February 8

Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher (February 8, 1924 - October 18, 1995) was denied admission to the University of Oklahoma Law School when she applied in 1946. Two years later, in 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Sipuel v. Board of Regents of Univ. of Okla. that the state of Oklahoma must provide instruction for blacks equal to that of whites. In order to comply, the state of Oklahoma created the Langston University School of Law, located at the state capital. Further litigation was necessary to prove that this law school was inferior to the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Finally, on June 18, 1949, Sipuel was the first African-American admitted to the University of Oklahoma's law school. The law school gave her a chair marked "colored," and roped it off from the rest of the class, and she ate in a separate chained-off guarded area of the law school cafeteria. She graduated in 1951, and began a law practice in her home town of Chickasha.

Birthdays

Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler (February 8, 1831 – March 9, 1895) was the first African-American woman to become a physician in the United States. She worked as a nurse until 1860 when she was accepted into the New England Female Medical College, which closed in 1873, without graduating another black woman, when it merged with Boston University. After the Civil War she worked in Richmond with the Freedmen's Bureau before returning to Boston in 1870 w. She  She married Dr. Arthur Crumpler after the Civil War. Her memoir, A Book of Medical Discourses (1883), was one of the first written by an African American about medicine. The Rebecca Lee Society, one of the first medical societies for African-American women, was named in her honor.

Crawford Goldsby (February 8, 1876 – March 17, 1896) was a 19th-century American outlaw, known by the alias Cherokee Bill. Responsible for the murders of eight men (including his brother-in-law), he and his gang terrorized the Indian Territory for over two years. In July 1894 he was involved in a host of robberies and murders as part of the notorious Cook gang headed up by brothers, Bill and Jim Cook. He and the Cook gang ran havoc over the Indian Territory for over two years.

Lisa Perez Jackson (born February 8, 1962) is an American chemical engineer who became the first African-American woman Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She is a graduate of Tulane University and Princeton University. She began working as a staff-level engineer for the Environmental Protection Agency in 1987; later moving to the EPA's regional office in New York City, where she spent the majority of her 16-year EPA career.




Events

February 8 is the Feast Day in the Roman Catholic Church for St. Josephine Bakhita, who was kidnapped as a young girl in Sudan and sold as a slave. She suffered bullying and hardship under different masters. One took her to Italy where she met the Canossian Sisters. She learned about Jesus and became a nun later. She led a holy life of humility, service and charity, inspiring everyone especially her African people. She also forgave her captors and those who caused her much suffering. She is the patron saint of Sudan.

On February 8, 1944, Harry S. McAlpin of the Atlanta Daily World became the first African American journalist accredited to attend White House press conferences. He spent most of his career in Washington D.C. after graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1926, In 1943 the National Negro Publishers Association petitioned the White House Correspondents Association for press credentials on the grounds that the Atlanta Daily World was one of its member papers. The WHCA agreed but it took several more months before the NNPA could afford to open its own Washington bureau and hire McAlpin as its full-time Washington correspondent.

On February 8, 1968, South Carolina State University students Samuel Hammond Jr. and Henry Smith, and high school student Delano Middleton, were killed by highway patrolmen in Orangeburg, South Carolina in what came to be known as the Orangeburg Massacre. Twenty-seven others were injured in the campus protests after Governor Robert McNair had called in the National Guard following attempts to integrate a local bowling alley.

On February 8, 1986 Stanford University pre-med student Debi Thomas became the first African American to win the Women’s Singles at the U.S. National Figure Skating Championship competition. In that same year she was named Wide World of Sports’ Athlete of the Year. Two years later she added a second national title and won a bronze medal in the 1988 Olympics. She was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2000.

Photo Gallery

Yates was established on February 8, 1926, as Yates Colored High School with 17 teachers and 600 students. The school, at 2610 Elgin, was the second school for African-Americans established in Houston. The first principal, James D. Ryan, served from the opening until his death in 1941.Ryan Middle School exists at the first location of Yates Colored High School

"Captain and crew of a new Liberty Ship [SS Booker T. Washington] just after it completed its maiden voyage to England. (L-R) C. Lastic, Second Mate; T. J. Young, Midshipman; E. B. Hlubik, Midshipman; C. Blackman, Radio Operator; T. A. Smith, Chief Engineer; Hugh Mulzac, Captain of the ship; Adolphus Fokes, Chief Mate; Lt. H. Kruley; E. P. Rutland, Second Engineer; and H. E. Larson, Third Engineer." Captain Hugh Mulzac is fourth from the left on the first row. February 8, 1943

Paul Robeson — KPFA Interview, February 8, 1958

On February 8, 1969, 'TCB' by The Supremes with Temptations went to No.1 on the US album chart.

Good Times is an American sitcom that originally aired from February 8, 1974, until August 1, 1979, on the CBS television network. It was created by Eric Monte and Michael Evans, and developed by Norman Lear, the series' primary executive producer. Good Times is a spin-off of Maude, which was itself a spin-off of All in the Family.

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