1932 The United States

The United States

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Prior to 1932, African Americans had traditionally voted Republican, the party of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1932 promise of a "New Deal for all Americans" caused only a slight shift toward the Democratic Party.  Some African Americans voted instead for the Communist Party, whose vice-presidential candidate was an African American, James W. Ford.  By 1936, the voting picture had changed dramatically.  

In the Presidential election, Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not receive much of the African American vote.  To a certain extent the African American still identified with the Republican Party.  Also, Roosevelt's running mate, John Nance Garner was a Texan.  In Chicago, for example, Roosevelt received only 23% of the African American vote.  Another factor in the low African American vote for Roosevelt may have been that James W. Ford, an African American, was the Vice Presidential candidate of the Communist Party.  

However, Roosevelt soon became extremely popular, due to the ties which he and Mrs. Roosevelt established with prominent African Americans.  Roosevelt employed African American advisors in numbers much greater than previous Administrations.  The "Black Cabinet" included: Robert Vann, assistant to the Attorney General; William Hastie, Assistant Solicitor, in the Department of Interior; Eugene Kinckle Jones, adviser on Negro Affairs in the Department of Commerce; Lawrence Oxley, in the Division of Negro Labor in the Department of Labor; Mary McLeod Bethune, director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration; Edgar Brown, adviser on Negro Affairs in the Civilian Conservation Corps; Frank Horne, in several capacities with Federal housing programs; and William Trent as a race relations adviser in the Department of the Interior and in the Public Works Agency.  

Four years later, in 1936, grateful for President Roosevelt's relief programs and record number of African American appointments to high offices, as well as for First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's advocacy of civil rights, African Americans voted overwhelmingly Democratic -- setting a pattern that continued into the future.

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*The Tuskegee syphilis experiment began.

The Tuskegee syphilis experiment was a clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, by the United States Public Health Service. In the experiment, 400 impoverished black males who had syphilis were offered "treatment" by the researchers, who did not tell the test subjects that they had syphilis and did not give them treatment for the disease, but rather just studied them to chart the progress of the disease. By 1947, penicillin became available as treatment, but those running the study prevented study participants from receiving treatment elsewhere, lying to them about their true condition, so that they could observe the effects of syphilis on the human body. By the end of the study in 1972, only 74 of the test subjects were alive. 28 of the original 399 men had died of syphilis, 100 were dead of related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected, and 19 of their children were born with congenital syphilis. The study was not shut down until 1972, when its existence was leaked to the press, forcing the researchers to stop in the face of a public outcry.

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Faced with agricultural distress and racial oppression in the South, a new wave of African American migration began into the major industrial centers of the North in search of economic and social opportunities.

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George Washington Carver

In 1932, the writer James Saxon Childers wrote that Carver and his peanut products were almost solely responsible for the rise in United States peanut production after the boll weevil devastated the American cotton crop beginning about 1892. His article, "A Boy Who Was Traded for a Horse" (1932), in The American Magazine, and its 1937 reprint in Reader's Digest, contributed to this legend about Carver's influence. 

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Father Divine

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By May 1932, meetings were regularly held of Father Divine's followers at Rockland and throughout New York and New Jersey. Father Divine had supporters in Washington state, California and throughout the world thanks to New Thought devotees like Eugene Del Mar, an early convert and former Harlem journalist, and Henry Joerns, the publisher of a New Thought magazine in Seattle. Curiously, although the movement was predominantly black, followers outside the Northeast were mostly middle class whites.

In this period of expansions, several branch communes were  opened in New York and New Jersey. Father Divine's followers finally named the movement: the International Peace Mission Peace Mission movement. 

Father Divine's trial was finally held on May 24, 1932. His lawyer, Ellee J. Lovelace, a prominent Harlem African American and former United States Attorney had requested the trial be moved outside of  Suffolk County, due to potential jury bias. The court acquiesced, and the trial took place at the Nassau County Supreme Court before Justice Lewis J. Smith. The jury found him guilty on June 5 but asked for leniency on behalf of Father Divine. Ignoring this request, Justice Smith lectured on how Father Divine was a fraud and "menace to society" before issuing the maximum sentence for disturbing the peace, one year in prison and a $500 fine.

Smith, 55, died of a heart attack days later on June 9, 1932. Father Divine was widely reported to have commented on the death, "I hated to do it." In fact, he wrote to his followers, "I did not desire Judge Smith to die.… I did desire that MY spirit would touch his heart and change his mind that he might repent and believe and be saved from the grave."

The impression that Justice Smith's death was divine retribution was perpetuated by the press, which failed to report Smith's prior heart problems and implied the death to be more sudden and unexpected than it was.

During his brief prison stay, Father Divine read prodigiously, notably on the Scottsboro Nine.  After his attorneys secured release through an appeal on June 25, 1932, he declared that the foundational documents of the United States of America, such as the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, were inspired. Father Divine also taught that contemporary leaders strayed from these ideals, but he would become increasingly patriotic through his life.

Father Divine moved to Harlem, New York, where he had accumulated significant following in the black community. Members, rather than Father Divine himself, held most deeds for the movement, but they contributed toward Father Divine's comfortable lifestyle. Purchasing several hotels, which they called "Heavens", members could live and seek jobs inexpensively. The movement also opened several budget enterprises, including restaurants and clothing shops, that sold cheaply by cutting overheads. These proved very successful in the depression. Economical, cash-only businesses were actually part of  Father Divine's doctrine. 

