The
Heritage
Calendar
2014
Celebrating the North Carolina African American Experience
Achievements begin with a dream – a vision that looks beyond today
to see a brighter future and unleashes an unquenchable thirst and
determined drive to reach it.
Dear Students, Educators,and Friends
In that context, the extraordinary individuals whose stories we are privileged to present
in the following pages are dreamers. And North Carolina is richer because of them.
“The Heritage Calendar: Celebrating the NC African American Experience” honors men and women
of all races who have contributed significantly to the lives and experiences of African Americans in our
state. The individuals featured in the 2014 Edition have excelled in many fields, including education,
public service, civil rights, sports, the military and journalism. Some have received international
acclaim; others are unsung heroes. Yet all have played an invaluable role in weaving the rich tapestry
of North Carolina and we are excited to help share their stories.
We appreciate the continuing involvement and support of our community partners: The News & Observer,
Capitol Broadcasting Company/WRAL-TV, The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNCChapel Hill, the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel, and PNC Bank. The N.C. Department of Public Instruction has again
developed unique educational resources which will allow teachers to utilize the printed or online versions of the
2014 Heritage Calendar in their classrooms.
Just as the Calendar reflects efforts to bring people together, AT&T is working hard to connect individuals and communities to opportunities through
communications. We continue to invest aggressively in the newest technologies, such as mobile broadband and Internet Protocol (IP) systems, to deliver the
products and services customers need today and in the future.
The individuals featured in the 2014 Edition of The Heritage Calendar are role models through their integrity, commitment, and dedication to excellence. We hope
you will enjoy and be inspired by their stories, as we have been.
Venessa Harrison
President, AT&T North Carolina
T
he Heritage Calendar: Celebrating the North Carolina African
American Experience project is made possible by the commitment
and talents of many people. AT&T would like to thank the leadership of the
NC Department of Public Instruction for their vision for how the project could be used in
classrooms, the team of educators who wrote the lesson plans and supporting curriculum material available
on the website, and the team from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication who wrote the profiles
of the 2014 honorees. For more information about the honorees and additional educational materials, or to nominate a future
honoree, please go to www.ncheritagecalendar.com. Scan code to learn more about the NC Heritage Calendar.
Educational Partners
State Board of Education
NC Department of Public Instruction
Dr. June Atkinson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Dr. Maria Pitre-Martin, Director of Curriculum and Instruction
Mr. Sid Baker, Education Program Specialist (Office of the State Superintendent)
Melodie Blackmon, Sampson, Central Office
Heather Blackwell, Carteret County, Broad Creek Middle
Aleczina Briley, Carteret, Broad Creek Middle
Noel Dennis, Bladen, Elizabethtown Primary
Karrie Detwiler, Hoke County School, J.W.Turlington Elementary
Racheal Froelich, Wake, Forestville Road Elementary
Beth Howard, Onslow, Dixon Elementary School
Nancy Huskins, Orange, A.L. Stanback Elementary
June Koster, Guilford County Schools, Northern Middle School
Bernadette Lane-Barginere, Cumberland County, Warrenwood Elementary
Linda Liles, Wake County, Reedy Creek Middle School
Dutchess Maye, Education Consultant, Raleigh
Kristy Moore, DPS, Pearsontown
For more information about the honorees and additional educational materials,
or to nominate a future honoree, please go to www.ncheritagecalendar.com.
Appreciation
Cathy Napier, Randolph, Southwestern Randolph High School
Malinda Pennington, Wilson County Schools, Jones Elementary
Sulnora Spencer-Oluyemi, Duplin County Schools, Central Office
Crystal Taylor-Simon, Jones County, Jones Senior High School
Barb Thorson, Iredell-Statesville, Retired
Corine Warren, Cumberland County, Howard Health & Life Sciences High School
Leonardo Williams, Durham Public Schools, Southern School of Energy
& Sustainability
Debra Wilson, Rockingham County, Western Rockingham Middle School
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Susan King, Dean
Winston C. Cavin, Lecturer
Student Writers:
Olivia Cox
Mary Elizabeth Entwistle
Corinne Jurney
Zach Mayo
Scan code to learn more about the NC Heritage Calendar.
Melvin “Skip” Alston
Melvin “Skip” Alston was 10 years old in 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was
assassinated. Vowing to follow in his hero’s footsteps, Alston charted a course in business,
politics and service that would make him one of the most influential citizens in his
community.
Educated in the Durham City School System, Alston enrolled at North Carolina Central
University to study business. However, before graduation, Alston moved to Greensboro in
1979 and started his own real estate firm, today called The Alston Realty Group, Inc.
Soon after, Alston joined the NAACP, serving on the National Board of Trustees from 1987 to
2006 and as president of the Greensboro branch from 1991-1993.
In 1992, Alston was elected to the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, where he served for 20
years. In 2003 he was elected Chairman, the first African American to hold the position. “I cherished the
moment, but I looked at the fact that a lot of blacks before me were more qualified than I was,” Alston said.
“They were not given that opportunity because of the color of their skin.”
Alston also served as the president of the North Carolina Association for Black County Officials and the North Carolina Real Estate Commission. But he is especially
proud of his role in helping launch Sit-In Movement, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to buying the historic Woolworth building in Greensboro where the
sit-in movement began in 1960. The building was renovated and opened as the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in 2010.
Alston remains committed to serving his community and furthering Dr. King’s vision of equality for all.
“I could have been a whole lot more successful if I had only concentrated on me,” he said. “But I feel that I have made contributions and opened up doors so other
people can have the same opportunities I had.”
Photo courtesy of Mr. Melvin Alston
January
Sunday
Celebrating the North Carolina African American Experience
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
1
New year’s Day
Emancipation Proclamation
issued in 1863
5
Freedom Rides began in 1961
George Washington Carver was
an American scientist, botanist,
educator, and inventor who died
in 1943
12 6
7
8
The World Slavery Convention
opened in London, 1831
John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie,
famed musician, died in 1993
13 Marian Anderson made her debut
in the Metropolitan Opera House
in 1955
14 Lorraine Hansberry, author of the play
A Raisin in the Sun, died in New York
City in 1965
Don Barksdale became the first
African American person to play in
an NBA All-Star Game in 1954
19 20 Martin luther
King, Jr Day
Butterfly McQueen, actress,
was born in 1911
15 John Oliver Killens,
novelist, was born in 1916
21 26 Bessie Coleman, first African
American aviator, was born in
1893
Angela Davis, activist,
was born in 1944
Barbara Jordan, congresswoman,
was born in 1936
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an
American clergyman, Activist, and
prominent leader in the African
American Civil Rights Movement,
was born in 1929
22 27 William Bron Chapell,
pioneer, was born in 1906
28 Barber Scotia College was
founded in 1867
Nat Turner, leader of the Virginia
slave revolt, was born in 1800
29 Leontyne Price, world-renowned opera singer, made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1961
Astronaut Ronald McNair died in
Challenger explosion in 1986
Thursday
2
William Lloyd Garrison began
publishing The Liberator, an
abolitionist newspaper, in 1831
9
Friday
3
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. was elected
chairperson of the House Committee
on Education and Labor in 1961
10 Fannie M. Jackson, first African
American woman college graduate
in the US, was born in 1836.
