Showing posts with label Lois Mailou Jones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lois Mailou Jones. Show all posts

February 17


On February 17, 1966,  Martin Luther King Jr. was photographed trying for a behind-the-back shot while using his "best stick" in a pool match with Chicago civil rights leader Al Raby. King was temporarily living in Chicago to work on an anti-slum campaign. (Photo by Ed Wagner Jr.)

Maud Cuney Hare (February 16, 1874 - February 13 or 14, 1936) collected music from across the South and Caribbean in her study of folklore, and was the first to study Creole music. She is most remembered for her final work, Negro Musicians and Their Music (1936), which documents the development of African-American music. She was born in Galveston to Wright Cuney, a leading Reconstruction politician, and Adelina Dowdy (or Dowdie) of Woodville, Mississippi. She studied violin, piano, and voice at the New England Conservatory of Music where she refused to seek off-campus housing when asked to because of her race, and while there came to know Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and W. E. B. Du Bois, and was briefly engaged to Du Bois. She then taught music at  the Texas Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Institute for Colored Youths,  the Institutional Church of Chicago, and Prairie View A&M before returning to Boston where she performed, lectured, and founded the Allied Arts Center for the development and support of young black performers, composers, and playwrights. In 1919, she and William Howard Richardson were the first musicians of color to perform in the concert-lecture series at the Boston Public Library. She was also one of the first women in the Niagara Movement and wrote a monthly music column for The Crisis magazine.

Birthdays

Charles Arthur Hayes (February 17, 1918 – April 8, 1997) was elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-eighth Congress by a special election held on August 23, 1983, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Harold Washington, who had been elected mayor of Chicago. He served four terms before being defeated by Bobby Rush in the 1992 primary. He was a trade unionist from 1938 to 1983 and served as vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. In the 1950s, he raised funds that fueled Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s voter registration drive in the South and was one of major labor leaders arrested during the 1980s anti-apartheid protests that eventually won the freedom of Nelson Mandela.

James Nathaniel Brown (born February 17, 1936) was a fullback for the Cleveland Browns from 1957 through 1965, and was named to the Pro Bowl each season he played. He led the league in rushing yards in eight out of his nine seasons, and by the time he retired, he had shattered most major rushing records. He  is the only rusher in NFL history to average over 100 yards per game for a career and his record six games with four touchdowns still stands. At Syracuse University he was an All-American in both football and lacrosse, and played basketball and ran track as well. His film debut was in Rio Conchos (1964) and he also starred in The Dirty Dozen two years later.

Mary Frances Berry (born February 17, 1938) is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and the former chairwoman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. She is a past president of the Organization of American Historians, the primary professional organization for historians of the United States. Before going to Penn, Berry was provost of the College of Behavioral and Social Science at University of Maryland, College Park, and chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder. She received Ph.D. and J.D. degrees from the University of Michigan.

Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was born in Monroe, Louisiana, and named after politician Huey P. Long, but his family moved the the San Friancisco Bay area as part of the Second Great Migration. While at Merritt College in Oakland, he was active in the Black Student Movement and with fellow campus activist Bobby Seale co-founded the Black Panther Party in 1966, with Seale becoming Chairman and Newton becoming Minister of Defense.  He earned a BA  and a PhD in social philosophy from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was considered instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.



Events

Benjamin "Pap" Singleton (1809 - February 17, 1900) was an American activist and businessman best known for his role in establishing African-American settlements in Kansas. A prominent voice for early black nationalism, he became involved in promoting and coordinating black-owned businesses in Kansas and developed an interest in the Back-to-Africa movement.

On February 17, 1973, USS Jesse L. Brown (DE/FF/FFT-1089) was a Knox-class frigate of the United States Navy. She was named for Jesse L. Brown, the first African-American naval aviator in the U.S. Navy. The ship was eventually decommissioned and sold to the Egyptian Navy and was renamed Damiyat (F961). The name is also transliterated as Damyat and Damietta by some sources.

