1864
At the Battle of New Market Heights, Sergeant Major
Christian Fleetwood and 12 other African Americans
fight valiantly for the Union’s cause. They will
receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for their
action the following year.
1916 – Henry Green Parks, Jr. is born in Atlanta, Georgia.
He will be raised in Dayton, Ohio, attend public
schools, and enroll in Ohio State University in
Columbus, graduating with honors from the University
College of Commerce in 1939 with a B.S. degree in
Marketing. He will also become the first African
American on Ohio State University’s swim team. After
graduation, he will begin working with Pabst Brewing
Company as a sales representative, targeting the
African American market. He will become one of their
leading salesmen, but in 1942 will be given the
opportunity to join W.B. Graham and Associates, a New
York City public relations firm. He will explore the
ideas of many different enterprises and work at W.B.
Graham and Associates for seven years. In 1949, he will
leave W.B. Graham and Associates for Crayton’s Southern
Sausage Company, which creates sausages appealing to
the southern taste. He will be unsuccessful with
Crayton’s Sausage Company, but after learning from his
experiences and coming across southern recipes, 35-year
-old Henry Parks will found Parks Sausage Company in
1951 in Baltimore, Maryland. Parks Sausage Company will
start with only two employees, but rapidly grow to 240
employees with annual sales in the mid-1960s exceeding
$14 million. He will use his marketing and public
relations background to craft a radio commercial which
features a little boy saying, “More Parks Sausage, Mom,
please.” The radio ad will be enormously popular and
helps spur the company’s growth. By 1955 it will be the
largest Black-owned business in Baltimore and later will
become a publicly traded company. Parks Sausage will
also become the first African American firm to advertise
in a World Series, when its ads appear at one of the
seven games between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New
York Yankees in 1955. His company will also have the
distinction of being the first publicly traded Black-
owned firm on the NASDAQ stock exchange. In 1977, he will
sell the company to a conglomerate for $1.5 million
dollars, but will stay on the board until 1980. He will
serve on the corporate boards of Magnavox, Warner Lambert,
and W.R. Grace. He will be a trustee of Goucher College
in Baltimore. He will suffer from Parkinson’s disease in
the last years of his life, and will join the ancestors in
Towson, Maryland on April 14, 1989.
1918
Edward Thomas Demby is elected suffragan bishop of the
Protestant Episcopal diocese of Arkansas.
1931
Dr. Lenora Moragne is born in Evanston, Illinois. She will
become one of the leading nutrition scientist in the United
States. She will become head of nutrition education and
training for the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. She will also co-author a junior
high school textbook on nutrition for McGraw-Hill Publishing
Company in New York named “Focus on Food.” She will also be
appointed to the Future Development Committee of the
American Home Economics Association. She will also be elected
to the Board of Directors of the Chicago-based American
Dietetic Association. She will also become the founding editor
and publisher of the Black Congressional Monitor.
1940
The first United States merchant ship to be commanded by an
African American captain (Hugh Mulzac), is launched at
Wilmington, Delaware.
1947
Dizzy Gillespie presents his first Carnegie Hall
concert in New York City, adding a sophisticated jazz
touch to the famous concert emporium. Dizzy will
become one of the jazz greats of all time. His
trademark: Two cheeks pushed out until it looked like
his face would explode.
1948
Bryant Charles Gumbel is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He
will grow up in Chicago and will graduate from Bates College
in 1970. In 1971, he will become editor of Black Sports
Magazine, leaving the following year. He will begin his
television career in October 1972, when he will become a
a sportscaster for KNBC-TV out of Los Angeles. He will be
hired by NBC in 1975 to host numerous sporting events
including Major League Baseball, college basketball and
the National Football League. In 1982, he will leave
sportscasting to join the Today Show. He will become the
first African American anchor of a national network
morning news entertainment program. He will return to
sportscasting for NBC when he hosts the prime time
coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics from Seoul and the
PGA Tour in 1990. After 15 years on the Today show, he will
move to CBS to host a new prime time news-magazine called
“Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel” during the 1997–1998
television season. After his departure, he will make
occasional appearances on Today. He will appear for the
show’s 60th anniversary and host along with Matt Lauer and
Jane Pauley on December 30, 2013. Currently he is
concentrating most of his energy on his duties as host of
HBO’s acclaimed investigative series “Real Sports with
Bryant Gumbel” (a show that he has hosted since 1995).