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W. E. B. DuBois

In 1932, Du Bois was selected by several philanthropies – including the Phelps-Stokes Fund, the Carnegie Corporation, and the General Education Board – to be the managing editor for a proposed Encyclopedia of the Negro, a work Du Bois had been contemplating for 30 years.  After several years of planning and organizing, the philanthropies cancelled the project in 1938, because some board members believed that Du Bois was too biased to produce an objective encyclopedia.

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The Communist Party

*The Communist Party selected an African American, James W. Ford, as its vice-presidential candidate.

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Educational Institutions

*Among the 117 African American institutions of higher education, 36 were public, 81 were private (74 of which were church-affiliated), and 5 offered graduate-level instruction.  Before 1937, only five offered graduate level education.

*Between 1913 and 1932, the Rosenwald Fund had aided in the construction of more than 5,000 school buildings for the education of African Americans in 15 Southern states.  African Americans contributed 17% of the money disbursed by the Fund.

*Howard University began publishing the Journal of Negro Education.

The Labor Movement

*Ten African Americans were killed when European American employees of the Illinois Central Railroad tried to prevent African Americans from working there. 

Law

*The United States Supreme Court decided Nixon v. Condon (May 2). 

Nixon v. Condon, 286 U. S. 73 (1932), was a voting rights case decided by the United States Supreme Court, which found the all-white Democratic Party primary in Texas unconstitutional. This was one of four cases brought to challenge the Texas all-white Democratic Party primary. All challenges were supported by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (the NAACP). With Smith v. Allwright, the Supreme Court decisively prohibited the white primary.

In Nixon v. Herndon (1927), the Court had struck down a Texas statute that prohibited blacks from participating in the Texas Democratic primary election. Very shortly after that decision, the Texas Legislature repealed the invalidated statute, declared that the effect of the Nixon decision was to create an emergency requiring immediate action, and replaced the old statute with a new one. The new law provided that every political party would henceforth "in its own way determine who shall be qualified to vote or otherwise participate in such political party."

Under the authority of this law, the executive committee of the Texas Democratic Party adopted a resolution stating that "all white democrats who are qualified under the constitution and laws of Texas" would be allowed to vote. In the 1928 Democratic primary, Dr. L.A. Nixon of El Paso again tried to vote. He was again denied, on the ground that the resolution allowed only whites to vote (Nixon was black). Nixon sued the judges of elections in federal court.

The defendants argued that there was no state action and therefore no equal protection violation, because the Democratic Party was "merely a voluntary association" that had the power to choose its own membership.

The Court, however, in a five to four ruling, reasoned that because the Texas statute gave the party's executive committee the authority to exclude would-be members of the party – an authority, the Court said, that the executive committee hitherto had not possessed – the executive committee was acting under a state grant of power. Because there was state action, the case was controlled by Nixon v. Herndon (1927), which prohibited state officials from "discharg[ing] their official functions in such a way as to discriminate invidiously between white citizens and black."

The Court's decision affected all-white primaries in other Southern states.

The Democratic Party in Texas responded by barring blacks from participation in the party nominating conventions, and thus effectively continuing the white primary.

Grovey v. Townsend (1935) and Smith v. Allwright (1944) were additional cases brought by African Americans to challenge Texas white primaries. With the latter, the Supreme Court decisively prohibited white primaries.

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*The United States Supreme Court decided Powell v. Alabama, overturning the convictions of the Scottsboro Boys.

In Powell v. Alabama, 287 U. S. 45 (1932), the United States Supreme Court reversed the convictions of nine young African American men for allegedly raping two European American women on a freight train near Scottsboro, Alabama. The majority of the Court reasoned that the right to retain and be represented by a lawyer was fundamental to a fair trial and that at least in some circumstances, the trial judge must inform a defendant of this right. In addition, if the defendant cannot afford a lawyer, the court must appoint one sufficiently far in advance of trial to permit the lawyer to prepare adequately for the trial.

Powell was the first time the Court had reversed a state criminal conviction for a violation of a criminal procedural provision of the United States Bill of Rights.  In effect, the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause included at least part of the right to counsel referred to in the Sixth Amendment, making that much of the Bill of Rights binding on the states as well as the federal government. Before Powell, the Court had reversed state criminal convictions only for racial discrimination in jury selection — a practice that violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Literature and Journalism

*Countee Cullen published his only novel, One Way to Harlem.

*Wallace Thurman's novel Infants of the Spring was published.  It is considered to be one of the last novels of the Harlem Renaissance.

*Rudolph Fisher published The Conjure Man Dies, the first African American detective novel.

*Victor Daly's novel, Not Only War, an attack on racism within the United States Army during World War I, was published.  The novel concerns the racial tensions over French women.

*The James Weldon Johnson Literary Guild conducted a nationwide poetry contest for African American children.  One winner was Margaret Walker of New Orleans with her poem "When Night Comes."

Medicine

*Aliene Carrington Ewell founded a society for African American nurses, Chi Eta Phi, in Washington, D. C.  It would expand to 72 chapters in 22 states.

Music

*Thomas Dorsey, the "Father of Gospel", established the first music publishing firm dedicated only to gospel music.

*Duke Ellington and his orchestra first recorded the classic jazz tune "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" (February 2).

The NAACP

*The NAACP published "Mississippi River Slavery - 1932" after investigating the conditions of African-American workers on federal flood-control projects.  It would lead to a United States Senate investigation and to the setting of federal standards for minimum conditions and wages.

