Articles
This Week In Black History 5-1-13
Category: National Written by Courier Newsroom
GWENDOLYN BROOKS
May 1
1866—The two-day Memphis, Tenn., race riots, one of the most savage events immediately following the civil war, begins. When it was over, former Confederate soldiers, angered by the loss of the Civil War and the new status for Blacks, had killed 46 Blacks and two of their White supporters, as well as raped five Black women and torched over 90 homes, schools and churches. In support of the rebel soldiers, local police arrested hundreds of Blacks and not the Whites who were rioting. However, the savage nature of the rioting in Memphis (and a similar disturbance in New Orleans) prompted Congress to pass radical Reconstruction to aid Blacks, a Civil Rights bill, and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing citizenship and equal protection to former slaves.
1950—Brilliant poet Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize, is born on this day in Topeka, Kan.
1967—The “Long Hot Summer” begins. The period between May 1 and Oct. 1, 1967 witnessed the most dramatic and destructive series of Black urban disturbances in American history. Major riots took place in 40 American cities. There were also lesser disturbances in 100 smaller towns and cities. Many felt the riots were sparked by a collective sense of frustrated hopes and a new urban generation less willing to adopt peaceful means for change.
May 2
1844—Master inventor Elijah McCoy is born in Colchester, Ontario, Canada. He would become the holder of over 50 patents—most were mechanical devices, which greatly improved engines, locomotives and steamships. The superiority of his inventions led to the phrase “the real McCoy” coming to mean the mark of excellent and authenticity. McCoy was born to slaves who escaped America for a free life in Canada. His parents became successful and sent him to study engineering in Scotland when he was only 16. After the end of U.S. slavery, he settled in Ypsilanti, Mich., and began his remarkable career.
1870—One of the most unsung religious leaders in American history, William Seymour, was born on this day in Centerville, La. Seymour became pastor of the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles and the catalyst for the worldwide Pentecostal movement. He not only rejected racial barriers in the church in favor of “Unity in Christ,” but he is also credited with eliminating many of the restrictions placed on women in the church. He died of a heart attack in 1922.
May 3
1845—Macon B. Allen passes the Massachusetts bar thus becoming the first African-American lawyer to pass a state bar and the first Black person permitted to practice law in the United States. Allen was born in Indiana but after the Civil War he moved to South Carolina where he was elected a judge in 1873.
May 4
1891—Dr. Daniel Hale Williams founds the Provident Hospital and Training Center in Chicago, Ill. It becomes a major training center for Black doctors and nurses. Williams is best known, however, for performing the nation’s first open heart surgery on July 9, 1893. He operated on a man injured in a knife fight. The man would live for another 20 years after the surgery.
1961—Thirteen Freedom Riders began bus trips through the South to test Southern compliance with a 1960 U.S. Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation in interstate transportation facilities. They were soon joined by hundreds of other “Freedom Riders” of all ages and races. Despite the Court decision, dozens of Freedom Riders were arrested as the South attempted to hang onto its segregationist ways.
May 5
1905—Robert Sengstacke Abbot founds the Chicago Defender newspaper calling it “the world’s greatest weekly.” Indeed, he would build the Defender into the largest circulation and most influential Black newspaper of its day. The Defender, which became the most widely circulated Black newspaper in the country, came to be known as "America's Black Newspaper" and made Abbott one of the first self-made millionaires of African-American descent. In 1919, Illinois Gov. Frank Lowden appointed Abbott to the Race Relations Commission. Abbott died of Bright's disease in 1940 in Chicago, Ill.
May 6
1787—Prince Hall organizes the nation’s first Black Masonic lodge in Boston, Mass.—African Lodge #459. Hall would go on to become the father of Black Masons in America and a major Black leader in the Northeast.
1812—Martin R. Delany, a pioneering Black nationalist, is born on this day in Charles Town, Va. Abraham Lincoln once described him as one of the most brilliant men he had ever met. Delany would fight in the Civil War to end slavery and become one of the nation’s first Black military officers. After the war he became a doctor. But over the years he became frustrated with American racism and began to advocate a return of Blacks to Africa.
May 7
1800—On this date the founder of the settlement which would grow to become the city of Chicago, Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable, sold his property and left the settlement. The Haitian-born frontier trader and businessman had a history of building significant wealth, losing it and building it again. He would die 18 years later in St. Charles, Mo.
