KRLemmons African American History

February 4 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – February 4 *

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* Black Facts every day of the year.
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1794 – Slavery is abolished by France. France will have a very lukewarm
commitment to abolition and will, under Napoleon, reestablish
slavery in 1802, along with the reinstitution of the “Code
Noir,” prohibiting blacks, mulattos and other people of color
from entering French colonial territory or intermarrying with
whites.

1822 – The American Colonization Society founds the African colony for
free African Americans that will become the country of Liberia,
West Africa.

1913 – Rosa Louise McCauley is born in Tuskegee, Alabama. In 1932,
she will marry Raymond Parks. She will work at a number of
jobs, ranging from domestic worker to hospital aide. At her
husband’s urging, she will finish high school studies in 1933,
at a time when less than 7% of African Americans had a high
school diploma. Despite the Jim Crow laws that made political
participation by Black people difficult, she will succeed in
registering to vote on her third try. In December 1943, she
will become active in the Civil Rights Movement, joining the
Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. When the seamstress and
NAACP member refuses to yield her seat to a white man on a
Montgomery, Alabama bus on December 1, 1955, her actions will
spark a 382-day boycott of the buses in Montgomery, halting
business and services in the city and become the initial act
of non-violent disobedience of the American Civil Rights
movement. She will be honored with the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal
for her heroism and later work with Detroit youth(1979) and
be called the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” She will
join the ancestors on October 24, 2005. The United States
Senate will pass a resolution on October 27, 2005 to honor
Mother Parks by allowing her body to lie in honor in the U.S.
Capitol Rotunda. The House of Representatives approved the
resolution on October 28. Since the founding of the practice
of lying in state in the Rotunda in 1852, She will be the
31st person, the first woman, the first American who had not
been a U.S. government official, and the second non-
government official (after Frenchman Pierre L’Enfant). On
October 30, 2005 President George W. Bush will issue a
Proclamation ordering that all flags on U.S. public areas
both within the country and abroad be flown at half-staff on
the day of her funeral. On February 5, 2006, at Super Bowl XL,
played at Detroit’s Ford Field, the late Coretta Scott King
and Mother Parks, who had been a long-time resident of “The
Motor City”, will be remembered and honored by a moment of
silence.

1947 – Sanford Bishop is born in Mobile, Alabama. He will graduate
from Morehouse College and Emory University Law School. He
will specialize in civil rights law and will become a member
of the Georgia Legislature from 1977 to 1993 (House and
Senate). In 1993, he will be elected a member of the United
States House of Representatives from Georgia.

1952 – Jackie Robinson is named Director of Communication for WNBC in
New York City, becoming the first African American executive
of a major radio-TV network.

1965 – Joseph Danquah joins the ancestors in Nsawam Prison in Ghana at
the age of 69. He had been a Ghanaian scholar, lawyer and
nationalist. He had led the opposition against Kwame Nkrumah
who had him imprisoned.

1969 – The Popular Liberation Movement Of Angola begins an armed
struggle against Portugal.

1971 – The National Guard is mobilized to quell civil disobedience
events in Wilmington, North Carolina. Two persons are killed.

1971 – Major League Baseball announces a special Hall of Fame wing for
special displays about the Negro Leagues. These exhibits will
provide information on these most deserving but rarely
recognized contributors to Baseball.

1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps nineteen-year-old
newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst from her apartment in
Berkeley, California.

1980 – Camara Laye joins the ancestors in Senegal at the age of 52.
He was a Guinean novelist considered a pioneer of West African
literature.

1986 – A stamp of Sojourner Truth is issued by the United States
Postal Service as part of its Black Heritage USA commemorative
series. Truth was an abolitionist, woman’s rights activist and
a famous “conductor” on the Underground Railroad.

1996 – Congressman J.C. Watts (R-Oklahoma) becomes the first African
American selected to respond to a State of the Union address.

1997 – Sixteen months after O.J. Simpson was cleared of murder charges,
a civil trial jury blames him for the killings of his ex-wife
and her friend and orders him to pay millions in compensatory
damages.

