Celebrate the Day!: John Hope Franklin

On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. He had previously served as a U.S. Senator from Illinois and was the first African American to be president. The Washington Post estimated the attendance at 1.8 million people, and surprisingly there were no arrests. Based on the combined attendance numbers, television viewership, and Internet traffic, it was among the most-observed events ever by the global audience. Ten inaugural balls were held that evening, including the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball, the first ever with free or affordable tickets.

Birthdays

David Wilmot (January 20, 1814 - March 16, 1868) served in Congress from 1845 to 1851 and in the Senate from 1861 on 1863. He is primarily remembered as a sponsor of the Wilmot Proviso (1846), intended to ban slavery in western lands gained from Mexico in the Mexican-American War of 1846–1848. The proposal repeatedly passed the House of Representatives, but was defeated in the Senate, and never became law. However, it caused great anger and consternation in the South, and increased the prominence of the slavery issue on the national stage.

Eva Jessye (January 20, 1895 - February 21, 1992) was the first African American woman to receive international distinction as a professional choral conductor. She is notable as a choral conductor during the Harlem Renaissance, who created her own choral group featured widely in performance. Her professional influence extended for decades through her teaching as well. She collaborated in productions of groundbreaking works, directing her choir and working with Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein on Four Saints in Three Acts (1933), and serving as musical director with George Gershwin on his innovative opera Porgy and Bess (1935).

Lead Belly (born Huddie William Ledbetter, January 20, 1888 - December 6, 1949) was an iconic American folk and blues musician, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced. He also wrote songs about people in the news, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Jean Harlow, Jack Johnson, the Scottsboro Boys and Howard Hughes. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

Loren Miller (January 20, 1903 - July 14, 1967) was a Los Angeles attorney specializing in housing discrimination. He argued some of the most historic civil rights cases ever heard before the U.S. Supreme Court and was chief counsel before the court in the decision that led to the outlawing of racial covenants. In 1964 he was appointed California Superior Court Justice for the County of Los Angeles, serving until his death in 1967.

Carl Gordon (January 20, 1932 – July 20, 2010) was best known for his role in the Fox TV series Roc as the father of the Charles Dutton's title character. He began acting in his late 30s, appearing on Broadway and in the national tour of Happy Ending / Day of Absence, a pair of one-act plays by Douglas Turner Ward, and performed on stage in 30 productions by Ward's Negro Ensemble Company. He also worked in films, most notably Gordon's War (1973) and Brother From Another Planet (1984).

Events

On January 20, 1758, Haitian revolutionary Macandal was burned at the stake for united thousands of escaped slaves along with many still enslaved, and proclaimed that he would lead them all to independence and freedom. He is the first known black to proclaim he would end slavery. Taken from the Congo region at the age of 12 to the Caribbean, he was fluent in Arabic and was sought far and wide by slaves and aristocrats for his use of plants in the treatment of disease .

On January 20, 1954, The National Negro Network was a black-oriented radio programming service in the United States by Chicago advertiser W. Leonard Evans, Jr. It was the first black-owned radio network in the country, and its programming was broadcast on up to 45 affiliates. An article in the trade publication Broadcasting said that the network was expected "to reach approximately 12 million of the 15 million Negroes in America." Evans was the network's president. Reggie Schuebel was vice president-treasurer, and John M. Wyatt was executive vice president.

On January 20, 1955, Read's Drugstore Baltimore, MD, a chain of drug stores in Baltimore, became the site of one the first peaceful desegregation sit-ins. Students at Morgan State University and with the local chapter of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) joined forces on January 20.The event was peaceful and lasted about an hour.

Photo Gallery

Delta Sigma Theta was the first Black sorority in Evanston, Illinois. The charter was issued on January 20, 1948 as Gamma Omicron, a mixed chapter comprised of undergraduates and alumnae members.

Malcolm X Issued: January 20, 1999 Malcolm X spoke out about the concepts of race pride and black nationalism in the early 1960s.

Publications

Jet Magazine, January 20, 1955

Edee Smith and Lingerie Go to the Beach - Jet Magazine, January 20, 1955

Interracial Couple Snubbed in London – Jet Magazine, January 20, 1955 Tony & Sylvia Overman.

