TODAY IN BLACK HISTORY August 27th

1879 – African American publisher Robert Lee Vann is born in
Ahoskie, North Carolina. He will become a publisher,
lawyer and the nurturing editor of the Black newspaper,
The Pittsburgh Courier. He will attend Western University
of Pennsylvania. He will graduate from Law School in June,
1909. In 1910, he will become the Pittsburgh Courier’s
editor and publisher. Under his leadership, The Courier
will develop into one of the leading Black newspapers of
the era. By the 1930s, it will be one of the highest
circulated Black newspapers in the United States.

As many as 14 different editions will be circulated throughout the
country. He will become involved in politics throughout
his association with The Courier. In 1918, he will be
appointed the fourth assistant city solicitor in Pittsburgh,
the highest position held by an African American in the city
government. Initially a Republican, he will grow
disillusioned with the party and convert to the Democratic
Party. On September 11, 1932, he will deliver a famous speech
at the St. James Literary Forum in Cleveland, Ohio entitled
“The Patriot and the Partisan” and will urge African Americans
throughout the nation to turn away from the Republican party
which had failed them, and support the Democratic party of
Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 election. He will support
Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 election, and will
subsequently be named special assistant to the U.S. attorney
general. In 1935, he will help campaign for the enactment of
an equal rights law in the State of Pennsylvania. He will
serve as editor and publisher of The Pittsburgh Courier until
he joins the ancestors on October 24, 1940.

December 8th in Black History

 December 8^th 1863 – President Abraham Lincoln offered a conciliatory plan of  Amnesty and Reconstruction for the restoration of the Confederate states into the Union. He offers them a full pardon and restoration of their rights if they are willing to take an oath of loyalty to the Union and accept the end of slavery.

Accepting the end of slavery was a bitter pill that some southerns could not take.  Still today, Blacks struggle to find a better place in American life. 

Roger Wilkins – African American Experience

Uncle Tom Cabin Black History – March 20

March 20, 1852 – Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by white abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published.  Harriet was born to a famous religious family in June 14, 1811, Litchfield, CT. The controversial novel will be credited by many, including Abraham Lincoln, with sparking the Civil War. Mr. Lincoln will later tell Mrs. Stowe, that she was “the little woman who wrote the book that started this Great War”. Uncle Tom’s Cabin depicted the life Blacks were subjected to in slavery.

In 1852 over 300,000 books were sold in the United States, especially in the north, and sold well in England. The story is of Uncle Tom a slave of dignified character saves a little white girl of frail health and then her father buys him.  She, on her deathbed,  then has her father to promise to free his slaves. Unfortunately, he planned to do that but was killed and Simon Legree becomes the new slave owner. The book was adapted for theatre and played to large audiences.

 

Happy Birthday Nat King Cole March 17th

 

Nat King Cole, the jazz pianist who would become one of the most beloved singers of the 20th Century, was born Nathaniel Adams Coles in Montgomery, Ala., on March 17, 1919, to Edward and Perlina Coles. When he was four, the family journeyed to Chicago, where his father became a Baptist minister and his mother taught him music on the family’s upright piano.
He started out playing organ at his father’s church and studied Bach, but switched to jazz piano as a teenager. It was in those early days playing in Chicago jazz clubs that he acquired the nickname Nat “King” Cole. In the 1930’s, he formed a trio, the “King Cole Swingers,” with what was then a revolutionary mix of guitar, bass and piano. He would become one of the leading jazz pianists of his day, inspiring such artists as Art Tatum and Ray Charles.
Because he considered himself a pianist, he only sang to fill the spaces between instrumental numbers at first. Audiences loved his rich baritone and began requesting more vocals from him. One night, a patron asked him to sing a song he didn’t know the words to, so he sang one he did know, “Sweet Lorraine.” The trio got tipped just for his rendition of the song, and soon his voice would become the main attraction. His first vocal hit, “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” based on one of his father’s sermons, sold half a million copies in 1943.
Though he would become world-famous, he endured racial attacks and barriers throughout his career. Hotels that hired him to perform refused him lodging. In 1948, when he purchased a home in the all-white Los Angeles neighborhood of Hancock Park, the neighbors mounted a campaign of harassment. A cross was burned on his front lawn. The family’s dog was poisoned. The property-owners association started a petition and told him they did not want undesirables moving in. Cole famously responded, “Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I’ll be the first to complain.”
In 1956, he was performing before an all-white audience in Birmingham, Ala., when several white men stormed the stage and assaulted him. Cole was pushed from his piano bench and, with his back injured, was unable to finish the performance. He never played in the South again. In November of that year, he became the first African-American to host his own network variety show, only to see it founder because no national companies would agree to sponsor it. The Nat King Cole Show debuted on NBC in November 1956, but by December 1957 was off the air.
The voice that defined him came at a high price. He smoked three packs of cigarettes a day, convinced that smoking gave depth to his voice. He was known to smoke Kool menthol cigarettes in quick succession just before a recording to capture the best possible sound. In December 1964, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. The next month, January 1965, he underwent surgery to remove his left lung. He died despite the surgery on February 15, 1965. He was 45 years old.
His daughter, Natalie, who sadly passed away at the end of 2015 at age 65, would have a notable singing career of her own, with such hits as “This Will Be” and “I’ve Got Love On My Mind.” Her father would live on in such enduring classics as “Mona Lisa,” “When I Fall in Love,” “The Christmas Song (chestnuts roasting on an open fire…)” and, of course, “Unforgettable,” which she memorialized in her own recording of the song with tracks from his original rendition.
— Here he is, singing “Unforgettable:” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy_JRGjc1To
— Here’s a link to an excellent 1963 television special of his on the BBC:
http://youtu.be/J1glriB54oE
— Moving video of Natalie Cole singing “Unforgettable” along with the recorded accompaniment of her late father: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MKCyUe4syc4

