* Today in Black History - September 24 *
1825 - Frances Ellen Watkins Harper is born free in Baltimore, Maryland.
She will grow up to be one of the most famous African American
poets. Harper's mother will die before she was three years old,
leaving her an orphan. Harper will be raised by her uncle, William
Watkins, a teacher at the Academy for Negro Youth and a radical
political figure in civil rights. Watkins will be a major influence
on Harper's political, religious, and social views. Harper will
attend the Academy for Negro Youth and the rigorous education she
will receive, along with the political activism of her uncle,
affects and influences her poetry. In 1850, she will become the
first female to teach at Union Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio. After
new laws pass in 1854, state that African Americans entering through
Maryland's northern border could be sold into slavery, Harper will
become an active abolitionist and writer. She will be known for
her writings, "Forest Leaves," "Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects,"
"Moses: A Story of the Nile," "Achan's Sin," "Sketches of Southern
Life," "Light Beyond the Darkness," "Iola Leroy: Or Shadows Uplifted,"
"The Martyr of Alabama and Other Poems," "Atlanta Offering Poems,"
and "Idylls of the Bible."
1883 - The National Black convention meets in Louisville, Kentucky.
1894 - Sociologist and professor at Morehouse College, Fisk University,
and Howard University, E.(Edward) Franklin Frazier is born.
He will organize the Atlanta University School of Social Work
(for African Americans), later becoming its director. He will
write the controversial publication (1927) "The Pathology of
Race Prejudice" in Forum Magazine. His writings will include
"The Negro Family in the United States" (1939), among the
first sociological works on African Americans researched and
written by an African American. He will also write "Negro
Youth at the Crossways" (1940) and "Race and Culture Contacts
in the Modern World" (1957), which deals with African studies.
Frazier will have a distinguished career at Howard University
as chairman of its sociology department as well as serving as
the first African American president of the American
Sociological Society.
1931 - Cardiss Robertson (later Collins) is born in St. Louis,
Missouri. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1973
after the death of her husband, George, she will serve in a
leadership capacity often in her Congressional career, most
notably as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee
on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Competitiveness.
1935 - World Heavyweight Champion, Joe Louis, becomes the first
African American boxer to draw a million dollar gate.
1941 - John Mackey is born in New York City. He will become a football
player in the National Football League in 1963 and will play all
but one of his pro years with the Baltimore Colts. His career
record will include 331 catches, 5,236 yards, and 38 touchdowns.
He will be enshrined in the Football Hall of Fame in 1992 (the
second tight end to be so honored).
1946 - 'Mean' Joe (Charles) Greene is born in Temple, Texas. He will
become a star football player for North Texas State and will be
a number one draft pick in the National Football League in 1969
and will play his entire career (1969-1981) with the Pittsburgh
Steelers. He will become the "cornerstone of franchise" that
dominated the NFL in the 1970s. He will be an exceptional team
leader, possessing size, speed, quickness, strength, and
determination. He will be NFL Defensive Player of The Year twice
(1972 and 1974). He will be All-Pro or All-AFC nine years and will
play in four Super Bowls (won all four), six AFC title games, and
10 Pro Bowls. He will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of
Fame in 1987. He will become a defensive line coach with Pittsburgh
after his retirement as an active player.
1953 - "Take a Giant Step", a drama by playwright Louis Peterson, opens on
Broadway.
1954 - Patrick Kelly is born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. A fashion design
student, Kelly will move to Paris, where his innovative and
outrageous women's fashion designs, featuring multiple buttons, bows
and African American baby dolls, will win him wide acclaim and make
him the first and only American designer admitted to an exclusive
organization of French fashion designers.
1957 - President Eisenhower makes an address on nationwide TV and radio to
explain why troops are being sent to Little Rock, Arkansas.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, earlier in the day sends 1,000 U.S.
government paratroopers to Little Rock to aid in the desegregation
of the public schools. The troops will escort nine school children
to Central High School in the first federally supported effort to
integrate the nation's public schools. The nine black students who
had entered Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas were forced
to withdraw because of a white mob outside.
1962 - United States Circuit Court of Appeals orders the Mississippi Board
of Higher Education to admit James Meredith to the University of
Mississippi or be held in contempt of court.
1973 - Leaders of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape
Verde (PAIGC) declare the independence of Guinea-Bissau from
Portugal. Portugal will recognize this independence the following
year. The PAIGC was formed by Amilcar Cabral and Raphael Barbosa in
1956. Luis Cabral, Amilcar's half-brother, will become Guinea-Bissau's
first president.
1977 - Rev. John T. Walker is installed as the sixth -- and first African
American bishop of the Episcopal Church when he is installed in the
diocese of Washington, DC.
1988 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee of the United States sets the heptathlon woman's
record (7,291).
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