Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “African-American Firsts”

Michael Jackson’s "Thriller" Becomes the 1st 30-Times Multiplatinum Album in U.S. History

By goodblacknews on December 19, 2015
137410493-superstar-michael-jackson-holds-several-grammy-awards
Michael Jackson holding the several Grammy awards he won at the 1984 Grammy ceremonies Feb. 28, 1984, in Los Angeles. His top award was Album of the Year for Thriller. (SUSAN RAGAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
Michael Jackson is still setting records years after his death. The King of Pop’s Thriller album has become the first album to go platinum 30 times in the U.S., with sales of more than 30 million albums here and 100 million albums worldwide.
“RIAA has awarded gold and platinum records on behalf of the music business for nearly 60 years, but this is the first time an artist has crossed the 30-times, multiplatinum plateau,” said Recording Industry Association of America chief Cary Sherman in a statement. “We are honored to celebrate the unique status of Thriller in gold and platinum history.”
Thriller was released Nov. 30, 1982, and spent nearly two-and-a-half years on the Billboard album charts, with 37 weeks at No. 1. The album was produced by Quincy Jones and won eight Grammys. Included on the album were such hits as “Billie Jean,” “Beat It” and its title song, “Thriller.”
“It is crystal clear that Michael Jackson is simply the greatest and biggest artist of all time,” Epic Records Chairman and CEO L.A. Reid said in a statement. “Not only are his charts hits, and sales stats staggering, but his pure musicality was otherworldly. Thriller was groundbreaking and electrifying … it was perfection. I am extremely proud that Michael is the heart and soul of Epic Records, and he will forever remain the one-and-only King of Pop.”
article by Yesha Callahan via theroot.com

Lt. Gen. Nadja West Confirmed by Senate as First Black Army Surgeon General

By goodblacknews on December 18, 2015

naja west (lt general)
Lt. General Naja West is the Army’s first black Surgeon General (Photo: John G. Martinez, Photojournalist to the Secretary of the Army)

Falls Church, VA  – The Senate confirmed Thursday Lt. Gen. Nadja Y. West to serve as the new Army Surgeon General and Commanding General, U.S. Army Medical Command (MEDCOM).  This makes West the Army’s first black Surgeon General.
Additionally, with the appointment as the 44th Army Surgeon General, West picks up a third star to become the Army’s first black female to hold the rank of lieutenant general.  West was sworn in as the Army Surgeon general on Friday by Acting Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning. She most recently served as the Joint Staff Surgeon at the Pentagon.
The Army Surgeon General provides advice and assistance to the Secretary of the Army and Army Chief of Staff on all health care matters pertaining to the U.S. Army and its military health care system.  West will be responsible for development, policy direction, organization and overall management of an integrated Army-wide health service system and is the medical material developer for the Army. These duties include formulating policy regulations on health service support, health hazard assessment and the establishment of health standards.
Dual-hatted as the MEDCOM commanding general, West oversees more than 48 medical treatment facilities providing care to nearly 4 million active duty members of all services, retirees and their Family members. MEDCOM is composed of three regional health commands, the Medical Research and Materiel Command, and Army Medical Department Center & School.
West holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point and a Doctorate of Medicine from George Washington University School of Medicine. She has held previous assignments as Commanding General, Europe Regional Medical Command; Commander of Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, N.C.; and Division Surgeon, 1st Armored Division, Army Europe and Seventh Army, Germany.
West hails from the District of Columbia, and she finished high school at the Academy of the Holy Names in Silver Spring, Md.
While West’s promotion to lieutenant general is already effective, she will “pin” on the rank in a formal ceremony in early 2015.
article via eurweb.com

Chance The Rapper Makes SNL History as Its 1st Independent Musical Guest

By goodblacknews on December 13, 2015

Chance The Rapper (photo via allhiphop.com)
Chance The Rapper (photo via allhiphop.com)