From Slavery to Freedom by John Hope Franklin. $35.91. 736 pages. Publisher: Humanities & Social Science; 9 edition (January 20, 2010)

John Hope Franklin (January 2, 1915 – March 25, 2009) was a noted historian and past president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association, best known for his work From Slavery to Freedom, first published in 1947, and continually updated. More than three million copies have been sold. He was the son of Buck Franklin, an Oklahoma civil rights attorney who defended the survivors of the 1921 Tulsa massacre, and named for his father's friend, educator John Hope, president of Atlanta University. Dr. Franklin was a graduate of Fisk University (1935), and held an MA (1936) and PhD (1941) from Harvard, He taught at Fisk, St. Augustine's College, North Carolina Central University, Howard, University of Chicago, and Duke.

Birthdays

Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (January 2, 1884 – March 25, 1951) was an American author, film director and independent producer of more than 44 films. He is regarded as the first major African American feature filmmaker, the most successful African American filmmaker of the first half of the twentieth century and the most prominent producer of race films. He produced both silent films and "talkies" after the industry changed to incorporate speaking actors.

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander (January 2, 1898 – November 1, 1989) earned her Bachelor of Science degree in education in 1918, Master of Science degree in economics in 1919, and Ph.D. in economics in 1921, all from the University of Pennsylvania.In 1927, she became the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and be admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar. From 1919 to 1923, She was the granddaughter of A.M.E. Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner and niece of artist Henry Ossawa Tanner. She was the first national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, serving from 1919 to 1923.

St. Clair Drake (born John Gibbs St. Clair Drake, January 2, 1911 – June 15, 1990) was one of the first African American faculty members at Roosevelt University in Chicago, where he taught for 23 years, before leaving to found the African and African American Studies program at Stanford University. He was a sociologist and anthropologist whose scholarship and activism led him to document much of the social turmoil of the 1960s, establish some of the first Black Studies programs in American universities, and contribute to the independence movement in Ghana.

Juanita Elizabeth Jackson Mitchell (January 2, 1913-July 7, 1992) graduated, from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in education in 1931. Four years later she earned a M.A. in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania as well. In 1950 she became the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Maryland School of Law, and the first African American woman to practice law in Maryland. From 1935 to 1938, she was special assistant to Walter F. White, NAACP Executive Secretary, serving as National Youth Director. During this time she organized and developed programs on race relations for the organization's Youth and College Division, and later did the same for the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Calvin Hill (born January 2, 1947) was the first graduate of an Ivy League college to be chosen in the first round of the NFL draft when the Dallas Cowboys made him the 24th overall pick in 1969. He was 1969 Rookie of the Year and played in four Pro Bowls and being the first Cowboys running back to rush for over 1,000 yards in one season, He played six years in Dallas and later with Washington and Cleveland before retiring in 1981. His son, Grant Hill, was a basketball standout at Duke University before being named (along with Jason Kidd) NBA Rookie of the Year in 1995.

Cuba M. Gooding Jr. was born Jan. 2, 1968 in New York to Barbadian parents. He is a successful actor, with an Academy Award for his performance in "Jerry Maguire". He also has performed in musicals and as a dancer. Recently, he has starred in "Red Tails" (as the CO of the Tuskegee Airmen) and in the historical drama "The Butler". In 2002 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Photo Gallery

On January 2, 1966, Leontyne Price, received the 50th NAACP Springarn Medal for her outstanding achievements as a soprano singer and her continued crusade for equality and justice for all people.

Cicely Tyson, James Baldwin, Arthur Mitchell (dancer and founder,Dance Theatre of Harlem) and Harry Belafonte attend the “To Be Young, Gifted And Black” gala on January 2, 1969 at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York City. Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage

U.S. President Barack Obama gestures on the second green at Marine Corps Base Hawaii’s Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course January 2, 2014 in Kaneoh, Hawaii

Publications

Black Pioneers of Science and Invention by Louis Haber. $6.95. Publication: January 2, 1992. Publisher: Sandpiper;