The NAACP published 10,000 copies of a leaflet, Mississippi River Slavery - 1932.  It was the result of an investigation made by Roy Wilkins and George Schuyler into conditions on Federal flood-control projects.  Wilkins and Schuyler carried out their investigations by working on some projects.  In 1933, Senate investigations began and resulted in the government setting minimum standards for conditions and for wages for all workers.

The Nation of Islam

*Communist attempts at infiltration of the Black Muslim movement proved unsuccessful.

Notable Births

*Johnny Adams, a blues, jazz and gospel singer, known as "The Tan Canary", was born in New Orleans, Louisiana (January 5).

Laten John Adams (b. January 5, 1932, New Orleans, Louisiana – d. September 14, 1998, Baton Rouge, Louisiana), known as Johnny Adams, was a blues, jazz and gospel singer, known as "The Tan Canary" for the multi-octave range of his singing voice, his swooping vocal mannerisms and falsetto.  His biggest hist were his versions of "Release Me" and "Reconsider Me" in the late 1960s. 

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*Harold Floyd "Tina" Brooks (b. June 7, 1932, Fayetteville, North Carolina – d. August 13, 1974, New York City, New York), a hard bop, blues and funk tenor saxophonist and composer, was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina (June 7).

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*Roosevelt Brown, an offensive lineman for the National Football League New York Giants who was ranked 57 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, was born in Charlottesville, Virginia (October 20).

Roosevelt "Rosey" Brown, Jr. (b. October 20, 1932, Charlottesville, Virginia – d. June 9, 2004, Mansfield Township, New Jersey) was an offensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants from 1953 to 1965.

Brown was drafted by the Giants out of Morgan State University in the 1953 NFL Draft after being noticed by the Giants in the Pittsburgh Courier, an African American newspaper that named him to their 1952 Black All-American team.  On the offensive line, Brown pass blocked for quarterbacs Charlie Conerly and Y. A. Tittle and run blocked for backs like Alex Webster and Frank Gifford.   Despite his 6'3", 255-pound frame, Brown was very quick on his feet which was very unusual for his era. He is considered one of the greatest "sleeper picks" in NFL history as he was drafted in 27th round of the NFL Draft.

Brown was named to the Pro Bowl a total of nine times and helped the Giants win the NFL Championship in 1956.

Following the 1965 season, Brown retired, suffering from chronic phlebitis. He became the Giants' assistant offensive line coach in 1966 and was promoted to offensive line coach in 1969. He remained with the Giants organization in the scouting department for many years.

In 1975, Rosey Brown was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and in 1979, Brown was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

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*Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, the first African-American congresswoman from California and the first woman to chair the Congressional Black Caucus, was born in Los Angeles, California (October 5).

Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (b. October 5, 1932) was a politician from Los Angeles, California, United States. She was the first African-American woman to represent the West Coast in Congress. She served in congress from 1973 until the end of 1978. She was the Los Angeles County Supervisor representing the 2nd District (1992–2008). She served as the Chair of the Board of Supervisors three times (1993–94, 1997–98, 2002–03).

Born Perle Yvonne Watson on October 5, 1932, in Los Angeles to James A. Watson and the former Lola Moore. She married William A. Burke in Los Angeles on June 14, 1972. To this union was born a daughter, Autumn Roxanne on November 23, 1973.

Burke attended the University of California at Berkeley from 1949 to 1951; and the University of California at Los Angeles from 1951 to 1953 where she received a bachelor's degree;  She then attended the University of Southern California Law School and received a juris doctor degree in 1956

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*Otis Davis, the 1960 Olympic 400 meter run champion, was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama (July 12).

Otis Crandall Davis (b. July 12, 1932, Tuscaloosa, Alabama) was the winner of two gold medals for record-breaking performances in both the 400 meter run and the 4x400 meter relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Davis set a new world record of 44.9 seconds in the 400 meter event, thereby becoming the first man to break the 45-second barrier.

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*Poet Mari Evans was born in Toledo, Ohio (July 16).  Her most famous works would include I Am a Black Woman and Nightstar: 1973-78.

Mari Evans (b. July 16, 1923) grew up in Toledo, Ohio. She attended the University of Toledo.

Born in Toledo, Ohio, Evans was 10 years old when her mother died, and she was subsequently encouraged in her writing by her father, as she recalls in her essay "My Father's Passage" (1984). She attended local public schools before going on to the University of Toledo, where she majored in fashion design in 1939, though left without a degree. She began a series of teaching appointments in American universities in 1969. During 1969–70, she served as writer in residence at Indiana University-Purdue, where she taught courses in African-American Literature. The next year, she accepted a position as writer in residence at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.  From 1968 to 1973, Mari Evans produced, wrote and directed the television program The Black Experience for WTTV in Indianapolis. She received an honorary degree from Marian College in 1975. Evans continued her teaching career at Purdue (1978–80), at Washington University in Saint Louis (1980), at Cornell University (1981–85), and the State University of New York at Albany (1985–86).

Among her books of poetry are A Dark and Splendid Mass (1992), Nightstar: 1973-1978 (1981), I Am a Black Woman (1970), and Where Is All the Music? (1968). Her books for children include Dear Corinne, Tell Somebody! Love, Annie: A Book about Secrets (1999), Singing Black: Alternative Nursery Rhymes for Children (1998, illustrated by Ramon Price) Jim Flying High (1979, illustrated by Ashley Bryan), Rap Stories (1974), and J.D. (1973, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney).

