KRLemmons African American History

January 30 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 30 *

1797 – Boston Masons, led by Prince Hall, establish the first
African American interstate organization, creating lodges
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Providence, Rhode Island.

1797 – Isabella Baumfree is born a slave in Swartekill, Ulster County,
New York. This is an approximation, since historians cannot
agree on the actual date of her birth. She will escape from
slavery with her infant daughter in 1826. After going to court
to gain custody of her son, she will become the first Black
woman to win such a case against a white man. She will become
an African American abolitionist and women’s rights activist,
naming herself ‘Sojourner Truth’ on June 1, 1843. Her best-known
extemporaneous speech on racial inequalities, “Ain’t I a Woman?,”
will be delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention
in Akron, Ohio. During the Civil War, she will help recruit
Black troops for the Union Army. After the war, she will try
unsuccessfully, to secure land grants from the federal government
for former slaves. She will speak about abolition, women’s rights,
prison reform, and will preach to the Michigan Legislature against
capital punishment. Not everyone welcomed her preaching and
lectures, but she will have many friends and staunch support among
many influential people at the time, including Amy Post, Parker
Pillsbury, Frances Gage, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison,
Laura Smith Haviland, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony.”
During her last days on earth, a reporter will come from the Grand
Rapids Eagle to interview her. “Her face was drawn and emaciated
and she was apparently suffering great pain. Her eyes were very
bright and mind alert although it was difficult for her to talk.”
She will join the ancestors on November 26, 1883, at her home in
Battle Creek, Michigan,

1797 – Congress refuses to accept the first recorded petitions from
African Americans.

1844 – Richard Theodore Greener becomes the first African American
to graduate from Harvard University.

1858 – William Wells Brown publishes the first drama by an African
American, “Leap to Freedom,” Brown is an escaped slave who
will also become noted as an abolitionist and author of
several early historical publications.

1927 – The Harlem Globetrotters, considered by many the most popular
basketball team in the world, is formed by Abe Saperstein.
Originally called the Savoy Five after their home court, the
Savoy Ballroom, in Chicago, Illinois, the team’s name will
be changed to the Harlem Globetrotters.

1928 – Ruth Brown is born in Portsmouth, Virginia. She will become a
Rhythm & Blues and jazz singer, recording “So Long,”
“Teardrops from My Eyes,” “Hours,” “Mambo Baby,” “Lucky
Lips,” and “This Little Girl’s Gone Rockin’.” She will be a
Tony Award winner and a Rhythm & Blues revolutionary–a
woman whose early successes earned her instant worldwide
fame and launched a career that has influenced such
legendary performers as Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington,
Little Richard and Stevie Wonder. She will be inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. She will join the
ancestors on November 16, 2006. A memorial concert for her
will be held on January 22, 2007 at the Abyssinian Baptist
Church in the village of Harlem in New York City.

1944 – Sharon Pratt is born in Washington, DC. In 1990, as Sharon
Pratt Dixon, she will be elected the first woman mayor of
Washington, DC. Her defeat of incumbent Marion Barry coupled
with her years of community involvement and activism will
raise the beleaguered city’s hopes for positive change.
R1945 – Floyd Flake is born in Los Angeles, California. He will
become a congressman from New York’s 6th District.

1956 – The home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Montgomery bus
boycott leader, is bombed.

1962 – The United Nations General Assembly censures Portugal for its
widespread violations of human rights in Angola.

1965 – Leroy “Satchel” Paige, major league baseball player, is named
all-time outstanding player by the National Baseball
Congress.

1979 – Franklin A. Thomas becomes the first African American to head
a major U.S. charitable foundation when he is named
president of the Ford Foundation.

2009 – Michael Steele, the first African American lieutenant governor
of Maryland, is elected after six rounds of voting as the
chairperson of the Republican National Committee. He is the
first African American to hold that office.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 6 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 6 *

1746 – Absalom Jones, a major leader of the African American Pioneer
period, is born into slavery in Sussex, Delaware. Jones will
become a friend of Richard Allen and together they will found
the Free African Society, which would serve as a protective
society and social organization for free African Americans.
.
1844 – Spain grants the Dominican Republic its independence.

1868 – Jonathan Gibbs, minister and educator, is appointed Secretary
of State by the governor of Florida.

1884 – Author and abolitionist William Wells Brown joins the ancestors
in Chelsea, Massachusetts. An escaped slave, Brown’s
autobiography sold 10,000 copies, a record in his day. Brown
also wrote the first known travelogue by an African American
and authored the 1853 work “Clotel”; “Or The President’s
Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States”, the
first fictional work published by an African American.

1900 – James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson compose “Lift
Ev’ry Voice and Sing.” It will become known as the “Negro
National Anthem.”

1920 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to W.E.B. Du Bois for
“the founding and calling of the Pan African Congress.”

