February 4

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 -October 24, 2005) became a pivotal figure in the Civil Rights Movement wen she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in December 1955. Others had done the same in the last decade, but NAACP organizers believed that Parks, secretary of the local NAACP chapter, was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws. She had recently attended the Highlander Folk School, a Tennessee center for training activists for workers' rights and racial equality. Shortly after the year-long boycott after her arrest, she moved to Detroit, where she found work as a seamstress. From 1965 to 1988 she served as secretary and receptionist to John Conyers, an African-American US Representative. She was also active in the Black Power movement and the support of political prisoners in the US. After retirement, she wrote her autobiography and continued to insist that the struggle for justice was not over and there was more work to be done.

Birthdays

John Rankin (February 4, 1793 – March 18, 1886) was an American Presbyterian minister, educator and abolitionist. Upon moving from Kentucky to Ripley, Ohio in 1822, he became known as one of Ohio's first and most active "conductors" on the Underground Railroad. During a visit by Rankin to Lane Theological Seminary to see one of his sons, he told Professor Calvin Stowe the story of a woman the Rankins had housed in 1838 after she escaped by crossing the frozen Ohio River with her child in her arms. Stowe's wife (Harriet Beecher Stowe) also heard the account and later modeled the character Eliza in her book Uncle Tom's Cabin after the woman.

Henry Alvin Cameron (February 4, 1872 - October 30, 1918) taught science and coached at Pearl High School in Nashville until he joined the military at age 45 during World War I. He was commissioned a First Lieutenant and served with Company M, 365th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Division. He was killed in action while on a scout patrol with his unit during the Battle of the Argonne Forest. He was the first of only three black men appointed officers in World War I from Tennessee and the only black officer to die from Tennessee.

Frank Wills (February 4, 1948 – September 27, 2000) was the security guard who alerted police to a possible break-in at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., which eventually led to the uncovering of the truth about the Watergate Scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.



Events

The Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded on February 4, 1794 by Richard Allen. The church has been located at the corner of Sixth and Lombard Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since that time, making it the oldest church property continuously owned by African Americans. The church was organized by African American members of St. George's Methodist Church who walked out due to racial segregation in the worship services

On February 4, 1875, Congressman James T. Rapier of Alabama rose on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to support the Civil Right bill then before Congress which when enacted later that year became the Civil Rights Act of 1875. He noted how the race issue in the United States society related to class and religious inequalities in other lands, and said that he was "half slave and half free", having political rights but no civil rights. He said that in Europe, "they have princes, dukes, and lords; in India, "brahmans or priests, who rank above the sudras or laborers;" in America, "our distinction is color."

During his playing days, Jackie Robinson’s impact was also felt off the field. On February 4, 1952, he was hired as the Director of Community Activities for a radio station, WNBC, and the television station WNBT, becoming the first African-American executive of a major radio and television station. “It also gives us a chance to combat communist propaganda by showing there are plenty of opportunities for Negroes in this country,” Robinson once said about his new position.

On February 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr, gave his "Drum Major Instinct" sermon. King encouraged his congregation to seek greatness, but to do so through service and love. King concluded the sermon by imagining his own funeral, downplaying his famous achievements and emphasizing his heart to do right. It was an adaptation of an homily by the same name given by J. Wallace Hamilton, a well-known, liberal, white Methodist preacher.

On February 4, 1999, when Amadou Diallo, a 23-year-old immigrant from Guinea, was shot and killed by four New York City Police Department plain-clothed officers: Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon and Kenneth Boss. The officers fired a combined total of 42 shots, 19 of which struck Diallo, outside his apartment at 1157 Wheeler Avenue in the Soundview section of The Bronx. The four were part of the now-defunct Street Crimes Unit. All four officers were charged with second-degree murder and acquitted at trial in Albany, New York.

Photo Gallery

The Negro janitors of the plant maintenance department in North America's Kansas City factory in V-formation as they start out on their daily tasks. February 4, 1942. Carl Conley. 208-NP-1KK-1

Sammy Davis, Jr., Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier in an outtake from their February 4, 1966 LIFE magazine cover. Photo: Philippe Halsman/Magnum Photos.

February 4th - Michelle Obama's 2010 Style Diary

Publications

Jet Magazine, February 4, 1954

Dorothy Dandridge, Johnny Mathis, Maria and Nat King Cole at Hiltoppers Charity Guild Benefit - Jet Magazine, February 4, 1960

Marty Phillips is a Junior at Columbus Ohio East High School - Jet Magazine February 4, 1960

"Thou, Dear God" is the first and only collection of sixty-eight prayers by Martin Luther King, Jr. Arranged thematically in six parts--with prayers for spiritual guidance, special occasions, times of adversity, times of trial, uncertain times, and social justice--Baptist minister and King scholar Lewis Baldwin introduces the book and each section with short essays. On sale February 4, 2014. Paperback, $15.00

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January 31

Jack Roosevelt (Jackie) Robinson (January 31, 1919 - October 24, 1972) was the first African American to play in Major League Baseball since color lines were drawn in the 1880s. He had been an all-sport athlete at UCLA, an Army officer, athletic director at Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson University), and a member of the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs before being signed by Dodgers' General Manager Branch Rickey in 1945. He was with the the AAA affiliate Montreal Royals for two seasons before his major league debut on April 15, 1947. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. After his playing career, he was the first black television analyst in MLB, and the first black vice president of a major American corporation, Chock Full o'Nuts.

