February 1

Langston Hughes (born James Mercer Langston Hughes, February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was a leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance. His poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", was published in Crisis Magazine in 1921 and is a prime example of the newly-expressed racial pride of the era. Following poems include "I, Too", "A Dream Deferred", and "Let America Be America Again". He also wrote novels, short stories, two autobiographies, and a column in the Chicago Defender for 20 years. He was the grandson of  Charles Henry Langston and the great-nephew of John Mercer Langston.



Birthdays

Charles Lenox Remond (February 1, 1810 – December 22, 1873) was an American orator, activist and abolitionist based in Massachusetts. He lectured against slavery across the Northeast, and in the British Isles on an 1840 tour with William Lloyd Garrison. During the American Civil War, he recruited blacks for the United States Colored Troops, helping staff the first two units sent from Massachusetts. From a large family of African American entrepreneurs, he was the brother of Sarah Parker Remond, also a lecturer against slavery.

Henry McNeal Turner (February 1, 1834–May 8, 1915) was a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. During the Civil War he was appointed Chaplain to one of the first Federal regiments of black troops (Company B of the First US Colored Troops). Turner was the first of only fourteen African Ameican chaplains to be appointed and the first to be made a commissioned officer. After the war he served in the Freedmen's Bureau in Macon, Georgia, and was elected to the state legislature. At the end of reconstruction he became a proponent of black nationalism and supported emigration of African Americans to Africa.

Francis L. Cardozo (February 1, 1835 - July 22, 1903) was the first African American elected to statewide office as South Carolina's Secretary of State. The son of a free black mother and Portuguese father, he attended the University of Glasgow in preparation to become a Presbyterian minister. After Reconstruction he served as principal of the Colored Preparatory High School in Washington DC, and was the grandfather of Eslanda Cardoza Goode, who was married to Paul Robeson.

J. Ernest Wilkins, Sr. (February 1, 1894 – January 19, 1959) was the first African American sub-cabinet member in U.S. history when President Eisenhower appointed him Undersecretary of Labor in 1954. He also served as acting chairman of the President's Committee on Government Contracts and member of the Equality Committee. In 1953, Wilkins became the first African American to serve on the nine-member Judicial Council of the Methodist Church, when he was elected its secretary. He was the father of physicist J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. and attorneys John Robinson Wilkins and Julian B. Wilkins.

Edgar Newton Duncan (born February 1, 1932 - December 17, 2011) was the first pharmacist to be named surgeon general in 1972. He later served as Associate Dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health, working with Pitt’s Partners in Education Consortium and other programs to encourage black and other minority youth to pursue health professions. In 1990, he earned his Ph.D. in higher education administration from the University of Pittsburgh School of Education.

Azie Taylor Morton (February 1, 1936 - December 7, 2003) served as Treasurer of the United States during the Carter administration and is the only African American to have held that office. Her signature was printed on U.S. currency during her tenure; this is an honor she shared with four African American men. She is a graduate of Huston-Tillotson College and served on President John F. Kennedy's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity and from 1972 to 1976, she was a special assistant to Robert Schwarz Strauss, then chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Joseph Leslie (Joe) Sample (February 1, 1939 – September 12, 2014) was a pianist, keyboard player and composer who was one of the founding members of the Jazz Crusaders, the band which became simply The Crusaders in 1971, and remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991 (not including the 2003 reunion album Rural Renewal). Beginning in the 1970s, he enjoyed a successful solo career and guested on many recordings by other performers and groups, including Miles Davis, George Benson, Jimmy Witherspoon, B. B. King, Eric Clapton, Steely Dan, and the Supremes


Events

On February 1, 1893, Henry Smith was tortured and murdered at a heavily attended lynching in Paris, Texas. He was accused of murdering a white child named Myrtle Vance on January 26, and had escaped to Arkansas before being returned. The lynching was covered by the New York Times and by Ida B. Wells, who wrote about it at length in her pamphlet, The Red Record . The crowd was estimated to be as large as 10,000, with special trains from Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma bringing spectators. It was considered to be one of the first "public" lynchings with souvenirs being sold, and was among the first to receive international coverage.