2003 – Charlie Biddle, a leader of Montreal’s jazz scene in the 1950s
and ’60s who played bass with Thelonious Monk and Charlie
Parker, joins the ancestors after a battle with cancer at the
age of 76. Biddle was a native of Philadelphia who moved to
Canada in 1948. Over the next five decades, the World War II
veteran and former car salesman became synonymous with jazz in
Montreal. Biddle opened his own club, Uncle Charlie’s Jazz
Joint, in suburban Ste-Therese in 1958. He later performed in
such legendary Montreal nightspots as The Black Bottom and the
Penthouse, where he worked with the likes of Oscar Peterson,
Art Tatum, Charlie Parker and Lionel Hampton. When there were
no jobs in Montreal, he played smaller Quebec cities with a
group called Three Jacks and a Jill. Until the time of his
passing, he played four nights a week at Biddle’s Jazz and
Ribs, a Montreal landmark for nearly 25 years. In 1979, he
organized the three-day festival that some say paved the way
for the renowned Montreal International Jazz Festival.

2005 – Ossie Davis, renown actor and civil rights advocate, joins the
ancestors in Miami, FL, while on location for yet another
acting project at the age of 87.

2007 – For the first time in Super Bowl history, two African American
coaches will lead their teams in the NFL Championship game.
The Chicago Bears will be coached by Lovie Lee Smith and the
Indianapolis Colts will be coached by Tony Dungee. The
Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears will be set to face
off in South Florida during Super Bowl XLI in a historic
meeting where both African American coaches will vie for the
Vince Lombardi Trophy. The winner will be the first African
American coach to win the Super Bowl.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 25 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 25 *

1851 – Sojourner Truth addresses the first African American Women’s
Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

1890 – The National Afro-American League is founded at an organizing
meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Joseph Price, the president
of Livingston College, is elected the first president of
what will come to be considered a pioneering African
American protest organization.

1938 – Jamesetta Hawkins is born in Los Angeles, California. She
will become a rhythm and blues singer known as “Etta James.”
She will be described as “one of the great forces in
American Music.” She will become a star scoring her first
national pop hit, “Roll With Me, Henry”, at age sixteen, and
be recognized as a master in the fields of blues, R&B, jazz,
and pop, crossing genres time and again. Between 1955 and
1975, Etta will create a dozen Top-10 Rhythm & Blues hits
and more than 25 chart hits. They will include such soulful
performances as “All I Could Do Was Cry” (1960), “At Last”
(1961), “Trust in Me” (1961), “Stop the Wedding” (1962),
“Tell Mama” (1967), and “Security” (1968). She will be
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. She
will be nominated for six Grammy Awards and will win the
award for her 1994 recording of “Mystery Lady,” saluting
Billie Holiday. She will be inducted into the Blues Hall of
Fame in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in both 1999 and
2008. Rolling Stone will ranked her number 22 on their list
of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and number 62 on the
list of the 100 Greatest Artists. She will join the ancestors
on January 20, 2012.

1942 – Carl Eller is born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He will
become a professional football player, spending many of his
years with the Minnesota Vikings. On the Vikings team, he will
play in four Super Bowl games (IV, VIII, IX, XI), in losing
efforts. He will be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame
in 2004.

1950 – Gloria Naylor is born in New York City. She will become a
Jehovah Witnesses minister and ‘pioneer’ over a period of
seven years. After leaving the Witnesses and suffering a
nervous breakdown, she will read Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest
Eye”, and be inspired to become a writer. She will complete
her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and become a major writer
and is best known for her work, “The Women of Brewster
Place.”

1966 – Constance Baker Motley becomes the first African American
woman to be appointed to a federal judgeship.

1972 – Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm begins her campaign for
President of the United States. Although she will
ultimately be unsuccessful, she will make known the concerns
of African Americans across the country.

1980 – Black Entertainment Television, better known as BET, begins
broadcasting from Washington, DC. Robert L. Johnson, who
established the company with a $ 15,000 personal loan, will
make BET one of the most successful cable television
networks, with 25 million subscribers by its tenth
anniversary and, in 1991, the first African American-owned
company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

1989 – Michael Jordan scores his 10,000th NBA point in his 5th
season, the second fastest NBA climb to that position behind
Wilt Chamberlain.

