August 22 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – August 22 *

1788 – The British settlement in Sierra Leone is founded to
provide a home in Africa for freed slaves and homeless
Africans from England.

1791 – The Haitian Revolution begins with revolt of slaves in the
northern province.

1791 – Mathematician Benjamin Banneker serves on commission which
will survey the District of Columbia.

1843 – Henry Highland Garnet issues a call for slave revolt in “An
Address to Slaves of the United States” before a national
convention of African Americans in Buffalo, New York.

1867 – Fisk University is established in Nashville, Tennessee.

1880 – George Herriman is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. A
perfectly ordinary-looking guy from beginning to end,
albeit with a few small quirks (such as never allowing a
picture to be taken of him without a hat). But behind that
relatively normal exterior lurked the unique genius who
created the cartoon Krazy Kat. His family moved to Los
Angeles, CA, when he was six years old, although from
various accounts, he seems to have kept his New Orleans
accent (very different from standard Southern) well into
adult life. He called Los Angeles his home town because it
was there that his family shed the labels that accrued to
them as a result of their partially African ancestry. He
will join the ancestors on April 25, 1944.

1917 – John Lee Hooker, who will become a renowned blues singer
and guitarist, is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

1950 – Althea Gibson becomes the first African American competitor
in national tennis competition.

1951 – The Harlem Globetrotters play in Olympic Stadium, Berlin,
Germany before 75,052 non-paying spectators. This is the
largest crowd to witness a basketball game (up to that
time).

1978 – Jomo Kenyatta (original name KAMAU NGENGI), president of
Kenya, joins the ancestors after succumbing to heart
failure in his sleep while vacationing in Mobasa, Kenya at
the age of 83. He was the leading force in Kenya’s
independence struggles.

1979 – 200 African American leaders meet in New York City in
support of Andrew Young (after he had resigned as U.N.
ambassador under pressure for “unauthorized” meeting with
the PLO) and demand that African Americans be given a voice
in shaping American foreign policy.

1984 – Evelyn Ashford of the United States ties the world women’s
mark for the 100 meters (10.76 seconds).

1984 – New York Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden becomes the 11th rookie
to strikeout 200 batters.

1989 – Huey Percy Newton joins the ancestors in Oakland,
California. The founder of the Black Panther Party is
shot to death outside a crack cocaine house, allegedly by
a drug dealer whom Newton had robbed (Gunman Tyrone
Robinson will sentenced later to 32 years to life in
prison).

2011 – Nickolas Ashford joins the ancestors at the age of 70, after
succumbing to complications of throat cancer. With Valerie
Simpson, his songwriting partner and later his wife, he wrote
some of Motown’s biggest hits, like “Ain’t No Mountain High
Enough” and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” before they
remade their careers as a recording and touring duo.

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

August 21 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – August 21 *

1831 – Responding to a vision commanding him to lead his people
to freedom, Nat Turner and a group of seven freedom-
fighting slaves kill five members of the Travis family
in Southampton County, Virginia. Turner’s revolt will
last two days, involve 60 to 80 freedom-fighting slaves
and result in the deaths of at least 57 whites before
they go into hiding. Nat Turner manages to escape
capture for over six weeks. After his capture, he
confesses to his actions, is tried, and executed. This
revolt is significant because it will make the problem
of slavery visible to the Northerners, who within the
next 30 years will fight and die to end America’s
“peculiar institution.”

1906 – William “Count” Basie is born in Redbank, New Jersey.
One of the most influential forces in jazz, he will
amass numerous awards, including three Grammys and
Kennedy Center Honors in 1981 . He will join the
ancestors on April 26, 1984. NOTE: Many sources will
have 1904 for Count Basie’s birth year. Our source for
his birth and death is the Kennedy Center Archives
documenting “The Honors” bestowed on him in 1981.

1927 – The Fourth Pan-African Congress meets in New York City.

1932 – Melvin Van Pebbles is born in Chicago, Illinois. A
writer and dramatist, he will produce some of the more
important African American feature films of the 1960’s
and 1970’s, including “Story of a Three Day Pass,”
“Watermelon Man,” “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadass Song” and
the classic, “Putney Swope.”

