April 14
1865—President Abraham Lincoln is shot and critically wounded at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln would linger for several hours, but died at 7:22 a.m. the following day, April 15. A debate still rages among historians as to how broad-based the conspiracy was to assassinate Lincoln. Regardless, it is clear that Booth was a racist who supported slavery and the South during the Civil War. Originally, he was part of a plot to kidnap Lincoln and hold him in exchange for captured Confederate soldiers. But on April 9, 1865, Confederate troops under Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox. Later that day, Lincoln gave a speech suggesting that the ex-slaves be given the right to vote. The speech infuriated Booth and thus the plot to kidnap Lincoln was converted into a plot to assassinate him. Booth escaped capture for 12 days. But on April 26, 1865, he was cornered by federal forces and shot and killed during a gun battle. Four of his fellow conspirators, including one woman, were tried and hanged. The assassination of Lincoln changed the course of history for Blacks. While Lincoln was not as great a supporter of Black rights as he has often been portrayed, he was a much greater supporter than the man who replaced him in office—Vice President Andrew Johnson. Johnson actually sympathized with the Southern slave-owning aristocracy and opposed most civil and virtually all voting rights for Blacks. The pro-Black legislation of the Reconstruction period was normally passed over his objection or veto. Nevertheless, Johnson is one of the primary reasons the Reconstruction period only lasted 12 years. He helped lay the foundation for the Jim Crow period beginning around 1880 during which time Black political and civil rights were systematically taken away. This probably would not have happened if Lincoln had not been assassinated.
April 15
1899—Asa Phillip Randolph, organizer of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, was born in Crescent City, Fla. Randolph brought the power of unionism to Black America. He also used his position as the nation’s number one Black union leader to become one of the major civil rights leaders of his era. More than anyone else, it was Randolph who organized the historic March on Washington during which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech.
Asa Phillip Randolph
Ironically, as a young man Randolph left Florida and moved to New York to become an actor. Instead, he became involved with the Socialist Party and helped develop a magazine known as The Messenger. The editorial slant of the magazine describes Randolph as “midway between the cautious elitism of the NAACP and the utopian populism of Marcus Garvey.” Randolph died May 16, 1979.
1922—Harold Washington, the first Black and 42nd mayor of Chicago, is born in Chicago.
April 16
1862—President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill ending slavery in Washington, D.C. Approximately nine months later he would issue the Emancipation Proclamation which had a highly emotional and symbolic impact but actually freed very few slaves when it was first pronounced. The Proclamation targeted slaves in the South. But at the time, Lincoln had virtually no control over the rebellious slave-owning Southern states.
1929—The now little known, but one of the grandest voices in African-American history is born on this day in Leesburg, Ga.—Roy Hamilton. Hamilton’s baritone voice made him a hit during the 1950s. His most memorable songs were “Unchained Melody” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
1947—Basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is born Lewis Alcindor in New York City. His more than seven-foot frame would make him a dominant player in professional basketball.
2010—The National Center for Health Statistics releases a report showing that a whopping 72.3 percent of Black babies are born to unmarried women. The same report revealed that Hispanic women had the highest birthrate in the nation (98.6 births per 1,000 women) followed by Asian American women (71.4); Black women (71.2) and White women (59.6).
April 17
1872—Activist and fiery journalist William Monroe Trotter is born on this day in Boston, Mass. A close friend of W.E.B. Du Bois, Trotter was one of the most militant Black leaders of the late 1800s and early 1900s. He helped found the Niagara Movement, which led to the establishment of the NAACP but then refused to join, claiming the group was too moderate and elitist. He was also a leading opponent of the accommodating policies of Booker T. Washington. Trotter’s primary vehicle of expression was his newspaper—the Boston Guardian.
April 18
1818—Military leader Andrew Jackson (later president) leads the defeat of a force of Indians and Blacks at the Battle of Suwanee, bringing an end to the First Seminole War. The Seminoles had been the target of a government military campaign because they possessed lands, which Whites in Florida greatly desired, and because they had provided safe haven for escaped slaves. Indeed, Blacks such as John Horse would become major Seminole leaders. It would take at least two more major military campaigns before the Seminoles and their Black allies lost possession of those lands.
1977—Alex Haley, author of “Roots,” is awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
April 19
1910—The National Urban League is formed in New York City. It was born out of a merger of the National League for the Protection of Colored Women, National League on Urban Conditions among Negroes and remnants of the Niagara Movement which had earlier help found the NAACP. Among the leading organizers were Ruth Standish Baldwin and George Edmund Haynes. The organization was founded in part to be more focused on economic issues affecting Blacks than the NAACP. Today, it is generally considered the nation’s second most powerful civil rights organization after the NAACP.
1971—Walter Fauntroy becomes the first elected Congressional representative from the predominantly Black District of Columbia since Reconstruction. However, Fauntroy did not have voting rights. Indeed, down to this day, the Congressional Representative from Washington, D.C., is still not allowed to vote on major legislation. This bar was once common among capital cities. But today, America stands virtually alone among major nations in barring the residents of its capitol city from having a voting representative in its national legislature. Critics argue that the bar continues because the city is majority African-American.
1978—Max Robinson becomes the first African-American anchor of a major network television news program when he begins co-anchoring ABC nightly news from Chicago. The Richmond, Va., native died of AIDS in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 20, 1988.
April 20
1871—The Third Enforcement Act is enacted. The Act was designed to give the president greater powers to suppress the actions of terrorist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, as they attempted to stop Blacks from voting. In some instances, the racist groups used armed force to drive out integrated governments in several Southern cities. Under the Act, the president could declare such activities “rebellion against the government” and employ federal troops to restore order.
1899—Jazz great Edward “Duke” Ellington is born in Washington, D.C. Ellington was perhaps the greatest of the Jazz pioneers, popularizing Jazz with his performances, composing and his role as a bandleader. Ellington died in 1974.
1909—Jazz great Lionel Hampton is born in Louisville, Ky. Hampton was another of the great band leaders of the Jazz era. He was also known for his skills on the vibraphone. He died in 2002.
1971—The United States Supreme Court rules unanimously that the busing of students from schools of predominantly one race to schools populated most by students of another race was a constitutionally accepted method for integrating the nation’s public schools.
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