Category: Males

October 29- 1862- William Dominick Mattews

GM – FBF – Today’s story is about a Black business man, part of the Underground Railroad and Civil War Officer. He had a lot of obstacles in his way in trying to help our people but he never gave up. Enjoy!

Remember – Our people need help In all parts of the United Sates, it is my mission to do them as much as I can. – William Dominick Marlon Matthews
Today in our History – October 29, 1862 – Black troops under Matthews’s command fought and defeated Confederate forces at the Battle of Island Mound in Bates County, Missouri. This battle is generally recognized as the first known engagement that black troops participated in during the Civil War.

William Dominick Matthews was a Civil War officer in the Union Army and is best known for leading the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry. Matthews was born a free man in October 25th, 1827, on the eastern shore of Maryland to parents who were interracially married. His father Joseph was a native of Delaware and of African ancestry. Matthews’s mother was the bi-racial slave daughter of a Frenchman, but she eventually gained her freedom when her father passed away.

In 1840 thirteen-year-old Matthews moved to Baltimore and labored as a sailor until he acquired a commercial ship of his own in 1854, which he sailed on both Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River. He left Maryland for Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1856 because the discriminatory laws in his home state made it difficult for him to earn a living.

In Leavenworth, Matthews soon became a successful businessman. He was also involved in helping escaped slaves via the Underground Railroad in that region of the nation. In 1860 Matthews converted his home into a station for the railroad to help fugitive slaves escaping from neighboring Missouri, Arkansas, and Indian Territory. Because he had to worry about retaliation by pro-slavery forces across the river in Missouri, Matthews organized one hundred mostly African American men to protect the home when fugitive slaves were hiding there.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Matthew attempted to offer his men to the national government to fight in the Union Army, but they were turned away because they were African American. In 1862 U. S. Senator James H. Lane of Kansas ignored federal regulations in regard to African-Americans in the federal army and allowed black men to enlist in the war effort in Kansas.

Matthews took this opportunity to establish his own company of soldiers and convinced a number of ex-slaves to enlist. He was soon made captain of the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry, a regiment that soon totaled six hundred men. Matthews was, at that point, the highest-ranking black officer in the Union Army. On October 29, 1862, troops under Matthews’s command fought and defeated Confederate forces at the Battle of Island Mound in Bates County, Missouri. This battle is generally recognized as the first known engagement that black troops participated in during the Civil War.
The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 signaled the formal acceptance of black soldiers into the United States Army. Unfortunately, Matthews was stripped of his captain’s rank and replaced by a white officer who was made captain of the First Kansas Colored Infantry. Matthews served as a non-commissioned officer with the First Kansas Colored almost until the end of the war but was finally promoted in 1865 to the rank of first lieutenant in the Independent Colored Kansas Battery, also known as the Independent Battery, U.S. Colored Light Artillery. That unit was commanded by another black Kansan, H. Ford Douglas.

Matthews returned home to Leavenworth in October 1865 after the Civil War. He and his wife Fanny raised four children. He became involved in local politics and became an important figure on the Kansas State Republican Central Committee. Very little is known about Matthews after 1870. In 1906 William Matthews passed away quietly in Leavenworth, Kansas. Research more about Blacks in the civil war and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

October 27 1933- Elijah Jerry Green

GM – FBF – Today’s story is about the legacy of Black Baseball players who came from the Negro leagues and make it to the Major Leagues starting with Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers story. You may feel like I do that many a Negro baseball player had a lot more talent than Jackie but could they handle the day to day abuse that was given to Jackie everywhere he played. My question this morning for you is simple, the Dodgers and Red Sox are currently playing in the 2018 World Series, the first time that these two teams have meet in a World Series with the name “Dodgers” Brooklyn had a team back in 1916 but they were called the Robins and the Red Sox played their home games at the Boston Braves park instead of Fenway Park to draw more seating capacity. Did you know that the Red Sox were the last major league baseball team to intergrade? Yes they did their best to try and win without a Black player but they realized in order to be competitive they had to and this is the story of the person they selected to wear the Boston Uniform. Enjoy!

Remember – Someday I’ll write a book and call it ‘How I Got the Nickname Pumpsie’ and sell it for one dollar, and if everybody who ever asked me that question buys the book, I’ll be a millionaire. – Pumpsie Green

Today in our History – October 27, 1933 – Elijah Jerry Green 
Jr. was born.

He’s been termed a “reluctant pioneer.” All Pumpsie Green wanted to do was play professional baseball. He didn’t even aspire to the major leagues at first, and would have been content playing for his hometown Oakland Oaks in the Pacific Coast League. That said, Pumpsie Green took pride in the fact that he helped accomplish the integration of the Boston Red Sox, the last team in the majors to field an African American ballplayer.

He was born on October 27, 1933, as Elijah Jerry Green Jr. All the standard reference books list his place of birth as Oakland, but he himself said, “I wasn’t born in Oakland. I was born in Boley, Oklahoma. We was all born in Oklahoma.” 
The elder Elijah Green was reportedly a pretty good athlete, but had a family to care for during the Depression and work took precedence. “He was a farmer,” Green said in a 2009 interview, “We came out here to California when I was eight or nine years old. He worked at the Oakland Army Base.” After the war, Mr. Green worked for the city of Richmond, in the public works department. “He was a garbage man,” Pumpsie explained. His wife, Gladys, worked mostly as a homemaker before World War II, and during the war as a welder on the docks in Oakland. As the children grew older, she became a nurse in a convalescent home.