On February 17, 1997, Sergeant Danyell E. Wilson became the first African-American woman to earn the prestigious badge and guard the Tomb of the Unknowns








Photo Gallery

Boxing Instruction, Colonial Park Recreation Center, Manhattan, February 17, 1942

February 17, 1961: A soldier stands to attention as President Nkrumah (1909 - 1972), of Ghana places a wreath during the memorial service held in Accra, Ghana, for Patrice Lumumba (1925 - 1961), the murdered Nationalist leader of the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Huey Newton’s Birthday Party. Oakland Auditorium, February 17, 1968. Photo by Gerhard Gscheidle. Stokley Carmichael and H. Rap Brown sit directly to the left of Huey’s chair (empty because at this time Huey was awaiting trial on charges of killing an Oakland policeman) as Eldridge Cleaver announces the SNCC-Black Panther merger to a crowd of 5000.

Son of World War I hero Sgt. Henry L. Johnson accepts Distinguished Service Cross in hometown Monday, February 17, 2003

My Nurse from Korea by Lois Mailou Jones sold by Swann Galleries, New York, on Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Publications

Jacqueline Coke, Jet Magazine, February 17, 1955

Reginald and Marjorie Shepherd. Black Wife of British Soldier Fed Up With White Peeping Toms to Leave Britain Jet Magazine February 17, 1955.

Lena Horne Feeds Her Pug Nellie - Jet Magazine, February 17, 1955

Happy Birthday Huey! -- The Black Panther Newspaper, February 17, 1969

February 17, 1979

The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White by DanielJ. Sharfstein. $12.26. Author: DanielJ. Sharfstein. 417 pages. Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (February 17, 2011)
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November 3




Lois Mailou Jones (November 3, 1905 - June 9, 1998) taught design and watercolor painting at Howard University while pursuing her own career as an artist. She held a BA from Howard and had also studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Boston Normal Art School, Harvard University, and Columbia University. She studied for a year at the Académie Julian in Paris and in 1954 was a guest professor at Centre D'Art and Foyer des Artes Plastiques in Port-au-Prince, Haiti where the government invited her to paint Haitian people and landscapes. Both locations had a significant impact on her work and in 1962 she initiated Howard University's first art student tour of France, including study at Académie de la Grande Chaumière and guided several more tours over the years. Jones felt that her greatest contribution to the art world was "proof of the talent of black artists." The African-American artist is important in the history of art and I have demonstrated it by working and painting here and all over the world." But her fondest wish was to be known as an "artist"—without labels like black artist, or woman artist.

Peasant Girl, Haiti by Lois Mailou Jones,  1954

Birthdays

John Baxter Taylor Jr. (November 3, 1883 - December 2, 1908) was a member of the gold medal-winning men's medley relay team at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, becoming the first African American to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games. He had been on the University of Pennsylvania track team, where he was the ICAAAA (Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America) champion in the quarter mile. He was a graduate of the UPenn School of Veterinary Medicine, and a member of the Irish American Athletic Club. He died of typhoid fever at the age of 25.

Hal Jackson (November 3, 1915 – May 23, 2012) began his broadcasting career announcing Howard’s home baseball games and local Negro league baseball games. In 1939, he became the first African American host at WINX/Washington with The Bronze Review, a nightly interview program. He later hosted talk show, a program of jazz and blues on WOOK-TV. Jackson moved to New York City in 1954 and became the first radio personality to broadcast three daily shows on three different New York stations. Four million listeners tuned in nightly to hear Jackson’s mix of music and conversations with jazz and show business celebrities. In 1971, Jackson and Percy Sutton, a former Manhattan borough president, co-founded the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation (ICBC), which acquired WLIB — becoming the first African American owned-and-operated station in New York.

Louis Wade Sullivan (born November 3, 1933) decided to become a physician when he was five years old. He earned a pre-med degree from Morehouse College and an M.D from Boston University School of Medicine, graduating third in his class in 1958. He trained in internal medicine and hematology, and in 1966, he became co-director of hematology at Boston University Medical Center and, a year later, founded the Boston University Hematology Service at Boston City Hospital. He taught at BU until 1975 when he returned to Morehouse, founding its Medical School and becoming the first dean and president, a position he held until 2002. He served as the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1989 to 1992.



Michael Jonas (Mike) Evans (November 3, 1949 - December 14, 2006) is best known for his role as Lionel Jefferson on All in the Family and The Jeffersons. He was also co-creator with with Eric Monte of the show Good Times. He studied acting at Los Angeles City College and died of throat cancer at the age of 57.