Barack Obama sworn in as the
first African American President
in 2009
Reggie Jackson, baseball player,
was born in 1946
2014
The Heritage Calendar
Oprah Winfrey, American media
proprietor, talk show host, actress,
producer, and philanthropist, was
born in 1954
Fisk University established in
Nashville, TN in 1866
16 Jefferson Franklin Long took
an oath of office as first African
American Congressman from
Georgia in 1871
23 Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, pioneer
in surgery, founded Provident
Hospital in Chicago in 1889
30 Dan T. Blue Jr. was elected as the
first African American Speaker
of the House in North Carolina
in 1991
Learn more about the people featured in this calendar at www.ncheritagecalendar.com.
Southern Christian Leadership
Conference founded in 1957
17 Saturday
4
Grace Bumbry, opera singer,
was born in 1937
11
Charles W. Anderson becomes first
African American member of the
Kentucky Legislature in 1936
18
Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali), is
an American former prof. boxer,
was born in 1942
Michelle Obama, the first African
American First Lady of the U.S.,
was born in 1964
24 Coach Clarence “Big House”
Gaines won record 800th college
basketball game in 1990
31
Jackie Robinson, first African
American baseball player in the
major leagues, was born in 1919
Robert C. Weaver became first
African American president
cabinet member in 1966
25
Sojourner Truth addressed the first
Black Women’s Rights Convention
in 1851
Dr. Robert “Bob” Bridges
Dr. Robert “Bob” Bridges has dedicated his life to closing the achievement
gap that leaves many African American children at a disadvantage. As an educator
and philanthropist, Bridges’ impact has been felt statewide.
The oldest of five children reared on a farm near Shelby, N.C. Bridges, now 79,
embraced his father’s passionate belief that education is the key to opportunity and
success. Inspired by his father, Bridges earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education
from St. Augustine’s College, a master’s from NC State University and a doctorate in
education from Duke University.
Beginning his career as a sixth-grade teacher after graduating from St. Augustine’s in
1961, he became principal of the former Crosby-Garfield Elementary School in Raleigh in
1968. When the Raleigh and Wake County school systems merged in 1976, Bridges saw an
opportunity for minority students.
“I hoped we could improve the quality of education by bringing both sides together,” Bridges said.
In 1985, an all-white school board named him superintendent of Wake County Public School System, the
first African American to hold the position.
Bridges strove to close the achievement gap between affluent and low-income children, chairing a state commission and creating the non-profit “A Helping Hands”
program, which is still active in the community placing African American men in the lives of at-risk children.
“The black male is the most uneducated, most underdeveloped child in the public school system,” Bridges said. “My model focused on what the least supported
child in the public schools misses the most: a sturdy, male role model.”
After retiring in 1989, Bridges founded a consulting firm to raise cross-cultural awareness and help teachers better reach minority students. Like his father, Bridges passed on the heart of a teacher. His son served as a superintendent in several districts and his daughter is an administrator with CharlotteMecklenburg Schools.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Robert Bridges
February
Sunday
2014
The Heritage Calendar
Celebrating the North Carolina African American Experience
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
1 Four black college students, Joseph
McNeil, Franklin McCain, David
Richmond and Ezell Blair, refused
to leave after being denied service
at a “whites-only” lunch counter in
Greensboro, N.C., in 1960
2
GROUNDHOG DAY
3
4
Ernest E. Just, biologist, received
the Spingarn Medal for pioneering
research on fertilization and cell
division, in 1914
Geraldine McCullough won the
Widener Gold Medal for Sculpture
in 1965
9
10 Roberta Flack, singer, was born
in 1940
16 17 23 Rosa Parks, civil rights activist,
was born in 1913
11 Bernard Harris became the first
African American astronaut to take a
spacewalk in 1995
Joe Frazier became World
Heavyweight Boxing Champion
by a knockout in 1970
5
PRESIDENT’S DAY
Michael Jordan, basketball player,
was born in 1963
24 Henry “Hank” Aaron, the home run
king of Major League Baseball, was
born in 1934
12 Clifford Alexander, Jr., became the
first African American Secretary of
the Army in 1977
18 Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of
the United States, was born in 1809
NAACP was founded in 1909
19 Author Toni Morrison (born Chloe
Anthony Wofford) was born in 1931
25 William “Smokey” Robinson, singer
and songwriter, was born in 1940
26 6
Robert Tanner Jackson becomes first
African American to receive a degree
in dentistry in 1867
13 Joseph L. Searles became the first
African American member of the New
York Stock Exchange in 1970
20 Frederick Douglas, an American
social reformer, orator, writer
and statesman. After escaping
from slavery, he became a leader
of the abolitionist movement. He
died in 1895
27 7
8
Eubie Blake, pianist, was born
in 1883
14 VALENTINE’S Day
New registration law in Tennessee
abolished racial distinctions in voting
in 1867
21 Malcolm X was an African American
Muslim minister and human rights
activist; he was assassinated in 1965
28 Marian Anderson, opera singer,
was born in 1902
W.E.B. DuBois, American sociologist,
historian, civil rights activist,
Pan-Africanist, author and editor,
was born in 1868
Rebecca Lee became the first African
American woman to receive an M.D.
degree in 1864
Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) won
World Heavyweight crown in 1964
M&F Bank was chartered in 1907
Antoine Dominique, “Fats” Domino,
singer, was born in 1928
Members of the NC African American
Heritage Commission were sworn in
at the Dept. of Cultural Resources,
Raleigh, NC in 2009
Learn more about the people featured in this calendar at www.ncheritagecalendar.com.
Hattie McDaniel became the first
African American to win an Oscar for
her role as Mammy in Gone With The
Wind in 1940
Oprah Winfrey became the first
African American woman to host
a nationally syndicated talk show
in 1986
15 Henry Lewis was named director
of the New Jersey Symphony in 1968
22 Frank E. Peterson Jr. was named
first African American general in the
Marine Corps in 1979
Julius Winfield “Dr. J” Erving II,
basketball player, was born in 1950
Charlotte Hawkins Brown – advocate for equality, trailblazer for
African Americans, educational pioneer and “First Lady of Social Graces” –
personified dedication combined with kindness.
Charlotte Hawkins Brown
Born in Henderson, NC in 1883, the granddaughter of a slave soon learned education was the
best way to advance. Brown attended school in Massachusetts, where she met Alice Freeman
Palmer, an educator and leading activist for women’s higher education, who became Brown’s
mentor and supporter.
Returning to North Carolina, Brown launched her mission to help southern African
Americans pursue educational equality and opened the Palmer Memorial Institute (PMI) in
Sedalia, near Greensboro, NC in 1902.
Brown believed in a well-rounded education and developed a holistic program at PMI. It
included training in social graces, which she called “one means of turning the wheels of
progress with greater velocity on the upward road to equal opportunity for all.”
“Often, the only thing remembered about her is that she founded PMI,” said Kara Deadmon, of the
Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum. “However, she was an educator as well as an advocate for equality,
a real proponent for change and for North Carolina.”
Brown helped ignite the African American women’s movement as one of the founders of the Federation of Women’s Clubs
of North Carolina, which brought together civic, religious and social groups to fight for racial and gender equality.
When Brown stepped down as president of PMI in 1952, nine years before her death, PMI had graduated more than 1,000 students and was a fully accredited,
nationally recognized preparatory school.
