* Today in Black History - November 5 *
1828 - Theodore Sedgwick Wright becomes the first African
American person to get a Theology Degree in the United
States, when he graduates from Princeton Theological
Seminary.
1867 - First Reconstruction constitutional convention opens in
Montgomery, Alabama. It has eighteen African Americans
and ninety whites in attendance.
1901 - Etta Moten (later Barnett) is born in Weimar, Texas.
She will become an actress starring in "Porgy and Bess"
and have a successful career on Broadway. On January 31,
1933, she will become the first black star to perform at
the White House. She will perform in two musical films
released in 1933: "Flying Down to Rio" (singing "The
Carioca") and a more substantial role as a war widow in
the Busby Berkeley musical "Gold Diggers of 1933" (singing
"My Forgotten Man" with Joan Blondell). Also in 1933 she
will stand in for Ginger Rogers by dubbing her singing in
"Professional Sweetheart." George Gershwin will discuss her
singing the part of "Bess" in his new work "Porgy and Bess,"
which he had written with her in mind. She will be concerned
about trying a role above her natural range of contralto. In
the 1942 revival, she will accept the role of "Bess", but
she would not sing the word "nigger", which Ira Gershwin will
subsequently write out of the libretto. Through her
performances on Broadway and with the national touring
company until 1945, she will capture Bess as her signature
role. She will stop performing in 1952, due to vocal problems.
After her husband, Claude Barnett, joins the ancestors in
1967, she will live in Chicago, where she will become active
in the National Council of Negro Women, the Chicago Lyric
Opera and the Field Museum. She will also be active in the
DuSable Museum, and the South Side Community Art Center. In
addition to activities with civic organizations, she will
serve as a board member of both The Links, a service
organization for African American women, and her sorority,
Alpha Kappa Alpha. She will also be active in International
Women's Year activities and events in the 1980s. In her later
years, she will be active as an Advisory Board Member of The
Black Academy of Arts and Letters. She will join the ancestors
on January 2, 2004.
1917 - The Supreme Court (Buchanan vs Warley) rules that a
Louisville, Kentucky, ordinance mandating blacks and
whites live in separate areas is unconstitutional.
1926 - Negro History Week is initiated by Carter G. Woodson.
1931 - Izear Luster "Ike" Turner, Jr. is born in Clarksdale,
Mississippi. He will become a musician, bandleader,
songwriter, arranger, talent scout, and record producer. An
early pioneer of fifties rock and roll, he will be most
popularly known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s with his
then-wife Tina Turner in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. He will
record for many of the key Rhythm & Blues record labels of
the 1950s and 1960s, including Chess, Modern, Trumpet, Flair
and Sue. With the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, he wll graduate
to larger labels Blue Thumb and United Artists. Throughout
his career, he will win two Grammy Awards and be nominated for
three others. With his former wife, he will be inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and in 2001 will be
inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. He will join the
ancestors on December 12, 2007, at the age of 76, at his home
in San Marcos, California, near San Diego.
1935 - The Maryland Court of Appeals orders the University of
Maryland to admit African American student, Donald
Murray.
1948 - Charles Edward Bradley is born in Gainesville, Florida. He will
become a soul singer, and sign to the Daptone Records label under
the Dunham Records division. His performances and recording style
were consistent with Daptone's revivalist approach, celebrating
the feel of funk and soul music from the 1960s and 1970s. One
review will say he "echoes the evocative delivery of Otis Redding".
He will work as a cook in Maine for ten years and then travel the
country and Canada, working odd jobs and playing small shows for
20 years. He will be finally discovered by the co-founder of
Daptone Records in 1996. His debut album, "No Time for Dreaming"
will showcase ten of his Daptone recordings in 2011. In the spring
of 2012, "Soul of America," a documentary directed by Poull Brien,
will debut at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Poull Brien
will first meet Bradley when he directs the music video for "The
World (Is Going Up In Flames)." This feature film will tell Bradley's
story from his childhood in Florida, to the days of homelessness and
heartache, then later his gigs as Black Velvet, and finally end with
him touring and recording at Daptone Records. The film will include
his performance at festivals around the world. In 2014, he will take
part in the Hamilton, Ontario Supercrawl event. His second album,
"Victim of Love" will be released on April 2, 2013. His final album,
"Changes" will be released on April 1, 2016 and will feature a cover
of the Black Sabbath song, "Changes." In August 2016 he will become
ill and cancel a Canadian tour and his appearance at the Cambridge
Folk Festival July 30 (UK), where the band Darlingside will fill in
for him. He will join the ancestors on September 23, 2017 after
succumbing to stomach cancer.
1956 - Art Tatum, joins the ancestors at age 46 in Los Angeles,
California. Despite impaired vision, he received formal
training in music and developed a unique improvisational
style. He was an accomplished jazz pianist who impressed
even classicist Vladimir Horowitz. Perhaps the most
gifted technician of all jazzmen, Tatum had other assets
as well, among them an harmonic sense so acute as to make
him an almost infallible improviser. This aspect of his
style, as well as his great rhythmic freedom, influenced
the young players who became the founders of a new style
called bebop.
1956 - The Nat King Cole Show premiers. The 15-minute show
starring the popular singer will run until June 1957 and
reappear in July in a half-hour format. The first network
variety series hosted by an African American star, it was
canceled due to lack of support by advertisers.
1968 - Eight African American males and the first African American
female, Shirley Chisholm, are elected to the U.S. Congress.
Including previously elected Massachusetts senator Edward
Brooke, it is the largest number of African American
representatives to serve in Congress since the 44th
Congress of 1875-1877.
1970 - The National Guard is mobilized in Henderson, North
Carolina, as a result of racially motivated civil
disturbances.
1974 - George Brown of Colorado and Mervyn Dymally of California
are the first African American lieutenant governors elected
in the 20th century, while Walter Washington becomes the
first African American to be elected mayor of the District
of Columbia, and Harold Ford is elected to Congress from
Tennessee, the first African American from the state.
1974 - The Spingarn Medal is awarded to Damon J. Keith "in tribute
to his steadfast defense of constitutional principles as
revealed in a series of memorable decisions he handed down
as a United States District Court judge."
1989 - The first memorial to the civil rights movement in the
United States is dedicated at a ceremony in Montgomery,
Alabama. The memorial was commissioned by the Southern
Poverty Law Center, a legal and educational organization
located in Montgomery.
1994 - George Foreman, 45, becomes boxing's oldest heavyweight
champion by knocking out Michael Moorer in the 10th round
of their WBA fight in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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