* Today in Black History - September 21 *
1814 - African American troops are cited for bravery in the Battle
of New Orleans.
1872 - John Henry Conyers of South Carolina becomes first African
American student at U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis). He
later resigns.
1905 - The Atlanta Life Insurance Company is founded by Alonzo F.
Herndon.
1909 - Kwame Nkrumah is born in Nkroful, Ghana. A leader in
African colonial liberation, Nkrumah will be the first
prime minister of Ghana (1958-1966), but will be forced
into exile following a coup.
1932 - Melvin Van Peebles is born in Chicago, Illinois. He will
become a pioneer African American filmmaker and will be
referred to by some as the "Godfather of Modern Black
Cinema." He will join the Air Force after graduation from
Ohio Wesleyan University and will serve three years as a
navigator of a B-47. After living in Mexico, he will live
in San Francisco where he will work as a cable car operator.
He will teach himself film techniques and will make several
short films. Although he had little or no training in music,
he will write his own soundtracks, playing them on a kazoo.
After being ignored by the studios in Hollywood, he will
go to the Netherlands, where he will pursue graduate studies
in Astronomy. He will then leave for France, where he try
to find backers for his films. While in Paris, he will pen
five novels, all in English because he never learned French.
With a $70,000 grant from the French Cinema Center, he will
adapted his novel "La Permission" for the screen and film it
as "The Story of a Three-Day Pass." A saga about a romance
between a Black American soldier and a young white French
woman, it will be released in 1968 and submitted as the
French entry in the San Francisco Film Festival. The success
of this film brought him to the attention of Columbia
Pictures, giving hime thew opportunity to direct "Watermelon
Man", the story of a white bigot who turns into a black man.
He will then write, produce, edit, direct, score, and star in
the ground-breaking "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song."
Sweetback is the first American film with a black protagonist
who refuses to adapt to the daily humiliations of racism."
Though slammed by many critics, the film will be a big hit
and will lead to a host of "blaxploitation" movies, films in
which Hollywood trafficked in lowbrow African American humor,
sex and violence. Within two years of the release of
Sweetback, Hollywood will release dozens of such movies. He
will say "Hollywood wanted the money but they didn't want the
political implications, so they took the more cartoonish
elements and pushed them." He will inspire an entire
generation of Black filmmakers, including Spike Lee and John
Singleton, whose movies of the 1980s and 1990s will owe a
debt to Sweetback's gleeful barrier-smashing.
1948 - Artis Gilmore, who will become a professional basketball all-
star, is born in Chipley, Florida. He will play college
basketball at Gardner-Webb Junior College and Jacksonville
University, leading the Dolphins to the NCAA title game in
1970. During the two years Gilmore played basketball at
Jacksonville, he will become one of the few college players
ever to average at least 20 points and 20 rebounds over a
career. He will lead the NCAA in rebounding both years, and
his career average of 22.7 rebounds per game is still the
highest in NCAA Division I history. He will begin his
professional career with the Kentucky Colonels of the American
Basketball Association and play there until the league folded
in 1976. As a rookie in 1972, He will have the rare
distinction of being selected both the league's Most Valuable
Player and Rookie of the Year. Gilmore will be chosen with the
1st overall pick in the 1976 ABA dispersal draft by the
Chicago Bulls. He will play for Chicago through the 1982
season, after which he will be traded to the San Antonio Spurs,
where he will play through the 1987 season. He will end his
NBA career with the Boston Celtics in 1988. He will then play
one season with Bologna Arimo of the Italian league, where he
will average 12.3 points and 11.0 rebounds and make the
European All-Star Team. Despite an ABA career, in which he
averaged 22.3 points and 17.1 rebounds per game, NBA career
averages of 17.1 points and 10.1 rebounds per game and being
selected to five ABA and six NBA All-Star Games, Gilmore will
be ignored for years by the Hall of Fame. He is one of a few
former ABA MVPs to not receive the honor. He led the NBA in
field goal percentage four times, remains the NBA's career
leader in field goal percentage (minimum 2000 made shots)
with a 59.9 percentage.
1967 - Walter Washington is nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson
as the first mayor of the newly reorganized municipal
government of Washington, DC. In 1974, he will be elected to
the post, another first for an African American.
1970 - The Oakland Athletics's Vida Blue pitches a no-hitter against
the Minneapolis Twins, 6-0.
1971 - Alfonso Ribeiro, actor/pianist (Alfonso-"Silver Spoons", "Fresh
Prince of Bel Air"), is born in New York City. He will be best
known for his role as spoiled rich-kid Carlton Banks in "The
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" from 1990 to 1996, in which he will
be mercilessly teased by Will Smith's lead character, often
targeting his height (He is 5'6"). He will also be the
director of some episodes of Fresh Prince. The Carlton
character will often be called upon to do a comic, usually
improvised dance routine to Tom Jones's "It's Not Unusual",
which he will later state that he hated doing. He is, in fact,
a very good dancer. He will show some skills with Will Smith
in several episodes of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," including
a tap dance routine in the show's "Soul Train" episode that
will feature a moonwalk. He will also be known for his role on
LL Cool J's show, "In the House" and as the host of "Your Big
Break." In 1997, he will perform the voice of Roland Jackson in
"Extreme Ghostbusters." He will also appear in Smith's "Wild
Wild West" video in 1999, and in a McDonald's commercial in
2003.
1981 - Belize gains independence from Great Britain.
1985 - Michael Spinks becomes the first light heavyweight to defeat the
reigning heavyweight champion when he defeats Larry Holmes.
1989 - Army General Colin Powell receives Senate confirmation as
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest military
position in the United States, thereby becoming the military's
highest-ranking African American.
1990 - Pittsburgh Pirate Barry Bonds is the second person to hit 30
home runs and steal 50 bases in the same season.
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