Black History June 17

KENDRICK LAMAR DUCKWORTH

June 17, 1987 – Kendrick Lamar Duckworth is born in Compton, California. He will become a rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He will be regarded as one of the most skillful and successful hip hop artists of his generation. He will embark on his musical career as a teenager under the stage name K-Dot, releasing a mixtape that will garner local attention and lead to his signing with indie record label Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE). He will begin to gain recognition in 2010, after his first retail release, “Overly  Dedicated.” The following year, he will independently  release his first studio album, Section.80, which will include his debut single, “HiiiPoWeR.” By that time, he will have amassed a large online following and will collaborate with several prominent hip hop artists, including The Game, Busta Rhymes, and Snoop Dogg. His major label debut album, “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City,” will be released in 2012 by TDE,  Aftermath, and Interscope Records to critical acclaim. It will debut at #2 on the US Billboard 200 and will be later certified platinum by the RIAA. The record will contain the top 40 singles “Swimming Pools (Drank)”, “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe”, and “Poetic Justice”. His critically acclaimed third album, “To Pimp a Butterfly” (2015) will incorporate elements of funk, soul, jazz, and spoken word. It will debut atop the charts in the US and the UK, and will win the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 58th ceremony. In 2016, he   will release “Untitled Unmastered,” a collection of unreleased demos that will originate during the recording sessions for Butterfly. He will release his fourth album “Damn” in 2017 to further acclaim; its lead single “Humble” topping the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Aside from his solo career, he will be also known as a member of the West Coast hip hop super group Black Hippy, alongside his TDE label- mates and fellow South Los Angeles-based rappers Ab-Soul,  Jay Rock, and Schoolboy Q. He will receive many accolades over the course of his career, including thirteen Grammy Awards. In early 2013, MTV will name him the “Hottest MC in the Game”, on their annual list. Time will name him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016. In 2018, “Damn” will become the first non-classical and non-jazz album to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Munirah Chronicle is edited by Mr. Rene’ A. Perry
              “The TRUTH shall make you free”

Munirah(TM) is a trademark of Information Man. Copyright 1997 – 2016,
   All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with
   The Black Agenda.

Today in Black History January 27

1869 – William Mercer Cook (later Will Marion Cook), who will
become a noted composer and conductor, is born in
Washington, DC. Beginning study of the violin at age 13,
at 15 he will win a scholarship to study at the Oberlin
Conservatory. Among other accomplishments, he will
introduce syncopated ragtime to New York City
theatergoers in his operetta “Clorinda.” In 1890, he
will become director of a chamber orchestra touring the
East Coast. He will prepare Scenes from the Opera of
Uncle Tom’s Cabin for performance. The performance, which
is to take place at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, is
cancelled. “Clorindy; or, The Origin of the Cakewalk” —
a musical sketch comedy in collaboration with Paul
Laurence Dunbar — is the next piece he will compose, in
1898. It will be the first all-Black show to play in a
prestigious Broadway house, Casino Theatre’s Roof Garden.
After this period, he will be composer-in-chief and
musical director for the George Walker-Bert Williams
Company. As he continues to write, he will produce many
successful musicals. Best known for his songs, he will
use folk elements in an original and distinct manner.
Many of these songs will first appear in his musicals.
The songs will be written for choral groups or for solo
singers. Some are published in “A Collection of Negro
Songs” (1912). Later in his career, he will be an active
choral and orchestral conductor. He will produce several
concerts and organize many choral societies in both New
York and in Washington, DC. The New York Syncopated
Orchestra, that he creates, will tour the United States
in 1918 and then go to England in 1919 for a command
performance for King George V. Among his company will be
assistant director Will Tyers, jazz clarinetist Sidney
Bechet, and Cook’s wife, Abbie Mitchell. One of his last
shows will be “Swing Along” (1929), written with Will
Vodery. He will join the ancestors on July 19, 1944.

