Monday, February 6, 2023

2023: October 1930 Chronology

 


1930 

Pan-African Chronology

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October

*Louis Armstrong became the first jazz musician to record "Body and Soul".

"Body and Soul" is a popular song and jazz standard written in 1930 with music by Johnny Green and lyrics by Edward Heyman, Robert Sour and Frank Eyton.  It was also used as the musical theme and underscoring in the American film noir boxing drama Body and Soul. 

"Body and Soul" was written in New York City for the British actress and singer Gertrude Lawrence, who introduced it to London audiences. Published in England, it was first performed in the United States by Libby Holman in the 1930 Broadway revue Three's a Crowd. In Britain, the orchestras of Jack Hylton and Ambrose recorded the ballad first in the same week in February 1930. In the United States, the tune grew quickly in popularity, and, by the end of 1930, at least eleven American bands had recorded it. Louis Armstrong was the first jazz musician to record "Body and Soul", in October 1930, but it was Paul Whiteman and Jack Fulton who popularized it in the United States.

"Body and Soul" is one of the most recorded jazz standards, and multiple lyrics have been written for it. "Body and Soul" is usually performed in the key of D-flat major.  There is a verse that precedes the chorus, that is rarely performed, although recordings by both Libby Holman and Billie Holiday include it. The main part of the tune consists of a repeated eight-bar melody, followed by an eight-bar bridge and a final eight-bar return to the melody. "Body and Soul" is considered a challenging piece to solo over; however, the unusual nature of the chords provides a "large degree of improvisational freedom".

*****

 October 2

*Ivy Dumont, the first woman to serve as Governor-General of the Bahamas, was born at Roses on Long Island in the Bahamas.
Ivy Leona Dumont (b. October 2, 1930, Roses on Long Island, Bahamas) was the sixth Governor-General of the Bahamas.  She was the first woman in the Bahamas to hold this office serving from January 1, 2002 until November 30, 2005. She previously served as Education Minister from 1995 to 2000.
Ivy Leona Turnquest was born on October 2, 1930, at Roses on Long Island in the Bahamas to Cecelia Elizabeth (née Darville) and Alphonso Tennyton Turnquest.  After completing her elementary education in Roses and Buckleys settlements on Long Island, Turnquest continued her schooling at the Government High School on New Providence.  Attaining her Cambridge Junior Certificate in 1946 and her Cambridge Senior Certificate in 1947, Turnquest graduated in 1948. She furthered her studies at the Bahamas Teachers' Training College earning her training teaching certificate in 1951.  On August 24, 1951, Turnquest married Reginald Dumont, a Guyanese immigrant who was working for the Bahamas Police Force.  She began working for the Ministry of Education and Culture as a student teacher and earned her full teaching certificate in 1954.
Upon receipt of her credentials, Dumont started her career as a classroom teacher.  In 1962 and 1963, she studied in the United States as a Fulbright scholar and then in 1965, earned a General Certificate of Education from the Teacher's Union Institute. From 1968 to 1970, Dumont attended the University of Miami, graduating with her bachelor's degree in education. Appointed as head teacher at that time, Dumont then moved into administration, serving as education officer and as deputy director of education, before completing her education career after 21 years in 1975.
Dumont then began working as the deputy permanent secretary of the Ministry of Works and Utilities in 1975. She continued her own education and enrolled at Nova University in 1976. Dumont graduated with a doctorate in public administration in 1978 and that same year left the Ministry of Works and began working for Roywest Trust Corporation/Nat West International Trust Holdings Limited as a training officer. She remained with Nat West for the next thirteen years, serving as an assistant manager, then personnel manager and group relations manager, before retiring in 1991.
In 1992, Dumont was appointed to the Senate as a representative of the Free National Movement (FNM). Simultaneously, she was promoted to the cabinet by Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, to serve as Minister of Health and Environment. She held this post until 1995, when she was moved to the Ministry of Education and Training. That ministry and Dumont's post transitioned to the Ministry of Education in 1997. She retired from the cabinet in 2000, but retained her Senate seat. In 2001, when Orville Turnquest resigned as Governor-General to facilitate his son Tommy Turnquest's run for party leadership the following year, Dumont was selected as his interim replacement on November 13, 2001. She was confirmed as the permanent Governor-General on January 1, 2002, becoming the first woman to hold the post. She resigned from the post on November 30, 2005 and the following day was feted with a farewell ceremony commemorating her fifty-eight years in public service.
In 2007, the University of the West Indies conferred an honorary doctor of laws degree upon Dumont. After leaving public service, Dumont wrote her autobiography, Roses to Mount Fitzwilliam and remained active, speaking to public schools and encouraging youth to further their education.

*****

October 3

*A revolution broke out in Brazil against the rule of President Washington Luis.


***
The Revolution of 1930 (Portuguese: Revolução de 1930), was an armed movement in Brazil led by the states of Minas Gerais, Paraiba and Rio Grande do Sul, culminating in a coup. The revolution ousted President Washington Luis on October 24, 1930, prevented the inauguration of President-elect Julio Prestes, and ended the Old Republic.   
In 1929, leaders of Sao Paulo broke the alliance with the mineiros (i.e. people from Minas Gerais state), known as the "coffee with milk policy" ("política do café-com-leite" in Portuguese), and supported the paulista Júlio Prestes as a candidate for the presidency. In response, the President of Minas Gerais, Antônio Carlos Ribeiro de Andrada, supported the opposition candidate from the south, Getulio Vargas.

On March 1, 1930, elections for President were held and victory was won by the government's candidate, Júlio Prestes, who was the president of São Paulo state. However, he did not take office because the coup was triggered on October 3, 1930. He was instead exiled.
Getúlio Vargas assumed the leadership of the provisional government on November 3, 1930, a date that marks the end of the Old Republic.

***

(See also Appendix 10: The Old Republic.)

***
(See also Appendix 11: Coffee with Milk Politics)

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(See also Appendix 14: The Revolution of 1930)

***

*Austin Amissah, a Ghanaian lawyer, judge and academic who became a judge of the Court of Appeal in Botswana, was born in Accra, Ghana.

