* Today in Black History - February 12 *
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* "Once a year we go through the charade of February being 'Black *
* History Month.' Black History Month needs to be a 12-MONTH THING. *
* When we all learn about our history, about how much we've *
* accomplished while being handicapped with RACISM, it can only *
* inspire us to greater heights, knowing we're on the giant shoulders *
* of our ANCESTORS." Subscribe to the Munirah Chronicle and receive *
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1793 - Congress makes it a crime to hide or protect a runaway slave by
passing the first fugitive slave law.
1865 - Henry Highland Garnet, preacher and abolitionist, becomes the
first African American to preach in the rotunda of the Capitol
to the House of Representatives. It is on the occasion of a
Lincoln birthday memorial.
1896 - Isaac Burns Murphy, considered the greatest American jockey of
all time, joins the ancestors. He was the first jockey to win
the Kentucky Derby two years in a row and became the first
jockey to win the Kentucky Derby three times. In 1955, Isaac
Murphy was the first jockey voted into the Jockey Hall of Fame
at the National Museum of Racing, in Saratoga Springs, New
York.
1900 - For a Lincoln birthday celebration, James Weldon Johnson writes
the lyrics for "Lift Every Voice and Sing." With music by
his brother, J. Rosamond, the song is first sung by 500
children in Jacksonville, Florida. It will become known as
the "Negro National Anthem."
1909 - When six African Americans were killed and 200 others driven
out of town in race riots in Springfield, Illinois in the
summer of 1908, many Americans were shocked, because they
associated such violence only with racism in the south.
Springfield was not only a northern city, but the home of
Abraham Lincoln. Three people, Mary Ovington, William E.
Walling, and Dr. Henry Moskowitz, alarmed at the deterioration
of race relations, decided to open a campaign to oppose the
pervasive discrimination against racial minorities. They
issue a call for a national conference on "the Negro
question", and for its symbolic value, they will choose the
centennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, February 12, 1909,
as the date for the conference. Held in New York City, it
will draw an interracial group of 60 distinguished citizens,
who will formulate plans for a permanent organization devoted
to fighting all forms of racial discrimination. That
organization will be the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP will be the
oldest and largest civil rights organization in the U.S.
With more than 2,200 branches across the country, it will be
in the forefront of the struggle for voting rights, and an
end to discrimination in housing, employment, and education.
1934 - William Felton "Bill" Russell is born in Monroe, Louisiana.
He will become a star basketball player and high jumper at
the University of San Francisco. After college, he will win
a gold medal in the 1956 Olympics, as a member of the United
States basketball team. He will then play professional
basketball for the Boston Celtics for thirteen seasons,
winning eight straight NBA titles and eleven championships.
At the end of the 1965-66 season, he will become the coach of
the Boston Celtics.
1983 - Eubie Blake joins the ancestors at the age of 100 in Brooklyn,
New York. Blake was one of the last ragtime pianists and
composers whose most famous songs included "I'm Just Wild
About Harry." With Noble Sissle, Blake was the composer of
the first all-African American Broadway musical, "Shuffle
Along," which opened on Broadway in 1921.
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