1894 – Frederick Douglass ‘Fritz’ Pollard is born in Chicago,
Illinois. He will become a football star at Brown
University in 1915 and lead them to the first Rose Bowl
game, played on January 1, 1916. This will make him the
first African American to play in the Rose Bowl. He will
also become the first African American named an All-American.
After leaving Brown University, he will become one of the
first African Americans to play professional football and
will become the first African American quarterback and the
first African American head coach, both with the NFL Akron
Indians. When the NFL bans African American players from
its ranks in 1933, Pollard will organize the first African
American professional football team, the Brown Bombers of
Harlem. After fifteen years in professional football,
Pollard will establish the first all African American
investment company in the country, and run New York City’s
first African American tabloid newspaper. He will also be
involved in the production of some of America’s first
all-African American movies. He will join the ancestors on
May 11, 1986.

1914 – The United States Marines disembark from the USS Montana in
Haiti. This occupation becomes official on July 28, 1915 on
the authority of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and will
continue until 1934. Americans will serve as officials of
the Haitian government and control its finances, police
force, and public works.

1930 – Robert Calvin Brooks (Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland) is born in Rosemark,
Tennessee. He will become a singer and start his career as
a member of The Beale Streeters with Johnny Ace. He will
become a solo artist with the Malaco label and record “That’s
the Way Love Is,” “Call on Me,” “Turn on Your Love Light,”
and “Ain’t Nothin’ You Can Do.” Along with such artists as
Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, and Junior Parker, he will develope
a sound that mixes gospel with the Blues and Rhythm & Blues.
He will be inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and receive the Grammy
Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. He will join the
ancestors on June 23, 2013.

1942 – John Weatherspoon (later John Witherspoon) is born in Detroit,
Michigan. He will become an actor and comedian who will
perform in dozens of television shows and films. Best known
for his role as Willie Jones for the Friday series, he will
also star in films such as Hollywood Shuffle (1987),
Boomerang (1992) and Vampire In Brooklyn (1995). He will
also make appearances on television shows such as The Wayans
Bros. (1995–99), The Tracy Morgan Show (2003), Barnaby Jones
(1973), The Boondocks (2005–present), The Five Heartbeats
(1991) and Black Jesus (2014). He will write a film, From
the Old School, in which he will play an elderly working
man who tries to prevent a neighborhood convenience store
from being developed into a strip club. He will join the
ancestors on October 29, 2019 at the age of 77.

1952 – Ralph Ellison’s powerful novel “Invisible Man” wins the
National Book Award.

1961 – Leontyne Price makes her debut at the Metropolitan Opera
House in New York City. She sings in the role of Leonora
in “Il Trovatore”. Price is the seventh African American
singer to make a debut at the Met. Marian Anderson will be
the first in 1955.

1972 – Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer, joins the ancestors in
Evergreen Park, Illinois at the age of 60. Born in New
Orleans, Louisiana, she began her singing career with the
Salem Baptist Choir in Chicago, Illinois. She achieved
national fame with her recording of “Move on Up A Little
Higher,” which sold over a million copies. Many considered
her rich contralto voice the best in gospel music.

1972 – In Columbia, South Carolina, the white and African American
United Methodist conferences of South Carolina — separated
since the Civil War — vote in their respective meetings to
adopt a plan of union.

1984 – Carl Lewis betters his own two-year-old record by 9-1/4
inches when he sets a new, world, indoor-record with a long
jump mark of 28 feet, 10-1/4 inches in New York City.

1984 – Singer Michael Jackson’s hair catches on fire during the
filming of a Pepsi commercial in Los Angeles at the Shrine
Auditorium. Pyrotechnics did not operate on cue, injuring
the singer. Jackson is hospitalized for a few days and fans
from around the world send messages of concern.

2016 – Alyce Dixon, the oldest female veteran of World War II, joins
the ancestors at the Washington DC Veteran Affairs Medical
Center at the age of 108. She served in the postal service
as part of the 6888th Battalion in Scotland, England and
France. After leaving the Army in 1946, she will work for
the Census Bureau and the Pentagon, where she served as a
purchasing agent. She will retire from government service in
1973.

