Ourstory

1850 - Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act, a part of the
Compromise of 1850, which allows slave owners to reclaim
slaves who had escaped to other states. The act also
offers federal officers a fee for captured slaves.

1895 - Booker T. Washington makes a speech at the Cotton States
and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia. Known
as the "Atlanta Compromise" speech, Washington advocates
acceptance of a subordinate role for African Americans,
espouses peaceful coexistence with white Southerners,
and calls agitation over the question of social equality
"the extremist folly." The speech, which reportedly
leaves some African American listeners in tears and will
incur the wrath of W.E.B. Du Bois and others, secures
Washington's reputation among whites as a successor to
Frederick Douglass.

1945 - 1000 white students walk out of three Gary, Indiana
schools to protest integration. There were similar
disturbances in Chicago, Illinois and other Northern and
Western metropolitan areas.

1948 - Dr. Ralph J. Bunche is confirmed by the United Nations
Security Council as acting United Nations' mediator in
Palestine.

1951 - Dr. Benjamin Solomon Carson, Sr., neurosurgeon, is born
in Detroit, Michigan. He will graduate from the
University of Michigan Medical School in 1977 and will
become the first African American neurosurgery resident
at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
He will receive the American Black Achievement Award
from Ebony and the Paul Harris Fellow Award from Rotary
International. He will become best known for his
separation of Siamese twins in 1989.

1962 - Rwanda, Burundi, Jamaica & Trinidad-Tobago are admitted
(105th-108th countries) to the United Nations.

1967 - Ricky Bell, rhythm-and-blues singer, (Bell Biv Devoe and
New Edition), is born.

1970 - Rock guitarist Jimi (James Marshall) Hendrix joins the
ancestors at age 27 after aspirating on his own vomit
in London. Contrary to many news accounts, he did not
succumb to a drug overdose. No trace of drugs was found
in his body. A self-taught musician who blended rock,
jazz, and blues with British avant-garde rock, Hendrix
redefined the use of the electric guitar. His musical
career deeply influenced modern musicians. His songs,
"Purple Haze" and "Foxy Lady" will become anthems for a
generation at war in Vietnam.

1971 – Jada Pinkett smith, actress/author/musician famous for her roles in tv shows like Different World and Hawthorne as well as movies like Menance 2 Society, Jason’s Lyric and the Matrix sequels was born. She was also close to rapper 2pac Shakur when they both attended a Baltimore School of Recording Arts and married one of the most successful actors of all time and hip hop artist Will Smith

1980 - Cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez, a Cuban, becomes the
first person of African descent sent on a mission in
space (Soyuz 38).

1865 - Atlanta University is founded.

1868 - White Democrats attack demonstrators, who are marching
from Albany to Camilla, Georgia, and kill nine African
Americans. Several whites are wounded.

1931 - Benjamin Franklin Peay is born in Camden, South Carolina.
He will become a rhythm and blues singer better known as
Brook Benton. He will amass 16 gold records and be best
known for the songs "A Rainy Night in Georgia" and "It's
Just a Matter of Time." He will join the ancestors on
April 9, 1988.

1945 - Freda Charcelia Payne is born in Detroit, Michigan. She
will become a singer whose hits will include "Band of
Gold" in 1970.

1956 - The first international conference of Black Writers &
Artists meets at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France.

1981 - More than 300,000 demonstrators from labor and civil
rights organizations protest the social policies of the
Reagan administration in a Solidarity Day March in
Washington, DC.

1989 - Gordon Parks's film "The Learning Tree" is selected among
the first films to be registered by the National Film
Registry of the Library of Congress. The National Film
Registry was formed by an act of Congress the previous
year to recognize films that are "culturally,
historically, or aesthetically significant." Parks's
1969 movie joins other classic films such as
"Casablanca," "Gone With the Wind," and "The Wizard of
Oz."

1989 - The first issue of Emerge magazine goes on sale. Emerge,
founded by Wilmer C. Ames, Jr., covers domestic and
international news and issues from an African American
perspective.

