Friday, 4 March 2022

ANDREW “RUBE” FOSTER (1879-1930)




Andrew Rube Foster was born in Calvert, Texas, on September 17, 1879.  The son of Andrew and Sarah Foster, Rube started a baseball tradition that would be followed by his brother Willie Bill Foster.  Rube quit school after the eighth grade, barnstorming with the Waco Yellow Jackets, an independent black team in 1897.  By 1902, Rube’s baseball abilities gave him an opportunity to play with the Chicago (Illinois) Union Giants.  After a short stint with Union Giants, Rube played for the Cuban X-Giants.  In 1903, Rube Foster was the top pitcher in black baseball, and was the pitcher of record as the Cuban X-Giants won the Black World Series.  Rube sometimes played with white semi-pro teams and exhibition games against white players. Rube established himself as the premier pitcher challenging major league pitchers such as Rube Waddell, Chief Bender, Mordecai Brown, and Cy Young.  Honus Wagner stated that Rube Foster was one of the greatest pitchers of all times and one of the smartest pitchers he had ever seen.

Even as great as Rube Foster’s pitching performance was, he would gain his greatest fame as a baseball manager and organizer of the Negro National League.  In 1907, Rube began his career as a player-manager with the Chicago Leland Giants, leading them to a 110-10 record.  In 1920 Foster, owner and manager of the Chicago American Giants, organized the Negro National League which became the first stable and financially successful black baseball league. Rube Foster, who made an indelible imprint on baseball, left the game in 1926 as a result of mental illness and died on December 9, 1930 in Kankakee, Illinois.  Andrew Rube Foster was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.


SOURCE 

Searles, M. (2007, January 17). BlackPast


Robert Charles Cottrell,(New York: New York University Press, 1970)


RALPH HAROLD METCALFE (1910-1978)




 Ralph Metcalfe, was an outstanding U.S. sprinter, track coach, and politican born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in Chicago, Illinois. During Metcalfe’s years as a student at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1932 through 1934, he was arguably the world’s fastest human. His strong finishes earned him four Olympic medals (gold, 2 silver, and bronze), eight Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) titles, and six National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) titles from 1932 through 1936. Perhaps Metcalfe’s most interesting moments in track were not his wins but his virtual dead heat second place finishes in the 100 meter dash at the 1932 and 1936 Summer Olympics at Los Angeles, California and Berlin, Germany to rivals Eddie Tolan and Jesse Owens, respectively.

Throughout Metcalfe’s amateur track career he held the 100 meter dash record at 10.30 in 1934, tying it at least eight times, and he also tied the 200 meter dash world record of 20.6 seconds. Metcalfe’s lone Olympic gold medal was won in Berlin in 1936 when he ran as part of the famed 4 x 100 relay team which featured Jesse Owens. After this event Metcalfe retired from track, graduated from Marquette, and attended the University of Southern California (USC), earning a Masters in 1939. Metcalf was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

During World War II he joined the armed forces and fought to end Jim Crow segregation in America and end fascism abroad, better known as the Double-V movement. After the war, Metcalfe briefly coached track at Xavier University in Louisiana, then returned to Chicago, becoming a successful businessman and alderman for the South Side. In 1970, Metcalfe’s political ambitions expanded when he was elected a U.S. Congressman representing Illinois’ First Congressional District district (1971–78). During his term in Congress, Metcalfe co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), was inducted into the United States Track and Field Hall of Fame (1975), and was named a member of the President’s Commission on Olympic Sports.


SOURCE 

Ruffin II, H. (2007, January 12). BlackPast.

HOW ALLEN ALLENSWORTH (1842-1914) WAS BORN INTO SLAVERY

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Born into slavery in Kentucky in 1842, Allen Allensworth gained his freedom in the Civil War when the Forty-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry was camped in Louisville, Kentucky. Young Allensworth dressed in an old uniform, plastered mud over his face and marched boldly up Main street with the Union soldiers. After escaping he served as a civilian nursing aide with the Forty-fourth Illinois. He later served a two year enlistment in the U.S. Navy and was Captain’s steward and clerk on the civil war gunboat U.S.S. Tawah when it was destroyed in an engagement with Confederate batteries at Johnsonville, Tennessee.


