Notable Deaths
*There were 24 recorded lynchings of African Americans in the United States.
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*The last lynching in Maryland took place in the town of Princess Anne (October 18). George Armwood had been arrested two days earlier and charged with the rape of an 81-year-old woman. A mob of more than 1,000 people surrounded the Somerset County Jail, dragged him through the streets, hanged him, then brought the body back to the courthouse where it was hung from a telephone pole and burned.
On October 16, 1933, a seventy-one-year-old woman named Mary Denston was assaulted walking home from the post office in Princess Anne, Maryland, by a young black man. Denston identified her assailant as twenty-three-year-old George Armwood, a laborer who lived near Pocomoke City, Maryland, in the southern portion of Worcester County. Police found Armwood at the home of his employer, John Richardson. Armwood's mother who lived nearby was quoted as stating that the police beat her son in a field across from her home so profusely, that she felt he might be dead already from the beating. Expecting additional violence against Armwood, this time by angry white residents, the police took Armwood to the jail in Salisbury. After an angry crowd gathered at the Salisbury jail, Armwood was relocated to the jail in Cecil County, Maryland, and then again to Baltimore County, Maryland. Judge Robert F. Duer and State Attorney John Robins assured Governor Albert Ritchie that if George Armwood were to return to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, his safety would be guaranteed. In the early morning of October 17, Armwood was returned to Princess Anne.
Maryland State Police Captain Edward McKim Johnson was fearful that mob violence would erupt and requested that Armwood be again removed from Princess Anne. Robins declined that request. Governor Ritchie consulted with Maryland Attorney William Preston Lane, Jr. to determine if the state could overrule Robins and remove Armwood. Lane determined that for Ritchie to do so would require the declaration of martial law.
Sheriff's Deputy Norman Dryden was sufficiently concerned about the potential for violence that on the afternoon of October 17, he approached Edward Young, commander of the Princess Anne chapter of the American Legion asking that legionnaires be made available to help preserve order.
Later that day, an angry crowd of 1000 gathered outside the jail on Williams Street. Judge Duer spoke to the crowd and asked them not to harm Armwood saying he held the members of the crowd "to their honor." Dryden, Johnson, and 23 other officers were watching the jailhouse that evening. The police fired teargas in a feeble attempt to disburse the crowd. When the police ran out of teargas, the crowd broke open the jailhouse doors, using two fifteen-foot timbers as battering rams. The crowd knocked Captain Johnson unconscious, took the keys to the cells from Deputy Dryden, and headed to the second floor cells where George Armwood and other black prisoners were held.
The mob found Armwood hiding under his mattress, and tied a noose around his neck. Armwood was then dragged down the steps out of the jail, beaten, stabbed, and kicked as the crowd tied him to the back of a truck and took him to a nearby property where he was hung. After Armwood was dead, the mob dragged the body back to the courthouse on the corner of Prince and Williams Street where the body was hanged from a telephone poll and burned. After the body was extinguished, the body was moved and left in Hayman´s Lumber yard until authorities gathered it the following morning.
Two years later, a grand jury heard testimony from 42 witnesses to the lynching, including twelve black men who were held in the jail. Although state police officers personally identified nine men as acting leaders of the mob, a local jury declined to indict anyone for Armwood's murder.
Lane then ordered the National Guard to Salisbury and arrested suspected lynchers. Twelve men were named as being members of the mob that lynched Armwood and rioting followed, clashing with the National Guard. Four men were tried in Somerset County but the jury ordered them released and dismissed the case.
Esther Popel wrote a widely recognized poem, Flag Salute, in response to the lynching of Armwood. It juxtaposes a description of this murder with quotations from the Pledge of Allegiance.
*James Banning, a trailblazing aviator who made a transcontinental trip in his own self-built plane, was killed while flying as a passenger in another's plane that crashed in San Diego, California.
Dreaming from boyhood of being a pilot, Banning eventually learned to fly from an army aviator after being repeatedly turned away from flight schools due to his race. He later became a demonstration pilot on the west coast, flying a biplane named "Miss Ames" (he had attended Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa).
James Banning and his mechanic Thomas Allen made the historic coast-to-coast flight using a plane supplemented with surplus parts. The "Flying Hoboes," as they were affectionately known, made the 3,300 mile trip from Los Angeles, California to Long Island, New York, in 41 hours and 27 minutes aloft. However, the trip actually required 21 days to complete because the pilots had to raise money for the next leg of the trip each time they stopped.
