Roland Hayes – The CamaraIfe Maktaba

January 1, 2015 KRLemmons African American History

December 31 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 31 *

***********************************************************************
* The Nguzo Saba – The seven principles of Kwanzaa – Principle for *
* Day #6 – Kuumba (koo-OOM-bah) Creativity: To do always as much as *
* we can, in the way that we can, in order to leave our community *
* more beautiful than when we inherited it. *
***********************************************************************

1775 – Alarmed by the impact of the British Dunmore proclamation, that
would give freedom to slaves who would fight on their side,
Gen. George Washington reverses himself and authorizes the
enlistment of free Blacks.

1783 – The importation of African slaves is banned by all of the
northern states in the United States.

1862 – The Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church holds a Watch
Night service in Suburban Maryland. It begins a tradition when
African Americans pray and worship in anticipation of the next
day, New Year’s Day 1863, when President Lincoln’s Emancipation
Proclamation is to take effect.

1871 – Annie Welthy Daughtry (later Holland) is born in Isle of Wight
County, Virginia. In 1921, she will be appointed North Carolina
Supervisor of Negro Elementary Education, a position she will
hold until she joins the ancestors. In 1927, she will found
North Carolina’s Colored Parent Teachers’ Association. She will
join the ancestors suddenly on January 6, 1934, while
addressing a county-wide meeting of Black teachers in
Louisburg, North Carolina.

1900 – Sculptor and educator Selma Burke is born in Mooresville, North
Carolina. She will be commissioned to create a profile of
President Franklin D. Roosevelt after a national competition
sponsored by the Fine Arts Commission in Washington, DC. The
completed project, a plaque, is unveiled and installed at the
Record of Deeds Building in Washington DC. She will join the
ancestors on August 29, 1995.

1930 – Odetta Felious Gordon Holmes is born in Birmingham, Alabama.
She will become a famous folksinger, known simply as “Odetta”,
who will sing all over the world and at major peace and civil
rights meetings, including the 1963 March on Washington. Among
the many musicians who cite Odetta as a major musical influence
have been Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. She will join
the ancestors on December 2, 2008.

1948 – LaDonna Adrian Gaines is born in Boston, Massachusetts. She will
be best known by her stage name, Donna Summer. She will become
a singer and songwriter, gaining prominence during the disco era
of the late 1970s. A five-time Grammy Award winner, she will be
the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach #1
on the United States Billboard album chart and chart four number
one singles in the United States within a 13-month period. She will
reportedly sell over 100 million records, making her one of the
world’s best-selling artists of all time. She will first become
involved with singing through church choir groups before joining a
number of bands influenced by the Motown Sound. Also influenced by
the counterculture of the 1960s, she will become the front singer
of a psychedelic rock band named Crow and move to New York City.
Joining a touring version of the musical “Hair,” she will leave New
York and spend several years living, acting, and singing in West
Germany, where she will meet music producer Giorgio Moroder. Also
while in Europe, she will marry Helmut Sommer. After their divorce,
she will keep his surname for her stage name; dropping the “o” and
replacing it with a “u” for “Summer”. After returning to the United
States, she will co-write the song “Love to Love You Baby” with Pete
Bellotte. The song will be released in 1975 to mass commercial
success. Over the following years She will follow this success with
a string of other hits, such as “I Feel Love”, “Last Dance”,
“MacArthur Park”, “Hot Stuff”, “Bad Girls”, “Dim All the Lights”,
“No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)”, and “On the Radio”. She will
become known as the “Queen of Disco” and regularly appear at the
Studio 54 nightclub in New York City, while her music gains a global
following. She will continue to perform until 2011. She will join
the ancestors on May 17,2912 in Naples, Florida, after succumbing to
lung cancer at the age of 63. On December 11, 2012, after four prior
nominations, she will be posthumously announced to be one of the 2013
inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,and will be inducted on
April 18, 2013, at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theater.

1953 – Hulan Jack is inaugurated as Manhattan borough president, the
first African American to hold the post.

