KRLemmons African American History

February 27 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 27 *

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

1844 – The Dominican Republic gains its independence from Haiti, which
had occupied the whole island of Hispaniola since 1822. Prior
to Haitian rule, France had administered the eastern part of
the island starting in 1795, when Spain ceded the territory to
France. The leader of Dominican independence against Haiti
was Juan Pablo Duarte.

1869 – John Willis Menard, the first African American elected to
Congress (1868) is never seated. When he pleads his own
case before the House of Representatives, he becomes the first
African American to speak on the floor of the House.

1872 – Charlotte Ray graduates from Howard Law School in Washington,
DC. She will become the first African American woman lawyer
in the United States and the third woman admitted to the bar
to practice law (April 23, 1872).

1897 – Marian Anderson is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She
will become the first modern African American to win
international renown as an opera singer and will be
considered one of the great operatic voices of the
century. Singing at a time of great social upheaval for
African Americans, Anderson’s professional career will
contain many operatic and civil rights milestones and
recognition, including Kennedy Center Honors in 1978. The
Kennedy Center will hold a gala in observance of the 100th
anniversary of her birth in 1997. Many sources, including
the “Encyclopedia Britannica” and “Africana” have her
birth year as 1902 or 1900. In a Kennedy Center interview
with her nephew (with whom she lived until her death), he
indicated that when she became the first African American to
sing a principal role with the Metropolitan Opera, her
publicist thought her age should be reduced by five years.
The media therefore, establishes her birth year erroneously
as 1902.

1942 – Charlayne Hunter is born in Due West, South Carolina. On
the first students to integrate the University of Georgia,
Charlayne Hunter-Gault will become a print and broadcast
journalist and win two Emmy awards for her work on public
TV’s “The MacNeil/Lehrer News-Hour.”

1961 – James Worthy is born in Gastonia, North Carolina. He will
become a starting forward for the Los Angeles Lakers. He will
be selected as the 1988 NBA Playoff Most Valuable Player. He
will play with three NBA championship Laker teams(1985,
1987, 1988).

1967 – Antigua & St. Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla become associated
states of the United Kingdom.

1967 – Dominica gains its independence from England.

1988 – Debi Thomas, a world-class figure skater, wins a bronze medal
in the Winter Olympic Games in Calgary. She will be the
first and only African American, until 2002, to win a medal in
the Winter Games.

1992 – Eldrick “Tiger” Woods is the youngest amateur golfer in 35
years to play in a PGA tournament when he tees off at the Los
Angeles Open at the age of 16.

1999 – The Rev. Henry Lyons, president of the National Baptist
Convention USA, is convicted in Largo, Florida, of swindling
millions of dollars from companies seeking to do business with
his followers.

1999 – Nigerians vote to elect Olusegun Obasanjo their new president,
as the country marks the final phase of its return to
democracy.

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

KRLemmons African American History

February 26 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 26        *

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

1844 – James Edward O’Hara is born in New York City to an Irish
merchant and a West Indian woman.  He will move to North
Carolina after completing his basic education.  After studying
law at Howard University, he will be admitted to the North
Carolina bar and become a practicing attorney in Halifax
county and active in state politics.  He will later become a
two-term United States Congressman from North Carolina, serving
in the forty-eighth and forty-ninth congress.

1870 – Wyatt Outlaw, Town Commissioner in Graham, North Carolina, joins
the ancestors after being executed (lynched) by the “White
Brotherhood,” The Ku Klux Klan.  He was president of the
Alamance County Union League of America (an anti Ku Klux Klan
group), helped to establish the Republican party in North
Carolina and advocated establishing a school for African
Americans. The Klan will hang him from an oak tree near the
Alamance County Courthouse. Dozens of Klansmen will be arrested
for the murders of Outlaw and other African Americans in
Alamance and Caswell Counties. Many of the arrested men will
confess, but, despite protests by Governor William W. Holden,
a federal judge in Salisbury will order them released.

1926 – Dr. Carter G. Woodson starts Negro History Week.  This week
will be expanded to Black History Month in 1976.

1926 – Theodore “Tiger”(The Georgia Deacon) Flowers becomes the first
African American middleweight champion of the world.  He will
defeat Harry Greb in fifteen rounds to win the title in New
York City.

1928 – Antoine “Fats” Domino is born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He
will be a pioneering Rhythm & Blues pianist whose hits will
include “Ain’t That A Shame” and “Blueberry Hill.”

1930 – “The Green Pastures” opens on Broadway at the Mansfield Theater
with Richard B. Harrison as “De Lawd.”

1946 – A race riot in Columbia, Tennessee results in two deaths and
ten injured persons.

1964 – Boxer Cassius Clay converts to Islam, adopting the name
Muhammad Ali, saying, “I believe in the religion of
Islam…believe in Allah and peace…”

1965 – During civil rights demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, that were
designed to get the attention of the Johnson administration in
Washington, DC, police violence erupts against the marchers.
In an effort to protect his mother from a beating, 26 year old
Jimmie Lee Jackson strikes a police officer.  He will join the
ancestors after being shot and killed.  Civil rights activists,
outraged by his death, will plan a march from the Edmund Pettus
Bridge in Selma to Montgomery.

1966 – Andrew Brimmer becomes the first African American governor of
the Federal Reserve Board when he is appointed by President
Lyndon B. Johnson.

1984 – Rev. Jesse Jackson acknowledges that he referred to New York
City as “Hymietown.”

1985 – At the 27th Grammy Awards, Best Album of the Year for “Can’t
Slow Down”, is presented to Lionel Richie.  Tina Turner is a
big winner with Best Song, Best Record and Best Pop Vocal
Performance by a Female for “What’s Love Got to Do with It.”

