* Today in Black History - November 18 *
1797 - Abolitionist and orator, Sojourner Truth, is born a
New York slave on the plantation of Johannes
Hardenberghn in Swartekill, New York. Her given name
is Isabella VanWagener (some references use the name
Isabella Baumfree). She will walk away from her last
owner one year prior to being freed by a New York law
in 1827, which proclaimed that all slaves twenty-eight
years of age and over were to be freed. Several years
later, in response to what she describes as a command
from God, she becomes an itinerant preacher and takes
the name Sojourner Truth. Among her most memorable
appearances will be at an 1851 women's rights conference
in Akron, Ohio. In her famous "Ain't I a woman?" speech
she forcefully attacks the hypocrisies of organized
religion, white privilege and everything in between.
She will join the ancestors on November 26, 1883.
1899 - Howard Thurman is born in Daytona Beach, Florida. A
theologian who will study at Morehouse with Martin L.
King, Sr., he will found the interracial Church of
Fellowship of All Peoples. The first African American
to hold a full-time faculty position at Boston
University (in 1953), Dr. Thurman will write 22 books
and become widely regarded as one of the greatest
spiritual leaders of the 20th century. He will join the
ancestors on April 10, 1981.
1907 - Máximo Francisco Repilado Muñoz Telles is born in Siboney,
Cuba. Known professionally as "Compay Segundo", he will be
a trova guitarist, singer and composer. Compay (meaning
compadre) Segundo, so called because he will always be
second voice in his musical partnerships. His first
engagement will be in the Municipal Band of Santiago de
Cuba, directed by his teacher, Enrique Bueno. In 1934,
after a spell in a quintet, he will move to Havana, where
he will also play the clarinet in the Municipal Band. He
will also learn to play the guitar and the tres, which will
become his usual instruments. Compay Segundo will also
invent the armónico, a seven-stringed guitar-like instrument,
to fill the harmonic jump between the Spanish guitar and the
tres. In the 1950s, he will become well known as the second
voice and tres player in Los Compadres, a duo he will form
with Lorenzo Hierrezuelo in 1947. Los Compadres will be one of
the most successful Cuban duos of their time. Greater
international fame will come later, in 1997, with the release
of the "Buena Vista Social Club" album, a hugely successful
recording which will win several Grammy awards. Compay Segundo
will appear in the Wim Wenders film of the same title. Segundo's
` most famous composition is "Chan Chan", the opening track on the
Buena Vista Social Club album, a four-chord son cubano. "Chan
Chan" will be recorded by Segundo himself various times as well
as by countless other Latin artists. Other compositions are
"Sarandonga", "La calabaza", "Hey caramba", "Macusa", "Saludo
Compay". These are all sones, and this differentiates him from
the more usual trova musicians, with their devotion to the bolero.
At a fiesta, he will sing to President Fidel Castro, who will take
his pulse and joke about his vitality despite his 90-plus years.
"Who could have imagined that?" he will ask when he finds himself
at the Vatican City, performing "Chan Chan" before Pope John Paul
II. He explained his longevity simply: mutton consommé and a drink
of rum. He will join the ancestors on July 13, 2003 after
succumbing to kidney failure. The tomb of Compay Segundo will be
located at the Cementerio de Santa Ifigenia in Santiago de Cuba. In
2007, the 100th anniversary of Segundo's birth will be celebrated
with a concert of his compositions performed by a symphony orchestra
in Havana with some of his musicians and sons.
1927 - John Henry Kendricks is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will
become a prolific songwriter as well as a major rhythm
and blues singer better known as Hank Ballard. He will
perform with his group, The Midnighters, and make the
following songs popular: "There's A Thrill Upon The Hill"
(Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go), "The Twist"(made famous
later by Chubby Checker), "Finger Poppin' Time", "Work with
Me Annie", "Sexy Ways", and "Annie Had a Baby". He will be
enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. He
will join the ancestors on March 2, 2003 after succumbing to
throat cancer.
