TVCH FORUMS HOME . JOIN . FAN CLUBS . ABOUT US . CONTACT . CHAT  
Bomis   Quick Links   TOPICS . TREE-VIEW . SEARCH . HELP! . NEWS . PROFILE
Archive through April 24, 2004

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions ARCHIVES: 2004 Nov. - 2005 Jan.: Black History (ARCHIVES): Archive through April 24, 2004 users admin

Author Message
Ladytex
Member

09-27-2001

Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 8:07 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Black Facts that happened on April the 13th:

1669 First Lutheran Baptism of African American; An African American man named Emmanuel was baptized April 13, 1669, (Palm Sunday) in a Lutheran congregation in New York.

1873 Colfax Massacre, Easter Sunday morning, Grant Parish, Louisiana. More than sixty Blacks were killed.

1891 Nella Larsen is born in Chicago, Ill. She will write two important novels of the Harlem Renaissance, Quicksand and Passing. She worked at NYC Library's Harlem Branch from 1921-1926. It is here that Nella began her literary career by publishing several short pieces, and consequently began her climb up the ladder of social mobility known as the "black bourgeoisie", later to become the arts and letters movement of African Americans in Harlem: The Harlem Renaissance. Nella began her literary career in 1919 by publishing a short piece "Three Scandinavian Games" in Jessie Fauset's children's magazine, Brownies Book. While working at the library, Nella published two short stories, "The Wrong Man" and "Freedom" in Young's Magazine. Nella regarded her privacy by writing these short pieces of fiction under the pseudonym Allen Simi, her married name backwards. But her stories received recognition, nonetheless. Her first novel, Quicksand received the Bronze Award for Literature from the Harmon Foundation. Her work has autobiographical underpinnings of her own experiences being exposed to and alienated from both Black and White culture.

1946 Rhythm and Blues singer Al Green was born in Forest City, Arkansas

1964 Sidney Poitier wins Best Actor Academy Award for his role in Lilies of the Field.

1966 Andrew F. Brimmer, economist and former Professor of Economics at University of Pennsylvania, is nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to serve as a Governor of the Federal Reserve System. This appointment represented the first black to serve in this capacity.

1997 Eldrick Tiger Woods wins the 61st Masters Tournament in Augustus,Georgia at the age of 21 becoming the youngest and first non-white person to ever win this tournament.


www.blackfacts.com

Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 8:34 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Wow! This thread is fantastic. :-)

Ledbelly...very cool ( I listen to Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee. I know they don't go back any where near that far but their music is great, too!)

And Herbie Handcock...said to be the sweetest man in the music business.

Ladytex
Member

09-27-2001

Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 7:44 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Black Facts that happened on April the 14th:

1775 First abolitionist society in United States organized in Philadelphia.

1865 President Lincoln was shot and critically wounded at Ford's Theater in Washington.

1868 South Carolina voters approved constitution, 70,758 to 27,228, and elected state officers, including the first Black cabinet officer, Francis L. Cardozo, secretary of state. New constitution required integrated education and contained a strong bill of rights section: "Distinctions on account of race or color, in any case whatever, shall be prohibited, and all classes of citizens shall enjoy equally all common, public, legal and political privileges."

1873 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Slaughterhouse cases began process of diluting the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court said the Fourteenth Amendment protected federal civil rights, not "Civil rights heretofore belonging exclusively to the states."

1915 James Hutton Brew, "Pioneer of West African Journalism," dies.

1969 Student Afro-American Society seized the Columbia College admissions office and demanded a special admissions board and staff.

2002 Tiger Woods wins his third Masters Golf title and becomes only the second person ever to win two of the titles in a row.

www.blackfacts.com

Essence
Member

01-12-2002

Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 7:49 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
.

Essence
Member

01-12-2002

Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 5:50 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
April 15:

1850 The California Fugitive Slave Law, introduced earlier by state Senator Henry A. Crabb, was adopted by the State Legislature. It authorized any slave owner claiming a runaway to obtain warrant for the slave's arrest.

1861 President Lincoln calls for 75,000 troops to put down the rebellion. The Lincoln administration rejects African American volunteers. For almost two years straight African Americans fight for the right, as one humorist puts it, "to be kilt".

1889 Asa Philip Randolph was born in Crescent Way, Florida. He became a labor leader, the organizer of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, and a tireless fighter for civil rights. He died in 1979.

1896 Booker T. Washington receives an honorary degree from Harvard University.

1919 Elizabeth Catlett was born in Washington, DC. She became an internationally known printmaker and sculptor who emigrated to Mexico and embraced both African and Mexican influences in her art.

1922 Harold Washington was born in Chicago, Illinois. He served in the Illinois House of Representatives and Senate as well as two terms in Congress before becoming the first African American mayor of Chicago. He died after suffering a massive heart attack on November 25, 1987 after being re-elected to a second term as mayor.

1928 Pioneering architect Norma Merrick (later Sklarek) was born in New York City. Sklarek was the first licensed woman architect in the United States and the first African American woman to become a fellow in the American Institute of Architects (1980).

1947 Baseball player Jackie Robinson played his first major-league baseball game (he had played exhibition games previously) for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African American in the major leagues.

