16 May 1792 – 1997

1792 – Denmark abolishes the importation of slaves.

1857 – Juan Morel Campos is born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He will become a musician and composer who will be one of the first to integrate Afro- aribbean styles and folk rhythms into the classical European musical model. He will be considered the father of the “danza.”

1917 – Harry T. Burleigh, composer, pianist, and singer, is awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for excellence in the field of creative music.

1929 – John Conyers, Jr. is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will be elected to the House of Representatives from Michigan’s 1st District in 1964, where he will advocate home rule and Congressional representation for the District of Columbia. He will be the principal sponsor of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1983 Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday bill, as well as a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus.

1930 – Lillie Mae Jones is born in Flint, Michigan. She will become an uncompromising jazz singer using the stage name, Betty Carter, who will earn the nickname “Betty Bebop” for her bop improvisational style. She will tour with Lionel Hampton and Miles Davis during her career. In 1997, she will receive the National Medal of Arts award from President Bill Clinton. She will join the ancestors on September 26, 1998.

1966 – Stokely Carmichael (later named Kwame Ture) is elected chairman of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a group formed during the Freedom Marches and dedicated to voter registration in the South.

1966 – Janet Damita Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. Sister of the famous Jacksons of the Jackson 5 singing group, she will have her own successful career, first in acting (“Good Times,” “Diff’rent Strokes,” and “Fame”), then as a solo recording artist. Her albums “Control” and “Rhythm Nation 1814” will earn her five American Music Awards and a Grammy award.

1966 – The National Welfare Rights Organization is organized.

1977 – Modibo Keita joins the ancestors in Bamako, Mail. He been the first president of Mali, from 1960 to 1968.

1979 – Asa Philip Randolph, labor leader and civil rights pioneer, joins the ancestors in New York at the age of 90.

1985 – Michael Jordan is named Rookie of the Year in the National Basketball Association. Jordan, of the Chicago Bulls, was the number three draft choice. At the time, Michael was third in the league scoring a 28.2 average and fourth in steals with 2.39 per game.

1990 – Sammy Davis Jr., actor, dancer, singer and world class entertainer, joins the ancestors in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 64 from throat cancer. Davis, born in Harlem, was a member of the Hollywood “Rat Pack.” He also had starring roles in a host of Broadway musicals and motion pictures and had been an entertainer for over sixty years.

1997 – In Zaire, President Mobutu Sese Seko ends 32 years of autocratic rule, ceding control of the country to rebel forces.

17 May 1875 – 1997

1875 – The first Kentucky Derby is won by African American jockey Oliver Lewis riding a horse named Aristides. Fourteen of the 15 jockeys in the race are African Americans. The winning purse for the race is $ 2,850. Lewis won the one and a half mile “Run for the Roses” in a time of 2 minutes, 37-3/4 seconds.

1881 – Frederick Douglass is appointed Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia.

1909 – White firemen on Georgia Railroad strike in protest of the employment of African American firemen.

1915 – The National Baptist Convention is chartered.

1937 – Hazel Rollins O’Leary is born in Newport News, Virginia. She will graduate from Fisk University and will receive a law degree from Rutgers University in 1966. She will gain experience in the energy regulatory field working for the Federal Energy Administration. After working for a few years heading her own energy consulting firm and becoming president of the Northern States Power Company, she will be appointed Secretary of Energy in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.

1942 – Henry St. Claire Fredericks is born in New York City. He will become an entertainer and songwriter for film. He also will be a singer of urban folk-blues, better known as Taj Mahal. He will be one of the first American artists to blend blues and world music. For over three decades, Taj Mahal will teach generations the wonders of Robert Johnson, Sleepy John Estes, Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed. With a catalogue of almost thirty albums (including some for children!), one can find film soundtracks (“Sounder,” “Brothers”), music for television dramas (“The Tuskegee Project,” “The Man Who Broke A Thousand Chains”) as well as his best-loved classics like “Natch’l Blues.”

1944 – Felix Eboue’ joins the ancestors in Cairo, Egypt at the age of 59 after succumbing to pneumonia. He had been the highest ranking French colonial administrator of African descent in the first half of the twentieth century. He had been a successful administrator for the French government in the Caribbean and in Africa. During World War II, he had been a staunch ally of the exiled French government headed by General Charles de Gaulle.

1954 – The Supreme Court outlaws school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education. The ruling is a major victory for the NAACP, led by Thurgood Marshall of the Legal Defense Fund, and other civil rights groups. The rulings declares that racially segregated schools were inherently unequal.

1956 – “Sugar” Ray Charles Leonard is born in Wilmington, North Carolina. Leonard will win the National Golden Gloves championship at 16, an Olympic gold medal in 1976, and have a successful professional boxing career. He will be named Fighter of the Decade for the 1980s. He will enter the decade a champion and will leave the decade a champion. In between, he will win an unprecedented five world titles in five weight classes and compete in some of the era’s most memorable contests. His career boxing record will be 36 wins (25 by knockout), 3 losses, and 1 tie. After retiring from the ring, he will become a successful boxing analyst. He will be enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997.

1957 – The Prayer Pilgrimage, attracting a crowd of over 30,000, is held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Timed to coincide with the third anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the pilgrimage is organized by Martin Luther King, Jr., the NAACP, and others to advocate greater voting and civil rights for African Americans.

1962 – Marshall Logan Scott is elected the first African American moderator of the Presbyterian Church.

1962 – E. Franklin Frazier joins the ancestors in Washington, DC at the age of 67. Dr. Franklin had been a leading sociologist who retired from Howard University and had been the first African American president of the American Sociological Association.

1969 – A commemorative stamp of W.C. Handy, “Father of the Blues,” is issued by the U.S. Postal Service, making Handy the first African American blues musician honored on a postage stamp.

1969 – Rev. Thomas Kilgore, a Los Angeles pastor, is elected president of the predominantly white American Baptist Convention.

1970 – Hank Aaron becomes the ninth baseball player to get 3,000 hits.

1980 – A major racially motivated civil disturbance occurs in Miami, Florida after a Tampa, Florida jury acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating African American insurance executive Arthur McDuffie. The disturbance in that city’s Liberty City neighborhood results in eighteen persons being killed and more than three hundred persons injured.

1987 – The work of four contemporary African American artists – Sam Gilliam, Keith Morrison, William T. Williams, and Martha Jackson-Jarvis is shown in the inaugural exhibition of the new Anacostia Museum in Washington, DC.

