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Black History Month is held every October in Britain, and aims to:
The origins of Black History Month go back to 1926 when Carter G Woodson, editor for thirty years of the Journal of Negro History, established African Caribbean celebrations in America. It is still celebrated there in February each year. In Britain, the BHM has now grown to over 6,000 events, and this year (2011) celebrates it's 24th Anniversary.
Phoenix Fm's Black History Month Promo Black history events in Calderdale:
There are also events taking place at Bankfield Museum, The Shay Stadium, Arden Road Social club, Calderdale Leisure Centres and The Square Chapel, including performances, exhibitions, social evenings and sporting activities. |
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Dr. Charles Drew |
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Dr. Charles Drew (1904 - 1950) Was an American surgeon, and a pioneer in the development of blood banks. Drew showed that blood plasma lasts longer than whole blood and helped establish blood banks to serve the Allies in Europe during World War II (1939-1945). In 1941 Drew became the first director of the American Red Cross Blood Bank, and thereafter he tried to make the public aware that blood banks do not need to be segregated by race. He practiced medicine and taught surgery throughout his career. Dr. Drew set up and ran the blood plasma bank in the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City which served as one of the models for the widespread system of blood banks now in operation for the American Red Cross. |
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Colin J Dixon |
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Colin J. Dixon (1943 - 1993) was a rugby union and professional rugby league footballer who at representative level has played for Great Britain (RL), and Wales (RL), and at club level for Cardiff RFC (RU), Halifax RLFC and many more. As a seventeen year old in the Cardiff RFC (RU) Youth team he was already showing something of his future potential but overlooked by Wales (RU) Youth he signed for Halifax in 1961. Initially he played as a centre, providing many tries for his wingman Johnny Freeman, but it was not until he moved to the back row of the pack in 1963 that he revealed his tremendous power.
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Elijah McCoy |
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Elijah McCoy (1844 - 1929) was born in Ontario, Canada, the son of former slaves who had fled from Kentucky before the U.S. Civil War. Educated in Scotland as a mechanical engineer, Elijah McCoy returned to the United States and settled in Detroit, Michigan. He began experimenting with a cup that would regulate the flow of oil onto moving parts of industrial machines.
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Garrett Morgan |
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Garrett Morgan (1877 - 1963) was the son of former slaves, Garrett Morgan was born in Kentucky. In 1895, Morgan moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he went to work as a repair man for a clothing manufacturer. News of his proficiency for fixing things and experimenting led to numerous job offers from various manufacturing firms in the Cleveland area. In 1916, Garrett Morgan made national news for using his gas mask to rescue 32 men trapped during an explosion in an underground tunnel 250 feet beneath Lake Erie. Morgan and a team of volunteers donned the new "gas masks" and went to the rescue. The Morgan gas mask was later refined for use by U.S. Army during World War I. Two years later, a refined model of his early gas mask won a two international gold medals for safety. After witnessing a collision between an automobile and a horse-drawn carriage, Garrett Morgan took his turn at inventing a traffic signal. The Morgan traffic signal was a T-shaped pole unit that featured three positions: Stop, Go and an all-directional stop position. This "third position" halted traffic in all directions to allow pedestrians to cross streets more safely. |
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Geoff Love |
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Geoff Love (1917 - 1991), Todmorden born, was a musical director, arranger, composer and one of the UK's most popular easy-listening music personalities. His father, Kid Love, was a World Champion sand dancer, and came to the UK from the USA. Geoff Love learned to play the trombone in his local brass band and made his first broadcast in 1937 on Radio Normandy. He moved to the south of England, and played with violinist Jan Ralfini's Dance Orchestra in London and with the Alan Green Band in Hastings. After six years in the army during World War II, he joined Harry Gold's Pieces Of Eight in 1946, and stayed with them until 1949, providing the vocal on their successful record, "Blue Ribbon Gal". In 1955, Love formed his own band for the television show On The Town, and soon afterwards started recording for EMI/Columbia with his Orchestra and Concert Orchestra.
