1939
*****
The United States
February 10
*Singer Roberta Flack was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Her hits would include the 1973 Grammy Record of the Year "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and the 1974 Grammy Record of the Year "Killing Me Softly with His Song."
March 21
*In Mexico, Leonel Maciel, an African Mexican artist, was born in La Soledad de Maciel, Guerrero, Mexico.
March 25*Toni Cade Bambara, author of the novels Gorilla and The Salt Eaters, was born in New York.
April
*A back-to-Africa bill was introduced in the United States Senate by segregationist Senator Theodore C. Bilbo from Mississippi.
April 2
*Singer Marvin Gaye was born Marvin Gay, Jr. in Washington, D. C.
April 9
*Denied permission to sing in Washington, D. C.'s Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, contralto Marian Anderson performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for 75,000 people.
Marian Anderson, whose voice Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini described as appearing once in a century, was refused permission to sing in Constitution Hall in Washington, D. C. by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). Anderson, an African American contralto from Philadelphia, had just completed a successful European tour. Eleanor Roosevelt, the nation's First Lady, resigned from the DAR in protest. The Secretary of Interior then provided the Lincoln Memorial for the Anderson concert, which drew an audience of 75,000 on Easter Sunday, 1939.
Marian Anderson, whose voice Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini described as appearing once in a century, was refused permission to sing in Constitution Hall in Washington, D. C. by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). Anderson, an African American contralto from Philadelphia, had just completed a successful European tour. Eleanor Roosevelt, the nation's First Lady, resigned from the DAR in protest. The Secretary of Interior then provided the Lincoln Memorial for the Anderson concert, which drew an audience of 75,000 on Easter Sunday, 1939.
June 6
*Activist Marion Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund, was born in Bennettsville, South Carolina.
June 19
*Delbert Tibbs, who was wrongfully convicted of murder but was later exonerated and became an anti-death penalty activist, was born in Shelby, Mississippi.
June 26
*Writer and artist Barbara Chase-Riboud, author of Sally Hemings, was born in Philadelphia.
July
*The Ku Klux Klan in Greenville, South Carolina, issued a statement warning: "The Klan will ride again if Greenville Negroes continue to register and vote."
July 22
*Poet and biographer Quincy Troupe was born in St. Louis, Missouri.
July 26
September 19
*The Dixie Hummingbirds, a male gospel quartet, recorded for the first time.
October 11
*The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, pledging itself to an all-out war on discrimination, was organized. Charles H. Houston, a brilliant Amherst and Harvard-trained lawyer, spearheaded the effort to consolidate some of the nation's best legal talents in the fight against bias sanctioned by law.
November 13
*Idris Muhammad, a jazz drummer who played on Fats Domino's hit "Blueberry Hill", was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
November 15
Yaphet Kotto, a Jewish Afro-American actor, was born in New York City, New York.
Yaphet Frederick Kotto (born November 15, 1939) is an American actor, known for numerous film roles, as well as starring in the NBC television series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–99) as Lieutenant Al Giardello. His films include the science-fiction/horror film Alien (1979), and the Arnold Schwarzenegger science-fiction/action film The Running Man(1987). He portrayed the main villain Dr. Kananga/Mr. Big in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die (1973). He appeared opposite Robert De Niro in the comedy thriller Midnight Run (1988) as FBI agent Alonzo Moseley.
November 26
*Singer Tina Turner was born as Annie Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee. As Tina Turner, she would have a successful R&B career as lead singer in the Ike and Tina Turner Revue and, later, on her own as a solo artist.
December 22
*Jerry Pinkney, a children's book illustrator and postage stamp designer, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
"Ma" Rainey (b. Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett; c. April 26, 1886, Columbus, Georgia – d. December 22, 1939, Rome, Georgia) was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record.
Ma Rainey, of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, was the first African American to sing the blues in a professional show. She learned a blues song from a local woman in Missouri, and audience response was such that she began to specialize in the blues.
*Kelly Miller, dean of Howard University, died in Washington, D. C.
*****
Father Divine
*****
Black Enterprise
*****
Civil Rights
*****
Educational Institutions
*****
The Ku Klux Klan
*****
*****
The Law
*****
Literature
Drums at Dusk, Arna Bontemps' historical novel, deals with the Haitian Revolution and Toussaint l'Ouverture. With the exception of a few particulars at the beginning of the revolution, Bontemps is accurate in the depiction of the era and the conditions.
Oh Canaan by Waters Edward Turpin was published. It dealt with the great migration to Chicago, and covered the 20 year period from the race riot of 1919 to 1939. In this novel, Turpin describes the urban conditions of the African American, the poor living conditions, the family disintegration and European American hostility.
*****
The Military
*****
The Movies
*A number called "The Jitterbug" was written for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
In the movie, The Wizard of Oz, the "jitterbug" was a bug sent by the Wicked Witch of the West to waylay the heroes by forcing them to do a jitterbug-style dance. Although the sequence was not included in the final version of the film, the Witch is later heard to tell the flying monkey leader, "I've sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them." The song as sung by Judy Garland as Dorothy and some of the establishing dialogue survived from the soundtrack as the B-side of the disc release of "Over the Rainbow".
