* Today in Black History - August 21 *
1831 - Responding to a vision commanding him to lead his people to
freedom, Nat Turner and a group of seven slaves murder five
members of the Travis family in Southampton County, Virginia.
Turner's revolt will last two days, involve 60 to 80 slaves
and result in the deaths of at least 57 whites before they go
into hiding. Nat Turner manages to escape capture for over
six weeks. After his capture, he confesses to the crimes,
is tried, and executed. This revolt is significant because it
will make the problem of slavery visible to the Northerners,
who within the next 30 years will fight and die to end
America's "peculiar institution."
1906 - William Allen "Count" Basie is born in Redbank, New Jersey.
One of the most influential forces in jazz, he will amass
numerous awards, including three Grammys and Kennedy Center
Honors in 1981 (Dies in 1984). NOTE: Many sources will have
1904 for Count Basie's birth year. Our source for his birth
and death is the Kennedy Center Archives documenting "The
Honors" bestowed on him in 1981.
1927 - The Fourth Pan-African Congress meets in New York City.
1932 - Melvin Van Pebbles is born in Chicago, Illinois. A writer
and dramatist, he will produce some of the more important
African American feature films of the 1960's and 1970's,
including "Story of a Three Day Pass," "Watermelon Man,"
"Sweet Sweetback's Baadass Song" and the classic, "Putney
Swope."
1936 - Wilt Chamberlain is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Achieving a height of 6'11" in high school, he will be
recruited to play basketball for Kansas University.
Chamberlain will leave Kansas University in his third year
to play with the Harlem Globetrotters and join the Philadelphia
Warriors (later 76ers) in 1959. He will join the Los Angeles
Lakers in 1969 and become a player-coach in 1968 for the San
Diego Conquistadors of the American Basketball Association.
He will lead the NBA in scoring seven times, accumulate a
4,029 season point record and become a seven-time all-NBA
first teamer.
1938 - The classic recording, "Ain't Misbehavin" is made by Fats
Waller.
1939 - Clarence Williams III is born in New York City. He will become
an actor with starring roles in the "The Mod Squad" as Lincoln.
1943 - Harriet M. West becomes the first African American woman major
in the Women's Army Corps (WAC). She is chief of planning in
the Bureau Control Division at the WAC headquarters in
Washington, DC.
1945 - Willie Lanier (Pro Football Hall of Famer and Kansas City Chiefs
linebacker: Super Bowl IV), is born.
1954 - Archie Griffin (Heisman Trophy winner: Ohio State [1974 & 1975];
Cincinnati Bengals running back: Super Bowl XVI), is born.
1968 - Marine James Anderson Jr. becomes the first African American to
be awarded the Medal of Honor for his service in the Vietnam
War.
1972 - The Republican National Convention convenes in Miami Beach,
Florida, with fifty-six African American delegates, 4.2 per cent
of the total.
1986 - More than 1,700 people die when toxic gas erupts from a volcanic
lake in the West African nation of Cameroon.
1998 - Juanita Kidd Stout, the first African American woman to serve on
the supreme court in any state (January, 1988), dies in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Stout loses a battle against leukemia at Thomas
Jefferson Hospital.
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