1987 – Eric “Sleepy” Floyd of the Golden State Warriors sets a playoff record for points in a single quarter. He pours in 29 points in the fourth period in a game this night against Pat Riley’s Los Angeles Lakers.

1994 – The U.N. Security Council approves a peacekeeping force and an arms embargo for violence-racked Rwanda.

1997 – Laurent Kabila declares himself the new President of Zaire and renames it the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The country had been previously under the 37 year rule of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. 

18 May 1652 – 1986

1652 – Rhode Island enacts the first colonial law limiting slavery. This law, passed by the General Court of Election, regulates Black servitude and places Blacks on the same level as white bondservants. This means they were free after completing their term of service of ten years.

1848 – William Leidesdorff joins the ancestors in San Francisco, California. The first man to open a commercial steamship service on San Francisco Bay, Leidesdorff developed a successful business empire, including a hotel, warehouse, and other real-estate developments. Active politically, he served on San Francisco’s first town council and became city treasurer. A street in the city will be named in his honor.

1877 – Dantes Bellegarde is born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He will become Haiti’s most well known diplomat in the twentieth century. He will enter government service in 1904 and will serve under many administrations until he retires in 1957 at the age of 81. W.E.B DuBois, in 1926, will refer to Bellegarde as the “international spokesman of the Negroes of the world.” He will join the ancestors in 1966.

1880 – George Lewis wins the sixth running of the Kentucky Derby astride Fonso. He is one of ten African Americans to win the Kentucky Derby in the years between 1877 and 1902.

1896 – In Plessy v. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds Louisiana’s “separate but equal” segregation laws. The ruling is a major setback for integration and marks the beginning of Jim Crow laws, changing a largely “de facto” system of segregation into a legally defined system in the South. It will be overturned 58 years later in the case of “Brown v. Board of Education.”

1911 – “Big” Joe Turner is born in Kansas City, Missouri. He will become one of the best blues shouters and a critical link between Rhythm and Blues and Rock & Roll. In 1951 Turner will sign a recording contract with Atlantic Records and cut a string of Rhythm & Blues classics that will lead the way straight into Rock & Roll. His most famous hit, “Shake, Rattle and Roll” will be released in 1954, and make it to number 1 and will be covered shortly thereafter by Bill Haley and the Comets. But before “Shake”, will come the million-selling “Chains of Love,” which will reach number 2 on the Rhythm & Blues charts and number 30 on the pop side, plus “Chill Is On,” “Sweet Sixteen,” “Don’t You Cry,” “TV Mama,” and the number 1 smash, “Honey Hush.” Turner’s chart success will continue after “Shake” with “Well All Right,” “Flip Flop and Fly,” “Hide and Seek,” “The Chicken and the Hawk,” “Morning, Noon, and Night,” “Corrina Corrina,” and “Lipstick Powder and Paint.” Turner will nearly dominate the Rhythm & Blues charts from 1951 to 1956. He will join the ancestors in 1985.

1912 – Walter Sisulu is born in the Engcobo district, Transkei, South Africa. He will become a major player in the fight against apartheid in South Africa and will become deputy president of the African National Congress. He will be a mentor to Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo and will be imprisoned with Mandela on Robben Island for many years. While in prison, Sisulu will write the history of the African National Congress. Even though he was given a life sentence when imprisoned, he will be released in 1989 as South Africa began to dismantle the system of apartheid. He will be elected ANC deputy president in 1991 and will resign from the post in 1994 at the age of 82. He will join the ancestors on May 5, 2003 at the age of 90.

1919 – Coleman Alexander Young is born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He will fight as a bombardier-navigator with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II and will settle in Detroit and work as an auto worker after the war. In 1948, he will become the first African American elected to the Wayne County Council of the AFL-CIO. He will found the National Negro Labor Council in 1951. Walter Reuther and other white leaders of the labor movement will refer to the NNLC as a tool of the Soviet Union and cause Young to be called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952. He will reach the pinnacle of his political career when, as a state senator, he is elected the first African American mayor of the city of Detroit, Michigan in 1973. He will revitalize Detroit, integrate the police and fire departments, and will significantly increase the number of city contracts with minority businesses. He will be elected mayor for an unprecedented five terms. He will step down as mayor in 1993 at the age of 75. He will join the ancestors in 1997.

1946 – Reginald Martinez Jackson is born in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. He will be better known as Reggie Jackson, star baseball player for the Oakland A’s and the New York Yankees. He will set or tie seven World Series records and will be known as “Mr. October.” He will retire from baseball in 1987 and will be elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1993.

1955 – Mary McLeod Bethune, educator and founder of the National Council of Negro Women and Bethune-Cookman College, joins the ancestors in Daytona Beach, Florida at the age of 79.

1960 – Yannick Noah is born in Sedan, France. He will become a professional tennis player. Arthur Ashe will spot his talents while on a three-week, goodwill tour of Africa in 1971, and arrange for Noah to be sent back to France to further develop his game. Noah will go on to win the French Open in 1983, a Grand Slam event. During his career, he will win 23 singles titles and be runner up at 13 others.

1971 – President Nixon rejects the sixty demands of the Congressional Black Caucus, saying his administration would continue to support “jobs, income and tangible benefits, the pledges that this society has made to the disadvantaged in the past decade.” The caucus expressed deep disappointment with the reply and said the Nixon administration “lacked a sense of understanding, urgency and commitment in dealing with the critical problems facing Black Americans.”

1986 – John William “Bubbles” Sublett joins the ancestors in New York City at the age of 84. He had been half of the piano and tap dance team, “Buck and Bubbles” from 1912 to 1955. He was known as “father of rhythm tap,” and developed a tap style called “jazz tap.” He will continue to perform (after the death of Ford “Buck” Washington in 1955) until 1980, when he appeared in the revue “Black Broadway.”

19 May 1881 – 1991

1881 – Blanche Kelso Bruce is appointed Register of the Treasury by President Garfield.

1925 – Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X and El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, is born in Omaha, Nebraska. In prison, he is introduced to the Nation of Islam and begins studies that will lead him to become one of the most militant and electrifying black leaders of the 1950s and 1960s. On many occasions, he would indicate that he was not for civil rights, but human rights. When asked about the Nation of Islam undermining the efforts of integrationists by preaching racial separation, Malcolm’s response was “It is not integration in America that Negroes want, it is human dignity.” Malcolm X regularly criticized civil rights leaders for advocating the integration of African Americans into white society. He believed that African Americans should be building Black institutions and businesses and defending themselves against racist violence based opposition from both conservative and liberals.  Until he joined the ancestors, Malcolm X was a staunch believer in Black Nationalism, Black Self-determination and Black Self-organization. He will begin to lobby with the newly independent African nations to protest in the United Nations about the American abuse of their Black citizens human rights, when he was assassinated in 1965. His story will be immortalized in the book “Autobiography of Malcolm X,” ghostwritten by Alex Haley.

