Black History Appreciation!!!

[Deadpool1986]

Fact #91
In 1944 in Fort Hood, Texas, future baseball legend Jackie Robinson, who was serving as a lieutenant for the U.S. Army at the time, refused to give up his seat and move to the back of a bus when ordered to by the driver. Robinson dealt with racial slurs and was court-martialed, but was ultimately acquitted. His excellent reputation, combined with the united efforts of friends, the NAACP and various black newspapers, shed public light on the injustice. Robinson requested to be discharged soon afterward.

Fact #92
Before becoming a professional baseball player, Jackie Robinson played football for the Honolulu Bears.

Fact #93

• 

Ray Charles Robinson, a musical genius and pioneer in blending gospel and the blues, shortened his name to Ray Charles to prevent confusion with the great boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. Ray Charles began losing his sight at an early age and was completely blind by the time he was 7, but never relied upon a cane or guide dog. He was one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at its inaugural ceremony in 1986.

Fact #94
Reverend Al Sharpton preached his first sermon at the age of 4, and later toured with world-famous gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.

Fact #95

Joseph "Run" Simmons of Run-D.M.C. is the brother of hip-hop promoter and mogul Russell Simmons.

 

[Deadpool1986]

Dates:June 3, 1906 - April 12, 1975

Occupation: entertainer, dancer
Also known as: Freda Josephine McDonald

Josephine Baker Biography
Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, she later took the name Baker from her second husband, Willie Baker, whom she married at age 15.

Surviving the 1917 riots in East St. Louis, Illinois, where the family was living, Josephine Baker ran away a few years later at age thirteen and began dancing in vaudeville and on Broadway. In 1925, Josephine Baker went to Paris where, after the jazz revue La Revue Nègre failed, her comic ability and jazz dancing drew attention of the director of the Folies Bergère.

Virtually an instant hit, Josephine Baker became one of the best-known entertainers in both France and much of Europe. Her exotic, sensual act reinforced the creative images coming out of the Harlem Renaissance in America.

During World War II Josephine Baker worked with the Red Cross, gathered intelligence for the French Resistance and entertained troops in Africa and the Middle East.

After the war, Josephine Baker adopted, with her second husband, twelve children from around the world, making her home a World Village, a "showplace for brotherhood." She returned to the stage in the 1950s to finance this project.

In 1951 in the United States, Josephine Baker was refused service at the famous Stork Club in New York City. Yelling at columnist Walter Winchell, another patron of the club, for not coming to her assistance, she was accused by Winchell of communist and fascist sympathies. Never as popular in the US as in Europe, she found herself fighting the rumors begun by Winchell as well.

Josephine Baker responded by crusading for racial equality, refusing to entertain in any club or theater that was not integrated, and thereby breaking the color bar at many establishments. In 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Josephine Baker's World Village fell apart in the 1950s and in 1969 she was evicted from her chateau which was then auctioned off to pay debts. Princess Grace of Monaco gave her a villa. In 1973 Baker married an American, Robert Brady, and began her stage comeback.

In 1975, Josephine Baker's Carnegie Hall comeback performance was a success, as was her subsequent Paris performance. But two days after her last Paris performance, she died of a stroke.

She was so fine

 

[Deadpool1986]

This is the man I hope to be one day!!!

Clayton Sherrod (born 1944 in Birmingham) is a chef and entrepreneur, owner of Chef Clayton's Food Systems.

Sherrod began working at age 13 as a caddy at the Vestavia Hills Country Club after his father suffered a heart attack. Within a few weeks he moved into the club's kitchen as a dishwasher and temporary chef's assistant, but ended finding his calling. He was promoted to sous chef when he was 19 years old, and assumed the role of executive chef on an interim basis, but remained in that position at the club until 1978.

While working at the club, Sherrod began taking classes at the American Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, New York. He left Vestavia to open his own catering company, which earned long-term contracts with Alagasco and U. S. Steel. In association with Alagasco, Sherrod has authored four cookbooks.

Sherrod is active in the American Culinary Federation and founded the ACF's Birmingham chapter, through which he has been involved in promoting culinary arts in the Caribbean. He is also a coordinating chef for the national Black Family Reunion program and has traveled with World Cooks Tour For Hunger and partnered with Kingsley Holgate in efforts to reduce malarial infection in Africa.