— from The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

Black History March 13th

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*               Today in Black History – March 13                  *

1779 – Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, an explorer of African descent,
from Santo Domingo (Haiti), builds the first permanent
settlement at the mouth of the river, just east of the present
Michigan Avenue Bridge on the north bank, of what is now the
city of Chicago, Illinois.

1862 – Congress forbids Union officers and soldiers from aiding in the
capture and return of fugitive slaves, ending what one historian
called the “military slave hunt.”

1865 – Jefferson Davis signs a bill authorizing the use of slaves as
soldiers in the Confederate army.

1869 – Arkansas legislature passes anti-Ku Klux Klan legislation.

1914 – James Reese Europe explains the significance of his Clef Club
Symphony Orchestra, consisting of the best African American
musicians in New York City: “… we colored people have our
own music that is a part of us. It’s the product of our
souls; it’s been created by the sufferings and miseries of our
race.”

1918 – John Rhoden is born in Birmingham, Alabama. An art student who
will study with Richmond Barthe’ and at Talledega College,
Rhoden’s sculptures will have strong romantic and classical
elements. He will receive commissions for Harlem Hospital and
Metropolitan Hospital in New York City, exhibit his work at
the Atlanta University annuals, the Art Institute of Chicago,
and the Whitney Museum and be represented in museums in the
United States and Europe. Among his major works will be
“Safari,” “Eve,” and “Quarter Horse.” He will join the ancestors
on January 4, 2001.

1930 – Richard Allen “Blue” Mitchell is born in Miami, Florida. The
trumpeter will make his name as a member of Horace Silver’s
Quintet. From 1974, he will play as a soloist or as an
accompanist for Tony Bennett and Lena Horne. He will join the
ancestors on May 21, 1979 succumbing to cancer.

1932 – The “Atlanta World” becomes the first African American daily
newspaper in modern times, when it begins daily publication.
It was founded on August 3, 1928, by William A. Scott, III
and became a bi-weekly in 1930.

1943 – Frank Dixon becomes the first great African American miler in
track as he wins the Columbian Mile in New York City. Dixon
runs the mile in the record time of 4 minutes, 9.6 seconds.

1946 – Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African
American to command an United States Air Force base, when he
assumes command of Lockbourne Air Force Base in Ohio.

1961 – Floyd Patterson knocks out Ingemar Johannson to retain the
heavyweight boxing championship.

1984 – James L. Usry is elected the first African American mayor of
Atlantic City, New Jersey. He will serve as mayor until 1990.
A former member of the Harlem Globetrotters, he became an
educator before entering politics.

1999 – Evander Holyfield, the WBA and IBF champion, and Lennox Lewis,
the WBC champion, keep their respective titles after fighting
to a controversial draw in New York.

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

Black History Month 2020

Our First Black President – Barack Hussein Obama II-44th President of the United States of America who  served 2 terms in office.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSA PARKS

Happy Heavenly Birthday Rosa Parks.  She was born in February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, AL and died October 24, 2005 in Detroit, MI.

BLACK GIRL MAGIC

Black History 2020

Black Girl Magic – Ebonee Davis  – TEDx

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) to ex-slaves from Kentucky.  Poet and author, Paul Laurence Dunbar, joins the ancestors after succumbing to tuberculosis at the young age of 33 years old. Dunbar was so talented and versatile that he succeeded in two worlds. He was so adept at writing verse in Black English that he became known as the “poet of his people,” while also cultivating a white audience that appreciated the brilliance and value of his work.  “Majors and Minors” (1895), Dunbar’s second collection of verse, was a remarkable work containing some of his best poems in both Black and standard English. When the country’s reigning literary critic, William Dean Howells reviewed “Majors and Minors” favorably, Dunbar became famous. And Howells’ introduction in “Lyric of Lowly Life” (1896) helped make Dunbar the most popular African American writer in America at the time.  Dunbar will join the ancestors after succumbing to tuberculosis on February 9, 1906. The U.S. Postal Service will issue a commemorative stamp in his honor on May 1, 1975.

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