Today In Black History • January 14, 1904 Issac Payne, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, died. Payne was born in 1854 in Coahuila, Mexico. He was a descendant of runaway enslaved Black people who lived with the Seminole Indian tribe. Payne immigrated to the United States in 1871 when the U. S. Army promised the Black Seminoles land, rations, and pay to serve as scouts. He enlisted as a trumpeter and on April 25, 1875 he and three other men “participated in a charge against 25 hostiles while on a scouting patrol” by the Pecos River in Texas. His actions earned him the medal, America’s highest military decoration. Payne left the army in 1901 and not much else is known of his life. • January 14, 1914 Dudley Randall, founder of Broadside Press, was born in Washington, D. C. but raised in Detroit, Michigan. At 13, Randall’s first published poem was printed in the Detroit Free Press newspaper. After serving in the military during World War II, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Wayne State University in 1949 and his Master of Arts degree in Library Science from the University of Michigan in 1951. Randall founded Broadside Press in 1965 and over the years published many leading African American writers, including Sonia Sanchez, Gwendolyn Brooks, Haki Madhubuti, and Sterling Brown. Poems written by Randall include “Ballad of Birmingham,” “Booker T and W. E. B.,” “Roses and Revolutions,” and “The Profile on the Pillow.” He was named Poet Laureate of the City of Detroit in 1981. Randall died August 5, 2000. Two months after his death, the University of Detroit Mercy established the Dudley Randall Center for Print Culture. • January 14, 1916 John Oliver Killens, Pulitzer Prize nominated fiction writer and educator, was born in Macon, Georgia. Killens attended a number of institutions of higher learning, including Morris Brown College, Howard University, and Columbia University but never earned a degree. After serving in the military in the South Pacific from 1942 to 1945, he moved to New York City in 1948 to focus on establishing a literary career. Around 1950, he co-founded a writer’s group that became the Harlem Writers Guild. His first novel, “Youngblood,” was published in 1954. Two of his novels, “And Then We Heard the Thunder” (1962) and “The Cotillion or One Good Bull Is Half the Herd” (1971), were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. In 1986, Killens founded the National Black Writers Conference at Medgar Evers College where he taught English. Killens died October 27, 1987. “Liberation Memories: The Rhetoric and Poetics of John Oliver Killens” and “The Development of the Black Psyche in the Writings of John Oliver Killens 1916 to 1987” were published in 2003. • January 14, 1938 Allen Toussaint, hall of fame musician, composer and record producer, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. By 17, Toussaint was performing regularly in nightclubs in the city. In the early 1960s, he wrote and produced a string of hits for New Orleans R&B artists, including “Mother-in-Law” (1961) for Ernie K-Doe and “Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette)” (1962) for Benny Spellman. Toussaint’s piano and arrangements show up on hundreds of records recorded during the 1960s by artists such as Irma Thomas, Aaron Neville, Lee Dorsey, and many others. In 1975, he produced the albums “Nightbirds” for LaBelle and “Venus and Mars” for Paul McCartney and Wings. Toussaint was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Blues Hall of Fame in 2012. He released “The Bright Mississippi” in 2009. Toussaint received the Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award in 2001 and was awarded the National Medal of Arts, the highest honor bestowed on an individual artist by the United States, by President Barack H. Obama July 10, 2013. He also received an honorary doctorate degree from Tulane University in 2013. • January 14, 1940 Horace Julian Bond, social activist, politician, professor and writer, was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Bond was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960 and served as communications director from 1961 to 1966. Bond was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965 and served four terms before being elected to the Georgia Senate where he served six terms until 1986. Bond earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Morehouse College in 1971. Also that year, he co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center and served as president from 1971 to 1979. In the 1980s and 1990s, Bond taught at several institutions, including American University, Drexel University, and Harvard University. From 1998 to 2010, he served as chair of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s national board and received the organization’s 2009 Spingarn Medal. Bond has been awarded 25 honorary degrees, including a Doctor of Laws degree from Bates College in 1999 and a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Macalester College in 2009. He is currently a Distinguished Adjunct