TODAY in August

 

*mmddyyyy Birthdays

*-------- -----------------------------------------------------------

*mmddyyyy Events

*-------- -----------------------------------------------------------

S08011619 History of Black American began with landing of twenty bla

S0801     cks at Jamestown, Virginia.  John Rolfe said the ship ar

S0801     rived "about the latter end of August" and that it "brought

S0801     not anything but 20 and odd Negroes."  Surviving evidence

S0801     suggests that the twenty blacks were accorded the status of

S0801     indentured servants.

S08051624 First black child born in English America christened William

S0805     in the Church of England at Jamestown.

S08221791 Haitian Rovolution began with revolt of slaves in northern

S0822     province.  Mathematician Benjamin Banneker served on commis

S0822     sion which surveyed the District of Columbia.  Benjamin Ban

S0822     neker issued his first annual almanac.

S08061795 Absalom Jones ordained a deacon in the Protestant Episcopal

S0806     Church.

S08081796 Boston African Society was established with forty-four mem

S0808     bers.

S08301800 Strom forced suspension of attack on Richmond, Va., by Gab

S0830     riel Prosser and some one thousand slaves.  Conspiracy was

S0830     betrayed by two slaves. Prosser and fifteen of his followers

S0830     were hanged on October 7.

S08231826 Edward A. Jones received B.A. degree from Amherst College.

S08101827 Race riot, Cincinnati.  More than one thousand blacks left

S0810     the city for Canada.

S08211831 Nat Turner rebellion, Southampton County, Virginia.  Some

S0821     sixty whites were killed.  Nat Turner was not captured until

S0821     October 30.  (8/21-23).

S08011834 Slavery abolished in the British empire.

S08101835 Mob of white citizens and a hundred yoke of oxen pulled a

S0810     black school to a swamp outside the town of Canaan, New

S0810     Hampshire.

S08151843 National black convention met at Buffalo, New York, with

S0815     some seventy delegates from twelve states.  The highlight

S0815     of the convention was a stirring address by Henry Highland

S0815     Garnet, a twenty-seven-year-old-Presbyterian pastor who

S0815     called for a slave revolt and a general slave strike.  Amos

S0815     G. Beman of New Heaven, Conn., was elected president of the

S0815     convention.

S08301843 Blacks participated in a national political convention for

S0830     the first time at Liberty party convention in Buffalo.

S0830     Samuel R. Ward led the convention in prayer; Henry Highland

S0830     Garnet was a member of the nominating committee; and Charles

S0830     R. Ray was one of the convention secretaries.

S08091848 Free Soil party organized at Buffalo, N.Y., convention at

S0809     tended by black aboltionists. (8/9-10).

S08241854 John V. DeGrasse, prominent physician, admitted to Massachu

S0824     setts Medical Society.

S08241854 National emigration convention met in Cleveland with some

S0824     one hundred delegates.  William C. Munroe of Michigan was

S0824     elected president. (8/24-26).

S08061854 Congress passed Confiscation Act, authorizing the appropri

S0806     ation of the property, including slaves, of rebel slave

S0806     holders.

S08301854 John C. Fremont issued proclamation freeing slaves of Mis

S0830     souri rebels.  Lincoln revoked the proclamation.

S08141862 President Lincoln received first group of blacks to confer

S0814     with a U.S. president on a matter of public policy.  He

S0814     urged blacks to emigrate  to Africa or Central America and

S0814     was bitterly criticized by Northern blacks.

S08251862 Secretary of war authorized Gen. Rufus Saxton to arm up to

S0825     five thousand slaves.

S08051864 John Lawson, a black gunner on flagship of Admiral David

S0805     Farragut, exhibited marked courage in Battle of Mobile Bay

S0805     and won a Congressional Medal of Honor.

S081865   President Andrew Johnson moved to reverse policy of distri

S08       buting abandoned land to freedmen.

S08011867 Blacks voted for the first time in a state election in the

S0801     South, contributing to Republican sweep in Tennessee.  Gen.

S0801     Philip H. Sheridan dismissed the board of aldermen in New

S0801     Orleans and named new appointees, including several blacks.

S08071867 Death of actor Ira Aldridge (63), Lodes, Poland.

S08011868 Gov. Henry C. Warmoth endorsed a joint resolution of the

S0801     legislature calling for federal military aid.  Warmoth said

S0801     there had been 150 political assassinations in Louisiana in

S0801     June and July.