On February 1, 1941, Mildred Carter of Tuskegee became Alabama’s first licensed black female pilot. With 150 hours of flight time logged, she flew in a two-plane formation with her husband,Tuskegee Airman, Herbert Carter. In a campus publication, Mildred Carter had been given the title of “Miss Tuskegee Army Flying School” by her colleagues at Tuskegee Air Field. As the years passed, Mr. and Mrs. Carter became the "first family" of the Tuskegee Airmen organization and represented the group at functions around the world.

On February 1,1951, Aaron Albert Mossell passed away. He was born in 1863 but the exact date is not known. He was the first African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School (1888). He was solicitor of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital, where his brother Nathan was medical director. He was said to have defended some African-American men after the racial riots of 1917-1919 in Philadelphia. He was the father of pharmacist Aaron Albert Tanner III, educator Elizabeth Mossell Anderson, and attorney Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander.

On February 1, 1960, Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Joseph McNeill, and Franklin McCain, all students at North Carolina A&T University, sat down at a segregated lunch counter in a Greensboro Woolworth's store, ordered coffee, and stayed in their seats, despite being refused service, until the store closed. Five days later, over 500 students filled that store and others in downtown Greensboro. From there the sit-ins spread across the state and across the South, transforming the Civil Rights movement. Other sit-ins had been held as early as 1942 but this was the first to receive widespread publicity.

Photo Gallery

Students protest segregation at the state capitol building in Atlanta on February 1, 1962.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his last college address at Manchester University on February 1, 1968. In this picture he is seen walking in to the Union with President A. Blair Helman.

Eartha Kitt, February 1, 1984. Photograph by Kenn Duncan

Michelle Obama, February 1, 2012, at the future site of Gonzalez Northgate Market to discuss the California FreshWorks Fun in Inglewood, California. 

Publications

Black Officer in a Buffalo Soldier Regiment: The Military Career of Charles Young by Brian G. Shellum. $16.99. Publisher: Bison Books (February 1, 2010).

.

December 11

Minnie Evans (December 11, 1892 - December 16, 1987) began to draw and paint at the age of 43, creating her first pieces of artwork on a scrap of paper bag. She painted her early works on US Coast Guard stationery and later worked with more precision, using ink, graphite, wax crayon, water color, and oil on canvas, board and paper. Evans' drawings were inspired by her dreams and are complex, with elements recalling the art of China and the Caribbean combined with more Western themes. The central motif in many pieces is a human face surrounded by plant and animal forms. The eyes, which Evans equated with God's omniscience, are central to each figure, often three eyes were depicted and frontal faces with concealed lips. In addition, God is sometimes depicted with wings and a multicolored collar and halo and shown surrounded by all manner of creatures.

Lion of Judah by Minnie Evans

Birthdays

Morris "Morrie" Turner (December 11, 1923 – January 25, 2014) got his first training in cartooning via the Art Instruction, Inc. home study correspondence course. During World War II, where he served as a mechanic with Tuskegee Airmen, his illustrations appeared in the newspaper Stars and Stripes. After the war, while working for the Oakland Police Department, he created the comic strip Baker's Helper. When Turner began questioning why there were no minorities in cartoons, his mentor, Charles M. Schulz of Peanuts fame, suggested he create one. Morris' first attempt, Dinky Fellas, featured an all-black cast, but found publication in only one newspaper, the Chicago Defender. Turner integrated the strip, renaming it Wee Pals, and in 1965 it became the first American syndicated comic strip to have a cast of diverse ethnicity. Although the strip was only originally carried by five newspapers, after Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, it was picked up by more than 100 papers.was a syndicated cartoonist, creator of the strip Wee Pals. Turner was the first nationally syndicated African-American cartoonist.

Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton (Dec. 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984) was an American rhythm & blues singer/songwriter. She was the first to record Leiber and Stoller's "Hound Dog" in 1952, which became her biggest hit. It spent seven weeks at #1 on the Billboard R&B charts in 1953 and sold almost two million copies. Her success was overshadowed three years later, when Elvis Presley recorded "Hound Dog". Similarly, her "Ball 'n' Chain" was a bigger hit when recorded by Janis Joplin in the late 1960s

Leslie Esdaile Banks, née Peterson (December 11, 1959 – August 2, 2011) was an American writer under the pennames of Leslie Esdaile, Leslie E. Banks, Leslie Banks, Leslie Esdaile Banks and L. A. Banks. She wrote in various genres, including African-American literature, romance, women's fiction, crime suspense, dark fantasy/horror and non-fiction.

