* Today in Black History - May 25 *
1878 - Tapdancing legend Bill "Bojangles" (Luther) Robinson is born in
Richmond, Virginia. He will star in vaudeville and in many
movies such as "The Littliest Rebel," "In Old Kentucky,"
"Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," and "The Little Colonel". He will
join the ancestors on November 25, 1949.
1905 - Dorothy Burnett (later Wesley) is born in Warrenton, Virginia.
She will become a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the first African
American woman to receive a Masters of Library Science degree
from Columbia University, and will author several African
American historical works. She will be a long-time librarian at
the Howard University Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and will
be responsible for developing it into one of the world's largest
collections of material authored by and about people of African
descent.
1919 - Millionaire Madame C.J. Walker joins the ancestors at the age of
52 at Irvington-on-the-Hudson, New York. She was the founder of
the Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, the largest
African American haircare company of its time. After her death,
a substantial portion of her business's proceeds will be donated
to African American organizations and scholarships.
1932 - K.C. Jones is born in Taylor, Texas. He will become a member of
the Olympic basketball team and help win the 1956 Olympic Gold
Medal. He will then become a professional basketball player with
the Boston Celtics, where he will help win eight NBA titles. He
will then win two championships as the coach of the Celtics. He
will also be the head coach of the Washington Bullets and the
Seattle Supersonics. He will have 522 wins as a NBA coach and in
1997 will become the coach of American Basketball League women's
team, the New England Blizzard. After the league disbands, he
will join the coaching staff of the women's basketball team at
the University of Rhode Island, at the age of 67.
1935 - This is "the greatest day in the history of track," according to
"The New York Times." Jesse Owens of Ohio State University
breaks two world sprint records, ties a third, and breaks a long
jump world record in a meet at the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor, all in one hour.
1936 - David Levering Lewis is born in Little Rock, Arkansas. He will
become a historian and biographer. Professor Lewis will receive
his Ph.D. in modern European history from the London School of
Economics and Political Science in 1962. His research and
publications will focus on African American history, conceptions
of race and racism, and the dynamics of European colonialism,
especially in Africa. He will author a biography of Du Bois
entitled "W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race," which will win a
Pulitzer prize in 1994. His other works include "King: A
Biography" (1970), "Prisoners of Honor: The Dreyfus Affair"
(1975), "When Harlem Was in Vogue" (1982), "The Race to Fashoda:
European Colonialism and the African Resistance to the Scramble
for Africa" (1987), and "W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader" (1995).
1943 - Leslie Uggams is born in Washington Heights, New York. She will
make her acting debut on television's "Beulah" and be a regular
on The Mitch Miller Show before achieving acclaim in Broadway's
"Hallelujah Baby" and TV's "Roots."
1943 - A riot, started by white workers, occurs in a Mobile, Alabama
shipyard over the job upgrading of twelve African American
workers.
1959 - The U.S. Supreme Court declares a Louisiana law enforcing a ban
on bouts between African American and white boxers to be
unconstitutional.
1963 - The first observance of African Liberation Day occurs. It begins
at the founding conference of the Organization of African Unity
in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
1964 - The closing of schools to avoid desegregation is ruled
unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Prince Edward County,
Virginia will have to reopen and desegregate its schools.
1965 - A very short heavyweight title fight occurs in Lewiston, Maine.
Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) knocks out challenger, Sonny
Liston, in one minute and 56 seconds of the first round. Liston
never sees the punch coming. Neither did an unbelieving crowd at
ringside, nor those in theatres all over the world watching the
fight on closed-circuit TV.
1971 - A young African American woman, Jo Etha Collier, joins the
ancestors after being killed in Drew, Mississippi by a bullet
fired from a passing car. Three whites are arrested on May 26
and charged with the unprovoked attack.
1994 - The United Nations Security Council lifts a 10-year-old ban on
weapons exports from South Africa, ending the last of its
apartheid-era embargos.
______________________________________________________________
Munirah Chronicle is edited by Rene' A. Perry
"The TRUTH shall make you free"
E-mail: <[log in to unmask]>
Archives: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/Munirah.html
http://blackagenda.com/cybercolonies/index.htm
_____________________________________________________________
To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]>
In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name
______________________________________________________________
Munirah(TM) is a trademark of Information Man. Copyright 1997 - 2007,
All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with
The Black Agenda.
|