January 23

On January 23, 1964, the 24th Amendment was ratified, outlawing the poll tax as a prerequisite for voting in Federal elections, with the Supreme Court ruling the following year in Harper v Board of Elections that it was unconstitutional in elections at any level. Southern states of the former Confederacy had adopted poll taxes in laws of the late 19th century and new constitutions from 1890 to 1908 as a way to prevent African Americans and often poor whites from voting. Efforts had been made state-by-state to abolish it over the previous two decades, and at the time of the ratification, only Virginia, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi still had a poll tax.

Birthdays

Amanda Berry Smith (January 23, 1837 – February 24, 1915) became an evangelist and missionary for the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church following the death of her husband in the Civil War. She worked primarily in the western U.S. until a visit to England led to missionary work in India, Liberia, and other countries in western Africa. After her return to the U.S. she founded the The Amanda Smith Orphanage and Industrial Home for Abandoned and Destitute Colored Children in West Harvey, Illinois, near Chicago. Her autobiography was published in 1893.

Ora Mae Washington (January 23, 1898 - December 21, 1971) led the Tribune Girls (sponsored by the Philadelphia Tribune) to 11 straight Women's Colored Basketball World Championships from 1930 to 1940. She also played tennis, winning the American Tennis Association singles title 8 times out of 9 years (1929-1937) and 12 straight doubles titles. In 2009 she was elected to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

Ajay Deforest Johnson (January 23, 1901 - October 12, 1996) is shown here in a clipping from  the Chicago Defender (November 15, 1947) about his promotion to lieutenant in the LAPD, going on to say: "The promotion was one of several moves planned by the department and city officials to improve race relations, further integration of the force and speed up an even better law enforcement on the coast." Lt. Johnson was a native of Waco, Texas, and before joining the police force in 1929 was a pitched for the Los Angeles Sox and the Philadelphia Royal Giants.

Benjamin Arthur Quarles (January 23, 1904 - November 16, 1996) was a historian who taught at Shaw, Dillard, and Morgan State Universities over a period of 40 years. He was a prolific writer, focusing on the contributions made by the black soldiers and abolitionists of the American Revolution and the Civil War, and many of his books were required reading in the African-American history courses that were developed in American universities during the 1960s with the civil rights movement and increasing interest in the history of minorities and women. Major books by Dr. Quarles include The Negro in the American Revolution (1961), Black Abolitionists (1969), The Negro in the Civil War (1953), and Lincoln and the Negro (1962).

Sir William Arthur Lewis (January 23, 1915 — June 15, 1991) was a Saint Lucian economist noted for his contributions in the field of economic development. In 1979 he won the Nobel Prize in Economics, becoming the first black person to win a Nobel Prize in a category other than peace, and is one of two St Lucian Nobel laureates. He held a PhD from the London School of Economics (1940) and taught there until until he was named a lecturer at the University of Manchester in 1948. He was the first economic consultant to Ghana after the nation gained its indepenence in 1957, and later returned to the Caribbean before accepting a faculty position at Princeton where he taught from 1963 to 1983.

Robert Parris (Bob) Moses (born January 23, 1935) was field secretary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), project director of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), and one of the chief organizers of the Freedom Summer voter registration movement and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1982, which he used to implement Project Algebra to improve the math skills of low-income students. He holds a BA from Hamilton College and an MA in the philosophy of mathematics from Harvard University, and has taught in The Bronx, New York; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Jackson, Mississippi; and Miami, Florida.

Events

On January 23, 1891, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams founded Provident Hospital and Training School in Chicago, the first hospital in the United States owned and operated hospital in the U.S. Though the historic Provident Hospital was forced to close in 1987 due to financial difficulties, it reopened in 1993 as part of Cook County's Bureau of Health Services to provide services to residents of Chicago's South Side. It is now known as Provident Hospital of Cook County.

On January 23, 1957, truck driver Willie Edwards Jr. was on his way to work in Montgomery, Alabama, when he was stopped by four Klansmen. The men mistook Edwards for another man who they believed was dating a white woman. They forced Edwards at gunpoint to jump off a bridge into the Alabama River. His body was found three months later.






Photo Gallery

On January 23, 1943, legendary musician Duke Ellington played at Carnegie Hall in New York for the first time. 

On January 23, 1976, noted singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson died in Philadelphia

Publications

Sam and Barbara Cooke | Sam Cooke Is Dating Harlean Harris - Jet Magazine, January 23, 1958

The Black History of the White House (City Lights Open Media) by Clarence Lusane. $14.45. Author: Clarence Lusane. 544 pages. Publisher: City Lights Publishers; 1 edition (January 23, 2013)

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January 22

On January 22, 1964, SNCC organizers held Freedom Day in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in an attempt to have hundreds of black residents register to vote in a county where not one black person was registered. 