Monique Angela Hicks (née Imes; born December 11, 1967), known professionally as Mo'Nique, is a comedian and actress. Best known for her role as Nikki Parker in the UPN series The Parkers and as a stand-up comedian hosting Showtime at the Apollo. She in such films as Phat Girlz, and Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins. In 2009, she received critical praise for her villainous role as Mary Lee Johnston in the film Precious and won numerous awards including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.



Events

On December 11, 1917 thirteen African American soldiers were executed for their participation in a confrontation between Houston police and troops from nearby Camp Logan. Others sentenced to death later had their sentences commuted by President Wilson after negative publicity and investigation by the NAACP.

On December 11, 1964, singer Sam Cooke was fatally shot by the manager of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 33. At the time, the courts ruled that Cooke was drunk and distressed, and that the manager had killed Cooke in what was later ruled a justifiable homicide.





Photo Gallery

Born in Rumley,Virginia on December 11th, 1827, CHARLES R. BELL, WAS A FORMER SLAVE who fled to freedom via the Underground Railroad. | "the appraiser said that on account of a broken jaw, I was worth $800. However at the sale I brought for $1,050. After the sale my new master, a Mr. Marner, took those of us he had purchased away to his plantation. Then for the first time in my life I fully realized that I was a SLAVE." 

Langston Hughes' Musical BLACK NATIVITY opened on Broadway on December 11, 1961 and ran in Philly's Freedom Theatre as a holiday tradition, 

Robert Kennedy signed letter and photograph relating to the 1962 Civil Rights unrest when James Meredith was admitted as the first African American student at the University of Mississippi. In this eloquent letter, dated December 11, 1962, Kennedy is writing to U.S. Marshall Ernest Mike regarding Mike's injuries sustained at Oxford, Mississippi on September 30th and October 1st.

December 11,1968 - Arthur Ashe became the first black man to be ranked #1 in tennis.

President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama (2R) and daughters Malia Obama (L) and Sasha Obama (2L) walk from St. John's Church to the White House after attending Sunday services December 11, 2011 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mike Theiler-Pool/Getty Images)

Publications

What Happens to Negro Child Prodigies Like Philippa Schuyler - Jet Magazine, December 11, 1952

Rene Vaughan Has A Kiss for the Loveliest Female Impersonator - Jet Magazine, December 11, 1952

Josephine Premice and Husband Timothy Fales Want to be Left Alone Jet Magazine, December 11, 1958.

Black Experience Magazine Cooking from Scratch: Soul Food for the Soul by Mr. William C Jenkins Jr. $19.98. Publication: December 11, 2012. Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

.

October 24

Marjorie Stewart Joyner (October 24, 1896 – December 27, 1994) graduated from A.B. Molar Beauty School in Chicago in 1916, the first African American to do so. She briefly operated her own salon on South State Street before joining Madame C. J. Walker's company, traveling in sales and training beauticians across the country. She eventually supervised 200 salons, and was a member of the board of directors. During this time she devised a multi-rod permanent wave device that could be used to either straighten or curl hair, becoming one of the first African American women to hold a patent. She was a founder of a professional association for beauty school owners and teachers now known as Alpha Chi Pi Omega and of the National Council of Negro Women. She was as an advisor to the Democratic National Committee in the 1940s, and advised several New Deal agencies trying to reach out to black women. In the Chicago area she chaired the Chicago Defender Charities as well as the Bud Billiken Parade. She fulfilled a lifelong goal in 1974 at the age of 77 by graduating from Bethune-Cookman University with a degree in psychology.

Birthdays

Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry (October 24, 1911 - March 11, 1986) was a blind Piedmont blues musician known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers, and imitations of trains and fox hunts, often working with Brownie MdGhee throughout his career. In 1938 Terry was invited to play at Carnegie Hall for the first From Spirituals to Swing concert, and later that year he recorded for the Library of Congress.  He was in the 1947 original cast of the Broadway musical comedy Finian's Rainbow and also appeared in the film The Color Purple, directed by Steven Spielberg. With McGhee, he appeared in the 1979 Steve Martin comedy The Jerk.