1920 – James Weldon Johnson becomes the first African American
executive secretary of the NAACP.

1928 – Oscar DePriest is elected to the Seventy-First Congress from
Illinois’ First Congressional District (Chicago). Before
becoming a U.S. Representative, DePriest was the first African
American to serve on the Chicago City Council, having been
elected alderman of the Second Ward in 1915. He is the first
African American to win a seat in the United States House of
Representatives in the twentieth century.

1928 – The Atlanta “Daily World” is founded by W.A. Scott Jr. The
newspaper will become a daily in 1933.

1928 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to Charles W. Chestnutt,
the first African American to receive widespread critical
recognition as a novelist. He was cited for his “pioneer work
as a literary artist depicting the life and struggle of
Americans of Negro descent.”

1937 – Eugene Pitt is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will become a
rhythm and blues singer with The Genies – “Who’s that Knockin'”
and lead singer for The Jive Five – “Never Never,” “What Time is
It?,” “I’m a Happy Man” and “My True Story”.

1962 – Edward W. Brooke is elected Attorney General of Massachusetts,
Gerald Lamb is elected Treasurer of Connecticut, and 5 African
Americans are elected to the House of Representatives. Augustus
“Gus” F. Hawkins, becomes the first African American congressman
from the West (Los Angeles, California).

1962 – The U.N. General Assembly adopts a resolution condemning South
Africa for its apartheid policies and recommends member states
apply economic sanctions.

1973 – Coleman Young is elected as the first African American mayor
of Detroit, Michigan.

1973 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to Wilson C. Riles,
the superintendent of public instruction in California, “in
recognition of the stature he has attained as a national leader
in the field of education.”

1973 – The Symbionese Liberation Army ambushes Marcus A. Foster,
superintendent of public schools in Oakland, California, after
a Board of Education meeting. Two members of the group, were
convicted of the slaying, but one of the men has his conviction
overturned, based on a legal technicality.

1973 – Thomas Bradley is elected as the first African American mayor
of Los Angeles, California. His political success was due to
his masterful use of multi-racial coalition. African Americans
at this time were not a large segment of the Los Angeles
population.

1976 – FCC Commissioner Benjamin Hooks is elected NAACP executive
director by the organization’s board of directors, succeeding
Roy Wilkins. He will serve the organization for 16 years,
retiring in 1992. Of his tenure he says, “We have maintained
the integrity of this organization and kept our name out front
and on the minds of those who would turn back the clock.”

1983 – Sgt. Farley Simon, a native of Grenada, becomes the first Marine
to win the Marine Corps Marathon.

1990 – Harvey Gantt, former mayor of Charlotte, NC, loses his Senate
race to incumbent Jesse Helms and the opportunity to become the
first African American senator from the South since
Reconstruction. Barbara-Rose Collins and Maxine Waters are
elected to Congress from their home districts in Michigan and
California, respectively, while Eleanor Holmes Norton is elected
as a non-voting delegate from the District of Columbia.

1990 – Arsenio Hall gets a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

1992 – Vernon Jordan, along with Warren Christopher, is asked to lead
the White House transition team, by President-elect William
Jefferson Clinton.

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

KRLemmons African American History

July 6 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – July 6 *

1853 – A National Black convention meets in Rochester, New York,
with 140 delegates from nine states. James W.C.
Pennington of New York is elected president of this
meeting, generally considered the largest and most
representative of the early African American conventions.

1853 – William Wells Brown publishes “Clotel,” the first novel by
an African American.

1854 – The Republican Party is organized to oppose the extension
of slavery.

1864 – John Wesley Gilbert is born in Hepzibah, Georgia to a slave
family. He will attend Paine College and will later earn
B.A. (1888) and M.A. (1891) degrees in Greek at Brown
University. He will be the first African American to
receive a graduate degree from Brown University. While
working on his Masters degree, he will be awarded a
fellowship to attend the American School of Classical
Studies in Athens, Greece in 1890, the first person of
African descent to do so, and will help to draw a map of
Eretria (American Journal of Archaeology, 1891). He will
teach Greek at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia until
he joins the ancestors on November 19, 1923.

1868 – Eighty-five African Americans and 70 white representatives
meet in Columbia, South Carolina, at the opening of the
state’s General Assembly. It is the first and last U.S.
legislature with an African American majority.

1869 – African American candidate for Lt. Governor of Virginia,
Dr. J.H. Harris, is defeated by a vote of 120,068 to
99,600.

