February 7

On February 7, 1926, historian Carter G. Woodson first introduced “Negro History Week” during the second week of February, chosen because it coincided with Frederick Douglass’s February birthday as well as Abraham Lincoln’s (February 12). From the event's initial phase, primary emphasis was placed on encouraging the coordinated teaching of the history of American blacks in the nation's public schools. The first Negro History Week was met with a lukewarm response, gaining the cooperation of the Departments of Education of the states of North Carolina, Delaware, and West Virginia as well as the city school administrations of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Despite this far from universal acceptance, the event was regarded by Woodson as "one of the most fortunate steps ever taken by the Association," and plans for a repeat of the event on an annual basis continued.  In 1976, the Federal government expanded the week to “Black History Month.” (Image: “Carter G. Woodson - Teacher, Historian, Publisher, 1943” by Charles Henry Alston. National Archives, Record Group 208, ARC 535622.)

Birthdays

James Monroe Trotter (February 7, 1842 - February 26, 1892) taught in Ohio before traveling to Boston in 1863 to join the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry USCT, Company K. He was one of the few African American soldiers to be a commissioned officer. After the war he was hired by the U.S. Postal Service and He was appointed in 1887 by President Grover Cleveland as the second African American to be Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, one of the highest federal offices to be held by a man of color at that time. He was preceded in that position by Fredrick Douglass (1881–1886) and followed by U.S. Senator Blanche Kelso Bruce was appointed to the office, serving 1891–1893. He also wrote a book entitled Music and Some Highly Musical People, published in 1878, perhaps the first comprehensive study of music ever written in the United States. His son, William Monroe Trotter, attended Harvard University and founded the progressive newspaper The Guardian.

Emma Rochelle Wheeler (February 7, 1882 - September 12, 1957) was a physician in Chattanooga who, with her husband, Dr. John N. Wheeler, opened the 30-bed Walden Hospital in 1915. The only previous hospital care for African American patients in the city had been in the basements of the whites-only hospitals. Walden Hospital also trained nurses and other caregivers, and offered a pre-paid health plan that covered a hospital stay and home nursing for members.

James Hubert (Eubie) Blake (February 7, 1887 - February 12, 1983) was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, he and his long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans. Blake's compositions included such hits as "Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find a Way", "Memories of You" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". The musical Eubie!, which opened on Broadway in 1978, featured his works

William Andrew (Bill) White, III (February 7, 1915 – January 23, 1981) was a Canadian composer and social justice activist, who was the first Black Canadian to run for federal office in Canada. He was the son of Baptist minister William A. White and the brother of famed Canadian concert singer Portia White, labor union leader Jack White, and television performer Lorne White.

Oscar William Adams, Jr. (February 7, 1925 - February 15, 1997) was the first African American Alabama Supreme Court justice and the first African American elected to statewide office in Alabama (including the Reconstruction era). Adams earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at Talladega College in 1944, and a law degree at Howard University in in 1947. He had a private law practice in Birmingham, where he specialized in civil rights cases, often on behalf of Fred Shuttlesworth's Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. During the 1963 Birmingham Campaign he was a member of the Central Committee that met at the A. G. Gaston Motel to plan demonstrations.

Christopher Julius (Chris) Rock III (born February 7, 1965) is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and director. After working as a standup comic and appearing in small film roles, Rock came to wider prominence as a cast member of Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s. He went on to more prominent film roles, and a series of acclaimed comedy specials for HBO. He was voted as the fifth greatest stand-up comedian of all time by Comedy Central.



Events

On February 7, 1871, Alcorn University opened in Lorman, Mississippi as the first land-grant HBCU. The name was changed to Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1878 and to Alcorn State College in 1974. U.S. Senator Hiram Revels resigned his seat in the Senate to become the school's first president. The university's most famous alumnus, Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist, graduated in 1948. Students at the college were part of the mid-twentieth century civil rights struggle, working to register residents for voting and struggling to end segregation.s in the nation's public schools. Other alumni include Horace R. Cayton, Sr., Alex Haley, and Michael Clarke Duncan.

