KRLemmons African American History

December 14 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – December 14 *

1829 – John Mercer Langston is born in Louisa County, Virginia.
He will have a distinguished career as an attorney,
educator, recruiter of soldiers for the all African
American 5th Ohio, 54th and 55th Massachusetts regiments,
dean of the law school and president of Howard University,
diplomat, and U.S. congressman. He will join the ancestors
on November 15, 1897 in Washington, DC.

1915 – Jack Johnson becomes the world heavyweight boxing champion.

1920 – Clark Terry is born in St. Louis, Missouri. He will become
a trumpeteer and flugelhorn player who will be known for
his association with Duke Ellington on the 1950’s, his
innovative flugelhorn sound, and unusual mumbling scat
singing. He will be one of the most recorded musicians in
the history of jazz, with more than nine-hundred recordings.
His discography will read like a “Who’s Who In Jazz,” with
personnel that will include greats such as Quincy Jones,
Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Dinah
Washington, Ben Webster, Aretha Franklin, Charlie Barnet,
Doc Severinsen, Ray Charles, Billy Strayhorn, Dexter Gordon,
Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, Gerry Mulligan, Sarah
Vaughan, Coleman Hawkins, Zoot Sims, Milt Jackson, Bob
Brookmeyer, and Dianne Reeves. Among his numerous recordings,
he will be featured with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Count
Basie Orchestra, Dutch Metropole Orchestra, Chicago Jazz
Orchestra, Woody Herman Orchestra, Herbie Mann Orchestra,
Donald Byrd Orchestra, and many other large ensembles – high
school and college ensembles, his own duos, trios, quartets,
quintets, sextets, octets, and two big bands – Clark Terry’s
Big Bad Band and Clark Terry’s Young Titans of Jazz. His
career in jazz will span more than seventy years.

1939 – Ernest “Ernie” Davis is born in New Salem, Pennsylvania.
He will become the first African American to win the
Heisman Trophy (1961). He will join the ancestors on May
18, 1963, succumbing to acute monotypic leukemia before
he is able to play in the National Football League.

1945 – Stanley Crouch is born in Los Angeles, California. He will
become a drummer, poet, and writer for “The Village Voice.”
Among his books will be “Notes of a Hanging Judge,”
published in 1990.

1963 – Singer Dinah Washington joins the ancestors after a sleeping
pill overdose at the age of 39 in Detroit, Michigan. She
popularized many, many great songs, including “What a
Diff’rence a Day Makes”, “Unforgettable” and several hits
with Brook Benton, including “Baby (You’ve Got What it
Takes)” and “A Rockin’ Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall
in Love)”.

1968 – Sammy Davis Jr. is awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for
his “superb and many-faceted talent,” and his contributions
to the civil rights movement.

1968 – Classes of San Francisco State University are suspended
after demonstrations by the Black Student Union and Third
World Liberation Front.

1972 – Johnny Rodgers, a running back with the University of
Nebraska, is awarded the Heisman Trophy. Rodgers gained a
total of 5,586 yards for the Cornhuskers in three years.

1980 – Elston Howard, a New York Yankee catcher for many years,
joins the ancestors.

1991 – Desmond Howard, of the University of Michigan wins the
Heisman trophy.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 8 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 8 *

1850 – The first African American woman to graduate from
college is Lucy Ann Stanton. She completes the two-year
ladies’ course and receives the Bachelor of Literature
degree from Oberlin College in Ohio.

1863 – President Abraham Lincoln issues his Proclamation on
Amnesty and Reconstruction for the restoration of the
Confederate states into the Union. He offers them a full
pardon and restoration of their rights if they are
willing to take an oath of loyalty to the Union and
accept the end of slavery.

1868 – Henry Hugh Proctor is born near Fayetteville,
Tennessee. He will receive his degree from Fisk University,
graduating in 1891. In 1894, he will receive a Bachelor of
Divinity degree from Yale University and be ordained into
the Congregational ministry. He will become pastor of the
First Congregational Church in Atlanta. In 1903, He will
join George Washington Henderson, president of Straight
University, a black college in New Orleans, Louisiana, to
found the National Convention of Congregational Workers
Among Colored People, and he will become its first president.
In 1904, Clark University will award him a Doctor of Divinity
degree. After the Atlanta Race Riot in 1906, he and a white
attorney will work together to quell remaining tensions and
form the Interracial Committee of Atlanta. In the church,
he will provide amenities lacking to blacks such as a
library, a kindergarten, an employment bureau, a gymnasium, a
ladies’ reading parlor, a music room, counseling services and
a model kitchen and sewing room for girls. He will also help
open the first housing facility for young employed black
women. He will be a strong believer in self-improvement. He
will also found the Atlanta Colored Music Festival
Association, with concerts attended by both races, segregated
but under one roof, believing that music could quell racial
animosity. This festival continues to the present day as the
Atlanta Music Festival. In 1919, he will minister to the
black American troops remaining in Europe. Afterwards he will
lead the Nazarene Congregational Church in Brooklyn, New York,
the place where he will live the rest of his life. He will
join the ancestors on May 12, 1933 New York City, after
succumbing to blood poisoning.