1936 – Wilton Norman Chamberlain is born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Achieving a height of 6’11” in high school,
he will be recruited to play basketball for Kansas
University. He will leave Kansas University in his third
year to play with the Harlem Globetrotters and join the
Philadelphia Warriors (later 76ers) in 1959. He will
join the Los Angeles Lakers in 1969 and become a player-
coach in 1968 for the San Diego Conquistadors of the
American Basketball Association. He will lead the NBA in
scoring seven times, accumulate a 4,029 season point
record and become a seven-time all-NBA first teamer. He
will join the ancestors on October 12, 1999.

1938 – The classic recording, “Ain’t Misbehavin” is made by Fats
Waller.

1939 – Clarence Williams III is born in New York City. He will
become an actor best known for his starring role in the
television series, “The Mod Squad” as Lincoln.

1943 – Harriet M. West becomes the first African American woman
major in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). She becomes chief
of planning in the Bureau Control Division at the WAC
headquarters in Washington, DC.

1945 – Willie Lanier (Pro Football Hall of Famer and Kansas City
Chiefs linebacker: Super Bowl IV), is born.

1954 – Archie Griffin (Heisman Trophy winner: Ohio State [1974 &
1975]; Cincinnati Bengals running back: Super Bowl XVI),
is born.

1968 – Marine James Anderson Jr. becomes the first African
American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor
for his service in the Vietnam War.

1972 – The Republican National Convention convenes in Miami Beach,
Florida, with fifty-six African American delegates, 4.2
\ per cent of the total.

1986 – More than 1,700 people die when toxic gas erupts from a
volcanic lake in the West African nation of Cameroon.

1998 – Juanita Kidd Stout, the first African American woman to
serve on the supreme court in any state (January, 1988),
joins the ancestors in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Stout
loses a battle against leukemia at Thomas Jefferson
Hospital.

2000 – Julian Richardson, the owner of a San Francisco book
store that served as a meeting place for black artists
and activists in the city, joins the ancestors after
succumbing to heart failure at the age of 84. He
established the Marcus Bookstore in 1960, naming it after
Black nationalist writer and activist Marcus Garvey. The
store was a staple of black culture and was a gathering
place for Black Panthers supporters during the civil
rights era. Through the years, writers such as Alice
Walker, Ishmael Reed, Terry MacMillan and Cornel West
came to the bookstore. He studied lithography in college
and opened his own printing business. He used his skills
to print books, pamphlets and manuscripts on black
culture that otherwise would have to have been ordered
from the East Coast.

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

August 20 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 20 *

1565 – Artisans and farmers of African descent aid explorer
Menendez in the building of St. Augustine, Florida.

1619 – The first group of 20 Africans is brought by the Dutch
to the colony at Jamestown, Virginia. The early
African arrivals will be considered indentured servants,
and indeed records in the Chesapeake area will show
many freed people of African descent. In 1650, the laws
will be changed to make servitude permanent for Africans
and their offspring.

1856 – Wilberforce University is established in Wilberforce,
Ohio. It will become the nation’s oldest, private
African American university.

1931 – Donald “Don” King is born in Cleveland, Ohio. He will
become a boxing promoter who will control the heavyweight
title from 1978-1990 while Larry Holmes and Mike Tyson
are champions. He will gain fame in 1974 by sponsoring
the boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman
in Zaire, popularly known as “The Rumble in the Jungle.”
He will solidify his position as an influential promoter
the next year by sponsoring a third match for Ali against
Joe Frazier in Manila, the capital of the Philippines,
which King named the “Thrilla In Manila.” He will also
promote one of the final fights of Ali’s career against
Larry Holmes. He will be known for his flamboyant manner
and outrageous hair styled to stand straight up. He will
promote the fights of such fighters as Sugar Ray Leonard,
Leon Spinks, Roberto Durán, Julio César Chávez, Mike
Tyson, Evander Holyfield, and Felix Trinidad. His
financial success will continue into the 1980s and ’90s.
In 1983, he will promote 12 world championship bouts.
In 1994, he will promote 47 such bouts. He will be
heavily criticized, however, for a business strategy
that results in his control over many of the top boxers,
especially in the lucrative heavyweight division. He will
use a contractual clause that requires a boxer who wished
to challenge a fighter belonging to King to agree to be
promoted by King in the future should he win. Thus, no
matter which boxer won, he represented the winner. Those
who were unwilling to sign contracts with this obligatory
clause found it very difficult to obtain fights,
especially title fights, with boxers who were promoted by
him. He will be the focus of a myriad of criminal
investigations and will be indicted numerous times. In
1999, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation seized
thousands of records from his offices that concerned
alleged payoffs by him to the president of the
International Boxing Federation for the purpose of
procuring more favorable rankings for his boxers. He will
be a mixed blessing to the sport. On one hand, he will
organize some of the largest purses in the history of the
sport and creatively promote boxing and his bouts. On the
other hand, his legal problems and controversial tactics
will reinforce the public perception of boxing as a
corrupt sport.