1999 – Jury selection begins in Jasper, Texas, in the trial of white
supremacist John William King, charged in the dragging death
of African American James Byrd Jr.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 26 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 26 *

1866 – Rust College is founded in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

1872 – Macon B. Allen is elected judge of the Lower Court of
Charleston, South Carolina. Allen, the first African
American lawyer, becomes the second African American
to hold a major judicial position and the first
African American with a major judicial position on
the municipal level.

1878 – Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor is born in Indianapolis,
Indiana. He will become an American cyclist and win the
world 1 mile (1.6 km) track cycling championship in 1899
after setting numerous world records and overcoming
racial discrimination. He will be the first African
American athlete to achieve the level of world champion
and only the second black man to win a world championship,
after Canadian boxer George Dixon. He will hold the title
of “the world’s fastest bicycle racer” for 12 years. He
will join the ancestors on June 28, 1932 in Chicago,
Illinois.

1883 – Sojourner Truth, women’s rights advocate, poet, and
freedom fighter, joins the ancestors in Battle Creek,
Michigan.

1890 – Savannah State College is founded in Savannah, Georgia.

1968 – O.J. Simpson is named Heisman Trophy winner for 1968.
A running back for the University of Southern
California, Simpson amassed a total of 3,187 yards in
18 games and scored 33 touchdowns in two seasons. He
will play professional football with the Buffalo Bills
and the San Francisco 49ers and be equally well known
as a sportscaster and actor.

1970 – Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. the first African American
general in the U.S. military, joins the ancestors at
the age of 93 in Chicago, Illinois.

1970 – Charles Gordone is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his
play, “No Place To Be Somebody.”

1970 – Painter, Jacob Lawrence is awarded the Spingarn Medal
“in tribute to the compelling power of his work which
has opened to the world…a window on the Negro’s
condition in the United States” and “in salute to his
unswerving commitment” to the Black struggle.

1986 – Scatman Crothers, actor, who is best known for his role
as “Louie” on TV’s “Chico & the Man”, joins the
ancestors at the age of 76.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 1 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – June 1 *

1835 – The Fifth National Negro Convention recommends that Blacks
remove the word “African” from the titles of their
organizations and discontinue referring to themselves as
“colored.”

1843 – Sojourner Truth leaves New York and begins her career as an
anti-slavery activist.

1868 – The Texas constitutional convention convenes in Austin with
eighty-one whites and nine African Americans in attendance.

1868 – The Florida General Assembly meets in Tallahassee with
fifty-seven whites and nineteen African Americans in
attendance.

1868 – Solomon George Washington Dill, white ally of African
American Republicans, is assassinated in his home by white
terrorists. Dill had allegedly made “incendiary speeches”
to South Carolina African Americans.

1921 – A major race riot occurs in the Greenwood section of Tulsa,
Oklahoma. Twenty-one whites and sixty African Americans
will be killed according to some sources. The destruction
caused in the area referred to as “Black Wall Street,”
prompts the first American Red Cross response to a man-
made disaster. The Red Cross will report that 1115 houses
and businesses belonging to African Americans were burned
down, and another 314 were looted. Their statistics will
also show that 300 persons were killed, a much higher
figure than chronicled by other historical sources. For
more information about the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, go to
http://www.informationman.com/blkwallst.htm

1921 – Paul Raymond Jones is born in Bessemer, Alabama. He will
become a major collector of African American art. During the
early 1960’s, he will decide to purchase his first three
paintings forming the beginning of his collection. They were
by artists, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, and Chagall. After
collecting for a couple of years, he will realize that African
American art was “abundant and affordable” yet hardly ever
represented in the collections of museums. As the years pass,
his collection of African American art and his reputation will
grow. His collection will be featured at several different
museums over the course of his lifetime. Currently, the Paul R.
Jones Collection resides at the University of Delaware where it
is a tool to educate and foster enjoyment. The University of
Alabama will also establish an art collection in his name after
receiving some 1,700 pieces valued at $5 million in 2008. He
will join the ancestors on January 26, 2010.