1873 – The National Equal Rights Convention adopts a resolution
to include African Americans.

1896 – J.T. White patents the lemon squeezer.

1925 – Entertainer, Sammy Davis Jr. is born in New York City.
He will begin his career at the age of four in
vaudeville, performing with his father. Sammy will star
on Broadway in “Mr. Wonderful” and in movies with “Porgy
and Bess”, Ocean’s Eleven, and “Robin and the Seven
Hoods.” He will release over 40 albums and will win many
gold records. He will join the ancestors on May 16, 1990.

1925 – James Oscar “Jimmy” Smith is born in Norristown,
Pennsylvania. He will become a modern jazz organist with
hits such as “Walk on the Wild Side.” He will rule the
Hammond organ in the ’50s and ’60s. He will revolutionize
the instrument, showing it could be creatively used in a
jazz context and popularized in the process. His Blue
Note sessions from 1956 to 1963 were extremely
influential. He toured extensively through the ’60s and
’70s. His Blue Note recordings will include superb
collaborations with Kenny Burrell, Lee Morgan, Lou
Donaldson, Tina Brooks, Jackie McLean, Ike Quebec and
Stanley Turrentine among others. He will join the
ancestors on February 8, 2005.

1933 – Clerow Wilson is born in Jersey City, New Jersey. “Flip”
Wilson is the tenth in a family of twenty-four children,
eighteen of whom survived. He will become a popular
comedian and will star in his own prime time comedy show
on television, “The Flip Wilson Show.” He will join the
ancestors on November 25, 1998.

1936 – “Gibbs vs The Board of Education” in Montgomery County,
Maryland is the first of a succession of suits initiated
by the NAACP, that eliminated wage differentials between
African American and white teachers.

1936 – “The Michigan Chronicle” is founded by Louis E. Martin.

1936 – The Spingarn Medal is presented to John Hope, posthumously,
for his achievement as president of Morehouse College and
for his creative leadership in the founding of the Atlanta
University Center.

1939 – Jerry Butler is born in Sunflower, Mississippi. He will
become a rhythm and blues singer with his group, The
Impressions and will be best known for his songs, “Never
Give You Up”, “For Your Precious Love,” “He Will Break
Your Heart,” and “Only the Strong Survive.” He will
become involved in the election of Chicago’s first
African American mayor, Harold Washington, work as Cook
County Commissioner and will serve as a Chicago City
Alderman.

1962 – The Reverend John Melville Burgess is consecrated as
suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts — the first African
American bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church to
serve a predominantly white diocese.

1967 – Major Robert H. Lawrence, Jr., the first African American
astronaut, joins the ancestors when his F-104 Starfighter
crashes at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave
Desert.

1972 – Representative George Collins joins the ancestors in an
airplane crash, near Midway Airport in Chicago, Illinois,
at the age of 47.

1972 – Attorney Jewel Lafontant is named Deputy Solicitor General
of the United States.

1977 – Earl Campbell, a running back with the University of Texas,
is awarded the Heisman Trophy. Campbell will play for
the Houston Oilers and be elected to the Football Hall of
Fame in 1990.

1983 – Mike Rozier, of the University of Nebraska, is awarded the
Heisman Trophy.

1987 – Kurt Lidell Schmoke is inaugurated as the first African
American mayor of Baltimore, Maryland.

1988 – Barry Sanders, a running back with Oklahoma State
University, is awarded the Heisman Trophy.

1991 – Tap dancing legends Fayard and Harold Nicholas and six
others receive Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, DC.

1998 – Nkem Chukwu, a Nigerian American, delivers Ebuka, the
first of eight children at Texas Children’s Hospital in
Houston, Texas. In what doctors consider a medical first,
the other seven siblings will be delivered on December 20.
Only seven will survive.

