On THIS date in black history...

February 16

1801 - The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church officially separated from its parent, the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Zion church was incorporated as the African Episcopal Church of the City of New York. James Varick was its first pastor and he later became the first black African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) bishop. The first national conference was held in 1821.

1874 - Frederick Douglass is elected President of Freedman's Bank and Trust Company.

1904- James Bassett was born. He went on to become the first live actor hired by Walt Disney in the role of Uncle Remus.

1923 - Bessie Smith made her first recording for Columbia Records. The record, "Down Hearted Blues," written by Alberta Hunter and Lovie Austin. It sold 800,000 copies and was Columbia's first popular hit.

1944 - The U.S. Navy began its first officer training class of African Americans at Camp Robert Smalls, Great Lakes, Illinois.

1951 - James Ingram is born in Akron, Ohio. He will be raised there

on Kelly Avenue. He will later become a rhythm and blues singer and will earn at least three Grammy Awards and seventeen Grammy nominations.

1951 - The New York City Council passed a bill prohibiting racial discrimination in city-assisted housing developments.

1957 - LeVar Burton was born in Landstuhl, Germany. He is probably best known for his landmark role in the award-winning mini-series, "Roots," as the enslaved African youth Kunta Kinte, while attending USC. He later became a producer, director and writer for numerous television series and films.

1970 - Joe Frazier knocked outs Jimmy Ellis in the 5th round (out of 15)at Madison Square Garden to become the undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion.

1972 - Wilt Chamberlain scored his 30,000th point in his 940th game, a basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns. He is the first player in the NBA to score 30,000 points.

1992 - The Los Angeles Lakers retire Magic Johnson's uniform, # 32.

1999 - Mary Elizabeth Roche, best known as Betty Roche, passed away at the age of 81 in Pleasantville, New Jersey. She was a singer who performed with Duke Ellington in the 1940s and 1950s. She sang with the Savoy Sultans from 1941 to 1943, when she joined Ellington's group. She scored high marks from critics for the suite "Black, Brown and Beige," at Ellington's first Carnegie Hall concert. She also performed Ellington's signature song "Take the A Train" in the 1943 film. "Reveille With Beverly."

On THIS date in black history

February 12

1793 - Congress makes it a crime to hide or protect a runaway slave by passing the first fugitive slave law.


1809-Abraham Lincoln was born.


1865 - Henry Highland Garnet, preacher and abolitionist, became the first African American to preach in the rotunda of the Capitol to the House of Representatives. It is on the occasion of a Lincoln birthday memorial.


1896 - Isaac Burns Murphy, considered the greatest American jockey of all time, passed away. He was the first jockey to win the Kentucky Derby two years in a row and became the first jockey to win the Kentucky Derby three times. In 1955, Isaac Murphy was the first jockey voted into the Jockey Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing, in Saratoga Springs, New York.


1900 - For a Lincoln birthday celebration, James Weldon Johnson wrote the lyrics for "Lift Every Voice and Sing." With music by his brother, J. Rosamond, the song was first sung by 500 children in Jacksonville, Florida. It has since become known as the "Negro National Anthem." Here is a rendition performed by Ray Charles;

1909 - After six African Americans were killed and 200 others driven out of town in race riots in Springfield, Illinois in the summer of 1908, three people Mary Ovington, William E. Walling, and Dr. Henry Moskowitz, decided to open a campaign to oppose the pervasive discrimination against racial minorities. They issue a call for a national conference on "the Negro question", which was held on the centennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, February 12, 1909, in New York City. The conference attendees formulated plans for a permanent organization devoted to fighting all forms of racial discrimination. That organization is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP is the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the U.S. With more than 2,200 branches across the country, it was at the forefront of the struggle for voting rights, and an end to discrimination in housing, employment, and education.


1934 - William Felton "Bill" Russell is born in Monroe, Louisiana. He was a star basketball player and high jumper at the University of San Francisco. After college, he won a gold medal in the 1956 Olympics, as a member of the United States basketball team. He went on to play professional basketball for the Boston Celtics for thirteen seasons, winning eight straight NBA titles and eleven championships. At the end of the 1965-66 season, he will become the coach of the Boston Celtics.


1983 - Eubie Blake joins the ancestors at the age of 100 in Brooklyn, New York. Blake was one of the last ragtime pianists and composers whose most famous songs included "I'm Just Wild About Harry." With Noble Sissle, Blake was the composer of the first all-African American Broadway musical, "Shuffle Along," which opened on Broadway in 1921.


Sidenote: Happy birthday Ms. Singletary!

Better late than never: On THIS date in black history

February 11

1783 - Jarena Lee, the first woman to preach in an AME church, at Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia, was born in Cape May, New Jersey. She chronicled her life's work in her book, "Religious Experiences and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee: A Preachin' Woman" (1849). Jarena Lee was one of the first African American women to speak out publicly against slavery. She passed away in 1849.