Only four months after his historic flight, Banning was killed in a plane crash during an air show at Camp Kearny military base in San Diego, California, on February 5, 1933. He was a passenger in a two-seater Travelaire biplane flown by Navy machinist mate second class Albert Burghardt, who was at the controls because Banning had been refused use of the airplane by an instructor at the Airtech Flying School. After taking off and climbing four-hundred feet, the plane stalled and entered an unrecoverable tailspin in front of hundreds of horrified spectators. Banning was recovered from the wreckage and died one hour later at a local hospital.
James Banning and his mechanic Thomas Allen made the historic coast-to-coast flight using a plane supplemented with surplus parts. The "Flying Hoboes," as they were affectionately known, made the 3,300 mile trip from Los Angeles, California to Long Island, New York, in 41 hours and 27 minutes aloft. However, the trip actually required 21 days to complete because the pilots had to raise money for the next leg of the trip each time they stopped.
Only four months after his historic flight, Banning was killed in a plane crash during an air show at Camp Kearny military base in San Diego, California, on February 5, 1933. He was a passenger in a two-seater Travelaire biplane flown by Navy machinist mate second class Albert Burghardt, who was at the controls because Banning had been refused use of the airplane by an instructor at the Airtech Flying School. After taking off and climbing four-hundred feet, the plane stalled and entered an unrecoverable tailspin in front of hundreds of horrified spectators. Banning was recovered from the wreckage and died one hour later at a local hospital.
*George Wilson Becton, the controversial 43-year-old African-American evangelist, was murdered by two white gunmen as he and aides left a Philadelphia church after he preached a sermon there (May 21).
George Wilson Becton was one of the first of the colorful black preachers of Harlem. He began charismatic preaching in about 1930, after the decline of Marcus Garvey, and continued until he was mysteriously murdered in 1933. Becton's sermons were formal and presented in a dignified setting, with orchestral music and liveried pages. He was shot to death on May 21, 1933. He died without describing his attackers or explaining why anybody might have wanted him killed. Claude McKay wrote about Becton in his book Harlem, Negro Metropolis.
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*John Wesley Edward Bowen, the first African American president of Gammon Theological Seminary, died (July 20).
John Wesley Edward Bowen (b. December 3, 1855, New Orleans, Louisiana – July 20, 1933) was born into American slavery and became a Methodist clergyman, denominational official, college and university educator and one of the first African Americans to earn a Ph.D. degree in the United States. He is credited as the first African American to receive the Ph.D. degree from Boston University, which was granted in 1887.
Bowen was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on December 3, 1855, the son of Edward Bowen and Rose Simon Bowen. Edward Bowen, a carpenter, was originally from Maryland and later lived in Washington, D. C., but moved to New Orleans, where he was enslaved and held in bondage until he purchased his own freedom. In 1858, he purchased freedom for his wife and son, then three years old. Edward Bowen later served in the Union Army during the Civil War.
After the Civil War, Bowen studied at the Union Normal School in New Orleans, and New Orleans University, a university established by the Methodist Episcopal Church for the education of freedmen. New Orleans University merged with Straight College in 1934 to form Dillard University. Bowen received a Bachelor of Arts degree with the university’s first graduating class in 1878. From 1878 to 1882, he taught mathematics, Latin and Greek at Central Tennessee College (later known as Walden University) in Nashville, Tennessee.
In 1882, Bowen began theological studies at Boston University. While a theological student, he was the pastor of Revere Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1884, he completed work on, and was awarded, a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree from New Orleans University. When he completed the requirements for the Bachelor of Sacred Theology (S.T.B.) degree from Boston University in 1885, his classmates selected him as one of two students to speak at commencement exercises.
After graduation, Bowen became pastor of St. John’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey. He received a Master of Arts degree from New Orleans University in 1886. He married Ariel Serena Hodges of Baltimore, Maryland in 1886. They became the parents of four children.
In that same year, Bowen entered the Ph.D. program at Boston University in historical theology. He also did special advanced work in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic, and German, and in metaphysics and psychology. Boston University conferred the Ph.D. degree upon him in 1887. Later, Gammon Theological Seminary made him its first recipient of the honorary degree of doctor of divinity.
Bowen was chiefly a pastor after completing his doctoral degree. He pastored the Centennial Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore and also served as a professor of church history and systematic theology at Morgan College. A gifted preacher, Bowen conducted a notable revival during this pastorate in which there were 735 conversions. Bowen also served as pastor of Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. and as a professor of Hebrew at Howard University.
