* Today in Black History - May 11 *
1885 - Joseph Oliver is born in Donaldsville, Louisiana. He will become
a professional musician after learning his craft playing with
local street musicians in New Orleans. After playing in the band
of Edward "Kid" Ory, he will be dubbed "King" Oliver. After being
recruited to Chicago, Illinois to play in the band of Bill Johnson,
King Oliver will assume leadership of the Creole Jazz Band. He will
recruit some of best available jazz talent of the time including
Louis Armstrong. The Creole Jazz Band will disband after the exit
of Louis Armstrong. King Oliver will lead various other bands until
1937 when he retires from music. Due to severe gum problems, he
stopped playing the cornet in 1931. He will join the ancestors in
1938. King Oliver was one of the pioneering musicians in New Orleans
and Chicago style jazz.
1895 - William Grant Still is born in Woodville, Mississippi. Considered
one of the nation's greatest composers, he will begin his career
by writing arrangements for W.C. Handy and as musical director for
Harry Pace's Phonograph Corporation. One of his most famous
compositions, Afro-American Symphony, will be the first symphonic
work by an African American to be performed by a major symphony
orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Symphony, in 1931. He will
also be the first African American to conduct a major U.S.
symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in 1936. He will create over
150 musical works including a series of five symphonies, four ballets,
and nine operas. Two of his best known compositions will be "Afro-
American Symphony" (1930) and "A Bayou Legend" (1941). He will join
the ancestors in 1978.
1899 - Clifton Reginald Wharton is born in Baltimore, Maryland. He will
become an attorney and will be the first African American to enter
the Foreign Service and the first African American to become the U.S.
ambassador to an European country. He will begin his career in the
Foreign Service in 1925 and will serve in a variety of diplomatic
positions in Liberia, Spain, Madagascar, Portugal, and France before
becoming the Ambassador to Norway in 1961. He will retire from the
State Department in 1964 and will join the ancestors in 1990.
1930 - Lawson Edward Brathwaite is born in Bridgetown, Barbados. He will
become a poet, critic, historian and editor better known as Edward
Kamau Brathwaite. He will be considered by most literary critics in
the English speaking Caribbean to be the most important West Indian
Poet. He will be best known for his works "Rights of Passage,"
"Masks," and "Islands" which will later be combined in a trilogy
"The Arrivants." His other works will be "Other Exiles," "Mother
Poem, Sun Poem," "X/Self," "Middles Passages," and "Roots." He will
be the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship,
the Casa de las Americas prize, and the Neustadt International Prize
for Literature. After teaching at the University of the West Indies
for twenty years, he will join the faculty of New York University.
1933 - Louis Eugene Walcott is born in Roxbury, Massachusetts. In 1955 he
will convert to Islam and join The Nation of Islam after attending
the Saviour's Day Convention in Chicago, Illinois. He will be known
as Louis X and will later adopt the name Louis Farrakhan. Within
three months of joining the Nation, he will have to choose between
his life in show business or life in the Nation of Islam. He chooses
to leave his life as an entertainer and dedicates his life to the
teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. After moving to Boston
at the request of Malcolm X, he will rise to the rank of Minister and
will head the Boston Temple from 1956 until 1965 when he was asked by
Elijah Muhammad to take over Temple # 7 in New York City. After the
death of Elijah Muhammad and three years of subsequent changes in the
Nation from his teachings, Minister Farrakhan decided to return to
the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and since then, has continued
programs to uplift and reform Blacks. In 1996, he will exhibit his
influence as a Black leader when he successfully organizes and speaks
at the Million Man March in Washington, DC.
1963 - One day after Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth announces agreement on a
limited integration plan in Birmingham, Alabama, his home is bombed
and a riot ensues.
1965 - African Americans hold a mass meeting in Norfolk, Virginia and
demand equal rights and ballots.
1968 - Nine Caravans of poor people arrive in Washington, DC for first
phase of Poor People's Campaign. Caravans started from different
sections of the country on May 2 and picked up demonstrators along
the way. In Washington, demonstrators erect a camp called
Resurrection City on a sixteen-acre site near the Lincoln Monument.
1970 - Johnny Hodges joins the ancestors in New York City at the age of 63.
He had been a well known saxophone player and played with the band
of Duke Ellington for almost forty years. He was Duke Ellington's
favorite soloist. Over his career, he will be chosen as the best
reed player by DownBeat Magazine ten times.
1972 - The San Francisco Giants announce that they are trading Willie Mays
to the New York Mets.
1981 - Hoyt J. Fuller joins the ancestors in Atlanta at the age of 57. He
was a literary critic and editor of "First World" and "Black World"
(formerly Negro Digest) magazines.
1981 - Robert Nesta 'Bob' Marley, Jamaican-born singer who popularized reggae
with his group The Wailers, joins the ancestors after succumbing to
cancer in a Miami hospital at the age of 36. He will enshrined in the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
1981 - Ken Norton, former heavyweight boxing champion, is left on the ropes
and unconscious after 54 seconds of the first round at Madison Square
Garden in New York City, by Gerry Cooney.
1986 - Frederick Douglass 'Fritz' Pollard joins the ancestors in Silver Spring,
Maryland at the age of 92. Pollard had been the first African American
to play in the Rose Bowl and the second African American to be named
All-American in college football. After college he played professional
football and later became the coach of his team. When the league in
which he coached became the NFL in 1922, he became the first African
American coach in NFL history. No other African American will coach in
the NFL until the 1990s.
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