The year 2015 is ending on a high for Hip-Hop. Earlier in the week, Kendrick Lamar was nominated for 11 Grammy Awards, the most ever for a Hip-Hop performer in a single year. And, tonight (12/12), Chance The Rapper became the first independent artist, in any genre, to perform on the 40-year old sketch comedy franchise, “Saturday Night Live.”
Chance performed 2 songs on the SNL stage. The first was “Somewhere In Paradise” with Jeremih. As is often the case, the song was part rap, part singing and all Chance catching the spirit, as he showed his jubilation for being on stage, both vocally and physically. His lyrics were joyous, even stating that there were people in his life who said he’d never reach this point, and yet, here he was. He also covered every inch of the stage with spirited dance moves. Jeremih joined halfway through and was the recipient of a bear hug at the end from the MC who seemed overwhelmed by the moment. Chance also was supported by a full band, which included his longtime collaborator, Donnie Trumpet, with whom he released the Surfalbum earlier this year, under the collective name of The Social Experiment.
Chance’s second song was “Sunday Candy,” his sweet love song from Surf. Unlike the first performance, this one was much more staid, with Chance seated while backed by his band and choir. Even still, his joyousness shone through the rain about which he sang. To take a look at both performances, click here.
article by Parfit via ambrosiaforheads.com
 

Mathematician Katherine G. Johnson, Slugger Willie Mays and the Late Shirley Chisholm to Receive Presidential Medals Of Freedom

By goodblacknews on November 17, 2015

Shirley Chisholm, Willie Mays and Katherine G. Johnson (photo via GBN)
2015 Presidential Medal of Freedom Honorees Shirley Chisholm, Willie Mays and Katherine G. Johnson (photo via GBN)

Ninety-seven-year-old Katherine G. Johnson was a pioneer in American space history.  A NASA mathematician, Johnson’s computations have influenced every major space program from Mercury through the Shuttle program.
Willie Mays, 84, who ended his esteemed baseball career with 660 home runs, became the fifth all-time record-holder in the sport.
Shirley Chisholm made history in 1968 by becoming the first African-American woman elected to Congress. She helped found the Congressional Black Caucus, ran for president in 1972, and served seven terms in the House of Representatives.
Now, they are among 17 Americans who will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the U.S., to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.
President Barack Obama will present the awards on November 24 during a ceremony at the White House.

“I look forward to presenting these 17 distinguished Americans with our nation’s highest civilian honor,” the statement reads. “From public servants who helped us meet defining challenges of our time to artists who expanded our imaginations, from leaders who have made our union more perfect to athletes who have inspired millions of fans, these men and women have enriched our lives and helped define our shared experience as Americans.”

Chisholm’s medal will be presented posthumously.
Click here to read the complete list of award-winners.
article by Lynette Hollowayvia newsone.com; additions by Lori Lakin Hutcherson 

Perry E. Wallace, 1st African-American to Play Varsity in Southeastern Conference, Honored by Vanderbilt University

By goodblacknews on November 15, 2015

Perry E. Wallace (photo via news.vanderbilt.edu)
Perry E. Wallace (photo via news.vanderbilt.edu)

Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, is establishing the Perry E. Wallace Scholarship to honor the first African American to play a varsity sport in the Southeastern Conference. The scholarship will be awarded to a student in the School of Engineering, where Wallace earned his bachelor’s degree in 1970. Wallace is now a professor in the College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C.
StrongInsideAfter graduating from Vanderbilt, Wallace went on to earn a law degree at Columbia University. He then worked for the U.S. Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. Before joining the faculty at American University in 1993, Professor Wallace taught at Howard University and the University of Baltimore.
The saga of Wallace’s integration of varsity athletics in the Southeastern Conference is told in the biography Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South (Vanderbilt University Press, 2014)
article via jbhe.com

HISTORY: Schomburg Center Digitizes Jim Crow Era "Green Books" Created to Help Black Travelers Avoid Racist Towns and Businesses

By goodblacknews on November 8, 2015

Green Book (photo via Schomburg Center Archive)
The Negro Travelers’ Green Book (photo via Schomburg Center Archive)