From 1889 to 1893, Bowen was a member and examiner for the American Institute of Sacred Literature. In 1892, he published "What Shall the Harvest Be? A National Sermon; or A Series of Plain Talks to the Colored People of America, on Their Problems." He represented the Methodist Episcopal church at the Conferences of World Methodism in Washington D.C. in 1891 and London in 1901.
In 1893, Bowen became professor of historical theology at Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia, a seminary founded in 1883 by the Methodist Episcopal Church for the preparation of African-American clergymen. He was the first African-American to teach there full-time. As the secretary of Gammon’s Stewart Missionary Foundation for Africa, he also edited its periodical, the Stewart Missionary Magazine.
In October, 1895, Bowen delivered “An Appeal to the King” on “Negro Day” at the Atlanta Cotton States’ Exposition. That December, he organized an important three-day conference on Africa held in conjunction with the exposition and published its proceedings as "Africa and the American Negro...Addresses and Proceedings of the Congress on Africa Held Under the Auspices of the Stewart Missionary Foundation for Africa of Gammon Theological Seminary in Connection with the Cotton States and International Exposition December 13-15, 1895" (1896).
As a member of the Board of Control of the Methodist Episcopal Church’s Epworth League, he organized a national conference in Atlanta on the Christian education of African-American youth. With I. Garland Penn, Bowen also edited and published its proceedings, "The United Negro:…Addresses and Proceedings, The Negro Young People’s Christian and Educational Congress," held on August 6–11, 1902 (1902).
In January 1904, Bowen and Jesse Max Barber launched The Voice of the Negro, a literary journal addressed to a national audience of African Americans. In September, 1905, they endorsed the Niagara Movement. Months later, they promoted the organization of the Georgia Equal Rights League, which had similar objectives. At the peak of its circulation in 1906, The Voice of the Negro claimed 12,000 to 15,000 subscribers.
In 1906, Bowen became the President of Gammon. In September, however, his inaugural year was shadowed by a severe race riot in which white rioters brutally attacked black people in Atlanta. Bowen opened the seminary to shelter black refugees from the riot. Three days after the rioting began, he was beaten and arrested by Atlanta’s white police. Barber fled the city, taking the The Voice of the Negro with him to Chicago, where he continued its publication for a year without Bowen’s assistance. Bowen survived the Atlanta race riot and served as Gammon’s President until 1910.
Bowen retired as head of the church history department of Gammon in 1926 but continued to teach until 1932, when he became an emeritus professor.
Bowen and his wife were the parents of four children. One of the children, John W.E. Bowen, Jr., graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, Wesleyan University and Harvard University. He became, like his father, a prominent figure in the Methodist Episcopal church, and was elected a bishop in 1949. Bowen’s first wife died in 1904 while visiting the World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1906 he married Irene L. Smallwood, who survived him. Bowen died on July 20, 1933, the last of his New Orleans University graduating class and the school’s oldest alumnus.
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*Grady Brooks was executed in Milledgeville, Georgia, for the murder of prison guard Lee Lindsay. Before going to the electric chair, the 19-year-old African-American confessed to 18 other murders, five of them when he was a 13-year-old child.
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*Sutton Griggs, the author of Imperium in Imperio, a utopian work that envisions a separate African American state within the United States, died in Houston, Texas.
Sutton Elbert Griggs (b. June 19, 1872, Chatfield, Texas - d. January 2, 1933, Houston, Texas) was an African American author, Baptist minister, and social activist. He is best known for his novel Imperium in Imperio, a utopian work that envisions a separate African-American state within the United States.
Griggs was born Elbert Sutton Griggs (he later changed the order of his given names) in 1872 in Chatfield, Texas, to the Reverend Allen R. and Emma Hodge Griggs. His father, a former Georgia slave, became a prominent Baptist minister and founder of the first black newspaper and high school in Texas. Sutton worked closely with his father on the National Baptist Convention's Education Committee. He wrote frequently later in life of his deep respect for his parents' characters and accomplishments.
Sutton Griggs attended Bishop College in Marshall, Texas and Richmond Theological Seminary. Upon graduation, he became pastor of the First Baptist Church in Berkley, Virginia. There he married Emma Williams, a teacher, in 1897. In 1899, he became pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in East Nashville and corresponding secretary of the National Baptist Convention.
Griggs was a prolific author, writing more than thirty books and pamphlets in his lifetime and selling them door-to-door or at the revival meetings at which he preached. His first novel, Imperium in Imperio, published in 1899, is his most famous. In 1901, Griggs founded the Orion Publishing Company to sell books to the African American market. None of his four subsequent novels achieved the success of Imperium in Imperio, but he produced a steady stream of social and religious tracts, as well as an autobiography.
