KRLemmons African American History

January 18 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 18 *

1856 – Dr. Daniel Nathan Hale Williams is born in Hollidaysburg,
Pennsylvania. He will graduate from Chicago Medical
College in 1883 and begin his practice on Chicago’s South
Side. After 8 years of frustration, not being able to use
the facilities at the white hospitals in Chicago, he will
found Provident Hospital in 1891 and open it to patients of
all races. He will make his mark in medical history on
July 10, 1893, when he performs the world’s first successful
open heart surgery.

1948 – The first courses begin at the University of Ibadan in
Nigeria.

1949 – Congressman William Dawson is elected chairman of the House
Expenditure Committee. He is the first African American to
head a standing committee of Congress.

1958 – Willie Eldon O’Ree becomes the first person of African
descent to play in the NHL, when he debuts with the Boston
Bruins in a 3-0 win over Montreal in the Forum.

1961 – Zanzibar’s Afro-Shirazi party wins 1 seat by a single vote
and control Parliament by a single seat.

1962 – Southern University is closed because of demonstrations
protesting the expulsion of student sit-in activists.

1966 – Robert C. Weaver takes the oath of office as Secretary of the
Department of Housing and Urban Development. Appointed by
President Lyndon B. Johnson, Weaver becomes the first
African American to serve in a U.S. President’s Cabinet.

1975 – “The Jeffersons,” one of the first TV shows about an African
American family, is seen for the first time. The Jeffersons,
who move to Manhattan’s posh East Side, are the former
neighbors of the Bunkers in the sitcom “All in the Family.”
The Jeffersons will be the first show to introduce the
subject of mixed marriages humorously and tastefully in
prime time TV. Sherman Hemsley plays George Jefferson and
Isabelle Sanford the role of Louise, his wife.

1989 – Otis Redding, The Temptations, and Stevie Wonder are inducted
into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

1990 – The South African government announces that it is
reconsidering a ban on the African National Congress.

1990 – Washington, DC mayor Marion Barry is arrested for allegedly
purchasing and using crack cocaine in a Washington, DC hotel
room. The circumstances surrounding his arrest, trial, and
conviction on one count of misdemeanor cocaine possession
will be hotly debated by African American and white citizens
of the District and elsewhere.

1995 – South African President Nelson Mandela’s cabinet denies
amnesty sought by 3,500 police officers in apartheid’s
waning days.

2000 – Jester Hairston, who appeared on radio and TV’s “Amos ‘n’
Andy,” but who was better known to younger fans as the wise
old church member Rolly on the sitcom “Amen,” joins the
ancestors in Los Angeles, California at the age of 98.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 20 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 20 *

1865 – African Americans hold a protest convention in Zion
Church in Charleston, South Carolina and demand equal
rights and repeal of the “Black Codes.”

1878 – Charles Sidney Gilpin, is born in Richmond, Virginia.
In the early 1920s, Gilpin will secure his place in
American theater history by creating the title — and
only major — role in Eugene O’Neill’s’ “The Emperor
Jones.” Gilpin’s portrayal in the long one-act play
becomes a box-office sensation in New York’s Greenwich
Village. The play and its principal actor will transfer
to Broadway and will later go on tour. After the post-
Broadway tour, which played Richmond to great acclaim,
Gilpin’s insistence on eliminating racial epithets from
the play will anger O’Neill. O’Neill, who at one time
is said to be writing a play especially for Gilpin, will
cast budding actor Paul Robeson in the London production
of Emperor Jones. Robeson will also play Jones on film.
Except for Ira Aldridge, who lived and performed mostly
in Europe before the Civil War, Gilpin will be the first
African American to be widely lauded as a serious actor
on America’s mainstream stage. He will lose his voice
in 1929 and join the ancestors at his home in Eldridge,
New Jersey in 1930.

1910 – Pauli Murray is born. A lawyer and author of “Song in a
Weary Throat,” “Proud Shoes,” and “Dark Testament and
Other Poems,” she will also be a powerful theologian and
the first African American woman priest to be ordained
in the Episcopal Church.