1935 – Frederick Eikerenkoetter is born in Ridgeland, South
Carolina. He will receive a B.A. in Theology from the
American Bible College in Chicago, Illinois in 1955 and
become a minister better known as “Reverend Ike.” He will
be the first African American minister with a television
show and will report a following of close to 7,000,000 by
1982. His ministry will reach its peak in the mid 1970s, when
his weekly radio sermons will be carried by hundreds of stations
across the United States. He will be famous for his Blessing
Plan–radio listeners will send him money and in return he
will bless them. He will say doing this would make radio
listeners who did it more prosperous. In the 1990s, he will be
active on the Internet and in a syndicated television programs.
He will join the ancestors on July 28, 2009.

1937 – Morgan Freeman is born in Memphis, Tennessee. Making his
acting debut in an all African American cast of “Hello
Dolly” in 1968, Freeman will also have a major role in the
television program “The Electric Company” before breaking
into movies. He will receive an Academy Award nomination
for his role in “Street Smart,” and star in “Clean and
Sober” and Lean on Me.” He will be nominated again for a
supporting role in “Glory” and for his starring role in
“Driving Miss Daisy.” He will make his directing debut in
1993 with the film, “Bopha,” a drama set in South Africa
under the policy of apartheid.

1941 – The first African American tank battalion, the 758th, is
activated.

1942 – The Marine Corps begins enlistment of African Americans at
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

1948 – Johnny Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson joins the ancestors in
Chicago, Illinois at the age of 34 after being murdered on
the front steps of his home. He was a master of the blues
harmonica and transformed the instrument from a novelty
into a major component of Chicago-style blues. He will be
inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 1980.

1966 – Approximately 2,400 persons attend a White House Conference
on Civil Rights.

1973 – WGPR-TV (Channel 62) in Detroit, Michigan, is granted a
permit to operate. It is the first television station
owned by African Americans.

1997 – Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, is fatally burned in a
fire set by her 12-year-old grandson in her Yonkers, New
York, apartment.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 26 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 26 *

1866 – Rust College is founded in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

1872 – Macon B. Allen is elected judge of the Lower Court of
Charleston, South Carolina. Allen, the first African
American lawyer, becomes the second African American
to hold a major judicial position and the first
African American with a major judicial position on
the municipal level.

1883 – Sojourner Truth, women’s rights advocate, poet, and
freedom fighter, joins the ancestors in Battle Creek,
Michigan.

1890 – Savannah State College is founded in Savannah, Georgia.

1968 – O.J. Simpson is named Heisman Trophy winner for 1968.
A running back for the University of Southern
California, Simpson amassed a total of 3,187 yards in
18 games and scored 33 touchdowns in two seasons. He
will play professional football with the Buffalo Bills
and the San Francisco 49ers and be equally well known
as a sportscaster and actor.

1970 – Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. the first African American
general in the U.S. military, joins the ancestors at
the age of 93 in Chicago, Illinois.

1970 – Charles Gordone is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his
play, “No Place To Be Somebody.”

1970 – Painter, Jacob Lawrence is awarded the Spingarn Medal
“in tribute to the compelling power of his work which
has opened to the world…a window on the Negro’s
condition in the United States” and “in salute to his
unswerving commitment” to the Black struggle.

1986 – Scatman Crothers, actor, who is best known for his role
as “Louie” on TV’s “Chico & the Man”, joins the
ancestors at the age of 76.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 1 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 1 *

1835 – The Fifth National Negro Convention recommends that Blacks
remove the word “African” from the titles of their
organizations and discontinue referring to themselves as
“colored.”

1843 – Sojourner Truth leaves New York and begins her career as an
anti-slavery activist.

1868 – The Texas constitutional convention convenes in Austin with
eighty-one whites and nine African Americans in attendance.

1868 – The Florida General Assembly meets in Tallahassee with
fifty-seven whites and nineteen African Americans in
attendance.

1868 – Solomon George Washington Dill, white ally of African
American Republicans, is assassinated in his home by white
terrorists. Dill had allegedly made “incendiary speeches”
to South Carolina African Americans.

