January 27

On January 27, 1991, Whitney Houston sang the National Anthem prior to Super Bowl XXV at Tampa Stadium on January 27, 1991 in Tampa, Florida, considered to one of the best Super Bowl National Anthem singing performances ever. Photographed by George Rose/Getty Images

Julius Lester (born January 27, 1939) was a faculty member at UMass Amherst for 32 years, first in the department of  Afro-American Studies and later in the Judaic and Near Eastern Studies department, as well as teaching courses in comparative literature, English, and history. He is the author of 44 books, including his first, an instructional book on how to play the 12-string guitar, co-authored with Pete Seeger, and is a regular essayist for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Village Voice, The New Republic, and other publications. As a member of SNCC he was the chief photographer, and his images have been displayed in the civil rights exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution as well as in solo exhibitions. He has also hosted radio and television shows in New York City and recorded two albums of traditional and original songs for Vanguard Records.

Birthdays

Will Marion Cook (born William Mercer Cook, January 27, 1869 – July 19, 1944) was a composer and arranger who had studied at the Oberlin Conservatory and the National Conservatory of Music as well as under Antonín Dvořák while in Europe. He is probably best known for his popular songs and Broadway musicals, such as Clorindy, or The Origin of the Cake Walk and In Dahomey. He was the son of Howard Law School dean John Hartwell Cook and the father of diplomat Will Mercer Cook.

Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard (January 27, 1894 – May 11, 1986) was one of the first two players, along with Bobby Marshall, in the National Football League during the 1920 season, and the following year Pollard was named player-coach, making him the first African American coach as well. In 1926 all nine of the black players in the NFL were removed from the league at the end of the season. Pollard also coached Lincoln University's football team during the 1918 to 1920 seasons and served as athletic director of the school's World War I era Students' Army Training Corps. In the 1930s, he founded his own professional football team, the Brown Bombers. The Depression ended the Brown Bombers’ run in 1938, and he went on to other ventures, including a talent agency, tax consulting and film and music production.

Elmore James (January 27, 1918 – May 24, 1963) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and band leader. He was known as King of the slide guitar but was also noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice. He was strongly influenced by Robert Johnson, Kokomo Arnold and Tampa Red, recording several of Tampa Red's songs and using two of Tampa Red's former band two musicians in his own backing band, the Broomdusters.

John H. Cross Jr. (January 27, 1925 – November 15, 2007) was best known as the pastor of the 16th Street Baptist Church, an African American Baptist congregation in Birmingham, Alabama, at the time of church's racially motivated bombing in 1963. The bombing, which ripped through the church and killed four young girls, became a rallying cry for the Civil Rights Movement and propelled the problems of racial segregation in The South into the national spotlight. Cross spent much of the rest of his life working for racial reconciliation in the South.

Bobby "Blue" Bland (born Robert Calvin Brooks, January 27, 1930 - June 23, 2013) sang with Eddie Fisher while serving in the U.S. Army and began his professional career as part of Johnny Ace's revue on Beale Street and the Chitlin' Circuit. His first solo success was with the 1957 R&B chart no. 1 hit "Farther Up the Road", which also reached no. 43 on the Billboard Hot 100, followed by "I Pity the Fool", "Turn On Your Love Light",  "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)", and"That's The Way Love Is" in the early 1960s. He began recording for ABC Records in the 1970s, putting out the successful albums His California Album and Dreamer, and was inducted into the  Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

Billy "White Shoes" Johnson (born January 27, 1952) was a kickoff returner and wide receiver for the NFL Houston Oilers and Atlanta Falcons from 1974 through 1988. He was a fan favorite and one of the first players to display elaborate celebrations in the end zone. He was the only player selected to the National Football League 75th Anniversary All-Time Team not in the Hall of Fame.

Ronald E. Richardson (January 27, 1952 – April 5, 1995) was an actor and operatic baritone who began his career in the mid 1970s appearing in regional theater and opera productions. He appeared in several Broadway musicals from 1978-1993, arguably best known for his Tony Award and Drama Desk Award-winning performance of Jim in the 1985 Broadway musical Big River.





