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1841
The thirty-five liberators of the ship Amistad set sail for Africa aboard the Gentleman.
1895
The French
novelist and playwright Alexandre
Dumas died.
1897
On this
date, Andrew Beard received a
patent for a device he called the 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.” This African-American inventor sold the rights to his design
for $50,000.00 and the railroad industry was revolutionized.
1904
On this
date, Eddie South was born.
He was an African-American jazz violinist. From Louisiana,
Missouri, a child prodigy, South graduated
from the Chicago Music College.
At the time, classical positions were not open to Black violinists in the
1920s, so South learned to play jazz (helped out by Darnell Howard). In the
early to mid-1920s, he worked in Chicago
with Jimmy Wade’s Syncopators, Charles Elgar and Erskine Tate. In 1928, a visit
to Europe (where he studied at the Paris Conservatoire) made a deep impression
on the violinist, particularly Budapest; later on, he would often utilize gypsy melodies as a basis for jazz improvising.
In 1931, South returned to Chicago,
where his regular band included bassist Milt Hinton. In 1937, while in Paris he recorded with
Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. South never had a major breakthrough
commercially in his American career. Classically trained, fluent in several
styles including swing, gypsy and Latin; he favored a warm, lyrical sound;
popular in Europe, where racial discrimination did not hinder his style.
He did work on radio and television but spent most of his life in relative
obscurity, playing in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. In later years he recorded for Chess and Mercury, and also made a final set released by Trip. South’s other early recordings (covering 1927-41) have been reissued on a pair of Classics CDs. One of the top violinists of the pre-bop era South was a brilliant technician who, were it not for the universal racism of the time, would probably have been a top classical violinist.
Eddie South died on April 25, 1962 in Chicago,
Illinois.
1928
Marjorie Joyner patented 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. U.S.
Patent #1,693,515.
1938
Albert “Al” Sampson was born on
this date. He is an African-American activist and minister.
From Everett, Massachusetts, he graduated from Everett High School in 1956
where he won the high school oratorical contest his senior year. While
attending Shaw University, he Called to the ministry and received his B.A.
in 1963. During that time, Sampson was president of the Shaw student body
and the campus, city and state chapters of the NAACP. He was arrested during
Raleigh’s student sit-ins and was selected by his fellow students to introduce
the first public accommodations bill in North Carolina history.
He became involved with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in
1962 and served as campaign manager for Leroy Johnson, Georgia’s first
black state senator. Sampson was ordained by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
at Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1966. He earned his master’s degree in cultural
studies from Governors State University in 1973 and his master’s of divinity
from McCormick Theological Seminary in 1977. He also worked with the Reverend
James Bevel to help organize Resurrection City for King’s Poor People’s
Campaign.
He was also Martin Luther King’s National Housing Director where he went to Europe to look at Industrial Housing Systems, and brought the first model affordable home to Chicago’s west side in a joint venture with the Amish Community of Nappannee, Indiana. Reverend Sampson became pastor of Fernwood United Methodist Church in Chicago in 1975, where he continues today. He played an important role in the campaign of the Mayor Harold Washington as a member of the Task Force for Black Political Empowerment.
Sampson is president of the National Black Farmers Harvest and Business
Trade Cooperative and serves on numerous boards and organizations that
stress the economic development of the Black community. Sampson is a former
Board Member of the largest black-owned bank in America, and held the position
of International Vice-President for Training Allied Workers International
Union (the only Black independent union recognized by the US Labor Dept.).
He’s listed in “Who’s Who Among Black Americans” (1989-1995) and was one of the
Spokespersons for the first Million Man March in 1995. He served as a scholar
consultant for the Black Heritage Bible and is currently the president of the
Metropolitan Council of Black Churches in Chicago.
1942
Jimi Hendrix was born on this date in 1942. He was an African-American blues and rock
guitarist known for his innovative playing of the electric guitar and as
a symbol of the 1960s youth counterculture.
Born, Johnny Allen
Hendrix, in Seattle, Washington, Hendrix’s father,
James “Al” Hendrix, later changes his son’s name to James Marshall. James
Marshall Hendrix eventually became known as Jimi Hendrix. He was of mixed African and Cherokee American ancestry. Hendrix taught himself to play the guitar and while in high school joined a rhythm and blues band that performed locally. From 1962 to 1965 he traveled throughout the United States as a lead guitarist for several rhythm and blues artists. In 1966, while leading his own band in Greenwich Village in New York City, where he had attracted a small following, Hendrix was noticed by British rock musician Chas Chandler, who took him to London and introduced him to Noel Redding, a bass player, and Mitch Mitchell, a drummer.
