The James Logan Courier

Robert Clifton Weaver (December 29, 1907 – July 17, 1997) served as the first United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (also known as HUD) from 1966 to 1968. He was the first African American to hold a cabinet-level position in the United States. As a young man, Weaver had been one of 45 prominent African Americans appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to his Black Cabinet, where he acted as an informal adviser as well as directing federal programs during the New Deal.

Weaver was born on December 29, 1907 into a middle-class family in Washington, D.C. His parents were Morgan Weaver, a postal worker, and Margaret Freeman, of mixed-race ancestry; they encouraged the boy in his academic studies. His maternal grandfather was Dr. Freeman, the first black to graduate from Harvard in dentistry.

Henry Plummer Cheatham (1857–1935) was an African American Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1889 to 1893.

Born in slavery (with a white father) in what is now Vance County, North Carolina, Cheatham attended public school and graduated from Shaw University in 1883. After working as a school principal, Cheatham served as the elected Register of Deeds for Vance County (1884-1888). In 1884, he married Louisa (or Louise) Cherry, who taught music at the school where Cheatham was principal. In 1888, Cheatham was narrowly elected to Congress over incumbent Furnifold M. Simmons (who would later lead the White Supremacy campaigns that disfranchised North Carolina blacks). During the campaign, Cheatham allegedly told black voters that Simmons and President Grover Cleveland would re-enslave them. Other press outlets of the time later dismissed these allegations by the press as hyperbole or having misrepresented Cheatham's words.

Read an essay by Henry P. Cheatham, free from the Ohio Historical Society.

From wikipedia:
John Amos (born December 27, 1939) is an American actor and former football player. His television work includes roles in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Good Times, the miniseries Roots, and a recurring role in The West Wing. He has also appeared on Broadway and in numerous motion pictures in a career that spans four decades. He has received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and NAACP Image Award.

Read more about John Amos, free from superiorpics.com.

From wikipedia:
Abdul "Duke" Fakir (born December 26, 1935; Detroit, Michigan) is best known as a member of popular Motown act the Four Tops from 1954 to the present day. Fakir, who sings first tenor, is now 75years old and the only surviving original member of the group.

Abdul "Duke" Fakir, who is of Ethiopian ancestry, was born in Detroit, Michigan. He attended Pershing High School along with Levi Stubbs.

He and Stubbs first met Lawrence Payton and Renaldo "Obie" Benson at a friend's birthday party in 1954. They so enjoyed singing together that night that they decided to start a singing group named The Four Aims which would later be re-named the Four Tops.

Read an interview with Duke Fakir, free from Bluesandsoul.com.

From wikipedia:
Jabbo Smith, born as Cladys Smith (24 December 1908 - 16 January 1991) was a United States jazz musician, known for his hot virtuoso playing on the trumpet.

Smith was born in Pembroke, Georgia. At the age of 6 he went into the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina where he learned trumpet and trombone, and by age 10 was touring with the Jenkins Band. At age 16 he left the Orphanage to become a professional musician, at first playing in bands in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Atlantic City, New Jersey before making his base in Manhattan, New York City from about 1925 through 1928, where he made the first of his well regarded recordings.

From wikipedia:
Fredi Washington (Fredericka Carolyn Washington) (December 23, 1903 - June 28, 1994) was an accomplished dramatic African-American film actress, most active in the 1920s- 1930s. Frustrated at limited opportunities, she became an activist and journalist. Washington was a founding member of the Negro Actors Guild of America (NAG) in 1937 to create better professional opportunities. She also was Entertainment Editor of People's Voice, founded in 1942.

Washington earned notice for her portrayal of Peola, a young African-American woman who passed for white in the 1934 Academy Award-nominated film Imitation of Life. She also appeared with Paul Robeson in The Emperor Jones in 1933.

Read more about Fredi Washington, free from the New York Times.

