KRLemmons African American History

January 28 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 28 *

1858 – John Brown organizes the raid on the federal arsenal at
Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. The raid was an attempt to
obtain arms and ammunition to free African Americans from
slavery by force.

1901 – James Richmond Barthe’ is born in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
Educated at the Art Institute of Chicago, he will begin to
attain critical acclaim as a sculptor at 26. He will drop
the use of his first name when producing his works of art
and will be best known as Richmond Barthe. His first
commissions will be of Henry O. Tanner and Toussaint
L’Ouverture. He will also become the first African
American commissioned to produce a bust for the NYU Hall of
Fame (of Booker T. Washington). He wil join the ancestors
on March 5, 1989.

1938 – Crystal Byrd Fauset is elected to the Pennsylvania House of
Representatives, becoming the first African American woman
to be elected to a state legislature.

1944 – Matthew Henson is a recipient of a joint medal by Congress
for his role as co-discoverer of the North Pole. It is the
U.S. government’s first official recognition of the explorer
who accompanied Commander Robert Peary on his 1909
expedition.

1958 – Brooklyn Dodger catcher Roy Campanella’s career ends when he
loses control of his car on a slick highway. He will become
a paraplegic and be confined to a wheelchair the remainder
of his life. The accident ends his ten-year playing career
with the Dodgers, where he had been named the National
League’s MVP three times, but he will remain a part of the
Dodgers organization for many years. He will join the
ancestors on June 26, 1993.

1960 – Zora Neale Hurston joins the ancestors in Fort Pierce,
Florida at the age of 71. She had been a prominent figure
during the Harlem Renaissance.

1970 – Arthur Ashe is denied entry to compete on the U.S. Team for
the South African Open Tennis Championships due to Ashe’s
sentiments on South Africa’s racial policies.

1972 – Scott Joplin’s Opera “Treemonisha,” published 61 years
earlier, has its world premiere with Robert Shaw and
Katherine Dunham directing.

1986 – The space shuttle “Challenger” explodes 73 seconds after
lift-off at Cape Canaveral, Florida. One of the seven
crew members killed is physicist Dr. Ronald McNair, the
only African American aboard.

1997 – The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa
announces that as part of their petition for amnesty,
five Afrikaner police had admitted to killing Steve Biko.
The announcement confirms what his admirers and followers
had never doubted: Steve Biko was a martyr to the struggle
against the apartheid government. Steve Biko was one of
the major figures in the struggle against South Africa’s
system of apartheid. Founder and leader of the Black
Consciousness Movement, the charismatic Biko was the first
president of the all-black South African Students
Organization before organizing the Black People’s
Convention, a coalition of over 70 black organizations
committed to ending apartheid. In 1977, Biko was arrested.
While in custody in Port Elizabeth, on the Indian Ocean
coast, he was apparently severely beaten. He was denied
medical attention and driven in the back of a police van
nearly 700 miles to Pretoria, where he died, naked and
shackled in a police hospital at the age of 29. The police
first claimed that Biko starved himself to death, then that
he died of self-inflicted injuries.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 7 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 7 *

1822 – A colony of free African Americans sent to Africa by the
American Colonization Society, is established on the west
coast of Africa. It is the beginning of the African American
colonization of Liberia. This colony will become the
independent nation of Liberia in 1847.

1868 – The Mississippi constitutional convention convenes in Jackson.
It is attended by seventeen African Americans and eighty-three
whites.

1868 – The Arkansas constitutional convention convenes in Little Rock.
It is attended by eight African Americans and forty-three
whites.

1890 – William B. Purvis is awarded patent #419,065 for the fountain
pen.

1891 – Zora Neale Hurston, who will become a brilliant folklorist,
novelist, and short story writer, is born in Notasulga,
Alabama. For reasons known only to her, she will claim 1901 as
her birth year and the all-Black town of Eatonville, Florida as
her birthplace. She will be one of the more influential writers
of the Harlem Renaissance, known for her novel “Their Eyes Were
Watching God” and her folklore collections, including “Of Mules
and Men.” She will join the ancestors on January 28, 1960.