Photo Gallery

Misty Copeland performing with Prince, Madison Square Garden on February 7, 2011

A wax likeness of the renowned abolitionist and conductor of the Underground Railroad Harriet Ross Tubman is unveiled at the Presidents Gallery by Madame Tussauds in Washington in celebration of Black History Month, Tuesday, February 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Obama reacts as Joey Hudy of Phoenix, Arizona, launches a marshmallow from his Extreme Marshmallow Cannon in the State Dining Room of the White House during the second White House Science Fair in Washington February 7, 2012.

Publications

Marian Anderson, Jet Magazine, February 7, 1952

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February 5

On February 5, 1990, Barack Obama became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. The first to serve as an editor was 1923 graduate Charles Hamilton Houston, and the first African American woman is ImeIme Umana, elected in January 2017.

Jermain Wesley Loguen (born Jarm Logue, February 5, 1813 – September 30, 1872) escaped from Tennessee to Canada before settling in Syracuse where his house became another major stop on the Underground Railroad. On October 1, 1851, Henry, known as "Jerry", was arrested under the Fugitive Slave Law. The anti-slavery Liberty Party was holding its state convention in the city, and when word of the arrest spread, several hundred abolitionists broke into the city jail and freed Jerry. The event came to be widely known as the Jerry Rescue. Loguen became an elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and took the middle name Wesley after John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement. He held various church posts and was appointed bishop in 1868. His daughter, Amelia, married Lewis Douglass, the son of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, in 1869.

Birthdays

Jabez Pitt Campbell (February 5, 1815 – August 9, 1891) was elected the eighth bishop of the A.M.E. Church in 1864 after having served congregations in New York, Pennsylvania, and New England as well as general book steward of the denomination and editor of the its Christian Recorder newspaper. As a bishop, he set up both the Louisiana and California conferences in 1865, and the Ocean Grove Conference in New Jersey during in the 1880s. Both his grandfathers were soldiers during the Revolutionary War which was a rarity since fewer than 5000 African Americans in the Continental Army and he was born free in Delaware but later enslaved for four years.

Henry Beard Delany (February 5, 1858 – April 14, 1928) was the first African American elected Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States in 1918 when he became the suffragan bishop for Negro Work at the North Carolina diocesan convention. He had previously served as an archdeacon and on the faculty of  St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Episcopal Church honors him, along with fellow African American bishop Edward Thomas Demby, who died on the same day in 1957, with a feast day on the liturgical calendar on the anniversary of their deaths, April 14. He was the father of attorney Hubert Thomas Delany and best-selling autors Sadie and Bessie Delany, and the grandfather of author Samuel R. Delany, Jr.

Georgia Gilmore (February 5, 1920 - March 9, 1990) was a cook and midwife who supported the Montgomery Bus Boycott by raising hundreds of dollars a week through the "Club From Nowhere" which sold sandwiches, chicken dinners, and baked goods to boycott supporters. Her home was often a meeting place for the Montgomery Improvement Association.

James E. Bowman, MD, FASCP, FCAP (February 5, 1923 – September 28, 2011) was an American physician was internationally renowned as a specialist in pathology, hematology, and genetics. He was a professor of pathology and genetics at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago. In 1972 Bowman declared that mandatory sickle cell screening laws were “more harmful than beneficial.” In 1973, he was named to two federal review committees designed to oversee sickle cell screening.

Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron (born February 5, 1934), nicknamed "Hammer," or "Hammerin' Hank," is a retired American baseball right fielder who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1954 through 1976. Aaron spent 21 seasons with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves in the National League (NL) before playing for the Milwaukee Brewers of the American League (AL) for the final two years of his career. Aaron is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time. In 1999,

Deborah Willis (born February 5, 1948) is a contemporary African American artist, photographer, curator of photography, photographic historian, author, and educator. named among the 100 Most Important People in Photography by American Photography Magazine, Dr. Deborah Willis is Chair and Professor of Photography and Imaging at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University where she also has an affiliated appointment with the College of Arts and Sciences.