1999 – A Memphis, Tennessee jury hearing a lawsuit filed by the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s family, finds that the civil
rights leader had been the victim of a vast murder
conspiracy, not a lone assassin.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 10 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – June 10 *

1854 – James Augustine Healy is ordained as a Catholic priest in
ceremonies at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, France at the
age of 24. He will later become the first African American
Roman Catholic bishop.

1898 – Hattie McDaniel is born in Wichita, Kansas. A vaudevillian,
she will begin her acting career at age 37 in the film ‘The
Golden West.’ She will go on to roles in over 70 films,
including ‘The Little Colonel’, ‘Show Boat’, and most
notably ‘Gone With The Wind’, which will earn her an Oscar
as best supporting actress in 1940. She will also star in
the radio program ‘Beulah’ from 1947 to 1951. She will join
the ancestors on October 26, 1952.

1899 – The Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
(I.B.P.O.E.) is founded in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1910 – Chester Arthur Burnett is born in White Station, Mississippi.
He will be better known as ‘Howlin Wolf’, a delta bluesman
whose recordings will inspire English rock bands to adopt
his style and material. He will join the ancestors on
January 10, 1976.

1940 – The famed Cotton Club in Harlem closes. Home to some of the
most important jazz talents of their day, including Duke
Ellington, Lena Horne, and many others, the club falls
victim to changing musical tastes and poor attendance.

1940 – Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey joins the ancestors in London,
England at the age of 52.

1946 – Jack Arthur Johnson, the first African American heavyweight
boxing champion, joins the ancestors after succumbing to
injuries from an automobile accident near Raleigh, North
Carolina at the age of 68. He will be buried in Graceland
Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.

1964 – The U.S. Senate imposes cloture for the first time on a civil
rights measure, ending a southern filibuster by a vote of
71-29.

1972 – Sammy Davis, Jr. earns his place at the top of the popular
music charts for the first time, after years in the
entertainment business with his first number one song, “The
Candy Man”. The song stayed at the top for three consecutive
weeks and stayed on the pop charts for 16 weeks.

1980 – Nelson Mandela, jailed for life by the apartheid government
of South Africa, has his writings smuggled from prison and
made public, continuing to spark the general population.

1985 – Herschel Walker, of the New Jersey Generals, breaks the 2,000
yard mark in rushing during the season as the Generals win
over Jacksonville 31-24. The effort sets a United States
Football League (USFL) record. This feat had only been
reached twice in the National Football League (NFL) — once
by O.J. Simpson in 1973 for 2,003 yards and Eric Dickerson
in 1984 for 2,105 yards.

1997 – Geronimo Pratt, political prisoner and ex-Black Panther, is
released from prison on bail. A judge agrees that had
Pratt’s original jury known that the prosecution key witness
was a FBI and police informant, the outcome may have been
different. In 1999, after winning his appeal of the decision
that ordered his release, charges against Pratt were dropped
by the Los Angeles District Attorney and no new trial was
sought.

2004 – Ray Charles, Keyboardist, Composer, and Singer who won 12
Grammy awards, joins the ancestors after succumbing to liver
disease at the age of 73.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 16 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 16 *

1792 – Denmark abolishes the importation of slaves.

1857 – Juan Morel Campos is born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He will
become a musician and composer who will be one of the
first to integrate Afro-Caribbean styles and folk rhythms
into the classical European musical model. He will be
considered the father of the “danza.” He will join the
ancestors on May 12, 1896.

1917 – Harry T. Burleigh, composer, pianist, and singer, is
awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for excellence in the
field of creative music.

1929 – John Conyers, Jr. is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will
be elected to the House of Representatives from Michigan’s
1st District in 1964, where he will advocate home rule and
Congressional representation for the District of Columbia.
He will be the principal sponsor of the 1965 Voting Rights
Act and the 1983 Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday bill, as
well as a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus.

1930 – Lillie Mae Jones is born in Flint, Michigan. She will
become an uncompromising jazz singer using the stage name,
Betty Carter, who will earn the nickname “Betty Bebop” for
her bop improvisational style. She will tour with Lionel
Hampton and Miles Davis during her career. In 1997, she
will receive the National Medal of Arts award from
President Bill Clinton. She will join the ancestors on
September 26, 1998.

1966 – Stokely Carmichael (later named Kwame Ture) is elected
chairman of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, a group formed during the Freedom Marches and
dedicated to voter registration in the South.