Austin Neeabeohe Evans Amissah (b. October 3, 1930, Accra, Ghana – d. January 20, 2001, London, England) studied at Jesus College, Oxford and was called to the bar as a member of Lincoln's Inn in 1955. He was Director of Public Prosecutions for Ghana from 1962 to 1966, then became a judge of the Court of Appeal from 1966 to 1976; he was seconded from this position to become a professor and Dean of the Law Faculty at the University of Ghana from 1969 to 1974 and chairman of the Ghana Law Reform Commission from 1969 to 1975. He was appointed Attorney General and Minister of Justice in 1979, and later became a judge of the Court of Appeal in Botswana from 1981 to 2001, including a period as President of the Court of Appeal. His writings included Criminal Procedure in GhanaThe Contribution of Courts to Government: a West African view (1981) and Arbitration in Africa (1996). 

An eminent jurist, academic and author, Justice Amissah's career spanned Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Europe. Born in Ghana in 1930, Justice Amissah became that country's Attorney General and served on Commissions and Enquiries across the Commonwealth. As President of Botswana's Court of Appeal, he made a landmark ruling in favor of Unity Dow's right to confer nationality on her children. He found that the Botswana constitution's guarantee of equal treatment of men and women overrode an immigration regulation stipulating that nationality rights could be conferred only by a man.

He died in London on January 20, 2001.

***

October 4


*The Cuban congress granted the request of President Gerardo Machado to suspend the constitution in and around Havana until after general elections on November 1.

*****

October 7

*Austin Stoker, a Trinidadian American actor known for his role as Lt. Ethan Bishop in the movie Assault on Precinct 13, was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

Austin Stoker (b. October 7, 1930, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago – d. October 7, 2022, Los Angeles, California) was a Trinidadian American actor known for his role as Lt. Ethan Bishop, the police officer in charge of the besieged Precinct 9, Division 13, in John Carpenter's Howard Hawks-inspired 1976 film, Assault on Precinct 13. This was one of the few heroic starring roles for a black actor in an action film of the 1970s outside of the blaxploitation genre.

Stoker was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on October 7, 1930. He started his career on stage, notably the 1954 Broadway production of Truman Capote's House of Flowers, where he met his future wife, Enid Mosier (acting name Vivian Bonnell).  Prior to his role as Lt. Bishop, Stoker appeared in several blaxploitation films, often playing police detectives. Among these films were Abby (1974), Combat Cops (1974), and Sheba Baby (1975), in which he played Pam Grier's love interest. Some of Stoker's other notable acting roles were in Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), Horror High (1974), Airport 1975 (1974), Victory at Entebbe (1976), and the 1977 television mini-series Roots. 

Stoker is known to Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans for his role as Dr. Ken Melrose in the 1982 B-movie, Time Walker, in which he appeared with Darwin Joston, his co-star from Assault on Precinct 13.  

Austin Stoker died of renal failure at the Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, on October 7, 2022, Stoker's 92nd birthday.


*****

{See also Appendix 19: Assault on Precinct 13.}

*****

October 8

*The artist Faith Ringgold was born in New York City, New York.

Faith Ringgold (b. October 8, 1930, New York, New York - d. April 13, 2024, Englewood, New Jersey), was an artist and author who became famous for innovative, quilts that communicate her political beliefs.

*****

(See also Appendix 27: Faith Ringgold, Painter, Sculptor, Author, Performance Artist, and Civil Rights Activist.)


*****

October 10

*Horace Tulloch, a Jamaican cricketer, was born in Kingston, Jamaica. Tulloch played in four first-class matches for the Jamaican cricket team from 1951 to 1962.

*****

October 13

*Rufus Herve Bacote, a prominent physician in Kentucky and Tennessee who served as a First Lieutenant and an army doctor in the 370th Infantry Regiment of the 93rd Division during World War I, died in Earlington, Kentucky (October 13).


Rufus Herve Bacote (b. July 1, 1890, Timmonsville, South Carolina – d. October 13, 1930, Earlington, Kentucky) was born in Timmonsville, South Carolina, in a town ten miles from Florence South Carolina. He lived in an area mostly designated for agriculture. He was born to M.T. Bacote and Hattie Jackson of South Carolina. His father was a farmer. Rufus was the second oldest of four children. In 1917, Bacote graduated from Meharry Medical College, in Nashville, at the age of 27. Bacote registered for the World War I draft in May 1917.
In 1917, Dr. Bacote began military service as a first lieutenant in the Army Reserve Corps and reported to the Fort Des Moines Medical Officers Training camp in Iowa. After remaining in the camp for 46 days , Bacote transferred first to Camp Funston (in Kansas), then to Camp Logan (in Houston, Texas).  Bacote was assigned to the 370th Infantry Regiment of the 93rd Division, which was mostly comprised of African American soldiers of the Old 8th Illinois National Guard. Bacote was commissioned as a First Lieutenant and assigned as a medical doctor.
Fearing the threat of race riots coming from Camp Logan, Bacote and his unit were sent to France on the USS President Grant in 1918.  General Pershing assigned a majority of the African American troops over to the French who had been requesting American assistance. Bacote fought alongside fellow medical school graduates, such as George Washington Antoine and Claudius Ballard.
Bacote experienced minimal injuries during the war and had to deal with patients experiencing gassing effects and serious illness from the conditions. In 1918, Bacote was discharged.
After being discharged, Bacote returned to Nashville in the Davidson County, Tennessee, with his wife. Later, after hearing from his medical school that there were shortages of physicians, the Bacotes moved to Kentucky where Bacote practiced medicine. In 1920, he moved again to Earlington, Kentucky. Dr. Bacote remained in Earlington and practiced there until his death in 1930.
Dr. Bacote married Amanda Bacote shortly after his graduation from medical school in 1917. The couple remained childless. 

In 1930, Dr. Bacote died of kidney disease. His body was moved to Nashville and buried.

After his death, Mrs. Bacote moved to Chicago and was heavily involved in the Pilgrim Baptist Church School there until her death.

*****

October 14


*Henry Creamer, the song lyricist best known for composing the lyrics for "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", died in New York City, New York. 