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

KRLemmons African American History

February 25 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 25 *

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

1867 – Tennessee Gov. William Gannaway Brownlow issues a proclamation
warning that the unlawful events of the Ku Klux Klan “must and
SHALL cease” and that militia would be immediately organized
against the organization. This is in response to Ku Klux Klan
activities in a nine county area. The Klan’s aim is to
reverse the interlocking changes sweeping over the South
during the Reconstruction: to destroy the Republican’s party’s
infrastructure, undermine the Reconstruction state, reestablish
control of the black labor force, and restore racial
subordination in every aspect of Southern life. (Editor’s Note:
The KKK was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee on December 15, 1865)

1870 – Hiram Rhoades Revels of Mississippi becomes the first African
American Senator. He is elected by the Mississippi legislature
to fill the Senate seat vacated by Jefferson Davis. After the
Senate term expires, he will become the first President of
Alcorn A&M College, in Lorman, Mississippi (the first African
American land-grant institution in the United States).

1948 – Martin Luther King, Jr. is ordained as a Baptist minister.
After graduating from Morehouse College in June, 1948, he will
enter the Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania.

1964 – Twenty-two year old Cassius Clay becomes world heavyweight
boxing champion when he defeats Sonny Liston in Miami, Florida.
The feared Liston is the favorite, but Clay predicts he will
“float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” Soon after his
victory, Clay will assume his Muslim name of Muhammad Ali. He
will be considered by many, the greatest heavyweight champion
of all time.

1978 – Daniel “Chappie” James, Jr. joins the ancestors at the age of
58 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. James was an early graduate
of the Tuskegee Institute Flying School and flew more than 100
missions during the Korean War. He was the first African
American to achieve the rank of four-star general.

1980 – Robert E. Hayden, African American poet and former poetry
consultant to the Library of Congress, joins the ancestors in
Ann Arbor, Michigan. Hayden’s most notable works include
“Words in Mourning Time and Angle of Ascent: New and Selected
Poems.”

1991 – Adrienne Mitchell becomes the first African American woman to
die in a combat zone in the Persian Gulf War when she joins
the ancestors after being killed in her military barracks in
Dharan, Saudi Arabia.

1992 – Natalie Cole, Patti LaBelle, Lisa Fischer, Luther Vandross,
B.B. King, Boyz II Men, and James Brown, among others, win
Grammy awards in ceremonies hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.

1999 – A jury in Jasper, Texas, sentences white supremacist John
William King to death for chaining James Byrd Jr., an African
American man, to a pickup truck and dragging him to pieces.

2000 – The killers of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo, four
white New York police officers, are acquitted of all charges
by a jury in Albany, New York. Diallo had been fired upon 41
times, with 19 shots hitting him while holding only his wallet
in the vestibule of his own home.

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

KRLemmons African American History

February 24 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – February 24 *

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

1811 – The first African American to become a college president
(Wilberforce University in Ohio – 1863), Daniel A. Payne, is
born in Charleston, South Carolina. He will become an
educator, clergyman, bishop, and historian of the AME Church.

1842 – James Forten, Sr. joins the ancestors in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. A businessman who amassed a fortune as a sail
maker, Forten was one of the most influential abolitionists
of the first half of the 19th century. He also was in the
midst of many significant events and was one of Philadelphia’s
most prominent African Americans. He was chairman of the
first Negro Convention in 1835, helped to organize the 1st
African Lodge of Free Masons in Philadelphia (1787), and one
of the founders of the Free African Society (1787 – which grew
into St. Thomas African Episcopal Church).

1940 – Jimmy Ellis is born in Louisville, Kentucky. He will become a
national Golden Gloves champion and will go on to become the
WBA heavyweight boxing champion from 1968 to 1970. At 197
pounds, he will be the lightest man to win the heavyweight
title in the past 35 years.

1956 – Eddie Murray is born in Los Angeles, California. He will
become a professional baseball player, winning the American
League Rookie of the Year award in 1977. Over his career, he
will hit over 500 career home runs. That will make him the
fifteenth player in baseball history to reach that milestone,
and will join Willie Mays and Henry Aaron as the only players
with 500 home runs and 3000 hits. Murray currently ranks
eleventh all time in hits (3,203), eighth in RBI (1,888), and
ninth in games played (2,950).

1966 – Military leaders oust Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana – while on a peace
mission, in Peking, to stop the Vietnam War.

1980 – Willie Davenport and Jeff Gadley, the first African Americans
to represent the United States in the Winter Olympics, place
12th in the four-man bobsled competition. Davenport had been
a medal winner in the 1968 and 1976 Summer Games.

1982 – Quincy Jones wins five Grammys for “The Dude,” including
‘Producer of the Year.’

1987 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Los Angeles Lakers scores his first
three-point shot. The leading scorer in NBA history had
already scored 36,000 points. Kareem had never scored more
than two points at a time.

1992 – Edward Perkins is nominated United Nations ambassador by
President George Bush. Perkins had formerly served as
director-general of the United States Foreign Service and
ambassador to the Republic of South Africa.

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

KRLemmons African American History, African American Literature, Resources

Happy Birthday, W.E.B. Du Bois and Haki Madhubuti!

February 23 is the birthday of two famous literary people: W.E.B. Du Bois and Haki Madhubuti.

Information about W.E.B. Du Bois is available by clicking on the links below:

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/features/profiles/d/web-du-bois.html

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/dubois/

http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?subcategory=42

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/172481/W-E-B-Du-Bois

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_people_dubois.html

Information about Haki Madhubuti is available by clicking on the links below:

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/484

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102593652

http://www.howard.edu/library/reference/guides/madhubuti/default.htm