Pumpsie played baseball from grade school on up and became a switch-hitter at an early age. He was 13 when Jackie Robinson broke into the major leagues in 1947, but Brooklyn was a long way from California. The Pacific Coast League integrated in 1948, and, to top it off, the barnstorming Jackie Robinson All-Stars came to Oakland after the ’48 season was over. Pumpsie said, “I scraped up every nickel and dime together I could find. And I was there. I had to see that game…I still remember how exciting it was.” Green was a big Oaks fan, getting to the Emeryville ballpark as often as he could, and listening on the radio when he couldn’t: “I followed a whole bunch of people on that team. It was almost a daily ritual. ….When I got old enough to wish, I wished I could play for the Oakland Oaks.” Pumpsie began to model his play after Artie Wilson, the left-handed-hitting shortstop who in 1949 became the first black player on the Oaks, and led the league both in hitting and stolen bases.

Pumpsie Green signed his 1959 contract in Scottsdale on February 25, suited up in a Red Sox uniform, and immediately took part in his first workout. Roger Birtwell’s Boston Globe story began, “The Boston Red Sox – in spring training, at least – today broke the color line.”

Green lived an isolated existence, separated from his teammates. It was a pathetic situation. Boston Globe writer Milton Gross depicted the imposed isolation: “From night to morning, the first Negro player to be brought to spring training by the Boston Red Sox ceases to be a member of the team he hopes to make as a shortstop.” Segregation, wrote Gross, “comes in a man’s heart, residing there like a burrowing worm. It comes when a man wakes alone, eats alone, goes to the movies every night alone because there’s nothing more for him to do and then, in Pumpsie Green’s own words, ‘I get a sandwich and a glass of milk and a book and I read myself to sleep.’”

It could not have been easy being Pumpsie Green in 1959. Lee D. Jenkins, writing in the Chicago Defender after Green’s call-up, lamented the inevitable pressure: “It’s one thing to make a major-league team by sheer talent but to find yourself in a position where you are almost thrust down an unwilling throat makes for a most uncomfortable state. Green was a sensation with the Red Sox during their early spring training but as the season neared the pressure began to tell in his fielding and hitting.”

Boston Celtics basketball star Bill Russell was there to greet Pumpsie when he arrived. They’d known each other since high school. Green also took a call in the Red Sox clubhouse from Jackie Robinson.

After the season Pumpsie was named second baseman on the 1959 Major League Rookie All-Star team, chosen in balloting by 1.7 million Topps gum customers nationally. “Green’s play fell off during the last two or three weeks of the season because he was a tired player,” Jurges said. “I figured he played 260 games last year, counting the winter league, the American Association, and the big leagues. That’s too much ball for a kid.”

After baseball, Green earned a physical-education degree from San Francisco State University and then accepted a position with the Berkeley Unified School District, where he ran the baseball program, coached baseball for 25 years, served as dean of boys for a while, taught mathematics, and did some security work at the school. He finally retired in 1997. Looking back, Pumpsie was frank about Boston and his time in the major leagues. It was a bit of a mixed blessing of sorts, he told Jon Goode: “Sometimes it would get on my nerves. Sometimes I wonder if I would have even made it to the major leagues if it had not been for this Boston thing.

Sometimes I wonder if I would have been better off it was not for the Boston thing. Things like that you can never answer.” 
Green told Danny Peary, “When I was playing, being the first black on the Red Sox wasn’t nearly as big a source of pride as it would be once I was out of the game. At the time I never put much stock in it, or thought about it. Later I understood my place in history. I don’t know if I would have been better in another organization with more black players. But as it turned out, I became increasingly proud to have been with the Red Sox as their first black.”

Research more about black baseball players who entered the Major Leagues and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

October 24 2002- John Allen Muhammad

GM – FBF – Today’s story is about a spree of murders and attempted murders that happened a year after the 9/11 attacks in NYC and Washington, D.C. Which many people were still afraid and in a state of fear. These acts of endangering human life happened around the greater Washington, D.C. area over a three week time period in October 2002. These acts would be called “The Beltway sniper attacks”.

Remember – “ I am a monster who “stole people’s lives.” – Lee Boyd Malvo

Today in our History – October 24, 2002 – John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo are arrested.

Here’s a look at the shooting spree that occurred in the Mid-Atlantic/Washington area in October 2002. Ten people were killed and three injured in sniper-style shootings.
John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were arrested, tried and convicted for the shootings. Muhammad received a death sentence and was executed on November 10, 2009. Malvo was convicted and is waiting for resentencing after a federal judge overturned his two life sentences.
Timeline – DC Area Shooting Spree: 
October 2, 2002 – A shot is fired through a window at a Michael’s crafts store in Aspen Hill, Maryland, but no one is hit.

– Not linked by ballistic evidence.
October 2, 2002 – The first killing takes place when 55-year-old James D. Martin, a program analyst for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is shot in the parking lot of Shoppers Food Warehouse in Wheaton, Maryland.

– Not linked by ballistic evidence.
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As the national nonprofit Mental Health America has identified, depression in America is on the rise. And many are left untreated.

October 3, 2002 – Police are called to a crime scene and find James L. Buchanan, a 39-year-old landscaper who has been fatally shot while mowing a lawn at a commercial establishment near Rockville, Maryland.

October 3, 2002 – Premkumar Walekar, 54, a part-time cab driver, is killed while pumping gas into his taxi at a station in the Aspen Hill area of Montgomery County, Maryland.

October 3, 2002 – Sarah Ramos, 34, of Silver Spring, Maryland, is killed at a post office near Leisure World Shopping center. A witness reports seeing a white van or truck speed from the post office parking lot immediately after the shooting.

October 3, 2002 – Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, 25, of Silver Spring is shot dead at a Shell gas station in Kensington where she was vacuuming her van.

October 3, 2002 – In the only killing in Washington and the first one to occur at night, Pascal Charlot, 72, is shot in the chest as he walks along Georgia Avenue. He is taken to a hospital, where he dies less than an hour later.

October 4, 2002 – In a Michael’s parking lot in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Caroline Seawell, 43, is shot as she puts her bags inside her Toyota minivan. She is released from a Fairfax hospital on Monday, October 14.