PMI closed in 1971, but in 1987 its campus became the first state historic site commemorating the contributions of African Americans to North Carolina’s history.
Every year, tens of thousands of visitors visit the museum and Brown’s home, explore the school, and discover the place that spurred students to be both
intellectual and gracious. Photo courtesy of the State Archives of North Carolina
March
Sunday
2014
The Heritage Calendar
Celebrating the North Carolina African American Experience
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
1 Ralph Ellison, American novelist,
literary critic, and scholar best known
for his novel Invisible Man, which
won the National Book Award in
1953, was born in 1914
2
3
4
MARDI GRAS
Elizabeth City State University was
founded in NC in 1891
9
10 DAYLIGHT SAVING
TIME BEGINS
North Carolina A&T State University
was founded in 1891
16 17 Clifton Wharton is sworn in as
ambassador to Norway in 1961
23 Poll tax ruled unconstitutional
in 1966
11 Jackie Robinson made his
professional baseball debut
with the Montreal Royals
in 1946
Freedom’s Journal founded in 1827
ST. PATRICK’S DAY
6
7
William H. Hastie confirmed as
Federal District Judge of the
Virgin Islands in 1937
12 Arthur Mitchell, dancer and
choreographer, was born in 1934
13 Slavery abolished in New York
in 1799
14 Selma march began in Selma,
Alabama in 1965
Charlie Pride, country singer,
was born in 1938
18 Harriett Tubman, an African American
abolitionist, humanitarian and Union
spy during the American Civil War,
died in 1913
24 ASH WEDNESDAY
Nat King Cole, singer, was born
in 1919
19 Lorraine Hansberry’s play,
A Raisin in the Sun, opened on
Broadway in 1959
25 James B. Parsons became the first
Black chief judge of a federal court
in 1975
26 Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher
Stowe was published in 1852
Livingstone College founded in
Salisbury, NC in 1879
20 FIRST DAY OF SPRING 21 Fannie Lou Hamer, activist, died
in 1977
27 Quincy Jones, composer and
musician, was born in 1933
28 Sarah Lois Vaughan, jazz singer
known as “The Divine One”, was
born in 1924
Dr. Jerome H. Holland elected to the
board of directors of the New York
Stock Exchange in 1972
Carole Gist was crowned first
Black Miss USA in 1990
Garrett A. Morgan, scientist and
inventor, was born in 1877
Blanche Kelso Bruce of Mississippi
elected to full term in U.S. Senate
in 1975
Mariah Carey, Grammy-winning
singer, songwriter, and actress, was
born in 1970
3031
15th Amendment, upholding a
citizen’s right to vote, was enacted
in 1870
8
The United Nations formally
proclaimed March 8 Int’l Women’s
Day in 1975
Freedmen’s Bureau established by
federal government to aid newly
freed slaves in 1865
NBA star Karl “The Mailman” Malone,
was born in 1954
5
Jack Johnson, first African American
heavyweight champion, was born
in 1878
Learn more about the people featured in this calendar at www.ncheritagecalendar.com.
First cadets graduate from flying
school at Tuskegee Institute in 1942
Phyllis Mae Dailey was the first
African American inducted into the
U.S. Navy Nurse Corps in 1945
15 Marcus Garvey, Black nationalist,
arrived in America from Jamaica
in 1916
22 Los Angeles Sentinel founded by
Leon H. Washington in 1933
29
Pearl Mae Bailey, an American
actress and singer who won a Tony
Award for the title role in the all-black
production of Hello, Dolly!, was born
in 1918
Walter Horace Carter
Walter Horace Carter knew journalism could be a tool for social justice, especially in a small
town. Carter’s tenacious opposition to the Ku Klux Klan earned him the 1953 Pulitzer Prize
and helped to impede further Klan expansion in North Carolina. A native of Albemarle, NC, Carter moved to coastal Columbus County in 1946 after service
in the U.S. Navy and founded the weekly Tabor City Tribune. On July 22, 1950, the Klan
staged a parade through the small rural town to highlight recruiting efforts in the area.
Carter immediately responded with an editorial expressing his utter disdain.
In the editorial headlined “No Excuse for KKK,” Carter called the Ku Klux Klan “the
personification of Fascism and Nazism” and a disturbance to newly found tranquility in most postwar communities. It was the first of more than 100 articles and editorials he would write over the next three years as he and
Willard Cole, editor of the neighboring Whiteville News Reporter, stood up to the Klan. Despite personal threats
from Klan leaders and a general lack of community support, Carter and Cole stayed firm in their beliefs and continued to publish.
The publications sparked the first intervention by the FBI, eventually leading to convictions of more than 100 Klan members.
“Willard and Horace were not merely civil rights advocates; they were advocates for civil society in their own towns,” said Ferrel Guillory, professor and director of
the Program on Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill.
In 1953, the Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service was awarded to both newspapers for “their successful campaign against the Ku Klux Klan, waged on their
own doorsteps at the risk of economic loss and personal danger, ending the terrorism in their communities.”
Photo courtesy of the family of Mr. Walter Horace Carter
April
Sunday
Celebrating the North Carolina African American Experience
Monday
Tuesday
1
APRIL FOOLS’ DAY
Hampton Institute was chartered in
1870 as one of the first colleges for
blacks in Hampton, Virginia
6
7
2014
The Heritage Calendar
8
Wednesday
2
Thursday
3
John Thompson became the first
African American coach to win the
NCAA basketball tournament in 1984
9
Carter G. Woodson, the father of
African American history,
died in 1950
10 Friday
4
Saturday
5
Maya Angelou, author and poet,
was born in 1928
11 Colin Powell, statesman and retired
four-star general in the U.S. Army
who was the 65th U.S. Sec. of State,
serving under Pres. George W. Bush
(2001-05), was born 1937
12 Billie Holliday, blues singer,
was born in 1917
Robert E. Perry and Matthew Henson
reached the North Pole in 1909
Johnson C. Smith University was
founded in Charlotte, NC in 1867
13 14 palm sunday
passover begins
Tiger Woods became the youngest
person and the first person of color to
win the Masters Golf Championship
in 1997
The first abolition society in the U.S.
was founded in Pennsylvania in 1775
20 21 EASTER SUNDAY
Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run
in 1974
15 TAX DAY
Jackie Robinson made his Major
League debut with the Brooklyn
Dodgers in 1947
22 passover ends
Civil Rights Bill granting citizenship
passed in 1866
16 Richard Allen was made Bishop of
the AME Church in 1916
17 Ralph David Abernathy Sr., a
leader of the American Civil Rights
Movement and minister, died in 1990
Founding of Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee in 1960
23 24 Spelman College was founded in
Atlanta, GA in 1881
18 GOOD FRIDAY
Alex Haley won the Pulitzer Prize
for Roots in 1977
25 Free African Society organized
in 1787
19 Cheyney State College is the oldest
of the Historically Black Colleges and
Universities in America; founded in
Philadelphia, PA in 1837
26 EARTH DAY
Harriet Tubman started working on
the Underground Railroad in 1853
27 Coretta Scott King, activist and wife
of Martin Luther King, Jr., was born
in 1927
Pvt. Milton L. Olive III, was
posthumously awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor
in 1966
28 Samuel L. Gravely became first
African American admiral in the U.S.