1919 – Jane Cooke Wright is born in New York City, one of two
daughters of Dr. Louis Tompkins Wright and Corinne Cook
Wright. Her father was a physician who practiced in New
York City and later established the Cancer Research
Foundation at Harlem Hospital. She will live in New York
City until 1938 when she leaves to enroll in Smith
College. She will begin college intending to major in
art, but will switch to pre-medicine. She will graduate
from Smith in 1942, one of only two graduates in that
class later accepted to medical school. She will bring
the field of chemotherapy to the forefront of cancer
treatment, publishing over 130 papers. Her research team
will focus on the investigation of a wide variety of
anticancer drugs and develop procedures for the sequential
use of these drugs in cancer treatment. She will be
awarded a full scholarship to New York Medical School and
receive an M.D. degree upon graduating with honors, third
in her class. In 1945. She will intern at Bellevue
Hospital, followed by two residencies at Harlem Hospital.
At this point, she will set up private practice since no
medical institution will offer her a position. In 1949 She
will join the medical staff at the Cancer Research
Foundation at Harlem Hospital as a clinician and research
scientist and begin her work in cancer research. After her
father joins the ancestors in 1952, she will become
director of the foundation. In 1955 she will move to New
York University Medical Center as director of cancer
chemotherapy research and instructor of research surgery.
In 1964, she will be appointed to President Lyndon
Johnson’s Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke.
Her subcommittee’s recommendation to develop regional
centers will be an important outcome of this commission.
By 1967, Jane Wright will be promoted to associate dean
and professor of surgery at NYU Medical Center where she
will continue to be active in research until retiring in
1987. Her honors will include the Spirit of Achievement
Award of the Women’s Division of the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine (1965); the Hadassah Myrtle Wreath
(1967); the Smith Medal from Smith College (1968);
featured by Ciba Geigy on its Exceptional Black Scientist
poster (1980); and be honored by the American Association
for Cancer Research (1975). She will receive several
honorary degrees and serve on boards of trustees for
various organizations.

1922 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Mary B. Talbert,
the former president of the National Association of
Colored Women, for service to African American women and
for the restoration of the Frederick Douglas home in
Southeast Washington, DC.

1923 – Garrett A. Morgan receives a patent for his three-way
traffic signal. The device, which will revolutionize
traffic control, is one of many inventions for the Paris,
Kentucky, native, which include a hair-straightening
process and the gas mask.

1939 – Morgan State College is established in Baltimore,
Maryland, succeeding Morgan State Biblical College,
founded in 1857.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy issues an executive order
barring racial discrimination in federally financed
housing.

1962 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Robert C.
Weaver, economist and government official, for his
leadership in the movement for open housing.

1969 – Pele’, the Brazilian soccer star, scores his 1,000th
soccer goal.

1973 – The gravesite of Mary Seacole, a Jamaican nurse who
served in the Crimean War, is restored in England.
Traveling to the battlefield at her own expense, when
her expert services are rejected by English authorities
and Florence Nightingale, Seacole opens her own nursing
hotel, which she operates by day, serving as a
volunteer with Nightingale at night. Seacole’s skills
saved the lives of many soldiers wounded during the war
or infected with malaria, cholera, yellow fever, and
other illnesses.

1977 – Walter Payton, of the Chicago Bears, rushes for NFL
record 275 yards in one game.

1981 – The Negro Ensemble Company’s production of Charles
Fuller’s “A Soldier’s Play” opens the Theatre Four.
The play will win a New York Drama Critics Award for
best American play and the Pulitzer Prize.

1997 – A.C. Green sets the NBA “Iron Man” record for consecutive
games played at 907 games. The previous record had
stood for fifteen years. Iron Men from professional
baseball and professional hockey were present at
courtside to observe the record-breaking performance.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 18 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 18 *

1856 – Dr. Daniel Nathan Hale Williams is born in Hollidaysburg,
Pennsylvania. He will graduate from Chicago Medical
College in 1883 and begin his practice on Chicago’s South
Side. After 8 years of frustration, not being able to use
the facilities at the white hospitals in Chicago, he will
found Provident Hospital in 1891 and open it to patients of
all races. He will make his mark in medical history on
July 10, 1893, when he performs the world’s first successful
open heart surgery.

1948 – The first courses begin at the University of Ibadan in
Nigeria.

1949 – Congressman William Dawson is elected chairman of the House
Expenditure Committee. He is the first African American to
head a standing committee of Congress.

1958 – Willie Eldon O’Ree becomes the first person of African
descent to play in the NHL, when he debuts with the Boston
Bruins in a 3-0 win over Montreal in the Forum.

1961 – Zanzibar’s Afro-Shirazi party wins 1 seat by a single vote
and control Parliament by a single seat.

1962 – Southern University is closed because of demonstrations
protesting the expulsion of student sit-in activists.

1966 – Robert C. Weaver takes the oath of office as Secretary of the
Department of Housing and Urban Development. Appointed by
President Lyndon B. Johnson, Weaver becomes the first
African American to serve in a U.S. President’s Cabinet.