*****
The NAACP
*****
The New Deal
*The WPA employed, or provided relief for, over one million African Americans.
More than one million African Americans had earned a living by being employed or given relief by the WPA. The WPA employed African Americans in many fields, including the professions and the fine arts. African American artists, for example, were commissioned to paint murals in government buildings.
*Although African Americans were generally represented proportionally on National Youth Administration programs, they were often underrepresented on the programs in Southern states. Only 19.3% of the youths in NYA Out-of-scholl Work Projects were African Americans in the 17 Southern states and Washington, D. C., although they constituted 24.9% of the appropriate age group (15-24) in the population. The projects needed a local public service organization as a sponsor in the South, and these organizations were controlled by European Americans.
*From 1936 to 1939, 12.5% of all rehabilitation loans granted by the Farm Security Administration were made to African Americans. African American farmers constituted 12.6% of all farm operators. Although African Americans constituted 37% of the low-income farm families in the South, only 23% of the low-income loans were made to African Americans there.
*The African American who had received a Farm Security Administration loan in the South had by 1939 repaid an average of 41%. The European American, on the other hand, had repaid only 39%. The average annual net income of African Americans rose 62%, that of European Americans rose only 48%.
*****
Black Enterprise
*There were nearly 30,000 African American owned retail stores and restaurants. They employed some 43,000 African Americans and generated about $71 million in sales (0.02% of total national sales). Between 1929 and 1939, sales for African American owned retail stores declined 28%, whereas the national total declined only 13%.
*There were 67 African American insurance companies with incomes of $13 million.
*There were 67 African American insurance companies with incomes of $13 million.
Civil Rights
*The Greater New York Coordinating Committee for Employment, led by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., demonstrated at the offices of the World's Fair in the Empire State Building, and succeeded in opening up several hundred jobs for African Americans.
*****
Educational Institutions
*Morgan State College was founded in Baltimore, Maryland. It was developed from Morgan State Biblical College.
*Of the 774 libraries in the 13 southern states, only 99 admitted African Americans.
*****
The Ku Klux Klan
*In Miami, Florida, the Ku Klux Klan waged a strong but ultimately unsuccessful campaign to prevent African Americans from voting in a city election.
The Ku Klux Klan burned 25 crosses and paraded through the African American section of Miami, Florida, the night before a municipal election carrying African American effigies with signs saying "This Nigger Tried to Vote." Despite this intimidation, 1,000 of the 1,500 registered African Americans voted the next day, led by Sam Solomon, an African American businessman.
*In July, the Ku Klux Klan in Greenville, South Carolina, issued a statement warning: "The Klan will ride again if Greenville Negroes continue to register and vote."
The Ku Klux Klan burned 25 crosses and paraded through the African American section of Miami, Florida, the night before a municipal election carrying African American effigies with signs saying "This Nigger Tried to Vote." Despite this intimidation, 1,000 of the 1,500 registered African Americans voted the next day, led by Sam Solomon, an African American businessman.
*In July, the Ku Klux Klan in Greenville, South Carolina, issued a statement warning: "The Klan will ride again if Greenville Negroes continue to register and vote."
*****
*****
The Law
*The case of Lane v. Wilson concerned an Oklahoma statute stipulating that those who had not registered within 12 days would never be allowed to register. Contested by I. W. Lane, an African American, the statute was declared unconstitutional.
*Jane Bolin was named to New York City's domestic relations court, the first African American female judge.
Jane Matilda Bolin became the first African American woman judge when she was appointed to the Court of Domestic Relations in New York City by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.
*The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in favor of an NAACP law suit by declaring that the segregation of New Jersey beaches was illegal.
*Jane Bolin was named to New York City's domestic relations court, the first African American female judge.
Jane Matilda Bolin became the first African American woman judge when she was appointed to the Court of Domestic Relations in New York City by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.
*The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in favor of an NAACP law suit by declaring that the segregation of New Jersey beaches was illegal.
*****
Literature
*Arna Bontemps published his historical novel about Haiti, Drums at Dusk.
Drums at Dusk, Arna Bontemps' historical novel, deals with the Haitian Revolution and Toussaint l'Ouverture. With the exception of a few particulars at the beginning of the revolution, Bontemps is accurate in the depiction of the era and the conditions.
*Waters Turpin's novel Oh Canaan was published.
Oh Canaan by Waters Edward Turpin was published. It dealt with the great migration to Chicago, and covered the 20 year period from the race riot of 1919 to 1939. In this novel, Turpin describes the urban conditions of the African American, the poor living conditions, the family disintegration and European American hostility.
*Jay Saunders Redding's anthology of poems and essays, To Make a Poet Black, was published.
*****
The Military
*The United States Army included 3,640 African American men.
*****
The Movies
*Hollywood released Way Down South, an interracial movie, written by Langston Hughes and starring Clarence Muse.