She is also the author of the plays Eye (a 1979 adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God) and River of My Song (first produced in 1977).

She is a contributor to and an editor of the volume Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation (1984), and has taught at colleges and universities including Spelman College, Purdue University, and Cornell University.

Among her honors are fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John Hay Whitney Fellowship. In 1997, she was celebrated with her photo on a Ugandan postage stamp.

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*Cleven Goudeau, an award-winning cartoonist, was born in Hillister, Texas (January 15).

Cleven "Goodie" Goudeau (b. c. January 15, 1932, Hillister, Texas – d. January 26, 2015, Solano County, California) was an award-winning art director and cartoonist, credited as the originator of the first line of African American contemporary greeting cards. Considered a pioneer in the field with the longest card recorded at the time at 4 feet and the first nationally published Black Santa card.

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*Comedian and civil rights activist Richard "Dick" Gregory was born in Saint Louis, Missouri (October 12). 

Dick Gregory, byname of Richard Claxton Gregory    (b. October 12, 1932, St. Louis, Missouri), African-American comedian, civil rights activist, and spokesman for health issues, who became nationally recognized in the 1960s for a biting brand of comedy that attacked racial prejudice. By addressing his hard-hitting satire to white audiences, he gave a comedic voice to the rising Civil Rights Movement.  In the 1980s his nutrition business venture targeted unhealthy diets of black Americans.

Reared in poverty in St. Louis, Gregory began working at an early age to help support his family. He was involved in sports and social causes in high school, and he entered Southern Illinois University on an athletic scholarship in 1951, excelling as a middle-distance runner. He was named the university’s outstanding student athlete in 1953, the same year he left college to join the U.S. Army, where he hosted and performed comedy routines in military shows.

After a brief return to his alma mater in 1955-56, Gregory sought entrance to the national comedy circuit in Chicago. His breakthrough came in 1961, when a one-nighter at the Chicago Playboy Club turned into a six-week stint that earned him a profile in Time magazine and a television appearance on “The Jack Paar Show.” In his numerous subsequent television, nightclub, and concert routines, he targeted poverty, segregation, and racial discrimination. Active in the Civil Rights Movement, he participated in numerous demonstrations and was arrested for civil disobedience several times. In 1963 he was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama. His activism spurred him to run for mayor of Chicago in 1966 and for president of the United States in 1968.

In the early 1970s Gregory abandoned comedy to focus on his political interests, which widened from race relations to include such issues as violence, world hunger, capital punishment, drug abuse, and poor health care. He generated particular attention for his many hunger fasts. At this time he became a vegetarian, a marathon runner, and an expert on nutrition. He soon began a successful business venture with his nutritional product, the “Bahamian Diet,” around which he built Dick Gregory Health Enterprises, Inc. Through his company, he targeted the lower life expectancy of African Americans, which he attributed to poor nutrition and drug and alcohol abuse.

Gregory wrote many books, including Nigger: An Autobiography (1964) and No More Lies: The Myth and the Reality of American History (1971). He made a brief return to the comedy circuit in the mid-1990s.

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*K. C. Jones, a professional basketball player and coach, was born in Taylor, Texas (May 25).

K. C. Jones (b. May 25, 1932, Taylor, Texas) was a professional basketball player player and coach.  K. C. Jones (K. C. Jones is his full name) is best known for his association with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA), with which he won 11 NBA Championships (eight as a player, one as an assistant coach, and two as a head coach).

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*Henry Lewis, the first African American conductor of a leading American symphony orchestra, was born in Los Angeles, California (October 16). 

Henry Jay Lewis (b. October 16, 1932, Los Angeles, California – d. January 26, 1996) was a double-bassist and orchestral conductor.  At age 16, he joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic, becoming the first African-American instrumentalist in a major symphony orchestra.
Originally from Los Angeles, California, Lewis attended he University of Southern California and, at age 16, joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic, becoming the first African American instrumentalist in a major symphony orchestra. After six years as a double-bassist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, he played double-bass with and conducted the Seventh Army Symphony in Germany and the Netherlands while serving in the United States Armed Forces from 1955 to 1956.
After returning to the United States, Lewis founded the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In 1963, he travelled with his orchestra in Europe under the auspices of the State Department. He gained national recognition in 1961 when he was appointed assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta, a post he held from 1961 to 1965. In 1968, he became the conductor and musical director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, transforming the group from a small community ensemble into a nationally recognized orchestra. In this position, Lewis became the first African-American to lead a major symphony orchestra. 
Lewis made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1972 and after retiring from the New Jersey Symphony in 1976, he toured as a guest conductor in all of the major opera houses. From 1989 to 1991, when Kees Bakels succeeded him, he was principal conductor of the Netherlands Radio Symphony.
From 1960 to 1979, Lewis was married to opera singer Marilyn Horne.  Horne often credited Lewis with her early development as a singer. They lived together in Echo Park, California, and had a daughter, Angela.
Lewis died from a heart attack in 1996 at the age of 63.

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*Clyde McPhatter, a singer who founded the Drifters singing group and who became the first double inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was born in Durham, North Carolina (November 15).

