01 - 15 June

01 -15 June in Black History
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The intent of these pages is to bring attention to missing and sometimes unknown
"facts" in history. If you have information to contribute email it to: kkell3@hotmail.com.

01 June 1835 - 1966

1835 - The Fifth National Negro Convention recommends that Blacks remove the word "African" from the titles of their organizations and discontinue referring to themselves as "colored."

1843 - Sojourner Truth leaves New York and begins her career as an anti-slavery activist.

1868 - The Texas constitutional convention convenes in Austin with eighty-one whites and nine African Americans in attendance.

1868 - The Florida General Assembly meets in Tallahassee with fifty-seven whites and nineteen African Americans in attendance.

1868 - Solomon George Washington Dill, white ally of African American Republicans, is assassinated in his home by white terrorists. Dill had allegedly made "incendiary speeches" to South Carolina African Americans.

1921 - A major race riot occurs in the Greenwood section of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Twenty-one whites and sixty African Americans will be killed according to some sources. The destruction caused in the area referred to as "Black Wall Street," prompts the first American Red Cross response to a man-made disaster. The Red Cross will report that 1115 houses and businesses belonging to African Americans were burned down, and another 314 were looted. Their statistics will also show that 300 persons were killed, a much higher figure than chronicled by other historical sources. For more information about the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, go to http://members.aol.com/goreader/blkwallst.htm.

1935 - Frederick Eikerenkoetter is born in Ridgeland, South Carolina. He will receive a B.A. in Theology from the American Bible College in Chicago, Illinois in 1955 and become a minister better known as "Reverend Ike." He will be the first African American minister with a television show and will report a following of close to 7,000,000 by 1982.

1937 - Morgan Freeman is born in Memphis, Tennessee. Making his acting debut in an all African American cast of "Hello Dolly" in 1968, Freeman will also have a major role in the television program "The Electric Company" before breaking into movies. He will receive an Academy Award nomination for his role in "Street Smart," and star in "Clean and Sober" and Lean on Me." He will be nominated again for a supporting role in "Glory" and for his starring role in "Driving Miss Daisy." He will make his directing debut in 1993 with the film, "Bopha," a drama set in South Africa under the policy of apartheid.

1941 - The first African American tank battalion, the 758th, is activated.

1942 - The Marine Corps begins enlistment of African Americans at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

1948 - Johnny Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson joins the ancestors in Chicago, Illinois at the age of 34 after being murdered on the front steps of his home. He was a master of the blues harmonica and transformed the instrument from a novelty into a major component of Chicago-style blues. He will be inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1980.

1966 - Approximately 2,400 persons attend a White House Conference on Civil Rights.

02 June 1863 - 1997

1863 - Harriet Tubman leads a group of Union troops into Confederate territory.

1875 - James A. Healy is consecrated in a cathedral in Portland, Maine, becoming the first African American Roman Catholic bishop (Diocese of Maine).

1899 - African Americans observe a day of fasting called by the National Afro-American Council to protest lynchings and racial massacres.

1907 - Dorothy West is born in Boston, Massachusettts. She will become a writer at age of seven when the Boston Globe publishes her short story, "Promise and Fulfillment." She will become a leading writer during the Harlem Renaissance and will also become a performer, working as a cast member of the play, "Porgy." She will found two literary journals, "Challenge," and "New Challenge." She will move to Martha's Vineyard in 1945 and will live there for the remainder of her life, while producing the works "Living Is Easy," "The Wedding," and more than sixty short stories. She will join the ancestors in Boston, Massachusetts in August, 1998.

1911 - Claudio Brindis de Salas joins the ancestors in Buenos Aires, Argentina at the age of 58. He was an Afro-Cuban violinist and composer renown worldwide as a virtuoso. He had been referred to as "The Black Paganini" and "The King of the the Octaves."

1943 - The 99th Pursuit Squadron (Tuskegee Airmen), the first African American Army Air Corps unit, flies its first combat mission in the Mediterranean, strafing enemy positions on the Italian island of Pantelleria.

1951 - Kenneth I. Chenault is born in Mineola (Long Island), New York. He will become an attorney and join American Express in 1981, where he will become president of the company's Consumer Card and Financial Services Group in 1989 and one of the highest-ranking African Americans in corporate America.