1930 – Donald McKayle is born in the village of Harlem in New York
City. McKayle will make his debut, at 22, in “Her Name was
Harriet” (a dance tribute to Harriet Tubman) and go on to
dance in or choreograph “House of Flowers”, “The Bill Cosby
Special” (1968), the 1970 Academy Awards, the movie version
of “The Great White Hope,” and “Sophisticated Ladies” on
Broadway. Named one of “America’s Irreplaceable Dance
Treasures” by the Library of Congress and the Dance Heritage
Coalition, McKayle made his professional debut in 1948 with
New York’s New Dance Company and later performed in the
companies of Sophie Maslow, Jean Erdman, Martha Graham,
Merce Cunningham and Anna Sokolow. In addition to “West Side
Story,” McKayle appeared in Broadway productions of “Bless
You All” (1950), “House of Flowers” (1954) and “Copper and
Brass” (1957). McKayle has choreographed more than 50 works
for companies in the United States, Europe, Israel and South
America. Early pieces include the classic “Games” (1950),
which examines the dangers faced by urban schoolchildren, as
well as the popular “Rainbow ÔRound My Shoulder” (1959) and
“District Storyville” (1962), which remain in the repertory
of the Alvin Ailey Company. Following a stint as artistic
director for the Inner City Repertory Dance Company of Los
Angeles, McKayle returned to Broadway, directing “Raisin”
(1974), “Dr. Jazz” (1975) and “Sophisticated Ladies” (1981),
the latter based on the life of Duke Ellington. Other
theatrical works include “N’Orleans” (1981), a musical play
co-written with Toni Morrison and Dorothea Freitag, “Emperor
Jones” (1984) and “Stardust” (1990). Beginning in the
mid-1960s, McKayle began to choreograph dance sequences for
film and television. Credits include “The Bill Cosby
Special” (CBS, 1967), “The Motown Special” (NBC, 1968), The
Great White Hope” (1969), “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” (1970),
“The 49th Annual Academy Awards” (ABC, 1977) and “The Jazz
Singer” (1980), among others. He directed the first few
episodes of “Good Times” in 1974. McKayle’s numerous honors
include five Tony Award nominations; the NAACP Image Award
(for “Sophisticated Ladies”); an Emmy Award nomination; the
Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award; the Capezio
Award; the Heritage Award; the Living Legend Award and
the Outer Critics Circle Award. McKayle currently serves as
professor of dance at the University of California, Irvine,
and maintains relationships with several distinguished
troupes.

1931 – Deloreese Patricia Early is born in Detroit, Michigan. She
will become a singer known as Della Reese. As a teen-ager,
she will tour with gospel great Mahalia Jackson and, at
the age of 18, will form the Meditation Singers and become
the first performer to take gospel music to the casinos of
Las Vegas. She will become the first African American
female to host a daytime television talk show (1969-70)
and will appear in numerous television series, including
“Sanford and Son,” “The A-Team” and, on the CBS Television
Network, “Crazy Like a Fox” and “Picket Fences.” She will
also star as a series regular in “Charlie & Company” and
“The Royal Family”, both on the CBS Network. In September,
1994, she became a regular on the award winning show,
“Touched By An Angel.”

1957 – Althea Gibson becomes the first African American tennis
player to win a Wimbledon singles title, defeating fellow
American Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2. She will also team up
with Darlene Hard to win the doubles championship.

1964 – Malawi (then Nyasaland) gains independence from Great
Britain.

1966 – Malawi becomes a republic.

1967 – The Biafran War erupts as Nigerian troops invade. The war
will last more than two years, claiming some 600,000
lives.

1971 – Louis Armstrong joins the ancestors in Corona, Queens, in
New York City. Armstrong had been one of the most popular
and influential jazz musicians since his 1929 hit “Ain’t
Misbehavin” and had enjoyed an immensely successful
performing and recording career.

1975 – The Comoros Islands declare independence from France. The
deputies of Mayotte refuse, and thus that island nation
remains under French control. The official languages in
Comoros are Arabic and French, but the vernacular is a
Comorian variant of Swahili. It is an island nation
located in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar approximately
250 miles off the coast of Africa.

1984 – Michael Jackson and his brothers start their “Victory Tour”
in Kansas City, Missouri’s Arrowhead Stadium. The tour
turns out to be a victory for the Jacksons when the
nationwide concert tour concludes months later.

1990 – Jesse Owens is honored on a stamp issued by the U.S. Postal
Service. Owens was a four-time Olympic gold medal winner
in the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 8 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – May 8 *

1771 – Phillis Wheatley sails for England. Two years later, her
book of poetry, “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and
Moral,” will be published in London.

1858 – John Brown holds an antislavery convention, which is
attended by twelve whites and thirty-four African
Americans, in Chatham, Canada.

1858 – “The Escape,” first play by an African American, is
published by William Wells Brown.

1910 – Mary Elfrieda Scruggs is born in Atlanta, Georgia. She will
become a professional piano player at the age of 6 in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After marrying musician and band
leader, John Williams, she will perform as Mary Lou
Williams. She will become an accomplished arranger and
composer and be a music educator in her later years. In
1957, she will form Mary Records, becoming the first
woman to establish a record company. She will join the
ancestors in 1981 in Durham, North Carolina.

