* Today in Black History - April 26 *
1785 - John James Audubon is born in Les Cayes, Saint Dominique (later
Haiti), to an African Caribbean mother and a French father. He
will display an early affinity for bird specimens and drawing in
France, later emigrating to the United States, where he will
marry a plantation owner's daughter and paint the ground-breaking
collection "The Birds of America."
1798 - James Pierson Beckwourth is born in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He
will become a legendary American Western mountain man, trapper,
warrior, Indian chief, and trailblazer. He will maintain a lifelong
friendship with the Crow Indian nation. He will work as an Army
scout during the third Seminole War and will be a rider for the Pony
Express. In 1850, he will discover a pass through the Sierra Nevada
mountains that will enable settlers to more easily reach California.
The Beckwourth Pass is still in use today by the Union Pacific
Railroad and the U.S. Interstate Highway System. He will join the
ancestors in 1866.
1886 - William Levi Dawson is born in Albany, Georgia. A graduate of Fisk
University, he will move to Chicago, serve in the 365th Infantry
in World War I, become an attorney and initially be involved in
Republican politics upon his return to the city after the war.
Elected to his first term in the United States Congress in 1942,
he will serve 27 years in the House, where he will become the first
African American representative to chair a committee of Congress,
the Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments, in 1949.
1886 - Gertrude Pritchett is born in Columbus, Georgia. She will become a
blues singer and vaudeville performer. She will marry William "Pa"
Rainey and will become the "Ma" half of "Rainey and Rainey: The
Assassinators of the Blues." Between 1923 and 1928, she will record
93 songs, many of which were her own compositions. She will perform
nationwide and will have a loyal fan base, even after her recording
contract with Paramount is terminated. She will have a great impact
on performers who will follow her and will be immortalized by being
included in August Wilson's play, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," and the
poem of Sterling Brown, "Ma Rainey." She will join the ancestors on
December 22, 1939 and will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame in 1990.
1964 - The African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.
The name is derived from the first syllable of each country's
name.
1968 - Students seize the administration building at Ohio State.
1984 - Jazz musician great William "Count" Basie, joins the ancestors
in Hollywood, Florida at the age of 77. NOTE: Many sources will have
1904 for Count Basie's birth year. Our source for his birth
and death is the Kennedy Center Archives documenting "The
Honors" bestowed on him in 1981.
1991 - Maryann Bishop Coffey is named the first woman and the first African
American co-chair of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
1992 - "Jelly's Last Jam" opens at Virginia theater on Broadway. Gregory
Hines will portray the great jazz composer Jelly Roll Morton and
will receive a Tony award as best actor in a musical in that role.
1994 - Voting begins in South Africa's first all-race elections.
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