* Today in Black History - October 12 *
1904 - William Montague Cobb is born in Washington, DC. He will
become the only Black physical anthropologist with a
Ph.D. before the Korean War, He will hold the only Black
perspective on physical anthropology for many years.
He will serve as the chairman of the Anthropology
Section of the American Association for Advancement of
Science and be the first African American President of
the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.
He will be not only a famous physical anthropologist
because of his race, but also because of the great
contributions he made to the field of anthropology. He
grew up pondering the question of race, which ultimately
led him to his studies of anthropology. After graduating
from Dunbar High School, he will continue his studies at
Amherst College, where he will study a wide variety of
subjects and graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
After his graduation from Amherst, he will research
embryology at the prestigious Woods Hole Marine Biology
Laboratory in Massachusetts. He will then attend Howard
University Medical School, where he will earn an Masters
Degree in 1929 and will later spend much of his
professional career. The next few years, he will spend
his time at Case Western Reserve University, where he will
earn a Ph.D. and work on the Hamann-Todd Skeletal
Collection. He will return to Howard University in 1932
and begin working on a laboratory of his own to conduct
skeletal research. He will also continue his research on
human cranio-facial union at the Hamann-Todd Collection
and the Smithsonian Institute during the summers. In his
mind, his two best papers on this subject were "The
Cranio-Facial Union and the Maxillary Tuber in Mammals"
(1943), and "Cranio-Facial Union in Man" (1940). These
publications will establish him as a functional anatomist.
He will also make significant contributions in the issue
of race in athletics, where he will claim race was
insignificant to athletics and also profile the biology
and demography of the African American race during the
1930's. He will leave his legacy of skeletal research with
the Laboratory of Anatomy and Physical Anthropology at
Howard University. This collection of over 600 skeletons
will be considered one of the premiere collections of its
kind. He will also be the editor of the Journal of the
National Medical Association from 1949 to 1977. He will
join the ancestors on November 20, 1990.
1908 - Ann Lane Petry is born in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. She will
become the first black woman writer with book sales topping
a million copies for her novel "The Street." She will also
write the novels "The Country Place, "The Narrows," "Tituba of
Salem Village", "Legends of the Saints," and "Harriet Tubman:
Conductor of the Underground Railroad." She will join the
ancestors on April 28, 1997.
1925 - Xavier University, America's only African American Catholic
college, becomes a reality, when the College of Liberal Arts
and Sciences is established. The first degrees will be awarded
three years later. (The Normal School was founded in 1915.)
1929 - Napoleon Brown Goodson Culp is born in Charlotte, North
Carolina. He will become a blues singer better known as
"Nappy" Brown. He will begin his career as the lead singer
for the gospel group, The Heavenly Lights, recording for
Savoy Records. In 1954, Savoy will convince Brown to
cross over to secular music. For the next few years,
he will ride the first wave of rock and roll until his
records stop selling. After years away from the
limelight, he will resurface in 1984 with an album for
Landslide Records. He will then regularly perform and
record for the New Moon Blues independent label. He will
join the ancestors on September 20, 2008.
1932 - Richard Claxton Gregory is born in St. Louis, Missouri.
He will be better known as "Dick" Gregory and in the
1960's will become a comedic pioneer, bringing a new
perspective to comedy and opening many doors for Black
entertainers. Once he achieves success in the
entertainment world, he will shift gears and use his
talents to help causes in which he believes. He will
serve the community for over forty years as a comedian,
civil and human rights activist and health/nutrition
advocate. On October 9, 2000, his friends and
supporters will honor him at a Kennedy Center gala,
showing him their "appreciation for his uncommon
character, unconditional love, and generous service."
He will join the ancestors on August 19, 2017 in
Washington, DC.
1935 - Samuel David Moore is born in Winchester, Georgia. He
will become a rhythm and blues singer and one half of
the group: Sam & Dave (Dave Prater). The two singers
will be brought together onstage at Miami's King of Hearts
nightclub during an amateur night venue. Sam and Dave
will record for the Alston and Roulette labels before
being discovered by Atlantic Records' Jerry Wexler,
who caught their act at the King of Hearts in 1964 and
then sent them to Memphis-based Stax to record the
next year. They will be best know for their hits,
"Hold On! I'm a Comin'", "Soul Man", "I Thank You",
and "You Got Me Hummin'". Sam and Dave will finally
call it quits after a performance in San Francisco on
New Year's Eve in 1981. He will live to see the induction
of Sam and Dave into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
1992 (Dave Prater will join the ancestors succumbing to
injuries from an automobile accident on April 9, 1988).
1961 - Eugene James "Jacques" Bullard, the first African American
combat aviator (World War I flying for France), joins the
ancestors in Harlem, New York, New York. He had received
fifteen decorations from the government of France for his
service. He was made a knight of the Legion of Honor,
France's most coveted award. He also was awarded the
Médaille militaire, another high military distinction. In
1972, his exploits as a pilot were retold in a biography,
"The Black Swallow of Death." He is also the subject of the
nonfiction young adult memoir "Eugene Bullard: World's First
Black Fighter Pilot" by Larry Greenly. On August 23, 1994,
thirty-three years after his transition, and seventy-seven
years to the day after the physical that should have allowed
him to fly for his own country, he was posthumously
commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air
Force. He was interred with military honors in the French War
Veterans' section of Flushing Cemetery in the New York City
borough of Queens.
1968 - Equatorial Guinea gains independence from Spain.
1972 - Forty-six African American and white sailors are
injured in a racially motivated insurrection aboard
the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, off the coast of
North Vietnam.
1989 - George Beavers, Jr., the last surviving founder of
Golden State Life Insurance Company of Los Angeles,
California, joins the ancestors. He co-founded this
company in 1925, which is the third largest African
American life insurance company, with $120 million in
assets and $5 billion of insurance in force.
1989 - Herschel Walker is traded from the Dallas Cowboys to
the Minnesota Vikings for 12 players. The trade will
turn out a lot better for Dallas than for Minnesota.
1999 - Wilt Chamberlain joins the ancestors. He succumbs to
a heart attack at the age of 63 in his Bel Air home
in Los Angeles, California. Chamberlain was a center
so big, agile and dominant that he forced basketball
to change its rules and is the only player to score
100 points in an NBA game.
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