1892 – A mine explosion kills 100 in Krebs, Oklahoma. African
Americans trying to help rescue white survivors, are driven
away at gunpoint.

1911 – Thelma “Butterfly” McQueen is born in Tampa, Florida. She will
be educated in Augusta, Georgia and Long Island, New York.
After graduation, she will study dance, joining the Venezuela
Jones Negro Youth Group. After performing in the “Butterfly
Ballet” (in a 1935 production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”)
McQueen will be dubbed—and forever referred to
as—“Butterfly”. She will make her stage debut in George
Abbot’s “Brown Sugar”, and soon after, in 1939, she will appear
as Lulu in “The Women” and in her most famous role, Prissy in
“Gone With The Wind.” She will join the ancestors on December
22, 1995.

1917 – Ulysses Simpson Kay is born in Tucson, Arizona. He will become
a classical composer and one of the first American composers
to travel to the Soviet Union. He will be known for his works
for orchestra, piano, and chamber ensemble. He will join the
ancestors on May 20, 1995.

1927 – The first touring Harlem Globetrotter game is played in
Hinckley, Illinois before a crowd of 300 people. It will be a
success, bringing in $75 in profit.

1950 – The James Weldon Johnson Collection officially opens at Yale
University. Established in 1941 through a gift by Grace Nail
Johnson, widow of the famed author, diplomat and NAACP
official, the collection will eventually include the papers of
Johnson, Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Dubois, Richard Wright, Jean
Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, and many other writers of the
Harlem Renaissance.

1955 – Marian Anderson appears as Ulrica in Verdi’s “Un Ballo in
Maschera” with the New York Metropolitan Opera. In her debut
performance at the Met, Anderson becomes the first African
American ever to sing with the company.

1964 – The Bahamas achieve internal self-government & cabinet level
responsibility.

2003 – Thurgood Marshall, a famed civil rights lawyer and U.S. Supreme
Court Justice, is honored by the United States Postal Service
with the 26th stamp issuance in the Black Heritage
Commemorative Series.

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

KRLemmons African American Literature, Children's literature, Lesson Plans, Resources

Zora and Me

This week, the Zora Neale Hurston Organization is hosting its annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival in Eatonville, Florida.  This is the 25th year of the festival and it is a week-long celebration with workshops, activities, and other events.  I mention this festival as a segue into my review of the children’s book, Zora and Me.

Zora and Me, written by Victoria Simon and T.R. Simon, imagines the childhood of Zora in Eatonville, Florida.  The story is narrated by Carrie and Zora’s storytelling gives Carrie plenty to say.  When a decapitated body is found on a railroad track, Zora creates a believable yet scary story that she is willing to tell anyone who wants to hear it.  In fact, Zora also believes she knows the murderer, and, recruiting Carrie and her friend Teddy, goes to many lengths to prove her theory.

Zora and Me is beautifully written, with Carrie’s voice that draws one into the mystery.  Carrie and Teddy are fully developed characters and just the right friends for the imaginative Zora.  Other characters are developed, too, and the issues of race, particularly passing, racism, poverty, and equality are woven carefully in the story as the mystery unfolds and reveals the killer.

Zora and Me has won a few awards, including the The Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe New Talent Award.

A discussion guide and lesson plans are available for this book.  The discussion guide can be accessed by clicking here: http://www.candlewick.com/book_files/0763643009.bdg.1.pdf

The lesson plan, and other resources can be found on The Teaching Books.Net: http://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=21622&a=1

Zora and Me, 192 pages.  Hardcover: 978-0763643003; Paperback:  978-0763658144 Grades 5 and up.

 

KRLemmons African American History

January 28 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 28 *

1858 – John Brown organizes the raid on the federal arsenal at
Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. The raid was an attempt to
obtain arms and ammunition to free African Americans from
slavery by force.

1901 – James Richmond Barthe’ is born in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
Educated at the Art Institute of Chicago, he will begin to
attain critical acclaim as a sculptor at 26. He will drop
the use of his first name when producing his works of art
and will be best known as Richmond Barthe. His first
commissions will be of Henry O. Tanner and Toussaint
L’Ouverture. He will also become the first African
American commissioned to produce a bust for the NYU Hall of
Fame (of Booker T. Washington). He wil join the ancestors
on March 5, 1989.

