Notable Births
*Johnny Adams, a blues, jazz and gospel singer, known as "The Tan Canary", was born in New Orleans, Louisiana (January 5).
Laten John Adams (b. January 5, 1932, New Orleans, Louisiana – d. September 14, 1998, Baton Rouge, Louisiana), known as Johnny Adams, was a blues, jazz and gospel singer, known as "The Tan Canary" for the multi-octave range of his singing voice, his swooping vocal mannerisms and falsetto. His biggest hist were his versions of "Release Me" and "Reconsider Me" in the late 1960s.
Adams was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the oldest of 10 children. He became a professional musician on leaving school. He began his career singing gospel with the Soul Revivers and Bessie Griffin's Consolators, but crossed over to secular music in 1959. His neighbor, the songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie, supposedly persuaded him to start performing secular music after hearing him sing in the bathtub. He recorded LaBostrie's ballad "I Won't Cry" for Joe Ruffino's Ric label. Produced by the teenaged Mac Rebennack (later known as Dr. John), the record became a local hit. Adams recorded several more singles for the label over the next three years, most of them produced by Rebennack or Eddie Bo. His first national hit came in 1962, when "A Losing Battle", written by Rebennack, reached number 27 on the Billboard R&B chart.
After Ruffino's death in 1963, Adams left Ric and recorded for a succession of labels, including Eddie Bo's Gone Records, the Los Angeles -- based Modern Records, and Wardell Quezergue's Watch label. His records had little success until he signed with Shelby Singleton's Nashville -- based SSS International Records in 1968. A reissue of "Release Me", originally released by Watch, reached number 34 on the R&B chart and number 82 on the pop chart. It's follow-up, "Reconsider Me", a country song produced by Singleton, became his biggest hit, reaching number 8 on the R&B chart and number 28 on the pop chart in 1969. Two more singles, "I Can't Be All Bad" and "I Won't Cry" (a reissue of the Ric recording), were lesser hits later the same year, and the label released an album, Heart and Soul.
Adams left SSS International in 1971 and recorded unsuccessfully for several labels, including Atlantic and Ariola, over the next few years. At the same time, he began performing regularly at Dorothy's Medallion Lounge in New Orleans and touring nightclubs in the south.
In 1983, he signed with Rounder Records, for which he recorded nine critically acclaimed albums produced by Scott Billington, beginning with From the Heart in 1984. These records encompassed a wide range of jazz, blues and R&B styles and highlighted Adams's voice. The albums included tributes to the songwriters Percy Mayfield and Doc Pomus. The jazz-influenced Good Morning Heartache included the work of composers like George Gershwin and Harold Arlen. Other albums in this series are Room with a View of the Blues (1988), Walking on a Tightrope (1989), and The Real Me (1991). These recordings earned him a number of awards, including a W. C. Handy Award. He also toured internationally, with frequent trips to Europe, and worked and recorded with such musicians as Aaron Neville, Harry Connick, Jr., Lonnie Smith and Mac Rebennack (who by then was known professionally as Dr. John).
He died in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1998 after a long battle with prostate cancer.
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*Adolpho A. Birch, Jr., the first African American to serve as Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court, was born in Washington, D. C. (September 22).
Adolpho A. Birch Jr. (b. September 22, 1932, Washington, D. C. – d. August 25, 2011, Nashville, Tennessee) was born in Washington, D. C., in 1932 and grew up in that city, the son of an Episcopal priest who was widowed early and subsequently raised his son as a single parent. His father's professional concerns for his parishioners left Birch with much time on his own, and he often raised small amounts of money for himself by picking up soft drink bottles for their deposit values, and generally learned to function independently.
Birch graduated from Washington's well-known Dunbar High School in 1950. After high school he attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania from 1950 to 1952. He then attended Howard University in Washington, where he earned the Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Jurisprudence degrees, serving on the law review 1954-56 and graduating in 1956. A Naval Reservist, he served on active duty 1956–1958.
Birch then moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he taught medical law at Meharry Medical College and law at Fisk University and Tennessee State A&I University. During this time (1958–1963), Birch also maintained a private law practice. In the early 1960s, he provided volunteer legal representation to civil rights activists who had been arrested for conducting sit-ins at segregated lunch counters.
In 1963, Birch was appointed assistant public defender for Davidson County. This was then a part-time position and Birch maintained his private law practice as well. In 1966, he was appointed assistant district attorney for Davidson County, a full-time position which required him to end his private law practice. Birch served in this position for three years. He was the first African American to work as a prosecutor in Davidson County.
Birch is the first person in Tennessee history to serve in every level of the state's judiciary. In 1969, Governor Buford Ellington appointed him as a General Sessions Court judge in Davidson County, making him the first African American to serve in that office. In 1970, he was elected to the judgeship, the first time an African American won election as a judge in the county.
In 1978, Birch was appointed Criminal Court Judge for the Twentieth District (Davidson County) by Governor Ray Blanton. Birch served in this position until 1987. In 1981-82, he was the presiding judge over the Trial Courts of Davidson County, making him responsible for case assignment and other procedural issues. Again, he was the first black ever to serve in this capacity. Also in 1981, Birch became an instructor at the Nashville School of Law.
From 1983 to 1986, Birch served on the Court of the Judiciary, a specialized court which investigates allegations of judicial malfeasance and determines sanctions when allegations are found to be valid.
On March 2, 1987, Birch was appointed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals by Governor Ted McWherter. In August 1988, Birch was confirmed by the voters of Tennessee to this office under the provisions of the Tennessee Plan. In August 1990, Birch was elevated by the voters under the provisions of the Tennessee Plan to the Tennessee Supreme Court, becoming only the second African American ever to serve on that body to that time. In October 1994 Birch was selected Chief Justice by his fellow Justices, serving in that capacity until May 1996. In August 1998, Birch was confirmed for another eight year Supreme Court term, and served again as Chief Justice from July 1997 to August 1998 and September 1999 to August 2001. In 2006 Birch announced his retirement, and retired when his term ended on September 1 of that year.[2]
Birch died from cancer in Nashville on August 25, 2011. He had battled cancer since 2004, when he first received a cancer diagnosis and took a leave of absence from the Supreme Court to undergo treatment.
Among the honors Birch received was the National Bar Association's William H. Hastie Award, awarded to him in 1995. The international Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity honored him with its Barbara Jordan Award, the fraternity's highest honor. In 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee recognized Birch with a Lifetime Achievement Award, citing his "enduring commitment to equality and justice" and calling him a "beacon for equality" in Tennessee.
The A. A. Birch Criminal Justice Building in downtown Nashville, completed in 2006 to house Davidson County Criminal Courts, was dedicated in his honor in June 2006. A bust of Birch is displayed in the entrance of the Tennessee Supreme Court Building in Nashville. He also joined Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity while in college.
*Harold Floyd "Tina" Brooks (b. June 7, 1932, Fayetteville, North Carolina – d. August 13, 1974, New York City, New York), a hard bop, blues and funk tenor saxophonist and composer, was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina (June 7).
Harold Floyd Brooks was the brother of David "Bubba" Brooks. The nickname "Tina", pronounced Teena, was a variation of "Teeny", a childhood moniker. His favorite tune was "My Devotion". He studied harmony and theory with Herbert Bourne.
Initially, Brooks studied the C-melody saxophone, which he began playing shortly after he moved to New York with his family in 1944. Brooks' first professional work came in 1951 with rhythm and blues pianist Sonny Thompson, and, in 1955, Brooks played with vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. Brooks also received less formal guidance from trumpeter and composer "Little" Benny Harris, who led the saxophonist to his first recording as a leader. Harris, in fact, was the one who recommended him to Blue Note Records producer Alfred Lion producer in 1958.
Brooks is best known for his work for Blue Note Records between 1958 and 1961, recording primarily as a sideman with Kenny Burrell, Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Freddie Redd, and Jimmy Smith. Around the same period, Brooks was McLean's understudy in The Connection, a play by Jack Gelber with music by Redd, and performed on an album of music from the play on the Felsted Label.
Brooks recorded five sessions of his own for Blue Note (including one jointly with McLean). The first session was recorded on March 16, 1958 at the Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, and featured promising young trumpeter Lee Morgan alongside seasoned professionals such as Sonny Clark, Doug Watkins and Art Blakey. Despite the caliber of the players and the quality of the output, Minor Move was not released for more than two decades, several years after Brooks had died. This started an unfortunate trend, as three of his four other sessions (Street Singer, Back to the Tracks and The Waiting Game) did not appear during his lifetime. The exception was True Blue, a session recorded on June 25, 1960, with Freddie Hubbard, Duke Jordan, Sam Jones and Art Taylor. The release of True Blue coincided with the release of Hubbard's Blue Note debut album, Open Sesame (also featuring Brooks), and was not actively promoted.
Brooks did not record after 1961. Plagued by heroin dependency, and gradually deteriorating health, he died of liver failure on August 13, 1974, at the age of 42.
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*Roosevelt Brown, an offensive lineman for the National Football League New York Giants who was ranked No. 57 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, was born in Charlottesville, Virginia (October 20).
*Roosevelt Brown, an offensive lineman for the National Football League New York Giants who was ranked No. 57 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, was born in Charlottesville, Virginia (October 20).
Roosevelt "Rosey" Brown, Jr. (b. October 20, 1932, Charlottesville, Virginia – d. June 9, 2004, Mansfield Township, New Jersey) was an offensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants from 1953 to 1965.
Brown was drafted by the Giants out of Morgan State University in the 1953 NFL Draft after being noticed by the Giants in the Pittsburgh Courier, an African American newspaper that named him to their 1952 Black All-American team. On the offensive line, Brown pass blocked for quarterbacks Charlie Conerly and Y. A. Tittle and run blocked for backs like Alex Webster and Frank Gifford. Despite his 6'3", 255-pound frame, Brown was very quick on his feet which was very unusual for his era. He is considered one of the greatest "sleeper picks" in NFL history as he was drafted in 27th round of the NFL Draft.
Following the 1965 season, Brown retired, suffering from chronic phlebitis. He became the Giants' assistant offensive line coach in 1966 and was promoted to offensive line coach in 1969. He remained with the Giants organization in the scouting department for many years.