Munirah Chronicle is edited by Mr. Rene’ A. Perry
“The TRUTH shall make you free”

Earnest Evans aka Chubby Checker

Born October 3, 1941 – Ernest Evans is born in Spring Gulley, South Carolina. Later adopting the name “Chubby Checker” after the
renowned Fats Domino, his best-known recording will be the 1960’s “The Twist,” which will spark the biggest dance craze since the Charleston in the 1920’s. In September 2008, “The Twist” will top Billboard Magazine�s list of the most popular singles to have appeared in the �Hot 100� since its debut in 1958.
**special thanks- Munirah Chronicle is edited by Mr. Rene’ A. Perry

This is how you twist

I’m old enough to remember the dance craze known as the twist.  We would go down to community gathering spot as a family and twist the night away!

Black History December 8th

Sammy Davis Jr  Happy Birthday

1925 – Samuel George “Sammy” Davis Jr. is born in New York City. He will
begin his career at the age of four in vaudeville, performing
with his father. Sammy will star on Broadway in “Mr. Wonderful”
and in movies with “Porgy and Bess”, “Ocean’s Eleven,” and “Robin
and the Seven Hoods.” He will release over 40 albums and will
win many gold records. He will be awarded the Spingarn Medal by
the NAACP and nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy
Award for his television performances. He will be the recipient
of the Kennedy Center Honors in 1987, and in 2001, he will be
posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He
will join the ancestors on May 16, 1990 after succumbing to throat
cancer.

excerpt from Munirah(TM) is a trademark of Information Man. Copyright 1997 – 2016,  All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with The Black Agenda.

Black History November 8th

 

*           Today in Black History – November 8             *

Esther Rolle

1920 – Esther Rolle is born in Pompano Beach, Florida. She
will become an actress, primarily on television. She
will win an Emmy Award for her role in “Summer of My
German Soldier”. She will be best-known, however, for
her role as Florida, in the television sit-com, “Good
Times.” Even though she will play characters who
worked as maids, off-stage, she will be a tireless
crusader against black stereotypes in Hollywood. She
will join the ancestors in 1998 at the age of 78.
Editor’s Note: At the time of her transition, her
manager will give her date of birth as November 8,
1920, though some references list the year as 1922.

Robert R Moton

1932 – The NAACP’s Spingarn Medal is awarded to Robert R. Moton,
president of Tuskegee Institute, for his “thoughtful
leadership in conservative opinion and action.”

Crystal Bird Fauset

1938 – Crystal Bird Fauset of Philadelphia, is elected to the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives. She is the first
African American woman elected to a state legislature.

Minnie Riperton and daughter Maya Rudolph

1947 – Minnie Ripperton is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will
study opera under Marion Jeffrey. She will spend months
and months learning how to breathe and listening to and
holding vowels. Eventually, she will begin singing
operas and operettas with a show tune every so often.
Despite her natural talent (a pure five to six octave
soprano) for opera, Minnie will be more attracted to
“Rock N Roll” and the promise of a touring career. She
will eventually discontinue her classical training to
follow her dream of becoming a famous songstress. It
will, however, be her classical training which will
bring her recording success. She will be best known for
her recording of “Loving You.” She will join the
ancestors on July 12, 1979 at the age of 31 after
succumbing to breast cancer.  Maya Rudolph, SNL star, is her

daughter.

Alfre Woodard

1953 – Alfre Woodard is born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She will
become an actress after her education at Boston
University, School of Fine Arts. She will receive a
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television
Miniseries/Movie, an Emmy Award for Best Actress, as
well as ACE and Screen Actors Guild Awards for Best
Actress for her performance in the 1997 HBO original
movie, “Miss Evers’ Boys.” Woodard’s many feature
film credits include “Star Trek: First Contact,”
“Heart and Souls,” “Primal Fear” opposite Richard Gere,
the ensemble film “How to Make An American Quilt,” Spike
Lee’s family drama, Crooklyn,” Dr. Maya Angelou’s “Down
in the Delta” starring Wesley Snipes, and “Passionfish,”
for which she will receive a 1998 Golden Globe Nomination
for Best Actress. In 1984, she will receive an Academy
Award nomination for her performance in Martin Ritt’s
“Cross Creek.”