Before the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 — and decades before the Internet and smart phones existed — black travelers relied on the “Green Book” to find hotels, restaurants and other establishments willing to accept their business.
The travel guide was published between 1936 and 1966 to help black motorists avoid racial harassment, arrest and violence as they traveled through the U.S. during the Jim Crow era.
All but two of those editions — the inaugural edition in 1936 and the one from 1952 — have been digitized and posted online by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, reported DNA Info.
“Carry The Green Book with you. You may need it,” reads the cover of the 1949 edition, followed by a quote from Mark Twain: “Travel is fatal to prejudice.”
Victor Green, a U.S. Postal Service worker, started publishing the books from his New York City apartment after his wife decided they should scout all the black-friendly businesses on the way to visit her family in Virginia.
“The idea crystallized when, not only himself but several friends and acquaintances complained of the difficulties encountered; oftentimes painful embarrassments suffered which ruined a vacation or business trip,” wrote Novera C. Dashiell in the spring 1956 edition.
Green and other mail carriers shared their experiences in racially segregated America, and they helped black travelers avoid “sundown towns,” where they weren’t welcome after dark, and other racist areas or businesses.
“It’s not just which places are clean and which places serve good food — it’s places that you would be welcomed and you would be safe,” said Maira Liriano, associate chief librarian at the Schomburg Center.
The books were immediately popular, and they serve as a fascinating document of mid-century cultural history.

John Hope Franklin Honored by Duke University for Pioneering Field of African-American History

By goodblacknews on November 7, 2015
John-Hope-Franklin1
Historian John Hope Franklin (Photo via Harvard Public Affairs and Communications) 
DURHAM, N.C. — John Hope Franklin, a scholar who helped create the field of African-American history, was instrumental both in documenting America’s long and long-ignored legacy of slavery and racism and in reaffirming the continuing importance of that history, Harvard President Drew Faust said during an event Thursday evening commemorating his life and scholarship.
“John Hope Franklin wrote history — discovering neglected and forgotten dimensions of the past, mining archives with creativity and care, building in the course of his career a changed narrative of the American experience and the meaning of race within it,” she said. “But John Hope also meditated about history and its place in the world, on its role as action as well as description, on history itself as causal agent, and on the writing of history as mission as well as profession.”
Franklin was born in 1915 and raised in segregated Oklahoma. Graduating from Fisk University in 1935, he earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1941. Over the course of his career, he held faculty posts at a number of institutions, including Howard University and the University of Chicago, before being appointed in 1983 the James B. Duke Professor of History at Duke University. “From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans,” published in 1947, is still considered a definitive account of the black experience in America. A lecture series later published as a book, “Racial Equality in America,” became another of his most iconic works. Franklin died in 2009.
An American historian herself, Faust gave the keynote address in the last of a yearlong series of events as part of the John Hope Franklin Centenary, sponsored by Duke University to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Joel Fitzgerald, Forth Worth's 1st Black Police Chief, Takes Charge

By goodblacknews on October 26, 2015
fwpd_chief_joel_fitzgerald_102215_by_ctc_small
Fort Worth Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald (CHRISTOPHER CONNELLY / KERA NEWS)
Fort Worth, Texas, swore in its first black police chief Tuesday at a ceremony packed with the city’s top leaders, WFAA reports.  Joel Fitzgerald takes over at a challenging time. He replaces Jeff Halstead, who retired in January amid federal discrimination lawsuits filed by several black police officers.
Black Lives Matter called for a rally in the city in August after a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed black college football player in Arlington, Texas. Weeks later, hundreds of mostly white people held a counter protest to support the police. Some held signs that read, “All Lives Matter.”
Many see Fitzgerald as the right person for the job. The new police chief is known for his ability to work well with the community, according to WFAA.
“The impetus is upon me to make sure that each and every person in this organization understands that when we speak of community, we’re part of the community,” he said at the ceremony. “The police department [is] an active member in the community and we’re to make sure that each contact that we have with each and every individual that we see is positive.”
With reference to Black Lives Matter, Fitzgerald told KERA News that he wants honest, “open discussions.”  “One of the things I said when I was first hired here is that I’m very inclusive, and I intend on listening to all stakeholders and making sure that they have a voice,” he added.
Fitzgerald underscored his track record of bringing together the police department and community. “I feel it won’t be any different in Fort Worth, the community has really opened their arms up and embraced me so far,” he stated.
Fort Worth’s new police chief, who holds degrees from Harvard and Northwestern, previously was the first black chief of police departments in Missouri City, Texas, and Allentown, Pa. Fitzgerald was a police officer in Philadelphia before climbing the ranks. He beat five other finalists to become Fort Worth’s police chief.
Read more at WFAA.com and KERA News.
article by Nigel Roberts via theroot.com

