* Today in Black History - May 15 *
1795 - John Morront, the first African American missionary to work
with Indians, is ordained as a Methodist minister in
London, England.
1802 - Jean Ignace joins the ancestors in Baimbridge, Guadeloupe
in the revolt against the Napoleonic troops sent to the
Caribbean island to reimpose slavery.
1891 - The British Central African Protectorate (now Malawi) is
established.
1918 - In a World War I incident that will later be known as "The
Battle of Henry Johnson," the African American attacks
advancing Germans, frees sentry Needham Roberts, and forces
the retreat of the enemy troops. Johnson and Roberts will
be awarded the Croix de Guerre, France's highest military
award. They are the first Americans ever to win the award.
1923 - "The Chip Woman's Fortune" by Willis Richardson opens at the
Frazee Theatre on Broadway. The play, staged by the
Ethiopian Art Theatre of Chicago, is the first dramatic work
by an African American playwright to be presented on
Broadway.
1932 - Kenneth Allen Gibson is born in Enterprise, Alabama and raised
in Newark, New Jersey. He will become a Democratic Party
politician who will serve as the 36th Mayor of Newark, New
Jersey from 1970 to 1986. He will be the first African American
elected mayor of any major city in the Northeastern United
States. He will study civil engineering at Newark College of
Engineering (now New Jersey Institute of Technology), but will
drop out of school after a few months due to financial
difficulties. He will work in a factory, serve in the military
and later work for the New Jersey Highway Department, completing
his engineering degree in 1963 by taking night classes. He will
work as an engineer for the New Jersey Highway Department from
1950 to 1960. From 1960 to 1966, he will be Chief Engineer for
the Newark Housing Authority, and chief structural engineer for
the city from 1966 to 1970. He will be elected in a runoff
election in 1970, defeating incumbent mayor Hugh Addonizio. At
the time he will note that "Newark may be the most decayed and
financially crippled city in the nation." He will enter office
as a reformer, alleging that the prior administration was
corrupt. Later that same year, Mayor Addonizio will be convicted
of extortion and conspiracy. After 16 years under his leadership,
the city’s unemployment rate had risen nearly 50 percent, its
population had continued dropping, it had no movie theaters, only
one supermarket remained, and only two-thirds of its high school
students were graduating. In 1986, fellow Democratic challenger,
Sharpe James, defeated him in his attempt to be reelected for a
fifth term. He will join the ancestors on March 29, 2019.
1934 - Alvin Francis Poussaint is born in the village of East Harlem
in New York City. After being educated at Columbia College,
Cornell University Medical School, and the University of
California's Neuropsychiatric Institute, he will become a
psychiatrist and educator specializing in African American
psychological and social issues. He will begin his career
teaching at Tufts Medical School and Harvard Medical School.
He will then join Operation Push. He will be a consultant
for the television series, "The Cosby Show" and "A Different
World, hired to ensure that the story lines present positive
images of African Americans. He will later become Associate
Dean and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
(1993).
1938 - Diane Nash is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will become an
civil rights activist and one of the founders of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960. She will be part
of the first group of civil rights activists who will refuse
to pay bail for protesting under the "Jail, No Bail"
strategy employed in the South. She will later marry fellow
civil rights activist James Bevel and take his last name as
her middle name. She and her husband will receive the Rosa
Parks award from the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference in 1965.
1942 - The 93rd Infantry is activated at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. It
is the first African American division formed during World
War II and is assigned to combat duty in the South Pacific.
1946 - Camilla Williams appears in the title role of Madama
Butterfly with the New York City Opera. She is the first
African American female concert singer to sign a contract
with a major American opera company.
1953 - Former Heavyweight Champion, Jersey Joe Walcott, is knocked
out by Rocky Marciano at Chicago Stadium at two minutes, 25
seconds of the first round.
1970 - Two African American students (Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and
James Earl Green) at Jackson State University in
Mississippi join the ancestors when police open fire during
student protests.
1983 - James VanDerZee joins the ancestors in Washington, D.C. at the
age of 96. He had been a prominent photographer who
recorded and contributed to the Harlem Renaissance. Over
his long career, which extended into his 90s, he captured
the images of many famous African Americans.
1992 - Mary M. Monteith (later Simpkins) joins the ancestors in
Columbia, South Carolina. She was a civil right activist
who had been a state secretary of the NAACP and
instrumental in the fight to desegregate South Carolina
public schools.
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