June 22 Poem of the Day

Enjoy your summertime with June 22 Poem of the Day “Summer in the South” by Paul Laurence Dunbar.  Click here to read the poem.

June 25 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 25 *

1876 – The most famous Native American uprising, at Little
Big Horn, begins in the Dakota territories (present-
day Montana). General George Armstrong Custer leads
three U.S. Army battalions to their deaths, including
Isaiah Dorman, an African American cavalryman, scout,
and intermediary between the Sioux and the United
States government, who had warned Custer of the
hostile Native American presence.

1933 – James Howard Meredith, the first African American
student at the University of Mississippi, is born in
Kosciusko, Mississippi.

1935 – Eddie Lee Floyd, rhythm and blues recording artist
(“California Girl,” “Knock on Wood”) and songwriter is
born in Montgomery, Alabama. His recording career did
not keep him from being one of his label’s most
productive writers. Virtually every Stax artist will
record his material, often co-written with either
Steve Cropper or Booker T. Jones, including Sam & Dave’s
“You Don’t Know What You Mean to Me”, Rufus Thomas’ “The
Breakdown”, Otis Redding’s “I Love You More Than Words
Can Say”, and Johnnie Taylor’s “Just the One (I’ve Been
Looking For)”. The latter will play during the opening
credits of director Harold Ramis’s film “Bedazzled.”
In 1980, he will also release material on the UK record
label I-Spy Records, owned and created by the UK band,
Secret Affair. He will join old Stax collaborators
Cropper and Dunn, and front The Blues Brothers Band on
a series of world tours, and in 1998, he and Wilson
Pickett will appear on screen dueting on “634-5789” in
Blues Brothers 2000. As well as singing with The Blues
Brothers Band, he will be the special guest with former
Rolling Stone Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings on several
dates in the US and the UK. In 2008, he will return to
Stax Records. His first new album in six years, “Eddie
Loves You So,” will be released in July 2008.

1935 – Joe Louis defeats Primo Carnera at Yankee Stadium.

1941 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order
8802 forbidding racial discrimination in war industries
and government service and creating the Federal
Employment Practices Committee.

1942 – Willis Reed is born in Hico, Louisiana. He will become
a professional basketball player for the New York Knicks
after an All-American career at Grambling State University.
An All-Star in his first seven professional years
(1964-71), he will lead the New York Knicks to their
first-ever title in 1970 before injuries began slowing
him down. For years, He will bang against NBA greats Wilt
Chamberlain, Wes Unseld and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and it
will gradually take its toll. Tendinitis in his knees will
obliterate the 1971 and 1972 seasons, but his unrelenting
will and spirit will enable him to overcome the
frustration and anguish and return in 1973. The left-
handed Reed will contribute athletically and spiritually
to another Knick NBA title in 1973. Torn cartilage in his
right knee will force him to retire in 1974, cutting short
a marvelous career. A physical inside player with a soft
outside jump shot, he will be the only player named MVP of
the All-Star Game, regular season and playoffs in the same
year (1970). A five-time All-NBA selection, he will tally
12,183 points (18.7 ppg) and grab 8,414 rebounds (12.9 rpg).
Playing with a Hall of Fame cast of Dave DeBusschere, Bill
Bradley, Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe and Jerry Lucas, He will
lead the Knicks in scoring five seasons and in rebounding
six seasons. His number 19 jersey will be retired by the
Knicks. He will be enshired in the Hall of Fame in 1982.
He will named to the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in
1996.

1947 – James Carter “Jimmie” Walker, comedian (“JJ” on “Good Times,”
“At Ease”) is born in the Bronx, New York City. In 2012,
his autobiography, “Dyn-o-mite! Good Times, Bad Times, Our
Times – A Memoir,” will be published by Da Capo Press.

1948 – Joe Louis KOs Jersey Joe Walcott in 11 rounds to retain the
heavyweight championship of the world.

1950 – Charles H. Houston is posthumously awarded the NAACP’s
Spingarn Medal for his legal work with the association
Legal Committee. He is cited as a “stalwart defender of
democracy, inspired teacher of youth, and leader in the
legal profession.”

1964 – Racially motivated disturbances erupt in Saint Augustine,
Florida, when a mob of 800 whites attacks part of a parade
of several hundred African Americans participating in an
integration parade.

