1830 – The first National Negro Convention begins in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1876 – White terrorists attack Republicans in Ellenton, South Carolina. Two whites and thirty-nine African Americans are killed. 1890 – Claude McKay is born in Sunnyville, Jamaica. Emigrating to the United States in 1912, he will be come a poet and winner of the 1928 Harmon Gold Medal Award for Literature. Author of the influential poetry collection “Harlem Shadows”, he will also be famous for the poems “The Lynching,” “White Houses,” and “If We Must Die,” which will be used by Winston Churchill as a rallying cry during World War II. He will join the ancestors on May 22, 1948.
1898 – The National Afro-American Council is founded in Rochester, New York. Bishop Alexander Walters of the AME Zion Church is elected president. The organization proposes a program of assertion and protest. 1915 – Julius “Nipsey” Russell is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He will become a comedian and actor. He will star in “Car 54 Where Are You?” (the movie), “Barefoot in the Park,” “Masquerade Party, and Varsity Blues.” He will also be a panelist on “Match Game” and “Hollywood Squares.” He will join the ancestors on October 2, 2005. 1923 – The governor of Oklahoma declares that Oklahoma is in a “state of virtual rebellion and insurrection” because of Ku Klux Klan activities. Martial law is declared. 1924 – Robert Waltrip “Bobby” Short is born in Danville, Illinois. He will become a singer and pianist. In 1968, he will be offered a two-week stint at the Café Carlyle in New York City, to fill in for George Feyer. He (accompanied by Beverly Peer on bass and Dick Sheridan on drums) will become an institution at the Carlyle, as Feyer had been before him, and will remain there as a featured performer for over 35 years. In 2000, The Library of Congress will designate him a Living Legend, a recognition established as part of its bicentennial celebration. He will join the ancestors on March 21, 2005. 1928 – Julian Edwin Adderly is born in Tampa, Florida. He will be best known as “Cannonball” Adderly, a jazz saxophonist who will play with Miles Davis as well as lead his own band with brother Nat Adderly and musicians such as Yusef Lateef and George Duke. Songs made famous by him and his bands include “This Here” (written by Bobby Timmons), “The Jive Samba,” “Work Song” (written by Nat Adderley), “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” (written by Joe Zawinul) and “Walk Tall” (written by Zawinul, Marrow and Rein). He will join the ancestors on August 8, 1975. Later that year, he will be inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. 1943 – Actor and activist Paul Robeson acts in the 296th performance of “Othello” at the Shubert Theatre in New York City. 1963 – Four African American schoolgirls – Addie Collins, Denise McNair, Carol Robertson and Cynthia Wesley – join the ancestors after being killed in a bombing at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. It is an act of violence that will galvanize the civil rights movement. 1964 – Rev. K.L. Buford and Dr. Stanley Smith are elected to the Tuskegee City Council and become the first African American elected officials in Alabama in the twentieth century. 1969 – Large-scale racially motivated disturbances are reported in Hartford, Connecticut. Five hundred persons are arrested and scores are injured. 1978 – Muhammad Ali wins the world heavyweight boxing championship for a record third time by defeating Leon Spinks in New Orleans, Louisiana. 1987 – Boxer, Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns, becomes the first African American to win boxing titles in five different weight classes. 1991 – San Diego State freshman, Marshall Faulk, sets the NCAA single game rushing record of 386 yards.