Trayvon Martin (February 5, 1995 - February 26, 2012) was seventeen years old when he was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer. Zimmerman was charged with Martin's murder but acquitted at trial on self-defense grounds. The incident was reviewed by the Department of Justice for potential civil rights violations, but no additional charges were filed, citing insufficient evidence.

Events

On February 5, 1945, the State of Georgia abolished the poll tax, one of many roadblocks thrown up to keep African-Americans from exercising their right to vote. This was one of many reforms progressive governor Ellis Arnall introduced after being elected in 1942.

On February 5, 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of killing civil rights activist Medgar Evers after thirty-one years. On the morning on June 12, 1963, Evers was getting out of his car at his home when he was shot in the back. Though Beckwith was arrested for the crime, two all-white juries could not reach a verdict in 1964. Beckwith was finally convicted of the murder. He remained in prison until his death in 2001 at age 80.

Photo Gallery

A patent was issued on February 5, 1884 to Willis Johnson for a new, improved egg-beater

Diana (1981, CBS) The first Diana Ross TV special not produced by Motown. This show (produced by Steve Binder in association with Diana Ross Enterprises) combined footage from a concert held in L.A. on February 5, 1981, with studio footage. Guest stars included Michael Jackson & Larry Hagman.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” ~Barack Obama, speech, February 5, 2008

Publications

Fan Dancer Jean Idelle - Jet Magazine, February 5, 1953

Arthur L. Lane Dies in Elevator Accident in Philadelphia - Jet Magazine, February 5, 1953

The Hidden Cost of Being African American:How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality by Thomas M. Shapiro. $12.06. Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 5, 2004). 

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December 24

On December 24, 1968, NBC's Julia aired the episode "I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas". On the same day, the photo on the left was taken at Herbert Hoover Boys' Club in St. Louis.

On December 24, 1865, six Confederate veterans met in Pulaski, Tennessee to form the Ku Klux Klan as a means to counter the post-Civil War changes in Southern society through threats and violence toward Northerners, recently emancipated slaves, and their sympathizers. Although former Confederate Brigadier General George Gordon codified the beliefs and structure of the Klan, and General Nathan Bedford Forrest served as its first Grand Wizard (national leader), there was no organized hierarchy and local groups acted independently of each other.

The extreme violence surrounding the 1868 Presidential election of Ulysses S. Grant with thousands of African Americans killed led some leaders to distance themselves from the Klan and to urge that attacks be curtailed in order to avoid government intervention. In 1870 a Federal grand jury determined that the Klan was a terrorist organization, and the following year Congressman Benjamin Franklin Butler of Massachusetts introduced the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (Ku Klux Klan Act), which allowed President Grant to use military force to stop any Klan activity, with participants being tried in Federal court.

Local vigilante groups continued to use violence to maintain white supremacy, and in 1915 the Klan was reborn as a highly structured national movement centered in the midwest, and claiming to operate as a Christian fraternal organization. Although it peaked with a reported membership of six million, it declined by the end of the 1920s due to financial mismanagement and murder charges against Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson. A third wave of the Klan surfaced during the 1950s as a reaction to the Civil Rights Movement as a loosely joined group of local white supremacists.

Birthdays

Octavia V. Rogers Albert (December 24, 1853 – August 18, 1889) taught in Montezuma, Georgia, where she met and later married fellow teacher,
Methodist Episcopal pastor Dr. Aristide Elphonso Peter (A. E. P.) Albert. The couple lived in Houma, Louisiana, where she interviewed formerly enslaved men and women over a period of fifteen years, collecting their stories in The House of Bondage, or Charlotte Brooks and Other Slaves which was first published in installments after her death in the New Orleans-based Methodist Episcopal Church newspaper, the “Southwestern Christian Advocate”.  