October 7, 2002 – Iran Brown, 13, is shot and critically wounded outside Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Maryland’s Prince George’s County.

October 9, 2002 – A tarot card is found near the scene of the shooting at the school. CNN sources say it is the “Death Card” with the message “Call me God” for police.

October 9, 2002 – Dean Harold Meyers, 53, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, is killed while pumping gas at a station in Manassas, Virginia. A white minivan seen in the area is first thought to have some connection with the shooting but is later cleared by police.

October 11, 2002 – Kenneth Bridges, 53, a Philadelphia businessman, is killed at an Exxon station just off I-95 near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Police enforce a huge roadblock, trying to find a white van-like vehicle (similar to a Chevy Astro) with a ladder rack on top.

October 14, 2002 – Linda Franklin, 47, of Arlington, Virginia, is killed by a single gunshot in a Home Depot parking lot in Falls Church, Virginia.

October 19, 2002 – Jeffrey Hopper, 37, is shot in a parking lot at a Ponderosa Steakhouse near I-95 in Ashland, Virginia, 83 miles south of Washington. Doctors remove the bullet from the victim during surgery on October 21 and connect him to the others by ballistics.

October 21, 2002 – Police surround a white van at a pay phone at an Exxon gas station in Richmond, Virginia. They arrest one man in the vehicle and a second man “in the vicinity” but later say that they cannot be connected to the sniper shootings.

October 22, 2002 – Bus driver Conrad Johnson, 35, of Oxon Hill, Maryland, is shot as he stands on the top step inside his commuter bus in Aspen Hill, Maryland. He later dies at a hospital in Bethesda. Investigators confirm on October 23 that his death is connected to the sniper.

October 24, 2002 – John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo are arrested. They are found sleeping in a 1990 Chevy Caprice at a rest stop in Frederick County, Maryland.
November 10, 2009 – After receiving the death penalty in 2004, Muhammad is executed.

May 26, 2017 – A federal judge overturns two of Malvo’s life sentences in Chesapeake and Spotsylvania County in Virginia. Malvo remains in prison as his Virginia convictions still stand, as well as his previous sentences from Maryland.

June 21, 2018 – A federal appeals court agrees Malvo’s four life sentences from Virginia must be vacated based on a 2012 Supreme Court decision that it is unconstitutional for juveniles to receive mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Timeline – Other incidents where Muhammad/Malvo were charged or considered suspects:

February 16, 2002 – Keenya Cook, 21, is murdered. Her aunt was a former friend of Muhammad’s ex-wife. There is circumstantial but not ballistic evidence.

March 19, 2002 – Sixty-year-old Jerry Taylor is shot and killed on a Tucson, Arizona, golf course.

May 2002 – A synagogue in Tacoma, Washington, is vandalized. Police consider Muhammad as a suspect. Guns used in both incidents belong to a man with whom Malvo and Muhammad had stayed for a time.

September 5, 2002 – Shooting at a Clinton, Maryland, pizzeria. Paul LaRuffia is injured.

September 14, 2002 – Benny Oberoi, 22, is shot and wounded outside the Hillandale Beer & Wine Store in Silver Spring, Maryland. The shooting is linked by circumstances, witnesses and location of the alleged snipers, but not by ballistics.

September 15, 2002 – Shooting at a Brandywine, Maryland, liquor store. Muhammad Rashid is injured.

September 21, 2002 – Million Waldemariam, 41, is shot three times and killed at a liquor store in Atlanta. Ballistics on a .22 caliber handgun links both the Atlanta and the Montgomery shootings.

September 21, 2002 – Shooting at a Montgomery, Alabama, liquor store. Owner Claudine Parker is killed and clerk Kellie Adams is seriously injured. Ballistics are a match to Bushmaster .223 rifle and eyewitness accounts link to the DC snipers. Capital murder charges are filed against Muhammad and Malvo.

September 23, 2002 – Shooting outside a beauty shop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, kills 45-year-old Hong Im Ballenger, the shop manager. Malvo and Muhammad are charged with capital murder and armed robbery on October 31 when ballistics match the Bushmaster .223 rifle.

September 26, 2002 – Wright Williams is injured at his grocery store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Research more about The BeltWay Shootings and sahre with your babies. Make it a champion day!

October 23 1903- Samuel Harold Lacy

GM – FBF – Today’s story is about a black man who was meeting all of the right sports figures and entertainers of his day. During those times newspaper was king as many big cities had a morning and evening newspaper so as a sports reporter whatever you wrote in the morning could be expanded on or replaced by a bigger story that happened that day. H e was often in harm’s way because some parts of America didn’t care what your profession was to them you were still considered lower than dirt and treated that way if the circumstances were right. This outstanding writer won many awards for his work but the thing he valued the most was being the person who would get the exclusive from the athlete or entertainer. In those days they called it “GETTING THE SCOOP”. Enjoy!

Remember – “Some people didn’t understand the importance of meeting a deadline or someone reading something that no other reporter knows, I always enjoyed telling the story first.” – Sam Lacy

Today in our History – October 23, 1903 – Samuel Harold Lacy was born.

Lacy grew up in Washington, D.C., played semi-pro baseball, coached municipal basketball, attended Howard University, and performed assorted odd jobs before becoming a professional sportswriter. The sportswriter inherited his pioneering spirit from his grandfather, Henry Erskine Lacy, who was the first black detective on the Washington, D.C., police force. Perhaps the most amazing thing about Lacy’s story is not that he covered all the giants of the twentieth-century sporting world—Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Muhammed Ali, to name a few—but that he continued to cover sports well into his nineties. Lacy’s career in print journalism began in the 1920s, working as a sports writer at the Washington Tribune under the guidance of Editor Lewis Lautier. He was managing editor and sports editor there from 1934-39, before moving to Chicago as assistant national editor for the Chicago Defender from 1940-43.