1911 – Robert Leroy Johnson is born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. He
will become a legendary blues musician while remaining
relatively obscure during his short lifetime. Recordings of
Johnson, made by by Columbia Records between 1936 and 1937,
will be the foundation for his reputation after he joins
the ancestors in 1938. The songs he recorded will
influence the bluesmen of the 1960’s during the revival of
the blues. He will be inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in 1986.

1915 – Henry McNeal Turner joins the ancestors in Windsor, Canada.
He was an influential minister in the AME Church and was
appointed the first African American chaplain in the U.S.
Army.

1917 – An African American, Jesse Washington, is burned alive in a
public square in Waco, Texas. Fifteen thousand will look
on in the incident known later as the “Waco Horror.”

1925 – A. Philip Randolph organizes the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters after failing to integrate the American Federation
of Labor.

1932 – Charles (Sonny) Liston is born in St. Frances County,
Arkansas. After spending time as juvenile delinquent, he
will be convicted of armed robbery in 1950 and sentenced to
prison. While in prison, he will develop an interest in
boxing. He will win the 1953 Golden Gloves championship,
after serving his sentence. He will become a professional
boxer and will win the World Heavyweight Boxing crown
in 1962 and defend it until he is defeated by Cassius Clay
(later named Muhammad Ali) in 1964. He will join the
ancestors on December 30, 1970 and be inducted into the
International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991.

1951 – Philip Bailey is born in Denver, Colorado. He will become a
Rhythm and Blues singer and will enjoy his first fame with
the group Earth, Wind and Fire, which he joins in 1972. He
will develop his unique four-octave voice into a trademark
sound and will be the hallmark of the group’s hits such as
“Reasons,” “Shining Star,” “All ‘N’ All,” and “After The
Love Has Gone.” In 1983, he will start his solo career and
will enjoy success in both Rhythm and Blues and Gospel
venues. On March 6, 2000 he will appear with Earth, Wind
and Fire when they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame.

1958 – President Eisenhower orders federalized National Guard
troops removed from Central High School in Little Rock,
Arkansas.

1965 – The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians is
founded by Muhal Richard Abrams.

1967 – Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in the U.S.
Army.

2003 – Sam Lacy joins the ancestors at the age of 99, after
succumbing to esophageal disorder. He had been one of the
nation’s first African American sportswriters and was a
chronicler of sports integration.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 30 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 30 *

1797 – Boston Masons, led by Prince Hall, establish the first
African American interstate organization, creating lodges
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Providence, Rhode Island.

1797 – Isabella Baumfree is born a slave in Swartekill, Ulster County,
New York. This is an approximation, since historians cannot
agree on the actual date of her birth. She will escape from
slavery with her infant daughter in 1826. After going to court
to gain custody of her son, she will become the first Black
woman to win such a case against a white man. She will become
an African American abolitionist and women’s rights activist,
naming herself ‘Sojourner Truth’ on June 1, 1843. Her best-known
extemporaneous speech on racial inequalities, “Ain’t I a Woman?,”
will be delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention
in Akron, Ohio. During the Civil War, she will help recruit
Black troops for the Union Army. After the war, she will try
unsuccessfully, to secure land grants from the federal government
for former slaves. She will speak about abolition, women’s rights,
prison reform, and will preach to the Michigan Legislature against
capital punishment. Not everyone welcomed her preaching and
lectures, but she will have many friends and staunch support among
many influential people at the time, including Amy Post, Parker
Pillsbury, Frances Gage, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison,
Laura Smith Haviland, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony.”
During her last days on earth, a reporter will come from the Grand
Rapids Eagle to interview her. “Her face was drawn and emaciated
and she was apparently suffering great pain. Her eyes were very
bright and mind alert although it was difficult for her to talk.”
She will join the ancestors on November 26, 1883, at her home in
Battle Creek, Michigan,

1797 – Congress refuses to accept the first recorded petitions from
African Americans.

1844 – Richard Theodore Greener becomes the first African American
to graduate from Harvard University.

1858 – William Wells Brown publishes the first drama by an African
American, “Leap to Freedom,” Brown is an escaped slave who
will also become noted as an abolitionist and author of
several early historical publications.

1927 – The Harlem Globetrotters, considered by many the most popular
basketball team in the world, is formed by Abe Saperstein.
Originally called the Savoy Five after their home court, the
Savoy Ballroom, in Chicago, Illinois, the team’s name will
be changed to the Harlem Globetrotters.