1957 Evelyn Ashford was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. She grew up in Roseville, California becoming a track star specializing in sprinting. She was a four-time winner of Olympic gold medals and one silver in 1976, 1984, 1988, and 1992. In 1979, she set a world record in the 200-meter dash. In 1989 she received the Flo Hyman Award from the Woman's Sports Foundation. In 1992, the U.S. Olympic team asked her to carry the flag during the opening ceremonies in the Barcelona Olympics. She retired from track and field in 1993 at the age of 36.

1960 The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was formed on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina.

1985 Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns wins the World Middleweight title. This is one of five weight classes that he will win a boxing title making him the first African American to win boxing titles in five different weight classes.

1996 South Africa's "truth commission", looking into abuses during the apartheid era, began its public hearings.

Essence
Member

01-12-2002

Friday, April 16, 2004 - 7:45 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
April 16:

1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed The District of Columbia Emancipation Act a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia. Passage of this act came 9 months before President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The act brought to conclusion decades of agitation aimed at ending what antislavery advocates called "the national shame" of slavery in the nation's capital. The law provided for immediate emancipation, compensation of up to $300 for each slave to loyal Unionist masters, voluntary colonization of former slaves to colonies outside the United States, and payments of up to $100 to each person choosing emigration. Over the next 9 months, the federal government paid almost $1 million for the freedom of approximately 3,100 former slaves. The District of Columbia Emancipation Act is the only example of compensated emancipation in the United States. Though its three-way approach of immediate emancipation, compensation, and colonization did not serve as a model for the future, it was an early signal of slavery's death. Emancipation was greeted with great jubilation by the District's African-American community. For many years afterward, black Washingtonians celebrated Emancipation Day on April 16 with parades and festivals.

1868 Louisiana voters approved new constitution and elected state officers, including the first Black lieutenant governor, Oscar J. Dunn, and the first Black state treasurer, Antoine Dubuclet. Article Thirteen of the new constitution banned segregation in public accommodation: "All the persons shall enjoy equal rights and privileges upon any conveyances of a public character; and all places of business, or of public resort, or for which a license is required by either State, Parish or municipal authority, shall be deemed places of a public character and shall be opened to the accommodation and patronage of all persons, without distinction or discrimination on account of race or color."

1869 Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett becomes the first African American to serve in a diplomatic post for the U.S. (Consul-General to Haiti and the Dominican Republic)

1924 Don Redman performed the first recorded scat vocals while a member of Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra. Scat singing is an improvised vocal instrumentation composed of nonsense syllables. Don Redman scatted a few bars of "My Papa Doesn't Two-Time No Time," recorded in New York by Columbia. Although Louis Armstrong is generally credited with having recorded the first scat vocals, Don Redman actually preceded him by two years.

1929 Singer Roy Hamilton was born in Leesburg, Georgia. Hamilton's biggest hits of the 50s were "Unchained Melody" and "You'll Never Walk Alone."

1947 Basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was born Lewis F. Alcindor, Jr. in New York City. He was the kind of player that graces a sport once in a lifetime. The basketball world might never again see an athlete dominate the sport for as long and as thoroughly as Abdul-Jabbar did. From the time he stepped on the court at Power Memorial High School in his native New York City, to the time he retired as the NBA's all-time leader in nine statistical categories, the 7-foot-2 Abdul-Jabbar established himself as basketball's most talented and recognizable figure.

After earning three All-America selections at Power Memorial High School, where he guided the team to a 95-6 record, Abdul-Jabbar became part of one of the greatest teams in the history of college basketball. Under Hall of Fame coach John Wooden, Abdul-Jabbar guided the UCLA Bruins to a three-year mark of 88-2, three consecutive NCAA titles (1967-69) and was the first and only player to be named the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player three times. The three-time college All-America simply ruled the game at the college level, earning the title of College Player of the Year from 1967 to 1969 from The Sporting News, United Press International, The Associated Press and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. Upon the time of his graduation, Abdul-Jabbar was the Bruins' all-time leading scorer with 2,325 points.


In only his first of a stellar 20-year career, one that saw Abdul-Jabbar play no less than 65 games a season, the smooth and competitive seven-footer was named NBA Rookie of the Year after averaging 28.8 ppg and 14.5 rebounds for the Milwaukee Bucks. Abdul-Jabbar became an instant force in the league, bringing finesse and agility to the center position, which had previously seen brute force and strength as the rule. With superior physical fitness and skill, Abdul-Jabbar joined with the "Big O," Oscar Robertson, to capture Milwaukee's only NBA title in 1971. Abdul-Jabbar averaged 30 or more points in four of his six years with the Bucks and was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player in 1971, 1972 and 1974.

Prior to the 1975-76 season, Abdul-Jabbar was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, where his patented skyhook helped him and the Lakers earn a staggering five NBA championships (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988). He picked up another three NBA MVP awards (1976, 1977 and 1980), a record six in total, was named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year in 1985. Upon his retirement in 1989, Abdul-Jabbar stood on top of the heap in nine NBA statistical categories, including points scored (38,387), seasons played (20), playoff scoring (5,762), MVP awards (6), minutes played (57,446), games played (1,560), field goals made and attempted (15,837 of 28,307) and blocked shots (3,189).

1962 Three Louisiana Segregationists Excommunicated by Archbisop Joseph Rummel for continuing their opposition to his order for integration of New Orleans parochial schools.

1965 Black Lieutenant General
Maj. Gen. B.O. Davis Jr.
, assistant deputy chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, named lieutenant general, the highest rank attained by a Black to date in the armed services.