Birthdays

Jersey Joe Walcott (born Arnold Raymond Cream, January 31, 1914 - February 25, 1994) won the World Heavyweight Championship from Ezzard Charles, whom he knocked out in the 7th round of their 1951 title bout in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Walcott had 69 professional fights. He won 30 of them by knock-out and was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1969. He held the world heavyweight title from 1951 to 1952, and broke the record for the oldest man to win the title, at the age of 37. That record would eventually be broken in 1994 by 45-year-old George Foreman.

Carol Elaine Channing (born January 31, 1921) began her acting career as a Broadway musical actress, starring in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1949, and Hello, Dolly! in 1964, when she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She revived both roles several times throughout her career, most recently playing Dolly in 1995. During her career, she had won or been nominated for a Tony Award for every Broadway show she ever played. She grew up in a German-American household in San Francisco and did not know until just before she left for college that her paternal grandmother was African American.

Benjamin Lawson Hooks (January 31, 1925 – April 15, 2010) was an American civil rights leader. A Baptist minister and practicing attorney, he served as executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1977 to 1992, and throughout his career was a vocal campaigner for civil rights in the United States.

Ernest "Ernie" Banks (January 31, 1931 – January 23, 2015), nicknamed "Mr. Cub" and "Mr. Sunshine", was an American professional baseball player who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a shortstop and first baseman for the Chicago Cubs between 1953 and 1971. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977, and was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999. He began playing professional baseball in 1950 with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro leagues. He served in the U.S. military for two years, played for the Monarchs again, and began his major league career in September 1953. The following year, Banks was the National League Rookie of the Year runner-up.

Kerry Washington (born January 31, 1977) is an African American actress. She is known for her roles as Ray Charles's wife, Della Bea Robinson, in the film Ray (2004), as Idi Amin's wife Kay in The Last King of Scotland, and as Alicia Masters, love interest of Ben Grimm/The Thing in the live-action Fantastic Four films. She has also starred in the critically acclaimed independent film as the lead actress in the 2012 ABC drama Scandal playing Olivia Pope and as Broomhilda von Shaft in the movie Django Unchained.



Events

On January 31, 1865, Congress passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States. The amendment was ratified by the required number of states on December 6, 1865. On December 18, 1865, Secretary of State William H. Seward proclaimed its adoption. It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War.

On January 31, 1934, Etta Moten sang for President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt at a White House Dinner, the first time an African American actress performed at the White House.

On January 31, 1964, Herbert Lee was shot and killed by E.H. Hurst, a white member of the Mississippi Legislature. Lee worked with civil rights leader Bob Moses to help register black voters. Louis Allen, who witnessed the murder of civil rights worker Herbert Lee, endured years of threats, jailings and harassment. Allen was among a dozen witnesses of the murder of Herbert Lee by E.H. Hurst, a white state legislator, in September 1961. Civil rights activists had come to Liberty that summer to organize for voter registration; essentially no black had been allowed to vote since 1890, when the state disfranchising constitution was passed.

Photo Gallery

The Ashanti Golden Stool with its immediate caretaker January 31, 1935

Sammy Davis, Jr. laughing with Senator Robert F. Kennedy backstage at a benefit for the senator at Ford's Theater. Date Photographed:31 January 1968

Shirley Verrett (left), Marian Anderson, Grace Bumbry (right) January 31, 1982 Photographer: Henry Grossman

W.E.B. Du Bois Issued: January 31, 1992

Publications

An arrival in Camp–under the Proclamation of Emancipation. --- Alfred Waud worked up this sketch from a photograph, probably made in his presence by David B. Woodbury on January 1, 1863. It was published in Harper’s Weekly, January 31, 1863, p. 6. Library of Congress image. .. When compared with the photograph, it shows that the photo is actually an reversed stereograph.

Jet Magazine, January 31, 1952

Are Black Women Getting Sexier - The Full Story - Jet Magazine, January 31, 1952

The Black Panther (January 31, 1970)

Time magazine, January 31, 1973 — Flip Wilson

All-White Jury in Fred Hampton Murder Case? The Black Panther (January 31, 1976)

Black Exodus: The Great Migration from the American South by Alferdteen Harrison. $14.93. 128 pages. Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (January 31, 1991)

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January 7

Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) left home at the age of 17, finished high school in Baltimore, and went on to study at Howard University, Barnard College, and Columbia University before becoming one of the most prolific writers in the Harlem Renaissance. Her works included novels, essays, plays, and studies in folklore and anthropology. She is most remembered for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She did graduate work in anthropology from Columbia University where she studied under Franz Boaz and was a classmate of Margaret Mead.


