* Today in Black History - November 9 *
1731 - Benjamin Banneker is born free in Ellicott Mills (now
Ellicott City), Maryland. He will become the builder
of the first clock made in America. He also will
become the key figure in the design of Washington, DC
after Pierre L'Enfant quit and took his plans for DC
with him. Banneker was able to save the project by
reproducing the plans from memory, in two days, a
complete layout of the streets, parks, and major
buildings. From 1792 to 1802, Banneker will publish
an annual Farmer's Almanac, for which he did all the
calculations himself. He will join the ancestors on
October 9, 1806.
1868 - The Howard University Medical School opens with eight
students.
1868 - Arkansas Governor Powell Clayton, declares martial law
in ten counties and mobilizes the state militia in a
Ku Klux Klan crisis.
1922 - Dorothy Dandridge is born in Cleveland, Ohio. She will
try vaudeville and a stint at the Cotton Club before
finding her most noteworthy success as an actress.
She will appear in such works as "Porgy and Bess" and
minor movie roles before her big break in a series of
low-budget movies including "Tarzan's Perils". While
simultaneously maintaining a singing career, Dandridge
will have her greatest success in "Carmen Jones"
opposite Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, Diahann
Carroll, and Brock Peters, which will earn her an
Academy Award nomination, a first for an African
American actress. She will join the ancestors on
September 8, 1965.
1925 - Oscar Micheaux's movie "Body and Soul" is released. It
marks the film debut of Paul Robeson.
1935 - Robert "Bob" Gibson is born in Omaha, Nebraska. He will
become a professional baseball player and pitcher for
the St. Louis Cardinals. He will be the National
League MVP in 1968. During his career, he will amass
3,000 career strike-outs, win the Cy Young Award in
1968 and 1970, win the Baseball Writers Award in 1968,
pitch in the 1964, 1967, and 1968 World Series, and win
Nine Gold Glove Awards. He will enter the National
Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.
1959 - Donald Andrew "Donnie" McClurkin, Jr. is born in Chester, South
Carolina. He will become a gospel singer and minister. He will
win three Grammy Awards, ten Stellar Awards, two BET Awards,
two Soul Train Awards, one Dove Award and one NAACP Image
Award. He will be one of the top selling Gospel music artists,
selling over 10 million albums worldwide. Variety will dub him
as a “Reigning King of Urban Gospel”. By the time that he was
a teenager, he will form the McClurkin Singers, and later he
will form another group, the New York Restoration Choir, with
recordings from as early as 1975. He will be hired, as an
associate minister, at Marvin Winans' Perfecting Church in
Detroit, Michigan, in 1989. He will serve as an assistant to
Winans for over a decade. In 1991, a sharp pain and swelling,
followed by internal bleeding will lead, he says, to his
being diagnosed as having leukemia. The doctor will suggest
immediate treatment, but McClurkin, who was then 31, will
decide to take his own advice. "I tell people to believe that
God will save you," he says, "[and] I had to turn around and
practice the very thing that I preached." He will be ordained
and be sent out by the Winans in 2001 to establish Perfecting
Faith Church in Freeport, New York, where he will end up
becoming Senior Pastor. A friendship with a Warner Alliance
executive will result in his signing to the label for his 1996
self-titled LP, with producers Bill Maxwell, Mark Kibble of
Take 6, Cedric and Victor Caldwell plus Andraé Crouch. The
disc, which will feature the perennially popular "Stand," will
go gold shortly after being publicly lauded by Oprah Winfrey.
At the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, he will win in the category
Traditional Soul Gospel Album, for "Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual
Songs". He will be best known for his hit songs "Stand" and
"We Fall Down" which will be played in heavy rotation on both
Gospel and Urban radio. His three solo albums will top the
Billboard charts. Dovetailing off the success of his near
double-platinum selling album,"Live in London and More" he will
release "Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs" in 2005 and "We All
Are One: Live In Detroit" in 2009, which will also top
Billboard charts across various musical genres. His love for
people and desire to share gospel music, globally, is the
reason he includes a language medley: Japanese, Russian,
Spanish, and Dutch in most live performances.
