September 9

Butterfly by Sarah Mapps Douglass (September 9, 1806 - September 8, 1882)

On September 9, 1971 about 1000 inmates of New York's Attica Prison took control of the facility in protest of prison conditions and responding, in part, to the death of George Jackson in California's San Quentin Prison on August 21. During the following four days of negotiations, authorities agreed to most of the prisoners' demands, but not to complete amnesty from criminal prosecution for the prison takeover or for the removal of Attica's superintendent.



Birthdays

Sarah Mapps Douglass (September 9, 1806 - September 8, 1882) began her teaching career in 1825 at a school founded by her mother, Grace Bustill Douglass, and wealthy Philadelphia sailmaker James Forten. Eight years later she started her own school, which became affiliated with the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (which she and her mother had helped found), and later merged with the Institute for Colored Youth (now Cheyney State University). She took courses at the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania to improve her teaching of the sciences, wrote prose and poetry for the Liberation and other publications, and the painted images on her correspondence of friends may be the earliest signed painting by an African American woman.

Flower by Sarah Mapps Douglass, c. 1833

Butterfly by Sarah Mapps Douglass

Laura Celestia "Cettie" Spelman Rockefeller (September 9, 1839 – March 12, 1915), the daughter of Cleveland abolitionist and politician Harvey Buel Spelman, was an assistant elementary school principal when she married former high school classmate John D. Rockefeller. As the couple's wealth grew they became known for their philanthropy. Rockefeller met Harriet E. Giles and Sophia B. Packard, founders of the Atlanta Baptist Female Acadeny, when they were on a fundraising trip to the North. He visited the school in 1884 and was so impressed by its growth to 600 students in only three years that he paid off the debt on the property. The school was then named Spelman Seminary in honor of Mrs. Rockefeller's family.

Delilah Leontium Beasley (September 9, 1871 – August 18, 1934) was an American historian and columnist for the Oakland Tribune. Beasley was the first African-American woman to be published regularly in a major metropolitan newspaper. As a writer, Beasley has the distinction of being the first person to have presented written proof of the existence of California black pioneers, in her writings, Slavery in California (1918) and her classic, The Negro Trail-Blazers of California (1919).

Marjorie Lee Brown (September 9, 1914 - October 19, 1979) was one of the first African American women with a PhD in math, earning her degree at the University of Michigan in 1949, the same year as Evelyn Boyd Granville and six years after Euphemia Lofton. She attended school only in the summers while teaching full-time at Wiley College, and after graduation she took a position as head of the mathematics department at North Carolina Central College (now NCCU). In 1960 she received a grant for $60,000 from IBM for a computer, making NCCU most likely the first HBCU with a computer on campus.

Ed Dwight Jr. (born September 9, 1933) was the first African American astronaut candidate for what is now NASA. He was chosen in 1962 but after the Kennedy assassination was assigned as liaison to a non-existent German test pilot program, and he resigned the Air Force in 1966. After a successful six years as a Denver real estate developer he enrolled in the University of Denver MFA program to pursue his childhood dream of becoming an artist. He soon became nationally known for his large bronze pieces depicting African American history. He was commissioned by the Colorado Centennial Committee for the 50-piece series "Black Frontier in the American West" and by the National Park Service for over 70 pieces in the "Jazz: An American Art Form" series.

Gateway To Freedom, Underground Railroad Memorial, Detroit by Ed Dwight, 2001

Rosa Parks Memorial, Grand Rapids MI, by Ed Dwight, 2010

Hank Aaron statue, Atlanta, by Ed Dwight, 1982

Poet Sonia Sanchez (born September 9, 1934) was part of the 1960's Black Arts Movement, and with Haki Madhubuti, Nikki Giovanni and Etheridge Knight formed the Broadside Quartet of poets. She developed Black Studies courses at SFSU and taught at Temple University from 1977 until her retirement in 1999. In addition to 18 books of poetry she has published plays, children's books and anthologies. She has been awarded the PEN writing award, Pew Fellowship and NEA Fellowship.

Otis Ray Redding, Jr. (September 9, 1941 - December 10, 1967) sang at churches and talent shows as a child in Macon, Georgia, before touring on the Chitlin' Circuit and then being signed by Stax Records in 1962. He is best known for the songs "Try a Little Tenderness" and "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay", written on a friend's houseboat in Sausalito and recorded three days before his death in a plane crash while flying from Cleveland to Madison, Wisconsin. It became the first Billboard Top 100 number one hit. Redding was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.


Events

The Stono Rebellion (begun on September 9, 1739) was the largest slave revolt in the American colonies. A group of 20 recently arrived captives from the Congo were able to arm themselves, and marched along South Carolina's Stono River. Sixty more men joined them before all were captured and executed or sent to the Caribbean. As a result of the revolt, the South Carolina legislature passed the Negro Act of 1740 forbidding slave assembly, access to education, and travel.

On September 9, 1915 Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. The ASALH is dedicated to using education to fend off racist and erroneous ideas about African American life and history. In 1926, Woodson established an annual Negro History Week, devoted to the celebration of Black history and culture. In 1976 Negro History Week was expanded to Black History Month.

On September 9, 1957, Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The Act marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights. All attempts at Civil Rights had been blocked by congressional Democrats during the FDR and Truman administrations.

On September 9, 1957, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and his wife, Ruby, were attacked by klansmen in Birmingham, Alabama in broad daylight for attempting to enroll their children in an all-white public school. Shuttlesworth was beaten with chains and brass knuckles while someone stabbed his wife. Six years later, one of his assailants would participate in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church where four little girls would be murdered.

On September 9, 1968 Arthur Ashe (1943-1993) won the U. S. Open Men's Singles championship, becoming the only African American man to ever win a Grand Slam singles tournament.

September 9 is the Feast Day of St. Peter Claver (26 June 1581–8 September 1654), was a Spanish Jesuit priest and missionary born in Verdu (Catalonia) who, due to his life and work, became the patron saint of slaves, the Republic of Colombia and ministry to African Americans.






Photo Gallery

On September 9,1998 The Chicago Defender building was dedicated as a Chicago landmark.

Serena Williams lifts the championship trophy after defeating Victoria Azarenka
to win the women's singles final match of the 2012 US Open on September 9, 2012

President Barack Obama holds on as he is hugged and picked up by Scott Van Duzer at
Big Apple Pizza and Pasta Italian Restaurant in Fort Pierce, Florida, September 9

Publications

September 9, 1906 New York Times article on Ota Benga, who was kidnapped from the
Congo and taken to the US, where he was exhibited at zoos around the country.

Jet Magazine, September 9, 1954

Jet Magazine, September 9, 1954

Janet and Randy Jackson present their cover of Ebony Jr.
Jet Magazine. September 9, 1976

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