1790 - The Society of Friends (Quakers) presents a petition to Congress calling for the abolition of slavery.

1809- Jonathan Jasper Wright, the first African American licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania was born.

1958 - Mohawk Airlines schedules Ruth Carol Taylor on her initial flight from Ithaca, New York to New York City. She became the first African American flight attendant for a United States-based air carrier.

1961 - Robert Weaver became the highest-ranking African American in the federal government when he was sworn in as administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency.

1966 - Willie Mays signs with the San Francisco Giants for $ 130,000 a year. At the time, it was one of the highest salaries in professional baseball.

1977 - Clifford Alexander, Jr. was confirmed as the first Africa American Secretary of the Army. He held the position until the end of President Jimmy Carter's term.

1977 - Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam is named head of state in Ethiopia. He ruled Ethiopia and be backed by the Soviet government until he loses the civil war in 1991 to the forces supporting Meles Zenawi.

1989 - Rev. Barbara Clementine Harris became the first woman consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal Church, in a ceremony held in Boston.

1990 - Nelson Mandela was released from prison after being held for nearly 27 years without trial by the South African government. The founder and unofficial leader of the African National Congress, Mandela became, during his imprisonment, a symbol for the struggle of Black South Africans to overcome apartheid.

1990 - James "Buster" Douglas defeated Mike Tyson in a stunning upset in Tokyo to win the heavyweight boxing championship. Almost two years later to the day, Tyson will be convicted of rape and two related charges filed by a Miss Black America contestant in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Sources: http://www.aaregistry.com/detail.php?id=691; http://www.informationman.com/today.htm

On THIS date in black history

February 10

1868 - Republican conservatives drafted a new constitution which concentrated political power in the hands of the governor a limits the impact of the Black vote. This was made possible by Conservatives, aided by military forces, who seize the convention hall and establish control over the reconstruction process in Florida.

1907- Grace Towns Hamilton, an African-American civil rights advocate, feminist, and politician was born. She became the first African-American woman to serve in the Georgia legislature (1966-1984). Described as “the quiet warrior,” she fought hard for better health facilities, improved education, help for the indigent, and rights for the disenfranchised. She brought the power to minority voters in the state of Georgia.

1909- “Chick” Webb , an African-American drummer and bandleader, was born. His dynamic drumming and easily recognized compositions arranged by Edgar Sampson earned him and his band an enthusiastic following. Stompin’ at the Savoy and Don’t Be That Way 1934 were signature selection of the times. Ella Fitzgerald, who would become the bands leading attraction, sang Webb’s hit recordings A-Tisket A-Tasket, 1938 and Undecided, 1939.
Chick Webb died on June 16, 1939, at the age of 30 from complications following an operation.

1927 - Mary Leontyne Violet Price, one of the world's greatest operatic talents, was born in Laurel, Mississippi. She amassed many operatic firsts, being the first African American to sing opera on network television and the first African American to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Among other honors, she received the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, three Emmys, and Kennedy Center Honors.

1937 - Roberta Flack, legendary American singer, was born in Black Mountain (Asheville), North Carolina. She began her professional singing career in Washington, DC. She won Grammys for "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," "Where Is the Love," and "Killing Me Softly with His Song."

1942 - Mary Lovelace O'Neal is born in Jackson, Mississippi. Educated at Howard and Columbia universities, she became a professor of fine arts and head of the Art Department at University of California at Berkeley. Academia allowed her the freedom to become a painter and she exhibited her work in museums in the United States, Morocco, and Chile.

1943 - Eta Phi Beta, the national business and professional sorority, is incorporated in Detroit, Michigan. It has chapters throughout the United States and number among its members civil rights activist Daisy Bates and artist Margaret T. Burroughs.

1945 - The United States, Russia, Great Britain, and France approve a peace treaty with Italy, under which Italy renounces all rights and claims to Ethiopia and Eritrea.

1945 - The Chicago Defender reports that over a quarter of a million African Americans migrated to California during the years 1942 and 1943. As the percentage of African Americans in California increases from 1 1/2% to more than 10% of the total population, so does the practice of racial segregation.

1971 - Bill White becomes the first African American major league baseball announcer when he begins announcing for the New York Yankees.

1989 - Ronald H. Brown, who had served as Jesse Jackson's campaign manager, became chairman of the Democratic National Committee, the first African American to hold the position in either party.

1990 - South African President, Frederik Willem de Klerk announces that Nelson Mandela will be set free on February 11th after 27 years in prison.

1992 - Alex Haley, author of "Roots," and "Autobiography of Malcolm X," passed away while on a lecture tour in Seattle, Washington at the age of 70.