1921 – A major race riot occurs in the Greenwood section of Tulsa,
Oklahoma. Twenty-one whites and sixty African Americans
will be killed according to some sources. The destruction
caused in the area referred to as “Black Wall Street,”
prompts the first American Red Cross response to a man-
made disaster. The Red Cross will report that 1115 houses
and businesses belonging to African Americans were burned
down, and another 314 were looted. Their statistics will
also show that 300 persons were killed, a much higher
figure than chronicled by other historical sources. For
more information about the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, go to
http://www.informationman.com/blkwallst.htm

1921 – Paul Raymond Jones is born in Bessemer, Alabama. He will
become a major collector of African American art. During the
early 1960’s, he will decide to purchase his first three
paintings forming the beginning of his collection. They were
by artists, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, and Chagall. After
collecting for a couple of years, he will realize that African
American art was “abundant and affordable” yet hardly ever
represented in the collections of museums. As the years pass,
his collection of African American art and his reputation will
grow. His collection will be featured at several different
museums over the course of his lifetime. Currently, the Paul R.
Jones Collection resides at the University of Delaware where it
is a tool to educate and foster enjoyment. The University of
Alabama will also establish an art collection in his name after
receiving some 1,700 pieces valued at $5 million in 2008. He
will join the ancestors on January 26, 2010.

1935 – Frederick Eikerenkoetter is born in Ridgeland, South
Carolina. He will receive a B.A. in Theology from the
American Bible College in Chicago, Illinois in 1955 and
become a minister better known as “Reverend Ike.” He will
be the first African American minister with a television
show and will report a following of close to 7,000,000 by
1982.

1937 – Morgan Freeman is born in Memphis, Tennessee. Making his
acting debut in an all African American cast of “Hello
Dolly” in 1968, Freeman will also have a major role in the
television program “The Electric Company” before breaking
into movies. He will receive an Academy Award nomination
for his role in “Street Smart,” and star in “Clean and
Sober” and Lean on Me.” He will be nominated again for a
supporting role in “Glory” and for his starring role in
“Driving Miss Daisy.” He will make his directing debut in
1993 with the film, “Bopha,” a drama set in South Africa
under the policy of apartheid.

1941 – The first African American tank battalion, the 758th, is
activated.

1942 – The Marine Corps begins enlistment of African Americans at
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

1948 – Johnny Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson joins the ancestors in
Chicago, Illinois at the age of 34 after being murdered on
the front steps of his home. He was a master of the blues
harmonica and transformed the instrument from a novelty
into a major component of Chicago-style blues. He will be
inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 1980.

1966 – Approximately 2,400 persons attend a White House Conference
on Civil Rights.

1973 – WGPR-TV (Channel 62) in Detroit, Michigan, is granted a
permit to operate. It is the first television station
owned by African Americans.

1997 – Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, is fatally burned in a
fire set by her 12-year-old grandson in her Yonkers, New
York, apartment.

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

KRLemmons African American History

February 4 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 4 *

***********************************************************************
* “Once a year we go through the charade of February being ‘Black *
* History Month.’ Black History Month needs to be a 12-MONTH THING. *
* When we all learn about our history, about how much we’ve *
* accomplished while being handicapped with RACISM, it can only *
* inspire us to greater heights, knowing we’re on the giant shoulders *
* of our ANCESTORS.” Subscribe to the Munirah Chronicle and receive *
* Black Facts every day of the year. *
* To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]> *
* In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name *
***********************************************************************

1794 – Slavery is abolished by France. France will have a very lukewarm
commitment to abolition and will, under Napoleon, reestablish
slavery in 1802, along with the reinstitution of the “Code
Noir,” prohibiting blacks, mulattos and other people of color
from entering French colonial territory or intermarrying with
whites.

1822 – The American Colonization Society founds the African colony for
free African Americans that will become the country of Liberia,
West Africa.