Events

On January 27, 1961, Leontyne Price debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore where she received a 42-minute ovation, one of the longest in the Met’s history. She has 15 Grammys for voice recordings, the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964), the Kennedy Center Honors (1980), and the National Medal of Arts (1985). Although Price wasn’t the first African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera, she was the first to sing many different roles at the Met and to build an opera career in the US and in Europe.

On January 27, 1972, Mahalia Jackson passed away in Chicago. Her funeral at the Greater Salem Baptist Church saw 50,000 people view her glass and mahogany coffin in tribute; 6,000 people attended her funeral. Coretta Scott King eulogized Ms. Jackson along with Reverend Leon Jenkins and then Mayor Richard Daley. Sammy Davis Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald attended her funeral. The soon-to-be Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin closed the funeral with her rendition of “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.”

On January 27, 1984, Michael Jackson suffered second-degree burns during a pyrotechnics stunt filmed for a Pepsi-Cola commercial. Jackson underwent treatment to hide the scars on his scalp, and had his third rhinoplasty shortly afterward.




Photo Gallery

January 27, 1958: Following a near fatal plane ride Little Richard gives up rock and roll (don't worry, he'll be back) and enrolls in Oakwood College, a school for African-Americans run by the Seventh Day Adventist so he can get his degree in divinity.

Sade poses on January 27, 1984. Photo by B. Gomer, Getty Images

Stevie Wonder and singer Whitney Houston attending 13th Annual American Music Awards on January 27, 1986 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California

Michelle Obama, January 27, 2010

Photo Gallery

Norman Washington Manley Ousts Jamaican Leader William Alexander Bustamante for Prime Minister Post - Jet Magazine, January 27, 1955

Jet Magazine, January, 27, 1977 — Roots — The miniseries, based on Alex Haley's novel, originally aired over eight consecutive nights (January 23-30, 1977) on ABC.

.

October 28

On October 28, 1827, James W. C. Pennington escaped from slavery in Maryland and settled for a time in Long Island, where he studied in night school.  Pennington then attended classes at Yale College in New Haven, although Yale forbade him to officially enroll or to use its library. After completing his studies he was ordained by the Congregationalist Church, and in 1838 officiated at the wedding of Frederick Douglass and Anna Murray. He was an active abolitionist and was among those who became involved in seeking justice for the West African Mende illegally taken in slavery, in the Amistad case, which was litigated from 1839-1841 and ultimately settled by the United States Supreme Court in favor of the Mende. To help those who chose to return to Africa, he formed the United Missionary Society, the first black missionary society. When the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850, Pennington was in Scotland and he chose to stay in Europe for two years while friends in the U.S. raised funds to buy his freedom from the estate of his former master. During that time he lectured on abolition and was granted an honorary doctorate of divinity by the University of Heidelberg. He wrote and published what is considered the first history of blacks in the United States, The Origin and History of the Colored People (1841). His memoir, The Fugitive Blacksmith, was first published in 1849 in London.

Birthdays

Levi Coffin (October 28, 1798 - September 16, 1877) grew up in a Quaker farming community in North Carolina, moving to Indiana in 1825 because of increased objection to abolitionist beliefs. The family settled in Newport (now Fountain City) where he was a successful merchant and operated a prominent stop on the Underground Railroad. He began selling free-labor goods (produced without slave labor), and in 1847 was asked to establish a free-labor warehouse in Cincinnati. He and his wife continued their work with the Underground Railroad, and they may have been the models for the couple in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin who rescued Eliza after she crossed the frozen Ohio River. In 1863 Coffin became an agent for the Western Freedman's Aid Society, which offered assistance to the slaves who were freed during the war, and he was one of many who petitioned for a national Freedman's Bureau to help them establish businesses and obtain an education. In his 1876 autobiography, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, he estimates that he helped about 3,000 people escape to freedom. When asked about his motives for doing so, he replied: "The Bible, in bidding us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, said nothing about color, and I should try to follow out the teachings of that good book."

Fredrick McGhee (October 28, 1861 - September 9, 1912) was a co-founder of the Niagara Movement. W.E.B. Du Bois credits him with having the original idea for the group. McGhee was an attorney in St. Paul, Minnesota and was the first African American admitted to the bar in that state, as well as in Tennessee and Illinois. He was also  one of the first nationally prominent African American Democrats at a time when nearly all were still Republican.

