February 10

Leontyne Price (born February 10, 1927) was a was a choir member and accompanist at St. Mark Methodist Church in Laurel, Mississippi as a child, and was inspired at the age of nine by seeing Marian Anderson perform. She prepared for a career in music at Wilberforce College and Julliard, and her first starring role was in an international tour of Porgy and Bess in 1952. She sang in the title role of NBC's presentation of Tosca (1955) and soon became the first internationally acclaimed African American opera performer, appearing in Aida at La Scala in Milan and as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra at the dedication of the New York Metropolitan Opera's new building in 1961. She sang at both Lyndon Johnson's inauguration and at his funeral. During her career she earned over twenty Grammy Awards and was one of the most widely recorded opera singers. She retired from opera in 1985 but continued to sing in concerts and recitals until 1997.

Birthdays

Sylvia L. Hill Williams (February 10, 1936 - February 28, 1996), A.B. Oberlin 1957, was the first woman to hold the position of Director of the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. She served as a member of the Allen Memorial Art Museum Visiting Committee (1989-96), and a member of the Board of Trustees, Oberlin College (1990-96).

Roberta Cleopatra Flack (born February 10, 1939) is best known for her classic #1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and "Feel Like Makin' Love", and for "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", two of her many duets with Donny Hathaway. She was the first, and remains the only, solo artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year on two consecutive years: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won at the 1973 Grammys as did "Killing Me Softly with His Song" at the 1974 Grammys.


Events

On February 10, 1881, the Alabama legislature established Tuskegee Institute as a "normal school for the education of colored teachers." The law stipulated that no tuition be charged and that graduates agree to teach for two years in Alabama schools. Booker T. Washington was chosen as the first superintendent and arrived in Alabama in June 1881.

On February 10, 1966, Andrew Brimmer was the first African American to be appointed to the Federal Reserve Board. Dr. Brimmer served in the Army during World War II and then completed a BA and MA in economics at the University of Washington. He studied at the University of Bombay for a year before earning his PhD at Harvard while working as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York helping the newly established Sudanese government establish a central bank.

On February 10, 2007, Sen. Barack Obama announced his presidential candidacy in Springfield, Illinois.





Photo Gallery

February 10, 1919 -- Officers of the 369th Infantry Regiment (Harlem Hellfighters)

Jennie Jacobs (l), 96, and Phyllis Pollitt, 99, prepare to celebrate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln at an old folks' home in Philadelphia.Both are former slaves. Mrs. Pollitt is a native of North Carolina, where she was born in slavery; Mrs. Jacobs was freed from the state of Delaware. Photo taken February 10, 1940. Photo Credit: Corbis Images.

"Capt. Ezekia Smith, 370th Inf. Regt., 92nd Div., receives treatment at the 317th Collecting Station, for shell fragments in face and shoulders suffered near Querceta, Italy. Here, surgeon stitches the wound. Fifth Army, Pietrasanta Area, Italy." February 10, 1945.

Photo from February 10, 1950 promoting Ruby Dee, who had just been signed to play Jackie Robinson's wife Rachel in the biopic 'The Jackie Robinson Story'. Photo by FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images).

Dorothy I. Height (national president of National Council of Negro Women), Press conference, 10 February 1958. Photographer: Snow University of Southern California, Los Angeles Examiner Collection

Lunch counter protest Raleigh, North Carolina, February 10, 1960 Unidentified photographer From "Freedom Now! Forgotten Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement" by Martin A. Berger

Bob Marley married Alpharita Constantia Anderson, better known as Rita Marley on February 10, 1966.

Publications

Jet Magazine, February 10, 1955

The White Image in the Black Mind:African-American Ideas about White People, 1830-1925 by Mia Bay. $17.61. Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 10, 2000)

.