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Special Features: This Week in Black History
Friday, March 25, 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 24 - Canada legally recognizes Black suffrage in 1837.
March 25 - The Scottsboro boys arrested in 1931. Nine young Black boys (Clarence Norris, Charlie Weems, Haywood Patterson, Olen Montgomery, Ozie Powell, Willie Roberson, Eugene Williams, Andy Wright and Roy Wright) are convicted of raping two White women on a train in Paint Rock, Alabama. Within ten days of being indicted all but one boy is tried, convicted and sentenced to death in Scottsboro, Alabama. The International Labor Defense (ILD) and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) lobby for an appeal and the right to represent the boys in a new trial. Eventually, the case is heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. In Patterson v. Alabama, the Court rules that the defendants were denied the right to counsel, which violated their right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment (i.e. all persons born in US are a citizens of the state wherein they reside). Their cases are given back to the lower courts. Even after testimony from one of the women accusing the youth of rape in which she denounces the charges, Patterson and Norris are sentenced to death a second time by a second judge. This would be lowered to 75 years in prison. However, in the end, all the boys are sentenced to jail for 20 years or more.
March 26 - Richard Allen, a man of great faith, dies in 1831. When he and other African Americans were denied the right to worship God in the St. George Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1787, they walked out and started their own church, which would eventually be called the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church. Allen felt he had a calling to spread his faith to others of African descent and of other ethnic and cultural backgrounds. These groups represented those that were constantly discriminated against, denied even the simplest of human rights. He felt that their guide to dealing with the troubles of the world should be Christian-based. From 1815-1830, Richard Allen was recognized as a leader of free Blacks in the North. In 1816, he became the first bishop of the AME Church. Richard Allen would continue to organize and preach throughout his life.
March 27 - Arthur Mitchell, dancer and choreographer, born in 1934. In 1955, he became the first African American male dancer to become a permanent member of a major ballet company (The New York City Ballet). He has received many honorable awards, such as the MacArthur Foundation Genius Fellowship, the NAACP Image Award, and the School of American Ballet Lifetime Achievement Award.
March 28 - The New York Renaissance, the first Black professional basketball team, became the first Black team on record to win a professional world's championship, 1939. The “Rens”, named after the Harlem Renaissance Ballroom and founded by Bob Douglas in 1923, would compile a 473-49 record from 1932-36, including an 88-game winning streak. Overall, in 27 years of play, the Rens had a 2,588-539 record, playing every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
March 29 - Granville T Woods, along with his brother Lyates, patents the first of two improvements on railroad brakes, 1904. Woods gained over 60 patents in his lifetime and was the pioneer of many inventions such as an improved steam boiler furnace, a system for overhead conducting lines for railroads (used by present-day elevated trains), and the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph, which allowed a train to communicate with an upcoming train station. Millions benefit from Mr. Woods’ inventions more than 100 years after he first introduced them to the world.
March 30 - The 15th Amendment, giving Blacks the right to vote, adopted in 1870. It states, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Of course, as history proves, this right was only in principle, as individual states for many years to come (arguably even today) would do everything in their power to keep Black Americans out of voting booths.
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10
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