Warren "Baby" Dodds (December 24, 1898 – February 14, 1959) was a jazz drummer born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is regarded as one of the best jazz drummers of the pre-big band era, and one of the most important early jazz drummers. He varied his drum patterns with accents and flourishes, and he generally kept the beat with the bass drum while playing buzz rolls on the snare. Some of his early influences included Louis Cottrell, Sr., Harry Zeno, Henry Martin, and Tubby Hall. Dodds was among the first drummers to be recorded who improvised while performing.

Irvin Charles Mollison (December 24, 1898 - May 5, 1962) was the first African American appointed to a position in the federal judiciary whose position was posthumously converted into an Article III judgeship. Judge Mollison also was the first African American to serve on the United States Customs Court. He was appointed by President Truman, and confirmed by the United States Senate without a single dissenting vote. He was a 1923 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School. 

Jabbo Smith (born Cladys Smith, December 24, 1908 – January 16, 1991) was raised in the  the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina where he learned trumpet and trombone, and by age ten was touring with the Jenkins Band. At age 16 he left the orphanage to become a professional musician, at first playing in bands in Philadelphia and Atlantic City before making his base in New York City from about 1925 through 1928. In the 1930s, he moved to Milwaukee where he collaborated with saxophonist Bill Johnson. Subsequently, Smith dropped out of the public eye, playing music part-time in Milwaukee with a regular job at an automobile hire company. 

Stormé DeLarverie (December 24, 1920-May 24, 2014) who was born in New Orleans to a white father and black mother, was a lesbian whose scuffle with the police was one of the defining moments of the Stonewall riots, spurring the crowd to action. Some have referred to her as "the gay community’s Rosa Parks". During the 1950s and '60s she toured the black theater circuit as the only drag king of the Jewel Box Revue, America’s first racially integrated female impersonation show.

Lloyd W. "Fig" Newton (born December 24, 1942) is a retired United States Air Force four-star general who served as Commander, Air Education and Training Command (COMAETC) from 1997 to 2000. He was also the first African-American pilot in the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. He earned a bachelor of science degree in aviation education from Tennessee State University in Nashville, where he was commissioned as a distinguished graduate through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program in 1966.  He flew 269 combat missions from Da Nang Air Base, South Vietnam, including 79 missions over North Vietnam and was selected to join the U.S. Air Force Aerial Demonstration Squadron, the Thunderbirds, in November 1974.

Events

On December 24, 1832 the Georgia Infirmary became the first hospital for African Americans when it was chartered “for the relief and protection of aged and afflicted Africans.” It was established by the Georgia General Assembly and funded by a $ 10,000 grant from the estate of Thomas F. Williams, a local merchant and minister. Today the institution is known as the Adult Day Center-Georgia Infirmary and is part of St. Joseph’s/Candler healthcare network. 

On December 24, 1963, the 28th Regiment, United States Colored Troops began accepting enlistments. Its initial training took place at Camp Fremont located near the south side neighborhood of Fountain Square in Indianapolis, Indiana. Reverend Willis Revels and Garland H. White, both ministers of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Indianapolis were the chief recruiting officers, and the regiment's commanding officer was Captain Charles S. Russell. After the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, the 28th was moved to the Mexican border in Texas as part of the American response to the French intervention in Mexico.

On December 24, 1878, the Boston Police Department hired its first African American patrolman, Horatio J. Homer. He was later promoted to sergeant in 1895 and retired on January 29, 1919, after 40 years of service. He primarily served in the commissioner's office and guarding visiting dignitaries. Sgt. Homer had previously worked as a waiter, Pullman porter, and janitor of the Globe Theater.

Photo Gallery

Medgar Evers and Myrlie Beasley married on December 24, 1951 and had three children together.

Merry Christmas from The Supremes -- December 24, 1965 -- The Shamrock Hilton Houston, TX

Henry Orlando and Donald Washington with Santa at the Herbert Hoover Boys' Club Christmas party, 24 December 1968. ©Missouri History Museum

On the December 24, 1968 episode of Julia (NBC), titled "I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas", Julia's (Diahann Carroll) son, Corey (Marc Copage), wants to know if Santa is black or white.

December 24, 2012 | Michelle Obama

Publications

Jet Magazine, December 24, 1953

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