* Today in Black History - May 30 *
1822 - Denmark Vesey's conspiracy to free the slaves of Charleston, South
Carolina, and surrounding areas is thwarted when a house slave
betrays the plot to whites. Vesey's bold plan had attracted over
9,000 slaves and freemen of the area including Peter Poyas, a
ship's carpenter, Gullah Jack, Blind Phillip, Ned Bennett and Mingo
Harth. Later it will be considered one of the most complex and
elaborate slave liberation plans ever undertaken.
1831 - James Walker Hood is born in Kennett Township, Chester County,
Pennsylvania. He will become a minister in New York City in the
A.M.E. Zion Church. He will become the first African American to
publish a collection of sermons when he publishes "The Negro in the
Christian Pulpit." His other works will include "One Hundred Years
of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church," and "The Plan of
The Apocalypse." He will join the ancestors on October 30, 1918.
1854 - The Kansas-Nebraska Act repeals the Missouri Compromise and opens
the Northern territory to slavery.
1902 - Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry is born in Key West, Florida.
He will become the first real African American film star known as
"Stepin Fetchit." Many sources will cite 1892, 1896, or 1898 as
his birth date, but he will maintain his birth date as 1902. He
will star in many films, among which are "Amazing Grace," "The Sun
Shines Bright," "Miracle in Harlem," and "Judge Priest." His
humbling, ingratiating style of acting will appeal to the movie-
going public of his day, but unfortunately becomes a stereotype for
African American actors in the early years of cinema. He will join
the ancestors in 1985.
1903 - Countee Cullen is born in Louisville, Kentucky. Many sources will
state that his birthplace is New York City, but Cullen will be
reared in New York City by his paternal grandmother until 1918,
when he is adopted by the Reverend Frederick Asbury Cullen,
minister of Salem M.E. Church, one of the largest congregations in
Harlem. This will be a turning point in his life, for he will be
introduced into the very center of black activism and achievement.
He will win a citywide poetry contest as a schoolboy and see his
winning stanzas widely reprinted. He will attend New York
University (B.A., 1925), win the Witter Bynner Poetry Prize, and be
elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Major American literary magazines will
accept his poems regularly, and his first collection of poems,
"Color" (1925), will be published to critical acclaim before he
finishes college. His several volumes of poetry will include
"Copper Sun" (1927); "The Black Christ" (1929); and "On These I
Stand" (published posthumously, 1947), his selection of poems by
which he wished to be remembered. Cullen will also write a novel
dealing with life in Harlem, "One Way to Heaven" (1931), and a
children's book, "The Lost Zoo" (1940). He will join the ancestors
on January 9, 1946.
1915 - Henry Aaron Hill is born in St. Joseph, North Carolina. He will
become a trained chemist and will receive his Ph.D. in Chemistry
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1942. He will
become founder and president of the Riverside Research Laboratory
in 1961. In 1977, he will become the first African American
president of the American Chemical Society. He will join the
ancestors on March 17, 1979.
1943 - James Earl Chaney is born in Meridian, Mississippi. He will become a
civil rights activist and joins the Congress For Racial Equality.
During Freedom Summer (1964 - when civil rights organizations begin
an extensive voter registration and desegregation campaign in
Mississippi), he will join the ancestors after being killed by the
Ku Klux Klan in Greenwood along with two white civil rights
activists.
1943 - Gale Sayers is born in Wichita, Kansas. He will become an
outstanding running back and a first-round draft pick of the
Chicago Bears in 1965. He will set the individual game record for
touchdowns scored (six). He will be elected to the Football Hall
of Fame in 1977, the youngest player ever to receive the honor.
1949 - Lydell Mitchell is born. He will become a football player and All-
American running back at Pennsylvania State University in 1971. He
will go on to play for the Baltimore Colts from 1972 to 1977.
While at Baltimore, he will set the Colts' record for rushing
attempts (1391) and rushing yards (5487).
1953 - Eric Arthur "Dooley" Wilson joins the ancestors in Los Angeles,
California at the age of 59. He was a popular jazz drummer in Europe
and America. He also worked as an actor, his most notable part
playing the pianist "Sam" in the movie "Casablanca." He also
appeared in the movies "Stormy Monday" and "Night in New Orleans."
1956 - African Americans begin a bus boycott in Tallahassee, Florida with
the goal of desegregating bus seating.
1965 - Vivian Malone becomes the first African American to graduate from
the University of Alabama, a college that had been one of the last
bastions of racial segregation in the South.
1967 - The state of Biafra secedes and declares its independence from
Nigeria. Biafra is inhabited primarily by Igbos (also spelled
Ibos) who live in southeastern Nigeria. Two months after
independence, Nigeria will attack Biafra and start a war that will
last until 1970 with Biafra's surrender. Over a million people will
die due to war and famine.
1971 - Willie Mays scores his 1,950th run.
1993 - Herman "Sonny" Blount joins the ancestors in Birmingham, Alabama at
the age of 79. He had been a prominent jazz bandleader, arranger
and pianist. He was better known as "Sun Ra," and was the founder of
Saturn Records. Three documentaries produced about Sun Ra were "The
Cry of Jazz" (1959), "Space is the Place" (1971) and "Sun Ra: A
Joyful Noise" (1980).
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