Navy in 1962
Charles Mingus, bassist, composer,
pianist and bandleader, was born
in 1922
29
Granville T. Woods, inventor of more
than 40 products, was born in 1856
The United Negro College Fund
was established in 1944
30
“Duke” Ellington, musician and
composer, was born in 1899
Wallace Saunders wrote the song
“Casey Jones” in 1900
Learn more about the people featured in this calendar at www.ncheritagecalendar.com.
Ella Fitzgerald, singer, was born
in 1917
William “Count” Basie, jazz pianist
and musician, died in 1984
Willie Cooper
Willie Cooper paid a heavy price for breaking a color barrier at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1964.
The first African American basketball player for legendary coach Dean Smith, Cooper, then
18, played on the freshman team for a year before leaving the squad with memories which
remain painful decades later.
Cooper came to Chapel Hill from Elm City, NC, where he had been raised by a foster
family. He had a love of learning and a competitive drive that drove high test scores in the
classroom and success on the basketball court.
One of just 18 black students in his UNC-Chapel Hill class, Cooper was pushed around by
teammates, insulted by audiences, and not served in certain restaurants during team road trips.
Once, to avoid conflict, he was left behind on a trip to South Carolina.
After being asked to leave the athletic dormitory because his white roommates did not want to live with
him, Cooper made the difficult decision to give up basketball. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business in
1968 and, after military service that included a deployment in Vietnam, accepted a job at IBM as an operations
manager in Mobile, AL. He later became an Equal Opportunity Manager, helping ensure IBM gave other African Americans the
same chances he had been given. He retired, with 20 years of service, in 1993.
Cooper paved the way at UNC-Chapel Hill for many student athletes, including his son, Brent, and daughter, Tonya.
Cooper feels that keeping his cool and not reacting negatively to racism were keys to leaving a positive legacy for history.
“While not all events were pleasurable, the pleasure was that I was able to overcome and be successful,” Cooper said. “My story represents many people struggling
and overcoming.”
Photo courtesy of Mr. Willie Cooper
May
Sunday
Celebrating the North Carolina African American Experience
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
1
Howard University in Washington,
D.C. opened in 1867
4
5
Freedom Riders were civil rights
activists who rode interstate buses
into the segregated south; the first
Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C.,
in 1961
Gwendolyn Brooks became the
first African American Pulitzer Prize
winner for Annie Allen in 1950
11 12 MOTHER’S DAY
2014
The Heritage Calendar
CINCO DE MAYO
6
7
Civil Rights Act signed by
President Eisenhower in 1960
13 J.R. Winters patented the
fire escape in 1878
14 8
Henry McNeal Turner, a minister,
politician and the first southern
bishop of the A.M.E. Church,
died in 1915
15 Friday
2
Elijah McCoy, inventor and
holder of more than fifty patents,
was born in 1844
9
Slave emancipation declaration for
Georgia, Florida and South Carolina
in 1862
16 Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity,
founded at Indiana University,
was incorporated in 1911
Martha Graham, dancer, was born
in 1894
Robert Smalls seized Confederate
warship in 1862
18 19 Reggie Jackson, baseball player,
was born in 1946
25 Madame. C.J. Walker,
entrepreneur, died in 1919
20 Malcolm X, an African American
Muslim minister and human rights
activist, was born in 1925
26 Joe Louis, boxer, was born
in 1914
MEMORIAL DAY
Althea Gibson won the French Open,
becoming the first African American
tennis player to win a major tennis
title in 1956
In 1804, a slave known only as
“York” accompanied Lewis and Clark
on their expedition
21 Robert N.C. Nix was elected to
U.S. Congress in 1958
27 Lowell W. Perry was confirmed as
chairman of the Equal Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) in 1975
28 Louis Gossett Jr., actor, was born
in 1936
Eliza Ann Gardner, Underground
Railroad conductor, was born in 1831
North Carolina Mutual Building
named a National Historic Landmark
in 1975
22 Claude McKay, poet, died in 1948
29
Thomas Bradley was elected mayor
of Los Angeles in 1973
Learn more about the people featured in this calendar at www.ncheritagecalendar.com.
Sammy Davis Jr. an American
entertainer, died in 1990
23 Bob Marley, reggae legend,
died in 1981
30
Countee Cullen, poet,
was born in 1903
Saturday
3
James Brown, Godfather of Soul,
was born in 1933
Sugar Ray Robinson, boxing
champion, was born in 1920
10 P.B.S. Pinchback, first African
American state governor, was born
in 1837
17 ARMED FORCES DAY
U.S. Supreme Court declares
segregation in public schools
unconstitutional in Brown v. Board
of Education decision in 1954
24 Hal McRae was named manager of
the Kansas City Royals in 1991
31
NAACP held first conference (as the
National Negro Committee) in 1909
Clyde “Pop” Ferguson Sr. got his first taste of the blues outside a
Caldwell County juke joint. Because his father, a preacher, wouldn’t allow
him to go inside, the youngster paid passersby a nickel to play tunes from the
jukebox that could be heard outside.
Clyde “Pop” Ferguson Sr.
and Clyde Ferguson Jr.
“He would absorb the melody, run half a mile home and work on his guitar until he could play it
perfectly,” Clyde Ferguson Jr. recalls.
Ferguson Sr. has been a traveling musician all his life. He served in the U.S. Army in the
Philippines during World War II and now lives in Lenoir, NC.
“He traded his guitar for an explosives truck,” said Ferguson Jr., who was born in 1951 and was
estranged from his father most of his life. In 2008, the two reunited and formed the band Pop
Ferguson and the Blues Review and the Pop Ferguson Blues Heritage Festival in Lenoir. The Fergusons’ music mixes entertainment and education, helping to raise the cultural awareness
of listeners.
Pop Ferguson and the Blues Review frequently performs for diverse audiences statewide, showcasing historical
songs from the 1920s-1950s. The blues festival marked its fifth year in 2013 with the theme “Women of the Blues”.
The younger Ferguson earned degrees from Mitchell College and Gardner Webb University before spending 10 years
as a high school band director.
Father and son have each played a major role in preserving and celebrating African American music. In 2008, “Pop” was inducted
into the Smithsonian Institute Hall for his work in African American music.
The younger Ferguson has designed an extensive, interdisciplinary teaching program called Roots Music in the Classroom that teaches African American and U.S.
history through the music of African Americans.
“I want these kids to learn how subcultures tie together to make a society,” Ferguson Jr. said. “This is my dream.”
Photo courtesy of Mr. Clyde Ferguson Sr. and Mr. Clyde Ferguson Jr.
