This is the archive for February 2011
From wikipedia:
Barbara Acklin (February 28, 1943 - November 27 1998) was a soul singer of the 1960s and 1970s. Her biggest hit was "Love Makes a Woman" in 1968 which reached the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Born Barbara Jean Acklin, the only child of Herman and Hazel Acklin, she began singing in church and then as a teenager in nightclubs while attending Dunbar Vocational High school in Chicago. Upon graduation, she was hired as a secretary for a local record label by her cousin, saxophonist and producer Monk Higgins. Her first release was under the name Barbara Allen on his Special Agent label. Later, Higgins used Acklin as a background singer on his Chess Records sessions with artists like Etta James and Fontella Bass.
Listen to Barbara Acklin perform Love Makes a Woman, free from youtube.com.
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Posted by courier at 12:18 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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,"Portrait of Marian Anderson singing."
Jan. 14, 1940.from
Creative Americans:
Portraits by Carl Van Vechten, 1932-1964,
Library of Congress.
Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993) was an American contralto, perhaps best remembered for her performance on Easter Sunday, 1939 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She joined a junior church choir at the age of six, and applied to an all-white music school after her graduation from high school in 1921, but was turned away because she was black. The woman working the admissions counter replied, "We don't take colored" when she tried to apply. Consequently, she continued her singing studies with a private teacher.
Read My Lord What a Morning, an autobiography by Marian Anderson, free from the Internet Archive.
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Posted by courier at 12:43 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino (born February 26, 1928 in New Orleans, Louisiana), is a classic R&B and rock and roll singer, songwriter and pianist. He was the best-selling African-American singer of the 1950s and early 1960s. Domino is also a pianist with an individualistic bluesy style showing stride and boogie-woogie influences. His congenial personality and rich accent have added to his appeal.
Biography
Domino first attracted national attention with "The Fat Man" (1949, Imperial Records), credited by some as being the first rock and roll record, featuring a rolling piano and Domino doing wah-wah vocalizing over a fat back beat. The record, a reworking of "Junker's Blues" by Champion Jack Dupree, was a massive hit, selling over a million copies and peaking at #2 on the Billboard R&B Charts. It has been estimated that Domino has sold in excess of 110 million records.
Visit the online Fats Domino exhibit a the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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Posted by courier at 12:32 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Lee Edward Evans (born February 25, 1947) is a former American athlete, winner of two gold medals at the 1968 Summer Olympics.
Born in Madera, California, Evans was undefeated in high school and won his first AAU championship in 440 yd (402.34 m) in 1966, shortly after graduating. He repeated his win in next year and won AAU and NCAA 400 m titles in 1968.
Lee Evans achieved his first world record at 1966, as a member of the US national team which broke the 4 x 400 m relay record at Los Angeles, the first team to better 3 minutes (2:59.6) for the event. In next year he broke the 4 x 220 yd (201.17 m) relay world record at Fresno in a time of 1:22.1.
Read an interview with Lee Evans and Olympic team mate Tommie Smith about the upcoming 1968 Olympics and their plans to stage a protest.
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Posted by courier at 12:41 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Eddie Murray's "rookie card" (born February 24, 1956 in Los Angeles, California) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman who was known as one of the most reliable and productive hitters of his era, earning the nickname "Steady Eddie". Murray is regarded as one of the best switch hitters ever to play the game. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003.
High school career
Murray attended Locke High School in Los Angeles, California, where he batted .500 as a senior and was a teammate of Ozzie Smith.
Review Eddie Murray's baseball statistics, free from baseball-reference.com
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Posted by courier at 12:16 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American civil rights activist, leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, and scholar. He became a naturalized citizen of Ghana in 1963 at the age of 95.
David Levering Lewis, a biographer, wrote, "In the course of his long, turbulent career, W.E.B. Du Bois attempted virtually every possible solution to the problem of twentieth-century racism—scholarship, propaganda, integration, cultural and economic separatism, politics, international communism, expatriation, third world solidarity."
Read The Negro by W. E. B. Du Bois, one of six of his works available free from Project Gutenberg.