He returned to Baltimore to become a columnist and sports editor for the weekly Baltimore Afro-American Newspapers. He wrote the widely popular column “A to Z” for many years. Through 17 presidential elections this crusader in the 1930s and ’40s, devoted his columns to desegregating baseball in the major leagues. He became a renowned journalist as well as a civil rights leader. Lacy’s career in journalism began in the 1920s, working as a sports writer at the Washington Tribune under the tutelage of Editor Lewis Lautier. He was both managing editor and sports editor of the paper from 1934-1939, before moving to Chicago to become a national editor with the Chicago Defender.

He later moved to Baltimore as sports editor and columnist for the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper. Lacy, 95, has been “fighting for fairness” for Afro-American athletes for almost 65 years, railing against racism and segregation that prevailed for decades in U.S. sports, courts and legislatures. Lacy is recognized, as a pioneer in baseball journalism. He was one of the first African-American members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, and a 1997 recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award. During his career, Lacy covered the careers of many Black athletes and numerous sporting events, including six Olympic Games.

As a result of his efforts, he has received many awards given by sports, journalism and academic establishments. In 1998, he was inducted into the “writers’ wing” of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Sam Lacy died on May 8, 2003. Research more about black journalist and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

October 22 2007- Lowell Dennis Smith

GM – FBF – Today’s story is about a man who wanted to move like no other. His style was one of a kind and no one could do the moves like he did. Enjoy!

Remember – “Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion.” – Lowell Dennis Smith

Today in our History – Lowell Dennis Smith – October 22, 2007 let this earth.

Lowell Dennis Smith, a ballet dancer and teacher who for some years was a principal dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and later was director of the company’s school, died Oct. 22 at UCLA Medical Center. He was 56.

The cause of death was lung cancer, said his longtime friend Rick Frey. Smith had been dividing his time between Los Angeles and New York City.

Born in 1951 in Memphis, Tenn., he studied dance at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem and then performed as a dancer and actor in Memphis and later with the Eglevsky Ballet on Long Island, New York.

He joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem in the late 1970s and danced with the company for 17 years. One of his best known roles was as Stanley Kowalski in a dance adaptation by Valerie Bettis of the Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

“Stanley screams all the time so his movement has to scream,” Smith said in a 1996 interview with the Commercial Appeal of Memphis. “Movement is as much a vocabulary as words.”

He performed the role of Stanley onstage and for a television broadcast of “Great Performances: Dance in America” in 1986.

“Lowell Smith, a superlative dramatic dancer, explodes with a typically sure and nuanced passion Floyd, all of Memphis. that makes Stanley’s anger and desire vividly immediate,” dance critic Jennifer Dunning wrote in a review of the televised performance for the New York Times.
Smith also had prominent roles in “Equus,” choreographed by Domy Reiter-Soffer, about a boy who blinded horses and the psychiatrist who treated him, as well as in “Fall River Legend,” by choreographer Agnes de Mille, about a famed murder case and the accused, Lizzie Borden.

Beyond dance drama, he performed in a number of traditional ballets and modern classics such as “The Four Temperaments” by George Balanchine.

Later in his career, Smith choreographed “Pas de Deux for Phrygia and Spartacus,” a duet that the Dance Theatre of Harlem premiered in New York City in 2001. He also created works for the company’s educational program and helped lead master classes for young students in cities around the United States.

Smith is survived by his mother, Dorothy S. Smith, and two sisters, Pamela D. Smith and June Smith. Research more about African – American dance and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

October 18 1958- Thomas ” The Hitman” Hearn’s

GM – FBF – Today’s story is about a man from the streets of Detroit, MI by way of Tennessee. At a young age he discovered that he could be good at this profession people called “The Sweet science”. He was trained at the famous KRONK gym and he learned how to be one of the best. He was tested by many of the best during his day and would win many large paydays but he never could get passed a few people. He still considered one of the best of all time. Enjoy!

Remember – “That was the fight. I knew that I had done something that no man had been able to do to a champion.” – Thomas Hrarns

Today in our History – October 18, 1958 Thomas “The Hitman” Hearn’s was born .

Thomas “Tommy” Hearns (born October 18, 1958) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 2006. Nicknamed the “Motor City Cobra”, and more famously “The Hitman”, Hearns’ tall and slender build allowed him to move up over fifty pounds in his career and become the first boxer in history to win world titles in four weight divisions: welterweight, light middleweight, middleweight, and light heavyweight. By later winning a super middleweight title, he also became the first to win world titles in five weight divisions.

Hearns was named Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the Boxing Writers Association of America in 1980 and 1984; the latter following his knockout of Roberto Durán. Hearns was known as a devastating puncher throughout his career, even at cruiserweight, despite having climbed up five weight classes. He is ranked number 18 on The Ring’s list of 100 greatest punchers of all time. He currently ranks #18 in BoxRec ranking of the greatest pound for pound boxers of all time. On June 10, 2012, Hearns was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Born in Grand Junction, Tennessee on October 18, 1958, Hearns was the youngest of three children in his mother’s first marriage. With her second marriage, six children joined the first three. On her own, Mrs. Hearns raised Tommy and his siblings in Grand Junction until Tommy was five years old; then the family moved to Detroit, Michigan. Hearns had an amateur record of 155–8. In 1977, he won the National Amateur Athletic Union Light Welterweight Championship, defeating Bobby Joe Young of Steubenville, Ohio, in the finals. He also won the 1977 National Golden Gloves Light Welterweight Championship.

Hearns began his professional boxing career in Detroit, Michigan, under the tutelage of Emanuel Steward in 1977. Steward had changed Hearns from a light hitting amateur boxer to one of the most devastating punchers in boxing history.