1968 – Lincoln Alexander of Hamilton West in Ontario, Canada, is
the first Canadian of African descent to become a member
of the Canadian Parliament.

1968 – Bobby Bonds hits a grand slam in his first major league
game playing for the San Francisco Giants.

1975 – Mozambique gains its independence from Portugal. Samora M.
Machel, leader of the Mozambique Liberation Front, becomes
the republic’s first president.

2005 – The NAACP selects retired Verizon executive Bruce S. Gordon
to be its new president.

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

June 24 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 24 *

1844 – Boston African Americans hold the first of a series
of meetings protesting Jim Crow schools.

1884 – John Lynch is the first African American to preside
over a major political party convention when he is
elected temporary Chairman of the Republican National
Convention.

1885 – Samuel David Ferguson is consecrated bishop of the
Protestant Episcopal Church and named bishop of
Liberia. He is the first African American with full
membership in the House of Bishops.

1896 – Booker T. Washington is the first African American to
receive an honorary Master of Arts degree from
Harvard University.

1898 – United States troops, including the African American
Tenth Cavalry, drive Spanish forces from their
entrenched positions at La Guasimas, Cuba.

1933 – Dramatic soprano Matilda Sissieretta Jones joins the
ancestors after succumbing to cancer in Providence,
Rhode Island. Called the “the first Negro prima
donna,” Jones toured with the Tennessee Jubilee
Singers and performed at Carnegie Hall, Madison
Square Garden and at the White House in 1892. She
will be dubbed “Black Patti,” a name she reportedly
disliked for its allusion to white contemporary,
Adelina Patti.

1933 – Samuel ‘Sam’ Jones II is born in Laurinburg, North
Carolina. He will become a professional basketball
player with the Boston Celtics after graduating from
North Carolina Central College. He will be a five time
NBA All Star, and will be enshrined into the Basketball
Hall of fame in 1984. He will be named as one of the 50
greatest players in NBA history in 1996.

1936 – Mary McLeod Bethune, founder-president of Bethune-
Cookman College in Daytona, Beach, Florida, is named
director of Negro Affairs of the National Youth
Administration. She is the first African American
woman to receive a major appointment from the federal
government. The educator will hold the post until
January 1, 1944.

1943 – Georg Stanford Brown is born in Havana, Cuba. He will
become an actor and director. He will star in the TV
series, “The Rookies,” and the mini-series “Roots.”
He will direct “The Jesse Owens Story,” “In Defense of
Kids,” “Ava’s Magical Adventure” and many others.

1949 – “Billboard Magazine” replaces the term ‘Race Record’ on
its record charts with ‘Rhythm & Blues’.

1968 – Joe Frazier TKOs Manda Ramos for the world heavyweight
boxing title.

1968 – Resurrection City is Washington, DC is closed. More than
one hundred residents are arrested when they refuse to
leave the site. Other residents, including Ralph
Abernathy, were arrested during demonstration at the
U.S. Capitol. National Guard troops were mobilized later
in the day to stop the disturbances.

1972 – The rules committee of the Democratic National Convention
approves the nomination of Yvonne Brathwaite Burke as
co-chairperson of the convention. She becomes the first
African American woman to serve in that position in any
major political party in the United States.

1974 – Boston’s National Center for Afro-American Artists becomes
the first African American cultural center to be awarded
a Ford Foundation grant.

1996 – A jury orders the city of Philadelphia to pay $1.5 million
in damages for the bombing of MOVE headquarters in 1985
that killed 11 people.

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

June 23 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 23 *

1824 – The Reverend William Levington, Deacon, establishes St.
James’ First African Protestant Episcopal Church in the
“Upper Room” at Park Avenue and Marion Street. The St.
James Episcopal Church, in Baltimore, Maryland, becomes
the oldest African American Episcopal Church established
south of the Mason-Dixon line.

1888 – Abolitionist Frederick Douglass receives one vote from
the Kentucky delegation at the Republican convention
in Chicago, effectively making him the first African
American candidate nominated for U.S. president.

1893 – Willie Sims, the wealthiest jockey of his time, rides
winning horses in five of six races at Sheepshead Bay
in Brooklyn, New York. Sims will repeat the feat two
years later in addition to winning two Kentucky Derbys
and two Belmont Stakes.