Sherrod serves on the board of Culinard. He also chairs the Museum Foundation of the Alabama Negro League Association.

 

[Deadpool1986]

February 22 - Julius Winfield( "Dr.J") Erving, former basketball player, born Roosevelt, NY, Feb 22, 1950. Also on this day DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince win the first rap Grammy for the hit single "Parents Just Don't Understand."

 

[Deadpool1986]

Fact #96

Upon her death in 2003, singer Nina Simone's ashes were spread across the continent of Africa, per her last request.

Fact #97
African-American tap dancer Howard Sims was known as the "Sandman" because he often sprinkled sand onstage at the Apollo Theater to amplify his steps. Sims was an acclaimed dancer and footwork master whose students included Muhammad Ali, Gregory Hines and Ben Vereen.

Fact #98
Mamie Smith is considered to be the first African-American female artist to make a blues record with vocals—"Crazy Blues," released in 1920, sold 1 million copies in half a year.

Fact #99
Olympic medal-winning athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith made headlines around the world by raising their black-gloved fists at the 1968 award ceremony. Both athletes wore black socks and no shoes on the podium to represent black poverty in America.

Fact #100
Walker Smith Jr. became known as Sugar Ray Robinson when, as an under-aged boxer, he used fellow boxer Ray Robinson's Amateur Athletic Union card to fight in a show. Smith won a Golden Glove featherweight title in 1939 under the assumed name and continued using it thereafter, with the additional "Sugar" coming from a reporter.

 

[Deadpool1986]

J.P. SMALL MEMORIAL STADUIM - J.P. Small Memorial Stadium is the last remaining historic stadium in Jacksonville. The park was fist called Barrs Field after local businessman, Amander Barrs, who was president of the Jacksonville Basball Association. In 1911 Barrs gained control of the area close to downtown Jacksonville from Dr. Jay Durkee who had inherited it from his grandfather, Joseph Harvey Durkee. The historic African American community that emerged in and around the property became know as Durkeeville. Under city ownership in 1926, the recreation field was renamed Durkee Field and sometimes called Myrtle Avenue Ball Park. Originally used for spring training by the Philidelphia Athletics and the Brooklyn Dodgers, the field was later home to the Jacksonville Red Caps, a local team associated with the Negro Southern Leagues. J. P. Small Park was declared a local historic landmark in 2003.

 

[Deadpool1986]

Lieutenant Colonel Merryl (David) Tengesdal

Lieutenant Colonel Merryl Tengesdal was the first and is the only African American woman to fly the Air Force's Elite U-2 spy stealth plane, used for risky reconnaissance missions. Tengesdal, a former naval officer, is one of only five women and three African-Americans to be accepted into the Air Force's elite First Squadron, where U-2 pilots get their training. Solo flights can exceed 70,000 feet and last nine hours, and U-2s, with their tremendous wingspan, are one of the toughest crafts to land.

Air Force Lt. Col. Thomas Engle, 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron commander, described the U-2 as an unforgiving aircraft that requires exceptional airmanship to fly. Pilots are carefully screened before being accepted for training, a process that includes a three-sortie interview profile to determine the applicant's aptitude for flying the “Deuce.” Only about 850 airmen have flown the U-2 since its introduction. Tengesdal said every contribution in the military is important to winning the global war on terror.

“As a pilot, all that matters is the mission, no matter if you’re male or female,” she said. “We get it done out here, and I’m happy to be a contributing member of this team. It’s an honor to be a part of the U-2 heritage.”

Airmen of the 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron continued to add to the U-2's 51-year history by being the only U-2 squadron in the area of responsibility supporting operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

Merryl Tengesdal has had her sights set high since childhood. Growing up in The Bronx, New York, the Star Trek fan dreamed of being an astronaut. Since then she has boasted an impressive flying career, operating combat helicopters and airplanes for the Navy in the Middle East, Korea, and South America. "You don't see many Black females flying in any service," she says. "I hope this will show young girls that this is an option they can have."

Merryl Tengesdal (David) grew up in the Bronx, New York. Wanting the career of an astronaut, she graduated from the University of New Haven with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. She decided not to go into the ROTC while in college, and spent three months in Officers' Candidate School after graduating and came out with a commission as an Ensign. David then graduated from the U.S. Navy's fight-aviation program in Pensacola, Florida where she began her military career by flying the SH-60B Sea Hawk Helicopter at NAS Mayport, Florida. During her time there, she deployed on two long cruises and multiple short cruises to the Middle East, South America and the Caribbean.


