THE MUNIRAH CHRONICLE
******* Today in Black History – November 12, 2019 *******
1775 - General George
Washington issues an order forbidding
recruiting officers from enlisting African Americans.
1779 - Twenty slaves
petition New Hampshire's legislature to
abolish slavery. They argue that "the god of nature
gave them life and freedom upon the terms of most
perfect equality with other men; that freedom is an
inherent right of the human species, not to be
surrendered but by consent."
1882 - Lane College is
founded in Jackson, Tennessee.
1896 - 1st Sgt. Moses
Williams (Ninth Calvary) is awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery in the Battle
of Cuchillo Negro Mountains, in New Mexico, fought on
August 16, 1881.
1922 - Sigma Gamma Rho
sorority is founded in Indianapolis,
Indiana, by seven school teachers: Mary Lou Allison
(Gardner Little), Bessie Mae Downey (Martin), Hattie
Mae Annette Dulin (Redford), Nannie Mae Gahn (Johnson),
Dorothy Hanley (Whiteside), Cubena McClure, and Vivian
White (Marbury). Founder Vivian White Marbury was able
to witness the progress of the sisterhood she helped
create until she joins the ancestors on July 30, 2000.
1941 - Opera instructor Mary
Cardwell Dawson and coloratura
Lillian Evanti establish the National Negro Opera
Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to provide more
opportunities for African Americans to sing and study
opera. The company's first opera, Verdi's "Aida",
will
be staged the following August at the annual meeting of
the National Association of Negro Musicians. In its
21-year history, its performers will include Evanti,
Minto Cato, and Robert McFerrin.
1944 - Booker Taliaferro
Jones Jr. is born in Memphis, Tennessee.
He will become a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record
producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the
band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. He will also work in the
studios with many well-known artists of the 20th and 21st
centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for lifetime
achievement. His entry into professional music will come at
the age of 16, when he plays baritone saxophone on
Satellite (soon to be Stax) Records' first hit, "Cause I
Love You", by Carla and Rufus Thomas. Willie Mitchell
will
hire him for his band, in which he starts on sax and later
will move to bass. It will be here that he meets Al
Jackson Jr., who he brings to Stax. Simultaneously, he will
form a combo with Maurice White and David Porter, in which
he will play guitar. While hanging around the Satellite
Record Shop run by Estelle Axton, co-owner of Satellite
Records with her brother Jim Stewart, he will meet record
clerk Steve Cropper, who will become one of the MGs when
the group form in 1962. Besides Jones on organ and Cropper
on guitar, Booker T. and the MGs will feature Lewie
Steinberg on bass guitar and Al Jackson, Jr. on drums (Donald
"Duck" Dunn eventually replacing Steinberg on
bass). While
still in high school, he will co-write the group's classic
instrumental "Green Onions", which will be a
massive hit in
1962. Over the next few years, he will divide his time
between
studying classical music composition, composing and
transposition at Indiana University, playing with the MGs on
the weekends back in Memphis, serving as a session musician
with other Stax acts, and writing songs that will become
widely regarded as classics. He will write, with Eddie Floyd,
"I've Never Found a Girl (To Love Me Like You Do)",
Otis
Redding's "I Love You More Than Words Can Say",
and, with
William Bell, bluesman Albert King's "Born Under a Bad
Sign"
(later popularized by the cover version recorded by the
British power trio Cream). In 1970, he will move to
California
and stop playing sessions for Stax after becoming frustrated
with Stax's treatment of the MGs as employees rather than
musicians. Even though he will be given the title of Vice
President at Stax before leaving, as he put it, "There
were
titles given (to us) but we didn't actually make the
decisions."
While still under contract to Stax, he will appear on Stephen
Stills's eponymous album (1970). The 1971 album Melting Pot
will be the last Booker T. & the M.G.'s album issued on
Stax.
On March 1, 1995, Booker T. & the MGs will win their
first
Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for the
song
"Cruisin'". He will still play with the MGs and his
own small
combo called the Booker T. Jones Band. His touring group will
include Vernon "Ice" Black (guitar), Darian Gray
(drums), and
Melvin Brannon (bass). He will be inducted into The Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and will be honored with a Grammy
Award for Lifetime Achievement on February 11, 2007. In 2007,
Jones will be also inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame
and
Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.