1878—Black inventor, Joseph R. Winters, receives a patent for his designing of the fire escape ladder.
2010—A report on felony disenfranchisement laws begins to receive widespread publicity. The report was actually released on April 21 by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. It showed that 5.3 million Americans were being denied the right to vote because of past felony convictions. Disproportionately, those denied voting rights were African-American. In fact, the report revealed that 13 percent of Black males could not vote because of felony convictions. Historically, most voting disenfranchisement laws were enacted after the Civil War as a means to keep newly freed Blacks from voting.
1 comment
Last Updated on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 09:54
Hits: 581
Police: Teen assaulted Philly mayor’s daughter
Category: National Written by Associated Press
OLIVIA NUTTER
PHILADELPHIA (AP)—A teenager has been charged in an alleged assault on the teenage daughter of Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.
Authorities say it's in connection with an altercation after a track meet in the city's East Mount Airy section April 18. Court records allege 18-year-old Ciarra Ryan punched Olivia Nutter, a senior at Masterman High School, in the head and face and pulled her hair.
Police say Ryan surrendered Monday. She's charged with simple assault and recklessly endangering another person; a telephone number for her could not immediately be located.
The mayor's spokesman, Mark McDonald, says there was an "incident" and the mayor's daughter is fine.
In 2007, when Nutter was running for his first term, a then 12-year-old Olivia Nutter achieved local fame starring in a TV commercial for her father.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 05:59
Hits: 456
Philly pastor disinvited at Morehouse College for Obama comments
Category: National Written by NNPA News Service
REV. KEVIN R. JOHNSON
by Darryl Bell
(NNPA)--An invitation to the Rev. Kevin R. Johnson, senior pastor of Bright Hope Baptist Church, to be the baccalaureate speaker May 18 at his alma mater, Morehouse College, has been rescinded.
Johnson was informed of the decision by Morehouse College President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. in an April 15 phone call from Atlanta.
According to a press release from Citizens for Change — a group of prominent Morehouse graduates — Wilson’s decision was based on concerns Johnson expressed in an op-ed article that appeared in The Philadehia Tribune on April 14. In the commentary, Johnson voiced displeasure about President Barack Obama’s lack of Black appointees in his cabinet.
The release said Wilson felt the article was “untimely” given that Obama is scheduled to be the 2013 commencement speaker on May 19.
On April 15 and April 16, which the release added coincided with the 50th Anniversary of Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Wilson contacted Johnson and encouraged him to resign as the speaker. Johnson rebuffed Wilson’s suggestion.
Wilson, according to the release, then approached Johnson with a compromise. He proposed that Johnson agree to being one of three speakers for the event. Johnson refused, citing that it was a departure from the college’s tradition of having one baccalaureate speaker, and all initial representations made to him.
Reached Saturday via e-mail, Johnson said, “What has made Morehouse such a premier institution is its commitment to critical thinking, free thought, and free speech. Morehouse teaches her students not to accept the status quo, but to ask the critical ‘why’ and then do something about it, just as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Maynard Jackson, Julian Bond, and others did, to uplift African-American people.
“This is a defining moment for Morehouse,” he added. “The Morehouse brand is that she has a 146-year history of producing men who are progressive leaders, critical thinkers, committed to changing the world. I am deeply rooted in this tradition and will continue to devote my life to Morehouse and her ideals.”
On April 17, Johnson sent Wilson a letter insisting the college president honor his original invitation. Wilson then replaced Johnson with three new baccalaureate speakers — the Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, senior pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and a graduating senior.
According to the release, the college posted Warnock and Moss’ names as speakers on its website on April 23 but removed them on April 25 after Warnock and Moss withdrew their names.
However on its website Saturday, the school listed Warnock, Moss and the Rev. Reginald Wayne Sharpe Jr., a member of the class of 2013, as speakers.
Johnson said he is prepared to speak at the event.
“If my beloved alma mater honors its initial commitment to the 2013 Baccalaureate speaker, I will attend and deliver the message God has already given me: ‘Morehouse Men Are Called to be Eagles,’” he said via e-mail.
In the release, Johnson said, “I have always been and continue to be a supporter of President Obama. The issue is not about the article in question, but about Morehouse’s longstanding history and pedagogy of free thought and free speech. Without free thought and free speech, Morehouse would not have produced our most admired alumnus, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Several noted Morehouse College almuni are members of Citizens for Change.
