Our Kujitahidi Archive  --  October
1st    1903 - Virgina Proctor Powell, 1st female African-American  
                    librarian, is born in Wilkinsburg, PA.  
         1917 - Emmett J. Scott, appointed special assistant to the   
                    Secretary of War.  
         1945 - Donny Hathaway is born(d.1979)  
         1960 - Nigeria gains its independence.  
 
2nd    1800 - Nat Turner, leader of the only recorded slave rebelllion  
                   is born(executed 1831).  
         1886 - Harry T. Burleigh, singer and composer, is born.  
         1958 - Guinea gains its independence.  
         1965 - Harold Robert Perry of Lake Charles, LA., is named  
                   auxiliary bishop of New Orleans by Pope Paul VI.  
         1967 - Thurgood Marshall, the 1st African-American U.S.   
                    Supreme Court Justice, is sworn in.  
 
3rd     1935 - Ethiopia is invaded  by Italy,  precipitating WWII.  
         1941 - Chubby Checker(creater of  the Twist), is born.  
         1949 - The 1st African-American radio station, WERD begins  
                   operating in Atlanta, GA.  
         1989 - Art Shell, becomes the 1st  African-American Head   
                    Coach in the National Football League.  
4th     1705 - A law is passed declaring Black, Indian, mulatto   
                    slaves, as real property by their owners.  
         1847 - The 1st African-American daily newspaper, the New  
                   Orleans Tribune, is founded.  
         1915 -  Scott Joplin completed "Treemonisha", a ragtime opera.  
         1943 - H. Rap Brown, chairman of the Student Nonviolent  
                   coordinating Committee(SNCC), is born.  
 
5th     1872 - Booker T. Washington left Malden, W. VA. to enter  
                    then Hampton Institute(now Hampton U.).  
         1878 - George Vashon, 1st African-American lawyer in the state  
                    of New York, dies in Rodney, Mississippi.  
         1979 - Nathanialel R. Jones becamme a Federal Judge for the   
                     United States Court of Appeals, appointed by President  
                    Jimmy Carter.  
 
6th     1871 - The Fisk Jubillee Singers begin their 1st tour.  
         1917 - Fannie Lou Hamer, founder of the Mississippi Freedom  
                    democratic Party, is born in Montgomery County, Miss.  
         1906 - LeopoldSedar Senghor  becomes  the 1st president of  
                    Senegal.  
         1959 - A. Phillip Randolp, labor and Civil Rights leader,   
                    becomes the Vice-President of the AFL-CIO.  
         1981 - Anwar Sadat, president of Egypt, is assassinated.  
 
7th     1800 - Gabriel Prosser is hanged.  
         1897 - Elijah Poole(Elijah Muhammad), is born in Sandersville,  
                    Georgia(d.1975).  
 
8th     1779 - African-Americans who served in the Revolutionary War  
                     were freed by the State of Virginia at VA's expense.  
         1941 - Jesse Jackson is born.  
 
9th     1806 - Mathemutician and astronomer Benjamin Banneker dies  
                    in Ellicott City, MD.  
         1921 - Jazz musician, Yusef Latif, is born.  
         1934 - Abdullah Ibrahim(Dollar Brand), Jazz pianist, is born in  
                    South Africa.  
          
10th   1901 - Frederick Douglass Patterson, founder of the United   
                    Negro College Fund, is born.  
         1917 - Thelonious Monk, modern Jazz pianist and innovative  
                    composer, is born(d.1986).  
         1961 - Otis Marion Smith becomes an associate Justice of the  
                    Michigan Supreme Court.            
11th   1865 - Jamaican national hero, Paul Bogle, leads a successful   
                     protest march to the Morant Bay Courthouse.   
          1882 - Robert Nathaneil Dett, musician, composer, conductor,   
                     is born.   
          1919 - Jazz drummer and bandleader Art Blakey, is born in    
                    Pittsburgh, PA..   
  
12th   1925 - Xavier University, the 1st U.S. African-American    
                   Catholic College, is founded in New Orleans, LA.   
          1932 - Comedian and Civil Rights activist, Dick Gregory,   
                     is born.   
  
13th   1902 - Arna Bontemps, poet, writer of children's books and    
                   Fisk University librarian, is born in Alexandria, VA..   
  
14th   1964 - The Reverand Doctor Martin Luther King is awarded   
                     the Nobel Peace Prize.   
  
15th   1870 - The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church is organized    
                    in Jackson, TN.   
          1966 - The Black Panther Party is founded.   
          1968 - Wyomia Tyus becomes the 1st person to win a gold    
                    medal in the 100-meter race in two consecutive    
                    Olympic games.   
          1969 - Abdi Rashad Ali Shermarke, presiden of Somalia dies.   

16th   1859 - John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry begins.   
          1940 - Benjiman O. Davis, Sr. becomes the 1st African-   
                     American brigadier General.   
          1984 - Bishop Desmond Tutu wins the Nobel Peace Prize.   
          1995 - The Million Man March, for "A Day Of Atonement",   
                     takes place in Washington, D.C.   
  