During his career, Brown was selected as a first-team All-NFL player eight consecutive years and was also selected to play in the Pro Bowl nine times. Brown also helped the Giants win the NFL Championship in 1956.
Brown was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974 and, in 1979, was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. Brown was named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1994. He was also included on the NFL's 1950s All-Decade Team and The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players.
*Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, the first African-American congresswoman from California and the first woman to chair the Congressional Black Caucus, was born in Los Angeles, California (October 5).
Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (b. October 5, 1932, Los Angeles, California) was the first African-American woman to represent the West Coast in Congress. She served in Congress from 1973 until the end of 1978. She was also the Los Angeles County Supervisor representing the 2nd District (1992–2008) and served as the Chair of the Board of Supervisors three times (1993–94, 1997–98, 2002–03).
Born Perle Yvonne Watson on October 5, 1932, in Los Angeles to James A. Watson and the former Lola Moore, she married William A. Burke in Los Angeles on June 14, 1972. To this union was born a daughter, Autumn Roxanne on November 23, 1973.
Burke attended the University of California at Berkeley from 1949 to 1951; and the University of California at Los Angeles from 1951 to 1953 where she received a bachelor's degree; She then attended the University of Southern California Law School and received a juris doctor degree in 1956
Prior to representing the 2nd District, Burke served as Vice-Chairperson of the 1972 Democratic National Convention (she was the first African-American to hold that position), represented the 4th Supervisorial District (1979–80), was a member of the United States House of Representatives initially representing portions of Los Angeles (1973–79), and was a member of the California State Assembly representing Los Angeles' 63rd District (1966–1972). Many of her early legislative efforts centered around juvenile issues and limiting garnishment of wages.
During her tenure in Congress, she served on the House Select Committee on Assassinations and the House Committee on Appropriations. During her tenure on the Appropriations Committee, she fought for increased funding to aid local jurisdictions to comply with desegregation mandates
In 1973, with the birth of her daughter Autumn, Burke became the first Congresswoman to give birth while in office and the first to be granted maternity leave by the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. She did not seek re-election to Congress in 1978 but instead ran for Attorney General of California. She won the Democratic nomination over Los Angeles City Attorney Burt Pines but was defeated in the general election by Republican State Senator George Deukmejian.
In 1979, shortly after leaving Congress, Governor Jerry Brown appointed her to the Board of Regents of the University of California; but she resigned later that year when Governor Brown appointed her to fill a vacancy on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Burke was the first female and first African-American supervisor. Her district (the Fourth District), however, was largely made up of affluent, conservative white areas on the coast. In 1980, Burke was defeated in her bid for a full term in the seat by Republican Deane Dana. In 1982, Brown again appointed her to the Regents.
In 1992, Burke again ran for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors but this time for the more ethnically diverse Second District. After a hard-fought campaign that often turned negative, Burke defeated State Senator Diane Watson.
In 2007, Burke announced that she would retire when her term expired in 2008. On July 27, 2007, the Los Angeles Times published a front-page story revealing Burke was not living in the mostly low-income district she represented, but rather in the wealthy Brentwood neighborhood, an apparent violation of state law. Burke responded that she was living at her Brentwood mansion because the townhouse she listed in official political filings was being remodeled.
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*Bob Cranshaw, a jazz bassist known for being the sole session bassist to Sesame Street and The Electric Company songwriter and composer Joe Raposo, was born in Chicago, Illinois (December 10).
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*Bob Cranshaw, a jazz bassist known for being the sole session bassist to Sesame Street and The Electric Company songwriter and composer Joe Raposo, was born in Chicago, Illinois (December 10).
Melbourne Robert "Bob" Cranshaw (b. December 10, 1932, Chicago, Illinois – d. November 2, 2016, Manhattan, New York) was an American jazz bassist. His career spanned the heyday of Blue Note Records to his recent involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long association with Sonny Rollins. Cranshaw performed in Rollins' working band on and off for over five decades, starting with a live appearance at the 1959 Playboy jazz festival in Chicago and on record with the 1962 album The Bridge.
Some of Cranshaw's best-known performances include Lee Morgan's The Sidewinder and Grant Green's Idle Moments. Cranshaw also served as the sole session bassist to Sesame Street and The Electric Company songwriter and composer Joe Raposo, and played bass guitar on all songs, tracks, buttons and cues recorded by the Children's Television Workshop during Raposo's tenure. In addition, he was the bass player for Saturday Night Live from 1975 to 1980 and musical director and bassist for Dick Cavett's talk show in the early 1980s. He performed in pit orchestras for numerous Broadway shows including Jesus Christ Superstar, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band: The Musical and many more. He recorded innumerable recording dates for television shows, films and jingles. He is among the most recorded bassists in history.
Along with Wes Montgomery's brother Monk, Cranshaw was among the early jazz bassists to trade his upright bass for an electric bass. He was criticized for this by jazz purists, although he was forced to switch by a back injury incurred in a serious auto accident.
Throughout his long career, he also performed on hundreds of television shows and film and television scores. He appears in The Blue Note Story, a 90-minute documentary of the jazz label.
Cranshaw was also a founding member of the short-lived MJT + 3 (Modern Jazz Two) that included Frank Strozier on alto saxophone, Harold Mabern on piano, Willie Thomas on trumpet, and Walter Perkins on drums. The Chicago-based group produced several albums, a number for Vee-Jay Records. Another Cranshaw appearance, Shirley Scott and Stanley Turrentine's Blue Flames (1964), featuring Otis Finch, was recorded for Prestige Records. Cranshaw also played live shows for tap dancer Maurice Hines, along with friend and drummer Paul Goldberg.
During the 1990s, Cranshaw worked for the musicians union in New York City as an advocate for the rights of jazz musicians. He fought for better pension plans for jazz musicians, to make sure they or their widows received the royalties owed them and for other related issues. Because of his work in television, film and on Broadway, Cranshaw was compensated financially in a way that many jazz musicians were not. He credited his involvement in the union as his way of trying to insure that his fellow jazz musicians receive the same treatment and financial compensation that he did because of his work in other genres and in other media.
Cranshaw died at the age of 83 on November 2, 2016 in Manhattan, New York from Stage IV cancer.
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*Otis Davis, the 1960 Olympic 400 meter run champion, was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama (July 12).
Otis Crandall Davis (b. July 12, 1932, Tuscaloosa, Alabama) was the winner of two gold medals for record-breaking performances in both the 400 meter run and the 4x400 meter relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Davis set a new world record of 44.9 seconds in the 400 meter event, thereby becoming the first man to break the 45-second barrier.
Of African American and First Nations (Native American) heritage, Otis Crandall Davis served four years in the United States Air Force, during the Korean War. Following the Air Force, Davis attended the University of Oregon on a basketball scholarship, hoping to one day become a professional. One day in 1958 while observing athletes running on the track with a friend, Davis, who had never run before, nor attended schools in his youth with sports programs other than basketball and football, decided that he could beat the athletes he saw on the track. He approached track coach Bill Bowerman, who would later become the founding father of the Nike, Inc., and asked to join the track team. Bowerman, who needed high jumpers, had Davis try his hand at that event. Among Davis' first attempts at the high jump, he jumped 6-0.
He also hit 23-0 in the long jump with little effort, though Davis was flustered by the sprinting events. In his first competitive event, Bowerman entered Davis in the 220-yard dash and the 440-yard dash in the Pacific Coast Conference championships, both of which Davis won, missing the school record by two tenths of a second in the latter event.
According to Davis, Bowerman made the first pair of Nike shoes for him, contradicting the claim that they were made for Phil Knight.
In 1960, Davis was competing on a national level for the Oregon Ducks, and was poised to becoming a national AAU champion in the 440-yard run.
The same year, at the age of 28, Davis made the United States Olympic team. He ran his fastest time to date one week before participating in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome as one of the oldest members of the track team, where he was nicknamed "Pops" by his teammates. According to Davis, "I was still learning how to turn with the staggered starts and all. I was still learning the strategy involved. I was still learning how to run in the lanes."
Davis competed against the heavily favored German athlete Carl Kaufmann, who was the world record holder in the 400-meter dash. Davis won by a hair over Kaufmann, setting a world record of 44.9 seconds and becoming the first man to break the heralded 45-second barrier. The photo of the finish, with (in full horizontal dive position) Kaufmann's nose ahead of Davis, but his torso behind, has been studied and discussed by track and field officials for years. Both athletes were awarded the world record time, recorded in the 10ths of a second in those days, but Davis was awarded the win. Two days later, Davis and Kaufmann met again for the 4×400 meter relay final. He held off the challenge, anchoring home the gold with another world record performance of 3:02.2. The photo of the finish of that race was also made famous in Life magazine.
Following the Olympics, Davis competed in some sporadic track meets, such as the 1961 United States Nationals at Randall's Island, where at age 29, Davis was victorious, but his competitive running career was virtually over, as he never repeated his Olympic performance. He returned to Oregon, where he obtained his degree, a Bachelor of Science in Health & Physical Education, in 1960. He later considered playing as a wide receiver for the Los Angeles Rams. After retiring from competition, Davis became a high school teacher, working in Springfield, Oregon, for many years, and then traveled to work as an athletic director at United States military bases, including McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, where he taught in 1989. He also taught various after-school programs for gifted students.
In 1991, Davis moved to Jersey City, New Jersey, in order to live closer to New York, eventually settling in Union City sometime after December 2008. In 1996 he was a torch-bearer for the Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Around 2002 or 2003, Davis was hired by the Union City Board of Education, and began working at Emerson High School as a truancy officer, teacher, coach and mentor. When he was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2003, he asked Emerson Principal Robert Fazio to accompany him to the ceremony in Los Angeles, and when the rest of the school's staff discovered that Davis was an Olympic medalist, they honored him with a banner posted in a hallway in the school honoring his achievements.
In 2012, Davis was working as a verification officer at Union City High School, mentoring students, some of whom have gone on to win the United States Olympians Tri-States Chapter Annual Achievement Award, which is awarded to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut students. The top five winners in 2012 were Union City students. He is also co-founder and, in 2012, president of the Tri-States Olympic Alumni Association, a member of the University of Oregon Hall of Fame and the New Jersey Sports Writers' Halls of Fame.