Way Down South, a movie directed by Bernard Vorhaus and produced by Sol Lesser, starred Bobbie Breen and Clarence Muse. An interracial Hollywood feature, its significance lies in the screenplay which was written by Langston Hughes and Clarence Muse, the lead African America star.
*Jed Buell produced and directed Harlem on the Prairie, the first all-African American Western.
Way Down South, a movie directed by Bernard Vorhaus and produced by Sol Lesser, starred Bobbie Breen and Clarence Muse. An interracial Hollywood feature, its significance lies in the screenplay which was written by Langston Hughes and Clarence Muse, the lead African America star.
*Jed Buell produced and directed Harlem on the Prairie, the first all-African American Western.
*A number called "The Jitterbug" was written for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
In the movie, The Wizard of Oz, the "jitterbug" was a bug sent by the Wicked Witch of the West to waylay the heroes by forcing them to do a jitterbug-style dance. Although the sequence was not included in the final version of the film, the Witch is later heard to tell the flying monkey leader, "I've sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them." The song as sung by Judy Garland as Dorothy and some of the establishing dialogue survived from the soundtrack as the B-side of the disc release of "Over the Rainbow".
*****
The NAACP
*The NAACP created the Legal Defense and Educational Fund to fight discriminatory laws throughout the United States (October 11). It was headed by Thurgood Marshall.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, pledging itself to an all-out war on discrimination, was organized. Charles H. Houston, a brilliant Amherst and Harvard-trained lawyer, spearheaded the effort to consolidate some of the nation's best legal talents in the fight against bias sanctioned by law.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, pledging itself to an all-out war on discrimination, was organized. Charles H. Houston, a brilliant Amherst and Harvard-trained lawyer, spearheaded the effort to consolidate some of the nation's best legal talents in the fight against bias sanctioned by law.
*The NAACP initiated nine court cases claiming the right of African Americans to attend tax-supported colleges and universities in their home states.
*****
The New Deal
*The WPA employed, or provided relief for, over one million African Americans.
More than one million African Americans had earned a living by being employed or given relief by the WPA. The WPA employed African Americans in many fields, including the professions and the fine arts. African American artists, for example, were commissioned to paint murals in government buildings.
*Although African Americans were generally represented proportionally on National Youth Administration programs, they were often underrepresented on the programs in Southern states. Only 19.3% of the youths in NYA Out-of-scholl Work Projects were African Americans in the 17 Southern states and Washington, D. C., although they constituted 24.9% of the appropriate age group (15-24) in the population. The projects needed a local public service organization as a sponsor in the South, and these organizations were controlled by European Americans.
*From 1936 to 1939, 12.5% of all rehabilitation loans granted by the Farm Security Administration were made to African Americans. African American farmers constituted 12.6% of all farm operators. Although African Americans constituted 37% of the low-income farm families in the South, only 23% of the low-income loans were made to African Americans there.
*The African American who had received a Farm Security Administration loan in the South had by 1939 repaid an average of 41%. The European American, on the other hand, had repaid only 39%. The average annual net income of African Americans rose 62%, that of European Americans rose only 48%.
*****
Notable Births
*****
*****
*Idris Muhammad, a jazz drummer who played on Fats Domino's hit "Blueberry Hill", was born in New Orleans, Louisiana (November 13).
*Toni Cade Bambara, author of the novels Gorilla and The Salt Eaters, was born in New York (March 25).
*Writer and artist Barbara Chase-Riboud, author of Sally Hemings, was born in Philadelphia (June 26).
*Singer Roberta Flack was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina (February 10). Her hits would include the 1973 Grammy Record of the Year "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and the 1974 Grammy Record of the Year "Killing Me Softly with His Song."
*Singer Marvin Gaye was born Marvin Gay, Jr. in Washington, D. C. (April 2).
*****
Idris Muhammad (Arabic: إدريس محمد; born Leo Morris; b. November 13, 1939, New Orleans, Louisiana – d. July 29, 2014, Fort Lauderdale, Florida) was an American jazz drummer who recorded extensively with many musicians, including Ahmad Jamal, Lou Donaldson, and Pharoah Sanders, among many others.
At 16 years old, one of Muhammad's earliest recorded sessions as a drummer was on Fats Domino's 1956 hit "Blueberry Hill". He changed his name in the 1960s upon his conversion to Islam. In 1966, he married Dolores "LaLa" Brooks, former member of the singing group known as the Crystals. Brooks converted to Islam with Muhammad and went for a time under the name Sakinah Muhammad. They separated in 1999. Together, they had two sons and two daughters, and Muhammad had one daughter from a previous marriage to Gracie Lee Edwards-Morris. Pharoah Sanders's son Idris is named after Idris Muhammad.
In 2012, Xlibris released the book Inside The Music: The Life of Idris Muhammad, which Muhammad wrote with his friend Britt Alexander.
He died on July 29, 2014 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
*****
*Jerry Pinkney, a children's book illustrator and postage stamp designer, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (December 22).
