Today in OUR Story - December 26 * *********************************************************************** * The Nguzo Saba - The seven principles of Kwanzaa - Principle for * * Day #1 - Umoja (oo-MOE-jah) Unity: To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race. * * endarkenment kwanzaa/ *********************************************************************** 1848 - William & Ellen Craft escape from slavery in Georgia. Mrs. Craft impersonates a slave holder and her husband, William, assumes the role of her servant, in one of the most dramatic of the slave escapes. 1849 - David Ruggles joins the ancestors in Northampton, Massachusetts. Often called the first African American bookseller (for his bookstore established in 1834), Ruggles was an early abolitionist, speaker, and writer as well as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. He published the first African American magazine, the Mirror of Liberty in August of 1838. He was a noted hydropathist, erecting the first building constructed for hydropathic treatments in the United States and was known as the water cure doctor. 1894 - Nathan Pinchback Jean Toomer is born in Washington, DC. The grandson of P.B.S. Pinchback, he will become a poet and novelist and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance and modernism. His first book Cane, published in 1923, is considered by many to be his most significant. Of mixed race and majority European ancestry, he will struggle to identify as an American and will resist efforts to classify him as a black writer. He will continue to write poetry, short stories and essays. After his second marriage in 1934, he will move from New York to Doylestown, Pennsylvania, where he will become a member of the Religious Society of Friends (also known as Quakers) and will retire from public life. His papers will be held by the Beinecke Rare Book Library at Yale University. He will join the ancestors on March 30, 1967. 1908 - Jack Johnson wins the heavyweight title in Australia, defeating Tommy Burns. After avoiding fighting Johnson for over a year, Burns will say of his loss, Race prejudice was rampant in my mind. The idea of a black man challenging me was beyond enduring. Hatred made me tense. 1924 - DeFord Bailey, Sr., a harmonica player, becomes the first African American to perform on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. 1927 - Lonnie Elder III is born in Americus, Georgia, but will be raised in Jersey City, New Jersey. He will begin his career as a Broadway actor but soon will find his skills in playwriting. His first and most well known play, Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, will win him a Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Playwright. The play, which was about a Harlem barber and his family, will be produced by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1969, and this will encourage him to study filmmaking at Yale. He will write the screenplay for Sounder and he and Suzanne de Passe will become the first African Americans to be nominated for an Academy Award for screen writing. He will later write the sequel to Sounder. He will be known for films that promote the cause of feminism for African American women. His script for the television miniseries A Woman Called Moses is an example of this. His play Ceremonies in Dark Old Men, which will be produced for television in 1975, will also be influential in depicting the realities of a black family attempting to survive in New York City. He will also co-write the screenplay for the Richard Pryor comedy Bustin Loose. He will also star in the original Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun as the character Bobo. He will join the ancestors on June 11, 1996. 1937 - La Julia Rhea becomes the first African American to sing with the Chicago Civic Opera Company during the regular season. She opens in the title role of Verdis Aida. 1956 - African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama begin mass defiance of Jim Crow bus laws. 1966 - Kwanzaa, originated by Dr. Maulana Karenga, is first celebrated by a small number of African American families in Los Angeles, California, to restore and reaffirm our African heritage and culture. Kwanzaa, a Kiswahili word meaning first or first fruit, will celebrate over the next seven days the Nguzo Saba, or seven principles, of Umoja(Unity), Kujichagulia(self- determination), Ujima(Collective Work and Responsibility), Ujamaa(Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity), and Imani (Faith). 1999 - Prolific singer, songwriter & producer Curtis Mayfield joins the ancestors at the age of 57 in North Fulton Regional Hospital near Atlanta, Georgia. Mayfield introduced social consciousness into African American music and continued to record for a decade after an accident left him paralyzed. His many hits included People Get Ready, I’m So Proud, and Keep On Pushing. His soundtrack for the 1972 movie Superfly sold over 4 million copies and produced two classic hit singles, the title track and Freddies Dead. In addition to his wife, he leaves behind his mother, 10 children, a brother, two sisters and seven grandchildren to celebrate his life.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 12:49:16 +0000
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