October 18, 1926 Charles Edward “Chuck” Berry, guitarist, singer and songwriter, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Berry made his first public performances while he was still in high school and by early 1953 was performing at popular clubs in East St. Louis, Illinois. In 1955, Berry recorded “Maybelene” which sold over a million copies […]
Archive | October 18, 2011
October 18th in African American History – Cyril Valentine Briggs
October 18, 1966 Cyril Valentine Briggs, writer and political activist, died. Briggs was born May 28, 1888 in Nevis, West Indies. He moved to New York City in 1905 and got his first writing job at the Amsterdam News in 1912. In 1917, Briggs founded the African Blood Brotherhood to stop lynchings in the South […]