Celebrate the Day!: January 14

On January 14, 2017, President-Elect Donald Trump tweeted that John Lewis was "talk, talk, talk -- no action and no results" in response to Rep. Lewis's statement that Trump was an "illegitimate president" because of purported Russian interference in last November's presidential election. During the 1963 Selma March, SNCC leader Lewis suffered a concussion when beaten by State Troopers, and was jailed 45 times during the civil rights movement. The remarks were made at the beginning of the MLK weekend observance.

Julian Bond (January 14, 1940 – August 15, 2015) was a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) while a student at Morehouse College, and later with Morris Dees worked to found the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and served as its first president. He was also chairman of the NAACP from 1998 to 2010. He served four terms in the Georgia House of Representatives (1967–1974) and 6 terms in the Georgia Senate (1975–1987). After leaving politics he taught the history of the civil rights movement at the University of Virginia from 1990 to 2012. He was the son of Horace Mann Bond, the first African American president of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

Birthdays

Dudley Randall (January 14, 1914 – August 5, 2000) founded Broadside Press in 1965, which published many leading African-American writers, among them Melvin Tolson, Sonia Sanchez, Audre Lorde, Gwendolyn Brooks, Etheridge Knight, Margaret Walker, and others. His most famous poem is "The Ballad of Birmingham," written in response to the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. Other well-known poems of his include "A Poet is not a Jukebox," "Booker T. and W.E.B.," and "The Profile on the Pillow." He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Wayne State University degree in English in 1949 and a master's degree in Library Science at the University of Michigan in 1951.

John O. Killens (January 14, 1916 – October 27, 1987) was a founder of the Harlem Writers Guild along with with John Henrik Clarke, Rosa Guy, and Walter Christmas. He taught writing at Fisk University, Howard University, Columbia University and Medgar Evers College. where he founded the National Black Writers Conference. His novels Youngblood and And Then We Heard the Thunder were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction.

Vonetta Lawrence McGee (January 14, 1945 – July 9, 2010) was best known for her roles during the 1970s, which included blaxploitation films such as Hammer, Melinda, Blacula, Shaft in Africa and 1974's Thomasine & Bushrod alongside her then-boyfriend Max Julien. She was a regular on the 1987 Universal Television situation comedy Bustin' Loose, starring as Mimi Shaw for its first and only season (1987-1988). In 1987, she married actor Carl Lumbly.

Carl Weathers (born January 14, 1948), is best known for playing Apollo Creed in the Rocky series of films. He also played Dillon in Predator, Chubbs Peterson in Happy Gilmore, and Little Nicky, and an exaggeratedly frugal fictionalized version of himself in the television series Arrested Development. He played football at San Diego State University and professionally with the Oakland Raiders for one season and three seasons with the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League.

Events

On January 14, 1930, Ernest E. Just was elected Vice President of American Society of Zoologists. He was the first African American admitted to the organization, and the first to serve in a leadership position. Dr. Just had chaired the Department of Zoology since 1912 and was a researcher at the prestigious summer program of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, specializing in the study of cell permeability, cytology, and parthenogenesis. He was also a founder of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and recipient of the first Spingarn Medal.

On January 14, 1972, the NBC sitcom Sanford and Son debuted, running until March 25, 1977. The series was adapted by Norman Lear and considered NBC's answer to CBS's All in the Family and has been hailed as the precursor to many other African American sitcoms. In 2007, Time magazine included the show on their list of the "100 Best TV Shows of All Time".

Photo Gallery