1930 – Lorraine Hansberry is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will become a noted playwright and will be best known for her play, “A Raisin in the Sun.” On March 11, 1959, when it opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, it will become the first Broadway play written by an African American woman. Her other works will include “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” “To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words,” “Les Blancs,” and “The Movement: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality.” She will join the ancestors on January 12, 1965.

1952 – Grace Mendoza is born in Spanishtown, Jamaica. She will move with her family to Syracuse, New York at the age of 12. She will become a performance artist known as Grace Jones and a transatlantic model for the Ford and Wilhemina agencies. She will later write music and perform as a singer. Her releases will extend from 1977 through 1998. She also will succeed as a movie star appearing in the movies “A View to a Kill,” “Conan the Destroyer,” and “Deadly Vengeance.”

1965 – Patricia Harris is named U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg. She is the first African American woman to become an ambassador for the U.S.

1968 – Piano stylist and vocalist, Bobby Short, gains national attention as he presents a concert with Mabel Mercer at New York’s Town Hall. He has been the featured artist at the intimate Hotel Carlisle for years.

1969 – Coleman Randolph Hawkins joins the ancestors in New York City at the age of 65. He was responsible for the coming of age of the tenor saxophone in jazz ensembles and called the “father of the tenor saxophone.”

1973 – Stevie Wonder moves to the number one position on the “Billboard” pop music chart with “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”. It is the third number one song for Wonder, following earlier successes with “Fingertips, Part 2” in 1963 and “Superstition” in 1973. He will have seven more number one hits between 1973 and 1987: “You Haven’t Done Nothin'”, “I Wish”, “Sir Duke”, “Ebony & Ivory” (with Paul McCartney), “I Just Called to Say I Love You”, “Part-Time Lover” and “That’s What Friends are for”.

1991 – Willy T. Ribbs becomes the first African American driver to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. During the race, which occurs the following week, Ribbs will be forced to drop out due to engine failure. 

20 May 1746 – 1985

1746 – Francois-Dominique Toussaint L’Ouverture is born into slavery in Haiti. He will lead the revolution in his country against French and English forces to free the slaves. Although he will nominally rule in the name of France, he will in actuality become political and military dictator of the country. His success in freeing the slaves in Haiti caused his name to become the biggest influence in the slave cabins of the Americas. His name will be whispered in Brazil, in the Caribbean, and the United States.

1868 – The Republican National Convention, meeting in Chicago, nominates U.S. Grant for the presidency. The convention marks the national debut of African American politicians. P.B.S. Pinchback of Louisiana and James J. Harris were delegates to the convention. Harris will be named to the committee which informed Grant of his nomination. African Americans also serve for the first time as presidential electors. Robert Meacham will be a presidential elector in Florida. The South Carolina electoral ticket will include three African American Republican leaders, B.F. Randolph, Stephen A. Swails, and Alonzo J. Ransier.

1951 – The New York branch of the NAACP honors Josephine Baker for her work to combat racism. Baker, the American chanteuse who was acclaimed in Europe, had led a personal crusade to force integration of clubs where she appeared in Miami and Las Vegas. She also campaigned against segregated railroad facilities in Chicago and buses in Oakland.

1961 – A mob attacks freedom riders in Montgomery, Alabama. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy dispatches four hundred U.S. marshals to Montgomery to keep order in the freedom rider controversy.

1964 – Buster Mathis defeats Joe Frazier to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team.

1971 – A Pentagon report states that African Americans constituted 11 per cent of U.S. soldiers in Southeast Asia. The report also states that 12.5 per cent of all soldiers killed in Vietnam since 1961 were African American.

1985 – Larry Holmes retains the heavyweight boxing title of the International Boxing Federation in Reno, Nevada by defeating Carl Wilson in 15 rounds. The fight marks the first heavyweight title fight in Reno since Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries fought there in 1910. 

21 May 1833 – 1985

1833 – Oberlin College is founded in Ohio “to train teachers and other Christian leaders for the boundless most desolate fields in the West.” After almost going bankrupt in 1835, Oberlin will become the first college in the United States to admit African Americans. Arthur and Lewis Tappan, wealthy New York merchants and abolitionists, will insist that Oberlin admit students regardless of their color, as a condition of their financial support. As a result of this decision, by 1900, nearly half of all the African American college graduates in the United States — 128 to be exact — will be graduated from Oberlin.

1862 – Mary Jane Patterson becomes the first African American woman to earn an B.A degree from the four-year gentleman’s course at Oberlin College in Ohio.

1904 – Thomas “Fats” Waller, is born in New York City. He will become a celebrated jazz pianist, organist, and composer. Early in the 1920s, Waller will become the protege of the famous pianist James P. Johnson and later will accompany such important vocalists as Florence Mills and Bessie Smith. His hundreds of recordings, including some early piano rolls, encompass ragtime, boogie woogie, dixieland, and swing, although in his hands these styles are deftly recomposed into a unique Waller sound that will influence most of the jazz pianists of the following generation. His appearances on radio and in several motion pictures (notably “Stormy Weather,” 1943) will bring Waller’s talents to a wide audience. A major jazz creator, he will write complete scores for such all-African-American shows as “Keep Shufflin'” (1928) and “Hot Chocolates” (1929) as well as many single pieces, especially the now-classic “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” and “Black and Blue.” He will join the ancestors in 1943.

1921 – Christopher Perry, who founded the Philadelphia Tribune in 1884, joins the ancestors in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the age of 65.

1941 – Ronald Isley is born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He will become a singer and with his brothers O’Kelly, Rudolph and Vernon Isley will form the group, The Isley Brothers. They will leave Cincinnati in 1956 and go to New York City to pursue their musical career. Ronald and his brothers will obtain fame and success nationally and internationally earning numerous platinum and gold albums which contain such classic hits as “Shout,” “Twist and Shout,” “It’s Your Thing,” “Who’s That Lady,” “Fight the Power,” “For the Love of You,” “Harvest For The World,” “Live It Up,” “Footsteps in the Dark,” “Work to Do,” “Don’t Say Good Night” and many others.

