KRLemmons African American History

November 9 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – November 9 *

1731 – Benjamin Banneker is born free in Ellicott Mills (now
Ellicott City), Maryland. He will become the builder
of the first clock made in America. He also will
become the key figure in the design of Washington, DC
after Pierre L’Enfant quit and took his plans for DC
with him. Banneker was able to save the project by
reproducing the plans from memory, in two days, a
complete layout of the streets, parks, and major
buildings. From 1792 to 1802, Banneker will publish
an annual Farmer’s Almanac, for which he did all the
calculations himself. He will join the ancestors in
1806.

1868 – The Howard University Medical School opens with eight
students.

1868 – Arkansas Governor Powell Clayton, declares martial law
in ten counties and mobilizes the state militia in a
Ku Klux Klan crisis.

1923 – Dorothy Dandridge is born in Cleveland, Ohio. She will
try vaudeville and a stint at the Cotton Club before
finding her most noteworthy success as an actress.
She will appear in such works as “Porgy and Bess” and
minor movie roles before her big break in a series of
low-budget movies including “Tarzan’s Perils”. While
simultaneously maintaining a singing career, Dandridge
will have her greatest success in “Carmen Jones”
opposite Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, Diahann
Carroll, and Brock Peters, which will earn her an
Academy Award nomination, a first for an African
American actress. She will join the ancestors on
September 8, 1965.

1925 – Oscar Micheaux’s movie “Body and Soul” is released. It
marks the film debut of Paul Robeson.

1931 – Eugene “Big Daddy” Lipscomb is born. He will become a
professional football star with the old Baltimore
Colts. He will enter the NFL without ever playing
college football. He will be considered one of the
greatest defensive tackles in NFL history. He will
join the ancestors in May, 1963.

1935 – Robert “Bob” Gibson is born in Omaha, Nebraska. He will
become a professional baseball player and pitcher for
the St. Louis Cardinals. He will be the National
League MVP in 1968. During his career, he will amass
3,000 career strike-outs, win the Cy Young Award in
1968 and 1970, win the Baseball Writers Award in 1968,
pitch in the 1964, 1967, and 1968 World Series, and win
Nine Gold Glove Awards. He will enter the National
Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.

1961 – The Professional Golfers Association eliminates their
Caucasians only rule.

1965 – Willie Mays is named the National League’s Most Valuable
Player.

1970 – William L. Dawson, Democratic congressman and party
leader, in Chicago, Illinois, joins the ancestors at
the age of 84.

1976 – The United Nations General Assembly endorses 10
resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa,
including one that says the white-only government is
“illegitimate.”

1982 – Sugar Ray Leonard retires from professional boxing for
the first time, because of a recurring eye problem
sustained in a welterweight title match.

1990 – Freedom Bank in New York City, one of the largest
African American-owned banks in the nation, is
declared insolvent. Its losses in 1988-1989 totaled
$4.7 million, and it was expected to lose $2 million
in 1990. A last-minute effort to revive the bank by
raising funds from the local Harlem community will
fail to meet the government-imposed deadline.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 29 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 29 *

1864 – At the Battle of New Market Heights, Sergeant Major
Christian Fleetwood and 12 other African Americans
fight valiantly for the Union’s cause. They will
receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for their
action the following year.

1916 – Henry Green Parks, Jr. is born in Atlanta, Georgia.
He will be raised in Dayton, Ohio, attend public
schools, and enroll in Ohio State University in
Columbus, graduating with honors from the University
College of Commerce in 1939 with a B.S. degree in
Marketing. He will also become the first African
American on Ohio State University’s swim team. After
graduation, he will begin working with Pabst Brewing
Company as a sales representative, targeting the
African American market. He will become one of their
leading salesmen, but in 1942 will be given the
opportunity to join W.B. Graham and Associates, a New
York City public relations firm. He will explore the
ideas of many different enterprises and work at W.B.
Graham and Associates for seven years. In 1949, he will
leave W.B. Graham and Associates for Crayton’s Southern
Sausage Company, which creates sausages appealing to
the southern taste. He will be unsuccessful with
Crayton’s Sausage Company, but after learning from his
experiences and coming across southern recipes, 35-year
-old Henry Parks will found Parks Sausage Company in
1951 in Baltimore, Maryland. Parks Sausage Company will
start with only two employees, but rapidly grow to 240
employees with annual sales in the mid-1960s exceeding
$14 million. He will use his marketing and public
relations background to craft a radio commercial which
features a little boy saying, “More Parks Sausage, Mom,
please.” The radio ad will be enormously popular and
helps spur the company’s growth. By 1955 it will be the
largest Black-owned business in Baltimore and later will
become a publicly traded company. Parks Sausage will
also become the first African American firm to advertise
in a World Series, when its ads appear at one of the
seven games between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New
York Yankees in 1955. His company will also have the
distinction of being the first publicly traded Black-
owned firm on the NASDAQ stock exchange. In 1977, he will
sell the company to a conglomerate for $1.5 million
dollars, but will stay on the board until 1980. He will
serve on the corporate boards of Magnavox, Warner Lambert,
and W.R. Grace. He will be a trustee of Goucher College
in Baltimore. He will suffer from Parkinson’s disease in
the last years of his life, and will join the ancestors in
Towson, Maryland on April 14, 1989.