“Kevin is not just a Morehouse man,” said the Rev. Calvin Butts, senior pastor of The Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, president of SUNY Old Westbury, and a member of the group. In the release Butts said, “he is a stellar example of the college’s rich tradition of producing outstanding leaders in this century who are well-educated, forward-thinking, community-conscious, and global citizens.”
The alumni group wants Wilson to reaffirm and honor his invitation to Johnson.
“If President Wilson turns his back on one of our most distinguished alums because of an exercise of free speech and political commentary, he will have set Morehouse on a dangerous course and departed from the great tradition bequeathed to us,” said the Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, senior pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco in the release. “In 1947, Dr. King warned that, ‘If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, ‘brethren!’ Be careful, teachers!’ We are potentially witnessing the realization of King’s greatest fears.”
Wilson was unavailable for comment.
Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune
Last Updated on Tuesday, 30 April 2013 10:18
Hits: 1977
Pelosi wins praise at NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner in Detroit
Category: National Written by Roz Edward, National Content Director
FORMER SPEAKER--House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
by Roz Edward
(RTNS)—Since its inception, the NAACP’s Annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner in Detroit has been known as the largest sit-down dinner in the world. The illustrious list of keynote speakers has included Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
On April 29 the democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, stood at the podium and delivered the organization’s keynote address.
Pelosi a 26-year veteran of the U.S. Congress spoke solemnly about the challenges the nation faces.
“We didn’t invite Nancy Pelosi because she is a Democrat,” said Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the NAACP Detroit branch, the largest and most active branch in the nation. “We invited her because when we call on her [for assistance] she will push open the gates, and if she can’t push them open, she will climb over the gate, and if that doesn’t work she will parachute in.”
Pelosi a 26-year veteran of the U.S. Congress spoke solemnly about the challenges the nation faces.
First she acknowledged Alabama congresswoman Terri Sewell, the first Black woman to be elected to congress from that state, for introducing a house bill to honor the “Four Little Girls” killed in an Alabama church bombing in 1963.
Pelosi went on to inspire the 10,000 plus audience members with one of her favorite Dr. King quotes, "Freedom must never be defaulted, it must forever be exalted!"
The popular politician, a 26-year veteran of congress, then outlined her plan for making change in America. "To achieve economic sustainability, we have to build confidence. We have to do this to enable everyone in America to achieve prosperity. We must address disparities in quality and in income," said Pelosi.
Congresswoman Pelosi may best be known for spearheading passage of the historic health insurance reform legislation in the House of Representatives, which established a Patient's Bill of Rights and will provide insurance for more Americans while lowering health care costs over the long term.
Pelosi also encouraged all Americans to recognize the dignity and worth of every human being, emphasizing the importance of creating a society at peace with itself.
Other dinner highlights included prestigious awards to; 108 year-old Emma Didlake who received the James Weldon Johnson Lifetime Achievement; Dr. Michael Eric Dyson who received the Ida B. Wells - Freedom Fund & Justice; the Honorable JoAnn Nichols Watson received the Mary Church Terrell Freedom and Justice Award and the Michigan Chronicle's own Bankole Thompson who received the Great Expectations Award.
Against the backdrop of the most successful NAACP Fight for Freedom Fund dinner in history a small group of BANCO protestors marched in outside of Cobo Hall calling for the resignation of all Detroit Branch board members.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 01 May 2013 14:12
Hits: 801
Are lesbians more accepted than gay men?
Category: National Written by Associated Press
TOP PICK-Phoenix Mercury's Brittney Griner, the No. 1 overall pick the WNBA draft, holds a team jersey with head coach Corey Gaines during a news conference Saturday, April 20, 2013, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)
FIRST TO COME OUT--In this April 17, photo, Washington Wizards center Jason Collins, right, battles for a rebound against Chicago Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich during a NBA basketball game in Chicago. Collins has become the first male professional athlete in the major four American sports leagues to come out as gay. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
by Martha Irvine
CHICAGO (AP) -- It may be a man's world, as the saying goes, but lesbians seem to have an easier time living in it than gay men do.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 30 April 2013 14:29
Hits: 1107
More Articles...
Subcategories
Trending Topics
Digital Daily Signup
Sign up now for the New Pittsburgh Courier Digital Daily newsletter!
