* Today in Black History - May 1 * 1863 - The Confederate congress passes a resolution which brands African American troops and their officers criminals. The resolution, in effect, dooms captured African American soldiers to death or slavery. 1866 - White Democrats and police attack freedmen and their white allies in Memphis, Tennessee. Forty-six African Americans and two white liberals are killed. More than seventy are wounded. Ninety homes, twelve schools and four churches are burned. 1867 - Reconstruction of the South begins with the registering of African American and white voters in the South. General Philip H. Sheridan orders the registration to begin in Louisiana on May 1 and to continue until June 30. Registration will begin in Arkansas in May. Other states follow in June and July. By the end of October, 1,363,000 citizens had registered in the South, including 700,000 African Americans. African American voters constitute a majority in five states: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina. 1884 - Moses Fleetwood Walker becomes the first African American in the Major Leagues when he plays for the Toledo Blue Stockings in the American Association. A catcher, he goes 0-for-3 in his debut, allowing 2 passed balls and committing 4 errors, as his team bows to Louisville 5-1. He will do better in 41 subsequent games before injuries force Toledo to release him in late September. In July he will be joined by his brother Welday, an outfielder. Racial bigotry will prevent his return to major league ball. No other African American player will appear in a major league uniform until Jackie Robinson in 1947. 1891 - The first patient is admitted to Dixie Hospital, part of a training school for Black nurses established on the grounds of Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), which donated a building for the facility. Founded by Alice Mabel Bacon, a faculty member, because persons of color could not obtain nurses' training elsewhere, and named for her favorite horse, the hospital is staffed originally by a single doctor and a superintendent of nurses. Bacon, with General Samuel Armstrong's (Hampton's principal) assistance, will help to raise $ 163,000 for the project. Eventually, the facility will become Hampton General Hospital. 1901 - Sterling Allen Brown is born on the campus of Howard University in Washington, DC. He will become a poet, literary critic, editor of "The Negro in American Fiction" and "Negro Poetry and Drama," and the co-editor of the anthology, "The Negro Caravan." He will begin his teaching career with positions at several universities, including Lincoln University and Fisk University, before returning to Howard University in 1929. He will be a professor there for forty years. His poetry will use the south for its setting and show slave experiences of the African American people. He will often imitate southern African American speech using "variant spellings and apostrophes to mark dropped consonants." He will teach and write about African American literature and folklore. He will be a pioneer in the appreciation of this genre. He will have an "active, imaginative mind" when writing and "have a natural gift for dialogue, description and narration." He will be known for introducing his students to concepts popular in jazz, which along with blues, spirituals and other forms of black music will form an integral component of his poetry. In addition to his career at Howard University, he will serve as a visiting professor at Vassar College, New York University, Atlanta University, and Yale University. Some of his notable students will include Toni Morrison, Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sowell, Ossie Davis, and Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones). He will retire from his faculty position at Howard in 1969 and devote full-time to poetry. He will join the ancestors on January 13, 1989. 1941 - A. Philip Randolph issues a call for 100,000 African Americans to march on Washington, DC, to protest armed forces and defense industry discrimination. In response, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who attempted to persuade Randolph and others to cancel the demonstration, will issue Executive Order 8802, to ban federal discrimination, before Randolph finally yields. 1946 - Mrs. Emma Clarissa Clement is named "American Mother of the Year" by the Golden Rule Foundation. 1948 - Glenn H. Taylor, U.S. Senator from Idaho and Vice- presidential candidate of the Progressive party, is arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, for trying to enter a meeting through a door marked "for Negroes." 1950 - Gwendolyn Brooks becomes the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for her book of poetry "Annie Allen." 1975 - A commemorative stamp of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar is issued by the U.S. Postal Service as part of its American Arts series. 1975 - Hank Aaron surpasses Babe Ruth's RBI mark. He will finish his career with 755 home runs and over 2210 RBIs. Both records will stand for many years. Aaron will be inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame on August 1, 1982. 1981 - Dr. Clarence A. Bacote, historian and political scientist, joins the ancestors in Atlanta, Georgia at the age of 75. 1990 - Robert Guillaume, former star of the Benson TV series, premieres in the title role in "Phantom of the Opera" at the Music Center in Los Angeles. Guillaume continues the role that had been played to critical acclaim by the English star, Michael Crawford. 1991 - Rickey Henderson steals his 939th base in the Oakland A's game against the New York Yankees, breaking Lou Brock's major league record. 1995 - Charges that Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, had plotted to murder Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan are dropped as jury selection for her trial is about to begin in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 1998 - Eldridge Cleaver, the fiery Black Panther leader who later renounced his past and became a Republican, joins the ancestors in Pomona, California, at age 62. 1998 - Former Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda, pleads guilty to charges stemming from the 1994 genocide of more than 500,000 Tutsis. 2000 - Bobby Eggleston is sworn in as the new sheriff of Drew County, Arkansas. He becomes the first African American sheriff in Arkansas since Reconstruction. 2011 - "Obama Gets Osama". President Barack Obama authorizes a military special operations to capture the founder and leader of terrorist organization al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden. This operation resulted in his death and the removal of his body from his sanctuary in Pakistan. 2019 - Maryland House Speaker Pro Tem, Adrienne Jones, D-Baltimore County, is elected speaker, succeeding longtime Speaker Michael Busch, who passed away in April. In a historic turn, she becomes Maryland's first African American speaker, and the state's first woman speaker. ______________________________________________________________ Munirah Chronicle is edited by Mr. Rene' A. Perry "The TRUTH shall make you free" E-mail: <[log in to unmask]> Archives: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/Munirah.html http://blackagenda.com/cybercolonies/index.htm _____________________________________________________________ To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]> In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name ______________________________________________________________ Munirah(TM) is a trademark of Information Man. Copyright 1997 - 2016, All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with The Black Agenda.