* Today in Black History - July 8 *
1753 - Lemuel Haynes is born in West Hartford, Connecticut. He is
born to a African American father he never knew and a
white mother who refused to acknowledge him. As a child,
he will be made an indentured servant to a white family
in Granville, Massachusetts, who will treat him as one of
their children. His indenture will end in 1774, when he
will become a Minuteman in the Continental Army. During
the Revolutionary War, he will fight at the siege of
Boston and Fort Ticonderoga. After the war, he will study
Latin and Greek with local ministers and be ordained by
the Congregationalists, becoming the first African
American ordained by a mainstream white denomination.
Throughout the next five decades he ministered to white
congregations in New England and New York. Haynes also
received considerable attention for a sermon he preached
rebutting Hosea Ballou's theory of universal salvation
from a Calvinist perspective. Haynes's book "Universal
Salvation, A Very Ancient Doctrine", ran some 70 editions.
In 1804, Middlebury College awarded Haynes an honorary
master's degree becoming the first African American to
receive that honor from any institution. He will join the
ancestors on September 28, 1833.
1876 - White terrorists attack African American Republicans in
Hamburg, South Carolina, killing five.
1910 - Govan Archibald Munyelwa Mbeki is born in Nqamakwe,
Transkei, South Africa. He will become a political
activist, leading member of the African National Congress
(ANC) and a member of the South African Communist Party
(SACP). After attending a mission school, he will attend
the University of Fort Hare, in Alice, and will obtain his
bachelor of arts degree in 1937. He will join the ANC while
a student in 1935. While teaching at Adams College, he will
be dismissed for political activity. He will then manage a
cooperative store and edit the Territorial Magazine from
1938 to 1944. In 1943 he will be elected to the United
Transkeian General Council, or Bunga. In the same year,
Mbeki will assist the ANC prepare a document called
African Claims, which will be a response to the Atlantic
Charter, the declaration of human rights issued during
World War II (1939-1945) by the United States and Great
Britain. African Claims became the basis for the ANC
Freedom Charter of 1955. After returning to teaching,
Mbeki will be dismissed again for political activity, and
will become the Port Elizabeth editor of New Age, a left-
wing paper, in 1955 and will make no secret of his left-
wing sympathies. Mbeki will become deeply involved in ANC
politics and stand trial with Nelson Mandela and others for
treason, charged with conspiring to overthrow the
government. In 1964, he will be sentenced to life
imprisonment on Robben Island. The same year, his book
"The Peasants' Revolt" is published in Great Britain and
banned in South Africa. In 1977, while on Robben Island,
Mbeki will have an honorary doctorate of social sciences
conferred on him by the University of Amsterdam for the
publication. After being released on November 5, 1987 by
the South African government, he will continue to be a
member of both the ANC and the SACP. He will resume his
place on the executive committee of the ANC in 1990. In
May, 1994, Mbeki will be elected deputy president of the
Senate. His son Thabo Mbeki, the future president of
South Africa, will be elected deputy president of South
Africa. He will join the ancestors on August 30, 2001.
1914 - William Clarence ("Billy") Eckstine is born in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. He will become famous in the 1950s as the
smooth-voiced baritone singer of such hits as "Fools Rush
In" and "Skylark," but music critics and serious jazz fans
know him as the man whose big-band launched such
renowned performers as Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Charlie
Parker, Dexter Gordon, and Sarah Vaughan. He will begin his
musical career on a piano his father had bought for his two
sisters. After attending Howard University, he will begin
singing with various groups, touring in the Midwest before
settling in Chicago in 1939, where he will join the band led by
Earl "Fatha" Hines. It was with Hines that he will have his
first hit, the blues song "Jelly Jelly," which he will
write and sing. In 1944, he will form his own big-band. The
band, always a favorite with other musicians, will help to
pioneer the then-new bebop sound. Its avant-garde
musicianship often overshadowed his more traditional
vocals, and the band suffered from being badly recorded.
His solo career will take off after the band dissolves in
1947. With his deep, romantic voice, elegant presence, and
matinee-idol good looks, he becomes a popular performer.
Often referred to as "Mr. B," he will also garner several
film roles in the following decades, and many will refer to
him as the first Black sex symbol. He will join the
ancestors on March 8, 1993.
1938 - Julia Carson is born in Louisville, Kentucky. She will be
raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1965, while working as
a secretary for the United Auto Workers union, Carson will
be hired by Indiana congressman Andrew Jacobs Jr. She will
work on his staff for eight years. In 1972, she will be
elected to the Indiana House of Representatives, and in
1976, she will be elected to the Indiana Senate, where she
will serve on the Finance Committee and the Health
Committee. In 1990, Carson will be elected trustee of
Center Township and direct an agency that provides
assistance to the needy. After congressman Jacobs retires
in 1996, Carson will run successfully for his position. She
will win 52 percent of the vote and become the first
African American to represent Indianapolis. Carson will
represent Indiana's Tenth Congressional District. It is
located in the city of Indianapolis and includes a mixture
of African American and white neighborhoods. In 1997,
Carson will be assigned seats on the Banking and Financial
Services Committee and the Veterans' Affairs Committee.
She will also be a member of the Congressional Black
Caucus.
1943 - Alice Faye Wattleton is born in St. Louis, Missouri. She
will become the president of Planned Parent Federation of
America in 1978 and be known for almost 14 years as an
outspoken champion of women's reproductive rights. She will
use her position in Planned Parenthood to advocate
reproductive rights. Along with other abortion-rights
groups, she will fight to secure federal funding for birth
control and prenatal programs; to forbid states from
restricting abortions; and to legalize the sale in the
United States of RU-486, the French-made pill that induces
abortions. Her efforts and the efforts of others encounter
a number of setbacks, including the Supreme Court's 1989
decision in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services to
allow states to restrict abortions. She will use such
defeats to further mobilize activists and donors. She will
leave Planned Parenthood in 1992 to develop her own talk
show, in Chicago, Illinois, devoted to discussions of
women's issues.
1943 - Nebraska's first African American newspaper, "The Omaha
Star", is founded by Mildred Brown.
1966 - King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi is deposed by his
son Prince Charles Ndizi.
1966 - John H. Johnson wins the Spingarn Medal for his
"contributions to the enhancement of the Negro's self-
image" through his publications including "Negro Digest",
"Ebony", and "Jet" magazines, and books such as "Before
the Mayflower", written by historian Lerone Bennett, Jr.
1982 - Senegalese Trotskyist political party LCT is legally
recognized.
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