He won six world titles in five weight classes during his pro career, defeating future boxing hall of famers such as Pipino Cuevas, Wilfred Benítez, Virgil Hill and Roberto Durán. Hearns started his career by knocking out his first 17 opponents. In 1980, Hearns carried his 28-0 record into a world title match against Mexico’s Pipino Cuevas. Hearns ended Cuevas’s 4-year reign by beating him by TKO in the second round. Hearns was voted “Fighter of the Year” by Ring Magazine in 1980.
In 1981, Hearns the WBA Champion, with a 32-0 record (30 KOs), fought WBC Champion Sugar Ray Leonard (30-1) to unify the World Welterweight Championship in a bout dubbed “The Showdown.” In this legendary fight, Hearns suffered his first professional defeat when Leonard stopped him in the 14th round. In the 13th round, Leonard, behind on points on all 3 judges scorecards, needed a knockout to win. He came on strong and put Hearns through the ropes at the end of the round. Hearns was dazed, totally out of gas and received a count but was saved by the bell. Leonard, with his left eye shut and time running out, resumed his attack in the 14th. Hearns started the round boxing and moving, but after staggering Hearns with an overhand right, Leonard pinned Hearns against the ropes. After another combination to the body and head, referee Davey Pearl stopped the fight. Hearns and Leonard banked a combined 17 million dollars for the fight, making it the largest purse in sports history. The following year, Leonard retired due to a detached retina, and there would be no rematch until 1989.

Hearns moved up in weight and won the WBC Super Welterweight (154 lb) title from boxing legend and three-time world champion Wilfred Benítez (44-1-1) in New Orleans in December 1982, and defended that title against European Champion Luigi Minchillo (42-1) (W 12), Roberto Durán (TKO 2), no.1 contender Fred Hutchings (29-1) (KO 3) and #1 contender Mark Medal (26-2) (TKO 8). During his reign at this weight, the 2 round destruction of the legendary Roberto Durán, in which he became the first boxer to KO Durán, is seen as his pinnacle achievement, earning him his second Ring Magazine “Fighter of the Year” award in 1984.

Hearns moved up in class to challenge in the super-welterweight (light-middleweight) champion, Hearns ventured into the middleweight division to challenge undisputed middleweight champion Marvin Hagler in 1985. Billed “The Fight” (later known as “The War”[citation needed]), this bout has often been labeled as the three greatest rounds in boxing history. The legendary battle elevated both fighters to superstar status. Hearns was able to stun Hagler soon after the opening bell, but he subsequently broke his right hand in the first round. He did, however, manage to open a deep cut on Hagler’s forehead that caused the ring doctor to consider a stoppage. The fight, however, was allowed to continue at this point, with the ringside commentators remarking on the fact that, “the last thing Hagler wants or needs is for this fight to be stopped on a cut.” The battle did go back and forth some, but Hearns was unable to capitalize on his early successes against Hagler. As a result of breaking his right hand, Hearns began to use lateral movement and a good jab to keep Hagler at bay as best he could.

This tactic worked fairly well, but in the third round Hagler staggered Hearns and managed to catch him against the ropes, where a crushing right hand by Hagler knocked Hearns down. Hearns beat the count but was clearly unable to continue and the referee stopped the fight. Despite the loss, Hearns garnered a tremendous amount of respect from fans and boxing aficionados alike. Considering the popularity of the fight and the level of competition, a rematch seemed to be a foregone conclusion but never took place.
Hearns quickly made amends by dispatching undefeated rising star James “Black Gold” Shuler with a devastating first-round knockout in 1986. One week after the fight, Shuler was killed in a motorcycle accident. Hearns presented the NABF championship belt to Shuler’s family at his funeral, saying he deserved to keep the belt as he had held it longer than Hearns.

In March 1987, Hearns scored six knockdowns of Dennis Andries to win the WBC light-heavyweight title with a tenth round stoppage at Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan. Later that year, his four-round destruction of the Juan Roldán (63-2) to claim the vacant WBC middleweight title made Hearns a four-weight world champion.

In a huge upset, Hearns lost his WBC middleweight title to Iran Barkley via a third-round TKO in June 1988 in a bout Ring Magazine named 1988 Upset of the Year. In November that year, Hearns returned to win another world title, defeating James Kinchen (44-3) via a majority decision to win the inaugural WBO super-middleweight title. Hearns became the first boxer to win a world title in five weight divisions.

Hearns had to wait until 1989 for a rematch with Sugar Ray Leonard, this time for Leonard’s WBC super-middleweight title and Hearns’ WBO title. This was Hearns’s sixth Superfight, a fight which much of the public believed Hearns won, flooring Leonard in both the 3rd and 11th rounds. However, the judges scored the fight a controversial draw.

Hearns had one last great performance in 1991, as he challenged the undefeated WBA light-heavyweight champion Virgil Hill. In Hill’s eleventh defense of the title, Hearns returned to his amateur roots and outboxed the champion to win a convincing decision and add a sixth world title to his illustrious career. On March 20, 1992, Hearns lost this title on a split decision to old foe Iran Barkley but continued to compete and won his next 8 bouts.

On June 23, 1997, Hearns appeared on a WWE telecast, performing in a storyline where he was taunted and challenged by professional wrestler Bret “Hitman” Hart, who claimed that Hearns “stole” the “Hitman” nickname. Hearns ended up “attacking” Jim Neidhart and knocking him down with a series of punches before officials entered the ring and broke up the “confrontation.”

On 10 April 1999, Hearns travelled to England and beat Nate Miller by unanimous decision in a cruiserweight bout. In his next fight in April 2000 he faced Uriah Grant. The first round was competitive, with Hearns appearing hurt by a solid right to the jaw. Both fighters traded blows in the second round until Hearns appeared to injure his right ankle. He was forced to retire injured at the end of the round. The crowd booed and Hearns took the microphone and promised his fans that he would be back. Hearns fought twice more, winning both fights by TKO. His final fight was on 4 February 2006 against Shannon Landberg.