1928 – Ruth Brown is born in Portsmouth, Virginia. She will become a
Rhythm & Blues and jazz singer, recording “So Long,”
“Teardrops from My Eyes,” “Hours,” “Mambo Baby,” “Lucky
Lips,” and “This Little Girl’s Gone Rockin’.” She will be a
Tony Award winner and a Rhythm & Blues revolutionary–a
woman whose early successes earned her instant worldwide
fame and launched a career that has influenced such
legendary performers as Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington,
Little Richard and Stevie Wonder. She will be inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. She will join the
ancestors on November 16, 2006. A memorial concert for her
will be held on January 22, 2007 at the Abyssinian Baptist
Church in the village of Harlem in New York City.

1944 – Sharon Pratt is born in Washington, DC. In 1990, as Sharon
Pratt Dixon, she will be elected the first woman mayor of
Washington, DC. Her defeat of incumbent Marion Barry coupled
with her years of community involvement and activism will
raise the beleaguered city’s hopes for positive change.

1945 – Floyd Flake is born in Los Angeles, California. He will
become a congressman from New York’s 6th District.

1956 – The home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Montgomery bus
boycott leader, is bombed.

1962 – The United Nations General Assembly censures Portugal for its
widespread violations of human rights in Angola.

1965 – Leroy “Satchel” Paige, major league baseball player, is named
all-time outstanding player by the National Baseball
Congress.

1979 – Franklin A. Thomas becomes the first African American to head
a major U.S. charitable foundation when he is named
president of the Ford Foundation.

2009 – Michael Steele, the first African American lieutenant governor
of Maryland, is elected after six rounds of voting as the
chairperson of the Republican National Committee. He is the
first African American to hold that office.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 6 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – November 6 *

1746 – Absalom Jones, a major leader of the African American Pioneer
period, is born into slavery in Sussex, Delaware. Jones will
become a friend of Richard Allen and together they will found
the Free African Society, which would serve as a protective
society and social organization for free African Americans.
.
1844 – Spain grants the Dominican Republic its independence.

1868 – Jonathan Gibbs, minister and educator, is appointed Secretary
of State by the governor of Florida.

1884 – Author and abolitionist William Wells Brown joins the ancestors
in Chelsea, Massachusetts. An escaped slave, Brown’s
autobiography sold 10,000 copies, a record in his day. Brown
also wrote the first known travelogue by an African American
and authored the 1853 work “Clotel”; “Or The President’s
Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States”, the
first fictional work published by an African American.

1900 – James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson compose “Lift
Ev’ry Voice and Sing.” It will become known as the “Negro
National Anthem.”

1920 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to W.E.B. Du Bois for
“the founding and calling of the Pan African Congress.”

1920 – James Weldon Johnson becomes the first African American
executive secretary of the NAACP.

1928 – Oscar DePriest is elected to the Seventy-First Congress from
Illinois’ First Congressional District (Chicago). Before
becoming a U.S. Representative, DePriest was the first African
American to serve on the Chicago City Council, having been
elected alderman of the Second Ward in 1915. He is the first
African American to win a seat in the United States House of
Representatives in the twentieth century.

1928 – The Atlanta “Daily World” is founded by W.A. Scott Jr. The
newspaper will become a daily in 1933.

1928 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to Charles W. Chestnutt,
the first African American to receive widespread critical
recognition as a novelist. He was cited for his “pioneer work
as a literary artist depicting the life and struggle of
Americans of Negro descent.”

1937 – Eugene Pitt is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will become a
rhythm and blues singer with The Genies – “Who’s that Knockin'”
and lead singer for The Jive Five – “Never Never,” “What Time is
It?,” “I’m a Happy Man” and “My True Story”.

1962 – Edward W. Brooke is elected Attorney General of Massachusetts,
Gerald Lamb is elected Treasurer of Connecticut, and 5 African
Americans are elected to the House of Representatives. Augustus
“Gus” F. Hawkins, becomes the first African American congressman
from the West (Los Angeles, California).

1962 – The U.N. General Assembly adopts a resolution condemning South
Africa for its apartheid policies and recommends member states
apply economic sanctions.

1973 – Coleman Young is elected as the first African American mayor
of Detroit, Michigan.

1973 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to Wilson C. Riles,
the superintendent of public instruction in California, “in
recognition of the stature he has attained as a national leader
in the field of education.”

1973 – The Symbionese Liberation Army ambushes Marcus A. Foster,
superintendent of public schools in Oakland, California, after
a Board of Education meeting. Two members of the group, were
convicted of the slaying, but one of the men has his conviction
overturned, based on a legal technicality.

1973 – Thomas Bradley is elected as the first African American mayor
of Los Angeles, California. His political success was due to
his masterful use of multi-racial coalition. African Americans
at this time were not a large segment of the Los Angeles
population.

1976 – FCC Commissioner Benjamin Hooks is elected NAACP executive
director by the organization’s board of directors, succeeding
Roy Wilkins. He will serve the organization for 16 years,
retiring in 1992. Of his tenure he says, “We have maintained
the integrity of this organization and kept our name out front
and on the minds of those who would turn back the clock.”

