November 25

Percy Sledge (November 25, 1940 – April 14, 2015) was an American R&B, soul and gospel singer best known for the song "When a Man Loves a Woman".

John Herman Henry Sengstacke (November 25, 1912 – May 28, 1997) was an African-American newspaper publisher and owner of the largest chain of black newspapers in the country. He was also a civil rights activist and worked for a strong black press, founding the National Newspaper Publishers Association in 1940, to unify and strengthen African-American owned papers. The nephew of Robert Sengstacke Abbott, Sengstacke was his designated heir to take over his Chicago Defender, which he did after his uncle's death in 1940. He worked with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to have African-American reporters in the White House and to create jobs in the United States Postal Service for African Americans.




Birthdays

David Abner, Jr. (November 25, 1860 - July 21, 1928) became the first African American to graduate from a Texas institution of higher learning when he received his degree from Bishop College in 1881. His father, politician and businessman David Abner Sr, had been a founding trustee of the college. Abner served as president of Guadeloupe College and Conroe College and was president of the Colored Teachers State Association of Texas before being named director of the National Baptist Convention Theological Seminary in Nashville.

Joe Gans (born Joseph Gant, November 25, 1874 - August 10, 1910) was rated as the greatest lightweight boxer of all time by boxing historian and Ring Magazine founder, Nat Fleischer and was known as the "Old Master." He fought from 1891 to 1909. He was the first African-American World Boxing Champion, reigning continuously as World Lightweight Champion from 1902 to 1908. Gans died of tuberculosis at age 36.

William DeHart Hubbard (November 25, 1903 - June 23, 1976) was the first African American to win Olympic gold in an individual event, the running long jump in 1924. He also held NCAA titles in the long jump (1923, 1925) & 100 meters (1925) before graduating with honors from the University of Michigan. He spent his career in government work, retiring as race relations adviser of the Federal Housing Authority in Cleveland. He was a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

Nathaniel "Nat" Adderley (November 25, 1931 – January 2, 2000) was an American jazz cornet and trumpet player who played in the hard bop and soul jazz genres. He was the brother of saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, whom he remained very close to in his career but under whose shadow he lived for most of his life. Nat Adderly's "Work Song" is a jazz standard which also became a success on the pop charts after singer Oscar Brown, Jr. wrote lyrics for the tune.

Percy Sledge (November 25, 1940 – April 14, 2015) was an American R&B, soul and gospel singer best known for the song "When a Man Loves a Woman", a No. 1 hit on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B singles charts in 1966. It was awarded a million-selling, Gold-certified disc from the RIAA. Having previously worked as a hospital orderly in the early 1960s, Sledge achieved his strongest success in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a series of emotional soul songs. In later years, Sledge received the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Career Achievement Award. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.


Events

On November 25, 1922, Marcus Garvey spoke to a crowd of 50,00 at Madison Square Garden on the objectives of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the organization he believed would lead the worldwide movement toward black liberation. "We represent peace, harmony, love, human sympathy, human rights and human justice, and that is why we fight so much. Wheresoever human rights are denied to any group, wheresoever justice is denied to any group, there the U. N. I. A. finds a cause."

On November 25, 1955, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) banned racial segregation on interstate buses, train lines, and in waiting rooms. The ICC ruled that “the disadvantages to a traveler who is assigned accommodations or facilities so designated as to imply his inferiority solely because of his race must be regarded under present conditions as unreasonable.”

On November 25, 1997, the legendary Eddie Robinson of Grambling State University coached his last game as head coach. This closed out a career spanning 57 years. He has the NCAA record for wins at 402. The closest to Eddie Robinson’s record is ‘Bear’ Bryant of the University of Alabama at 323 wins.







Photo Gallery

Portrait photograph of Peter Abrahams by Carl Van Vechten.. New York, November 25, 1955

After leaving the ‘Club Americana’, a Saturday night jazz club open from midnight until 7 a.m., American troops and their girlfriends wait at Piccadilly Circus Station for the first train home, London, 25th November 1955. Via Hulton Archive / Getty

Tina Turner in motion, captured by the legendary photographer Jack Robinson on November 25, 1969 in New York City.

Sasha and the pardoned turkey, November 25, 2009

Publications

Front page of the November 25, 1899 edition of the Washington, D.C.-based paper. It was initially published under the name The Weekly Advocate, New York's Colored American was a weekly newspaper whose length was four to six pages. It circulated in free black communities up and down the northern seaboard.

Harlem-born Audrey Smaltz, Miss Transit of 1954 in Jet, November 25, 1954.

Marian Anderson and Husband Orpheus H. Fisher at Metropolitan Opera Company Opening - Jet Magazine, November 25, 1954

This Our Dark Country: The American Settlers of Liberia by Catherine Reef. $15.30. Reading level: Ages 10 and up. Author: Catherine Reef. 144 pages. Publisher: Clarion Books. Publication: November 25, 2002.

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