Clyde Lensley McPhatter (b. November 15, 1932, Durham, North Carolina – d. June 13, 1972, Teaneck, New Jersey) was a rhythm and blues, soul and and rock n' roll singer. He was immensely influential, perhaps the most widely imitated R&B singer of the 1950s and 1960s, making him a key figure in the shaping of doo-wop and R&B. His high-pitched tenor voice was steeped in the gospel music he sang in much of his younger life. He is best known for his solo hit "A Lover's Question".  McPhatter was lead tenor for The Mount Lebanon Singers, a gospel group he formed as a teenager, and later, lead tenor for Billy Ward and His Dominoes. McPhatter was largely responsible for the success the Dominoes initially enjoyed. After his tenure with the Dominoes, McPhatter formed his own group, the Drifters, before going solo. Only 39 at the time of his death, he had struggled for years with alcoholism and depression and was, according to Jay Warner’s On This Day in Music History, "broke and despondent over a mismanaged career that made him a legend but hardly a success." At the time of his passing, Clyde McPhatter left a legacy of over 22 years of recording history. He was the first artist in music history to become a double inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, first as a member of the Drifters, and later as a solo artist, and as a result, all subsequent double and triple inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame are said to be members of "The Clyde McPhatter Club."

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*Nichelle Nichols, an actress who gained fame playing Lieutenant Uhura in the original Star Trek television series and movies, was born in Robbins, Illinois (December 28). 

Nichelle Nichols (b. Grace Dell Nichols, December 28, 1932, Robbins, Illinois) is an actress, singer and voice artist.  She sang with Duke Ellington and Lionel before turning to acting. Her most famous role is that of communications officer Lieutenant Uhura aboard the USS Enterprise in the popular Star Trek television series (1966–1969), as well as the succeeding motion pictures, where her character was eventually promoted in Starfleet to the rank of commander.

Nichols' Star Trek character, one of the first African American female characters on American television not portrayed as a servant, was groundbreaking in American society at the time. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. personally praised her work on the show and asked her to remain when she considered leaving the series.

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*Rhythm and blues singer "Little Richard" Penniman, a formative figure in rock 'n' roll music, was born in Macon, Georgia (December 5).

Little Richard, original name Richard Wayne Penniman   (b. December 5, 1932, Macon, Georgia), flamboyant American singer and pianist whose hit songs of the mid-1950s were defining moments in the development of rock and roll.  

Born into a family of 12 children, Penniman learned gospel music in Pentecostal churches churches of the Deep South. As a teenager he left home to perform rhythm and blues in medicine shows and nightclubs, where he took the name “Little Richard,” achieving notoriety for high-energy onstage antics. His first recordings in the early 1950s, produced in the soothing jump-blues style of Roy Brown, showed none of the soaring vocal reach that would mark his later singing. His breakthrough came in September 1955 at a recording session at J&M Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana, where Little Richard, backed by a solid rhythm-and-blues band, howled “Tutti Frutti,” with its unforgettable exhortation, “A wop bop a loo bop, a lop bam boom!” In the year and a half that followed, he released a string of songs on Specialty Records that sold well among both African American and European American audiences: “Rip It Up,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Ready Teddy,” “Good Golly, Miss Molly,” and “Send Me Some Lovin’,” among others. Blessed with a phenomenal voice able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music, Little Richard scored hits that combined childishly amusing lyrics with sexually suggestive undertones. Along with Elvis Presley's records for the Sun label in the mid-1950s, Little Richard’s sessions from the same period offer models of singing and musicianship that have inspired rock musicians ever since.

As his success grew, Little Richard appeared in some of the earliest rock-and-roll movies: Don’t Knock the Rock and The Girl Can’t Help It (both 1956) and Mr. Rock and Roll (1957). In the latter he stands at the piano belting out songs with a dark intensity that, in the bland Eisenhower years, seemed excessive, an impression amplified by his bizarre six-inch pompadour, eyeliner, and pancake makeup. At the very peak of his fame, however, he concluded that rock and roll was the Devil’s work; he abandoned the music business, enrolled in Bible college, and became a traveling Evangelical preacher. When the Beatles skyrocketed onto the music scene in 1964, they sang several of his classic songs and openly acknowledged their debt to their great forebear. This renewed attention inspired Little Richard to return to the stage and the recording studio for another shot at stardom. Although a new song, “Bama Lama Bama Loo” (1964), invoked the fun and vitality of his heyday, record-buying youngsters were not impressed. A major recording contract in the early 1970s produced three albums for Reprise Records — The Rill Thing, King of Rock ’n’ Roll, and Second Coming—collections that showed Little Richard in fine voice but somewhat out of his element in the hard rock styles of the period.

In the late 1990s Little Richard continued to appear at concerts and festivals, performing songs that had become cherished international standards. He remained a frequent guest on television talk shows and children’s programs, but his madcap mannerisms, so threatening to parents in the 1950s, had come to seem amusingly safe. Having weathered a career marked by extraordinary changes in direction, Little Richard survived not only as the self-proclaimed “architect of rock and roll” but also as a living treasure of 20th-century American culture.

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*Charles Powell, a professional football player, was born (April 4).

Charles Elvin Powell (April 4, 1932 – September 1, 2014) was an American professional football player.

Powell was born in Texas. He and his younger brother Art Powell, a great NFL wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders in the 1960s, grew up in the Logan Heights area of San Diego, California. 

Powell played professional baseball and football as well as boxed. His greatest success was as an NFL player and a boxer, even fighting Muhammad Ali.

Charlie starred in football, basketball, track and baseball at San Diego High School.  In 1950, as a 6'-3", 230-pound defensive end and offensive end, with tremendous power and speed, he was named the California high school football player of the year. In track, he ran 100 yards in 9.6 seconds and threw the shot put 57 feet 9¼ inches. In basketball, he was a second-team all-league center. As a high school baseball player, he hit balls out of San Diego Balboa Stadium. He turned a down an offer of a tryout by the Harlem Globetrotters. 

