On this date in Black History

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

December 1st

December 1st in Black History

1641. Massachusetts became the first American colony to recognize slavery.

1774. The Continental Congress voted to end the importation of Africans for slavery as a means of hurting the British merchants involved in the slave trade.

1933. Louis Allen Rawls (Lou) Rawls was born in Chicago, IL.

1955. Rosa Parks was arrested by police in Montgomery, Alabama after refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man who had walked to the rear “Colored” section of the bus when he could not find a seat in the front.

1958. Ubangi–Shari became a self-governing state within the French Community under the new name Central African Republic.

1960. Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of the Congo was arrested by traitor Joseph Mobutu's troops and flown to Leopoldville in handcuffs.

1964. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. met with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover at the Justice Department "to clear up the misunderstanding" two months after Hoover called King "the most notorious liar in the country."

1967. The Republics of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania came together to form the East African Community. They were late joined by the Republic of Rwanda and Republic of Burundi.

1985 The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) was founded.

1987. Writer and activist James Baldwin died in St. Paul-de-Vence, France.

1989. Alvin Ailey, dancer, choreographer and founder of the world-famous Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, died of blood dyscrasia in New York City.

1990. US-backed Chadian dictator Hissene Habré of Chad was deposed by rebel forces under the leadership of General Idris Deby. Habré fled to Senegal.

Monday, November 30, 2009

November 30th in Black History:

1868. Born to former slaves in Berkley, Virginia, William H. Lewis went on to become Assistant District Attorney in Boston, and one of the first three Blacks admitted to the bar in the U.S. Read more about him and make your own judgments

1905. The Ruimveldt Riots began in Guyana.

1912. Birth of Photographer and filmmaker Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks in Fort Scott, Kansas.

1924. Shirley Anita St. Hill (later Chisholm) was born in Brooklyn, NY.

1948. The U.S Negro League baseball organization was disbanded.

1965. Judith Jamison made her debut with Alvin Ailey's American Dance Theater in Chicago.

1966. My little island of Barbados gained independence after more than 300 years of British rule.

1975. Dahomey was renamed The People's Republic of Benin.

1990. Mozambique adopted multi-party democracy and the free market under a new constitution.

2005. John Tucker Mugabi Sentamu of Uganda became the Church of England’s first Black Archbishop of York. My many issues with him notwithstanding, this is a legitimate Black First.

November 29th

November 29th in Black History:

1735. Assumed birth date of Francis Barber, who was born a slave on a plantation in Jamaica, and later became the personal assistant and secretary to the writer Samuel Johnson, publisher of one of the world’s first English Dictionaries.

1781. In an event credited with escalating the anti-slavery movement, Captain Luke Collingwood of the salve ship Zong dumped 133 African overboard so he could file for a loss with his insurance company.

1908 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was born in New Haven, Connecticut.

1915. William Thomas “Billy” Strayhorn was born in Dayton, Ohio. He became a composer and jazz pianist famous for his innovative style

1919. Dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and teacher Dr. Pearl Primus was born in Trinidad and Tobago.

November 28th

November 28th in Black History:

1753. Celebrated as the birth date of James Robinson, an enslaved Black man who fought at Brandywine and Yorktown and was decorated by General Lafayette. He also served in the War of 1912. Robinson had been promised freedom for his military service, but was re-enslaved after the wars. Robinson died a free man at the age of 115, after the Civil War was over.

1928. Berry Gordy Jr. Is born in Detroit, MI.

1960. Author/activist Richard Wright died of a heart attack in Paris, France.

1961, Ernest R. Davis, the “Elmira Express” from Syracuse University, becomes the first Black athlete to be awarded the Heisman Trophy.

1997. Coleman Young died of Emphysema at age 79. He had been Detroit’s first Black mayor, and had been elected to an unprecedented 5 consecutive terms.

November 27th

November 27th in Black History:

1895. Black French novelist and playwright Alexandre Dumas died.

1928. Marjorie Joyner received a patent for a hair wave machine. Her permanent hair wave machine, U.S. Patent # 1,693,515, could wave the hair of both white and black people

1942. Johnny Allen Hendrix was born in Seattle, Washington. His father later renamed him James Marshall Hendrix, and eventually, James came to be called Jimi. He taught himself to play the guitar at a young age. Jimi was left handed, but the guitars available to him were right-hand strung, so for his whole life, Jimi played the guitar upside down! He went on to be a 60s rock icon, and although he died at the very young age of 27, he was one of the most influential presences in the whole rock genre.