June
Sunday
1
2014
The Heritage Calendar
Celebrating the North Carolina African American Experience
Monday
2
Tuesday
3
Wednesday
4
Thursday
5
Friday
6
Saturday
7
Congress of Racial Equality founded
in 1942
Sojourner Truth began anti-slavery
activist career in 1843
T. Thomas Fortune, journalist,
died in 1928
8
9
U.S. Supreme Court banned
segregation in Washington, D.C.
restaurants in 1953
Meta-Vaux Warick Fuller, sculptor,
was born in 1877
15 16 faTHER’S DAY
Errol Garner, singer and musician,
was born in 1923
Kenneth A. Gibson was elected
mayor of Newark, N.J.; first African
American mayor of a major eastern
U.S. city in 1970
22 23 Joe Louis became youngest world
heavyweight boxing champion
in 1937
Wilma Rudolph, track star, was born
in 1909
Wesley A. Brown became the first
African American graduate of
Annapolis Naval Academy in 1949
10 Arna Bontemps, writer and educator,
died in 1973
11 Hattie McDaniel, first African
American person to win an Oscar (for
Best Supporting Actress in Gone With
The Wind, 1940), was born in 1898
17 Hazel Dorothy Scott, classical pianist
and singer, was born in 1920
18 Thomas Ezekiel Miller, congressman,
was born in 1849
24 Nannie Burroughs founded National
Training School for Women in 1909
25 John R. Lynch became first
African American to preside over
deliberations of a national party
in 1884
Joe Louis defeated Primo Carnera at
Yankee Stadium in 1935
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was
awarded his doctorate from Boston
University in 1955
12 Medger Evers, civil rights activist,
was assassinated in 1963
19 African American Independence Day,
lauds the end of slavery in the
United States
26 James W. Johnson, an American
author, politician, diplomat, critic,
journalist, poet, anthologist, educator,
lawyer, songwriter, and early civil
rights activist, died in 1938
29 30
Lena Horne, actress, vocalist and
activist, was born in 1917
James Van Der Zee, photographer,
was born in Lenox, MA in 1886
NC Central University’s charter was
signed in 1909
Learn more about the people featured in this calendar at www.ncheritagecalendar.com.
Larry Leon Hamlin, founder of the
National Black Theatre Festival,
died in 2007
13 Thurgood Marshall appointed to
U.S. Supreme Court in 1967
20 Dr. Lloyd A. Hall, pioneer in food
chemistry, was born in 1894
27 Paul Laurence Dunbar, poet and
novelist, was born in 1872
Gwendolyn Brooks, Pulitzer Prize
winning poet, was born in 1917
14 FLAG DAY
Harold D. West was named president
of Meharry Medical College in 1952
21 FIRST DAY
OF SUMMER
Arthur Ashe, tennis champion,
led UCLA to NCAA tennis
championship in 1965
28 Organization for Afro-American
Unity founded in 1964
Judge Shirley Fulton
Since leaving her family’s farm in Kingstree, S.C., at the age of 16, Shirley Fulton has overcome
breast cancer while breaking race and gender barriers in North Carolina.
The second oldest of five children, Fulton came to North Carolina to attend college. After
graduating from NC Agricultural and Technical State University, Fulton earned a law degree
at Duke University in 1980 while raising a child on her own.
Tapping into connections made in school, Fulton moved to Charlotte in 1982 and became
the city’s first black female prosecutor. She was appointed District County Judge in the 26th
Judicial District five years later.
Rising quickly, Fulton was elected to Superior Court in 1988, ultimately serving for 14 years.
Though she was the first black female on the Superior Court bench in North Carolina, she would
have preferred not to have broken the barrier.
“It made me feel shame for society that we had come that far and we were just getting black females in the
role,” she said.
In 1993, Fulton began a battle with breast cancer which ultimately forced her to take a leave of absence from the bench in 1996 to undergo treatment at Duke
University Medical Center. Returning to the court the following year, she was named the Senior Resident Superior Court Judge. She earned an MBA from Queens
University in Charlotte, NC, in 1998 and retired in 2003.
“I guess a lot of things fell into place for me,” she said. “But sometimes I had to push them into place.”
In addition to her distinguished career as a jurist, Fulton has impacted the community and state through her work with the Mecklenburg County Court System and
the Charlotte School of Law and as a leader in the revival of Charlotte’s historic Wesley Heights neighborhood.
Photo courtesy of Judge Shirley Fulton
July
Sunday
Celebrating the North Carolina African American Experience
Monday
Tuesday
1
Wednesday
2
Carl Lewis, athlete, was born
in 1961
NC African American Heritage
Commission (AAHC) established
in 2008
6
7
Althea Gibson won Wimbledon
in 1957
Margaret Walker, writer, was born
in 1915
13 14 Continental Congress excluded
slavery from Northwest Territory
in 1787
George Washington Carver
National Monument dedicated
in Joplin, MO in 1951
20 21 First U.S. victory in Korea was won by
African American troops in the 24th
Infantry Regiment in 1950
27 A.P. Abourne, inventor, was awarded
patent for refining coconut oil in
1880
2014
The Heritage Calendar
National Association of Colored
Women founded by Mary Church
Terrell in Washington in 1896
28 The 14th Amendment was adopted
in 1868
8
Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed.
Thurgood Marshall, the U.S.
American justice, was born in 1908
9
Venus Williams won Wimbledon
in 2000
15 Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performed
the first successful open-heart
operation in 1893
16 Pompey Lamb, noted spy,
aids the American Revolutionary War
effort in 1779
22 V. A. Johnson, first African American
female to argue before the U.S.
Supreme Court, was born in 1882
23 Abraham Lincoln read the first draft
of the Emancipation Proclamation to
his cabinet in 1861
29
3
Jackie Robinson, the first African
American baseball player in the
major leagues, was named to
Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962
10 Mary McLeod Bethune, educator,
was born in 1875
17 Billie Holliday, singer,
died in 1959
24 Louis Tompkins Wright, physician,
was born in 1924
Bennett College was founded in
Greensboro, NC in 1873
30
The first National Convention of Black
Women was held in Boston in 1895
Thursday
Adam Clayton Powell Jr., activist and
politician, was elected congressman
from Harlem in 1945
Mary Church Terrell, educator,
died in 1954
Friday
4
Tuskegee Institute established
in 1881
11 W.E.B. Dubois, civil rights activist,
founded the Niagara Movement
in 1905
18 Lemuel Hayes, first African American
Congregationalist minister, was born
in 1753
25 Garrett A. Morgan, inventor of the
gas mask, rescued six people from a
gas-filled tunnel in Cleveland, Ohio,
in 1916
31
Whitney Young, an executive director
of the National Urban League, was
born in 1921
Learn more about the people featured in this calendar at www.ncheritagecalendar.com.
INDEPENDENCE DAY
Saturday
5
Arthur Ashe won the men’s
Wimbledon singles championship
in 1975
12 Bill Cosby, entertainer, was born
in 1937
19 Saint Augustine’s University was
founded in Raleigh, NC in 1891
26 President Truman banned
discrimination in the armed services
in 1948
The Joseph Holt Family
Joe Holt Jr. didn’t realize a summer trip to visit country relatives in 1957
was intended to save his life.
Joe Holt Sr. and Elwyna Holt believed strongly in education and self-respect and they
wanted their studious son to see himself as a first-class citizen in the wake of court orders
mandating desegregation. So, in 1956, the Holts became the first African American family to
apply to all-white Josephus Daniels Junior High in Raleigh, NC.
“Brown v. the Board of Education ... was an opportunity to cast off the shackles of exclusion
and second-class citizenship so we stepped forward,” Holt Jr. said. “Other families felt
inclined, but didn’t act because of the potential for a great deal of backlash, which we in fact
actually experienced.”