After High School, Charlie was recruited by Notre Dame and UCLA to play football, St.  Louis Browns baseball owner Bill Veeck, who had acquired the legendary pitcher Satchel Paige from the Cleveland Indians, signed the power-hitting outfielder to a professional baseball contract. He was sent to the Stockton Ports, a Class B minor league team.

After playing pro baseball in the summer of 1952, Charlie suddenly abandoned his pro baseball career and signed a pro football contract with the San Francisco 49ers. At 19, he became the youngest player in NFL history. In his first game, he started against the NFL champion Detroit Lions and had multiple sacks against QB Bobby Layne totaling 67 yards in losses.

Powell played five seasons in the NFL for the 49ers (1952–53 and 1955–57) and two for the Oakland Raiders (1960–61).

Powell was also a professional boxer. In March 1959, on television, he knocked out Nino Valdes of Cuba who was the number 2 ranked heavyweight fighter in the world at the time.  Powell fought Muhammad Ali  (who was then known as Cassius Clay) at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh on January 24, 1963. He was knocked out in the third round. He finished his pro boxing career with a record of 25-11-3. In his career, Charlie also fought Floyd Patterson, losing to him in 6 rounds.

Powell was a member of the Breitbard San Diego Hall of Fame. Powell died on September 1, 2014, at age of 82 after living with dementia for several years.

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Alan Shorter (b. May 29, 1932, Newark, New Jersey – 1987, Los Angeles, California), a free jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player, and the older brother of Grammy winning composer and saxophone player Wayne Shorter, was born in Newark, New Jersey.  

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*O.C. Smith (b. Ocie Lee Smith, June 21, 1932, Mansfield, Louisiana – d. November 23, 2001), a rhythm and blues and jazz recording artist, was born in Mansfield, Louisiana. His recording of "Little Green Apples" went to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968 and sold over one million records. 

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*Melvin Van Peebles, a motion picture producer and director, was born in Chicago (August 21).  His films include  Watermelon Man, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasss Song, and Putney Swope. 

Melvin Van Peebles, original name Melvin Peebles   (b. August 21, 1932, Chicago, Illinois), American filmmaker who wrote, directed, and starred in  Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), a groundbreaking film that spearheaded the rush of African American action films known as "blaxploitation" in the 1970s. He also served as the film’s composer and editor.

After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University (B.A., 1953), Van Peebles traveled extensively in Europe, Mexico, and the United States, working a variety of jobs that included painter, postal worker, and street performer along with a stint in the air force. While living in Paris, he wrote several French-language novels, including La Permission (1967), which he turned into his first feature film. The romantic drama was released in France in 1967 and in the United States (as The Story of a Three-Day Pass) the following year. Van Peebles made his Hollywood directorial debut with Watermelon Man (1970), a comedy about racial bigotry. He then turned to his pet project, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Using mostly his own money and relying largely on non-professional actors and technicians, Van Peebles told the story of one African American man’s battle against European American authority. Violent, sexy, and angry, the film scored a huge success with African American audiences (it was one of the top box-office earners that year) while angering many European American critics.

Van Peebles had begun a musical career with the album Brer Soul (1969), which featured a mostly spoken vocal style that prefigured rap. He subsequently moved into Broadway musical theatre, adapting some of his recorded songs for the production Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death (1971) and one of his novels for Don’t Play Us Cheap! (1972; film 1973). Thereafter he continued to write, act, compose, and direct for films, television, and the stage. Subsequent films in which he appeared include O.C. and Stiggs (1985), Boomerang (1992), The Hebrew Hammer (2003), and Peeples (2013). With the comedy Identity Crisis (1989), he ended a 16-year hiatus from screen directing, and he later wrote and directed Le Conte du ventre plein (2000; Bellyful) and Confessions of a Ex-Doofus-Itchy Footed Mutha (2008); none of these efforts, however, were widely seen. In addition to his entertainment career, Van Peebles became involved in commodities trading in the 1980s and was the first African American to hold a seat on the American Stock Exchange. 

Van Peebles’s son Mario, who played the character Sweetback as a boy in the 1971 film, became a noted film actor and director in his own right. Besides directing his father in such films as the western Posse (1993), Mario co-wrote, directed, and starred in the feature Baadasssss! (2003), about the making of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.

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*Ernest Warlick, a tight end for the American Football League Champion Buffalo Bills of 1964 and 1965, was born in Hickory, North Carolina (July 21).

Ernest "Ernie" "Big Hoss" Warlick (b. July 21, 1932, Hickory, North Carolina – d. November 24, 2012) was a football tight end from North Carolina Central University who played American collegiate and professional football as well as Canadian professional football.  He played four seasons with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League.  He then joined the American Football League's Buffalo Bills in 1962. He had an average of 17.2 yards per catch with the Bills, while the team earned three straight Eastern Division titles and two American Football League championships, and a 20.8 yards per catch average in 1964. After his football career, Warlick became the first African-American sportscaster on Buffalo television, and was elected to the Buffalo Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 1998.

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*Maury Wills, a professional baseball player who stole a then Major League Baseball record 104 bases in 1962, was born in Washington, D. C. (October 2).