1953 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to Paul R. Williams for
his achievements as an architect.

1962 – Katanga becomes part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

1964 – In a speech before a group of young people, Malcolm X urges them
“to see for yourself and listen for yourself and think for
yourself. This generation, especially of our people, have a
burden, more so than at any other time in history. The most
important thing we can learn to do today is think for
ourselves.”

1972 – Roberto Clemente, Pittsburgh Pirate slugger, joins the ancestors
after a plane crash on his way to a humanitarian mission to
Nicaragua.

1976 – Roland Hayes joins the ancestors in Boston, Massachusetts at the
age of 89. He had been an acclaimed tenor whose pioneering
recitals of German lieder and other classical music opened the
concert stage for African American singers

1984 – The first nationally broadcast telethon for the United Negro
College Fund raises $14.1 million. The telethon will become an
annual fundraising drive that will support more than 40
historically African American institutions of higher learning
and draw widespread individual and corporate support.

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

December 3, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

December 2 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 2 *

1859 – John Brown, abolitionist who planned the failed attack
on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, is hanged at
Charles Town, West Virginia.

1866 – Harry T. Burleigh, singer and composer, is born in
Erie, Pennsylvania. He will be educated at the
National Conservatory of Music in New York City, where
he will meet and form a lasting friendship with Anton
Dvorak. He will eventually be awarded the NAACP’s
Spingarn Medal. Burleigh will be best known for his
arrangements of the Negro spiritual “Deep River”. He
will join the ancestors on December 12, 1949.

1884 – Granville T. Woods receives a patent for his first
electric device, an improved telephone transmitter.

1891 – North Carolina A&T College, Delaware State College and
West Virginia State College are established.

1891 – The Fifty-second Congress convenes. Only one African
American congressman has been elected – Henry P.
Cheatham of North Carolina.

1891 – Charles Harris Wesley, historian, educator, and
administrator, is born in Louisville, Kentucky. His
published works will include, “Neglected History,”
“Collapse of the Confederacy,” and “Negro Labor in the
United States,”and “1850-1925: A Study of American
Economic History.” He will join the ancestors on
August 16, 1987.

1908 – John Baxter “Doc” Taylor joins the ancestors as a result
of of typhoid pneumonia at the age of 26. Taylor had
been a record-setting quarter miler and the first
African American Olympic gold medal winner in the 4 x
400-meter medley in the 1908 London games.

1922 – Charles C. Diggs is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will
become an early member of the civil rights movement and
will attend the trial of Emmett Till’s murderers. In
1954, he will defeat incumbent U.S. Representative
George D. O’Brien in the Democratic Party primary
elections for Michigan’s 13th congressional district. He
will go on to win the general election to the 84th
Congress and be subsequently re-elected to the next
twelve Congresses. He will be the first African American
elected to Congress from the state of Michigan. He will
also be elected the first chairman of the Congressional
Black Caucus. He will serve as a congressman from January
3, 1955, until his resignation June 3, 1980. He will
resign from the United States House of Representatives
and serve 14 months of a three-year sentence for mail
fraud, although he maintained his innocence. He will join
the ancestors on August 24, 1998.

1923 – Roland Hayes becomes the first African American to sing
in the Symphony Hall in Boston, Massachusetts.

