September 11

Dr. Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes (September 11, 1890 - July 25, 1980) was the first African American woman to receive a PhD in mathematics (Catholic University of America (CAU), 1942). Her undergraduate degree was from Smith (1914) and she taught in the Washington DC public schools for 47 years, most notably as head of the math department at Dunbar High. After retirement she was the first woman on the DC school board and served as president from 1960 to 1968. Her will left $700,000 to CAU for an endowed mathematics chair and a perpetual student loan fund.


Birthdays

Robert Hicks (September 11, 1902 – October 21, 1931) was a blues singer and 12-string guitar player in Atlanta when he was signed to Columbia Records by scout Dan Hornsby. Hicks was working at Tidwell's Barbecue at the time and the studio took publicity pictures of him in his cook's uniform holding a guitar, billing him as "Barbecue Bob". His first recording, "Barbecue Blues" in 1927, sold 15,000 copies, a high number for Columbia's "race records" division. Other songs did well, and he recorded a total of 68 on 78-rpm records. He died of pneumonia at age 29. Eric Clapton has covered his "Motherless Child Blues".

Crispus Attucks (Cris) Wright (September 11, 1914 - December 9, 2001) was a Los Angeles attorney and businessman who worked with the NAACP to prepare the late 1940s case that led the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down real estate covenants as unconstitutional. He was Chairman of the Board of the Los Angeles Sentinel and a long-time friend of its publisher Leon Washington. A 1938 USC Law School graduate, he donated $2 million to the school for scholarships for minority students, at the time the largest gift to USC by an African American.

Charles Evers (born September 11, 1922) became Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP after his younger brother Medgar was murdered in 1963. He was elected mayor of Fayette, Mississippi in 1969, the first African American may in the state since Reconstruction. He also had unsuccessful campaigns for governor and U. S. Senator.

Loletha Elayne (Lola) Falana (born September 11, 1942) began her professional career dancing at Small's Paradise in Harlem where she was mentored by Dinah Washington. She later met Sammy Davis, Jr. who cast her in his Broadway production of Golden Boy and in his film A Man Called Adam, as well as securing a recording contract for her. She appeared on television variety shows and in Las Vegas during the 1970s but multiple sclerosis cut her performing career short. She now lives in Las Vegas where she has founded a ministry helping Sub-Saharan orphans.

Events

On September 11, 1851 the first open defiance of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 occurred in Christiana, Pennsylvania when black freedmen supported by local white Quakers attacked a group tracking an escaped slave, killing 1 and wounding 2. All 38 men charged with murder were acquitted, including leader William Parker who himself escaped slavery at the age of 17.

On September 11, 1962, two young voter registration workers were shot during a registration drive in the South. The two were wounded by shotgun blasts fired through the window of a home in Ruleville, MS. In response to the gunshot incident, James Forman (left) of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), asked President Kennedy to "convene a special White House Conference to discuss means of stopping the wave of terror sweeping through the South."

LeRoy Wilton Homer, Jr. was First Officer of United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. He was a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate and a Major in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, assigned as an AFROTC recruiter after having been a flight instructor. He was survived by his wife, Melodie, and nine-month-old daughter, Laurel. He received many posthumous awards and citations, including honorary membership in the historic Tuskegee Airmen.

Ajala Godwin was a Nigerian attorney who emigrated to the U.S. in 1995. He worked as a security guard at the World Trade Center while studying to pass the New York State Bar Exam. On September 11, 2001 he led thousands to safety from the lobby and first floor of Tower Two before lapsing into a coma, dying five days later. He was one of 11 security guards killed in the attack and was survived by his wife, Victoria, and their three children, Onyinyechi, 7, Uchechukwu, 5, and Ugochi, 1.



Photo Gallery

"The Black Venus", Dora Dean, (third from left) and her husband Charles Johnson
were one of the most successful African American vaudeville acts in their day.
Photo dated September 11, 1914.

September 11, 1974: “Get Christie Love” starring Teresa Graves as an undercover
Los Angeles police detective premieres on ABC-TV. Photo: ABC Photo Archives/Getty

Regina Wilson is one of only 29 woman firefighters in New York City, which has over 10,000
 firefighters.  Wilson, a black woman, and the members of Engine 219 were among
 the first responders to the September 11th attacks at the World Trade Center in New York.

Encouraged by his aunt, Jason Thomas, shown here in the rubble of the World Trade Center
 on September 11, 2001, unmasked his identity as the Marine who saved two Port Authority officers.

U.S. President Barack Obama pauses during a moment of silence at the Pentagon
 in remembrance of those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks, in Washington
September 11, 2014. (REUTERS/Gary Cameron)

Publications

Jet Magazine, September 11, 1952

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