1942 – Isaac Lee Hayes is born in Covington, Tennessee. He will
begin his recording career in 1962, soon playing saxophone
for The Mar-Keys. After writing a string of hit songs at
Stax Records with songwriting partner David Porter,
including “Soul Man” and “Hold On I’m Comin” for Sam and
Dave, he will release his debut album “Presenting Isaac
Hayes.” A moderate success, the album will be recorded
immediately following a wild party. The top-selling “Hot
Buttered Soul” (1969) will be a breakthrough album, and
establish his image (gold jewelry, sunglasses, etc) which
eventually will become a template for much of the fashion
of gangsta rap and similar trends in the 1980s and 90s.
His biggest hit will be 1971’s soundtrack to the movie
“Shaft.” The title song will win an Oscar (the first for
a Black composer), and will clearly presaged disco.
“Black Moses” (1971) will become almost as successful. By
1975, he will leave Stax Records and form his own label
called Hot Buttered Soul Records. A series of unsuccessful
albums will lead to bankruptcy in 1976. The late 1970s
will see a major comeback for him, following the release
of “A Man and a Woman” (1977, with Dionne Warwick). In
spite of moderate success as a singer, his records will
not sell very well. He will also forge a career as an
actor in TV shows and feature films. He will be inducted
into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. On June 9,
2005, he will be inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of
Fame. He will also voice the character “Chef”, a singing
ladies’ man and elementary school cook, on the popular
animated sitcom “South Park” from 1997 until 2006. He will
join the ancestors on August 10, 2008.

1954 – Albert Lincoln “Al” Roker, co-anchor of the “Today” show,
is born in Queens, New York. He will attend the State
University of New York at Oswego, where he will double
major in graphic design and broadcasting/journalism. He
will work in television around the Cleveland and New York
areas before becoming a weatherman for WNBC in New York.
He will get more exposure, especially when David Letterman
asks him to do an elevator race with him in one episode of
his talk show, “Late Night with David Letterman.” That
will lead to him getting a job as the weekend weatherman
for “Weekend Today,” where he will do the weather for
nine years. He will also substitute on the weekday edition
of “Today” when Willard Scott is ill or away. In 1996,
Scott will announce his semi-retirement from the show, and
Al will receive the weekday weatherman position on
“Today.” He will become popular for doing his forecasts
outside of the studio, interviewing audience members and
giving some of them camera time. One of his best known
lines from the show will be “…and here’s what’s
happening in your neck of the woods.”

1964 – The Economic Opportunity Act is signed by President Lyndon
B. Johnson. The act initiates what will popularly be
called the “War on Poverty.”

1989 – The first National Black Theater Festival closes in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Organized by Larry Leon
Hamlin, the festival will draw over 20,000 people to
performances of African American classical and
contemporary plays by groups such as the Crossroads
Theater from New Brunswick, New Jersey and the Inner City
Cultural Center of Los Angeles.

1993 – Dr. David Satcher is named director of the Centers for
Disease Control.

1994 – Benjamin Chavis, Jr. is terminated as head of the NAACP
after a turbulent 16-month tenure.

2000 – Eldrick “Tiger” Woods beats Bob May in a three-hole
playoff to win the P.G.A. Championship. Woods is the
first golfer since Ben Hogan in 1953, to win three major
championships in a year. He also becomes the first repeat
winner of the championship since 1936.

2012 – Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a strongman in the
troubled Horn of Africa and a key United States ally, joins
the ancestors at the age of 57.

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

August 19 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – August 19 *

1791 – Benjamin Banneker sends a copy of his just-published
almanac to Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, along
with a letter confronting his hypocrisy-if not indeed the
hypocrisy of white America-in enslaving African Americans
while at the same time declaring the “true and invaluable
doctrine” of the “natural rights” of humankind.