1940 – William Ferdie ‘Willie’ Brown is born in Yazoo City,
Mississippi. He will play college football at Grambling
State University and will not be drafted by any
professional team after leaving college in 1963. He will
be signed by the Houston Oilers of the American Football
League (AFL), but will be cut from the team during training
camp. He will then be signed by the AFL’s Denver Broncos
and became a starter by the middle of his rookie season. He
will win All-AFL honors in his second season and play in
the AFL All-Star Game, recording nine interceptions for 144
yards. In 1967, he will be traded to the AFL’s Oakland
Raiders and spend the remainder of his playing career there.
He will serve as defensive captain for 10 of his 12 years
with the team. He will be named to five AFL All-Star games
and four NFL Pro Bowls. He will also be named All-AFL three
times and All-NFL four times. His most memorable moment as
a Raider will come during Super Bowl XI, when he intercepts
a Fran Tarkenton pass and return it a Super Bowl-record 75
yards for a touchdown. His record will stand for 29 years.
He will retire after the 1978 season, and finish his Raiders’
career with 39 interceptions. He will finish his 16
professional football season seasons with 54 interceptions,
which he returned for 472 yards and two touchdowns. He will
also recover three fumbles. He will be a member of the
American Football League All-Time Team and be inducted into
the Pro Football Hall of Fame on July 28, 1984, his first
year of eligibility. In 1999, he will be ranked number 50 on
The Sporting News’ list of the 100 Greatest Football Players,
making him the highest-ranking Raiders player.

1943 – “Carmen Jones,” a contemporary reworking of the Bizet
opera “Carmen” by Oscar Hammerstein II with an all-black
cast, opens on Broadway.

1953 – Dr. Rufus Clement, president of Atlanta University, is
elected to the Atlanta Board of Education.

1975 – Ohio State running back Archie Griffin becomes the first
person ever to win the Heisman Trophy twice, when he is
awarded his second trophy in New York City. He amassed
a career record of 5,176 yards and 31 consecutive 100
yard plus games.

1989 – Andre Ware of the University of Houston, becomes the
first African American quarterback to win the Heisman
Trophy.

1992 – Dr. Maya Angelou is asked to compose a poem for William
Jefferson Clinton’s presidential inauguration.

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

November 16, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

November 15 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 15 *

218 – Hannibal, North African military genius, crosses the
BC Alps with elephants and 26,000 men in an expedition
to capture Rome.

1805 – Explorers Lewis and Clark reach the mouth of the
Columbia River. Accompanying them on their expedition
is a slave named York, who, while technically Clark’s
valet, distinguished himself as a scout, interpreter,
and emissary to the Native Americans encountered on
the expedition.

1825 – African American feminist, Sarah Jane Woodson, is born
in Chillicothe, Ohio.

1884 – The Berlin Conference, of European nations, is organized
by German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck to decide issues
regarding the colonization of Africa. The Europeans
attending the conference, decide which parts of the
African continent would be “owned” by the participants,
“allowing” only Liberia and Ethiopia to remain free
countries. Representatives from Great Britain, France,
Germany, Portugal, and Belgium negotiate their claims
to African territory and establish a framework for
making and negotiating future claims. Obviously, there
is no one representing Africans at this conference. By
1900, nearly 90 percent of African territory will be
claimed by European states.

1887 – Granville T. Woods receives a patent for the Synchronous
Multiplier Railway Telegraph.

1897 – Langston University, a public co-educational institution,
is founded in Langston, Oklahoma.

1897 – Voorhees College, a private co-educational institution
affiliated with the Episcopal Church, is founded in
Denmark, South Carolina.

1897 – John Mercer Langston joins the ancestors at the age of
67, in Washington, DC.

1928 – Roland Hayes opens his fifth American Tour at New York’s
Carnegie Hall packed with admirers.

1930 – Whitman Mayo, actor (Grady -“Sanford & Son”), is born in
New York City.

1937 – Yaphet Kotto, actor (“Brubaker”, “Alien”, “Raid on
Entebbe”, “Eye of the Tiger”, “Roots”, “Live and Let
Die”, “Midnight Run”, and TV’s “Homicide”), is born in
New York City.

1950 – Dr. Arthur Dorrington, a dentist, becomes the first
African American in organized hockey to suit up, a
member of the Atlantic City Seagulls of the Eastern
Amateur Hockey League.

1960 – Elgin Baylor, of the Los Angeles Lakers scores 71 points
against the New York Knicks.