*****
Delbert Tibbs (b. June 19, 1939, Shelby, Mississippi - d. November 23, 2013, Chicago, Illinois) was an American man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and rape in 1974 and sentenced to death. He was later exonerated and became a writer and anti-death penalty activist. He died on November 23, 2013.
Tibbs was born in Mississippi and grew up in Chicago. He attended the Chicago Theological Seminary from 1970 to 1972. In 1974, he was hitchhiking in Florida when he was wrongfully implicated in a crime for which he would receive the death penalty. That year, a 27-year-old man and a 17-year-old female were violently attacked near Fort Myers, Florida. The man was murdered and the young woman raped. She reported that they had been picked up while hitchhiking by a black man who shot her boyfriend dead and then beat and raped her, leaving her unconscious by the side of the road. Tibbs was stopped by police some 220 miles north of Fort Meyers and questioned about the crime. The police took his picture, but as he did not fit the victim's description of the perpetrator, did not arrest him. However, the photograph was sent to Fort Meyers and the victim identified him as the attacker. A judge then issued a warrant for Tibbs' arrest. He was picked up in Mississippi two weeks later and sent to Florida.
Though Tibbs had an alibi, he was indicted for the crimes. During the trial, the prosecution supplemented the victim's identification with testimony from a jailhouse informant who claimed Tibbs had confessed to the crime. The all-white jury convicted Tibbs of murder and rape and he was sentenced to death.
After the trial, the informant recanted his testimony, saying he had fabricated his account hoping for leniency in his own rape case. The Florida Supreme Court remanded the case and reversed the decision on the grounds that the verdict was not supported by the evidence. Tibbs was released in January 1977. In 1982, the Lee County State Attorney dismissed all charges, ending the chance of a retrial.
In November 1976,Pete Seeger wrote and recorded the anti-death penalty song "Delbert Tibbs."
A portion of Tibbs' story is featured in the play The Exonerated. On February 14, 2011 Tibbs, along with fellow exonerees and anti-death penalty activists, spoke with Illinois Governor Pat Quinn about repealing the death penalty in their state. A month later, on March 14, 2011, the death penalty was repealed in Illinois.
*****
*****
*****
*John Torres, an artist, was born in this year.
John Torres studied at the Art Students League between 1959 and 1963 under Frank Reilly and John Hovannes. Torres showed remarkable gifts as a sculptor, mastering techniques in metal, wax (Samari), bronze (Horse Sketch) and plaster (The Monument). Torres' sculptures are never abstract, but do give the appearance of being recovered fragments from some ancient civilization, being recovered fragments from some ancient civilization. He has successful one-man shows in New York City and devoted much of his time to running an artists' workshop in the Henry Street Settlement in New York.
John Torres studied at the Art Students League between 1959 and 1963 under Frank Reilly and John Hovannes. Torres showed remarkable gifts as a sculptor, mastering techniques in metal, wax (Samari), bronze (Horse Sketch) and plaster (The Monument). Torres' sculptures are never abstract, but do give the appearance of being recovered fragments from some ancient civilization, being recovered fragments from some ancient civilization. He has successful one-man shows in New York City and devoted much of his time to running an artists' workshop in the Henry Street Settlement in New York.
*****
*Poet and biographer Quincy Troupe was born in St. Louis, Missouri (July 22).
*****
*Singer Tina Turner was born as Annie Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee (November 26). As Tina Turner, she would have a successful R&B career as lead singer in the Ike and Tina Turner Revue and, later, on her own as a solo artist.
*****
Notable Deaths
*****
Performing Arts
*****
*****
Politics
*****
Sports
*****
Statistics
*****
Visual Arts
Hale Woodruff, a painter famous for his abstract modernist landscapes, was commissioned to do the Amistad murals showing scenes of the slave revolt for Talladega College. In the same year, Woodruff became professor of art at Atlanta University, and in 1941 began sponsoring annual art shows there.
*****
The Americas
Canada
Mexico
*Leonel Maciel, an African Mexican artist, was born in La Soledad de Maciel, Guerrero, Mexico (March 21).
Leonel Maciel, an African Mexican
Maciel was born in the small village of La Soledad de Maciel, located in the municipality of Petatlan, Guerrero on Mexico’s Pacific coast. He was born to a farm working family, in a palapa near the ocean. His family is of mixed African, Asian and indigenous roots, not uncommon for that region, the Costa Grande of Guerrero. He is a tall thin man, from family of tall people, stating that his great-grandparents were two meters tall or taller. One of these was Margarita Romero, called Negra Margarita who was African-indigenous ethnicity.
Maciel attended primary school for four years and at age ten went to Mexico City where he attended more classes up to high school but he did not study art although he had been drawing since he was a young child. Instead he worked odd jobs and sold some works that he drew or painted. These came to the attention of the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda". He received a scholarship, studying there from 1958 to 1962.