_______________________________________

   Excerpt from:   Munirah Chronicle is edited by Mr. Rene’ A. Perry

BENSON

We lost another great Black entertainer, Robert Guillaume 89, has succumb to prostate cancer.  I fondly remember Robert Guillaume as Benson DuBois on a television series.

Guillaume was one of the few Black shows merging in prime time and some of us Black viewers were excited.   RWG Robert Guillaume.  We love you.

Today in Black History: September 25th

*      Today in Black History – September 25           *

1861 – The Secretary of the Navy authorizes the enlistment of
African Americans in the Union Navy. The enlistees could
achieve no rank higher than “boys” and receive pay of
one ration per day and $10 per month.

1886 – Peter “The Black Prince” Jackson wins the Australian
heavyweight title, becoming the very first man of
African descent to win a national boxing crown.

1911 – Eric Eustace Williams is born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and
Tobago. He will be educated at Queen’s Royal College in Port
of Spain, where he will excel at academics and football. He
will win an island scholarship in 1932, allowing him to
attend St Catherine’s Society, Oxford (which will subsequently
become St Catherine’s College, Oxford). In 1935, he will
receive first-class honours for his B.A in history, and be
ranked in first place among University of Oxford students
graduating in History in 1935. He will also represent the
university in football. In 1938 he will obtain his doctorate
from Oxford. His doctoral thesis will be titled “The Economic
Aspects of the Abolition of the Slave Trade and West Indian
Slavery,” and published as “Capitalism and Slavery” in 1944.
On January 15, 1956, he will inaugurate his own political
party, the People’s National Movement (PNM), which will take
Trinidad and Tobago into independence in 1962, and dominate
its post-colonial politics. He will serve as the first Prime
Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. He will serve in that office
from 1962 until his transition in 1981. He will be known as a
noted Caribbean historian, and be widely regarded as “The
Father of The Nation.” He will join the ancestors on March 29,
1981.

1924 – In a letter to his friend Alain Locke, Langston Hughes
writes “I’ve done a couple of new poems. I have no more
paper, so I’m sending you one on the back of this
letter.”  The poem, “I, Too”, will be published two years
later and be among his most famous.

1951 – Robert Allen “Bob” McAdoo, Jr. is born in Greensboro, North
Carolina.  He will become a one of the best-shooting big
men of all time in professional basketball. He will win
Rookie of the Year, a Most Valuable Player Award and three
consecutive scoring championships, all in his first four
years in the NBA. Over fourteen seasons, He will score
18,787 points and average 22.1 point per game. A five-time
NBA All Star, he will shoot .503 from the field and .754
from the line, scoring in double figures in all but one
season. He will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial
Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 and the College Basketball
Hall of Fame in 2006.

1957 – With 300 U.S. Army troops standing guard, nine African
American children forced to withdraw the previous day
from Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas,
because of unruly white crowds, are escorted to back to
class.

1962 – Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson in the first round
to become the world heavyweight boxing champion.

1962 – An African American church is destroyed by fire in Macon,
Georgia. This is the eighth African American church
burned in Georgia in one month.

1962 – Governor Ross Barnett again defies court orders and
personally denies James Meredith admission to the
University of Mississippi.

1965 – Willie Mays hits his fiftieth home run of the baseball
season, making him the oldest player to accomplish this.
He was 34 years old. Ten years before this, at the age
of 24, he was the youngest man to accomplish the same
feat.

