1667
In Williamsburg, Virginia, a law is passed, barring slaves from obtaining their freedom by converting to Christianity.
1862
A draft of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is published in Northern Newspapers.
1863
Mary Church (later Terrell) was born in Memphis, Tennessee. She will be one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree and will become known as a national activist for civil rights and suffrage. In 1909, she was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She will teach and become a principal at an academic high school in Washington, DC. In 1896, she was the first African American woman in the United States to be appointed to a school board of a major city, serving in the District of Columbia until 1906. She will lead several important associations, including the National Association of Colored Women. She also will be a U.S. delegate to the International Peace Conference. She will join the ancestors on July 24, 1954.
1926
John Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina. He will become a brilliant jazz saxophonist and composer who will be considered the father of avant-garde jazz. He worked in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, helping pioneer the use of modes in jazz and being later at the forefront of free jazz. He will lead at least fifty recording sessions during his career, and appear as a sideman on many albums by other musicians, including trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. As his career progresses, he and his music will take on an increasingly spiritual dimension. He will influence innumerable musicians, and remain one of the most significant saxophonists in music history. He will receive many posthumous awards and recognitions, including canonization by the African Orthodox Church as Saint John William Coltrane and a special Pulitzer Prize in 2007. His second wife will be pianist Alice Coltrane and their son Ravi Coltrane will also become a saxophonist. He will join the ancestors on July 17, 1967.
1930
Ray Charles (Robinson) is born in Albany, Georgia. Blind by the age of six, he will study music and form his own band at the age of 24. A recorded performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 will establish his career as one of the premier soul singers in the United States. Among Charles’s achievements will be twelve Grammys. In 1979, he was one of the first musicians born in the state to be inducted into the Georgia State Music Hall of Fame. His version of “Georgia On My Mind” will also be made the official state song for Georgia. In 1981, he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and will be one of the first inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at its inaugural ceremony in 1986. He also received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1986. In 1987, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1991, he was inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Foundation and was presented with the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement during the 1991 UCLA Spring Sing. In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. In 1998, he was awarded the Polar Music Prize together with Ravi Shankar in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2004, he was inducted into the National Black Sports & Entertainment Hall of Fame. The Grammy Awards of 2005 were dedicated to Charles. In 2003, Charles will be awarded an honorary degree by Dillard University, and upon his transition, he will endow a professorship of African-American culinary history at the school, the first such chair in the nation. He joined the ancestors on June 10, 2004, after succumbing to liver disease. A $20 million performing arts center at Morehouse College will be named after him and will be dedicated in September 2010. The United States Postal Service will issue a forever stamp honoring him as part of its Musical Icons series on September 23, 2013.
1952
Jersey Joe Walcott, loses his heavyweight title in the 13th round, to Rocky Marciano, in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Pay Television for sporting events begins with the Marciano-Walcott fight, coast to coast, in 49 theatres in 31 cities.
1954
Playwright George Costello Wolfe is born in Frankfort, Kentucky. He will become critically acclaimed for the controversial plays, “The Colored Museum”, “Jelly’s Last Jam”, and “Spunk”. He won a Tony Award in 1993 for directing ‘Angels in America: Millennium Approaches’ and another Tony Award in 1996 for his direction of the musical ‘Bring in ‘da Noise/Bring in ‘da Funk.’ He served as Artistic Director of The Public Theatre from 1993 until 2004.
1957
Nine African American students, who had entered Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas, were forced to leave because of a white mob outside.
1961
President Kennedy named Thurgood Marshall to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals.
1962
Los Angeles Dodger, Maury Wills, steals record-setting base # 97 on his way to 104.
1979
Lou Brock steals record 935th base and becomes the all-time major league record holder.
2017
Charles Edward Bradley, the “Screaming Eagle of Soul”, joins the ancestors after succumbing to stomach cancer.