* Today in Black History - April 1 *
1867 - African Americans vote in a municipal election in Tuscumbia,
Alabama. Military officials set aside the election pending
clarification on electoral procedures.
1868 - Hampton Institute is founded in Hampton, Virginia, by General
Samuel Chapman Armstrong.
1895 - Alberta Hunter is born in Memphis, Tennessee. She will run away
from home at the age of twelve and go to Chicago, Illinois to
become a Blues singer. She will work in a variety of clubs until
the violence in the Chicago club scene prompts her to move to New
York City. There she will record for a variety of blues labels.
She will write a lot of her own songs and songs for other
performers. Her song "Down Hearted Blues," will become Bessie
Smith's first record in 1923. She will perform in Europe and
America until 1956, when she will retire from performing. She
will work for more than twenty years as a nurse in a New York
hospital and in 1977, at the age of 82, surprisingly return to
the stage. She will perform until she joins the ancestors in
1984.
1905 - The British East African Protectorate becomes the colony of Kenya.
1917 - Scott Joplin dies in New York City. One of the early developers of
ragtime and the author of "Maple Leaf Rag," Joplin also created
several rag-time and grand operas, the most noteworthy of which,
"Treemonisha," consumed his later years in an attempt to have it
published and performed.
1924 - The British Crown takes over Northern Rhodesia from the British
South Africa Company.
1929 - Morehouse College, Spelman College and Atlanta University are
merged, creating a 'new' Atlanta University. Dr. John Hope of
Morehouse College, is named president.
1930 - Zawditu, the first reigning female monarch of Ethiopia, joins the
ancestors. She was the second daughter of Emperor Menelik II. She
had been Empress of Ethiopia since 1916.
1939 - Rudolph Bernard Isley is born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He will become
a singer at the age of six with his brothers O'Kelly, Ronald and
Vernon Isley and form the group, The Isley Brothers. They will
leave Cincinnati in 1956 and go to New York City to pursue their
musical career. Rudolph and his brothers will obtain fame and
success nationally and internationally earning numerous platinum
and gold albums which contain such classic hits as "Shout," "Twist
and Shout," "It's Your Thing," "Who's That Lady," "Fight the Power,"
"For the Love of You," "Harvest For The World," "Live It Up,"
"Footsteps in the Dark," "Work to Do," "Don't Say Good Night" and
many others.
1950 - Charles R. Drew, surgeon and developer of the blood bank concept,
joins the ancestors after an automobile accident near Burlington,
North Carolina at the age of 45.
1951 - Oscar Micheaux joins the ancestors in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Micheaux formed his own film production company, Oscar Micheaux
Corporation, to produce his novel "The Homesteader" and over 30
other movies, notably "Birthright," which was adapted from a novel
by Pulitzer Prize-winning author T.S. Stribling, and "Body and Soul,"
which marked the film debut of Paul Robeson.
1966 - The first World Festival of Negro Arts opens in Dakar, Senegal, with
the U.S. African American delegation having one of the largest number
of representatives. First prizes are won by poet Robert Hayden,
engraver William Majors, actors Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln, gospel
singer Mahalia Jackson, jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, and
sociologist Kenneth Clark.
1984 - Marvin Gaye joins the ancestors after being shot to death by his
father, Marvin Gaye, Sr. in Los Angeles, California, one day before
his forty-fifth birthday. The elder Gaye will plead guilty to
voluntary manslaughter, and receive probation. Marvin Gaye was one
of the most talented soul singers of all time. Unlike most soul
greats, Gaye's artistic inclinations evolved over the course of
three decades, moving from hard-driving soul-pop to funk and dance
grooves.
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