ALVIN AILEY
1621—The first Black child is born in America. He was named William Tucker and he was born on a plantation in Jamestown, Va. His parents were Anthony and Isabella, who were among the first group of Black indentured servants (later slaves) brought to the American colonies in 1619. Indentured servants could work off so-called contracts and become free. But after 1619, all Africans brought to America were classified as slaves and only Whites were treated as indentured servants. (There is some dispute over the year of William Tucker’s birth. But it appears he was born in 1621 and Baptized in 1624.)
1966—One of the most tragic and senseless events of the Civil Rights Movement occurs. Sammy Younge Jr. is shot and killed in Tuskegee, Ala., by White service station attendant Marvin Segrest for using the “Whites Only” restroom at the service station where Segrest worked. Younge was a 21-year-old Tuskegee Institute student and civil rights activist.
1777—Prince Hall, founder of the first Black Masonic lodge in America, petitions the Massachusetts legislature for funds to allow free Blacks to return to Africa. The petition was rejected and Hall went on to become a major leader in Boston’s Black community, as well as develop a nationwide influence by helping develop Black Masonic temples around the country.
1901—C.L.R. James is born on the West Indian island-nation of Trinidad. James is one of those not well known figures who greatly influenced radical Black intellectual thought from the 1930s to the 1970s. He was a Marxist who traveled the world advocating socialism and influencing developments in the Caribbean, the United States and England. James died in 1989.
1920—The legendary National Negro Baseball League is organized in Kansas City, Kan., by the “father of Black baseball,” Rube Foster. It is not widely known that under the 6’4” Foster’s leadership, not only did more than 4,000 Blacks get a…
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