1955 – After being introduced to Leonard Chess, by bluesman Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry goes into a recording session for Chess Records, performing a restyled version of his song “Ida Red”. What comes out of that hot session will be Ida Red’s new name and Chuck Berry’s first hit, “Maybellene”. “Maybellene” will top the Rhythm & Blues charts at #1, and the pop charts at #5.

1961 – Freedom Riders are attacked in Montgomery, Alabama. The third city in which the CORE-sponsored group is attacked, the incident prompts Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to send U.S. marshals to keep the peace while Governor Patterson of Alabama declares martial law and dispatches the National Guard to the troubled area.

1964 – Elder Garnet Hawkins is elected by the 176th General Assembly and becomes the first African American moderator of the United Presbyterian Church. Born in New York City on June 13, 1908, he received his bachelor’s degree in 1935 at Bloomfield College in Bloomfield, New Jersey and his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in 1938. He built his church from nine African American members to an integrated congregation of more than 1,000. He also became the first moderator of the Presbyterian Church to visit the Roman Catholic Pope. He will join the ancestors in 1977.

1969 – Police and National Guardsmen fire on demonstrators at North Carolina A&T College. One student is killed and five policemen are injured.

1970 – The National Guard is mobilized to stop widespread demonstrations and violence at Ohio State University. The interracial student demonstrators demand an end to ROTC programs and greater admissions for African-American students.

1971 – Riots in Chattanooga, Tennessee, result in one death and 400 arrests as National Guard troops are called to put down the racially motivated disturbances.

1973 – The sensual, “Pillow Talk”, by Sylvia (Sylvia Vanderpool), earns a gold record. The artist first recorded with Hot Lips Page for Columbia Records back in 1950 and was known as Little Sylvia. She was also half of the singing duo Mickey & Sylvia, who recorded “Love Is Strange” in 1957. “Pillow Talk” is her only solo major hit and will make it to number three on the pop music charts.

1975 – Lowell W. Perry is confirmed as chairman of the Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

1985 – Marvin Gaye’s last album is released. “Dream of a Lifetime” features songs that critics consider too offensive such as the controversial, pop version of “The Lord’s Prayer”. Three of the songs from the album are completed after Gaye’s joins the ancestors. Marvin Gaye will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. 

22 May 1848 – 1994

1848 – Slavery is abolished on the French island of Martinique. Abolition will create a shortage of labor in Martinique given many former slaves preferred not to work in the sugar cane plantations. To solve the problem, indentured servants will be brought from China and India.

1863 – The War Department establishes the Bureau of Colored Troops and launches an aggressive campaign for the recruitment of African American soldiers.

1940 – Bernard Shaw is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will become a journalist and the principal Washington anchor for Cable News Network, where he will be widely respected for his coverage of world summit meetings, the historic student demonstrations in Beijing, Presidential primaries and elections, and the Gulf War.

1941 – Paul Winfield is born in Los Angeles, California. He will become an actor and will star in the movies “Tyson,” “Breathing Lessons,” “Carbon Copy,” “Cliffhanger,” “Dennis the Menace,” “Presumed Innocent,” “Sounder,” “The Terminator,” and “Star Trek 2.”

1948 – Harlem Renaissance poet and author Claude McKay joins the ancestors in Chicago, Illinois at the age of 58. His novel “Home to Harlem” (1928) became the first best-seller written by an American of African descent.

1959 – Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African American major general in the U.S. Air Force. In doing so, he improves upon the accomplishment of his father, Davis Sr., who was the first African American general in the U.S. Army.

1961 – The Attorney General orders two hundred additional U.S. Marshals to Montgomery, Alabama. This is in addition to the four hundred U.S. marshals already dispatched to Montgomery to keep order in the Freedom Rider controversy.

1961 – Ernie K-Doe, Ernest Kador Jr., joins the growing list of “One Hit Wonders” — recording artists who had only one hit. The song, “Mother- In-Law”, is Ernie’s one hit — and a number one tune on the nation’s pop music charts.

1966 – Bill Cosby, star of “I Spy,” receives an Emmy for best actor in a dramatic series, the first African American in the category. He will earn more than four Emmys.

1967 – Langston Hughes, noted poet, joins the ancestors in New York City. He was the author of the poetry collections “The Weary Blues,” “Not Without Laughter,” “The Way of White Folks,” the autobiographies “The Big Sea” and “I Wonder as I Wander, and plays and newspaper series. Hughes’s ashes will be buried at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.

1970 – Naomi Campbell is born in London, England. She will be discovered in a shopping mall when she is 15 years old. She will become a super model and will open a chain of “Fashion Cafe'” establishments along with models Claudia Schiffer, Elle MacPherson, and Christy Turlington.

1994 – A worldwide trade embargo against Haiti, led by the United States, goes into effect to punish Haiti’s military rulers for not reinstating the country’s ousted elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

23 May 1844 – 1975

1844 – Charles Edmund Nash is born in Opelousas, Louisiana. He will become the first African American representative to the U.S. House of Representatives from the State of Louisiana.

1878 – Attorney John Henry Smyth is named minister to Liberia. He will serve from 1878 to 1881 and again as minister from 1882 to 1885.

1900 – Civil War hero, Sergeant William H. Carney of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, becomes the first African American Congressional Medal of Honor winner. He will be cited almost 37 years after the Battle of Fort Wagner, where he carried the colors and led the charge after the original standard-bearer was shot.

1910 – Benjamin Sherman “Scatman” Crothers is born in Terre Haute, Indiana. He will become an entertainer and will appear in, or use his voice in over 52 films. A noted character actor, he will best known for his role in the TV series, “Chico and The Man.” Some of his best remembered films will be “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “The Shining,” “Lady Sings the Blues,” and “Roots.” He will also make numerous guest appearances on a variety of television programs. He will join the ancestors in 1986.

1920 – The Methodist Episcopal Church conference, meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, elects two African American bishops, Matthew W. Clair of Washington, DC, and Robert E. Jones of New Orleans, Louisiana.

1921 – “Shuffle Along,” the first of a popular series of musicals featuring all African American casts, opens at the 63rd Street Music Hall in New York City. The musical is written by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake and features Florence Mills and a young Josephine Baker in the chorus. William Grant Still and Hall Johnson play in the orchestra.

1941 – Joe Louis defends his heavyweight boxing title for the 17th successful time, as Buddy Baer is disqualified at the beginning of the seventh round. Baer’s manager refused to leave the ring when the round was ready to begin.