William Warfield (January 22, 1920 - August 26, 2002) is best known for his performance as Joe in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1951 remake of Show Boat. The next year he performed in Porgy and Bess during a tour of Europe sponsored by the U.S. State Department (he made six separate tours for the State Department, more than any other solo artist.) In the production he played opposite the opera star Leontyne Price, whom he later married. He was a graduate of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and during World War II was the only African American member of the "Ritchie Boys", thousands of soldiers who were trained at Fort Ritchie, Maryland, an intelligence center where hundreds of Jewish recruits who fled Nazi Germany for the United States were trained to interrogate their one-time countrymen. He was chosen because of his fluency in German  as a result of his musical education.

Birthdays

Walter L. Cohen, Sr. (January 22, 1860 – December 29, 1930) was one of the few African American political appointees in the post-Reconstruction South, serving as a customs inspector in New Orleans under under President McKinley, registrar of the federal land office under President Teddy Roosevelt, and comptroller of customs by under President Warren G. Harding. He was a delegate to all Republican National Conventions between 1896 and 1924, and in 1928 President Coolidge offered him the position of minister to Liberia, but he declined the offer. He was also the founder and president of the People's Life Insurance Company in New Orleans.

Justina Laurena Ford (January 22, 1871 – October 14, 1952) was the first licensed African American female doctor in Denver, Colorado, and practiced gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatrics from her home for half a century. It wasn't until 1950 that she was allowed to join the Colorado and American Medical Associations, and she also became a member of the Denver Medical Society, working in the Denver General Hospital.

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"Blind" Willie Johnson (January 22, 1897 – September 18, 1945) was a blues singer and guitarist, whose music straddled the border between blues and spirituals. While the lyrics of his songs were often religious, his music drew from both sacred and blues traditions. His music is distinguished by his powerful bass thumb-picking and gravelly false-bass voice, with occasional use of a tenor voice.

Sam Cooke (born Samuel Cook, January 22, 1931 - December 11, 1964) had 30 U.S. top 40 hits between 1957 and 1964, plus three more posthumously. He is perhaps best remembered for "A Change Is Gonna Come", a classic protest song from the era of the Civil Rights Movement which was released shortly after his death. Other hits include "You Send Me", "A Change Is Gonna Come", "Cupid", "Chain Gang", "Wonderful World", "Another Saturday Night", and "Twistin' the Night Away". He died of a gunshot wound received in the lobby of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles, which the motel's manager, Bertha Franklin, claimed was in self-defense.

Private First Class James Anderson, Jr (January 22, 1947 - February 28, 1967) was a United States Marine who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for heroism while serving in Vietnam in February 1967. When his Medal of Honor was awarded on August 21, 1968, he became the first African-American U.S. Marine recipient of the Medal of Honor. The United States Navy prepositioning ship, USNS PFC James Anderson Jr. (T-AK 3002) is named in honor and there is also a public park named for him in his hometown of Carson, California.



Events

On January 22, 1964, SNCC organizers held Freedom Day in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in an attempt to have hundreds of black residents register to vote in a county where not one black person was registered. Participants included Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker (both shown here), Bob Moses, John Lewis, James Forman, and Howard Zinn. Protesters marched in a heavy rain while one applicant was allowed into the court house every fifteen minutes to register. There were no mass arrests or beatings, although Moses was arrested for obstructing trafffic and NYU Law School graduate Oscar Chase was arrested after a minor traffic accident with no damage for leaving the scene  of the accident and was beaten while in police custody.

On January 22, 2009 Susan Rice confirmed as UN ambassador by the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent on January 22, 2009. She is the first African American woman to hold that office. She had previously served on the staff of the National Security Council and as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during President Bill Clinton's second term.






Photo Gallery

January 22, 1972 — The Persuaders perform "Thin Line Between Love & Hate" on Soul Train

Michelle Obama, January 22, 2013

Publications

Petty Officer First Class James McDaniel, USCGR "Coast Guardsman James McDaniel of Roselle, N.J., steward’s mate first class, who has filled his post as loader in a 20-millimeter gun crew aboard an attack transport during three invasions in the South Pacific." /22 January 1944 issue of Baltimore’s The Afro-American

Former Model Taffy Douglas Is On A Jazz Tour of European Cities - Jet Magazine, January 22, 1959

Dorothy Dandridge stretching in preparation for her Porgy and Bess role with Walter Saxer, in the January 22, 1959 issue of Jet Magazine

Dinah Washington and Laverne Baker Sing at Bistro While in Mink Coats - Jet Magazine, January 22, 1959

Black Wings: Courageous Stories of African Americans in Aviation and Space History by Von Hardesty. $17.10. 192 pages. Publisher: Smithsonian (January 22, 2008). Publication: January 22, 2008.