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Johnny Freeman |
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| Johnny Freeman played for Halifax after they secured his services, paying ÃÆ''Ã'Ã'£1,050 for him after one trial match in 1954
It appeared that every time Freeman got the ball he scored or at least threatened to score. Certainly the crowds began to expect miracles when he was in possession. Here was a man who could go the length of the field, who could break tackles when apparently held, who could find that extra gear, when already seemingly flat out, who could go past defenders on the inside or the outside, who would be first to any kick forward and who could pluck interception tries out of nothing. He had star quality, good looks and an effortless movement which was captivating. A member of the Halifax Hall of Fame, Johnny still holds records for Career tries (290, 1954-67) and season tries (48, 1956-57). Johnny has also retained his ties with the club despite returning to live in South Wales, he still attends supporters' nights and re-unions. |
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Madame C.J. Walker
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| Madame C.J. Walker (birth name Sarah Breedlove 1867 - 1919) was born into a former-slave family to parents Owen and Minerva Breedlove.
Madame Walker was an entrepreneur who built her empire developing hair products for black women. When confronted with the idea that she was trying to conform black women's hair to that of whites, she stressed she was attempting to help black women take proper care of their hair and promote its growth. She became an inspiration to many black women. Fully recognizing the power of her wealth and success she lectured to promote her business which in turn empowered other women in business. She gave lectures on black issues at conventions sponsored by powerful black institutions. She also encouraged black Americans to support the cause of World War I and worked to have black veterans granted full respect. After the bloody East St. Louis Race Riot of 1917, Madame Walker devoted herself to having lynching made a federal crime. In 1918 she was the keynote speaker at many National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) fund raisers for the anti-lynching effort throughout the Midwest and East. She was honored later that summer by the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) and donated large sums of money to the NAACP's anti-lynching campaign and later in her life revised her will to support black schools, organizations, individuals, orphanages, retirement homes, as well as YWCAs and YMCAs. |
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Marcus Garvey |
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| Marcus Garvey (1887 - 1940) was born in St Ann's Bay, Jamaica, the youngest of 11 children. He inherited a keen interest in books and made full use of the extensive family library. At the age of 14 he left school and became a printer's apprentice where he led a strike for higher wages. From 1910 to 1912, Garvey travelled in South and Central America and also visited London.
He returned to Jamaica in 1914 and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). In 1916, Garvey moved to Harlem in New York where UNIA thrived. By now a formidable public speaker, Garvey spoke across America. He urged African-Americans to be proud of their race and return to Africa, their ancestral homeland and attracted thousands of supporters. To provide the return to Africa that he advocated, Garvey founded the Black Star Line, to provide transportation to Africa, and the Negro Factories Corporation to encourage black economic independence. Garvey also unsuccessfully tried to persuade the government of Liberia in west Africa to grant land on which black people from America could settle. In 1935, he moved permanently to London where he died on 10 June 1940. In 1964, his body was returned to Jamaica where he was declared the country's first national hero. |
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Martin Luther King Jr. |
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Martin Luther King Jr.(1929 - 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.
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Paul Robeson |
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Paul Robeson (1898 - 1976) was an internationally renowned American basso profundo concert singer, scholar, actor of film and stage, All-American and professional athlete, writer, multi-lingual orator and lawyer who was also noted for his wide-ranging social justice activism. A forerunner of the civil rights movement, Robeson was a trade union activist, peace activist and a recipient of the Spingarn Medal and Lenin Peace Prize. Robeson achieved worldwide fame during his life for his artistic accomplishments, and his outspoken radical beliefs which largely clashed with the colonial powers of Western Europe and the Jim Crow climate of pre-civil rights America thus becoming a prime target during the McCarthy era. Despite being one of the most internationally famous cultural figures of the first half of the 20th century, persecution by the US government and media virtually erased Robeson from mainstream culture and subsequent interpretations of American history, including civil rights and black history. Phoenix FM is proud to present an original play for radio, documenting the moments before Paul Robeson took the stage at the Victoria Theatre in 1939 - Starring Curtis Lashley as Paul Robeson. |
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'Champion' Jack Dupree |
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'Champion' Jack Dupree (Unknown - 1992) was born William Thomas Dupree sometime between 1908 and 1910 in New Orleans. His parents were killed in a house fire that had been set by the Ku Klux Klan and Dupree was sent to the city's Colored Waifs Home for Boys, the same orphanage where a young Louis Armstrong had also been raised. He left the orphanage at the age of 14 and quickly learned the ways of the street, subsidizing his living by gambling and hustling. He was also introduced to boxing during this time in a gym located on Rampart Street. But, it was at the boys house that Dupree was first exposed to the piano by an Italian priest.
