MUNIRAH CHRONICLE
******* Today in Black History – September 2, 2010 *******
1766 - Abolitionist, inventor, and entrepreneur,
James Forten is
born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1833 - Oberlin College, one of the first colleges to
admit
African
Americans, is founded in Oberlin, Ohio.
1864 - In series of battles around Chaffin's Farm in
the suburbs
of
Richmond, Virginia, African American troops capture
entrenchments
at New Market Heights, make a gallant but
unsuccessful
assault on Fort Gilmer and help repulse a
Confederate
counterattack on Fort Harrison. The
Thirty-
Ninth
U.S. Colored Troops will win a Congressional Medal
of Honor
in the engagements.
1902 - "In Dahomey" premieres at the Old
Globe Theater in Boston,
Massachusetts. With music by Will Marion Cook and lyrics
by poet
Paul Laurence Dunbar, it is the most successful
musical
of its day.
1911 - Romare Bearden is born in Charlotte, North
Carolina. His
family
will move to the village of Harlem in New York
City in
1914. He will call New York his home for
the
rest of
his life. A student at New York University,
the
American
Artists School, Columbia University, and the
Sorbonne,
Bearden's depiction of the rituals and social
customs
of African American life will be imbued with an
eloquence
and power that will earn him accolades as one
of the
finest artists of the 20th century and a master
of
collage. Among his honors will be election to the
American
Academy of Arts and Letters and the National
Institute
of Arts and Letters, and receiving the
President's
National Medal of Arts in 1987. He will join
the
ancestors in 1988.
1928 - Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver is born in
Norwalk,
Connecticut.
He will become a jazz pianist, bandleader,
and
composer who will initially lead the Jazz Messengers
with
drummer Art Blakey before forming his own band in
1956. A pioneer of the hard bop style, he will
attract
to his
band the talents of Art Farmer, Donald Byrd, and
Blue
Mitchell, among others.
1945 - The end of World War II (V-J Day). A total of 1,154,720
African
Americans have been inducted or drafted into the
armed
forces. Official records list 7,768 African
American
commissioned officers on August 31, 1945. At
the
height of the conflict, 3,902 African
American women
(115
officers) were enrolled in the Women's Army
Auxiliary
Corps (WACS) and 68 were in the Navy auxiliary,
the
WAVES. The highest ranking African American women
were
Major Harriet M. West and Major Charity E. Adams.
Distinguished
Unit Citations were awarded to the 969th
Field
Artillery Battalion, the 614th Tank Destroyer
Battalion,
and the 332nd Fighter Group (Tuskegee Airmen).
1946 - William Everett "Billy" Preston is
born in Houston, Texas.
He will
become a musician songwriter and singer. His hits
will
include "Will It Go Round in Circles", "Nothing from
Nothing",
"Outa-Space", "Get Back" (with The Beatles),
and
"With You I'm Born Again"(with Syreeta). He also will
appear in
film: "St. Louis Blues" and play with Little
Richard's
Band. He will collaborate with some of the
greatest
names in the music industry, including the
Beatles,
the Rolling Stones, Little Richard, Ray Charles,
George
Harrison, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Sam
Cooke,
King Curtis, Sammy Davis Jr., Sly Stone, Aretha
Franklin,
the Jackson 5, Quincy Jones, Richie Sambora,
and the
Red Hot Chili Peppers. He will play the electric
piano on
the Get Back sessions in 1969 and is one of
several
people sometimes credited as the "Fifth Beatle".
He is one
of only two non-Beatles to receive label
performance
credit on any Beatles record. He will
join
the
ancestors on June 6, 2006 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
1956 - The Tennessee National Guard is sent to
Clinton, Tennessee,
to quell
white mobs demonstrating against school
integration.
1960 - Eric Dickerson is born in Sealy, Texas. He
will become a
professional
football player and will become NFC Rookie
of the
Year in 1983. He will also set a NFL
single-
season
rushing record of 2,105 yards in 1984.
1963 - Alabama Governor George Wallace blocks the
integration of
Tuskegee
High School in Tuskegee, Alabama.
1965 - Lennox Claudius Lewis, former WBC boxing
champ, is born
in West
Ham, London, England.
1966 - Frank Robinson is named Most Valuable Player
of the
American
League.
1971 - Cheryl White becomes the first African
American woman
jockey to
win a sanctioned horse race.
1975 - Joseph W. Hatchett sworn in as first African
American
state
supreme court justice in the South (Florida) in
the
twentieth century.
1978 - Reggie Jackson is 19th player to hit 20 home
runs in 11
straight
years.
1989 - Rev. Al Sharpton leads a civil rights march
through the
Bensonhurst
section of Brooklyn, New York.
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The source for these facts are "Encyclopedia Britannica,
"InfoBeat," "I, Too, Sing
Book of Days," "Before the Mayflower", "Black Firsts" and
independent research by Rene’ A. Perry.
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Last Updated Thursday, September 02, 2010