Unsung Black Women in History: U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Famer and Olympian Coach Mabel Fairbanks

By goodblacknews on October 3, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-10-04 at 5.17.25 AMThe late Mabel Fairbanks might not have been afforded the opportunity to chase Olympic gold as an ice skater, but she is still rightfully recognized as a pioneer of the sport. Fairbanks is the first Black woman inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame, and coached many of the sport’s brightest stars.
Fairbanks was born November 14, 1915 in the Florida Everglades. Little is known about her young life but birth records state she was of Black and Seminole Indian descent. Some reports state she was orphaned and found homeless on a park bench in New York by a wealthy white woman who gave her a job, but she rarely spoke of her past.
What is known is that she was hired as a babysitter by a white woman who lived near New York’s Central Park. While working, she began watching the white children skate at the ice rink and wished to join them. The rink denied her entry because of the color of her skin, but she was determined to learn. Eventually, she was given opportunities to skate in local rinks and given pointers by known coaches of the time. Fairbanks also eavesdropped on lessons by instructors to white skaters and began copying the moves.
mabel2Despite her talents, the U.S. Skating Team would not admit a Black woman to its ranks. Instead, Fairbanks skated with ice shows across New York and North America. In some instances, she was the only Black ice skater many had ever seen. With her dreams of competitive skating behind her, Fairbanks traveled to Los Angeles and started a career as a coach.
While on the West Coast, Fairbanks continued performing in ice shows and befriended Hollywood stars like Sammy Davis Jr. and the rest of the Rat Pack. She was also close to Zsa Zsa Gabor and Cary Grant.
As a full-time coach, Fairbanks molded the careers of U.S. Pairs champions Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner, Scott Hamilton, 1992 Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi, Debi Thomas and countless other U.S. and world champions. Atoy Wilson, the first African-American to win a U.S. skating title, was coached by Fairbanks as well.
Fairbanks was a fierce champion of equality in ice skating, and was instrumental in forcing Los Angeles’ Culver City skating club to admit its first Black member in 1965.
Fairbanks was entered in the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1997.
Fairbanks died in 2001 at the age of 85. In October 2001, she was posthumously entered into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.
article by D.L. Chandler via blackamericaweb.com

History! Viola Davis Becomes 1st Black Woman To Win Emmy For Lead Actress in Drama; Regina King and Uzo Aduba win Emmys for Supporting Roles

By goodblacknews on September 20, 2015

67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards - Show
Viola Davis made history Sunday night as the first Black woman to win an Emmy for outstanding actress in a drama series, bringing a sisterhood of Black actresses to their feet at the announcement of her accomplishment.
But Davis’ win was the second history-making moment of her night — as Vanity Fair points out, the nomination of lead actress, alongside Taraji P. Henson’s nomination, was the first time multiple women of color have been considered for the award at the same time.
The significance of the moment was not lost on Henson, who stood to embrace Davis as she made her way to the stage.  In a powerful speech that amplified the voices of Black women who have called for more representation in TV, media and film, Davis noted that roles for Black women are scarce in a whitewashed Hollywood.

“The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there,” she said.

A quote from Harriet Tubman, which she recited at the top of her acceptance speech, served as a succinct but profound outline of what many Black actresses are facing in the world of film, even in 2015.

“In my mind I see a line and over that line I see green fields and lovely flowers and beautiful white women with their arms stretched out to me over that line, but I can’t seem to get there no how. I can’t seem to get over that line.”

You can watch her speech here:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrkGmYbvISo&w=560&h=315]

But Davis’ win was not the first exceptional moment for Black women at the 2015 Emmy Awards. Orange Is The New Black star Uzo Aduba also made her own history when she accepted the Emmy for Best Actress in a Drama Series, making her the first actress to win both a drama and a comedy award for the same role.
67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards - Show
Hollywood veteran and favorite Regina King also took home an award for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Movie for “American Crime.” It was King’s first nomination and win.
67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards - Show
For a full list of winners, click below:
2015 Emmy Awards: A List Of The Night’s Big Winners
article by Christina Coleman via newsone.com