“Duke” Ellington get’s the Spingarn Medal for his musical achievements, 1959
ON this date in 1962, Two youths involved in a voter registration drive in Mississippi were wounded by shotgun blasts fired through the window of a home in Ruleville. James Forman, of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), asked the president to “convene a special White House Conference to discuss means of stopping the wave of terror sweeping through the South, especially where SNCC is working on voter registration.”
On this date in 1953, J.H. Jackson, pastor of Olivet Baptist Church, Chicago, elected president of the National Baptist Convention at Miami meeting.
On this date in 1923, Charles Evers, brother of Medgar, Mayor of Fayette Miss. (elected 1969), was born
On this date in 1885, Moses A. Hopkins, minister and educator, named minister to Liberia.
On this date in 1851, Blacks routed a band of slave catchers attempting on re-enslaving escaped slaves in Christiana, Pennsylvania. One white was killed and one wounded.
On this date in 1740, an issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette reports of a Negro named Simon who reportedly can “bleed and draw teeth.” It is the first mention of an African American doctor or dentist in the Colonies.
