January 8

On January 8, 1811, the largest slave revolt in U.S. history began on Louisiana’s German Coast sugar plantations on the east bank of the Mississippi River in what are now St. John the Baptist and St. Charles Parishes.  Armed primarily with hand tools, the men marched toward New Orleans, setting plantations and crops on fire and adding to their numbers as they went.  The uprising of an estimated 300-500 people lasted for two days before it was brutally suppressed by the military. About 95 marchers were killed during the revolt, and another 44 were later executed.



Birthdays

Eva Roberta Coles Boone (January 8, 1880 - December 8, 1902) was a graduate of Hartshorn Memorial College in Richmond, the first college for African American women. She married Clinton Boone, a graduate of Virginia Union University, and the couple went as Baptist missionaries to what was then the Congo Free State. She died of snakebite a year later but Rev, Boone stayed on many more years.

Noble Drew Ali (born Timothy Drew, January 8, 1886 - July 20, 1929) was the founder of the Moorish Science Temple of America, based on the belief that African Americans were descended from the Moors of North West Africa and thus were Moorish by nationality and Islamic by faith. He first founded the Temple in Newark, N.J., in 1923 and soon there were branches in Pittsburgh, Detroit, and other major industrial cities of the northeast, especially in neighborhoods that had attracted mass black migration from the South. Wallace Fard Muhammad was a member and later founded the Nation of Islam

Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey, DBE (born 8 January 1937) is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the mid-1950s and has been called "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century". In the US, in particular, she is best known for recording the theme songs to the James Bond films Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Moonraker (1979).

Lee Roy Young Jr. (born January, 1947) was the first African-American Texas ranger in the modern era. Before being accepted into the elite in 19888 he had served in several capacities including narcotics, kidnapping, forgery, and as a criminal intelligence investigator in San Antonio. After his retirement he opened an investigative business in the Dallas area. (Extensive interview here with him from the Ranger Hall of Fame.)




Events

On January 8, 1912, the African National Congress (ANC) was founded to end apartheid and give voting rights to black and mixed race South Africans. In was banned in 1960 until F. W. de Klerk lifted the ban and freed Nelson Mandela in 1990. It has been the ruling party of post-apartheid South Africa on the national level, beginning with the election of Nelson Mandela in the 1994 election, the first election after the end of apartheid. (This quilt titled “Voices of Freedom” was made in 1992 by Deonna Green of Remus, Michigan and depicts important figures in African American history including Nelson Mandela, president of the ANC from 1991-97.)

On January 8, 1977, Pauli Murray was ordained by the Episcopal Church as the first African American woman to become a priest in the United States. She had previously been a noted civil rights attorney, law professor, and president of Benedict College before entering seminary after she was sixty years old.



Photo Gallery

The FROGS (Friendly Rivalry Often Generates Success) Dinner at the Loendi Club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Hill District - January 8, 1913

January 8, 1971 300 UCSB Black students hold a protest in downtown Santa Barbara protesting police abuse of students Booker Banks and Phil Gardiner

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is hugged by his wife Michelle Obama before his speech at a primary night rally in the gymnasium at the Nashua South High School on January 8, 2008 in Nashua, New Hampshire. Obama finished a projected 2nd place behind Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in the nation's first democratic primaryPhoto Credit: Win McNamee, Getty Images via StyleLis

Actor Kel Mitchell and his bride Asia Lee on their wedding day, on January 8th, 2012

Publications

From the New York Times on January 8 1923. Rosewood Massacre

Brenda Dennis is One of the West Coast Newest Debs - Jet Magazine, January 8, 1959

Prophet Jones Throne - Jet Magazine, January 8, 1953

The African-American Century : How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Country by Henry Louis Jr. Gates. $13.84. Publication: January 8, 2002. Publisher: Free Press

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November 20

Robert Francis (Bobby) Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968) served as Attorney General and chief advisor during his brother John's presidency. He advanced the Civil Rights Movement by intervening with personal communication and protection by Federal Marshals and troops, if necessary,  to the Freedom Rides and to the integration of the University of Mississippi by James Meredith. He worked with his brother and, later, Lyndon Johnson, to increase minority hiring in government offices and to ensure the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He left the Johnson administration to run for the U.S. Senate and continued his commitment to civil rights after elected, introducing anti-discrimination legislation and visiting the Mississippi Delta. He had a large amount of African American support during his 1968 presidential bid and was able to prevent a violent reaction the the death of Martin Luther King in Indianapolis where he was campaigning on the day that King was assassinated.

Anna Pauline "Pauli" Murray (November 20, 1910 - June 1, 1985) was a civil rights attorney and law professor who wrote State's Laws on Race and Color, which Thurgood Marshall called the bible of the civil rights movement. She also worked for gender equality, coining the term "Jane Crow" and was a co-founder of the National Organization for Women. Ruth Bader Ginsburg named Murray a coauthor on a brief for Reed v. Reed in recognition of her pioneering work on gender discrimination. She left teaching to join the priesthood of the Episcopal Church, becoming its first African American female priest in 1977, and was named a saint in 2012.  Dr. Murray held an undergraduate degree from Hunter College in English, law degree from Howard Law School, a master's degree in law from the University of California at Berkeley, and in 1965 she became the first African American to receive a Doctor of Juridical Science degree from Yale Law School.