1938 – Crystal Byrd Fauset is elected to the Pennsylvania House of
Representatives, becoming the first African American woman
to be elected to a state legislature.

1944 – Matthew Henson is a recipient of a joint medal by Congress
for his role as co-discoverer of the North Pole. It is the
U.S. government’s first official recognition of the explorer
who accompanied Commander Robert Peary on his 1909
expedition.

1958 – Brooklyn Dodger catcher Roy Campanella’s career ends when he
loses control of his car on a slick highway. He will become
a paraplegic and be confined to a wheelchair the remainder
of his life. The accident ends his ten-year playing career
with the Dodgers, where he had been named the National
League’s MVP three times, but he will remain a part of the
Dodgers organization for many years. He will join the
ancestors on June 26, 1993.

1960 – Zora Neale Hurston joins the ancestors in Fort Pierce,
Florida at the age of 71. She had been a prominent figure
during the Harlem Renaissance.

1970 – Arthur Ashe is denied entry to compete on the U.S. Team for
the South African Open Tennis Championships due to Ashe’s
sentiments on South Africa’s racial policies.

1972 – Scott Joplin’s Opera “Treemonisha,” published 61 years
earlier, has its world premiere with Robert Shaw and
Katherine Dunham directing.

1986 – The space shuttle “Challenger” explodes 73 seconds after
lift-off at Cape Canaveral, Florida. One of the seven
crew members killed is physicist Dr. Ronald McNair, the
only African American aboard.

1997 – The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa
announces that as part of their petition for amnesty,
five Afrikaner police had admitted to killing Steve Biko.
The announcement confirms what his admirers and followers
had never doubted: Steve Biko was a martyr to the struggle
against the apartheid government. Steve Biko was one of
the major figures in the struggle against South Africa’s
system of apartheid. Founder and leader of the Black
Consciousness Movement, the charismatic Biko was the first
president of the all-black South African Students
Organization before organizing the Black People’s
Convention, a coalition of over 70 black organizations
committed to ending apartheid. In 1977, Biko was arrested.
While in custody in Port Elizabeth, on the Indian Ocean
coast, he was apparently severely beaten. He was denied
medical attention and driven in the back of a police van
nearly 700 miles to Pretoria, where he died, naked and
shackled in a police hospital at the age of 29. The police
first claimed that Biko starved himself to death, then that
he died of self-inflicted injuries.

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

KRLemmons African American Literature, African American Young Adult Literature, Resources

Happy Birthday, Zora Neale Hurston!!!!

Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7.  She was a novelist, folklorist, and short story writer, who claimed Eatonville, Florida as her birthplace. Although she is well known for her novel is “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, she has written other works as well, such as “Mule Bone”, “Jonah’s Gourd Vine”, “Moses, Man of the Mountain”, to name a few.

A couple of resources on this influential writer include:  http://zoranealehurston.com, http://www.biography.com/people/zora-neale-hurston-9347659

Every year in Eatonville, Florida, there is a Zora Neale Hurston festival.  Now celebrating its 25 year, this year’s festival is a weeklong celebration featuring celebrities, workshops, special events and more.  For more information, go to http://zorafestival.org

 

KRLemmons African American History

January 7 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – January 7 *

1822 – A colony of free African Americans sent to Africa by the
American Colonization Society, is established on the west
coast of Africa. It is the beginning of the African American
colonization of Liberia. This colony will become the
independent nation of Liberia in 1847.

1868 – The Mississippi constitutional convention convenes in Jackson.
It is attended by seventeen African Americans and eighty-three
whites.

1868 – The Arkansas constitutional convention convenes in Little Rock.
It is attended by eight African Americans and forty-three
whites.

1890 – William B. Purvis is awarded patent #419,065 for the fountain
pen.

1891 – Zora Neale Hurston, who will become a brilliant folklorist,
novelist, and short story writer, is born in Notasulga,
Alabama. For reasons known only to her, she will claim 1901 as
her birth year and the all-Black town of Eatonville, Florida as
her birthplace. She will be one of the more influential writers
of the Harlem Renaissance, known for her novel “Their Eyes Were
Watching God” and her folklore collections, including “Of Mules
and Men.” She will join the ancestors on January 28, 1960.