Arthur Wharton (October 28,  1865 - December 13, 1930) is widely considered to be the first  professional association football of African descent in the world. He was born in Jamestown, Gold Coast (now Accra, Ghana). His father, Henry Wharton, was Grenadian, while his mother, Annie Florence Egyriba, was a member of the Fante Ghanaian royalty. Wharton moved to England in 1882 at age 19, to train as a Methodist missionary, but soon abandoned this in favour of becoming a full-time athlete. He was also a cyclist and cricketer, playing for local teams in Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Herman Boone (born October 28, 1935) is a former American high school football coach, most famous for coaching at T. C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia. Boone was portrayed by Denzel Washington in the 2000 film Remember the Titans. In 1971, the city of Alexandria, Virginia decided to totally consolidate its school system and appointed Herman as its first consolidated head football coach at T. C. Williams High School over a white coach Bill Yoast with several years seniority and a steadfast citywide following. Herman was able to pull together and solidify a diverse coaching staff and an unfocused group of young boys into one of the most powerful football teams in the state of Virginia, winning the 1971 Virginia State Championship. This team was ranked second in the nation by national polls.

Leonard Randolph “Lenny” Wilkens (born October 28, 1937) was a professional basketball player for the St. Louis Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Supersonics, and coached every team for which he played. In 1995, he surpassed Red Auerbach as the NBA's winningest coach, with his 939th victory, a record he held until 2010. He has been inducted three times into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, first in 1989 as a player, as a coach in 1998, and in 2010 as part of the 1992 United States Olympic "Dream Team", for which he was an assistant coach.

Telma Louise Hopkins (born October 28, 1948) started her career as a background singer working with legendary acts like The Four Tops and Marvin Gaye. She also sang back up for Isaac Hayes and can be heard famously exclaiming "Shut your mouth!" on Hayes' hit song "Theme From Shaft" She rose to prominence as a member of the 1970s pop music group Tony Orlando and Dawn, and performed on the CBS variety show Tony Orlando and Dawn from 1974 to 1976 along with Tony Orlando and Joyce Vincent Wilson.  As lead actress, she starred on Getting By (1993--1994 and was a regular cast member on Half & Half (2002–06), Are We There Yet? (2010-13), and the short-lived Partners (2014).

Events

On October 28, 1873 Patrick Healy was named president of Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic University in the United States. Although he was accepted as and identified as Irish-American during his lifetime, in the 1960s the history of Healy's mixed-race ancestry became more widely known. He was recognized as the first person of African-American descent to earn a PhD; the first to become a Jesuit priest; and the first to be president of Georgetown University or any predominantly white college.

October 28, 1914 Omega Psi Phi fraternity is incorporated at Howard University. Founded in 1911 by three students, Frank Coleman, Oscar J. Cooper and Edgar A. Love and their faculty adviser, Ernest Everett Just, the fraternity will grow to have over 90,000 members in chapters throughout the United States and abroad.

Photo Gallery

October 28, 1954. New York. “Dorothy Dandridge flashes a beautiful smiles as she arrives at the Rivoli Theater at the premiere of the CinemaScope Technicolor movie version of Carmen Jones, in which she plays the title role. The premier, a major entertainment event, was presented on nationwide television and radio hookups.”

Mahalia Jackson and Nat King Cole on the set of the film, St. Louis Blues.
 Hollywood, October 28, 1957 (AP Photo)

October 28, 1965, Vietnam --- A medic from the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) gives first aid
 to a slightly wounded soldier, who winces in pain.. --- Image by © CORBIS NA007294

Former Senator Edward William Brooke (R-MA) speaks during a ceremony to honor him with
 the Congressional Gold Medal in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on October 28, 2009 in Washington, DC.

Publications

Octavius V. Catto, portrait from Harper's Weekly, October 28, 1871

"IN SELF-DEFENSE" Cartoonist: A. B. Frost Source: Harper's Weekly Date: October 28, 1876, p. 880 Complete HarpWeek Explanation: This image dramatically condemns the brutal racism of some white Southerners against blacks. The white man has killed a black child, and his plea of "self-defense" exemplifies the perspective among Southern whites that Reconstruction had led to "black rule." The cartoon appeared just a few weeks before the presidential election. 

