November 22

On November 22, 1968 Lieutenant Uhura and Captain Kirk shared the first interracial kiss ever seen on American television in a Star Trek episode entitled "Plato's Stepchildren". 

Col. Guion Bluford (November 22, 1942) became the first African American to travel in space in 1983, on board the space shuttle Challenger, and flew three later missions. His career began as a pilot in the US Air Force, flying 144 missions during the Vietnam War, before becoming a NASA astronaut in 1979. Bluford left NASA and retired from the Air Force in July 1993 to take the post of Vice President/General Manager, Engineering Services Division of NYMA, and has since held other positions in the private sector. He received a PhD in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Laser Physics from the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 1978, and an MBA from the University of Houston–Clear Lake in 1987.


Birthdays

Ranavalona III (November 22, 1861 – May 23, 1917) was the last sovereign of the Kingdom of Madagascar. She ruled from July 30, 1883 to February 28, 1897 in a reign marked by ongoing and ultimately futile efforts to resist the colonial designs of the government of France. She tried to stave off colonization by strengthening trade and diplomatic relations with the United States and Great Britain throughout her reign. French attacks on coastal port towns and an assault on the capital city of Antananarivo ultimately led to the capture of the royal palace in 1895, ending the sovereignty and political autonomy of the century-old kingdom.

Frank Mann (November 22, 1908 - November 30, 1992) was drawn to aviation as a teenager at Houston's South Main Airport where he became lifelong friends with Howard Hughes. Mann worked on the design for Hughes' Spruce Goose, and Hughes was able to provide upgraded equipment for the Tuskegee Airmen where Mann was the chief civilian instructor. Mann also developed an early communication satellite and the prototype for the Corvette.

Valerie Wilson Wesley(born November 22, 1947) is an African-American author of mysteries, adult-themed novels, and children's books, and a former executive editor of Essence magazine. She is the author of the Tamara Hayle mystery series. She graduated from Howard University and earned masters degrees from the Bank Street College of Education and the Columbia Graduate School of Jouralism. She is married to playwright Richard Wesley.




Events

In this November 22, 1775 ad for Titus's capture and return, John Corlies correctly anticipated that Titus "will probably change his name." Three years later the former slave gained notoriety as Colonel Tye, fighting with a volunteer corps of escaped Virginia Colony slaves in the Ethiopian Regiment and the "Black Brigade". Tye died from tetanus and lockjaw from a musket wound in the wrist following a short siege in September 1780 against Captain Joshuah Huddy.

A modern portrayal of Colonel Tye and his British, Black Loyalist, "Black Brigade", a small combat unit, of elite, associator, guerrillas, in the Province of New Jersey, during the American Revolutionary War

On November 22, 1865, Mississippi passed the first Black Codes, laws aimed to restrict the rights and freedom of movement of the freedmen. The Black Codes enacted in Mississippi and other Southern states virtually re-enslave the freedmen. In some states, any white person could arrest any African American. In other states, minor officials could arrest African American “vagrants” and “refractory and rebellious Negroes” and force them to work on roads and levees without pay.

On November 22, 1968 Lieutenant Uhura and Captain Kirk shared the first interracial kiss ever seen on American television in a Star Trek episode entitled "Plato's Stepchildren". The episode portrays the kiss as involuntary, being forced by telekinesis, perhaps to avoid any hint of romance that would risk outrage among some viewers.

On November 22, 1986, 24-year-old George Branham won the Brunswick Memorial World Open. It is the first time an African American won a Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) title. Branham, from Detroit defeated Mark Roth in Glendale Heights, Illinois. He learned the sport when he was 6 years old and turned professional in 1984.

On November 22, 1988 Bob Watson is named assistant general manager of the Houston Astros, the team where he began his professional career in 1965. One of a select few African American assistant general managers in the sport, Watson’s spikes hang in the Baseball Hall of Fame for scoring baseball’s 1,000,000th run in 1976.


Photo Gallery

Slave Petition for Freedom Frederick County, Maryland. November 22, 1790 Court summons 6 individuals to testify in the petition of freedom of "negro Wilson" vs. Robert Hammod 

Women burst into tears outside Parkland Hospital upon hearing that President John F. Kennedy died from a gunshot wound while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, on November 22, 1963.

November 22, 1965 Muhammad Ali defeats Floyd Patterson. Ali, a recent convert to the Muslim faith, taunts the former champ and ends the fight in 12 rounds to win the world heavyweight title.

President Obama, along with President Clinton, lays a wreath at the grave of President John F. Kennedy on the 50th Anniversary of his death, 22 November 2013.

Publications

Jet Magazine -- November 22, 1951

Hollywood's Unknown Black Beauties
 Jet Magazine, November 22, 1951

Nat King Cole TV Show is a Hit
Jet Magazine, November 22, 1956

Fats Domino To Appear on Ed Sullivan Show
 Jet Magazine, November 22, 1956 

November 22, 1968 A portrait of Frederick Douglass appears on the cover of Life magazine. The cover story, “Search for a Black Past,” will be the first in a four-part series of stories in which the magazine examines African Americans, a review of the last 50 years of struggle and interviews with Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond, Eldridge Cleaver, Dick Gregory, and others.

Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English by John Russell Rickford. $15.95. Publisher: Wiley (November 22, 2000).