1951 - Sergeant Cornelius H. Charlton, a member of Company C, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, is mortally wounded during the Korean War while his platoon was attacking heavily defended hostile positions on commanding ground. After his platoon leader was wounded and evacuated, Sgt. Charlton assumed command, rallied the men, and spearheaded the assault against the hill. Personally eliminating 2 hostile positions and killing 6 of the enemy with his rifle fire and grenades, he continued up the slope until the unit suffered heavy casualties and became pinned down. Regrouping the men he led them forward only to be again hurled back by a shower of grenades. Despite a severe chest wound, Sgt. Charlton refused medical attention and led a third daring charge which carried to the crest of the ridge. Observing that the remaining emplacement which had retarded the advance was situated on the reverse slope, he charged it alone, was again hit by a grenade but raked the position with a devastating fire which eliminated it and routed the defenders. He will be posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery on March 19, 1952.

1953 - Cornel West is born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He will grow up in Sacramento, California and be influenced by the Black Panther Party and the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. He will graduate from Harvard University magna cum laude in 1973, and will receive his M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University. After teaching at Yale Divinity School, Union Theological Seminary and Princeton, he will join the faculty of Harvard University in 1994. Considered a leading African American intellectual, he will be the author of thirteen books, including the two-volume "Beyond Eurocentrism and Multiculturalism" (Common Courage Press, 1993), "Breaking Bread" (South End Press, 1991), "Race Matters" (Beacon Press, 1993), "Keeping Faith" (Routledge, 1993), "Jews and Blacks Let the Healing Begin" (Putnam Books, 1995), co-authored with Michael Lerner, and "Restoring Hope: Conversations on the Future of Black America" (Beacon Press, October 1997). Besides his numerous publications, he will be a well-respected and highly popular lecturer. His speaking style, formed by his roots in the Baptist Church, will provide a blend of drama, knowledge, and inspiration.

1967 - The first of three days of race riots occurs in the Roxbury section of Boston, Massachusetts. Dozens are injured and more are arrested after welfare mothers barricade themselves in protest against welfare policies.

1985 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar becomes the all-time leading point scorer in the National Basketball Association playoffs. He rings up a total of 4,458 points, smashing the previous record held by Jerry West, also of the Los Angeles Lakers.

1993 - South Africa's Supreme Court upholds Winnie Mandela's conviction for kidnapping four young blacks, but said she would not have to serve her five-year prison term.

1999 - South Africans go to the polls in their second post-apartheid election, giving the African National Congress a decisive victory. Retiring President Nelson Mandela is succeeded by Thabo Mbeki.

1973 - WGPR-TV (Channel 62) in Detroit, Michigan, is granted a permit to operate. It is the first television station owned by African Americans.

1997 - Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, is fatally burned in a fire set by her 12-year-old grandson in her Yonkers, New York, apartment.

03 June 1833 - 1997

1833 - The fourth national Black convention meets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with sixty-two delegates from eight states. Abraham D. Shadd of Pennsylvania is elected president.

1854 - Two thousand United States troops escort celebrated fugitive slave, Anthony Burns through the streets of Boston.

1871 - Miles Vandehurst Lynk is born near Brownsville, Tennessee. A physician at 19, he founds the first African American medical journal, the "Medical and Surgical Observer," and will be one of the organizers of what will later become the National Medical Association.

1887 - Roland Hayes is born in Curryville, Tennessee. A noted concert artist, Hayes will be the first African American to give a concert in Boston's Symphony Hall. His career will take him throughout the U.S. and to London for a command performance before King George V.

1904 - Charles R. Drew, creator of the plasma method of blood preservation, is born in Washington, DC. He will receive the NAACP's Spingarn Medal for his contributions in 1944 and, in 1981, be posthumously honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a commemorative stamp.

1906 - Josephine Baker is born in St. Louis, Missouri. She will become a singer and entertainer. A chorus girl in the 1923 musical "Shuffle Along," she will travel to Paris, introduce "le jazz hot" in the show "La Revue Negre," and will cause a sensation with the Folies Bergeres when she performs topless on a mirror, wearing a rubber banana skirt. A World War II Red Cross volunteer, Baker will perform for the Allied troops and in the 1950's she will tour the U.S., fighting for desegregated theaters and restaurants.

1919 - Liberty Life Insurance Company in Chicago, Illinois, the first old-line legal reserve company organized by African Americans in the North, is incorporated.

1942 - Curtis Mayfield is born in Chattanooga, Tennessee and will be raised in Chicago, Illinois. He will become a singer, songwriter, and producer. He will be a member of the group The Impressions. He will write many hits for the group, Jerry Butler and himself. He will start a successful solo career in 1970. He will become paralyzed from the chest down in 1990 when a stage lighting tower falls on him. After recuperating, he will still continue to perform. He will join the ancestors on Sunday, December 26, 1999.

1946 - In its "Morgan vs. Commonwealth of Virginia" ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court bars segregation in interstate bus travel.

1949 - Wesley Anthony Brown becomes the first African American to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy.