1918 – Edward Thomas Demby is elected suffragan bishop of the
Protestant Episcopal diocese of Arkansas.

1931 – Dr. Lenora Moragne is born in Evanston, Illinois. She will
become one of the leading nutrition scientist in the United
States. She will become head of nutrition education and
training for the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. She will also co-author a junior
high school textbook on nutrition for McGraw-Hill Publishing
Company in New York named “Focus on Food.” She will also be
appointed to the Future Development Committee of the
American Home Economics Association. She will also be elected
to the Board of Directors of the Chicago-based American
Dietetic Association. She will also become the founding editor
and publisher of the Black Congressional Monitor.

1940 – The first United States merchant ship to be commanded
by an African American captain (Hugh Mulzac), is
launched at Wilmington, Delaware.

1947 – Dizzy Gillespie presented his first Carnegie Hall
concert in New York City, adding a sophisticated jazz
touch to the famous concert emporium. Dizzy will
become one of the jazz greats of all time. His
trademark: Two cheeks pushed out until it looked like
his face would explode.

1948 – Bryant Gumbel is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He
will become the editor of Black Sports magazine and a
successful sportscaster before joining NBC’s Today Show
as the first African American anchor of a national
network morning news entertainment program.

1954 – Willie Mays makes his famous “over-the-shoulder catch”
of Vic Wertz’ 460′ drive.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy sends federal troops to
enforce integration of the University of Mississippi.

1962 – Lt. Governor Paul Johnson of Mississippi is found guilty
of civil contempt for blocking the entrance of James
Meredith to the University of Mississippi.

1965 – Ralph Boston of the United States, sets the long jump
record at 27′ 4 3/4″.

1975 – The first African American owned television station in
the United States, WGPR-TV in Detroit, begins
broadcasting.

1977 – In the most-watched prize fight in history to date,
Muhammad Ali beats Ernie Shavers (in a fifteen round
decision) to claim the heavyweight championship boxing
crown. The bout was televised from New York City’s
Madison Square Garden and was officiated by the first
woman official of a heavyweight title boxing match
before an estimated 70 million viewers.

1979 – Sir William Arthur Lewis, Professor of Economics at
Princeton University, becomes the first person of
African descent to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics.

1988 – Florence Griffith Joyner of the United States, sets the
200 meter woman’s record in 21.34 seconds.

1998 – Former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley joins the ancestors
at the age of 80.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 25 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 25 *

1861 – The Secretary of the Navy authorizes the enlistment of
African Americans in the Union Navy. The enlistees could
achieve no rank higher than “boys” and receive pay of
one ration per day and $10 per month.

1886 – Peter “The Black Prince” Jackson wins the Australian
heavyweight title, becoming the very first man of
African descent to win a national boxing crown.

1911 – Dr. Eric Williams, former prime minister of Trinidad and
Tobago, is born.

1924 – In a letter to his friend Alain Locke, Langston Hughes
writes “I’ve done a couple of new poems. I have no more
paper, so I’m sending you one on the back of this
letter.” The poem, “I, Too”, will be published two years
later and be among his most famous.

1951 – Robert Allen “Bob” McAdoo, Jr. is born in Greensboro, North
Carolina. He will become a one of the best-shooting big
men of all time in professional basketball. He will win
Rookie of the Year, a Most Valuable Player Award and three
consecutive scoring championships, all in his first four
years in the NBA. Over fourteen seasons, He will score
18,787 points and average 22.1 point per game. A five-time
NBA All Star, he will shoot .503 from the field and .754
from the line, scoring in double figures in all but one
season.

1957 – With 300 U.S. Army troops standing guard, nine African
American children forced to withdraw the previous day
from Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas,
because of unruly white crowds, are escorted to back to
class.

1962 – Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson in the first round
to become the world heavyweight boxing champion.

1962 – An African American church is destroyed by fire in Macon,
Georgia. This is the eighth African American church
burned in Georgia in one month.

1962 – Governor Ross Barnett again defies court orders and
personally denies James Meredith admission to the
University of Mississippi.

1965 – Willie Mays hits his fiftieth home run of the baseball
season, making him the oldest player to accomplish this.
He was 34 years old. Ten years before this, at the age
of 24, he was the youngest man to accomplish the same
feat.

1965 – Scottie Maurice Pippen is born in Hamburg, Arkansas. He
will become a professional basketball player and will be
traded to the Houston Rockets in 1998 after 11
distinguished seasons with the Chicago Bulls, for whom he
averaged 18.0 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists in 833
NBA games. He will earn All-NBA First Team honors three
times in his career and All-Defensive First Team honors in
each of seven seasons (1992-1999. In addition, he will
earn NBA World Championships in six of the eight years and
Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 1996. He will be selected
as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996.
He will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball
Hall of Fame on August 13, 2010.

1968 – Will Smith is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He
will become a rapper at the age of 12 and will be known
for his hits “Nightmare on My Street” and “Parents Just
Don’t Understand.” In 1990 he will start his acting
career with a six-year run as the “Fresh Prince of Bel
Air.” He will go to become a major motion picture box
office attraction, starring in “Six Degrees of
Separation,” “Made in America,” “Independence Day,”
“Men In Black,” and “Wild, Wild West.”

