January 14

On January 14, 2017, President-Elect Donald Trump tweeted that John Lewis was "talk, talk, talk -- no action and no results" in response to Rep. Lewis's statement that Trump was an "illegitimate president" because of purported Russian interference in last November's presidential election. During the 1963 Selma March, SNCC leader Lewis suffered a concussion when beaten by State Troopers, and was jailed 45 times during the civil rights movement. The remarks were made at the beginning of the MLK weekend observance. 

Julian Bond (January 14, 1940 – August 15, 2015) was a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) while a student at Morehouse College, and later with Morris Dees worked to found the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and served as its first  president. He was also chairman of the NAACP from 1998 to 2010. He served four terms in the Georgia House of Representatives (1967–1974) and 6 terms in the Georgia Senate (1975–1987). After leaving politics he taught the history of the civil rights movement at the University of Virginia from 1990 to 2012. He was the son of Horace Mann Bond, the first African American president of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.



Birthdays

Dudley Randall (January 14, 1914 – August 5, 2000) founded Broadside Press in 1965, which published many leading African-American writers, among them Melvin Tolson, Sonia Sanchez, Audre Lorde, Gwendolyn Brooks, Etheridge Knight, Margaret Walker, and others. His most famous poem is "The Ballad of Birmingham," written in response to the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. Other well-known poems of his include "A Poet is not a Jukebox," "Booker T. and W.E.B.," and "The Profile on the Pillow." He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Wayne State University degree in English in 1949 and a master's degree in Library Science at the University of Michigan in 1951.

John O. Killens (January 14, 1916 – October 27, 1987) was a founder of the Harlem Writers Guild along with with John Henrik Clarke, Rosa Guy, and Walter Christmas. He taught writing at  Fisk University, Howard University, Columbia University and Medgar Evers College. where he founded the National Black Writers Conference. His novels Youngblood and And Then We Heard the Thunder were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction.

Vonetta Lawrence McGee (January 14, 1945 – July 9, 2010) was best known for her roles during the 1970s, which included blaxploitation films such as Hammer, Melinda, Blacula, Shaft in Africa and 1974's Thomasine & Bushrod alongside her then-boyfriend Max Julien. She was a regular on the 1987 Universal Television situation comedy Bustin' Loose, starring as Mimi Shaw for its first and only season (1987-1988).  In 1987, she married actor Carl Lumbly.

Carl Weathers (born January 14, 1948), is best known for playing Apollo Creed in the Rocky series of films. He also played Dillon in Predator, Chubbs Peterson in Happy Gilmore, and Little Nicky, and an exaggeratedly frugal fictionalized version of himself in the television series Arrested Development. He played football at San Diego State University and professionally with the Oakland Raiders for one season and three seasons with the  BC Lions of the Canadian Football League.




Events

On January 14, 1930, Ernest E. Just was elected Vice President of American Society of Zoologists. He was the first African American admitted to the organization, and the first to serve in a leadership position. Dr. Just had chaired the Department of Zoology since 1912 and was a researcher at the prestigious summer program of the  Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, specializing in the study of cell permeability, cytology, and parthenogenesis. He was also a founder of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and recipient of the first Spingarn Medal.

On January 14, 1972, the NBC sitcom Sanford and Son debuted, running until March 25, 1977. The series was adapted by Norman Lear and considered NBC's answer to CBS's All in the Family and has been hailed as the precursor to many other African American sitcoms. In 2007, Time magazine included the show on their list of the "100 Best TV Shows of All Time".



Photo Gallery

Mary Caldwell receipt for purchase of a slave, January 14, 1854

January 14 - ON THIS DAY in 1970, the curtain closed for good on Diana Ross and the Supremes as they performed their final concert in Las Vegas.

Idris Elba with his father Winston Elba during the opening of Elba House, a new social housing development in Andre St, Hackney on 14 January 2011.

President Obama with LeBron and Dwyane Wade before an event at the White House on January 14, 2014

Publications

New Glamour in Exotic Earrings Modeled by Yvonne Jones - Jet Magazine, January 14, 1954

Shake Dancer Jean Idelle Puts 3 Locks on Her Dressing Room Door - Jet Magazine, January 14, 1954

80-Year-Old W. C. Handy Takes A Bride, Irma Logan - Jet Magazine, January 14, 1954 

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November 27

James Marshall (Jimi) Hendrix (November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970)  achieved fame in the United States after three top-ten British hits with his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival.

J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr. (November 27, 1923 - May 1, 2011) enrolled in the University of Chicago as its youngest student ever at the age of 13, eventually earning a PhD in mathematics at the age of 19. He taught at Howard University and Clark Atlanta University as well as working on the Manhattan Project. Throughout his years of research Wilkins published more than 100 papers on a variety of subjects, including differential geometry, linear differential equations, integrals, nuclear engineering, gamma radiation shielding and optics, garnering numerous professional and scientific awards along the way. His father, J. Ernest Wilkins, Sr., was appointed Assistant Secretary of Labor by President Eisenhower in 1954, the first African American to hold a sub-cabinet position.



