NorthStar's Week in Black History

June 21 through June 27


June 21


1832 ----- Joseph Hayne Rainey, the first and only African American to serve as Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives, was born on this day in Georgetown, S.C.  In 1874, Rainey, a South Carolina Republican, was elected Speaker pro tempore, the chamber's presiding officer.  

It is not known how long he served in that capacity and some documents do not mention that he held the important post.  

Rainey was also the first African-American directly elected to Congress and the second black person to serve in Congress. U. S. Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi, the first black person to serve in Congress, was appointed to his seat, according to Philip Dray's 2008 book, Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen. Rainey served in Congress from 1870 to 1879.

A former slave with limited formal education, Rainey was born to a black father and a mother of French and African descent. Rainey's father was a barber who earned money and kept a portion of it but was required to give most of it to his master.  By 1840, the elder Rainey had saved enough money to purchase his own freedom and that of each member of his immediate family.

Joseph Rainey trained with his father and worked with him as a barber in Charleston, S.C. In 1859, Rainey traveled to Philadelphia and married a West Indian woman who, like his mother, was of French and African ancestry. The young couple returned to South Carolina, where they settled and raised their three children.

The Confederate Army drafted Rainey and ordered him to help build fortifications in Charleston's harbor.  The following year, Rainey and his family escaped to Bermuda and settled in St. George, where Rainey established a barbershop and his wife opened a dressmaker's shop.

When a yellow fever outbreak threatened the residents of St. George, the Rainey family moved to Hamilton.  Rainey served as a barber and a bartender at the Hamilton Hotel, and he and his wife became active, respected members of the community.

Not long after the close of the Civil War, Rainey and his family moved back to Charleston.  Relatively wealthy from years of prosperous business ownership, the Raineys became influential in Charleston. In 1870, Joseph Rainey was elected to the South Carolina state senate. Later that same year, voters elected Rainey to fill a vacancy in the Forty-First Congress.

Rainey was re-elected to Congress four times.  He served as a Representative until March of 1879, the longest period of service in that body for a black elected official until William L. Dawson was elected to Congress from Illinois in 1943.  Dawson served as Illinois' Representative until his death in 1970.

While in Congress, Rainey was an advocate for black civil rights and economic development in the South. White Democrats gradually gained political control in South Carolina, and paramilitary groups, such as the so-called Red Shirts, acted as the strong arm of the Democratic Party and worked to suppress black voting.  As Reconstruction ended, Democrats passed voter-registration laws, electoral and primary laws, and constitutional amendments that effectively stripped blacks of their hard-won political power.

Following his years of service in Congress, Rainey was appointed as an agent of the Treasury Department for internal revenue in South Carolina.  He worked in that role for two years and then left the public sector for Washington, D.C., where he worked in banking and finance until his retirement five years later in 1886.  

Joseph Hayne Rainey died in his hometown, Georgetown, S. C., in 1887.  He was 55.


June 22


1938 ----- Joe Louis, "The Brown Bomber," avenged his 1936 loss in the ring to German boxer Max Schmeling, by besting him in a rematch on this date.  As Schmeling was favored by the Nazis, the bout took on powerful political overtones. At the same time, black Americans hoped fervently for Louis' victory, believing that his win would forward the cause of all African Americans.

Days prior to the fight, Joe Louis met privately at the White House with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The president is said to have told Louis, "Joe, we need muscles like yours to beat Germany." Roosevelt's discussion with Louis was much different from the way he treated Jesse Owens, following the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin where Owens won four gold medals. Roosevelt ignored Owens' accomplishments and never congratulated Owens.

In his 1976 biography, Louis said that he felt as though the entire country was counting on him to beat Schmeling and that he didn't want to let his country down.

The historic fight was held in a sold-out Yankee Stadium in New York City.  Nearly 70,000 fans were in attendance, including Clark Gable, Gregory Peck and J. Edgar Hoover.  The fight drew gate receipts that totaled nearly $1.2 million.  An estimated 70 million people listened to the fight on their radios, the largest audience in history for a single radio broadcast.

Louis won the fight in two minutes and four seconds with a technical knockout in the first round.  Louis threw 41 punches, 31 of which landed.  Schmeling threw only two punches.  Following the fight, Schmeling was admitted to a hospital where he was treated for 10 days.  While he was there, physicians discovered that Louis had cracked several vertebrae in Schmeling's back.

Louis' victory was celebrated throughout the country with wild enthusiasm. The streets of Harlem filled with people dancing to music performed in the open air.  The celebrations in many places lasted well into the night. Temporarily, people were able to shrug off the shadow of the war in Europe and the likelihood that the United States would soon enter the conflict.

Newspaper headlines shouted Louis' victory in the boldest possible print. At the same time Louis' victory in the ring was lauded, Louis himself was described by print reporters in terms reflecting the racism in America at the time.  A Washington Post story on Louis' win opened with the lines, "Joe Louis, the lethargic, chicken-eating young colored boy, reverted to his dreaded role of the 'brown bomber' tonight."  A United Press reporter called Louis "…a jungle man, completely primitive as any savage, out to destroy the thing he hates."

Despite these and other specious depictions in the media, Joe Louis became a celebrity and a hero, America's first true African-American national hero.  

Louis and Schmeling became friends after their bout, and their friendship lasted until Louis' death in 1981.  The last years of Louis' life were spent struggling with financial woes and endless hounding by the Internal Revenue Service for outstanding taxes. Schmeling, in contrast, amassed considerable wealth by becoming Germany's leading Coca Cola distributor. He died in 2005.