The application was denied and he subsequently enrolled at Ligon High, the “black” school in
Raleigh. The Holts requested a transfer to Broughton High, the nearby “white” school, but were
turned down. A subsequent lawsuit against the Raleigh City School Board was unsuccessful, with the U.S.
Supreme Court declining to hear the case a few months before Holt Jr. graduated in June 1960, second in his
class at Ligon, having never attended a “white” school.
Holt Jr. earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from St. Augustine’s College in 1964, before accepting a commission in the U.S. Air Force. A global navigator, he
served 26 years before retiring as a lieutenant colonel.
Now living in Durham, NC, he remains keenly interested in civil rights issues. He frequently talks with university and public school groups, sharing lessons gleaned
from his experiences, and helping students understand why he and his family needed to take a stand for integration.
“Segregation was more than separation; it was exclusion,” Holt said. “At every turn it excluded you from participating in American life on a first-class basis.”
Photo courtesy of the Joseph Holt Family
August
Sunday
2014
The Heritage Calendar
Celebrating the North Carolina African American Experience
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
1
Benjamin E. Mays, minister, scholar,
social activist and the president
of Morehouse College in Atlanta,
Georgia from 1940 to 1967; was
born in 1894
3
4
The Congress of African Peoples
convention was held in Atlanta
in 1970
President Barack Obama, the 44th
President of the United States and
the first African American to hold the
office, was born in 1961
10 11 5
6
Edwin Moses and Evelyn Ashford
won gold medals in Olympic track &
field in 1984
12 Voting Rights Act signed by President
Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965
13 7
Ralph J. Bunche, diplomat and first
African American winner of the Nobel
Peace Prize, was born in 1904
14 Clarence C. White, composer and
violinist, died in 1880
Cullen Jones becomes the 2nd
African American to win Olympic Gold
medal in swimming in 2012
Thaddeus Stevens, abolitionist,
died in 1868
17 18 Marcus M. Garvey Jr., a Jamaican
political leader, publisher, journalist,
entrepreneur, and orator, was born
in 1887
James Meredith, the first African
American admitted to the University
of Mississippi, graduated in 1963
24 25 Edith Sampson was appointed first
African American delegate to the
United Nations by Harry S. Truman
in 1950
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
organized in 1925
Frederick Douglass’ home in
Washington D.C. was declared a
national shrine in 1922
19 Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper
was founded in 1892
20 Benjamin Banneker published his
first Almanac in 1791
26 Richard Allen chaired the first
National Negro Convention in
Philadelphia in 1830
27 William Dawson elected Black
Democratic Party vice-presidential
candidate in 1943
W.E.B. DuBois, an American
sociologist, historian, civil rights
activist, Pan-Africanist, author and
editor, died in 1963
Ernest Everett Just, scientist,
was born in 1883
21 William “Count” Basie, jazz pianist
and musician, was born in 1904
28 The March on Washington attracted
an estimated 250,000 people for a
peaceful demonstration to promote
Civil Rights and economic equality for
African Americans in 1963
31
Eldridge Cleaver, writer and political
activist who became an early leader
of the Black Panther Party, was born
in 1935
Learn more about the people featured in this calendar at www.ncheritagecalendar.com.
8
Matthew A. Henson, explorer and
first to reach the North Pole, was
born in 1865
15 Clarence E. Lightner, the first
popularly elected mayor of Raleigh,
N.C. and the first African American
elected mayor of a metropolitan
Southern city, was born in 1921
22 John Lee Hooker, blues singer and
guitarist, was born in 1917
29
Charlie “Bird” Parker, jazz musician,
was born in 1920
Saturday
2
James Baldwin, writer, was born
in 1924
Gabby Douglas, becomes the first
black gymnast to win the individual
all-around Olympic gold medal in
2012
9
Jesse Owens won four Olympic gold
medals in 1936
16 Louis Lomax, author, was born
in 1922
23 National Negro Business League
founded in 1900
30
Lt. Col. Guion S. Bluford, Jr. became
the first African American astronaut
in space in 1983
Manteo Mitchell
Faith, focus, finish.
These simple words carry Manteo Mitchell through every step, both on and off the track.
For the Olympian from Mooresboro, NC, not every step has been easy. At the 2012 Olympic
Games in London, midway through the third leg of the 4x400-meter relay, Mitchell’s fibula
snapped. Courageously, he finished the next 200 meters with a time that enabled his team
to advance and ultimately win a silver medal.
“Faith, focus, finish” became even more important post-London, as Mitchell returned home
a hero. The entire world had seen what happened, and wanted to hear his story. He found a
new place to excel – the speaker’s podium.
“Motivational speaking wasn’t something that I always wanted to do,” he said, “because I used
to be afraid to voice my opinion. But when I got into middle school and high school I became a
class clown and from that age on I haven’t been afraid to talk to people.”
Since his return, Mitchell’s speaking engagements have ranged from schools to corporate events to the
NASCAR Hall of Fame.
“I think a lot of people understand me because they understand where I come from and where I’m trying to go,” he said. He hopes that his story will inspire others
in the classroom, workplace, and life, as well as on the track.
At age 26, relatively young in the sport, Mitchell continues to compete internationally, and considers his alma mater, Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC
his home base. While he has less time for speaking engagements now that he is back in competition, he says it is still tough to say no, especially when there is an
opportunity to share “faith, focus, finish” with students.
“I want to continue to inspire kids and pretty much anyone I can,” he said.
Photo courtesy of Mr. Manteo Mitchell
September
Sunday
LABOR DAY
Justice Henry Frye became the first
African American to serve on the NC
Supreme Court in 1983 and to be
appointed Chief Justice in 1999
7
GRANDPARENT’S DAY
Integration in public schools began
in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore
in 1954
8
Althea Gibson became the first
African American athlete to win a
U.S. national tennis championship
in 1957
14 15 Constance Baker Motley, U.S. Cabinet
member, was born in 1921
Dr. Mae Jemison became first African
American female astronaut in space
in 1992
21 22 F.W. Leslie, inventor, patented the
envelope seal in 1891
28 Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the
World published in 1929
Winstoin-Salem State University was
founded in NC in 1892
Celebrating the North Carolina African American Experience
Monday
1
Ralph Bunch awarded Nobel Peace
Prize in 1950
29
Hugh Mulzac, first African American
captain of a U.S. merchant ship,
launched with the ‘Booker T.
Washington’ in 1942
2014
The Heritage Calendar
Tuesday
2
Wednesday
3
4
Frank Robinson, professional
baseball player, named MVP
of the American League in 1966
Romare Bearden, an artist and writer,
was born in 1911
9
16 FIRST DAY
OF AUTUMN
John Coltrane, innovative and famed
jazz musician, was born in 1926
CONSTITUTION DAY
United States Constitution signed
in 1787
24 ROSH HASHANAH
BEGINS
Nine African American Arkansas
students integrated Little Rock High
School in 1957
Friday
5
In 1957, Dorothy Counts became
one of the first African American
students to attend Harding High
School in Charlotte NC, an action that
challenged school segregation
11 Mordecai Johnson, first African
American president of Howard
University, died in 1976
17 Claude A. Barnett, founder of the
Associated Negro Press, was born
in 1889
23 Charles Houston, NAACP leader,
was born in 1895
10 Carter G. Woodson founded the
Association for the Study of Negro
Life and History in 1915
Thursday
PATRIOT DAY
“Duke” Ellington won Spingarn Medal
for his musical achievements in 1959
18 Booker T. Washington delivered
“Atlanta Compromise” address
in 1895
25 Barbara W. Hancock became the first
African American woman named a
White House fellow in 1974
30
Johnny Mathis, singer, was born
in 1935
Learn more about the people featured in this calendar at www.ncheritagecalendar.com.
