* 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 receive his law degree in 1920 and his master's of laws
degree both from the Boston University School of Law. He 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. He will become the first African American to
pass the foriegn service's written and oral examinations. He
will serve in a variety of diplomatic positions in Liberia,
Spain, Madagascar, Portugal, and France before becoming
minister to Romania in 1958 and the Ambassador to Norway in
1961. He will be the first African American to attain the rank
of minister and ambassador before retiring from the State
Department in 1964. He will join the ancestors on April 23, 1990
after succumbing to a heart attack.
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 1995, 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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