1983 – Sgt. Farley Simon, a native of Grenada, becomes the first Marine
to win the Marine Corps Marathon.

1990 – Harvey Gantt, former mayor of Charlotte, NC, loses his Senate
race to incumbent Jesse Helms and the opportunity to become the
first African American senator from the South since
Reconstruction. Barbara-Rose Collins and Maxine Waters are
elected to Congress from their home districts in Michigan and
California, respectively, while Eleanor Holmes Norton is elected
as a non-voting delegate from the District of Columbia.

1990 – Arsenio Hall gets a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

1992 – Vernon Jordan, along with Warren Christopher, is asked to lead
the White House transition team, by President-elect William
Jefferson Clinton.

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

KRLemmons African American History

July 6 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – July 6 *

1853 – A National Black convention meets in Rochester, New York,
with 140 delegates from nine states. James W.C.
Pennington of New York is elected president of this
meeting, generally considered the largest and most
representative of the early African American conventions.

1853 – William Wells Brown publishes “Clotel,” the first novel by
an African American.

1854 – The Republican Party is organized to oppose the extension
of slavery.

1864 – John Wesley Gilbert is born in Hepzibah, Georgia to a slave
family. He will attend Paine College and will later earn
B.A. (1888) and M.A. (1891) degrees in Greek at Brown
University. He will be the first African American to
receive a graduate degree from Brown University. While
working on his Masters degree, he will be awarded a
fellowship to attend the American School of Classical
Studies in Athens, Greece in 1890, the first person of
African descent to do so, and will help to draw a map of
Eretria (American Journal of Archaeology, 1891). He will
teach Greek at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia until
he joins the ancestors on November 19, 1923.

1868 – Eighty-five African Americans and 70 white representatives
meet in Columbia, South Carolina, at the opening of the
state’s General Assembly. It is the first and last U.S.
legislature with an African American majority.

1869 – African American candidate for Lt. Governor of Virginia,
Dr. J.H. Harris, is defeated by a vote of 120,068 to
99,600.

1930 – Donald McKayle is born in the village of Harlem in New York
City. McKayle will make his debut, at 22, in “Her Name was
Harriet” (a dance tribute to Harriet Tubman) and go on to
dance in or choreograph “House of Flowers”, “The Bill Cosby
Special” (1968), the 1970 Academy Awards, the movie version
of “The Great White Hope,” and “Sophisticated Ladies” on
Broadway. Named one of “America’s Irreplaceable Dance
Treasures” by the Library of Congress and the Dance Heritage
Coalition, McKayle made his professional debut in 1948 with
New York’s New Dance Company and later performed in the
companies of Sophie Maslow, Jean Erdman, Martha Graham,
Merce Cunningham and Anna Sokolow. In addition to “West Side
Story,” McKayle appeared in Broadway productions of “Bless
You All” (1950), “House of Flowers” (1954) and “Copper and
Brass” (1957). McKayle has choreographed more than 50 works
for companies in the United States, Europe, Israel and South
America. Early pieces include the classic “Games” (1950),
which examines the dangers faced by urban schoolchildren, as
well as the popular “Rainbow ÔRound My Shoulder” (1959) and
“District Storyville” (1962), which remain in the repertory
of the Alvin Ailey Company. Following a stint as artistic
director for the Inner City Repertory Dance Company of Los
Angeles, McKayle returned to Broadway, directing “Raisin”
(1974), “Dr. Jazz” (1975) and “Sophisticated Ladies” (1981),
the latter based on the life of Duke Ellington. Other
theatrical works include “N’Orleans” (1981), a musical play
co-written with Toni Morrison and Dorothea Freitag, “Emperor
Jones” (1984) and “Stardust” (1990). Beginning in the
mid-1960s, McKayle began to choreograph dance sequences for
film and television. Credits include “The Bill Cosby
Special” (CBS, 1967), “The Motown Special” (NBC, 1968), The
Great White Hope” (1969), “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” (1970),
“The 49th Annual Academy Awards” (ABC, 1977) and “The Jazz
Singer” (1980), among others. He directed the first few
episodes of “Good Times” in 1974. McKayle’s numerous honors
include five Tony Award nominations; the NAACP Image Award
(for “Sophisticated Ladies”); an Emmy Award nomination; the
Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award; the Capezio
Award; the Heritage Award; the Living Legend Award and
the Outer Critics Circle Award. McKayle currently serves as
professor of dance at the University of California, Irvine,
and maintains relationships with several distinguished
troupes.

1931 – Deloreese Patricia Early is born in Detroit, Michigan. She
will become a singer known as Della Reese. As a teen-ager,
she will tour with gospel great Mahalia Jackson and, at
the age of 18, will form the Meditation Singers and become
the first performer to take gospel music to the casinos of
Las Vegas. She will become the first African American
female to host a daytime television talk show (1969-70)
and will appear in numerous television series, including
“Sanford and Son,” “The A-Team” and, on the CBS Television
Network, “Crazy Like a Fox” and “Picket Fences.” She will
also star as a series regular in “Charlie & Company” and
“The Royal Family”, both on the CBS Network. In September,
1994, she became a regular on the award winning show,
“Touched By An Angel.”