1966 – Janet Damita Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. Sister of
the famous Jacksons of the Jackson 5 singing group, she
will have her own successful career, first in acting
(“Good Times,” “Diff’rent Strokes,” and “Fame”), then as
a solo recording artist. Her albums “Control” and
“Rhythm Nation 1814” will earn her five American Music
Awards and a Grammy award.

1966 – The National Welfare Rights Organization is organized.

1977 – Modibo Keita joins the ancestors in Bamako, Mali. He was
the first president of Mali, serving from 1960 to 1968.

1979 – Asa Philip Randolph, labor leader and civil rights pioneer,
joins the ancestors in New York at the age of 90.

1985 – Michael Jordan is named Rookie of the Year in the National
Basketball Association. Jordan, of the Chicago Bulls, was
the number three draft choice. At the time, Michael was
third in the league scoring a 28.2 average and fourth in
steals with 2.39 per game.

1990 – Sammy Davis Jr., actor, dancer, singer and world class
entertainer, joins the ancestors in Beverly Hills,
California at the age of 64 from throat cancer. Davis,
born in Harlem, was a member of the Hollywood “Rat Pack.”
He also had starring roles in a host of Broadway musicals
and motion pictures and had been an entertainer for over
sixty years.

1997 – In Zaire, President Mobutu Sese Seko ends 32 years of
autocratic rule, ceding control of the country to rebel
forces.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 14 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 14 *

1829 – John Mercer Langston is born in Louisa County, Virginia.
He will have a distinguished career as an attorney,
educator, recruiter of soldiers for the all African
American 5th Ohio, 54th and 55th Massachusetts regiments,
dean of the law school and president of Howard University,
diplomat, and U.S. congressman.

1915 – Jack Johnson becomes the world heavyweight boxing champion.

1920 – Clark Terry is born in St. Louis, Missouri. He will become
a trumpeteer and flugelhorn player who will be known for
his association with Duke Ellington on the 1950’s, his
innovative flugelhorn sound, and unusual mumbling scat
singing.

1939 – Ernest “Ernie” Davis is born in New Salem, Pennsylvania.
He will become the first African American to win the
Heisman Trophy (1961). He will join the ancestors on May
18, 1963, succumbing to acute monotypic leukemia before
he is able to play in the National Football League.

1945 – Stanley Crouch is born in Los Angeles, California. He will
become a drummer, poet, and writer for “The Village Voice.”
Among his books will be “Notes of a Hanging Judge,”
published in 1990.

1963 – Singer Dinah Washington joins the ancestors after a sleeping
pill overdose at the age of 39 in Detroit, Michigan. She
popularized many, many great songs, including “What a
Diff’rence a Day Makes”, “Unforgettable” and several hits
with Brook Benton, including “Baby (You’ve Got What it
Takes)” and “A Rockin’ Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall
in Love)”.

1968 – Sammy Davis Jr. is awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for
his “superb and many-faceted talent,” and his contributions
to the civil rights movement.

1968 – Classes of San Francisco State University are suspended
after demonstrations by the Black Student Union and Third
World Liberation Front.

1972 – Johnny Rodgers, a running back with the University of
Nebraska, is awarded the Heisman Trophy. Rodgers gained a
total of 5,586 yards for the Cornhuskers in three years.

1980 – Elston Howard, a New York Yankee catcher for many years,
joins the ancestors.

1991 – Desmond Howard, of the University of Michigan wins the
Heisman trophy.

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

KRLemmons African American History

December 8 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – December 8 *

1850 – The first African American woman to graduate from
college is Lucy Ann Stanton. She completes the two-year
ladies’ course and receives the Bachelor of Literature
degree from Oberlin College in Ohio.

1863 – President Abraham Lincoln issues his Proclamation on
Amnesty and Reconstruction for the restoration of the
Confederate states into the Union. He offers them a full
pardon and restoration of their rights if they are
willing to take an oath of loyalty to the Union and
accept the end of slavery.

1868 – Writer, Henry Hugh Proctor is born. He will be best
known for his book, “Between Black and White:
Autobiographical Sketches.” He will join the ancestors
in 1933.

1873 – The National Equal Rights Convention adopts a resolution
to include African Americans.

1896 – J.T. White patents the lemon squeezer.

1925 – Entertainer, Sammy Davis Jr. is born in New York City.
He will begin his career at the age of four in
vaudeville, performing with his father. Sammy will star
on Broadway in “Mr. Wonderful” and in movies with “Porgy
and Bess”, Ocean’s Eleven, and “Robin and the Seven
Hoods.” He will release over 40 albums and will win many
gold records. He will join the ancestors on May 16, 1990.

