* 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 was 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 in November 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.
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
become 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 in 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 was 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 directed an agency that
provided 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 c
ontrol and prenatal programs; to forbid states from restricting a
bortions; 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 encountered 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 - 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.
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