1994 - U.S. troops peacefully enter Haiti to enforce the return
of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

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

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

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

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

1885 - Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe ("Jelly Roll" Morton) is born
in Gulfport (New Orleans), Louisiana. He will become a
renown jazz pianist and composer. Morton, whose fabulous
series of 1938 recordings for the Library of Congress are
a gold mine of information about early jazz, was a
complex man. Vain, ambitious, and given to exaggeration,
he was a pool shark, hustler and gambler, as well as a
brilliant pianist and composer. His greatest talent,
perhaps was for organizing and arranging. The series of
records he made with his "Red Hot Peppers" between 1926
and 1928 stands, alongside King Oliver's as the crowning
glory of the New Orleans tradition and one of the great
achievements in Jazz.

1915 - Hughie Lee-Smith is born in Eustis, Florida. He will
become a painter known for such surrealistic landscapes
as "Man with Balloons", "Man Standing on His Head" and
"Big Brother".

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Belize Independence Day
International Day of Peace

1814 - African American troops are cited for bravery in the
Battle of New Orleans.

1872 - John Henry Conyers of South Carolina becomes first
African American student at U.S. Naval Academy
(Annapolis). He will later resign.

1905 - The Atlanta Life Insurance Company is founded by Alonzo
F. Herndon.

1909 - Kwame Nkrumah is born in Nkroful, Ghana. A leader in
African colonial liberation, Nkrumah will be the first
prime minister of Ghana (1958-1966), but will be forced
into exile following a coup.

1932 - Melvin Van Peebles, playwright and director(Watermelon
Man), is born.

1967 - Walter Washington is nominated by President Lyndon B.
Johnson as the first mayor of the newly reorganized
municipal government of Washington, DC. In 1974, he
will be elected to the post, another first for an
African American.

1981 - Belize gains independence from Great Britain.
1989 - Army General Colin Powell receives Senate confirmation as
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest
military position in the United States, thereby becoming
the military's highest-ranking African American.

2008 – President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa resigns from office

2009 - The Rev. John "Bootsie" Wilson, a former lead singer and
last surviving member of the soul group The Silhouettes,
joins the ancestors at the age of 69.

2011 – Two people on deathrow were killed, the first Lawrence Brewer in Texas was a white supremacist and former member of the KKK convicted of being a part of the racial motivated dragging and death of a black man named James Byrd Jr., the other was Troy Davis in GA who was convicted of the murder of a Georgia policeman in 1989. 7 of the 9 people who originally “eyewitnessed” him as the one who pulled the trigger recanted their story and said they were coerced by policeman to identify Davis as the shooter.

9/22

Mali Independence Day

1828 – Zulu leader Shaka the Great was assassinated

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

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

1904 – The city of Boley located in Oklahoma was established by African Americans

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

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

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

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

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

1960 - The Republic of Mali proclaims its independence.

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

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

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

Autumnal Equinox 09:04 UTC
Full Moon

1667 - In Williamsburg, Virginia, a law was passed, barring
slaves from obtaining their freedom by converting to
Christianity.

1862 - A draft of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation is
published in Northern Newspapers.

1863 - Mary Church (later Terrell) is born in Memphis,
Tennessee. She will become an educator, civil and
woman's rights advocate, and U.S. delegate to the
International Peace Conference. She will also be the
first African American to serve on the school board in
the District of Columbia.

1926 - John Coltrane, brilliant jazz saxophonist and composer who
will be considered the father of avant-garde jazz, is
born in Hamlet, North Carolina.

1930 - Ray Charles (Robinson) is born in Albany, Georgia. Blind
by the age of six, he will study music and form his own
band at the age of 24. A recorded performance at the
Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 will establish his career
as one of the premier soul singers in the United States.
Among Charles's achievements will be three Grammys and
Kennedy Center honors in 1986. He will join the ancestors
on June 10, 2004 after succumbing to liver disease.

1954 - Playwright George C. Wolfe is born in Frankfort, Kentucky.
He will become critically acclaimed for the controversial plays, "The Colored Museum", "Jelly's Last Jam", and "Spunk".

1957 - Nine African American students, who had entered Little
Rock Central High School in Arkansas, are forced to leave
because of a white mob outside.

1961 - President Kennedy names Thurgood Marshall to the United
States Circuit Court of Appeals.