Henry Creamer (b. June 21, 1879, Richmond, Virginia – d. October 14, 1930, New York City, New York) was an African American popular song lyricist. He was born in Richmond, Virginia, and died in New York. He co-wrote many popular songs in the years from 1900 to 1929, often collaborating with Turner Layton, with whom he also appeared in vaudeville.
Henry Creamer was a singer, dancer, songwriter and stage producer/director. He first performed on the vaudeville circuit in the United States and in Europe as a duo with pianist Turner Layton, with whom he also co-wrote songs. Two of their most enduring songs, for which Creamer wrote the lyrics, are "After You've Gone" (1918), which was popularized by Sophie Tucker, and "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" (1922) which was included in the soundtrack for one of the dance numbers in the Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers 1939 movie The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle.
Success on Broadway arrived in 1922 when Creamer’s Creole Production Company produced the show Strut Miss Lizzie, and in 1923 to seal their success, Bessie Smith recorded their song "Whoa, Tillie, Take Your Time". His other Broadway stage scores include Three Showers. Creamer and Layton disbanded as a duo in 1924, when Layton relocated to Europe after which Creamer continued his songwriting with pianist James P. Johnson. In 1924, Creamer joined ASCAP.
In the fall of 1926, Creamer was commissioned to direct the Cotton Club revue, The Creole Cocktail. The show featured Lottie Gee, Loncia Williams. Henry and LaPearl, Louie Parker, White and Sherman, Eddie Burke, Ruby Mason and Albertine Pickens.
Also in 1926, Creamer and James P. Johnson wrote "Alabama Stomp". In 1930, they achieved another hit with "If I Could Be with You" which was recorded by Ruth Etting.  The song also became the theme song for McKinney's Cotton Pickers and was also a hit for Louis Armstrong.
Creamer was a co-founder with James Reese Europe of the Clef Club, an important early African American musicians and entertainers organization in New York City.

*****

*Mobutu Sese Seko, a President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was born in Lisala, Belgian Congo.

Mobutu Sese Seko, also called Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu Wa Za Banga, original name Joseph (-Désiré) Mobutu, (b. October 14, 1930, Lisala, Belgian Congo [now Democratic Republic of the Congo] — d. September 7, 1997, Rabat, Morocco), President of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) who seized power in a 1965 coup and ruled for some 32 years before being ousted in a rebellion in 1997.

Mobutu was educated in missionary schools and began his career in 1949 in the Belgian Congolese army, the Force Publique, rising from a clerk to a sergeant major, the highest rank then open to Africans. While still in the army, Mobutu contributed articles to newspapers in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa). After his discharge in 1956 he became a reporter for the daily L’Avenir (“The Future”) and later editor of the weekly Actualités Africaines.

Through his press contacts Mobutu met the Congolese nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba, whose Congolese National Movement (Mouvement National Congolais; MNC) he joined soon after it was launched in 1958. In 1960 Mobutu represented Lumumba at the Brussels Round Table Conference on Congo independence until the release of Lumumba, who had been jailed for his nationalist activities in the Congo. During the conference, Mobutu supported Lumumba’s proposals (which were adopted) for a strongly centralized state for the independent Congo.

When the Congo became independent on June 30, 1960, the coalition government of President Joseph Kasavubu and Premier Lumumba appointed Mobutu secretary of state for national defense. Eight days later the Congo’s Force Publique mutinied against its Belgian officers. As one of the few officers with any control over the army (gained by liberally dispensing commissions and back pay to the mutineers), Mobutu was in a position to influence the developing power struggle between Kasavubu and Lumumba.

Mobutu covertly supported Kasavubu’s attempt to dismiss Lumumba. When Lumumba rallied his forces to oust Kasavubu in September 1960, Mobutu seized control of the government and announced that he was “neutralizing” all politicians. In February 1961, however, Mobutu turned over the government to Kasavubu, who made Mobutu commander in chief of the armed forces. Many believe that Mobutu bore some responsibility for the death of Lumumba, who was arrested by Mobutu’s troops and flown to Katanga, where, it is believed, he was killed by Congolese or Katangese troops.

As commander in chief, Mobutu reorganized the army. In 1965, after a power struggle had developed between President Kasavubu and his premier, Moise Tshombe, Mobutu removed Kasavubu in a coup and assumed the presidency. Two years later Mobutu put down an uprising led by white mercenaries attached to the Congolese army. His efforts to revive the Congo’s economy included such measures as nationalizing the Katanga copper mines and encouraging foreign investment. Agricultural revitalization lagged, however, and consequently, the need for food imports increased.

As president, Mobutu moved to Africanize names. The name of the country was changed in October 1971 from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo [Kinshasa]) to the Republic of Zaire (the country reverted to its earlier name in 1997). In January 1972 he changed his own name from Joseph-Désiré Mobutu to Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (“The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake”).

Mobutu attempted to soften the military nature of his regime by filling government posts with civilians. He sought to build popular support through his Popular Movement of the Revolution (Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution; MPR), which until 1990 was the country’s only legal party. Opposition to his rule came from numerous Congolese exiles, ethnic groups that had played decisive roles in previous governments, small farmers who gained no share in the attempted economic revival, and some university students. He also faced a continuing threat of attacks on the Shaba region (Mobutu’s Africanized name for the Katanga province) by Katangese rebels based in Angola.

In 1977, Mobutu had to request French military intervention to repel an invasion of Zaire by Angolan-backed Katangese. He was re-elected to the presidency in one-man contests in 1970 and 1977. Over the years, Mobutu proved adept at maintaining his rule in the face of internal rebellions and attempted coups, but his regime had little success in establishing the conditions needed for economic growth and development. Endemic governmental corruption, mismanagement, and neglect led to the decline of the country’s infrastructure, while Mobutu himself reportedly amassed one of the largest personal fortunes in the world.

With the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, Mobutu lost much of the Western financial support that had been provided in return for his intervention in the affairs of Zaire’s neighbors. Marginalized by the multi-party system and ill, Mobutu finally relinquished control of the government in May 1997 to the rebel leader Laurent Kabila, whose forces had begun seizing power seven months earlier. Mobutu died in exile a short time later.