6
Benjamin S. “Ben” Carson Sr., an
American neurosurgeon, was the
first surgeon to successfully separate
twins conjoined at the back of the
head in 1987
12 The National Black Convention
met in Cleveland in 1848
13 Jackie Robinson, first African
American baseball player in the
major leagues, was named National
League Rookie of the Year in 1947
19 Alain L. Locke, philosopher and first
African American Rhodes Scholar,
was born in 1886
20 Atlanta University was founded in
Georgia in 1865
26 Saturday
ROSH HASHANAH
ENDS
Bessie Smith, blues singer,
died in 1937
First episode of The Cosby Show
aired in 1984
27 The Memphis Blues by W.C. Handy
was published in 1912
Jane Smith Patterson’s community activism began at a Greensboro, NC
movie theater in the early 1960s. Outraged when an African American
friend was refused a ticket, the 17-year-old University of North Carolina-Greensboro
student determined to spend her life working for equality.
Jane Smith Patterson
Later, after transferring to UNC-Chapel Hill and graduating, Patterson began a career in state
politics as assistant secretary and later secretary of administration in Gov. Jim Hunt’s cabinet. During Hunt’s first term (1977-1981), Patterson spearheaded development of the first
coordinated information technology model. This was the beginning of Patterson’s efforts to
link government, the economy and technology to better the lives of North Carolinians.
Patterson continued her technology drive during Hunt’s third and fourth terms (19932001), and, after he left office, as Director of the e-NC Authority, a public initiative to increase
broadband access statewide. Working with the public and private sectors, the e-NC Authority was able to increase the availability
of connectivity to North Carolina households from 36 to 82 percent and bring in millions of dollars of
federal funding for broadband infrastructure upgrades. “Technology,” Patterson said, “is an equalizer.” Internet access has linked students in rural North Carolina to resources
they need for classes previously unavailable to them. From research databases to easy personal communication with remote instructors, broadband has worked to
bridge the rural-urban gap.
Patterson arduously campaigned to expand women’s rights and participation in government. Since her 20s, she has been involved in the national and state
Women’s Political Caucus and crusaded for the Equal Rights Amendment.
Her work has opened up more government positions to women and minorities, in hopes of ensuring fair representation. Smith credits her father for instilling the
value she places on equality. Patterson still strives to ensure that institutions are open to all. The motivation, she says, is simple: “To create a fairer North Carolina.” Photo courtesy of Ms. Jane Smith Patterson
October
Sunday
Celebrating the North Carolina African American Experience
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
1
Colin Powell was appointed first
African American chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1989
5
Yvonne Burke, congresswoman,
was born in 1932
12 Barbara Smith Conrad, an American
operatic mezzo-soprano of
international acclaim was inducted
into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame
in 2012
19 The U.S. Navy was opened to African
American women in 1944
26 Tom J. Marshall, inventor, patented
the fire extinguisher in 1872
6
7
Fisk Jubilee Singers began national
tour in 1871
13 columbus DAY
Arna W. Bontemps, noted poet, was
born in 1902
20 John Merrick organized
North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance
Company in 1898
27 D. B. Downing, inventor, patented his
street letter box in 1891
2014
The Heritage Calendar
8
Toni Morrison became first African
American to win Nobel Prize in
literature in 1993
14 Jesse Jackson, an African American
civil rights activist and Baptist
minister, was born in 1941
15 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. awarded
Nobel Peace Prize in 1964
21 Clarence Thomas confirmed to the
U.S. Supreme Court in 1992
22 “Dizzy” Gillespie, musician, was born
in 1917
28 Clarence S. Green became the
first African American certified in
neurological surgery
29
Levi Coffin, founder of the
Underground Railroad, was born
in 1798
The Supreme Court ordered end to
segregation in schools
“at once” in 1969
Thursday
2
Thurgood Marshall was sworn in,
becoming the first African American
U.S. Supreme Court Justice in 1967
9
O.B. Clare patented the rail trestle
in 1888
16 John Brown led attack on Harper’s
Ferry in 1859
23 The NAACP petitioned the United
Nations about racial injustice in 1947
30
Richard Arrington was elected the
first African American mayor of
Birmingham, Ala., in 1979
Learn more about the people featured in this calendar at www.ncheritagecalendar.com.
Friday
3
4
Nat King Cole was the first African
American performer to host his own
television show in 1956
10 National Black Convention met in
Syracuse, N.Y. in 1864
11 Singer Ben Vereen was born in 1946
17 Alexander Miles patented the
elevator in 1887
18 Capital Savings Bank opened in
Washington, D.C. in 1888
24 Terry McMillan, novelist,
was born in 1951
25 Jackie Robinson, the first
African American Major League
Baseball player of the modern era,
died in 1972
31
Saturday
halloween
Ethel Waters, actress and singer,
was born in 1900
Benjamin O. Davis became the first
African American general in the U.S.
Army in 1940
Harold and Lucille Webb
Harold and Lucille Webb have dedicated their lives to serving
North Carolina and the United States, in fields as diverse as education,
public health, civil rights and the military.
A native of Greensboro, NC, Harold Webb enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943,
serving as a pilot with WWII’s legendary Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American unit
to fly and maintain American combat aircraft.
Returning home after the war, Harold enrolled at North Carolina Agricultural and
Technical State University. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1948 and
began a career in public education, first as a teacher and later as a principal and deputy
superintendent. He led the North Carolina Title I Program, a federal effort to bridge the
opportunity gap by serving low-income, minority students.
Harold was active in politics and served on the Wake County Board of Commissioners for seven
years, including serving as Chairman from 2008-2009.
Lucille Webb was born in Richmond, VA., and moved to North Carolina to attend NC A&T, where she
met Harold. After earning her bachelor’s degree in applied sociology in 1948, she decided to stay to work
mainly in the fields of education and public health.
Beginning as an eighth-grade social studies and language arts teacher in Hillsborough, NC, she spent most of her career in the Wake County Public School System,
eventually serving as curriculum director and personnel administrator.
In 1980, Lucille helped found Strengthening the Black Family, a Raleigh-based non-profit focused on improving the quality of life in uplifting the Wake County
minority community.
Through the years, Lucille’s influence and energy as a community health advocate have touched a variety of organizations, including Project DIRECT, a diabetes
research development project funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Webbs were inducted into the Raleigh Hall of Fame in 2011.