1925 – James Oscar “Jimmy” Smith is born in Norristown,
Pennsylvania. He will become a modern jazz organist with
hits such as “Walk on the Wild Side.” He will rule the
Hammond organ in the ’50s and ’60s. He will revolutionize
the instrument, showing it could be creatively used in a
jazz context and popularized in the process. His Blue
Note sessions from 1956 to 1963 were extremely
influential. He toured extensively through the ’60s and
’70s. His Blue Note recordings will include superb
collaborations with Kenny Burrell, Lee Morgan, Lou
Donaldson, Tina Brooks, Jackie McLean, Ike Quebec and
Stanley Turrentine among others. He will join the
ancestors on February 8, 2005.

1933 – Clerow Wilson is born in Jersey City, New Jersey. “Flip”
Wilson is the tenth in a family of twenty-four children,
eighteen of whom survived. He will become a popular
comedian and will star in his own prime time comedy show
on television, “The Flip Wilson Show.” He will join the
ancestors on November 25, 1998.

1936 – “Gibbs vs The Board of Education” in Montgomery County,
Maryland is the first of a succession of suits initiated
by the NAACP, that eliminated wage differentials between
African American and white teachers.

1936 – “The Michigan Chronicle” is founded by Louis E. Martin.

1936 – The Spingarn Medal is presented to John Hope, posthumously,
for his achievement as president of Morehouse College and
for his creative leadership in the founding of the Atlanta
University Center.

1939 – Jerry Butler is born in Sunflower, Mississippi. He will
become a rhythm and blues singer with his group, The
Impressions and will be best known for his songs, “Never
Give You Up”, “For Your Precious Love,” “He Will Break
Your Heart,” and “Only the Strong Survive.” He will
become involved in the election of Chicago’s first
African American mayor, Harold Washington, work as Cook
County Commissioner and will serve as a Chicago City
Alderman.

1962 – The Reverend John Melville Burgess is consecrated as
suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts — the first African
American bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church to
serve a predominantly white diocese.

1967 – Major Robert H. Lawrence, Jr., the first African American
astronaut, joins the ancestors when his F-104 Starfighter
crashes at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave
Desert.

1972 – Representative George Collins joins the ancestors in an
airplane crash, near Midway Airport in Chicago, Illinois,
at the age of 47.

1972 – Attorney Jewel Lafontant is named Deputy Solicitor General
of the United States.

1977 – Earl Campbell, a running back with the University of Texas,
is awarded the Heisman Trophy. Campbell will play for
the Houston Oilers and be elected to the Football Hall of
Fame in 1990.

1983 – Mike Rozier, of the University of Nebraska, is awarded the
Heisman Trophy.

1987 – Kurt Lidell Schmoke is inaugurated as the first African
American mayor of Baltimore, Maryland.

1988 – Barry Sanders, a running back with Oklahoma State
University, is awarded the Heisman Trophy.

1991 – Tap dancing legends Fayard and Harold Nicholas and six
others receive Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, DC.

1998 – Nkem Chukwu, a Nigerian American, delivers Ebuka, the
first of eight children at Texas Children’s Hospital in
Houston, Texas. In what doctors consider a medical first,
the other seven siblings will be delivered on December 20.
Only seven will survive.

1999 – A Memphis, Tennessee jury hearing a lawsuit filed by the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s family, finds that the civil
rights leader had been the victim of a vast murder
conspiracy, not a lone assassin.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 10 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 10 *

1854 – James Augustine Healy is ordained as a Catholic priest in
ceremonies at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, France at the
age of 24. He will later become the first African American
Roman Catholic bishop.

1898 – Hattie McDaniel is born in Wichita, Kansas. A vaudevillian,
she will begin her acting career at age 37 in the film ‘The
Golden West.’ She will go on to roles in over 70 films,
including ‘The Little Colonel’, ‘Show Boat’, and most
notably ‘Gone With The Wind’, which will earn her an Oscar
as best supporting actress in 1940. She will also star in
the radio program ‘Beulah’ from 1947 to 1951. She will join
the ancestors on October 26, 1952.
1899 – The Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
(I.B.P.O.E.) is founded in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1910 – Chester Arthur Burnett is born in White Station, Mississippi.
He will be better known as ‘Howlin Wolf’, a delta bluesman
whose recordings will inspire English rock bands to adopt
his style and material. He will join the ancestors on
January 10, 1976.

1940 – The famed Cotton Club in Harlem closes. Home to some of the
most important jazz talents of their day, including Duke
Ellington, Lena Horne, and many others, the club falls
victim to changing musical tastes and poor attendance.