1992 - Mike Tyson is convicted in Indianapolis, Indiana of raping a contestant in the Miss Black America competition and sentenced to six years in an Indiana prison.

1998 - Dr. David Satcher is confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become Surgeon General.

2007-Obama announces bid for presidency in Springfield Illinois.

Sidenote: Happy 20th birthday little brother.

On THIS date in black history

February 8, 2010

1865 - The first African American major in the United States Army is a physician, Dr. Martin Robinson Delany.

1871-Justina Ford ,an African-American physician and humanitarian was born. As a doctor breaking down barriers for Blacks and women, Ford also worked as a humanitarian: her expertise in gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatrics was often provided to low-income and indigent people of all races. She delivered over 7000 babies during her distinguished practice of more than 50 years.

1894 - Congress repeals the Enforcement Act, which makes it easier for some states to disenfranchise African American voters.

1898- The “Grandfather Clause” was enacted for voting purposes. It was a legal and constitutional mechanism passed by seven Southern states during reconstruction to deny suffrage to black Americans. It meant that those who had enjoyed the right to vote prior to 1867, or their lineal descendants, would be exempt from educational, property, or tax requirements for voting. As a result, even if they met all the requirements, they were not allowed to vote.

Because the former slaves were not granted that right until the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, these clauses worked effectively to exclude Blacks from voting and assured the vote of many impoverished and illiterate whites. In 1915 the Supreme Court declared the grandfather clause unconstitutional because it violated equal voting rights guaranteed by the Fifteenth Amendment.

1924-Joe Black, an African-American baseball player in the Negro Leagues and author is born. He became the first Black pitcher to win a World Series game

1925 - Marcus Garvey is sent to federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia for mail fraud in connection with the sale of stock in his Black Star Line. His prosecution was vigorously advocated by several prominent African American leaders, including Robert Sengstacke Abbott and others. Garvey was railroaded because of the power he had amassed over the African American population of America.

1925 - Students stage a strike at Fisk University to protest the policies of the white administration at the school.

1944 - Harry S. McAlpin of the "Daily World" in Atlanta, Georgia, is the first African American journalist accredited to attend White House press conferences.

1965 - Dr. Joseph B. Danquah, Ghanaian political leader, joins the ancestors. He had been the leader of the United Gold Coast Convention, a political body which had pressed the British for a gradual relinquishing of colonial rule.

1968 - Gary Coleman is born in Zion, Ohio. He will become a child actor portraying "Arnold" in the television series, "Different Strokes," which aired from 1978 to 1986. Go ahead and say it "What you talking bout Willis?"

1968 - Highway Patrol Officers kill three South Carolina State University students during a demonstration in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Students are protesting against a whites-only Orangeburg bowling alley.

1970 - Alonzo Mourning is born in Chesapeake, Virginia. He became a basketball star at Georgetown University and went on to play for the NBA Charlotte Hornets, New Jersey Nets and later the Miami Heat.

He was praised for his courage for making a comeback after undergoing a kidney transplant and years later winning his first NBA Championship with the Miami Heat in 2006.

1984 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Los Angeles Lakers scores 27 points

while leading his team to a 111-109 victory over the Boston Celtics. Abdul-Jabbar passed Wilt Chamberlain's NBA career record of 12,682 field goals.

1986 - Oprah Winfrey becomes the first African American woman to host

a nationally syndicated talk show.

1986 - 5' 7" Spud Webb, of the Atlanta Hawks, wins the NBA Slam Dunk

Competition.

1990 - CBS News suspends resident humorist Andy Rooney for racial

comments he supposedly made to a gay magazine; Rooney denies making the comments.

1995 - The U.N. Security Council approves sending 7,000 peacekeepers

to Angola to cement an accord ending 19 years of civil war.

1995- This date observes National African American Parent Involvement Day (NAAPID).

2000 - Edna Griffin, an Iowa civil-rights pioneer best known for integrating lunch counters, passes away at the age of 90. In 1948, Griffin led the fight against Katz Drug Store in downtown Des Moines, which refused to serve blacks at its lunch counter. Griffin staged sit-ins, picketed in front of the store and filed charges against the store's owner, Maurice Katz, who was fined. The Iowa Supreme Court then enforced the law which made it illegal to deny service based on race. She organized Iowans to attend the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 march on Washington, D.C., and helped start the former radio station KUCB. On May 15, 1999, Des Moines' mayor proclaimed "Edna Griffin Day." On February 5, 2000, Griffin was inducted into the Iowa African American Hall of Fame.