1936 - Donald Eugene Cherry is born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He will
become a jazz trumpeter. He will have a long association with
saxophonist Ornette Coleman, which will begin in the late 1950s.
He will also be a pioneer in world fusion music in the 1960s and
1970s. By the early 1950s he will be playing with jazz musicians
in Los Angeles, sometimes acting as pianist in Art Farmer's group.
He will also tour with saxophonist James Clay. He will become well
known in 1958 when he performs and records with Ornette Coleman,
first in a quintet with pianist Paul Bley and later in what will
become the predominantly piano-less quartet which will record for
Atlantic Records. During this period, he will co-lead The Avant-
Garde session which will see John Coltrane replacing Coleman in
the Quartet. He will record and tour with Sonny Rollins, will be a
member of the New York Contemporary Five with Archie Shepp and
John Tchicai, and will record and tour with both Albert Ayler and
George Russell. His first recording as a leader will be "Complete
Communion" for Blue Note Records in 1965. The band will include
Coleman's drummer Ed Blackwell as well as saxophonist Gato Barbieri.
After a departure from Coleman's quartet, he will often play in
small groups and duets (many with ex-Coleman drummer Ed Blackwell)
during a long sojourn in Scandinavia and other locations. He will
appear on Coleman's 1971 LP Science Fiction, and from 1976 to 1987
will reunite with Coleman alumni Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and
Blackwell in the band Old And New Dreams, recording four albums with
them, two for ECM and two for Black Saint, where his "subtlety of
rhythmic expansion and contraction" will be noted. In the 1970s he
venture into the developing genre of world fusion music. He will
incorporate influences of Middle Eastern, traditional African, and
Indian music into his playing. He will study Indian music with
Vasant Rai in the early seventies. From 1978 to 1982, he will record
three albums for ECM with "world jazz" group Codona, consisting of
himself, percussionist Nana Vasconcelos and sitar and tabla player
Collin Walcott. He will also collaborate with classical composer
Krzysztof Penderecki on the 1971 album Actions. In 1973, he will
co-compose the score for Alejandro Jodorowsky's film "The Holy
Mountain," together with Ronald Frangipane and Jodorowsky. During
the 1980s, he will release the recording El Corazon, a 1982 duet
album with Ed Blackwell. He will also make two albums as bandleader,
"Home Boy" in 1985 and "Art Deco" in 1988. H will record again with
the original Ornette Coleman Quartet on Coleman's 1987 album In All
Languages. Other playing opportunities in his career will come with
Carla Bley's Escalator Over The Hill project, and as a sideman on
recordings by Lou Reed, Ian Dury, Rip Rig + Panic and Sun Ra. In 1994,
he will appear on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD, "Stolen
Moments: Red Hot + Cool," on a track titled "Apprehension", alongside
The Watts Prophets. The album, meant to raise awareness of the AIDS
epidemic in African American society, will be named "Album of the Year"
by Time Magazine. He will join the ancestors on October 19, 1995 after
succumbing to liver cancer. He will be inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz
Hall of Fame in 2011.
1949 - Jackie Robinson, of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is named the National League's
Most Valuable Player.
1952 - Delroy George Lindo is born in Lewisham, London, England, U.K.. He will
become an actor and theatre director. He will be nominated for Tony and
Screen Actors Guild awards and will win a Satellite Award. He will
perhaps be best known for his roles in three Spike Lee films, having
portrayed West Indian Archie in Lee's "Malcolm X" (1992), Woody
Carmichael in "Crooklyn" (1994), and Rodney Little in "Clockers" (1995).
He will also play Catlett in "Get Shorty," Arthur Rose in "The Cider
House Rules," and Detective Castlebeck in "Gone in 60 Seconds" (2000).