Say, October 28, 1954 On the cover: Vivian Cervantes 

A Young Bill "Wilt" Chamberlain - Say Magazine, October 28, 1954

Jet Magazine, October 28, 1971 -- Barbara Blair, Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA

Sports Illustrated, October 28, 1974 | Volume 41, Issue 18 - Foreman and Ali

Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present by
Deborah Willis. $22.43. Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (October 28, 2002).

.

October 26

Mahalia Jackson (October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) first sang publicly at Mount Moriah Baptist Church in New Orleans and Greater Salem Baptist Church in Chicago. She began touring with Thomas A Dorsey in 1931, and his song "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" became a standard of hers. Her 1956 recording of it received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award as did "His Eye is On the Sparrow" (1958) and "Move On Up a Little Higher" (1947). She was the first gospel singer to appear at Carnegie Hall (1950) and at the Newport Jazz Festival (1957). She contributed several songs to the 1958 film St. Louis Blues, sang at an inaugural ball for John F. Kennedy in 1961, and appeared on an episode of Sesame Street singing "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands." Her involvement with the Civil Rights Movement began with a request from Rev. Ralph Abernathy to sing at a benefit concert for the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956. She became friends with Rev. Abernathy and Dr. King, often singing at SCLC fundraisers. She was one of the few women the stage at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, singing "How I Got Over" and "I Been 'Buked and I Been Scorned", and she sang "Take My Hand" at King's funeral.

Birthdays

James H. Young (October 26, 1858 - 1921) was the son of an enslaved mother and prominent white father. Educated at Shaw University, Young was hired to work in the office of Colonel J. J. Young, an internal revenue collector, in 1877, and became involved with the Republican Party. He was editor of the Raleigh N.C. Gazette and served two terms in the State House of Representatives as a Fusion Candidate (uniting the Republicans and the Populists). During the Spanish-American war he was appointed Colonel of the Third North Carolina Volunteer Infantry, perhaps the first African American Colonel in the Army.

William Julius "Judy" Johnson (October 26, 1899 – June 15, 1989) was a third baseman in Negro league baseball. He played for the Hilldale Club, Homestead Grays, and Pittsburgh Crawfords from 1921 to 1936. After his playing career ended, Johnson was a coach and scout for several Major League Baseball teams; he signed Dick Allen. Johnson became the first black spring training coach in the majors, for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1954. Considered one of the greatest third basemen in the Negro leagues, he was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975.

Claude A. Jeter (October 26, 1914 – January 6, 2009) formed the group that would eventually become one of the most popular gospel quartets of the post-war era, the Swan Silvertones. Elements of his performances in songs such as "Careless Soul" and "Saviour Pass Me Not" were picked up by later singers such as Al Green and Eddie Kendricks of The Temptations. "I'll be a bridge over deep water if you trust in my name", a line from his 1959 rendition of "Mary Don't You Weep", served as Paul Simon's inspiration to write his 1970 song "Bridge over Troubled Water". Simon hired Jeter to sing on the 1973 studio album There Goes Rhymin' Simon ( specifically the falsetto background vocal on "Take Me to the Mardi Gras")

Edward William Brooke III (born October 26, 1919) was the first African American senator elected by popular vote, and the only one to serve multiple terms. He was born in Washington DC, attended Dunbar High School and Howard University, served in the U S. Army during World War II as an officer in the segregated 366th Regiment, and attended Boston University Law School. While in the Senate, he was the first Republican to call for Nixon's resignation.

Débria Brown (October 26, 1936 - December 17, 2001) was an operatic mezzo soprano who had an active international career that spanned five decades. She was part of the first generation of black opera singers to achieve wide success and broke down barriers of racial prejudice in the world of opera. She received a Bachelor of Music degree from Xavier University of Lousiana in 1958 and later studied with Katherine Dunham in New York City through a scholarship provided by the John Hay Whitney Foundation..In 1992, Brown became a Professor of Voice and Artist in Residence at the University of Houston, remaining in that position until her death nine years later. (Photograph, by Carl Van Vechten, of Débria Brown as Carmen, at the New York City Opera, in 1958.)