1904 – Willie Mae Ford (later Smith) is born in Rolling Fork,
Mississippi. She will become a leading gospel singer
and will be known as “the mother of gospel music.” She
will join the ancestors in 1994.

1919 – The Black Star Line of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA) is incorporated.

1926 – Langston Hughes’ articles “The Negro Artist and the
Racial Mountain” appears in “Nation “magazine. In it,
Hughes expresses African Americans’ bold new confidence
to create a new art during the Harlem Renaissance. “We
younger Negro artists who create now intend to express
our individual dark skinned selves without fear or
shame.”

1940 – Wilma Rudolph is born in Clarksville, Tennessee. A
polio victim as a child, she will overcome her illness
and win three gold medals at the Summer Games in Rome
(1960), the first American woman to achieve this feat
in a single Olympiad. She will be inducted into the
Olympic Hall of Fame. She will join the ancestors in
November, 1994.

1944 – Rosetta Hightower is born. She will become a singer with
the group, The Orlons. Some of their hits will be “The
Wah Watusi,” “Don’t Hang Up,” and “South Street.”

1948 – Clarence Thomas is born in the Pinpoint community, near
Savannah, Georgia. He will become a U.S. Supreme Court
Justice in 1991, replacing Thurgood Marshall as the only
African American among the nine jurists. He is
appointed by the conservative Republican administration
to satisfy the need to have an African American on the
court, while at the same time have a justice that is very
conservative. This will serve to increase the court’s
decisions that negatively affect African Americans and
other minorities and weaken affirmative action.

1956 – Steven Randall “Randy” Jackson in born in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. He will become an American musician and
record producer. He will be best known to the general
public for being a judge on the television show American
Idol. As a musician Randy Jackson will play the electric
bass. He will be the bass player for the band Journey
for a period in the 1980s. He will also record, produce,
or tour with many well-known artists and bands, ranging
from Mariah Carey (whom he knew when she was still a
teenager; he will be in her band at Live 8 in London in
2005) to *NSYNC, Céline Dion, Bruce Springsteen and
Madonna. He will also work as an executive with Columbia
Records and MCA Records. He will be a judge with American
Idol since its inception in 2002. On the show he will be
known for taking a middle road of criticism between the
supportiveness of Paula Abdul and the nastiness of Simon
Cowell. He will popularize “pitchy” as the way to describe
off-key singing. He will also be renowned for his heavy
use of slang terms and gestures, most notably the word
“dawg”. When Randy says “you can blow,” it means “you can
sing well.” Jackson will sometimes wear outrageous outfits
and supplies an endless inspirational resource for those
looking for eye glasses.

1958 – A federal judge ruled racial segregation in Little Rock,
Arkansas, must end in 30 months.

1966 – Jonathan “Chico” DeBarge is born in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
He will launch a promising solo career on Motown in the
late ’80s. Despite a hit single and a hit debut album, his
career will be sidelined by imprisonment on a drug charge.
After he completes his sentence, DeBarge will launch a
comeback in November 1997 with the release of “Long Time
No See”. “The Game” will follow in 1999.

1969 – Joe Frazier defeats Jerry Quarry for the heavyweight boxing
title.

1970 – Charles Rangel defeats Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. in the New
York Democratic primary in Harlem. This will end the
political career of one of the major political symbols of
the post-World War II period.

1975 – Virgo Williams is born. He will become a Rhythm and Blues
singer with the Ghostowns DJs.

1982 – The House of Representatives approves the extension of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965, despite North Carolina Senator
Jesse Helms’ attempt to block the House vote. The Senate
had approved the extension of the bill five days before the
historic House vote.

1990 – TV Guide selects Arsenio Hall as Television Personality of
the Year.

1994 – After decades as an international outcast, South Africa
reclaims its seat in the United Nations.

1994 – French marines and Foreign Legionnaires head into Rwanda to
try to stem the country’s ethnic slaughter.

1997 – Dr. Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, joins the ancestors
in New York City at the age of 61, 3 weeks after receiving
burns over 80% of her body. Her burns were the result of a
fire set by her grandson, Malcolm.

2003 – Maynard Jackson Jr., who was elected the first African
American mayor of Atlanta in 1973 and transformed urban
politics in America by forcing the city’s white business
elite to open doors to minorities, joins the ancestors at
the age of 65. Thirty years earlier, Jackson survived a
racially charged primary to become the first African
American mayor of a major Southern city. The victory, the
same year that African American mayors were elected in
Detroit and Los Angeles, helped solidify the political
power of urban African Americans.

2003 – Max Manning, star pitcher in the Negro Leagues, joins the
ancestors at the age of 84 after a long illness. His 1937
tryout offer from the Detroit Tigers was rescinded when
they learned that he was African American.

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

June 22 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 22 *

1772 – Slavery is outlawed in England.

1868 – Congress readmits the state of Arkansas on the
condition that it would never change its constitution
to disenfranchise African Americans.

1909 – Katherine Dunham is born in Joliet, Illinois. She
will become one of the revolutionary forces in modern
dance through her introduction and use of African and
Caribbean styles. Successful on the stage and in
movies, including “Stormy Weather”, in the late 1960’s,
she will form the Katherine Dunham Center for the
Performing Arts and in 1983 will be awarded Kennedy
Center honors. She will spend her later years residing
in East St. Louis, Illinois. She will join the
ancestors on May 21, 2006.

1937 – Joe Louis knocks out James Braddock to become the
heavyweight boxing champion of the world. The fight
is won in eight rounds before 45,000 fans, the largest
audience, to date, to witness a fight.

1938 – Joe Louis defeats German boxer Max Schmeling in a
rematch of their 1936 fight and retains his world
heavyweight crown. Because of the Nazi persecution of
Jews in Europe and Hitler’s disdain for people of
African descent, the fight will take on mythic
proportion, with Louis seen by many as fighting to
uphold democracy and the race. He succeeds
convincingly, ending the fight in 2:04 of the first
round at Yankee Stadium.

1941 – Ed Bradley is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A
CBS correspondent covering the Vietnam conflict,
Bradley will become co-anchor of CBS’ “60 Minutes” and
win at least six Emmy awards. He will join the ancestors
on November 9, 2006 after succumbing to leukemia at the
age of 65.

1947 – Octavia Butler is born in Pasadena, California. She
will become a science fiction writer and winner of the
Hugo Award for excellence in science fiction writing in
1984.

1949 – Ezzard Charles defeats Jersey Joe Walcott to win the
heavyweight championship of the world.

1962 – Clyde ‘The Glide’ Drexler is born in Houston, Texas.
He will become a basketball star at the University of
Houston and will lead Houston’s “Phi Slamma Jamma” team
to the NCAA Final Four two years in a row, 1983 and 1984.
He will be drafted by the NBA Portland Trailblazers,
where he will play twelve seasons, and will lead them to
the NBA FInals twice. In 1992, he will be selected to the
U.S. Olympics basketball team, nicknamed “The Dream Team”,
which will win the gold medal in Barcelona. After being
traded to the Houston Rockets, he will join his teammate
from the University of Houston, Hakeem Olajuwon and help
the Rockets win the NBA championship in 1995. After
retiring from the NBA, he will become the head coach at
his alma mater, the University of Houston. He will later
become the color commentator for the Houston Rockets. He
will be inducted into the Naismth Memorial Basketball Hall
of Fame on September 10, 2004, in his first year of
eligibility. He will be named one of basketball’s fifty
greatest players by the NBA.

1963 – “Fingertips – Pt 2” by Little Stevie Wonder is released.
It becomes Wonder’s first number one single on August 10th.
Stevie Wonder will have 46 hits on the pop and Rhythm &
Blues music charts between 1963 and 1987. Eight of those
hits will make it to number one.

1989 – The government of Angola and the anti-Communist rebels of
the UNITA movement agree to a formal truce in their
14-year-old civil war.

1990 – African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, speaking
before the United Nations, states that a democratic,
nonracial South Africa is “within our grasp.”

1991 – “Kaleidoscope”, an exhibit of the work of over 30 African
American photographers, opens at the Anacostia Museum in
Washington, DC. Among those exhibited are masters Addison
Scurlock and Robert Scurlock as well as contemporary
photographers Matthew Lewis, Sam Yette, Sharon Farmer, and
Brian Jones.