1960 - Joëlle Ursull is born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. She will
become a French singer. She will bde elected Miss Morne-à-l'Eau
before becoming Miss Guadeloupe in 1979. She will work as a
television actress in a sitcom produced by RFO. Later, she will
embark on a modelling career before forming the group Zouk
Machine. Among her influences will be the Caribbean Zouk,
Biguine, Reggae, Ragga, Quadrille, Salsa, and Merengue. In 1988,
she will leave the group to attempt a career as a soloist. In
1988, she will release her first album entitled "Miyel." In
1990, she will represent France at the Eurovision Song Contest
with a song composed by Serge Gainsbourg and also release her
second album entitled "Black French." In 1993, she will release
her third album "As in a Film" which will have more of a blues
influence. After becoming a mother, she will dedicate her life
to the education of her two daughters. However, she will find
time to participate in a different project, singing on a single
for the Mothers & Fathers duet with Jacques D'Arbaud, a duet on
the album of the comic Pat. She will also sing on another in
1999 with the reggae artist Djamatik. In 2003, she will release
a single called "Babydoo." From 2004 to 2006 she will participate
in numerous shows in the West Indies and Paris. She will work on
a new album planned for release in 2011.
1961 - The Professional Golfers Association eliminates their
Caucasians only rule.
1965 - Willie Mays is named the National League's Most Valuable
Player.
1969 - Sandra Jacqueline Denton is born in Kingston, Jamaica. She will
be professionally known by her stage name Pepa or Pep. She will
become a hip hop rapper and actress, best known for her work as
a member of the Grammy Award-winning female rap trio Salt-N-Pepa.
She and Cheryl James will meet while working as customer service
representatives at Sears. They will release a single called "The
Showstopper" which will become a moderate R&B hit in late 1985.
They will join with Latoya Hanson, who was the original DJ of the
group. Shortly after in 1986, Deidra "Spinderella" Roper will
join as the group's DJ as a full-length debut album, "Hot, Cool &
Vicious," is being released. The trio will release a total of
five studio albums: "Hot, Cool, and Vicious" (1986), "A Salt with
a Deadly Pepa" (1988), "Blacks' Magic" (1990), "Very Necessary"
(1993), and "Brand New" (1997), plus several greatest hits albums.
Salt-N-Pepa will disband in 2002, several months after their Brand
New album is released on Red Ant Records. Her group member Cheryl
James will state that she is ready to leave the music industry.
The trio will reunite for a performance on VH1's Hip Hop Honors
program on September 22, 2005. In 2005, she will be a cast member
of VH1's The Surreal Life (season 5). Her acting credits will also
include the motion picture "Joe's Apartment," an appearance in the
HBO movie "First Time Felon," and a stint as Officer Andrea Phelan
on the HBO drama, "Oz." She also will star on "The Surreal Life:
Fame Games." Salt-N-Pepa will reform in 2008, and will be in the
process of releasing an album since reforming as they work out
past issues. She will team up with James for VH1's "The Salt-N-Pepa
Show." She will also star in her own reality show on the network
entitled "Let's Talk About Pep," a name play-off the group's hit
song "Let's Talk About Sex." She will also be heard speaking
Jamaican Patois in the song "Need U Bad" by Jazmine Sullivan. In
August 2008, she will release her autobiography, which will also
be entitled "Let's Talk About Pep." It will be co-written by Karen
Hunter, and will offer a look behind the fame, family, failures,
and successes of her life in one of hip-hop's most successful
groups. It will feature an introduction by Queen Latifah, and an
epilogue by Missy Elliott. To accommodate the book, Pepa will
launch her own social network for her fans. On October 23, 2008
Salt-N-Pepa will perform at the BET Hip Hop Awards. In January 2011,
she will appear in an episode of the TBS sitcom "Are We There Yet?"
as Tammy, a woman who falls for the Terry Crews character of Nick.
She will join the reality television show "Growing Up Hip Hop" as a
supporting cast member in January 2016 along with her daughter
Egypt (who's a main cast member) and niece Tahira Francis.
1970 - William L. Dawson, Democratic congressman and party leader,
in Chicago, Illinois, joins the ancestors at the age of 84.