1951 - Deniece Chandler is born in Gary, Indiana. She will become a singer and will be known as Deniece Williams. She will get her first break as a member of Stevie Wonder's backup group Wonderlove during 1972-75. She will grow into a successful solo career in both secular and gospel music.

1997 - Harvey Johnson, who defeats the incumbent mayor in the Democratic Primary, is elected Jackson, Mississippi's first African American mayor, defeating the Republican candidate by more than two-to-one. Johnson, an urban planner and former state tax commissioner, was making his second run to head the city of about 200,000. He upset incumbent Kane Ditto to earn the right to face GOP businesswoman Charlotte Reeves in the general election.

04 June 1665 -

1665 - First Baptist Church in the United States founded

05 June 1783 - 1988

1783 - Oliver Cromwell, an African American soldier who served in the Revolutionary War, receives an honorable discharge signed by George Washington. Cromwell, who will claim to have been with Washington when he crossed the Delaware and in the battles of Yorktown, Princeton, and Monmouth, is cited by Washington as having earned "the Badge of Merit for six years' faithful service."

1872 - The Republican National Convention meets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The meeting marks the first significant participation of African American delegates: Robert B. Elliot (chair of the South Carolina delegation); Joseph Rainey, and John R. Lynch of Mississippi, who each make addresses to the convention.

1920 - Marion Motley is born in Leesburg, Georgia. He will become a NFL running back and all-time AAFC rusher for the Cleveland Browns, ending his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He will enter the NFL in 1946, making him one of only four African Americans to desegregate the NFL in the modern era. One of the largest running backs of his era, Motley will rush for 4,720 yards in his career and average an astounding 5.7 yards per carry, the highest in pro football history. He will also be selected to the first Pro Bowl in 1951. He will be enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame in 1968. He will join the ancestors in Cleveland, Ohio on June 27, 1999.

1940 - The American Negro Theatre is organized in Harlem by Frederick O'Neal, Abram Hill, and members of the McClendon Players. Among the plays it will produce is "Anna Lucasta", which will be presented on Broadway in 1944 and feature Canada Lee, Ossie Davis, and Ruby Dee.

1944 - Tommie Smith is born in Clarksville, Texas. He will become a track star (sprinter), and Olympic athlete/runner. He will win the Olympic Gold medal in the 200 meters in the 1968 Olympics. It will be, on the winners platform, that he and John Carlos will raise clinched fists as the national anthem is played. He will be inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1978.

1952 - Jersey Joe Walcott defeats Ezzard Charles for the heavyweight boxing title.

1956 - A three-judge federal court rules that racial segregation on Montgomery city buses is unconstitutional, ending the Montgomery bus boycott.

1959 - U.S. Supreme Court undermines the legal foundations of segregation in three landmark cases, Sweatt v. Painter, McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents and Henderson v. United States.

1969 - A race riot occurs in Hartford, Connecticut.

1973 - Doris A. Davis of Compton, California, becomes the first African American female to govern a metropolitan city.

1973 - Cardiss R. Collins of Chicago, Illinois is elected to Congress. She will succeed her late husband and spend over twenty years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

1983 - Yannick Noah becomes the first Frenchman to win the French Open since World War II.

1988 - Clarence M. Pendleton, Jr. joins the ancestors at the age of 58. He was the first African American chairman of the United States Civil Rights Commission (1981-88). Following President Ronald Reagan's desires, he led the commission toward a "color-blind" approach to matters of civil rights.

06 June 1716 - 1977

1716 - The first slaves arrive in Louisiana.

1779 - Haitian explorer Jean Baptiste-Pointe Du Sable founds the first permanent settlement at the mouth of a river on the north bank, that will become Chicago, Illinois.

1831 - The second national Black convention meets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There are fifteen delegates from five states.

1869 - Dillard University is chartered in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1934 - Roy Innis is born in the U.S. Virgin Islands and will be raised in New York City. He will become a civil rights activist and will join the Harlem chapter of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) in 1963. He will work with the organization over the next 35 years in many capacities including chairman.

1935 - Jesse Owens is elected Captain of the 1936 track team at Ohio State University. He is the first African American to hold such position on any Ohio State Team.

1935 - Robert "Bobby" Mitchell is born in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He will become a professional football player starting as an eighth round draft selection by the Cleveland Browns in 1958. He will play in four Pro Bowls (one with Cleveland and three with Washington) over his 11-year playing career and is considered one of the NFL s all-time great multi-purpose players. When he is traded to the Washington franchise in 1962, he becomes the first African American to play for the team. He will become an inductee to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983. He will be a prominent part of the Washington Redskins organization for over 36 years.

