* Today in Black History - November 30 *
1869 - John Roy Lynch is elected to the Mississippi House of
Representatives.
1912 - Gordon Parks, Sr. is born in Fort Scott, Kansas. In the late
1930's, while working as a railroad porter, he will become
interested in photography and launch his career as a
photographer and photojournalist. From 1943 to 1945, he will
be a correspondent for the Office of War Information, giving
national exposure to his work. This will lead to him becoming
a staff photographer for Life magazine in 1948. He will
branch off into film and television in the 1950's and in 1968
will produce, direct, and write the script and music for the
production of his book, "The Learning Tree." He will also
direct and write the music scores for the movies "Shaft,"
"Shaft's Big Score," The Super Cops," "Leadbelly," "Odyssey
of Solomon Northrup" and "Moments Without Proper Names." He
will also direct "Superfly," "Three The Hard Way," "Aaron
Loves Angela," and be called a "Twentieth Century Renaissance
Man" by the NAACP, who will award him its Spingarn Medal in
1972. The Library of Congress will honor him in 1982 with the
National Film Registry Classics designation for his film, "The
Learning Tree."
1924 - Shirley Anita St. Hill (later Chisholm) is born in Brooklyn,
New York. While an education consultant for New York City's
day-care division, she will become active in community and
political activities that included the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and her district's
Unity Democratic Club. She will begin her political career at
the age of 40, when she is elected to the state assembly. In
1968, she will be the first African American woman elected to
Congress, defeating civil-rights leader James Farmer, who
had asserted in his campaign that African American voters
needed "a man's voice in Washington." She will run for
President in 1972 and continue her Congressional duties until
1982.
1933 - Sam Gilliam is born in Tupelo, Mississippi. He will become
an artist known for his unique manipulation of materials
that result in painted sculpture or suspended paintings.
His work will be shown at the 36th Venice Miennale as well
as in the exhibit "African-American Artists 1880-1987."
1937 - Robert Guillaume (Williams) is born in St. Louis, Missouri.
He will become an actor and be best known for his roles in
the sit-coms "Soap" and "Benson".
1944 - Luther Ingram is born in Jackson, Mississippi. He will become
a rhythm and blues musician and singer and will be best known
for the song, "(If Lovin' You is Wrong) I Don't Want to be
Right."
1948 - The Negro National League (Professional Baseball) officially
disbands. Although black teams will continue to play for
several years, they will no longer be major league caliber.
The demise of the Negro Leagues was inevitable as the
younger black players were signed by the white major league
franchises.
1953 - Albert Michael Espy is born in Yazoo City, Mississippi. In
1987, he will be sworn in as the state's first African American
congressman since John Roy Lynch more than 100 years before.
He will become Secretary of Agriculture during the Bill Clinton
administration. Leaving the cabinet under fire and indicted for
corruption, he will later be vindicated when he is found not
guilty.
1956 - Archie Moore is defeated by Floyd Patterson, as Patterson wins
the heavyweight boxing title vacated by the retired Rocky
Marciano. At the age of 21, Patterson becomes the youngest
boxer to be named heavyweight champion.
1962 - Bo Jackson is born in Bessemer, Alabama. The 1985 Heisman
Trophy winner will be one of the few professional athletes
to play in two sports - football and baseball.
1965 - Judith Jamison makes her debut with Alvin Ailey's American
Dance Theatre in Chicago, dancing in Talley Beaty's Congo
Tango Palace. Jamison will rejoin the company in 1989 as
its artistic director.
1966 - Barbados gains its independence from Great Britain.
1975 - The state of Dahomey becomes the People's Republic of Benin.
1981 - The NAACP's Spingarn Medal is awarded to Coleman A. Young
"in recognition of his singular accomplishments as mayor
of the City of Detroit."
1987 - James Baldwin, author, joins the ancestors in St. Paul de
Vence, France, of stomach cancer, at the age of 63. He
explored the plight of oppressed African Americans in 20th
century America in a variety of literary forms. His output
included novels and plays, but it was above all, as an
essayist, that he achieved a reputation as the most literary
spokesman in the struggle for civil rights in the 1950s and
1960s. His three most important collection of essays were
"Notes of a Native Son" in 1955, "Nobody Knows My Name" in
1961, and "The Fire Next Time" in 1963. The most highly
regarded of his novels were the first three, "Go Tell It on
the Mountain" in 1953, "Giovanni's Room" in 1956, and
"Another Country" in 1962.
1990 - Ruth Washington, long-time publisher of the Los Angeles
Sentinel, joins the ancestors. Following the death of her
husband, Chester, Washington acted as publisher of the weekly
newspaper, founded in 1933, for sixteen years.
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