1969 – The Amistad Research Center is incorporated as an
independent archive, library, & museum dedicated to
preserving African American & ethnic history and culture.
The center collects original source materials on the
history of the nation’s ethnic minorities and race
relations in the United States (over 10 million
documents). The Amistad was organized by the Race
Relations Department of Fisk University and the American
Missionary Association in 1966. The library is now
located in Tilton Hall on the campus of Tulane University
in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1976 – The Plains Baptist Church, home church of President Jimmy
Carter, votes to admit African American worshipers. The
church had been under pressure to admit African Americans
since Reverend Clennon King had announced his intentions
to join the congregation.

1979 – The Nobel Prize in economics is awarded to Professor
Arthur Lewis of Princeton University. He is the first
African American to receive the coveted prize in a
category other than peace.

1979 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Rosa L. Parks, who
was the Catalyst in the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott
of 1955-56.

1989 – President George Bush signs a bill to rename a Houston,
Texas, federal building after George Thomas “Mickey”
Leland, the Houston congressman who died in a plane crash
earlier in the year.

1998 – Kwame Ture succumbs to prostate cancer in Guinea and joins
the ancestors at age 57. He was born Stokely Carmichael
in the country of Trinidad (1941) and in 1966 coined the
phrase, “Black Power.”

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

June 7, 2014June 7, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

June 3 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – June 3 *

1833 – The fourth national Black convention meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania with sixty-two delegates from eight states.
Abraham D. Shadd of Pennsylvania is elected president.

1854 – Two thousand United States troops escort celebrated fugitive
slave, Anthony Burns through the streets of Boston.

1871 – Miles Vandehurst Lynk is born near Brownsville, Tennessee. A
physician at 19, he founds the first African American medical
journal, the “Medical and Surgical Observer,” and will be one
of the organizers of what will later become the National
Medical Association. He will join the ancestors on
December 29, 1956.

1887 – Roland Hayes is born in Curryville, Tennessee. A noted
concert artist, Hayes will be the first African American to
give a concert in Boston’s Symphony Hall. His career will
take him throughout the U.S. and to London for a command
performance before King George V. He will be awarded the
Spingarn Medal in 1924 for his musical accomplishments. He
will join the ancestors 0n January 1, 1977.

1904 – Charles R. Drew, creator of the plasma method of blood
preservation, is born in Washington, DC. He will receive
the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for his contributions in 1944
and, in 1981, be posthumously honored by the U.S. Postal
Service with a commemorative stamp. He will join the
ancestors on April 1, 1950.

1906 – Freda McDonald is born in St. Louis, Missouri. She will
become a singer and entertainer known as Josephine Baker.
A chorus girl in the 1923 musical “Shuffle Along,” she will
travel to Paris, introduce “le jazz hot” in the show “La
Revue Negre,” and will cause a sensation with the Folies
Bergeres when she performs topless on a mirror, wearing a
rubber banana skirt. A World War II Red Cross volunteer,
Baker will perform for the Allied troops and in the 1950’s
she will tour the U.S., fighting for desegregated theaters
and restaurants. She will join the ancestors on April 12,
1975.

1919 – Liberty Life Insurance Company in Chicago, Illinois, the
first old-line legal reserve company organized by African
Americans in the North, is incorporated.

1930 – Dakota Staton is born in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. She will attend George Westinghouse High School
and study music at the Filion School of Music in Pittsburgh.
She will later perform regularly in the Hill District, a jazz
hotspot, as a vocalist with the Joe Westray Orchestra, a popular
Pittsburgh orchestra. She will spend the next several years in
the nightclub circuit in Detroit, Indianapolis, Cleveland and
St. Louis. While in New York, she will be noticed singing at a
Harlem nightclub called the ‘Baby Grand’, by Dave Cavanaugh, a
producer for Capitol Records. She will be signed and will
release several singles. Her success will lead her to win Down
Beat magazine’s “Most Promising New Comer” award in 1955. In
1958, She will wed Talib Ahmad Dawud, a Black Antiguan Ahmadi
Muslim trumpeter and noted critic of Elijah Muhammad. Shw will
be known by the Muslim name Aliyah Rabia for a time, due to her
conversion to Islam as interpreted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim
Community. She will release several critically acclaimed albums
in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including: ‘The Late, Late
Show’ (1957), whose title track will be her biggest hit, ‘In the
Night’ (1957), a collaboration with pianist George Shearing,
‘Dynamic!’ (1958) and ‘Dakota at Storyville’ (1961), a live
album recorded at the Storyville jazz club in Boston. She will
move to England in the mid-1960s. She will continue to record
semi-regularly, her recordings taking an increasingly strong
gospel and blues influence. She will join the ancestors on April
10, 2007 in New York City at the age of 76.