Professor at American University and a faculty member in the history department at the University of Virginia. • January 14, 1943 Harvey Bernard Gantt, architect and the first African American Mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, was born in Charleston, South Carolina. Gantt successfully sued to enter the racially segregated Clemson University and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, with honors, in 1965. He earned his Master of Arts degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970. In 1971, he started his own architectural firm. Gantt was appointed to the Charlotte City Council in 1974 to fill a vacancy and served there until he was elected mayor in 1983. He served one term as mayor. Gantt unsuccessfully ran for the United States Senate in 1990 and 1996. He currently runs his architectural firm. Gantt has received honorary doctorate degrees from Belmont Abbey College, Johnson C. Smith University, and Clemson. The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture in Charlotte is named in his honor. A documentary, “The Education of Harvey Gantt,” about the integration of Clemson was produced in 2013. • January 14, 1949 Franklin Delano Raines, former chairman and chief executive officer of the Federal National Mortgage Association, was born in Seattle, Washington. Raines earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, with honors, from Harvard University in 1971, spent a year at Oxford University in England as a Rhodes Scholar, and earned his Doctor of Laws degree from Harvard University Law School in 1974. Raines served as associate director for economics and government in the United States Office of Management and Budget and assistant director of the White House Domestic Policy Staff from 1977 to 1979. From 1979 to 1991, he worked at Lazard Freres and Co. where he became a general partner. In 1991, he became vice chairman of Fannie Mae, a position he held until 1996 when he became the director of the Office of Management and Budget. He returned to Fannie Mae in 1999 as chief executive officer, the first Black man to head a Fortune 500 company. Raines retired from that position in 2004. • January 14, 1968 L. L. Cool J., rapper, actor and author, was born James Todd Smith in Bay Shore, New York. Cool J’s debut album, “Radio,” was released in 1985 to critical acclaim and sold more than 1.5 million copies. Other albums followed, including “Bigger and Deffer”(1987), “Mr. Smith” (1995), “G.O.A.T.” (2000), “Exit 13” (2008), and “Authentic” (2013). Cool J won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance in 1991 for “Mama Said Knock You Out” and in 1996 for “Hey Lover.” Cool j has also had a successful film and television acting career. From 1995 through 1999, he starred in the television situation comedy “In the House.” In 1998, he had a prominent role in the film “Halloween H20.” Other films include “Any Given Sunday” (1998), “S.W.A.T.” (2003), “Last Holiday” (2006), and “The Deal” (2008). Cool J currently stars in the television series “NCIS: Los Angeles.” Cool J hosted the 2012 and 2013 Grammy Awards. He has also published four books, including his autobiography “I Make My Own Rules” (1998). • January 14, 1969 John Earl Warren, Jr., Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, was killed in action. Warren was born November 16, 1946 in Brooklyn, New York. By this date, he was serving as a first lieutenant in Company C, 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry, 25th Infantry Division of the United States Army in Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam during the Vietnam War. His actions on this day earned him the medal, America’s highest military decoration. His citation partially reads, “While moving through a rubber plantation to reinforce another friendly unit, Company C came under intense fire from a well-fortified enemy force. Disregarding his safety, 1st Lt. Warren with several of his men began maneuvering through the hail of enemy fire toward the hostile position. When he had come within 6 feet of one of the enemy bunkers and was preparing to toss a hand grenade into it, an enemy grenade was suddenly thrown into the middle of his small group. Thinking only of his own men, 1st Lt. Warren fell in the direction of the grenade, thus shielding those around him from the blast. His actions, performed at the cost of his life, saved 3 men from serious or mortal injury.” His medal was posthumously presented to his family by President Richard M. Nixon August 6, 1970.epguides/SanfordandSon/cast.jpg • January 14, 1972 The television situation comedy “Sanford and Son” debuted on NBC. The show ran for six seasons until March 25, 1977 and was the number two most watched television show for three consecutive seasons and was nominated for four Emmy Awards. Redd Foxx won the 1973 Golden Globe Award for Best TV Actor-Musical/Comedy. Time magazine included the show on its 2007 list of the 100 Best TV Shows of All Time.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 14:38:56 +0000
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