1913 – Rosa Louise McCauley is born in Tuskegee, Alabama. In 1932,
she will marry Raymond Parks. She will work at a number of
jobs, ranging from domestic worker to hospital aide. At her
husband’s urging, she will finish high school studies in 1933,
at a time when less than 7% of African Americans had a high
school diploma. Despite the Jim Crow laws that made political
participation by Black people difficult, she will succeed in
registering to vote on her third try. In December 1943, she
will become active in the Civil Rights Movement, joining the
Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. When the seamstress and
NAACP member refuses to yield her seat to a white man on a
Montgomery, Alabama bus on December 1, 1955, her actions will
spark a 382-day boycott of the buses in Montgomery, halting
business and services in the city and become the initial act
of non-violent disobedience of the American Civil Rights
movement. She will be honored with the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal
for her heroism and later work with Detroit youth(1979) and
be called the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” She will
join the ancestors on October 24, 2005. The United States
Senate will pass a resolution on October 27, 2005 to honor
Mother Parks by allowing her body to lie in honor in the U.S.
Capitol Rotunda. The House of Representatives approved the
resolution on October 28. Since the founding of the practice
of lying in state in the Rotunda in 1852, She will be the
31st person, the first woman, the first American who had not
been a U.S. government official, and the second non-
government official (after Frenchman Pierre L’Enfant). On
October 30, 2005 President George W. Bush will issue a
Proclamation ordering that all flags on U.S. public areas
both within the country and abroad be flown at half-staff on
the day of her funeral. On February 5, 2006, at Super Bowl XL,
played at Detroit’s Ford Field, the late Coretta Scott King
and Mother Parks, who had been a long-time resident of “The
Motor City”, will be remembered and honored by a moment of
silence.

1947 – Sanford Bishop is born in Mobile, Alabama. He will graduate
from Morehouse College and Emory University Law School. He
will specialize in civil rights law and will become a member
of the Georgia Legislature from 1977 to 1993 (House and
Senate). In 1993, he will be elected a member of the United
States House of Representatives from Georgia.

1952 – Jackie Robinson is named Director of Communication for WNBC in
New York City, becoming the first African American executive
of a major radio-TV network.

1965 – Joseph Danquah joins the ancestors in Nsawam Prison in Ghana at
the age of 69. He had been a Ghanaian scholar, lawyer and
nationalist. He had led the opposition against Kwame Nkrumah
who had him imprisoned.

1969 – The Popular Liberation Movement Of Angola begins an armed
struggle against Portugal.

1971 – The National Guard is mobilized to quell civil disobedience
events in Wilmington, North Carolina. Two persons are killed.

1971 – Major League Baseball announces a special Hall of Fame wing for
special displays about the Negro Leagues. These exhibits will
provide information on these most deserving but rarely
recognized contributors to Baseball.

1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps nineteen-year-old
newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst from her apartment in
Berkeley, California.

1980 – Camara Laye joins the ancestors in Senegal at the age of 52.
He was a Guinean novelist considered a pioneer of West African
literature.

1986 – A stamp of Sojourner Truth is issued by the United States
Postal Service as part of its Black Heritage USA commemorative
series. Truth was an abolitionist, woman’s rights activist and
a famous “conductor” on the Underground Railroad.

1996 – Congressman J.C. Watts (R-Oklahoma) becomes the first African
American selected to respond to a State of the Union address.

1997 – Sixteen months after O.J. Simpson was cleared of murder charges,
a civil trial jury blames him for the killings of his ex-wife
and her friend and orders him to pay millions in compensatory
damages.

2003 – Charlie Biddle, a leader of Montreal’s jazz scene in the 1950s
and ’60s who played bass with Thelonious Monk and Charlie
Parker, joins the ancestors after a battle with cancer at the
age of 76. Biddle was a native of Philadelphia who moved to
Canada in 1948. Over the next five decades, the World War II
veteran and former car salesman became synonymous with jazz in
Montreal. Biddle opened his own club, Uncle Charlie’s Jazz
Joint, in suburban Ste-Therese in 1958. He later performed in
such legendary Montreal nightspots as The Black Bottom and the
Penthouse, where he worked with the likes of Oscar Peterson,
Art Tatum, Charlie Parker and Lionel Hampton. When there were
no jobs in Montreal, he played smaller Quebec cities with a
group called Three Jacks and a Jill. Until the time of his
passing, he played four nights a week at Biddle’s Jazz and
Ribs, a Montreal landmark for nearly 25 years. In 1979, he
organized the three-day festival that some say paved the way
for the renowned Montreal International Jazz Festival.

2005 – Ossie Davis, renown actor and civil rights advocate, joins the
ancestors in Miami, FL, while on location for yet another
acting project at the age of 87.

