Ellis: Keeping Safe for the Holidays

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Ellis: Keeping Safe for the Holidays

After almost eight months of quarantine, face masks, and hand sanitizer, we are now in the middle of two unprecedented events: the COVID-19 pandemic and the first holiday season under measures that has changed how we carry out our family traditions. The reality is clear; according to a Kaiser Family Foundation's health tracking poll, two-thirds […]

Source: The Birmingham Times

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Ike Turner was a popular twentieth century African-American musician, bandleader and lyricist. He was also a record producer and is given credit for introducing rock and roll in 1950s. Turner came to stardom in 1960s and 1970s with his former wife Tina Turner and their record

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Source: Black History Resources

Dec

12

2007

U.S. Marshal Luke Moore at Ole Miss, 1962

Many Americans are familiar with the now iconic images of James Meredith, the black student who desegregated the University of Mississippi in October 1962, surrounded by white U.S. marshals assigned to protect him and ensure that a U.S. Supreme Court desegregation order be enforced. Few of us are

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Source: Black Past

Bo Diddley is born.

Bo Diddley was born Ellas Bates on Sunday December 30th 1928 on a small farm near the town of McComb, Mississippi, USA, in rural Pike County, close to the Louisiana border, the only child of Ethel Wilson and Eugene Bates. He had 3 half-brothers and

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Dec

30

1928

In January 2012, in an effort to repair its tattered economy, President Jonathan eliminated the countrys fuel subsidy, which costs the government about $8 billion a year. The move caused fuel and food prices to double. Streets protests and strikes broke out all over the country, and Jonathan

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

On Nov. 25, 2014, Malis Ministry of Health confirmed two new cases of Ebola. This was seen as a setback because it happened after the country thought it had overcome an earlier outbreak of the virus. Both cases were connected to previous ones. One case was the 23-year-old fiancée of a 25-year-old

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Michael Jones, or simply known as Mike Jones, is an American rapper, born in January 6, 1981, in Houston, Texas. He also pursues an acting career on an occasional basis. Jones initially wanted to pursue a different career than that in music, given his extraordinary craze for basketball. He

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Source: Black History Resources

Jan

6

1981

Karl Malone was born on July 24, 1963 in Summerfield, Louisiana. He was the son of Shirley and Shedrick and was the youngest of nine siblings. Karl was raised by his mother on a farm since his father was married to another woman and lived with her. He committed suicide when Karl was only 14. Karl

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Source: Black History Resources

Jul

24

1963

Black Indians: A Personal and Historic Journey

William Loren Katz has devoted his life to researching and writing African American history. In the following account written to describe the reissue of one of his most successful books, Black Indians, he describes how he became an historian of African America and particularly the black

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Source: Black Past

Jones, Anthony “Van” (1968- )

Van Jones is a social-environmental activist and the Obama administration’s former “Green Czar.” He was born in 1968 in Jackson, Tennessee. His mother and father were a high school teacher and junior-high principal respectively. While growing up, Jones was a stereotypical

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Source: Black Past

(1901) William Hannibal Thomas on the American Negro

Nineteenth Century black conservative William Hannibal Thomas was a Civil War veteran, Reconstruction era South Carolina politician, and U.S. counsel to Portuguese Southwest Africa (Angola). He is most famous however as the author of the 1901 book, The American Negro: What He Was, What He Is, and

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Source: Black Past

Sullivan, Louis Wade (1933- )

After witnessing poverty and discrimination in Depression-era Georgia, Louis Wade Sullivan committed his career to education and public service, rising to become Secretary of Health and Human Services under President George H.W. Bush. He also was the founder and long-time president of Morehouse

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Source: Black Past

Evelyn Bundy Band (c. 1926)

Formed in 1926, the Evelyn Bundy Band was one of the earliest and most influential local jazz ensembles to contribute to the Seattle, Washington jazz

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Source: Black Past

Morial, Ernest Nathan (1929-1989)

Born in New Orleans, Ernest Morial grew up in the city’s Seventh Ward. His father was a cigar maker and his mother was a seamstress. Graduating from Xavier University, a historically black Catholic institution, he became the first African American to receive a law degree from Louisiana State

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Source: Black Past

Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in the year 1914, Ralph Ellison was a celebrated National Book Award winner for his novel “Invisible Man”. He was awarded this this title in the year 1953. Even though he was best known for this novel, that is not all Ralph Ellison was. Ralph

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Source: Black History Resources

Apr

16

1994

(1955) Martin Luther King Jr., “The Montgomery Bus Boycott”

