The James Logan Courier

From wikipedia:
John Arthur ("Jack") Johnson (March 31, 1878 – June 10, 1946), nicknamed the “Galveston Giant”, was an American boxer, the first black world heavyweight boxing champion (1908-1915).

Johnson was born in Galveston, Texas, the third child and first son of Henry and Tina "Tiny" Johnson, former slaves who worked at blue-collar jobs to raise six children and taught them how to read and write. Jack Johnson had just five years of formal schooling. Johnson's father was born a slave in Tennessee. He dropped out of school after five or six years of education, to get a job.

Read more about Jack Johnson, free from When the Ship Comes In.

From wikipedia:
Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August 17, 1990) was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946.[1] She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968. In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special, Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale.

Her rendition of "Takes Two to Tango" hit the top ten in 1952.

Watch Pearl Bailey sing on the Bob Hope show, free from YouTube.com.

William Harvey Carney (March 28, 1842 – March 20, 1908) was an African American soldier during the American Civil War who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Fort Wagner.

His actions at Fort Wagner preceded those of any other black recipient but he was not presented with the honor until nearly 37 years later. He was the 21st African-American to be awarded the Medal, the first recipient having been Robert Blake, in 1864.

After the war he worked at the post office and was a guest speaker at public events until his death in 1908.

Read an account of William Harvey Carney's heroics, free from usflagsonline.com.

From wikipedia:
Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century". She had a contralto vocal range.

Nicknamed "Sailor" (for her salty speech), "Sassy" and "The Divine One", Sarah Vaughan was a Grammy Award winner. The National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon her its "highest honor in jazz", the NEA Jazz Masters Award, in 1989.

Read a 1972 interview with Sarah Vaughan, free from Jazzprofessional.com.

From wikipedia:
Hugh Mulzac (March 26, 1886–1971) was an African-American member of the United States Merchant Marine. He earned a Master rating in 1918 which should have qualified him to command a ship, but this did not happen until 1942 because of racial discrimination.

Born on March 26, 1886 on Union Island in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, his life at sea started right after high school when he served on British schooners.

Read more about Captain Hugh Mulzac, free from the the United States Merchant Marine.

From wikipedia:
Toni Cade Bambara (March 25, 1939 – December 9, 1995) was an American author, social activist, and college professor.

Bambara was born Miltona Mirkin Cade on March 25, 1939. She grew up in Harlem, Brooklyn, and Jersey City. She attended schools in New York City and the southern United States. She said that she would change her name to Toni while in kindergarten, and in 1970 added "Bambara" when she learned that her grandmother had taken that name as well.

Read In Praise of Toni Cade Bambara by Alice Lovelace, free from inmotionmagazine.com.

From the Smithsonian Institution:
Janet Waterford Bragg (1907-1993), became one of America's first black women pilots after enrolling in the Curtiss Wright Aeronautical School in 1933. There she helped form the Challenger Air Pilots Association, which later evolved into the Coffey School of Aeronautics.

Read more about Janet Bragg, free from the University of Arizona.

From wikipedia:
Wendell Smith (March 23, 1914 - November 26, 1972) was a noted African American sportswriter was influential in the choice of Jackie Robinson to become the first African American player in Major League Baseball in the 20th century.

Read more about Wendell Smith and his efforts to integrate baseball, free from the Charleston Gazette.

From wikipedia:
Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy (March 22, 1869 – February 6, 1964) was a Filipino general, politician, and independence leader. He played an instrumental role in Philippine independence during the Philippine Revolution against Spain and the Philippine-American War that resisted American occupation.

In the Philippines, Aguinaldo is considered to be the country's first and the youngest Philippine President, though his government failed to obtain any foreign recognition.

Read the True Version of the Philippine Revolution by Emilio Aguinaldo, free from Project Gutenberg. Also available in Spanish.

From wikipedia:
Ruby Muhammad, born Ruby Macie Graier (née Pittman), is an African-American, who is known as the "Mother of the Nation of Islam". She was born in Sandersville, Georgia, but grew up in Americus, Georgia. No birth certificate exists to confirm her age, and it has been reported with significant disparity, although she has claimed in newspaper interviews that she was born Ruby Macie Grayer on March 20, 1897. Recent research has suggested that Ruby Muhammad was actually born in 1907, as a listing of Ruby Macie Grier, aged 3, is in the 1910 census.

