* Today in Black History - June 30 *
1881 - Henry Highland Garnet, former abolitionist leader and
Presbyterian minister, is named Minister to Liberia.
He will join the ancestors in Monrovia shortly after
his arrival.
1906 - John Hope becomes the first African American president
of Morehouse College.
1917 - Lena Mary Calhoun Horne is born in Brooklyn, New York.
She will begin her career at 16 as a chorus girl at the
Cotton Club in Harlem and will appear in the movies
"Cabin in the Sky" and "Stormy Weather". Because of the
Red Scare and her political activism, she will find
herself blacklisted and unable to get work in Hollywood.
Her career will span over 70 years appearing in film,
television, and on Broadway. She will be a strong civil
rights advocate and will refuse to perform in clubs where
African Americans are not admitted. Returning to her roots
as a nightclub performer, she will take part in the March
on Washington in August 1963, and continue to work as a
performer, both in nightclubs and on television, while
releasing well-received record albums. She will announce
her retirement in March 1980, but the next year will star
in a one-woman show, "Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music,"
which will run for more than three hundred performances
on Broadway. She will then tour the country in the show,
earning numerous awards and accolades. She will continue
recording and performing sporadically into the 1990s, and
will disappear from the public eye in 2000. She will join
the ancestors on May 9, 2010.
1921 - Charles S. Gilpin becomes the first actor to receive the
NAACP's Spingarn Medal for his portrayal of Emperor
Jones in the Eugene O'Neill play of the same name.
1940 - John T. Scott is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He will
attend Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans and
receive a Bachelor of Arts degree. He will receive his
Master of Fine Arts degree from Michigan State University
in East Lansing, Michigan in 1965, after which he will
return to Xavier to become a professor of art. In 1995,
he will receive an honorary Doctor of Humanities from
Michigan State University and a Doctor of Humanities from
Tulane University in 1997. In 1992, he will be awarded
the exclusive MacArthur Grant (also known as the "Genius
Grant") from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation. He will also become a sculptor whose works
will be exhibited widely in the United States and at the
exhibit of "Art of Black America in Japan, Afro-American
Modernism: 1937-1987." He will be best known for creating
large woodcut prints and for his African-Caribbean-New
Orleans-inspired kinetic sculptures. In 2005, he will be
the subject of a major retrospective exhibit at the New
Orleans Museum of Art entitled "Circle Dance: The Art of
John T. Scott." He will also be commissioned to create
several pieces that will be placed throughout the City of
New Orleans. These public works in New Orleans include
Spirit Gates at the DeSaix Boulevard traffic circle (at
St. Bernard and Gentilly Boulevards) in the Seventh Ward
and River Spirit at Woldenberg Park along the Mississippi
River near the Port of New Orleans. He will join the
ancestors on September 1, 2007.
1956 - David Alan Grier is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will
become an actor and comedian. He will be best known for his
work on the sketch comedy television show "In Living Color."
Although primarily known for his dramatic work, he will
begin to shift towards comedy, making memorable appearances
in the cult films "Amazon Women on the Moon" and "I'm Gonna
Git You Sucka." Keenen Ivory Wayans, the director of Sucka,
will cast him in his new variety show "In Living Color." It
will become a ratings hit and will win an Emmy for
Outstanding Variety Series. He will become a popular cast
member through his characters, which will range from
hyperactive children to crotchety old men. Among his prominent
characters were obnoxious, megaphone-blaring shop teacher Al
MacAfee; the elderly Mr. Brooks, whose autumn years are a
never-ending verbal battle with his wife; Calhoun Tubbs, a
blues musician with very limited creativity; a member of Funky
Finger Productions, a production company with more ambition
than resources; Tiny, a prison inmate obsessed with female
"breastses"; and, perhaps most famously, flamboyant and
effeminate Antoine Merriweather in the "Men on..." sketch
series. He will also play Rev. Leon Lonnie Love on the TV
series "Martin." After his success on the show, he will begin
appearing in comedies such as "Boomerang" (as Eddie Murphy's
shy friend Gerard), "Blankman" (with Damon Wayans), "In the
Army Now" (as Fred Ostroff) along with Pauly Shore and Andy
Dick in 1994, and as a policeman whose car is memorably
crushed and eaten by a giant pod in Jumanji. He will appear
with Tom Arnold in the 1997 comedy "McHale's Navy" as Ensign
Charles Parker. In 1999, he will make a guest appearance as
himself in the "Aw, Here it Goes to Hollywood" episode of
Nickelodeon's sitcom, "Kenan & Kel."
1958 - Alabama courts fined the NAACP $ 100,000 for contempt, for
refusing to divulge membership. The U.S. Supreme Court
will reverse the decision.
1960 - Zaire proclaims its independence from Belgium.
1966 - Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is born in Brooklyn, New York.
He will become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the
world and hold the record as the youngest boxer to win the
WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles at 20 years, 4 months,
and 22 days old. He will win his first 19 professional
bouts by knockout, 12 of them in the first round. He will
win the WBC title in 1986 after defeating Trevor Berbick
by a TKO in the second round. In 1987, he will add the
WBA and IBF titles after defeating James Smith and Tony
Tucker. He will be the first heavyweight boxer to
simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC and IBF titles, and the
only heavyweight to successively unify them.
