January 6

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January 6 is celebrated as Maroon Day in Jamaica to commemorate the 1738 Treaty of Cudjoe between Maroons (ex-slaves of the expelled Spanish colonists) and Great Britain

Harry Herbert Pace (January 6, 1884 – July 19, 1943) is best known for founding Black Swan Records in 1921, the first music publishing company owned by a African American. He had previously collaborated on song writing and publishing with W. C. Handy, and had also operated a printing business in Memphis with W. E. B. Du Bois. The first releases featured performances of light classical music, blues, spirituals, and instrumental solos. Black Swan’s first hit was a recording of “Down Home Blues” and “Oh, Daddy”, sung by Ethel Waters. Although Pace recorded many outstanding artists, the business failed, and Pace was forced to declare bankruptcy in December 1923. A few months later he sold Black Swan to Paramount Records. In 1925, Pace founded the Northeastern Life Insurance Company in Newark, New Jersey, which became the largest African-American-owned business in the North during the 1930s. Pace then moved to Chicago to attend the Chicago-Kent College of Law; he received his degree in 1933. He opened a law firm in downtown Chicago in 1942.

Birthdays

Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811 – March 11, 1874) was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War. During Reconstruction, he fought to minimize the power of the ex-Confederates and guarantee equal rights to the Freedmen.

John Hanks Alexander (January 6, 1864 - March 26, 1894) graduated from the U.S. Military Academy ten years after the first African  American graduate, Henry O. Flipper. Alexander didn't experience the ostracism that Flipper and others endured, and was considered a model student and fought on the academy's boxing team. After graduation he served with the 9th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Robinson, Nebraska and Fort Washakie, Wyoming, and was the first African American officer to hold a regular command position. In early 1894 he was assigned to teach military science at Wilberforce University, and two months later he died of a ruptured aorta at the age of 30.

Moses Hardy (January 6, 1893/1894 – December 7, 2006) was, at age 112 or 113, the last black veteran of World War I and one of the last surviving American veterans of that war. The son of former slaves, Hardy was born in either 1893 or 1894 and lived a religious and farming life until he signed up to serve overseas in World War I in July 1918. He served in the segregated 805th infantry, which was assigned a variety of manual labor and support tasks. Hardy himself served as a scout, supplying the front line troops when necessary.

Jerome H. "Brud" Holland (January 6, 1916 - January 13, 1985) was U.S. Ambassador to Sweden after having served as president of Delaware State College and Hampton Institute. He held a PhD in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania, and as an undergraduate was the first African American football player at Cornell, where he was an All-American in 1937 and 1938. #

Leah Chase (born January 6, 1923) is a New Orleans chef, author and television personality. Known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine, Chase promoted African American art and Creole cooking. Her restaurant, Dooky Chase, was known as a gathering place during the 1960s among many who participated in the Civil Rights movement]; and, her restaurant was known as a gallery due to its extensive African American Art collection.

First Lieutenant Ruppert Leon Sargent (January 6, 1938 - March 15, 1967) was the first African American officer to be awarded the Medal of Honor. (In 1997, upgrades of DSCs awarded to Black heroes of WWII resulted in awards to three additional Black Officers from that war.) He was killed in Hậu Nghĩa Province in the Republic of Vietnam when he threw himself on two enemy hand grenades, sacrificing himself but saving the lives of two men nearby.

John Daniel Singleton (born January 6, 1968) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for directing Boyz n the Hood (1991). For the film, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, becoming the first African American and youngest person to have ever been nominated for the award.


Events

January 6 is celebrated as Maroon Day in Jamaica to commemorate the 1738 Treaty of Cudjoe between Maroons (ex-slaves of the expelled Spanish colonists) and Great Britain, which recognized free Maroon territory in the mountains. Singing, dancing, drum-playing and preparation of traditional foods form a central part of most gatherings.

On January 5, 1874, South Carolina Republican Representative Robert B. Elliott gave a noted speech in favor of the Civil Rights Act, delivered in the House of Representatives. The Act, which guaranteed equal treatment in all places of public accommodation to all people regardless of their "nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political," was passed on March 1, 1875.