After being honorably discharged from the Navy, Allensworth operated two restaurants with his brother William, taught in Freedman’s Bureau schools in Kentucky, was ordained as a minister, and served as Kentucky’s only black delegate to the Republican National conventions of 1880 and 1884. After a two-year campaign in which he solicited the support of Congressmen John R. Lynch of Mississippi and Senator Joseph E. Brown of Georgia, President Grover Cleveland signed his appointment as Chaplain of the 24th Infantry Regiment.  While serving at Fort Bayard, New Mexico Territory, Allensworth wrote Outline of Course of Study, and the Rules Governing Post Schools of Ft. Bayard, N.M., which became the standard Army manual on the education of enlisted personnel.


On April 7, 1906, after twenty years of service, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel making him the first black officer to receive this rank. In 1908 retired Chaplain Allensworth and four other black men formed the all-black town of Allensworth, California. Six years later, in 1914, Allensworth was crossing a Los Angeles street when he was killed by a motorcycle. No one could trace his kill till today.


“AMAZING GRACE” - THE UNTOLD STORY


The beloved hymn and its author John Newton, a former enslaver, have inspired a new Broadway musical, but the true history is complex and ambiguous.


“Amazing Grace” is one of the most beloved hymns of the last two centuries. The soaring spiritual describing profound religious elation is estimated to be performed 10 million times annually and has appeared on over 11,000 albums. It was referenced in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin and had a surge of popularity during two of nation’s greatest crises: the Civil War and the Vietnam War. 

Between 1970 and 1972, Judy Collins’ recording spent 67 weeks on the chart and peaked at number 5. Aretha FranklinRay CharlesJohnny CashWillie Nelsonand Elvis are among the many artists to record the song. Recently, President Obama burst into the familiar tune during the memorial service for Reverend Clementa Pinckney, a victim of a heinous church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.

The song was written by a former enslaver

Ironically, this stirring song, closely associated with the African American community, was written by a former enslaver, John Newton. This unlikely authorship forms the basis of Amazing Grace, a Broadway musical (written by Broadway first-timer Christopher Smith, a former Philadelphia policeman, and playwright Arthur Giron) which tells Newton’s life story from his early days as a licentious libertine in the British navy to his religious conversion and taking up the abolitionist cause. But the real story behind the somewhat sentimental musical told in Newton’s autobiography reveals a more complex and ambiguous history. 

Newton was born in 1725 in London to a Puritan mother who died two weeks before his seventh birthday, and a stern sea-captain father who took him to sea at age 11. After many voyages and a reckless youth of drinking, Newton was impressed into the British navy. After attempting to desert, he received eight dozen lashes and was reduced to the rank of common seaman. 

While later serving on the Pegasus, an enslaved person ship, Newton did not get along with the crew who left him in West Africa with Amos Clowe, an enslaver. Clowe gave Newton to his wife Princess Peye, an African royal who treated him vilely as she did her other enslaved people. On stage, Newton’s African adventures and enslavement are a bit more flashy with the ship going down, a thrilling underwater rescue of Newton by his loyal retainer Thomas, and an implied love affair between Newton and the Princess.

Newton converted to Christianity after a miracle at sea

The stage version has John’s father leading a rescue party to save his son from the calculating Princess, but in actuality, the enterprise was undertaken by a sea captain asked by the senior Newton to look for the missing John. (In the show, the elder Newton is wounded during the battle for his son’s freedom and later has a tearful deathbed scene with John on board ship.) 

During the voyage home, the ship was caught in a horrendous storm off the coast of Ireland and almost sank. Newton prayed to God and the cargo miraculously shifted to fill a hole in the ship’s hull and the vessel drifted to safety. Newton took this as a sign from the Almighty and marked it as his conversion to Christianity. He did not radically change his ways at once, his total reformation was more gradual. "I cannot consider myself to have been a believer in the full sense of the word, until a considerable time afterward,” he later wrote. He did begin reading the Bible at this point and began to view his captives with a more sympathetic view.

In the musical, John abjures slavery immediately after his shipboard epiphany and sails to Barbados to search for and buy the freedom of Thomas. After returning to England, Newton and his sweetheart Mary Catlett dramatically confront the Prince of Wales and urge him to abolish the cruel practice. In real life, Newton continued to sell his fellow human beings, making three voyages as the captain of two different vessels, The Duke of Argyle and the African. He suffered a stroke in 1754 and retired, but continued to invest in the business. In 1764, he was ordained as an Anglican priest and wrote 280 hymns to accompany his services. He wrote the words for “Amazing Grace” in 1772 (In 1835, William Walker put the words to the popular tune “New Britain”)

It was not until 1788, 34 years after leaving it that he renounced his former slaving profession by publishing a blazing pamphlet called “Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade.” The tract described the horrific conditions on the ships and Newton apologized for making a public statement so many years after participating in the trade: “It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.” The pamphlet was so popular it was reprinted several times and sent to every member of Parliament. Under the leadership of MP William Wilberforce, the English civil government outlawed slavery in Great Britain in 1807 and Newton lived to see it, dying in December of that year. The passage of the Slave Trade Act is depicted in the 2006 film, also called Amazing Grace, starring Albert Finney as Newton and Ioan Gruffud as Wilberforce.

