(Agbani Darego)
November 13
1913- Dr. Daniel Hale Williams became the first African American elected to the American College of Surgeons. Williams was also the first person to perform open-heart surgery.
1940- The Supreme Court ruled in the Hansberry v. Lee case that Whites could not bar African Americans from White neighborhoods.
1967- Carl Stokes became the first African American mayor for Cleveland, Ohio and a major city in the U.S.
November 14
1915- Educator and founder of the Tuskegee Institute, Booker T. Washington died at the age of 59.
1934- William Levi Dawson’s Symphony No. 1, Negro Folk Symphony, was the first symphony by an African American composer to be performed by a major orchestra.
(Spike Lee)
November 15
1979- Rosa L. Parks was awarded with the Spingarn Medal for her activism and for being the catalyst in the Montgomery Bus Boycotts of 1955-56.
1990- The U.S. Golf Association banned racial and gender discrimination.
2001- Richard Allen, the first AME bishop compiled the first African American hymnal, “Collection of Spiritual Songs and Hymns Selected from Various Authors,” his compilation was published this day.
November 16
1964- Tennis player Zina Garrison was born in Houston, Texas. The professional player is known for her 37 tennis titles and her Olympic gold medal.
2001- Agbani Darego, representing Nigeria, became the first African to be crowned Miss World.
November 17
1911- Fraternity Omega Psi Phi was founded on the campus of Howard University. Edgar A. Love, Oscar J. Cooper, and Frank Coleman were it’s founding members.
1980- WHMM-TV in Washington, D.C. became the first African American broadcasting radio station.
1989- Gloria Naylor, writer, won “Lillian Smith Award” for her third novel, Mama day, which enters on cultural conflict in an all-Black sea island community off the coast of South Carolina.
November 18
1977- Robert E. Chambliss, white supremacist, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL. Addie Mae Collins, Carol Robertson, Denise McNair, and Cynthia Wesley were killed in the racist attack.
1992- Filmmaker Spike Lee’s motion picture, “Malcolm X,” a film about the life of Malcolm X, opened to a nationwide audience.
(Roy Campanella)
November 19
1921- Roy Campanella, legendary Brooklyn Dodgers catcher and three-time National League MVP, was born in Philadelphia, PA.
1985- Lincoln Theodore Andrew Perry, veteran Black actor who played “Stepin’ Fetchit,” died in Woodland Hills, CA.