1975 – “The Jeffersons,” one of the first TV shows about an African
American family, is seen for the first time. The Jeffersons,
who move to Manhattan’s posh East Side, are the former
neighbors of the Bunkers in the sitcom “All in the Family.”
The Jeffersons will be the first show to introduce the
subject of mixed marriages humorously and tastefully in
prime time TV. Sherman Hemsley plays George Jefferson and
Isabelle Sanford the role of Louise, his wife.

1989 – Otis Redding, The Temptations, and Stevie Wonder are inducted
into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

1990 – The South African government announces that it is
reconsidering a ban on the African National Congress.

1990 – Washington, DC mayor Marion Barry is arrested for allegedly
purchasing and using crack cocaine in a Washington, DC hotel
room. The circumstances surrounding his arrest, trial, and
conviction on one count of misdemeanor cocaine possession
will be hotly debated by African American and white citizens
of the District and elsewhere.

1995 – South African President Nelson Mandela’s cabinet denies
amnesty sought by 3,500 police officers in apartheid’s
waning days.

2000 – Jester Hairston, who appeared on radio and TV’s “Amos ‘n’
Andy,” but who was better known to younger fans as the wise
old church member Rolly on the sitcom “Amen,” joins the
ancestors in Los Angeles, California at the age of 98.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 20 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 20 *

1865 – African Americans hold a protest convention in Zion
Church in Charleston, South Carolina and demand equal
rights and repeal of the “Black Codes.”

1878 – Charles Sidney Gilpin, is born in Richmond, Virginia.
In the early 1920s, Gilpin will secure his place in
American theater history by creating the title — and
only major — role in Eugene O’Neill’s’ “The Emperor
Jones.” Gilpin’s portrayal in the long one-act play
becomes a box-office sensation in New York’s Greenwich
Village. The play and its principal actor will transfer
to Broadway and will later go on tour. After the post-
Broadway tour, which played Richmond to great acclaim,
Gilpin’s insistence on eliminating racial epithets from
the play will anger O’Neill. O’Neill, who at one time
is said to be writing a play especially for Gilpin, will
cast budding actor Paul Robeson in the London production
of Emperor Jones. Robeson will also play Jones on film.
Except for Ira Aldridge, who lived and performed mostly
in Europe before the Civil War, Gilpin will be the first
African American to be widely lauded as a serious actor
on America’s mainstream stage. He will lose his voice
in 1929 and join the ancestors at his home in Eldridge,
New Jersey in 1930.

1910 – Pauli Murray is born. A lawyer and author of “Song in a
Weary Throat,” “Proud Shoes,” and “Dark Testament and
Other Poems,” she will also be a powerful theologian and
the first African American woman priest to be ordained
in the Episcopal Church.

1919 – Jane Cooke Wright is born in New York City, one of two
daughters of Dr. Louis Tompkins Wright and Corinne Cook
Wright. Her father was a physician who practiced in New
York City and later established the Cancer Research
Foundation at Harlem Hospital. She will live in New York
City until 1938 when she leaves to enroll in Smith
College. She will begin college intending to major in
art, but will switch to pre-medicine. She will graduate
from Smith in 1942, one of only two graduates in that
class later accepted to medical school. She will bring
the field of chemotherapy to the forefront of cancer
treatment, publishing over 130 papers. Her research team
will focus on the investigation of a wide variety of
anticancer drugs and develop procedures for the sequential
use of these drugs in cancer treatment. She will be
awarded a full scholarship to New York Medical School and
receive an M.D. degree upon graduating with honors, third
in her class. In 1945. She will intern at Bellevue
Hospital, followed by two residencies at Harlem Hospital.
At this point, she will set up private practice since no
medical institution will offer her a position. In 1949 She
will join the medical staff at the Cancer Research
Foundation at Harlem Hospital as a clinician and research
scientist and begin her work in cancer research. After her
father joins the ancestors in 1952, she will become
director of the foundation. In 1955 she will move to New
York University Medical Center as director of cancer
chemotherapy research and instructor of research surgery.
In 1964, she will be appointed to President Lyndon
Johnson’s Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke.
Her subcommittee’s recommendation to develop regional
centers will be an important outcome of this commission.
By 1967, Jane Wright will be promoted to associate dean
and professor of surgery at NYU Medical Center where she
will continue to be active in research until retiring in
1987. Her honors will include the Spirit of Achievement
Award of the Women’s Division of the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine (1965); the Hadassah Myrtle Wreath
(1967); the Smith Medal from Smith College (1968);
featured by Ciba Geigy on its Exceptional Black Scientist
poster (1980); and be honored by the American Association
for Cancer Research (1975). She will receive several
honorary degrees and serve on boards of trustees for
various organizations.