1973 Lelia Smith Foley became the first African American woman to be elected mayor of a U.S. city (Taft, OK).

1990 South African black leader Nelson Mandela made an appearance at a huge pop concert held in his honor during a visit to Britain.

1994 Ralph Ellison died. He was the author of "Invisible Man," a searing novel about black life in America.

Ladytex
Member

09-27-2001

Friday, April 16, 2004 - 9:15 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Stevie Wonder to Get Special Award
Associated Press
April 16, 2004

NEW YORK - Stevie Wonder has been selected as recipient of the Johnny Mercer Award by The National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame.

The award will be presented June 10 at the 2004 awards dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel.

"The Johnny Mercer Award goes to a `songwriter's songwriter,'" Hal David, chairman and chief executive officer of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, said in a statement Thursday.

"I can think of no one who is more deserving of this accolade than Stevie Wonder. His music is known and loved around the world and has made a difference in the lives of so many."

Past recipients include Carole King, Billy Joel, Jimmy Webb, Hal David, Burt Bacharach, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller and Paul Simon.


http://www.africana.com/newswire/home_article.asp?SMContentIndex=5&SMContentSet=0

Ladytex
Member

09-27-2001

Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 10:04 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Black Facts that happened on April the 17th:

1758 Francis Williams, first U.S. Black college graduate, publishes a poem book in Latin.

1823 Arkansas jurist Mifflin Wistar Gibbs was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Gibbs became the nation's first African American judge in 1873. From 1850-1858, he served as U.S. consul to Madagascar.

1872 Wiliam Monroe Trotter, crusader for full equality, publisher of "The Boston Guardian," co-founder of the Niagra Movement and close friend of W.E.B. Dubois, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Trotter led a protest against the showing of the racist film "Birth of a Nation" and was in opposition to Booker T. Washington.

1990 Playwright August Wilson won his second Pulitzer Prize for drama with the play "The Piano Lesson."

1990 Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, keystone of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, died of heart failure.


www.blackfacts.com

Jan
Member

08-01-2000

Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 1:53 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I don't know if you have provided the links already, Ladytex & Essence, to the Black inventors pages on the net but I know people are always surprised to see some of the inventions made by blacks back in slavery days in the 1800's when they could not be educated..eg the first open heart surgery (1893), the elevator (1888), mechanical corn harvester (1836) as well as the lawn mower, the player piano and peanut butter!!!

Here are a few links:

http://www.ritesofpassage.org/inventors.htm

http://www.black-collegian.com/african/inventors.shtml

http://www.littleafrica.com/resources/inventors.htm



Ladytex
Member

09-27-2001

Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 3:33 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks for those links, Jan! New places for me to explore! Yipee!!

Jan
Member

08-01-2000

Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 3:49 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Ladutex, I have found many of the inventors to be fascinating reading..eg George W Carver who invented peanut butter and mayonnaise and many other things, actually helped save the southern farmlands after the civil war:

quote:

At Tuskegee, Carver developed his crop rotation method, which revolutionized southern agriculture. Soil-depleting cotton crops alternated with soil-enriching crops -- such as peanuts, peas, soybeans, sweet potato and pecans. America's economy was heavily dependent upon agriculture during this era, making Carver's achievements very significant. Decades of growing only cotton and tobacco had depleted the soils of the southern area of the United States of America. The economy of the farming south had been devastated by years of civil war and the fact that the cotton and tobacco plantations could no longer (ab)use slave labor. Carver convinced the southern farmers to follow his suggestions and helped the region to recover.

Carver did not patent or profit from most of his products, he freely gave his discoveries to mankind. Most important was the fact that he changed the South from being a one-crop land of cotton, to being multi-crop farmlands, with farmers having hundreds of profitable uses for their new crops. "God gave them to me." he would say about his ideas, "How can I sell them to someone else?"




George W Carver

ETA: ironic isn't it that it would take a black man to save the South!!!

Essence
Member

01-12-2002

Sunday, April 18, 2004 - 4:12 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
April 18:

1861 Nicholas Biddle became the first African American in uniform to be wounded in the Civil War.

1864 The First Kansas Colored Volunteers broke through Confederate lines at Poison Spring, Arkansas. The unit sustained heavy losses when captured African American soldiers were murdered by Confederate troops as opposed to being taken as POWs, which was the standard treatment for captured whites.

1877 The American Nicodemus Town Company was founded by six African American settlers in northwestern Kansas. The town was settled later in the year.

1924 Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was born in Vinton, Louisiana. He became a blues musician and was be inspired by the sounds of T-Bone Walker, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. He became a Grammy winner and was nominated six times. He was unrivaled in his ability to seamlessly combine blues, country, soul and jazzy Rhythm & Blues. He was best known for his hits, "Okie Dokie Stomp," "Boogie Rambler," "Just Before Dawn," "Dirty Work At The Crossroads," and "Gatemouth Boogie."

1941 Dr. Robert Weaver was named director of Office of Production Management section, charged with integrating African Americans into the National Defense Program.

1941 Bus companies in New York City agreed to hire African American drivers and mechanics. This agreement ended a four-week boycott.

1955 Bill Russell was named coach of the Boston Celtics basketball team and became the first Black to coach an established team in professional athletics.

1955 James B. Parsons was named chief judge of the Federal District Court in Chicago and became the first Black to hold that position.