1888 – The first beauty contest is held in Spa, Belgium. The
winner is an eighteen year old beauty from the West
Indies.

1926 – Theodore Flowers, known as the “Georgia Deacon,” wins the
world middleweight boxing title in New York City.

1940 – John Lester “Johnny” Nash, Jr. is born in Houston, Texas.
He will become a singer and will be known for his songs,
“I Can See Clearly Now,” “Stir It Up,” “Hold Me Tight,”
and “A Very Special Love.”

1946 – Charles F. Bolden, Jr., is born in Columbia, South
Carolina. A pilot who flew over 100 sorties in Southeast
Asia, Bolden will be named an astronaut in 1981. He will
become a veteran pilot of several missions, including the
Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1992, when he will participate
as a presenter of a special Academy Award to science-
fiction film producer George Lucas.

1950 – Edith Spurlock Sampson becomes the first African American
appointed to serve on the United States delegation to the
United Nations.

1954 – Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is named undersecretary of the United
Nations.

1982 – Renaldo Nehemiah of the United States sets record for the
110 meter hurdles in 12.93 seconds.

1989 – Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu is among
hundreds of Black demonstrators who are whipped and
sandblasted from helicopters as they attempt to picnic on
a “whites-only” beach near Capetown, South Africa.

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

August 18 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 18 *

1791 – Benjamin Banneker publishes his first Almanac.

1909 – Howard Swanson is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He will become
a classical composer who will study in the United States
and Paris, France, and will write music for orchestra,
solo voice, piano, and chamber ensembles. His initial
training will be at the Cleveland Institute of Music. After
studying with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, France (1938), He
will spend two intensive periods studying and traveling in
New York. He will finally settle in New York City in 1966.
Thanks to Marian Anderson’s 1949 performance of his song
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” his music will begin to gain
national attention. He will win several awards, including
the Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Academy of Arts
and Letters grant. His neo-classical compositional method
will be appealing to a wide range of listeners, with
graceful melodies and a touch of jazz and idioms of black
American folk music. He will join the ancestors on November
12, 1978.

1934 – Roberto Clemente is born in Carolina, Puerto Rico. He will
win the Gold Glove award TWELVE consecutive years and play
in twelve All-Star games. He will be the National League’s
Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1966, the MVP in the 1971
World Series, win four separate National League batting
titles, post a .317 career batting average, and play
eighteen seasons, amassing 3,000 hits and hammering 240
home runs. He will join the ancestors at the age of 38, on
a mercy mission to deliver relief supplies to the victims
of a Nicaraguan earthquake. Tragically, his plane,
carrying food, clothing and medical supplies, will crash
moments after takeoff from San Juan, Puerto Rico on
December 31, 1972.

1935 – Rafer Lewis Johnson is born in Hillsboro, Texas. He will
become a decathlete, winning gold in the 1955 Pan-American
Games, a silver medal in the 1956 Olympics and a gold medal
in the in the 1960 Summer Games in Rome. He will light the
torch in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

1941 – Matt Snell is born in Garfield, Georgia. He will become a
professional football player (running back for the New York
Jets). He will be one of the key players in the Jets
victory in Super Bowl III over the Baltimore Colts.

1954 – James E. Wilkins becomes the first African American to
attend a U.S. presidential cabinet meeting. He is
Assistant Secretary of Labor and attends because the
Secretary and Under-Secretary are away.

1963 – James Meredith becomes the first African American to
graduate from the University of Mississippi.

1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games because of
its apartheid policies.

1970 – Malcolm-Jamal Warner is born in Jersey City, New Jersey.
He will become an child actor and will star on the “The
Cosby Show” as Theodore “Theo” Huxtable. He will also star
as “Here and Now’s” Alexander James and “Malcolm and
Eddie’s” Malcolm.

1976 – Vice Admiral Samuel L. Gravely Jr. assumes command of the
U.S. Third Fleet.

1977 – Stephen Biko, one of the most influential Black student
leaders in South Africa, is arrested in Port Elizabeth
on charges of fomenting unrest among blacks in the city
through his writings. Biko will join the ancestors in
police detention less than a month later, as a result of
a beating by the police.

1981 – Football running back, Herschel Walker, of the University
of Georgia, takes out an insurance policy with Lloyd’s of
London. The All-American is insured for one million
dollars.

