* Today in Black History - August 16 *
1890 - Alexander Clark, journalist and lawyer, is named minister
to Liberia.
1922 - Louis Lomax is born in Valdosta, Georgia. He will become
an author and journalist. He will be the editor of "When
the Word is Given," a collection of early speeches by
Malcolm X, and the author of "To Kill a Black Man," "The
Negro Revolt," and "The Reluctant African." He will begin
his career as a reporter for the Baltimore Afro-American
and, at the time of his first interview with Malcolm X,
was the first Black television newsman at WNTA-TV. He will
meet Malcolm in 1959 and work with him on the early
editions of "Muhammad Speaks." He will make a point of
covering stories that have a direct impact on the Black
community and will himself be a devout supporter of civil
rights organizations such as CORE (for which he will help
organize a telethon that will raise $50,000 for the
Freedom Rides), SNCC, and the SCLC. He will join the
ancestors on July 30, 1970 after being involved in an
automobile accident in Santa Rosa, New Mexico.
1938 - Revolutionary blues singer Robert L. Johnson joins the
ancestors after a mysterious death in Greenwood,
Mississippi. A revival of interest in his music will
occur in the 1990's when a boxed set of 41 of his
recordings is issued to critical and popular acclaim.
1952 - Reginald VelJohnson is born in Queens, New York. He will
become an actor and will be best known for his role as
Carl Winslow in the TV series "Family Matters" and his
role as a policeman in the movie "Die Hard."
1958 - Angela Evelyn Bassett is born in New York City, New York.
She will become an actress. She will attend Yale
University and receive her B.A. in African American
studies in 1980. In 1983, she will earn a Master of Fine
Arts Degree from the Yale School of Drama. At Yale, she
will meet her future husband Courtney B. Vance, a 1986
graduate of the drama school. Her acting career will
begin in the theater in 1985, when she will appear in
J.E. Franklin's "Black Girl" at Second Stage Theatre. She
will appear in two August Wilson plays at the Yale
Repertory Theatre under the direction of her long-time
instructor, Lloyd Richards. The Wilson plays featuring
her were "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (1984) and "Joe
Turner's Come and Gone" (1986). She will star in the
movies "Boyz n The Hood," "Malcolm X," "What's Love Got
to Do With It," "Waiting To Exhale," and "How Stella Got
Her Groove Back."
1961 - Christian Emeka Okoye is born in Enugu, Nigeria. He will
become a professional football player with the Kansas City
Chiefs, as a running back. He will amass 4,897 yards from
1987-1992. He will be UPI's AFL offensive player of the
year in 1989.
1963 - Independence is restored to the Dominican Republic.
1970 - Activist Angela Davis is named in a federal warrant
issued in connection with George Jackson's attempted
escape from San Quentin prison.
1972 - A Methodist clergyman of African descent from Dominica,
West Indies, Rev. Philip A. Potter, 51, is named General
Secretary of the World Council of Churches. Serving
until 1984, Potter will give strong spiritual guidance
to the work of the WCC.
1987 - Charles Wesley joins the ancestors in Washington, DC at
the age of 95. Noted historian and African American
college president, he authored over a dozen books on
African American life, including "The Negro in the
Americas," "The Quest for Equality," "Negro Labor in the
U.S. 1850-1925," "Richard Allen, Apostle of Freedom,"
and "The History of the National Association of Colored
Women's Clubs, published when he was 92 years old.
1988 - Jailed Black South African nationalist Nelson Mandela,
is stricken with tuberculosis.
2003 - Idi Amin, former Ugandan dictator, joins the ancestors
in Saudi Arabia at the age of 80, after succumbing to
multiple organ failure.
2018 - Aretha Franklin, "Queen of Soul", joins the ancestors at the
age of 76. She joined the ancestors at 9:50 a.m. at her home
in Detroit, surrounded by family and friends, according to a
statement on behalf of Franklin's family from her longtime
publicist Gwendolyn Quinn. The "official cause of death was
due to advanced pancreatic cancer of the neuroendocrine type,
which was confirmed by Franklin's oncologist, Dr. Philip
Phillips of Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit," the family
statement said. Tributes and tears flooded in after news of
her transition broke. "Aretha helped define the American
experience", former President Barack Obama said in a statement.
"In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every
shade--our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our
quest for redemption and our hard-won respect. May the Queen of
Soul rest in eternal peace." The first woman admitted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she had 88 Billboard chart hits during
the rock era, tops among female vocalists. At the peak of her
career -- from 1967 to 1975 -- she had more than two dozen Top 40
hits. "Aretha Franklin is not only the definitive female soul
singer of the Sixties," according to her Rolling Stone biography,
"she's also one of the most influential and important voices in pop
history." She won 18 Grammy awards, including the honor for best
female R&B performance for eight straight years.
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