*****

October 15

*Christian Tumi, a Cameroonian prelate who became the bishop of Yagoua, was born. 

Christian Wiyghan Tumi (b. October 15, 1930, Kikaikelaki, Cameroons – d. April 3, 2021, Douala, Cameroon) was a Cameroonian prelate of the Catholic Church who was archbishop of Douala from 1991 to 2009. He was bishop of Yagoua from 1980 to 1982. After serving as coadjutor bishop of Garona beginning in 1982, he was bishop there from 1984 to 1991. He was made a cardinal 1988. Tumi was the first cardinal from Cameroon.

Born on October 15, 1930, in Kikaikelaki, a small village near Kumbo, in the Nso clan of the Northwest Region of Cameroon, Tumi studied at local seminaries in Cameroon and Nigeria. He trained as a teacher in Nigeria and London, then earned a licentiate in theology in the Catholic University of Lyon and a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Buea on April 17, 1966, and then served as a Vicar in Soppo for a year before becoming a professor at Bishop Rogan College's seminary. After studying abroad from 1969 to 1973, he returned to his diocese and was named rector of the seminary in Bambui.

On December 6, 1979, Tumi was appointed the first bishop of the Diocese of Yagoua.  He received his episcopal consecration on January 6, 1980, from Pope John Paul II. On November 19, 1982, he was named archbishop coadjutor of Garoua and he succeeded as archbishop there when his predecessor's resignation was accepted on March 17, 1984.

In 1982, Tumi was elected vice president of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon and, in 1985, its president, a post he held until 1991.

Pope John Paul II made Tumi a cardinal on June 28, 1988, assigning him as Cardinal Priest the title of Santi Martiri dell'Uganda a Poggio Ameno on June 28, 1988. On July 6, 1991, Tumi was named a member of the Pontifical Council for Dialogue with Non-Believers.  Tumi was named the Archbishop of Douala on August 31, 1991. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI.  

Tumi was critical of the government's attempt to suppress Anglophone culture in Cameroon and advocated a federation to allow the Francophone and Anglophone regions to coexist in Cameroon.In 2009, Tumi led thousands in a march in Douala to protest Cameroon's endorsement of the Maputo Protocol, a women's rights charter promoted by the African Union. Critics of the document believed it would ease restrictions on abortion and promote homosexuality. In a 2007 sermon Tumi denounced child sexual abuse as a scandal and the shame of contemporary society. 

Tumi was kidnapped on November 5, 2020, and released unharmed on November 6, 2020. His captors released video footage of their interrogation of Tumi.

Tumi died in a hospital in Douala on April 3, 2021, in the early hours following an illness. After a video of his corpse in the hospital bed was released on the Internet. Authorities denounced it as a violation of privacy and ordered an investigation.

*****

 October 20

*Royal Robertson, an American artist, was born in Saint Mary Parish, Louisiana.

Royal Robertson (b. October 20, 1930, Saint Mary Parish, Louisiana – d. July 5, 1997, Baldwin, Louisiana), also known as the self-proclaimed Prophet Royal Robertson, was an American artist.

Born in Saint Mary Parish, Louisiana, on October 20, 1930, Robertson spent almost his entire life in Baldwin, Louisiana.  Robertson left school having completed the eighth grade. In his late teens, he apprenticed as a sign painter and traveled to the West coast in his early twenties working as a field hand and sign painter.  He returned to Louisiana in the 1950s to care for his mother where he continued to work as a sign painter. He married Adell Bren (or Lockett) in 1955 and they had eleven children. Their marriage ended after 19 years when Adell left him for another man, moved to Texas taking their children with her, and became a minister.

Robertson remained in Louisiana after his marriage ended and became a recluse.  He was largely scorned by his neighbors and was overcome by misogynistic rage towards his former wife and women in general. Robertson developed paranoid schizophrenia and claimed to have had his first vision, a futuristic vision of a spaceship with God as the driver, when he was fourteen. When his marriage ended he began to record his visions in his imagery and writings. Numerous hallucinatory visions of space travel where aliens predicted the End of Days through complex numerological formulas and warned him about the dangers of adultery and fornication led Robertson to believe that he was a victim of a global female conspiracy.  He believed that his ex-wife's betrayal would be the cause of the cataclysmic destruction of humanity, and that his art was divinely sanctioned.  Robertson saw himself as a patriarch in search of a new Zion and a prophet whose legacy would consist of his apocryphal work. Robertson identified himself as "Libra Patriarch Prophet Lord Archbishop Apostle Visionary Mystic Psychic Saint Royal Robertson".


Robertson worked on materials like poster board and paper or wood using magic markers, tempera paint, colored pencils, ballpoint pens, and glitter. He studied the Bible and there are many references to it in his work together with references to "girlie magazines", comic strips and science fiction.  He was preoccupied with numerology and biblical prophecies of the End of Days from the Book of Revelation. Frequent themes included images of aliens and their spaceships, Bible verses and religious references, fire breathing, godzilla-like monsters, snakes, architectural drawings of houses and temples in futuristic cities, superheroes, and portraits of Adell often identified with Jezebel and other Amazon-like "harlots". His colorful drawings often included rambling, judgmental, ranting texts, sometimes in comic book-like speech balloons, about "adulterous whores" and unfaithful spouses. He frequently referenced precise and painful moments in his life, particularly his wife's unfaithfulness to him, and produced calendars chronicling memories of his marriage in short journal notations scribbled in each date's block. Much of his work included images that conveyed a sense of the artist pitted against the forces of evil. His works were often double-sided and when he signed pieces, he would add "Prophet" to the front of his name, or alternatively "Patriarch".


Robertson's home and yard were decorated with hundreds of his signs, drawings, calendars, and shrines. The exterior was decorated with a variety of painted and rotating signs including warnings that "whores" and "bastards" should stay away and misogynistic messages denouncing "bad" women often addressed to his ex-wife Adell. The interior was decorated with his drawings pinned to every available wall. Many drawings inside his home were of his ex-wife and the interior included a number of shrines dedicated to her. According to Allamel, Robertson developed a "complicated spatial ritualization" before he would allow visitors into his "sacred/profane inner space". His home was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in August 1992. Two collectors helped him file papers with the federal government to recover from his losses.