1993 – South Africa’s parliament creates a multiracial body to oversee the end of exclusive white control of the nation

Republic Day (Trinidad)

1825 - Frances Ellen Watkins Harper is born free in Baltimore,
Maryland. She will grow up to be one of the most famous
African American poets. Harper's mother will join the
ancestors before she is three years old, leaving her an
orphan. Harper will be raised by her uncle, William
Watkins, a teacher at the Academy for Negro Youth and a
radical political figure in civil rights. Watkins will
be a major influence on Harper's political, religious,
and social views. Harper will attend the Academy for
Negro Youth and the rigorous education she will receive,
along with the political activism of her uncle, will
affect and influence her poetry. In 1850, she will
become the first female to teach at Union Seminary in
Wilberforce, Ohio. After new laws pass in 1854, state
that African Americans entering through Maryland's
northern border could be sold into slavery, Harper will
become an active abolitionist and writer. She will be
known for her writings, "Forest Leaves," "Poems on
Miscellaneous Subjects," "Moses: A Story of the Nile,"
"Achan's Sin," "Sketches of Southern Life," "Light
Beyond the Darkness," "Iola Leroy: Or Shadows Uplifted,"
"The Martyr of Alabama and Other Poems," "Atlanta
Offering Poems," and "Idylls of the Bible." She will join
the ancestors on February 22, 1911.

1883 - The National Black convention meets in Louisville,
Kentucky.

1894 - Sociologist and professor at Morehouse College, Fisk
University, and Howard University, E.(Edward) Franklin
Frazier is born in Baltimore, Maryland. He will organize
the Atlanta University School of Social Work (for African
Americans), later becoming its director. He will write
the controversial publication (1927) "The Pathology of
Race Prejudice" in Forum Magazine. His writings will
include "The Negro Family in the United States" (1939),
among the first sociological works on African Americans
researched and written by an African American. He will
also write "Negro Youth at the Crossways" (1940) and
"Race and Culture Contacts in the Modern World" (1957),
which deals with African studies. Frazier will have a
distinguished career at Howard University as chairman of
its sociology department as well as serving as the first
African American president of the American Sociological
Society. He will join the ancestors on May 17, 1962.

1923 – Nancy Green, the world’s first living trademark (Aunt Jemima) is struck and killed by an automobile in Chicago

1931 - Cardiss Robertson (later Collins) is born in St. Louis,
Missouri. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1973
after the death of her husband, George, she will serve in
a leadership capacity often in her Congressional career,
most notably as chairman of the Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and
Competitiveness.

1935 - World Heavyweight Champion, Joe Louis, becomes the first
African American boxer to draw a million dollar gate.

1953 - "Take a Giant Step", a drama by playwright Louis Peterson,
opens on Broadway.

1954 - Patrick Kelly is born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. A
fashion design student, Kelly will move to Paris, where
his innovative and outrageous women's fashion designs,
featuring multiple buttons, bows and African American
baby dolls, will win him wide acclaim and make him the
first and only American designer admitted to an
exclusive organization of French fashion designers.

1957 - President Eisenhower makes an address on nationwide TV and
radio to explain why troops are being sent to Little Rock,
Arkansas. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, earlier in the
day sends 1,000 U.S. government paratroopers to Little
Rock to aid in the desegregation of the public schools.
The troops will escort nine school children to Central
High School in the first federally supported effort to
integrate the nation's public schools. The nine Black
students who had entered Little Rock Central High School
in Arkansas were forced to withdraw because of a white
mob outside.

1962 - United States Circuit Court of Appeals orders the
Mississippi Board of Higher Education to admit James
Meredith to the University of Mississippi or be held in
contempt of court.

1965 - Executive Order 11246 enforces affirmative action for the first time Issued by President Johnson, the executive order requires government contractors to "take affirmative action" toward prospective minority employees in all aspects of hiring and employment. Contractors must take specific measures to ensure equality in hiring and must document these efforts.

1973 - Leaders of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea
and Cape Verde (PAIGC) declare the independence of
Guinea-Bissau from Portugal. Portugal will recognize this
independence the following year. The PAIGC was formed by
Amilcar Cabral and Raphael Barbosa in 1956. Luis Cabral,
Amilcar's half-brother, will become Guinea-Bissau's first
president.

