January 6, 2006 Louis Allen Rawls, soul, jazz, and blues singer, died. Rawls was born December 1, 1933 in Chicago, Illinois. He sang with Sam Cooke in a 1950s gospel group. He also sang background on Cooke’s recording of “Bring it on Home to Me” in 1962 and that same year released his first single […]
Archive | January, 2012
January 5th in African American History – George Washington Carver
January 5, 1943 George Washington Carver, scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor, died. Carver was born enslaved on July 12, 1864 in Diamond, Missouri. Carver and his family were freed after slavery was abolished. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1894 and his Master of Science degree in 1896 from Iowa State Agricultural College […]
January 5th in African American History – Charles Mingus, Jr.
January 5, 1979 Charles Mingus, Jr., jazz bassist, composer and bandleader, died. Mingus was born April 22, 1922 in Nogales, Arizona. He began writing advanced jazz pieces as a teenager. Mingus toured with Louis Armstrong in 1943 and in 1945 began recording. In 1952, Mingus co-founded Debut Records in order to conduct his recording career […]
January 4th in African American History – Grace Bumbry
January 4, 1937 Grace Bumbry, considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. At the age of 17, Bumbry won a competition singing the aria “O don fatale” but was denied the first-place prize scholarship to the local music conservatory because it did not accept black students.
January 4th in African American History – Willie Jeffries
January 4, 1937 Willie Jeffries, the first African American head football coach at a NCAA Division 1-A college, was born in Union, South Carolina. Jeffries began his coaching career at his alma mater, South Carolina State University, in 1973. In 1979, he became the head football coach at Division 1-A Wichita State University, a position […]
January 3rd in African American History – Cheryl D. Miller
January 3, 1962 Cheryl D. Miller, hall of fame basketball player, was born in Riverside, California. Miller was an outstanding basketball player in high school. She was the first player, male or female, to be named an All-American by Parade Magazine four times, she was awarded the Dial Award as the national high school scholar/athlete […]
January 3rd in African American History – Samuel Leamon Younge, Jr.
January 3, 1966 Samuel Leamon Younge, Jr. was shot to death after he tried to use the “Whites only” restroom at a Standard Oil gas station in Macon County, Alabama. This senseless death became the first black college student killed as a result of his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Younge was born November […]