Robertson's work has been featured in many exhibitions and a number of works are held in permanent collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum; the Minneapolis Institute of Art; the Mississippi Museum of Art; the Hilliard University Art Museum in Lafayette, Louisiana; the Brogan Museum, the American Visionary Art Museum and the Art Museum of Southeast Texas. 


Robertson died suddenly from a heart attack on July 5, 1997, in Louisiana.


*****

October 21

*Andre van Deventer, the South African Commander of Task Force 101 during the Angolan Civil War of 1975-76, was born in King William's Town, South Africa.

Andre van Deventer (b. October 21, 1930, King William's Town, South Africa) was a South African Army officer who served as the Chief of Staff Finance from 1976 - 1979 and later Secretary of the State Security Council until 1985.

Deventer joined the Permanent Force in 1955 and completed the Senior Command and Staff Duties Course in 1961. He served as a Member of the Directing Staff at the South African Army College.  He commanded The Second South African Infantry Battalion from January 1965 until December 1967. 

Deventer completed the British Army Staff Course at Camberley. Officer Commanding SWA Command. He later served as Officer Commanding Orange Free State Command and North Western Command.

In 1974, Deventer was appointed General Officer Commanding of The First South African Corps.  During the Angolan Civil War (1975-1976), Deventer served as Commander of Task Force 101.

Deventer served as Chief of Staff Finance from October 1, 1976, to August 6, 1979. He later served as the Secretary of the State Security Council until 1985.

*****

October 22

*Lew Leslie's Blackbirds of 1930 premiered at New York's Royal Theater with Ethel Waters and Cecil Mack's Choir.  Songs in the musical include "Memories of You" by Eubie Blake with lyrics by Andy Razaf.  The musical would have 57 performances.

*****

Lew Leslie (b. Lewis Lessinsky; April 15, 1888 – d. March 10, 1963) was an American writer and producer of Broadway shows. Leslie got his start in show business in vaudeville in his early twenties. Although white, he was the first major impresario to present African American artists on the Broadway stage. He had two well-known wives, torch singer Belle Baker and Ziegfeld Follies showgirl Irene Wales.

Lew Leslie became famous for his stage shows at the Cotton Club and later for his Blackbirds revues, which he mounted in 1926, 1928, 1930, 1933 and 1939.  Blackbirds of 1928 starring Adelaide Hall, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Tim Moore and Aida Ward, was his most successful revue and ran for over one year on Broadway, where it became the hit of the season. The sell-out show transferred to the Moulin Rouge in Paris, France, where it ran for three months before returning to the United States.  Upon returning to the United States, the revue commenced an American road tour. Adelaide Hall starred in the show for just over two years. 

The Blackbirds revues helped advance the career of several famous African American artists, including Florence Mills, Adelaide Hall, Tim Moore, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Edith Wilson and Lottie Gee. 

Leslie began his career doing an act in vaudeville. He worked on stage first as an impressionist then in a double act with Belle Baker to whom he was married for a while. Becoming an agent, he listed among his clients Ben Bernie, Frank Fay and Bea Palmer. One of the earliest floor shows Leslie produced was named Aphrodite, which he presented in a Manhattan nightclub in 1922. The show featured a relatively unknown Sally Rand, whose real name was Helen Gould Beck. Ms. Rand later went on to make a fortune by creating her fan dance burlesque routine. 

Leslie next put on a revue starring Belle Baker and Bea Palmer at the Café de Paris, which later became the Plantation Club where Leslie staged the Plantation Revue,  the second edition of which, in 1922, starred Florence Mills and her husband, dancer Ulysses "Slow Kid" Thompson,  Leslie also staged Dixie To Broadway (1924), again starring Mills and Thompson, and then came his Blackbirds revues, which began in London in 1926 with a show also starring Mills.  At first, these revues were only moderately successful but they paved the way for the sensational hit, Blackbirds of 1928.

In January 1928, Blackbirds opened at Les Ambassadeurs Club in New York under the heading Lew Leslie's Blackbird Revue, starring Adelaide Hall. On May 9, 1928, the show transferred to the Liberty Theatre, Broadway and was re-titled Blackbirds of 1928. Along with Adelaide Hall, the show also starred Aida Ward and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. The show ran until August the following year (1929), playing a total of 518 performances. 

The songs for Blackbirds of 1928 were composed by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, both of whom worked on revues at the Cotton Club. For Blackbirds of 1928, they wrote "Baby!", "Dixie" and "Here Comes My Blackbird", and while these had little life outside the show the same cannot be said for others that became popular: "Diga Diga Doo", "Doin’ The New Low-Down", "I Must Have That Man" and what became a perennial favorite, "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby".

Leslie’s shows that followed included several editions of Blackbirds, the most successful of which were produced for more receptive audiences in Great Britain, from 1934-37. Ethel Waters appeared in the 1930 edition in New York, while the 1934 show had Biil "Bojangles" Robinson, and the 1936 show, which also ran in London, featured an appearance by the Nicholas Brothers. The last of the series, Blackbirds of 1939, produced in New York, included in its cast Lena Horne, whom Leslie called "the New Florence Mills". Interspersed amidst these revues were other Leslie ventures, including The International Revue (1930) and Rhapsody In Black (1931). Although not among the leading Broadway moguls of the '20s, Leslie helped make an important contribution to the integration of the Broadway musical.


*****

(See also Appendix 12: "Memories of You".)

*****

October 24

*Brazil's three-week civil war ended in rebel victory as President Washington Luis resigned.

Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa (b. October 26, 1869 – d. August 4, 1957) was a Brazilian politician who served as the 13th President of Brazil.  Elected governor of Sao Paulo state in 1920 and president of Brazil in 1926, Washington Luís belonged to the Republican Party of Sao Paulo (PRP) and served as the last president of the First Brazilian Republic.


Facing the crisis generated by the Great Depression in the United States, the President lost almost all his support. He selected his friend Julio Prestes as his successor in 1930, but just three weeks before the end of his term, Luís was overthrown in a coup d'etat during the Brazilian Revolution of 1930 and was succeeded as president by the short-lived Brazilian Military Junta in the last few months of 1930.


