(Photo By Flickr User Disney | ABC Television Group)
Black History Extra for February 22nd & February 23rd:
February 22nd:
2008- Alabama civil rights activist Johnnie Carr who joined childhood friend Rosa Parks in the historic Montgomery bus boycott passed away on this day. She was 97 years old.
1992- TLC charted with their debut recording "Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg" on this day and reached #2 on the R&B charts and #6 on the Pop charts.
1989- DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, win the first rap Grammy for the hit single "Parents Just Don't Understand."
1976- Florence Ballard, the original lead singer of the Supremes, died on this day of a heart attack nine years after she left the group. Aretha Franklin’s father, Reverend C.L. Franklin gave the eulogy and the pall bearers were the Four Tops and Marv Johnson. She was only 32 years old.
1975- The number one song on this day was ‘Lady Marmalade’ by LaBelle (Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx, and Sarah Dash).
1971- NFL player (Green Bay Packers) Gilbert Brown, was born on this day in Farmington, MI.
1969- Former lead singer of the Temptations, David Ruffin, began his solo career with his chart debut with "My Whole World Ended" on this day, which reached #2 on the R&B Charts and #9 on the Pop charts.
1968- Former NBA player, Jayson Williams, was born on this day in Ritter, SC.
1962- Wilt Chamberlain, the first player in NBA history named MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season (1960) set an NBA record with 34 free throw attempts on this day.
1950- Julius Winfield( "Dr. J") Erving, former basketball player, was born in Roosevelt, NY on this day.
1947- Jazz, Sessions drummer Harvey Mason, was born on this day in Atlantic City, NJ.
1944- Actor, Author, musician, and director Tucker Smallwood was born on this day.
1938- Ishmael Reed, poet, born on this day. Also, R&B singer Bobby Hendricks, lead singer with The Drifters before becoming a successful solo act, was born on this day in Columbus, OH.
1936- R&B singer Ernie K-Doe (Ernest Kador, Jr.), was born on this day in New Orleans, LA and was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2009. He passed away in July of 2001.
1911- Frances Ellen Watkins Harper ( "The Bronze Muse" ), orator, died in Philadelphia, PA on this day.
1898- Black postmaster lynched and his wife and three daughters shot and maimed for life in Lake City, SC.
1888- Self-taught painter/artist, Horace Pippin, was born on this day in West Chester, PA. The injustice of slavery and American segregation figure prominently in many of his works.
1841- Grafton Tyler Brown, lithographer and painter, born on this day.
February 23rd:
1995- Bass Singer Melvin Franklin of The Temptations, died of complications following a brain seizure in Los Angeles, CA. He was 53.
1979- Frank E. Peterson Jr., named the first Black general in the Marine Corps.
1965- Constance Baker Motley elected Manhattan Borough president, the highest elective office held by a Black woman in a major American city.
1929- Baseball catcher Elston Gene Howard was born in St. Louis, MO. In 1965, Howard signed a $70,000 contract with the New York Yankees and became the highest paid player in the history of baseball at the time.
1925- Louis Stokes, former mayor of Detroit, MI, and member of the US House of Representatives, was born in Cleveland, OH. Stokes was the first African-American elected to the House from Ohio.
1915- Death of Robert Smalls (75), Reconstruction congressman, in Beaufort, SC.
1895- William H. Heard, AME minister and educator, named minister to Liberia.
1869- Louisiana governor signed public accommodations law on this day.
1868- William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (W.E.B. Du Bois) was born in Great Barrington, MA on this day.