1976 Percy Julian, holder of more than 138 chemical patents, and a pioneer synthesizer of cortisone drugs, died.

1977 Alex Haley, author o "Roots" was awarded Pultizer Prize.

1980 Reggae singer, Robert Nesta Marley, performed at Zimbabwe Independence Celebration.

1983 Alice Walker was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple. Ten days later the novel also won the American Book Award for fiction.

Ladytex
Member

09-27-2001

Sunday, April 18, 2004 - 7:48 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    

What African American Woman Was the First Person to Give Birth to a Baby While Serving in Congress?






In her political career, Yvonne Braithwaite Burke achieved a number of firsts. In 1967, she was the first African American woman elected to the California State Assembly. In 1972, she was the first African American elected to Congress from the American West. That same year she became the first African American vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee. She was the first woman to head the Congressional Black Caucus. In 1978, she was the first African American member of the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors.

Burke's most unusual first, however, is that while a member of the House of Representatives, she gave birth to a child, the first person ever to do so while serving in Congress. Her daughter Autumn was born in 1973. There were other triumphs. In 1974, Time magazine named Burke one of America's 200 future leaders, and in 1974, Good Housekeeping magazine listed her among the country's 40 most respected women.

Yvonne Braithwaite Burke also experienced failure. She lost her bid to become California's Attorney General. She was not re-elected to the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors. Somehow, despite her early victories and her unusual abilities, she never reached the political heights her qualifications warranted. It was the nation's loss. Burke herself was always hopeful. "I visualize a time, " she said, when "we have a black governor, and, yes, a black president."


http://www.africana.com/research/blackfacts/bl_fact_50.asp

Tishala
Member

08-01-2000

Monday, April 19, 2004 - 12:08 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I just realized I could post about a friend from back when I lived in Philly cause she's sorta famous now.

cheryl
Cheryl Dunye a native of Liberia received her BA from Temple University and her MFA from Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Dunye has received numerous national and international honors for her work in the media arts. Her third feature film, Miramax's, MY BABY'S DADDY, was a box office success and played at theaters nation wide. Dunye's second feature, the acclaimed HBO Films, Stranger Inside, garnered Dunye an Independent Spirit award nomination for best director in 2002.

Dunye wrote, directed and starred in her first film which was the first African American lesbian feature film, The Watermelon Woman [read about it here cause it's really good and lots of video places have it; Ed.]. It was awarded the Teddy Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and best feature in L.A.'s OutFest, Italy's Torino, and France's Creteil Film Festivals. Dunye's other works have been included in the Whitney Biennial and screened at festivals in New York, London, Tokyo, Cape Town, Amsterdam and Sydney.

Dunye serves on the Directors Guild of America's Independent Council and on the advisory board for New York's Independent Film Project's Gordon Parks Award. She was also a mentor for IFP/ West Project Involve and a board member of Los Angeles OUTFEST.

In addition Dunye has received grants from the Astraea Foundation and Frameline; a recipient of a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts; a fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation; and graced with the prestigious Anonymous was a Woman Award as well as a lifetime achievement award from Girlfriends Magazine.

Dunye currently teaches in the Department of Film and Media Arts at Temple University and is at work on a slate of new projects in the US and abroad.

Ladytex
Member

09-27-2001

Monday, April 19, 2004 - 10:12 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Black Facts that happened on April the 19th:

1775 Militia Integrated in the War of Independence: The first integrated army in American history was the colonial militia that fought the early battles of the War of Independence. African American minutemen fought on the front lines in the first battles against British authority: African Americans assembled at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, to defend Boston against a threatened attack by His Majesty's regiments. One of the first to see combat was Prince Easterbrooks, a Lexington slave, who was a member of Captain John Parker's company and who was wounded at the battle of Concord. He survived, however, to fight in many other companies throughout the Revolutionary War. Another was Barzillai Lew, who joined the 27th Massachusetts Regiment, fought at Bunker Hill, and served in the army for seven years. Although the Continental Army tried to exclude African Americans at one time during the conflict, and some states raised all-Black units, free African Americans and slave militiamen served alongside of white militiamen in many battles from Bunker Hill to Yorktown.

1837 Cheyney University is founded in Cheyney, PA

1866 On April 19, 1866, the African American citizens of Washington D.C. celebrated the abolition of slavery. 4,000 to 5,000 people assembled to the White House addressed by Andrew Johnson. Led by two black regiments the spectators, and the procession proceeded up the Pennsylvania Avenue to Franklin Square for religious services and speeched by prominiet politicians. The sign on top of the platform read: "We have recieved our civil rights. Give us the right of suffrage and the work is done."

1910 The National Urban League was formed in New York City. The league was born out of a merger of the National League for the Protection of Colored Women, National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes and the Niagra Movement.

1960 Maj. Gen. Frederic E. Davidson assumed command of the Eighth Infantry Division in Germany and became the first Black to lead an army division.

1960 National Education Association study revealed that Blacks had lost thirty thousand teaching jobs since 1954 in seventeen Southern and Border states because of discrimination and desegregation.

1960 Home of Z. Alexander Looby, counsel for 153 students arrested in sit-in demonstrations, destroyed by dynamite bomb. More than eighty-three demonstrators indicted in Atlanta, Georgia, on charges stemming from the sit-in demonstrations at Atlanta restaurants. Two thousand students marched on the Nashville City Hall in protest. One hundred Black students, carrying rifles and shotguns, seized the Student Building at Cornell University to protest University "racism."