1936 - Levi Stubbs is born. He will become a rhythm and blues singer and a member of the group, "The Aims." The group will start as a backup group for Levi's cousin, Jackie Wilson. The group will change their name to "The Four Tops" in 1956, to avoid confusion with a band. Berry Gordy will sign the group in 1963 and launch their first hit, "Baby, I Need Your Loving." The group will stay together over forty years, longer than any other popular group, with the original personnel intact.

1939 - Marion Wright (later Edelman) is born in Bennettsville, South Carolina. In addition to becoming the first African American woman admitted to the bar in Mississippi, she will direct the NAACP's Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York and Mississippi and will found the Children's Defense Fund in 1973.

1939 - Gary Anderson is born in Jacksonville, Florida. He will be raised in Norfolk, Virginia where he will become a singer as a teenager, with a group called The Turks. He will solo as Gary "U.S." Bonds in 1960 recording the hit "New Orleans." His name will be inspired by a poster in a Norfolk shop urging Americans to "Carry U. S. Bonds." In 1961 when Bonds records his version of a local group's song, "A Night with Daddy G.," it will be re-titled "Quarter to Three" and will be a huge hit. He will record three additional hits in the next year. After a twenty year decline in his career, he will make a comeback after his fan, Bruce Springsteen, begins to use "Quarter to Three" as his encore.

1944 - The 320th Negro Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion assists in the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France.

1947 - Harrison Branch is born in New York City. A student at the San Francisco Art Institute and Yale University School of Art, he will become a professor of art and photographer whose works will be exhibited and collected in the U.S. and in Europe and will appear in the landmark photography book, "An Illustrated Bio-Bibliography of Black Photographers," 1940-1988, edited by Deborah Wills Ryan.

1966 - James Meredith is wounded by a white sniper, as he walked along U.S. Highway 51 near Hernando, Mississippi, on the second day of the Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi, voter registration march. Meanwhile, Stokely Carmichael, using his newly adopted name of Kwame' Toure, launches the Black Power movement. Toure will say that the use of the term is not anti-white, but a phrase to denote a political strategy.

1973 - Barry White is awarded a gold record for "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby". It is his first hit and his first of five, number one, million sellers. White will begin recording in 1960. He will form the group, Love Unlimited, in 1969 and marry one of the group's singers, Glodean James. He will also form the 40-piece Love Unlimited Orchestra which will have the number one hit, "Love's Theme."

1977 - Joseph Lawson Howze is installed as bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi. He becomes the first African American to head a U.S. diocese in the Catholic Church in this century.

07 June 1863 - 1998

1863 - Three African American regiments and small detachment of white troops repulse a division of Texans in a hand-to-hand battle at Milliken's Bend, Louisiana.

1917 - Gwendolyn Brooks is born in Topeka, Kansas. She will become the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize (1950). She will win this award for "Annie Allen," which is about the coming of age of a young African American and her feelings of loneliness, loss, death and poverty. In 1963-1969 she will teach poetry and fiction workshops and also freshman English and 20th century literature. In 1967, she will organize a poetry writing workshop for a gang, and her home soon became a meeting place for young people interested in arts and politics. In 1985, she will become the first African American woman to take the position of Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress. Her job will be to give a lecture in autumn and a poetry reading in the spring. She will be the 29th and last Poetry Consultant. In 1988, she will become the second Poet Laureate of Illinois. She also will be inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

1930 - "The New York Times" capitalizes the word Negro "in recognition of racial self-respect for those who have been for generations in the lowercase."

1931 - David C. Driskell is born in Eatonton, Georgia. An artist and professor of art at several universities, Driskell will be acclaimed as one of the foremost art historians and curators of African American art exhibits.

1943 - Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr. is born in Knoxville, Tennessee. She will become a poet and author that will be known for her books "Black Feeling", "Black Talk", and "Black Judgment," and the name "Nikki." In 1973, she will establish NikTom, Ltd., a communications company that will edit and publish "Night Comes Softly," an anthology of poetry by black women, "Re: Creation," "Poem of Angela Yvonne Davis," and her other prominent works. In the mid 1980's, her opposition to the boycott of South Africa will lead to her being blacklisted by TransAfrica and subsequently to bomb and death threats. She will receive at least six honorary doctorate degrees and a myriad of literary awards.

1946 - U.S. Supreme Court bans discrimination in interstate travel.

1950 - U.S. Supreme Court avoids a general ruling on "separate but equal" doctrine.