Once completed with her Navy obligation, Lieutenant Colonel Merryl Tengesdal continued her military career by transferring over to the Air Force to fly the U-2S Dragon Lady at Beale Air Force base in California. She was deployed to multiple locations in support of Operations Olive Harvest, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and Horn of Africa. While stationed at Beale Air Force Base, Colonel Tengesdal held the highly esteemed positions of 9RW Chief of Flight Safety and 9th Physiological Support Squadron Director of Operations. She is a senior pilot with more than 3,200 flight hours and over 330 combat hours. She was selected for promotion in January 2008 to Lieutenant Colonel.

Lt Col Merryl Tengesdal is currently the commander of Det 2 WR/ALC at Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, where she is in charge of flight test and Program Depot Maintenance for the U-2S. She has government oversight for approximately 300 military, civil service and contractor personnel and is also the designated Service Government Flight Representative (GFR) for Site 2.

Lt. Col Merryl Tengesdale had received numerous awards and honors including the ACC Aerospace Physiologist of the Year 2008, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.

 

[Deadpool1986]

Doctor Daniel Hale Williams

Dr. Daniel Williams was the first African-American cardiologist, and is attributed with performing the first successful surgery on the heart. Dr. Williams is credited with having performed open heart surgery on July 9, 1893 before such surgeries were established. In 1913, Daniel Hale Williams Williams was the only African American member of the American College of Surgeons. He also founded Provident Hospital, the first non-segregated hospital in the United States.

Daniel Hale Williams was born on January 18, 1856 in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. He was the fifth of seven children born to Daniel and Sarah Williams. Daniel's father was a barber and moved the family to Annapolis, Maryland but died shortly thereafter of tuberculosis. Daniel's mother realized she could not manage the entire family and sent some of the children to live with relatives. Daniel was apprenticed to a shoemaker in Baltimore but ran away to join his mother who had moved to Rockford, Illinois.

Daniel Williams later moved to Edgerton, Wisconsin where he joined his sister and opened his own barber shop. After moving to nearby Janesville, Daniel became fascinated with a local physician and decided to follow his path. He began working as an apprentice to Dr. Henry Palmer for two years and in 1880 entered what is now known as Northwestern University Medical School. After graduation from Northwestern in 1883, he opened his own medical office in Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Williams began to practice surgery and medicine at the South Side Dispensary. At the same time, he held a position at Northwest University, as an instructor of anatomy. He worked for a time as a medical doctor for the City Railway Company and for the Protestant Orphan Asylum. Dr. Williams' practice began to grow, as did his reputation as a skilled surgeon. In 1883, he was one of only four African American doctors in the Chicago area, yet he gained so much respect within the medical community that six years later, in 1889, he was appointed to the Illinois Board of Health.

Dr. Williams met a young African American woman, Emma Reynolds, who had been refused admission by every nursing school in the area. This prompted him to launch a new venture, the first African American owned hospital in the United States. It started as a twelve-bed facility, named Provident Hospital. At Provident Hospital, Dr. Williams also opened the first nursing school for African Americans, where Emma Reynolds and six others made up the first graduating class. Dr. Williams employed African American and White doctors at Provident Hospital, emphasizing the need to provide the best available care to everyone.

In 1893, a young man named James Cornish was rushed to Provident Hospital with a stab wound to the chest, something most patients at the time would have died from. In the operating room, Dr. Williams made the decision to open up Cornish's chest and see what could be done before he bled to death internally. The surgical team found a pierced blood vessel and a tear to the pericardium tissue around the heart. Dr. Williams sutured both of these injuries to stop the bleeding. James Cornish survived the operation and lived another twenty years. It was the first successful open heart surgery ever performed.

During the administration of President Grover Cleveland, Dr. Williams was appointed surgeon-in-chief of Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C.. In addition to organizing the hospital, Williams also established a training school for African-American nurses at the facility.

Williams was a teacher of Clinical Surgery at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee and was an attending surgeon at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He worked hard to create more hospitals for African Americans. In 1895 he co-founded the National Medical Association for African Americans doctors, and in 1913 he became a charter member and the only African Americans doctor in the American College of Surgeons.