1971 Walter Fauntroy takes office as the first elected Congressional representative from the District of Columbia since Reconstruction.

1977 Alex Haley receives a special Pulitzer Prize for Roots.

1978 Max Robinson is the first African American to anchor network news. The network is ABC.

1989 Republic Day in Sierra Leone.


www.blackfacts.com


Ladytex
Member

09-27-2001

Tuesday, April 20, 2004 - 8:09 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Black Facts that happened on April the 20th:

1853 Harriet Tubman starts the Underground Railroad

1871 Third Enforcement Act defined Klan conspiracy as a rebellion against the United States and empowered the president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and declare martial law in rebellious areas.

1877 Federal troops withdrawn from public buildings in New Orleans.

1899 Edward ("Duke") Kennedy Ellington was born on this day.

1909 Presidential Assistant E. Frederic Morrow was born in Hakensack, New Jersey. A graduate of Rutgers University, Morrow was a vice president for Bank of America before being appointed an administrative assistant to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

1909 Lionel Hampton, vibraphonist, drummer and band leader, born

1971 U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that busing was a constitutionally acceptable method of integrating public schools.

1990 Oakland, California hosted the first Bay Area "Black Filmworks Festival." Sponsored by the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, the three-day event featured 25 films including a documentary entitled, "Making 'Do the Right Thing.'"

www.blackfacts.com

Essence
Member

01-12-2002

Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 6:46 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
.

Essence
Member

01-12-2002

Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 6:56 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
April 21:

1878 The ship Azor left Charleston, South Carolina, on its first trip, carrying 209 African Americans bound for Liberia.

1892 African American Longshoremen strike for higher wages in St. Louis, Missouri.

1898 Volunteer African American army units, including the 3rd Alabama, 3rd North Carolina, 6th Virginia, 9th Ohio, 9th Illinois, 23rd Kansas and 10th Cavalry regiments, some units with African American officers, took part in the Spanish-American War on Cuban soil. Some of these veterans, upon return to the United States, were treated with parades and speeches. Others were assaulted and even lynched.

1900 Dumarsais Estime was born in Verrettes, Artibonite, Haiti. He became president of Haiti in 1946 and was regarded as a progressive leader and statesman. He died in New York City in 1953.

1938 The Harlem Suitcase Theatre opened with Langston Hughes's play "Don't You Want to be Free?" The play's star was a young Robert Earl Jones, father of James Earl Jones.

1940 Souleymane Cisse was born in Bamako, Mali. He became a filmmaker, graduating from the State Institute of Cinema in Moscow in 1969. He became one of the most popular filmmakers in Africa.

1965 Pedro Albizu Campos died at the age of 71 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Campos was a Puerto Rican of African descent who advocated Puerto Rico's independence and condemned United States imperialism and the 1898 invasion and occupation of Puerto Rico. Some Puerto Ricans refer to him as "Don Pedro," and one of the fathers of Puerto Rican national identity.

1966 Milton Olive, Jr. became the first African American to win the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery during the Vietnam War. He was honored for saving the lives of his fellow soldiers by falling on a live grenade while participating in a search-and-destroy mission near Phu Coung.

1971 Francois Duvalier, known as "Papa Doc," died in Port-au-Prince, Haiti at the age of 64. He had been president-for-life of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. He was succeeded in power by his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier.

1974 By winning the Monsanto Open in Pensacola, Florida, Lee Elder became the first African American professional golfer to qualify for the Masters Tournament. It was one of four PGA tour victories for the Dallas, Texas, native, including the Houston Open in 1976 and the Greater Milwaukee Open and Westchester Classic in 1978. Elder's career earnings of $2 million places him among the top three African American golfers, along with Calvin Peete ($2.3 million and 12 PGA tournament victories) and Charlie Sifford ($1 million).

1986 Michael Jordan scored 63 points against Boston Celtics.

1997 Lamuck Aguta won the 101st Boston Marathon.

2003 Nina Simone, "High Priestess of Soul", died in Carry-le-Rouet (South of France) at the age of 70. As she wished, her ashes were spread in different African countries. She gained fame in the 1960s for her civil rights songs.

Essence
Member

01-12-2002

Thursday, April 22, 2004 - 6:11 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
******* Today in Black History – April 22*******

1526 The first recorded slave revolt occured in a settlement of some five hundred Spaniards and one hundred slaves, located on the Pedee River in what is now South Carolina.

1692 In Salem, Massachusetts, Mary Black, a slave, was convicted of sorcery and jailed after a trial.

1882 Benjamin Griffith Brawley was born in Columbia, South Carolina. He became a prolific author and educator, serving as a professor of English at Morehouse, Howard, and Shaw universities. He also served as dean of Morehouse. His books, among them "A Short History of the American Negro" and "A New Survey of English Literature," were landmark texts recommended at several colleges. He died in 1939.

1919 S. H. Love, born in 1893 in Colt, Arkansas, served in Europe during WWI where he always claimed later he had passed on to a buddy the idea for a draw theater curtain, as opposed to one which dropped from the ceiling. He did develop an idea to improve military guns, for which he applied and was granted a patent 22 April 1919. patent no. 1,301,143.