Read about Mother Ruby Muhammad's performance at the annual Sacramento Community Women of Color Day on March 7, free from the Sacramento Bee.

Jackie “Moms” Mabley (19 March 1894 – 23 May 1975) was an American standup comedienne and a pioneer of the so-called "Chitlin' Circuit" of African-American vaudeville.

Mabley was born Loretta Mary Aiken into a large family of twelve children in Brevard, Transylvania County, North Carolina. Her father, James P. Aiken, owned and operated several businesses while her mother, Mary, kept home and took in boarders. Her father died a sudden accidental death when she was eleven. By the age of fifteen Mabley had been raped twice and had two children that were given up for adoption. After being forced by her stepfather to marry a much older man she despised and being encouraged by her grandmother to strike out on her own, she ran away to Cleveland, Ohio with a travelling minstrel show where where she began singing and entertaining.

Learn more about Moms Mabley from wfmu.org.

From wikipedia:
William Johnson (March 18, 1901–1970) was an African American painter born in Florence, South Carolina.

In 1944 his wife, Holche Krake, a Danish textile artist, died from breast cancer. To deal with his grief, he took work in a Navy Yard, and in 1946 left for Denmark to be with his wife's family. He soon fell ill himself, from the effects of advanced syphilis, and returned to New York in 1947 to enter the Central Islip State Hospital on Long Island, where he spent the remainder of his life. He stopped painting in 1956 and died in 1970.

See examples of William Johnson's work, free from artcyclopedia.com.

From wikipedia:
Bayard Rustin (March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an American civil rights activist, important largely behind the scenes in the civil rights movement of the 1960s and earlier, and the main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He counseled Martin Luther King, Jr. on the techniques of nonviolent resistance. He became an advocate on behalf of gay and lesbian causes in the latter part of his career; however, his homosexuality was the basis for attacks from government officials and agencies as well as from interest groups.

Learn more about Bayard Rustin, free from stateofthereunion.com.

From wikipedia:
Thomas Lee Flanagan (16 March 1930, – 16 November 2001, New York City) was an American jazz pianist born in Detroit, Michigan, particularly remembered as an accompanist of Ella Fitzgerald.

He played on a number of critically acclaimed recordings, such as John Coltrane's Giant Steps, Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, and Art Pepper's Straight Life.


Read more about Tommy Flanagan, free from jazztimes.com'.

From wikipedia:
Sam "Lightnin’" Hopkins (March 15, 1912 — January 30, 1982) was a country blues guitarist, from Houston, Texas, United States.

Born in Centerville, Texas, Hopkins' childhood was immersed in the sounds of the blues and he developed a deeper appreciation at the age of 8 when he met Blind Lemon Jefferson at a church picnic in Buffalo, Texas. That day, Hopkins felt the blues was "in him" and went on to learn from his older (somewhat distant) cousin, country blues singer Alger "Texas" Alexander. Hopkins began accompanying Blind Lemon Jefferson on guitar in informal church gatherings. Jefferson supposedly never let anyone play with him except for young Hopkins, who learned much from and was influenced greatly by Blind Lemon Jefferson thanks to these gatherings. In the mid 1930s, Hopkins was sent to Houston County Prison Farm for an unknown offence. In the late 1930s Hopkins moved to Houston with Alexander in an unsuccessful attempt to break into the music scene there. By the early 1940s he was back in Centerville working as a farm hand.

Read about Lightnin' Hopkins' statue in the Houston Chronicle.

From wikipedia:
Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American music conductor, record producer, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. During five decades in the entertainment industry, Jones has earned a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend Award in 1991. He is best known as the producer of the album Thriller, by pop icon Michael Jackson, which has sold over 110 million copies worldwide, and as the producer and conductor of the charity song “We Are the World”.

Visit the official Quincy Jones website.

From wikpedia:
Roy Owen Haynes (born March 13, 1925 in the Roxbury section of Boston, Massachusetts) is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Haynes is one of the most recorded drummers in jazz and in his over 60-year career has played in a wide range of styles ranging from swing and bebop to jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz. He has a highly expressive, personal style ("Snap Crackle" was a nickname given him in the 1950s) and is known to foster a deep engagement in his bandmates.

One of the few jazz musicians alive today whose roots touch the origins of jazz itself, the drum legend has been “hard swinging” since 1944, when he made his professional debut at the age of seventeen in his native Boston. In the last sixty years, Roy Owen Haynes has shaped some of the most important recordings in Jazz history, transforming the role of the percussionist from timekeeper to front-line collaborator.

Learn more about Roy Haynes, and listen to his music, free from Drummerworld.com.

From wikipedia:
Billie Thomas (William Thomas, Jr.) (March 12, 1931 – October 10, 1980) was an American child actor best remembered for portraying the character of Buckwheat in the Our Gang (Little Rascals) short films from 1934 until the series' end in 1944. He was a native of Los Angeles, California.

Our Gang
Although the character he played was often the subject of controversy in later years for containing elements of the "pickaninny" stereotype, Thomas always defended his work in the series, pointing out that Buckwheat and the rest of the black Our Gang kids were treated as equals to the white kids in the series. The 1980s Little Rascals animated series adapted from the Our Gang comedies addressed the problem by changing Buckwheat into a clever inventor who is always building ingenious machines for the gang.

Watch Billie Thomas perform as Buckwheat.

From wikipedia:
Dock Phillip Ellis, Jr. (March 11, 1945 – December 19, 2008) was a Major League Baseball player who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates, among other teams. His best season was 1971, when he won 19 games for the World Series champion Pirates and was the starting pitcher for the National League in the All-Star Game. However, he is perhaps best remembered for the claim that he threw a no-hitter in 1970 while under the influence of LSD.

No-Hitter
Ellis pitched a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres on June 12, 1970 despite being, as he would admit in 1984, under the influence of LSD throughout the course of the game. Ellis had been visiting friends in Los Angeles under the impression he had the day off and was still high when his friend's girlfriend told him he had to pitch a game against the Padres that night. Ellis boarded a shuttle flight to the ballpark and threw a no-hitter despite not being able to feel the ball or clearly see the batter or catcher. Ellis claims catcher Jerry May wore reflective tape on his fingers which helped Ellis to see his target. Ellis walked eight, struck out six, and was aided by excellent fielding plays by second baseman Bill Mazeroski and center fielder Matty Alou. During the game, teammates are reported to have commented to Ellis on the bench between innings that he was pitching a no-hitter, despite the superstition that discourages mentioning a no-hitter while it is in progress. Because the no-hitter was the first game of a double header, Ellis was forced to keep track of the pitch count for the night game.

Read Dock Ellis' career statistics, free from baseball-almanac.com.

From wikipedia:
Hallie Quinn Brown (March 10, 1849 – September 16, 1949) was an African American educator, writer and activist. She attended Wilberforce University in Ohio, gaining a Bachelor of Science degree. After graduating she became a teacher and later returned to Wilberforce to teach. Throughout her life, Brown was an activist for civil rights for women and African Americans.


Read Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction, by Hallie Q. Brown, free from the University of North Carolina.

From wikipedia:
Ornette Coleman (born March 9, 1930) is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s.

Coleman's timbre is easily recognized: his keening, crying sound draws heavily on blues music. His album Sound Grammar received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for music.

Early career
Coleman was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, where he began performing R&B and bebop initially on tenor saxophone. Seeking a way to work his way out of his home town, he took a job in 1949 with a Silas Green from New Orleans traveling show and then with touring rhythm and blues shows. After a show in Baton Rouge, he was assaulted and his saxophone was destroyed.

Learn more about Ornette Coleman at ornettecoleman.com.

From wikipedia:
Mississippi John Hurt (July 3, 1893 or March 8, 1892 — November 2, 1966) was an influential country blues singer and guitarist. He sang in a loud whisper, to a melodious finger-picked guitar accompaniment.

Born John Smith Hurt in Teoc, Carroll County, Mississippi and raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt learned to play guitar at age 9. He spent much of his youth playing old time music for friends and dances, earning a living as a farm hand into the 1920s. In 1923 he partnered with the fiddle player Willie Narmour as a substitute for his regular partner Shell Smith. When Narmour got a chance to record for Okeh Records as a prize for winning first place in a 1928 fiddle contest, Narmour recommended John Hurt to Okeh Records producer Tommy Rockwell.

Read an interview with Mississippi John Hurt.

From wikipedia:
Lee Young (March 7, 1914 – July 31, 2008) was an American jazz drummer and singer.

Young was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. His older brother was famed saxophonist Lester Young.

In 1944 he was the drummer at Norman Granz's first Jazz at the Philharmonic concert, which also featured guitarist Les Paul, trombonist J.J. Johnson, and saxophonist Jean-Baptiste "Illinois" Jacquet, amongst others.

Read Lee Young's obituary in the New York Times.

From wikipedia:
Furry Lewis (March 6, 1893 - September 14, 1981) was a country blues guitarist and songwriter from Memphis, Tennessee. Lewis was one of the first of the old-time blues musicians of the 1920s to be brought out of retirement, and given a new lease of recording life, by the folk blues revival of the 1960s.

Walter E. Lewis was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, but his family moved to Memphis when he was aged seven. Lewis acquired the nickname "Furry" from childhood playmates.

Read more about Furry Lewis and listen to samples of his music, free from the National Park Service.

From wikipedia:
Tommy Tucker (born Robert Higginbotham, 5 March 1933 - 22 January 1982) was an American blues singer-songwriter and pianist. He was born in Springfield, Ohio. He is best known for the 1964 hit song, "Hi-Heel Sneakers", that went to number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Tucker's follow-up release, "Long Tall Shorty", was less successful. Nevertheless, famous musicians that have played on his albums include Louisiana Red, Willie Dixon and Donny Hathaway.

Listen to Tommy Tucker perform "High Heel Sneakers, free from last.fm.

From wikipedia:
Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. (March 4, 1877 - August 27, 1963) was an African American inventor who originated a respiratory protective hood (similar to the modern gas masks), credited with being the inventor of the traffic light for which he holds a patent, and invented a hair-straightening preparation. He is renowned for a heroic rescue in which he used his hood to save workers trapped in a tunnel system filled with fumes. He is credited as the first African-American in Cleveland to own an automobile.

Read about Garrett Morgan's rescue of trapped workers, and the racism that kept him from getting his due praise for heroism.

Adapted from wikipedia:
Margaret Allison Bonds (March 3,1913 – April 26,1972) was an American composer and pianist. One of the first black composers and performers to gain recognition in the United States, she is best remembered today for her frequent collaborations with Langston Hughes.

A native of Chicago, Bonds grew up in a home visited by many of the leading black intellectuals of the era; among houseguests were soprano Abbie Mitchell and composers Florence Price and Will Marion Cook. Bonds showed an early aptitude for composition, writing her first work, Marquette Street Blues, at the age of five. Her first study in music came when she took piano lessons from her mother. While still in school, she studied composition with Price and with William Dawson. Bonds worked as an accompanist for dances and singers in various shows and supper clubs around Chicago; she also copied music parts for other composers, and became involved with the National Association of Negro Musicians.

Listen to a sample of Margaret Allison Bonds performing.

From wikipedia:
Edward Davis (March 2, 1922–November 3, 1986), who performed and recorded as Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.

He played with Cootie Williams, Lucky Millinder, Andy Kirk, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie, as well as leading his own bands and making many recordings as a leader. He played in the swing, bop, hard bop, Latin jazz, and soul jazz genres. Some of his recordings of the 1940s also could be classified as rhythm and blues.

His 1946 band, Eddie Davis and His Beboppers, featured Fats Navarro, Al Haig, Huey Long, Gene Ramey and Denzil Best.

Watch Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis perform with Count Basie, free from YouTube.com.

Ralph Ellison (March 1,1913 – April 16, 1994) was a scholar and writer. He was born Ralph Waldo Ellison in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, named by his father after Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ellison was best known for his novel Invisible Man (ISBN 0-679-60139-2), which won the National Book Award in 1953. He also wrote Shadow and Act (1964), a collection of political, social and critical essays, and Going to the Territory (1986). Research by Lawrence Jackson, Ellison's biographer, has established that he was born a year earlier than had been previously thought.

Read The Paris Review's interview with Ralph Ellison.