1970 - Brad Terrence Jordan is born in Houston, Texas. He will become a
rapper and record producer known professionally as Scarface, best
known as a member of the Geto Boys, a hip hop group from Houston,
Texas. He will grow up in Houston and be originally from the
city's South Acres (Crestmont Park) neighborhood. In 2012, The
Source will rank him #16 on their list of the Top 50 Lyricists
of All Time, while About.com will rank him #6 on its list of the
50 Greatest MCs of Our Time (1987–2007). He will begin his career
as DJ Akshen (pronounced Action) recording and deejaying for Lil'
Troy's Short Stop, a local record label in Houston. After
releasing the 12" single "Scarface/Another Head Put To Rest"
(1989), written by Chris "Mr. 3-2" Barriere and produced by Def
Jam Blaster, Bruce "Grim" Rhodes, he will go on to sign with
Rap-A-Lot and join a group who were collectively known as Geto
Boys replacing a member who left, and released the group's second
album "Grip It! On That Other Level" (1989), a highly successful
album that will garner the group a large fanbase, in spite of
their violent lyrics keeping them from radio and MTV. He will
take his stage name from the 1983 film Scarface. In 1992, he will
appear (along with Bushwick Bill) on the Kool G Rap & DJ Polo
album "Live and Let Die." The album "Mr. Scarface Is Back" will
be a success, and his popularity will soon overshadow the other
Geto Boys. He will remain in the group while releasing a series
of solo albums that will keep him in the public view with
increasing sales, making him the only Geto Boys member that will
always remain with the group since the group personnel is
revamped in 1989. This will peak with "The Diary" and "The Last
of a Dying Breed," the latter of which will receive positive
reviews and sales, and earn him Lyricist of the Year at the 2001
Source Awards.
1976 - The United Nations General Assembly endorses 10
resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa,
including one that says the white-only government is
"illegitimate."
1978 - Mark Althavan Andrews is born in Baltimore, Maryland. He will become
a Rhythm & Blues singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer and
actor. He is the lead singer of R&B group Dru Hill, better known by
his stage name Sisqó and will also release solo material. Sisqo's
successful debut solo album, "Unleash the Dragon" (1999), will
include the hit singles "Thong Song" and "Incomplete". As a teen,
he will work at The Fudgery in Harborplace at Baltimore's Inner
Harbor with Larry "Jazz" Anthony, James "Woody" Green, and Tamir
"Nokio" Ruffin. The quartet will be signed as the group Dru Hill to
Island Records in 1996. He lived in a neighborhood near Druid Hill
Park which is where the group will get their name. SisQó's visual
trademarks will be his hairstyles and flamboyant stage costumes,
which will be regularly flashier than those of his groupmates. Over
his career as a recording artist, both with and without Dru Hill,
his hairstyles will include a bleached blond Caesar, a platinum
Caesar (colored with silver spray paint), blond cornrows, a neon-
red dyed Caesar, and a blond Mohawk. After he left Dru Hill in 1999
to pursue a solo career, it will be decided that the other members
would follow suit and issue their own solo albums. His solo debut,
"Unleash the Dragon," will be released on Def Soul Records in
November 1999. Unleash the Dragon will sell moderately at first,
until the February 2000 release of its second single, the novelty
"Thong Song". A runaway hit, "Thong Song" and its follow-up,
"Incomplete", will be major hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart,
with "Thong Song" making it to number three, and "Incomplete" going
to #1. This success will result in Play Along Toys manufacturing a
Sisqó a Celebrity doll in 2001. Formed by SisQó in 1999, LovHer
will be the first female quartet on the Def Soul label. Their single
"How It's Gonna Be" will be featured on the "Rush Hour 2" soundtrack
in 2001. Conflicts within Dru Hill will prevent the group from
reuniting as planned in 2000. This will be attributed to time
conflicts during the recording of SisQó's second solo LP. During
this period, he will branch out into hosting the dance competition
program "SisQós Shakedown" on MTV, and into film, playing supporting
roles in the films "Get Over It" (2001) with Kirsten Dunst and "Snow
Dogs (2002) with Cuba Gooding, Jr.. He will also star as a vampire
in "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" (Season 6 Episode 1). Although his
second LP, "Return of Dragon," released in June 2001, eventually will
go platinum, its singles "Can I Live" and "Dance for Me" will perform
far below expectations (apart from in the United Kingdom, where
"Dance for Me" will become his third top ten hit). By 2002, he will
reunite with Dru Hill, which will release its third LP in late 2002.
The LP will underperform, and the group will be subsequently released
from their recording contract.
1982 - Sugar Ray Leonard retires from professional boxing for
the first time, because of a recurring eye problem
sustained in a welterweight title match.
1990 - Freedom Bank in New York City, one of the largest African
American-owned banks in the nation, is declared insolvent.
Its losses in 1988-1989 totaled $4.7 million, and it was
expected to lose $2 million in 1990. A last-minute effort
to revive the bank by raising funds from the local Harlem
community will fail to meet the government-imposed deadline.
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