1954 – “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler is born in Newark, New Jersey. He will become the World Middleweight Champion in 1980. Hagler will make 12 successful title defenses. Among his victims will be Vito Antuofermo, Mustafa Hamsho, Roberto Duran, Juan Roldan, John “The Beast” Mugabi, and Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns. His thrilling three-round shootout with Hearns will be regarded as one of the best fights of all-time. His last fight will be in 1987 when Sugar Ray Leonard comes out of retirement and wins an exciting, but controversial 12-round split decision for the WBC middleweight title. Hagler will retire after Leonard does not give him a rematch. He will end his career with 62 wins, 3 losses, and 2 draws. He will be elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1993.

1961 – Twenty-seven Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi.

1975 – Loretta Mary Aiken, better known by her stage name of Jackie “Moms” Mabley, joins the ancestors in White Plains, New York at the age of 81. Best known as a comedienne, she began her career as a singer at the age of 14 and traveled the vaudeville circuit, appearing in theaters and nightclubs. Making her comedy recording debut in 1960, Mabley appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show as well as in movie roles.

24 May 1864 – 2000

1854 – Anthony Burns, celebrated fugitive slave, is arrested by United States Deputy Marshals in Boston, Massachusetts.

1861 – Major General Benjamin F. Butler declare slaves “contraband of war.”

1864 – Two regiments, the First and Tenth U.S. Colored Troops, repulse an attack by rebel General Fitzhugh Lee. Also participating in battle at Wilson’s Wharf Landing, on the bank of the James River, were a small detachment of white Union troops and a battery of light artillery.

1881 – Paul Quinn College is chartered in the State of Texas. The college, founded in 1872, had moved from its original site in Austin to Waco in 1877.

1905 – Martin Dihigo is born in Havana, Cuba. He will become a baseball player in the Negro Leagues and will be considered by some to be the greatest all-around player of all-time of African descent. He will be elected to the Cuban and Mexican Halls of Fame during his lifetime, and will be posthumously elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977.

1937 – Archie Shepp is born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He will become a renowned avant-garde jazz saxophonist and play with a variety of jazz greats including John Coltrane, Bobby Hutcherson, and Donald Cherry. He also will be a composer of jazz instrumental compositions and the play “Lady Day: A Musical Tragedy.” He will use free jazz as a vehicle for political expression and will be an important factor in the growing acceptance of African American identity. He will become an Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts but will continue his concert career at the same time, working mostly in Europe. He will be a seminal figure in the development of the New Music and influence many saxophonists of the avant-garde.

1944 – Patricia Louise Holt is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She will be better known as Patti LaBelle, organizer and lead singer of Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells in 1960. In the 1970’s, she will reconfigure the group and later reteam with Nona Hendryx and Sara Dash as LaBelle. In 1976, LaBelle will pursue a solo career, gain even more critical and popular acclaim, and win a 1992 Grammy.

1951 – Racial segregation in Washington, DC, restaurants is ruled illegal by the Municipal Court of Appeals.

1954 – Peter Marshall Murray is installed as president of the New York County Medical Society. He is the first African American physician to head an AMA affiliate.

1961 – Twenty-seven Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi.

1963 – The Organization of African Unity is founded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

1974 – Edward “Duke” Ellington joins the ancestors in New York City at the age of 75. For nearly half a century, Duke Ellington led the premier American big-band, and is considered by many sources to be the greatest composer in the history of jazz.

1983 – Jesse L. Jackson becomes the first African American to address a joint session of a state legislature in the 20th century, when he talks to the Alabama legislature.

1984 – Ralph Sampson of the Houston Rockets becomes the first unanimous choice for NBA Rookie of the Year since Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabar) of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1970.

1991 – Hal McRae is named manager of the Kansas City Royals. He will become one of two African American managers serving in major league baseball.

1993 – The African nation of Eritrea gains independence from Ethiopia.

2000 – Isiah Thomas and Bob McAdoo are elected to be enshrined in the 2000 class of the Basketball Hall of Fame. 

25 May 1878 – 1994

1878 – Tapdancing legend Bill “Bojangles” (Luther) Robinson is born in Richmond, Virginia. He will star in vaudeville and in many movies such as “The Littliest Rebel,” “In Old Kentucky,” “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,” and “The Little Colonel”.

1905 – Dorothy Burnett (later Wesley) is born in Warrenton, Virginia. She will become a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the first African American woman to receive a Masters of Library Science degree from Columbia University, and will author several African American historical works. She will be a long-time librarian at the Howard University Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and will be responsible for developing it into one of the world’s largest collections of material authored by and about people of African descent.

1919 – Millionaire Madame C.J. Walker joins the ancestors at the age of 52 at Irvington-on-the-Hudson, New York. She was the founder of the Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, the largest African American haircare company of its time. After her death, a substantial portion of her business’s proceeds will be donated to African American organizations and scholarships.

1932 – K.C. Jones is born in San Francisco, California. He will become a member of the Olympic basketball team and help win the 1956 Olympic Gold Medal. He will then become a professional basketball player with the Boston Celtics, where he will help win eight NBA titles. He will then win two championships as the coach of the Celtics. He will also be the head coach of the Washington Bullets and the Seattle Supersonics. He will have 522 wins as a NBA coach and in 1997 will become the coach of American Basketball League women’s team, the New England Blizzard. After the league disbands, he will join the coaching staff of the women’s basketball team at the University of Rhode Island, at the age of 67.

1935 – This is “the greatest day in the history of track,” according to “The New York Times.” Jesse Owens of Ohio State University breaks two world sprint records, ties a third, and breaks a long jump world record in a meet at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, all in one hour.

1936 – David Levering Lewis is born in Little Rock, Arkansas. He will become a historian and biographer. Professor Lewis will receive his Ph.D. in modern European history from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1962. His research and publications will focus on African American history, conceptions of race and racism, and the dynamics of European colonialism, especially in Africa. He will author a biography of Du Bois entitled “W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race,” which will win a Pulitzer prize in 1994. His other works include “King: A Biography” (1970), “Prisoners of Honor: The Dreyfus Affair” (1975), “When
Harlem Was in Vogue” (1982), “The Race to Fashoda: European colonialism and the African Resistance to the Scramble for Africa” (1987), and “W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader” (1995).

1943 – Leslie Uggams is born in Washington Heights, New York. She will make her acting debut on television’s “Beulah” and be a regular on The Mitch Miller Show before achieving acclaim in Broadway’s “Hallelujah Baby” and TV’s “Roots.”

1943 – A riot, started by white workers, occurs in a Mobile, Alabama shipyard over the job upgrading of twelve African American workers.