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

June 21 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 21 *

1821 – The African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church is
formally constituted in New York City at its first annual
conference. Nineteen clergymen were present, representing
six African American churches from New York City,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New Haven, Connecticut and
Newark, New Jersey. They voted to separate from the
white-controlled Methodist Episcopal Church, which had
insisted on ultimate control of the church’s leadership and
property. To distinguish between the two African Methodist
Episcopal organizations, as well as to honor their original
congregation, in 1848 they will vote to add Zion to their
name.

1832 – Joseph Haynes Rainey is born in Georgetown, South Carolina.
He will become the first African American elected to the
U.S. House of Representatives, where he will serve five
terms.

1859 – Henry Ossawa Tanner is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Son
of AME bishop Benjamin Tanner, young Tanner will forgo the
ministry to take up painting. Constantly facing the tension
between racial stereotypes and his art, Tanner will
eventually emigrate to France to pursue his art, considered
by many the finest produced by an African American. He will
be known for his commanding use of light and color in his
seascapes, scenes of everyday life, and religious paintings.
He will join the ancestors in Paris, France on May 25, 1937.

1868 – John Hope is born in Augusta, Georgia. He will become the
first African American president of Atlanta Baptist (later
Morehouse) College in 1906. He will be a pioneer in the
field of education. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown
University, He will encourage an intellectual climate
comparable to what he had known at his alma mater and will
openly challenge Booker T. Washington’s view that education
for African Americans should emphasize vocational and
agricultural skills. He will join the ancestors in 1936.

1923 – Marcus Garvey is sentenced by the U.S. government to 5 years
in prison for using the U.S. mail to defraud. He is
railroaded by a government that is terrified by the control
that one magnificent orator had over African Americans.
They did not want their major source of cheap labor in
America to leave for Africa.

1927 – Carl B. Stokes, the first African American elected mayor of
a major American city is born. Stokes will be elected to
two terms as mayor of Cleveland, Ohio at a time of urban
riots and racial unrest in many major U.S. cities. Civil
rights leaders said his election was an advance, both
symbolic and genuine, for the cause of black political
empowerment. He is instrumental in getting through a law
requiring city contractors to have minority employment
programs. President Clinton will appoint him, in 1994, as
ambassador to the Seychelles, an island nation in the
Indian Ocean. He will join the ancestors on April 3, 1996.

1945 – Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African
American to command a U.S. Army Air Force base when he
takes command of the 477th Composite Group of Godman Field
in Kentucky.

1951 – PFC William H. Thompson is posthumously awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor. He is the first African
American recipient since the Spanish-American War.

1964 – In Neshoba County in central Mississippi, three civil rights
field workers disappear after investigating the burning of
an African American church by the Ku Klux Klan. Michael
Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, both white New Yorkers, had
traveled to heavily segregated Mississippi in 1964 to help
organize civil rights efforts on behalf of the Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE). The third man, James Chaney, was a
local African American man who had joined CORE in 1963. The
disappearance of the three young men garnered national
attention and led to a massive FBI investigation that was
code-named MIBURN, for “Mississippi Burning.” They are later
found murdered.

1965 – Arthur Ashe leads UCLA to the NCAA tennis championship.

1990 – Little Richard gets a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

1997 – Patrice Rushen receives an NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award
for her contributions in the field of music.

2001 – Famed blues man John Lee Hooker joins the ancestors at the
age of 83 of natural causes in Los Altos, California. The
veteran blues singer from the Mississippi Delta estimated
that he recorded more than 100 albums over nearly seven
decades. He won a Grammy Award for a version of “I’m In The
Mood,” was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
1991 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2000
Grammys. Through it all, Hooker’s music remained hypnotic
and unchanged — his rich and sonorous voice, full of
ancient hurt, coupled with a brooding, rhythmic guitar. He
sang of loneliness and confusion. Neither polished nor
urbane, his music was raw, primal emotion.

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

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.

Happy Juneteenth!

