October 14

(William) Allison Davis (October 14, 1902 - November 21, 1983) was a Harvard-trained cultural anthropologist whose research was used in both the Brown decision and as a basis for the Head Start program. He was the first black faculty member of a primarily white college, and to be hired at the University of Chicago his salary had to be guaranteed by Julius Rosenwald.  He is best remembered for his pioneering anthropology research on southern race and class during the 1930s, producing the books Children of Bondage (1940) and Deep South (1941), notable not only for their use of anthropological field methods but for their sobering portrait of the economic and racial order in America. He followed these with research done within the Chicago schools, writing Intelligence and Cultural Differences (1951), a detailed analysis of class-based student responses to culturally weighted questions found on ten mass intelligence tests.

Birthdays

Clarence Muse (October 14, 1889 - October 13, 1979) first appeared in Hearts in Dixie (1929), the first all-black movie, and his film career spanned the next 50 years. He appeared in over 150 movies, including Broken Earth (1936), Sweet Youth (1938), Way Down South (1939, which he co-wrote with Langston Hughes), and Broken Strings (1940). Muse co-wrote the song Sleepytime Down South which was sung by Nina Mae McKinney in the movie Safe in Hell (1931) and later a signature song of Louis Armstrong.  In 1943, he became the first African American Broadway director with Run Little Chillun. Prior to his acting career he earned a degree in international law from  Dickinson College and was a founder of Harlem's Lafayette Theater.

Although Clarence Muse was an accomplished actor, director, and screenwriter, he was often typecast in
mainstream films as a railway porter. He is shown here in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943).

Oscar McKinley Charleston (October 14, 1896 - October 5, 1954) joined the U. S. Army at the age of 15 and served in the Philippines before he began his professional baseball career in 1915 with the Indianapolis ABC’s. Over his career he had a .348 batting average and regularly finished among the leaders in home runs and stolen bases. In 1932, he became player/manager of the Pittsburgh Crawfords and presided over what many consider the best Negro League team ever.  His roster included Hall of Famers Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, and Judy Johnson. The team went 99-36, and Charleston himself batted .363. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976.

David Showell (October 14, 1924 - December 23, 1955) was a fighter pilot in the Tuskegee Airmen squadron. After the war he was a prominent player for Lafayette College during the 1948 and 1949 football seasons. At the end of the 1948 season, Showell was excluded from an invitation the team received to play in the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas on January 1, 1949. This discriminatory event sparked much controversy, not only within Lafayette College, but across the country. Lafayette decided not to send its team to the Sun Bowl in response to the Sun Bowl Committee's decision to exclude Showell from the game due to the segregation laws in Texas, which led to large student protests at the college against racial discrimination.

James "Son" Thomas (October 14, 1926 – June 26, 1993) was an Delta blues musician, gravedigger and sculptor from Leland, Mississippi. He was known as a  folk artist for his sculptures made from unfired clay, which he dug out of the banks of the Yazoo River. His most famous sculpted images were skulls (often featuring actual human teeth), which mirrored his job as a gravedigger and his often stated philosophy that "we all end up in the clay". In 1985, his work was featured in the prestigious Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. Thomas's skulls are on display in the Delta Blues Museum, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and the Highway 61 Blues Museum, in Leland, Mississippi.

Joyce Bryant (born October 14, 1928) defied Klan threats and became the first black performer in a Miami Beach Hotel Nightclub in 1952. Her silver hair and tight, backless, cleavage-revealing mermaid dresses became her trademark look and, combined with her four octave voice, further elevated her status into one of the major headlining stars of the early 1950s, becoming known as "the Bronze Blond Bombshell" and "the black Marilyn Monroe". She left the industry in 1955 at the height of her popularity to devote herself to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. A decade later, she returned to show business as a trained classical vocalist and later became a vocal coach.

Events

On October 14, 1916 Paul Robeson missed the only football game of his college career when the team from Washington and Lee College in Virginia refused to take the field against an African American. Rutgers coach George Sanford excluded Robeson from this game but later refused to give in to similar requests. Robeson was a two-time All-American and Walter Camp considered him to be the greatest defensive end ever.

On October 14, 1964 Martin Luther King won the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to the American civil rights movement. The award came a year after the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and months after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. At the age of 35 he was youngest winner of the prize since its inception in 1901.He donated the prize money, valued at $54,600, to the civil rights movement.

Photo Gallery

"Arnold R. Fesser, oiler, 17 years at sea: `We got a big job to do until this war is won. We will keep them
sailing until the end. Then we have got time for holidays." October 14, 1944. 357-G-203-4690.

Bishop Willis J. King, Resident Bishop of Liberia in NYC, noted teacher and author, is shown on Pier 8
 bidding farewell to Lt. Joseph G. Burgess,New Rochelle, New York, of 371st Infantry, 92nd Division,
 who was about to sail overseas. Ltr. Burgess, who was six feet four inches tall, received
 his commission at Fort Benning, Georgia, 14 October 1942. USA Signals Corps photo.

October 14, 1969 [during UCSB Black Student Union takeover of North Hall]
two children of concerned parents hang out at campus during action

First black homecoming queen at Northeastern University, Linda Brown and her escort: October 14, 1972

 October 14, 1980 Bob Marley performs in his last concert before
 he untimely joins the ancestors succumbing to cancer.

Actors Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong'o at the premiere of '12 Years A Slave'
at the Directors Guild on October 14, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.

October 14, 2014 "The President lifts the daughter of a departing staff member
 in the Oval Office." (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Publications

Delores De Vega and Other Models Veto Contract - Jet Magazine, October 14, 1954

"Only in Defense of Life Should Life Be Taken"
The Black Panther, October 14, 1972

On October 14, 1995, Eddie Robinson became the first coach from a historically black college to be on the
 cover of Sports Illustrated. He had achieved his 400th win with the Grambling Tigers earlier in the week.

A Shining Thread of Hope by Darlene Clark Hine. $11.32. 368 pages.
Publisher: Broadway (October 14, 2009). Author: Darlene Clark Hine

October 14, 2010, Rolling Stone -- President Obama

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