1892 – A mine explosion kills 100 in Krebs, Oklahoma. African
Americans trying to help rescue white survivors, are driven
away at gunpoint.

1911 – Thelma “Butterfly” McQueen is born in Tampa, Florida. She will
be educated in Augusta, Georgia and Long Island, New York.
After graduation, she will study dance, joining the Venezuela
Jones Negro Youth Group. After performing in the “Butterfly
Ballet” (in a 1935 production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”)
McQueen will be dubbed—and forever referred to
as—“Butterfly”. She will make her stage debut in George
Abbot’s “Brown Sugar”, and soon after, in 1939, she will appear
as Lulu in “The Women” and in her most famous role, Prissy in
“Gone With The Wind.” She will join the ancestors on December
22, 1995.

1917 – Ulysses Simpson Kay is born in Tucson, Arizona. He will become
a classical composer and one of the first American composers
to travel to the Soviet Union. He will be known for his works
for orchestra, piano, and chamber ensemble. He will join the
ancestors on May 20, 1995.

1927 – The first touring Harlem Globetrotter game is played in
Hinckley, Illinois before a crowd of 300 people. It will be a
success, bringing in $75 in profit.

1950 – The James Weldon Johnson Collection officially opens at Yale
University. Established in 1941 through a gift by Grace Nail
Johnson, widow of the famed author, diplomat and NAACP
official, the collection will eventually include the papers of
Johnson, Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Dubois, Richard Wright, Jean
Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, and many other writers of the
Harlem Renaissance.

1955 – Marian Anderson appears as Ulrica in Verdi’s “Un Ballo in
Maschera” with the New York Metropolitan Opera. In her debut
performance at the Met, Anderson becomes the first African
American ever to sing with the company.

1964 – The Bahamas achieve internal self-government & cabinet level
responsibility.

2003 – Thurgood Marshall, a famed civil rights lawyer and U.S. Supreme
Court Justice, is honored by the United States Postal Service
with the 26th stamp issuance in the Black Heritage
Commemorative Series.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 28 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 28 *

1858 – John Brown organizes the raid on the federal arsenal at
Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. The raid was an attempt to
obtain arms and ammunition to free African Americans from
slavery by force.

1901 – James Richmond Barthe’ is born in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
Educated at the Art Institute of Chicago, he will begin to
attain critical acclaim as a sculptor at 26. He will drop
the use of his first name when producing his works of art
and will be best known as Richmond Barthe. His first
commissions will be of Henry O. Tanner and Toussaint
L’Ouverture. He will also become the first African
American commissioned to produce a bust for the NYU Hall of
Fame (of Booker T. Washington). He wil join the ancestors
on March 5, 1989.

1938 – Crystal Byrd Fauset is elected to the Pennsylvania House of
Representatives, becoming the first African American woman
to be elected to a state legislature.

1944 – Matthew Henson is a recipient of a joint medal by Congress
for his role as co-discoverer of the North Pole. It is the
U.S. government’s first official recognition of the explorer
who accompanied Commander Robert Peary on his 1909
expedition.

1958 – Brooklyn Dodger catcher Roy Campanella’s career ends when he
loses control of his car on a slick highway. He will become
a paraplegic and be confined to a wheelchair the remainder
of his life. The accident ends his ten-year playing career
with the Dodgers, where he had been named the National
League’s MVP three times, but he will remain a part of the
Dodgers organization for many years. He will join the
ancestors on June 26, 1993.

1960 – Zora Neale Hurston joins the ancestors in Fort Pierce,
Florida at the age of 71. She had been a prominent figure
during the Harlem Renaissance.

1970 – Arthur Ashe is denied entry to compete on the U.S. Team for
the South African Open Tennis Championships due to Ashe’s
sentiments on South Africa’s racial policies.

1972 – Scott Joplin’s Opera “Treemonisha,” published 61 years
earlier, has its world premiere with Robert Shaw and
Katherine Dunham directing.