1957 – Althea Gibson becomes the first African American tennis
player to win a Wimbledon singles title, defeating fellow
American Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2. She will also team up
with Darlene Hard to win the doubles championship.

1964 – Malawi (then Nyasaland) gains independence from Great
Britain.

1966 – Malawi becomes a republic.

1967 – The Biafran War erupts as Nigerian troops invade. The war
will last more than two years, claiming some 600,000
lives.

1971 – Louis Armstrong joins the ancestors in Corona, Queens, in
New York City. Armstrong had been one of the most popular
and influential jazz musicians since his 1929 hit “Ain’t
Misbehavin” and had enjoyed an immensely successful
performing and recording career.

1975 – The Comoros Islands declare independence from France. The
deputies of Mayotte refuse, and thus that island nation
remains under French control. The official languages in
Comoros are Arabic and French, but the vernacular is a
Comorian variant of Swahili. It is an island nation
located in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar approximately
250 miles off the coast of Africa.

1984 – Michael Jackson and his brothers start their “Victory Tour”
in Kansas City, Missouri’s Arrowhead Stadium. The tour
turns out to be a victory for the Jacksons when the
nationwide concert tour concludes months later.

1990 – Jesse Owens is honored on a stamp issued by the U.S. Postal
Service. Owens was a four-time Olympic gold medal winner
in the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 30 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 30 *

1797 – Boston Masons, led by Prince Hall, establish the first
African American interstate organization, creating lodges
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Providence, Rhode Island.

1797 – Isabella Baumfree is born a slave in Swartekill, Ulster County,
New York. This is an approximation, since historians cannot
agree on the actual date of her birth. She will escape from
slavery with her infant daughter in 1826. After going to court
to gain custody of her son, she will become the first Black
woman to win such a case against a white man. She will become
an African American abolitionist and women’s rights activist,
naming herself ‘Sojourner Truth’ on June 1, 1843. Her best-known
extemporaneous speech on racial inequalities, “Ain’t I a Woman?,”
will be delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention
in Akron, Ohio. During the Civil War, she will help recruit
Black troops for the Union Army. After the war, she will try
unsuccessfully, to secure land grants from the federal government
for former slaves. She will speak about abolition, women’s rights,
prison reform, and will preach to the Michigan Legislature against
capital punishment. Not everyone welcomed her preaching and
lectures, but she will have many friends and staunch support among
many influential people at the time, including Amy Post, Parker
Pillsbury, Frances Gage, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison,
Laura Smith Haviland, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony.”
During her last days on earth, a reporter will come from the Grand
Rapids Eagle to interview her. “Her face was drawn and emaciated
and she was apparently suffering great pain. Her eyes were very
bright and mind alert although it was difficult for her to talk.”
She will join the ancestors on November 26, 1883, at her home in
Battle Creek, Michigan,

1797 – Congress refuses to accept the first recorded petitions from
African Americans.

1844 – Richard Theodore Greener becomes the first African American
to graduate from Harvard University.

1858 – William Wells Brown publishes the first drama by an African
American, “Leap to Freedom,” Brown is an escaped slave who
will also become noted as an abolitionist and author of
several early historical publications.

1927 – The Harlem Globetrotters, considered by many the most popular
basketball team in the world, is formed by Abe Saperstein.
Originally called the Savoy Five after their home court, the
Savoy Ballroom, in Chicago, Illinois, the team’s name will
be changed to the Harlem Globetrotters.

1928 – Ruth Brown is born in Portsmouth, Virginia. She will become a
Rhythm & Blues and jazz singer, recording “So Long,”
“Teardrops from My Eyes,” “Hours,” “Mambo Baby,” “Lucky
Lips,” and “This Little Girl’s Gone Rockin’.” She will be a
Tony Award winner and a Rhythm & Blues revolutionary–a
woman whose early successes earned her instant worldwide
fame and launched a career that has influenced such
legendary performers as Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington,
Little Richard and Stevie Wonder. She will be inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. She will join the
ancestors on November 16, 2006. A memorial concert for her
will be held on January 22, 2007 at the Abyssinian Baptist
Church in the village of Harlem in New York City.

1944 – Sharon Pratt is born in Washington, DC. In 1990, as Sharon
Pratt Dixon, she will be elected the first woman mayor of
Washington, DC. Her defeat of incumbent Marion Barry coupled
with her years of community involvement and activism will
raise the beleaguered city’s hopes for positive change.

1945 – Floyd Flake is born in Los Angeles, California. He will
become a congressman from New York’s 6th District.