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*Poet Mari Evans was born in Toledo, Ohio (July 16). Her most famous works would include I Am a Black Woman and Nightstar: 1973-78.
Mari Evans (b. July 16, 1923, Toledo, Ohio) grew up in Toledo, Ohio. She attended the University of Toledo.
Born in Toledo, Ohio, Evans was 10 years old when her mother died, and she was subsequently encouraged in her writing by her father, as she recalls in her essay "My Father's Passage" (1984). She attended local public schools before going on to the University of Toledo, where she majored in fashion design in 1939, though left without a degree. She began a series of teaching appointments in American universities in 1969. During 1969–70, she served as writer in residence at Indiana University-Purdue, where she taught courses in African-American Literature. The next year, she accepted a position as writer in residence at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. From 1968 to 1973, Mari Evans produced, wrote and directed the television program The Black Experience for WTTV in Indianapolis. She received an honorary degree from Marian College in 1975. Evans continued her teaching career at Purdue (1978–80), at Washington University in Saint Louis (1980), at Cornell University (1981–85), and the State University of New York at Albany (1985–86).
Among her books of poetry are A Dark and Splendid Mass (1992), Nightstar: 1973-1978 (1981), I Am a Black Woman (1970), and Where Is All the Music? (1968). Her books for children include Dear Corinne, Tell Somebody! Love, Annie: A Book about Secrets (1999), Singing Black: Alternative Nursery Rhymes for Children (1998, illustrated by Ramon Price) Jim Flying High (1979, illustrated by Ashley Bryan), Rap Stories (1974), and J.D. (1973, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney).
She is also the author of the plays Eye (a 1979 adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God) and River of My Song (first produced in 1977).
She is a contributor to and an editor of the volume Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation (1984), and has taught at colleges and universities including Spelman College, Purdue University, and Cornell University.
Among her honors are fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John Hay Whitney Fellowship. In 1997, she was celebrated with her photo on a Ugandan postage stamp.
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*Gwen Giles, the first African-American woman elected to the state senate of Missouri, was born in Atlanta, Georgia (May 14).
Gwen B. Giles (b. May 14, 1932, Atlanta, Georgia - d. March 26, 1986, St. Louis, Missouri), was involved in the civil rights movement and Democratic politics while working to improve life for the American Americans living in St. Louis, Missouri. Throughout her career, she was a leader in her community and an activist toward African American equality.
Gwen B. Giles was born on May 14, 1932 in Atlanta, Georgia, to Dennis and Irene Burdette. In 1935, the Burdette family moved to St. Louis, Missouri where she attended St. Rita Academy and graduated from St. Alphonsus Ligouri High School. She went on to take classes at St. Louis and Washington Universities. In 1955, she married Eddie E. Giles and had a son, Karl, and a daughter, Carla. Later in her life, she married John W. Holmes, Jr.
*Gwen Giles, the first African-American woman elected to the state senate of Missouri, was born in Atlanta, Georgia (May 14).
Gwen B. Giles (b. May 14, 1932, Atlanta, Georgia - d. March 26, 1986, St. Louis, Missouri), was involved in the civil rights movement and Democratic politics while working to improve life for the American Americans living in St. Louis, Missouri. Throughout her career, she was a leader in her community and an activist toward African American equality.
Gwen B. Giles was born on May 14, 1932 in Atlanta, Georgia, to Dennis and Irene Burdette. In 1935, the Burdette family moved to St. Louis, Missouri where she attended St. Rita Academy and graduated from St. Alphonsus Ligouri High School. She went on to take classes at St. Louis and Washington Universities. In 1955, she married Eddie E. Giles and had a son, Karl, and a daughter, Carla. Later in her life, she married John W. Holmes, Jr.
Giles started off her political career in 1968 as a campaign manager for Ruth C. Porter and William L. Clay. Throughout this time, she was actively involved in the civil rights movement. In 1970, Giles was appointed executive secretary of the St. Louis council by Mayor Alfonso J. Cervantes. During her time on the council, Giles worked to eliminate discrimination against minorities. She contributed to this by updating a city ordinance to protect women, the elderly, and the handicapped. She also promoted the passage of the 1976 Comprehensive Civil Rights Ordinance.
In a 1977 special election, Giles was elected to serve as the state senator from the Fourth District filling the seat of Democrat Franklin Payne. She ran again the following year and won with an overwhelming majority of 92 percent.[1] During her time in office, she was vice chair of Industrial Development and served on committees including Military and Veteran Affairs, Labor and Management Relations, Public Health, Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, Welfare and Medicaid, and Consumer Protections.
Giles rose within the legislature and used her experience to advance her causes. As co-chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, she looked at discrimination in hiring practices. Giles sponsored bills including endorsing the Equal Rights Amendment, eliminating blue laws, processing personal-injury claims, making public assistance easier to deposit for citizens, and increasing aid to dependent children of unemployed parents. Under her leadership, the West End Community Conference in St. Louis addressed local school desegregation and received $30 million dollars to address housing in the area.
Due to her strong advocacy, President Jimmy Carter selected her for a national task force to promote more women’s involvement in the federal government.
Giles served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention twice. She was a member of the Order of Women Legislators, the NAACP, the International Consultation on Human Rights, and the National Council of Negro Women. She co-founded the Missouri Black Leadership Conference.
In 1981, Giles resigned her senate seat to fulfill another first in Missouri history. She became the first woman and first African-American to lead the St. Louis City Assessor’s Office. She served in this capacity until her death in 1986.
After a battle with lung cancer Giles died on March 26, 1986, at the age of 53.
Two places in St. Louis were renamed in Giles’ memory. The Wellston Post Office is now the Gwen B. Giles Post Office Building, and Catalpa Park near where she lived is now Gwen Giles Park.
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*Cleven Goudeau, an award-winning cartoonist, was born in Hillister, Texas (January 15).
Cleven "Goodie" Goudeau (b. c. January 15, 1932, Hillister, Texas – d. January 26, 2015, Solano County, California) was an award-winning art director and cartoonist, credited as the originator of the first line of African American contemporary greeting cards. Considered a pioneer in the field with the longest card recorded at the time at 4 feet and the first nationally published Black Santa card.
Goodie's artistic talent was first noticed when at 19 he was caught drawing on boxes in the back room when he was sweeping up as a shopkeeper. The manager had the foresight to exploit this talent and called on Goodie to make some cartoons for the Naval supply shop. His work was seen world wide through this Naval Supply Newsletter.
Soon after, the young Goodie was invited to Morrie Turner's (of Wee Pals fame) house by his brother, and after looking at Turner's pay stubs he realized that he could also earn a living as an artist.
Goodie published works in United States Navy publications that same year, and later worked for the Oakleaf newspaper in Oakland. He was the writer of Soul Folks and Fish Tales Cartoons.
Goodie was also chosen to be in a 1962 publication of favorite cartoons in Playboy as chosen by Hugh Hefner.
Goodie's company Goodie Cards was in operation both in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City from 1962 to 1974. Goodie Cards company bought Onyx Publishing in 1963 and then released his line of greeting cards across the country. His cards were available in most stores where people of color shopped at that time.
In the 1980s, Goudeau worked as an art director at the advertising agency McCann-Erickson.
Goodie was a member of the now-defunct Northern California Cartoon Artists & Humor Association, along with Charles M. Schulz and Morrie Turner. Goodie also was a member of the Society of Illustrators.
Goodie resided in Vallejo, California, with his wife Jeanette Mcree Goudeau, and taught children cartooning as well as mentored adults in their art careers.
Goodie died at the age of 83 on January 26, 2015.
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*Comedian and civil rights activist Richard "Dick" Gregory was born in Saint Louis, Missouri (October 12).
Dick Gregory, byname of Richard Claxton Gregory (b. October 12, 1932, St. Louis, Missouri - d. August 19, 2017, Washington, D. C.), African-American comedian, civil rights activist, and spokesman for health issues, who became nationally recognized in the 1960s for a biting brand of comedy that attacked racial prejudice. By addressing his hard-hitting satire to white audiences, he gave a comedic voice to the rising Civil Rights Movement. In the 1980s his nutrition business venture targeted unhealthy diets of black Americans.
Reared in poverty in St. Louis, Gregory began working at an early age to help support his family. He was involved in sports and social causes in high school, and he entered Southern Illinois University on an athletic scholarship in 1951, excelling as a middle-distance runner. He was named the university’s outstanding student athlete in 1953, the same year he left college to join the U.S. Army, where he hosted and performed comedy routines in military shows.
After a brief return to his alma mater in 1955-56, Gregory sought entrance to the national comedy circuit in Chicago. His breakthrough came in 1961, when a one-nighter at the Chicago Playboy Club turned into a six-week stint that earned him a profile in Time magazine and a television appearance on “The Jack Paar Show.” In his numerous subsequent television, nightclub, and concert routines, he targeted poverty, segregation, and racial discrimination. Active in the Civil Rights Movement, he participated in numerous demonstrations and was arrested for civil disobedience several times. In 1963 he was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama. His activism spurred him to run for mayor of Chicago in 1966 and for president of the United States in 1968.
In the early 1970s Gregory abandoned comedy to focus on his political interests, which widened from race relations to include such issues as violence, world hunger, capital punishment, drug abuse, and poor health care. He generated particular attention for his many hunger fasts. At this time he became a vegetarian, a marathon runner, and an expert on nutrition. He soon began a successful business venture with his nutritional product, the “Bahamian Diet,” around which he built Dick Gregory Health Enterprises, Inc. Through his company, he targeted the lower life expectancy of African Americans, which he attributed to poor nutrition and drug and alcohol abuse.
Gregory wrote many books, including Nigger: An Autobiography (1964) and No More Lies: The Myth and the Reality of American History (1971). He made a brief return to the comedy circuit in the mid-1990s.
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*Jacquelyne Johnson Jackson, a sociologist who worked on issues that affect elderly minority populations and who, in 1968, became the first full-time African American faculty member at Duke University Medical School, was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (February 24). Jackson was also the first woman chair of the Association of Black Sociologists. Jackson received her Ph.D. in 1960, becoming the first African American woman to earn the degree in sociology from Ohio State University.