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Posted by courier at 12:57 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Ishmael Scott Reed (b. February 22, 1938) is an American poet, essayist and novelist. Reed is one of the best-known African American writers of his generation, and along with Amiri Baraka is one of the most controversial (and politically left-wing). His work consistently satirizes the American right-wing (and often the left as well), highlighting domestic political and cultural oppression. While some have found Reed's work a vivid, comic depiction of non-white America, others have criticized it as incoherent or muddled.
Listen to Ishmael Reed discuss his life and work, free from wiredforbooks.com.
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Posted by courier at 12:37 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Barbara Charline Jordan (February 21, 1936 – January 17, 1996) was an American politican from Texas. She served as a Congresswoman in the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 1979.
Jordan was born in Houston's Fifth Ward. Her parents were Rev. Benjamin M. Jordan and Arlyne (Patten) Jordan. Barbara Jordan attended Wheatley High School and graduated magna cum laude from Texas Southern University in 1956 and from Boston University Law School in 1959. She passed the Bar Exams in Massachusetts and Texas before returning to Houston to open a law practice.
Hear Barbara Jordan's keynote speech to the Democratic National Convention in 1976, free from AmericanRhetoric.com
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Posted by courier at 12:25 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Poitier at a 1963 Civil Rights March
at the foot of the Lincoln MemorialKBE (born February 20, 1927) is a Bahamian-American actor, film director, author, and diplomat. He broke through as a star in acclaimed performances in American films and plays, which, by consciously defying racial stereotyping, gave a new dramatic credibility for black actors to mainstream film audiences in the Western world.
In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in
Lilies of the Field. The significance of this achievement was later bolstered in 1967 when he starred in three well-received films—
To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night; and
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner—making him the top box office star of that year. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Poitier among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking 22nd on the list of 25.
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Posted by courier at 12:14 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B and soul singer and songwriter. Robinson is noted for being one of the primary figures associated with the Motown record label, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy. As both a member of Motown group The Miracles and a solo artist, Robinson recorded seventy Top 40 hits for Motown between 1959 and 1990, and also served as the company's Vice President from 1961 to 1988.
Visit the Smokey Robinson exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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Posted by courier at 12:13 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Toni Morrison (February 18, 1931) is one of the most prominent authors in world literature, having won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 for her collected works. Several of her novels have taken their place in the canon of American literature, including
The Bluest Eye, Beloved (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction),
and Song of Solomon. Morrison's writings are notable for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed African American characters. In recent years, Morrison has published a number of children's books with her son, Slade Morrison.
Read Toni Morrison's speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1993, accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature.
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Posted by courier at 12:45 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
James Nathaniel "Jim" Brown (born February 17, 1936) is an American former professional football player who has also made his mark as an actor. He is best known for his exceptional and record-setting nine-year career as a running back for the NFL Cleveland Browns from 1957 to 1965. In 2002, he was named by Sporting News as the greatest professional football player ever. He is considered to be one of the greatest professional athletes the U.S. has ever produced.
Learn more about Jim Brown at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Posted by courier at 10:33 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Bill Doggett (February 16, 1916 – November 13, 1996) was an American jazz and rhythm and blues pianist and organist.
William Ballard Doggett was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother, a church pianist, introduced him to music when he was 9 years old. By the time he was 15, he had joined a Philadelphia area combo, playing local theaters and clubs while attending high school.
He later sold his band to Lucky Millinder, and worked during the 1930s and early 1940s for both Millender and arranger Jimmy Mundy. In 1942 he was hired as The Ink Spots' pianist and arranger.
Listen to a clip of Bill Doggett and his band, one of several from him and other artists,
free from theatreorgans.com.
Posted by courier at 12:45 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Leland Devon Melvin (February 15, 1964, Lynchburg, Virginia) is an American engineer and a NASA astronaut. He served on board the Space Shuttle Atlantis as a mission specialist on STS-122, and as mission specialist 1 on STS-129.
Melvin attended the Heritage High School and then went on to the University of Richmond on a football scholarship, where he received a bachelor's degree in Chemistry. In 1991, he received a Master of Science degree in Materials Science Engineering from the University of Virginia. His parents, Deems and Grace Melvin, reside in Lynchburg, Virginia. His recreational interests include photography, piano, reading, music, cycling, tennis, and snowboarding.