1959 – The U.S. Supreme Court declares a Louisiana law enforcing a ban on bouts between African American and white boxers to be unconstitutional.

1963 – The first observance of African Liberation Day occurs. It begins at the founding conference of the Organization of African Unity in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

1964 – The closing of schools to avoid desegregation is ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Prince Edward County, Virginia will have to reopen and desegregate its schools.

1965 – A very short heavyweight title fight occurs in Lewiston, Maine. Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) knocks out challenger, Sonny Liston, in one minute and 56 seconds of the first round. Liston never sees the punch coming. Neither did an unbelieving crowd at ringside, nor those in theatres all over the world watching the fight on closed-circuit TV.

1971 – A young African American woman, Jo Etha Collier, joins the ancestors after being killed in Drew, Mississippi by a bullet fired from a passing car. Three whites are arrested on May 26 and charged with the unprovoked attack.

1994 – The United Nations Security Council lifts a 10-year-old ban on weapons exports from South Africa, ending the last of its apartheid-era embargoes.

26 May 1799 – 1969

1799 – Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin is born in Moscow, Russia. He will be first published in the journal, “The Messenger of Europe” in 1814. Pushkin today is regarded as the Father of Russian Literature.

1899 – Aaron Douglas is born in Topeka, Kansas. He will become a world-renowned painter and muralist whose work will embrace the African ancestral arts and express pride in the African American image at a time when doing so was highly unpopular.  His most famous works will be “Aspects of Negro Life,” “Let My People Go,” “Judgment Day” and “Building More Stately Mansions.”

1907 – Elizabeth Keckley, seamstress and confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln, joins the ancestors after succumbing to a paralytic stroke in Washington, DC.  Keckley was the author of “Behind the Scenes or Thirty Years a Slave,” and “Four Years in the White House” (1868), one of the first insider accounts of a White House Presidency.

1926 – Miles (Dewey) Davis is born in Alton, Illinois.  For over four decades, he will be one of the most innovative and influential jazz trumpeters, known for his hard bop and jazz and fusion accomplishments.  Most noted for the albums “Sketches of Spain,” “Miles Smiles,” and “Kind of Blue,” he will also win three Grammy awards for his albums “We Want Miles,” “Decoy,” and “Tutu” and be awarded the French Legion d’Honneur in 1991.

1943 – President Edwin Barclay of Liberia, becomes the first African president to pay an official visit to an American president, arriving at the White House.

1949 – Philip Michael Thomas is born in Columbus Ohio.  He will become an actor and will be best known for his role the TV series, “Miami Vice.”  He also will have roles in the movies “Homeboy,” “Stigma,” “Streetfight,” “Black Fist,” “Miami Vice-The Movie,” “Miami Vice 2 – The Prodigal Son,” “A Fight For Jenny,”  “Death Drug,” “A Little Piece Of Sunshine,” “Sparkle,” and “The Wizard of Speed and Time.”

1961 – The Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee is established in Atlanta, Georgia.

1968 – Ruth A. Lucas is promoted to Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, the first African American woman to achieve this rank.

1968 – Arthur Ashe wins the National Men’s Singles in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association Open Tournament, becoming the first African American male to win a major tennis title.

1969 – The National Black Economic Development Conference adopts a manifesto in a Detroit meeting, calling for $500 Million in reparations from white churches.

27 May 1863 – 1975

1863 – Captain Andre’ Callioux and his Native Guard Regiment, which had once fought for the Confederacy, charge Port Hudson, Louisiana. The Union Army Guard, intent on disproving white contentions that “Negroes” lacked the intelligence for combat, will make six different assaults on the stronghold.

1917 – One African American is killed and hundreds are left homeless in race riots in East St. Louis, Illinois.

1935 – Ramsey Lewis is born in Chicago, Illinois.  While attending Chicago Musical College, he will form the Gentlemen of Swing (later called The Ramsey Lewis Trio) with The Cleff’s old rhythm section, Eldee Young (bass) and Redd Holt (drums). Their weekend gig will catch the attention of an influential deejay (Daddio-O-Dayle), who convinces blues   record company owner Phil Chess to expand into jazz and sign the trio.  From the start (1958) their records were popular, although in the early days they had a strong jazz content.  In 1958 Lewis will also record with Max Roach and Lem Winchester.   On the 1965 albums “The In Crowd” and “Hang On Sloopy,” Ramsey will make the piano into a major attraction and from that point on, his records will become much more predictable and pop-oriented.  In 1966, his trio’s personnel will change with bassist Cleveland Eaton and drummer Maurice White (later the founder of Earth, Wind and Fire) joining Lewis.  In the 1970s Lewis will often play electric piano, although by later in the decade, he was sticking to acoustic and hiring an additional keyboardist.  He plays melodic jazz when he wants to, but will stick to easy-listening pop music during the his career.

1936 – Louis Gossett, Jr. is born in Brooklyn, New York.  He will make his acting debut at 17 in “Take a Giant Step” and act in numerous stage, film and television roles including Fiddler in “Roots,” for which he will win an Emmy.   His portrayal of the tough drill instructor in “An Officer and a Gentleman” will win him an Academy Award as best supporting actor in 1982, the third African-American to win an Oscar for acting.

1941 – A race riot begins in East St. Louis, Illinois. After four days of rioting, one African American will be killed.

1942 – Dorie Miller, a messman from Waco, Texas, is awarded the Navy cross for his heroic deeds at Pearl Harbor.  The Cross is pinned on his chest by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.

1958 – Ernest Green graduates from Little Rock’s Central High School with six hundred white classmates, becoming the first of the “little Rock Nine” to graduate from high school.

1961 – Ralph Boston of the United States, sets the long jump record.

1965 – Todd Bridges is born in San Francisco, California.  He will become a child actor and is best known for his roles in the TV series “Diff’rent Strokes,” and “Fish.”

1968 – The Supreme Court orders schools to present a realistic desegregation plan immediately.  The ruling comes almost 13 years to the day after the Court’s “all deliberate speed” desegregation order in 1955.

1975 – Ezzard Charles, former heavyweight boxing champion, joins the ancestors in Chicago at the age of 53.

28 May 1863 – 1991

1863 – The first African American regiment from the North leaves Boston to fight in the Civil War.