2007 – For the first time in Super Bowl history, two African American
coaches will lead their teams in the NFL Championship game.
The Chicago Bears will be coached by Lovie Lee Smith and the
Indianapolis Colts will be coached by Tony Dungee. The
Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears will be set to face
off in South Florida during Super Bowl XLI in a historic
meeting where both African American coaches will vie for the
Vince Lombardi Trophy. The winner will be the first African
American coach to win the Super Bowl.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 25 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 25 *

1851 – Sojourner Truth addresses the first African American Women’s
Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

1890 – The National Afro-American League is founded at an organizing
meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Joseph Price, the president
of Livingston College, is elected the first president of
what will come to be considered a pioneering African
American protest organization.

1938 – Jamesetta Hawkins is born in Los Angeles, California. She
will become a rhythm and blues singer known as “Etta James.”
She will be described as “one of the great forces in
American Music.” She will become a star scoring her first
national pop hit, “Roll With Me, Henry”, at age sixteen, and
be recognized as a master in the fields of blues, R&B, jazz,
and pop, crossing genres time and again. Between 1955 and
1975, Etta will create a dozen Top-10 Rhythm & Blues hits
and more than 25 chart hits. They will include such soulful
performances as “All I Could Do Was Cry” (1960), “At Last”
(1961), “Trust in Me” (1961), “Stop the Wedding” (1962),
“Tell Mama” (1967), and “Security” (1968). She will be
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. She
will be nominated for six Grammy Awards and will win the
award for her 1994 recording of “Mystery Lady,” saluting
Billie Holiday. She will be inducted into the Blues Hall of
Fame in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in both 1999 and
2008. Rolling Stone will ranked her number 22 on their list
of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and number 62 on the
list of the 100 Greatest Artists. She will join the ancestors
on January 20, 2012.

1942 – Carl Eller is born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He will
become a professional football player, spending many of his
years with the Minnesota Vikings. On the Vikings team, he will
play in four Super Bowl games (IV, VIII, IX, XI), in losing
efforts. He will be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame
in 2004.

1950 – Gloria Naylor is born in New York City. She will become a
Jehovah Witnesses minister and ‘pioneer’ over a period of
seven years. After leaving the Witnesses and suffering a
nervous breakdown, she will read Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest
Eye”, and be inspired to become a writer. She will complete
her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and become a major writer
and is best known for her work, “The Women of Brewster
Place.”

1966 – Constance Baker Motley becomes the first African American
woman to be appointed to a federal judgeship.

1972 – Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm begins her campaign for
President of the United States. Although she will
ultimately be unsuccessful, she will make known the concerns
of African Americans across the country.

1980 – Black Entertainment Television, better known as BET, begins
broadcasting from Washington, DC. Robert L. Johnson, who
established the company with a $ 15,000 personal loan, will
make BET one of the most successful cable television
networks, with 25 million subscribers by its tenth
anniversary and, in 1991, the first African American-owned
company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

1989 – Michael Jordan scores his 10,000th NBA point in his 5th
season, the second fastest NBA climb to that position behind
Wilt Chamberlain.

1999 – Jury selection begins in Jasper, Texas, in the trial of white
supremacist John William King, charged in the dragging death
of African American James Byrd Jr.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 26 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 26 *

1866 – Rust College is founded in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

1872 – Macon B. Allen is elected judge of the Lower Court of
Charleston, South Carolina. Allen, the first African
American lawyer, becomes the second African American
to hold a major judicial position and the first
African American with a major judicial position on
the municipal level.

1883 – Sojourner Truth, women’s rights advocate, poet, and
freedom fighter, joins the ancestors in Battle Creek,
Michigan.

1890 – Savannah State College is founded in Savannah, Georgia.

1968 – O.J. Simpson is named Heisman Trophy winner for 1968.
A running back for the University of Southern
California, Simpson amassed a total of 3,187 yards in
18 games and scored 33 touchdowns in two seasons. He
will play professional football with the Buffalo Bills
and the San Francisco 49ers and be equally well known
as a sportscaster and actor.

1970 – Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. the first African American
general in the U.S. military, joins the ancestors at
the age of 93 in Chicago, Illinois.

1970 – Charles Gordone is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his
play, “No Place To Be Somebody.”