The Montgomery Bus Boycott speech reprinted below is one of the first major addresses of Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King spoke to nearly 5,000 people at the Holt Street Baptist Church in Montgomery on December 5, 1955, just four days after Mrs. Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to relinquish

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Source: Black Past

Dec

5

1955

(1965) Lyndon B. Johnson, "The Voting Rights Act"

In early March 1965 much of the nations attention was focused on civil rights marches in and around Selma, Alabama. Activists led by Dr. Martin Luther King used these demonstrations to urge the federal government to act to end the denial of voting rights to tens of thousands of African Americans

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Source: Black Past

Nelson Mandela is released

Nelson Mandelas greatest pleasure, his most private moment, is watching the sun set with the music of Handel or Tchaikovsky

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Feb

11

1990

Davis, Artur (1967- )

Former Alabama Congressman Artur Genestre Davis was born on October 9, 1967 in Montgomery, Alabama. He was raised by his mother and grandmotehr and graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in Montgomery in 1986. He received his degree Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University in 1990 and Cum Laude

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Source: Black Past

Oct

9

1967

Dillard University [New Orleans] (1869- )

Dillard University is a private, Historically Black liberal arts college located in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church. Dillard University is a result of the merger between Straight College and New Orleans University in

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Source: Black Past

(1984) Rev. Jesse Jackson, “The Rainbow Coalition”

In 1984 Rev. Jesse Jackson campaigned for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency. Although he entered the Democratic convention at San Francisco with little hope of winning, his appeals on behalf of the dispossessed of America whom he characterized as the Rainbow Coalition, ensured that his

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Source: Black Past

Damon Wayans is an African American actor and comedian who is famous for his role on the popular sitcom “In Living Color”. He was born in New York City to a social worker named Elvira Wayans and a supermarket manager named Howell Wayans. The family were strict Jehovah’s Witnesses and

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Source: Black History Resources

Hampton University (1868-- )

Hampton University, located on the shore of Chesapeake Bay in Hampton, Virginia, was founded in 1868 by Samuel Chapman Armstrong, the son of a prominent missionary family that settled in Hawaii in the early 1800s. Armstrong was enrolled at Williams College in Massachusetts when the Civil War

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Source: Black Past

LeBron James is an American basketball superstar who currently plays for the National Basketball Association (NBA) team “Cleveland Cavaliers”. He is six feet, eight inches tall and weighs 250 pounds. He was born to a 16 year old single mother named Gloria Marie James on December

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Source: Black History Resources

Coachman, Alice Marie (1923-2014)

Alice Coachman became the first African American woman from any country to win an Olympic Gold Medal when she competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, UK. Born November 9, 1923, in Albany, Georgia, to Evelyn and Fred Coachman, Alice was the fifth of ten children. As an athletic child of the

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Source: Black Past

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an American civil rights activist who is best known for using non-violent civil disobedience tactics to secure equal rights for African Americans. He was named Michael King Jr. at birth but later changed his name to Martin Luther King Jr. He was born on January

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Source: Black History Resources

Jan

15

1929

Henrietta Lacks and the Debate Over the Ethics of Bio-Medical Research

In the article below Clarence Spigner, DrPH., Professor of Health Services in the School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, briefly describes the saga of Henrietta Lacks whose cells have been used without her family’s permission for over sixty years of bio-medical

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Source: Black Past

Oct

4

1951

Bumbry, Grace (1937- )

Grace Bumbry is considered one of the foremost mezzo-sopranos of the opera world. She and several of her African American contemporaries, including Leontyne Price, Martina Arroyo, Shirley Verrett, and Reri Grist, are credited with following Marian Anderson, a pioneer in paving the way for African

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Source: Black Past

Institutions of Higher Learning Established

Booker T. Washington established Tuskegee Institute. Also founded in 1881 were Spelman College, Morris Brown College, and Bishop College.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Jul

4

1881

Associate Negro Press founder born

Birthday in Sanford, Florida of Claude A. Barnett founder of the Associated Negro Press, the first and only Black news wire services in the US. Barnet, who died in 1967, was a 1906 graduate of Tuskegee Institute.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Sep

16

1889

Serena Williams

Serena Jameka Williams is a professional tennis player, ranked No. 1 in women’s singles tennis as of August 2014, a rank she has held 5 times in her career. She is the younger sister of tennis star Venus Williams. She was born on September 26, 1981 in Saginaw, Michigan to Richard and Oracene

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1981

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