February 4

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 -October 24, 2005) became a pivotal figure in the Civil Rights Movement wen she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in December 1955. Others had done the same in the last decade, but NAACP organizers believed that Parks, secretary of the local NAACP chapter, was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws. She had recently attended the Highlander Folk School, a Tennessee center for training activists for workers' rights and racial equality. Shortly after the year-long boycott after her arrest, she moved to Detroit, where she found work as a seamstress. From 1965 to 1988 she served as secretary and receptionist to John Conyers, an African-American US Representative. She was also active in the Black Power movement and the support of political prisoners in the US. After retirement, she wrote her autobiography and continued to insist that the struggle for justice was not over and there was more work to be done.

Birthdays

John Rankin (February 4, 1793 – March 18, 1886) was an American Presbyterian minister, educator and abolitionist. Upon moving from Kentucky to Ripley, Ohio in 1822, he became known as one of Ohio's first and most active "conductors" on the Underground Railroad. During a visit by Rankin to Lane Theological Seminary to see one of his sons, he told Professor Calvin Stowe the story of a woman the Rankins had housed in 1838 after she escaped by crossing the frozen Ohio River with her child in her arms. Stowe's wife (Harriet Beecher Stowe) also heard the account and later modeled the character Eliza in her book Uncle Tom's Cabin after the woman.

Henry Alvin Cameron (February 4, 1872 - October 30, 1918) taught science and coached at Pearl High School in Nashville until he joined the military at age 45 during World War I. He was commissioned a First Lieutenant and served with Company M, 365th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Division. He was killed in action while on a scout patrol with his unit during the Battle of the Argonne Forest. He was the first of only three black men appointed officers in World War I from Tennessee and the only black officer to die from Tennessee.

Frank Wills (February 4, 1948 – September 27, 2000) was the security guard who alerted police to a possible break-in at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., which eventually led to the uncovering of the truth about the Watergate Scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.



Events

The Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded on February 4, 1794 by Richard Allen. The church has been located at the corner of Sixth and Lombard Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since that time, making it the oldest church property continuously owned by African Americans. The church was organized by African American members of St. George's Methodist Church who walked out due to racial segregation in the worship services

On February 4, 1875, Congressman James T. Rapier of Alabama rose on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to support the Civil Right bill then before Congress which when enacted later that year became the Civil Rights Act of 1875. He noted how the race issue in the United States society related to class and religious inequalities in other lands, and said that he was "half slave and half free", having political rights but no civil rights. He said that in Europe, "they have princes, dukes, and lords; in India, "brahmans or priests, who rank above the sudras or laborers;" in America, "our distinction is color."

During his playing days, Jackie Robinson’s impact was also felt off the field. On February 4, 1952, he was hired as the Director of Community Activities for a radio station, WNBC, and the television station WNBT, becoming the first African-American executive of a major radio and television station. “It also gives us a chance to combat communist propaganda by showing there are plenty of opportunities for Negroes in this country,” Robinson once said about his new position.

On February 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr, gave his "Drum Major Instinct" sermon. King encouraged his congregation to seek greatness, but to do so through service and love. King concluded the sermon by imagining his own funeral, downplaying his famous achievements and emphasizing his heart to do right. It was an adaptation of an homily by the same name given by J. Wallace Hamilton, a well-known, liberal, white Methodist preacher.

On February 4, 1999, when Amadou Diallo, a 23-year-old immigrant from Guinea, was shot and killed by four New York City Police Department plain-clothed officers: Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon and Kenneth Boss. The officers fired a combined total of 42 shots, 19 of which struck Diallo, outside his apartment at 1157 Wheeler Avenue in the Soundview section of The Bronx. The four were part of the now-defunct Street Crimes Unit. All four officers were charged with second-degree murder and acquitted at trial in Albany, New York.

Photo Gallery

The Negro janitors of the plant maintenance department in North America's Kansas City factory in V-formation as they start out on their daily tasks. February 4, 1942. Carl Conley. 208-NP-1KK-1

Sammy Davis, Jr., Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier in an outtake from their February 4, 1966 LIFE magazine cover. Photo: Philippe Halsman/Magnum Photos.

February 4th - Michelle Obama's 2010 Style Diary

Publications

Jet Magazine, February 4, 1954

Dorothy Dandridge, Johnny Mathis, Maria and Nat King Cole at Hiltoppers Charity Guild Benefit - Jet Magazine, February 4, 1960

Marty Phillips is a Junior at Columbus Ohio East High School - Jet Magazine February 4, 1960

"Thou, Dear God" is the first and only collection of sixty-eight prayers by Martin Luther King, Jr. Arranged thematically in six parts--with prayers for spiritual guidance, special occasions, times of adversity, times of trial, uncertain times, and social justice--Baptist minister and King scholar Lewis Baldwin introduces the book and each section with short essays. On sale February 4, 2014. Paperback, $15.00

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January 31

Jack Roosevelt (Jackie) Robinson (January 31, 1919 - October 24, 1972) was the first African American to play in Major League Baseball since color lines were drawn in the 1880s. He had been an all-sport athlete at UCLA, an Army officer, athletic director at Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson University), and a member of the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs before being signed by Dodgers' General Manager Branch Rickey in 1945. He was with the the AAA affiliate Montreal Royals for two seasons before his major league debut on April 15, 1947. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. After his playing career, he was the first black television analyst in MLB, and the first black vice president of a major American corporation, Chock Full o'Nuts.

Birthdays

Jersey Joe Walcott (born Arnold Raymond Cream, January 31, 1914 - February 25, 1994) won the World Heavyweight Championship from Ezzard Charles, whom he knocked out in the 7th round of their 1951 title bout in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Walcott had 69 professional fights. He won 30 of them by knock-out and was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1969. He held the world heavyweight title from 1951 to 1952, and broke the record for the oldest man to win the title, at the age of 37. That record would eventually be broken in 1994 by 45-year-old George Foreman.

Carol Elaine Channing (born January 31, 1921) began her acting career as a Broadway musical actress, starring in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1949, and Hello, Dolly! in 1964, when she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She revived both roles several times throughout her career, most recently playing Dolly in 1995. During her career, she had won or been nominated for a Tony Award for every Broadway show she ever played. She grew up in a German-American household in San Francisco and did not know until just before she left for college that her paternal grandmother was African American.

Benjamin Lawson Hooks (January 31, 1925 – April 15, 2010) was an American civil rights leader. A Baptist minister and practicing attorney, he served as executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1977 to 1992, and throughout his career was a vocal campaigner for civil rights in the United States.

Ernest "Ernie" Banks (January 31, 1931 – January 23, 2015), nicknamed "Mr. Cub" and "Mr. Sunshine", was an American professional baseball player who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop and first baseman for the Chicago Cubs between 1953 and 1971. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977, and was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999. He began playing professional baseball in 1950 with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro leagues. He served in the U.S. military for two years, played for the Monarchs again, and began his major league career in September 1953. The following year, Banks was the National League Rookie of the Year runner-up.

Kerry Washington (born January 31, 1977) is an African American actress. She is known for her roles as Ray Charles's wife, Della Bea Robinson, in the film Ray (2004), as Idi Amin's wife Kay in The Last King of Scotland, and as Alicia Masters, love interest of Ben Grimm/The Thing in the live-action Fantastic Four films. She has also starred in the critically acclaimed independent film as the lead actress in the 2012 ABC drama Scandal playing Olivia Pope and as Broomhilda von Shaft in the movie Django Unchained.



Events

On January 31, 1865, Congress passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States. The amendment was ratified by the required number of states on December 6, 1865. On December 18, 1865, Secretary of State William H. Seward proclaimed its adoption. It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War.

On January 31, 1934, Etta Moten sang for President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt at a White House Dinner, the first time an African American actress performed at the White House.

On January 31, 1964, Herbert Lee was shot and killed by E.H. Hurst, a white member of the Mississippi Legislature. Lee worked with civil rights leader Bob Moses to help register black voters. Louis Allen, who witnessed the murder of civil rights worker Herbert Lee, endured years of threats, jailings and harassment. Allen was among a dozen witnesses of the murder of Herbert Lee by E.H. Hurst, a white state legislator, in September 1961. Civil rights activists had come to Liberty that summer to organize for voter registration; essentially no black had been allowed to vote since 1890, when the state disfranchising constitution was passed.

Photo Gallery

The Ashanti Golden Stool with its immediate caretaker January 31, 1935

Sammy Davis, Jr. laughing with Senator Robert F. Kennedy backstage at a benefit for the senator at Ford's Theater. Date Photographed:31 January 1968

Shirley Verrett (left), Marian Anderson, Grace Bumbry (right) January 31, 1982 Photographer: Henry Grossman

W.E.B. Du Bois Issued: January 31, 1992

Publications

An arrival in Camp–under the Proclamation of Emancipation. --- Alfred Waud worked up this sketch from a photograph, probably made in his presence by David B. Woodbury on January 1, 1863. It was published in Harper’s Weekly, January 31, 1863, p. 6. Library of Congress image. .. When compared with the photograph, it shows that the photo is actually an reversed stereograph.

Jet Magazine, January 31, 1952

Are Black Women Getting Sexier - The Full Story - Jet Magazine, January 31, 1952

The Black Panther (January 31, 1970)

Time magazine, January 31, 1973 — Flip Wilson

All-White Jury in Fred Hampton Murder Case? The Black Panther (January 31, 1976)

Black Exodus: The Great Migration from the American South by Alferdteen Harrison. $14.93. 128 pages. Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (January 31, 1991)

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October 23

William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. (October 23, 1810 – May 18, 1848) was one of the earliest mixed-race U.S. citizens in California and a highly successful, enterprising businessman.  He became a United States citizen in New Orleans in 1834 and migrated to California in 1841, then under Mexican rule, settling in Yerba Buena (now San Francisco), a village of about 30 European-Mexican families. He served as US Vice Consul to Mexico at the Port of San Francisco beginning in 1845. and was President of the San Francisco school board and later elected as City Treasurer. Shortly before Leidesdorff's death, vast amounts of gold were officially reported on his Rancho Rio De los Americanos. By the time his estate was auctioned off in 1856, it was worth more than $1,445,000, not including vast quantities of gold mined upon his land.


Birthdays

Oliver Law (October 23, 1900 – July 9, 1937) fought for the Republic in the Spanish Civil War. He was the commander of the entire Abraham Lincoln Brigade for several days and commander of its Machine Gun regiment for much longer, becoming the first African American to lead an integrated military force in the history of the United States. He was killed on July 9, 1937, while leading an attack on Mosquito Ridge during the Battle of Brunete. He had previously served with the US Army from 1919 to 1925 in the 24th Infantry Regiment along on the Mexican border.

Samuel Harold "Sam" Lacy (October 23, 1903 – May 8, 2003) was a pioneering African American and Native American sportswriter, reporter, columnist, editor, and TV/radio commentator who worked in the sports journalism field for parts of nine decades. Credited as a persuasive figure in the movement to racially integrate sports, Lacy in 1948 became the first black member of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento (born 23 October 1940), known as Pelé, is a retired Brazilian professional footballer (soccer player) who played as a forward. He is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time. Pelé has also been known for connecting the phrase "The Beautiful Game" with football. In 1999, he was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS). That year, France Football asked their former Ballon d'Or winners to choose the Football Player of the Century; they selected Pelé. In 1999, Pelé was elected Athlete of the Century by the IOC. (Photo by Patrick Lichfield)

Martin Luther King III (born October 23, 1957) is the oldest son and the oldest living child of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He is the only one of his siblings to enter politics, and served as an elected county commission member in Fulton County, Georgia, the county encompassing most of Atlanta, from 1987 to 1993. In February 2009, King and his wife traveled to India, fifty years after his father and mother made the trip. During his stay in India, he led a delegation which included John Lewis and Andrew Young.

Michael Eric Dyson (born October 23, 1958) is an American academic, author, and radio host. He is a professor of Sociology at Georgetown University. Described by Michael A. Fletcher as "a Princeton Ph.D. and a child of the streets who takes pains never to separate the two", Dyson has authored or edited 18 books dealing with subjects such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Marvin Gaye, Nas's debut album Illmatic, Bill Cosby, Tupac Shakur and Hurricane Katrina. He became an ordained Baptist minister at 19 years of age and serves on the board of directors of the Common Ground Foundation, a project dedicated to empowering urban youth in the United States.

Katoucha Niane (October 23, 1960 - February 2, 2008) was a highly successful French model born in Guinea of Fula heritage. She hosted the TV show France's Next Top Model and starred in the film Ramata. She retired from modeling in 1994 to devote herself full-time to the fight against female circumcision, including writing her autobiography Dans ma char (In My Bones).



Events

On October 23, 1945, Jackie Robinson signed with the Class AAA Montreal Royals of the International League, a minor league team in the Dodgers' farm system. Robinson had played the 1945 season with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League and was signed for $600 a month, Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey did not offer compensation to the Monarchs, believing all Negro League players were free agents due to the contracts' not containing a reserve clause.

On October 23, 1947, the NAACP sent a petition to the United Nations written by W.E.B. DuBois, Waalter White, and  others,  titled “An Appeal to the World.” The document stated, “We appeal to the world to witness that this attitude of America is far more dangerous to mankind than the Atom bomb; and far, far more clamorous for attention than disarmament or treaty.” It also included facts about lynching, segregation, education, health care, voting rights, and inequalities but was not considered for further action.

On October 23, 1951, the NAACP picketed the Stork Club in support of Josephine Baker, who had been refused admission to the club a week earlier. After a city-convened special committee called Baker’s charges unfounded, Thurgood Marshall called the findings a “complete and shameless whitewash of the long-established and well-known discriminatory policies of the Stork Club.”

On October 23, 1989, "M" Street High School in Washington DC was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It was founded in 1870 as the Preparatory High School for Negro Youth, moving to the 128 "M" Street NW location in 1890; in 1916 the name was changed to Dunbar High School in honor of poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar. The school was one of the most academically rigorous segregated high schools in the country for African Americans. Francis Cardozo and Anna Julia Cooper were two of its principals, and Carter G, Woodson was among the faculty. It closed shortly after the integration of the DC schools in 1954 and is now the Perry School Community Services Center. The building was designed by Thomas Entwistle.

Photo Gallery

On October 23, 1886 Wiley Jones operated the first streetcar system in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

 Concert featuring the Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, and Martha and
the Vandellas at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Columbus, Ohio, October 23, 1965

Koko Taylor and The Blues Machine, taken October 23, 1978 at a club called Sprangkullen
 in Gothenburg, Sweden. Bob Anderson is seen on bass. Photo © 1996 by Torsten Stahlberg.

The Official Portrait of the First Family, October 23, 2009. President Barack Obama and first lady
Michelle Obama are pictured with their daughters Sasha, 8, (left) and Malia, 11, (right).

Publications

Jet Magazine, October 23, 1952

President Truman in Harlem - Jet Magazine, October 23, 1952

Life Magazine, October 23, 1970 - Muhammad Ali

The October 23, 2013 cover of the NY Daily News

Rolling Stone, October 23, 2014

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