* Today in Black History - July 31 *
1874 - Patrick Francis Healy, a Jesuit priest, is inaugurated as president
of Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Healy is the first
African American to head a predominantly white university and is
credited with the modernization of the university's curriculum and
the expansion of its campus.
1921 - Whitney Young, Jr. is born in Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky. He will become
dean of Atlanta University's School of Social Work before becoming
executive director of the National Urban League. As its leader during
the 1960's, he will guide the organization through one of the most
socially and politically active decades in America's history. A 1969
recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Young will speak out
against government and business' lack of commitment to African
Americans. During a visit to Nigeria in 1971, he will join the
ancestors after a swimming accident in Lagos.
1931 - Kenny Burrell is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will become a prolific
composer and professional musician specializing in the guitar. For
over forty years, he will be a jazz professional. Kenny, who will
credit Charlie Christian, Oscar Moore, and Django Reinhardt as
influences, as well as such bluesmen as T-Bone Walker and Muddy Waters,
will play on his first major recording session in Detroit in 1951 with
a Dizzy Gillespie combo that will include John Coltrane, Milt Jackson,
and Percy Heath. Even though the young guitarist will keep heavy
company, including that of such other up-and-coming Detroiters as
Tommy Flanagan, Yusef Lateef, Pepper Adams, and Elvin Jones, he will
remain in Detroit to study at Wayne State University, from which he
will earn a B.A. in music composition and theory in 1955. He will also
study classical guitar with Joseph Fava during that period and continue
to employ finger-style and other techniques. After the mid-Sixties,
he will lead his own group plus work in "All-Star" settings and will
perform with college bands and orchestras. He will also perform with
professional orchestras such as the Detroit Symphony and the Buffalo
Philharmonic.
1938 - New York Yankees suspend Jake Powell, after he says on Chicago radio
that he would "hit every colored person in Chicago over the head
with a club".
1960 - At a New York City meeting of the Nation of Islam, the Honorable
Elijah Muhammad calls for the creation of a black state in America.
1962 - Wesley Snipes is born in Orlando, Florida. After growing up in the
Bronx, New York City, he will become a film actor starring in films
such as "New Jack City," "Jungle Fever," "Passenger 57," "Demolition
Man," "Money Train," "Rising Sun," "Major League," "Sugar Hill,"
"White Men Can't Jump," and "King of New York."
1969 - Racially motivated disturbances in Baton Rouge cause the governor of
Louisiana to mobilize the National Guard.
1981 - Attorney Arnette R. Hubbard is installed as the first woman president
of the National Bar Association, the largest national group of
African American attorneys, legal scholars, and jurists. Hubbard is
a graduate of John Marshall Law School in Chicago and past president
of the Cook County Bar Association.
1985 - Prince is big at the box-office with the autobiographical story of the
Minneapolis rock star -- "Purple Rain." The film grosses $7.7 million
in its first three days of release on 917 movie screens. The album of
the same name is, at the time, the top LP in the United States, as well.
1988 - Willie Stargell, formerly of the Pittsburgh Pirates, becomes the 200th
man inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York.
1990 - Shoal Creek, a private club in Birmingham, Alabama, that drew criticism
for being all-white, announces it had accepted a Black businessman as
an honorary member.
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