 Graham Brown (born Robert Elwood Brown, October 24, 1924 - December 13, 2011) attended Howard University where he earned a BA in theater, and studied method acting at the Actors Studio in New York. He began his career as a Shakespearean actor at the Guthrie Theater and was an original member of the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC), appearing in many NEC productions including Ceremonies in Dark Old Men and The River Niger. On television he played a judge and a minister on “Law and Order,” recurred on “Days of Our Lives” and a school principal on “Sanford and Son.” His film roles included Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” and “Clockers” as well as “The Muppets Take Manhattan,” in which he played Mr. Wrightson, the irritable department store manager.

Kweisi Mfume (born Frizzell Gerald Gray; October 24, 1948) has served on the Baltimore City Council (1978-1986), in the U.S. House of Representatives (1987-1996) where he was chair of the Congressional Black Caucus for one term, and as President of the NAACP (1996-2004). Since 2013 he has been Board Chairman of his undergrad alma mater, Morgan State University. Mfume also holds a Master of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins. In the early 1970s, he legally changed his name to Kweisi Mfume, a name from Ghana that translates to "Conquering Son of Kings".


Events

On October 24, 1865 Paul Bogle was hanged for his role as leader of Jamaica's Morant Bay Protests earlier in the month. Over 400 protesters were killed during the uprising, and over 300 more arrested with many of these executed or sentenced to long prison terms. There was worldwide criticism of Governor John Edward Eyre's handing of the protests, and he was suspended and recalled to England with Jamaica being made a Crown Colony, governed directly from England. The Morant Bay rebellion turned out to be one of the defining points in Jamaica's struggle for both political and economical enhancement, and Bogle is a national hero commemorated on currency and in the Jamaican culture.

On October 24, 1935, the play Mulatto by Langston Hughes opened on Broadway at the Vanderbilt Theater, becoming the first play written by an African American to become a long-running Broadway hit.  Mulatto ran on Broadway for more than a year and toured for two seasons. The play was greatly altered by the producer, Martin Jones, who sensationalized an already shocking story. Many critics cite the autobiographical elements of the play, which detail the racial conflict between a white plantation owner, Colonel Thomas Norwood, and the mulatto son Robert, whom he refuses to recognize as his own.

The National Coalition of 100 Black Women (NCBW) was founded on October 24, 1981 by representatives from 14 states and DC. The purposes of the Coalition are to foster principles of equal rights and opportunities; promote the awareness of Black culture; develop the potential of the membership for effective leadership and participation in civic affairs; take action on specific issues of national & international importance, and cooperate with other persons and organizations to achieve mutual goals.

On October 24, 2005, Rosa Parks passed away at the age of 92. Front seats of city buses in Detroit and Montgomery were reserved with black ribbons in honor of Parks until her funeral. Her coffin was flown to Montgomery and taken in a horse-drawn hearse to the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, where she lay in repose at the altar on October 29, 2005, dressed in the uniform of a church deaconess. In the evening the casket was transported to Washington, D.C. and transported by a bus similar to the one in which she made her protest, to lie in honor in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. She is the first woman and the first American who had not been a U.S. government official to receive this honor. Her funeral service was seven hours long and was held on November 2, 2005, at the Greater Grace Temple Church in Detroit.

On October 24, 2007, Negro League first baseman and coach Buck O'Neil was posthumously given the first Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Baseball Hall of Fame after having fallen short in the Hall of Fame vote in 2006, and the award was named in his honor. The Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award is presented every three years to honor an individual who enhances baseball's positive image on society, who broadens the game's appeal, and whose integrity and dignity are comparable to the namesake of the award, John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil.



Photo Gallery

Michael Jackson at the premiere of The Wiz on October 24, 1978 in New York City. Photo: Bettman/Corbis.

On October 24, 1996, Motown Records founder Berry Gordy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame. Gordy helped launch the careers Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson,
 Michael Jackson and many others. Present for his celebration on the Walk of Fame were Smokey, Stevie and Diana.

Publications

Harper's Weekly cartoon (24 October, 1874) Worse than Slavery: portrays a black family
 between a lynched body hanging from a tree and the remains of a burning schoolhouse.

Model Betty Davillier -- Jet Magazine, October 24, 1963

The Black Panther (October 24, 1970)

SOUL, October 24, 1977 -- The Emotions

.