Today In Black History • August 11, 1777 Free Frank McWorter, the first African American to incorporate a municipality in the United States, was born enslaved in South Carolina. In 1795, McWorter’s owner moved to Kentucky and took him along to build and manage his holdings and to lease him out to work for others. McWorter used his earnings to create a successful saltpeter production operation. By 1817, he had earned enough to buy the freedom of his wife and two years later his own. In 1830, McWorter and his family moved to Pike County, Illinois and in 1836 he founded the town of New Philadelphia, Illinois. By the time of his death September 7, 1854, McWorter had bought the freedom of 16 members of his family. McWorter’s gravesite was listed on the National Registry of Historical Places April 19, 1988 and a portion of I-72 in Pike County is designated the Frank McWorter Memorial Highway. The New Philadelphia town site was listed on the National Registry of Historical Places in 2005 and designated a National Historic Landmark January 16, 2009. McWorter’s biography, “Free Frank: A Black Pioneer on the Antebellum Frontier,” was published in 1983. • August 11, 1872 Solomon Carter Fuller, the first Black psychiatrist in the United States, was born in Monrovia, Liberia. In 1889, Fuller came to the U. S. to attend Livingstone College where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1893. He then earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from Boston University School of Medicine in 1897. Fuller then went to work in the pathology laboratory at Westborough State Hospital where he worked for the next 24 years. He also consulted for the hospital for an additional 23 years. Fuller was also a member of the medical faculty at Boston University School of Medicine for 34 years. He was best known for his work on Alzheimer’s disease but he also did significant research on the organic causes of Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Fuller helped develop the neuropsychiatric unit at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Tuskegee, Alabama and the knowledge that he provided doctors there about syphilis helped them diagnose the disease in Black World War II veterans who had been misdiagnosed. Fuller died January 16, 1953. The Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center at Boston University is named in his honor and in 1972 the American Psychiatric Association and the Black Psychiatrists of America established the Solomon Carter Fuller Institute. • August 11, 1873 John Rosamond Johnson, composer, singer and editor, was born in Jacksonville, Florida. Johnson is best known for composing The Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing”. His brother, the poet James Weldon Johnson, wrote the lyrics. Johnson began his career as a public school teacher in his hometown. He trained at the New England Conservatory and then studied in London, England. With his brother and Bob Cole, he produced two successful Broadway operettas with casts of Black actors, “Shoo-Fly Regiment of 1906” and “The Red Moon of 1908”. He also served as director of New York’s Music School Settlement for Colored from 1914 to 1919. With his own ensembles, The Harlem Rounders and The Inimitable Five, Johnson toured and performed in Negro spiritual concerts. He also served as musical director for “Blackbirds of 1936”. Johnson edited “The Book of American Negro Spirituals” (1925), “The Second Book of Negro Spirituals” (1926), “Shoutsongs” (1936), and “Rolling Along in Song” (1937). Johnson died November 11, 1954. • August 11, 1900 Samuel Harrison, minister and political activist, died. Harrison was born enslaved April 15, 1818 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He and his mother were freed in 1821. As a child, Harrison worked as an apprentice in his uncle’s shoemaking shop. He briefly attended Western Reserve College (now Case Western Reserve University). In 1850, Harrison moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts and was ordained a minister. In 1862, he began working for the National Freedmen’s Relief Association and in 1863 was appointed chaplain of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. In that capacity, Harrison successfully demanded that he receive the same pay as White chaplains. He also published tracts on racial equality, enfranchisement, and reconstruction. The Samuel Harrison House in Pittsfield was added to the National Register of Historic Places March 22, 2006 and the Samuel Harrison Society is dedicated to preserving the house and using it to teach the values embodied in his life. • August 11, 1919 Robert Henry Bragg, physicist and educator, was born in Jacksonville, Florida but raised in Chicago, Illinois. Following military service during World War II, Bragg earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1949, Master of Science degree in 1951, and Ph. D. in 1960 in physics from the Illinois Institute of Technology. After completing his education, he worked at Lockheed Missiles & Space analyzing carbon based materials for use in space flight. In 1969, Bragg became a professor in the materials science department at the University of California. He served as chair of the department from 1978 to 1981. At the same time, he was a principal investigator in the Materials and