1940 – Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey joins the ancestors in London,
England at the age of 52.

1946 – Jack Arthur Johnson, the first African American heavyweight
boxing champion, joins the ancestors after succumbing to
injuries from an automobile accident near Raleigh, North
Carolina at the age of 68. He will be buried in Graceland
Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.

1964 – The U.S. Senate imposes cloture for the first time on a civil
rights measure, ending a southern filibuster by a vote of
71-29.

1972 – Sammy Davis, Jr. earns his place at the top of the popular
music charts for the first time, after years in the
entertainment business with his first number one song, “The
Candy Man”. The song stayed at the top for three consecutive
weeks and stayed on the pop charts for 16 weeks.

1980 – Nelson Mandela, jailed for life by the apartheid government
of South Africa, has his writings smuggled from prison and
made public, continuing to spark the general population.

1985 – Herschel Walker, of the New Jersey Generals, breaks the 2,000
yard mark in rushing during the season as the Generals win
over Jacksonville 31-24. The effort sets a United States
Football League (USFL) record. This feat had only been
reached twice in the National Football League (NFL) — once
by O.J. Simpson in 1973 for 2,003 yards and Eric Dickerson
in 1984 for 2,105 yards.

1997 – Geronimo Pratt, political prisoner and ex-Black Panther, is
released from prison on bail. A judge agrees that had
Pratt’s original jury known that the prosecution key witness
was a FBI and police informant, the outcome may have been
different. In 1999, after winning his appeal of the decision
that ordered his release, charges against Pratt were dropped
by the Los Angeles District Attorney and no new trial was
sought.

2004 – Ray Charles, Keyboardist, Composer, and Singer who won 12
Grammy awards, joins the ancestors after succumbing to liver
disease at the age of 73.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 16 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – May 16 *

1792 – Denmark abolishes the importation of slaves.

1857 – Juan Morel Campos is born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He will
become a musician and composer who will be one of the
first to integrate Afro-Caribbean styles and folk rhythms
into the classical European musical model. He will be
considered the father of the “danza.” He willjoin the
ancestors on May 12, 1896.

1917 – Harry T. Burleigh, composer, pianist, and singer, is
awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for excellence in the
field of creative music.

1929 – John Conyers, Jr. is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will
be elected to the House of Representatives from Michigan’s
1st District in 1964, where he will advocate home rule and
Congressional representation for the District of Columbia.
He will be the principal sponsor of the 1965 Voting Rights
Act and the 1983 Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday bill, as
well as a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus.

1930 – Lillie Mae Jones is born in Flint, Michigan. She will
become an uncompromising jazz singer using the stage name,
Betty Carter, who will earn the nickname “Betty Bebop” for
her bop improvisational style. She will tour with Lionel
Hampton and Miles Davis during her career. In 1997, she
will receive the National Medal of Arts award from
President Bill Clinton. She will join the ancestors on
September 26, 1998.

1966 – Stokely Carmichael (later named Kwame Ture) is elected
chairman of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, a group formed during the Freedom Marches and
dedicated to voter registration in the South.

1966 – Janet Damita Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. Sister of
the famous Jacksons of the Jackson 5 singing group, she
will have her own successful career, first in acting
(“Good Times,” “Diff’rent Strokes,” and “Fame”), then as
a solo recording artist. Her albums “Control” and
“Rhythm Nation 1814” will earn her five American Music
Awards and a Grammy award.

1966 – The National Welfare Rights Organization is organized.

1977 – Modibo Keita joins the ancestors in Bamako, Mali. He was
the first president of Mali, from 1960 to 1968.

1979 – Asa Philip Randolph, labor leader and civil rights pioneer,
joins the ancestors in New York at the age of 90.

1985 – Michael Jordan is named Rookie of the Year in the National
Basketball Association. Jordan, of the Chicago Bulls, was
the number three draft choice. At the time, Michael was
third in the league scoring a 28.2 average and fourth in
steals with 2.39 per game.

1990 – Sammy Davis Jr., actor, dancer, singer and world class
entertainer, joins the ancestors in Beverly Hills,
California at the age of 64 from throat cancer. Davis,
born in Harlem, was a member of the Hollywood “Rat Pack.”
He also had starring roles in a host of Broadway musicals
and motion pictures and had been an entertainer for over
sixty years.

1997 – In Zaire, President Mobutu Sese Seko ends 32 years of
autocratic rule, ceding control of the country to rebel
forces.

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