HBO’s web page states that Real Sports has been described
as “flat out TV’s best sports program” by the Los Angeles
Times. It will win a Peabody Award in 2012.
1954 – Willie Mays makes his famous “over-the-shoulder catch”
of Vic Wertz’ 460′ drive.
1955 – Gwendolyn L. Ifill is born in Jamaica, New York City, New York.
She will become a journalist, television newscaster, and
author. In 1999, she will become the first woman of African
descent to host a nationally televised U.S. public affairs
program with “Washington Week in Review.” She will be the
moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor
and co-managing editor, with Judy Woodruff, of PBS NewsHour,
both of which air on PBS. She will be a political analyst and
will moderate the 2004 and 2008 vice-presidential debates. She
will author the best-selling book “The Breakthrough: Politics
and Race in the Age of Obama.” After the debate, she will
receive praise for her performance. The Boston Globe will
report that she received “high marks for equal treatment of
the candidates”. Her moderation of the debates will win her pop-
culture recognition when the debates are parodied on “Saturday
Night Live,” with Queen Latifah portraying Ifill. PBS ombudsman
Michael Getler will twice write about letters he received
complaining of bias in her news coverage. He will dismiss
complaints that she appeared insufficiently enthusiastic about
Sarah Palin’s speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention,
and will conclude that Ifill had played a “solid, in my view,
and central role in PBS coverage of both conventions.” In
September 2011, she will be a presenter at the 32nd News &
Documentary Emmy Awards. In November 2015, she will be the master
of ceremonies at the 2015 LBJ Liberty & Justice For All Award
ceremony. In February 2016, she and Woodruff, moderating the
debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, will become the
first team of women to moderate a Democratic presidential debate.
She will be awarded the Women in Film and Video Women of Vision
Award in 2000. In 2004, she will receive the Gracie Allen Tribute
Award from the Foundation for American Women in Radio and
Television. She will be awarded a Peabody Award in 2008 for her
work on Washington Week. In 2009, she will be honored with the
First Amendment Award by Ford Hall Forum, and Harvard University
will honor her the same year with the Goldsmith Career Award for
Excellence in Journalism. The following year she will receive the
17th Fred Friendly First Amendment Award from Quinnipiac University.
On February 7, 2011, she will be named an honorary member of Delta
Sigma Theta during the sorority’s 22nd Annual Delta Days in
Washington, D.C. In 2012, she will be inducted into the National
Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame. In 2014 she will be
awarded the Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism. Her
work on the PBS town hall special “America After Ferguson” will earn
her a nomination for Outstanding Host in a Talk, Reality, News/
Information or Variety (Series or Special) at the 46th NAACP Image
Awards. In November 2015 she will accept the Lifetime Achievement
award from the Women’s Media Center at the annual Women’s Media
Awards ceremony. She will receive the Fourth Estate Award from the
National Press Club in 2015. Columbia University will award her the
John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2016, but she
will join the ancestors on November 14, 2016, two days before the
scheduled ceremony. She will receive more than 20 honorary doctorates
from universities around the world, including Georgetown University,
Smith College, Bates College and Skidmore College. In May 2011 she
will serve as a commencement speaker at Morehouse College. On the one
year anniversary of her transition, November 14, 2017, her alma mater,
Simmons College will announce that they would be launching a school in
2018, named in her honor as the Gwen Ifill College of Media, Arts and
Humanities. On October 22, 2019, a portrait of Ifill is featured on a
forever postage stamp.
1962 – President John F. Kennedy sends federal troops to
enforce integration of the University of Mississippi.
1962 – Lt. Governor Paul Johnson of Mississippi is found guilty
of civil contempt for blocking the entrance of James
Meredith to the University of Mississippi.
1965 – Ralph Boston of the United States, sets the long jump
record at 27′ 4 3/4″.
1975 – The first African American owned television station in
the United States, WGPR-TV in Detroit, begins
broadcasting.
1977 – In the most-watched prize fight in history to date,
Muhammad Ali beats Ernie Shavers (in a fifteen round
decision) to claim the heavyweight championship boxing
crown. The bout was televised from New York City’s
Madison Square Garden and was officiated by the first
woman official of a heavyweight title boxing match
before an estimated 70 million viewers.
1979 – Sir William Arthur Lewis, Professor of Economics at
Princeton University, becomes the first person of
African descent to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics.
1988 – Florence Griffith Joyner of the United States, sets the
200 meter woman’s record in 21.34 seconds.
1998 – Former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley joins the ancestors
at the age of 80.