Today In Black History • August 30, 1901 Roy Wilkins, civil rights leader, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Wilkins earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota in 1923. In 1931, he became assistant executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. From 1934 to 1949, he served as the editor of The Crisis magazine, the official organ of the organization. In 1955, Wilkins was named executive secretary (renamed director in 1964) of the NAACP. In 1950, he co-founded the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. Wilkins participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965, and the March Against Fear in 1966. In 1964, Wilkins was awarded the NAACP Spingarn Medal. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Lyndon B. Johnson January 20, 1967. He retired from the NAACP in 1977. Wilkins died September 8, 1981. His autobiography, “Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy Wilkins,” was published in 1982. The Roy Wilkins Centre for Human Relations and Human Justice was established at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs in 1992. • August 30, 1902 Alberta Virginia Scott, the first African American graduate of Radcliffe College, died. Scott was born in 1875 near Richmond, Virginia but raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated, with distinction, from the Cambridge Latin School in 1894 and entered Radcliffe where she studied science and the classics. After graduating in 1898, she taught for a year in an Indianapolis high school and a year at Tuskegee Institute. While in Alabama she fell ill and died. • August 30, 1904 Michael Augustine Healy, the first person of African descent to command a United States government ship, died. Healy was born enslaved September 22, 1839 near Macon, Georgia. Although he was three-quarters European ancestry, he was considered enslaved and could not be formally educated in Georgia. Therefore, his father sent him North for education. In 1854, while in England, Healy signed on to an American East Indian clipper as a cabin boy. He quickly became an expert seaman and rose to the rank of officer. In 1864, he returned to the United States and was accepted as a third lieutenant in the Revenue Cutter Service (now the U. S. Coast Guard). He attained the rank of captain in 1880 and in 1882 was given command of the USRC Thomas Corwin. For the next twenty years, Healy was the federal government’s law enforcement presence in the Alaskan territory. Healy retired in 1904. The USCGC Healy was commissioned by the United States Coast Guard November 10, 1999. Healy’s biography, “Captain “Hell Roaring” Mike Healy: from American slave to Arctic hero,” was published in 2009. “Passing for White: Race, Religion, and the Healy Family, 1820-1920” was published in 2003. • August 30, 1907 Charles “Tarzan” Cooper, hall of fame basketball player, was born in Newark, Delaware but raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Cooper started playing professionally in 1925, playing with the Philadelphia Panthers and Philadelphia Giants until 1929 when he joined the New York Rens. Over the next eleven seasons, he led them on an 88 game winning streak in 1933 and the World Professional Championship in 1939. In 1941, Cooper joined the Washington Bears and led them to the World Professional Championship in 1943. Cooper was considered the greatest center of his time. He retired in 1944 and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1977, the first African American to be inducted as an individual. Cooper died December 19, 1980. • August 30, 1917 William “Pop” Gates, hall of fame basketball player, was born in Decatur, Georgia but raised in Harlem, New York. Gates led his high school basketball team to the New York City basketball championship in 1938 and then joined the New York Rens and helped them win the World Professional Championship in 1939. Over his career, Gates was World Tournament All-Pro eight times. In 1946, he and three other Black players integrated the National Basketball League but they were all released the following year. Gates served as player/coach for the Harlem Globetrotters for five seasons before retiring in 1955. He then worked as a security supervisor for the New York City Department of Social Services. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1989. Gates died December 1, 1999. • August 30, 1923 Joseph Lawson Howze, the first Black bishop in the 20th century to head a diocese in the United States, was born in Daphne, Alabama. Howze earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Alabama State University in 1948 and taught science in the Mobile, Alabama Public School System. In 1959, he earned his Doctor of Divinity degree from Christ the King Seminary at St. Bonaventure University and was ordained for the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1972, Howze was appointed auxiliary bishop of Natchez-Jackson, Mississippi and in 1973 was consecrated to the episcopate. When the Diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi was created, Howze was appointed its bishop June 6, 1977, the first Black bishop in the 20th century to head a diocese in the U. S. Howze retired in 2001. • August 30, 1948 Fred Hampton, Sr., activist and assassinated Black Panther Party leader, was born in Chicago, Illinois but grew up in Maywood, a suburb of Chicago. At an early age, Hampton became active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Youth Council, assuming leadership and growing the organization to 500 members. He worked to get more and better recreational facilities established in the neighborhoods and to improve educational resources for the impoverished community. In 1968, Hampton returned to Chicago and joined the Black Panther Party. One of his major accomplishments was the brokering of a nonaggression pact between the city’s most powerful street gangs. When he became leader of the Chicago chapter, he organized weekly rallies, taught political education classes, launched a free breakfast program, and started a project for