1974 – Barbara W. Hancock is the first African American woman
to be named a White House Fellow.

1988 – Florence Griffith Joyner runs 100 meters in record
Olympic time of 10.54 seconds.

1991 – Pioneer filmmaker Spencer Williams’s 1942 movie “Blood
of Jesus”, a story of the African American religious
experience, is among the third group of twenty-five
films added to the Library of Congress’s National Film
Registry. Williams, best known for his role of Andy in
the television series “Amos ‘n’ Andy”, was more
importantly, an innovative film director and a
contemporary of Oscar Micheaux. Williams’s film joins
other classics like “Lawrence of Arabia” and “2001: A
Space Odyssey”.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 22 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 22 *

1853 – George Washington Murray is born a slave near Rembert,
South Carolina. A two-term congressman from his home
state, Murray will also be an inventor and holder of
eight patents for agricultural tools. He will join the
ancestors on April 21, 1926.

1862 – Five days after Union forces won the Battle of Antietam,
President Lincoln issues a preliminary emancipation
proclamation. It states that if the rebelling states
did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863, he
would declare their slaves to be “forever free.”

1906 – Race riots occur in Atlanta, Georgia, killing 21 people.

1915 – Xavier University of Louisiana opens in New Orleans, the
first Catholic college for African Americans in the
United States.

1941 – Chester Lovelle Talton is born in Eldorado, Arkansas. At
49, he will become the first African American
Episcopalian bishop to be ordained in the western
United States. As suffragan bishop of the diocese of Los
Angeles, he becomes the religious leader of
Episcopalians in the fourth-largest diocese in the
United States.

1949 – Lee Harold Carmichael is born in Jacksonville, Florida. He
will become an American football wide receiver in the NFL.
He will play 13 seasons for the Philadelphia Eagles from
1971 to 1983, and one season for the Dallas Cowboys in
1984. He will play his college football at Southern
University. He will be selected to four Pro Bowls in his
NFL career, and will lead the league in receptions during
the 1973 season. He will also be the Eagles’ top receiver
of Super Bowl XV, with 6 catches for 91 yards. He will
end his career with 590 receptions for 8,985 yards with
79 career touchdown catches, along with 64 rushing yards
on 9 carries. He will rank 18th all-time in career
touchdown receptions. He will be selected to the NFL
1970s All-Decade Team by voters of the Pro Football Hall
of Fame. He will become Director of Player Programs for
the Philadelphia Eagles in 2006.

1950 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, director of the UN Trusteeship
division and former professor of political science at
Howard University, is awarded the Nobel Peace prize for
successful mediation of the Palestinian peace accord.

1954 – Shari Belafonte (Harper, now Behrens) is born in New York
City, New York. She will become is an American actress,
model, writer and singer. The daughter of singer Harry
Belafonte, she will be best known for her role as Julie
Gilette on the 1980s television series “Hotel” and as a
spokesperson for the diet supplement “Slim-Fast” during
the 1990s.

1960 – The Republic of Mali proclaims its independence.

1961 – The Interstate Commerce Commission issues regulation
prohibiting segregation on interstate buses and in
terminal facilities.

1969 – San Francisco Giant, Willie Mays, becomes the first player
since Babe Ruth to hit 600 home runs.

1985 – Robert Guillaume wins an Emmy for best leading actor in a
comedy for Benson while The Cosby Show wins for best
comedy series.

1989 – Edward Perkins, the first African American ambassador to
the Republic of South Africa, becomes director-general of
the United States Foreign Service. The first African
American named to the post, Perkins will be credited with
bringing more minorities into the foreign service.

1990 – Andre’ Dawson steals his 300th base & is only player other
than Willie Mays to have 300 HRs, 300 steals & 2,000 hits._

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 20 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 20 *

1664 – Maryland enacts the first anti-amalgamation law to prevent
widespread intermarriage of English women and African
American men. Other colonies passed similar laws:
Virginia, 1691; Massachusetts 1705; North Carolina, 1715;
South Carolina, 1717; Delaware, 1721; Pennsylvania, 1725.

1830 – The National Negro Convention, a group of 38 free African
Americans from eight states, meets in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, at the Bethel A.M.E. Church, with the
express purpose of abolishing slavery and improving the
social status of African Americans. They will elect
Richard Allen president and agree to boycott slave-
produced goods.

1847 – William A. Leidesdorff is elected to San Francisco town
council receiving the third highest vote. Leidesdorff,
who was one of the first African American elected
officials, becomes the town treasurer in 1848.

1850 – Slave trade is abolished in Washington, DC, but slavery
will be allowed to continue until 1862.

1890 – Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe (“Jelly Roll” Morton) is born
in Gulfport (New Orleans), Louisiana. He will become a
renown jazz pianist and composer. Morton, whose fabulous
series of 1938 recordings for the Library of Congress are
a gold mine of information about early jazz, was a
complex man. Vain, ambitious, and given to exaggeration,
he was a pool shark, hustler and gambler, as well as a
brilliant pianist and composer. His greatest talent,
perhaps was for organizing and arranging. The series of
records he made with his “Red Hot Peppers” between 1926
and 1928 stands, alongside King Oliver’s as the crowning
glory of the New Orleans tradition and one of the great
achievements in Jazz. He will join the ancestors on
July 10, 1941

1915 – Hughie Lee-Smith is born in Eustis, Florida. He will
become a painter known for such surrealistic landscapes
as “Man with Balloons”, “Man Standing on His Head” and
“Big Brother”. He will join the ancestors on February 23,
1999.