Birthdays

Edmond Dédé (November 20, 1827 - 1903) worked in a cigar factory to earn passage from New Orleans to France where he studied at the Paris Conservatoire before serving for 27 years as the conductor of the orchestra at the Théâtre l'Alcazar in Bordeaux. He also conducted light music performances at the Folies Bordelaises. Many of his compositions have been preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris. His parents were free Creoles of color who moved to New Orleans from the French West Indies, and his father had been a militia unit bandmaster. In 1851 he wrote “Mon Pauvre Coeur” (My Poor Heart), which is considered the oldest piece of sheet music published by a New Orleans free Creole of color.

Amanda America Dickson (November 20, 1849 - June 11, 1893) inherited over $300,000 in land and other assets her father, Georga plantation owner David Dickson. Her mother was Dickson's enslaved servant, Julia, who was 13 years old at the time of Amanda's birth. She was raised by her white paternal grandmother and taught the social graces of wealthy society. She entered into a four-year common-law marriage to her white first cousin, Charles Eubanks when she was sixteen, and later was briefly married to Nathan Toomer until her death at age 43. Toomer and his second wife, Nita Pinchback, were the parents of novelist Jean Toomer.

Charles Sidney Gilpin (November 20, 1878 – May 6, 1930) toured with vaudeville, musical, and dramatic productions until he settled in New York City in 1915 as part of the Anita Bush Players. His Broadway debut was in 1919 in John Drinkwater’s Abraham Lincoln and he had the lead role of Brutus Jones in the 1920 premier of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, which brought him the Drama League of New York's annual award as one of the ten people who had done the most that year for American theater. In 1921,he was awarded the NAACPs Spingarn Medal and was also honored at the White House by President Warren G. Harding.

Sallie Martin (November 20, 1895 - June 18, 1988) was hired by Thomas A. Dorsey as part of a trio he had formed to introduce his songs to churches. She proved to be an able organizer as well, and marketed Dorsey's songs, organized his finances, developed new avenues for business and helped launch the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, Inc. Martin was a successful artist in her own right, forming the Sallie Martin Singers, in which her daughter Cora Martin, Dinah Washington, then known as Ruth Jones, and Brother Joe May were featured, in 1940 after a dispute with Dorsey. She started her own publishing house, Martin and Morris Music, Inc., with Kenneth Morris.

Richard Aoki (November 20, 1938 - March 15, 2009) was one of the first members of the Black Panther Party and was eventually promoted to the position of Field Marshall. Although there were several Asian Americans in the Black Panther Party, Aoki was the only one to have a formal leadership position. He joined the BPP through friendships with Huey Newton and Bobby Seale while all three men attended Merritt College. Aoki later transferred to UC Berkeley where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in social work. He was born in San Leandro, California. to Japanese parents and the family was interned at the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah from 1942-1945. It is possible he was an FBI informant during his time with the Black Panthers.

Dominique Dawes (born November 20, 1976) began taking gymnastics lessons at age 6. She participated in the Olympic Games as part of the U.S. women's gymnastics team in 1992, 1996 and 2000, winning a team medal each time. In 1996, Dawes's team won Olympic gold and Dawes won an individual bronze medal,becoming the first person of African descent from any country to win an individual Olympic medal in  gymnastics. She retired from gymnastics after the 2000 Games.



Events

On November 20, 1866, Howard University was founded when ten members of the First Congregational Society of Washington, D.C., resolved to establish a seminary for the training of African-American clergymen. By early 1867, the founders had broadened their mission to encompass colleges of liberal arts and medicine. The school was incorporated in March 1867 and the first classes were held in May 1868. It is named after founder Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau.

On November 20, 1923, the U.S. Patent Office granted Patent No. 1,475,074 to Garrett Morgan for his three-position traffic signal. The Morgan traffic signal was a T-shaped pole unit that featured three positions: Stop, Go and an all-directional stop position. This "third position" halted traffic in all directions to allow pedestrians to cross streets. Morgan's hand-cranked semaphore traffic management device was in use throughout North America until replaced by the automatic signals currently used.

On November 20, 1962, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 11063, mandating an end to housing discrimination. The order, which came during the burgeoning Civil Rights movement, prohibited federally funded housing agencies from denying housing or funding for housing to anyone based on their race, color, creed or national origin. Although Kennedy’s order was a symbolic landmark for ending de facto segregation in housing, the policy was never enforced. The order left it up to the individual housing and funding agencies to police themselves, leaving much room for non-compliance from state to state.

On November 20, 1981, the Negro Ensemble Company’s production of Charles Fuller’s “A Soldier’s Play” opened at the Theater Four in New York City The play won, in addition to the Pulitzer Prize, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Play, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play, and the Obie Award for Distinguished Ensemble Performance.

Photo Gallery

Althea Gibson, photographed by Carl Van Vechten on November 20, 1958

Leontyne Price, Flyer/Playbill November 20. 1974

Texas bluesman Sam Lightnin' Hopkins at the Students' House (Gothenburg, Sweden) November 20, 1977. Photo © 1996 by Torsten Stahlberg.

Day of Black Consciousness in São Paulo, November 20, 2006

Baseball legend Ernie Banks receives a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, during an event in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., November 20, 2013.

Publications

Hattie McDaniel's Oscar Bequeathed to Howard University
Jet Magazine, November 20, 1952

First Black Los Angeles State College Homecoming Queen Donzella Coulter
Jet Magazine, November 20, 1952

Josephine Premice Set For Broadway Musical
Jet Magazine, November 20, 1952

Drummer Louis Bellson Defies Father to Wed Pearl Bailey
Jet Magazine, November 20, 1952

Jet Magazine, November 20, 2006

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