community supervision of the police. In 1967, the FBI opened a file on Hampton that over the next two years grew to over 4,000 pages. In the pre-dawn hours of December 4, 1969, the Chicago police raided Hampton’s apartment, killing Hampton and Mark Clark and seriously wounding four others, including two females. A federal grand jury determined that the police fired between 82 and 99 shots while most of the occupants were sleep. Only one shot was proven to have come from a Panther gun. Their deaths were chronicled in the 1971 documentary film “The Murder of Fred Hampton.” The families of Hampton and Clark filed a civil suit against the city, state, and federal governments which was eventually settled for $1.85 million. In 2004, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution commemorating December 4, 2004 as “Fred Hampton Day.” A street was named in his honor in Maywood. • August 30, 1953 Robert Lee Parish, hall of fame basketball player, was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. Parish played college basketball at Centenary College of Louisiana and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1976. He was selected by the Golden State Warriors in the 1976 National Basketball Association Draft and traded to the Boston Celtics in 1980. Over his 20 season professional career, Parish was a nine-time All-Star and four-time NBA champion. Parish retired after the 1997 season and in 1998 the Celtics retired his 00 jersey number. In 1996, Parish was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History and in 2003 was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Parrish was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. He holds the record for most games played in the NBA with 1,611. Parish is a Celtic team consultant and mentor to their big men. • August 30, 1961 James Benton Parsons was appointed to a federal judgeship on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois by President John F. Kennedy, the first African American appointed to a lifetime federal judgeship in the U. S. Parsons was born August 13, 1911 in Kansas City, Missouri but raised in Decatur, Illinois. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Millikin University in 1934 and his Master of Arts degree in political science from the University of Chicago in 1946. Parsons served in the U. S. Navy from 1942 to 1945 and earned his Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1949. From that time to 1961, he was in private practice as well as serving in several public capacities in Illinois. Parsons served on the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois until his retirement in 1992. Parsons died June 19, 1993. Parsons Elementary School in Decatur and the ceremonial courtroom in the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago, Illinois are named in his honor. • August 30, 1967 Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first African American to serve on the United States Supreme Court. Marshall was born July 2, 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Lincoln University in 1930 and his Bachelor of Laws degree from Howard University School of Law in 1933. In 1934, he began working for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He won his first major civil rights case, Murray v. Pearson, in 1936 and his first case before the Supreme Court, Chambers v. Florida, in 1940. In total, he won 29 of 32 cases he argued before that court. His most famous case was the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in which the court ruled that separate but equal public education could never be truly equal. Marshall was the 1946 recipient of the NAACP Spingarn Medal. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and in 1967 President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the Supreme Court. Marshall served on the court 24 years, retiring in 1991. Marshall died January 24, 1993. There are numerous memorials to him around the country, including the main office building of the federal court system which is named in his honor and has a statue of him in the atrium. In 1976, Texas Southern University named their law school after him and in 1980 the University of Maryland School of Law opened the Thurgood Marshall Law Library. Marshall was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President William J. Clinton November 30, 1993. Biographies of Marshall include “Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary” (1998) and “Thurgood Marshall” (2002). Marshall’s name is enshrined in the Ring of Genealogy at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan. • August 30, 1983 Guion Stewart “Guy” Bluford, Jr. became the first African American in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger. Bluford was born November 22, 1942 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1964. Bluford then joined the United States Air Force and during the Vietnam War flew 144 combat missions, 65 of which were over North Vietnam. He earned numerous medals and citations for his flying, including an Air Force Commendation medal. After his discharge from the air force, Bluford earned his Master of Science degree in 1974 and his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in 1978 from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He earned his Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Houston in 1987. Bluford became an astronaut with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in August, 1979 and over the course of his career participated in four space shuttle flights, logging over 688 hours in space. In 1993, Bluford resigned from NASA to become vice president and general manager of a private engineering services company. He is currently president of an engineering consulting firm. Bluford was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1997 and the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2010. • August 30, 1987 Wade Hampton McCree, Jr., the first African American appointed to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, died. McCree was born