MUNIRAH CHRONICLE
******* Today in Black History – April
23, 2014 *******
1856 - Granville Tailer Woods is born in Columbus, Ohio. He will
become an inventor
of steam boilers, furnaces, incubators
and auto air brakes
and holder of over 50 patents. He will
become the first
American of African ancestry to be a
mechanical and
electrical engineer after the Civil War.
Self-taught, he
will concentrate most of his work on trains
and streetcars. One
of his notable inventions will be the
Multiplex
Telegraph, a device that sends messages between
train stations and
moving trains. His work will assure a
safer and better
public transportation system for the
cities of the
United States. He will join the ancestors on
January 30, 1910.
1872 - Charlotte E. Ray becomes the first African American woman
lawyer in
ceremonies held in Washington, DC admitting her
to practice before
the bar. She had received her law degree
from Howard
University on February 27.
1894 - Jimmy Noone is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He will
become a jazz
clarinetist and a major influence on the
swing music of the
1930's and 1940's. He will be a band
leader and be best
known as the leader of "Jimmy Noone's
Apex Club
Orchestra." Two of the people most
influenced by
Jimmy Noone's style
will be Benny Goodman and Jimmy Dorsey.
He will join the
ancestors after suffering a fatal heart
attack, while
performing with "Kid" Ory on April 19, 1944.
1895 - Jorge Mateus Vicente Lima is born in Alagoas,
Brazil. He
will become a poet,
novelist, essayist, painter, doctor,
and
politician. He will become best known
as a writer,
manipulating
Brazilian subjects, at the same time analyzing
Afro-Brazilian
culture and heritage. He will become a
fixture in the
Brazilian experience during the 1920's. Even
though he became a
physician, he will exhibit his talents
as a writer in
writings from his youth. His most famous
writing will be a
poem, "Essa Nega Fulo"
(That Black Girl
Fulo), written in
1928. The poem will explore the
dynamics
between a slave
master, the slave and her mistress. He
will join the
ancestors in 1953 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
1898 - Alfredo da Rocha Viana Jr. is born in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil.
He will become a
composer and bandleader best known as
"Pixinguinha."
By the time he was a teenager, he will be
respected for his
talent as a flutist. After traveling with
his first band to
France in 1922, he will open the door of
Brazilian music to
the world. He will be credited with
assisting to invent
the "samba." He is generally referred
to as the King of
Samba and the Father of Musica Popular
Brasileira. He will
join the ancestors on February 17, 1973
in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil.
1913 - The National Urban League is incorporated in New York
City.
The organization is
founded in 1910 when the Committee on
Urban Conditions
Among Negroes met in New York to discuss
means to assist
rural African Americans in the transition
to urban life. Founders include Mrs. Ruth Standish Baldwin
and Dr. George
Edmund Haynes, who becomes the league's
first executive
director.
1941 - New Yorkers are treated to a performance of Cafi Society
at
Carnegie Hall by a
group of jazz artists that includes
Albert
"Jug" Ammons, Hazel Scott, and Art Tatum. It also
marks the first
performance of Helena (later Lena) Horne,
who sings
"Summertime," among other songs.
1944 - The NAACP Youth Council and Committee for Unity in Motion
Pictures selects
its first Motion Picture Award recipients.
Given to honor
actors whose roles advance the image of
African Americans
in motion pictures, awards go to Rex
Ingram for
"Sahara," Lena Horne for "As Thousands Cheer,"
Leigh Whipper for
"The Oxbow Incident" and "Mission to
Moscow," Hazel
Scott for her debut in "Something to Shout
About" and
Dooley Wilson for his role as Sam in
"Casablanca,"
among others. The awards will be the fore-
runner to the
NAACP's Image Awards.
1948 - Charles Richard Johnson in born in Evanston,
Illinois. He
will become an
novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He
will begin his
career after graduating from the State
University of New
York at Stonybrook with a Ph.D. in
philosophy. He will be mentored by W.E.B. Du Bois, Ralph
Ellison, Jean
Toomer, Richard Wright and John Gardner. He
will be known for
his works, "Middle Passage," "Oxherding
Tale,"
"The Sorcerer's Apprentice," and "Being and Race:
Black Writing Since
1970." He will win the 1990 National
Book Award for
"Middle Passage."
1954 - Hammerin' Hank Aaron, of the Milwaukee Braves, hits the
first of what will
be 755 career home runs, in a game
against the St.
Louis Cardinals. The score will be 7-5 in
favor of the
Braves.
1955 - U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review a lower court
decision
which would ban
segregation in intrastate bus travel.
1964 - James Baldwin's play, "Blues for Mr. Charlie"
opens on
Broadway. Starring Al Freeman, Jr., Diana Sands, and
others, the play
reveals the plight of African Americans in
the South.
1971 - Columbia University operations are virtually ended for
the
year by African
American and white students who seize five
buildings on
campus.
1971 - William Tubman, president of Liberia, joins the ancestors
at
the age of 76. He had been president of Liberia since
1944.
1998 - James Earl Ray, who confessed to assassinating the Rev.
Martin Luther King
Jr. in 1968 and then insisted he was
framed, dies at a
Nashville hospital at age 70.
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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 Wednesday, April
23, 2014