An admirer of W. E. B. Du Bois and a supporter of the Niagara Movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Griggs was strongly influenced by contemporary social theory. He believed that the practice of social virtues alone could advance a culture and lead to economic success. The more radical ideas expressed in his novels, particularly Imperium in Imperio, have led him to be sometimes characterized as a militant separatist in the mold of Marcus Garvey. During his lifetime, however, his integrationist philosophy and courting of white philanthropy earned him the scorn of self-help advocates.
Griggs's careers in both the church and social welfare sphere were active and itinerant. In Houston, he helped establish the National Civil and Religious Institute. In 1914, he founded the National Public Welfare League. From 1925 to 1926, he served as president of the American Baptist Theological Seminary, which his father helped found. His longest tenure—19 years as pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Memphis — saw him act on his belief in the social mission of churches, providing the only swimming pool and gymnasium then available to African Americans in the city.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 stripped the Tabernacle of investment funds and led to its bankruptcy. Griggs returned to Hopewell Baptist Church in Denison, Texas, then to a brief pastorship in Houston. Shortly after resigning that post in 1933, he died in Houston, and was buried in Dallas.
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*Soprano Sissieretta Jones, known as "Black Patti", died in Providence, Rhode Island (June 24). She sang at Carnegie Hall, the Madison Square Garden, and the White House.
Matilda Sissieretta Jones, née Joyner, byname Black Patti, or Madame Jones (b. January 5, 1869, Portsmouth, Virginia — d. June 24, 1933, Providence, Rhode Island), was an opera singer who was considered the greatest black American in her field in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Jones early revealed her talent as a singer, and for a time she studied at the Providence (Rhode Island) Academy of Music. She may have undertaken further studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in 1886 or 1887, but that information, like much of her early and late life, is obscure. In 1888 she made her singing debut in New York City and toured the West Indies as a featured artist with the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University. Her rich, powerful soprano voice led one critic to dub her “the Black Patti” (after Adelina Patti, the foremost opera diva of the day). Jones disliked the epithet.
Until 1896 Jones sang in concert, opera, and vaudeville halls in solo recitals or with such groups as the Patrick Gilmore band. She appeared at a “Grand African Jubilee” at Madison Square Garden in April 1892, sang for President Benjamin Harrison at the White House in that year, and appeared at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Her tours took her to Canada, England, and continental Europe. She included much spiritual and ballad material in her repertoire, but she preferred selections from grand and light opera.
From 1896 to 1916 Jones toured continually with a troupe called, to her distaste, the Black Patti Troubadors, a motley group whose performances included blackface minstrel songs and “coon” songs and featured acrobats and comedians. Madame Jones, as she preferred to be known, restricted herself to operatic selections, which over the years grew to include costumes and scenery. Performing almost exclusively for white audiences who saw her as an oddity, she was nonetheless widely acclaimed the premier African-American singer of her time. After the breakup of the Black Patti Troubadors in 1916, she lived in obscurity until her death.
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One of the New Orleans cornet "kings" (succeeding Buddy Bolden and preceding King Oliver), Freddie Keppard (b. February 27, 1889, New Orleans, Louisiana – d. July 15, 1933, Chicago, Illinois) was one of the few innovators of the 1910 era who had a chance to record later on, giving listeners a glimpse of his abilities. Keppard was active from around 1906, leading the Olympia Orchestra and freelancing in New Orleans. In 1914, he helped bring jazz to Los Angeles with his Original Creole Band. After settling in Chicago in the early '20s, Keppard worked with Doc Cook's Dreamland Orchestra (with whom he recorded on several occasions), Erskine Tate, Ollie Powers, and Charles Elgar. He could have been the first jazz musician to record (back in 1916), but passed on the opportunity because he was afraid that competitors would steal his ideas. Keppard did record between 1923-1927 (his best sides were with his own Jazz Cardinals, particularly "Stock Yard Strut") and those performances feature him using a staccato phrasing influenced by brass bands and displaying a spirited tone. Unfortunately, Keppard was an alcoholic by the mid-'20s and was soon in a decline just when he should have been entering his prime. He died of tuberculosis in 1933 at the age of 43.
