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Special Features: This Week in Black History
Friday, April 1, 2005; Page 9
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10
The Washington Informer is launching “This Week in Black History” to serve as a daily remembrance of how far we have come as well as how far we have to go. In the spirit of understanding and progress, we remember.
March 31
Arthur John (Jack) Johnson, first Black heavyweight champion, born in Galveston, Texas, 1878. In 1908, Johnson knocked out Tommy Burns in Australia to become world champion, although he was not officially given the title until 1910 when he finally fought and beat Jeffries, who eventually came out of retirement, in Las Vegas. Jeffries would become the first of many so-called “great White hopes”.
April 1
Dr. Charles Richard Drew, pioneer of blood plasma research, dies in car accident, 1950. A native of Washington, DC, Drew worked and taught in New York, at the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital and received his Doctorate from Columbia University. His dissertation was on the condition of blood stored in blood banks, and introduced the process of storing blood as plasma to increase storage life. In 1942, Drew became head of Howard University's department of Surgery and chief surgeon at Freedman's Hospital. In 1944, he was elevated to hospital chief of staff and medical director, a position he held until 1948.
April 2
Marvin Gaye, singer, born, 1939. His 1971 album, What’s Going On is noted by many as one of the greatest soul albums ever recorded. His most notable collaboration was with Tammy Terell, performing songs such as “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing”, “Your Precious Love” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”.
April 3
Carter G. Woodson, often called the father of Black history, dies, 1950. At 19, after teaching himself English and arithmetic, he entered high school and mastered the four-year curriculum in less than two years. He would later go to the University of Chicago, where he received Bachelor's and Master's degrees, and Harvard University, where he became the second Black in history to receive a doctorate. He created the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and the Journal of Negro History. On February 7, 1926, he organized Negro History Week, which was expanded in the 1960s to Black History Month. He was a selfless and passionate educator and scholar.
April 4
Martin Luther King, civil rights activist, assassinated, 1968. King was shot by James Earl Ray while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He died at the young at of 39. At the time of his death he was attentive on a nationwide campaign to help the poor. He insisted throughout his time as a civil rights leader that nonviolent social protest (a philosophy of Mohandas Ghandi) should be the main tactic used against injustices in the US. Embodying these principles and sharing them with many other leaders in the struggle for racial and social equality, King would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
April 5
Booker T. Washington, educator, born, 1856. Washington was born into slavery in Franklin County near Roanoke, Virginia, working in salt mines as a youngster. When he became president of Tuskegee University in 1881, the school hardly existed, yet largely through his efforts it became one of the leading facilities for Black education in the United States. By the 1890s, Washington was the most prominent African-American in the country, and a number of Presidents, as well as business leaders, relied on Washington as an advisor. Other African-American leaders and intellectuals, however, most notably W.E.B. DuBois, disagreed with Washington's message of political accommodating over economic progress and distrusted his reliance on white Northerners for financial assistance.
April 6
Matthew A Henson, explorer and first to reach the North Pole, leads expedition of six to the North Pole, 1909. Upon meeting Robert Peary, a U.S. Navy lieutenant, Peary offered him a job as a servant on an expedition to Nicaragua, where he was able to demonstrate many abilities he had picked up from being a cabin boy on a merchant ship for five years. Eventually, Peary would ask him to be part of an expedition that would reach the North Pole. Henson’s experience over 20 years of expeditions would lead him to training all members of the team (many Innuit eskimos) even Robert Peary. A memorial for Matthew Henson stands in the Maryland State House.
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10
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