1974 - South Africa is
suspended from the U.N. General Assembly
over its racial policies.
1974 - Tamala R. Jones is
born in Pasadena, California. She will become
an actress. She will be best known for her roles in the
movies
Booty Call, The Wood, Kingdom Come, The Brothers, and Two Can
Play That Game. She will also be known for television roles
as
Tina, the recurring character on Veronica's Closet, Bobbi
Seawright on For Your Love and Lanie Parish on the ABC crime
drama Castle, which will first run from 2009 to 2016. Her
first
acting role will be a guest appearance on the teen sitcom
California Dreams. She will go on to play a student in the
short-
lived ABC drama Dangerous Minds. She will have co-starring
roles
on the 1998-2002 series For Your Love and the short-lived The
Tracy Morgan Show. She will have a recurring role as Tonya,
an
old girlfriend of Flex's (seasons one and five) on One on One.
She will guest-star on other television series, including The
Parent 'Hood, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Veronica's Closet,
My
Name Is Earl, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, and Malcolm
& Eddie.
In 1993, she will appear in the music video for "Give It
Up, Turn
It Loose" by En Vogue. In 2001, she will be in the music
video
for "Girls, Girls, Girls" by rapper Jay Z with
fellow actresses
Paula Jai Parker and Carmen Electra. Also that year, she will
be
featured in the music video for "Gravel Pit" by
Wu-Tang Clan. She
will also appear in Will Smith's video "Im looking for
the one".
She will appear in the music video for the song
"Independent" by
rapper Webbie as a female black President of the United
States.
1976 - Tevin Jermod Campbell
is born in Waxahachie, Texs. He will become
a singer, songwriter and actor. He will perform gospel in his
local church from an early age. Following an audition for
jazz
musician, Bobbi Humphrey, in 1988, he will be signed to
Warner
Bros. Records. In 1989, he will collaborate with Quincy Jones
performing lead vocals for "Tomorrow" on Jones'
album "Back on the
Block" and will release his Platinum-selling debut
album, T.E.V.I.N..
The album will include his highest-charting single to date,
"Tell
Me What You Want Me to Do", peaking at number 6 on the
Billboard
Hot 100. The debut album will also include the singles
"Alone With
You" (produced by Al B. Sure and Kyle West, with
background vocals
by K-Ci and JoJo from Jodeci), and "Goodbye". His double-Platinum
selling second album, I'm Ready, released in 1993, will
include two
songs penned by Babyface; "Can We Talk" which will
peak at number 9
on the Hot 100 and number 1 on the Billboard R&B charts,
and the
album's title track "I'm Ready", will also peak at
number 9 on the
Hot 100. In 1996, he will release his third album, Back to
the
World, which will not be as commercially or critically
successful
as his first two releases. His fourth and most recent album,
Tevin
Campbell, will be released in 1999, but will perform poorly
on
Billboard's album charts. Apart from music, he will commence
an
acting career, by appearing in the sequel to Prince's Purple
Rain
named Graffiti Bridge and will make guest appearances on The
Fresh
Prince of Bel-Air and Moesha television programs, voice
fictional
pop star Powerline in Disney's A Goofy Movie and will be cast
as
Seaweed in the Broadway musical Hairspray in 2005. He will
earn 5
Grammy Award nominations, and will have certified sales of
4.5
million records in the United States, according to the
Recording
Industry Association of America.
1977 - Ernest N. (Dutch)
Morial is elected mayor of New Orleans,
Louisiana. He is the first African American to hold that
post.
1977 - The NAACP's Spingarn
Medal is awarded to Alexander P.
Haley "for his unsurpassed effectiveness in portraying
the legendary story of an American of African descent."
*********************************************************
The source for these facts are "Encyclopedia Britannica,
"Before the
Mayflower", "Black Firsts" and independent
research by Mr. Rene’ A. Perry, Sr.
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EVERY MONTH SHOULD BE BLACK HISTORY MONTH! CHECK OUT THESE OTHER BLACK HISTORY SITES ON THE WEB
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in Memphis, Tennessee
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Michigan
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African American History & Culture - located in Baltimore, Maryland
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Last Updated Tuesday, November 12, 2019