1986 - Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone said the United States "intelligence levels are lower than those in Japan because of African Americans, Hispanics and Puerto Ricans." Nakasone later apologized saying his remarks were misinterpreted.

1991 - Sept.24th – A Tribe Called Quest release their sophomore album “The Low End Theory” on Jive Records. The album considered one of hip-hop’s finest ever is also considered one of the fore-runners of the hip-hop/jazz fusion movement although most of the samples used are from 1970’s funk records. Legendary jazz bassist Ron Carter however does appear on the album , setting a be-bop tone. The album spawns some of hip-hop’s classic cuts like “Jazz”(We’ve Got) , Check The Rime” and the ultimate posse track “Scenario” featuring Leaders Of The New School.

Referendum Day (Rwanda)

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

1911 - Dr. Eric Eustace Williams, the first Prime Minister of
Trinidad and Tobago, is born in Port of Spain, Trindad
and Tobago. He will make a shift from American academia
to the public arena in 1944. In 1948, he will decide to
return to his native country and become involved in
politics. On January 15, 1956 he will inaugurate his
own political party, the People's National Movement,
which will take Trinidad and Tobago into independence
in 1962, and dominate its postcolonial politics. Until
this time his lectures will be carried out under the
auspices of the Political Education Movement (PEM), a
branch of the Teachers Education and Cultural
Association, a group which had been founded in the
1940s as an alternative to the official teachers’
union. The PNM’s first document will be its
constitution. Unlike the other political parties of
the time, the PNM will be a highly organized,
hierarchical body. Its second document was The People’s
Charter, in which the party will strive to separate
itself from the transitory political assemblages which
had beeb the norm in Trinidadian politics. He will lead
the newly independent country in 1962 until he joins
the ancestors on March 29, 1981.

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

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

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

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

1968 - Willard Christopher "Will" Smith is born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. He will become a rapper at the age of 12
and will be known for his hits Nightmare on My Street, Parents Just Don't Understand and Summertime. In 1990 he will start his acting career with a six-year run as the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. He will go on to become a major motion picture box office attraction, starring in Independence Day, Men In Black 1 and 2, Bad Boys 1 and 2, Ali (Oscar Nomination), I Robot, Hancock, Pursuit of Happyness (Oscar Nomination), Enemy of the State, 7 Pounds and I Am Legend just to name a few.

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

1867 - Maggie Lena Walker is born in Richmond, Virginia. She
will become a noted businesswoman, civil leader, and
founder and president of Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank.
As a result, she will be the first female president of a
bank in America. She will join the ancestors on December
15, 1934.

1907 - The People's Savings Bank is incorporated in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Founded by former African American
congressman George H. White, of North Carolina, the bank
will help hundreds of African Americans buy homes and
start businesses until the illness of its founder forces
its closure in 1918.

1937 - Bessie Smith joins the ancestors in Clarksville,
Mississippi, after succumbing to injuries sustained in
an automobile accident. She was one of the nation's
greatest blues singers and was nicknamed "the Empress of
the Blues." In 1925, Smith and Louis Armstrong made the
definitive rendition of W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues,"
and in 1929 she made her only movie appearance in the
movie of the same name.

1957 - The order alerting regular army units for possible riot
duty in other Southern cities is cancelled by Army
Secretary Wilbur M. Brucker.

1962 - A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., becomes the first African
American member of the Federal Trade Commission. It is
one of the Trenton, New Jersey, native's many
accomplishments, including appointment as a federal
district judge and U.S. Circuit Judge of the Third
Circuit.

1962 - Mississippi bars James Meredith for the third time. Lt.
Gov. Paul Johnson and a blockade of state patrolmen turn
back Meredith and federal marshals about four hundred
yards from the gate of the school.

1968 - The Studio Museum of Harlem opens in New York City.
Conceived by Frank Donnelly and Carter Burden, the
Studio Museum will become an influential venue for
exhibitions of African American artists in all media.

1994 - Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, President Clinton
announces that he has lifted most U.S. sanctions against
Haiti and urges other nations to follow suit.

1994 - Jury selection begins in Los Angeles for the murder trial
of O.J. Simpson.

