October 22

James A. Bland (October 22, 1854 - May 5, 1911) wrote over 700 songs, including "In the Evening by the Moonlight, "O Dem Golden Slippers," and "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny". He toured Europe in the early 1880s and remained in England to perform as a singer/banjo player without blackface. Appearing as "The Prince of Negro Songwriters," he was invited to give command performances for Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales. Music historian Alec Wilder calls Bland the black writer who "broke down the barriers to white music publishers' offices." He was one of the most prolific minstrel composers of all time; he is reputed to have written over six hundred songs, though only about fifty were published under his name.

Birthdays

George Leighton (born October 22, 1912) is a long-time Chicago judge and civil rights attorney, best known for his work in housing discrimination and criminal appeals. He served as counsel to the Chicago NAACP and was its president during the 1950s. Judge Leighton is a founding partner of McCoy, Ming, and Leighton, one of the largest African American law firms in the country. He was elected to the Cook County Circuit Court in 1964 and to the Illinois Appellate Court in 1970 before being appointed to the U.S. District Court in 1976. He holds an A.B. from Howard (1940) and LL.B. from Harvard (1946), and served as a captain in the 93rd Infantry during World War II.

George Leighton, the namesake of Cook County's main criminal courthouse, takes a conference phone call with congratulations from fellow judges and well-wishers in the company of his daughter, Barbara Whitfield, and son-in-law, Roger Whitfield, at the VA center where he lives in Brockton, Mass., on October 21, 2016, the day before his 104th birthday. (Josh Reynolds / Chicago Tribune)

Bobby Seale (born October 22, 1936) served in the Air Force and worked as a sheet metal mechanic before attending Merritt College where hhe met Huey Newton through the campus Afro-American Association. The two founded the Black Panther Party in 1966, with Seale as Chairman and Newton as Secretary of Defense.. Seale was tried as a member of the Chicago Eight on the charge of inciting a riot outside the Democratic National Convention in 1968, although his outbursts led to a separate trial during which he was bound and gagged. He remains an activist in the Oakland area.

Rosalyn Terborg-Penn (October 22, 1941) is a historian and author focusing on early African American history and African American women's history. She is a faculty member of Morgan State University. She received a degree in history from Queens College, City University of New York in 1963, a master's degree in U.S. diplomatic history from The George Washington University, and a Ph.D. in Pre-1865 African-American history from Howard University.

Julie Dash (born October 22, 1952) directed Daughters of the Dust, which in 1991 became the first full-length film with general theatrical release in the United States by an African American woman. In 2004, Daughters of the Dust was included in the National Film Registry. Her book Daughters of the Dust (1997) is a sequel to the film, set 20 years later in Harlem and the Sea Islands. She has produced numerous music videos and television movies, including  Funny Valentines (1999), Incognito (1999), Love Song (2000), and The Rosa Parks Story (2002). Dash holds an MFA in film and television production from UCLA.

Events

On October 22, 1953, Clarence Sumner Greene Sr. became the first African American Neurosurgeon. He was certified by the American Board of Neurological. Dr. Greene was also appointed as chair of neurosurgery at Howard University, where he treated intracranial aneurysms, brain tumors, and herniated intervertebral discs.

On October 22, 1965, Pfc. Milton L. Oliive was killed at  Phu Cuong when he sacrificed his life by smothering an enemy-thrown grenade with his body. He was the first African American recipient of the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War. In 1979, the city of Chicago recognized Olive by naming Olive Park on Lake Michigan in his honor. Olive-Harvey College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, is named after both Olive and fellow Medal of Honor recipient Carmel B. Harvey. Fort Campbell KY and Fort Benning GA both have facilities named in his honor.



Photo Gallery

October 22, 1916 -- Former slaves attend reunion convention. Washington D.C..

On October 22, 1948 President Harry S. Truman greeted a group of African American
Olympic athletes in the Oval Office. The group is (l-r) Emma Reed, Theresa Manuel, Audrey
Patterson, President Truman, Nell Jackson, Alice Coachman and Mabel Walker.

The Greenwood Cultural Center, dedicated in Tulsa OK on October 22, 1995, was created as a tribute to
 Greenwood’s  history and as a symbol of hope for the community’s future. The center has a museum, an
African American art gallery, a large banquet hall, and housed the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame until 2007.

 On October 22, 2004 three cemeteries in the Ozark Uplands were photo-documented by personnel from the Arkansas Archaeological Survey-Jonesboro station. These preservationists are helping to preserve the cemeteries in Izard and Sharp Counties, Arkansas. With a total of 22 above-ground inscribed stones, the cemetery contains predominantly African-American burials in a limestone slab enclosure with uninscribed grave markers.

U.S. President Barack Obama greets First Lady Michelle Obama on stage after the debate at the Keith C. and
Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Center at Lynn University on October 22, 2012 in Boca Raton, Florida.

Publications

Jet Magazine, October 22 1953 -- Thelma Carpenter

Billie Holiday and Dizzy Gillespie - Jet Magazine, October 22, 1953

Teenage Quartet, The Diamonds - Jet Magazine, October 22, 1953

Jet magazine, October 22, 1981 — Diana Ross

Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion
Barbara Dianne Savage | Published in paperback October 22, 2012

Doctoring Freedom: The Politics of African American Medical Care in Slavery and Emancipation
 (John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture) by Gretchen Long.
$37.50. Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press; 1 edition (October 22, 2012).

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