Maciel believed that it is necessary for artists to see as much of the world as possible and be exposed to the work of other artists. His first journeys outside of Mexico included New York and Iceland, where he experienced an aurora borealis. He also spent three years in Europe, but did not use the time to visit museums and other artists. In 1995, he made an eight month journey through Asia in countries such as India, Bali, Thailand, China and Malaysia as well as the various Pacific islands. Elements of what he saw during this trip were then included into his work.
In 2007 Maciel worked on a project to document the cuisine of his native region which inspired a number of paintings.
Maciel lived in Tepoztlan from the 1980s into the 1990s when he began living in his native Guerrero state.
Europe
France
Africa
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ethiopia
Nigeria
*Governor Bourdillon divided Southern Nigeria into the Eastern and Western provinces, each of which later became a region.
South Africa
*The Ossewabrandwag (Ox-Wagon Sentinel) was launched (February 4).
Notable Deaths
*There were two recorded lynchings of African Americans in 1939.
*Kelly Miller, dean of Howard University, died in Washington, D. C. (December 29).
*Joel Spingarn, the president of the NAACP, died in New York City, New York (July 26). He was succeeded by his brother Arthur.
*"Ma" Rainey, the "Mother of the Blues", died in Rome, Georgia (December 22).
*Kelly Miller, dean of Howard University, died in Washington, D. C. (December 29).
*Joel Spingarn, the president of the NAACP, died in New York City, New York (July 26). He was succeeded by his brother Arthur.
*"Ma" Rainey, the "Mother of the Blues", died in Rome, Georgia (December 22).
*****
Performing Arts
*Denied permission to sing in Washington, D. C.'s Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, contralto Marian Anderson performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for 75,000 people (April 9).
Marion Anderson debuted with the New York Philharmonic in 1925. From 1930 to 1935, she performed in Europe, where concert opportunities were greater and racial discrimination less severe. Returning in triumph to the United States, she was signed by Sol Hurok to sing at Town Hall in New York on December 30, 1935. She was soon performing some 70 recitals annually across the United States. When Hurok tired to book her into Washington, D. C.'s Constitution Hall in 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution, who owned the hall, told him all requested dates were taken. Later, posing as a European American's agent, he was told those same dates were available.
Hurok publicly charged the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) with prejudice. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR in protest, and United States Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes arranged for Anderson to sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. Some 75,000 people attended the historic outdoor concert and millions more listened on national radio. Photographs and films of the event became potent symbols for the soon-to-emerge modern Civil Rights Movement.
*****
*The concert singer Dorothy Maynor, world famous through her concerts and appearances as a soloist in North and South America and Europe, made her debut in Town Hall in NewYork City.
*The Dixie Hummingbirds, a male gospel quartet, recorded for the first time (September 19).
*Ethel Waters starred as "Hagar" in the Mamba's Daughters on Broadway.
Politics
*In April, back-to-Africa bill was introduced in the United States Senate by segregationist Senator Theodore C. Bilbo from Mississippi.
*****
Sports
*Jackie Robinson led the UCLA football team to an undefeated season and, in the same year, was the top scorer in the Pacific Coast Conference for basketball.
*****
Statistics
*The median income of white and non-white wage and salary workers, respectively, were: Male: white $1,112, non-white $460; female: white $676, non-white $246.
In 13 Southern states, only 99 of the 774 public libraries were open to African Americas.
*****
Visual Arts
*The Baltimore Museum of Art mounted a major exhibition, "Contemporary Negro Art," featuring the works of Richmond Barthe, Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, and others.
*Painter Hale Woodruff created murals of the Amistad mutiny for Talladega College in Alabama and was named professor of art at Atlanta University.
Hale Woodruff, a painter famous for his abstract modernist landscapes, was commissioned to do the Amistad murals showing scenes of the slave revolt for Talladega College. In the same year, Woodruff became professor of art at Atlanta University, and in 1941 began sponsoring annual art shows there.
*Augusta Savage completed her sculpture Lift Every Voice and Sing, commissioned by the New York World's Fair.
*****
The Americas
Canada
Little more than 20 years after the end of the “War to End all Wars,” the Second World War (1939–1945) erupted and soon spread across Europe and around the globe. The Second World War saw considerable growth in how Black Canadians served in the military. While some Black recruits would encounter resistance when trying to enlist in the army, in contrast to the First World War no segregated battalions were created. Indeed, several thousand Black men and women served during the bloodiest war the world has ever seen. Black Canadians joined regular units and served alongside their white fellow soldiers here at home, in England, and on the battlefields of Europe. Together they shared the same harsh experiences of war while fighting in places like Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
In the early years of the war, however, the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force were not as inclusive in their policies. This did not mean that trail-blazing Black Canadians did not find a way to persevere and serve. Some Black sailors served in the Navy, and Black airmen served in the Air Force as ground crew and aircrew here at home and overseas in Europe.
The contributions of Black servicemen was second to none and several earned decorations for their bravery. Some Black women joined the military as well, serving in support roles so that more men were available for the front lines.