1998 - Grammy-winning jazz singer Betty Carter joins the
ancestors in New York City at age 69.

1785 - David Walker, who will become an abolitionist and write
the famous "Walker's Appeal," is born free in Wilmington,
North Carolina. He will join the ancestors on June 28, 1830.

1822 - Hiram R. Revels, is born free in Fayetteville, North
Carolina. He will become the first African American U.S.
Senator, elected from Mississippi.

1862 - The First Louisiana Native Guards, the first African
American regiment to receive official recognition, is
mustered into the Union army. The Regiment is composed of
free African Americans from the New Orleans area.

1867 - Louisiana voters endorse the constitutional convention and
elect delegates in the first election under The
Reconstruction Acts. The vote was 75,000 for the
convention and 4,000 against.

1875 - Branch Normal College opens in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. A
segregated unit of the state university, the college is
established by Joseph C. Corbin.

1876 - Edward Mitchell Bannister wins a bronze medal for his
painting "Under the Oaks" at the American Centennial
Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The award to
Bannister will cause controversy among whites who think
African Americans incapable of artistic excellence.

1877 - John Mercer Langston is named Minister to Haiti.

1936 - Don Cornelius is born. He will become the creator,
producer, and host of the TV show, "Soul Train" in 1970.
The show will become the longest running program
originally produced for first-run syndication in the
entire history of television. The show’s resounding
success will position it as the cornerstone of the Soul
Train franchise which includes the annual specials: "Soul
Train Music Awards," the "Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards"
and the "Soul Train Christmas Starfest."

1940 - African American leaders protest discrimination in the U.S.
Armed Forces and war industries at a White House meeting
with President Roosevelt.

1944 - Stephanie Pogue is born in Shelby, North Carolina. She
will become an artist and art professor whose works will
be collected by New York City's Whitney Museum of American
Art and the Studio Museum of Harlem while she will exhibit
widely in the United States, Europe, Japan, and South
America.

1953 - Diane Abbott is born in the working-class neighborhood of
Paddington in London, England. Her mother (a nurse) and
father (a welder) had moved there in 1951 from Jamaica. A
graduate of Cambridge University, she will make history on
June 11, 1987, becoming the first female of African
descent to be a member of the British Parliament. Her
outspoken criticism of racism and her commitment to
progressive politics will make her a controversial figure
in Great Britain's Labour Party.

1954 - Public school integration begins in Washington, DC and
Baltimore, Maryland.

1961 - Sierre Leone becomes the 100th member of the United Nations.

1967 - Washington, DC's Anacostia Museum, dedicated to informing
the community of the contributions of African Americans to
United States social, political and cultural history,
opens its doors to the public.

1829 - "Walker's Appeal (To the Coloured Citizens of the World),"
a racial antislavery pamphlet, is published in Boston,
Massachusetts, by David Walker. He was a freeborn black. The pamphlet was very provocative calling for slaves worldwide to revolt against their white masters. Walker despised slavery. His manifesto is the most boldest call for violent revolution ever issued and one of the most widely read books written by a Black person.

1833 - Lemuel Haynes, Revolutionary War veteran and first African
American to be ordained by the Congregational Church,
joins the ancestors at the age of 80.

1912 - W.C. Handy's ground-breaking "Memphis Blues" is published
in Memphis, Tennessee. The composition was originally
entitled "Mr. Crump" and was written for the 1909
political campaign of Edward H. "Boss" Crump.

1938 - Benjamin Earl "Ben E." King is born in Henderson, North
Carolina. He will become a rhythm and blues singer and
will be best known for his song, "Stand By Me."

1945 - Todd Duncan debuts with the New York City Opera as Tonio
in Il Pagliacci. He is the first African American to
sing a leading role with a major American company, almost
ten years before Marian Anderson sings with the
Metropolitan Opera.

1961 - Ossie Davis's "Purlie Victorious" opens on Broadway. The
play stars Davis, Ruby Dee, Godfrey Cambridge, Alan Alda,
and Beah Richards.

1961 - Atlanta's segregated restaurants and other public
facilities are peacefully integrated, part of a plan
adopted by city officials earlier in the year.

