November 22, 1986 Benjamin Sherman “Scatman” Crothers, actor, singer and musician, died. Crothers was born May 23, 1910 in Terre Haute, Indiana. He started his career as a 15 year old drummer in a speakeasy band and by the 1930s had his own band.
About Chimsima Zuhri
November 22nd in African American History – Johnnie Tillmon Blackston
November 22, 1995 Johnnie Tillmon Blackston, welfare reformer, died. Blackston was born in 1926 in Scott, Arkansas. The daughter of sharecropper’s, she never finished high school. When things went bad in Arkansas, she left her first husband and moved to Los Angeles, California with her six children. There she worked in a laundry and received […]
November 21st in African American History – George Branham, III
November 21, 1962 George Branham, III, professional bowler, was born in Detroit, Michigan. Branham started bowling at the age of six and at the age of 23 joined the Professional Bowlers Association tour. In 1986, he won the Brunswick Memorial World Open, becoming the first African American to win a PBA championship.
November 21st in African American History – William Boyd Allison Davis
November 21, 1983 William Boyd Allison Davis, anthropologist and researcher, died. Davis was born October 14, 1902 in Washington, D. C. He graduated as class valedictorian from Williams College, earned two master’s degrees from Harvard University, and was the first African American to earn a Ph. D. from the University of Chicago.
November 20th in African American History – Dominique Margaux Dawes
November 20, 1976 Dominique Margaux Dawes, gymnast, was born in Silver Springs, Maryland. Dawes was introduced to gymnastics at the age of six and competed in her first international meet at the age of twelve. As members of the Bronze medal winning United States Olympic gymnastics team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, she and […]
November 20th in African American History – David Dacko
November 20, 2003 David Dacko, the first President of the Central African Republic, died. Dacko was born March 24, 1930 in the village of Bouchia, in what was then French Equatorial Africa. Educated for a career in teaching, he became schoolmaster of a large primary school in 1951 and Principal of Kouanga College in 1955. […]
November 17th in African American History – Esther Rolle
November 17, 1998 Esther Rolle, stage, film and television actress, died. Rolle was born November 8, 1920 in Pompano Beach, Florida. Her earliest roles were on the stage, including “The Blacks” (1962), “Day of Absence” (1965), “Man Better Man” (1969), and her most prominent role in the 1973 play “Don’t Play Us Cheap.”