S08111868 Death of Thaddeus Stevens (76), architect of the Radical

S0811     Reconstruction program, in Washington.

S08061870 White conservatives suppresed black vote and captured Tenn

S0806     essee legislative in election marred by assassinations and

S0806     widespread violence.  Campaign effectively ended Radical

S0806     Reconstruction in North Carolina.  The conservative legis

S0806     lature impeached Governor Holden on December 14.

S08261874 Sixteen blacks lynched in Tennessee.

S08141876 Prairie View State University founded.

S08251886 Some six hundred delegates organized the American National

S0825     Baptist Convention at a St. Louis meeting Rev. William J.

S0825     Simmons was elected president.  Seventy-four blacks reported

S0825     lynched in 1886.  Kentucky State College founded.

S08121890 Mississippi Constitutional Convention began systematic ex

S0812     clusion of blacks from political life of South, August 12-

S0812     November 1. The Mississippi Plan (Literacy and "understand

S0812     ing tests") was later adopted with embellishments by other

S0812     states:  South Carolina (1895), Louisiana (1898), North Car

S0812     olina (1900), Alabama (1901), Virginia (1901), Georgia

S0812     (1908), Oklahoma (1910).  SOuthern states later used "White

S0812     primaries" and other divices to exclude black voters.

S08161890 Alexander Clark, journalist and lawyer, named minister to

S0816     Liberia.

S08041891 Death of George Washington Williams (41), Blackpool, England.

S08131892 Baltimore Afro-American founded.

S08071893 Fifty-third Congress (1893-95) convened.  One black con

S0807     gressman, George W. Marray, South Carolina.  One hundred

S0807     and eighteen blacks were reported lynched in 1893.

S081898   Black longshoremen struck for higher wages and better work

S08       ing conditions in Galveston, Texas.

S08051900 Death of James Augustine Healy (70), black Roman Catholic

S0805     bishop, Portland, Maine.

S08231900 National Negro Business League organized at Boston meeting.

S0823     Brooker T. Washington was elected president. (8/23-24).

S08131906 Black soldiers raided Brownsville, Texas, in retaliation

S0813     for racial insults.  One white man killed, two wounded.

S08141908 Race riot, Springfield, Illinois.  Troops called out.  Riot

S0814     led to the founding of NAACP. (8/14-19).

S08231917 Race riot, Houston, between soldiers of Twenty-fourth Infan

S0823     try Regiment and white citizens.  Two blacks and eleven

S0823     whites killed.  Martial law declared.

S08271918 Dr. Joseph L. Johnson named minister to Liberia.

S08011920 National convention of Marcus Garvey's Universal Improvement

S0801     Association opened in Liberty Hall in Harlem.  The next

S0801     night Garvey addressed twenty-five thousand blacks in Madi

S0801     son Square Garden.  Garvey's nationalist movement reached

S0801     its height in 1920-21.

S08281921 Second Pan-African Congress met in London, Brussels and

S0828     Paris, August 28 to September 6.  Of the 113 delegates, 39

S0828     were form Africa  and 36 were from America.

S08031923 Calvin Coolidge became president on the death of President

S0803     Harding.

S08251925 Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters organized at a mass

S0825     meeting in Elks Hall in Harlem.  A Philip Randolph was

S0825     elected president.

S08211927 Fourth Pan-African Congress met in New York City. (8/21-24)

S08151931 Roy Wilkins joined NAACP as asistant secretary.  Spingarn

S0815     Medal awarded to Richard B. Harrison for his Protrayal of

S0815     the "Lawd" in The Green Pastures.

S08091936 Jesse Owens won four gold medals at Olympics, Berlin.

S08011936 Benjamin E. Mays, who has been called "the greatest school

S0801     master of his generation," named president of Morehouse Col

S0801     lege.

S08061941 Black private and white military policeman shot to death on

S0806     bus in North Carolina during fight between black and white

S0806     soldiers.  This was the first of a series of serious racial

S0806     incidents (between black and white soldiers and black sold

S0806     iers and white civilians) which continued throughtout the

S0806     war.

S08011943 Race riot, Harlem. (8/1-2).

S08011944 Adam Clayton Powell elected first black congressman from

S0801     East.

S08201944 Anna Lucasta, starring Hilda Simms and Frederick O'Neal,

S0820     opened on Broadway.  Spingarn Medal presented to Charles R.

S0820     Drew "who set up and ran the blood plasma bank in the Pres

S0820     byterian Hospital in New York City which served as one of

S0820     the models for the widespread system of blood banks now in

S0820     operation for the American Red Cross."