1965 – Scottie Maurice Pippen is born in Hamburg, Arkansas. He
will become a professional basketball player and will be
traded to the Houston Rockets in 1998 after 11
distinguished seasons with the Chicago Bulls, for whom he
averaged 18.0 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists in 833
NBA games. He will earn All-NBA First Team honors three
times in his career and All-Defensive First Team honors in
each of seven seasons (1992-1999). In addition, he will
earn NBA World Championships in six of the eight years and
Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 1996. He will be selected
as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996.
He will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball
Hall of Fame on August 13, 2010.

1968 – Willard Carroll “Will” Smith, Jr. is born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.  He will become a rapper at the age of 12 and
will be known for his hits “Nightmare on My Street” and
“Parents Just Don’t Understand.” In 1990, he will start his
acting career with a six-year run as the “Fresh Prince of
Bel Air.”  He will go to become a major motion picture box
office attraction, starring in “Six Degrees of Separation,”
“Made in America,” “Independence Day,” “Men In Black,” and
“Wild, Wild West.”

1974 – Barbara W. Hancock is the first African American woman
to be named a White House Fellow.

1988 – Florence Griffith Joyner runs 100 meters in record
Olympic time of 10.54 seconds.

1991 – Pioneer filmmaker Spencer Williams’s 1942 movie “Blood
of Jesus,” a story of the African American religious
experience, is among the third group of twenty-five
films added to the Library of Congress’s National Film
Registry.  Williams, best known for his role of Andy in
the television series “Amos ‘n’ Andy”, was more
importantly, an innovative film director and a
contemporary of Oscar Micheaux. Williams’s film joins
other classics like “Lawrence of Arabia” and “2001: A
Space Odyssey”.

Munirah Chronicle is edited by Mr. Rene’ A. Perry
             “The TRUTH shall make you free”

Today in Black History

James Brown

May 3, 1933 – James Brown is born in Barnwell, South Carolina. The only child of a poor backwoods family, he will be sent, to Augusta, Georgia at age five, to live at an aunt’s brothel.  He will evolve from a juvenile delinquent to become one of the most influential Rhythm & Blues singers, with a career that will span more than five decades and include the hits “I Got You,” “Cold Sweat,” “Living in America,” “Prisoner of Love,” “Sing It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.”  Incarcerated in 1988 for aggravated assault, Brown will be released in 1991 and return to the recording scene, where he will continue to influence a new generation of artists including M.C. Hammer, Prince, and many others. He will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 23, 1986 and on February 25, 1992, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th annual Grammy Awards. He will join the ancestors on December 25, 2006.

Here is treat:  James Brown on the Ed Sullivan Show… for those who know

 

 

Happy Birthday Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters

 

McKinley Morganfield was born, April 4, 1915, in a small town in Issaquena County, Mississippi.  This is the smallest populous county east of the Mississippi River with census count as of 2010 at 1,406 people. He grew up on the Stovall Plantation sharecropping.  Morganfield got his nickname “Muddy Waters” from playing in the mud puddles by the Mississippi River.  He started with the harmonica at 5 years.  By the time he was 17 years old he was playing the harmonica and guitar.

In1941 Morganfield was discovered by Alan Lomax and another music archivist from the Library of Congress, traveling the back roads of Mississippi looking for the legendary Robert Johnson.  They recorded two of Morganfield’s songs and lit a fire in the ambitious young man.  He will leave Mississippi for Chicago two years later to become a blues singer better known as “Muddy Waters.” He will join the ancestors on April 30, 1983 in Chicago,
Illinois.

 

Special Thanks: Munirah Chronicle

 

Pearl Bailey

1918 – Pearl Mae Bailey is born in Newport News, Virginia.  She will
achieve tremendous success as a stage and film actress,
recording artist, nightclub headliner, and television
performer. Among her most notable movies will be “Porgy and
Bess” and “Carmen Jones” and she will receive a Tony Award
for her starring role in an all-African-American version of
“Hello Dolly.” Bailey will be widely honored, including
being named special advisor to the U.S. Mission to the
United Nations and receiving the Presidential Medal of
Freedom. She will join the ancestors on August 17, 1990.