1910 – Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker is born in Linden, Texas.  He will become a creator of the modern blues and a pioneer in the development of the electric guitar sound that will shape virtually all of popular music in the post-World War II period.   Equally important, Walker will be the quintessential blues guitarist.   He will influence virtually every major post-World War II guitarist, including B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Freddie King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

1936 – Betty Sanders is born in Detroit, Michigan.  She will become the wife of El Hajj Malik Shabazz (Malcolm X), Hajja Betty Bahiyah Shabazz. After the assassination of Malcolm, she will show herself to be a very strong individual in her own right. She will face the difficulty of raising six children after witnessing Malcom’s tragic death. In order to support herself and her children, she will go back to school, earning three degrees including a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts. She will teach others and become an international figure of dignity and discipline. She will work on Jesse Jackson’s campaigns for the presidency, and will work in the African liberation struggle to free Angola, Namibia and South Africa, and to bring democracy to Haiti.  She will join the ancestors on June 23, 1997 after succumbing to injuries received in a fire at her New York home. At the time she will be the director of Institutional Advancement and Public Relations at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York.

1944 – Gladys Knight is born in Atlanta, Georgia.  Making her first public appearance at age four, she will win first place on Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour at seven.  A member of the “Gladys Knight and the Pips” since the early 1950’s, Knight will remain with the popular group for over 30 years before pursuing a successful solo career.

1951 – Willie Mays gets his first major league hit, a home run.

1962 – A suit alleging de facto school segregation is filed in Rochester, New York, by the NAACP.

1966 – Percy Sledge hit number one with his first — and what turned out to be his biggest — hit. “When a Man Loves a Woman” would stay at the top of the pop music charts for two weeks.   It will be the singer’s only hit to make the top ten and a million seller.

1974 – Cicely Tyson wins two Emmy awards for best actress in a special and best actress in a drama for her portrayal of a strong Southern matriarch in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.”

1974 – Richard Pryor wins an Emmy for his writing contributions on the Lily Tomlin special “Lily.”

1981 – Mary Lou Williams joins the ancestors in Durham, North Carolina at the age of 71. A jazz pianist who played with Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, Earl “Fatha” Hines, and Benny Goodman, she formed her own band in 1943.  Williams was known for her jazz masses including one “Mary Lou’s Mass” that was choreographed by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1971.

1991 – Journalist Ethel L. Payne joins the ancestors in Washington, DC at the age of 79.

29 May 1910 – 1999

1910 – Ralph Metcalfe is born in Atlanta, Georgia.  He will become a world record holder in the 100-yard and 200-yard dashes and win a bronze medal in the 1932 Olympic Games and gold and silver medals in the 1936 Games.   He will also become a four-term congressman representing Illinois’s 1st District.

1938 – Ronald Milner is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will become trained as a writer and will exhibit his skills as a playwright when he produces his first play , “Who’s Got His Own” on Broadway in 1966. In 1969, he will help start “The Black Theater Movement,” which will promote plays in which African Americans could represent their lives on stage. His works will include “What The Wine-Sellers Buy,” “Jazz Set,” “Don’t Get God Started,” and “Checkmates.”

1944 – Maurice Bishop is born in Aruba and will be raised in Grenada. While attending college in England during the early 1960s, he will become involved in the Black Power Movement and be heavily influenced by Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. Kwame Nkrumah, and Walter Rodney, the Guyanese activist. After returning to Grenada in 1970, he will cofound a political organization, “Movement for Assemblies of the People.” This organization will later merge with another political group, forming the “New Jewel Movement.” After constant conflict with, and harassment by, Grenada’s ruling regime, Bishop will become the minority leader in the Grenadian government in 1976. In 1979, Bishop will become the Prime Minister after leading a bloodless coup. He will develop close ties with Castro’s Cuba and will obtain government funding from Cuba and the Soviet Union. These relationships will cause the United States to impose sanctions against Grenada which leading to internal turmoil in the Grenadian ruling party. After a party split, Bishop and his primary supporters will be executed in October of 1983. Using this event as an excuse to involve themselves in the politics of the region, the United States will invade Grenada and keep a “peacekeeping” mission on the island until 1985.

1950 – Maureen “Rebbie” Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana.  Rebbie will make her professional debut at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with her siblings, the Jackson’s.  In the late 70s, she will begin to consider a solo career.  Artists such as Betty Wright and Wanda Hutchinson of the Emotions will mentor her, but it will be her brother Michael who pens and produces her very first hit, “Centipede.”  As the title track of Rebbie’s 1984 debut, “Centipede,” introduces the pop world to a Jackson most never knew existed.

1956 – La Toya Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana.  She will become a singer and one of the most controversial members of the Jackson family.  She will be referred to as “The Rebel With A Cause.” She will cause a big stir, when she poses for Playboy Magazine. Her book, “La Toya: Growing Up in the Jackson Family,” will be on the New York Times Best Seller List for nine weeks.  She will attract full capacity audiences in her performances all over the world.

1962 – Buck (John) O’Neil becomes the first African American coach in major league baseball.  He accepts the job with the Chicago Cubs.  O’Neil had previously been a scout with the Cubs organization.  He had been a notable first baseman in Black baseball.

1965 – Ralph Boston sets a world record in the broad jump at 27 feet, 4-3/4 inches, at a meet held in Modesto, California.

1969 – Artist and art educator James v. Herring joins the ancestors in Washington, DC.  Herring organized the first American art gallery to be directed and controlled by African Americans on the Howard University campus in 1930, founded and directed the university’s art department and, with Alonzo Aden, opened the famed Barnett-Aden Gallery in Washington, DC, in 1943.

1973 – Tom Bradley is elected the first African American mayor of Los Angeles, California.  Winning after a bitter defeat four years earlier by incumbent mayor Sam Yorty, Bradley, a Texas native and former Los Angeles Police Department veteran, will serve an unprecedented five terms.

1980 – Vernon E. Jordan Jr., President of the National Urban League, is critically injured in an attempted assassination in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

1999 – Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Nigeria’s first civilian president in 15 years, after a series of military regimes.

30 May 1822 – 1993

1822 – Denmark Vesey’s conspiracy to free the slaves of Charleston, South Carolina, and surrounding areas is thwarted when a house slave betrays the plot to whites.  Vesey’s bold plan had attracted over 9,000 slaves and freemen of the area including Peter Poyas, a ship’s carpenter, Gullah Jack, Blind Phillip, Ned Bennett and Mingo Harth.  Later it will be considered one of the most complex and elaborate slave liberation plans ever undertaken.

