This Week in Black History (July 13th – July 19th)
July 13, 1948 – Veteran film and television actress, Daphne Maxwell Reid was born in New York City. She is best known for playing the role as the 2nd Vivian Banks on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” from 1993 until 1996, replacing actress Janet Hubert-Whitten. Prior to acting she received a degree in interior design and architecture from Northwestern University, which she attended on a scholarship and where she became the first African-American woman to be named homecoming queen. While at Northwestern she began a modeling career, eventually signing with the Eileen Ford modeling agency. Reid was the first Black woman to grace the cover of Glamour magazine in the October 1969 edition. She is married to fellow actor Tim Reid (“Sister, Sister”).
July 14, 1925- The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture opened in Harlem, New York.
July 15, 1972 – Soul and R&B group, The Main Ingredient reached the #2 spot on the R&B charts with “Everybody Plays the Fool” and #3 spot on the Pop charts. The single became their biggest of twenty R&B charters through 1990. The group’s lead singer, Cuba Gooding Sr. is the father of actors Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Omar Gooding. He died April 20, 2017.
July 16, 1977 – Janelle Penny Commissiong-Chow becomes the first Black Miss Universe on this day. A model and beauty queen, she migrated to the United States at the age of 13, and returned to Trinidad and Tobago ten years later. After winning the Miss Trinidad and Tobago title, she went on to be crowned Miss Universe 1977 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. In New York City, she studied fashion at the Fashion Institute of Technology, but returned to Port of Spain in 1976. The following year, Commissiong was selected to represent the Island at the 1977 Miss Universe competition in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She was elected Miss Photogenic and Miss Congeniality four days before the final, and won the Best National Costume, becoming the first black woman to win these awards in Miss Universe history. During her reign, she was an advocate for black rights and world peace. Commissiong was awarded the Trinity Cross, the country’s highest award, in 1977. Three postage stamps were also issued in her honor.
July 17, 1862 – Congress authorized President, Abraham Lincoln to accept Blacks for military service. Congress passed the Second Confiscation Act, which freed the slaves of all rebels. The Militia Act of 1862, 12 Stat. 597 passed in 1862, was legislation enacted by the 37th United States Congress during the American Civil War that allowed African-Americans to participate as war laborers and soldiers for the first time since the Militia Act of 1792. The act created controversy, however, praised by many abolitionists activists as a first step toward equality, it stipulated that the Black recruits could be soldiers or manual laborers. Although Black soldiers proved themselves as reputable soldiers, discrimination in pay and other areas remained widespread.
July 18, 1918 – Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid activist and president of South Africa, was born in Mvezo, South Africa. He was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist, who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country’s first Black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling institutionalized racism and fostering racial reconciliation. Ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997. In 1962, he was arrested for conspiring to overthrow the state and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial. Mandela served 27 years in prison, initially on Robben Island, and later in Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison. Amid growing domestic and international pressure, and with fears of a racial civil war, President F. W. de Klerk released him in 1990.
July 19, 1971 – Patricia Roberts Harris assumes her second cabinet post as Secretary of Health and Human Services. She served under the administration of President Jimmy Carter as United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, later renamed the Secretary of Health and Human Services during her tenure. She was the first Black woman to serve in the United States Cabinet, and the first to enter the line of succession to the Presidency. She previously served as United States Ambassador to Luxembourg under President Lyndon B. Johnson, and was the first African-American woman to represent the United States as an ambassador. Harris is an alumnus of Howard University, University of Chicago, American University and George Washington University.
