* Today in Black History - July 16 * 1829 - A poem in tribute to the late Philadelphia caterer Robert Bogle is published. Bogle is the first known professional African American caterer. Among his descendants will be Robert W. Bogle, publisher of the Philadelphia "Tribune", and Donald Bogle, noted film critic and author of "Black Americans in Film and Television". 1862 - Ida B. Wells (later Barnett) is born in Holly Springs, Mississippi. She will complete her studies at Rust College and in 1888 will become a teacher in Memphis, Tennessee. While living in Memphis, she will become an editor and co- owner of a local Black newspaper called "The Free Speech and Headlight." She will write her editorials under the pen-name "Iola." When a respected black store owner and friend of hers is lynched in 1892, she will use her paper to attack the evils of lynching and encourage the Black townsmen of Memphis to go west. While attending an editor's convention in New York, she will receive word not to return to Memphis because her life would be in danger. She will take her cause to England to gain support and earn a reputation as a fiery orator and courageous leader of her people. Upon returning to the United States, she will settle in Chicago and form the Women's Era Club, the first civic organization for African American women. The name will be later changed to the Ida B. Wells Club in honor of its founder. She will never forget her crusade against lynching, and, in 1895 will publish "A Red Record," which will record race lynching in America. She will keep active until the birth of her second son, Herman. She will resign as president of the Ida B. Wells Club and devote her time to raising her two young sons and subsequently her two daughters. However, by the start of the 20th century, the racial strife in the country will be disturbing. Lynching and race riots will abound across the nation. In 1909, she will be asked to be a member of the "Committee of 40." This committee will establish the groundwork for the organization now known as the NAACP, the oldest civil rights organization in the country. She will continue her tireless crusade for equal rights for African Americans until she joins the ancestors on March 25, 1931. 1894 - A group of African-American miners in Alabama is killed by striking white miners. 1904 - Harold Dadford West is born in Flemington, New Jersey. He will attend the University of Illinois, where he will receive a bachelor of arts degree in 1925. He will be an associate professor and head of the science department at Morris Brown College in Atlanta from 1925 to 1927. In 1927, he will join the faculty of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, as an associate professor of physiological chemistry. During his early years on the faculty of Meharry Medical College, he will complete a master of arts degree and a doctorate. He will be a recipient of a fellowship from the Julius Rosenwald Fund at the University of Illinois while he earns a master of arts degree in 1930. Following that he will be a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, receiving a doctorate degree from the same university in 1937. The title of his dissertation will be "The Chemistry and Nutritive Value of Essential Amino Acids." In 1938, he will become professor of biochemistry and chairperson of the department. His work in biochemical research will be vast, including studies of tuberculosis and other bacilli, the antibiotic biocerin, and aromatic hydrocarbons. He will work with amino acids, becoming the first to synthesize threonine. As noted in the Journal of the National Medical Association, among his other investigations will be "the role of sulfur in biological detoxification mechanisms; blood serum calcium levels in the Negro in relation to possible significance in tuberculosis; relation of B-vitamins, especially pantothenic acid, to detoxification of sulfa-drugs and susceptibility to bacillary disease." In 1952, he will be named the fifth president of Meharry Medical College, its first African American president. In 1963, he will be the first Black American to serve on the State Board of Education. He will retire as president in 1965, returning to the position of professor of biochemistry. When he retires from Meharry in 1973, he will become a trustee of the college. In his final years he will work on a complete history of the college. He will join the ancestors on March 5, 1974. 1932 - Mari Evans is born in Toledo, Ohio. She will become an author and be best known for her poetry collections. She will attend the University of Toledo and later teach at several schools in the Midwest and East, including Purdue and Indiana universities. She will begin five years of writing, producing, and directing for an Indianapolis television program, “The Black Experience,” in 1968, the same year her first poetry collection, "Where Is All the Music?", is published. With her second collection, "I Am a Black Woman" (1970), she will gain acclaim as an important new poet. Her poem “Who Can Be Born Black” is often anthologized. Her later collections will include "Nightstar: 1973–1978" (1981), whose poems will praise blues artists and community heroes and heroines, and "A Dark and Splendid Mass" (1992). She will also write works for juvenile readers and several plays, including "River of My Song" (produced 1977) and the musical "Eyes" (produced 1979), an adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God." She will edit the anthology "Black Women Writers (1950–1980): A Critical Evaluation" (1984). 1934 - Donald Payne is born in Newark, New Jersey. He will graduate from Seton Hall University in 1957. He will be president of the Young Men’s Christian Association of the United States from 1970 to 1973. In 1988 he will be elected to the U.S. Congress becoming the first African American elected to Congress from the state of New Jersey. 1936 - The movie "The Green Pastures" premieres in New York's Radio City Music Hall, featuring Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, the Hall Johnson Choir, and Rex Ingram as "De Lawd." The film, a Warner Brothers production, is William Keighley's adaptation of Marc Connelly's Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway musical. 1961 - Ralph Boston of the United States, sets what is then the long jump record at 27' 2". 1977 - Janelle Penny Commissiong of Trinidad and Tabago is crowned Miss Universe. She is the first person of African descent to win the title. 1988 - Carl Lewis runs 100 meters in 9.78 seconds. Florence Joyner runs 100 meters in women's world record time of 10.49 seconds. Jackie Joyner-Kersee sets women's heptathlete record of 7,215 points. 1990 - Dr. Gwendolyn Baker was elected President of the New York Board of Education, the first African American woman to hold such an office. ______________________________________________________________ Munirah Chronicle is edited by Rene' A. Perry "The TRUTH shall make you free" E-mail: <[log in to unmask]> Archives: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/Munirah.html http://blackagenda.com/cybercolonies/index.htm _____________________________________________________________ To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]> In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name ______________________________________________________________ Munirah(TM) is a trademark of Information Man. 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