As one of the most prolific recording Bluesmen of all time, he left a large catalog of material. Champion Jack Dupree was posthumously honored by the Blues Foundation, receiving election into their Hall of Fame, along with "Blues From The Gutter" being selected as an entry as a "Classic of Blues" recording (Albums). Dupree was a fun-loving man despite the themes of his music and was known to occasionally get up and dance while introducing his numbers. He found success in a multitude of professions throughout his life: musician, boxer, cook and even as a painter towards the end. Champion Jack Dupree was certainly a renaissance man for the ages. |
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Live solo performance in Sweden, October 1975 |
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Rosa Parks |
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Rosa Parks (1913 - 2005) was nationally recognized as the "mother of the modern day civil rights movement" in America. Her refusal to surrender her seat to a white male passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama on the 1st of December 1955, triggered a wave of protest after it lead to her arrest and guilty sentance in court. On December 5th of 1955, in an act that reverberated throughout the United States, the Bus Boycott began. After 382 days the US Supreme Court found segregation unconstitutional and the boycott was ended a month later. Her quiet and courageous act changed America, its view of black people and redirected the course of history. |
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Berry Gordy Jr |
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Berry Gordy Jr (1929 - present) dropped out of school in the eleventh grade to become a professional boxer. After serving in the Army in Korea from 1951 to 1953 his love for jazz led him to open up the 3-D Record Mart - House of Jazz. By 1957, he has become a professional songwriter and had his first success with "Reet Petite," which was recorded by Detroit born artist Jackie Wilson. The next year he also wrote "Lonely Teardrops" for Wilson.
Berry Gordy Junior was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1998 and in 2001 he established a relief fund for former Motown Artists, Musicians & Writers who were down on their luck. This year Motown celebrates its 51st year and Berry Gordy Jr will celebrate his 81st birthday. |
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Jesse Jackson |
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Jesse Jackson (1941 - present) is a famous Civil Rights leader, one of the greatest. He believes that African Americans should get more political power. He fought for that power by being the second black American to run for President. The first, Shirley Chisholm, ran in 1972, but was not a factor in the election. Jesse Jackson was the first African-American to be a contender in a presidential election. Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina, and received a football scholarship to the University of Illinois. Shortly after he went there he transferred to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College and became active in sit-ins with other students at the college. At the time, these sit-ins would consist of a group of black people sitting down in a white-only restaurant or business, to protest being unable to eat or shop there. It was very common in the south at that time for Blacks to be kept out of many businesses like restaurants run by Whites. 1965 was a very important year for Jesse Jackson. He met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the famous Selma March, an effort to register black voters. He was made the leader of the Chicago branch of Operation Breadbasket, which was established by Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1962. Operation Breadbasket was a civil rights group that tried to get more job opportunities for Blacks. He was very successful in leading that program, boycotting businesses that discriminated against Blacks, and forcing businesses to hire black workers. He was with Dr. King in Memphis, Tennessee when Dr. King was assassinated three years later. Jesse Jackson once said, "[The world] is like a quilt; many patches many pieces; many colors; many sizes, all woven together by a common threadÃÆ'Ã'¢Ã¢'Ã'¬Ã'Ã'¦ all of us count and fit somewhere." |
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Queen Phillipa
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Queen Philippa (1314 - 1369) was the daughter of William of Hainault, a lord in part of what is now Belgium. When she was nine, the King of England (Edward II) decided that he would marry his son, the future Edward III, to her, and sent one of his bishops, a Bishop Stapeldon, to look at her. He described her thus: "The lady whom we saw has not uncomely hair, betwixt blue-black and brown. Her head is cleaned shaped; her forehead high and broad, and standing somewhat forward. Her face narrows between the eyes, and the lower part of her face is still more narrow and slender than the forehead. Her eyes are blackish brown and deep. Her nose is fairly smooth and even, save that is somewhat broad at the tip and flattened, yet it is no snub nose. Her nostrils are also broad, her mouth fairly wide. Her lips somewhat full and especially the lower