1956 – The home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Montgomery bus
boycott leader, is bombed.

1962 – The United Nations General Assembly censures Portugal for its
widespread violations of human rights in Angola.

1965 – Leroy “Satchel” Paige, major league baseball player, is named
all-time outstanding player by the National Baseball
Congress.

1979 – Franklin A. Thomas becomes the first African American to head
a major U.S. charitable foundation when he is named
president of the Ford Foundation.

2009 – Michael Steele, the first African American lieutenant governor
of Maryland, is elected after six rounds of voting as the
chairperson of the Republican National Committee. He is the
first African American to hold that office.

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

KRLemmons African American History

November 6 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 6               *

1746 – Absalom Jones, a major leader of the African American Pioneer
period, is born into slavery in Sussex, Delaware.  Jones will
become a friend of Richard Allen and together they will found
the Free African Society, which would serve as a protective
society and social organization for free African Americans.
.
1844 – Spain grants the Dominican Republic its independence.

1868 – Jonathan Gibbs, minister and educator, is appointed Secretary
of State by the governor of Florida.

1884 – Author and abolitionist William Wells Brown joins the ancestors
in Chelsea, Massachusetts.  An escaped slave, Brown’s
autobiography sold 10,000 copies, a record in his day.  Brown
also wrote the first known travelogue by an African American
and authored the 1853 work “Clotel”; “Or The President’s
Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States”, the
first fictional work published by an African American.

1900 – James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson compose “Lift
Ev’ry Voice and Sing.”  It will become known as the “Negro
National Anthem.”

1920 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to W.E.B. Du Bois for
“the founding and calling of the Pan African Congress.”

1920 – James Weldon Johnson becomes the first African American
executive secretary of the NAACP.

1928 – Oscar DePriest is elected to the Seventy-First Congress from
Illinois’ First Congressional District (Chicago).  Before
becoming a U.S. Representative, DePriest was the first African
American to serve on the Chicago City Council, having been
elected alderman of the Second Ward in 1915.  He is the first
African American to win a seat in the United States House of
Representatives in the twentieth century.

1928 – The Atlanta “Daily World” is founded by W.A. Scott Jr.  The
newspaper will become a daily in 1933.

1928 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to Charles W. Chestnutt,
the first African American to receive widespread critical
recognition as a novelist.  He was cited for his “pioneer work
as a literary artist depicting the life and struggle of
Americans of Negro descent.”

1937 – Eugene Pitt is born in Brooklyn, New York.  He will become a
rhythm and blues singer with The Genies – “Who’s that Knockin'”
and lead singer for The Jive Five – “Never Never,” “What Time is
It?,” “I’m a Happy Man” and “My True Story”.

1962 – Edward W. Brooke is elected Attorney General of Massachusetts,
Gerald Lamb is elected Treasurer of Connecticut, and 5 African
Americans are elected to the House of Representatives.  Augustus
“Gus” F. Hawkins, becomes the first African American congressman
from the West (Los Angeles, California).

1962 – The U.N. General Assembly adopts a resolution condemning South
Africa for its apartheid policies and recommends member states
apply economic sanctions.

1973 – Coleman Young is elected as the first African American mayor
of Detroit, Michigan.

1973 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is presented to Wilson C. Riles,
the superintendent of public instruction in California, “in
recognition of the stature he has attained as a national leader
in the field of education.”

1973 – The Symbionese Liberation Army ambushes Marcus A. Foster,
superintendent of public schools in Oakland, California, after
a Board of Education meeting.  Two members of the group, were
convicted of the slaying, but one of the men has his conviction
overturned, based on a legal technicality.

1973 – Thomas Bradley is elected as the first African American mayor
of Los Angeles, California.  His political success was due to
his masterful use of multi-racial coalition.  African Americans
at this time were not a large segment of the Los Angeles
population.

1976 – FCC Commissioner Benjamin Hooks is elected NAACP executive
director by the organization’s board of directors, succeeding
Roy Wilkins.  He will serve the organization for 16 years,
retiring in 1992.  Of his tenure he says, “We have maintained
the integrity of this organization and kept our name out front
and on the minds of those who would turn back the clock.”

1983 – Sgt. Farley Simon, a native of Grenada, becomes the first Marine
to win the Marine Corps Marathon.

1990 – Harvey Gantt, former mayor of Charlotte, NC, loses his Senate
race to incumbent Jesse Helms and the opportunity to become the
first African American senator from the South since
Reconstruction.  Barbara-Rose Collins and Maxine Waters are
elected to Congress from their home districts in Michigan and
California, respectively, while Eleanor Holmes Norton is elected
as a non-voting delegate from the District of Columbia.

1990 – Arsenio Hall gets a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

1992 – Vernon Jordan, along with Warren Christopher, is asked to lead
the White House transition team, by President-elect William
Jefferson Clinton.

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