S08101944 Race riot, Athens, Alabama.

S08111949 Peter Marray Marshall of New York appointed to American Med

S0811     ical Association's House of Delegates.

S08281949 Riot prevented Paul Robeson form singing at the Lakeland

S0828     picnic grounds near Peekskill, Weschester County, New York.

S08241950 Chicago Atty. Edith Sampson was named the first black repre

S0824     sentative (alternate delegate) in the U.S. delegation to the

S0824     United Nations.

S08041953 Movement of black families into Trumbull Park housing pro

S0804     ject in Chicago triggered virtually continuous riot which

S0804     lasted more than three years and required assignment of

S0804     more than one thousand policemen to keep order.

S08131953 President Eisenhower established Government Contract Comp

S0813     liance Committee to supervise antidiscrimination regulations

S0813     in government contracts.

S08071954 Charles H. Mahoney was confirmed by the Senate and became

S0807     the first black to serve as a full delegate to the United

S0807     Nations.

S08191954 Ralph J. Bunche named undersecretary of the United Nations.

S08281955 Emmett Till (14) kidnapped and lynched in Money, Mississippi.

S08301956 White mob prevented enrollment of students at Mansfield High

S0830     School, Mansfield, Texas.

S08031957 Archibald J. Carey, Chicago minister and attorney, appointed

S0803     first black chairman of President's Committee on Government

S0803     Employment Policy.

S08291957 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first fed

S0829     eral civil rights legislation since 1875.  The bill estab

S0829     lished a civil rights commission and a civil rights divi

S0829     sion in the Justice Department.  It also gave the Justice

S0829     Department authority to seek injunctions against voting

S0829     rights infractions.

S08191958 Members of NAACP Youth Council began series of sit-ins at

S0819     Oklahoma City Lunch counters.

S08011960 Dahomey proclaimed independent. Independence was also cele

S0801     brated in Niger (August 3), Upper Volta (August 5), Ivory

S0801     Coast (AUgust 8), Chad (August 11), Congo Brazzaville (Au

S0801     gust 15), Gabon (August 17), and Senegal (August 20).

S08071960 Black and white students staged kneel-in demonstrations in

S0807     Atlanta churches.

S08091960 Race riot, Jacksonville, Fla., after ten days of sit-in dem

S0809     onstrations.  Fifty reported injured.

S08011961 Whitney Young Jr. named executive director of the National

S0801     Urban League.

S08091961 James B. Parsons became first black appointed to Federal

S0809     District Court in continental United States.

S08061962 Jamaica proclaimed independent.

S08151962 Shady Grove Baptist Church was burned in Leesburg, Georgia.

S08281962 Seventy-five ministers and laymen--blacks and whites--from

S0828     North arrested after prayer demonstration in downtown Al

S0828     bany.

S08311962 Trinidad-Tobago proclaimed independent.

S08271963 W.E.B. Du Bois (95), scholar, protest leader and a founder

S0827     of the NAACP, died in Accra, Ghana.

S08281963 More than 250,000 persons participated in March on Washing

S0828     ton demonstration, the largest civil rights demonstration in

S0828     history.

S08021964 Race Riot, Jersey City, New Jersey.

S08041964 Bodies of three civil rights workers discovered on farm near

S0804     Philadelphia, Mississippi.  Three young men, two white and

S0804     one black, had been missing since June 21.  FBI said they

S0804     were murdered on night of their disappearance by segrega

S0804     tionists.  Eighteen whites, including several police offi

S0804     cers, were charged with conspiracy to deprive the victims

S0804     of their civil rights.

S08111964 Race riot, Paterson, New Jersey. (8/11-12).

S08121964 Race riot, Elizabeth, New Jersey. (8/12-13).

S08151964 Race riot, Dixmoor, a Chicago suburb. (8/15-16).

S08201964 President Johnson signed Economic Opportunity Act.

S08281964 Race riot, Philadelphia. (8/28-30).

S08061965 President signed Voting Rights Bill which authorized the

S0806     suspension of literacy tests and the sending of federal

S0806     examiners into South.

S08111965 Six-day insurrection started in Watts section of Los Angeles.

S0811     National Guard was mobilized on August 13, Rebellion toll:

S0811     34 killed, 1,032 injured, 3,952 arrested, $35 million in

S0811     property damage.  U.S. Senate confirmed nomination of Thur

S0811     good Marshal as U.S. solicitor general.