1986 – Earl Campbell, the ‘Tyler Rose’, announces his retirement
from professional football. Campbell, the 1977 Heisman
Trophy winner, played eight seasons in the National
Football League — and was a star for the Houston Oilers.
He will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on
July 27, 1991.

______________________________________________________________
Munirah Chronicle is edited by Rene’ A. Perry

August 17 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – August 17 *

1847 – Archibald Henry Grimke’ is born into slavery on a
plantation near Charleston, South Carolina. His white
father, Henry Grimke’, was of the famous Grimke’ family
which included abolitionist sisters Sarah and Angelina.
After being freed in 1852, Archibald will have a
distinguished career as a lawyer (Harvard Law, 1874),
political delegate, newspaper publisher (“The Hub” in
Boston), and author.

1887 – Marcus Mosiah Garvey is born in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica.
He will become a charismatic black nationalist and
founder of the UNIA, an organization dedicated to
education, racial pride, and African development. He
will also found the Black Star Line, an African American
owned steamship company established to link new-world
Blacks with their African motherland. Garvey and several
associates will be railroaded by the U.S. government for
“mail fraud” in connection with the sale of Black Star
stock. Garvey will be convicted and serve five years in
federal prison. The U.S. government trumps up these
charges against Marcus Garvey because he was a threat to
the status quo of the “Negro people” of America. That is
why he is deported instead of being forced to serve his
complete sentence here. The U.S. government simply wanted
to get rid of him. He will join the ancestors on June 10,
1940 in London, England.

1920 – Isaiah Boyd Perry is born in Money Point (Norfolk), Virginia.
He will grow up in Hampton, Virginia and will become the
first faculty member of Hampton Institute to graduate from
the Hampton Institute Laboratory High School (George P.
Phenix), graduate from the Hampton Institute Trade School,
graduate with a Bachelor of Science Degree, and a Master of
Science Degree and join the “Quarter of the Century Club”
as a faculty member with twenty five years of service. He
will join the ancestors in 1971.

1931 – A’Lelia Walker Robinson joins the ancestors and residents of
Harlem and New York City mourn her death. The daughter of
Madame C.J. Walker, she had distinguished herself as hostess
of the “Dark Tower” on Harlem’s West 136th Street, a meeting
place for Harlem Renaissance poets, philosophers, and
artists such as W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, and Aaron
Douglas, as well as European nobility and members of New
York’s social register.

1939 – Luther Allison is born in Widener, Arkansas. He will become
a blues guitarist. Allison will spend his formative musical
years in Chicago jamming with the West Side’s best,
including Magic Sam, Otis Rush, and Freddie King. His first
recording, “Love Me Mama” (Delmark, 1969), is considered a
blues classic. Allison will come to national prominence
with blistering performances at the 1969 and 1970 Ann Arbor
Blues Festivals, wowing young rock fans with his scorching
guitar solos and soulful vocals. He will become the first
blues act to sign with Motown Records in 1971, subsequently
releasing three records for the label. He will tour
nationally throughout the 1970s before relocating to Paris
in the early 1980s where he will continue to release albums
(many issued only in Europe) and tour incessantly,
eventually becoming a European blues superstar. He will join
the ancestors on August 12, 1997.

1960 – Gabon declares its independence from France.

1984 – Roberto Clemente becomes the second baseball player to be
featured on a U.S. postage stamp.

1988 – Butch Reynolds of the United States sets the 400 meter
record (43.29) in Zurich, Switzerland.

1990 – Pearl Bailey, Broadway actress and singer, joins the
ancestors at the age of 72 after succumbing to a heart
attack in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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

August 16 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 16 *

1890 – Alexander Clark, journalist and lawyer, is named minister
to Liberia.

1922 – Louis Lomax is born in Valdosta, Georgia. He will become
an author and journalist. He will be the editor of “When
the Word is Given,” a collection of early speeches by
Malcolm X, and the author of “To Kill a Black Man,” “The
Negro Revolt,” and “The Reluctant African.” He will begin
his career as a reporter for the Baltimore Afro-American
and, at the time of his first interview with Malcolm X,
was the first Black television newsman at WNTA-TV. He will
meet Malcolm in 1959 and work with him on the early
editions of “Muhammad Speaks.” He will make a point of
covering stories that have a direct impact on the Black
community and will himself be a devout supporter of civil
rights organizations such as CORE (for which he will help
organize a telethon that will raise $50,000 for the
Freedom Rides), SNCC, and the SCLC. He will join the
ancestors on July 30, 1970 after being involved in an
automobile accident in Santa Rosa, New Mexico.