1831 – James Walker Hood is born in Kennett Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. He will become a minister in New York City in the A.M.E. Zion Church. He will become the first African American to publish a collection of sermons when he publishes “The Negro in the Christian Pulpit.” His other works will include “One Hundred Years of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church,” and “The Plan of The Apocalypse.” He will join the ancestors on October 30, 1918.

1854 – The Kansas-Nebraska Act repeals the Missouri Compromise and opens the Northern territory to slavery.

1902 – Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry is born in Key West, Florida.  He will become the first real African American film star known as “Stepin Fetchit.”  Many sources will cite 1892, 1896, or 1898 as his birth date, but he will maintain his birth date as 1902.  He will star in many films, among which are “Amazing Grace,” “The Sun Shines Bright,” “Miracle in Harlem,” and “Judge Priest.”  His humbling, ingratiating style of acting will appeal to the movie-going public of his day, but unfortunately becomes a stereotype for African American actors in the early years of cinema.

1903 – Countee Cullen is born in Louisville, Kentucky.  Many sources will state that his birthplace is New York City, but Cullen will be reared in New York City by his paternal grandmother until 1918, when he is adopted by the Reverend Frederick Asbury Cullen, minister of Salem M.E. Church, one of the largest congregations in Harlem.  This will be a turning point in his life, for he will be introduced into the very center of black activism and achievement.  He will win a citywide poetry contest as a schoolboy and see his winning stanzas widely reprinted.  He will attend New York University (B.A., 1925), win the Witter Bynner Poetry Prize, and be elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Major American literary magazines will accept his poems regularly, and his first collection of poems, “Color” (1925), will be published to critical acclaim before he finishes college.   His several volumes of poetry will include “Copper Sun” (1927); “The Black Christ” (1929); and “On These I Stand” (published posthumously, 1947), his selection of poems by which he wished to be remembered.   Cullen will also write a novel dealing with life in Harlem, “One Way to Heaven” (1931), and a children’s book, “The Lost Zoo” (1940). He will join the ancestors on January 9, 1946.

1915 – Henry Aaron Hill is born in St. Joseph, North Carolina. He will become a trained chemist and will receive his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1942. He will become founder and president of the Riverside Research Laboratory in 1961. In 1977, he will become the first African American president of the American Chemical Society. He will join the ancestors on March 17, 1979.

1943 – James Earl Chaney is born in Meridian, Mississippi. He will become a civil rights activist and joins the Congress For Racial Equality. During Freedom Summer (1964 – when civil rights organizations begin an extensive voter registration and desegregation campaign in Mississippi), he will join the ancestors after being killed by the Ku Klux Klan in Greenwood along with two white civil rights activists.

1943 – Gale Sayers is born in Wichita, Kansas.  He will become an outstanding running back and a first-round draft pick of the Chicago Bears in 1965. He will set the individual game record for touchdowns scored (six).  He will be elected to the Football Hall of Fame in 1977, the youngest player ever to receive the honor.

1949 – Lydell Mitchell is born.  He will become a football player and All-American running back at Pennsylvania State University in 1971.  He will go on to play for the Baltimore Colts from 1972 to 1977.  While at Baltimore, he will set the Colts’ record for rushing attempts (1391) and rushing yards (5487).

1953 – Eric Arthur “Dooley” Wilson joins the ancestors in Los Angeles, California at the age of 59. He was a popular jazz drummer in Europe and America. He also worked as an actor, his most notable part playing the pianist “Sam” in the movie “Casablanca.” He also appeared in the movies “Stormy Monday” and “Night in New Orleans.”

1956 – African Americans begin a bus boycott in Tallahassee, Florida with the goal of desegregating bus seating.

1965 – Vivian Malone becomes the first African American to graduate from the University of Alabama, a college that had been one of the last bastions of racial segregation in the South.

1967 – The state of Biafra secedes and declares its independence from Nigeria. Biafra is inhabited primarily by Igbos (also spelled Ibos) who live in southeastern Nigeria.  Two months after independence, Nigeria will attack Biafra and start a war that will last until 1970 with Biafra’s surrender. Over a million people will die due to war and famine.

1971 – Willie Mays scores his 1,950th run.

1993 – Herman “Sonny” Blount joins the ancestors in Birmingham, Alabama at the age of 79. He had been a prominent jazz bandleader, arranger and pianist. He was better known as “Sun Ra,” and was the founder of Saturn Records. Three documentaries produced about Sun Ra were “The Cry of Jazz” (1959), “Space is the Place” (1971) and “Sun Ra: A Joyful  Noise” (1980).

31 May 1870 – 1989

1870 – The first civil rights Enforcement Act, which protects the voting and civil rights of African Americans, is passed by Congress.  It provides stiff penalties for public officials and private citizens who deprive citizens of the suffrage and civil rights.  The measure authorizes the use of the U.S. Army to protect these rights.

1909 – The first NAACP conference is held at the United Charities Building in New York City with 300 African Americans and whites in attendance. Ida B. Wells-Barnett, while speaking at the conference, condemns lynching as a “blight upon our nation, mocking our laws and disgracing our Christianity.”

1917 – One of the first jazz records, “The Darktown Strutter’s Ball,” is released.  It was written by songwriter and musician, Shelton Brooks.  It will become Brooks’ most famous song.

1933 – Shirley Verrett is born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  She will become an operatic mezzo-soprano known worldwide for her compelling performance in Carmen. She will be a star at the world s great opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Bolshoi Opera, the Paris Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Vienna Staatsoper, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She will appear at the Metropolitan opera for more than two decades. She will be the recipient of many honors and awards, among them the Marian Anderson Award, Naumburg Award, and the Sullivan Award; and fellowships from numerous foundations including Ford, John Hay Whitney, and Martha Baird Rockefeller. She will receive honorary doctorates from Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Northeastern University in Boston. She will join the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1996, becoming the James Earl Jones Distinguished University Professor of Music.

1955 – The U.S. Supreme Court passes a second desegregation ruling, demanding “all deliberate speed” be used in the desegregation of public schools.

1961 – Judge Irving Kaufman orders the Board of Education of New Rochelle, New York to integrate their schools.

1961 – Chuck Berry’s amusement park, Berryland, opens near St. Louis, Missouri.

1979 – Zimbabwe proclaims its independence.

1987 – John Dotson is named publisher of the Boulder, Colorado, “Daily Camera.”   It is one of many distinctions for the noted journalist, including being the first African American reporter for Newsweek magazine and founding, in the mid-1970’s, the Institute for Journalism Education, dedicated to training minority journalists.

1989 – Cito Gaston is named manager of the Toronto Blue Jays of baseball’s American League.