SOURCE 

Thursday, 3 March 2022

Efunṣetán Adekemi Aníwúrà (c. 1790– 1874): Iyalode of Ibadan Land



Efunṣetán Adekemi Aníwúrà (c. 1790– 1874) - Iyalode of Ibadan

She was one of the wealthiest and most influential Yoruba women that ever lived. Her power extended around the political, military, economic and religious spheres of Ibadan.

Her father Ogunrin was a native of Egba Oke-Ona and her mother hailed from Ile-Ife. She was brought up in Abeokuta. She moved to Ibadan in 1860. She was the first woman to set up a flourishing agrarian economy that employed no fewer than 2000 men and women. Her workers mainly worked on multiple farmlands. They produced cash crops, cotton, groundnuts, maize and beef. She also had a vast dairy farm. Around 1850, in reaction to the spread of war and combat in Yorubaland, she introduced infantry military training into the midst of her workers and developed her own private army.

She was a shrewd business woman. Her Efunsetan’s trading exploits saw her export some of her manufactured goods like Kijipa cloths, mats, and traditional cosmetics to America. She also sold slaves and tobacco. Because of Efunsetan’s huge involvement in agriculture, the city depended on her for food. However, this was not the only major contribution Efunsetan brought to the city of Ibadan, she was a huge trader in weapons and ammunition. These helped the Ibadan War effort in the mid to late 19th Century.

Efunsetan became the second Iyalode(Chief of the Womenfolk)of Ibadan in 1867. She was married multiple times and lost her only child during childbirth. This loss caused her to be depressed and made her emotionally unstable later on in life.  She became a ruthless despotic leader who was very hard on her slaves. 

In May 1874, Aare Ona Kakanfo Latoosa deposed her as Iyalode of Ibadan for politically motivated reasons. It is widely believed that Latoosa felt threatened by Aniwura’s increasing wealth and power, so, on June 30, 1874, he arranged with Kumuyilo — Aniwura’s adopted son and two other slaves to assassinate Aniwura in her sleep.

African American History: THEODORE “TIGER”FLOWERS (1895-1927)


 


Theodore “Tiger” Flowers was born on August 5, 1895 in Camille, Georgia. Often referred to as the Georgia Deacon because of his religious devotion, Flowers was a southpaw who began boxing professionally in 1918 at the age of 22. He quickly reeled off 21 straight victories before suffering his first loss to Panama Joe Gans. Like many other African American boxers of that period of time, Flowers found it difficult to obtain fights with white fighters, and often had to fight a number of men of his own race many times over in order to make a living. Overall he compiled an impressive record of 132 wins, 17 losses, 8 draws, and 4 no-contests over the course a nine year career highlighted by two wins over the great Harry Greb. 

His initial victory over Greb on February 26, 1926 in New York’s Madison Square Garden earned him the title of Middleweight Champion of the World, the first black man to capture the title for that particular weight class. Proving the victory was no fluke, Flowers defeated Greb in a rematch 7 months later. It’s notable to point out that Greb was only defeated five times during a career comprised of approximately 290 bouts, and that Flowers was the only middleweight to accomplish that feat.

Flowers lost his title to future Boxing Hall of Fame inductee, Mickey Walker, in December of 1926 on a controversial ruling by the referee. The decision was immediately investigated, but ultimately upheld.


 Flowers tried in vain to obtain a rematch, but Walker, who was managed by Jack “Doc” Kerns, refused to grant it to him. Unable to gain another shot at the middleweight crown, Flowers challenged many of the quality light heavyweights of that time period, losing only to Leo Lomski by points in 10 rounds on January 22, 1927. In November of that same year, Flowers underwent an operation to remove scar tissue from around his eye, but died as a result of the procedure. He was only 32 years old at the time of his death.


SOURCE 

Moyle, C. (2007, January 22). BlackPast

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