1938 – Revolutionary blues singer Robert L. Johnson joins the
ancestors after a mysterious death in Greenwood,
Mississippi. A revival of interest in his music will
occur in the 1990’s when a boxed set of 41 of his
recordings is issued to critical and popular acclaim.

1952 – Reginald VelJohnson is born in Queens, New York. He will
become an actor and will be best known for his role as
Carl Winslow in the TV series “Family Matters” and his
role as a policeman in the movie “Die Hard.”

1958 – Angela Evelyn Bassett is born in New York City, New York.
She will become an actress. She will attend Yale
University and receive her B.A. in African American
studies in 1980. In 1983, she will earn a Master of Fine
Arts Degree from the Yale School of Drama. At Yale, she
will meet her future husband Courtney B. Vance, a 1986
graduate of the drama school. Her acting career will
begin in the theater in 1985, when she will appear in
J.E. Franklin’s “Black Girl” at Second Stage Theatre. She
will appear in two August Wilson plays at the Yale
Repertory Theatre under the direction of her long-time
instructor, Lloyd Richards. The Wilson plays featuring
her were “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (1984) and “Joe
Turner’s Come and Gone” (1986). She will star in the
movies “Boyz n The Hood,” “Malcolm X,” “What’s Love Got
to Do With It,” “Waiting To Exhale,” and “How Stella Got
Her Groove Back.”

1961 – Christian Emeka Okoye is born in Enugu, Nigeria. He will
become a professional football player with the Kansas City
Chiefs, as a running back. He will amass 4,897 yards from
1987-1992. He will be UPI’s AFL offensive player of the
year in 1989.

1963 – Independence is restored to the Dominican Republic.

1970 – Activist Angela Davis is named in a federal warrant
issued in connection with George Jackson’s attempted
escape from San Quentin prison.

1972 – A Methodist clergyman of African descent from Dominica,
West Indies, Rev. Philip A. Potter, 51, is named General
Secretary of the World Council of Churches. Serving
until 1984, Potter will give strong spiritual guidance
to the work of the WCC.

1987 – Charles Wesley joins the ancestors in Washington, DC at
the age of 95. Noted historian and African American
college president, he authored over a dozen books on
African American life, including “The Negro in the
Americas,” “The Quest for Equality,” “Negro Labor in the
U.S. 1850-1925,” “Richard Allen, Apostle of Freedom,”
and “The History of the National Association of Colored
Women’s Clubs, published when he was 92 years old.

1988 – Jailed Black South African nationalist Nelson Mandela,
is stricken with tuberculosis.

2003 – Idi Amin, former Ugandan dictator, joins the ancestors
in Saudi Arabia at the age of 80, after succumbing to
multiple organ failure.

______________________________________________________________
Munirah Chronicle is edited by Rene’ A. Perry

August 15 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 15 *

1824 – Freed American slaves establish a settlement in West Africa
that will eventually become the country of Liberia.

1843 – The National Black Convention meets at Buffalo, New York,
with some seventy delegates from twelve states. The
highlight of the convention will be a stirring address by
Henry Highland Garnet, a twenty seven-year-old Presbyterian
pastor who calls for a slave revolt and a general slave
strike. Amos G. Beman of New Haven, Connecticut, is
elected president of the convention.

1900 – Riots erupt in New York City as a white plainclothes
policeman is killed in a fight with an African American man.
It is the fourth racial riot in the city’s history.

1906 – At the second meeting of the Niagara Movement at Harpers
Ferry, West Virginia, W.E.B. DuBois demands equal
citizenship rights for African Americans, saying, “We will
not be satisfied to take one jot or title less than our full
manhood rights…”

1925 – Oscar Peterson is born in Montreal (Quebec), Canada.
Classically trained in the piano, he will work with top
Canadian jazz bands until 1949, when he will first appear in
New York City’s Carnegie hall. He will be recognized as a
jazz innovator who forges a synthesis of bop and swing into
his own unique style. He will join the ancestors on
December 23, 2007.

1931 – Roy Wilkins joins the NAACP as assistant secretary.

