Black Troops in the French and Indian War: Even before the Revolutionary War, a pattern had been established in British colonies whereby African Americans were enlisted to defend the colonies when they were attacked, but were excluded from military service in times of peace. When Major General Edward Braddocks forces were defeated in the French and Indian War in 1775, Virginia was forced to utilize free African Americans in its colonial military. Yet the colonial legislature refused to use African Americans in combat positions, preferring to relegate them to labor positions and service as scouts. Once armed, African Americans might, it was feared, turn their weapons on the colony in an attempt to free the slaves. George Gire of Grafton, Massachusetts, fought in the French and Indian War. Because of the injuries he received in that war, he was awarded an annual pension of forty shillings. Gire, along with Benjamin Negro, and Caesar of Rhode Island, was part of an emerging class of free African Americans in the Northeast, where slavery was declining as an agriculturally profitable system of labor. Thus, unlike slaves who were often forced into service by their masters, Gire along with his Black compatriots, represents the first example in American history of free African Americans fighting for the British colonies.

Rap artist the Nortorious B.I.G. is killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. He was 24.

Musician, composer, and conductor Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson was born on June 14, 1932, in Manhattan, New York City.  Perkinson’s mother, a talented pianist, organist, and theater director in the Bronx, named her son after the Afro-British composer, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Perkinson began showing an interest in music at a very young age and in 1945 he began attending New York’s High School of Music and Art. In 1948, he won the prestigious High School Music and Art Choral Competition with his composition titled And Behold. Perkinson graduated from the high school in 1949 and that same year he won the coveted LaGuardia Prize for Music.

After high school, Perkinson attended New York University where he was an education major until 1951, intending to become a public school teacher. In that year, however he decided instead to focus on music and transferred to the Manhattan School of Music where he became a composition major. Perkinson studied under influential figures such as Charles Mills, Vittorio Giannini, and Jonel Perlea. He graduated in 1953 and during the summer of 1954 began taking courses in conducting at the Berkshire Music Center in Massachusetts while at the same time studying under renowned composer Earl Kim at Princeton University. In 1960, Perkinson traveled to Holland, where he spent three years pursuing his studies in conducting under Maestros Dean Dixon and Franco Ferrara at the Netherlands Radio Union at Hilversum.

Perkinson had a long and successful career in the music industry. He worked as a music director and arranger for many famous jazz and soul artists including Marvin Gaye, Barbara McNair, Lou Rawls, Donald Byrd, Max Roach, Melvin Van Peebles, and Harry Belafonte. Perkinson also composed numerous musical scores for the stage, film, and television. He wrote ballet scores for dance companies like Dance Theater of Harlem, Alvin Ailey, and the Pomare Dance Company. He also wrote and conducted the scores for award winning films such as Montgomery to Memphis, a documentary about Martin Luther

In Asheville, North Carolina, civil rights activist Floyd H. McKissick was born. A lawyer, newspaper columnist and business executive, McKissick attended Morehouse College, the University of North Carolina, and North Carolina Central University.

A child of the early post-reconstruction south, Oscar DePriest was born in Florence, Alabama on March 9, 1871.

Congdon Street Baptist Church is the oldest African American church in Rhode Island. The church, located on College Hill, sprang from the effort of the black community in the city to provide a place for people of color to worship and a locale for a secular school for black children in the city.  This effort combined the work of a small group of black Rhode Islanders and sympathetic white residents.  

The campaign to create a church began March 9, 1819 at a gathering in the city’s First Baptist Meeting House. A group of 12 men were chosen to appeal to Moses Brown, popular New England Quaker abolitionist and industrialist, and the wealthiest individual in the state. Brown, who is more generally known as the cofounder of Brown University in 1764, purchased land that would become the site of the African Union Meeting House.  That structure was completed in 1820 and it housed both the church and the Schoolhouse Society. Initially the church was interdenominational.  Its members included those who considered themselves African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.), A.M.E. Zion, Free Will Baptists, Calvinists, and Missionary Baptists.  Several of these denominations later decided to pull out of the African Union Meeting House to establish their own churches to assert their distinct denominational identities. After the various exoduses from the church, the remaining members were Baptists and Calvinists who in 1840 changed the name of the African Union Meeting House to the Meeting Street Baptist Church.

