1781
California’s
second pueblo near San Gabriel, Nuestra Senora la Reina
de Los Angeles de Porciuncula (Los Angeles, California) is founded by forty-four
settlers, of whom at least twenty-six (by The Munirah Chronicle) or thirty (by Yenoba.com)
were descendants of Africans. Among the settlers of African descent, according
to H.H. Bancroft’s authoritative “History of California,” were “Joseph Moreno,
Mulatto, 22 years old, wife a Mulattress, five children; Manuel Cameron,
Mulatto, 30 years old, wife Mulattress; Antonio Mesa, Negro, 38 years old, wife
Mulattress, six children; Jose Antonio Navarro, Mestizo, 42 years old, wife,
Mulattress, three children; Basil Rosas, Indian, 68 years old, wife,
Mulattress, six children.”
1848
Louis Howard Latimer is born in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
A one-time draftsman and preparer of patents for Alexander Graham Bell, he will
later join the United States Electric Company, where he will patent a carbon
filament for the incandescent lamp. When he joins the ancestors on December 11,
1928, he will be eulogized by his co-workers as a valuable member of the “Edison
Pioneers,” a group of men and women who advanced electrical light usage in the United States.
1865
Bowie State College (now University) is established
in Bowie, Maryland.
1875
The Clinton Massacre occurs in Clinton, Mississippi.
Twenty to thirty African Americans are killed over a two-day period.
1908
Richard Wright, writer, was born in Natchez, MS.
With a limited formal education, he moved to Chicago, where he worked on menial jobs while
writing. In 1938, his book of short stories, “Uncle Tom’s Children”, was
published, and in 1940 his novel, “Native Son”, became internationally famous. He
will be among the first African American
writers to protest white treatment of African Americans.
He died in Paris, November 28, 1960.
1923
George Washington Carver, head of he Department of Research and Director of the Experimental Station
of the Tuskegee Institute received the 9th Spingarn Medal, the NAACP’s highest award, for
distinguished research in agricultural chemistry.
1942
Merald ‘Bubba’ Knight is born in Atlanta, Georgia.
He will become a singer with his sister Gladys Knight as part of her background
group, The Pips. They will record many songs including “Midnight Train to
Georgia,” “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me,” “I Heard It Through the
Grapevine,” “Every Beat of My Heart,” “Letter Full of Tears,” and “The Way We
Were/Try to Remember” medley.
1949
A riot
prevented Paul Robeson concert at Peekskill.
1953
Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs is born in New York City. He will become an actor and
will star in “Alien Nation,” “Rituals,” “Roots,” “Welcome Back, Kotter,” “Quiet
Fire,” “L.A. Heat,” and “L.A. Vice.”
1957
The
governor of Arkansas, Orval
Faubus, calls out the National Guard to stop nine African American students (The
Little Rock Nine) from
entering Central High School in Little
Rock, Arkansas. Three weeks later, President Dwight Eisenhower sends a
force of 1,000 U.S. Army paratroopers (The 101st Airborne) to Little Rock to guarantee the peaceful
desegregation of the public school.
1960
Damon Kyle Wayans is born in New York City, New York.
Hewill become an actor/comedian and will star in “In Living Color,” “Major
Payne,” “Blankman,” “Celtic Pride,” “The Great White Hype” and many others.
1981
Today is the
birthday of singer, Beyonce Knowles, of Destiny’s
Child. |
|
