* Today in Black History - January 6 * 1773 - "Felix," a Boston slave, and others petition Massachusetts legislature and Governor Hutchinson for their freedom. It is the first of a record eight similar petitions filed during the Revolutionary War. 1831 - The World Anti-Slavery Convention opens in London, England. 1832 - William Lloyd Garrison founds the New England Anti-Slavery Society at the African Meeting House in Boston, Massachusetts, where he issues the society's "Declaration of Sentiments" from the Meeting House pulpit. 1882 - Thomas Boyne receives the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery in two New Mexico battles while a sergeant in Troop C, 9th U.S. Calvary. 1906 - Benedict Wallet Vilakazi is born in South Africa. He will become a pre-apartheid Zulu poet, novelist, and educator. In 1946, he will become the first Black South African to receive a Ph.D. He will become the first Black South African to teach white South Africans at the university level. His later novels will continue to explore daily Zulu life, such as "UDingiswayo kaJobe" (1939) and "Nje nempela" (1944), the story of a traditionally polygamous household. His poetry, heavily influenced by European Romantic styles, will fuse rhyme and stanza forms previously unknown in Zulu with elements of the izibongo, traditional praise poetry. His poetry will become increasingly political in the course of his life, dramatizing the exploitation of not only the Zulus but of black Africans generally. Both his novels and poetry will be well received in his own lifetime and remain so today. He will join the ancestors on October 26, 1947 after succumbing to meningitis. 1937 - Doris Payne is born in Bronx, New York. She will become a rhythm and blues singer better known as Doris Troy and best known for her song "Just One Look." She will also be known as "Mama Soul." "Mama, I Want To Sing" will be a stage musical based on her life, and co-written with her sister, Vy. It will run for 1,500 performances at the Heckscher Theatre in Harlem. She will play the part of her own mother, Geraldine. She will join the ancestors on February 16, 2004, succumbing to emphysema. 1966 - Harold R. Perry becomes the second African American Roman Catholic bishop since the U.S. was founded and the first in the 20th century. 1968 - John Daniel Singleton is born in Los Angeles, California. He will become an Academy Award-nominated film director, screenwriter, and producer. His movies will depict his native South Los Angeles with both its sweet and violent sides given equal consideration. He will attend Pasadena City College and the University of Southern California. He will receive many distinctions, beginning during his time as an undergraduate screenwriter at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, including nominations for Best Screenplay and Director for "Boyz N the Hood." He will be the youngest person ever nominated for Best Director at the 1991 Academy Awards for "Boyz N the Hood" and the first African American to be nominated for the award. 1969 - The supremes release their recording "I'm Livin' in Shame." 1971 - Cecil A. Partee is elected president pro tem of the Illinois State Senate. He is the first African American to hold this position. 1984 - Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Robert N.C. Nix, Jr., is inaugurated as Chief Justice. The Philadelphia native, former deputy attorney general of the state, and thirteen- year veteran of the Court, is the first African American to head a state Supreme Court. 1986 - Impala Platinum terminates 20,000 black mine workers in Johannesburg, South Africa. 1989 - Elizabeth Koontz joins the ancestors at the age of 69. She was a noted educator and the first African American president of the National Education Association. She also had been director of the Women's Bureau in the U.S. Department of Labor. 1993 - Jazz great, John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie, joins the ancestors in Englewood, New Jersey at the age of 76. He had played actively until early 1992. 1995 - Atlanta Hawks' Lenny Wilkins becomes the NBA's winningest coach (939). 2005 - Edgar Ray Killen is arrested as a suspect in the 1964 murders of three Mississippi Civil Rights workers. ______________________________________________________________ Munirah Chronicle is edited by Mr. 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. Copyright 1997 - 2016, All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with The Black Agenda.