From wikipedia:
Joshua Gibson (December 21, 1911 – January 20, 1947) was an American catcher in baseball's Negro Leagues. He played for the Homestead Grays from 1930 to 1931, moved to the Pittsburgh Crawfords from 1932 to 1936, and returned to the Grays from 1937 to 1939 and 1942 to 1946. In 1937 he played for Ciudad Trujillo in Trujillo's Dominican League and from 1940 to 1941 he played in the Mexican League for Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz. Gibson served as the first manager of the Santurce Crabbers, one of the most historic franchises of the Puerto Rico Baseball League. He stood 6-foot-1 (185 cm) and weighed 210 pounds (95 kg) at the peak of his career.

Learn about Josh Gibson and other Negro League players at the Negro League Baseball Players Association website.

From wikipedia:
Carter Godwin Woodson (December 19, 1875 - April 3, 1950) was an African-American historian, author, journalist and the founder of Negro History Week, which became Black History Month. He is considered the first to conduct a scholarly effort to popularize the value of Black History. He recognized and acted upon the importance of a people having an awareness and knowledge of their contributions to humanity and left behind an impressive legacy. Woodson was one of the founders of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and Journal of Negro History. He was a member of the first black fraternity Sigma Pi Phi and also a member of Omega Psi Phi. Dr. Woodson is known as the Father of Black History.

Read The Negro in Our History, by Carter Woodson, free from googlebooks.com.

From the HistoryMakers.com:
Dedicated educator and educational theorist Barbara Sizemore applied the expertise she acquired at premiere institutions to work on behalf of disadvantaged students. Sizemore was born on December 17, 1927, in Chicago. Upon completing a B.A. in classical languages at Northwestern University, she began teaching in the Chicago public school system. Sizemore returned to Northwestern and received an M.A. in elementary education in 1954. Twenty-five years later, she graduated from the University of Chicago with a Ph.D. in educational administration.

Read Barbara Sizemore's obituary, free from washingtonpost.com.

From wikipedia:
William Cooper Nell (16 December 1816 – 25 May 1874) was an American abolitionist, journalist, author, and civil servant. As an historical author his books, Services of Colored Americans in the Wars of 1776 and 1812 (1851) and Colored Patriots of the American Revolution (1855) became available to the public. These represented the premier exhaustive studies of African Americans.

Read William Cooper Nell's review of Linda, the Slave Girl, published in The Liberator in 1861.

From wikipedia:
William Augustus Hinton (15 December, 1883, Chicago, Illinois – 1959, Canton, Massachusetts) was a black bacteriologist, pathologist and educator. Hinton was the first black professor in the history of Harvard University. A pioneer in the field of public health, Hinton developed a test for syphilis which, because of its accuracy, was used by the United States Public Health Service.

He studied at the University of Kansas before transferring to Harvard University, where he earned a B.S. degree in 1905. Following his graduation, he taught in Tennessee and Oklahoma. During the summers he continued his studies in bacteriology and physiology at the University of Chicago. In 1909, Hinton enrolled in Harvard Medical School. With the aid of two prestigious scholarships he was able to graduate with honors in 1912.

Learn more about William A. Hinton, free from the Public Health Museum.

From wikipedia:
Ernie Davis (December 14, 1939 – May 18, 1963) was an American football running back and the first African-American athlete to win the Heisman Trophy. Wearing number 44, Davis competed collegiately for Syracuse University before being drafted by the Washington Redskins, then almost immediately traded to the Cleveland Browns in December 1961. However, he would never play a professional game after developing leukemia in 1962. He is the subject of the 2008 Universal Pictures movie biography, The Express, based on the non-fiction book Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express, by Robert C. Gallagher.

Read more about Ernie Davis, free from Time.com.

From wikipedia:
Ella Josephine Baker (December 13, 1903 – December 13, 1986) was a leading African American civil rights and human rights activist beginning in the 1930s. She was a behind-the-scenes activist whose career spanned over five decades. She worked alongside some of the most famous civil rights leaders of the twentieth century, including: W.E.B. DuBois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King Jr. She also mentored such then young civil rights stalwarts as Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael and Bob Moses.