1986 – The space shuttle “Challenger” explodes 73 seconds after
lift-off at Cape Canaveral, Florida. One of the seven
crew members killed is physicist Dr. Ronald McNair, the
only African American aboard.

1997 – The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa
announces that as part of their petition for amnesty,
five Afrikaner police had admitted to killing Steve Biko.
The announcement confirms what his admirers and followers
had never doubted: Steve Biko was a martyr to the struggle
against the apartheid government. Steve Biko was one of
the major figures in the struggle against South Africa’s
system of apartheid. Founder and leader of the Black
Consciousness Movement, the charismatic Biko was the first
president of the all-black South African Students
Organization before organizing the Black People’s
Convention, a coalition of over 70 black organizations
committed to ending apartheid. In 1977, Biko was arrested.
While in custody in Port Elizabeth, on the Indian Ocean
coast, he was apparently severely beaten. He was denied
medical attention and driven in the back of a police van
nearly 700 miles to Pretoria, where he died, naked and
shackled in a police hospital at the age of 29. The police
first claimed that Biko starved himself to death, then that
he died of self-inflicted injuries.

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

KRLemmons African American History

January 7 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – January 7 *

1822 – A colony of free African Americans sent to Africa by the
American Colonization Society, is established on the west
coast of Africa. It is the beginning of the African American
colonization of Liberia. This colony will become the
independent nation of Liberia in 1847.

1868 – The Mississippi constitutional convention convenes in Jackson.
It is attended by seventeen African Americans and eighty-three
whites.

1868 – The Arkansas constitutional convention convenes in Little Rock.
It is attended by eight African Americans and forty-three
whites.

1890 – William B. Purvis is awarded patent #419,065 for the fountain
pen.

1891 – Zora Neale Hurston, who will become a brilliant folklorist,
novelist, and short story writer, is born in Notasulga,
Alabama. For reasons known only to her, she will claim 1901 as
her birth year and the all-Black town of Eatonville, Florida as
her birthplace. She will be one of the more influential writers
of the Harlem Renaissance, known for her novel “Their Eyes Were
Watching God” and her folklore collections, including “Of Mules
and Men.” She will join the ancestors on January 28, 1960.

1892 – A mine explosion kills 100 in Krebs, Oklahoma. African
Americans trying to help rescue white survivors, are driven
away at gunpoint.

1911 – Thelma “Butterfly” McQueen is born in Tampa, Florida. She will
be educated in Augusta, Georgia and Long Island, New York.
After graduation, she will study dance, joining the Venezuela
Jones Negro Youth Group. After performing in the “Butterfly
Ballet” (in a 1935 production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”)
McQueen will be dubbed—and forever referred to
as—“Butterfly”. She will make her stage debut in George
Abbot’s “Brown Sugar”, and soon after, in 1939, she will appear
as Lulu in “The Women” and in her most famous role, Prissy in
“Gone With The Wind.” She will join the ancestors on December
22, 1995.

1917 – Ulysses Simpson Kay is born in Tucson, Arizona. He will become
a classical composer and one of the first American composers
to travel to the Soviet Union. He will be known for his works
for orchestra, piano, and chamber ensemble. He will join the
ancestors on May 20, 1995.

1927 – The first touring Harlem Globetrotter game is played in
Hinckley, Illinois before a crowd of 300 people. It will be a
success, bringing in $75 in profit.

1950 – The James Weldon Johnson Collection officially opens at Yale
University. Established in 1941 through a gift by Grace Nail
Johnson, widow of the famed author, diplomat and NAACP
official, the collection will eventually include the papers of
Johnson, Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Dubois, Richard Wright, Jean
Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, and many other writers of the
Harlem Renaissance.

1955 – Marian Anderson appears as Ulrica in Verdi’s “Un Ballo in
Maschera” with the New York Metropolitan Opera. In her debut
performance at the Met, Anderson becomes the first African
American ever to sing with the company.

1964 – The Bahamas achieve internal self-government & cabinet level
responsibility.

2003 – Thurgood Marshall, a famed civil rights lawyer and U.S. Supreme
Court Justice, is honored by the United States Postal Service
with the 26th stamp issuance in the Black Heritage
Commemorative Series.

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