July 3, 1920 in Des Moines, Iowa. He earned his bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Fisk University in 1941 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He served a four year stint in the United States Army as a captain during World War II. In 1948, he earned his law degree from Harvard University Law School. After graduating, McCree moved to Detroit, Michigan where he practiced at a private law firm from 1948 to 1952. In 1953, he was appointed to the Michigan Workman’s Compensation Commission and in 1954 became the first African American appointed to the Circuit Court of Wayne County, Michigan. He served on that court until 1961 when he was appointed by President John F. Kennedy to the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. In 1966, McCree was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth District and received his commission September 7, 1966. McCree served on that court until 1977 when he was appointed U. S. Solicitor General, the second African American to hold that position, by President Jimmy Carter. McCree resigned that position in 1981 and became the Lewis M. Simes Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, a position he held until his death. McCree received honorary degrees from several institutions, including an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Michigan in 1971. The Wade McCree incentive scholarship is offered at Wayne State Univesity. • August 30, 2003 Webster Anderson, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, died. Anderson was born July 15, 1933 in Winnsboro, South Carolina. He joined the United States Army in 1953 and served during the Korean War. By October 15, 1967, he was serving as a staff sergeant in Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Infantry Division during the Vietnam War. On that day, his actions earned him the medal, America’s highest military decoration. His citation partially reads, “During the early morning hours Battery A’s defensive position was attacked by a determined North Vietnamese Army infantry unit supported by heavy mortar, recoilless rifle, rocket propelled grenade and automatic weapon fire. The initial onslaught breached the battery defensive perimeter. Sfc. Anderson, with complete disregard for his personal safety, mounted the exposed parapet of his howitzer position and became the mainstay of the defense of the battery position. Sfc. Anderson directed devastating direct howitzer fire on the assaulting enemy while providing rifle and grenade defensive fire against enemy soldiers attempting to overrun his gun section position. While protecting his crew and directing their fire against the enemy from his exposed position, 2 enemy grenades exploded at his feet knocking him down and severely wounding him in the legs. Despite the excruciating pain and through not able to stand, Sfc. Anderson valorously propped himself on the parapet and continued to direct howitzer fire upon the closing enemy and to encourage his men to fight on. Seeing an enemy grenade land within the gun pit near a wounded member of his gun crew, Sfc. Anderson heedless of his own safety, seized the grenade and attempted to throw it over the parapet to save his men. As the grenade was thrown from the position it exploded and Sfc. Anderson was again grievously wounded. Although only partially conscious and severely wounded, Sfc. Anderson refused medical evacuation and continued to encourage his men in the defense of the position. Sfc. Anderson by his inspirational leadership, professionalism, devotion to duty and complete disregard for his welfare was able to maintain the defense of his section position and to defeat a determined enemy attack.” Despite losing both of his legs and part of an arm, Anderson survived his wounds and retired from the army. The medal was presented to him November 24, 1969 by President Richard M. Nixon. • August 30, 2004 Grant Reynolds, minister, lawyer and civil rights activist, died. Reynolds was born July 29, 1908 in Key West, Florida. He earned his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Eden Theological Seminary in 1938 and became minister of a church in Cleveland, Ohio. He also served as president of the Cleveland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1941, Reynolds became a United States Army chaplain but resigned in 1944 to protest the racism he encountered during his service. In 1944, he was appointed New York State Commissioner of Correction and in 1948 earned his law degree from Columbia Law School. In 1947, Reynolds co-founded with A. Phillip Randolph the Committee Against Jim Crow in Military Service and Training with Reynolds as national chairman. The committee threatened to organize a campaign to have African Americans resist the draft law. As a result, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 mandating “equal treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin” July 26, 1948. In 1961, Reynolds was appointed counsel to the chairman of the Republican National Committee but lost the position in 1964 when he opposed the candidacy of Barry Goldwater for president. Reynolds then practice law until his death. • August 30, 2009 Marie Roach Knight, gospel and R&B singer, died. Knight was born June 1, 1920 in Sanford, Florida. She first toured with evangelist Frances Robinson. In 1946, she made her first recordings as a member of The Sunset Four. That same year, Knight met Sister Rosetta Tharp and they performed and recorded together until 1951, recording such hits as “Up Above My Head” (1948) and “Gospel Train” (1949). Knight went solo in 1951 and in 1956 recorded the album “Songs of the Gospel.” In the late 1950s, Knight began to record secular music with her biggest hit being “Cry Me a River” in 1965. She also toured with Brook Benton, The Drifters, and Clyde McPhatter. In the mid-1970s, Knight returned to gospel music and recorded “Marie Knight: Today” (1975) and “Let Us Get Together” (2007).
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 12:56:24 +0000
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