17th   1787 - Massachusetts African-Americans petition in MA.    
                     General Court fro equal educational facilities.   
          1806 - Jean-Jacques Dessalines, revolutionist and 1st    
                     Emperor of Haiti, is assassinated.   
  
18th   1898 - N. C. Mutual Life Insurance Company organised by    
                    John Merrick and Dr. D. A. Moore at Durham, N.C.   
          1926 - Rock 'n' Roll legend, Chuck Berry, is born in San Jose,   
                     California.   
          1948 - Ntozake Shange, creator of "For Colored Girls who   
                     Commit Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf", is born.   
          1961 - Jazz musician, Wynton Marsalis, is born.   
         
19th   1859 - Dangerfield Newby, son of a Scotch Master, is killed    
                      with Sheridan at Harper's Ferry.   
          1878 - Dr. Frederick Victor Nanka Bruce, the 1st physician  on   
                     the Gold Coast,  is born in Accra, Ghana.   
          1936 - Johnnetta Cole,  the 1st African-American woman to    
                     head Spelman College, is born in Jacksonville,  Fla.   
          1943 - Paul Robeson opens on Broadway in Othello.   
            
20th    1870 - Bishop Miles and Vanderhost were the  1st of the    
                     C.M.E. Church when it was organized.   
           1891 - Jomo Kenyatta(Burning Spear), is born(d.1978).   
           1924 - Baseball's 1st "Colored World Series" is held in    
                      Kansas City, Mo.   
           1991 - Arthur Ashe and Quincy Jones head a delegation of    
                      African-American to assess political changes in South   
                      Africa.     
 
21st    1780 - Pennsylvania prohibited further importation of slaves.  
          1850 - Chicago refuses to enforce the fugitive slave laws.  
          1865 - Jamaican national hero George William Gordon is   
                      arrested and sentenced to death.  
          1872 - John H. Conyers, Sr. is the 1st African-American to be   
                      admitted to the Naval Academy.  
          1917 - James Birks (Dizzy) GIllespe is born(d.1993).  
 
22nd   1936 - Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, is   
                     born in Dallas, Texas.  
          1963 - Some 220,000 students of the Chicago Public Schools    
                    were absent from their classes in a one day protest of  
                    school segregation in the State of Illinois.   
 
23rd    1886 - Wiley Jones, African American, operated the 1st Street  
                     Car in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.  
          1845 - Edmonia Lewis, 1st African-American female sculptor of  
                     repute, is born(d.1890).  
          1947 - The NAACP petitions the UN on racial injustices of USA.  
 
24th    1911 - Blues vocalist and guitarist, Sonny Terry, is born(d.1918).  
          1940 - Robert L. Vann, becomes editor and publisher of the   
                     Pittsburgh Courier.  
          1942 - Billboard magazine creates its 1st ratings chart devoted  
                     African-America music. 
 
25th    1886 - Slavery was abolished in Cuba. 
           1964 - Zambia gains its independence. 
           1988 - Ku Klux Klan is forced to pay $1,000,000 to African-
                    Americans attacked in Forsyth, Georgia. 
 
26th    1749 - Slavery legalized in Georgia. 
           1911 - Gospel Vocalist legend Mahalia Jackson, is 
                      born(d.1972). 
           1915 - Oliver Tambo is born(d.1993). 
           1924 - Actress Ruby Dee is born. 
           1967 - Margaret Douglass was named Deputy Superintendant
                    in charge of the entire curriculum for the New York Public
                    School System. 
 
27th    1891 - D.B. Downing,  inventor, awarded a patent for the street
                    letter box. 
           1919 - Edward William Brooke, the 1st African-American
                    elected to congress (the Senate in 1967), is born. 
 
28th    1787 - The Philadelphia Free African Society is founded. 
           1934 - Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, is incorporated. 
           1951 - National Labor Council is founded. 
 
29th    1937 - Henry Armstrong wins featherweight title from P. Sarron 
                     at Madison Square Garden.   
            1945 - Melba Moore, is born. 
            1949 - Alonzo G. Moron of the Virgin Islands becomes the 1st
                     president of Hampton Institute(now Universty), 
                      Hampton, Virginia. 
            1969 - Johnson Products Company of Chicago, Illinois, the
                     largest African-American hair care products
                     manufacturer, is incorporated. 
            1969 - A Supreme Court 2nd ruling calls for the end to
                     segregation at "all deliberate speed".  
30th      1954 - Congress abolishes all-Negro units of the USA armed
                      forces. 
             1991 - BET Holdings Inc., becomes the 1st African-American
                      composer listed on the NYSE. 
31st      1900 - Actor and singer, Ethel Waters is born in Chester,
                      PA.(d.1977). 

HOME
Nigeria
African-American daily
Fannie Lou Hamer