Birthdays

Robert H. Terrell (November 27, 1857 - December 1925), was one of seven Magna Cum Laude scholars to graduate from Harvard University in 1884. He later went on to attend Howard University School of Law and was the first African American judge appointed in Washington DC (1915). He was also principal of M Street High School (later Dunbar High) and a founding member of Sigma Pi Phi. His wife, Mary Church Terrell, was also an educator, activist, and founder of the National Association of Colored Women.

Rev. John Hurst Adams (born November 27, 1927) was a seminary classmate of Martin Luther King, Jr., graduating from Boston University in 1956 with a Master of Sacred Theology. He was then named president of Paul Quinn College in Waco, Texas at the age of 29, becoming the youngest college president in the country. He later pastored First. A.M.E. Church in Seattle, where he was a community civil rights leader, and then served as pastor of Grant A.M.E. Church in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California before being named a bishop in the denomination, serving in Texas, South Carolina, and other areas before his retirement in 2004.

James Marshall (Jimi) Hendrix (November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970)  achieved fame in the United States after three top-ten British hits with his 1967 performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Later, he headlined the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music"

George Thomas "Mickey" Leland (November 27, 1944 – August 7, 1989) served six terms in the U/S. House of Representatives from the Texas 18th District before his death on a plane crash in Gambela, Ethiopia at the age of 45. He had also served a term as chair of the Congessional Black Caucus and on the Democratic National Committee. He was best know for his anti-poverty and anti-hunger activist, as well as work to provide medical care for the underserved.

Janes Avery (November 27, 1945 - December 31, 2013) played Philip Banks in the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990−96). This character was ranked #34 in TV Guide's "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time." He also provided the voice of Shredder in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles television series, as well as War Machine in the animated series Iron Man (1994−95) and Junkyard Dog in Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling (1985).

Events

On November 27, 1897 Andrew Beard received a patent for a device he called the Jenny Coupler. Andrew Beard’s Jenny Coupler. The Jenny Coupler automatically joined cars by simply allowing them to bump into each other, or as Beard described it the “horizontal jaws engage each other to connect the cars.” Beard sold the rights to his invention for $50,000.00 and the railroad industry was revolutionized.

On November 27,1928, Dr. Marjorie Joyner received the Patent for a permanent wave machine which could wave the hair of both white and Black people. Marjorie Joyner was employed by the Madame C.J. Walker Cosmetic Company and assigned her patent rights to that company. Madame C.J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, invented hair creams to soften the hair and a hair styling hot comb. She also developed other lotions and creams for which she acquired trademarks.



Photo Gallery

November 27, 1962: Martin Luther King, Jr. tested parts of his famed " I Have A Dream" speech in a speech in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

November 27, 1965 the March on Washington for Peace in Vietnam

American activist Angela Davis (1944 - ), shortly after she was fired from her post as philosophy professor at UCLA due to her membership of the Communist Party of America, November 27, 1969. Photo credit: Lucas Mendes / Getty Images

Ike & Tina Turner opening for The Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden, New York City, November 27, 1969

November 27, 1990 Charles Johnson wins the National Book Award for his novel “Middle Passage,” a novel about the adventures of a freed slave.

Publications

Rosalee Takella, Oriental Shake Dancer (Exotic Dancer) - Jet Magazine, November 27, 1952

500 Attend W.C. Handy's 79th Birthday Celebration - Jet Magazine, November 27, 1952

Brooklyn Dodger Joe Black Crowns Miss Capitol Classic of 1952, Anna Harris - Jet Magazine, November 27, 1952

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November 16

Lisa Bonet (born November 16, 1967) is best known for her role as Denise Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show, and originally starring in its spinoff A Different World.

William Christopher (W. C.) Handy (November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958) was a composer and musician widely known as the "Father of the Blues". Although not the first to publish music in the blues form, he took the blues from a regional music style to one of the dominant national forces in American music. In 1896 he became the bandmaster of Mahara's Colored Minstrels, then taught at Alabama A&M for two years before becoming the director of a band organized by the Knights of Pythias, living first in Clarksdale, Mississippi and then in Memphis. The publication of sheet music to his "Memphis Blues" brought him national recognition, as did the advent of recording later in the decade. In 1926 Handy wrote and edited a work entitled Blues: An Anthology -- Complete Words and Music of 53 Great Songs, possibly the first work to record, analyze and describe the blues as an integral part of the South and the history of the United States.

Birthdays

Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe (November 16, 1904 - May 11, 1966) became the first president of Nigeria in 1960. He graduated from historically black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1930, where his classmates were Thurgood Marshall, Cab Calloway, and Langston Hughes. He received a masters degree in political science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1933 and a masters degree in Anthropology from Columbia in 1934.