June 19th commemorates the emancipation of African American slaves in Texas.  “Although the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, slavery will continue in Texas, until General Gordon Granger arrives in Galveston with Union forces, announcing that all slaves in Texas are free. One third of the people in Texas are slaves. Juneteenth will be celebrated annually with picnics and barbecues at public emancipation grounds, some of which will be used past year 2000. Juneteenth will become a legal Texas state holiday in 1980.” (Munirah Chronicle)

A few books that talk about Juneteenth are:

Weatherford, Carole Boston. Juneteenth jamboree

Ellison, Ralph.  Juneteenth: A Novel

Web resources are:

juneteenth World Wide Celebration: http://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm

Juneteenth Texas State Historical Association: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lkj0

Trending Juneteenth Library of Congress blog: http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2013/06/trending-juneteenth/

Juneteenth Celebration: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/es/tx/es_tx_june_1.html

Celebrate Juneteenth!: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/calendar-activities/celebrate-juneteenth-20547.html

Celebrate freedom!

June 19 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – June 19 *

1809 – The first African Baptist Church in the U.S. became
an organized body in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1862 – Slavery is abolished in U.S. territories by Congress.

1864 – In a famous duel between the USS Kearsage and the CSS
Alabama off Cherbourg, France, a brave African American
sailor, Joachim Pease, displays “marked coolness” and
will win a Congressional Medal of Honor. The CSS
Alabama will be sunk.

1865 – Although the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in
1863, slavery will continue in Texas, until General
Gordon Granger arrives in Galveston with Union forces,
announcing that all slaves in Texas are free. One
third of the people in Texas are slaves. Juneteenth
will be celebrated annually with picnics and barbecues
at public emancipation grounds, some of which will be
used past year 2000. Juneteenth will become a legal
Texas state holiday in 1980. “JUNETEENTH” celebrations
will come to commemorate the emancipation of African
Americans everywhere.

1867 – P.B.S. Pinchback urges African Americans to use their
franchise privileges. “The Congress of the United
States has conferred upon our People the Elective
Franchise and it is our important duty to see that we
use it well….”

1868 – Maj. Gen. E.R.S. Canby removes the mayor and aldermen
of Columbia, South Carolina, and makes new appointments,
including three African Americans: C.M. Wilder, Joseph
Taylor and William Simonds.

1914 – Ernest Crichlow is born in Brooklyn, New York.
Studying at the Art Students League, Crichlow will be
associated with the Harlem Art Center during the 1930’s
as a noted painter and illustrator whose objectives will
be to advocate social commentary and communication
through art. He will join the ancestors on November 10,
2005.

1926 – DeFord Bailey becomes the first African American
musician to perform on Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry show.

1936 – Joe Louis is knocked out by Max Schmeling in the 12th
round of their heavyweight boxing match. The German boxer
earns his victory at Yankee Stadium in New York.

1946 – Joe Louis fights Billy Conn, in New York City, in the
first championship prize fight to be televised.

1948 – Phylicia Ayers-Allen Rashad, actress (best known for
playing the part of Clair opposite Bill Cosby on the long-
running “Cosby Show”) is born in Houston, Texas.

1953 – Albert W. Dent, president of Dillard University, is
elected president of the National Health Council.

1953 – A bus boycott begins in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

1959 – Mark DeBarge is born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He will
become a recording artist as a member of the rhythm & blues
group DeBarge. The group will be composed of three brothers,
Randy, James and Eldra and sister Bunny. They will actively
perform from 1978 to 1991.

1962 – Paula Julie Abdul, singer/choreographer, is born in Van
Nuys, California.

1964 – The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved by the Senate,
73-27, after surviving an 83-day filibuster.

1965 – “I Can’t Help Myself” by the Four Tops tops the pop and
Rhythm & Blues charts. The Motown group will get their second
and only other number one hit with “Reach Out I’ll Be There”
in 1966. Their other hits include: “It’s the Same Old Song”,
“Standing in the Shadows of Love”, “Bernadette” and “Ain’t No
Woman (Like the One I’ve Got)” (their only million seller).
The group calls Motown, Detroit, Michigan home and got their
start in 1953 as the Four Aims. Levi Stubbs, Renaldo ‘Obie’
Benson, Lawrence Payton and Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir will place 24
hits on the charts from 1964 to 1988. They first recorded as
The Four Tops for Leonard Chess and Chess Records in 1956;
then went to Red Top and Columbia before signing with Berry
Gordy’s Motown label in 1963. The Tops, who will have no
personnel changes in their more than 35 years together will
be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

1968 – Fifty thousand demonstrators participate in Solidarity Day
March of the Poor People’s Campaign. Marchers walk from the
Washington Monument to the Lincoln Monument, where they are
addressed by Vice President Hubert Humphrey, presidential
candidate Eugene McCarthy, Coretta Scott King and Ralph
Abernathy.