Read an interview with Leland Melvin, free from National Public Radio.
Posted by courier at 12:03 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Charlotta Bass and Paul Robeson,
Los Angeles, 1949
wikipedia photo (February 14, 1874 – April 12, 1969) was an American educator, newspaper publisher-editor, and civil rights activist. Bass was probably the first African American woman to own and operate her own newspaper in the United States; she published the
California Eagle from 1912 until 1951. In 1952 Bass became the first African American woman nominated for Vice President, as a candidate of the Progressive Party.
Read more about Charlotta Bass, free from the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research.
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Posted by courier at 09:19 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Eddie Gay Robinson (not short for Edward) (born February 13, 1919, in Jackson, Louisiana) spent 56 years as the head college football coach at Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana, from 1942 through 1997.
He was affectionately known simply as "Coach" throughout college football. During his tenure, Robinson established himself as the winningest coach in college football history becoming the first coach to record 400 wins. (John Gagliardi holds the current record of 443). Robinson retired with a record of 408 wins, 165 losses and 15 ties. Even during the era of segregation in the American South, Robinson's talent was praised by many white coaches especially by that of Alabama coach Bear Bryant.
Visit the Eddie Robinson Picture Gallery, free from www.gramblingstateuniversity.com.
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Posted by courier at 12:40 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Daniel "Chappie" James Jr. (11 February 1920 - 25 February 1978) was a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, who in 1975 became the first African American to reach the rank of four star General.
Early life
Daniel James was born in 1920, in Pensacola, Florida, where he graduated from Washington High School in June 1937. From September 1937 to March 1942, he attended Tuskegee Institute, where he received a bachelor of science degree in physical education and completed civilian pilot training under the government-sponsored Civilian Pilot Training Program.
Read an interview with Lt. Gen. Daniel James III, son of Chappie James, about his father, free from garynorth.com.
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Posted by courier at 12:51 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Price in 1953
Photo by Carl Van Vechten (born February 10, 1927, in Laurel, Mississippi in the United States) is an American operatic soprano. She is best known for the title role of Verdi's Aida. Born in the segregated Deep South, she rose to international fame during a period of racial change in the 1950s and 60s, and was the first African-American to become a leading prima donna at the Metropolitan Opera.
Watch Leontyne Price sing "O Patria Mia," free from YouTube.
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Posted by courier at 12:17 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Alice Malsenior Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an African-American author and feminist who received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983 for
The Color Purple.
Early life
Walker was born in Eatonton, Georgia, United States; as well as being African American, her family has Cherokee, Scottish and Irish lineage. After high school, Walker attended Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated in 1965 from Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers (Bronxville postal zone), New York. During her junior year, she spent a summer as an exchange student in Uganda.
Watch "I am a Renegade, an Outlaw, a Pagan" - Author, Poet and Activist Alice Walker in Her Own Words, an hour-long interview of Alice Walker by Amy Goodman, streaming free from www.democracynow.org.
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Posted by courier at 12:05 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Claro Mayo Recto, Jr. (February 8, 1890 – October 2, 1960), was a Filipino politician, jurist, poet and one of the foremost statesmen of his generation. He is remembered mainly for his nationalism, for "the impact of his patriotic convictions on modern political thought".
He was born in Tiáong, Tayabas (now known as Quezon province) of educated, upper middle-class parents, namely Claro Recto [Sr.] of Rosario, Batangas, and Micaela Mayo of Lipa, Batangas. He studied Latin at the Instituto de Rizal in Lipa, Batangas from 1900 to 1901. Further schooling was at the Colegio del Sagrado Corazón of Don Sebastián Virrey. He moved to Manila to study at the Ateneo de Manila where he consistently obtained outstanding scholastic grades, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree maxima cum laude. He received a Masters of Laws degree from the University of Santo Tomás.
Read Remembering Claro M. Recto by Tony P. Fernandez, free from emanila.com.
Posted by courier at 05:52 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Dr. An Wang (February 7, 1920 – March 24, 1990) was a Chinese American computer engineer and inventor, and co-founder of computer company Wang Laboratories.
