Today in Black History, 12/14/2014 • December 14, 1829 John Mercer Langston, attorney, abolitionist and educator, was born in Louisa County, Virginia. Langston earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1849 and Master of Arts degree in theology in 1852 from Oberlin College. Denied admission to law school because of his race, Langston studied under an established attorney and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1854. Together with his brothers, Langston became active in the Abolitionist Movement and became president of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society in 1858. During the Civil War, Langston was appointed to recruit African Americans to fight for the Union Army and after the war was appointed Inspector General for the Freedmen’s Bureau, a federal organization that assisted formerly enslaved Black people. From 1864 to 1868, Langston served as president of the National Equal Rights League which called for the abolition of slavery, support of racial unity and self-help, and equality before the law. Langston established and served as dean of Howard University Law School in 1868, the first Black law school in the country. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Langston a member of the Board of Health of the District of Columbia. President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him United States Minister to Haiti (Ambassador) in 1877 and he was appointed Charge d’affaires to the Dominican Republic in 1884. Langston was named the first president of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (now Virginia State University) in 1885 and became the first Black person elected to the U. S. Congress from Virginia in 1888. Langston published his autobiography, “From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol: Or the First and Only Negro Representative in Congress From the Old Dominion” in 1894. Langston died November 15, 1897. There are a number of schools named in his honor, including Langston University in Oklahoma. The John Mercer Langston Bar Association in Columbus, Ohio is also named in his honor. His biography, “John Mercer Langston and the Fight for Black Freedom, 1829 – 65,” was published in 1989 and his house in Oberlin was designated a National Historic Landmark May 15, 1975. • December 14, 1899 DeFord Bailey, hall of fame country music performer and the first African American to perform on the Grand Ole Opry, was born in Smith County, Tennessee. Bailey learned to play the harmonica at three. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1918 and premiered on the Grand Ole Opry in 1927. From then to 1941, he was one of the most popular performers on the show and was nicknamed “The Harmonica Wizard.” During that time, Bailey also toured with many major country stars, including Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe. In 1941, he was fired because of a licensing conflict and spent the rest of his life shining shoes to make a living. Bailey died July 2, 1982. In 2005, the documentary “DeFord Bailey: A Legend Lost” was produced and that same year he was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The DeFord Bailey Tribute Garden in Nashville was dedicated in 2007. The Encyclopedia of Country Music refers to Bailey as “the most significant Black country star before World War II.” • December 14, 1906 Elizabeth Evelyn Wright, founder of what is now Voorhees College, died. Wright was born April 3, 1872 in Talbotton, Georgia. She graduated from Tuskegee Institute and moved to Denmark, South Carolina in 1897. With a donation from Ralph Voorhees, in 1902 Voorhees Industrial School opened for students at the elementary and high school levels with Wright as principal. For years this was the only high school for Black students in the area. After her death, Wright was buried on the Voorhees campus. The school was accredited as Voorhees College in 1962. Wright is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on February 28. Her biography, “Elizabeth Evelyn Wright: 1872 – 1906 Founder of Voorhees College,” was published in 1983. • December 14, 1920 Clark Terry, hall of fame jazz trumpeter and educator, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Terry began his professional musical career in the early 1940s and played with Count Basie from 1948 to 1951 and Duke Ellington from 1951 to 1959. Hebecame the first African American staff musician at NBC television in 1960 when he joined the “Tonight Show” band. Terry continues to play and over his career has composed more than 200 jazz songs and performed for seven United States presidents. Recordings by Terry as leader include “Serenade to a Bus Seat” (1957), “Mumbles” (1966), and “Live at Marian’s with the Terry’s Young Titans of Jazz” (2005). Terry also shares his jazz expertise and encourages students with his own jazz camp and buying instruments and giving instruction. He was designated a NEA Jazz Master, the highest honor the United States bestows on a jazz artist, by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1991 and was inducted into the French Order of Arts and Letters and the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in 2000. Terry has received three Grammy nominations and was presented the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. The Clark Terry UNH Jazz Festival is presented annually by the University of New Hampshire. “Clark: The Autobiography of Clark Terry” was published in 2011. The 2014 documentary “Keep On Keepin’ On” follows Terry’s mentorship of a young blind piano prodigy. • December 14, 1920 Richard Bowie Spikes of Fort Bragg, California received patent number 1,362,197 for an improved trolley pole arrester. His invention provided a mechanism to automatically pull down the