Photo courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Webb
November
Sunday
2014
The Heritage Calendar
Celebrating the North Carolina African American Experience
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
ALL SAINTS’ DAY
1 First issue of Ebony published
in 1945
First issue of Crisis published
in 1910
2
DAYLIGHT SAVING
TIME ENDS
3
President Ronald Reagan signed
law designating the third Monday in
January Martin Luther King Jr. Day
in 1983
Eva Clayton became the first African
American woman to represent North
Carolina in Congress in 1992
9
10 Benjamin Banneker,
surveyor, was born in 1731
Andrew Hatcher was named
associate press secretary to
President John F. Kennedy,
becoming the first African American
press secretary in 1960
16 17 W.C. Handy, “Father of the Blues”,
was born in Florence, Ala. in 1873
Omega Psi Phi was founded on the
campus of Howard University in 1911
23 24 4
ELECTION DAY
President Barack Obama, then
Senator, was the 1st African
American elected as President of
the U.S. in 2008. He also received
the most votes for a presidential
candidate in American history
11 VETERAN’S DAY
Nat Turner, leader of a Virginia slave
revolt, was hanged in 1831
18 5
Walter E. Washington elected Mayor
of Washington, D.C. in 1974
12 In 1775, General George Washington
issued an order, later rescinded,
which forbade recruiting officers
to enlist Blacks
19 Sojourner Truth, abolitionist and
orator, was born in 1787
25 Roy Campanella was named the
National League MVP for the second
time in 1953
26 6
7
Absalom Jones, minister,
was born in 1746
13 14 Dwight Gooden won baseball’s Cy
Young Award in 1985
20 Booker T. Washington, an African
American educator, author, orator,
and advisor to Republican presidents,
died in 1915
21 Garrett A. Morgan patented the traffic
signal in 1923
27 David Dinkins elected first African
American Mayor of New York City
in 1989
THANKSGIVING DAY
Protests against apartheid and
the Reagan administration began
nationwide in 1984
28 8
Edward W. Brooke was elected first
African American U.S. Senator
(R- Mass.) in 85 years in 1966
15 Arthur Lewis, Princeton University
professor, was awarded the Nobel
Prize in Economics in 1979
22 Alrutheus A. Taylor, teacher and
historian, was born in 1893
29
Congressman Adam Clayton Powell,
Jr. was born in 1908
J.L. Love put patents on the pencil
sharpener in 1897
Scott Joplin, composer,
was born in 1868
Luther “Bill” Robinson,
dancer, died in 1949
Sojourner Truth,
evangelist, died in 1883
Richard Wright, author,
died in 1960
30
Shirley Chisholm, U.S.
Congresswoman, was born in 1924
Learn more about the people featured in this calendar at www.ncheritagecalendar.com.
Ernie Davis became the first African
American to win the Heisman Trophy
in 1961
Fayetteville State University was
founded in NC as “Howard School”
in 1867
George Williams
George Williams has coached 33 NCAA national championship teams,
32 Olympians (including three gold medalists) and garnered more than
100 coach-of-the-year awards.
A star in the track and field universe, his impact reaches far beyond athletics.
The Miami, FL, native graduated from St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, NC, in 1965,
returning in 1968 to begin a career that included working in the admissions, student
activities, and alumni affairs offices. As head coach for the men’s and women’s track and
field and cross country teams since 1976, he continually stresses the priority of academics,
especially to prospective students.
“I tell them quickly that the first thing is academics, second is athletics, and then a
controlled social life – in that order,” he said.
“I don’t care how good you are, how fast you can run, or how high you can jump. If you’re not
here for an education, then you can go home.”
Williams’ scholarship athletes boast a 95 percent graduation rate, reflecting the success of his
emphasis on academics and his love for the students. He cherishes every championship for its special
meaning to the current team. However, he regrets that many of his athletes will not get the recognition they deserve for their talents because St. Augustine’s is a small, Division II, historically
black university.
“But if you look at the records, we beat almost all of the Division I schools that we compete against,” he said with evident pride.
In 2004, in recognition of his reputation and achievements, he was named head coach for the 2004 United States Men’s Olympic Track and Field Team in Athens,
Greece.
“I didn’t go there as a black coach from an HBCU,” he said. “I went there as an American representing the United States of America.”
Not surprisingly, his team brought home 19 medals.
Photo courtesy of Mr. George Williams December
Sunday
Celebrating the North Carolina African American Experience
Monday
1
Tuesday
2
Wednesday
3
Thursday
4
7
PEARL HARBOR
REMEMBRANCE DAY
Lester Granger was named executive
director of the National Urban League
in 1941
14 8
The NAACP wins the Gibbs v. Board
of Education case, against the state
of Maryland, ensuring that white
and black teachers are paid equally
in 1936
15 John Langston, U.S. Congressman,
was born in 1829
Maggie Lena Walker, banker,
died in 1934
21 22 FIRST DAY
OF WINTER
Berry Gordy, Jr. established Motown
Records in 1959
28 Earl “Fatha” Hines, famed jazz
musician and father of modern jazz
piano, was born in 1905
Harriet Ida Pikens and Frances Wills,
were sworn in as the first female
African American WAVES officers
in 1944
29
Thomas Bradley, first African
American Mayor of Los Angeles, was
born in 1917
Charles Wesley, historian,
was born in 1891
9
10 Redd Foxx, entertainer,
was born in 1925
16 First issue of North Star newspaper
published in 1847
HANNUKKAH BEGINS
Andrew Young of Georgia named
ambassador and chief delegate to
the United Nations in 1976
23 17 Alice H. Parker patented the gas
heating furnace in 1919
30
Bo Diddley, blues composer and
singer, was born in 1928
HANNUKKAH ENDS
Irwin C. Mollison, first African
American Judge of the Customs
Court, was born in 1898
31
P.B.S. Pinchback became the first
African American governor of an
American state, Louisiana, in 1872
25 Mary McLeod Bethune, educator,
founded National Council of Negro
Women in 1935
CHRISTMAS DAY
Joseph H. Rainey (S.C.) first
African American elected to Congress
in 1870
Rev. Jesse Jackson organized
Operation PUSH (People United to
Save Humanity)in 1971
NEW YEAR’S EVE
Odetta Felious Gordon, folk singer
and activist, was born in 1930
Learn more about the people featured in this calendar at www.ncheritagecalendar.com.
Kofi Annan was elected as SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations
becoming the first person from an
African nation to be elected to the
position in 1996
20 Carter G. Woodson,
historian, was born in 1875
26 Lewis Franklin Powell was
confirmed as U.S. Supreme Court
justice in 1971
13 19 The 13th amendment, outlawing
slavery was ratified in 1865
Saturday
6
12 18 Noble Sissle, lyricist and bandleader,
died in 1975
24 American Anti-Slavery Society
organized in 1833
11 Ralph J. Bunche became the first
African American person awarded a
Nobel Peace Prize in 1950
Friday
5
Rosa Parks refused to give up her
seat on a public bus in 1955
Shaw University was founded in
Raleigh, NC in 1865
2014
The Heritage Calendar
KWANZAA BEGINS
DeFord Bailey, Sr. became the first
African American to perform on the
Grand Ole Opry in 1924
Montgomery Bus Boycott, a political
and social protest against the policy
of racial segregation on the public
transit system of Montgomery,
Alabama ended in 1956
27 Dr. Charles Richard Drew, pioneer of
blood plasma research, established a
blood bank in New York City in 1941
now more
than ever
When people come together for something they
believe in, they can change the world. That’s the power
of connections. At AT&T, we’re proud to celebrate this
legacy and to help connect people with their dreams.
AT&T is pleased to present the 2014 edition of The
Heritage Calendar: Celebrating the NC African
American Experience and to honor the men and
women highlighted in its pages.
© 2013 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved.