August – This Month In Black American History

By Guest Blogger Yahtzeebutterfly

Birthdays

 

August 1, 1894 – Benjamin Mays in Epworth, South Carolina

 

August 2, 1924 – James Baldwin

 

August 4, 1961 – Happy Birthday, President Barack Obama!

August 5, 1938 – Rev. James Cone

“Indeed our survival and liberation depend upon our recognition of the truth when it is spoken and live by the people.  If we cannot recognize the truth, then it cannot liberate us from untruth.  To know the truth is to appropriate it, for it is not mainly reflection and theory.  Truth is divine action entering our lives and creating the human action of liberation.”  ~James Cone 

 

August 7, 1904 – Ralph Bunche

 

August 9, 1963 – Whitney Houston

 

August 10, 1872 – Jazz musician Bill Johnson

 

 

August 12, 1890 – Opera soprano Lillian Evanti

Lillian Tibbs Evanti

 

August 14, 1911 – Journalist Ethel L. Pagne in Chicago, Illinois

“Ethel L. Payne (August 14, 1911 – May 28, 1991) was an African-American journalist. Known as the “First Lady of the Black Press”, she was a columnist, lecturer, and freelance writer. She combined advocacy with journalism as she reported on the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s. She became the first female African-American commentator employed by a national network when CBS hired her in 1972. In addition to her reporting of American domestic politics, she also covered international stories.”  (Wikipedia excerpt)

 

 

August 15, 1911 – Singer and songwriter Richie Havens

 

August 16, 1922 – Louis E. Lomax

According to Blackpast.org;

“After briefly teaching philosophy at Georgia State College in Savannah, he worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Afro-American and the Chicago American until 1958 when he entered television, producing documentaries at WNTA-TV in New York…”

“By 1964, Lomax became one of the first black television journalists to host a 90-minute twice-a-week interview format television show. “The Louis E. Lomax Show” ran on KTTV in Los Angeles from 1964 to 1968. He interviewed guests on his television program about controversial topics like the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam, the women’s movement, and the war in Vietnam.” 

 

August 19, 1920 – Saxophonist Charlie Parker

 

August 21, 1904 – Bandleader Count Basie

 

August 26, 1900 – Artist Hale Woodruff

 

August 29, 1958 – Michael Jackson

 

August 29, 1920 – Inventor Otis Boykin was born in Dallas, Texas (Best known for control unit used in heart pacer)

 

Events

 

August 6, 1965 – President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Bill

 

August 8, 1936 – Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Summer Olympics

 

August 9, 2014 – Michael Brown was fatally shot by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson

 

August 23, 1900 – Founding of the National Negro Business League by Booker T. Washington

 

August 25, 1908 – Founding of the National Association of Colored Nurses by Martha Minerva Franklin

 

August 27, 1935 – Founding of the National Council of Negro Women by Mary McLeod Bethune

 

August 28, 1963 – March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

 

August 28, 1955 – Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi

 

August 29, 1957 – Congress passed the 1957 Civil Rights Act

Background info is available at encyclopedia. com.

 

August 30, 1800 – Slave revolt in Richmond, Virginia led by Gabriel Prosser

 

August 30, 1967 – Thurgood Marshall confirmed as Supreme Court justice.

 

August 31, 1836 – Cotton planter patented by inventor Henry Blair

From Wikipedia:

“This invention worked by splitting the ground with two shovel-like blades which were pulled along by a horse. A wheel-driven cylinder followed behind which dropped the seed into the newly plowed ground.”  

 

Feel free to post additional information in the comment section.