* Today in Black History - November 20 *
1865 - African Americans hold a protest convention in Zion
Church in Charleston, South Carolina and demand equal
rights and repeal of the "Black Codes."
1878 - Charles Sidney Gilpin, is born in Richmond, Virginia.
In the early 1920s, Gilpin will secure his place in
American theater history by creating the title -- and
only major -- role in Eugene O'Neill's' "The Emperor
Jones." Gilpin's portrayal in the long one-act play
becomes a box-office sensation in New York's Greenwich
Village. The play and its principal actor will transfer
to Broadway and will later go on tour. After the post-
Broadway tour, which played Richmond to great acclaim,
Gilpin's insistence on eliminating racial epithets from
the play will anger O'Neill. O'Neill, who at one time
is said to be writing a play especially for Gilpin, will
cast budding actor Paul Robeson in the London production
of Emperor Jones. Robeson will also play Jones on film.
Except for Ira Aldridge, who lived and performed mostly
in Europe before the Civil War, Gilpin will be the first
African American to be widely lauded as a serious actor
on America's mainstream stage. He will lose his voice
in 1929 and join the ancestors at his home in Eldridge,
New Jersey in 1930.
1910 - Anne Pauline "Pauli" Murray is born in Baltimore, Maryland.
She will become a lawyer and author of "Song in a Weary
Throat," "Proud Shoes," and "Dark Testament and Other Poems."
She will graduate from Howard University Law School, first
in her class, earn a Master's degree in Law at University of
California-Berkeley, and in 1965, become the first African
American to receive a J.S.D. from Yale Law School. She will
hold faculty or administrative positions at the Ghana School
of Law, Benedict College, and Brandeis University. Drawn to
the ministry, she will leave academia in 1973. In 1977, she
will become the first African American woman to be ordained
as a priest in the Episcopal Chirch. She will join the
ancestors on July 1, 1985. The Episcopal Church will honor
her as an Episcopal saint in 2012, among its recognized Holy
Women and Holy Men.
1922 - The NAACP's Spingarn Medal is awarded to Mary B. Talbert,
the former president of the National Association of
Colored Women, for service to African American women and
for the restoration of the Frederick Douglas home in
Southeast Washington, DC.
1923 - Garrett A. Morgan receives a patent for his three-way
traffic signal. The device, which will revolutionize
traffic control, is one of many inventions for the Paris,
Kentucky, native, which include a hair-straightening
process and the gas mask.
1939 - Morgan State College is established in Baltimore,
Maryland, succeeding Morgan State Biblical College,
founded in 1857.
1962 - President John F. Kennedy issues an executive order
barring racial discrimination in federally financed
housing.
1962 - The NAACP's Spingarn Medal is awarded to Robert C.
Weaver, economist and government official, for his
leadership in the movement for open housing.
1969 - Pele', the Brazilian soccer star, scores his 1,000th
soccer goal.
1973 - The gravesite of Mary Seacole, a Jamaican nurse who
served in the Crimean War, is restored in England.
Traveling to the battlefield at her own expense, when
her expert services are rejected by English authorities
and Florence Nightingale, Seacole opens her own nursing
hotel, which she operates by day, serving as a
volunteer with Nightingale at night. Seacole's skills
saved the lives of many soldiers wounded during the war
or infected with malaria, cholera, yellow fever, and
other illnesses.
1977 - Walter Payton, of the Chicago Bears, rushes for NFL
record 275 yards in one game.
1981 - The Negro Ensemble Company's production of Charles
Fuller's "A Soldier's Play" opens the Theatre Four.
The play will win a New York Drama Critics Award for
best American play and the Pulitzer Prize.
1997 - A.C. Green sets the NBA "Iron Man" record for consecutive
games played at 907 games. The previous record had
stood for fifteen years. Iron Men from professional
baseball and professional hockey were present at
courtside to observe the record-breaking performance.
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