Jacquelyne Johnson Jackson (b. Jacquelyn Mary Johnson, February 24, 1932, Winston-Salem, North Carolina – d. January 28, 2004, Stilwell, Kansas) was involved in public policy debates on programs for this elderly minority populations for over 30 years. From 1978 onward, she started a dialogue on social security accessibility for elderly minorities in consideration of sociological influence.
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*Jacquelyne Johnson Jackson, a sociologist who worked on issues that affect elderly minority populations and who, in 1968, became the first full-time African American faculty member at Duke University Medical School, was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (February 24). Jackson was also the first woman chair of the Association of Black Sociologists. Jackson received her Ph.D. in 1960, becoming the first African American woman to earn the degree in sociology from Ohio State University.
Jacquelyne Johnson Jackson (b. Jacquelyn Mary Johnson, February 24, 1932, Winston-Salem, North Carolina – d. January 28, 2004, Stilwell, Kansas) was involved in public policy debates on programs for this elderly minority populations for over 30 years. From 1978 onward, she started a dialogue on social security accessibility for elderly minorities in consideration of sociological influence.
Jacquelyne Mary Johnson was born on February 24, 1932 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Her parents were Beulah and James Johnson. Jacquelyne was raised in Tuskegee, Alabama. She was married to Murphy Jackson, and with him they had one child, Viola Elizabeth.
Jacquelyne Jackson started her career when she witnessed an elderly couple that was forced to sell their home in order to have money for medical care, since there was no Medicare or Medicaid at the time. The couple was forced into public housing as a result. The result of the couple losing their home and life savings drove Jackson to pursue a career addressing the issues of elderly minorities as well as public service law and civil rights issues. Jackson was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 1953.
She received her Master's of Science in Sociology from the same university in 1955. At Ohio State University, she received her Doctorate in Sociology in 1960. She started her post-doctoral work in 1961 at the University of Colorado - Boulder. As a part of her academic career, she did post-doctoral work at Duke University from 1966–68 and the University of North Carolina -Chapel Hill in the years 1977–78.
From 1959 to 1962, Jackson served as an Assistant Professor and Associate Professor at Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge. In 1962, she left to work as a Professor at the primarily black Jackson State College until 1964. At that time, she moved to work at Howard University, one of the nation's leading historically black universities in the United States. She joined the Duke University staff in 1966, where she worked as an Instructor and Associate Professor of Medical Sociology. From 1969 onward, she worked as a Visiting Professor at St. Augustine's College. She also worked as a Professor at Howard University from 1978 to 1985.
Jackson contributed to more than 80 scholarly journals, and also published two books: These Rights They Seek in 1962 and Minorities and Aging in 1980. In her scholarship, Jackson has addressed race-based affirmative action, the bell curve, and the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas controversy of 1991.
Jackson retired in 1998 and moved to Kansas to be closer to her daughter's family. She died on January 28, 2004 in Stillwell, Kansas.
*K. C. Jones, a Hall of Fame professional basketball player and coach, was born in Taylor, Texas (May 25).
K. C. Jones (b. May 25, 1932, Taylor, Texas) was a professional basketball player player and coach. K. C. Jones (K. C. Jones is his full name) is best known for his association with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA), with which he won 11 NBA Championships (eight as a player, one as an assistant coach, and two as a head coach).
As a player, Jones is tied for third for most NBA championships in a career, and is one of three NBA players with an unsurpassed 8-0 record in NBA Finals series outcomes.
Jones played college basketball at the University of San Francisco and, along with Bill Russell, led the Dons to two NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956. Jones also played with Russell on the United States team which won the gold medal at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia.
After completing college and joining the NBA, Jones considered a career as a NFL player, even trying out for a team. However, he failed to make the cut. During his playing days, he was known as a tenacious defender. Jones spent all of his nine seasons in the NBA with the Boston Celtics, being part of eight championship teams from 1959 to 1966. Jones is one of the few players in history to win an NCAA Championship, an NBA Championship, and an Olympic Gold Medal.
In NBA history, only teammates Bill Russell (11 championships) and Sam Jones (10 championships) won more championship rings during their playing careers. After Boston lost to the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1967 playoffs, Jones ended his playing career.
K.C. Jones was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1989.
Jones began his coaching career at Brandeis University, serving as the head coach from 1967 to 1970. Jones served as an assistant coach at Harvard University from 1970 to 1971. Jones then reunited with former teammate Bill Sharman as the assistant coach for the 1971–72 NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers during the season the team won a record 33 straight games. The following season, Jones became the first coach of the San Diego Conquistadors, an American Basketball Association franchise which would have a very short life. A year later, in 1973 he became head coach of the Capital Bullets (which became the Washington Bullets one year later), coaching them for three seasons and leading them to the NBA Finals in 1975.
In 1983, he took over as head coach of the Boston Celtics, replacing Bill Fitch. Jones guided the Larry Bird-led Celtics to the championship in 1984 and 1986. Also in 1986, Jones led the Eastern squad in the 1986 NBA All-Star Game in Dallas at the Reunion Arena, beating the Western squad 139-132. The Celtics won the Atlantic Division in all five of Jones seasons as head coach and reached the NBA Finals in 4 of his 5 years as coach. He briefly coached the Seattle SuperSonics in 1990 and 1991 as well.
In 1994, Jones joined the Detroit Pistons as an assistant coach for one season. The Pistons head coach at that time, Don Chaney, had previously played for Jones with the Celtics.
In 1996, Jones returned to the Boston Celtics, this time as an assistant coach for one season.
Jones returned to the professional coaching ranks in 1997, guiding the New England Blizzard of the fledgling women's American Basketball League (1996–1998) through its last 1½ seasons of existence. The Blizzard made the playoffs in Year 2, but they were summarily dispatched by the San Jose Lasers.
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*Henry Lewis, the first African American conductor of a leading American symphony orchestra, was born in Los Angeles, California (October 16).
Henry Jay Lewis (b. October 16, 1932, Los Angeles, California – d. January 26, 1996) was a double-bassist and orchestral conductor. At age 16, he joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic, becoming the first African-American instrumentalist in a major symphony orchestra.
Originally from Los Angeles, California, Lewis attended he University of Southern California and, at age 16, joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic, becoming the first African American instrumentalist in a major symphony orchestra. After six years as a double-bassist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, he played double-bass with and conducted the Seventh Army Symphony in Germany and the Netherlands while serving in the United States Armed Forces from 1955 to 1956.
After returning to the United States, Lewis founded the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In 1963, he travelled with his orchestra in Europe under the auspices of the State Department. He gained national recognition in 1961 when he was appointed assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta, a post he held from 1961 to 1965. In 1968, he became the conductor and musical director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, transforming the group from a small community ensemble into a nationally recognized orchestra. In this position, Lewis became the first African-American to lead a major symphony orchestra.
Lewis made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1972 and after retiring from the New Jersey Symphony in 1976, he toured as a guest conductor in all of the major opera houses. From 1989 to 1991, when Kees Bakels succeeded him, he was principal conductor of the Netherlands Radio Symphony.
From 1960 to 1979, Lewis was married to opera singer Marilyn Horne. Horne often credited Lewis with her early development as a singer. They lived together in Echo Park, California, and had a daughter, Angela.
Lewis died from a heart attack in 1996 at the age of 63.
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*Ruth Love, an educator who became the Superintendent for the Oakland (California) and Chicago schools, was born in Lawton, Oklahoma (April 22).
Ruth Burnett Love (b. April 22, 1932, Lawton, Oklahoma) was an educator who served as superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District from November 1975 until February 1981 and the Chicago Public Schools from March 1981 until March 1985. Love was the first African-American woman to serve as superintendent for the Chicago Public Schools district. In 1983, Love received the Horatio Alger Award and a Candace Award for Education from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. Love was named as one among 100 of the best school managers in North America by Educator Magazine in 1984.
In the later part of 1985, Ruth Love dropped her $12 million lawsuit against the Chicago Board of Education and retracted "certain derogatory statements" she had made about two board members, in exchange for which the board agreed, in effect, not to bad-mouth Love to any prospective employers who might inquire about her performance as school superintendent.
*Ruth Love, an educator who became the Superintendent for the Oakland (California) and Chicago schools, was born in Lawton, Oklahoma (April 22).
Ruth Burnett Love (b. April 22, 1932, Lawton, Oklahoma) was an educator who served as superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District from November 1975 until February 1981 and the Chicago Public Schools from March 1981 until March 1985. Love was the first African-American woman to serve as superintendent for the Chicago Public Schools district. In 1983, Love received the Horatio Alger Award and a Candace Award for Education from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. Love was named as one among 100 of the best school managers in North America by Educator Magazine in 1984.
As a child, Love's favorite game was playing school. One does not have to delve deeply into Love's family tree to uncover the roots of her passion for education. Her grandfather Andrew A. Williams, a former slave, founded Lawton's first school for African Americans. Williams' achievements instilled in Love a passion for reading, which she parlayed into a lifelong educational career. Love received her B.A. in Education in 1954 from San Jose University. She went on to receive her M.A. in Guidance and Counseling from San Francisco State University in 1961. In 1971, Love was awarded her Ph.D. in Human Behavior and Psychology from the United States International University, San Diego.
Love began her career in education as a teacher in the Oakland Public Schools. In conjunction with her duties, Love immersed herself in numerous educational projects taking her across the globe to Ghana and England as a Fulbright Exchange Educator. Love assisted in drafting important education legislation, specifically the National Reading Act. She accepted an appointment as Director of the National Right to Read Program. After four years with the program, she took a position as the Superintendent of Schools in the Oakland Unified School District. During her seven-year tenure as Superintendent, she made an indelible mark on the Oakland School system. Two of Love's programs "Scholars and Artists" and "Face the Students" brought such African Americans of achievement as Alex Haley, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin and Coretta Scott King to motivate and inform students. Love was then the first woman recruited to head up Chicago's Public School system.
