (Tuskegee Airmen).

1946 – William Everett “Billy” Preston is born in Houston, Texas.
He will become a musician songwriter and singer. His hits
will include “Will It Go Round in Circles”, “Nothing from
Nothing”, “Outa-Space”, “Get Back” (with The Beatles),
and “With You I’m Born Again”(with Syreeta). He also will
appear in film: “St. Louis Blues” and play with Little
Richard’s Band. He will collaborate with some of the
greatest names in the music industry, including the
Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Little Richard, Ray Charles,
George Harrison, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Sam
Cooke, King Curtis, Sammy Davis Jr., Sly Stone, Aretha
Franklin, the Jackson 5, Quincy Jones, Richie Sambora,
and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He will play the electric
piano on the Get Back sessions in 1969 and is one of
several people sometimes credited as the “Fifth Beatle”.
He is one of only two non-Beatles to receive label
performance credit on any Beatles record. He will join
the ancestors on June 6, 2006 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

1956 – The Tennessee National Guard is sent to Clinton, Tennessee,
to quell white mobs demonstrating against school
integration.

1960 – Eric Dickerson is born in Sealy, Texas. He will become a
professional football player and will become NFC Rookie
of the Year in 1983. He will also set a NFL single-
season rushing record of 2,105 yards in 1984.

1963 – Alabama Governor George Wallace blocks the integration of
Tuskegee High School in Tuskegee, Alabama.

1965 – Lennox Claudius Lewis, former WBC boxing champ, is born
in West Ham, London, England.

1966 – Frank Robinson is named Most Valuable Player of the
American League.

1971 – Cheryl White becomes the first African American woman
jockey to win a sanctioned horse race.

1975 – Joseph W. Hatchett sworn in as first African American
state supreme court justice in the South (Florida) in
the twentieth century.

1978 – Reggie Jackson is 19th player to hit 20 home runs in 11
straight years.

1989 – Rev. Al Sharpton leads a civil rights march through the
Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 12 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 12 *

1879 – British troops invade Zululand from Natal, confident that they
could crush the Zulu forces armed with spears and shields.
However, the well-trained Zulu army repulses the initial
attack, killing over 1300 British troops in the Battle of
Isandlwana. But that success will exhaust the Zulu army, and
before Cetshwayo could mount a counteroffensive into Natal,
British troops from around the Empire will be rushed to
southern Africa, where their advanced weaponry will bring them
ultimate victory in the six-month Anglo-Zulu war. The British
will conclude their aggressive venture by dividing up Zululand
among thirteen pro-British chiefs, effectively destroying the
Zulu kingdom.

1890 – Mordecai Wyatt Johnson is born in Paris, Tennessee. He will
become the first African American president of Howard
University in 1926, a position he will hold for 34 years. He
will also be a recipient of the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal in 1929.
He will retire in 1960, and will join the ancestors on
September 11, 1976 in Washington, DC.

1920 – James Farmer is born in Marshall, Texas. He will become an
African American civil rights leader and activist. He will
found the Committee on Racial Equality in 1942 and later
change the name of the organization to the Congress of Racial
Equality. Farmer and CORE will be the architects of the
“Freedom Rides” that will lead to the desegregation of over
100 bus terminals in the South. He will become a major player
during the Civil Rights movement. He will be awarded the
Congressional Medal of Freedom in 1998 by President Bill
Clinton. He will join the ancestors on July 9, 1999 in
Fredericksburg, Virginia, at the age of 79.

1944 – Joseph William “Joe” Frazier is born in Beaufort, South
Carolina. He will become a boxer and will win the Olympic Gold
Medal in 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. He will go on to win the
heavyweight title on February 16, 1970, after knocking out
Jimmy Ellis in five rounds. He will remain champion until
January 22, 1973, when he is knocked out in the second round
by George Foreman. He will be inducted into the Ring’s Boxing
Hall of Fame in 1980 and into the International Boxing Hall of
Fame in 1990. He will join the ancestors on November 7, 2011.

1946 – George Duke is born in San Rafael, California, and will be
reared in Marin City, a working class section of Marin County.
He will become a major recording artist, heavily influenced by
Miles Davis and the soul-jazz sound of Les McCann and Cal
Tjader. He and a young singer named Al Jarreau will form a
group becoming the house band at San Francisco’s Half Note
Club. Over the years, George will work with Sonny Rollins,
Dexter Gordon, Frank Zappa, Cannonball Adderley, Nancy Wilson,
Joe Williams, and Dizzy Gillespie. He will be a prolific
songwriter and producer.

1948 – The United States Supreme Court decision (Sipuel v. Oklahoma
State Board of Regents) said a state must afford African
Americans “an opportunity to commence the study of law at a
state institution at the same time as [other] citizens.”

1951 – Ezzard Charles knocks out Lee Oma to retain the heavyweight
boxing crown.

1952 – The University of Tennessee admits its first African American
student.

1959 – Berry Gordy borrows $800 from a family loan fund to form Motown
Records. The record company’s first releases will appear on
the Tamla label.

1960 – Jacques Dominique Wilkins is born in Paris, France. He will
become a NBA forward and play the majority of his career for
the Atlanta Hawks. He will be a nine-time NBA All-Star and the
winner of two NBA Slam Dunk Contests, register 26,668 points
(one of only 12 players to do so) and 7,169 rebounds in his
NBA career. He will not foul out during his final 957 games,
the third longest such streak (behind Moses Malone and Wilt
Chamberlain). He will be inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall
of Fame on April 3, 2004 and into the Naismith Memorial
Basketball Hall of Fame on April 3, 2006.

1964 – Leftist rebels in Zanzibar begin their successful revolt against
the government.

1965 – Noted playwright Lorraine Hansberry joins the ancestors, after
succumbing to cancer in New York City at the age of 34, while
her second play, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” is
playing on Broadway. Her first and most famous work, “A
Raisin in the Sun,” brought her wide acclaim on Broadway,
earned her the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best
play, and became a motion picture starring Sidney Poitier,
Ruby Dee, and Claudia McNeil.

1971 – The Congressional Black Caucus is organized.

1982 – A commemorative stamp of Ralph Bunche is issued by the U.S.
Postal Service as part of its Great Americans series.

1988 – Willie Stargell, formally of the Pittsburgh Pirates, is elected
to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1990 – Civil Rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton is stabbed in Brooklyn,
New York, in Bensonhurst.

1995 – In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, an American soldier is killed and
another wounded during a shootout with a former Haitian army
officer who also was killed.

1995 – Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, is arrested in
Minneapolis, Minnesota on charges that she had tried to hire
a hit man to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. The
charges will later be dropped.

2002 – Jerry Rice, playing for the Oakland Raiders, becomes the oldest
player in the NFL to date, to score in a playoff game.

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