1967 - Walter Washington takes office as the first mayor of the
District of Columbia.

1972 - The Secretary of the Army repeals the dishonorable
discharges of 167 soldiers involved in the Brownsville
(Texas) Raid. The soldiers, members of the 25th Infantry
who were involved in a riot with the city's police and
merchants, were dishonorably discharged by President
Theodore Roosevelt without a trial.

1981 - Joseph Paul Franklin, avowed racist, is sentenced to life
in prison for killing 2 African American joggers in Salt
Lake City, Utah.

1987 - The National Museum of African Art, now a part of the
Smithsonian Institution, opens on the National Mall in
Washington, DC. Founded by Warren M. Robbins in 1964 as
a private educational institution, it is the only museum
in the United States devoted exclusively to the
collection, study, and exhibition of the art of sub-
Saharan Africa.

1990 - Marvin Gaye gets a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

1991 - Miles Davis, jazz musician, joins the ancestors at the age
of 65 from pneumonia.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1980 – The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture opens a new $3.8 million building in New York City.

1980 - Kurtis Blow releases his Self-Entitled debut album on Mercury Records , on this day in 1980. The album contained one of hip-hop’s 1st smash its “The Breaks” which has been sampled by dozens of rap artists over the years. When Blow was signed to Mercury Records the year before , he became the 1st hip-hop artist to be signed to a major label.

1997 – Brazil mercifully agrees to accept thousands of African refugees fleeing war in Angola

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

1935 - John Royce "Johnny" Mathis is born in San Francisco,
California. He will become a romantic pop singer who will
amass more than 50 gold and platinum records for such hits
as "Misty". He will also have the distinction of having
an album on the Billboard pop charts for the longest
period, 560 weeks.

1935 - "Porgy and Bess," a folk opera by composer George Gershwin,
has its premiere in Boston at the Colonial Theatre. It
was a flop! It was revived in 1942 and ran longer than any
revival in the history of American musical theater.

1942 - Franklin Joseph "Frankie" Lymon is born in New York City.
He will become the lead singer of Frankie Lymon and the
Teenagers and will record his signature song, "Why Do Fools
Fall in Love?," at age fourteen. He will develop a serious
drug problem before he turns twenty and will join the
ancestors after succumbing to a drug overdose on the
bathroom floor of his grandmother's apartment at age 25,
on February 27, 1968.

1943 - Marilyn McCoo (Davis) is born in Jersey City, New Jersey.
She will become a singer with the group, "The Fifth
Dimensions". Some of the hits with the group will be "Up,
Up and Away," and "Aquarius." She will have a solo hit,
"One Less Bell to Answer," and will record "You Don't
Have to be a Star" with her husband, Billy Davis, Jr. She
will later become a TV hostess for "Solid Gold" from
1981-1984, and from 1986-88. She will also be a TV music
reporter for "Preview."

1962 - A large force of federal marshals escorts James H. Meredith
to the campus of the University of Mississippi. President
Kennedy federalizes the Mississippi National Guard.
University of Mississippi students and adults from Oxford,
Mississippi, and other southern communities riot on the
university campus. Two persons are killed and one hundred
or more are wounded.

1966 - Bechuanaland becomes the independent Republic of Botswana
with Sir Seretse Khama as its first President.

1976 - Two Centuries of Black American Art opens at the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art. The exhibit features over 60
lithographers, painters, and sculptors including 19th
century masters Joshua Johnston, Edward Bannister, and
Henry O. Tanner as well as modern artists Charles White,
Romare Bearden, and Elizabeth Catlett. The introduction
to the exhibit's catalog asserts that the assembled
artists' work proves that the human creative impulse can
triumph in the face of impossible odds, and at times even
because of them.

1991 - President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's first freely
elected president, is overthrown by a military junta.
The three-member junta that takes over begins a campaign
of terror and violence that in a three-year period will
cause the deaths of over 5000 Haitians and force tens of
thousands to flee the island by boat. Jean-Bertrand
Aristide sat in the presidency for only seven months.