pole when the circuit is broken to prevent the breaking of the trolley wire and damage to the pole. Little is known of Spikes’ life except that he was born December 4, 1884 and was an incredible inventor. He also received patent number 1,441,383 for a brake testing machine January 9, 1923, patent number 1,889,814 for an improved automatic gear shift December 6, 1932, patent number 1,936,996 for improvements in transmission and shifting means November 28, 1933, patent number 2,517,936 for a horizontally swinging barber’s chair August 8, 1950, and patent number 3,015,522 for an automatic safety brake system January 2, 1962. While working on the automatic safety brake system, Spikes lost his vision. As a result, he designed a drafting machine for blind people. Spikes died in 1962. • December 14, 1925 Samuel “Toothpick Sam” Jones, the first African American to pitch a baseball no-hitter in the major leagues, was born in Stewartville, Ohio. Jones began his professional baseball career in the Negro Baseball League in 1947. He began his major league career with the Cleveland Indians in 1951. During his major league career, Jones pitched for a number of different teams and was a two-time National League All-Star, led the National League in strikeouts three times, and was named the 1959 National League Pitcher of the Year by The Sporting News. On May 12, 1955 while pitching for the Chicago Cubs, Jones pitched a no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Jones last year in the major leagues was 1964 and he retired from baseball in 1967 with a major league record of 102 wins and 101 losses. Jones died November 5, 1971. • December 14, 1939 Ernest Davis, hall of fame college football player and the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy, was born in New Salem, Pennsylvania but raised in Elmira, New York. Davis attended Syracuse University where he was a running back from 1959 to 1961, winning first team All-American honors in 1960 and 1961 and earning the nickname “the Elmira Express.” On November 28, 1961, Davis was awarded the Heisman Trophy as college football’s top player of the year. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1962. Davis was selected number one in the 1962 National Football League Draft, the first African American to be drafted number one, by the Washington Redskins and traded to the Cleveland Browns. Before playing a game of professional football, Davis died May 18, 1963. More than 10,000 people filed past his coffin in a single day and President John F. Kennedy sent a condolence telegram. Despite never playing a game for them, the Cleveland Browns retired his jersey number 45. Davis was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1979 and a film biography, “The Express” based on the book “Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express” (1999), was released in 2008. A commemorative statue was unveiled June 20, 1988 in front of Ernie Davis Middle School in Elmira and another statue of Davis was unveiled September 13, 2008 on the campus of Syracuse University. • December 14, 1943 Frederick McKinley Jones received patent number 2,336,735 for the invention of removable cooling units for compartments of trucks, railroad cars and the like employed in transporting perishables. His cooling units were small in size and weight and occupied little of the space within the transporting vehicle. Jones was born May 17, 1893 in Covington, Kentucky and was one of the most prolific inventors ever. During his life, he was awarded 61 patents. Forty were for refrigeration equipment, while others were for portable X-ray machines, sound equipment and gasoline engines. He became the first African American elected into the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers in 1944. Jones died February 21, 1961. Biographies of Jones include “Man With a Million Ideas: Fred Jones, Genius/Inventor” (1976) and “I’ve Got an Idea: The Story of Frederick McKinley Jones” (1994). • December 14, 1944 Samuel Lee Gravely, Jr. became the first African American to be commissioned an officer in the United States Navy. Gravely was born June 4, 1922 in Richmond, Virginia. He enlisted in the Naval Reserves in 1942 and successfully completed midshipman training in 1944. His first assignment was to Camp Robert Smalls, a part of the Great Lakes Naval Training Station set aside for training African American enlisted men. Gravely was released from active duty in 1946 and returned to Richmond to earn his Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Virginia Union University in 1948. He was recalled to active duty in 1949 and went on to be the first African American to serve aboard a fighting ship as an officer, the first to command a navy ship, the first fleet commander, and the first to become an admiral. Gravely retired from the navy in 1980 with several decorations, including the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, and Navy Commendation Medal. Gravely died October 22, 2004. The USS Gravely, a U. S. Navy guided missile destroyer, was launched March 30, 2009. The Samuel L. Gravely, Jr. Elementary School in Haymarket, Virginia was posthumously named in his honor. • December 14, 1963 Dinah Washington, hall of fame blues and jazz singer, died. Washington was born Ruth Lee Jones August 29, 1924 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. As a child, Washington played the piano and directed her church choir and by 16 was touring the United States on the Black gospel circuit. During this period, she performed in clubs as Dinah Washington while performing as Ruth Jones on the gospel circuit. Between 1948 and 1955, she had numerous R&B hits, including “I Won’t Cry Anymore” (1951), “Trouble in Mind” (1952), and “Teach Me Tonight” (1954). Washington