His family was of Portuguese Romani descent. He was born in Macaé, Rio de Janeiro, and moved to São Paulo, where he was educated and graduated from the University of Sao Paulo Law School in 1891. He was appointed prosecutor in Barra Mansa, Rio de Janeiro in 1892, but resigned to devote himself to law in Batatais, Sao Paulo, where he began his political career. Luís was an alderman in Batatais with Federal Republican Party (Partido Republicano Federal; PRF) and became President of the Municipal Chamber in 1897. 


Luís was mayor of Batatais from 1898 to 1899. He was elected congressman from the Farmer's Party (Partido da Lavoura) in 1900. Luís was a state representative for the Paulista Republican Party (Partido Republicano Paulista; PRP) between 1904 and 1906, participating in the Constituent Assembly of Sao Paulo, which revised the Constitution of the State in 1905. He resigned as representative to take the office of Secretary of State of Justice and Public Safety from 1906 to 1912.


Luis was the leader of the situationists and again became a state representative for the Paulista Republican Party from 1912 to 1913. He interrupted his mandate to become mayor of Sao Paulo (1914–1919), when he faced the general strike of 1917.  He was governor of the state of Sao Paulo from 1920 to 1924. In 1924, Luís led the 3rd Battalion organized in Batatais to fight the rebels of São Paulo, which in 1925 became the Miguel Costa-Prestes Column. From 1925 to 1926, Luís served as a senator for the PRP.


Through direct election, Luís went on to hold the Presidency of the Republic on November 15, 1926. He was deposed by the Revolution of 1930 on October 24 and went into exile in Europe and the United States, returning to Brazil after seventeen years in 1947. After returning from exile, he moved to Sao Paulo and devoted himself to historical studies. He was a worthy member of the philanthropic hospital Santa Casa de Sao Paulo; honorary president of the Brazilian Red Cross; a member of the Institutes of History and Geography of Sao Paulo, Bahia and Ceara; member of the Academia Paulista de Letras; and member of the Brazilian Historic and Geographic Institute. The Rodovia Washington Luis in the state of Sao Paulo is named in his honor.


Throughout the 1920s, the Old Republic suffered a deep wear due to demonstrations of opposition from the urban middle class, the lieutenants' and workers' movements and dissident oligarchies. Early in his administration, the Prestes Column, a social rebel movement, came to an end, when 620 men went into exile in Bolivian territory, and the movement subsequently dissolved. The government of Washington Luís was no longer threatened by the lieutenants' rebellions. As for the advancement of the labor movement, however, to restrain new opposition movements he created the Celerada Act in 1927, which imposed press censorship and restricted the right of assembly, leading to the undergrounding of the Brazilian Communist Party, which had been recognized by the government earlier that year.


The global economic crisis of 1929, triggered with the stock market crash on October 24, 1929, was the largest in the history of capitalism, reaching many countries and paralyzing economic activities. Its effects in Brazil overthrew the valuation policy of coffee pursuant to provisions set forth in 1906 with the signing of the Taubate Agreement.  Coffee, which accounted for 70% of Brazilian exports, had its price reduced in the international market. The crisis threatened the stability of the government of Washington Luís, who did not allow the new currency devaluation, pleaded by farmers before the disaster on the New York Stock Exchange.


Under the system of coffee and milk politicsthat prevailed for most of the Old Republic {see Appendix 10}, a man from Minas Gerais should have succeeded Washington Luís as president. However, Washington Luís supported another paulista, his friend Julio Prestes, for president in 1930.


Prestes' victory in the presidential elections of March 1, 1930, was questioned on suspicion of fraud. The assassination of Joao Pessoa, governor of Paraiba and candidate for vice president on the slate of Getulio Vargas on July 26, 1930, was a decisive factor for the worsening of movements opposed to the government of Washington Luís, already strained by the coffee crisis. The assassination, later proved, did not have any political purposes. Reassuming the government of Rio Grande do Sul, Vargas and other politicians such as Osvaldo Aranha began the political conspiracy that led to the movement of October 3, 1930, the Revolution of 1930, as the episode became known. President Washington Luís was deposed on October 24 by the heads of the armed forces, and a provisional government junta took power, composed of generals Tasso Fragoso and Mena Barreto and by admiral Isaias de Noronha.


Luís died in Sao Paulo on August 4, 1957.

*****


(See also Appendix 10: The Old Republic.)

***
(See also Appendix 11: Coffee with Milk Politics)

***
(See also Appendix 14: The Revolution of 1930)

*****
October 27

*Gladys Mae West, a mathematician who became the Mother of the Global Positioning System (GPS), was born in Sutherland, Virginia.

Gladys Mae West (née Brown; b. October 27, 1930Sutherland, Virginia). An American mathematician. She is known for her contributions to the mathematical modeling of the shape of the Earth, and her work on the development of satellite geodesy models, that were later incorporated into the Global Positioning System (GPS).  West was inducted into the United States Air Force Hall of Fame in 2018. West was also awarded the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for the development of satellite geodesy models.


*****

(See also Appendix 31: Gladys Mae West, The African American Mathematician Who Is the Mother of the Global Positioning System (GPS).) 


*****


October 29

*Emmanuel Noi Omaboe, a Ghanaian traditional ruler, public servant and economist, was born in Amanokrom, in the Akuapim North District of Ghana.

*****

Emmanuel Noi Omaboe, (aka Oyeeman Wereko Ampem II, b. October 29, 1930, Amanokrom, Ghana – d. November 26, 2005), a Ghanaian traditional ruler, public servant and economist, was born in Amanokrom, in the Akuapim North District of Ghana. He was Gyaasehene of Akuapem and Omanhene of Amanokrom from 1975 till his death in 2005. He became Commissioner of Economic Affairs of Ghana, from 1967 to 1969. He served as the Ghanaian Government Statistician from 1960 to 1966 in Nkrumah's Government.