 

[Deadpool1986]

February 23 - Baseball catcher Elston Gene Howard was born in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1965, Howard signed a $70,000 contract with the NY Yankees and became the highest paid player in the history of baseball at the time in 1929.

 

[Deadpool1986]

Fact #96

Upon her death in 2003, singer Nina Simone's ashes were spread across the continent of Africa, per her last request.

Fact #97
African-American tap dancer Howard Sims was known as the "Sandman" because he often sprinkled sand onstage at the Apollo Theater to amplify his steps. Sims was an acclaimed dancer and footwork master whose students included Muhammad Ali, Gregory Hines and Ben Vereen.

Fact #98
Mamie Smith is considered to be the first African-American female artist to make a blues record with vocals—"Crazy Blues," released in 1920, sold 1 million copies in half a year.

Fact #99
Olympic medal-winning athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith made headlines around the world by raising their black-gloved fists at the 1968 award ceremony. Both athletes wore black socks and no shoes on the podium to represent black poverty in America.

Fact #100
Walker Smith Jr. became known as Sugar Ray Robinson when, as an under-aged boxer, he used fellow boxer Ray Robinson's Amateur Athletic Union card to fight in a show. Smith won a Golden Glove featherweight title in 1939 under the assumed name and continued using it thereafter, with the additional "Sugar" coming from a reporter.

 

[Deadpool1986]

Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Hansberry Facts:

Known for: writing Raisin in the Sun, the first play by an African American woman produced on Broadway
Occupation: writer, playwright
Dates: May 19, 1930 - January 12, 1965

Lorraine Hansberry Biography:

Lorraine Hansberry's parents were both active in the black community in Chicago, including in social change work. Her uncle, William Leo Hansberry, studied African history. Visitors to the home included Duke Ellington, Paul Robeson, and Jesse Owens.

Her family moved, desegregating a white neighborhood with a restrictive covenant, in 1938, and though there were violent protests, they did not move until a court ordered them to do so. The case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court as Hansberry vs. Lee, when restrictive covenants were ruled illegal (which did not stop enforcement of them in Chicago and other cities).

One of Lorraine Hanberry's brothers served in a segregated unit in World War II; another refused his draft call, objecting to segregation and discrimination in the military.

Writing:

Lorraine Hansberry attended the University of Wisconsin for two years, then left to work for Paul Robeson's newspaper, Freedom, first as a writer and then associate editor. She attended the Intercontinental Peace Congress in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1952, when Paul Robeson was denied a passport to attend.

She met Robert Nemiroff on a picket line, and they were married in 1953, spending the night before their wedding protesting the execution of the Rosenbergs. Lorraine Hansberry left her position at Freedom, focusing mostly on her writing and taking a few temporary jobs.

Raisin in the Sun:

Lorraine Hansberry completed her first play in 1957, taking her title from Langston Hughes' poem, "Harlem."

"What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore -- and then run?"

She began to circulate the play, Raisin in the Sun, trying to interest producers, investors, and actors. Sidney Poitier expressed interest in taking the part of the son, and soon a director and other actors (including Louis Gossett, Ruby Dee, and Ossie Davis) were committed to the performance. Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway at the Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959.

The play, with themes both universally human and specifically about racial discrimination and sexist attitudes, was successful, and a screenplay soon followed in which Lorraine Hansberry added more scenes to the story -- none of which Columbia Pictures allowed into the film.

After Raisin in the Sun:

Lorraine Hansberry was commissioned to write a television drama on slavery, which she completed as The Drinking Gourd, but it was not produced -- NBC executives apparently didn't support the idea of a black screenwriter writing about slavery.

Moving with her husband to Croton-on-Hudson, Lorraine Hansberry continued not only her writing but also her involvement with civil rights and other political protest, even after being diagnosed with cancer. In 1964, The Movement: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality was published for SNCC (Southern Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) with text by Hansberry. She divorced Nemiroff in March, though they continued to work together.

In October, Lorraine Hansberry moved back into New York City as her new play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window began rehearsals. Although critical reception was cool, supporters kept it running until Lorraine Hansberry's death in January.

