* Today in Black History - July 11 *
1836 - Antônio Carlos Gomes is born in Campinas, Brazil. He will become
the most distinguished nineteenth-century Brazilian opera composer,
who will also achieve considerable success in Europe. Gomes will be
the second son of Fabiana Maria J. Cardoso and Manuel José Gomes, a
composer and bandleader born to a black freedwoman and an unknown
father. Manuel José also taught piano and violin in Campinas and
will introduce his two young sons to the rudiments of music.
Antônio Carlos will debut publicly at the age of 11, playing the
triangle in his father's orchestra in a ceremony honoring Emperor
Pedro II. He will study clarinet, violin, and piano, for which he
will compose his first pieces. His brother José Pedro de Santana
Gomes will study violin and viola and later became Brazil's most
important late-nineteenth-century violinist. In 1859 Antônio Carlos
Gomes will enroll in the Rio de Janeiro Conservatory of Music. He
had already composed his first mass (1854) and will soon be
commissioned to write a cantata by the conservatory's director,
Francisco Manuel da Silva.The reigning master of Brazilian opera,
Antônio Carlos Gomes will achieve world renown in 1870 when his
opera Il Guarany premiers at La Scala in Milan, Italy. Although he
will adhere to the conventions of mid-nineteenth-century Italian
opera, he will look to Afro-Brazilian themes for some of his operas
and instrumental works. Following the premiere of his cantata The
Last Hour at Calvary (1859), Gomes will be appointed conductor at
the Imperial Academy of Music and National Opera. Gomes will write
two operas Il Guarany (1870) and Lo Schiavo (1889) which drew on
Brazilian subjects. In 1893 Gomes will tour the United States,
where he will conduct some of his works at Chicago's Columbia
Universal Exhibition. Appointed to head the Conservatory of Music
in Belém, he will return to Brazil in 1895, but will join the
ancestors after succumbing to cancer three months after assuming
the directorship on September 16, 1896 in Belém, Brazil.
1905 - Niagara Movement meetings begin in Buffalo, New York. Started by
29 intellectuals including W.E.B. Du Bois, the Niagara Movement will
renounce Booker T. Washington's accommodation policies set forth in
his famed "Atlanta Compromise" speech ten years earlier. The
Niagara Movement's manifesto is, in the words of Du Bois, "We want
full manhood suffrage and we want it now....We are men! We want to
be treated as men. And we shall win." The movement will be a
forerunner of the NAACP.
1915 - Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, a multitalented lawyer, politician, and
entrepreneur, joins the ancestors in Little Rock, Arkansas. Active
in the Underground Railroad, he worked with Frederick Douglass and
after success as a clothing retailer, became the publisher and
editor of "Mirror of the Times," the first African American
newspaper in California. The first African American elected a
municipal judge, Gibbs was also active in Republican politics,
serving as a delegate to national conventions and as U.S. consul to
Madagascar.
1925 - Mattiwilda Dobbs is born in Atlanta, Georgia. She will become a
coloratura (a soprano specializing in florid ornamental trills &
runs) in the 1950's, making her operatic debut at La Scala in Milan
in 1953 and her U.S. debut with the San Francisco Opera in 1955.
She will become the first African American to sing at La Scala and
the second African American woman to sing at the Metropolitan Opera
House in New York.
1931 - Thurston Theodore Harris is born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He will
become a rhythm and blues vocalist. He will be best known for his
recordings of "Little Bitty Pretty One," and "Over and Over." He
will join the ancestors in Pomona, California after succumbing to a
heart attack on April 14, 1990.
1948 - Ernie Holmes is born. He will become a professional football player
and will be a defensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was
part of the "Steel Curtain" front four and helped Pittsburgh in
winning Super Bowls IX and X.
1951 - Bonnie Pointer is born in Oakland, California. She will become a
singer and member of the vocal group, The Pointer Sisters. The
four sisters will begin their career singing gospel music and will
eventually debut in 1973 as a secular group recording for ABC/Blue
Thumb Records. In 1974, the Pointer Sisters will perform at the
Grand Ole Opry, becoming the first African American female group to
do so. They also will become the first African American female
group to be number one on Billboard's country and western chart.
They will change to a trio in 1977 when sister Bonnie signs as a
solo act with Motown Records. The group will be best known for
their hits "Slow Hand" (1981), "What a Surprise" (1981), "Excited"
(1982), "I Need You" (1983), and the Grammy Award-winning "Jump"
(1983) and "Automatic" (1984).
1953 - Leon Spinks is born in St. Louis, Missouri. He will win the Olympic
Light Heavyweight Gold Medal in 1976 and go on to become a
professional boxer. He will win his first nine professional bouts,
becoming the World Heavyweight Champion, defeating Muhammad Ali.
After losing to Ali in rematch, his career will decline and he will
not be able to duplicate his earlier successes.
1954 - The first White Citizens Council organizes in Indianola,
Mississippi. Reminiscent of the end of Reconstruction, the Klan,
the White Citizens' Council, and other White supremacist groups
will try to prevent any further progress in the civil rights
movement.
1958 - Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine, African-American youths who
desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, receive
the Spingarn Medal for their "heroism and pioneering roles in
upholding the basic ideals of American democracy in the face of
continuing harassment and constant threats of bodily injury."
1960 - Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Upper Volta & Niger declare independence from
their European colonial rulers.
1977 - The Medal of Freedom is awarded posthumously to Rev. Martin Luther
King, Jr. in a White House ceremony.
1987 - Bo Jackson signs a $7.4 million contract to play football for the
Los Angeles Raiders for five years. Jackson becomes a two-sport
player as he continues to play baseball with the Kansas City
Royals.
1992 - Undeclared presidential hopeful Ross Perot, addressing the NAACP
convention in Nashville, Tennessee, startled and offended his
listeners by referring to the predominantly African American
audience as "you people."
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