won the Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Performance in 1959 for “What a Difference a Day Makes.” She teamed up with Brook Benton in 1960 for “Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)” and “A Rockin’ Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall In Love).” Washington was one of the most influential vocalists of the twentieth century and is credited as a major influence on Aretha Franklin. Three of her recordings, “Teach Me Tonight” , “Unforgettable” (1959), and “What a Difference a Day Makes” , have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as having “qualitative or historical significance.” The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed her recording of “Am I Asking Too Much” (1948) as one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. Washington was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative postage stamp in her honor in 1993. She was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2003. The city of Tuscaloosa renamed a section of 30th Avenue Dinah Washington Avenue in 2008. Her biography, “Queen of the Blues: A Biography of Dinah Washington,” was published in 1987. • December 14, 1971 Dick Tiger, hall of fame boxer, died. Tiger was born Richard Ihetu August 14, 1929 in Amaigbo, Nigeria. He started boxing professionally in 1952 and won the World Middleweight Boxing Championship in 1962. After losing that title, he moved up in weight and won the World Light Heavyweight Boxing Championship in 1966. Tiger was named Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year in 1962 and 1965. Tiger retired from boxing in 1970 with a record of 60 wins, 18 losses, and 3 draws. Tiger was posthumously inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991. His biography, “Dick Tiger: The Life and Times of a Boxing Immortal,” was published in 2005. • December 14, 1983 Johnny D. Bright, hall of fame Canadian Football League player, died. Bright was born June 11, 1930 in Fort Wayne Indiana. He played college football at Drake University where he led the nation in total offense in 1949 and 1950. On October 20, 1951 in a game against Oklahoma State University, Bright was violently assaulted by White football player, Wilbanks Smith. During the first seven minutes of the game, Bright was knocked unconscious three times by blows from Smith. The final blow broke Bright’s jaw and he was eventually forced to leave the game. A six sequence photograph of the incident was captured by the Des Moines Register newspaper and it showed that the final blow was delivered well after Bright had handed the football off. That photographic sequence won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Photography and later made the cover of Life Magazine. After the game, Oklahoma State and conference officials refused to take any disciplinary action against Smith. Bright went on to earn his Bachelor of Science degree in education from Drake in 1952 and was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1952 National Football League Draft. However, because of concerns regarding the racial environment in the NFL, Bright elected to play for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. Over his 13 season professional career, Bright led the league in rushing three times and was the 1959 Most Outstanding Player. He retired in 1964 as the CFL’s all-time leading rusher. Bright was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1970 and posthumously into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1984. After football, Bright worked as a teacher, coach, and school administrator. Oklahoma State University formally apologized to Drake University for the incident in 2005. The Johnny Bright School in Edmonton, Canada opened in 2010. • December 14, 1998 Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham, Jr., civil rights advocate, author and federal judge, died. Higginbotham was born February 25, 1928 in Ewing, New Jersey. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1949 from Antioch College and his Bachelor of Laws degree from Yale University in 1952. From 1954 to 1962, he worked in private practice as a member of the first African American law firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On September 26, 1962, President John F. Kennedy appointed Higginbotham a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, the first African American commissioner on any regulatory commission. He was appointed a District Court judge by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and served 13 years before being elevated to the United States Court of Appeals by President Jimmy Carter. He was Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals from 1990 to 1991 before retiring from the bench in 1993. Higginbotham founded the South Africa Free Election Fund and raised several million dollars to support fair elections in South Africa and served as one of the international mediators of the 1994 election. After the election, he helped the government draft a new constitution. President William J. Clinton presented Higginbotham the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, September 29, 1995 and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People awarded him the Spingarn Medal in 1996. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law annually presents the A. Leon Higginbotham Corporate Leadership Award. Higginbotham authored “In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process 1: The Colonial Period” in 1978 and “Shades of Freedom: Racial Politics and Presumptions of the American Legal Process” in 1996.Source: The Wright Museum)
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 21:17:17 +0000
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