Molecular Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Bragg retired from both positions in 1987. In 1992, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research at the University of Ife in Nigeria and in 1995 he was named a fellow of the National Society of Black Physicists. Bragg has published numerous technical papers in professional journals. • August 11, 1921 Alexander Murray Palmer Haley, author, was born in Ithaca, New York. In 1939, Haley enlisted in the military and began a 20 year career with the Coast Guard where he rose to the rank of chief petty officer. After his retirement from the Coast Guard, Haley began his writing career and eventually became a senior editor for Readers Digest. During the 1960s, Haley was responsible for some of Playboy Magazine’s most notable interviews, including those with Miles Davis, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Muhammad Ali. In 1965, he published his first book, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”. In 1998, Time Magazine named that book one of the ten most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century. In 1976, Haley published “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” which was eventually published in 37 languages and won a special award from the Pulitzer Board and the National Book Award. The next year, it was adapted into a record-breaking television mini-series. Haley was awarded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Spingarn Medal in 1977. Haley died February 10, 1992. His final book, “Queen: The Story of an American Family,” was published posthumously and in 1993 made into the television miniseries “Alex Haley’s Queen”. On July 10, 1999, the United States Coast Guard commissioned the cutter Alex Haley in his honor. Also the main gallery at the Coast Guard Training Base at Petaluma, California is named Haley Hall. • August 11, 1921 Stan Wright, hall of fame track and field coach, was born in Englewood, New Jersey. Wright earned his bachelor’s degree from Springfield College and his master’s degree in education from Columbia University. In 1950, he began his coaching career at Texas Southern University. The TSU “Flying Tigers” became nationally known for their success at major track meets. From 1967 to 1969, Wright served as head coach at Western Illinois University and from 1969 to 1979 held the same position at Sacramento State University. He also served as athletic director at Fairleigh Dickinson University from 1979 to 1985. At the request of the United States State Department, Wright coached the Singapore track team at the 1962 Asian Games and Malaysia at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. In 1966, he became the first Black head coach of a U. S. national track team. In 1968 and 1972, he was assistant coach in charge of sprinters for the U. S. Olympic team. Wright also served as chairman of The Athletic Congress Budget and Finance Committee from 1980 to 1989 and treasurer from 1989 to 1992. He was inducted into the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1993. Wright died November 6, 1998. His biography, “Stan Wright, Track Coach: Forty Years in the Good Old Boy Network-The Story of an African American Pioneer,” was published in 2005. • August 11, 1925 Carl Thomas Rowan, journalist, author and diplomat, was born in McMinnville, Tennessee. Rowan was one of the first African Americans commissioned officers in the United States Navy where he served from 1939 to 1945 during World War II. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Oberlin College in 1947 and his Master of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota in 1948. He worked for the Minneapolis Tribune from 1948 to 1961, reporting extensively on the Civil Rights Movement. In 1962, Rowan served as a delegate to the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis and in 1963 became U. S. Ambassador to Finland. In 1964, Rowan was appointed director of the United States Information Agency where he became the first African American to attend meetings of the National Security Council. From 1966 to 1998, Rowan wrote a syndicated column for the Chicago Sun-Times. His columns were published in more than 100 newspapers across the nation. He is the only journalist in history to win the Sigma Delta Chi medallion for journalistic excellence three years in a row. Rowan was the 1997 recipient of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Spingarn Medal. In 1999, he received the National Press Club Fourth Estate Award for lifetime achievement. In 1987, Rowan founded Project Excellence which was a college scholarship program for Black high school seniors who displayed outstanding writing and speaking skills. By 2000, the program had given out $26 million in scholarships to over 1,100 students. Rowan died September 23, 2000. In 2001, the press briefing room at the U. S. State Department was dedicated as the Carl T. Rowan Briefing Room in his honor. Rowan published his autobiography, “Breaking Barriers: A Memoir,” in 1991. Other books by him include “South of Freedom” (1952), “Just Between Us Blacks” (1974), and “The Coming Race War in America: A Wake-Up Call” (1996). • August 11, 1929 The first Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic was held in Chicago, Illinois “as a celebration of the unity in diversity for the