1931 – The Spingarn Medal is awarded to Richard B. Harrison for his
Portrayal of “De Lawd” in “The Green Pastures.”

1935 – Vernon Eulion Jordan, Jr, is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He will
become a civil rights activist. In 1962 he will be appointed
Georgia field director for the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), leading a boycott of
Augusta, Georgia merchants who refused to serve African
Americans. After four years as NAACP field director, in 1966
he will become director of the Southern Regional Council’s
Voter Education Project. The project will sponsor voter
registration campaigns in 11 southern states and conduct
seminars, workshops, and conferences for candidates and
office holders. After four years, he will take a six-month
appointment as a fellow at the Kennedy Institute of Politics
at Harvard and then, in 1970, will become executive director
of the United Negro College Fund. When Whitney Young,
executive director of the National Urban League, joins the
ancestors in 1972, he will be appointed Young’s successor.
As director of the league, he will continue its emphasis on
African American uplift through training, employment, and
social service programs, but the organization will also begin
to emphasize research and advocacy as part of its thrust
toward implementing promises of the 1960s civil rights
reforms. For example, during his administration the league
will develop a highly regarded research and information
dissemination capability, including a policy journal – The
Urban League Review – and the annual State of Black America
reports. The State of Black America, issued each January to
coincide with the president’s State of the Union address,
will become a principal source of systematic data on the
African American condition in the United States and an
important resource for identifying African American policy
perspectives. During his tenure at the League he will be
recognized as a leading African American spokesman, writing a
weekly syndicated column, lecturing, and appearing on national
television interview programs. A frequent adviser to government,
corporate, and labor leaders, he will be frequently appointed
to presidential advisory boards and commissions.

1938 – Maxine Waters is born in St. Louis, Missouri. A longtime
California state legislator, in 1990, she will be the
second African American woman from California elected to
the United States Congress.

1945 – Gene Upshaw is born in Robstown, Texas. He will become a
professional football player and a guard for the Oakland
Raiders. After retirement from football, he will become the
longtime president of the NFL Players Association. He will
join the ancestors on August 20, 2008.

1960 – The Republic of the Congo gains independence from France.

1962 – The Shady Grove Baptist Church is burned in Leesburg,
Georgia.

1964 – A racially motivated disturbance occurs in Dixmoor, (a
Chicago suburb) Illinois.

1964 – Ralph Boston of the United States, sets the then long jump
record at 27′ 3″.

1975 – Joanne Little is acquitted of murder charges in the August
27, 1974, killing of a white jailer. The defense said she
stabbed the jailer with an ice pick after he made sexual
advances.

1979 – Andrew Young resigns under pressure as U.N. ambassador
after unauthorized meeting with representatives of the
Palestine Liberation Organization. His resignation creates
a storm of controversy and divides the African American
and Jewish communities.

1999 – Tiger Woods wins the PGA Championship, becoming the youngest
player to win two majors since Seve Ballesteros.

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

August 14 African American Historical Events

Today in Black History – August 14 *

1862 – President Lincoln receives the first group of African
Americans to confer with a U.S. president on a matter of
public policy. He urges African Americans to emigrate to
Africa or Central America and is bitterly criticized by
northern African Americans.

1876 – Prairie View State University is founded.

1883 – Ernest Everett Just is born in Charleston, South Carolina.
After graduating magna cum laude from Dartmouth College
in 1907, he will become a teacher at Howard University.
He will spend summers working as a research assistant at
the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole,
Massachusetts. He will receive his Ph.D. from the
University of Chicago in 1916. He will become a noted
marine biologist and the head of the physiology
department at Howard. He will be awarded the NAACP’s
first Spingarn Medal (1915) for his research in biology.
In his early days at Howard University, he will be one
of the founders of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and faculty
advisor. He will join the ancestors in October, 1941.

1908 – A race riot occurs in Springfield Illinois and will last
for five days. Army troops are called out. This riot
will stir the conscience of American civil rights leaders
and will lead to the founding of the NAACP.

1929 – Richard “Dick Tiger” Ihetu is born in Nkwerre Orlu, Imo
State, Nigeria. He will become a professional boxer and a
world champion middleweight from 1962-63 and 1964. He
will be the world lightweight champion from 1965 to 1968.
He will join the ancestors on December 14, 1971 after
succumbing to liver cancer. He will be inducted into to
the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991.