1943 – Sani Abacha is born in Kano, Nigeria. After being educated
in his home state, will become a soldier and go to England
for advanced military education. He will achieve many
promotions as a soldier and by the mid-1980s, will enter
Nigeria’s military elite. In 1983 he will be among those
who will overthrow Shehu Shagari, leader of the Second
Republic, in a coup which led to the military rule of
Muhammadu Buhari. In 1985, Abacha will participate in a
second coup, which will replace Buhari with General
Ibrahim Babangida. As head of state, Babangida will
announce that free elections will be held in the early
1990s. In 1993, however, after Babangida nullifies the
results of these belated free elections, Abacha will
stage a third coup and oust his former ally. His regime
will be characterized by a concern with security that
verges on paranoia. Abacha will schedule elections for
August, 1998, but months beforehand, all five legal
parties nominate him as their “consensus candidate.” On
June 8, 1998, he will join the ancestors when he succumbs
unexpectedly to a heart attack.

1958 – Martin Luther King Jr. is stabbed in the chest by a
deranged African American woman while he is autographing
books in a Harlem department store. The woman is placed
under mental observation.

1962 – Mississippi’s governor, Ross Barnett, personally refuses
to admit James Meredith to University of Mississippi as
its first African American student. (Meredith is later
admitted.)

1962 – The Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) is banned in an
order issued by Sir Edgar Whitehead, the prime minister of
Southern Rhodesia.

1973 – Willie Mays announces his retirement from major league
baseball at the end of the 1973 baseball season.

1979 – A bloodless coup overthrows Jean-Bedel Bokassa, self-styled
head of the Central African Empire, in a French-supported
coup while he is visiting Libya.

1984 – NBC-TV debuts “The Cosby Show”. Bill Cosby plays Dr.
Heathcliff (Cliff) Huxtable. His lovely wife, Clair, is
played by Phylicia Rashad. The Huxtable kids were Sondra,
age 20 (Sabrina Le Beauf), Denise, age 16 (Lisa Bonet),
Theodore, age 14 (Malcom-Jamal Warner), Vanessa, age 8
(Tempestt Bledsoe) and Rudy, age 5 (Keshia Knight Pulliam).
The premiere is the most watched show of the week and the
show goes on to become an Emmy Award-winner and one of the
most popular on television for eight years. The series,
which had been rejected by other network television
executives, will become one of the most popular in
television history.

1987 – Alfre Woodard wins an Emmy for outstanding guest performance
in the dramatic series “L.A. Law”. It is her second Emmy
award, her first having been for a supporting role in “Hill
Street Blues” in 1984.

1987 – Walter Payton scores the NFL record 107th rushing touchdown.

1999 – Lawrence Russell Brewer becomes the second white supremacist
to be convicted in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in
Jasper, Texas. He will be later sentenced to death.

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

KRLemmons African American History

September 13 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – September 13 *

1663 – The first known slave revolt in the thirteen American
colonies is planned in Gloucester County, Virginia.
The conspirators, both white servants and African
American slaves, are betrayed by fellow indentured
servants.

1867 – Gen. E.R.S. Canby orders South Carolina courts to
impanel African American jurors.

1881 – Louis Latimer patents an electric lamp with a carbon
filament.

1886 – Alain Leroy Locke is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He will graduate from Harvard University in 1907 with a
degree in philosophy and become the first African
American Rhodes scholar, studying at Oxford University
from 1907-10 and the University of Berlin from 1910-11.
He will receive his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard in
1918. For almost 40 years, until retirement in 1953 as
head of the department of philosophy, Locke will teach
at Howard University, Washington, DC. He will be best
known for his involvement with the Harlem Renaissance,
although his work and influence extend well beyond.
Through “The New Negro”, published in 1925, Locke
popularized and most adequately defined the Renaissance
as a movement in Black arts and letters. He will join
the ancestors on June 9, 1954.

1915 – The first historically black and Catholic university for
African Americans in the United States, Xavier
University, is founded by Blessed Katherine Drexel and
the religious order she established, the “Sisters of
the Blessed Sacrament,” in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1948 – Nell Ruth Hardy is born in Birmingham, Alabama. She will
be better known as Nell Carter and become a Broadway
sensation as a singer and actress in Broadway’s
“Bubbling Brown Sugar”, “Ain’t Misbehavin’ “(for which
she will win a Tony), and for five seasons in
television’s “Gimme a Break”. She will join the ancestors
on January 23, 2003 after succumbing to heart disease
complicated by diabetes and obesity.

