* Today in Black History - April 01 * Once a year we go through the charade of February being Black History Month. Black History Month needs to be a 12-MONTH THING. When we all learn about our history, about how much weve accomplished while being handicapped with RACISM, it can only inspire us to greater heights, knowing were on the giant shoulders of our ANCESTORS. So Heres My Contribution... As It Is, It Shall Be....DAILY.. ***************************************************************** 1867 - African Americans vote in a municipal election in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Military officials set aside the election pending clarification on electoral procedures. 1868 - Hampton Institute is founded in Hampton, Virginia, by General Samuel Chapman Armstrong. 1895 - Alberta Hunter is born in Memphis, Tennessee. She will run away from home at the age of twelve and go to Chicago, Illinois to become a Blues singer. She will work in a variety of clubs until the violence in the Chicago club scene prompts her to move to New York City. There she will record for a variety of blues labels. She will write a lot of her own songs and songs for other performers. Her song Down Hearted Blues, will become Bessie Smiths first record in 1923. She will perform in Europe and America until 1956, when she will retire from performing. She will work for more than twenty years as a nurse in a New York hospital and in 1977, at the age of 82, surprisingly return to the stage. She will perform until she joins the ancestors in 1984. 1905 - The British East African Protectorate becomes the colony of Kenya. 1917 - Scott Joplin joins the ancestors in New York City. One of the early developers of ragtime and the author of Maple Leaf Rag, Joplin also created several rag-time and grand operas, the most noteworthy of which, Treemonisha, consumed his later years in an attempt to have it published and performed. 1924 - The British Crown takes over Northern Rhodesia from the British South Africa Company. 1929 - Morehouse College, Spelman College and Atlanta University are merged, creating a new Atlanta University. Dr. John Hope of Morehouse College, is named president. 1930 - Zawditu, the first reigning female monarch of Ethiopia, joins the ancestors. She was the second daughter of Emperor Menelik II. She had been Empress of Ethiopia since 1916. 1939 - Rudolph Bernard Isley is born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He will become a singer at the age of six with his brothers OKelly, Ronald and Vernon Isley and form the group, The Isley Brothers. They will leave Cincinnati in 1956 and go to New York City to pursue their musical career. Rudolph and his brothers will obtain fame and success nationally and internationally earning numerous platinum and gold albums which contain such classic hits as Shout, Twist and Shout, Its Your Thing, Whos That Lady, Fight the Power, For the Love of You, Harvest For The World, Live It Up, Footsteps in the Dark, Work to Do, Dont Say Good Night and many others. 1950 - Charles R. Drew, surgeon and developer of the blood bank concept, joins the ancestors after an automobile accident near Burlington, North Carolina at the age of 45. 1951 - Oscar Micheaux joins the ancestors in Charlotte, North Carolina. Micheaux formed his own film production company, Oscar Micheaux Corporation, to produce his novel The Homesteader and over 30 other movies, notably Birthright, which was adapted from a novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author T.S. Stribling, and Body and Soul, which marked the film debut of Paul Robeson. 1966 - The first World Festival of Negro Arts opens in Dakar, Senegal, with the U.S. African American delegation having one of the largest number of representatives. First prizes are won by poet Robert Hayden, engraver William Majors, actors Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, and sociologist Kenneth Clark. 1984 - Marvin Gaye joins the ancestors after being shot to death by his father, Marvin Gaye, Sr. in Los Angeles, California, one day before his forty-fifth birthday. The elder Gaye will plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter, and receive probation. Marvin Gaye was one of the most talented soul singers of all time. Unlike most soul greats, Gayes artistic inclinations evolved over the course of three decades, moving from hard-driving soul-pop to funk and dance grooves.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 14:38:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015