1970 – Painter, Jacob Lawrence is awarded the Spingarn Medal
“in tribute to the compelling power of his work which
has opened to the world…a window on the Negro’s
condition in the United States” and “in salute to his
unswerving commitment” to the Black struggle.

1986 – Scatman Crothers, actor, who is best known for his role
as “Louie” on TV’s “Chico & the Man”, joins the
ancestors at the age of 76.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 18 African American Historical Events

 Today in Black History - November 18          *

1797 - Abolitionist and orator, Sojourner Truth, is born a 
	New York slave on the plantation of Johannes 
	Hardenbergh.  Her given name is Isabelle VanWagener 
	(some references use the name Isabelle Baumfree). 
	She will walk away from her last owner one year 
	prior to being freed by a New York law in 1827, which 
	proclaimed that all slaves twenty-eight years of age 
	and over were to be freed.   Several years later, in 
	response to what she describes as a command from God, 
	she becomes an itinerant preacher and takes the name 
	Sojourner Truth.  Among her most memorable appearances 
	will be at an 1851 women's rights conference in Akron, 
	Ohio.  In her famous "Ain't I a woman?" speech she 
	forcefully attacks the hypocrisies of organized 
	religion, white privilege and everything in between.

1900 - Howard Thurman is born in Daytona Beach, Florida. A 
	theologian who studied at Morehouse with Martin L. 
	King, Sr., he will found the interracial Church of 
	Fellowship of All Peoples. The first African American 
	to hold a full-time faculty position at Boston 
	University (in 1953), Dr. Thurman will write 22 books 
	and become widely regarded as one of the greatest 
	spiritual leaders of the 20th century. He will join the 
	ancestors on April 10, 1981.

1936 - John Henry Kendricks is born in Detroit, Michigan.  He will 
	become a prolific songwriter as well as a major rhythm 
	and blues singer better known as Hank Ballard. He will 
	perform with his group, The Midnighters, and make the 
	following songs popular: "There's A Thrill Upon The Hill"
	(Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go), "The Twist"(made famous 
	later by Chubby Checker), "Finger Poppin' Time", "Work with 
	Me Annie", "Sexy Ways", and "Annie Had a Baby". He will be
	enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. He 
	will join the ancestors on March 2, 2003. 

1949 - Jackie Robinson, of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is named the 
	National League's Most Valuable Player.

1956 - Harold Warren Moon, professional football player 
	(Minnesota Vikings, Houston Oilers, and Seattle Seahawks 
	quarterback), is born in Los Angeles, California. He will
	be the first undrafted quarterback and first African 
	American quarterback to be elected to the Football Hall
	of Fame in 2006.

1964 - The head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar 
	Hoover, describes Martin Luther King as a "most 
	notorious liar".  This statement is indicative of the 
	agency head's dislike of the civil rights leader.

1969 - The National Association of Health Services Executives is 
	incorporated.  NAHSE's goal is to elevate the quality of
	health-care services rendered to poor and disadvantaged
	communities. 

1975 - Calvin Murphy of the Houston Rockets, ends the NBA free 
	throw streak at 58 games.

1977 - Robert Edward Chambliss, a former KKK member, is 
	convicted of first-degree murder in connection with the 
	1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 
	Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four African American 
	teenage girls. 

1978 - The NAACP's Spingarn Medal is presented to Ambassador 
	Andrew J. Young "in recognition of the deftness with 
	which he has handled relations between this nation and 
	other countries" and "for his major role in raising the 
	consciousness of American citizens to the significance 
	in world affairs of the massive African continent."

1980 - Wally "Famous" Amos' signature Panama hat and embroidered 
	shirt are donated to the National Museum of American 
	History's Business Americana collection.  It is the 
	first memorabilia added to the collection by an African 
	American entrepreneur and recognizes the achievement of 
	Amos, who built his company from a mom-and-pop 
	enterprise to a $250 million cookie manufacturing 
	business. 

1983 - "Sweet Honey in the Rock," a capella singers, perform
	their 10th anniversary reunion concert in Washington, DC.

1994 - Bandleader Cab Calloway joins the ancestors in Hockessin, 
	Delaware, at age 86.

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