1922 Charles Mingus was born in Nogales, Arizona. Raised in Watts, California, he played double bass with Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, and Bud Powell before becoming a bandleader and composer in his own right. Although not as popular as Miles Davis or Ellington, Mingus, who also playe piano, was considered one of the principal forces in modern jazz. He died in 1979 succumbing to Lou Gehrig's disease.

1950 Charles Hamilton Houston, architect of the NAACP legal campaign, died in Washington, DC at the age of 54.

1964 A Trinity College student occupies the school administration building to protest campus bias.

1964 New York police arrest 294 civil rights demonstrators at the opening of the World Fair.

1970 Yale University students protest in support of the Black Panthers.

1981 The Joint Center for Political Studies reports that 2991 African Americans held elective offices in 45 states and the District of Columbia, compared with 2621 in April, 1973, and 1185 in 1969. The Center reports 108 African American mayors. Michigan had the largest number of African American elected officials (194), followed by Mississippi (191).

1981 Brailsford Reese Brazeal, economist and former dean of Morehouse College, died in Atlanta, Georgia, at the age of 76.

1989 Huey Newton, black activist and co-founder of the Black Panther Party, died after being killed at age 47.

2000 The Rev. R.F. Jenkins, a pastor active in civil-rights organizations, who led his church for 25 years, died in Omaha, Nebraska, after suffering a heart attack at the age of 87. He was the first African American Lutheran Church Missouri Synod minister in the Nebraska district. He and his wife, Beatrice, had come to Omaha in 1954 after serving pastorates in Alabama and North Carolina. He had also previously served eight years as a faculty member at Alabama Lutheran College. He had returned to his hometown of Selma, Alabama, to take part in a civil-rights march in 1965. He served on the Omaha School District board from 1970 to 1976, and retired from the pulpit in 1979.

Ladytex
Member

09-27-2001

Thursday, April 22, 2004 - 4:23 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
World’s Highest Ranking Black Lawman is on the Case
Date: Thursday, April 22, 2004
By: WILLIAM DOUGLAS, BlackAmericaWeb.com

When Ronald K. Noble was appointed secretary-general of Interpol in November 2000, he wanted to gradually shake up the venerable international law enforcement organization headquartered in Lyon, France.

Then came the jolt of Sept. 11, 2001.

You can read the complete story here.

Essence
Member

01-12-2002

Friday, April 23, 2004 - 9:18 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
*******Today in Black History – April 23*******

1856 Inventor Granville T. Woods born in Columbus, Ohio. He received more than 35 patents including those for a steam boiler furnace, an incubator, and an automatic air brake.

1872 Charlotte E. Ray became the first female African-American Lawyer. Ms. Ray graduated from Howard Law School.

1911 The National Urban League was founded. An American voluntary-service agency dedicated to eliminating racial segregation and discrimination and helping blacks and other minorities to participate in all phases of American life. By the late 20th century more than 110 local affiliated groups were active throughout the United States. It is headquartered in New York City. In 1911 three organizations--the Committee for Improving the Industrial Conditions Among Negroes in New York (founded in 1906), the League for the Protection of Colored Women (founded 1906), and the Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes (founded 1910)--were merged to form the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, which sought to help blacks, especially rural Southern blacks migrating to New York City, to find jobs and housing and generally to adjust to urban life. The model organization established in New York City was imitated in other cities where affiliates were soon established. By 1919 the national organization had assumed the shorter name, National Urban League.

From its founding, the League has been interracial - the chairman of the board traditionally being white and the president and chief executive officer (overseeing day-to-day operations) being black. The primary task of helping migrants gradually evolved over the years into larger concerns, and, especially under the presidency of Whitney M. Young, Jr. (1961-71), the League emerged as one of the strongest forces in the American civil-rights struggle. Under his successor, Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. (1971-81), the League furthered its vision by embracing such causes as environmental protection, energy conservation, and the general problems of poverty. Under the presidency of John E. Jacob (1982-94), the agency renewed its emphasis on social welfare.

1951 Students attending Moton High School, Prince Edward County, Virginia led a walk out to protest separate and unequal school facilities. NAACP attorneys represented the students as they spearheaded the challenge to the system of segregated schools in Virginia. This case , along with others, helped to propel the passing of the 1954 landmark desegration law in the United States.

1954 Hank Aaron hit his first home run off pitcher Vic Raschi of the St. Loius Cardinals on April 23, 1954, his first year in the big leagues. It siganled the beginning of what has become Aarons duel with a legend. Aaron finished his 19th season with 673 home runs and stands just 41 short of the record set by the home run king, Babe Ruth.

1955 U.S. Supreme Court refused to review lower court decision which would ban segregation in intrastate bus travel.

1971 Columbia University operations virtually ended for the year by Black and white students who seized five buildings on campus.

Ladytex
Member

09-27-2001

Saturday, April 24, 2004 - 10:29 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Black Facts that happened on April the 24th:

1867 Black demonstrators staged ride-ins on Richmond, Va., streetcars. Troops were mobilized to restore order.

1867 First national meeting of the Ku Klux Klan held at the Maxwell House in Nashville, Tenn.

1884 National Medical Association of Black Physicians organized in Atlanta, Ga.

1886 Augustus Tolton ordained a Roman Catholic priest in Rome, was assigned to America.

1944 United Negro College Fund incorporated with 27 college members.

1944 Smith v.. Allwright, the Supreme Court rules that a "white primary" law that excludes African Americans from voting is a violation of the 15th Amendment and thus unconstitutional.