1962 – Mississippi Governor Ross R. Barnett defies the federal
government in an impassioned speech on statewide radio-
television hookup, saying he would “interpose” the
authority of the state between the University of
Mississippi and federal judges who had ordered the
admission of James H. Meredith. Barnett says, “There is
no case in history where the Caucasian race has survived
social integration.” He promises to go to jail, if
necessary, to prevent integration at the state
university. His defiance set the stage for the gravest
federal/state crisis since the Civil War.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy denounces the burning of
churches in Georgia and supports voter registration
drives in the South.

1965 – Willie Mays hits his 500th career home run.

1967 – Michael Johnson is born in Dallas, Texas. He will become
a world class sprinter, Olympic athlete, and the first
person to break 44 (43.65) seconds for the 400-meter run.
At the Atlanta Olympics, he also will become the first
man to win the double gold in the 400 ad 200 meters.

1971 – Two hundred troopers and officers storm the Attica
Correctional Facility in upstate New York under orders
from Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Thirty-three
convicts and ten guards are killed. Later investigations
show that nine of the ten guards were killed by the
storming party. This riot will focus national attention
on corrections departments nationwide and the practice
of imprisonment in the United States. A National
Conference on Corrections will be convened in December,
1971 resulting in the formation of the National
Institute of Corrections in 1974.

1971 – Frank Robinson hits his 500th career home run.

1972 – Two African Americans, Johnny Ford of Tuskegee and A.J.
Cooper of Prichard, are elected mayors in Alabama.

1979 – South Africa grants Venda independence (Not recognized
outside of South Africa). Venda is a homeland situated
in the north eastern part of the Transvaal Province of
South Africa.

1981 – Isabel Sanford wins an Emmy award as best comedic actress
for “The Jeffersons”.

1989 – Archbishop Desmond Tutu leads huge crowds of singing and
dancing people through central Cape Town in the biggest
anti-apartheid protest march in South Africa for 30
years.

1996 – Rap artist Tupac Shakur joins the ancestors six days after
being the target of a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas at
the age of 25.

1998 – Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hits his 61st and 62nd home
runs of the season, passing Roger Maris’ record and
pulling into a tie with St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire
in this years home run derby.

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

KRLemmons African American History

July 19 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – July 19 *

1848 – The first Women’s Rights Convention is held in Seneca Falls,
New York. The convention is supported by Frederick Douglass
of nearby Rochester, New York, who attends the meeting and
speaks in defense of its organizer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

1866 – Tennessee becomes the first state to ratify the 14th
Amendment, supposedly guaranteeing civil rights to all
United States citizens.

1867 – Congress passes the third Reconstruction Act over President
Andrew Johnson’s veto.

1913 – The Tri-State Dental Association is formed in Buckroe Beach
(now part of Hampton), Virginia. It will be the forerunner
to the National Dental Association, an organization
dedicated to developing a national forum for African
American dentists in the United States.

1925 – Josephine Baker, entertainer and singer, makes her Paris
debut.

1940 – Surgeon Louis T. Wright is presented the Spingarn Medal for
his “contribution to the healing of mankind and for his
courageous, uncompromising position, often in the face of
bitter attack.” Among Wright’s many accomplishments was
being the first African American surgeon to be admitted to
the staff of Harlem Hospital and chairmanship of the board
of directors of the NAACP, a position he will hold for 17
years.

1941 – The first Army flying school for African Americans is
dedicated in Tuskegee, Alabama.

1941 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints a Fair Employment
Practices Committee which includes two African Americans,
Earl B. Dickerson, a Chicago attorney, and Milton P.
Webster, vice-president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters.

1966 – The Hough district of Cleveland, Ohio, experiences racially
motivated disturbances that result in the mobilization of
the National Guard by Governor James A. Rhodes, who
declares a state of emergency in the city.

1967 – A racially motivated disturbance occurs in Durham, North
Carolina. The governor calls out the National Guard to
quell the disturbance.

1973 – Willie Mays is named to the National League all star team
for the 24th time, tying Stan Musial for the record number
of appearances.

1979 – Patricia R. Harris is named Secretary of Health and Human
Services. It is her second Cabinet-level appointment.
She had been Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

1991 – The South African government acknowledges that it had been
giving money to the Inkatha Freedom Party, the main rival
of the African National Congress.

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

KRLemmons African American History

July 18 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – July 18 *

1753 – Lemuel Haynes, colonial American Congregational clergyman,
is born in West Hartford, Connecticut. He will be
abandoned at five months old by his African father and
Anglo mother. He will be indentured to a white family in
Massachusetts. When he becomes a free man at age 21 in
1774, one of his first choices is to join freedom’s cause
and serve in a military unit from Connecticut. He will
not only fight on the battlefield, but will write about
freedom in poems and essays. He will be inspired by the
Declaration of Independence, and in 1776 will write an
essay about the need to extend freedom to Africans. His
essay is called, “Liberty Further Extended.” After the
American Revolutionary War, he will study Latin, Greek
and theology, and will be licensed to preach in 1780. In
1785, he will be ordained to a church in Torrington,
Connecticut, making him the first African American to
pastor a white congregation. He also will become the
first African American to receive an honorary degree
(M.A.) from a White college (Middlebury College), in 1804
at its second commencement. He will serve as pastor in
Bennington, Manchester, and Granville, New York, until he
joins the ancestors on September 28, 1833 at the age of
eighty.

