October – This Month In Black American History

By Guest Blogger Yahtzeebutterfly

Birthdays

October 1, 1939 – Physicist and space scientist Dr. George Caruthers in Cincinnati, Ohio. He created the far ultraviolet camera/spectrograph.

Man’s First Moon-Based Space Observatory-The first observatory ever operated by man from a fixed platform outside the earth was this gold-plated ultra-violet (UV) camera/spectograph.It was placed on the moon by the Apollo 16 astronauts, after they landed there April 20,1972.

Excerpt from an article at Edubilla.

“The Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph (UVC) was one of the experiments deployed on the lunar surface by the Apollo 16 astronauts. It consisted of a telescope and camera that obtained astronomical images and spectra in the far ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

“The main goals of the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph spanned across several disciplines of astronomy. Earth studies were made by studying the Earth’s upper atmosphere’s composition and structure, the ionosphere, the geocorona, day and night airglow, and aurorae. Heliophysics studies were made by obtaining spectra and images of the solar wind, the solar bow cloud, and other gas clouds in the solar system. Astronomical studies by obtaining direct evidence of intergalactic hydrogen, and spectra of distant galaxy clusters and within the Milky Way. Lunar studies were conducted by detecting gasses in the lunar atmosphere, and searching for possible volcanic gasses. There were also considerations to evaluate the lunar surface as a site for future astronomical observatories.”

 

October 2, 1800 – Nat Turner, who led a slave rebellion in 1831, was born into slavery in Southampton County Virginia.

 

October 3, 1856 – T. Thomas Fortune, civil rights leader, editor, and publisher of the New York Age newspaper.

In 2014 historic preservationists tried to save Mr. Fortune’s house from the bulldozer.  Apparently, this last July they were successful.

October 4, 1942 – Singer and composer Bernice Johnson Reagon.  Ms. Reagon was active in the civil rights movement and later, in 1973, formed the singing group Sweet Honey in the Rock.

 

 

 

October 5, 1932 – Congresswoman Yvonne Burke

 

 

October 6, 1917 – Civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer in Montgomery County, Mississippi.

 

Candidate poster of Fannie Lou Hamer

 

October 7, 1821 – Abolitionist William Still who recorded the stories of slaves who escaped using the Underground Railroad who stayed at his house, one of the stations on that railroad.  He did not publish these recorded stories until well after the end of the Civil War.

 

 

 

October 8, 1930 – Quilt artist and storyteller Faith Ringgold

 

 

October 9, 1895 – Eugene Bullard, the first African American military pilot, was born in Columbus, Georgia.  He fought with the French in World War I.

 

 

October 10, 1927 – Gen. Hazel Johnson-Brown in West Chester, PA.  She was the first Black chief of the U.S. Army Nurse Corp and first Black woman to become a general in the U.S. army.

 

 

 

October 12, 1919 – Navy hero Doris Miller in Waco, Texas. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his courageous actions during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The following video tells the story of his heroic deeds that day:

 

October 13, 1898 – Attorney and Edith S. Sampson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was the first U.S. Black delegate appointed to the United Nations and later served on the U.S. commission for UNESCO.

October 20, 1842 –  Green Currin who served in the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature.  His civil rights bill proposing penalty for racial violence failed to pass in the state senate by one vote.

 

October 21, 1917 – Band leader and jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in Cheraw, South Carolina

October 26, 1911 – Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson in New Orleans, Louisiana.

 

Mahalia Jackson, March on Washington, August 28, 1963:

 

October 28, 1933 – Joyce Mitchell Cook was the first African American woman to earn a PhD in philosophy.  Her specialties centered on social, political, and ethics philosophy.

 

October 31, 1896 – Actress and singer Ethel Waters in Chester, Pennsylvania

 

 

Events

October 1, 1948 – The California Supreme court voided the law which had banned interracial marriages and which the court said had violated the Fourteenth Amendment.  This California decision occurred nineteen years before the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Loving v. Virginia which invalidated, nationwide, all laws that prohibited interracial marriage.

October 2, 1897 – George Washington Bright was hired by the Los Angeles Fire Department.  He was the first Black individual on the staff of the LAFD.

 

October 2, 1915 – Carter Woodson and Jesse E. Moorland incorporated the organization “Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.”

 

October 3, 1956 – Nat King Cole TV Show premieres on television.  He was the first Black musician to host his own show.

 

October 10, 1899 – Isaac R. Johnson patented his design for a bicycle frame which could be folded or separated easily into its components.

 

October 11, 1887 – Inventor Granville T. Woods patented apparatus for a telephone system.

October 14, 1964 – Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Here is his acceptance speech:

 

October 15, 1956 – Louisiana legislature passes a law that prohibited integrated sports events.

From  Channel 3000

“The Louisiana law had roots in the 1956 Sugar Bowl contest in New Orleans where LSU lost to a University of Pittsburgh team that featured Bobby Grier, an African-American running back. The next legislative session, Louisiana state lawmakers overwhelming passed a measure to “outlaw social events and athletic contests including both Negroes and whites.”

October 19, 1960 – Marin Luther King, along with 52 others, are arrested at a lunch counter sit-in of Rich’s department store in Atlanta, Georgia.

 

October 28, 1981 – Edward McIntyre won the mayoral election in Augusta, George.

October 30, 1979 – Richard Arrington was elected mayor of Birmingham, Alabama

 

As the month continues, Yahtzeebutterfly puts additional information in the comment section.  Please feel free to join her.