1944 At the age of 72 black cowboy Bill Pickett died after being kicked while roping a bronco. a star of the 101 Ranch wild West Show, Mr. Pickett invented the rodeo event of bulldogging , an event in which the contestant must wrestle a longhorn steer to the ground with his bare hands.

1972 James M. Rodger, Jr. first African American to be named National Teacher of the Year is honored at a White House ceremony.

1972 Robert Wedgeworth is named the first African American Director of the American Library Association.


Essence
Member

01-12-2002

Saturday, April 24, 2004 - 12:56 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
NASCAR's Bill Lester: A Love for Engineering, A Passion for Driving
By Bruce Phillips

Lester dreamed of racing while earning degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from UC Berkeley.

Bill Lester readily admits to "having an obsession with cars and speed," and he puts these obsessions to good use as driver for the No. 8 Dodge Ram NASCAR Craftsman Truck fielded by Bobby Hamilton Racing.

Lester dreamed of a career as a NASCAR driver after he earned degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California at Berkeley, graduating in 1983. He worked for 16 years as a software development engineer and, ultimately, as research and development project manager for Hewlett-Packard. Racing was his passion, however, and he made his professional auto-racing debut in the International Motor Sports Association's GTO race in 1989, at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. Driving a 650-hp Chevrolet Camaro, he qualified an impressive ninth, ahead of many factory-sponsored drivers, and overcame a suspension failure to finish 12th in the race.

Lester made both history and headlines when he drove a Team Rensi Motorsports, 650-hp Chevrolet Monte Carlo in the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series event at Watkins Glen, N.Y. With a 21st-place finish after a 24th-place starting position, he became the first African American to compete in a NASCAR BGN Series event in its 17-year history.

He continued to race part time until 2002, when he accepted an offer to test and then race the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Dodge of Bobby Hamilton Racing. In five events with the team, Lester achieved 36th-, 20th-, 30th-, 32nd-, and 18th-place finishes at Gateway International Raceway, Pikes Peak International Raceway, Nashville Speedway, South Boston Speedway, and Phoenix International Raceway, respectively. The trucks can reach speeds of 190 mph on high-bank tracks such as Daytona.

Lester recently told USBE Online that his goal is to continue to "demonstrate talent" to earn a place in the NASCAR Winston Cup series by 2004.

From www.blackengineer.com

Jan
Member

08-01-2000

Saturday, April 24, 2004 - 2:03 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Sifford first black chosen for Golf Hall of Fame
by DOUG FERGUSON, Associated Press

Charlie Sifford broke another barrier Thursday. Sifford, who cracked the PGA Tour's Caucasian-only clause in 1961 and was the first black member to win on tour, is the first black chosen for the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Sifford will be inducted Nov. 15, along with 1992 U.S. Open champion Tom Kite, Japanese star Isao Aoki and Canadian amateur Marlene Stewart Streit.

``This is very wonderful,'' Sifford said from the ceremony in Savannah, Ga. ``I thank all these wonderful players for accepting me. I know I had some bad days and tough days. But it looks like everything worked out fine.''

Streit is the first Canadian in the Hall of Fame. She won the U.S. Senior Women's Amateur title last year at 69, her sixth decade of winning an elite amateur title.

Kite, a 19-time winner and seven-time Ryder Cup player, was elected through the PGA Tour ballot. Aoki was elected through the International ballot.

That brings membership in the World Golf Hall of Fame to 104. No one from the LPGA Tour will be inducted unless Laura Davies wins two tournaments or a major this year.

Sifford was a true pioneer, along with Teddy Rhodes, Pete Brown, Lee Elder, Bill Spiller and other blacks who kept playing with hopes of getting a chance on the PGA Tour.

Tiger Woods paid tribute to them when he won the '97 Masters for his first major, and he spoke in October about the absence of blacks in golf's Hall of Fame.

``They never had a chance to play,'' Woods said. ``Whether it's pioneers like Teddy Rhodes or Bill Spiller or Charlie, they fought all those years just to get on the tour. It's going to be very difficult for them to gain acceptance because of the fact they had no playing record on tour.

``One person who should get in, without a doubt, is Charlie.''

Sifford was elected through the Lifetime Achievement category and said he was stunned when PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem called with the news.

``It's a wonderful honor, one I've been waiting on a long time,'' he said.

Sifford was among the stars on the United Golf Association tour, where blacks could compete for small purses on public courses. He was able to play a couple of PGA Tour events that allowed blacks, although he paid a price.

In the 1952 Phoenix Open, Sifford and his all-black foursome found excrement in the cup on the first hole, and waited nearly an hour for the cup to be replaced.

Sifford won the 1957 Long Beach Open against a field that included Gene Littler, Jack Fleck and Tommy Bolt, although it wasn't an official PGA Tour victory because it was only 54 holes.

As pressure increased on the PGA Tour, Sifford was granted a tour card in 1960, and the Caucasian-only clause was lifted a year later.

Still, Sifford's homecoming to North Carolina to play in the 1961 Greater Greensboro Open included a telephone death threat and racial slurs hurled at him as he walked the fairways. He tied for fourth.