Photo Gallery

President Obama in the Green Room of the White House, January 6, 2010 (by Pete Souza)

Publications

Jet's Calendar Girls for 1955 - Jet Magazine, January 6, 1955

Shake Dancer Tequilla Wallace Tried Suicide in Detroit - Jet Magazine, January 6, 1955

Adam Clayton Powell and Wife Hazel Scott Caught Off Guard - Jet Magazine, January 6, 1955

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October 9

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Eugene Jacques Bullard (October 9, 1895 - October 12, 1961) enlisted in the French Foreign Legion at the start of World War I and after being seriously injured at Verdun trained as a pilot, becoming the first African American fighter pilot, flying for France's Lafayette Flying Corps and earning the Croix de Guerre and other decorations in World War I. He remained in France after the war, operating a nightclub "Le Grand Duc". During World War II he was part of the French Resistance. After the German invasion he escaped to America where he lived in obscurity, operating a elevator at Rockefeller Center. In 1994 he was  posthumously commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.

Birthdays

Mary Ann Shadd Cary (October 9, 1823 - June 5, 1893) was the granddaughter of a Hessian soldier. Her parents operated a stop on the Underground Railroad in Delaware. To avoid the Fugitive Slave Act, she and her brother Isaac moved to Canada where they started an abolitionist newspaper, making her the first African American female newspaper editor. After her return to the U.S. she taught in Washington DC public schools and was the first woman admitted to Howard Law School.

Herman Canady (October 9, 1901-1970)  researched the role of the race of the examiner as a bias factor in IQ testing, finding that subjects scored on the average six points higher when tested by a person of the same race. He chaired the psychology department at West Virginia State College for 40 years, and collected data from 50 other HBCUs to evaluate the quality of education in psychology for African Americans. He then worked with the American Teachers Association (formerly the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools, founded in 1904) to create a psychology section “to advance, promote, and encourage the teaching and application of the science of psychology and related fields, particularly in Negro institutions.”

Yusef Abdul Lateef (born William Emanuel Huddleston; October 9, 1920 – December 23, 2013) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer and prominent figure among the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in America, following his conversion to Islam in 1950. Although Lateef's main instruments were the tenor saxophone and flute, he also played oboe and bassoon, both rare in jazz, and also used a number of non-western instruments such as the bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, xun, arghul and koto. He is known for having been an innovator in the blending of jazz with "Eastern" music.

Ernest Nathan "Dutch" Morial (October 9, 1929–December 24, 1989) was the first African American to receive a law degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge (1954), to serve as a Juvenile Court judge in Louisiana (1970) to be elected to the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal (1974), and to be elected mayor of New Orleans (1978). He is the father of former New Orleans mayor, Marc Morial.

William Eugene McAnulty, Jr, (October 9, 1947 - August 23, 2007) was an American attorney and judge in Louisville, Kentucky who became the first African American justice on the Kentucky Supreme Court (2006) after having served at virtually every level of the state judiciary. He is a graduate of Indiana University and received a JD from the University of Louisville School of Law.

Steven Rodney (Steve) McQueen CBE (born October 9, 1969) is a British film director, screenwriter, and video artist. He is a winner of the Caméra d'Or and a BAFTA. His 2013 film, 12 Years a Slave, won him the award for best director from the New York Film Critics Circle, as well as winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture at the 71st Golden Globe Awards.

Events

On October 9,1974, Frank Robinson became first African American baseball manager when the Cleveland Indians named him player/manager for the upcoming season. Over the next two years he compiled a 186–189 record before going on to manage the San Francisco Giants, the Baltimore Orioles, and the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals.

On October 9, 1989, Art Shell became the first African American head coach in the modern era of the NFL, winning his debut as the Los Angeles Raiders defeated the New York Jets 14-7 on Monday Night Football. He coached the Raiders through 1994 with 54 wins, 38 losses, and was named AFC Coach of the Year in 1990, when the Raiders won the AFC West division with a 12-4 record.

Photo Gallery

Whitney Houston arriving with father John Houston at Los Angeles International Airport October 9, 1991.

Obama Street Art Surfaces In NYC Ahead Of The Election In This Photo: Barack Obama A painting of Barack Obama by artist David Choe hangs on a wall October 9, 2008 as part of " Outsiders" an art exhibition brought to New York by Lazarides Gallery of London

/October 9, 2012 - This photo released by Obama for America shows Obama teaching at the
University of Chicago Law School. After Harvard Law School, Obama returned to Chicago,
and lectured on constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School

Publications

"Group of African Negroes on Board The Niagara.—From a sketch by our own correspondent," Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, October 9, 1858, Charleston Museum Illustrated Newspapers Collection, courtesy of the Charleston Museum. 

Jet Magazine, October 9, 1952

Wife of Adam Clayton Powell, Hazel Scott, Models for Son Skipper
Jet Magazine, October 9, 1952

Stan Kenton's Newest Discovery, Georgia Carr
Jet Magazine, October 9, 1952

Million Dollar Milton McKee Estate To Provide Scholarships
Jet Magazine, October 9, 1952

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