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Born April 13, 1854 in Macon, Georgia, Lucy Craft Laney grew up in a society still ruled by slavery. Born eleven years before the end of slavery, Lucy was the seventh of ten children born to Louisa and David Laney. Her parents were both former slaves, as her father had saved enough money to buy his freedom and that of his wife years before. Both of her parents were strong believers in education and were very giving to strangers. This upbringing would strongly influence Laney in her life. At the time of her birth it was illegal for blacks to read. However, with the assistance of Ms. Campbell, the slave owner’s sister, she learned to read at age four. She attended a mission school run by the AMA. In 1869, she matriculated at Atlanta University (later Clark Atlanta University), where she prepared to be a teacher.
Laney worked as a teacher in Macon, Milledgeville, and Savannah, Georgia, for ten years before deciding to open a school of her own. Due to health reasons, she settled in Augusta, Georgia, and founded the first school for black children. Her first class in 1883 was six children but Laney attracted interest in the community and, by the end of the second year, the school had 234 students.
With the increase in students, she needed more funding for her operation. She attended the northern Presbyterian Church Convention in 1886 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and pleaded her case there, but was initially turned down. However, one of the attendees, Francine E. H. Haines, later declared an interest in and donated $10,000 to Laney for the school. With this money, Laney expanded her offerings. She changed the school's name to The Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in honor of her benefactor and to indicate its goals of industrial and teacher training.
The school eventually grew to encompass an entire city block of buildings. By 1928, the school's enrollment was over 800 students.
Laney also opened the first black kindergarten and the first black nursing school in Augusta.
She died on October 24, 1933, in Augusta, Georgia.
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*Charles Tindley, a Methodist minister and gospel music composer known as the "Prince of Preachers", died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (July 26).
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*Father Charles Uncles (? - d. July 21, 1933, Baltimore, Maryland), one of the first African-American Catholic priests, died in Baltimore, Maryland. His death left only two black Catholic priests in the United States, Norman Dukette and Charles Logan.
*Billy Walker, a jockey who won the Kentucky Derby riding Baden-Baden, died In Louisville, Kentucky (September 20).
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Performing Arts
*A United States opera based on The Emperor Jones, Eugene O'Neill's 1920 play and composed by Louis Gruenberg, premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, with baritone Lawrence Tibbett in the title role of a black escaped convict turned ruler (January 7). Tibbett, who was white, appeared in blackface, but several other cast members were African-Americans.
*Nina Mae McKinney became the first African American to perform on television, appearing on a broadcast made by John Logie Baird in London (February 17).
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*Caterina Jarboro became the first African-American opera singer to perform at a major opera house, appearing at the New York Hippodrome for the Chicago Civic Opera (Chicago Opera Company) in the title role of Aida (July 22).
Publications
*****
*Freddie Keppard (sometimes rendered as Freddy Keppard), an early jazz cornetist who once held the title of "King" in the New Orleans jazz scene, died in Chicago, Illinois. This title was previously held by Buddy Bolden and succeeded by Joe Oliver.
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*Lucy Craft Laney (b. April 13, 1854, Macon, Georgia – d. October 24, 1933, Augusta, Georgia), an early African-American educator who in 1883 founded the first school for black children in Augusta, Georgia, died in Augusta, Georgia (October 24). She was principal of the Haines Institute for Industrial and Normal Education for 50 years. While he was Governor of the State of Georgia, Jimmy Carter selected her portrait to hang in the Georgia State Capitol.
Laney worked as a teacher in Macon, Milledgeville, and Savannah, Georgia, for ten years before deciding to open a school of her own. Due to health reasons, she settled in Augusta, Georgia, and founded the first school for black children. Her first class in 1883 was six children but Laney attracted interest in the community and, by the end of the second year, the school had 234 students.
With the increase in students, she needed more funding for her operation. She attended the northern Presbyterian Church Convention in 1886 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and pleaded her case there, but was initially turned down. However, one of the attendees, Francine E. H. Haines, later declared an interest in and donated $10,000 to Laney for the school. With this money, Laney expanded her offerings. She changed the school's name to The Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in honor of her benefactor and to indicate its goals of industrial and teacher training.
The school eventually grew to encompass an entire city block of buildings. By 1928, the school's enrollment was over 800 students.
Laney also opened the first black kindergarten and the first black nursing school in Augusta.
She died on October 24, 1933, in Augusta, Georgia.
*Charles Tindley, a Methodist minister and gospel music composer known as the "Prince of Preachers", died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (July 26).
Charles Albert Tindley (b. July 7, 1851, Berlin, Maryland – d. July 26, 1933, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a Methodist minister and gospel music composer who is often referred to as "The Prince of Preachers". He educated himself, became a minister and founded one of the largest Methodist congregations serving the African American community on the East Coast of the United States.