Nigeria Independence Day

1799 – John Russwurm, founder of the first African American newspaper “Freedom’s Journal” and leader in Liberia was born

1851 - William "Jerry" Henry, a runaway slave and craftsman who
had settled in Syracuse, New York, is arrested by a United
States Marshal and scheduled to be returned to slavery.
Ten thousand citizens of the city will storm the sheriff's
office and courthouse, free Henry, and aid his escape to
Canada via the underground railroad.

1872 - Morgan State College (now University) is founded in
Baltimore, Maryland.

1886 - Kentucky State College (now University) is founded in
Frankfort, Kentucky.

1897 - Virginia Proctor Powell, first female African American
librarian is born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. She will
follow in her mother's footsteps and continue her education
at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. In 1919, She will earn
her Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Oberlin.
She will move back to Pittsburgh where, although having
adequate training and experience, she was unable to pursue her
desired goal of teaching and spent some time working at her
aunt's salon as a beautician. Aware of her passion for children
and books, Charles Wilbur Florence, her future husband, will
encourage her to pursue a career in librarianship. During a
time when African Americans were rarely considered for
admission into predominantly white universities, she will be
considered for admission into the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library
School (now the University of Pittsburgh School of Information
Sciences). There is much debate about allowing a Black person
into the program. School officials were concerned with how
white students might react to having a Black peer and the
likelihood that she would not find work upon completion of the
program. She will finish the program in 1923. OVer time she
would work as a librarian in Richmond, Virginia and Washington,
D.C. She will join the ancestors in Richmond, Virginia in 1991.

1937 - The Pullman Company formally recognizes the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters.

1937 - The Spingarn Medal is awarded to Walter White, NAACP
secretary, for his leadership and work in the anti-
lynching movement.

1945 - Donny Hathaway is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will be
an influential pop and Rhythm & Blues singer of the 1970s
whose hit songs will include "The Ghetto" and "The Closer
I Get to You" (with Roberta Flack). His collaborations with
Roberta Flack will score high on the charts and win him the
Grammy Award for "Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with
Vocal" for the duet, "Where Is the Love" in 1973. He will join
the ancestors, after commiting suicide, on January 13, 1979.

1947 - United States' control of Haitian Custom Service and
governmental revenue ends.

1948 - The California Supreme Court voids state statute banning
interracial marriages.

1948 - Edward Dudley is named Ambassador to Liberia.

1951 - The 24th Infantry Regiment, last of the all African
American military units authorized by Congress in 1866,
is deactivated in Korea.

1954 - The British colony of Nigeria becomes a federation.

1955 - Howard Hewitt is born in Akron, Ohio. He will move to Los
Angeles where he would eventually meet Soul Train dancer
and future first wife Rainey Riley-Cunningham, then a
secretary of the show's creator and original host Don
Cornelius. It was Cornelius who introduced him to fellow
Soul Train dancers Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel, and
their group, Shalamar, was born. The trio is best known
for songs such as "Second Time Around", "A Night to
Remember", "Dancing in the Sheets" and the ballad "This Is
For The Lover In You". He will be the group's lead singer
from 1979 until 1985. When Shalamar breaks up in the mid
1980s, he will go on to pursue a solo career. In 1986 he
will be arrested and indicted in Miami with his fiance Mori
Molina for possession with an intent to distribute cocaine.
He subsequently married Molina who will be convicted and
serve prison time. He will then be acquitted of the charges.
He will sign with Elektra Records and record 1986's I Commit
To Love (R&B #12), a relatively solid urban album that will
yielded two R&B hits, "I’m For Real" (R&B #2) and "Stay"
(R&B #8). The album will also include "Say Amen", a gospel
tune that became a surprise hit on the Gospel charts and is
his signature song. He will contribute vocals to La Toya
Jackson's Hot 100 hit single "Heart Don't Lie" in 1984.

1960 - Nigeria proclaims its independence from Great Britain.

1961 - East & West Cameroon merge and become the Federal
Republic of Cameroon.

1962 - Some twelve thousand federal soldiers restored order on the University of Mississippi campus. James H. Meredith, escorted by federal marshals, registered at the University of Mississippi. Edwin A. Walker, former major general in the U.S. Army, was arrested and charged with inciting insurrection and seditious conspiracy. Walker, who led federal troops during the Little Rock integration crisis, had call for "Volunteers" to oppose federal forces in Mississippi. Witnesses said he led students in charges against federal marshals during the campus riot.