1958 - Prince Rogers Nelson is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He will become a singer and prolific songwriter and producer known to the public as "Prince." An incurable movie fan, he will have a passion for drama (and comedy). His own films will include "Purple Rain," "Under the Cherry Moon," and "Grafitti Bridge." "Purple Rain" (1984) will be hailed by some critics as the best rock movie ever made and earn Prince an Oscar for best original song score and soundtrack album. Because of his desire to have complete artistic control over his music, he will endure several years of a contract dispute with his label, Warner Brothers, which results in him appearing in public with the word SLAVE written on his face. In 1993, he will change his name to "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince" (TAFKAP or The Artist). He will come out of the Warner Brothers conflict happily. He will establish a new relationship with EMI Records that will allow him to record and produce whatever he wants to release.

1966 - The voter registration march from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi is continued by Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights groups and will register almost 4,000 African Americans. The march had been interrupted the previous day by the shooting of James Meredith, by a white sniper.

1987 - Mae Jemison, becomes the first African American woman astronaut. Jemison entered Stanford University as a 16-year-old National Achievement Scholarship student. She majored in Chemical Engineering and Afro-American Studies, graduating in 1977. She then went on to Cornell University to get a M.D. in 1981. She worked as a medical intern in Los Angeles, California in 1981. Later, she served as a staff doctor with Peace Corps in West Africa 1983-1985. Then she worked as a general practitioner for CIGNA Health Plans of California in Los Angeles from 1985 to 1987. After her internship, she joined the Peace Corps for two years in West Africa giving medical attention to Peace Corps volunteers and State Department employees in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Finally, she became an astronaut for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Houston, Texas in 1987.

1987 - Lloyd Richards wins a Tony as best director for the August Wilson play "Fences". The play wins three other Tony awards, for best play, best performance by an actor (James Earl Jones), and best performance by a featured actress (Mary Alice).

1998 - In a crime that shocks the nation, James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old African American man, joins the ancestors after being chained to a pickup truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. Three men, white supremacists, are arrested in the case. The atrocity will prompt President Clinton to issue a press release condemning the act. Two of the killers will be sentenced to death for the crime, a third to life in prison.

08 June 1886 - 1998

1886 - The first Civil Rights Act is passed.

1892 - Homer Adolph Plessy, an African American shoemaker from New Orleans, Louisiana, is arrested for sitting in a "whites only" railroad car. Judge John Ferguson will find him guilty of the crime of refusing to leave the white railroad car. Plessy will appeal to the Supreme Courts of both Louisiana and the United States, and both will uphold Ferguson's decision and the "separate but equal" doctrine (Plessy vs. Ferguson).

1924 - George Kirby is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will become a comedian and, impressionist and delight audiences for more than 40 years. Kirby will begin his career in Chicago and will go to Las Vegas in 1952 as part of the Count Basie show, one of the first African American acts to play Vegas. He will be best known for impressions of stars such as Jerry Lewis, John Wayne and Walter Brennan, and for his dead-on takes of women, notably Pearl Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.

1928 - Edward Joseph Perkins is born in Sterlington, Louisiana. He will become the first African American ambassador to South Africa (1986-1989). A veteran foreign service professional, he will serve as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Liberia (1985 - 1986), Director of the Office of West African Affairs in the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State (1983 - 1985), Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia (1981-1983), Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Accra, Ghana (1978 - 1981), and ambassador to the United Nations.

1939 - Bernie Casey is born in Wyco, West Virginia. He will be the first-round draft pick for the San Francisco 49ers and play wide receiver. Before retiring from the NFL, he will also play for the Los Angeles Rams and be named an NFL All-Pro wide receiver. After the NFL, he will have his acting debut in "Guns of the Magnificent Seven," and have more than 40 roles to his credit, including Mr. Walter in "Once Upon A Time...When We Were Colored," Commander Hudson in the TV series "Star Trek," "Deep Space Nine" and Commander Harris in "Under Siege." He will have his directorial debut with the film, "The Dinner (1997). He also will become an accomplished artist with paintings part of permanent collections at the California Museum of African American Art and the Ankrum Gallery in Los Angeles. His works will also appear in The Hirshorn Museum in Washington, DC, the Lowe Gallery in Atlanta and the John Bolles Gallery in San Francisco. He will earn a doctoral degree in humanities from the Savannah College of Art and Design and serve as chairman of its board of trustees.

1943 - Willie Davenport is born in Troy, Alabama. He will become a star in track and field events, whose career will span five Olympic Games from 1964 to 1980, during which he won a gold and bronze medal. He will be one of only eight U.S. Olympic athletes to have competed in both the summer and winter games. Davenport will win the gold medal in the 110-meter hurdles in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and the bronze in the same event in Montreal, Quebec in 1976. After four Olympic appearances in the hurdles, Davenport will compete as the first African American member of the U.S. four-man bobsled team in 1980. Davenport will coach the 1993 and 1994 U.S. Army Track Team to victory in the Armed Forces Track & Field Championships. He will be the head coach of the United States Army Track & Field Team for the 1996 Olympics.

