January 25

Ladies of Song -- Florence Mills (January 25, 1896 - November 1, 1927), Etta James (January 25, 1938 - January 20, 2012), and Alicia Keys (born January 25, 1981)

George Freeman Bragg (January 25, 1863 – March 12, 1940) was an Episcopalian priest and activist, working against racial discrimination within the church and beyond. As a boy he delivered newspapers in  Petersburg, Virginia, establishing a relationship with the editor of the Petersburg Index and other white civic leaders. After a term as a page in the Virginia House of Delegates, he founded the weekly Petersburg Lancet, dedicated to civil rights issues. He graduated from Bishop Payne Divinity School in 1886 and was ordained a deacon the following year. He successfully challenged a rule that black deacons wait at least five years before ordination as priests, and was ordained a priest in 1888. After serving in Norfolk for five years, he was assigned to St. James Episcopal Church in Baltimore where he was rector for almost fifty years. He served as secretary and historiographer of the Conference of Church Workers among Colored People, which lobbied, among other things, for the election and consecration of black bishops, and he personally mentored over 20 African American priests. He worked with Booker T. Washington to prevent disenfranchisement in Maryland due to Jim Crow laws, and was among the founders of the NAACP.

Birthdays

Florence Mills (born Florence Winfrey, January 25, 1896 – November 1, 1927) began performing with her sisters at age six in a vaudeville act known as The Mills Sisters. became well known in New York as a result of her role in the successful Broadway musical Shuffle Along (1921) at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre (barely on Broadway), one of the events marking the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1924 she headlined at the Palace Theatre, the most prestigious booking in vaudeville, and became an international star with the hit show Lew Leslie's Blackbirds (1926). Among her fans when she toured Europe was the Prince of Wales, who told the press that he had seen Blackbirds 11 times.

Etta James (born Jamesetta Hawkins; January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012) was an American singer who performed in various genres, including blues, R&B, soul, rock and roll, jazz and gospel. Starting her career in 1954, she gained fame with hits such as "The Wallflower", "At Last", "Tell Mama", "Something's Got a Hold on Me", and "I'd Rather Go Blind".  She won six Grammy Awards and  was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her number 22 on its list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and number 62 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists.

Sheila Johnson (born January 25, 1949) was the cofounder of Black Entertainment television along with ex-husband Robert Johnson, Sheila Johnson has a net worth estimated to be around $400 million. She was the first African-American woman to attain a net worth of at least one billion dollarsand to be an owner or partner in three professional sports franchises: the Washington Capitals (NHL), the Washington Wizards (NBA), and the Washington Mystics (WNBA). Johnson is currently CEO of Salamander Hospitality, a company she founded in 2005.

Gloria Naylor (January 25, 1950 – September 28, 2016) was best known for her first novel, The Women of Brewster Place, which won the 1983 National Book Award's First Novel category and was made into a 1984 film starring Oprah Winfrey and Robin Givens. She held a bachelor's degree in English at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York (1981) and a master's degree in African American Studies from Yale University (1983) and taught writing and literature at George Washington University, New York University, Boston University, and Cornell University..

Alicia Keys (born Alicia Augello Cook, January 25, 1981) has won numerous awards such as 15 Grammy Awards, and has sold over 35 million albums and 30 million singles worldwide. Billboard magazine named her the top R&B songs artist of the 2000s decade. In 2010, VH1 included Keys on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. She made her first television appearance on The Cosby Show in 1985 as a four year old child. She made her film debut in Smokin' Aces and later in The Nanny Diaries in 2007. Keys then had a NAACP Image Award nominated appearance in The Secret Life of Bees in 2008.


Events

On January 25, 1859, Dr. John Doy and his son set out to lead thirteen enslaved men to freedom in the Nebraska Territory. They were captured twelve miles outside of Lawrence, Kansas, and taken to St. Joseph, Missouri, to be put on trial where Dr. Doy was sentence to five years in prison. He was freed by ten associates known as the "immortal ten" led by Major James Abbott on September 23, 1859.

On January 25, 1890, The National Afro-American League was formed by Timothy Thomas Fortune. Preceding the foundation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the organization dedicated itself to racial solidarity and self-help. The organization became defunct in 1893 due to lack of support and funding. In September 1898, Fortune presided at a meeting in Rochester, New York, called by A.M.E. Zion Bishop Alexander Walters, for the purpose of rejuvenating the League. The new organization, named the National Afro-American Council, existed until about 1908. Walters was the first president of the Council, while Fortune was the first chairman of the executive committee.

Nora Douglas Holt (1885 or 1890 – January 25, 1974) was an American singer, composer and music critic, who was born in Kansas and was the first African American to receive a master's degree in the United States. She composed more than 200 works of music and was associated with the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance and the co-founder of the National Association of Negro Musicians. (Portrait by Carl Van Vechten, 1955)

On January 25, 1980, the cable channel Black Entertainment Television (BET) premiered. Initially broadcasting for two hours a week as a block of programming on Nickelodeon (it would not be until 1983 that BET became a full-fledged channel), the network's lineup consisted of music videos and reruns of popular black sitcoms.