Listen to an interview with Ella Baker, free from the University of South Carolina.

From wikipedia:
Eslanda ("Essie") Goode Robeson, (December 12, 1896 - December 13, 1965) the wife and business manager of Paul Robeson, was an American anthropologist, author, actor and activist.

Eslanda Cardozo Goode was born in Washington, DC in 1896. The Cardozo family descended from Black slaves and wealthy Jews expelled from Spain in the 17th century. Her grandfather was Francis Lewis Cardozo, the first Black treasurer of South Carolina. Her father, John Goode, was a law clerk in the War Department who later finished his law degree at Howard University. Eslanda had two older brothers, John Jr. and Francis. She attended the University of Illinois and later graduated from Columbia University in New York with a B. S. degree in chemistry. When then she started to work at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, she soon became the head histological chemist of Surgical Pathology, the first Black to hold such a position. In 1920, Paul Robeson and Eslanda attended summer school at Columbia. One year later they married. Eslanda gave up her intentions to study medicine and supported her husband as his business manager. Eslanda worked at the hospital until 1925, when the career of her husband took more and more of her time. She spent time between Harlem, London and France in the following years.


Read Paul Robeson, Negro by Eslanda Goode Robeson, free from www.archive.org.

From wikipedia:
Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984) was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter. She was the first to record the hit song "Hound Dog" in 1952. The song was #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for seven weeks. The B-side was "They Call Me Big Mama," and the single sold almost two million copies. Three years later, Elvis Presley recorded his version, based on a version performed by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys. In a similar occurrence, she wrote and recorded "Ball 'n' Chain," which became a hit for her. Janis Joplin later recorded "Ball and Chain," and was a huge success in the late 1960s.

Read more about Willie Mae Thornton, free from answers.com.

From wikipedia:
Mark Anthony Aguirre (born December 10, 1959 in Chicago, Illinois) is a retired American basketball player in the National Basketball Association. Aguirre played from 1981–1994 and won two championships with the Detroit Pistons after being sent to Detroit from the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Adrian Dantley. Aguirre was a three-time All-Star for Dallas.

While playing at DePaul University, he averaged 24.5 points over three seasons with the Blue Demons, and in 1981 was The Sporting News College Player of the Year. He also was the USBWA College Player of the Year and James Naismith Award winner in 1980, and a 2 time member of The Sporting News' All-America first team. As a freshman in 1978–1979, he led the Demons to the Final Four, where they lost to Indiana State, led by future NBA Hall of Famer Larry Bird.

Read more about Mark Aguirre, free from NBA.com.

From wikipedia:
Joel Chandler Harris (December 9, 1845 – July 3, 1908) was an American journalist, fiction writer, and folklorist best known for his collection of Uncle Remus stories. Harris was born in Eatonton, Georgia, where he served as an apprentice on a plantation during his teenage years. He spent the majority of his adult life in Atlanta working as an associate editor at the Atlanta Constitution.

Harris led two significant professional lives. Editor and journalist Joe Harris ushered in the New South alongside Henry W. Grady, stressing regional and racial reconciliation during the Reconstruction era. Joel Chandler Harris, fiction writer and folklorist, recorded many Brer Rabbit stories from the African-American oral tradition and revolutionized children's literature in the process.

Read Uncle Remus, his songs and his sayings, by Joel Chandler Harris, free from the University of Florida.

From wikipedia:
Clerow Wilson, Jr. (December 8, 1933 – November 25, 1998), known professionally as Flip Wilson, was an American comedian and actor. Wilson was the first African American entertainer to host his own weekly variety series, The Flip Wilson Show. The popular series earned Wilson a Golden Globe and two Emmy Awards.

In January 1972, Time magazine featured Wilson's image on their cover and named him "TV's first black superstar".

Read more about Flip Wilson, free from the Museum of Broadcast Communications.