And back on the home front, Black Canadians again made important contributions by working in factories that produced vehicles, weapons, ammunition and other materials for the war effort, and taking part in other patriotic efforts like war bond drives. For example, Black women in Nova Scotia worked in vital jobs in the shipbuilding industry, filling the shoes of the men who would usually do that work but who were away fighting in the war.
Many Black Veterans returned home after the war with a heightened awareness of the value of freedom and their right to be treated as equals after all they had done for Canada in their country’s time of need. The service of Black Canadians in the Second World War remains a point of pride and was a measure of how Black Canadians were becoming increasingly integrated into wider Canadian society.
Mexico
*Leonel Maciel, an African Mexican artist, was born in La Soledad de Maciel, Guerrero, Mexico (March 21).
Leonel Maciel, an African Mexican
artist and member of the Salon de la Plastica Mexicana, from the coast of the state of Guerrero, was born on March 21, 1939. Although from a rural area and farming family, he studied art at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabaco "La Esmeralda" and has traveled extensively in Europe and Asia, which has influenced his work. His art has changed styles from generally contains multiple elements and saturated colors.
Maciel was born in the small village of La Soledad de Maciel, located in the municipality of Petatlan, Guerrero on Mexico’s Pacific coast. He was born to a farm working family, in a palapa near the ocean. His family is of mixed African, Asian and indigenous roots, not uncommon for that region, the Costa Grande of Guerrero. He is a tall thin man, from family of tall people, stating that his great-grandparents were two meters tall or taller. One of these was Margarita Romero, called Negra Margarita who was African-indigenous ethnicity.
Maciel spent his early childhood on beaches and among mangroves. He began to draw and paint early, with his father encouraging him even though the region does not have a strong artistic tradition. His father also taught him to appreciate literature and he became fond of Hispanic-American literature and authors such as Alejo Carpentier, Pablo Neruda and Miguel Angel Asturias, which affected his artistry.
Maciel attended primary school for four years and at age ten went to Mexico City where he attended more classes up to high school but he did not study art although he had been drawing since he was a young child. Instead he worked odd jobs and sold some works that he drew or painted. These came to the attention of the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda". He received a scholarship, studying there from 1958 to 1962.
Maciel believed that it is necessary for artists to see as much of the world as possible and be exposed to the work of other artists. His first journeys outside of Mexico included New York and Iceland, where he experienced an aurora borealis. He also spent three years in Europe, but did not use the time to visit museums and other artists. In 1995, he made an eight month journey through Asia in countries such as India, Bali, Thailand, China and Malaysia as well as the various Pacific islands. Elements of what he saw during this trip were then included into his work.
In 2007 Maciel worked on a project to document the cuisine of his native region which inspired a number of paintings.
Maciel lived in Tepoztlan from the 1980s into the 1990s when he began living in his native Guerrero state.
Maciel has had over forty individual and collective exhibitions of his work in countries such as Brazil, France, the United States and Portugal as well as Mexico. His first individual exhibition was as the Galería Excélsior in 1964. His important collective exhibitions include “Art-Expo” in New York, Erótica ’82 at the Galería José Clemente Orozco and Contemporary Mexican Painters at the Picasso Museum in Antibes, France. He participated in the Myth and Magic of Latin America Biennal in Rio de Janeiro in 1979. Recognitions for Maciel's work include membership in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, retrospectives at the Museo del Carmen in Mexico City (2001) and the Museo de la Ciudad de México (2003) . In 2007 his home municipality had a ceremony to honor him.
*****Europe
France
In September 1939, when France declared war on Germany in response to the invasion of Poland, Josephine Baker was recruited by Deuxieme Bureau, French military intelligence, as an "honorable correspondent". Baker collected what information she could about German troop locations from officials she met at parties. She specialized in gatherings at embassies and ministries, charming people as she had always done, while gathering information. Her café-society fame enabled her to rub shoulders with those in the know, from high-ranking Japanese officials to Italian bureaucrats, and to report back what she heard. She attended parties at the Italian embassy without raising suspicions and gathered information.
Africa
Democratic Republic of the Congo
At the start of the World War II, the population of the Congo numbered approximately 12 million black people and 30,000 whites. The colonial government segregated the population along racial lines and there was very little mixing between the races. The white population was highly urbanized and, in Leopoldville, the capital, lived in a quarter of the city separated from the black majority. All blacks in the city had to adhere to a curfew.
Education was overwhelmingly controlled by Protestant and Catholic missions, which were also responsible for providing limited medical and welfare support to the rural Congolese. Food remained unrationed during the war, with only the sales of tires and automobiles restricted by the government. One of the consequences of the Congo's economic mobilization during the war, particularly for the black population, was significant urbanization. Just 9% of the indigenous population lived in cities in 1938; by 1950, the figure stood at close to 20%.
Ethiopia
In 1939, the Polizia Coloniale became the "Polizia dell'Africa Italiana" (Police of Italian Africa), or PAI, and received armored cars, light tanks (tankettes), motorcycles, motor-tricycles and cars, in total they were about 1,000 vehicles and as many motorcycles.