Hearns signs autographs in Houston in January 2014.
Hearns’ family is a fixture on the Detroit sports scene. His mother, Lois Hearns, is a fight promoter. Their company, Hearns Entertainment, has promoted many cards, including the Mike Tyson–Andrew Golota bout in 2000. His son Ronald Hearns is also a boxer, and he fought on the undercard of his father’s last couple of fights. Hearns lives in Southfield, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit). Hearns serves as a Reserve Police Officer with the Detroit Police Department.

Due to personal financial issues, Hearns was forced to auction off his possessions at The Auction Block of Detroit, Michigan on April 3, 2010. Items included were a 1957 Chevy, 47′ Fountain boat, and a slew of collectors memorabilia. His debt to the IRS was $250,000. He took responsibility for repaying the entire debt, which he said was accrued from being overly generous toward his large extended family. Research more about great American Black prize fighters abd share with your baby. Make it a champion day!


October 17 1711- Jupiter Hammon

GM – FBF – Today’s story is for all of the people who enjoy the written word. This son of slaves takes all opportunities to be the best that he could be as a writer. Many black people will learn and go on to move the works of writing with expression further than any would have guessed. Enjoy!

Remember – “If we should ever get to Heaven, we shall find nobody to reproach us for being black, or for being slaves” – . Jupiter Hammon

Today in our History – October 17, 1711 – Jupiter Hammon was born.

Jupiter Hammon (October 17, 1711 – before 1806) was a black poet who in 1761 became the first African-American writer to be published in the present-day United States. Additional poems and sermons were also published. Born into slavery, Hammon was never emancipated. He was living in 1790 at the age of 79, and died by 1806. A devout Christian, he is considered one of the founders of African-American literature.

Born in 1711 in a house now known as Lloyd Manor in Lloyd Harbor, NY – per a Town of Huntington, NY historical marker dated 1990 – Hammon was held by four generations of the Lloyd family of Queens on Long Island, New York. His parents were both slaves held by the Lloyds. His mother and father were part of the first shipment of slaves to the Lloyd’s estate in 1687. Unlike most slaves, his father, named Obadiah, had learned to read and write.

The Lloyds encouraged Hammon to attend school, where he also learned to read and write. Jupiter attended school with the Lloyd children. As an adult, he worked for them as a domestic servant, clerk, farmhand, and artisan in the Lloyd family business. He worked alongside Henry Lloyd (the father) in negotiating deals. Henry Lloyd said that Jupiter was so efficient in trade deals because he would quickly get the job done. He became a fervent Christian, as were the Lloyds.
His first published poem, “An Evening Thought. Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries: Composed by Jupiter Hammon, a Negro belonging to Mr. Lloyd of Queen’s Village, on Long Island, the 25th of December, 1760,” appeared as a broadside in 1761.

Eighteen years passed before his second work appeared in print, “An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley.” Hammon wrote this poem while Lloyd had temporarily moved himself and the slaves he owned to Hartford, Connecticut, during the Revolutionary War. Hammon saw Wheatley as having succumbed to pagan influences in her writing, and so the “Address” consisted of twenty-one rhyming quatrains, each accompanied by a related Bible verse, that he thought would compel Wheatley to return to a Christian path in life. He would later publish two other poems and three sermon essays.

Although not emancipated, Hammon participated in new Revolutionary War groups such as the Spartan Project of the African Society of New York City. At the inaugural meeting of the African Society on September 24, 1786, he delivered his “Address to the Negroes of the State of New-York”, also known as the “Hammon Address.” He was seventy-six years old and had spent his lifetime in slavery. He said, “If we should ever get to Heaven, we shall find nobody to reproach us for being black, or for being slaves.” He also said that, while he personally had no wish to be free, he did wish others, especially “the young negroes, were free.”

The speech draws heavily on Christian motifs and theology. For example, Hammon said that Black people should maintain their high moral standards because being slaves on Earth had already secured their place in heaven. He promoted gradual emancipation as a way to end slavery. Scholars think perhaps Hammon supported this plan because he believed that immediate emancipation of all slaves would be difficult to achieve. New York Quakers, who supported abolition of slavery, published his speech. It was reprinted by several abolitionist groups, including the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.

In the two decades after the Revolutionary War and creation of the new government, northern states generally abolished slavery. In the Upper South, so many slaveholders manumitted slaves that the proportion of free blacks among African Americans increased from less than one percent in 1790 to more than 10 percent by 1810. In the United States as a whole, by 1810 the number of free blacks was 186,446, or 13.5 percent of all African Americans.

Hammon’s speech and his poetry are often included in anthologies of notable African-American and early American writing. He was the first known African American to publish literature within the present-day United States (in 1773, Phillis Wheatley, also an American slave, had her collection of poems first published in London, England). His death was not recorded. He is thought to have died sometime around 1806 and is buried in an unmarked grave somewhere on the Lloyd property.

While researching the writer, UT Arlington doctoral student Julie McCown stumbled upon a previously unknown poem written by Hammon stored in the Manuscripts and Archives library at Yale University. The poem, dated 1786, is described by McCown as a ‘shifting point’ in Jupiter Hammon’s worldview surrounding slavery. Research more about Black writers and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

October 14 1834- Henry Blair

GM – FBF – Today’s story is about an Inventor Henry Blair was born in Glen Ross, Maryland, in 1807. Blair was an African-American farmer who patented two devices designed to help boost agricultural productivity. In so doing, he became the second African American to receive a United States patent. Little is known about Blair’s personal life or family background. He died in 1860.

Remember – “The short successes that can be gained in a brief time and without difficulty are not worth much.” – Henry Blair

Today In Our History – October 14, 1834 – Henry Blair receives a U.S. Patent.