1963 - Nigeria becomes a republic within the British
Commonwealth.

1966 - The Black Panther party is founded in Oakland, California
by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

1991 - Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell assumes her duties as dean of
New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. A noted
art historian, Schmidt had previously served as
commissioner of cultural affairs, director of the
Studio of Harlem, and chair of the Smithsonian
Institution's Advisory Committee that recommended
creation of a national African American museum.

1996 – Lt. Gen Joe Ballard becomes the first African American to head the Army Corps of Engineers

Republic of Guinea Independence Day

1800 – TRUE REVOLUTIONARY Nat Turner is born in Southampton, Virginia. Believing
himself called by God to free his fellow bondsmen,
Turner will become a freedom fighter leader of one of
the most famous slave revolts, resulting in the death
of scores of whites and involving 60 to 80 slaves. He
will join the ancestors on November 11, 1831 after being
executed for his part in the rebellion. It is important to understand Nat Turner wasn’t alone. We here about him often cause he was caught and killed. There were over 250 slave revolts in the U.S. not including those in Mexico, the Carribbean, South America, and along the Middle Passage.

1833 - The New York Anti-Slavery Society is organized.

1898 - Otis J. Rene' is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. With
his younger brother Leon, he will move to Los Angeles,
California, and establish Exclusive and Excelsior
Records in the 1930's. By the mid-1940's, the brothers
will be leading independent record producers whose
artists will include Nat King Cole, Herb Jeffries, and
Johnny Otis. He will join the ancestors on April 5, 1970.

1929 - Moses Gunn is born in St. Louis, Missouri. He will become
an Obie Award-winning stage player, and co-found the Negro
Ensemble Company in the 1960s. His 1962 Broadway debut was
in Jean Genet's "The Blacks." He will be nominated for a
1976 Tony Award as Best Actor (Play) for "The Poison Tree"
and will play Othello on Broadway in 1970. He will also
appear in "Amityville II," "Shaft," and "Good Times." He
will join the ancestors on December 17, 1993 after
succumbing to complications from asthma,

1936 - Johnnie Cochran is born in Shreveport, Louisiana. He
will become a criminal defense attorney and will be
best known for his defense of Black Panther Party
member Geronimo Pratt and ex-NFL superstar O.J.
Simpson. He will join the ancestors on March 29, 2005.

1958 - The Republic of Guinea gains independence from France under the
leadership of Sekou Toure.

1967 - Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African American
member of the United States Supreme Court when he is
sworn in by Chief Justice Earl Warren. As chief
counsel for the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the 1940s
and '50s, Marshall was the architect and executor of
the legal strategy that ended the era of official
racial segregation. The great-grandson of a slave,
Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1908.
After being rejected from the University of Maryland
Law School on account of his race, he was accepted at
all-black Howard University in Washington, DC. At
Howard, he studied under the tutelage of civil
liberties lawyer Charles H. Houston and in 1933
graduated first in his class. In 1936, he joined the
legal division of the NAACP, of which Houston was
director, and two years later succeeded his mentor
in the organization's top legal post.

1967 - Robert H. Lawrence, who was named the first African
American astronaut, joins the ancestors after being
killed in a plane crash before his first mission.

1981 - Hazel Scott, renown jazz singer and pianist, joins
the ancestors at the age of 61 (succumbed to pancreatic
cancer).
1986 - The United States Senate overrides President Ronald
Reagan's veto of legislation imposing economic
sanctions against South Africa. The override is seen
as the culmination of efforts by Trans-Africa's
Randall Robinson, Rep. Mickey Leland, and others
begun almost two years earlier with Robinson's
arrest before the South African Embassy in
Washington, DC. On this date, President Ronald Reagan also appointed Edward J. Perkins ambassador to South Africa.

1989 - "Jump Start" premiers in 40 newspapers in the United
States. The comic strip is the creation of 26-year-
old Robb Armstrong, the youngest African American to
have a syndicated comic strip. He follows in the
footsteps of Morrie Turner, the creator of "Wee Pals,"
the first African American syndicated comic strip.