1967 - Maj. Robert H. Lawrence Jr. becomes the first African
American astronaut. He will join the ancestors after
being killed during a training flight accident on December
8, 1967.
1969 - Jacob Lawrence receives the NAACP's Spingarn Medal "in
testimony to his eminence among American painters."
1974 - Alberta King, mother of the late Martin Luther King Jr.,
joins the ancestors after being assassinated during a
church service in Atlanta, Georgia. The assailant, Marcus
Chennault of Dayton, Ohio, is later convicted and sentenced
to death.
1974 - Anthony "Tony" Rock is born in Brooklyn, New York. He will
become an actor and stand-up comedian. He is the younger
brother of comedian Chris Rock. He will be a co-star on CBS's
comedy "Living Biblically," co-starring with Jay Ferguson,
Lindsey Kraft, Camryn Manheim, and Sara Gilbert. In the early
2000s, he will host a short-lived game show entitled "Can You
Tell?" for Oprah Winfrey's Oh! Oxygen network. He will also be
a correspondent for "BattleBots" on Comedy Central for the
show's fifth season. He will appear on radio and television
shows including "The Howard Stern Show" and "The D'Angelo Show."
He will perform in New York with Mark Curry and John Henton to
highlight the Apollo Theater. He will co-star as Dirk Black on
the UPN/The CW sitcom "All of Us." He will work as a back-up
to his brother Chris, and appear on the latter's sitcom "Everybody
Hates Chris" in the recurring role of the title character's uncle
Ryan. Chris's fictitious brother Drew from the show is loosely
based on Tony. He will host "The Funny Spot" on TV One. He will
star in his own sketch comedy TV series, "The Tony Rock Project,"
which will be broadcast on MyNetworkTV from 2008 to 2009. On
February 19, 2010, Comedy Central will air Tony Rock's feature on
Season 14 of "Comedy Central Presents." His episode will be the
first original of the 2010 season. In 2012, he will appear in
"Think Like a Man," a feature film based on Steve Harvey's 2009
book "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man." In the same year, he will
begin hosting "Apollo Live" on BET.
1978 - Larry Doby becomes the manager of the Chicago White Sox
baseball team. He will have a win-loss record of 37-50 and
will be fired at the end of the season (October 19).
1980 - Coleman A. Young is awarded the Spingarn Medal for his
"singular accomplishment as Mayor of the City of Detroit,"a
position he had held since 1973.
1984 - Fantasia Monique Barrino-Taylor is born in High Point, North
Carolina. Known professionally by her mononym Fantasia, she will
become a Rhythm & Blues singer and songwriter. She will rise to
fame as the winner of the third season of the reality television
series "American Idol" in 2004. Following her victory, she will
release her debut single, "I Believe," which will debut at number
one on the Billboard Hot 100. Subsequently, she will release her
debut album, "Free Yourself," which will go on to be certified
Platinum by the RIAA and earn her three Grammy nominations in 2006.
In 2006, she will release her second album, "Fantasia," which will
feature the single "When I See U" which will top the Billboard Hot
R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for eight weeks. This album will be
certified Gold by the RIAA and receive three Grammy nominations in
2008. She will then play the part of Celie in the Broadway musical
"The Color Purple," for which she will win a 2007 Theatre World
Award. Her third studio album, "Back to Me," will be released
worldwide on August 24, 2010 and will feature the single
"Bittersweet," which will peak in the top ten on the R&B chart. The
single will win her a Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
As of February 2012, she will sell 2,842,000 albums and 1,425,000
tracks in the United States. In 2012, VH1 will ranked her number 32
out of the 100 Greatest Women in Music. On April 18, 2013, she will
return to American Idol singing "Lose to Win." The performance
dubbed "dynamic, passionate and powerful" will win her fervent
expressions of approval from the show's current judges and a wild
ovation from the live audience. Moreover, she will receive rave
reviews in the media for the performance. In November 2013, she will
return to Broadway in the musical "After Midnight." On October 16,
2014, she will be inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
1986 - Victoria Elizabeth Crawford is born in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. She
will become a professional wrestler, former model and occasional
actress who will be signed to WWE under the ring name Alicia Fox,
performing on the Raw brand. She will be the longest tenured female
performer, having been with the company since 2006 while being on the
main roster since 2008. She will debut on "SmackDown" on June 13, 2008,
using the Alicia Fox name and the gimmick of a wedding planner. In
November, she will move to the ECW brand, where she will manage DJ
Gabriel. The following year, she will begin challenging for the WWE
Divas Championship, which she will win in June 2010, holding the title
for two months, becoming the first and only African American Divas
Champion in WWE history. In October 2014, she will begin starring in
the reality television series "Total Divas" on E! as part of the main
cast.
2001 - Saxophonist Joe Henderson joins the ancestors in San
Francisco. His improvisational style and compositions have
influenced jazz musicians everywhere. He had been suffering
from emphysema, and became ill at his home in San Francisco,
but did not go to the hospital until the following day, where
he died of heart failure.
2015 - Misty Copeland becomes the first African American female
principal dancer in the American Ballet Theater's 75-year
history.
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