* Today in Black History - December 1 *
1641 - Massachusetts becomes the first colony to give statutory
recognition to the institution of slavery.
1821 - Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) proclaims independence
from Spain.
1873 - The 43rd Congress (1873-75) convenes with seven African
American congressmen: Richard H. Cain, Robert Brown Elliott,
Joseph H. Rainey and Alonzo J. Ransier, South Carolina; James
T. Rapier, Alabama; Josiah T. Walls, Florida; John R. Lynch,
Mississippi.
1873 - Mifflin Wister Gibb is elected city judge in Little Rock,
Arkansas and becomes the first African American to hold such
a position.
1873 - Bennett College (Greensboro, North Carolina) and Wiley College
(Marshall, Texas) are founded.
1874 - Queen Esther Chapter No. 1, Order of the Eastern Star, is
established at 708 O Street, N.W., Washington, DC in the home
of Mrs. Georgiana Thomas. The first Worthy Matron is Sister
Martha Welch and the first Worthy Patron is Bro. Thornton A.
Jackson. This establishes the first Eastern Star Chapter among
African American women in the United States.
1877 - Jonathan Jasper Wright, the first African American state
supreme court justice, resigns from the state supreme court
in South Carolina. He resigns knowing that whites would soon
force him off the bench after overthrowing the Reconstruction
government. He will later join the ancestors, in obscurity, of
tuberculosis.
1892 - Minnie Evans, visual artist and painter, is born. One of her more
famous works will be "Lion of Judah." She will be inducted into
the Wilmington, NC "Walk of Fame."
1934 - Billy Paul, rhythm and blues singer, best known for his song,
"Me and Mrs. Jones", is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1935 - Lou Rawls is born in Chicago, Illinois. A successful rhythm,
blues, and jazz singer, he will record over 30 albums
including "Unmistakably Lou", a 1977 Grammy winner for best
R & B vocal performance. He will also be a strong supporter
of African American colleges, as host of the annual UNCF
telethon.
1940 - Richard Franklin Lennox Pryor III is born in Peoria, Illinois.
Raised in a brothel owned by his grandmother, Pryor will try
music as a drummer before his big comedy break on "The Ed
Sullivan Show" and a series of successful, Grammy-winning
comedy albums. Pryor will also make movies, most notably
"Stir Crazy" and "Silver Streak". Pryor will also battle drug
abuse and illness in his career, including his near death from
burns inflicted while freebasing cocaine and a battle against
multiple sclerosis.
1955 - Rosa Parks, a seamstress, refuses to take a back seat on a
Montgomery, Alabama bus. Her refusal to move will result in
her arrest and will begin a 382-day boycott of the bus system
by African Americans and mark the beginning of the modern
American Civil Rights movement.
1958 - The Central African Republic is made an autonomous member of
the French Commonwealth of Nations.
1980 - George Rogers, of the University of South Carolina, is named
the Heisman Trophy winner. Rogers will go on to achieve
success with the Washington Redskins.
1980 - United States Justice Department sues the city of Yonkers, New
York, citing racial discrimination.
1981 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar surpasses Oscar Robertson as basketball's
second all-time leading scorer (second only to Wilt
Chamberlain). Kareem gets to the total of 26,712 points as
the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Utah Jazz 117-86.
Chamberlain's record will fall in 1984, when Kareem's scores
reach 31,259. Kareem will wind up his career in 1989 with
38,387 points.
1982 - Michael Jackson's album "Thriller" is released and will go on
to become the best-selling album in history, with over 40
million copies sold worldwide.
1987 - James Baldwin, author, joins the ancestors in St. Paul de
Vence, France, of stomach cancer, at the age of 63. He
explored the plight of oppressed African Americans in 20th
century America in a variety of literary forms. His output
included novels and plays, but it was above all, as an
essayist, that he achieved a reputation as the most literary
spokesman in the struggle for civil rights in the 1950s and
1960s. His three most important collection of essays were
"Notes of a Native Son" in 1955, "Nobody Knows My Name" in
1961, and "The Fire Next Time" in 1963. The most highly
regarded of his novels were the first three, "Go Tell It on
the Mountain" in 1953, "Giovanni's Room" in 1956, and
"Another Country" in 1962.
1989 - Dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey joins the ancestors in New
York City. Ailey began his professional career with Lester
Horton, founded, and was the sole director of the Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theater in 1958. Initially performing four
concerts annually, he took the company to Europe on one of the
most successful tours ever by an American dance troupe. Among
his honors were the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 1977, and Kennedy
Center Honors.
1992 - Pearl Stewart becomes the first African American woman editor
of the Oakland Tribune, which has a circulation of over
100,000.
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