1938 – Niara Sudarkasa is born in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She
will be an anthropologist and groundbreaking educator,
becoming the first African American professor to receive
tenure at the University of Michigan, and the first woman
president of Lincoln University, a traditionally male
African American college.

1946 – Larry Graham is born. He will become a musician (bassist)
and singer. He will perform with Sly and the Family
Stone and Graham Central Station. He will leave Graham
Central Station, start a solo career, and will be known
for his songs, “One in a Million” and “I Never Forgot
Your Eyes.”

1946 – Antonio Juan Fargas is born in the Bronx in New York City.
He will become an actor and will be best known for his role
as “Huggy Bear” in the TV series, “Starsky & Hutch.”

1956 – Jackee Harry is born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
She will become an actress and will star as “Sandra” in
the television series “227” and the adoptive mother of
one of a pair of twins in the television series “Sister,
Sister.”

1959 – Earvin Johnson is born in Lansing, Michigan. Better known
as “Magic,” he will lead Michigan State University to the
NCAA championship in 1979. After two years of college, he
will enter the NBA and be picked first in the draft by the
Los Angeles Lakers. He will become one of the best point
guards in NBA history. After retiring from basketball, he
will concentrate on his business ventures and will have
success developing stadium-style movie theaters in inner
city underserved areas.

1968 – Halle Maria Berry is born in Cleveland, Ohio. She will
become Miss World USA in 1986 and will have a successful
acting career, starring in the mini-series “Queen” and the
movie “Boomerang.” In 2002, she will win the Best Actress
Oscar for her role in “Monster’s Ball.”

1970 – City University of New York (CUNY) inaugurates its open
admissions policy designed to increase the number of poor
and minority students.

1971 – Bob Gibson, of the St. Louis Cardinals, pitches a no-hitter
against the Pittsburgh Pirates. It is the first no-hitter
against the Pirates since 1955.

1992 – The White House announces that the Pentagon will begin
emergency airlifts of food to Somalia to alleviate mass
deaths by starvation.

2010 – Abbey Lincoln (born Anna Marie Wooldridge), renown jazz
vocalist, songwriter and actress, joins the ancestors i
Manhattan, New York. She had been suffering deteriorating
health for years following open heart surgery in 2007.

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

August 13 African American Historical Events

* Today in Black History – August 13 *

1881 – The first African American nursing school opens at Spelman
College in Atlanta, Georgia.

1892 – The first issue of the Baltimore Afro-American is
published.

1906 – African American soldiers raid Brownsville, Texas in
retaliation for racial insults. One white man is killed,
two are wounded.

1911 – James B. Parsons is born in Kansas City, Missouri. After
an early career in music, he will become an attorney,
superior court judge in Cook County, Illinois, and
assistant U.S. Attorney, and in 1961, the first African
American appointed to a lifetime federal judgeship in the
continental United States. He will join the ancestors on
June 19, 1993.

1917 – Claudia McNeil is born in Baltimore, Maryland. She will
start her career as a singer and tour with Katherine
Dunham before finding fame as an actress. Among her most
notable roles will be as Lena Younger in both the play
and movie versions of “A Raisin in the Sun.” She will join
the ancestors on November 25, 1993.

1948 – Kathleen Battle is born in Portsmouth, Ohio. She will
become an operatic soprano, winner of Grammy awards in
1987 and 1988, and will be considered by many to be one
of the finest modern opera singers.

1948 – Cleveland Indians rookie pitcher, Satchel Paige, throws
his first complete game in the major leagues at the age
of 42. He allows the Chicago White Sox only five hits in
the 5-0 shutout.

1953 – President Eisenhower establishes the Government Contract
Compliance Committee to supervise anti-discrimination
regulations in government contracts.

1963 – Noted civil rights and labor leader, A. Philip Randolph
strongly protests the AFL-CIO Executive Council’s failure
to endorse the August 28 March on Washington.

1979 – Lou Brock, of the St. Louis Cardinals, gets his 3,000th
career hit while leading the Cardinals past the Chicago
Cubs, 3-2.

1983 – Daley Thompson of Britain wins the decathlon championship
at the World Track and Field Championship in Helsinki,
Finland.

1989 – Searchers in Ethiopia find the wreckage of a plane which
had disappeared almost a week earlier while carrying
Texas Congressman Mickey Leland and 15 other people.
There are no survivors.

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