In 1863 hostile white neighbors of the church tore down the building leaving the congregation without a permanent place of worship for one year.  Eventually the congregation arranged an exchange of lots with one of the church’s neighbors who disagreed with the mob’s actions. The church moved from its previous location at Meeting Street and Congdon Street to Congdon Street and Angel Court. The new building was finally completed in July 1875 at the cost of $16,000.  It was renamed the Congdon Street Baptist Church.

The New

Clifton Wharton is sworn in as ambassador to Norway.

Clifton Wharton was the 1st Black person to earn a PhD in economics from University of Chicago in as well as the first Black president of Michigan State, predominantly White university.

Birthday in Florence, Alabama, of Oscar De Priest, who became a politician after moving to Chicago. Elected in 1928, De Priest was the first African American from Illinois elected to the House of Representatives.

Walter F. White named NAACP executive secretary.

The NAACP has had many leaders since its beginning in 1910, but none was more determined and devoted than Walter F. White. This fair-skinned, blue-eyed man who wouldnt pass worked a lifetime to defeat the nations barriers to integration

North Carolina Agicultural and Technical State University

is founded in Greensboro, NC.

Richard J. McIver was first appointed to fill a vacancy on the Seattle City Council in early 1997 and was subsequently reelected to three full four-year terms in 1997, 2001, and 2005.

Councilmember McIver, was a fifth-generation Seattleite, was born on June 14, 1941 to Mildred Artis-McIver and William McIver, II.  He attended Horace Mann Elementary School, graduated from James A. Garfield High School, and earned an interdisciplinary BA in Community Development, with major emphasis in finance and urban planning, from Western Washington University, Fairhaven College in Bellingham. In 2003, he was named “Distinguished Alumnus” by the Western Washington University Alumni Association.

Councilmember McIver chaired the Council’s Housing & Economic Development Committee.  McIver and served on the board of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, a quasi governmental agency working to increase housing affordability and access through the promotion of homeownership and the development of non-profit low income housing.  He also served on the Puget Sound Regional Council’s Economic Development and Operations Committee.

Immediately prior to his 1997 appointment to the Council, McIver was Executive Director of the Washington Association of Community Economic Development (WACED), a statewide association of community-based non-profit organizations committed to revitalization of disadvantaged communities.  McIver also served as Development Director for the Tacoma (Washington) Housing Authority, where he was responsible for acquisition, rehabilitation, development, and construction of affordable housing projects.

In 2009 McIver chose not to stand for reelection.  He sufferered a stroke in 2010 and died in Seattle on March 9, 2013. He is survived by his wife, Marlaina Kiner-McIver, an attorney, and a daughter and son.  

Sources:

http://www.seattle.gov/council/mciver/.

Contributor:

Entry Categories:

Copyright 2007-2017 - BlackPast.org v3.0 NDCHost - California | blackpast@blackpast.org | Your donations help us to grow. |

Home

AAH Index Page

AAW Index Page

GAH Index Page

Perspective Articles

Black History Month

BlackPast.org: The United States

BlackPast.org and the World

Digital Archives

Genealogy

Black National Anthem

Barack Obama Page

101 African American Firsts

Major Black Office Holders

LGBTQ Page

Users Guide

?

Awards and Distinctions

Mission Statement

F.A.Q.

BlackPast Video

Board of Directors

Academic Advisory Board

International Advisory Board

Teacher Advisory Board

Volunteer Content Contributors

Volunteer Staff

Fact Sheet

Support Team

History

Funders

News About BlackPast.org

BlackPast.org on Wikipedia

Contact

Decided March 9, 1841

MR. JUSTICE STORY delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is the case of an appeal from the decree of the Circuit Court of the District of Connecticut, sitting in admiralty. The leading facts, as they appear upon the transcript of the proceedings, are as follows: On the 27th of June, 1839, the schooner LAmistad, being the property of Spanish subjects, cleared out from the port of Havana, in the island of Cuba, for Puerto Principe, in the same island. On board of the schooner were the captain, Ransom Ferrer, and Jose Ruiz, and Pedro Montez, all Spanish subjects. The former had with him a negro boy, named Antonio, claimed to be his slave. Jose Ruiz had with him forty-nine negroes, claimed by him as his slaves, and stated to be his property, in a certain pass or document, signed by the Governor General of Cuba. Pedro Montez had with him four other negroes, also claimed by him as his slaves, and stated to be his property, in a similar pass or document, also signed by the Governor General [*588] of Cuba. On the voyage, and before the arrival of the vessel at her port of destination, the negroes rose, killed the captain, and took possession of her. On the 26th of August, the vessel was discovered by Lieutenant Gedney, of the United States brig Washington, at anchor on the high seas, at the distance of half a mile from the shore of Long Island. A part of the

For many years Dr. Rebecca Cole was considered to be the first black woman physician.  However, historical research has shown that the honor rightly belongs to Dr. Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler who completed her M.D. in 1864, three years before Dr. Cole.  

Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler was born free on February 8, 1831 to Absolum and Matilda Davis in Christiana, Delaware.  She was raised by an aunt in Pennsylvania who is noted to have provided health care to her neighbors.  In 1852 Davis was living in Charlestown, Massachusetts where she worked as a nurse for eight years.  She enrolled in the New England Female Medical College in 1860.  Her acceptance at the college was highly unusual as most medical schools at that time it did not admit African Americans.  Despite its reluctance, the faculty awarded Davis her medical doctorate.  That year she also married Arthur Crumpler.

Dr. Crumpler practiced medicine in Boston and specialized in the care of women, children, and the poor.  She moved to Richmond, Virginia in 1865 to minister to freedpeople through the Freedmen’s Bureau.  Crumpler returned to Boston in 1869 where she practiced from her home on Beacon Hill and dispensed nutritional advice to poor women and children.  In 1883 she published a medical guide book, Book of Medical Discourses, which primarily gave advice for women in the health care of their families.  

Dr. Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler died on March 9, 1895 in Hyde Park and was buried in nearby Fairview Cemetery.  Though her story was long forgotten, today she is honored for her groundbreaking achievements.  In 1989 Saundra Maass-Robinson, M.D. and Patricia Whitley, M.D. founded the Rebecca Lee Society, an organization which supports and promotes black women physicians.

University of Washington

White firemen of the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railroad struck to protest the hiring of Black firemen.

The U.S. Supreme Court declared Joseph Cinquez and

his fellow mutineers free. In August 1839, in the most

famous slave ship revolt in history, Cinquez, the

son of an African king, and his Mendi followers had killed

the captain and taken over the Spanish slaver the Amistad.

The rebels were captured off Long Island, where they had

been discovered floating in a mysterious long black schooner

with tattered sails before trying to sail the Amistad back

to Africa.

Howard Bailey Jr, best known as Chingy, is an American rapper and actor, born on March 9, 1980 in St. Louis, Missouri. While his music simply adheres to the Hip Hop genre, Chingy is best known for plain delivery of lyrics in upbeat music. His familiarity with singing in a nursery rhyme style makes him largely popular with the youth. He developed a taste for music at the early age of 9, the same time he wrote some of his first lyrics. Growing up in the Walnut Park area of the St. Louis neighborhood, he joined a local group called Without Warning, recording a local hit “What’s Poppin Off”.

Chingy made a brief entrance in to the popular Hip Hop scene with American Rapper Nelly in the summer of 2002. While Nelly was touring the states and performing in various venues, Chingy did an opening act with the Grammy winner. However, it was Chingy’s 2003 debut single “Right Thurr” that caught the eye of the crowd. The 4 minute, Southern Hip Hop classic became an instant hit, charting at #2 for a 4 consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. It also topped the Hot Rap Songs list and was #2 and #5 on the Hot R&B & Hip-Hop Songs and Mainstream Top 40 charts. It was around this time that Ludacris, together his Chingy’s manager Chaka Zulu picked up the rising star and signed him to the label Disturbing tha Peace. A few weeks after the release of “Right Thurr”, Chingy released his debut album, Jackpot (2003). Because of the success of the single, the album managed to sell 2 million copies under the Capitol Records label. The album featured guest appearances from stars of the Hip Hop scene, including Snoop Dogg, Murphy Lee, I-20, Raindrop and Tity Boi. Singles such as “One Call Away” and “Holidae In” became instant hits as well. With the success of his first album, Chingy released his second album, Powerballin’ a year later. This album was just as successful as its predecessor, selling one million copies and achieving platinum status. The single “Balla Baby” became a popular choice amongst Chingy’s fans.

After a break from music