S08121965 Jonathan M. Daniels, white Episcopal seminary student from

S0812     Massachusetts, killed and Richard F. Morrisroe, white Roman

S0812     Catholic priest from Chicago, seriously wounded by shotgun

S0812     blasts fired by white special deputy sheriff in Hayneville,

S0812     Alabama.  They were participating in civil rights demonstra

S0812     tions in Lowndes County.

S08121965 Race riot, West Side of Chicago.  National Guard was placed

S0812     on stand-by alert, August 14.  (8/12-14).

S08251965 James M. Nabrit Jr. named ambassador and assigned to the UN

S0825     delegation.

S08051966 Martin Luther King Jr. stoned during Chicago march.

S08071966 Race riot, Lansing, Michigan.

S08271966 Race riot, Waukegan, Illinois.

S08281966 Nation Guard mobilized to protect Milwaukee marchers pro

S0828     testing judge's membership in lily-white club.

S08301966 Constance Baker Motley confirmed as U.S. district judge and

S0830     became the first black woman on the federal bench.  Race

S0830     riot, Benton Harbor, Michigan.  National Guard mobilized.

S08051968 Senator Edward Brooke named temporary chairman of Republican

S0805     National Convention, Miami, Florida.

S08081968 Riot, Miami, Florida.  National Guard mobilized to put down

S0808     rioting which erupted while Republicans were holding nation

S0808     al convention in Miami Beach.

S08281968 Rev. Channing E. Philips of Washington, D.C., became first

S0828     black nominated for president by a major national party.

S0828     Philips was nominated as favorite son candidate by District

S0828     of Columbia delegation at Democratic convention in Chicago

S0828     and received 671/2 votes.

S08301969 National Guard mobilized to put down racial disturbances in

S0830     Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

S08031970 Two thousand delegates and observers attended Congress of

S0803     African Peoples convention in Atlanta.  (8/3-7).

S08071970 Four persons, including the presiding judge, killed in cour

S0807     thouse shootout in San Rafael, Marin County, California.

S0807     Police charged that activist Angela Davis helped provide the

S0807     weapons used by the convicts and issued a nationwide warrant

S0807     for her arrest.

S08141970 City University of New York inaugurated open admissions

S0814     policy designed to increase the number of poor and minority

S0814     students.

S08291970 One policeman killed and six wounded in racial confrontation

S0829     between police and Black Panther activists in Philadelphia.

S0829     (8/29-31).

S08311970 Lonnie McLucas, a Black Panther activist, convicted in New

S0831     Haven, Conn., court of conspiracy to murder Alex Rackley,

S0831     and alleged FBI informant.  Charges against other defendants

S0831     in the case were later dismissed.

S08161972 Rev. Philip A. Potter, a black Methodist minister from Do

S0816     minica, named general secretary of the World Council of

S0816     Churches, general secretary of the World Council of Churches.

S08211972 Republican convention opened in Miami Beach, Florida, with

S0821     fifty-six delegates, 4.2 per cent of the total.

S08091975 Death of Julian ("Cannonball") Adderly (46), saxophonist and

S0809     bandleader, in Gary, Indiana.

S08151975 Joanne Little acquitted of murder charges in the August 27,

S0815     1974, killing of a white jailer.  The defense said she stab

S0815     bed the jailer with an ice pick after he made sexual advances.

S08271975 Death of Haile Selassie (83), deposed emperor of Ethiopia,

S0827     in Addis Ababa.

S08181976 Vice Admiral Samuel L. Garvely Jr. assumed command of the

S0818     U.S. Third Fleet.

S08221978 Death of Jomo kenyatta (83), president of Kenya.

S08011979 James Patterson Lyke installed as auxiliary bishop of the

S0801     Cleveland diocese of the Roman Catholic Church.

S08151979 Andrew Young resigned under pressure as UN ambassador after

S0815     unauthorized meeting with representatives of the Pales

S0815     tine Liberation Organization.  Resignation created a

S0815     storm of controversy and divided the black and Jewish

S0815     communities.

S08221979 Two hundred black leaders, meeting in New York, expressed

S0822     support for Andrew Young and demanded that blacks be given

S0822     a voice in shaping American foreign policy.

S08311979 Donald McHenry named to succeed Andrew Young as UN ambassa

S0831     dor.

S08101981 The Coca-Cola Bottling Company agreed to pump $34 million

S0810     into black businesses and the black community, ending a

S0810     national boycott called by PUSH.