Tindley's father was a slave, but his mother was free. Tindley himself was thus considered to be free, but even so he grew up among slaves. After the Civil War, he moved to Philadelphia, where he found employment as a hod carrier (brick carrier). He and his wife Daisy attended the Bainbridge Street Methodist Episcopal Church. Charles later became the sexton, a job with no salary.
Never able to go to school, Tindley learned independently and by asking people to tutor him. He enlisted the help of a Philadelphia synagogue on North Broad Street to learn Hebrew and learned Greek by taking a correspondence course through the Boston Theological School. Without any degree, Tindley was qualified for ordination in the Methodist Episcopal Church by examination, with high ranking scores. He was ordained as a Deacon in the Delaware Conference in 1887 and as an elder in 1889. As was the practice of the Methodist Episcopal church, Tindley was assigned by his bishop to serve as an itinerant pastor staying a relatively short time at each charge: 1885 to Cape May, New Jersey, 1887 to South Wilmington, Delaware, 1889 to Odessa, Delaware. 1891 to Pocomoke, Maryland, 1894 to Fairmount, Maryland, and 1897 to Wilimington, Delaware at Ezion Methodist Church. In 1900, he became the Presiding Elder of the Wilmington District.
Tindley then became the pastor of the same church (Bainbridge Street Methodist Episcopal Church) at which he had been a janitor. Under his leadership, the church grew rapidly from the 130 members it had when he arrived. In 1906 the congregation moved from Bainbridge Street to Broad and Fitzwater Streets and was renamed East Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church. The property was purchased from the Westminster Presbyterian church and seated 900, though it was soon filled to overflowing. The congregation over time grew to a multi-racial congregation of 10,000. After his death, the church was renamed "Tindley Temple." The Tindley Temple United Methodist Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
Tindley was acquainted with politicians and business leaders in Philadelphia, including John Wanamaker. He worked with business leaders to assist his members in finding jobs. He also encouraged members to start their own businesses and purchase homes. The church formed the East Calvary Building and Loan Association to offer mortgages. Tindley also solicited donations from businessmen of food for the congregation's ministry of feeding the needy.
Tindley objected to social events that he considered degrading, including the 1912 Cake Walk and Ball, and The Soap Box Minstrels show at the Academy of Music on Broad and Locust Streets. In 1915, Tindley and other leaders, including Reverend Wesley Graham, led protesters in a march to the Forrest Theater to protest against the showing of D. W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation. They were attacked by whites with clubs, sticks, and bottles. Graham was hospitalized; Tindley's injuries were treated at home.
Tindley was the recipient of Doctor of Divinity Degrees from Bennett College and Morgan College in Baltimore, Maryland.
Tindley was a noted songwriter and composer of gospel hymns and is recognized as one of the founding fathers of American gospel music. Five of his hymns appear in the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal. His composition "I'll Overcome Someday" is credited by some observers to be the basis for the Civil Rights anthem "We Shall Overcome." (The song "We Shall Overcome" was composed by artists at the Highlander Folk School of Tennessee in 1947. However, Tindley's song had been brought to the school in the 1930s by tobacco workers from Charleston, South Carolina. Zilphia Horton, cultural worker and educator, taught the song at the school, where others, such as Pete Seeger and Guy Carawan, heard it. They altered Tindley's refrain "I'll Overcome Someday" to "We Shall Overcome" and the song was slowed down to be sung as a march hymn.) Another of Tindley's notable hymns is "(Take Your Burden to the Lord and) Leave It There" (1916), which has been included in several hymnals and has been recorded by numerous artists in a variety of styles. Others are "Stand by Me" (1905) and "What Are They Doing in Heaven?" (1901).
Tindley published his songs beginning in 1901, and published several hymn collections, including Soul Echoes in 1905 (enlarged edition "No. 2", 1909) and a series beginning with New Songs Of Paradise! in 1916. A posthumous New Songs of Paradise, No. 6 in 1941 was the first collection to bring together all 46 of Tindley's published hymns, though in some cases stanzas that had previously been published were left out. Beams of Heaven: Hymns of Charles Albert Tindley (1851-1933)(2006) restores the full original complement of verses.
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*Father Charles Uncles (? - d. July 21, 1933, Baltimore, Maryland), one of the first African-American Catholic priests, died in Baltimore, Maryland. His death left only two black Catholic priests in the United States, Norman Dukette and Charles Logan.
