* Today in Black History - February 25 *
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* "Once a year we go through the charade of February being 'Black *
* History Month.' Black History Month needs to be a 12-MONTH THING. *
* When we all learn about our history, about how much we've *
* accomplished while being handicapped with RACISM, it can only *
* inspire us to greater heights, knowing we're on the giant shoulders *
* of our ANCESTORS." Subscribe to the Munirah Chronicle and receive *
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1867 - Tennessee Gov. William Gannaway Brownlow issues a proclamation
warning that the unlawful events of the Ku Klux Klan "must and
SHALL cease" and that militia would be immediately organized
against the organization. This is in response to Ku Klux Klan
activities in a nine county area. The Klan's aim is to
reverse the interlocking changes sweeping over the South
during the Reconstruction: to destroy the Republican's party's
infrastructure, undermine the Reconstruction state, reestablish
control of the black labor force, and restore racial
subordination in every aspect of Southern life. (Editor's Note:
The KKK was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee on December 15, 1865)
1870 - Hiram Rhoades Revels of Mississippi becomes the first African
American Senator. He is elected by the Mississippi legislature
to fill the Senate seat vacated by Jefferson Davis. After the
Senate term expires, he will become the first President of
Alcorn A&M College, in Lorman, Mississippi (the first African
American land-grant institution in the United States).
1931- Clarence Alexander Avant is born in Climax, North Carolina. He will
become a music executive, entrepreneur, and film producer. He
will manage Rhythm & Blues singer Little Willie John, jazz singer
Sarah Vaughan, Kim Weston, Luiz Bonfa, Wynton Kelly, Freddie
Hubbard, Curtis Fuller, Pat Thomas, rock and roll pioneer Tom
Wilson (whom he will partner with in the Wilson Organization),
jazz producer Creed Taylor, Jimmy Smith (jazz musician of the
Hammond B-3 electronic organ), and Argentine pianist-composer,
Lalo Schifrin. He will incorporate Avant Garde Enterprises, Inc.
on November 7, 1962 in New York, the same month that Smith becomes
a client of Associated Booking. Schifrin and Smith will collaborate
to make "The Cat," released on Verve Records on April 27, 1964. He
will open a West Coast office in September, 1964 to accommodate the
growing motion picture soundtrack assignments offered to his clients.
During his years in New York, he will serve as an adviser, board
member, and executive of the National Association of Radio Announcers
(NARA), later the National Association of Television and Radio
Announcers (NATRA), and also as a consultant to PlayTape, a two track
tape cartridge system developed by Frank Stanton, and first marketed
by MGM Records. On September 27, 1966, he will incorporate Sussex
Productions, Inc. in New York, an independent record production firm
with artists Four Hi's, Johnny Nash, Terry Bryant, Billy Woods, and
the Judge and the Jury. On October 2, 1967, Venture Records Inc. will
be incorporated in California, a company for which Avant successfully
engineers the first joint venture between an African American artist
and a major record company. Founded as an outlet for the soul acts of
MGM Records, Venture Records Inc. will be run by former Motown
songwriter, record producer, and A&R department head William "Mickey"
Stevenson. Negotiated for Stevenson by Los Angeles attorney Abraham
Somer, the label will have offices at 8350 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly
Hills. Avant will move from Manhattan to Beverly Hills to work with
Venture Records Inc. in the Fall of 1967, doing so until 1969 when MGM
Records shut down the label and joint venture. During this time, record
producer, songwriter, and executive Al Bell will enlist the aid of Avant,
whom he had met through the National Association of Television and Radio
Announcers (NATRA), to sell Stax Records to Gulf+Western. The deal will
be finalized on May 29, 1968 for $4.3 million, with Avant receiving ten
percent of all debentures. In August, 1969, Avant will become the
associate producer, along with Al Bell, of Douglas Turner Ward's "The
Reckoning" (a surreal Southern Fable), presented in co-operation with The
Negro Ensemble Company at St. Mark's Playhouse in New York. The Reckoning
will start the off-Broadway season, starring Jeannette DuBois, later
Ja'net Dubois of Good Times fame. Under Avant Garde Broadcasting, Inc.,
founded on August 6, 1971, he will buy the first African American owned
FM radio station in metropolitan Los Angeles on March 3, 1973 from Trans
America Broadcasting Corp, purchasing the license of KTYM-FM in Inglewood,
California for $321,000, including actual facilities at 6803 West
Boulevard in Inglewood, and FCC licensing fees, renaming it KAGB-FM. Using
a $199,900 promissory note and stock purchase warrants from the Urban
National Corporation of Boston, Massachusetts (a Venture Capital company
founded in July 1971), he will partner with two investment bankers. Avant
Garde Broadcasting, run by Del Shields, never turned a profit, and will be
ultimately forced into bankruptcy by Urban National on November 20, 1975
when it defaulted on promissory notes and warrants of around $400,000, and
refused to accept all counsel or advice on how to run the station. Avant will
lose about $611,168.67 in the bankruptcy, $71,500 from Interior Music
Corporation advances between August 1973 and September 1974, and $13,887 from
Sussex Records loans. Comedian Bill Cosby will be an additional investor in
Avant Garde Broadcasting, investing approximately $200,000 through his company
SAH Enterprises. In September, 1973, Paramount Pictures will release "Save the
Children", with Avant serving as executive producer. Filmed at the Operation
PUSH Black Expo in Chicago, the production will mix performances of top black
entertainers with footage depicting blacks, especially children, in various
conditions, including war-ravaged and malnourished refugees. The film will
premier at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. On February 10, 2008, the National
Association of Recording Arts and Sciences will award him the Trustees Award.
On October 7, 2016, he will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for
his contributions in the recording industry, located at 6363 Hollywood Boulevard,
next to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis' star.
1948 - Martin Luther King, Jr. is ordained as a Baptist minister.
After graduating from Morehouse College in June, 1948, he will
enter the Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania.
1964 - Twenty-two year old Cassius Clay becomes world heavyweight
boxing champion when he defeats Sonny Liston in Miami, Florida.
The feared Liston is the favorite, but Clay predicts he will
"float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." Soon after his
victory, Clay will assume his Muslim name of Muhammad Ali. He
will be considered by many, the greatest heavyweight champion
of all time.
1978 - Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr. joins the ancestors at the age of
58 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was an early graduate
of the Tuskegee Institute Flying School and flew more than 100
missions during the Korean War. He was the first African
American to achieve the rank of four-star general.
1980 - Robert E. Hayden, African American poet and former poetry
consultant to the Library of Congress, joins the ancestors in
Ann Arbor, Michigan. Hayden's most notable works include
"Words in Mourning Time and Angle of Ascent: New and Selected
Poems."
1991 - Adrienne Mitchell becomes the first African American woman to
die in a combat zone in the Persian Gulf War when she joins
the ancestors after being killed in her military barracks in
Dharan, Saudi Arabia.
1992 - Natalie Cole, Patti LaBelle, Lisa Fischer, Luther Vandross,
B.B. King, Boyz II Men, and James Brown, among others, win
Grammy awards in ceremonies hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.
1999 - A jury in Jasper, Texas, sentences white supremacist John
William King to death for chaining James Byrd Jr., an African
American man, to a pickup truck and dragging him to pieces.
2000 - The killers of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo, four
white New York police officers, are acquitted of all charges
by a jury in Albany, New York. Diallo had been fired upon 41
times, with 19 shots hitting him while holding only his wallet
in the vestibule of his own home.
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