Source: http://www.informationman.com/today.htm

On THIS date in black history

February 5

1866 - The distribution of public land and confiscated land to freedmen and loyal refugees in forty acre lots is offered in an amendment to the Freedmen's Bureau bill by Congressman Thaddeus Stevens. The measure is defeated in the House by a vote of 126 to 37. An African American delegation, led by Frederick Douglass calls on President Johnson and urges ballots for former slaves. The meeting ends in disagreement and controversy after Johnson reiterates his opposition to African American suffrage. I want my 40 acres.

1934 - Henry (Hank) Aaron is born in Mobile, Alabama. He holds the record for runs batted in with 2297, and his a Gold Glove Winner in 1958, 1959, and 1960. In April 8, 1974, he hit a 385-foot home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers, surpassing Babe Ruth's record of 714 career home runs. He ended his career with 755 home runs.

1941 - Barrett Strong is born in West Point, Mississippi. He became a Rhythm and Blues singer best known for his recording of "Money (That's What I Want)." He was also be a prolific songwriter, responsible for hits such as "Just My Imagination," "Papa Was A Rolling Stone," and "Ball of Confusion." He received a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Song for co-writing "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone."

1956 - L.R. Lautier becomes the first African American to be admitted to the National Press Club.

1958 - Clifton W. Wharton, Sr. becomes the first African American to head an American diplomatic mission in Europe when he is confirmed as minister to Romania.

1962 - A suit seeking to bar Englewood, New Jersey, from maintaining "racial segregated" elementary schools, is filed in United States District Court.

1968 - Students in Orangeburg, South Carolina try to end the discriminatory practices of a local bowling alley. Their confrontation with police and the National Guard, and the subsequent death of three students, creates widespread outrage among students on campuses across the South.

1969 - Cinque Gallery is incorporated by African American artists Romare Bearden, Ernest Crichlow, and Norman Lewis. Located in the SoHo district of New York City, the nonprofit gallery's mission is to assist in the growth and development of minority artists and to end the cycle of exclusion of their work from the mainstream artistic community.

1972 - Robert Lewis Douglas, founder, owner and coach of the New York Renaissance is the first African American inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. The New York Renaissance was an African American team that won 88 consecutive games in 1933.

1977 - Sugar Ray Leonard defeats Luis Vega in 6 rounds in his first professional fight.

1989 - Kareem Abdul-Jabar becomes the first NBA player to score 38,000 points.

1994 - White supremacist Byron de la Beckwith is finally convicted of Medger Evers' murder, more than thirty years after Evers was shot in the back from ambush. After deliberating for seven hours, a jury of eight African Americans and four whites convicted 73-year-old De La Beckwith of Medgar Evers's murder, sentencing him to life in prison. He died there seven years later. As a Mississippi State Supreme Court justice wrote about the retrial: "Miscreants brought before the bar of justice in this state must, sooner or later, face the cold realization that justice, slow and plodding though she may be, is certain in the state of Mississippi."

HUSL Today Salutes...

Rosa Parks

Rosa Louise McCauley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. She changed her name to Parks in 1932 when she wed Raymond Parks. She worked at a number of jobs, ranging from domestic worker to hospital aide. At her husband's urging, she finished her high school studies in 1933, at a time when less than 7% of African Americans had a high school diploma.

Despite the Jim Crow laws that made political participation by Black people difficult, she successfully registered to vote on her third try. In December 1943, she became active in the Civil Rights Movement, joining the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP.

Parks demonstrated great courage came when the seamstress and NAACP member refused to yield her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus on December 1, 1955. Her actions sparked a 382-day boycott of the buses in Montgomery, halting business and services in the city and it become the initial act of non-violent disobedience of the American Civil Rights movement. Check out Parks' interview where she comments on the goals of the boycott below:

She was honored with the NAACP's Spingarn Medal for her heroism and later work with Detroit youth (1979) and earned the title "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement." She will passed away on October 24, 2005.

The United States Senate passed a resolution on October 27, 2005 to honor Mother Parks by allowing her body to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The House of Representatives approved the resolution on October 28. Since the founding of the practice of lying in state in the Rotunda in 1852, Parks is the 31st person, the first woman, & the first American who had not been a U.S. government official and the second non-government official (after Frenchman Pierre L'Enfant).

On October 30, 2005 President George W. Bush issued a Proclamation ordering that all flags on U.S. public areas both within the country and abroad be flown at half-staff on the day of her funeral. (Parks is pictured above with former President Clinton). On February 5, 2006, at Super Bowl XL, played at Detroit's Ford Field, the late Coretta Scott King and Mother Parks, who had been a long-time resident of "The Motor City", will be remembered and honored by a moment of silence.

Although the decision to use Parks as the impetus for the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott was a collective effort, Rosa Parks is a prime example of how one person can change the world. For her courage and contributions to the civil rights movement, HUSL Today salutes Rosa Parks!

Happy Birthday Ms. Parks!