After her death, her ex-husband finished her work on a play centered on Africa, Les Blancs. This play opened in 1970 and ran for only 47 performances.

Background, Family:

• Father: Carl A. Hansberry
• Mother: Nanny Perry Hansberry
• fourth of four children
• lived in Chicago until college

Education

• University of Wisconsin, 1948-50
• Roosevelt College
• School of Art Institute
• New School for Social Research

Marriage, Children

• husband: Robert Nemiroff (married 1953, divorced 1964)
• children: none

Plays:

• A Raisin in the Sun (1959); screenplay 1960 (adapted as a musical, Raisin, in 1974)
• The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (1964)
• To Be Young, Gifted, and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words (adaptation of Hansberry's writings by Robert Nemiroff) (1969)
• Les Blancs (completed and edited by Robert Nemiroff) (1970)
• The Drinking Gourd (television script) (published 1972)
• What Use Are Flowers? (television script) (published 1972)
• Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays of Lorraine Hansberry (completed and edited by Robert Nemiroff) (1972)

Awards:

• New York Drama Critics Circle Award, 1959, for A Raisin in the Sun
• Cannes Film Festival special award, 1961, for A Raisin in the Sun (screenplay)

 

[Deadpool1986]

Malcolm X

Malcolm X, an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans. He indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. Malcolm X has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history and in 1998, Time named The Autobiography of Malcolm X one of the ten most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, and was one of eight children. His mother, Louise Norton Little, was a homemaker, with light enough skin that she could have passed for being white. Born in Grenada, her father had been of Scottish descent, and her fair skin was passed down to Malcolm. Earl Little, Malcolm's father, was an outspoken Baptist minister. He supported activist Marcus Garvey and was a local leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Malcolm never forgot the values of black pride and self-reliance that his father and other UNIA leaders preached. Because of Ku Klux Klan threats, the family relocated in 1926 to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and shortly thereafter to Lansing, Michigan.

Malcolm Little would continue to have pain and violence follow him throughout his youth. In 1929 the family home was burnt to the ground, but fortunately, the family was uninjured. His family had frequently been harassed by the Black Legion, a white supremacist group and his father accused them of burning down the home.

On September 28, 1931, Earl Little was fatally struck by a streetcar in Lansing. Authorities ruled his death an accident. The police reported that Earl Little was conscious when they arrived on the scene, and he told them he had slipped and fallen under the streetcar's wheels. The family and the black community disputed the cause of death, believing there was circumstantial evidence of assault. Some blacks believed the Black Legion was responsible for Earl Little's death. As Malcolm later wrote, "How could my father bash himself in the head, then get down across the streetcar tracks to be run over?" Ironically one of the insurance policies refused to pay out on Earl Little, stating it couldn't have been an accident and therefore he must have committed suicide.

Tragedy struck again in December 1938. Louise Little had a nervous breakdown and was declared legally insane. The Little siblings were split up and sent to different foster homes. The state formally committed Louise Little to the state mental hospital at Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she remained until Malcolm and his siblings secured her release 26 years later.

Although He had always been a good student, Malcolm had no choice but to drop out of school at 15. Living with his sister in Boston, Malcolm worked as a shoeshine boy, soda jerk, busboy, waiter, and railroad dining car waiter. At this point he began a criminal life that included gambling, selling drugs, burglary, and hustling. Eventually the law caught up to Malcolm Little and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. It was this sentencing that was the turning point in Malcolm's life.

While serving seven years before he was paroled, Malcolm Little used the time to further his education. Malcolm's brother Reginald often visited him in jail and discussed his recent conversion to the Muslim religion and that he belonged to the religious organization the Nation of Islam. Intrigued, Malcolm began to study the teachings of NOI leader Elijah Muhammad. By the time he was paroled in 1952, Malcolm was a devoted follower with the new surname "X." He considered "Little" a slave name and chose the "X" to signify his lost tribal name.

Malcolm X was a gifted speaker and the NOI wisely used him as their spokesman. Articulate and intelligent he quickly rose to the top of the organization and new recruits from Malcolm X 's speeches increased the growth of the NOI from 500 members to over 30,000 followers. A media magnet, Malcolm X was followed everywhere and soon the FBI was watching his every move.