Omaboe was born on October 29, 1930 at Amanokrom in the Akuapim North District. His parents were Peter Nortey Omaboe of Osu and Mary Opeibea Awuku of Amanokrom. Omaboe attended the Mamfe Presbyterian School and Suhum Presbyterian Middle School for his elementary education. He was educated at the Accra Academy from 1946 to 1950. He entered the University College of the Gold Coast (at Achimota) in 1951, to read for a degree in economics. In 1954, he was awarded a Ghana Government scholarship, to complete his economics degree in statistics at the London School of Economics, graduating with first class honors. He had a year at a postgraduate master's studentship in statistics at London School of Economics before returning to Ghana.


In 1957, he joined the University College of Ghana as an economics research fellow and gave lectures in Statistics.  In 1959, he was appointed the deputy government statistician and promoted to Government Statistician in July 1960 due to the Africanization policy of the civil service by Kwame Nkrumah.  Omaboe was the first Ghanaian to hold this position, and at the age of 29, became the youngest head of a government department.  Omaboe was census coordinator for the 1960 Population Census which was the first scientifically conducted population census in Ghana. In October 1960, when the State Planning Commission was constituted by Kwame Nkrumah, Omaboe was chairman with Joseph Henry Mensah as secretary. The State Planning Commission brought about and worked on the Seven-Year Development Plan (1963–1970), which was formally launched in 1964.


After the 1966 coup d'état, Omaboe took up the post of chairman of the Economic Committee of the National Liberation Council and subsequently Commissioner for Economic Affairs. In this role, he defined the Government's policies toward liberalization, including devaluation of the Cedi, abolition of import licensing and privatization of loss-making state enterprises. Omaboe served as a member of the Advisory Committee on Post Adjustment Questions of the United Nations International Civil Service Commission starting in 1967 and ending in 1985.


In 1969, Omaboe retired from public service after 10 years' service and set up an investment and economic consultancy, E.N. Omaboe & Associates Limited, of which he served as chairman. In December of that year, he was named to join the Ghana Board of the Barclays Bank D. C. O.  But the next year, Omaboe spent time on a one-year fellowship at the Harvard Center for International Affairs.  From Harvard, he returned to Ghana and worked at his consultancy whose area of business was new in Ghana in the 1970s and also joined the boards of Barclays Bank of Ghana and UTC Estates.


In 1974, Omaboe partnered with Jake Obetsebi-Lampley and Peter Hasford in the purchase of the advertising firm, Lintas West Africa and Afromedia Ghana from Unilever. He became chairman of Lintas W.A, immediately after the purchase and was chairman until 2005.


In 1980, Omaboe joined the UN Investment Committee which guides the investments of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund.  In 1997, he became chairman of the investment committee, staying as chairman for the next eight years and made a member emeritus at the end of his service in 2005.


Omaboe served as chairman of Reiss & Co. (Ghana) Ltd., a technical trading house with divisions in agriculture, veterinary, information technology and industrial safety supplies.


In 1989, he was a member of a ten-person committee that did work for the establishment of the Ghana Stock Exchange.  


In 1991, he had a change in role on the Barclays Bank Ghana board from director to chairman of the bank. He had served as a director since 1971 when the bank was incorporated and was one of its first four named directors. He retired from the bank's board in 2005 after 34 years service on the board as a director of the bank.


In 1995, together with Kwame Pianim, he co-founded New World Investments, an investment and asset management firm, and was chairman on its founding until his death.


Omaboe served as chief patron of the Prison Christian Fellowship of Ghana from 1982 and chairman of the Ghana Social Marketing Foundation from 1993.


Omaboe was chairman of the governing council of the University of Ghana Medical School from 1984 to 1999, succeeding Harry Sawyerr, the first chairman. In 1999, he was nominated chancellor of the University of Ghana. He was the first Ghanaian other than a head-of-state to be nominated as chancellor of the university.


In 2004, he procured a rare collection of Ashanti Gold weights from a vendor in Germany and donated the collection to the Institute of African Studies of the University of Ghana as a private deed of gift to promote cultural education within the university.


He was installed "Ohene" (Chief) of Amanokrom and "Gyasehene" of Akuapem in 1975. During his time as traditional ruler, he undertook the projects of the construction of the Manko Aba Ahenfie and the Amanokrom Community Centre. The annual Odwira experienced large turn up of indigenous people living elsewhere and foreigners from abroad due to his image.


Omaboe was a member of the Achimota Golf Club. From 1974 to 1975, he captained the Achimota Golf Club and served as president of the club from 1990 to 1998.


In 1971, Omaboe was chairman of the interim management committee of Accra Hearts of Oak football club.  In 1989, he was chosen to be Chief Patron and President of the Council of Patrons of Accra Hearts of Oak S. C.  Under his presidency of the Council of Patrons of the football club, a total of 42 competitive and ceremonial cups was won and a record was set by winning the Ghana Premier League six (6) consecutive times in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. The club for the first time won the CAF Champions League trophy in 2000 and set another Ghanaian record by winning the 8th CAF Super Cup (2001) and crowned this achievement by being the first Club in Africa to win the 1st CAF Confederation Cup in 2004.


In 1960, he was elected a member of the International Statistical Institute and became the first African member of the institute.  He later served as a council member of the International Statistical Institute starting from 1968 and became its vice president. He was a member of the American Statistical Association and a member of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. 

He received the Grand Medal (Civil Division) of the Republic of Ghana in 1968, the highest honor of his country then available in that period. In 1973, Omaboe was elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, having been a member since 1957. He was made President of the Economic Society of Ghana. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Ghana, Legon in 1999.


Omaboe was married to Letitia Omaboe with whom he had five children. His son, Nortey Omaboe became the Chief Executive of GCNet. His daughter, Norkor Duah became the Chief Executive of the marketing communications firm, Mullen Lowe Accra and previously served as the Vice President of International Advertising Association.


Omaboe was a Presbyterian and was known to worship at the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, Osu.  He was also a Freemason, belonging to the District Grand Lodge of Ghana under the United Grand Lodge of England. 


Omaboe died of natural causes on November 26, 2005. A memorial service was held for him at the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, Osu.  The royal funeral and burial took place at Amanokrom.