children of Chicago”. The parade and picnic is held annually on the second Saturday in August and has grown into the oldest and largest African American parade in the United States. It is held on the South Side of Chicago and concludes in Washington Park. Since 2003, parade sponsors have raised $1.2 million in college scholarship funds for 59 local youth. Celebrities that have participated in the parade include Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Oprah Winfrey, and Michael Jordan. In 2006 and 2007, then United States Senator Barack H. Obama served as the Grand Marshal. • August 11, 1959 Clarence Matthew Baker, hall of fame comic book artist, died. Baker was born December 10, 1921 in Forsyth County, North Carolina but raised in Homestead, Pennsylvania. He attended Cooper Union School of Engineering, Art and Design. In 1944, he began work as a background artist. Baker was the regular artist for titles such as “Sky Girl,” “Tiger Girl,” and “Camilla, Queen of the Jungle Empire” and became known for his “good girl” art. In 1947, he redesigned the costumed crime fighter “Phantom Lady”. In 1950, he illustrated what is considered the first graphic novel, “It Rhymes With Lust”. From 1952 to 1954, Baker did the artwork for the newspaper comic strip “Flamingo”. He was posthumously inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2009. • August 11, 1960 The Republic of Chad gained its independence from France. Chad is located in Central Africa and is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west. It is approximately 495,700 square miles in size and the capital and largest city is N’Djamena. Chad has a population of approximately 10,329,200 people with 54% Muslim and 34% Christian. The official languages are French and Arabic. • August 11, 1962 William Warrick Cardozo, physician and pioneer researcher of sickle cell anemia, died. Cardozo was born April 6, 1905 in Washington, D. C. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1929 and Doctor of Medicine degree in 1933 from Ohio State University. In 1935, he was awarded a two-year fellowship in pediatrics at Children’s Memorial Hospital and Provident Hospital in Chicago, Illinois where he began his research on sickle cell. Cardozo concluded that the disease was largely familial and inherited and found almost exclusively amongst people of African descent. He further concluded that not all people with sickle cell were anemic and that the disease was not always fatal. In addition, Cardozo published research on children’s gastrointestinal disorders, hodgkin’s disease, and the early growth and development of Black children. He also served as medical director for the District of Columbia Board of Health for 24 years. • August 11, 1965 Viola Davis, stage and film actress, was born in St. Matthews, South Carolina. Davis graduated from Rhode Island College with a major in theatre in 1988. She also attended the Juilliard School for the Performing Arts from 1990 to 1994. Davis won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for her role in “King Hedley II” (2001) and the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for “Fences” (2010). She has also appeared in the movies “Traffic” (2000), “Antwone Fisher” (2002), “Doubt” (2008), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, “The Help” (2011), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, “Beautiful Creatures” (2013), and “Get On Up”. In 2002, Davis was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree by Rhode Island College. Davis was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2012. • August 11, 1983 Mamie Phipps Clark, the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in psychology from Columbia University, died. Clark was born April 18, 1917 in Hot Springs, Arkansas. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, and her Master of Arts degree in psychology from Howard University in 1938 and 1939, respectively. Her master’s thesis, “The Development of Consciousness of Self in Negro Pre-School Children,” was the beginning of a line of research that became historic when it was used in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case to make racial segregation unconstitutional in American public schools. Her thesis concluded that children became aware of their blackness very early in their childhood. Clark earned her Ph. D. in psychology in 1943, the second Black person, after her husband Kenneth, to earn a Ph. D. in psychology from Columbia. In 1946, Clark and her husband founded The Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem, New York with her as director. It was one of the first agencies to provide comprehensive psychological services to the poor, Black, and other minority children. Clark served as director until her retirement in 1979. She also served on the boards of numerous other educational and philanthropic institutions. “Children, Race, and Power: Kenneth and Mamie Clark’s Northside Center” was published in 2000. • August 11, 1999 Oliver White Hill, Sr. was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President William J. Clinton. Hill was born May 1, 1907 in Richmond, Virginia. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University in 1931 and his Juris Doctor degree from Howard’s School of Law in 1933. He won his first civil rights case in 1940 in Alston v. School Board of Norfolk, Virginia which gained pay equity for Black teachers. In 1943, Hill joined the United States Army and served in Europe until the end of World War II. In 1949, he became the first African American to serve on the Richmond City Council since the late 19th century. In 1951, Hill led the case of Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County which in 1954 became one of the five cases decided under Brown v. Board of Education. Hill retired in 1998. During his life, he earned many awards, including the 1959 Lawyer of the Year from the National Bar Association, the American Bar Association Justice Thurgood Marshall Award in 1993, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Spingarn Medal in 2005. The Oliver White Hill Foundation was formed in 2000 to function as an educational and policy center for the promotion and study of human rights. Hill died August 5, 2007. The Oliver Hill Courts Building in Richmond in named in his honor and the Oliver W. Hill Building in Virginia’s Capitol Square is the first state owned building to be named for an African American. Hill’s autobiography, “The Big Bang: Brown v. Board of Education, The Autobiography of Oliver W. Hill, Sr.,” was published in 2000. • August 11, 2002 A statue of Osborne Earl “Ozzie” Smith was unveiled at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri. Smith was born December 26, 1954 in Mobile, Alabama. He made his major league debut in 1978 with the San Diego Padres but spent most of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals. Over his 18 season professional career, he was a 15-time All Star and 13-time Gold Glove Award winner. After retiring from baseball in 1996, Smith served as host of the television show “This Week in Baseball” from 1997 to 1999. Smith has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the 1994 Branch Rickey Award for personifying service above self, the 1995 Roberto Clemente Award for best exemplifying the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and contribution to his team, and in 1996 the Cardinals retired his uniform number 1. Smith was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002. Since retiring, Smith has been involved in a number of entrepreneurial ventures and authored a children’s book, “Hello, Fredbird!” (2006). He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from California Polytechnic State University in 2003. He has published two autobiographies, “Wizard” (1988) and “Ozzie Smith – The Road to Cooperstown” (2002). The Ozzie Smith Sports Complex in O’Fallon, Missouri is named in his honor. • August 11, 2009 Margaret Bush Wilson, lawyer and activist, died. Wilson was born January 30, 1919 in St. Louis Missouri. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree, cum laude, in economics from Talladega College in 1939 and her law degree from the Lincoln University School of Law in 1943. After passing the bar, Wilson was the second woman of color admitted to practice in Missouri. Wilson served as consul to the Black Real Estate Brokers Association and was instrumental in the 1948 Shelley v. Kraemer Supreme Court ruling that held housing covenants unconstitutional. In 1962, Wilson became president of the Missouri State National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and in 1975 became chair of the NAACP national board, the first woman to hold that position. She served nine terms in that capacity. She was also board chair of St. Augustine’s College and Talladega College. • August 11, 2012 Earle Lavon “Von” Freeman, Sr., jazz tenor saxophonist, died. Freeman was born October 3, 1923 in Chicago, Illinois. He started playing the saxophone as a child and by 16 was playing professionally in Horace Henderson’s Orchestra. During World War II, he played in a navy band. After leaving the service, he played with a number of leading jazz performers, including Charlie Parker, Roy Eldridge, and Dizzy Gillespie. Freeman recorded his first album as leader, “Doin’ It Right Now,” in 1972. Other recordings as leader include “Young and Foolish” (1977), “The Great Divide” (2004), and “Vonski Speaks” (2009). Freeman was considered a founder of the “Chicago school” of jazz. In 2012, he was designated a NEA Jazz Master, the highest honor the nation bestows on a jazz artist, by the National Endowment for the Arts. • August 11, 2012 A bronze statue of Eddie Clarence Murray was unveiled at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Murray was born February 24, 1956 in Los Angeles, California. He was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1973 amateur draft. He made his major league debut in 1977 and won the American League Rookie of the Year Award. Over his 21 season major league career, Murray was an eight-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove Award winner. He retired in 1997 with 3,255 hits and 504 home runs and in 2003 was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. After retiring, Murray served as hitting coach for the Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Dodgers. As the result of a significant donation from Murray, the Carrie Murray Nature Center in Baltimore, Maryland is named in honor of his mother.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 16:02:38 +0000
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