1863 – The 54th Massachusetts Volunteers charge Fort Wagner in
Charleston, South Carolina. Although the Union forces
suffer great losses, Sergeant William H. Carney of Company
C exhibits bravery in battle by maintaining the colors
high despite three bullet wounds. Although cited for
bravery, it will take 37 years for Carney to receive the
Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions.

1899 – Patent number 629,286 is issued to L.C. Bailey for a
folding bed.

1905 – Granville T. Woods patents railway brakes.

1918 – Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is born near Umtata in Transkei,
South Africa in the Eastern Cape, into the royal family
of the Tembu, a Xhosa-speaking tribe. His father is Chief
Henry Mandela. He will be educated at University College
of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand and
qualifies to practice law in 1942. He will join the
African National Congress in 1944 and engage in resistance
against the ruling National Party’s apartheid policies
after 1948. He will go on trial for treason in 1956-1961
and be acquitted in 1961. After the banning of the ANC in
1960, he will argue for the setting up of a military wing
within the ANC. In June 1961, the ANC executive will
consider his proposal on the use of violent tactics and
agree that those members who wished to involve themselves
in his campaign would not be stopped from doing so by the
ANC. This will lead to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe.
He will be arrested in 1962 and sentenced to five years’
imprisonment with hard labor. In 1963, when many fellow
leaders of the ANC and the Umkhonto we Sizwe are arrested,
he will be brought to stand trial with them for plotting
to overthrow the government by violence. His statement
from the dock will receive considerable international
publicity. On June 12, 1964, he is among eight accused,
that will be sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1964 to
1982, he will be incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, off
the shore from Cape Town; thereafter, he will be at
Pollsmoor Prison, nearby on the mainland. He will be
released on February 11, 1990. After his release, he will
plunge himself wholeheartedly into his life’s work,
striving to attain the goals he and others had set out
almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first
national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa
after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela
will be elected President of the ANC while his lifelong
friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, will become the
organization’s National Chairperson. He will become the
first Black African President of South Africa on May 10,
1994 (Inauguration Date). Happy 95th birthday, President
Mandela.

1941 – Martha Reeves is born in Eufaula, Alabama. Her family will
move to Detroit, Michigan before her first birthday. As a
child, she will sing in her grandfather’s church and in
school, and continue her vocal training through high school.
After graduating in 1959, she will join a girl group called
the Fascinations, and the following year co-founds the
Del-Phis, whose membership will include the future
Vandellas. In 1961, she will win a talent contest as a solo
act and get a nightclub engagement performing as Martha
LaVaille. There she will be noticed by Motown executive
William “Mickey” Stevenson, who will invite her to stop by
the label’s offices. She will not land an audition right
away, but will parlay her visit into a secretarial job in
the A&R department. She will catch a lucky break when backup
singers are needed for a recording session, and the Del-Phis
will wind up supporting Marvin Gaye on his first hit, 1962’s
“Stubborn Kind of Fellow.” Stevenson will be impressed
enough to record a Del-Phis (renamed the Vels) single,
“You’ll Never Cherish a Love So True (‘Til You Lose It),”
and release it on Motown’s Mel-O-Dy subsidiary. One day,
Mary Wells fails to show up for a recording session, and
musicians’ union rules demand that a lead vocalist be
present on the microphone — so she will be hastily tapped
to sing “I’ll Have to Let Him Go.” That song will become
the first single credited to the newly renamed Martha & the
Vandellas in 1963. Their second single, the ballad “Come
and Get These Memories,” will reach the Rhythm & Blues Top
Five. Martha & the Vandellas will rack up an impressive
slate of Motown classics that will include the Top Five
smashes “(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave” and “Dancing in the
Street,” plus “Nowhere to Run,” “I’m Ready for Love,”
“Jimmy Mack,” and “Honey Chile,” all of which will make the
Rhythm & Blues Top Five. Martha & the Vandellas’ run of
success will continue through 1967. They will continue to
perform and record for several more years, but will never
match their past success and will disband in December 1972
after a farewell concert in Detroit. She will eventually
leave Motown and record for other labels with minimal
success. In 1989, she will reunite with original Vandellas
Annette Sterling and Rosalind Holmes and cut the single
“Step Into My Shoes” for British producer Ian Levine’s
Motor City label. However, she will continue to make her
primary living on the nostalgia circuit. She will be
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

1951 – Jersey Joe Walcott, at age 37, becomes oldest boxer to date,
to win the World Heavyweight Championship knocking out
Ezzard Charles in five rounds.

1959 – William Wright becomes the first African American to win a
a USGA title, the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship.
He is 23 and a senior at Western Washington University.

1964 – Racially motivated disturbances occur in Harlem in New York
City. The civil unrest will last until July 22 and will
spread into the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

1970 – Willie Mays gets his 3,000th base hit.

1998 – The “Spirit of Freedom Memorial” and “Theme Park” is
unveiled in Washington, DC to honor the U. S. Colored
Troops, who fought in the U.S. Civil War.

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

KRLemmons African American History

June 20 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – June 20 *

1858 – Charles Waddell Chestnutt is born in Cleveland, Ohio. He
will at one time maintain four careers simultaneously –
stenographer, lawyer, author, and lecturer. He will also
serve three years as principal of the Fayetteville State
Colored Normal School in North Carolina. His most famous
literary works will be a biography of Frederick Douglass
and the short story collection “The Conjure Woman”. In
1928, he will receive the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for his
literacy accomplishments. He will join the ancestors on
November 15, 1932.