Birthdays

Rayford W. Logan (January 7, 1897 - November 4, 1982) taught history at Howard University from 1938 to 1965. During World War I he was a first lieutenant in the all-black 93rd infantry Division, and stayed in Europe after the war where he helped to co-ordinate the 2nd Pan-African Congress in Paris in 1921. In 1932, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him to his Black Cabinet where Logan drafted Roosevelt's executive order prohibiting the exclusion of blacks from the military in World War II. In 1950 he became Director of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), and was known for his study of post-Reconstruction America, a period he termed "the nadir of American race relations".

Henry James "Red" Allen (January 7, 1908 – April 17, 1967) began playing trumpet in New Orleans jazz bands and he went to Chicago in 1927 to join King Oliver's band. Around this time he made recordings on the side in the band of Clarence Williams He later played with Luis Russell, Fletcher Henderson, and Lucky Millinder. He also recorded under his own name and also with Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton and accompanied such vocalists as Victoria Spivey and Billie Holiday.

Butterfly McQueen (January 7, 1911 - December 22, 1995) was an actress best know for her role as Prissy in Gone With the Wind. She began her career as a dancer with Katherine Dunham, Geoffrey Holder, and Janet Collins. She retired from acting in 1952 because of the lack of roles for African Americans,living in relative obscurity and earning a degree in political science at the age of 65. She died in a house fire started by a kerosene heater.

Ulysses Kay (January 7, 1917 - May 20, 1995) attended the University of Arizona, where he was encouraged by the African-American composer William Grant Still. He went for graduate work to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and there worked under Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. As a composer Kay was known primarily for his symphonic and choral compositions. He also wrote five operas. His final opera, Frederick Douglass, was mounted in April 1991 at the New Jersey State Opera with Kevin Maynor in the title role and Klara Barlow as Helen Pitts Douglass. He taught at  Lehman College of the City University of New York for 20 years and was the nephew of jazz musician King Oliver.

Dorothy Lavinia Brown (January 7, 1919 – June 13, 2004 ) was the chief surgeon at the now-defunct Riverside Hospital in Nashville from 1957 to 1983, and the first African American woman in the south to be a surgeon. She was a graduate of Meharry Medical School where she later served on the faculty. Dr. Brown was also elected to the Tennessee General Assembly in 1966 where she served a two-year term. Before beginning her medical career she was a domestic and did defense work during World War II, and graduated from Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Frederick Drew Gregory (born January 7, 1941), (Col, USAF, Ret.), is a former United States Air Force pilot, military engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut as well as former NASA Deputy Administrator. He also served briefly as NASA Acting Administrator in early 2005, covering the period between the departure of Sean O'Keefe and the swearing in of Michael Griffin. He was the first African American to command a space mission, and is the nephew of Dr. Charles Drew and the great-grandson of James Monroe Gregory, dean of Howard University.



Events

On January 7, 1927, the Harlem Globetrotters played their first game in Hinckley, Illinois before a crowd of 300 people, and made a profit of $75. Over the years they have played more than 26,000 exhibition games in 122 countries and territories, including a nine-game series in Moscow in 1959.

Marian Anderson debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as Ulrica in "Un Ballo in Maschera," by Giuseppe Verdi on January 7, 1955, marking the first vocal performance by an African American on that stage. Although she never appeared with the company again after this production, Anderson was named a permanent member of the Metropolitan Opera company. The following year she published her autobiography, My Lord, What a Morning, which became a bestseller.

On January 7, 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was arrested for the 1964 murder of voting rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. On June 21, 2005, a jury convicted Killen on three counts of manslaughter; he was described as the man who planned and directed the killing of the civil rights workers. Killen, then 80 years old, was sentenced to three consecutive terms of 20 years in prison.

Photo Gallery

Sammy Davis Jr & Nancy Wilson (January 7, 1966)

7 January 2009: US President George W Bush stands with President-elect Barack Obama, former President George HW Bush, former President Bill Clinton and former President Jimmy Carter in the Oval Office of the White House. Bush, acting on a suggestion by Obama, invited the former Presidents and President-elect for lunch, the first time since 1981 that all living presidents have been together at the White House

Publications

Jet Magazine, January 7, 1954

Brown University Alumni Club Bans Fritz Pollard (Brown Football Star) - Jet Magazine, January 7, 1954

The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing The Promise by National Museum African American History. $25.29. 224 pages. Publisher: Smithsonian Books (January 7, 2009).

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