He will star as Alderman Ronin Gibbons in the TV series "The Chicago
Code" (2011) and as Winter on the series "Believe," which will premier
in 2014. His film debut will come in 1976 with the British comedy "Find
the Lady," followed by two other roles in films, including an Army
Sergeant in "More American Graffiti" (1979). He will stop his film career
for 10 years to concentrate on theatre acting. In 1982 he will debut on
Broadway in "'Master Harold'...and the Boys," directed by the play's
South African author Athol Fugard. By 1988 he will earn a Tony nomination
for his portrayal of Herald Loomis in August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come
and Gone." He will return to film in the 1990s, acting alongside Rutger
Hauer and Joan Chen in the science fiction film "Salute of the Jugger"
(1990), which will become a cult classic. Other films in which he will
have starring roles are Ron Howard's "Ransom" (1996) and "Soul of the Game"
(1996), as the baseball player Satchel Paige. In 1998 he will co-star as
African American explorer Matthew Henson, in the TV film "Glory & Honor,"
directed by Kevin Hooks. It will portray his nearly 20-year partnership
with Commander Robert Peary in Arctic exploration and their effort to find
the Geographic North Pole in 1909. He will receive a Satellite Award as
best actor. He will continue to work in television and will be seen on the
short-lived NBC drama "Kidnapped." He will play an angel in the comedy
film, "A Life Less Ordinary" (1997). In the British film, "Wondrous
Oblivion" (2003), directed by Paul Morrison, he will star as Dennis Samuels,
the father of a Jamaican immigrant family in London in the 1950s; he coaches
his children and the son of a neighbour Jewish family in cricket, earning
their admiration in a time of strained social relations. He will say he made
the film in honour of his parents, who had similarly moved to London in
those years. In 2007, he will begin an association with Berkeley Repertory
Theatre in Berkeley, California, when he directs Tanya Barfield's play "The
Blue Door." In the autumn of 2008, he will revisit August Wilson's play, "Joe
Turner's Come and Gone," directing a production at the Berkeley Rep. In 2010,
he will play the role of elderly seer Bynum in David Lan's production of Joe
Turner at the Young Vic Theatre in London.
1956 - Harold Warren Moon is born in Los Angeles, California. He will
become a professional football player. He will spend the majority
of his career with the Houston Oilers of the National Football
League (NFL) and the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football
League (CFL). He will also play for the Minnesota Vikings, Seattle
Seahawks, and Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL. He will also serve as
a broadcaster for the Seahawks. He will began his professional
career with the Eskimos in 1978, after going unselected in the NFL
Draft. His success during his six seasons in the CFL will lead him
to the NFL in 1984 with the Oilers. Over his 17 NFL seasons, he will
be named to nine Pro Bowls and make seven playoff appearances.
Following ten seasons with the Oilers, he will have brief multiple-
year stints with the Vikings, Seahawks, and Chiefs before retiring at
age 44. At the time of his retirement, he will hold several all-time
professional gridiron football passing records. He will be less
successful in the NFL postseason, never advancing beyond the division
round of the playoffs, although he will win five Grey Cups in the CFL.
He will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006,
becoming the first African American quarterback and the first undrafted
quarterback to receive the honor.
1957 - Julius Caesar Watts Jr. is born in Eufaula, Oklahoma. He will become a
politician, clergyman, and athlete. He will be a college football
quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners and will later play professionally
in the Canadian Football League. He will serve in the U.S. House of
Representatives from 1995 to 2003 as a Republican, representing
Oklahoma's 4th Congressional District. After being one of the first
children to attend an integrated elementary school, he will become a
high school quarterback and will gain a football scholarship to the
University of Oklahoma. He will graduate from college in 1981 with a
degree in journalism and will become a football player in the Canadian
Football League until his retirement in 1986. He will become a Baptist
minister and will be elected in 1990 to the Oklahoma Corporation
Commission as the first African American in Oklahoma to win statewide
office. He will successfully run for Congress in 1994 and will be re-
elected to three additional terms with increasing vote margins. He will
deliver the Republican response to Bill Clinton's 1997 State of the Union
address and will be elected Chair of the House Republican Conference in
1998. He will retire in 2003 and turn to lobbying and business work, also
occasionally serving as a political commentator.