As a trio, they formed the group called The Jimi Hendrix Experience. With this
group Hendrix rapidly became popular in Europe, and his reputation preceded his
return to the United States. His appearance at the Monterey International Pop
Festival in 1967 was a watershed of his career. Also a point of reference that
year was the success of his album Are You Experienced? These two events lifted
him to instant rock stardom. Another album, Electric Ladyland (1968), was one
of the most influential rock records of the 1960s.
Hendrix was an outstanding blues guitarist working in a rock idiom. The melodic
lines of his extended solos were alternately ragged, soaring, or rhythmically
driving, while his phrasing was augmented by the use of extremely high volume
and electronic distortion. His playing had a sensuous, exotic quality that was
original and instantly recognizable. His music
will influence such groups as “Earth, Wind, and Fire,” “Living Colour,” and
“Sting.”
Jimi Hendrix died during his third European tour of complications resulting
from an apparent overdose of barbiturates on September 18th, 1970 in
London, England.
1944
“Mickey” Leland was born this date. He was an African-American politician and activist.
Born in Lubbock, Texas, George Thomas
Mickey Leland grew up in Houston. In 1970 he received a B.S. degree in
pharmacy from Texas Southern University in and was an instructor of clinical
pharmacy at the same school. As a student he also was involved in the civil
rights movement. Leland first ran for public office in 1972 when he won
election as a representative to the Texas state legislature.
He also became involved with party politics as a member of the Democratic
National Committee from 1976 to 1985. He served as a delegate to the Texas
Constitutional Convention in 1974. After winning a plurality in the Democratic
primary of 1978, Leland won the run off and in November. He succeeded Barbara
Jordan as representative from the Eighteenth District of Texas. Throughout
his terms in Congress Leland served on a number of committee’s. The Interstate
and Foreign Commerce (later Energy and Commerce) Committee, the Post Office
and Civil Service Committee and was chairman of the Subcommittee on Postal
Operations and Services. Leland served on the Committee on the District
of Columbia in the Ninety-sixth through Ninety-ninth Congresses.
Mickey Leland was instrumental in establishing the Select committee on Hunger
in 1984 and served as chairman through the remainder of his term. In addition
to his regular cabinet responsibilities, Leland was chairman of the
Congressional Black Caucus for the Ninety-ninth Congress. He also successfully
urged passage of stronger sanctions against the South African government. In
the summer of 1989, Leland, as he often had before, traveled to Ethiopia to
visit a United Nations refugee camp.
Sadly, on August 7 a plane carrying Leland, congressional staff members, State
Department officials, and Ethiopian escorts crashed in a mountainous region
near Gambela, Ethiopia, killing all on board. In his six terms as a
representative from Texas, Mickey Leland emerged as a national spokesman for
the problems of hunger in the United States and throughout the world.
1957
Federal
troops left Little
Rock, AR.
1951
Sixteen-year-old Hosea
Richardson becomes the first licensed African American jockey to ride on the Florida circuit.
1957
Dorothy Irene Height, YMCA official, is elected president of the National Council of Negro
Women.
1964
Robin Givens was born in New York City. She became a model and actress and gained
national prominence as a regular in the TV series “Head of the Class,” where from
1986 through 1991, she played Darlene Merriman, a prep-school type attending a
high school honors program. Though she was but one of an ensemble,
Givens’s participation in the series was hyped by the network on the occasion
of her marriage to boxing champ Mike Tyson. The marriage ended in divorce,
after only a few years, amidst accusations of brutality and infidelity. Givens
has proven she is not merely an adjunct to Mike Tyson’s fame with excellent
performances in such TV and movie projects as The Women of Brewster Place
(1989) and A Rage in Harlem (1991), and the TV series Courthouse. She also
starred in “Michael Jordan: An American Hero,” “Blankman,”
“Foreign Student,” “Boomerang,” and “Beverly Hills Madam.”
1968
Eldridge Cleaver, Minister of Information for the Black Panther Party, becomes a fugitive
from justice as a parole violator.
1976
Jaleel White was born on this date in Pasadena, California. He started acting in
commercials for Jack In The Box and other companies at the age of 3. His first
television role was on CBS’s The
Jeffersons in 1985. Jaleel White is best remembered as being the ever
annoying and loveable Steve Urkel for Warner Brother’s hit series Family Matters.
1989
Jennifer Karen Lawson assumes her duties as Executive Vice President for National Programming
and Promotion Services at the Public Broadcasting Service. The Alabama
native is the chief programming executive for PBS, determining which programs
are seen on the network. She is the first woman to hold such a position
at a major television network.
1990
Charles Johnson wins the National Book Award for his novel “Middle Passage,” a novel
about the adventures of a freed slave.
He is the fourth African American to win the award, formerly called the
American Book Award.
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