lipÃÆ'Ã'¢Ã¢'Ã'¬Ã'Ã'¦all her limbs are well set and unmaimed, and nought is amiss so far as a man may see. Moreover, she is brown of skin all over, and much like her father, and in all things she is pleasant enough, as it seems to us." Four years later Prince Edward went to visit his bride-to-be and her family, and fell in love with her. She was betrothed to him and in 1327, when she was only 14, she arrived in England. The next year, when she was 15, they married and were crowned King and Queen in 1330 when she was heavily pregnant with her first child and only 17. This first child was called Edward, like his father, but he is better known as The Black Prince. Many say that he was called this because of the colour of his armour, but there are records that show that he was called 'black' when he was very small. The French called him 'Le Noir'. Philippa was a remarkable woman. She was very wise and was known and loved by the English for her kindliness and restraint. She would travel with her husband on his campaigns and take her children as well. When the King was abroad she ruled in his absence, thwarting a Scottish invasion and capturing their king in the process. Queen's College in Oxford University was founded under her direction by her chaplain, Robert de Eglesfield in 1341 when she was 28. She brought many artists and scholars from Hainault who contributed to English culture. When she died, Edward never really recovered, and she was much mourned by him and the country. King Edward had a beautiful sculpture made for her tomb which you can see today at Westminster Abbey. |
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Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
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Samuel Cloeridge-Taylor (1875 - 1912) called himself an Anglo-African and fought against race prejudice all his short life. He incorporated black traditional music with concert music, with such compositions as African Suite, African Romances and Twenty Four Negro Melodies. The first performance of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast was described by the principal of the Royal College of Music as 'one of the most remarkable events in modern English musical history', and this work was acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic. And yet, the works of this talented composer are now out of fashion; little of his music is available in printed form. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is today all but forgotten in the country of his birth. He was born in Holborn, London owhile his father, Daniel Peter Hughes Taylor, came from Sierra Leone to Britain in the 1860s, studied medicine, qualified as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, practised in Croydon, went back to Africa, was appointed coroner of the Gambia in 1894. Samuel was named for the poet, and in 1890, aged 15, he entered the Royal College of Music as a violin student. The RCM principal hesitated over Coleridge-Taylor's colour before admitting him, apparently worried that the other students might object. After two years, he swapped violin studies for composition. His tutor, Charles Villiers Stanford, challenged him to write a clarinet quintet without showing the influence of his favourite composer, Brahms. Coleridge-Taylor did it, and when this early work was revived in 1973, the New York Times critic called it 'something of an eye openerÃÆ'Ã'¢Ã¢'Ã'¬Ã'Ã'¦an assured piece of writing in the post-Romantic traditionÃÆ'Ã'¢Ã¢'Ã'¬Ã'Ã'¦sweetly melodic.' In 1896, he met the African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, and set some of his poems to music (African Romances), and in 1897 the two men gave joint performances. He also met Frederick J Loudin, former director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the choir that introduced African American spirituals to British audiences in 1873. By 1898 Elgar, then England's leading living composer was describing Coleridge-Taylor as 'far and away the cleverest fellow amongst the young men.' A few weeks later came the triumphant Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, which captivated the public, and established him as one of Britain's outstanding young composers. However, despite its enthusiastic reception, Coleridge-Taylor personally reaped very little reward for this great work. In order to live, he conducted and taught. From 1903 to his death, he was professor of composition at the Trinity College of Music in London, as well as the conductor of the Handel Society, the Rochester Choral Society, and conducted many provincial orchestras. He visited America on several occasions, at a time when it was still extremely hard, if not impossible for talented black Americans to fulfil their cultural aspirations, and was therefore seen as a champion for their cause. He met Booker T. Washington, and President Theodore Roosevelt invited him to the White House. He was received in America much more warmly than in England, where he suffered intense racism. He was, and remained till his death, an ardent supporter of the Pan African Movement. In 1912, he contracted double pneumonia and died at the age of 37. He left two children, Hiawatha and Gwendolyn, who both had distinguished careers as conductors and composers. |
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