Events

On November 3, 1923 the Harlem Rens played their first basketball game, becoming one of the dominant teams during the 1920s and 1930s. "The Renaissance" became the first top level team to sign a four-year contract. The team was established by Bob Douglas in agreement with the Renaissance Casino and Ballroom, an entertainment complex where they played and a dance was held following each game. They disbanded after completing the 1948/49 season.

On November 3, 1955 Capt. August (Augie) Harvey Martin was hired by Seaboard World Airlines, becoming the first African American captain of a scheduled air carrier. During a thirteen-year period with Seaboard, he piloted the DC-3, DC-4, Lockheed Constellation and Canadair CL-44. Capt. Martin joined the Tuskegee Airmen in 1943 but World War II ended before he saw combat. He died on a mercy mission to Biafra while attempting to land his Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation during a severe rainstorm. The plane was loaded with emergency relief supplies.

On November 3, 1957 the Atlanta Constitution published the "Ministers' Manifesto", a statement signed by 80 white protestant pastors in response to extreme attempts to avoid school desegregation which had begin in Little Rock that fall. Dr. McDowell Richards, president of Columbia Seminary, was the primary author of the statement. A revised manifesto was published a year later endorsed by 315 faith leaders including rabbis and Roman Catholic priests.

On November 3, 1979, five protest marchers were shot and killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party in Greensboro, North Carolina, at a rally to demonstrate opposition to the Klan. The "Death to the Klan March" and protest was the culmination of attempts organize mostly black industrial workers in the area.

On November 3, 1983, Jesse Jackson announced his campaign for President of the United States in the 1984 election, becoming the second African American (after Shirley Chisholm in 1972) to mount a nationwide campaign for president. In the primary elections the following year he did better than predicted, taking third place behind Senator Gary Hart and former Vice President Walter Mondale, who eventually won the nomination. Jackson garnered 3,282,431 primary votes, or 18.2 percent of the total, winning primaries in Louisiana, the District of Columbia, South Carolina.

On November 3, 1992, Carol Moseley Braun became the first and to date the only African American woman ever elected to the United States Senate. She represented the State of Illinois from 1993 until 1999. Before the election she had served as an Assistant United States Attorney, a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, and as Cook County Recorder of Deeds.

November 3 is the Feast Day of St. Martin de Porres, the patron saint of social justice, mixed race, race relations, and the poor. He is known as the first black Saint of the Americas and was a monk of the Dominican order. St. Martin was born in Lima, the son of a Spanish conquistador and a freed slave from Panama so he himself was of mixed race. He was known for miracles in healing the sick and feeding the poor.

Photo Gallery

Major Musa Bhai, 3 November 1890. Musa Bhai travelled to England in 1888 as part of the
Booth family, who founded the Salvation Army. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Jennie the Assaulter This is an old mug shot photograph of a lady named Jennie McCleary that was taken in November 1893 at the Arizona Territorial Prison in the town of Yuma. She was sentenced to a term of 18 months in the territorial prison for the crime of aggravated assault on November 3, 1893 and was transported to the prison 16 days later.

Martin Luther King casting his vote on November 3, 1964

Tribute to Jackie Robinson, 1972. The Onyx 1.1 (November 3, 1972):
via African American Activism & Experience at Northeastern University

Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from November 3, 1978, to
May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985, to March 7, 1986.

November 3, 2012 "I had noticed the possibility of a potential good photograph if the President were to pass by this flag as he departed an evening campaign rally in Dubuque, Iowa. So I planted myself backstage as he finished working a ropeline and managed to get one usable frame as he walked by." (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Publications

Haile Selassie I ("King of Kings"); TIME Magazine November 3, 1930

Jet Magazine, November 3, 1955 - Anita Cipriani

White Man and Negro Wife Jailed for Living Together in South Carolina
Jet Magazine, November 3, 1955

Earle Hyman (Granddad on The Cosby Show) To Play Othello on CBS
Jet Magazine, November 3, 1955

Darwin's Athletes: How Sport Has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race by
John Hoberman. $22.13. Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (November 3, 1997). 388 pages

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