Chinua Achebe (November 16, 1930 - March 22, 2013) is considered by many to be the father of African literature. He is best known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958) - and for creating the Conrad controversy with his 1975 lecture, An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” and its criticism of Joseph Conrad as “a bloody racist”. He is the winner of the Booker International Prize, 2007.

Hubert Charles Sumlin (November 16, 1931 – December 4, 2011) played guitar in Howlin' Wolf's band until Wolf's death in 1976. He continued to play with other members of the band as well as record as a solo artist. He was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 2008 and was ranked number 43 in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time"

Clive Callender (born November 16, 1936) is one of the foremost specialists in organ transplant medicine in the United States. The Howard University Hospital surgeon has focused much of his career on transplant medicine among minority segments of the population, along with the unique health and social issues relevant to them as potential donors. During a campaign to increase the number of donors among African Americans he was able to triple the donorship rate.

John Earl Warren, Jr. (November 16, 1946 – January 14, 1969) Served in the Viet Nam War in the United States Army as a First Lieutenant in Company C, 2nd Battalion Mechanized), 22nd Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery at Tay Ninh Province, Republic of Vietnam, on January 14, 1969. While commanding a platoon, the unit came under attack and 1LT Warren fell on an enemy-thrown grenade to shield others from the blast. The action cost him his life.The Medal was posthumously awarded to his family by President Richard Nixon on August 6, 1970.

Zina Garrison (born November 16, 1963, Houston, Texas) was a women's singles runner-up at Wimbledon in 1990, a three -time Grand Slam mixed doubles champion, and a women's doubles gold medalist with Pam Shriver at the 1988 Olympic Games. After retirement in 1996 she has been a television commentator, served as U.S. Federation Cup captain, and founded the Zina Garrison All-Court Tennis Program, which supports inner-city tennis in her native Houston.

Lisa Bonet (born November 16, 1967) is best known for her role as Denise Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show, and originally starring in its spinoff A Different World. She also starred in the controversial 1987 film Angel Heart. Bonet was married to singer Lenny Kravitz from 1987 to 1993 and the couple has one child, a daughter Zoe. She is currently married to actor Jason Momoa.


Events

On November 16, 1780, Paul Cuffe petitioned the council of Bristol County, Massachusetts claiming taxation without representation and demanding the right to vote. The petition was denied, but his suit was one of the influences that led the Legislature in 1783 to grant voting rights to all free male citizens of the state. At the time Cuffe operated a cargo ship from New Bedford to Nantucket. He went on to own a large fleet of ships, becoming most likely the wealthiest African American in the United States.

On November 16, 1875, Ethiopia won the Battle of Gundet over Egypt. This conflict was carefully observed by African American due to a growing Black Nationalist idealism led by people such as Edward Blyden and Martin Delany. The Ethiopian forces were led by Ras Alula Engida, who the next year was made governor of Mereb Mellash and Midri Bahri (today part of Eritrea).

On November 16, 1875, Alabama’s Constitution of 1875 is ratified. The "Bourbon" Democrats, having claimed to “redeem” the Alabama people from the Reconstruction rule of carpetbaggers and scalawags, wrote a new constitution to replace the one of 1868. It was a conservative document that gave the Democrats, and especially Black Belt planters, a firm grip on their recently reacquired control of state government.

On November 16, 1972, the Louisiana National Guard was mobilized after Baton Rouge police officers killed two students, Denver A. Smith and Leonard Douglass Brown, in a confrontation between African American students and the police during demonstrations on the campus of Southern University.

On November 16, 2004, President George W. Bush nominated Condoleezza Rice to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state. They were respectively the first African American woman and man in that office.



Photo Gallery

"The first vote" - African American men, in dress indicative of their professions, in a queue waiting their turn to vote. 1867 November 16 by Alfred R. Waud.

Lady Bird Cleveland, mother of legendary model Pat Cleveland photographed by Carl Van Vechten on November 16, 1954 with her painting in oil of Eartha Kitt.

This photograph from November 16, 1961, shows a “White only” laundromat in Tallahassee. 

Novelist Toni Morrison won the “Elmer Holmes Bobst Award” in Arts and Letters for her book, Beloved, on November 16, 1988.'  - CARTER Magazine

On November 16, 2000 Oprah Winfrey received the 85th NAACP Spingarn Medal for her achievements and contributions as an actress, producer, educator, publisher, and humanitarian.

Princess Ruth Komuntale of Toro/Uganda, who married her American fiancé Christopher Thomas on 16 November 2012. Her brother is the current King Rukidi IV. 

A thin dusting of snow that fell overnight lays on items that make up a memorial at the site where Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson, Missouri, November 16, 2014.

Publications

Jet Magazine. November 16, 1967.

"Revolutionary or Police Agent?" The Black Panther - November 16, 1974

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