November 19

November 19 is Garifuna Settlement Day in Belize, which commemorates the first arrival in 1823 of black Caribbeans fleeing slavery in St. Vincent and Rotan.

William Attaway (November 19, 1911 – June 17, 1986) studied literature and writing at the University of Illinois before working for the WPA's Federal Writers Project where he met Richard Wright, who became a friend and mentor. Neither of his novels, Let Me Breathe Thunder and Blood on the Forge, were a commercial success but the latter has been noted as an excellent portrayal of the Great Migration. He became one of the first African American television scriptwriters, including a special One Hundred Years of Laughter (1966) on African American humor. Attaway studied Caribbean music and published a song collection, Calypso Song Book (1957), as well as a history of music for children, Hear America Singing (1967).  He wrote and adapted songs for artists such as Harry Belafonte, including the "Banana Boat Song (Day-O)," which he co-wrote with Irving Burgie.

Birthdays

Roy Campanella (November 19, 1921 – June 26, 1993) began playing Negro league baseball for the Washington Elite Giants in 1937 after dropping out of school on his sixteenth birthday. He signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization in 1946 and was assigned to the Class B Nashua Dodgers, where he managed a game when manager Walter Walston was ejected, becoming the first African American to manage Caucasian players on an organized baseball team. He was called up to Brooklyn in 1948 where he was a three-time All-Star. Campanella was paralyzed in an accident in January 1958 and became a scout and spring training coach for the team the next year. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.

Ahmad Rashād (born Robert Earl Moore on November 19, 1949) played  in the NFL as a wide receiver for 11 seasons, most notably with the Vikings, before becoming a sports announcer. In 1985, he married Cosby Show actress Phylicia Ayers-Allen, to whom he proposed on national television during the pregame show of NBC's broadcast of the Thanksgiving Day football game between the Detroit Lions and the New York Jets. The couple divorced in 2001.

Annette Gordon-Reed (born November 19, 1958) is best known for her books Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (1997) and The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (2008)   which changed historical views on the relationship between Jefferson and Hemings. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History and 15 other prizes in 2009 for her work on the Hemings family, and in 2010 she received the National Humanities Medal and was named a MacArthur Fellow. She graduated from Dartmouth College in 1981 and Harvard Law School in 1984, where she was a member of the Harvard Law Review,and since 2010 has held a joint appointment at Harvard University in history and law.

Savion Glover (born November 19, 1973) debuted on Broadway at age 10 in The Tap Dance Kid and was nominated for a Tony when he was 15 for Black and Blue.  He both performed and choreographed Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk in 1966, winning a Tony for choreography and also being nominated for Best Actor in a Musical. Glover has studied under many tap legends including Honi Coles, Gregory Hines, Henry LeTang, and Howard Sims.



Events

On November 19, 1919, James Wormley Jones became the first African-American FBI special agent, assigned to tracking subversive groups under the direct supervision of  J. Edgar Hoover. Although he was seeking evidence of subversive activities during the "Red Scare" of 1919, Jones' work led to the arrest and trial of Garvey on mail fraud charges. He had previously served with the Washington DC police force and as an Army officer in the 368th Infantry during World War I.




Photo Gallery

On November 19, 1863 President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.

Zenora “Nora” Moore, Jimi Hendrix's paternal grandmother, was born on November 19, 1883 in Georgia to Fanny Moore, originally from Ohio, and Robert Moore Sr., a Georgia native. Fanny Moore was half Cherokee and half African American.

November 19, 1966 - The Supremes were in the middle of a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'You Keep Me Hangin' On', the group's 8th US No.1. The track was the first single from the Supremes' 1967 album The Supremes Sing Holland–Dozier–Holland.

November 19, 2012 "To some, this is just a snapshot and doesn't belong in this gallery of candid photographs from the year. But to me, it evokes what the trip to Burma was all about. Here is President Obama, shoes and socks off in respect, posing like an American tourist in front of the oldest pagoda in the world in a country that no U.S. President had ever been able to visit."

Publications

Haile Selassie Celebrates 23 Year Reign
Jet Magazine, November 19, 1953

Newsweek, November 19, 2012

Joe Becton, of Philadelphia, with the 3rd Infantry Regiment stands with the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment Company B before the grave of Charles Parker during a Graveside Salute to the Veterans of the United States Colored Troops at Soldiers' National Cemetery Tuesday November 19, 2013. in Gettysburg, Pa. Paul Kuehnel - Daily Record/Sunday News

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