Henry Blair was born in Glen Ross, Maryland, in 1807. Little is known about Blair’s personal life or family background. It is clear that Blair was a farmer who invented new devices to assist in the planting and harvesting of crops. Although he came of age before the Emancipation Proclamation, Blair was apparently not enslaved and operated an independent business.

A successful farmer, Blair patented two inventions that helped him to boost his productivity. He received his first patent—for a corn planter—on October 14, 1834. The planter resembled a wheelbarrow, with a compartment to hold the seed and rakes dragging behind to cover them. This device enabled farmers to plant their crops more efficiently and enable a greater total yield. Blair signed the patent with an “X,” indicating that he was illiterate.

Blair obtained his second patent, for a cotton planter, on August 31, 1836. This invention functioned by splitting the ground with two shovel-like blades that were pulled along by a horse or other draft animal. A wheel-driven cylinder behind the blades deposited seed into the freshly plowed ground. The design helped to promote weed control while distributing seeds quickly and evenly.

In claiming credit for his two inventions, Henry Blair became only the second African American to hold a United States patent. While Blair appears to have been a free man, the granting of his patents is not evidence of his legal status. At the time Blair’s patents were granted, United States law allowed patents to be granted to both free and enslaved men. In 1857, a slave owner challenged the courts for the right to claim credit for a slave’s inventions. Since an owner’s slaves were his property, the plaintiff argued, anything in the possession of these slaves was the owner’s property as well.

The following year, patent law changed so as to exclude slaves from patent eligibility. In 1871, after the Civil War, the law was revised to grant all American men, regardless of race, the right to patent their inventions. Women were not included in this intellectual-property protection. Blair followed only Thomas Jennings as an African-American patent holder. Extant records indicate that Jennings received a patent in 1821 for the “dry scouring of clothes.” Though the patent record contains no mention of Jennings’s race, his background has been substantiated through other sources. Research more about Black Inventors and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!

October 2 1937- Johnnie L. Cochran

GM – FBF – Our story for today is of a Black man who was well known on the west cost for his tenacity at his profession. Some liked him and some hated him but no matter what he worked in a style that was clearly his own. The world got a chance to see him at work and when it was over no one could say that he was not great at what he did. He left us too soon but his name still lives on because of the younger ones in his profession who are carrying on his work in the flamboyant style that was his alone. Enjoy!

Remember “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” – Attorney Johnnie L. Cochran

Today in our History – October 2, 1937 – Johnnie L. Cochran was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Johnnie Cochran eventually established himself as a sought after attorney dealing with high-profile police brutality cases involving the African-American community. He attracted famous clients like Michael Jackson and led O. J. Simpson’s defense team in the 1995 murder trial. Amidst much debate over the case, Cochran entered the national spotlight and became a celebrity himself, making screen appearances and writing his memoirs. He died on March 29, 2005.

The son of Hattie and Johnnie L. Cochran Sr. The family moved to California in 1943, where the younger Cochran eventually excelled as a student in what was becoming a more racially integrated environment. In 1959, he received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and later attended Loyola Marymount University Law School, graduating in 1962. Upon passing the bar, Cochran worked as a deputy criminal prosecutor in Los Angeles. By mid-decade, he’d entered private practice with Gerald Lenoir and soon launched a firm of his own—Cochran, Atkins & Evans.

Around this time, Cochran began to build a reputation for taking on cases involving questionable police actions against African Americans. In 1966, a black motorist named Leonard Deadwyler, while attempting to get his pregnant wife to a hospital, was killed by police officer Jerold Bova. Cochran filed a civil suit on behalf of Deadwyler’s family; though he lost, the attorney was nonetheless inspired to take on police abuse cases over the ensuing years. During the early 1980s, he oversaw a settlement for the family of African-American football player Ron Settles, who died in a police cell under questionable circumstances. The following decade, Cochran won a huge, unprecedented court payment for a 13-year-old molested by an officer.

In the early 1970s, Cochran also went to court in defense of Geronimo Pratt, a former Black Panther accused of murder. Pratt was convicted and imprisoned, while Cochran maintained that the activist was railroaded by authorities, pushing for a retrial. (The conviction was eventually overturned after more than two decades. Pratt was released, with Cochran also overseeing a wrongful imprisonment suit.) In 1978, Cochran once again became part of the city’s legal force when he joined the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, although he eventually returned to private practice.

Over the years, Cochran’s roster included famous entertainers like actor Todd Bridges, who was charged with attempted murder, and pop icon Michael Jackson, with Cochran arranging an out-of-court settlement for the singer in relation to child molestation charges.

In 1994, Cochran joined Alan Dershowitz, F. Lee Bailey, Robert Shapiro, Barry Scheck and Robert Kardashian to form the core of the so-called “dream team” of lawyers hired to defend athlete/actor O.J. Simpson in his trial for the murders of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. The “trial of the century,” as it was dubbed, began in January 1995 and was among the most publicized in history, followed by millions around the world.

Cochran, displaying his trademark style, came to lead the team, with some conflict rising among the attorneys amidst sensational proceedings. Upon Simpson trying on bloodied gloves that prosecutors alleged were used during the murder, Cochran came up with a phrase that would become famous: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” Under the auspices of Bailey, who had a private investigator background, the team also discovered that detective Mark Fuhrman had made racist, highly incendiary remarks about African-American citizens. Cochran thus made controversial closing statements in which he compared the detective’s philosophy to that of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Simpson was found not guilty in his murder trial, yet nonetheless faced civil litigation, with millions in damages awarded to the Brown and Goldman families. 
Because of widespread coverage of the Simpson trial, Cochran entered the superstar realm of celebrity, reportedly receiving a $2.5 million advance to write his memoirs.

Yet more controversy followed the lawyer when items from his personal life were publicly revealed. His first wife, Barbara Cochran Berry, wrote her own memoir—Life After Johnnie Cochran: Why I Left the Sweetest Talking, Most Successful Black Lawyer in L.A.—accusing her ex-husband of cruel behaviors that included physical and emotional abuse. Cochran’s longtime mistress, Patricia Sikora, also spoke out against the attorney.