Love was offered the job of superintendent of schools in Chicago by Mayor Jane M. Byrne and school board members in December 1980. After a month of negotiating on a contract, Love accepted the offer on January 9, 1981 and began her job on March 25. At the time, Love was the highest paid local school official in the United States; under a $120,000–a year contract. The excepting of the job by Love received mixed responses from city school board members, community members and political leaders. Some school board members and black political leaders wanted Chicago schools deputy superintendent African–American Dr. Manford Byrd Jr. to serve as superintendent. Despite that opposition, Love received support from numerous people including Reverend Jesse Jackson, who was quoted saying that her skills were "tailor-made" for the Chicago school district.
Shortly after beginning her tenure as superintendent, Love's chief deputy Charles Mitchell Jr. reported to the school board and the public that after an investigation by a Detroit private investigator; electronic devices had been found in her office and car in early April. After the F.B.I and others tried to contact him for more information about the search, Mitchell admitted that he fabricated the story. He said that a Chicago firm did search Love's office and car, but they found nothing. Mitchell said he created the story for many reasons, most notably to discourage the possibility of future wiretaps and to test the effectiveness of the Chicago Police Department for her safety. Mitchell claimed it was all his idea and that Love knew nothing about the story being false. On April 23, Love held a news conference announcing Mitchell's resignation and publicly apologized to the school board and mayor Byrne: "I had no knowledge of this discrepancy when it was reported to the board and public. I apologize for bringing this embarrassment to the city and to the Chicago schools." However, people continued to question Love's involvement in the hoax. Chicago Tribune reporter Vernon Jarrett quoted Love saying she had seen the electronic bugs herself and telling board members that she saw wires that led straight to Chicago's City Hall. Mayor Byrne referred to the bugging situation as 'disgusting'. As superintendent, Love created and implemented the "Chicago Mastery Learning Program" during the 1981–82 school year. The program made it mandatory that all elementary school students' reading and math courses be taught in more than one area, with students given an unlimited time to learn one area of the subject, and achieving 85 percent to be promoted to the next grade. Love instituted standardized testing into Chicago public high schools. Love created other programs such as the "Adopt–a–School" program and discipline codes within the district.
In the midst of a 15–day strike by the Chicago Teacher's Union from October 3–18, 1983, at the time the longest teacher's strike in Chicago, Love was criticized by the union and teacher supporters as being "Ruthless and Loveless" for her approach to the union and her actions to open three schools despite the strike. She claimed she made that decision for the sake of the high school seniors who would need credits to graduate. In statements to local news organizations, Love likened the tension between herself and the strikers at one school to being attacked by a group of "vicious dogs". The strike was ended with Love and the school board giving the teacher's a 5% raise, 2.5% bonus and a one-year pact. In August 1984, The school board made up of eleven members; three Hispanics, four Whites and four African–Americans voted 6–5 to not renew Love's contract as superintendent which expired in March 1985. Shortly thereafter, Love sued the board for $12 million, charging them with sexism and racism; claiming that the three Hispanic and white board members who voted against the renewal of her contract were racist.
Love became the founder and president of RBL Enterprises, LTD., an educational consulting company. She also authored several articles and books including Hello World (1975) and taught courses in Education Administration at San Francisco State University as well as speaking and lecturing to educational leaders around the world.
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*Clyde McPhatter, a singer who founded the Drifters singing group and who became the first double inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was born in Durham, North Carolina (November 15).
Clyde Lensley McPhatter (b. November 15, 1932, Durham, North Carolina – d. June 13, 1972, New York City, New York) was a rhythm and blues, soul and and rock n' roll singer. He was immensely influential, perhaps the most widely imitated R&B singer of the 1950s and 1960s, making him a key figure in the shaping of doo-wop and R&B. His high-pitched tenor voice was steeped in the gospel music he sang in much of his younger life. He is best known for his solo hit "A Lover's Question". McPhatter was lead tenor for The Mount Lebanon Singers, a gospel group he formed as a teenager, and later, lead tenor for Billy Ward and His Dominoes. McPhatter was largely responsible for the success the Dominoes initially enjoyed. After his tenure with the Dominoes, McPhatter formed his own group, the Drifters, before going solo. Only 39 at the time of his death, he had struggled for years with alcoholism and depression and was, according to Jay Warner’s On This Day in Music History, "broke and despondent over a mismanaged career that made him a legend but hardly a success." At the time of his passing, Clyde McPhatter left a legacy of over 22 years of recording history. He was the first artist in music history to become a double inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, first as a member of the Drifters, and later as a solo artist, and as a result, all subsequent double and triple inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame are said to be members of "The Clyde McPhatter Club."
One of the most dramatic vocalists of his generation, McPhatter grew up in a devout Christian family that moved from North Carolina to New Jersey in the mid-1940s. There, together with some high school friends (including two of author James Baldwin's brothers), he formed the Mount Lebanon Singers, who quickly found success on the gospel circuit. In 1950 a talent contest brought him to the attention of vocal coach Billy Ward, whose group he joined. With McPhatter singing lead, Billy Ward and the Dominoes became one of the era’s preeminent vocal groups, but the martinetish Ward fired McPhatter in 1953 (replacing him with Jackie Wilson). Shortly thereafter, Atlantic Records' Ahmet Ertegun sought to establish a new group around McPhatter, eventually recruiting former members of the Thrasher Wonders. As Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters, this group soon had a hit with “Money Honey,” which perfectly showcased McPhatter’s melismatic gospel-derived style. In 1954, their recording of Irving Berlin's classic “White Christmas” was banned from the radio because of alleged lewdness, yet it became a perennial seller. That fall McPhatter was drafted into the army but, stationed in New Jersey, was able to continue recording and appear in the film Mister Rock and Roll (1957).
Upon his discharge McPhatter became a soloist, with the Drifters continuing with other lead singers (most notably Ben E. King). Thereafter, he began to record increasingly pop-oriented material, including the pop Top 20 hits “Without Love (There Is Nothing)” (1956) and “A Lover’s Question” (1958) as well as the rhythm-and-blues hit “Lovey Dovey.” In 1960 he switched record labels, signing first with MGM, then with Mercury. His new material was so pop-oriented that his 1962 hit “Lover Please” did not even show up on the rhythm-and-blues charts, and, after a mild success in 1965 with “Crying Won’t Help You Now,” the hits stopped coming, although his voice would have been perfect for the emerging style of soul. Slipping into alcoholism, he played the oldies circuit and died before his 40th birthday. McPhatter was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
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*Nichelle Nichols, an actress who gained fame playing Lieutenant Uhura in the original Star Trek television series and movies, was born in Robbins, Illinois (December 28).
Nichelle Nichols (b. Grace Dell Nichols, December 28, 1932, Robbins, Illinois) is an actress, singer and voice artist. She sang with Duke Ellington and Lionel before turning to acting. Her most famous role is that of communications officer Lieutenant Uhura aboard the USS Enterprise in the popular Star Trek television series (1966–1969), as well as the succeeding motion pictures, where her character was eventually promoted in Starfleet to the rank of commander.
Nichols' Star Trek character, one of the first African American female characters on American television not portrayed as a servant, was groundbreaking in American society at the time. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. personally praised her work on the show and asked her to remain when she considered leaving the series.
Nichelle Nichols was born Grace Nichols on December 28, 1932, in Robbins, Illinois. Her parents, Samuel Earl and Lishia (Parks) Nichols, encouraged her early interest in singing and acting. Nichols studied dance at the Chicago Ballet Academy and aspired to perform on Broadway. She admired African-American female vocalists such as Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt and Mahalia Jackson.
In her early career, Nichols sang with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. She made her film debut in 1959, as an uncredited dancer in a film adaptation of the opera Porgy and Bess starring Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge and Sammy Davis Jr.
Nichols also began to work in television, including an appearance on the series The Lieutenant in 1964. Her relationship with the series' director, Gene Roddenberry, would lead to her most famous role.
Nichols added other movie credits to her resume, including the "blaxploitation" film Truck Turner in 1974, the Disney comedy Snow Dogs in 2002, and the family comedy Are We There Yet? in 2005. She also appeared as a recurring character in several episodes of the television series Heroes in 2007.
She also made occasional returns to live performance, as in her one-woman show Reflections, a tribute to women of jazz and blues. She showcased her singing in two albums, Down to Earth and Out of This World.
Building on her name recognition from Star Trek, in the late 1970s and 1980s Nichols participated in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's efforts to recruit women and minorities for the space shuttle program. She wrote two science-fiction novels, Saturn's Child and Saturna's Quest. In 1994 she published the autobiography Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories.
Nichols's marriage to the dancer Foster Johnson in 1951 ended in divorce within a year. She and Johnson have a son named Kyle. She was wed to songwriter Duke Mondy from 1967 until their divorce in 1972.
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Charles Owens (February 22, 1932, Winter Haven, Florida – September 7, 2017, Winter Haven, Florida) was an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and the Senior PGA Tour.
Owens was born in Winter Haven, Florida. He played football at Florida A&M University and served in the U.S. Army. He suffered injuries to both knees and his left ankle during a parachute jump at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in 1952 which left him handicapped.[1]
Owens turned professional in 1967 and joined the PGA Tour in 1970. During his seven years on the Tour, he won the 1971 Kemper Asheville Open, a "satellite" PGA Tour event. Owens played with a limp and played all golf shots cross-handed. The biggest year of his professional career came on the Senior PGA Tour in 1986, when he won twice in a three tournament span, and finished eighth on the money list with $207,813.
Owens was allowed to use a cart while competing in most instances due to his disability, and once staged a protest at the 1987 U.S. Senior Open against the USGA for its ban on carts at that event.[1]
Owens also is credited with inventing and popularizing a "belly putter"[2] which he used to overcome the yips.
Owens formerly lived in Tampa, Florida and recently resided in Winter Haven until his death on September 7, 2017.[3] He won the Ben Hogan Award in 1987 and was inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 1987 and the African American Golfers Hall of Fame in 2007.
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Benjamin Franklin Payton was born in 1932 in Orangeburg, South Carolina. His father, Reverend Leroy Payton, was a Baptist minister, farmer, and teacher while his mother, Sarah Mack Payton, was a homemaker. Benjamin Payton graduated with honors from South Carolina State in 1955, earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology. In 1958 he was awarded the Bachelor of Divinity degree in philosophical theology from Harvard. He earned a master’s in philosophy from Colombia University in 1960, followed by the Ph.D. in Ethics from Yale University.