1922 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Mary B. Talbert,
the former president of the National Association of
Colored Women, for service to African American women and
for the restoration of the Frederick Douglas home in
Southeast Washington, DC.

1923 – Garrett A. Morgan receives a patent for his three-way
traffic signal. The device, which will revolutionize
traffic control, is one of many inventions for the Paris,
Kentucky, native, which include a hair-straightening
process and the gas mask.

1939 – Morgan State College is established in Baltimore,
Maryland, succeeding Morgan State Biblical College,
founded in 1857.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy issues an executive order
barring racial discrimination in federally financed
housing.

1962 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Robert C.
Weaver, economist and government official, for his
leadership in the movement for open housing.

1969 – Pele’, the Brazilian soccer star, scores his 1,000th
soccer goal.

1973 – The gravesite of Mary Seacole, a Jamaican nurse who
served in the Crimean War, is restored in England.
Traveling to the battlefield at her own expense, when
her expert services are rejected by English authorities
and Florence Nightingale, Seacole opens her own nursing
hotel, which she operates by day, serving as a
volunteer with Nightingale at night. Seacole’s skills
saved the lives of many soldiers wounded during the war
or infected with malaria, cholera, yellow fever, and
other illnesses.

1977 – Walter Payton, of the Chicago Bears, rushes for NFL
record 275 yards in one game.

1981 – The Negro Ensemble Company’s production of Charles
Fuller’s “A Soldier’s Play” opens the Theatre Four.
The play will win a New York Drama Critics Award for
best American play and the Pulitzer Prize.

1997 – A.C. Green sets the NBA “Iron Man” record for consecutive
games played at 907 games. The previous record had
stood for fifteen years. Iron Men from professional
baseball and professional hockey were present at
courtside to observe the record-breaking performance.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 18 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 18 *

1856 – Dr. Daniel Nathan Hale Williams is born in Hollidaysburg,
Pennsylvania. He will graduate from Chicago Medical
College in 1883 and begin his practice on Chicago’s South
Side. After 8 years of frustration, not being able to use
the facilities at the white hospitals in Chicago, he will
found Provident Hospital in 1891 and open it to patients of
all races. He will make his mark in medical history on
July 10, 1893, when he performs the world’s first successful
open heart surgery.

1948 – The first courses begin at the University of Ibadan in
Nigeria.

1949 – Congressman William Dawson is elected chairman of the House
Expenditure Committee. He is the first African American to
head a standing committee of Congress.

1958 – Willie Eldon O’Ree becomes the first person of African
descent to play in the NHL, when he debuts with the Boston
Bruins in a 3-0 win over Montreal in the Forum.

1961 – Zanzibar’s Afro-Shirazi party wins 1 seat by a single vote
and control Parliament by a single seat.

1962 – Southern University is closed because of demonstrations
protesting the expulsion of student sit-in activists.

1966 – Robert C. Weaver takes the oath of office as Secretary of the
Department of Housing and Urban Development. Appointed by
President Lyndon B. Johnson, Weaver becomes the first
African American to serve in a U.S. President’s Cabinet.

1975 – “The Jeffersons,” one of the first TV shows about an African
American family, is seen for the first time. The Jeffersons,
who move to Manhattan’s posh East Side, are the former
neighbors of the Bunkers in the sitcom “All in the Family.”
The Jeffersons will be the first show to introduce the
subject of mixed marriages humorously and tastefully in
prime time TV. Sherman Hemsley plays George Jefferson and
Isabelle Sanford the role of Louise, his wife.

1989 – Otis Redding, The Temptations, and Stevie Wonder are inducted
into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

1990 – The South African government announces that it is
reconsidering a ban on the African National Congress.

1990 – Washington, DC mayor Marion Barry is arrested for allegedly
purchasing and using crack cocaine in a Washington, DC hotel
room. The circumstances surrounding his arrest, trial, and
conviction on one count of misdemeanor cocaine possession
will be hotly debated by African American and white citizens
of the District and elsewhere.

1995 – South African President Nelson Mandela’s cabinet denies
amnesty sought by 3,500 police officers in apartheid’s
waning days.

2000 – Jester Hairston, who appeared on radio and TV’s “Amos ‘n’
Andy,” but who was better known to younger fans as the wise
old church member Rolly on the sitcom “Amen,” joins the
ancestors in Los Angeles, California at the age of 98.

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.