Malcolm's faith was dealt a crushing blow at the height of the civil rights movement in 1963. He learned that his mentor and leader, Elijah Muhammad, was secretly having relations with as many as six women within the Nation of Islam organization. As if that were not enough, Malcolm found out that some of these relationships had resulted in children. Malcolm had strictly adhered to the teachings of Muhammad, which included remaining celibate until his marriage to Betty Shabazz in 1958. Malcolm refused Muhammad's request to help cover up the affairs and subsequent children. Deeply hurt by the deception of Muhammad, whom he had considered a living prophet, Malcolm also felt guilty about the masses he had led to join the NOI, which he now felt was a fraudulent organization built on too many lies to ignore.

On December 1, 1963, Malcolm X stated that he saw President John F. Kennedy's assassination as a case of "The chickens coming home to roost." Soon afterward Elijah Muhammad suspended him and ordered him not to speak for the movement for 90 days. On March 8, 1964, Malcolm X publicly announced that he was leaving the Nation of Islam and starting two new organizations: the Muslim Mosque, Inc., and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Despite his break from the NOI, Malcolm X remained a believer in the Islamic religion.

On March 26, 1964, Malcolm X met Martin Luther King, Jr. in Washington, D.C., after a press conference which followed both men attending the Senate debate on the Civil Rights bill. This was the only time the two men ever met and their meeting lasted only one minute, just long enough for photographers to take a picture. (photo shown above)

Searching for spiritual answers Malcolm X decided on a pilgrimage to Mecca. On April 19,1964 Malcolm X completed the Hajj, making the seven circuits around the Kaaba, drinking from the Zamzam Well, and running between the hills of Safah and Marwah seven times. After completing the Hajj, he was granted an audience with Prince Faisal. Malcolm X said the trip allowed him to see Muslims of different races interacting as equals. He came to believe that Islam could be the means by which racial problems could be overcome.

Malcolm X continued his travels, visiting Africa a total of three times and stopping in both the United Kingdom and France to give speeches on his beliefs. While in Africa for his third visit in July of 1964, Malcolm X was welcomed to the second meeting of the Organization of African Unity in Cairo. By the time he returned to the United States on November 24th, Malcolm had met with every prominent African leader and established an international connection between Africans on the continent and those in the Diaspora.

On February 21, 1965, in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom, Malcolm X began to speak to a meeting of the Organization of Afro-American Unity when a disturbance broke out in the crowd. A man yelled, "******! Get your hand outta my pocket!" As Malcolm X and his bodyguards moved to quiet the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun. Two other men charged the stage and fired handguns, hitting him 16 times. Furious onlookers caught and beat one of the assassins as the others fled the ballroom. Malcolm X was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m., shortly after he arrived at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

The legacy of Malcolm X has moved through generations as the subject of numerous documentaries, books and movies. A tremendous resurgence of interest occurred in 1992 when director Spike Lee released the acclaimed movie, Malcolm X. Denzel Washington, who portrayed Malcolm X in the movie received an Oscar nomination for the role.

 

[Deadpool1986]

Rosewood Florida

The Rosewood massacre was a violent, racially motivated conflict that took place during the first week of January 1923 in rural Levy County, Florida. At least six blacks and two whites were killed, and the town of Rosewood was abandoned and destroyed during what was characterized as a race riot. Racial disturbances were common during the early 20th century in the United States, reflecting the nation's rapid social changes, but Rosewood was the only Florida community that mob violence completely destroyed. Florida had an especially high number of lynchings in the years before the massacre, including a well-publicized incident in December 1922.

in the early 1920's the small town of Rosewood was situated just ten miles east of Cedar key and about forty miles west of Gainesville Florida. Rosewood was home to approximately 150-200 people, most African Americans. The majority of the black residents worked for the Cumner Brothers Saw Mill, the turpentine industry or the railroad.

During the winter of 1922, two events in the vicinity of Rosewood aggravated local race relations: the murder of a white schoolteacher in nearby Perry, and a Ku Klux Klan rally in Gainesville on New Year’s Eve. The murder of the schoolteacher resulted in the death of three black men, including the burning of one man at the stake on December 9, 1922.