In 1963, Payton became assistant professor of sociology, religion, and social ethics at Howard University. During this time he also served as the director of the school’s Community Service Project in Washington, D.C. Two years later he became the director of Office of Church and Race for the Protestant Council of the City of New York. In 1967 he became the president of Benedict College. He left the post in 1972 to become program officer of Education and Public Policy for the Ford Foundation.
In 1981, one hundred years after its founding, Payton became the fifth president of Tuskegee Institute. In his second year at Tuskegee, Payton served as educational advisor to Africa on a seven nation tour with Vice-President George Bush. During the tour, Payton discovered that although many Africans had heard of Tuskegee, they were unsure of the type of institution it was. To clarify this situation, Payton brought this issue to the school’s board of trustees and in 1985 Tuskegee Institute changed its name to Tuskegee University.
Payton also received several presidential appointments throughout his career. In 1983 President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development. He also served as a team leader of the Presidential Task Force on Agriculture and Economic Development to Zaire in 1984.
In 1996, Payton formed the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee whose goal was to pursue a government apology for the unethical use of African Americans as test subjects for the 40 year study on the degenerative effects of the disease. As a result, President Bill Clinton publically apologized to the participants of the study and their families. In addition, the President announced that a $200,000 grant would be awarded to Tuskegee to initiate a National Center for Bioethics in Research and Healthcare. In 1998, Payton addressed Congress seeking approval of Moton Field, the training grounds for the Tuskegee airmen, as a national historic site. As a result of his efforts, Congress approved the field as a national historic site in the fall of that year.
During his tenure at Tuskegee, Payton led the restructuring of all academic programs and the renovation of the entire campus. Under his leadership Tuskegee University developed its first Ph.D. programs and raised more than $160 million dollars for the campus endowment.
Dr. Payton and his wife, Thelma, have two children. Benjamin Franklin Payton retired in August 2010.
In 1963, Payton became assistant professor of sociology, religion, and social ethics at Howard University. During this time he also served as the director of the school’s Community Service Project in Washington, D.C. Two years later he became the director of Office of Church and Race for the Protestant Council of the City of New York. In 1967 he became the president of Benedict College. He left the post in 1972 to become program officer of Education and Public Policy for the Ford Foundation.
In 1981, one hundred years after its founding, Payton became the fifth president of Tuskegee Institute. In his second year at Tuskegee, Payton served as educational advisor to Africa on a seven nation tour with Vice-President George Bush. During the tour, Payton discovered that although many Africans had heard of Tuskegee, they were unsure of the type of institution it was. To clarify this situation, Payton brought this issue to the school’s board of trustees and in 1985 Tuskegee Institute changed its name to Tuskegee University.
Payton also received several presidential appointments throughout his career. In 1983 President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development. He also served as a team leader of the Presidential Task Force on Agriculture and Economic Development to Zaire in 1984.
In 1996, Payton formed the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee whose goal was to pursue a government apology for the unethical use of African Americans as test subjects for the 40 year study on the degenerative effects of the disease. As a result, President Bill Clinton publically apologized to the participants of the study and their families. In addition, the President announced that a $200,000 grant would be awarded to Tuskegee to initiate a National Center for Bioethics in Research and Healthcare. In 1998, Payton addressed Congress seeking approval of Moton Field, the training grounds for the Tuskegee airmen, as a national historic site. As a result of his efforts, Congress approved the field as a national historic site in the fall of that year.
During his tenure at Tuskegee, Payton led the restructuring of all academic programs and the renovation of the entire campus. Under his leadership Tuskegee University developed its first Ph.D. programs and raised more than $160 million dollars for the campus endowment.
Dr. Payton and his wife, Thelma, have two children. Benjamin Franklin Payton retired in August 2010.
Payton died on September 28, 2016 in Estero, Florida. He was 83.
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*Rhythm and blues singer "Little Richard" Penniman, a formative figure in rock 'n' roll music, was born in Macon, Georgia (December 5).
Little Richard, original name Richard Wayne Penniman (b. December 5, 1932, Macon, Georgia), flamboyant American singer and pianist whose hit songs of the mid-1950s were defining moments in the development of rock and roll.
Born into a family of 12 children, Penniman learned gospel music in Pentecostal churches churches of the Deep South. As a teenager he left home to perform rhythm and blues in medicine shows and nightclubs, where he took the name “Little Richard,” achieving notoriety for high-energy onstage antics. His first recordings in the early 1950s, produced in the soothing jump-blues style of Roy Brown, showed none of the soaring vocal reach that would mark his later singing. His breakthrough came in September 1955 at a recording session at J&M Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana, where Little Richard, backed by a solid rhythm-and-blues band, howled “Tutti Frutti,” with its unforgettable exhortation, “A wop bop a loo bop, a lop bam boom!” In the year and a half that followed, he released a string of songs on Specialty Records that sold well among both African American and European American audiences: “Rip It Up,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Ready Teddy,” “Good Golly, Miss Molly,” and “Send Me Some Lovin’,” among others. Blessed with a phenomenal voice able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music, Little Richard scored hits that combined childishly amusing lyrics with sexually suggestive undertones. Along with Elvis Presley's records for the Sun label in the mid-1950s, Little Richard’s sessions from the same period offer models of singing and musicianship that have inspired rock musicians ever since.
As his success grew, Little Richard appeared in some of the earliest rock-and-roll movies: Don’t Knock the Rock and The Girl Can’t Help It (both 1956) and Mr. Rock and Roll (1957). In the latter he stands at the piano belting out songs with a dark intensity that, in the bland Eisenhower years, seemed excessive, an impression amplified by his bizarre six-inch pompadour, eyeliner, and pancake makeup. At the very peak of his fame, however, he concluded that rock and roll was the Devil’s work; he abandoned the music business, enrolled in Bible college, and became a traveling Evangelical preacher. When the Beatles skyrocketed onto the music scene in 1964, they sang several of his classic songs and openly acknowledged their debt to their great forebear. This renewed attention inspired Little Richard to return to the stage and the recording studio for another shot at stardom. Although a new song, “Bama Lama Bama Loo” (1964), invoked the fun and vitality of his heyday, record-buying youngsters were not impressed. A major recording contract in the early 1970s produced three albums for Reprise Records — The Rill Thing, King of Rock ’n’ Roll, and Second Coming—collections that showed Little Richard in fine voice but somewhat out of his element in the hard rock styles of the period.
In the late 1990s Little Richard continued to appear at concerts and festivals, performing songs that had become cherished international standards. He remained a frequent guest on television talk shows and children’s programs, but his madcap mannerisms, so threatening to parents in the 1950s, had come to seem amusingly safe. Having weathered a career marked by extraordinary changes in direction, Little Richard survived not only as the self-proclaimed “architect of rock and roll” but also as a living treasure of 20th-century American culture.
Little Richard was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" (1955) was included in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010, which stated that his "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music." In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored Little Richard with a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award for his pivotal role in the formation of popular music genres and in helping to shatter the color line on the music charts, changing American culture significantly.
Little Richard was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" (1955) was included in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010, which stated that his "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music." In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored Little Richard with a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award for his pivotal role in the formation of popular music genres and in helping to shatter the color line on the music charts, changing American culture significantly.
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*Charles Powell, a professional football player, was born (April 4).
Charles Elvin Powell (April 4, 1932 – September 1, 2014) was an American professional football player.
Powell was born in Texas. He and his younger brother Art Powell, a great NFL wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders in the 1960s, grew up in the Logan Heights area of San Diego, California.
Powell played professional baseball and football as well as boxed. His greatest success was as an NFL player and a boxer, even fighting Muhammad Ali.
Charlie starred in football, basketball, track and baseball at San Diego High School. In 1950, as a 6'-3", 230-pound defensive end and offensive end, with tremendous power and speed, he was named the California high school football player of the year. In track, he ran 100 yards in 9.6 seconds and threw the shot put 57 feet 9¼ inches. In basketball, he was a second-team all-league center. As a high school baseball player, he hit balls out of San Diego Balboa Stadium. He turned a down an offer of a tryout by the Harlem Globetrotters.
After High School, Charlie was recruited by Notre Dame and UCLA to play football, St. Louis Browns baseball owner Bill Veeck, who had acquired the legendary pitcher Satchel Paige from the Cleveland Indians, signed the power-hitting outfielder to a professional baseball contract. He was sent to the Stockton Ports, a Class B minor league team.
After playing pro baseball in the summer of 1952, Charlie suddenly abandoned his pro baseball career and signed a pro football contract with the San Francisco 49ers. At 19, he became the youngest player in NFL history. In his first game, he started against the NFL champion Detroit Lions and had multiple sacks against QB Bobby Layne totaling 67 yards in losses.
Powell played five seasons in the NFL for the 49ers (1952–53 and 1955–57) and two for the Oakland Raiders (1960–61).
Powell was also a professional boxer. In March 1959, on television, he knocked out Nino Valdes of Cuba who was the number 2 ranked heavyweight fighter in the world at the time. Powell fought Muhammad Ali (who was then known as Cassius Clay) at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh on January 24, 1963. He was knocked out in the third round. He finished his pro boxing career with a record of 25-11-3. In his career, Charlie also fought Floyd Patterson, losing to him in 6 rounds.
Powell was a member of the Breitbard San Diego Hall of Fame. Powell died on September 1, 2014, at age of 82 after living with dementia for several years.
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Alan Shorter (b. May 29, 1932, Newark, New Jersey – 1987, Los Angeles, California), a free jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player, and the older brother of Grammy winning composer and saxophone player Wayne Shorter, was born in Newark, New Jersey.
Alan was born in the Ironbound District in Newark, New Jersey. He started on alto saxophone, but switched to trumpet after graduating from high school. He attended Howard University but soon rebelled against the ultra-conservative atmosphere and dropped out (he later attended and graduated from New York University (NYU)). He played his first professional gigs with a local bebop big band called the Jackie Bland Band (other members included his brother Wayne, trombonist Grachan Moncur III, and pianist Walter Davis, Jr.). He was very much a bebop player in his early years, but soon gravitated towards free jazz, and with the exception of six months he spent in a United States Army Band, continued to play in that style for the rest of his career.