In his book, ``Just Let Me Play,'' Sifford wrote, ``I hadn't won the tournament in Greensboro, but I felt a larger victory. I had come through my first Southern tournament with the worst kind of social pressure and discrimination around me, and I hadn't cracked. I hadn't quit.''

Sifford won the 1967 Greater Hartford Open by closing with a 64 for a one-shot victory over Steve Oppermann. Two years later at Rancho Park, he birdied the first hole of a playoff to beat Harold Henning in the Los Angeles Open.

Kite was one of the steadiest players of his generation. He finished in the top 20 on the PGA Tour money list 15 consecutive seasons and twice won the money title.

His most productive year was 1989, when his three victories included The Players Championship and the Tour Championship, and Kite was voted Player of the Year.

But the season that mattered was 1992. Kite was responsible for the label now known as ``Best Player to Have Never Won a Major,'' and he got rid of it with a gutsy final round in strong wind at Pebble Beach to win the U.S. Open.

``It's been a longtime dream and hope of getting inducted into the Hall of Fame,'' Kite said. ``It's quite a thrill.''

Aoki was not as prolific a winner in Japan as Jumbo Ozaki, but his game traveled well. He became the first Japanese player to win a PGA Tour event in 1983, when he holed out for eagle on the last hole to win the Hawaiian Open. He also finished second to Jack Nicklaus in the 1980 U.S. Open.

Streit's first major title was the Canadian Ladies' Amateur in 1951, which she went on to win 11 times. She won the U.S. Women's Amateur and the British Ladies' Amateur in 1953, and continued to win big titles throughout her career.

``I played golf all my life for the love of the game,'' Streit said. ``This is very huge for Canada, and I'm just proud. My greatest thrill in golf has been playing for my country.''


Golfserve

Ladytex
Member

09-27-2001

Saturday, April 24, 2004 - 2:53 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
First Minority Driver from NASCAR's Drive for Diversity Named

Henderson Hopes for Cup Future

By Jerry Bonkowski
Special to ESPN.com

He may just be getting started on the road to Nextel Cup, but Joe Henderson III has already won one of the biggest races of his life.


The 19-year-old Franklin, Tenn., resident is the first minority driver to be placed out of NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program. Announced Friday morning at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Henderson will start off in the Dodge Weekly Series based at Music City Motorplex in Nashville, Tenn.


He will drive the No. 77 Dodge owned by veteran Trucks, Cup and Busch Series driver Bobby Hamilton and with sponsorship from Kodak.


"We're ecstatic to finally have something concrete," said Daryl Stewart, GM of the Radiate Group's Access Marketing and Communications, the chief organizer of Drive for Diversity. "We finally have people on the track, we have sponsors involved and this opens up that conduit so we can go out and have this type of activity and appeal to an audience that never had this opportunity available for them previously. It's like having your child take his first steps.


"Joe really wants to be the best. Hooking him up with Bobby Hamilton, and with Bobby having a previous relationship with Kodak, all the stars and planets were aligned. Now we have the opportunity to tell the rest of the world this great story and (see) his driving ability and acumen."



Joe Henderson III will get his first big racing break in the Dodge Weekly Series.


Added Hamilton, "This is a very exciting day for me and the team at Bobby Hamilton Racing. By partnering with Kodak, and to have a driver the caliber of Joe, we have great expectations for this program."


Since hosting its first combine at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway last October that drew several dozen minority aspirants for both driving and crew member roles, Drive for Diversity has been working toward placing its first "class," if you will, of five drivers and five crew members within NASCAR's ranks.


Henderson is the first pick overall, with announcements expected in the next few weeks of four other drivers who will get their start in some of NASCAR's lower rung racing series, as well as up to five crew members who will work for existing teams in the Craftsmen Truck Series.


"It's really a great opportunity to start my career off," said Henderson, who started racing go-karts at the age of seven. "I'm just going to take it step-by-step, learn Late Models and then hopefully start moving upward into either the Craftsman Truck Series or ASA (American Speed Association). I'm no stranger to the driver's seat, but it's going to take time to get more driving experience for me to be able to move up."


The Franklin High School senior has been impressive in a limited amount of previous racing experience, primarily in late models, Legends and mini-Cup cars. He's no stranger to Hamilton's shop, having competed in three races for the veteran driver during last season's Dodge Motorsports diversity racing program, winding up with two top-10 finishes.


Like many of his youthful racing peers, Henderson's goal is to work toward reaching Nextel Cup by the time he's 24 or 25. He says he'd like to pattern his career along the route that reigning Cup champ Matt Kenseth took, starting with small tracks and series and working his way up over time.


"Really, I want to go to Nextel Cup, but I know how tough it is to get up there, but I'm very fortunate to have Bobby coaching me," Henderson said. "Bobby is going to tell me if I'm ready or not ready. He's very good at mentoring and wants to take things step-by-step and day-by-day and have me gain as much driving experience as I can.


"By being part of Drive for Diversity, I think it's going to start my career real quickly. But it will also help to have Bobby there to show me experience and to show me the right and wrong things to do."


Henderson's family has racing ties. His father, Joe II, spent several seasons occasionally working for Wendell Scott, one of the first African-American drivers in NASCAR history, back in the late 1960s.


Plans for the second Drive for Diversity tryout are already being formed. It will likely again be held at Hickory Motor Speedway in October.


Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Motorsportwriter@MSN.com.

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?id=1788521