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.

.

January 12

James L. Farmer, Jr. (January 12, 1920 - July 9, 1999) was the founder of CORE and the organizer of the 1961 Freedom Rides which challenged segregation on interstate travel. He graduated from Wiley College at the age of 18 after having been captain of the school's famed debate team, and then earned a divinity degree at Howard where he was mentored by Howard Thurman. He later taught at Lincoln University and Mary Washington College.




Birthdays

John Lewis Waller (January 12, 1850 – 1907) was an Ohio attorney who was part of the black migration to Kansas in 1877 where he founded the Western Recorder newspaper in Lawrence and The American Citizen in Topeka, where he also served as Deputy City Attorney. He was the first African American member of the Electoral College in 1888, casting a vote for Benjamin Harrison, and he was charged with the responsibility to transport the results of the Kansas vote to Washington, D.C., that year.  In 1891 he was appointed American consul in Madagascar. He was the grandfather of Negro World editor, poet, composer and lyricist Andy Razaf.

Adah Belle Samuels Thoms (January 12, 1870 – February 21, 1943) studied nursing at the Women's Infirmary and School of Therapeutic Massage, graduating in 1900 as the only African American woman in a class of thirty. She then attended the Lincoln Hospital and Home School of Nursing, a school for black women, graduating in 1905. Although she served as acting director between 1906 and 1923, Jim Crow policies prevented her receiving the official title of director. Along with  Martha Minerva Franklin and Mary Mahoney she founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses in 1908 and was among the first nurses inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame when it was established in 1976.

Ruth Brown (January 12, 1928 – November 17, 2006) was a singer-songwriter and actress also known as "Queen of R & B noted for bringing a pop music style to R & B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long", "Teardrops from My Eyes" and "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean".For these contributions, Atlantic became known as "The house that Ruth built" (alluding to the popular nickname for Old Yankee Stadium.

Joseph William (Joe) Frazier (January 12, 1944 – November 7, 2011) was an Olympic gold medalist in 1964 and undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1970 to 1973. His professional career lasted from 1965 to 1976, with a one-fight comeback in 1981. After retiring, Frazier made cameo appearances in several Hollywood movies, and two episodes of The Simpsons.

George Duke (January 12, 1946 – August 5, 2013) worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as a professor of music. He first made a name for himself with the album The Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with the George Duke Trio. He was known primarily for thirty-odd solo albums, of which 'A Brazilian Love Affair' from 1980 was his most popular, as well as for his collaborations with other musicians, particularly Frank Zappa.

Walter Ellis Mosley (born January 12, 1952) is an American novelist, most widely recognized for his crime fiction. He has written a series of best-selling historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator and World War II veteran living in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles; they are perhaps his most popular works.

Dominique Wilkins (born January 12, 1960) is a retired American professional basketball player who primarily played for the  Atlanta Hawks of the NBA. Wilkins was a nine-time NBA All-Star, and one of the best dunkers in NBA history, earning the nickname The Human Highlight  In 2006, Wilkins was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.






Events

US Marshal Bass Reeves  Bass Reeves (July 1838 – 12 January 1910) was most likely the first African American Deputy U.S. Marshal west of the Mississippi River. He was born enslaved in Missouri and brought to Grayson County, Texas, as a child. Working as a body servant during the Civil War, he escaped and fled to Indian Territory, learning to speak several languages. He was hired in 1875 as a Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Arkansas, which included the Indian Territory as well. During his 32-year career he also served in the Eastern District of Texas in Paris and in the Muskogee Federal Court, After retirement he was an officer with the Muskogee Police Department. (painting by Ivan Stewart)

On January 12, 1936, families of  sharecroppers on the Dibble plantation near Parkin, Arkansas were evicted at gunpoint when the plantation claimed that by membership in the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union they were engaging in a conspiracy to retain their homes.

On January 12, 1948 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Sipuel v Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma that the state must provide equal education for black and white students. A makeshift law school was established at Langston University but after further litigation plaintiff Ada Lois Sipuel was admitted to the OU Law School the next year.

On January 12, 1960,  Berry Gordy, Jr. founded Tamla Records, which was incorporated as the Motown Record Corporation the following year. The label was responsible for the crossover success of soul and R&B during the 1960s. It relocated from Detroit to Los Angeles in 1972, and was sold to MCA in 198.

On January 12, 1961. Charlayne Hunter, 18, who started classes at the University of Georgia two days before, was withdrawn last night for her own protection after a threatening mob gathered outside her dormitory, causing significant property damage and garnering negative publicity for the university and the state.



Photo Gallery

Princess Tenagnework Haile Selassie (12 January 1912 – 6 April 2003) of Ethiopia was the eldest child of Emperor Haile Selassie and Empress Menen Asfaw.

André Watts - Watts' performance of the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat at a Young People's Concert on January 12, 1963 was videotaped and nationally televised on CBS on January 15, 1963.

President & First Lady Michelle Obama at the Memorial Service For Tucson Shooting Victims January 12, 2011.

The first ever Black Comic Book Festival was held on Saturday January 12, 2013 at The Schomburg Center For Research in Black Culture, located in the heart of Harlem in New York City

Publications

January 12, 1931 -- Missouri lynchings | ... MO Missouri Raymond Gunn NEGRO Schoolhouse Lynching 1931 Old Newspaper

Jet Magazine, January 12, 1956

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker: The Unlikely Friendship of Elizabeth Keckley and Mary Todd Lincoln by Lynda Jones. $14.78. Author: Lynda Jones. 80 pages. Publisher: National Geographic Children's Books (January 13, 2009). Reading level: Ages 10 and up.

.