1871 – Ku Klux Klan trials begin in federal court in Oxford,
Mississippi. Many whites, including doctors, lawyers,
ministers and college professors, are arrested and jailed
in the anti-Klan campaign. Of the 930 indicted in
Mississippi, 243 will be tried and found guilty. Some 1180
are indicted in South Carolina and 1849 are indicted in
North Carolina.

1911 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People is incorporated in New York City. It had been
founded on February 12, 1909.

1926 – Mordecai W. Johnson becomes the first African American
president of Howard University.

1929 – “Hot Chocolates” premieres at the Hudson Theatre in New
York City. With music by Fats Waller and lyrics by Andy
Razaf, the musical will introduce the songs “Ain’t
Misbehaving” and “Black and Blue”.

1936 – Jesse Owens of the United States sets the 100 meter record
at 10.2 seconds.

1943 – Thirty-four persons are killed in race riots in Detroit,
Michigan. Federal troops are called in to control the
violence, which stems from African Americans’ frustration
over exclusion from civilian defense jobs.

1946 – Andre’ Watts is born in Nuremburg, Germany. He will
make his debut as a concert pianist at age nine, have his
New York Philharmonic debut in 1963, and become a world-
famous classical pianist. In 2004 he will join the faculty
at Indiana University, where he will hold the Jack I. and
Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in The Jacob School of Music.

1949 – Lionel Ritchie is born in Tuskegee, Alabama. He will be
one of the most successful singers/songwriters in
contemporary popular music, known for his efforts in Pop,
Rhythm & Blues, and country music. Once a member of the
Commodores, Richie will establish a solo career, win
Grammys in 1982 and 1984, and be a featured performer at
the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in
Los Angeles.

1950 – Willie Mays graduates from high school and immediately
signs with the New York Giants for a $6,000 bonus. ‘The
Say Hey Kid’ would play most of his career for the Giants
— in both New York and San Francisco — becoming a
baseball legend. As his career comes to a close, Mays
will be traded to the New York Mets. Mays, an all-star
center fielder, will be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of
Fame in his first year of eligibility – 1979.

1960 – Harry Belafonte wins an Emmy for his variety special
“Tonight with Harry Belafonte”. It is the first Emmy
awarded to an African American.

1960 – Floyd Patterson wins back the world heavyweight title by
knocking out Ingemar Johanson of Sweden in round five of
a title bout at the Polo Grounds in New York City.

1967 – Muhammad Ali is convicted in Houston, Texas, in federal
court for violating the Selective Service Act by refusing
induction into the armed services. He is fined $10,000
and sentenced to five years in prison. Ali, an opponent
of the Vietnam War, had refused to report for service on
grounds that he was a Muslim minister. The U.S. Supreme
Court will later overturn his conviction.

1969 – 150,000 people attend the Newport Jazz Festival. Jimi
Hendrix gets $125,000 to appear on the program. This is
the largest paycheck for a single concert appearance at
the time.

1988 – The Supreme Court upholds a law that made it illegal for
private clubs to discriminate against women and minorities.

1987 – Whitney Houston’s album, “Whitney”, debuts on “Billboard”
magazine’s album charts at number one. Houston becomes the
first female to have a LP debut at the top.

1990 – South African Black nationalist Nelson Mandela and his
wife, Winnie, arrive in New York City for a ticker-tape
parade in their honor as they begin an eight-city United
States tour.

1997 – Lawrence Payton, occasional songwriter and member of the
“Four Tops,” joins the ancestors after succumbing to liver
cancer at his Southfield, Michigan home at the age of 59.
In 1953, he joined the Four Aims, which consisted of him,
Levi Stubbs, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Abdul “Duke” Fakir.
They changed their name to the Four Tops in order to avoid
confusion with the Ames Brothers. In 1956, they signed with
Chess Records and subsequently moved on to the Red Top,
Riverside and Columbia labels. They were part of Billy
Eckstine’s Las Vegas Revue in 1960 and in 1963 were signed
to Motown Records where they were teamed with the
production team of Holland, Dozier & Holland. Their last
label signing was to Arista in 1988. In 1990, they were
inducted into the Rock ‘n” Roll of Fame.

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

KRLemmons African American History

May 30 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – May 30 *

1822 – Denmark Vesey’s conspiracy to free the slaves of Charleston,
South Carolina, and surrounding areas is thwarted when a
house slave betrays the plot to whites. Vesey’s bold plan
had attracted over 9,000 slaves and freemen of the area
including Peter Poyas, a ship’s carpenter, Gullah Jack,
Blind Phillip, Ned Bennett and Mingo Harth. Later it will
be considered one of the most complex and elaborate slave
liberation plans ever undertaken.

1831 – James Walker Hood is born in Kennett Township, Chester
County, Pennsylvania. He will become a minister in New
York City in the A.M.E. Zion Church. He will become the
first African American to publish a collection of sermons
when he publishes “The Negro in the Christian Pulpit.” His
other works will include “One Hundred Years of the African
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church,” and “The Plan of The
Apocalypse.” He will join the ancestors on October 30, 1918.