Emanuel Cleaver II (born October 26, 1944) is currently a U.S. Representative from Missouri's 5th District and has been chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. He was the first African American mayor of Kansas City, Missouri (1991 to 1999) and served as pastor of the St. James United Methodist Church from 1972 to 2009. He is a graduate of Prairie View A & M University and holds a. MDiv degree from St. Paul School of Theology.

Florastine (Flo) Magee Creed-Jacobson (October 26, 1946 - October 16, 2005) was the highest-ranking African American woman in the history of the Boston Police Department. She worked her way  through the ranks from patrol officer, detective, and sergeant until 1994, when then-Police Commissioner Paul Evans appointed her a deputy superintendent in charge of the department's Office of Labor Relations. She was promoted to superintendent on July 1, 1998. As Mrs. Creed-Jacobson was promoted to detective and sergeant, she took night classes at New England School of Law, passing the bar exam on her first attempt.

William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA) is an American funk bassist, singer, and songwriter. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the late 1960s, and with Parliament-Funkadelic in the '70s, Collins's driving bass guitar and humorous vocals established him as one of the leading names in funk. Collins is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.

Regina Marcia Benjamin (born October 26, 1956) served as the 18th Surgeon General of the United States from 2009 to 2013. She is founder of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, which she supported in its early years by working weekend shifts as an emergency room physician. The clinic gained national attention in 2006 when it was rebuilt a second time after burning the day before it was scheduled to be reopened after being destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Benjamin is on a number of professional boards, and is the first physician under 40 and the first African American woman to be on the Board of Directors of the American Medical Association. In 2008 she received a MacArthur Fellowship "Genius" grant.

Events

On October 26, 1934, at a New York City conference, representatives of the NAACP and the American Fund for Public Service planned a coordinated legal campaign against segregation and discrimination. Charles H. Houston, Vice-dean of the Howard University Law School, is named director of the NAACP legal campaign, which became the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

On October 26, 1952, Hattie McDaniel died of breast cancer at age 57. She had asked to be buried in the Hollywood Cemetery where many other actors are buried, but her request was refused because of segregation. Her second choice was Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery, where she lies today. In 1999, Tyler Cassidy, the new owner of the Hollywood Cemetery (renamed the Hollywood Forever Cemetery), offered to have McDaniel re-interred there. Her family did not wish to disturb her remains and declined the offer. Instead, Hollywood Forever Cemetery built a large cenotaph on the lawn overlooking its lake.

On October 26, 1994, Beverly Harvard became the first Black woman to run a major police department when she was appointed Atlanta’s police chief on this date. Harvard began her distinguished career in 1973 as a patrol officer and worked her way through the ranks, serving in a number of posts within the department. She stayed in the position until 2002, then began working as the Security Director for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and is now a U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Georgia. She is a 1972 graduate of Morris Brown College with a B.A. degree in sociology and also earned an M.S. degree in 1980 from Georgia State University.

Photo Gallery

Portrait photograph of Nora Holt, by Carl Van Vechten.. [New York, October 26, 1934]

Muhammad Ali vs. Jerry Quarry October 26, 1970 LeRoy Neiman Design

Zinzi Mandela (l), daughter of South African National Congress (ANC) President Nelson Mandela,
wearing Xhosa traditional outfit, and her father Nelson, smile, 26 October 1992 in Soweto, after
 Zinzi married Zweli Hlongwane, a black businessman. Photo: Getty Images

A White House photo by Pete Souza released for the Time Magazine Person of the Year Issue shows
President Obama playing with the son of a staffer outside the Oval Office on October 26, 2012

October 26, 2012 - Jonathan West, a World War II veteran who was among the first
African Americans to serve in the Marines, died in Bend, Oregon, at 91.

Darrell Wallace Jr. celebrates winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200 on Saturday, October 26.2013

Publications

Jet Magazine October 26, 1961 -- Cathy Young

A History of African-American Artists: From 1792 to the Present by Romare Bearden.
$46.85. Publisher: Pantheon; 1st edition (October 26, 1993).

.