At the outbreak of World War II the PAI had 7,672 men, of which 6,345 were in AOI (Eritrea, Ethiopia and Italian Somalia) and 1,327 were in ASI (Italian Libya). The bulk of the force consisted of indigenous personnel who were trained and equipped to the same standard as Italian personnel. There were 5,142 indigenous personnel, 4,414 from AOI and 732 from ASI.
The PAI fought bravely during World War II in the Italian colonies and in Italy.
During World War II, the PAI fought as a combat unit alongside the Italian Army. For the garrison of the Libyan littoral way, at the outbreak of the conflict, two companies on motorcycles and an armored car were assigned to the Exploring Unit of the CAM (Corpo armato di manovra) Battalion "Romolo Gessi". They had little good fortune, however, since, after a sudden enemy attack, numerous soldiers were hit by friendly fire from German aircraft. The battalion retired to Tripolitania and was converted into a mixed company. Several units participated in war actions, at Tripoli, Benghazi, Barce, but the details regarding effective employment are insufficient.
*Governor Bourdillon divided Southern Nigeria into the Eastern and Western provinces, each of which later became a region.
Bourdillon divided the south of Nigeria into Eastern and Western provinces in 1939. In the early days in Nigeria the British had governed the north of Nigeria indirectly, through the traditional rulers of the Muslim emirates, and had kept the region somewhat isolated from the outside world. There was perhaps a subconscious view that the feudal society was not ready for the full impact of modern civilization. Bernard Bourdillon decided that this was not a viable policy. In February 1942 he visited the leading Emirs and gave his opinion that they should not say "We will not have the southerners interfering in our affairs" but instead should say "we ought to have at least an equal say with the southerners in advising the Governor as the affairs of the whole country". The emirs accepted this advice.
Bourdillon recognized that the northerners were handicapped in comparison to the southerners by their lack of education and lack of English. Rather than simply expand the Legislative Council to include more northerners, he explored the idea of Regional Councils with a Central Council in Lagos that would review their findings. However, he saw these councils as strictly advisory in nature, saying "a benevolent autocracy is the form of government best suited to a people who are educationally backward and whose religion inculcates a blind obedience to authority". This view of the non-political nature of the regional councils helped alleviate concerns that the proposed federal system would cause antagonism between state and federal authorities. Bourdillon raised the question of whether Nigeria should be further subdivided into more than three regions. Some officials thought that the Tiv and Idoma divisions and most of Kabba province should be detached from the north. Some were in favor of more regions, each more homogenous ethnically, in a similar arrangement to that followed in East Africa. However, no further changes were made before Bourdillon retired in 1943.
South Africa
*The Ossewabrandwag (Ox-Wagon Sentinel) was launched (February 4).
The Ossewabrandwag (OB) (English: Ox-wagon Sentinel) was an anti-British and pro-German organization in South Africa during World War II, which opposed South African participation in the war. It was formed in Bloemfontein on February 4, 1939 by pro-German Afrikaners.
During the 19th century, most of the Boers of the northeastern Cape frontier migrated to the interior, and established the Orange Free State and South African Republic, which were independent of Great Britain. In the Second Boer War (1899–1902), Britain conquered the Boer Republics. The Netherlands and Germany supported the Boer cause.
After the war, there was a general reconciliation between Afrikaners and Great Britain, culminating in the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, under the leadership of former Boer fighters such as Louis Botha and Jan Smuts (who was of Cape Dutch origin fighting on the side of the Boers). South African troops, including thousands of Afrikaners, served in the British forces during World War I.
Nonetheless, many Boers remembered the extremely brutal tactics used by Britain in the Boer War and remained resentful of British rule, even loose association with Great Britain as a Dominion.
The chief vehicle of Afrikaner nationalism at this time was the "Purified National Party" of D. F. Malan, which broke away from the National Party when the latter merged with Smuts' South African Party in 1934. Another important element was the Afrikaner Broederbond, a quasi-secret society founded in 1918, and dedicated to the proposition that "the Afrikanervolk has been planted in this country by the Hand of God..."
1938 was the centennial anniversary of the Great Trek (the migration of Boers to the interior). The Ossewabrandwag was established in commemoration of the Trek. Most of the migrants traveled in ox-drawn wagons, hence the group's name. The group's leader was Johannes Van Rensburg, a lawyer who had served as Secretary of Justice under Smuts (as Minister), and was an admirer of Nazi Germany.
The Boer militants of the Ossebrandwag (OB) were hostile to Britain and sympathetic to Germany. Thus, the OB opposed South African participation in the war, even after the Union declared war in support of Britain in September 1939.
The OB was based on the Fuhrer-principle, fighting against the Empire, the capitalists, the communists, Jews, the party and the system of parliamentarism on the base of national-socialism.
Members of the OB refused to enlist in the South African forces, and sometimes harassed servicemen in uniform. This erupted into open rioting in Johannesburg on February 1, 1941, wherein 140 soldiers were seriously hurt.
