Week of January 6-13
January 6
1820—The first organized return of a group of U.S. Blacks to Africa takes place. Records indicate that between 85 and 90 free Blacks boarded a ship in New York Harbor on this day for return to the “Motherland.” Ironically, the ship was named the “Mayflower to Liberia.” However, the Blacks actually went to British controlled Sierra Leone and, along with former British slaves. helped to found that nation.
1968—Movie director and screenwriter John Singleton is born in Los Angeles, Calif. Singleton is perhaps best known for his directing of the controversial movie “Boyz N The Hood.” For the film, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, becoming the first African American and youngest person to have ever been nominated for the award.
1993—Famed Jazz musician John Birks “Dizzy” Gilespie dies. He was an outstanding trumpeter and band director who also helped to create Bebop Jazz.
2003—Mamie Till Mobley dies at 81. She was the mother of Emmet Till, whose lynching at age 14 became one of the events which gave life and angry energy to the early years of the Civil Rights Movement. Till was tortured and killed for allegedly whistling at a White woman while on a trip to Mississippi. Amazingly the men who killed Till were found not guilty by an all-White jury, but the two would later brag to Look magazine that they had actually murdered Till.
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