From wikipedia:
Pearl Cleage (born 7 December 1948) is an African-American poet, essayist, and journalist living in Atlanta, Georgia. An activist on issues including AIDS, women's rights, and black life, her first novel, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day (1997), was an Oprah Book Club selection and appeared on the New York Times best-seller list for nine weeks.

Cleage (pronounced "cleg") was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the younger daughter of Doris Graham and Albert B. Cleage Jr. She grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where her father was a church pastor and played a prominent role in the civil rights movement.

Visit Pearl Cleage's website.

From wikipedia:
Theodore K. Lawless (1892-1971) was a noted dermatologist, medical researcher, and philanthropist. He is known for work related to leprosy and syphilis. He also was involved in various charitable causes including Jewish causes. Related to the latter he created the Lawless Department of Dermatology in Beilison Hospital, Tel-Aviv, Israel. He received his degree from Northwestern University and was a self-made millionaire.

Dr. Lawless was born on Dec 6, 1892 in Thibodeaux, Louisiana. Soon after his birth, his father, a Congregational minister, moved the family to New Orleans.

From wikipedia:
André "Doctor Dré" Brown (born on December 5, 1963, in Westbury, New York) is an African American radio personality and former MTV VJ. He was best known for being the co-host of MTV's hip hop music specialty program Yo! MTV Raps with partner Ed Lover.

Dre starred in the 1993 film Who's the Man? with Ed Lover. Dré teamed up with Lover in the early 1990s to co-host a morning radio show when they helped re-launch radio station Hot 97 (WQHT) in New York City.

Read more about Dr. Dré and Ed Lover, free from Answers.com.

From wikipedia:
Eddie Heywood (born Edward Heywood, Jr. 4 December 1915, Atlanta, Georgia – died 3 January 1989, Miami Beach, Florida) was a jazz pianist who became very popular in the 1940s. His father, Eddie Heyward, Sr. was also a jazz musician from the 1920s. Heywood, Jr. played with several popular jazz musicians such as Wayman Carver in 1932, Clarence Love from 1934 to 1937 and Benny Carter from 1939 to 1940 after moving to New York.

Listen to excerpts of Eddie Heywood's music, free from Verve Music Group.

From wikipedia:
John Wesley Dobbs (December 3, 1882 - August 21, 1961) was considered the unofficial 'mayor' of Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, GA, and the African-American counterpart to Mayor William B. Hartsfield.

Dobbs was educated at Atlanta Baptist College - which later became Morehouse College. After completing college, Dobbs passed a civil service exam and became a railway mail clerk in 1903. He was a great familyman for his wife and six daughters. With educational background and his job at the postal service, he was a member of Atlanta's rising African-American middle class. All of Dobbs' daughters graduated from Spelman College and one daughter, Mattiwilda Dobbs, became a notable opera singer.

Read a December 2, 1939 radio address by John Wesley Dobbs, free from the Library of Congress.

From wikipedia:
Charles Harris Wesley (December 2, 1891 - August 16, 1987) was a noted African American historian, educator, writer and author.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he graduated from Fisk University in 1911 and received a Master's degree from Yale University in 1913. In 1925, Wesley became the third African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University.



Read excerpts from Charles H. Wesley: the intellectual tradition of a Black historian, by Charles H. Wesley and James Conyers, free from Google Books.

From wikipedia:
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American comedian, actor and writer.

Pryor was a storyteller known for unflinching examinations of racism and customs in modern life, and was well-known for his frequent use of colorful, vulgar and profane language and racial epithets. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations. He is commonly regarded as one of the most important stand-up comedians of his time: Jerry Seinfeld called Pryor "The Picasso of our profession"; Whoopi Goldberg cited him as her biggest influence, stating "The major influence was Richard - I want to say those things he's saying."[citation needed] Bob Newhart has called Pryor "the seminal comedian of the last 50 years."

Read more about Richard Pryor, free from Salon.com.