Photo Gallery

Dated January 25, 1870, these are the credentials for Senator Hiram Rhodes Revels of Mississippi, the first African American to serve in the Senate.

Young Boys Shucking Oysters, Apalachicola, FL January 25, 1909

Bo Obama Plays In The Snow A very important update from the White House's cutest tenant. posted on January 25, 2013 at 5:24pm EST

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November 14

On November 14, 1960, Ruby Bridges and three other children began attending previously all-white elementary schools in New Orleans after passing a rigorous admissions test. Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, and Gail Etienne attended  McDonogh No. 19 Elementary School, where they became the only students as white parents withdrew their children. Classroom windows were covered with brown paper, and the girls had to have recess in the school theater because the school yard was too dangerous. Bridges was also alone at William Frantz Elementary but other children began returning the next day when 34-year-old Methodist minister, Lloyd Anderson Foreman, walked his 5-year-old daughter Pam through the angry mob, saying, "I simply want the privilege of taking my child to school....". Ruby remained alone in her classrrom, however, and Barbara Henry, who had moved to New Orleans recently from Boston, was the only faculty member willing to teach her. Federal Marshals remained throughout the school year to protect the girls from protesters. By the next year more white children had returned so she was in a class with 20 others, and by 1964, 809 African Americans had entered formerly white schools.

Birthdays 

Matilda Beasley (November 14, 1832 - December 20, 1903) was born in New Orleans to an enslaved Creole mother and Native American father. Possibly orphaned at an early age, she later moved to Savannah where she married and worked as a dressmaker. Upon the death of her husband she entered the novitiate in York, England, returning to Savannah to found the first community of African American nuns in Georgia and open an orphanage for African American children.

Mabel Fairbanks (November 14, 1915 - September 29, 2001)     worked as a domestic in a home overlooking Central Parkduring the late 1920s when she began figure skating after observing children at the park's ice rink. She performed in shows in New York until she relocated to Los Angeles and toured internationally, skating with Ice Capades in Mexico and later with Ice Follies. After retiring as a performer, she coached the children of celebrities and successful skaters such as Scott Hamilton, Kristi Yamaguchi, Tai Babilonia, and Debi Thomas. In 1997, she became the first African American inducted into the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in October 2001.

Ellis Marsalis (born November 14, 1934) began his performing career as a pianist with fellow modernists including Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, and Al Hirt, the few New Orleans musicians who did not specialize in Dixieland or rhythm and blues. He holds a BA in music from Dillard University and is one of the leading jazz educators in the country. Through his work at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, the University of New Orleans, and Xavier University of Louisiana, Ellis has influenced the careers of countless musicians, including Terence Blanchard, Harry Connick Jr., Nicholas Payton; as well as his four musician sons: Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason.

Condoleezza Rice (born November 14, 1954)  served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush. She was the first female African American Secretary of State, as well as the second African American Secretary of State (after Colin Powell), and the second female Secretary of State (after Madeleine Albright). Rice was President Bush's National Security Advisor during his first term, making her the first woman to serve in that position. Before joining the Bush administration, she was a professor of political science at Stanford University where she served as Provost from 1993 to 1999.

Events

On November 14, 1900, in Washington, DC, about 200 dentists met to form the Washington Society of Colored Dentists, the first society of African American dentists in the United States. The name was changed in 1907 to the Robert T. Freeman Dental Society after a merging with a similar group founded in 1901 at Howard University by Dr. Freeman. It affiliated with other local organizations around the country and became the National Dental Association in 1932, a part of the National Medical Association until it broke apart from the NMA in 1940. It still exists today to encourage dental careers among minority populations and to provide dental treatment and education to minority populations in the U.S. and abroad.

On November 14, 1934 William Levi Dawson's Symphony No. 1, Negro Folk Symphony, was presented by the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Leopold Stokowski. It was the first symphony on black folk themes by a black composer to be performed by a major orchestra. The symphony was later revised in 1952 with greater African rhythms inspired by the composer's trip to West Africa. Dawson said that the composition was an attempt to convey the missing elements that were lost when Africans came into bondage outside their homeland.

On November 14, 2009 the African American Library at the Gregory School in Houston opened. Located in the historic Freeman’s Town, the library is housed in the Gregory School, the city's first public school for African Americans. The first library of its kind in the city and one of few in the U.S., it serves as a resource to preserve, promote, and celebrate the rich history and culture of African Americans in Houston and the surrounding area.

Photo Gallery

On November 14, 1927, Fats Waller recorded "Bye Bye Florence as a tribute to
vocalist Florence Mills who had passed away earlier that month at the age of 31.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., right, and Rep. Adam Clayton Powell at a news conference
at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, November 14, 1965. AP Photo David Pickoff

On November 14, 1984, Rosa Parks was presented the first “Eleanor
Roosevelt Woman of Courage Award” by the Wonder Woman Foundation.

November 14, 2014 "The President walks with Aung San Suu Kyi back into her residence following their
joint press conference in Yangon, Burma." (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) 2014: Year in Photos

Publications

Jet Magazine, November 14, 1957

Jet Magazine, November 14, 1968

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