Father Charles Randolph Uncles, was the son of Lorenzo and Anna Marie (Buchanan) Uncles, of East Baltimore. In 1891, he became one of the first African Americans to be ordained a Roman Catholic priest, in the United States (the first being Augustus Tolton). He was one of the founders of the St. Joseph's Society of the Sacred Heart, formed to minister to the African American community.
The Mill Hill Missionary Society recruited a number of candidates to become priests for their North American mission. Uncles was the only one of these candidates, who studied at St. Peter’s Apostolic School in Liverpool, England, to become a priest. On returning to the United States, he studied at St. Joseph Seminary in Baltimore. He was ordained in December 1891 at the Cathedral of the Assumption by Cardinal James Gibbons. He celebrated his first Mass on Christmas Day.
From 1891-1925 Father Uncles taught mainly in Epiphany College in Baltimore and New Windsor, New York. He was one of the founding members of the St. Joseph's Society of the Sacred Heart in Baltimore in 1893, also known as the Josephite Fathers.
While residing at Epiphany College, Uncles fell ill and died July 21, 1933, in Baltimore, Maryland.
******Billy Walker, a jockey who won the Kentucky Derby riding Baden-Baden, died In Louisville, Kentucky (September 20).
William "Billy" Walker (b. 1860, Versailles, Kentucky - d. September 20, 1933, Louisville, Kentucky) was born a slave near Versailles, Kentucky. He was the leading rider at Churchill Downs in the fall racing season of 1875-76 and the spring campaigns of 1876 through 1878. He was the winning rider aboard Ten Broeck in a famous July 4, 1878, match race at Louisville, Kentucky, against the great California mare, Mollie McCarty.
For owner Dan Swigert and future United States Racing Hall of Fame trainer Edward D. Brown, Walker rode Baden-Baden to victory in the 1877 Kentucky Derby. Walker made his fourth and final appearance in the 1896 Derby, finishing seventh. He retired that year but stayed in horse racing as a trainer and as an adviser to renowned breeder, John E. Madden.
Billy Walker died in 1933 and was buried at the Louisville Cemetery. During the 1996 Kentucky Derby Week, Churchill Downs erected a headstone on Walker's previously unmarked grave with an epitaph outlining his career.
Performing Arts
*A United States opera based on The Emperor Jones, Eugene O'Neill's 1920 play and composed by Louis Gruenberg, premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, with baritone Lawrence Tibbett in the title role of a black escaped convict turned ruler (January 7). Tibbett, who was white, appeared in blackface, but several other cast members were African-Americans.
*Nina Mae McKinney became the first African American to perform on television, appearing on a broadcast made by John Logie Baird in London (February 17).
*****
*Caterina Jarboro became the first African-American opera singer to perform at a major opera house, appearing at the New York Hippodrome for the Chicago Civic Opera (Chicago Opera Company) in the title role of Aida (July 22).
Caterina Jarboro (1903-1986) sang the title role in Aida with the Chicago Opera Company in New York City. Born Catherine Yarboro in Wilmington, North Carolina, she began her career in Broadway musicals, including Shuffle Along (1921) and Running Wild (1923).
*****
*Hall Johnson's folk drama Run Little Chillun opened on Broadway.
The first folk opera by an African American to reach Broadway was Run, Little Chillun, by (Francis) Hall Johnson (1888-1970). It ran 126 performances. Johnson was one of the most successful choral directors of his time and had been choral director of Green Pastures in 1930.
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*Hall Johnson's folk drama Run Little Chillun opened on Broadway.
The first folk opera by an African American to reach Broadway was Run, Little Chillun, by (Francis) Hall Johnson (1888-1970). It ran 126 performances. Johnson was one of the most successful choral directors of his time and had been choral director of Green Pastures in 1930.
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*United Artists released the movie Emperor Jones, starring Paul Robeson in his first leading role. It was also the first Hollywood movie to star an African American with European American actors in supporting roles.
The Emperor Jones directed by Dudley Murphy and independently produced by John Krimsky and Gifford Cochran was to be the first of a series of film adaptations of Eugene O'Neill's plays. The film starred Paul Robeson. This movie employed an all-African American cast and was faithful to the play. It had a considerable success among critics and audiences. In creating an African American role of tragic grandeur, Robeson proved that African Americans need not be used only for light comedy or slapstick. In the context of the history of the African American in the cinema, this movie is a landmark in that it encouraged African American movie companies to make serious films.