1953 - The Supreme Court rules that District of Columbia restaurants cannot refuse to serve African Africans.

1958 - Keenen Ivory Wayans is born in New York City. He will become a comedian, actor, writer, director, and producer. He will become best known for his television show, "In Living Color."

1963 - Three bullets are fired into the Clarksdale, Mississippi home of Dr. Aaron Henry, Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party candidate for governor.

1968 - James Earl Ray, the alleged assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is captured at London's Heathrow airport.

1969 - Bill Cosby wins an Emmy for a variety special. It is his fourth Emmy award.

1978 - Through the voice of its president, Spencer W. Kimball, the Mormon Church reverses a 148-year-long policy of spiritual discrimination against African American leadership within the denomination (Official Declaration # 2).

1982 - Leroy "Satchel" Paige, a pitcher in the Negro Leagues and the first African American pitcher in the American League, joins the ancestors in Kansas City, Missouri at the age of 75. Paige is heralded as one of the greatest early African American baseball players in a career that spanned more than 40 years and was enshrined in baseball's Hall of Fame in 1971.

1998 - Military dictator of Nigeria, Sani Abacha joins the ancestors at the age of 54.

09 June 1877 - 1998

1877 - Meta Vaux Warwick (later Fuller) is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She will become a sculptor who will train at the Pennsylvania Museum and School for Industrial Arts and travel to Paris to study with Auguste Rodin. Her sculptures will be exhibited at the salon in Paris as well as extensively in the U.S. for 60 years. Her most famous works will include "Ethiopia Awakening," "Mary Turner (A Silent Protest Against Mob Violence)," and "The Talking Skull."

1934 - Jackie Wilson, entertainer who will be known as "Mr. Excitement," is born in Detroit, Michigan.

1948 - Oliver W. Hill becomes the first African American to be elected to the Richmond, Virginia City Council.

1963 - Fannie Lou Hamer and five other voter registration workers were arrested in Winona, Mississippi on their way home from a workshop in Charleston, SC. They were held in the Winona jail for four days, during which they were severely beaten with nightsticks and fists by policemen, and with leather straps by prison trustees under the direction of police officers.

1978 - Larry Holmes wins the WBC heavyweight title by defeating Ken Norton in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1980 - Comedian Richard Pryor suffers almost fatal burns at his San Fernando Valley, California home, when a mixture of "free-base" cocaine explodes.

1983 - Scott Joplin, noted jazz musician and composer of ragtime music, is the sixth African-American depicted in the U.S. Postal Service's Black Heritage USA commemorative series of postage stamps.

1998 - Three white men are charged in Jasper, Texas, with the brutal dragging death of James Byrd Jr., an African American.

10 June 1854 - 1997

1854 - James Augustine Healy is ordained as a Catholic priest in ceremonies at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, France at the age of 24. He will later become the first African American Roman Catholic bishop.

1898 - Hattie McDaniel is born in Wichita, Kansas. A vaudevilian, she will begin her acting career at age 37 in the film 'The Golden West'. McDaniel will go on to roles in over 70 films, including 'The Little Colonel', 'Show Boat', and most notably 'Gone With The Wind', which will earn her an Oscar as best supporting actress in 1940. She will also star in the radio program 'Beulah' from 1947 to 1951.

1899 - The Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (I.B.P.O.E.) is founded in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1910 - Chester Arthur Burnett is born in Aberdeen. Mississippi. He will be better known as 'Howlin Wolf', a delta bluesman whose recordings will inspire English rock bands to adopt his style and material.

1940 - The famed Cotton Club in Harlem closes. Home to some of the most important jazz talents of their day, including Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, and many others, the club falls victim to changing musical tastes and poor attendance.

1941 - Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey joins the ancestors in London, England at the age of 52.

1946 - Jack Arthur Johnson, the first African American heavyweight boxing champion, joins the ancestors after succumbing to injuries from an automobile accident near Raleigh, North Carolina at the age of 68. He will be buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.

1964 - The U.S. Senate imposes cloture for the first time on a civil rights measure, ending a southern filibuster by a vote of 71-29.

1972 - Sammy Davis, Jr. earns his place at the top of the popular music charts for the first time, after years in the entertainment business with his first number one song, "The Candy Man". The song stayed at the top for three consecutive weeks and stayed on the pop charts for 16 weeks.

1980 - Nelson Mandela, jailed for life by the apartheid government of South Africa, has his writings smuggled from prison and made public, continuing to spark the general population.

