* Today in Black History - April 1 *
1867 - African Americans vote in a municipal election in Tuscumbia,
Alabama. Military officials set aside the election pending
clarification on electoral procedures.
1868 - Hampton Institute is founded in Hampton, Virginia, by General
Samuel Chapman Armstrong.
1895 - Alberta Hunter is born in Memphis, Tennessee. She will run away
from home at the age of twelve and went to Chicago, Illinois to
become a Blues singer. She worked in a variety of clubs until
the violence in the Chicago club scene prompted her to move to
New Tork City. There she will record for a variety of blues
labels. She will write a lot of her own songs and wrote songs
for other performers. Her song "Down Hearted Blues," became
Bessie Smith's first record in 1923. She will perform in
Europe and America until 1956, when she retired from performing.
She worked for more than twenty years as a nurse in a New York
hospital and in 1977, at the age of 82, surprisingly returned to
the stage. She will perform until her death in 1984.
1905 - The British East African Protectorate becomes the colony of
Kenya.
1917 - Scott Joplin dies in New York City. One of the early developers
of ragtime and the author of "Maple Leaf Rag," Joplin also
created several rag-time and grand operas, the most noteworthy
of which, "Treemonisha," consumed his later years in an attempt
to have it published and performed.
1924 - The British Crown takes over Northern Rhodesia from the British
South Africa Company.
1929 - Morehouse College, Spelman College and Atlanta University are
merged, creating a 'new' Atlanta University. Dr. John Hope of
Morehouse College, is named president.
1930 - Zawditu, the first reigning female monarch of Ethiopia, dies.
She was the second daughter of Emperor Menelik II. She had been
Empress of Ethiopia since 1916.
1939 - Rudolph Bernard Isley is born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He will
become a singer at the age of six with his brothers O'Kelly,
Ronald and Vernon Isley and form the group, The Isley Brothers.
They will leave Cincinnati in 1956 and go to New York City to
pursue their musical career. Rudolph and his brothers will
obtain fame and success nationally and internationally earning
numerous platinum and gold albums which contain such classic
hits as "Shout," "Twist and Shout," "It's Your Thing," "Who's
That Lady," "Fight the Power," "For the Love of You," "Harvest
For The World," "Live It Up," "Footsteps in the Dark," "Work to
Do," "Don't Say Good Night" and many others.
1950 - Charles R. Drew, surgeon and developer of the blood bank concept,
dies after an automobile accident near Burlington, North
Carolina at the age of 45. He was refused admittance to the
closest hospital because he was an African American.
1951 - Oscar Micheaux dies in Charlotte, North Carolina. Micheaux
formed his own film production company, Oscar Micheaux
Corporation, to produce his novel "The Homesteader" and over 30
other movies, notably "Birthright," which was adapted from a
novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author T.S. Stribling, and "Body
and Soul," which marked the film debut of Paul Robeson.
1966 - The first World Festival of Negro Arts opens in Dakar, Senegal,
with the U.S. African American delegation having one of the
largest number of representatives. First prizes are won by poet
Robert Hayden, engraver William Majors, actors Ivan Dixon and
Abbey Lincoln, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, jazz trumpeter
Louis Armstrong, and sociologist Kenneth Clark.
1984 - Marvin Gaye is shot to death by his father, Marvin Gaye, Sr. in
Los Angeles, California one day before his forty-fifth birthday.
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The source for these facts are "Encyclopedia Britannica,
"InfoBeat," "I, Too, Sing America - The African American
Book of Days," and independent research by the
Information Man.
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