1969 – Illinois State troopers are ordered to Cairo, by the
governor, to quell racially motivated disturbances.

1971 – The mayor of Columbus, Georgia declares a state of emergency
due to racial disturbances.

1986 – Len Bias, a senior at the University of Maryland and the
1st-round pick of the Boston Celtics, joins the ancestors
after suffering a fatal cocaine-induced seizure.

1990 – Opening statements are presented in the drug and perjury
trial of Washington D.C. Mayor Marion S. Barry Jr. Barry is
later convicted of a single count of misdemeanor drug
possession, and sentenced to six months in prison. He will
resume a career in politics after prison, when he is elected
to the DC City Council representing Ward 8.

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

June 18 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – June 18 *

1889 – William H. Richardson receives a patent for a baby
carriage whose body can be raised from its frame.

1939 – Louis Clark “Lou” Brock is born in El Dorado, Arkansas.
He will become a professional baseball player with the
Chicago Cubs in 1961. Three years later, in 1964, he
will be traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. Brock will
have an immediate impact with the Cardinals entering the
starting lineup. He will record 12 homeruns, 44 RBI, an
amazing .348 batting average, and blister the baselines
stealing 44 bases in his first season with St. Louis.
During his 19-year career, the outfielder will steal an
unprecedented 938 bases and break several World Series
records, including hitting .391 in over 20 World Series
games. Exemplifying the spirit of baseball on and off
the field, Brock will earn the Roberto Clemente and the
Jackie Robinson Awards, among many others. A Cardinal
for the remainder of his career, Lou Brock will enter the
Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 1985.

1941 – President Roosevelt confers with A. Philip Randolph and
other leaders of a “March on Washington” movement and
urges them to call off a scheduled demonstration. Randolph
refuses.

1942 – Bernard W. Robinson, of Harvard Medical School, becomes a
Naval Reserve ensign. He is the first African American to
earn a U.S. Navy commission.

1953 – Egypt becomes a republic after the forced abdication of
King Farouk I. General Neguib becomes president.

1963 – Bruce Bernard Smith is born in Norfolk, Virginia. He will
become a defensive end for the NFL Buffalo Bills. He will
spend his last few years with the Washington Redskins where
he will break Reggie White’s record for sacks. The holder
of the NFL career record for quarterback sacks, he will be
enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009, his
first year of eligibility

1963 – 3,000 African Americans boycott Boston public schools as
a protest against defacto segregation.

1968 – The U.S. Supreme Court bans racial discrimination in the
sale and rental of housing.

1966 – Samuel Nabrit becomes the first African American scientist
to serve on the Atomic Energy Commission.

1982 – The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is extended for an additional
twenty-five years by Senate vote of 85-8. The Voting Rights
Act protects citizens’ ability to vote, not the right to
vote. All U.S. citizens have the right to vote, but state
and local jurisdictions are prevented from interfering with
the voters’ ability to vote. It outlaws such practices as
poll taxes, reciting the preamble to the U.S. Constitution,
etc. as a condition to vote.

1985 – Patrick Ewing becomes one of 11 basketball centers to be
chosen in the first round of the National Basketball
Association draft of college players. Ewing is picked by
— and will become a major star for — the New York Knicks.

1991 – City Auditor, Wellington Webb is elected mayor of Denver,
Colorado. He becomes the first African American to hold the
post.

2003 – Larry Doby joins the ancestors at age 79 after a long
illness. He was a Hall of Fame pitcher for the Cleveland
Indians and Chicago White Sox and second African American
player in the modern major leagues. Jackie Robinson was the
first.

2011 – Clarence Clemons joins the ancestors at the age of 69. Also
known as “the Big Man,” he was the saxophonist in the “E
Street Band,” Bruce Springsteen’s back up band. He succumbed
to complications from a stroke. Bruce Springsteen’s statement:
“Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love
of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and
extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and
gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage. His
loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have
known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for
nearly forty years. He was my great friend, my partner, and
with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a
story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His
life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and
in our band.”

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