1985 - Herschel Walker, of the New Jersey Generals, breaks the 2,000 yard mark in rushing during the season as the Generals win over Jacksonville 31-24. The effort sets a United States Football League (USFL) record. This feat had only been reached twice in the National Football League (NFL) -- once by O.J. Simpson in 1973 for 2,003 yards and Eric Dickerson in 1984 for 2,105 yards.

1997 - Geronimo Pratt, political prisoner and ex-Black Panther, is released from prison on bail. A judge agrees that had Pratt's original jury known that the prosecution key witness was a FBI and police informant, the outcome may have been different.

11 June 1799 - 1982

1799 - Richard Allen, the first African American bishop in the United States, is ordained a deacon of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Bishop Francis Asbury.

1915 - Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, the first African American in the United States to be named a judge, joins the ancestors in Little Rock, Arkansas at the age of 87.

1920 - Hazel Dorothy Scott is born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. A child prodigy, she will enroll at New York City's Juilliard School of Music and star in nightclubs, Broadway shows, and films. A fixture in jazz society uptown and downtown in New York, most notably for her jazz improvisations on familiar classical works, she will be credited with putting the "swing in European classical music."

1926 - Amalya L. Kearse is born in Vaux Hall, New Jersey. She will become the first African American woman judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second District of New York. She will earn her undergraduate degree at Wellesley College and her law degree at University of Michigan Law School. She will be active in legal circles, the National Urban League, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

1930 - Charles Rangel is born in New York City. He will defeat Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. for the latter's Congressional seat in the 16th District and serve on the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon. He will also chair the Congressional Black Caucus and be a strong advocate in the war on drugs and drug crime as chairman of the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control.

1937 - Johnny Brown is born in St. Petersburg, Florida. He will become a comedian and will be known for his roles on "Good Times," and "The Leslie Uggams Show."

1951 - Mozambique becomes an oversea province of Portugal.

1963 - Vivian Malone and James Hood, accompanied by U.S. Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, attempt to register at the University of Alabama. They are met by Governor George Wallace, who bodily blocks their entrance to a campus building. When National Guardsmen return later in the day with Malone and Hood to enter the building, Wallace steps aside.

1964 - In South Africa, Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly attempting to sabotage the white South African government.

1967 - A race riot occurs in Tampa, Florida. The Florida National Guard is mobilized to suppress the violence.

1972 - Hank Aaron, of the Atlanta Braves, ties Gil Hodges of the Giants for the National League record for the most grand-slam home runs in a career, with 14. The Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies 15-3.

1978 - Joseph Freeman Jr. becomes the first African American priest in the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons).

1982 - Larry Holmes defeats Gerry Cooney to retain the WBC heavyweight crown.

12 June 1826 - 1995

1826 - Sarah Parker Redmond is born in Salem, Massachusetts. She will become a major abolitionist.

1840 - The World's Anti-Slavery Convention convenes in London, England. Among those in attendance will be African American Charles Redmond, who will refuse to be seated at the meeting when he and the other delegates learn that women are being segregated in the gallery.

1876 - A monument is dedicated to Richard Allen in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. It is the first known monument erected by African Americans to honor one of their heroes.

1935 - Ella Fitzgerald records her first record for Brunswick Records. The songs on the record were "Love and Kisses" and "I'll Chase the Blues Away". She is featured with Chick Webb and his band. Ella is 17 years old at the time and will conduct the Webb band for three years following his death in 1939.

1961 - The Hinds County Mississippi Board of Supervisors announce that more than one hundred "Freedom Riders" had been arrested.

1963 - Medgar Evers, field secretary for the Mississippi NAACP, joins the ancestors after being killed outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. He will be widely mourned throughout the civil rights movement and posthumously receives the NAACP's Spingarn Medal.

1963 - Civil rights group demonstrates at Harlem construction sites to protest discrimination in the building trade unions.

1967 - The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a Virginia missegenation law (marriage or cohabitation between whites and non-whites). This decision establishes that no state law can prohibit interracial marriages.

1967 - A racially motivated civil disturbance occurs in Cincinnati, Ohio. Three hundred persons are arrested, and the National Guard is mobilized.

1972 - The National Black MBA Association is incorporated. An organization of over 2,000 minority holders of advanced business degrees, the organization's mission is to assist the entry of interested minorities into the business community.

1981 - Larry Holmes defends his heavyweight boxing title by earning a third-round TKO (technical knockout) over Leon Spinks in Detroit, Michigan.

1989 - The U.S. Supreme Court expands the abilities of white males to challenge court-approved affirmative action plans, even years after they take effect.

1995 - The Supreme Court deals a potentially crippling blow to federal affirmative action programs, ruling Congress was limited by the same strict standards as states in offering special help to minorities.