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December 11

Minnie Evans (December 11, 1892 - December 16, 1987) began to draw and paint at the age of 43, creating her first pieces of artwork on a scrap of paper bag. She painted her early works on US Coast Guard stationery and later worked with more precision, using ink, graphite, wax crayon, water color, and oil on canvas, board and paper. Evans' drawings were inspired by her dreams and are complex, with elements recalling the art of China and the Caribbean combined with more Western themes. The central motif in many pieces is a human face surrounded by plant and animal forms. The eyes, which Evans equated with God's omniscience, are central to each figure, often three eyes were depicted and frontal faces with concealed lips. In addition, God is sometimes depicted with wings and a multicolored collar and halo and shown surrounded by all manner of creatures.

Lion of Judah by Minnie Evans

Birthdays

Morris "Morrie" Turner (December 11, 1923 – January 25, 2014) got his first training in cartooning via the Art Instruction, Inc. home study correspondence course. During World War II, where he served as a mechanic with Tuskegee Airmen, his illustrations appeared in the newspaper Stars and Stripes. After the war, while working for the Oakland Police Department, he created the comic strip Baker's Helper. When Turner began questioning why there were no minorities in cartoons, his mentor, Charles M. Schulz of Peanuts fame, suggested he create one. Morris' first attempt, Dinky Fellas, featured an all-black cast, but found publication in only one newspaper, the Chicago Defender. Turner integrated the strip, renaming it Wee Pals, and in 1965 it became the first American syndicated comic strip to have a cast of diverse ethnicity. Although the strip was only originally carried by five newspapers, after Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, it was picked up by more than 100 papers.was a syndicated cartoonist, creator of the strip Wee Pals. Turner was the first nationally syndicated African-American cartoonist.

Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton (Dec. 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984) was an American rhythm & blues singer/songwriter. She was the first to record Leiber and Stoller's "Hound Dog" in 1952, which became her biggest hit. It spent seven weeks at #1 on the Billboard R&B charts in 1953 and sold almost two million copies. Her success was overshadowed three years later, when Elvis Presley recorded "Hound Dog". Similarly, her "Ball 'n' Chain" was a bigger hit when recorded by Janis Joplin in the late 1960s

Leslie Esdaile Banks, née Peterson (December 11, 1959 – August 2, 2011) was an American writer under the pennames of Leslie Esdaile, Leslie E. Banks, Leslie Banks, Leslie Esdaile Banks and L. A. Banks. She wrote in various genres, including African-American literature, romance, women's fiction, crime suspense, dark fantasy/horror and non-fiction.

Monique Angela Hicks (née Imes; born December 11, 1967), known professionally as Mo'Nique, is a comedian and actress. Best known for her role as Nikki Parker in the UPN series The Parkers and as a stand-up comedian hosting Showtime at the Apollo. She in such films as Phat Girlz, and Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins. In 2009, she received critical praise for her villainous role as Mary Lee Johnston in the film Precious and won numerous awards including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.



Events

On December 11, 1917 thirteen African American soldiers were executed for their participation in a confrontation between Houston police and troops from nearby Camp Logan. Others sentenced to death later had their sentences commuted by President Wilson after negative publicity and investigation by the NAACP.

On December 11, 1964, singer Sam Cooke was fatally shot by the manager of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 33. At the time, the courts ruled that Cooke was drunk and distressed, and that the manager had killed Cooke in what was later ruled a justifiable homicide.





Photo Gallery

Born in Rumley,Virginia on December 11th, 1827, CHARLES R. BELL, WAS A FORMER SLAVE who fled to freedom via the Underground Railroad. | "the appraiser said that on account of a broken jaw, I was worth $800. However at the sale I brought for $1,050. After the sale my new master, a Mr. Marner, took those of us he had purchased away to his plantation. Then for the first time in my life I fully realized that I was a SLAVE." 

Langston Hughes' Musical BLACK NATIVITY opened on Broadway on December 11, 1961 and ran in Philly's Freedom Theatre as a holiday tradition, 

Robert Kennedy signed letter and photograph relating to the 1962 Civil Rights unrest when James Meredith was admitted as the first African American student at the University of Mississippi. In this eloquent letter, dated December 11, 1962, Kennedy is writing to U.S. Marshall Ernest Mike regarding Mike's injuries sustained at Oxford, Mississippi on September 30th and October 1st.

December 11,1968 - Arthur Ashe became the first black man to be ranked #1 in tennis.

President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama (2R) and daughters Malia Obama (L) and Sasha Obama (2L) walk from St. John's Church to the White House after attending Sunday services December 11, 2011 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mike Theiler-Pool/Getty Images)

Publications

What Happens to Negro Child Prodigies Like Philippa Schuyler - Jet Magazine, December 11, 1952

Rene Vaughan Has A Kiss for the Loveliest Female Impersonator - Jet Magazine, December 11, 1952

Josephine Premice and Husband Timothy Fales Want to be Left Alone Jet Magazine, December 11, 1958.