1957. Dorothy Height was elected president of the National Council of Negro Women.

1960. Patrice Emery Lumumba fled Leopoldville, Congo. The pan-Africanist Prime Minister was betrayed by Western puppets Joseph Mobutu, Joseph Kasavubu, and Moise Tshombe. He was eventually murdered and his assassins turned against each other. This was one of Africa’s greatest tragedies.

1968. Eldridge Cleaver, Minister of Information for the Black Panther Party, jumped $50,000 bail and fled to Mexico City and then to Cuba, where he remained until 1969.

1976. Jaleel White was born in Pasadena, California. He started acting in commercials at the age of 3. His first televison role was on CBS's The Jeffersons in 1985. He is best remembered as being the ever annoying and loveable Steve Urkel for Warner Brother's Hit series Family Matters.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

November 26th

November 26th in Black History.

1792. Sarah Moore Grimké was born into a wealthy slave-owning family in Charleston, South Carolina. She and her younger sister Angelina became Quakers and outspoken advocates for abolition and women’s rights. Shunned by the Quakers for their activism, these two southern white women became even more determined freedom fighters.

1878. International cycling star Marshall "Major" Taylor was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. Taylor was the first Black American cycling champion and one of the highest-paid athletes of his time. His many achievements included the world one-mile track cycling championship in 1899.

1883. Death of Sojourner Truth. Born into slavery in Ulster County NY, she was a deeply religious woman who walked away from the plantation, changed her name from Isabella Baumfree, and became a tireless worker for Black liberation and women’s rights.

1895. National Negro Medical Association of Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists was founded. The group is still thriving, and operates out of Washington DC, under the name National Medical Association.

1939. Anna Mae Bullock was born near Brownsville, TN. Under the name Tina Turner, she continues to be a successful singer and actor.

1968. The new Race Relations Act in Britain made it illegal to refuse housing, employment or public services to people because of their ethnic background.

1968. Orenthal James (OJ) Simpson becomes the 34th Heisman Trophy winner.

1970. Charles Edward Fleming was born in Cleveland, OH in 1925. Under the nom de guerre, Charles Gordone, he became a playwright, director, actor, and educator. As Charles Gordone, he became the first Black to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama on this date in 1970 for his play No Place To Be Somebody.

1970. Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., the first black general in the U.S. Army, died. His son, Benjamin O. Davis Jr. became the commander of the famous Tuskegee Airmen, and the first Black general in the Air Force.

November 25th

November 25th in Black History:

1841. The 35 remaining mutineers of the Amistad return to Africa.

Read More Here

1874. Joseph Gaines was Born in Baltimore, Md. Fighting under the name “Joe Gans” he came to be recognized as the greatest lightweight boxer of all time and definitely one of the sport’s all-time greats. His nickname was “The Old Master.”

Read More Here

1903. William Hubbard was born in Cincinnati, OH. He became the first black athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event with a winning leap of 24’ 5” in the long jump at the 1924 Paris Games.

Read More Here

1922. The honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey electrified a massive crowd at Liberty Hall in New York City as he stated the goals and principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA): "We represent peace, harmony, love, human sympathy, human rights and human justice ... we are marshaling the four hundred million Negroes of the world to fight for the emancipation of the race and for the redemption of the country of our fathers."

Read More Here

1946. Broadway Federal Bank was founded in Los Angeles, CA. From an original 3-room office and $150,000 capitalization, the bank now has three locations in the City of Los Angeles and one in the City of Inglewood with assets in excess of $175 million.

If you’re looking for a BLACK place to invest your funds: Broadway Financial is a publicly traded stock company whose common stock is traded on the NASDAQ small cap market under the symbol "BYFC.”

Read More Here

1949. Bill "Bojangles" Robinson died of a chronic heart condition at Columbia Presbyterian Center in New York City.

Read More Here

1955. The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)banned segregation in public vehicles and waiting rooms used in interstate travel.

1975. Suriname gained independence from the Netherlands.

1980. A military coup led by Colonel Saye Zerbo overthrew the government of President Lamizana and suspended the constitution in Burkina Faso.

1987. Chicago mayor Harold Washington died after a heart attack

1990. President Félix Houphouët-Boigny was re-elected in Côte d’Ivoire’s (Ivory Coast's) first multi-party elections.

On this date in Black History

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

December 1st

Monday, November 30, 2009

Sunday, November 29, 2009

November 29th

November 28th

Friday, November 27, 2009

November 27th

Thursday, November 26, 2009

November 26th

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

November 25th

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