Maurice Morning "Maury" Wills (b. October 2, 1932, Washington, D. C.) was a professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) primarily for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1959 through 1966 and the latter part of 1969 through 1972 as a shortstop and switch-hitter; he played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1967 and 1968, and the Montreal Expos the first part of 1969.  Wills was an essential component of the Dodgers' championship teams in the mid-1960s, and is credited for reviving the stolen base as part of baseball strategy.

Wills was an All-Star for five seasons and seven All-Star Games, and was the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game Most Valuable Player in 1962.  He also was the National League Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1962, and a Gold Glove winner in 1961 and 1962.  In a fourteen-year career, Wills batted .281 with 20 home runs, 458 runs batted in, 2,134 hits, 1,067 runs, 177 doubles, 71 triples, and 586 stolen bases in 1,942 games.

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*Civil rights leader Andrew Young was born in New Orleans, Louisiana (March 12).  Young became the first African American United Nations ambassador and Mayor of Atlanta.

  

Andrew Young, in full Andrew Jackson Young, Jr.    (b. March 12, 1932, New Orleans, Louisiana), American politician, civil-rights leader, and clergyman.

Young was reared in a middle-class African American family, attended segregated Southern schools, and later entered Howard University (Washington, D.C.) as a premed student. But he turned to the ministry and graduated in 1955 from the Hartford Theological Seminary (Hartford, Conn.) with a divinity degree.

A pastor at several African American churches in the South, Young became active in the civil-rights movement—especially in voter registration drives. His work brought him in contact with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Young joined with King in leading the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Following King’s assassination in 1968, Young worked with Ralph Abernathy until he resigned from the SCLC in 1970.

Defeated that year in his first bid for a seat in Congress, Young ran again in 1972 and won. He was re-elected in 1974 and 1976. In the House he opposed cuts in funds for social programs while trying to block additional funding for the war in Vietnam. He was an early supporter of Jimmy Carter, and, after Carter’s victory in the 1976 presidential elections, Andrew Young was made the United States’ Ambassador to the United Nations. His apparent sympathy with the Third World made him very controversial, and he was finally forced to resign in 1979 after it became known that he had met with a representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1981 Young was elected mayor of Atlanta, and he was re-elected to that post in 1985, serving through 1989.

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*Otis Young, the second African American to co-star in a television western, was born in Providence, Rhode Island (July 4).

Otis E. Young (b. July 4, 1932 – October 11, 2001) was an actor, writer and anti-Vietnam war activist. Young co-starred in a television Western, The Outcasts (1968–1969), with Don Murray.  Young was the second African-American actor to co-star in a television Western, the first being Raymond St. Jacques who co-starred on the final season of Rawhide in 1965, as cattle driver Simon Blake. Young played another memorable role as Jack Nicholson's shore-patrol partner in the 1973 comedy-drama film The Last Detail, and his later film credits included the low budget horror films The Capture of Bigfoot (1979) and Blood Beach (1981).

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Notable Deaths

*There were six recorded lynchings in the United States.

*Ten African Americans were killed when European American employees of the Illinois Central Railroad tried to prevent African Americans from working there.

*Charles Chesnutt, an author best known for his novels and stories exploring complex issues of racial and social identity in the post-Civil War South, died in Cleveland, Ohio (November 15).

Charles Waddell Chesnutt (b. June 20, 1858, Cleveland, Ohio – d. November 15, 1932, Cleveland, Ohio) was an African American author, essayist, political activist and lawyer, best known for his novels and short stories exploring complex issues of racial and social identity in the post-Civil War South.  Many families of free people of color were formed in the colonial and early Federal period.  Some attained education and property.  In addition, there were many mixed-race slaves, who as freedmen after the war were part of the complex society of the South. Two of his books were adapted as silent films in 1926 and 1927 by the African-American director and producer Oscar Micheaux.  Following the civil rights movement of the 20th century, interest in Chesnutt's works was revived. Several of his books were published in new editions, and he received formal recognition. A commemorative stamp was printed in 2008.

During the early 20th century in Cleveland, Chesnutt established what became a highly successful court reporting business, which provided his main income. He became active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, writing articles supporting education as well as legal challenges to discriminatory laws.

*James Miley, an early jazz trumpet and cornet player who was a collaborator of the young Duke Ellington, died on Welfare Island, New York (May 20).

James Wesley "Bubber" Miley (b. April 3, 1903, Aiken, South Carolina – d. May 20, 1932, Welfare Island, New York) was an early jazz trumpet and cornet player, specializing in the use of the plunger mute.  Miley's collaboration with Ellington in what later became The Duke Ellington Orchestra secured his place in jazz history. Early Ellington hits, such as Black and Tan Fantasy, Doin' the Voom Voom, East Saint Louis Toodle-oo (covered by Steely Dan in 1974 on their album Pretzel Logic), The Mooche, and Creole Love Call prominently feature Miley's solo work and were thematically inspired by his melodic ideas, which he, in turn, often borrowed from Baptist hymns sung in his church, such as Stephen Adams' Holy City. He and fellow band member, trombonist Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton, created the "Wah-wah" sound that characterized Ellington's early Jungle Music style. Many jazz critics consider Miley's musical contributions to be integral to Ellington's early success during the time they performed in the Kentucky Club and the Cotton Club.  Miley's health suffered from his problems with alcoholism. On May 20, 1932, at the age of 29, he died of tuberculosis on Welfare Island,  now Roosevelt Island, in New York City

*Bill Pickett, one of the most famous performing cowboys of his day, died (April 2).  Publicly acclaimed by President Theodore Roosevelt, Pickett performed throughout Europe and the United States, where he was often assisted by two young European American cowboys, Tom Mix and Will Rogers.