1854 – The Kansas-Nebraska Act repeals the Missouri Compromise and
opens the Northern territory to slavery.

1902 – Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry is born in Key West,
Florida. He will become the first real African American
film star known as “Stepin Fetchit.” Many sources will
cite 1892, 1896, or 1898 as his birth date, but he will
maintain his birth date as 1902. He will star in many films,
among which are “Amazing Grace,” “The Sun Shines Bright,”
“Miracle in Harlem,” and “Judge Priest.” His humbling,
ingratiating style of acting will appeal to the movie-going
public of his day, but unfortunately becomes a stereotype
for African American actors in the early years of cinema.
He will join the ancestors on November 19, 1985.

1903 – Countee Cullen is born in Louisville, Kentucky. Many sources
will state that his birthplace is New York City, but Cullen
will be reared in New York City by his paternal grandmother
until 1918, when he is adopted by the Reverend Frederick
Asbury Cullen, minister of Salem M.E. Church, one of the
largest congregations in Harlem. This will be a turning
point in his life, for he will be introduced into the very
center of black activism and achievement. He will win a
citywide poetry contest as a schoolboy and see his winning
stanzas widely reprinted. He will attend New York
University (B.A., 1925), win the Witter Bynner Poetry Prize,
and be elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Major American literary
magazines will accept his poems regularly, and his first
collection of poems, “Color” (1925), will be published to
critical acclaim before he finishes college. His several
volumes of poetry will include “Copper Sun” (1927); “The
Black Christ” (1929); and “On These I Stand” (published
posthumously, 1947), his selection of poems by which he
wished to be remembered. Cullen will also write a novel
dealing with life in Harlem, “One Way to Heaven” (1931),
and a children’s book, “The Lost Zoo” (1940). He will join
the ancestors on January 9, 1946.

1910 – Ralph Harold Metcalfe is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He will
become a world record holder in the 100-yard and 200-yard
dashes and win a bronze medal in the 1932 Olympic Games
and gold and silver medals in the 1936 Games. He will also
become a four-term congressman representing Illinois’s 1st
District. He will join the ancestors on October 10, 1978.

1915 – Henry Aaron Hill is born in St. Joseph, North Carolina. He
will become a trained chemist and will receive his Ph.D.
in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in 1942. He will become founder and president of the
Riverside Research Laboratory in 1961. In 1977, he will
become the first African American president of the American
Chemical Society. He will join the ancestors on March 17,
1979.

1943 – James Earl Chaney is born in Meridian, Mississippi. He will
become a civil rights activist and joins the Congress For
Racial Equality. During Freedom Summer (1964 – when civil
rights organizations begin an extensive voter registration
and desegregation campaign in Mississippi), he will join
the ancestors on June 21, 1964, after being killed by the
Ku Klux Klan in Greenwood along with two white civil rights
activists.

1943 – Gale Sayers is born in Wichita, Kansas. He will become an
outstanding running back and a first-round draft pick of
the Chicago Bears in 1965. He will set the individual game
record for touchdowns scored (six). He will be elected to
the Football Hall of Fame in 1977, the youngest player ever
to receive the honor.

1949 – Lydell Douglas Mitchell is born in Salem, New Jersey. He
will become a football player and All-American running back
at Pennsylvania State University in 1971. He will go on to
play for the Baltimore Colts from 1972 to 1977. While at
Baltimore, he will set the Colts’ record for rushing
attempts (1391) and rushing yards (5487). After his
successful career run in Baltimore, Mitchell will be traded
to the San Diego Chargers after the 1977 season. He will
turn in a solid season in 1978 with the Dan Fouts-led
Chargers and will finish his career in 1980 appearing in
two games with the Los Angeles Rams. He will be inducted
into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

1953 – Eric Arthur “Dooley” Wilson joins the ancestors in Los
Angeles, California at the age of 59. He was a popular
jazz drummer in Europe and America. He also worked as an
actor, his most notable part playing the pianist “Sam” in
the movie “Casablanca.” He also appeared in the movies
“Stormy Monday” and “Night in New Orleans.”

1956 – African Americans begin a bus boycott in Tallahassee,
Florida with the goal of desegregating bus seating.

1965 – Vivian Malone becomes the first African American to graduate
from the University of Alabama, a college that had been one
of the last bastions of racial segregation in the South.

1967 – The state of Biafra secedes and declares its independence
from Nigeria. Biafra is inhabited primarily by Igbos (also
spelled Ibos) who live in southeastern Nigeria. Two months
after independence, Nigeria will attack Biafra and start a
war that will last until 1970 with Biafra’s surrender. Over
a million people will die due to war and famine.

1971 – Willie Mays scores his 1,950th run.

1993 – Herman “Sonny” Blount joins the ancestors in Birmingham,
Alabama at the age of 79. He had been a prominent jazz
bandleader, arranger and pianist. He was better known as
“Sun Ra,” and was the founder of Saturn Records. Three
documentaries produced about Sun Ra were “The Cry of Jazz”
(1959), “Space is the Place” (1971) and “Sun Ra: A Joyful
Noise” (1980).

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