He recorded two albums as a leader: Orgasm (1968) and Tes Esat (1971) (both were out of print for many years until re-issued by Verve Records in 2004 and 2005 respectively). He also recorded five albums with saxophonist Archie Shepp (1965–1970), including the classic, Four for Trane, two albums with Marion Brown (1965–1966), one album with Alan Silva (1970), and made an appearance on one of his brother's albums (The All Seeing Eye in 1965). Several of these albums feature his unusual compositions, his most famous being "Mephistopheles".
In the mid-1960s Alan moved to Europe, leading his own avant-garde gigs in Geneva and Paris. His style of free jazz sometimes proved to be too far-out for European audiences but he generally found European audiences more receptive than those in the United States. Eventually he moved back to the States, where he taught briefly at Bennington College but otherwise faded into obscurity. He died of a ruptured aorta in Los Angeles in 1987, at age 56, shortly after becoming engaged to Ruth Ann Hancock, a cousin of Herbie Hancock.
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*O.C. Smith (b. Ocie Lee Smith, June 21, 1932, Mansfield, Louisiana – d. November 23, 2001), a rhythm and blues and jazz recording artist, was born in Mansfield, Louisiana. His recording of "Little Green Apples" went to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968 and sold over one million records.
Born Ocie Lee Smith in Mansfield, Louisiana, Smith moved with his parents to Little Rock, Arkansas, and then moved with his mother to Los Angeles, California, after his parents' divorce.
After completing a psychologoy degree at Southern University, Smith joined the Air Force, and served throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. While in the Air Force, Smith began entering talent contests and toured with Horace Heidt. After his discharge in July 1955, Smith went into jazz music to pay the bills.
Smith gained his first break as a singer with Sy Oliver and made an appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. His success on that show led to a recording contract with Cadence Records.
Smith's debut release was a cover of the Little Richard hit "Tutti Frutti" in December 1955. The song was not a hit, but convinced MGM Records to sign Smith to a solo contract, resulting in three more releases, but still no hits.
In 1961, Smith was recruited by Count Basie to be his vocalist, a position he held until 1965. He also continued to record with different labels, but a hit remained elusive. By 1968, Smith's then label, Columbia Records, was ready to release him from his recording contract, when he entered the charts for the first time with "The Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp", which reached number 2 on the United Kingdom Singles Chart and also broke the Top 40 in the United States. In 1976, Kenny Rogers revived the hit as a country song.
Smith changed the first part of his name to O.C. and recorded the Bobby Russell-written song "Little Green Apples," which went to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won Russell the 1969 Grammy Award for Song of the Year. Smith received a gold record from the Recording Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.) for sales of one million records.
He continued to record, reaching the R&B, Adult Contemporary and pop charts in his home country with the likes of "Daddy's Little Man", "Friend, Lover, Woman, Wife", "Me and You" and "Love To Burn". He also returned to the United Kingdom Singles Chart in 1977 with "Together", reaching a Top 30 position.
After CBS, Smith united with Charles Wallert, who wrote and produced the title track as well as the album for "Dreams Come True" that returned Smith to the national charts. The Whatcha Gonna Do album, resulted in three nationally charted singles for a total of 40 weeks. This album contained "Brenda", "You're My First, My Last, My Everything" and "Spark Of Love". Additional hits "The Best Out Of Me" and "After All Is Said And Done" established Smith as a Beach Music star. Nominated for six awards at the third Beach Music Awards, Smith captured five.
{Beach music, also known as Carolina beach music, and to a lesser extent, Beach pop, is a regional genre which developed from various rock/R&B/pop music of the 1950s and 1960s. Beach music is most closely associated with the style of swing dance known as the shag, or the Carolina shag, which is also the official state dance of both North Carolina and South Carolina. Recordings with a 4/4 "blues shuffle" rhythmic structure and moderate-to-fast tempo are the most popular music for the shag, and the vast majority of the music in this genre fits that description. Though primarily confined to a small regional fan base, in its early days what is now known as Carolina beach music was instrumental in bringing about wider acceptance of R&B music among the white population nationwide. Thus, it was a contributory factor in both the birth of rock and roll and the later development of soul music as a subgenre of R&B.}
Smith became pastor and founder of The City Of Angels Church in Los Angeles, California, where he ministered for 16 years. One of his last recordings, "Save The Last Dance For Me" reached the number one position on the Rhythm n' Beach Top 40 chart.
On November 23, 2001, Smith died of a heart attack.
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*Henry Tomes, the first African American commissioner of the Department of Mental Health in Massachusetts, was born in San Antonio, Texas.
A native of San Antonio, Texas, Henry Tomes, Jr. (b. 1932, San Antonio, Texas) took his bachelor of arts at Fisk University and his Ph.D. at the Pennsylvania State College (1963). Henry Tomes had a distinguished professional career. He worked for a number of years in the Department of Psychiatry at Meharry Medical and Dental College in Nashville, Tennessee, where he attained the rank of Professor of Clinical Psychology and served as Director of the College’s Community Mental Health Center. Following this, Tomes served as the Director of Community Mental Health Programs for the State of Washington. After four years at this position, he was appointed by Governor Michael Dukakis as Deputy Commissioner, then, in 1989, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. He was the first psychologist and first African-American to serve in that role.
From July, 1991 to December, 2005 Dr. Tomes served as the Executive Director of the Public Interest Directorate for the American Psychological Association (APA). This position involved overseeing the administrative and program offices which support the Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest and committees which recommend Association policy associated with issues of gender, ethnicity, disability, aging, minority fellowships, sexual orientation, urban issues, and children/youth and families. The directorate is also involved in supporting the APA’s legislative involvement in public interest public policy as well as societal matters such as HIV/AIDS, violence prevention and workplace issues, aging, and adolescent health.
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*Melvin Van Peebles, a motion picture producer and director, was born in Chicago (August 21). His films include Watermelon Man, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasss Song, and Putney Swope.
Melvin Van Peebles, original name Melvin Peebles (b. August 21, 1932, Chicago, Illinois), American filmmaker who wrote, directed, and starred in Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), a groundbreaking film that spearheaded the rush of African American action films known as "blaxploitation" in the 1970s. He also served as the film’s composer and editor.
After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University (B.A., 1953), Van Peebles traveled extensively in Europe, Mexico, and the United States, working a variety of jobs that included painter, postal worker, and street performer along with a stint in the air force. While living in Paris, he wrote several French-language novels, including La Permission (1967), which he turned into his first feature film. The romantic drama was released in France in 1967 and in the United States (as The Story of a Three-Day Pass) the following year. Van Peebles made his Hollywood directorial debut with Watermelon Man (1970), a comedy about racial bigotry. He then turned to his pet project, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Using mostly his own money and relying largely on non-professional actors and technicians, Van Peebles told the story of one African American man’s battle against European American authority. Violent, sexy, and angry, the film scored a huge success with African American audiences (it was one of the top box-office earners that year) while angering many European American critics.
Van Peebles had begun a musical career with the album Brer Soul (1969), which featured a mostly spoken vocal style that prefigured rap. He subsequently moved into Broadway musical theatre, adapting some of his recorded songs for the production Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death (1971) and one of his novels for Don’t Play Us Cheap! (1972; film 1973). Thereafter he continued to write, act, compose, and direct for films, television, and the stage. Subsequent films in which he appeared include O.C. and Stiggs (1985), Boomerang (1992), The Hebrew Hammer (2003), and Peeples (2013). With the comedy Identity Crisis (1989), he ended a 16-year hiatus from screen directing, and he later wrote and directed Le Conte du ventre plein (2000; Bellyful) and Confessions of a Ex-Doofus-Itchy Footed Mutha (2008); none of these efforts, however, were widely seen. In addition to his entertainment career, Van Peebles became involved in commodities trading in the 1980s and was the first African American to hold a seat on the American Stock Exchange.
Van Peebles’s son Mario, who played the character Sweetback as a boy in the 1971 film, became a noted film actor and director in his own right. Besides directing his father in such films as the western Posse (1993), Mario co-wrote, directed, and starred in the feature Baadasssss! (2003), about the making of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.
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*Solly Walker, a basketball player who was St. John’s University’s first African American basketball player and who broke another racial barrier when in 1951 he played in a game against the University of Kentucky on its home court, was born in South Carolina (April 9).
Solly Walker (b. April 9, 1932, South Carolina - d. April 28, 2017, Brooklyn, New York) was born to Zodthous Walker and the former Eva Utsey in South Carolina. (His wife was not certain of the town.) The family moved to Brooklyn when he was young where he later starred at Boys High School in Brooklyn.
Walker was a 6-foot-4 standout at Boys High School in Brooklyn before he earned a scholarship to St. John’s, which was in Brooklyn at the time. (The main campus is now in Queens.) Led by the future Hall of Fame coach Frank McGuire, the St. John’s basketball program was becoming a national contender when Walker joined it in 1950, the first black player to do so.
In his first season on the varsity, Walker, on December 17, 1951, became the first black player to compete in a basketball game against Kentucky on the Wildcats' home court. He was injured in that game and spent the remainder of it on the bench after making all but one of his first seven shots.
St. John's reached the NCAA championship game that season, the first of two Final Four appearances in the school's history. He averaged 4.4 points and 3.8 rebounds during a 25-6 season under Hall of Fame coach Frank McGuire.
In 1952-53, the 6-foot-4 swingman helped St. John's advance to the National Invitation Tournament title game by averaging 7.0 points and 6.0 rebounds. His finest season came as a senior in 1953-54 when he topped the team in scoring (14) and rebounding (12.2).
Walker was drafted by the New York Knicks but chose a career with the New York City Board of Education. After college, he began a long career in the New York City educational system, working with special-needs children. He was eventually named principal of P.S. 58 Manhattan High School (now P.S. 35) and retired in 1999.
In 1993, he was inducted into the St. John's athletic hall of fame.
Walker met Minta Gillespie at a church in Brooklyn in 1950. They married three years later.
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*Ernest Warlick, a tight end for the American Football League Champion Buffalo Bills of 1964 and 1965, was born in Hickory, North Carolina (July 21).