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*Benny Goodman, a European American bandleader, began using African American musicians in recording sessions. In 1936, he would be the first major bandleader to have African Americans and European Americans playing together for the public.
*Benny Goodman, a European American bandleader, began using African American musicians in recording sessions. In 1936, he would be the first major bandleader to have African Americans and European Americans playing together for the public.
Benny Goodman began to use African American musicians for recordings. He later broke the convention against African Americans and European Americans playing together in public when Teddy Wilson, an African American, appeared with the Goodman band at the Hotel Congress in Chicago in 1936.
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*Katherine Dunham starred in Ruth Page's ballet La Guiablesse.
*Katherine Dunham starred in Ruth Page's ballet La Guiablesse.
*Choreographer Hemsley Winfield and his dance company appeared in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Emperor Jones, although they were not listed in the program.
*Run Little Chillun by Hall Johnson was a successful African American folk drama written by an African American. It ran 126 performances on Broadway.
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*The first black hero to be heard on network radio was Juano Hernandez's depiction of "John Henry: Black River Giant," which he performed in a series broadcast on CBS. {See also 1933: The Americas: Puerto Rico.}
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*The first black hero to be heard on network radio was Juano Hernandez's depiction of "John Henry: Black River Giant," which he performed in a series broadcast on CBS. {See also 1933: The Americas: Puerto Rico.}
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Publications
*The weekly newspaper Negro World, which had been founded 15 years earlier by Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association, ceased publication (October 17).
*Carter G. Woodson published The Miseducation of the Negro.
*Carter G. Woodson published The Miseducation of the Negro.
*Leon H. Washington founded the Los Angeles Sentinel.
Religious Institutions
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Sports
*On September 10, the first Negro League baseball all-star game, dubbed the "East-West All-Star Game" for the Negro National League, was played one month after the white Major League Baseball teams held their first all-star game, and at the same venue, Comiskey Park in Chicago, where 20,000 attended. The West team beat the East, 11-7 with future Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Bill Foster, Mule Suttles, Willie Wells, and Turkey Stearnes, while the East had future Cooperstown inductees Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Judy Johnson, Biz Mackey, Cool Papa Bell, Jud Wilson, Oscar Charleston, Andy Cooper and Manager Pop Lloyd.
*Kid Chocolate (Eligio Montalvo) lost his title as the world junior lightweight champion, after being knocked out in the seventh round by Frankie Klick in Philadelphia (December 25).
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Visual Arts
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*Solomon Lightfoot Michaux, a religious leader, founded the Good Neighbor League in Washington, D. C., an organization that fed 250,000 homeless and unemployed African Americans and later worked to organize the African American vote for Roosevelt.
The Good Neighbor League, founded in 1933 by Solomon Lightfoot (Elder) Michaux, a religious leader, fed 250,000 indigent persons at its Happy News Cafe in Washington, D. C. In 1932, Michaux had supported the Presidential candidacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt instead of the Republican Herbert Hoover. He later used the league as part of the Roosevelt political machine and organized the vote among African Americans.
Sports
*On September 10, the first Negro League baseball all-star game, dubbed the "East-West All-Star Game" for the Negro National League, was played one month after the white Major League Baseball teams held their first all-star game, and at the same venue, Comiskey Park in Chicago, where 20,000 attended. The West team beat the East, 11-7 with future Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Bill Foster, Mule Suttles, Willie Wells, and Turkey Stearnes, while the East had future Cooperstown inductees Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Judy Johnson, Biz Mackey, Cool Papa Bell, Jud Wilson, Oscar Charleston, Andy Cooper and Manager Pop Lloyd.
*Kid Chocolate (Eligio Montalvo) lost his title as the world junior lightweight champion, after being knocked out in the seventh round by Frankie Klick in Philadelphia (December 25).
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Statistics
*More than 25% of urban African Americans were on relief, compared with about 12% of urban European Americans.
According to the October report of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the percentages of African Americans and European Americans on relief were: United States total: African Americans 17.8%, European Americans 9.5%; urban African Americans 26.7%, European Americans 9.6%; rural African Americans 10.9%, European Americans 9.6%; urban Northern African Americans 25.4%, European Americans 9.8%; urban Southern African Americans 26.5%, European Americans 13.6%; and rural Southern African Americans 3%, European Americans 3.8%.
*53,000 African Americans, or 9.8% of the total employees, worked for the Federal government. The figure rose to 82,000 in 1938, or 9.9% of all Federal employees.
Visual Arts
*E. Simms Campbell began contributing cartoons and artwork to Esquire magazine.
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