*****

*Omara Portuondo Peláez, a singer and dancer whose career spanned over half a century was born in Havana, Cuba. She was one of the original members of the Cuarteto d'Aida, and performed with Ignacio Pineiro, Orquesta Anacaona, Orquesta Aragon, Nat King Cole, Adalberto Alvarez, Los Van Van, the Buena Vista ensemble, Pupy Pedroso, Chucho Valdes and Juan Formell. 

Omara Portuondo Peláez (b. October 29, 1930, Havana, Cuba) was a Cuban singer and dancer and a founding member of the popular vocal group Cuarteto d'Aida. Portuondo collaborated with many important Cuban musicians during her long career, including Julio Gutierrez, Juanito Marquez, and Chucho Valdes.  Although primarily known for her rendition of boleros, Portuondo recorded in a wide range of styles from jazz to son cubano. Beginning in 1996, she became part of the Buena Vista Social Club project, touring extensively and recording several albums with the ensemble. She won a Latin Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Tropical Album in 2009 and a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.  Portuondo also received three Grammy Award nominations.

Born on October 29, 1930, in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood of Havana, Portuondo had three sisters. Her mother, Esperanza Pelaez, came from a wealthy family of Spanish ancestry, and had created a scandal by running off with and marrying a black professional baseball player, Bartolo Portuondo.  Omara joined the dance group of the Cabaret Tropicana in 1950, following her elder sister, Haydee. She also danced in the Mulatas de Fuego in the theatre Radiocentro, and in other dance groups. The two sisters also used to sing for family and friends, and they also performed in Havana clubs.  In 1947, Portuondo and Haydee joined the Loquibambia Swing, a group formed by the blind pianist Frank Emilio Flynn.

From 1952–1953, Portuondo sang for the Orquesta Anacaona, and later, in 1953, both sisters joined (together with Elena Burke and Moraima Secada) the singing group Cuarteto d'Aida, formed and directed by pianist  Aida Diestro.  The group had considerable success, touring the United States, performing with Nat King Cole at the Tropicana, and recording a 1957 album for RCA Victor. In 1958, pianist and composer Julio Gutierrez invited Portuondo to sing for his ensemble in a series of recordings bridging jazz and Cuban music for the record label Velvet. The result was Magia Negra, her debut solo album. Haydee left the Cuarteto d'Aida in 1961 in order to live in the United States.  However, Omara continued singing with the quartet until 1967.


In 1967, Portuondo began to focus on her solo career, recording two albums for Areito, Omara Portuondo and Esta es Omara Portuondo. In the same year, she represented Cuba at the Sopot Festival in Poland, singing Juanito Márquez's "Como un milagro". Alongside her solo work, in the 1970s, she sang with the charanga Orquesta Aragon, and toured with them abroad.


In 1974, Portuondo recorded with guitarist Martín Rojas, an album in which she lauds Salvador Allende and the people of Chile a year after the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.  Among other hits from the album, she sang Carlos Puebla's hit "Hasta Siempre, Comandante",  which refers to Che Guevara.  She also recorded "Y que se sepa", with one of the most successful Cuban bands of the late 20th century, Los Van Van.  Later on she performed with Juan Formell, singing Formell's song "Tal vez", a song she recorded later on with Maria Bethania. During the 1970s and 1980s, Portuondo enjoyed success at home and abroad, with tours, albums (including one of her most lauded recordings in 1984 with Adalberto Alvarez), film roles, and her own television series.


In 2004, in Montreal, Canada, the International Red Cross appointed Portuondo an International Ambassador, the first Cuban musician to hold this title. In 2007, she performed the title role to sold-out audiences in Lizt Alfonso's dance musical "Vida", the story of modern Cuba through the eyes and with the memories of an old woman. In this same year, her performance at the Montreal Jazz Festival was released on DVD. She recorded in 2008 a duet album with Brazilian singer Maria Bethania named Maria Bethania e Omara Portuondo. In 2008, she recorded the album Gracias as a tribute to the 60th anniversary of her singing career. 


Portuondo sang (duetting with Ibrahim Ferrer) on the album Buena Vista Social Club in 1996. This led not only to more touring (including playing at Carnegie Hall with the Buena Vista troupe) and her appearance in Wim Wenders' film Buena Vista Social Club, but also to two further albums for the World Circuit label: Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo (2000) and Flor de Amor (2004). 


*****

October 30

*Little Sonny Warner, an American blues singer, was born in Falls Church, Virginia.


Little Sonny Warner (b. October 30, 1930, Falls Church, Virginia – d. April 12, 2007, Falls Church, Virginia) was an American blues singer.


Born Haywood S. Warner, Warner was born on October 30,1930 in Falls Church, Virginia.  In the early 1950s, Warner sang as a backing vocalist for Van Walls on the Atlantic Records releases "After Midnight" and "Open the Door". His career received a boost in 1957, when he filled in for Lloyd Price at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. 


Warner's biggest hit was saxophonist Big Jay McNeely's "There's Something On Your Mind", which became a gold record for Checker Records in 1959. He performed with James Brown, Etta James and B. B. King. In his later years, Warner often performed at concerts and festivals in Falls Church.


Little Sonny Warner died in his hometown of Falls Church, Virginia, on April 12, 2007.


*****

October 31

*Audrey Smedley, an African American social anthropologist who wrote about the evolution of the idea of human races, was born in Detroit, Michigan.


Audrey Smedley (b. October 31, 1930, Detroit, Michigan – d. October 14, 2020, Beltsville, Maryland) was an American social anthropologist and professor emeritus at Virginia Commonwealth University in anthropology and African American studies. 


Smedley received her BA and MA in history and anthropology from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, based on field research in northern Nigeria. She taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses in social anthropology, African societies and cultures, the history of anthropology, and anthropological theory.


Smedley wrote on the history of anthropology and the origin and evolution of the idea of human races. Her research interests also included comparative slavery, human ecological adaptation, and the roles of women in patrilineal societies.

Smedley is best known for her scholarship on the history of the concept of "race" - an idea that emerged in the Americas, she argued, to justify chattel enslavement of Africans and the genocide of indigenous people. Her book, Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview, was recipient in 1993 of the Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myer Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America.


*****



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