Ernest "Ernie" "Big Hoss" Warlick (b. July 21, 1932, Hickory, North Carolina – d. November 24, 2012) was a football tight end from North Carolina Central University who played American collegiate and professional football as well as Canadian professional football. He played four seasons with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. He then joined the American Football League's Buffalo Bills in 1962. He had an average of 17.2 yards per catch with the Bills, while the team earned three straight Eastern Division titles and two American Football League championships, and a 20.8 yards per catch average in 1964. In 1964, he helped the Bills win their first American Football League (AFL) championship game against the San Diego Chargers, 20-7, when he caught two passes for 41 yards. In the 1965 AFL championship game, when offensive linemen Billy Shaw and Dave Behrman were injured, Warlick helped bolster the Bills' offensive blocking in a double tight end offense. In that game, he also scored the first touchdown in the Bills' 23-0 victory over the Chargers, on an eighteen-yard pass from quarterback Jack Kemp.
After his playing career, he became the first African-American sportscaster on Buffalo television, was elected to the Buffalo Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 1998, and received the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Distinguished Service Award in 2000. In 2005, Warlick was inducted into North Carolina's Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Hall of Fame, honoring his basketball and football accomplishments at North Carolina Central.
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*Roger Wilkins, a civil rights leader, professor of history and journalist, was born in Kansas City, Missouri (March 25).
Roger Wilkins (b. March 25, 1932, Kansas City, Missouri – d. March 26, 2017, Kensington, Maryland) grew up in Michigan. He was educated at Crispus Attucks Elementary School in Kansas City, Missouri, then Creston High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Wilkins received his undergraduate degree in 1953 and LL.B. in 1956 both from the University of Michigan, where he interned with the NAACP and was a member of the senior leadership society, Michigamua.
Wilkins worked as a welfare lawyer in Ohio before becoming an Assistant Attorney General in President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration at age 33, one of the highest-ranking blacks ever to serve in the executive branch up to that time.
Roger Wilkins was sworn in as Director of the Community Relations Service on February 4, 1966 in a ceremony at the White House.
Leaving government in 1969 at the end of the Johnson administration, he worked briefly for the Ford Foundation before joining the editorial staff of the Washington Post.
Along with Carl Bernstein, Herbert Block ("Herblock"), and Bob Woodward, Wilkins earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for exposing the Watergate scandal that eventually forced President Richard Nixon's resignation from office. He left the Post in 1974 to work for the New York Times, followed five years later by a brief stay at the now-defunct Washington Star. In 1980, he became a radio news commentator, working for National Public Radio (NPR).
Wilkins was the Robinson Professor of History and American Culture at George Maxon University in Fairfax, Virginia, until his retirement in 2007. Wilkins was also the publisher of the NAACP's journal, The Crisis, and was the nephew of Roy Wilkins, a past executive director of the NAACP.
Wilkins resided in Washington, D.C., and was married to Patricia King, Professor of Law at Georgetown University.
Wilkins died on March 26, 2017 in Kensington, Maryland from complications of dementia.
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*Eddie Williams, the president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (JCPES), a think tank focused on African American issues, was born in Memphis, Tennessee (August 18).
Eddie Nash Williams (b. August 18, 1932, Memphis, Tennessee - d. May 8, 2017, Washington, D. C.) served as president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (JCPES) from 1972 to 2004. Williams was also the founding chairman of the board of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.
Williams graduated from the University of Illinois in 1955. After serving in the United States Army, Williams worked as a reporter. He went on to become the first African-American protocol officer at the State Department, and he also worked on the staffs of Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and Senator Hubert Humphrey (D-Minnesota).
In 1968, Williams joined the University of Chicago as director for the Center for Policy Study. Shortly thereafter, he became the vice president for public affairs.
In 1972, Williams was tapped to lead the JCPES. The organization had been founded just two years prior to support the hundreds of newly elected African-American officials who took office in the aftermath of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Over the next three decades, Williams built the JCPES into one of the leading institutions in African-American political thought and research. He hosted African-American elected officials every four years to assemble policy priorities to share with presidential candidates and transition teams. Under his leadership, the JCPES helped establish several organizations of African-American elected officials, built a roster of more than 10,000 Black elected officials, and helped to establish the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. He also created Focus magazine in an effort to bring together Black elected officials, political activists and scholars nationwide.
The JCPES flourished under Williams. It regularly commissioned and published surveys of African Americans when it was not popular, and produced studies, reports, books and events. The JCPES attracted top African-American thinkers such as John Hope Franklin, Mary Frances Berry, Kenneth Clark, Chris Edley and Ron Walters, to name a few, who worked there during Williams’ tenure.
In 1988, Williams was awarded a coveted MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.
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*Maury Wills, a professional baseball player who stole a then Major League Baseball record 104 bases in 1962, was born in Washington, D. C. (October 2).
Maurice Morning "Maury" Wills (b. October 2, 1932, Washington, D. C.) was a professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) primarily for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1959 through 1966 and the latter part of 1969 through 1972 as a shortstop and switch-hitter; he played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1967 and 1968, and the Montreal Expos the first part of 1969. Wills was an essential component of the Dodgers' championship teams in the mid-1960s, and is credited for reviving the stolen base as part of baseball strategy.
Wills was born in Washington, D.C. Maurice, or Sonny as he was called at Cardozo Senior High School in Washington, first showed up as an All City Pitcher in the local Washington Daily News. He played on Sal Hall's undefeated '48 Cardozo football team that never had any points scored against them. In the '49–'50 school year, three-sport standout Sonny Wills, was named an All City football quarterback, basketball player and baseball pitcher. On May 8, 1950, in a game against Phelps, Wills threw a one-hitter and struck out seventeen.
Wills began his major league career in 1959 and played in 83 games for the Los Angeles Dodgers. In Will's first-full season in 1960, he hit .295 and led the league with 50 stolen bases, being the first National League (NL) player to steal 50 bases since Max Carey stole 51 in 1923. In 1962, Wills stole 104 bases to set a new Major League Baseball (MLB) stolen base record, breaking the old modern era mark of 96, set by Ty Cobb in 1915.Wills also stole more bases than all of the other teams that year, the highest team total being the Washington Senators' 99. Wills success in base stealing that year led to another remarkable statistic, he was caught stealing just 13 times all season. He hit .299 for the season, led the NL with 10 triples and 179 singles, and was selected the NL Most Valuable Player over Willie Mays by seven points. Not until Barry Larkin in 1995 would another shortstop win a National League Most Valuable Player Award. Wills played a full 162 game schedule, plus all three games of the best of three regular season playoff series with the Giants, giving him a total of 165 games played, a MLB record that still stands for most games played in a single season. Will's 104 steals remained a Major League record for switch-hitters until 1985, when Vince Coleman eclipsed the mark with 110.
Wills was an All-Star for five seasons and seven All-Star Games, and was the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game Most Valuable Player in 1962. He also was the National League Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1962, and a Gold Glove winner in 1961 and 1962. In a fourteen-year career, Wills batted .281 with 20 home runs, 458 runs batted in, 2,134 hits, 1,067 runs, 177 doubles, 71 triples, and 586 stolen bases in 1,942 games.
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*Civil rights leader Andrew Young was born in New Orleans, Louisiana (March 12). Young became the first African American United Nations ambassador and Mayor of Atlanta.
Andrew Young, in full Andrew Jackson Young, Jr. (b. March 12, 1932, New Orleans, Louisiana), American politician, civil-rights leader, and clergyman.
Young was reared in a middle-class African American family, attended segregated Southern schools, and later entered Howard University (Washington, D.C.) as a premed student. But he turned to the ministry and graduated in 1955 from the Hartford Theological Seminary (Hartford, Conn.) with a divinity degree.
A pastor at several African American churches in the South, Young became active in the civil-rights movement—especially in voter registration drives. His work brought him in contact with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Young joined with King in leading the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Following King’s assassination in 1968, Young worked with Ralph Abernathy until he resigned from the SCLC in 1970.
Defeated that year in his first bid for a seat in Congress, Young ran again in 1972 and won. He was re-elected in 1974 and 1976. In the House he opposed cuts in funds for social programs while trying to block additional funding for the war in Vietnam. He was an early supporter of Jimmy Carter, and, after Carter’s victory in the 1976 presidential elections, Andrew Young was made the United States’ Ambassador to the United Nations. His apparent sympathy with the Third World made him very controversial, and he was finally forced to resign in 1979 after it became known that he had met with a representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1981 Young was elected mayor of Atlanta, and he was re-elected to that post in 1985, serving through 1989.
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*Otis Young, the second African American to co-star in a television western, was born in Providence, Rhode Island (July 4).
Otis E. Young (b. July 4, 1932, Providence, Rhode Island – d. October 11, 2001, Los Angeles, California) was an actor, writer and anti-Vietnam war activist. Young co-starred in a television Western, The Outcasts (1968–1969), with Don Murray. Young was the second African-American actor to co-star in a television Western, the first being Raymond St. Jacques who co-starred on the final season of Rawhide in 1965, as cattle driver Simon Blake. Young played another memorable role as Jack Nicholson's shore-patrol partner in the 1973 comedy-drama film The Last Detail, and his later film credits included the low budget horror films The Capture of Bigfoot (1979) and Blood Beach (1981).
Young was born in Providence, Rhode Island, one of 14 children. He joined the United States Marine Corps at the age of 17 and served in the Korean War. He then enrolled in acting classes at New York University School of Education where his classmate was the young Louis Gossett, Jr.
Young trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse, and worked off-Broadway as an actor and writer in the early 1960s. He appeared on Broadway in James Baldwin's Blues for Mister Charlie, with such notables as Diana Sands, and Al Freeman, Jr. His first movie appearance was in Murder in Mississippi (1965).
In 1983 Young earned his bachelor's degree from L. I. F. E. Bible College in Los Angeles and became an ordained pastor, eventually serving as senior pastor of Elim Foursquare Gospel Church in Rochester, New York, from 1986-1988. He taught acting classes at School Without Walls, a college-like alternative public high school in Rochester, from 1987 through 1991. In 1989 he joined the faculty at Monroe Community College in Rochester. He remained there as a Professor of Communications and head of the Drama Department until his retirement in 1999.
Otis Young suffered a stroke in Los Angeles and died on October 12, 2001. His memorial service was held at Pepperdine University's chapel.
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