13 June 1774 - 1990

1774 - Rhode Island prohibits the importation of slaves, the first state to do so.

1866 - The House of Representatives passes the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing civil rights for African Americans.

1868 - Ex-slave Oscar T. Dunn is installed as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana. It is the highest executive office held by an African American.

1870 - Richard T. Greener becomes the first African American to graduate from Harvard University.

1893 - T.W. Stewart patents a mop.

1937 - Eleanor Holmes (later Norton) is born in Washington, DC. A graduate of the Yale University School of Law, Norton will become chairperson of the New York City Commission on Human Rights, and a Georgetown University law professor before being elected a non-voting delegate to Congress representing the District of Columbia.

1967 - U.S. Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall is appointed the first African American justice to the Supreme Court by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

1977 - The convicted assassin of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., James Earl Ray, is recaptured following his escape three days earlier from a Tennessee prison.

1989 - Kareem Abdul Jabbar plays in his final NBA game as the Detroit Pistons sweep the Los Angeles Lakers for the NBA title.

1990 - The United Nations calls on South Africa to free Nelson Mandela.

1990 - Bernadette Locke becomes the first female on-court men's basketball coach when she is named assistant coach of the University of Kentucky men's basketball team.

14 June 1921 - 1989

1921 - Georgianna R. Simpson becomes the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. when she is awarded the degree, in German, by the University of Chicago.

1931 - Margaret Bradley is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will become a popular and enduring television personality known as Marla Gibbs, notable for her roles in the 'Jeffersons' and '227'.

1941 - John Edgar Wideman is born in Washington, DC. He is will become a Rhodes scholar and writer of such fictional works as 'Hurry Home', 'Damballah', and 'Philadelphia Fire'.

1970 - Cheryl Adrienne Brown, Miss Iowa, becomes the first African American to compete in the Miss America beauty pageant.

1971 - The Justice Department files suit against the St. Louis suburb of Black Jack, charging the community with illegally using municipal procedures to block an integrated housing development.

1989 - Congressman William Gray, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, is elected Democratic Whip of the House of Representatives, the highest ranking leadership position ever held by an African American in Congress.

15 June 1864 - 1990

1864 - Congress passes a bill equalizing pay, arms, equipment and medical services of African American troops.

1877 - Henry O. Flipper, born into slavery in Thomasville, Georgia, becomes the first African American to graduate from West Point.

1921 - Bessie Coleman, a 28-year-old native of Amarillo, Texas, who learned French in order to communicate with instructors, receives a pilot's certificate from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France. She is the first African American woman to become a licensed pilot.

1921 - Erroll Garner is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He will become an accomplished pianist who will play by ear. Much of his early work will be lost because it will not be written down. His best known composition will be "Misty." He will be an ASCAP Award-winning jazz pianist. Some of his other hits will be "Dreamy," "That's My Kick," "Moment's Delight," and "Solitaire." He will be honored on a stamp by the U.S. Postal Service.

1951 - Joe Louis knocks out Lee Savold in a closed-circuit TV fight seen by fight fans in movie theatres in six cities.

1969 - O'Shea Jackson is born in Los Angeles, California. Known later as "Ice Cube," he will be the first member of the seminal California rap group N.W.A. to leave, and he will quickly establish himself as one of hip-hop's best and most controversial artists. From the outset of his career, he will court controversy, since his rhymes were profane and political. As a solo artist, his politics and social commentary will sharpen substantially, and his first two records, "AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted" and "Death Certificate," will be equally praised and reviled for their lyrical stance, which happens to be considerably more articulate than many of his gangsta peers. As his career progresses, Ice Cube's influence begins to decline, particularly as he tries to incorporate elements of contemporary groups like Cypress Hill into his sound, but his stature never diminished, and he will remain one of the biggest rap stars throughout the '90s. He will also become an actor and will have his acting debut in John Singleton's "Boyz N the Hood."

1971 - The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of closing Jackson, Mississippi, swimming pools rather than integrating them. The ruling is considered by many to indicate the Court's resistance to increased integration.

1971 - Vernon E. Jordan Jr., former executive director of the United Negro College Fund, is appointed executive director of the National Urban League.

1987 - Michael Spinks defeats Gerry Cooney in round five of their heavyweight boxing match in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

1990 - St. Clair Drake joins the ancestors after succumbing to a heart attack in Palo Alto, California. The noted sociologist and anthropologist was the author of numerous books, including the important 'Black Metropolis' which he co-authored with Horace Cayton. In 1969, he established and served as Director of the African and Afro-American Studies Program at Stanford University, a program often imitated by other colleges and universities.

Updated by K. Ferguson Kelly: May 26, 2003