This Week in Black History, Jan. 2-8

JOHN BIRKS ‘DIZZY’ GILESPIE

Week of January 2-8
January 2

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON

1831—William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879), one of the great White heroes of Black history, begins publishing the anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator, in Boston. Garrison was a fiery and strong-willed abolitionist who believed in the “immediate and complete” end of slavery. Thus, he ran afoul of not only the pro-slavery crowd but also those anti-slavery activists who favored a gradualist approach to the problem. He was so militant that he was imprisoned for libel because of his criticism of a merchant involved in the slave trade and at one point the state of Georgia offered a $5,000 reward for his arrest and conviction. According to Garrison, when it came to fighting slavery he was opposed to “timidity, injustice and absurdity.” His oft-repeated slogan as editor of The Liberator was, “I am in earnest; I will not equivocate; I will not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard.”
1837—The first National Negro Catholic Congress is held in Washington, D.C.

SADIE TANNER ­MOSSELL ALEXANDER

1898—Brilliant scholar Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander is born. She was the first Black woman to receive a doctorate in economics in America. She accomplished that feat in 1921 at the University of Pennsylvania at the age of 23. Later she earned a law degree and in 1927 became the first Black woman admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. She came from a distinguished family of educated and accomplished Blacks. She died in 1989.
1915—One of America’s most prominent historians, John Hope Franklin, is born. Perhaps his best known work on Black history is “From Slavery to Freedom.”
1954—Oprah Winfrey, talk show queen and Black America’s first recognized billionaire, is born in Kosciusko, Miss. (There is some debate. Winfrey may have been the second Black billionaire after Black Entertainment Television founder Bob Johnson.) Winfrey retired from the “Oprah Winfrey Show” in 2011 and started her own network named OWN.
January 3
1621—The first Black child is born in America. He was named William Tucker and he was born on a plantation in Jamestown, Va. His parents were Anthony and Isabella, who were among the first group of Black indentured servants (later slaves) brought to the American colonies in 1619. Indentured servants could work off so-called contracts and become free. But after 1619, all Africans brought to America were classified as slaves and only Whites were treated as indentured servants. (There is some dispute over the year of William Tucker’s birth. But it appears he was born in 1621 and Baptized in 1624.)

SAMMY YOUNGE JR.

1966—One of the most tragic and senseless events of the Civil Rights Movement occurs. Sammy Younge Jr. is shot and killed in Tuskegee, Ala., by White service station attendant Marvin Segrest for using the “Whites Only” restroom at the service station where Segrest worked. Younge was a 21-year-old Tuskegee Institute student and civil rights activist.
January 4
1777—Prince Hall, founder of the first Black Masonic lodge in America, petitions the Massachusetts legislature for funds to allow free Blacks to return to Africa. The petition was rejected and Hall went on to become a major leader in Boston’s Black community, as well as develop a nationwide influence by helping develop Black Masonic temples around the country.
1901—C.L.R. James is born on the West Indian island-nation of Trinidad. James is one of those not well known figures who greatly influenced radical Black intellectual thought from the 1930s to the 1970s. He was a Marxist who traveled the world advocating socialism and influencing developments in the Caribbean, the United States and England. James died in 1989.

RUBE FOSTER

1920—The legendary National Negro Baseball League is organized in Kansas City, Kan., by the “father of Black baseball,” Rube Foster. It is not widely known that under the 6’4” Foster’s leadership, not only did more than 4,000 Blacks get a chance to play professional baseball during the days when they were not allowed to play in the White-controlled major leagues but the Negro Baseball League became one of the largest Black-owned businesses in America. The teams represented Black communities and had major followings. They had names like the Pittsburgh Crawfords, the New York Black Yankees, the Birmingham Black Barons, the Chicago American Giants and the Atlanta Black Crackers. One of the unfortunate side effects of integration was the destruction of many Black businesses. Thus, when the White leagues broke the color barrier and hired Jackie Robinson in 1947, the Negro Baseball League gradually began to decline. Most of the teams were gone by 1960.
January 5
1911—Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity is formed at Indiana University. It goes on to become one of the nation’s leading Black Greek-letter organizations.

ALVIN AILEY JR.

1931—World famous choreographer Alvin Ailey is born in Rogers, Texas. During his life Ailey created more than 70 ballets. He died in 1989.
1943—Agricultural scientist George Washington Carver dies. Carver was renowned for his ability to develop new uses from everyday products. Indeed, he developed more than 300 products from the peanut and the sweet potato. He spent his professional career at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and was nicknamed the “Wizard of Tuskegee.” Carver is credited with helping to revolutionize American agriculture.
January 6
1820—The first organized return of a group of U.S. Blacks to Africa takes place. Records indicate that between 85 and 90 free Blacks boarded a ship in New York Harbor on this day for return to the “Motherland.” Ironically, the ship was named the “Mayflower to Liberia.” However, the Blacks actually went to British controlled Sierra Leone and, along with former British slaves. helped to found that nation.
1968—Movie director and screenwriter John Singleton is born in Los Angeles, Calif. Singleton is perhaps best known for his directing of the controversial movie “Boyz N The Hood.” For the film, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, becoming the first African American and youngest person to have ever been nominated for the award.

JOHN BIRKS ‘DIZZY’ GILESPIE

1993—Famed Jazz musician John Birks “Dizzy” Gilespie dies. He was an outstanding trumpeter and band director who also helped to create Bebop Jazz.
2003—Mamie Till Mobley dies at 81. She was the mother of Emmet Till, whose lynching at age 14 became one of the events which gave life and angry energy to the early years of the Civil Rights Movement. Till was tortured and killed for allegedly whistling at a White woman while on a trip to Mississippi. Amazingly the men who killed Till were found not guilty by an all-White jury, but the two would later brag to Look magazine that they had actually murdered Till.
January 7
From 4th Century AD—Ethiopian Christmas—known as Ganna—is celebrated on Jan. 7. Ethiopian Christianity was much closer to the Christian Coptic Church of Egypt and as a result never incorporated many of the dictates of the early Roman Catholic Church. Thus, a plausible argument can be made that Ethiopian Christianity is more pure (or less corrupted) than that which emerged from the early Christian Church in Europe. Regardless, the best scientific speculation is that Jesus was born neither on Dec. 25 nor Jan. 7. The most probable month of his birth is April.
1891—Zora Neale Hurston is born in Eatonville, Fla. She became one of the central figures in that great African-American cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. She excelled as a writer, folklorist and anthropologist.

MARIAN ANDERSON

1955—Marian Anderson debuts on this day at the New York Metropolitan Opera House as Alrica in Verdi’s operate “Mask Ball.” She was the first African-American to perform such an opera at a major opera house.
January 8

CALVIN SMITH (Right)

1866—Fisk University is founded in Nashville, Tenn., for recently freed slaves by the American Missionary Association. The college grows to become one of the leading Black institutions of higher learning in America by graduating several figures that played major roles in Black cultural, political and entertainment life.
1961—Calvin Smith, hall of fame track and field athlete, was born in Bolton, Miss. Smith ran track at the University of Alabama and in 1983 broke the 15-year-old world record in the 100 meter race. He went on to win a Gold medal as part of the United States 4 x 100 meter relay team at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and a Bronze medal in the 100 meter race at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

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