MUNIRAH CHRONICLE
******* Today in Black History – March
9, 2014 *******
1841 - Sengbe Pieh, known as Joseph Cinque, and the surviving
African
slaves who revolted
on the ship Amistad are ordered freed by
the United States
Supreme Court and return to Africa after
successfully
appealing their mutiny conviction on grounds that
they were kidnapped
by outlawed slave traders. Their
defense
attorney is John
Quincy Adams, former President of the United
States and a
Massachusetts senator. Before reaching the
Supreme Court, U.S.
President Martin Van Buren appeals twice
the decision of
lower courts to free the slaves. View
the
original documents
of the U.S. Supreme Court at:
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/amistad/supreme-court-statement.html
1871 - Oscar De Priest is born in Florence, Alabama. He will be the
first congressman
elected from a northern state. He will
represent Illinois
and be an active advocate for pensions for
African American
ex-slaves, lynching prevention, and civil
rights
improvements.
1891 - The North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State
University is
founded in
Greensboro.
1892 - Three friends of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, prominent African
American
businessmen, are lynched in Memphis, Tennessee after
an incident that
stemmed from their opening a grocery store
across the street
from a white-owned grocery store.
1911 - White firemen of the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas
Pacific
Railroad struck to
protest the hiring of African American
firemen. (For those who don't remember steam engines,
firemen
worked in the
engine stoking the fire, which kept the steam
generator going)
1914 - The "New" Southern University campus opens in
Scotlandville,
Louisiana near
Baton Rouge with nine teachers and 47 students.
1930 - Ornette Coleman is born in Fort Worth, Texas. He will become a
self-taught
musician, beginning on alto saxophone when he is
fourteen and moving
on to the tenor saxophone when he is
sixteen. He will be
influenced by Charlie Parker, Illinois
Jacquet and Big Jay
McNeely. A born improvisionalist, he
found it difficult
to fit into his school band as well as the
mainstream groups
that he will later join. It wasn't
until
the late 1950's
that he will be recognized for his jazz
innovations. He will name his musical method
"harmolodics."
Many musicians and
critics and jazz listeners will reject his
new jazz as
formless and abstract. However, critics of his
method will
recognize his importance as a composer. Critics
will praise his
compositions, including "Peace," "Lonely
Woman," and
"Beauty Is a Rare Thing." In 1967 he will win
a Guggenheim
fellowship, the first granted to a jazz musician.
He will compose and
perform film scores, including "Chappaqua"
(1965), "Box Office"
(1981), and "Naked Lunch" (1991).
In
1997 the New York
Philharmonic will perform his "Skies of
America," a
large-scale work that was first recorded by the
London Symphony
Orchestra in 1972.
1931 - Walter F. White is named NAACP executive secretary.
1933 - Lloyd Price is born in Kenner, Louisiana. He will become
a
successful Rhythm
& Blues artist and will record "Lawdy Miss
Clawdy" ('52
#1 R&B), "Oooh, Oooh, Oooh" ('52 #4 R&B), "Ain't
It A Shame"
('53 #4 R&B), "Just Because" ('57 #3 R&B, #29
Pop), "Stagger
Lee" ('58 #1 R&B, #1 Pop), "Where Were You (On
Our Wedding
Day)" ('59 #4 R&B, #23 Pop), Personality" ('59 #1
R&B, #2 Pop),
and fifteen other hits.
1948 - Jeffrey Osborne is born in Providence, Rhode Island. He will
become an accomplished
rhythm and blues singer performing as
lead singer for the
group LTD. He will later become a
successful solo
artist.
1964 - Miriam Zenzi Makeba speaks before the United Nations
about the
apartheid system in
South Africa.
1965 - Three white Unitarian ministers, including the Rev. James
J.
Reeb, are attacked
with clubs on the streets of Selma,
Alabama, while
participating in a civil rights demonstration.
Reeb will later die
in a Birmingham, Alabama hospital.
1966 - Andrew F. Brimmer becomes the first African American
governor
on the Federal
Reserve Board.
1971 - Emmanuel Lewis is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will become
a child actor and
will be best known for his television role
as
"Webster."
1997 - The popular "gangsta rapper" Notorious B.I.G.,
whose real name
is Christopher
Wallace, joins the ancestors after being killed
in a drive-by
shooting in Los Angeles, California at the age
of 24.
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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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EVERY MONTH SHOULD BE BLACK HISTORY MONTH! CHECK OUT THESE OTHER BLACK HISTORY SITES ON THE WEB
Black History - Permanent Site at the Christian Science Monitor
Black History - Black History Links from the Information Man
Black History -
Black History - Afro-American Newspapers
National Civil Rights Museum - located in Memphis, Tennessee
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Last Updated Sunday, March
09, 2014