More dangerous than this was the formation of the Stormjaers (English: Assault troops), a paramilitary wing of the OB. The nature of the Stormjaers was evidenced by the oath sworn by new recruits: "If I retreat, kill me. If I die, avenge me. If I advance, follow me" (Afrikaans: As ek omdraai, skiet my. As ek val, wreek my. As ek storm, volg my).
The Stormjaers engaged in sabotage against the Union government. They dynamited electrical power lines and railroads, and cut telegraph and telephone lines. These types of acts were going too far for most Afrikaners, and Malan ordered the National Party to break with the OB in 1942.
The Union government cracked down on the OB and the Stormjaers, placing thousands of them in internment camps for the duration of the war. Among the internees was future prime minister B. J. Vorster.
At the end of the war, the OB was absorbed into the National Party and ceased to exist as a separate body.
*The new Prime Minister, Jan Smuts, led South Africa into the Second World War.
*Hertzog returned to the Herenigde (Reunited) National Party.
*Barry Hertzog resigned as Prime Minister.
*The new Prime Minister, Jan Smuts, led South Africa into the Second World War.
In the early hours of Friday, September 1, 1939, German troops stormed across the Polish border. Great Britain and France, bound to the defense of Poland, immediately demanded a German withdrawal from Polish territory. By Saturday, it was clear that no such withdrawal would occur and that another world war was imminent.
By a fateful coincidence, the South African Parliament, normally in recess, had been summoned for a special session to prolong the life of the Senate that was due to expire on September 5. The government was aware that at this session it would have to decide finally on South Africa's position in the war, an issue of critical importance to national unity.
With this is mind, Prime Minister Barry Hertzog summoned the twelve members of his cabinet to a meeting at his Groote Schuur residence on the Saturday afternoon of September 2 to discuss the crisis. At stake were the Fusion Government (a government by the melded South African and National Parties) and five years of work by Jan Smuts and Barry Hertzog to bring about unity between English- and Afrikaans speakers.
Smuts, supported by six ministers, was adamant that while South Africa could refuse to fight, it would be in the country's interest to enter the war as Britain's ally. Hertzog, backed by the remaining five ministers, was equally determined that the country should remain neutral. The meeting ended with Hertzog quietly confident that he would command a majority in the house the following Monday.
A grim atmosphere of crisis hung over the house of Assembly as it opened its proceedings on the morning of September 4, 1939. Hertzog moved that the house accept that "existing relations between the Union of South Africa and the various belligerent countries [would], in so far as the Union is concerned, persist unchanged and continue as if no war is being waged". Smuts moved an amendment to the statement in terms of which the Union would declare war on Germany.
As the debate swung back and forth, there seemed reason for Hertzog to feel confident -- but then, unintentionally, he overplayed his hand by moving from a defense of neutrality to an apparent defense of Adolf Hitler. His opponents were outraged. Hertzog's gaffe was enought to persuade those who were wavering to throw their support behind Smuts. The debate finally ended at 9 p.m. when a division (a vote) was called. By the time the tally was complete, Smuts' amendment had been carried by 80 votes to 67.
The next day (September 5, 1939), Hertzog resigned the premiership and requested that the Governor-General, Patrick Duncan, dissolve Parliament and call a general election. However, Duncan refused, noting that it was clear that Smuts could for a government from what remained of the Labour and Dominion parties. Thus, on Wednesday, September 6, 1939, Duncan asked Smuts to form a new government... and South Africa went to war.
*Hertzog returned to the Herenigde (Reunited) National Party.
General Historical Events
*****
March 28
*The Spanish Civil War ended as Madrid fell to Franco's troops. Spain would remain neutral in the European war (World War II), having lost 410,000 men in fighting or by execution and further 200,000 by starvation and disease.
April 4
*King Ghazi of Iraq was killed in a car accident and was succeeded by his three year old son Faisal II. The British Consul was killed by rioters who suspect that the British may have arranged the car accident.
September 1
*German troops and aircraft invade Poland.
September 3
*Britain and France declared war on Germany.
September 17
*Soviet troops invaded Poland from the east. Charles Lindbergh made a speech on United States radio arguing that Stalin was as much to be feared as Hitler.
September 21
*Armand Calinescu, Premier of Romania, was murdered by members of the pro-fascist Iron Guard.
September 27
*Warsaw fell to the Germans.
September 28
*Poland was partitioned between the U.S.S.R. and Germany.
October 1
*Churchill said in a radio broadcast, "I cannot forecast t you the action of Russia."
December 13
*The Battle of the River Plate occurred in the South Atlantic. The British cruiser Exeter was badly damaged by the German pocket battleship Graf Spee, which was then driven into Montevideo Harbor by the Ajax and the Achilles.
December 18
*The Graf Spee was scuttled in Montevideo Harbor.
*****
*The World's Fair opened in New York City.
*The United States declared ist neutrality when war broke out in Europe.
*John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath won a Pulitzer Prize.
*Pan-American Airways began regularly scheduled commercial flights to Europe.
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