* Today in Black History - November 20 *
1865 - African Americans hold a protest convention in Zion
Church in Charleston, South Carolina and demand equal
rights and repeal of the "Black Codes."
1878 - Charles Sidney Gilpin, is born in Richmond, Virginia.
In the early 1920s, Gilpin will secure his place in
American theater history by creating the title -- and
only major -- role in Eugene O'Neill's' "The Emperor
Jones." Gilpin's portrayal in the long one-act play
becomes a box-office sensation in New York's Greenwich
Village. The play and its principal actor will transfer
to Broadway and will later go on tour. After the post-
Broadway tour, which played Richmond to great acclaim,
Gilpin's insistence on eliminating racial epithets from
the play will anger O'Neill. O'Neill, who at one time
is said to be writing a play especially for Gilpin, will
cast budding actor Paul Robeson in the London production
of Emperor Jones. Robeson will also play Jones on film.
Except for Ira Aldridge, who lived and performed mostly
in Europe before the Civil War, Gilpin will be the first
African American to be widely lauded as a serious actor
on America's mainstream stage. He will lose his voice
in 1929 and join the ancestors at his home in Eldridge,
New Jersey in 1930.
1910 - Pauli Murray is born. A lawyer and author of "Song in a
Weary Throat," "Proud Shoes," and "Dark Testament and
Other Poems," she will also be a powerful theologian and
the first African American woman priest to be ordained
in the Episcopal Church.
1919 - Jane Cooke Wright is born in New York City, one of two
daughters of Dr. Louis Tompkins Wright and Corinne Cook
Wright. Her father was a physician who practiced in New
York City and later established the Cancer Research
Foundation at Harlem Hospital. She will live in New York
City until 1938 when she leaves to enroll in Smith
College. She will begin college intending to major in
art, but will switch to pre-medicine. She will graduate
from Smith in 1942, one of only two graduates in that
class later accepted to medical school. She will bring
the field of chemotherapy to the forefront of cancer
treatment, publishing over 130 papers. Her research team
will focus on the investigation of a wide variety of
anticancer drugs and develop procedures for the sequential
use of these drugs in cancer treatment. She will be
awarded a full scholarship to New York Medical School and
receive an M.D. degree upon graduating with honors, third
in her class. In 1945. She will intern at Bellevue
Hospital, followed by two residencies at Harlem Hospital.
At this point, she will set up private practice since no
medical institution will offer her a position. In 1949 She
will join the medical staff at the Cancer Research
Foundation at Harlem Hospital as a clinician and research
scientist and begin her work in cancer research. After her
father joins the ancestors in 1952, she will become
director of the foundation. In 1955 she will move to New
York University Medical Center as director of cancer
chemotherapy research and instructor of research surgery.
In 1964, she will be appointed to President Lyndon
Johnson’s Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke.
Her subcommittee’s recommendation to develop regional
centers will be an important outcome of this commission.
By 1967, Jane Wright will be promoted to associate dean
and professor of surgery at NYU Medical Center where she
will continue to be active in research until retiring in
1987. Her honors will include the Spirit of Achievement
Award of the Women’s Division of the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine (1965); the Hadassah Myrtle Wreath
(1967); the Smith Medal from Smith College (1968);
featured by Ciba Geigy on its Exceptional Black Scientist
poster (1980); and be honored by the American Association
for Cancer Research (1975). She will receive several
honorary degrees and serve on boards of trustees for
various organizations.
1922 - The NAACP's Spingarn Medal is awarded to Mary B. Talbert,
the former president of the National Association of
Colored Women, for service to African American women and
for the restoration of the Frederick Douglas home in
Southeast Washington, DC.
1923 - Garrett A. Morgan receives a patent for his three-way
traffic signal. The device, which will revolutionize
traffic control, is one of many inventions for the Paris,
Kentucky, native, which include a hair-straightening
process and the gas mask.
1939 - Morgan State College is established in Baltimore,
Maryland, succeeding Morgan State Biblical College,
founded in 1857.
1962 - President John F. Kennedy issues an executive order
barring racial discrimination in federally financed
housing.
1962 - The NAACP's Spingarn Medal is awarded to Robert C.
Weaver, economist and government official, for his
leadership in the movement for open housing.
1969 - Pele', the Brazilian soccer star, scores his 1,000th
soccer goal.
1973 - The gravesite of Mary Seacole, a Jamaican nurse who
served in the Crimean War, is restored in England.
Traveling to the battlefield at her own expense, when
her expert services are rejected by English authorities
and Florence Nightingale, Seacole opens her own nursing
hotel, which she operates by day, serving as a
volunteer with Nightingale at night. Seacole's skills
saved the lives of many soldiers wounded during the war
or infected with malaria, cholera, yellow fever, and
other illnesses.
1977 - Walter Payton, of the Chicago Bears, rushes for NFL
record 275 yards in one game.
1981 - The Negro Ensemble Company's production of Charles
Fuller's "A Soldier's Play" opens the Theatre Four.
The play will win a New York Drama Critics Award for
best American play and the Pulitzer Prize.
1997 - A.C. Green sets the NBA "Iron Man" record for consecutive
games played at 907 games. The previous record had
stood for fifteen years. Iron Men from professional
baseball and professional hockey were present at
courtside to observe the record-breaking performance.
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