Bill Pickett,  (b. December 5, 1870?, Williamson County, Texas — d. April 2, 1932, Tulsa, Oklahoma), American rodeo cowboy who introduced bulldogging, a modern rodeo event that involves wrestling a running steer to the ground.

Pickett was descended from American Indians (Cherokees) and African American slaves in the Southwest. He grew up in West Texas, learning to ride and rope as a boy, and became a ranch hand; he performed simple trick rides in town on the weekends. In 1900, he became a showman, sponsored by Lee Moore, a Texas rodeo entrepreneur. In 1907, Pickett signed with the 101 Ranch Wild West Show, becoming one of its star performers and assuming the status of a legendary figure for his masterful handling of both wild and domestic animals. For bulldogging, or steer wrestling, he perfected a technique of jumping from his horse, grabbing the steer around the neck or horns, sinking his teeth into the animal’s lip, and pulling it to the ground. Pickett’s most-grueling performance came in 1908 in a bullring in Mexico City. He there wrestled and rode a Mexican fighting bull for seven minutes before a riotous audience enraged at this original interpretation of the Mexican national pastime of bullfighting.

Pickett performed until about 1916, working as a cowhand and rancher thereafter. He later appeared in the silent films The Bull-Dogger (1921) and The Crimson Skull (1922). He died after being kicked by a horse in April 1932.

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*Major Taylor, a champion cyclist, died in Chicago, Illinois (June 21).

Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor (b. November 26, 1878, Indiana  – d. June 21, 1932, Chicago, Illinois) was a cyclist who won the world 1 mile (1.6 km) track cycling championship in 1899 after setting numerous world records and overcoming racial discrimination. Taylor was the first African-American cyclist to achieve the level of world champion and only the second man of African descent to win a world championship in any sport — after Canadian boxer George Dixon.

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The Peace Movement

*The peace movement of Ethiopia was organized in Chicago and petitioned President Roosevelt to use relief funds to settle African Americans in Africa.

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Performing Arts

*Florence B. Price played her piano concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which would do her Symphony in E Minor in 1933.

*Buddy (Clarence) Bradley became the first African American to choreograph a show of white dancers.  He was hired to prepare the London production of Evergreen for which he was in charge of sixty-four dancers. Bradley received full-credit in the program.  His career from this time on was mainly in Europe, where he was an important figure in popular dance.

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Politics

*No mention of African Americans was made in the platforms of the Democratic, Farmer-Labor, Prohibition or Socialist Labor parties.

*The Republican Party platform stated:  "For 70 years the Republican Party has been the friend of the American Negro.  Vindication of the rights of the Negro citizen to enjoy the full benefits of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness is traditional in the Republican Party, and our party stands pledged to maintain equal opportunity and rights for Negro citizens.  We do not propose to depart from that tradition nor to alter the spirit or letter of that pledge."

*The Socialist Party platform called for "the enforcement of Constitutional guarantees of economic, political and legal equality for the Negro." It also called for "the enactment and enforcement of drastic anti-lynching laws."

*The Communist Party platform read: "The Communist Party is the political party of the oppressed masses of the people -- the industrial workers, the persecuted Negroes, the toiling farmers.  The Communist Party enters this election campaign explicitly to rally the toilers of the city and country, Negro and white, in a united struggle for jobs and bread, for the fight against imperialist war. ... The Negro people, always hounded, persecuted, disfranchised, and discriminated against in capitalist America, are, during this period of crisis, oppressed as never before.  They are the first to be fired when layoffs take place.  They are discriminated against when charity rations are handed out to the unemployed.  They are cheated and robbed by the Southern white landlords and evicted from their lands and homes when their miserable income does not enable them to pay rent.  When they protest against this unbearable oppression and persecution they are singled out for police attacks in the North and for lynch victims in the South.  Over 150 Negroes have been barbarously lynched at the instigation of the white ruling class ... "  In this platform the Negro reform leaders were attacked as "shamelessly aiding the white master class in these vicious attacks."  James W. Ford, an African American, was the Vice Presidential candidate on the Communist ticket.

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Publications

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*Howard University began publishing the Journal of Negro Education.

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Radio

*Don Redman became the first African American orchestra leader to have a sponsored radio series.

Don (Donald Matthew) Redman (1900-1964), a jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and arranger, was the first African American orchestra leader to have a sponsored radio series.  He was a pioneer jazz arranger-composer and contributed significantly to the development of the big-band sound of the 1920s and 1930s.  A child prodigy, Redman was born in Piedmont, West Virginia, and studied at music conservatories in Boston and Detroit.

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Sports

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*The New York Rens, an African American professional basketball team, won the first world championship in any sport by beating the Boston Celtics.

*At the Olympics, Eddie Tolan won a gold medal in a record 100 meter dash, setting a new world record.  Ralph Metcalfe was a close second.  Tolan also won a gold medal in the 200 meter run, and Ed Gordon earned a gold in the long jump.

*George "Kid Chocolate" Dixon won the featherweight boxing championship, which he would hold through 1934.

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Statistics

*In 1932, the trend of immigration of people of African descent continued to be away from the United States, reaching its peak in 1933, when the total number of people of African descent to the United States was 84, while departures amounted to 1,058.  Almost all immigration of people of African descent to the United States came from the Crown Colonies and the dependencies of Great Britain and France in the West Indies.