1964 - The head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover, describes
Martin Luther King as a "most notorious liar". This statement is
indicative of the agency head's dislike of the civil rights leader.
1969 - The National Association of Health Services Executives is incorporated.
NAHSE's goal is to elevate the quality of health-care services rendered
to poor and disadvantaged communities.
1970 - Michael Elliot Epps is born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He will become
a stand-up comedian, actor, film producer, writer, and rapper. He will
be best known for playing Day-Day Jones in "Next Friday" and its sequel,
"Friday After Next," and also appearing in "The Hangover" as "Black
Doug". He will be the voice of Boog in "Open Season 2" (replacing
Martin Lawrence). As of 2010, he will be the executive producer on a
documentary about the life story of a former member of Tupac Shakur's
Outlawz, Napoleon: Life of an Outlaw. He will also be known for playing
Lloyd Jefferson "L.J." Wade in "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" (2004) and
"Resident Evil: Extinction" (2007) respectively. He will reunite with
Ice Cube in 2002 as the bumbling thief to Ice Cube's bounty hunter in
"All About the Benjamins." He will serve as the "Super Bowl ambassador"
in his native Indianapolis for the 2012 Super Bowl. He will be featured
in commercials promoting the Super Bowl Village and he will make special
appearances in the Village during the week of the Super Bowl.
1975 - Calvin Murphy of the Houston Rockets, ends the NBA free throw
streak at 58 games.
1975 - David Américo Ortiz Arias is born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
He will become a professional baseball (MLB) designated hitter (DH) and
first baseman who will play 20 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB).
After beginning his career with the Minnesota Twins, he will play 14
seasons for the Boston Red Sox, with whom he will be a ten-time All-Star,
a three-time World Series champion, and a seven-time Silver Slugger
winner. He will also hold the Red Sox single-season record for home runs
with 54, which he will set during the 2006 season. Originally signed by
the Seattle Mariners in 1992, he will be traded to the Twins in 1996 and
will play parts of six seasons with the team. He will be released by the
Twins and will sign with the Red Sox in 2003, where he will spend the
remainder of his career. In Boston, he will establish himself as "one of
the greatest designated hitters the game has ever seen". He will be
instrumental in the team ending its 86-year World Series championship
drought in 2004, as well as during successful championship runs in 2007
and 2013; he will be named the World Series Most Valuable Player for the
latter championship. He will finish his career with 541 home runs (which
will rank 17th on MLB's all-time home run list), 1,768 runs batted in
(RBIs, 22nd all-time), and a .286 batting average. Among designated
hitters, he is the all-time leader in MLB history for home runs (485),
RBIs (1,569), and hits (2,192). Regarded as one of the best clutch
hitters of all time, he will have 11 career walk-off home runs during the
regular season and two during the postseason.
1977 - Robert Edward Chambliss, a former KKK member, is convicted of first-degree
murder in connection with the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist
Church in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four African American teenage
girls.
1978 - The NAACP's Spingarn Medal is presented to Ambassador Andrew J. Young
"in recognition of the deftness with which he has handled relations
between this nation and other countries" and "for his major role in
raising the consciousness of American citizens to the significance in
world affairs of the massive African continent."
1980 - Wally "Famous" Amos' signature Panama hat and embroidered shirt are
donated to the National Museum of American History's Business
Americana collection. It is the first memorabilia added to the
collection by an African American entrepreneur and recognizes the
achievement of Amos, who built his company from a mom-and-pop
enterprise to a $250 million cookie manufacturing business.
1983 - "Sweet Honey in the Rock," a capella singers, perform their 10th
anniversary reunion concert in Washington, DC.
1994 - Bandleader Cab Calloway joins the ancestors in Hockessin, Delaware, at
age 86.
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