Black Experience Magazine Cooking from Scratch: Soul Food for the Soul by Mr. William C Jenkins Jr. $19.98. Publication: December 11, 2012. Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

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December 1

On December 1, 1955, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was implemented following the arrest of Rosa Parks on that day. Fliers were distributed in black neighborhoods by Jo Ann Robinson of the Women's Political Movement, and the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), led by Dr, Martin Luther King, met to prepare a statement to the city demanding equal seating and the hiring of African American drivers. The boycott was originally intended for only one day, Monday, December 5, but at a meeting that night MIA members decided that it be continued until demands were met. The MIA organized a system of carpools, with car owners volunteering their vehicles or themselves driving people to various destinations, and some white housewives also drove their black domestic servants to work. Donations were sent from black churches around the country to support the boycott, which lasted a total of 381 days. (The bus shown above is the one on which Mrs. Parks refused to give up her seat, and is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit. The painting to the left is My Miss America by Ernie Barnes.)

Birthdays

George Washington Buckner, (December 1, 1855 – February 17, 1943) graduated from Indiana State Normal School (now Indiana State University) and taught in Vincennes, Washington and Evansville before graduating from the Indiana Eclectic Medical College in 1980. He established a medical practice in Evansville and in 1913 President Woodrow Wilson appointed him the first African American diplomat to a foreign country as US Minister to Liberia, where he served for two years. In Evansville he helped establish the Cherry Street Black YMCA and the United Brotherhood of Friendship. and regularly wrote the "Colored Folks" section of region's Democratic newsletter.

Etta McDaniel (December 1, 1890 – January 13, 1946) appeared in over 60 films between 1933 and 1946. She was the sister of actor Sam McDaniel and actress and Academy Award winner Hattie McDaniel. Etta McDaniel's film début was in the 1933 King Kong, as the native woman who saves her baby from the approaching monster. She then became a supporting actor or extra, frequently in uncredited roles, performing as maids and nannies.

Louis Allen (Lou) Rawls (December 1, 1933 – January 6, 2006) released his first album in 1962, I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water, but it wasn’t until the 1966 hit single "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing" that he hit the top of the R&B charts and earned his first gold record. Rawls started incorporating spoken word segments to his songs, considered by some to a precursor to rap music. His award-winning career spanned 40 years in both music and acting.

Billy Paul (born Paul Williams; December 1, 1934) is a Grammy Award winning American soul singer, most known for his 1972 number-one single, "Me and Mrs. Jones" as well as the 1973 album and single "War of the Gods" which blends his more conventional pop, soul and funk styles with electronic and psychedelic influences. He is usually identified by his diverse vocal style which ranges from mellow and soulful to low and raspy.

Richard Franklin Pryor (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was a comedian, actor, film director, social critic, satirist, writer, and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time.

Gerald Anderson "Jerry" Lawson (December 1, 1940 – April 9, 2011) was chief hardware engineer and director of engineering and marketing for Fairchild Semiconductor's video game division, where designed the Fairchild Channel F video game console.  He also founded and ran Videosoft, a video game development company which made software for the Atari 2600 in the early 1980s. He also produced one of the earliest arcade games, Demolition Derby, which debuted in a southern California pizzeria shortly after Pong.

Angela M. Brown (born December 1, 1964) is a dramatic soprano particularly admired for her portrayal of Verdi heroines. She trained in voice at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, and at Indiana University She first received national acclaim appearing in the title role of Aida at the Met in December of 2004, in May of 2005 she was tapped to appear as Cilla in the world premier of Margaret Garner, an opera co-written by author Toni Morrison. In addition, she began giving concerts in support of her CD Mosaic, a collection of African-American spirituals. In the midst of touring worldwide, Brown also developed "Opera… from a Sistah's Point of View", a free program created to share her love of opera with "demographic groups that would not normally attend an opera."

Events

On December 1, 1874, Queen Esther Chapter No. 1, Order of the Eastern Star, in Washington, DC at the home of Mrs. Georgiana Thomas (shown seated in this 1935 photograph). This establishes the first Eastern Star Chapter among African American women in the United States.

Photo Gallery

Sam Cooke on The Ed Sullivan Show, December 1, 1957

December 1, 2011 President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and their daughters at the national Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Publications

The Saturday Evening Post, December 1, 1934.

Dorothea Towles Models at the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Scholarship Fashion Show in Baltimore, Maryland - Jet Magazine, December 1, 1955

Imagining the African American West (Race and Ethnicity in the American West) by Blake Allmendinger. $9.99. Author: Blake Allmendinger. Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (December 1, 2008).

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