Cochran penned the books Journey to Justice (1996) and A Lawyer’s Life (2002). He appeared on Court TV’s Inside America’s Courts and was also featured on a number of TV programs, including Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Chris Rock Show and The Roseanne Show as well as the Spike Lee film Bamboozled (2000). Cochran continued to take on new cases into the new millennium, ranging from work for clients like Abner Louima, who was tortured while in New York City police custody and rapper/music mogul Sean “Puffy” Combs, to an anti-trust litigation issued against racing giant NASCAR.

In 2004, Cochran’s associates revealed that he was suffering from an undisclosed illness. He died from a brain tumor on March 29, 2005, at the age of 67. Research more about this great American lawyer and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!


October 30 2006- Moses Ernest Tolliver

GM – FBF – Today’s story is of a Black artist from Alabama whose work would be seen in a lot of places around the United States. He had fun in what he did and loved his art and people enjoying it. Enjoy!

Remember – “Some folks feel that if your not from a big city that you don’t have an expression and story to tell” – Moses Ernest Tolliver

Today in our History – October 30, 2006, Moses Ernest Tolliver dies.

Moses Ernest Tolliver (July 4, 1918-20 – October 30, 2006) was an African-American folk artist who became disabled as an adult. He was known as “Mose T”, after the signature on his paintings, signed with a backwards “s”.

Celebrated folk artist Mose Ernest Tolliver was one of the most well-known and well-regarded artists to achieve fame in Alabama in what has come to be known as the genre of Outsider Art. His vibrant and colorful pieces often depicted fruits and vegetables, animals, and people and were always signed “Mose T” with a backward “s.” His style fluctuated between the simplistic and pastoral to the abstract and erotic. His body of work is represented in galleries in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and New York.

The exact year of his birth is unknown, but Mose or Moses Tolliver was born in the Pike Road Community near Montgomery on July 4 around 1920. His parents, Ike and Laney Tolliver, were sharecroppers and had 12 children. He attended school through the third grade until he and his family moved to Macedonia, Pickens County. Eventually, his parents found that they could no longer afford the farming life and moved the family to Montgomery in the 1930s.

Tolliver took on a number of odd jobs to help his family financially. He tended gardens, painted houses, and worked as a carpenter, plumber, and handyman. In the 1940s, he married Willie Mae Thomas, a native of Ramer and a childhood friend. The couple had 13 children in all, but only 11 survived to adulthood. He continued working odd jobs to support his family. Tolliver worked on and off for the Carlton McLendon family for 25 years. In the 1960s, he was injured in an accident at McLendon’s Furniture Company, when a half-ton crate of marble fell on him. He was left unable to work and had to walk with crutches.

Several sources cite Tolliver’s accident as the impetus for his turn to art. Tolliver, however, claimed that he painted well before the accident. His initial works were made from tree roots, which he sculpted and painted. Later, he moved on to painting landscapes, a subject with which, as a former farmer and gardener, he was particularly familiar. The accident provided more time for him to devote to his art. Tolliver also saw paintings by McLendon’s brother, Raymond, which convinced him he could do just as well. McLendon offered to pay for art lessons for Tolliver, but he declined, opting to find his now signature style on his own. Tolliver began selling his art in the 1960s. He hung his finished pieces in his front yard and sold them for a few dollars, believing that the art is done when someone buys it.

His works often feature brightly colored watermelons and birds. His wife was also a frequent subject, and he painted a number of self-portraits, complete with crutches. Some of his more popular paintings were his Moose Lady pieces. The recurring Moose Lady figure is an erotic figure of a woman with spread legs, which is roughly based on an Egyptian piece that Tolliver saw in a discarded book. The picture featured a Ka, the Ancient Egyptian symbol for a soul, ascending from a body with elongated arms. Tolliver occasionally added a little of himself into his erotic paintings, sometimes attaching his own hair to them.

Given his raw, self-taught style, Tolliver’s paintings fall into what is known as the Outsider Art genre. He used house paint on cardboard, wood, metal, Masonite, and even furniture and frequently used bottle caps for mountings. He often used solid colors in his backgrounds and was partial to bright hues, such as red, yellow, and orange. He was particularly fond of purple.

In 1981, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts mounted a one-man show of his work, but Tolliver did not rise to national prominence until the following year. His artwork was featured, along with the work of fellow Alabama Outsider artist Bill Traylor, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The show was titled “Black Folk Art in America: 1930-1980.” Some art critics and historians believe that Traylor, who was discovered after his death in 1947 in Montgomery, was a significant influence on Tolliver.

Tolliver’s work has appeared at such renowned institutions as the American Folk Art Museum in New York, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Tolliver and his artwork were the subjects of two books: Mose T from A to Z: The Folk Art of Mose Tolliver by Anton Haardt and Mose T’s Slapout Family Album by Robert Ely, an English teacher, Montgomery native, and friend of Tolliver’s, who wrote poems to accompany the paintings included in his book. Tolliver’s work has also appeared in books on Outsider Art and African American art.

Early in his career, Tolliver sold his paintings for a few dollars. Later, his prices depended on his mood. Today, Mose T paintings sell for thousands of dollars. By the 1980s, despite painting 10 pieces a day, Tolliver could not keep up with the demand for his work. He hired his daughter Annie Tolliver to duplicate his signature style and subjects and even to sign his name to the pictures. Later, she developed as an acclaimed artist in her own right. Tolliver also encouraged his other children to paint, and his sons Charlie and Jimmy began painting in the early 1990s.

Tolliver died of pneumonia on Oct. 30, 2006, at Baptist Medical Center East in Montgomery. His wife, Willie Mae, preceded him in death in 1991. Research more about Black artists and share with your babies. Make it a champion day!