1942 – Curtis Mayfield is born in Chattanooga, Tennessee and will
be raised in Chicago, Illinois. He will become a singer,
songwriter, and producer. He will be a member of the group
The Impressions. He will write many hits for the group,
Jerry Butler and himself. He will start a successful solo
career in 1970. He will become paralyzed from the chest
down in 1990 when a stage lighting tower falls on him.
After recuperating, he will still continue to perform. He
will join the ancestors on Sunday, December 26, 1999.

1946 – In its “Morgan vs. Commonwealth of Virginia” ruling, the U.S.
Supreme Court bars segregation in interstate bus travel.

1949 – Wesley Anthony Brown becomes the first African American to
graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy.

1951 – Deniece Chandler is born in Gary, Indiana. She will become a
singer and will be known as Deniece Williams. She will get
her first break as a member of Stevie Wonder’s backup group
Wonderlove during 1972-75. She will grow into a successful
solo career in both secular and gospel music.

1997 – Harvey Johnson, who defeats the incumbent mayor in the
Democratic Primary, is elected Jackson, Mississippi’s first
African American mayor, defeating the Republican candidate
by more than two-to-one. Johnson, an urban planner and
former state tax commissioner, was making his second run to
head the city of about 200,000. He upset incumbent Kane
Ditto to earn the right to face GOP businesswoman Charlotte
Reeves in the general election.

1997 – Rene’ A. Perry, a.k.a. Bro. Mosi Hoj, issues the email that will
establish the beginning of the “Today in Black History” series
that will eventually be known as the “Munirah Chronicle.”

2009 – Cora Walton “KoKo” Taylor joins the ancestors at the age of 80,
after succumbing to complications from surgery for
gastrointestinal bleeding. She had been known as the “Queen
of the Blues,” over the course of her almost 50-year career.

2013 – David D. ‘Deacon’ Jones joins the ancestors at the age of 74.
He specialized in quarterback sacks, a term attributed to him.
Nicknamed the “Secretary of Defense”, He is considered one of
the greatest defensive players ever. The Los Angeles Times
called him “Most Valuable Ram of All Time,” and former Rams
head coach George Allen called him the “Greatest Defensive
End of Modern Football.”

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

January 7, 2014 KRLemmons African American History

December 31 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 31 *

***********************************************************************
* The Nguzo Saba – The seven principles of Kwanzaa – Principle for *
* Day #6 – Kuumba (koo-OOM-bah) Creativity: To do always as much as *
* we can, in the way that we can, in order to leave our community *
* more beautiful than when we inherited it. *
* http://www.endarkenment.com/kwanzaa/ *
***********************************************************************

1783 – The importation of African slaves is banned by all of the
northern states in the United States.

1948 – Donna Summer is born in Boston, Massachusetts. She will be the
reigning “Queen of Disco” music in the 1970’s, known for her
renditions of “Bad Girls” and “Last Dance.”

1953 – Hulan Jack is inaugurated as Manhattan borough president, the
first African American to hold the post.

1953 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to Paul R. Williams for
his achievements as an architect.

1962 – Katanga becomes part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

1972 – Roberto Clemente, Pittsburgh Pirate slugger, joins the ancestors
after a plane crash on his way to a humanitarian mission to
Nicaragua.

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

December 4, 2013 KRLemmons African American History