* Today in Black History - March 11 *
1861 - The Confederate Congress, meeting in Montgomery, Alabama,
adopts a constitution which declares that the passage of any
"law denying or impairing the right of property in Negro
slaves is prohibited."
1870 - Moshweshwe, King of Basutoland (Lesotho) joins the ancestors.
Moshweshwe was the founder of Lesotho in the 1820's.
Lesotho was landlocked by the Cape Colony (now South
Africa). He was able to develop a strong tribal organization
from his mix of peoples. He appeased the Zulu and Ndebele,
led cattle raids on surrounding people, defeated the British in
1852 and conducted frequent wars with the Orange Free
State. Because of repeated attacks by the Cape Colony,
Moshweshwe asked the British for protection and Lesotho will
become a protectorate in 1868. Upon his death, the country
was annexed to Cape Colony, but was returned to the status
of British protectorate in 1884. When the Union of South
Africa was formed in 1910, the British honored the desire of
Lesotho ("Basutoland") to remain independent. A protectorate
continued until 1968, protecting Lesotho from incursions from
South Africa.
1874 - Frederick Douglass is named president of the failing Freedmen's
Bank.
1884 - William Edouard Scott is born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He will
study with Henry O. Tanner at the Art Institute of Chicago.
He later will go to Paris, France and study at the Julien and
Colarossi academies. He will also study under Tanner again in
Paris (Tanner had emigrated there) and become best known
for his portrait studies of Haitians, rural life, and landscapes.
Many of his murals are on the walls of public buildings in
Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, and New York (135th Street
YMCA).
1919 - Mercer Ellington is born in Washington, DC, the only child of
Edward "Duke" Ellington and his wife, Edna. He will become
"the keeper of the flame," the charge his father will give him
and one he will readily accept. In doing so, he will lead the
Duke Ellington Orchestra for over twenty years after replacing
his father.
1926 - Ralph David Abernathy is born in Linden, Alabama. He will
become a famed minister, civil rights advocate, and confidant
of Martin Luther King, Jr. After King's assassination, he
will become the president of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference and write an autobiography that will
attract widespread criticism for his comments on King's
alleged womanizing.
1935 - "The Conjure Man Dies," a play by Rudolph Fisher, premieres on
Broadway at the Lafayette Theatre. Fisher, who had joined
the ancestors over a year before the play's premiere, had
adapted the play from his 1932 short story "The Conjure-Man
Dies: A Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem," considered the first
detective fiction by an African American.
1948 - Reginald Weir becomes the first African American to play in the
U.S. Indoor Lawn Tennis Association Championship. He will
win his first match, but will be eliminated on March 13.
1950 - Robert "Bobby" McFerrin is born in New York City. He will be
known for his versatile and innovative a cappella jazz vocals
and for his hit song "Don't Worry Be Happy," which will sell
over ten million copies and earn him three Grammy awards in
1989 in addition to a Grammy for best jazz vocalist.
1956 - A manifesto denouncing the Supreme Court ruling on segregation
in public schools, is issued by one hundred southern senators
and representatives.
1959 - "A Raisin in the Sun" becomes the first play written by an
African American woman, Lorraine Hansberry, to open on
Broadway. The play will run for 19 months at the Ethel
Barrymore Theatre, and be named "Best Play" by the New York
Drama Critics Circle, and bring Lloyd Richards to Broadway as
the first African American director in modern times.
1965 - After civil rights demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, the
Reverend James J. Reeb, a white minister from Boston, dies,
succumbing to his beating by segregationist whites.
1968 - Otis Redding posthumously receives a gold record for the single
"(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay."
1971 - Whitney M. Young, Jr., executive director of the National Urban
League, joins the ancestors after drowning while swimming
during a visit to Lagos, Nigeria.
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