Both boxers are members of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.


June 23


1940 ----- Born on this date in Clarksville, Tenn., Wilma Rudolph, the twentieth of twenty-two children born to her father in his two marriages, was the first American woman to win three Olympic Gold Medals in track and field in a single year.  Afflicted with ill health from birth and stricken with polio as a young child, she overcame her challenges to become a world-class athlete.

At the 1960 Rome Olympics, the Italian press dubbed Rudolph "The Tornado."  She was considered the fastest woman in the world.  She won the 100-meter and 200-meter races, and she anchored the U. S. team to victory in the 4 x 100-meter relay.

In the 100-meter, Rudolph tied the world record of 11.3 seconds in the semifinals, then won the final by three yards in 11.0 seconds flat. In the 200-meter, she broke the Olympic record by coming in at 24.0 seconds.  In the relay race, Rudolph earned a gold medal as the relay team won in 44.5 seconds. In the semifinals, the team set a world record of 44.4 seconds.

An inspiration to those who witnessed her in competition, Rudolph drew enthusiastic crowds wherever she appeared.  Following the Olympics, she competed in England, Germany, Greece and Holland.  The French newspapers called her "The Black Pearl" and "The Black Gazelle" and other European newspapers followed suit.

Young African-American women athletes admired Rudolph and were inspired by her. Her admirers included Florence Griffin-Joyner, the next woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics (1988).  

Another admirer was Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who was the beneficiary of Rudolph's friendship and support, and who won three gold medals, one silver medal and two bronze medals at four different Olympic games. She won two gold medals in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea, a gold and a bronze medal in the 1992 games in Barcelona and a silver in 1984 at Los Angeles and a bronze medal in 1996 at the games in Atlanta.

Following the Olympics, Rudolph raised four children on her own after two divorces. She served as a track coach at Indiana's DePauw University.  In addition, Rudolph served as a goodwill ambassador to French West Africa.   Most important to her was her founding of the Wilma Rudolph Foundation, a not-for-profit, community-based, amateur sports program that provided free coaching in a variety of sports, as well as economic support for young athletes in need.

In 1973, Wilma Rudolph was inducted into the Black Athletes Hall of Fame, and in 1974, she was elected to the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.

Rudolph died of brain cancer in 1994 at her home in Brentwood, Tenn. She was 54.


June 24


1968 ---- Law-enforcement officials closed "Resurrection City," a tent encampment erected in Washington, D.C., during the Poor People's Campaign.

The protracted campaign, originally organized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was held despite the assassination of King on April 4, 1968. Other leaders of the campaign decided the event should go forward to honor his memory.

Thousands of people participated in a march on Washington on May 12, 1968. A week later, protesters erected a settlement of tents and shacks on the National Mall.  Protestors camped there for six weeks and elected the Rev. Jesse Jackson mayor of the makeshift city they called "Resurrection City."

The Rev. Ralph Abernathy, a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), directed the event. It was launched to capture the attention of President Lyndon B. Johnson, Congress, and the country and to bring to light the plight of people living in poverty in America. The two major issues the campaign wanted addressed were economic justice and adequate housing for the poor.

Campaign activists presented an economic bill of rights, asking the federal government to establish a $30 billion anti-poverty program that included a commitment to full employment, a guaranteed annual income and greater housing options.

Hundreds of people were arrested that day, and the tent city was torn down. Congress all but ignored the Poor People's Campaign and the demands presented by campaign activists.


June 24


1971-----Daniels & Bell become the first black-owned firm at the New York Stock Exchange, now known as NYSE Euronext.  Travers J. Bell Jr., 30, and Willie L. Daniels, 33, founded the firm after working more than 10 years in the financial-services business.
 
New York banks, the Small Business Investment Company of New York and the Noel Fund, a venture capital investment firm run by Dan Lufkin, co-founder of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, provided start-up and operating capital for Daniels & Bell.

The Daniels & Bell firm was successful for 20 years underwriting securities for nonwhite owned companies, but it closed in 1994. Bell died in 1988, according to NYSE Euronext.


June 25


1993 ----- James Meredith, the first African-American admitted to the University of Mississippi, was born on this date in Kosciusko, Miss.

Meredith enrolled on Oct. 1, 1962. His admission set off rioting by the school's students. Federal troops arrived on campus to protect Meredith, and they remained there until Aug. 9, 1963, when he graduated with a degree in political science.

On Oct. 1, 2006, the university, which is based in Oxford, unveiled a statute honoring Meredith for his courage.



June 26


1893 ----- Big Bill Broonzy, a prolific blues singer and guitarist, was born on this date in Scott, Miss., but he grew up in Arkansas.

From 1927 to 1942, Broonzy recorded 224 songs, making him the second-most prolific blues-recording artist during that period.


June 27


1933 ----- Dr. Caldwell McCoy Jr., an electrical engineer, who developed long-range, anti-submarine systems for the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, was born on this day in Hartford, Conn.

For his achievements, McCoy was awarded the Laboratory's Thomas Edison Fellowship in 1968. Since 1976, he has been part of the magnetic-fusion energy program, first with the Energy Research and Development Administration and then its successor agency, the Department of Energy.



NorthStar's Week in Black History is compiled and written
by Frederick H. Lowe and Susan M. Miller.