A native of Kunshan County in Suzhou Prefecture, he was born in Shanghai, China, and graduated from Chiao Tung University with a degree in electrical engineering in 1940. He emigrated to the United States in June 1945 to attend Harvard University for graduate school, earning a PhD in applied physics in 1948. After graduation, he worked at Harvard with Dr Howard Aiken on the design of the Mark IV, Aiken's first fully electronic computer. Wang co-invented the pulse transfer controlling device with Way-Dong Woo, a schoolmate from China who fell ill before their patent was issued. The new device implemented write-after-read which made magnetic core memory possible. Harvard reduced its commitment to computer research in 1951, prompting Wang's departure.
Read more about Dr. An Wang and Wang Laboratories, free from oldcalculatormuseum.com
Posted by courier at 11:26 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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.jpg)
Bob Marley, center, with Bunny
Wailer, left, and Peter Tosh of
the Wailers in the 1960s.
Robert Nesta Marley, February 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981) was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is the most widely known performer of reggae music, and is famous for popularising the genre outside Jamaica. A faithful Rastafari, Marley is regarded by many as a prophet of the religion.
Marley is best known for his ska, rocksteady, and reggae songs, which include the hits "I Shot the Sheriff", "No Woman, No Cry", "Three Little Birds", "Exodus", "Could You Be Loved", "Jamming", "Redemption Song", and one of his most famous love songs, "One Love". His posthumous compilation album
Legend (1984) is the best-selling reggae album ever, with sales of more than 12 million copies.
Visit bobmarley.com, the official Bob Marley site with video and song samples, and more.
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Posted by courier at 12:40 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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Henry Aaron (February 5, 1934 in Mobile, Alabama) is a retired American baseball player and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Aaron is best known for setting the Major League record for most home runs in a career (755), surpassing the previous mark of 714 held by Babe Ruth. Aaron also holds the career marks for runs batted in (2,297), extra base hits (1,477), total bases (6,856), and consecutive seasons with 150 or more hits (17). He won one World Series ring with the Milwaukee Braves in 1957, and the National League Most Valuable Player Award the same year. He also earned three Gold Glove Awards and made 24 All-Star appearances.
Visit Henry Aaron's page at the Baseball Hall of Fame website.
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Posted by courier at 12:22 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an African American seamstress and civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress dubbed the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement".
Parks is famous for her refusal on December 1, 1955 to obey bus driver James Blake's demand that she relinquish her seat to a white passenger. Her subsequent arrest and trial for this act of civil disobedience triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in history, and launched Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the organizers of the boycott, to the forefront of the civil rights movement. Her role in American history earned her an iconic status in American culture, and her actions have left an enduring legacy for civil rights movements around the world.
Visit montgomeryboycott.com for a complete audio/video and newspaper archive of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
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Posted by courier at 12:03 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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From wikipedia:
Blas Fajardo Ople (February 3, 1927–December 14, 2003) was a Filipino journalist and politician who held several high-ranking positions in the executive and legislative branches of the Philippine government, including as Senate President from 1999 to 2000, and as Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2002 until his death. Perceived as a leftist-nationalist at the onset of his career in public service, Ople was, in his final years, a vocal supporter for allowing a limited United States military presence in the Philippines, and for American initiatives in the War on Terror including the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Ople's most enduring role was his nineteen years as Secretary (later Minister) of Labor and Employment during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, when Philippine labor laws were overhauled through the enactment of the Labor Code of the Philippines that he had helped author.
Read more about Blas Fajardo Ople.
Posted by courier at 09:28 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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National Institute of Health photo
From wikipedia:
Leila Alice Denmark, M.D. (née Daughtry; born February 1, 1898) is, at 113 years, an American pediatrician who became the oldest practicing pediatrician in the world, retiring at the age of 103 in May 2001. She is one of very few supercentenarians known for reasons other than for longevity. She is currently one of the 11th oldest known living people.
Read more about Dr. Leila Denmark, free from the National Library of Medicine.
Posted by courier at 08:13 AM. Filed under: In Quotes
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