On New Years Day in 1923, Fannie Taylor, a white woman from nearby Sumner, claimed that a black man had attacked her in her home. According to Fannie Taylor's version of events, a black male came on foot to her house that morning and knocked. When she opened the door the man proceeded to assault her. From most accounts the intruder did not consummate the act of rape, although he beat her about the head and face. Some versions of the event claimed that she was both raped and robbed. Fannie Taylor's cries for help attracted the attention of neighbors, and her assailant fled, Although Fannie Taylor was not seriously injured and was able to describe what happened, the shock of the assault rendered her unconscious for several hours. Because no one ever disputed that some kind of physical attack took place, the incident was never referred to as an alleged attack. Many local Blacks believed the woman was lying to cover up the fact that she had quarreled with a white lover who had beat her.

Word spread quickly and a violent mob of angry white men gathered to seek revenge. Many of the white men believed Jesse Hunter, an escaped black convict was the guilty party. They incarcerated one suspected accomplice, Aaron Carrier, and lynched another, Sam Carter. The men then targeted Aaron’s cousin Sylvester Carrier, a fur trapper and private music instructor, who was rumored to be harboring Jesse Hunter. A group of 20 to 30 white men went to Sylvester Carrier’s house to confront him. They shot his dog, and when his mother, Sarah, stepped outside to talk with the men, they shot her.

Soon word spread within the white community of Sumner that two white men had been killed by blacks. The white mob quickly grew, to a group of about 200 angry white men. The men then proceeded to rampage Rosewood, torching buildings and slaughtering animals. The black community fled to the nearby swamp of Gulf Hammock, trying to escape the revenge seeking mob. Meanwhile the mob burned and destroyed every home, church and meeting hall of the black Rosewood residents. All that remains today is the house of John Wright, one of the few white residents in the community. Wright, a white general store owner hid a number of black women and children in his home during the riot, and planned and helped carry out an evacuation effort.

Two local white train conductors, John and William Bryce, who knew the Rosewood’s residents, picked up many of the black women and children and took them to Gainesville. The African Americans who escaped by foot headed for Gainesville or for other cities in the northern United States. The town has remained completely deserted to this day.

The question of how many people died remains, however, and it may never be solved. Based on contemporary evidence and accounts, there were definitely at least eight deaths, six blacks and two whites. The blacks included were Sam Carter, Sylvester Carrier, Sarah Carrier, Lexie Gordon, Mingo Williams, and James Carrier. The white men were Henry Andrews and C. P. "Poly" Wilkerson. Others who may have been killed in the fires or the swamps have never been named.

The initial report of the Rosewood incident presented less than a month after the massacre claimed there was insufficient evidence for prosecution. Thus no one was charged with any of the Rosewood murders.

Although the rioting was widely reported around the country, few official records documented the event. Survivors, their descendants, and the perpetrators remained silent about Rosewood for decades. Sixty years after the rioting, the story of Rosewood was revived in major media when several journalists covered it in the early 1980s. Survivors and their descendants organized to sue the state for having failed to protect them. In 1993, the Florida Legislature commissioned a report on the events. As a result of the findings, Florida became the first U.S. state to compensate survivors and their descendants for damages incurred because of racial violence. In 2004, the state designated the site of Rosewood as a Florida Heritage Landmark.

 

[Deadpool1986]

February 24 - Former world heavyweight boxing champion Jimmy Ellis was born James Albert Ellis in Louisville, Kentucky in 1940. Ellis won the World Boxing Association title after beating Jerry Quarry in April 1968.

 

[Deadpool1986]

Fact #101
Considered one of the greatest boxers of all time, Sugar Ray Robinson held the world welterweight title from 1946 to 1951, and by 1958, he had become the first boxer to win a divisional world championship five times.

Fact #102
In the 1920s and '30s, multi-instrumentalist Valaida Snow captivated audiences with her effervescent singing and jazz trumpet playing. Her abilities earned her the nicknames "Queen of the Trumpet" and "Little Louis," in reference to the style of musician Louis Armstrong.

Fact #103
John Baxter Taylor, the first African American to win an Olympic gold medal, also held a degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Pennsylvania.

Fact #104
African-American Olympic figure skating medalist Debi Thomas attended Stanford University and later studied medicine at Northwestern University, becoming an orthopedic surgeon.

Fact #105

• 

In addition to being a millionaire entrepreneur, Madame C.J. Walker was a civil rights activist. In 1917, she was part of a delegation that traveled to the White House to petition President Woodrow Wilson to make lynching a federal crime.