BLACKHISTORY

Posts

VICTOR Moore he became a certified karate legend by dominating in the competition winning championships

April 08, 2016

Victor Moore (born August 23, 1943) holds a 10th Degree Black Belt in Karate and was one of the late Robert Trias' Chief instructors of the Shuri-ryū Karate system. Moore was one of the first ten original members of the Trias International Society and also studied and trained with William J. Dometrich in the style of Chito-ryu.Moore has studied martial arts for over 50 years, and is a four-time world karate champion.

Katherine Dunham Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 – May 21, 2006) was an Americandancer, choreographer, author, educator, and social activist. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in American and European theater of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance".[1] While a student at the University of Chicago, Dunham took leave and went to the Caribbean to study dance and ethnography. She later returned to graduate and submitted a master's thesis in anthropology. She did not complete the other requirements for the degree, however, and realized that her professional calling was performance. At the height of her career in the 1940s and 1950s, Dunham was renowned throughout Europe and Latin America and was widely popular in the United States, where the Washington Postcalled her "dancer Katherine the Great". For almost 30 years she maintained theKatherine Dunham Dance Company, the only self-supported American black dance troupe at that time, and over her long career she choreographed more than ninety individual dances.[2]Dunham was an innovator in African-American modern dance as well as a leader in the field of dance anthropology, or ethnochoreology. Early yearsEdit Katherine Mary Dunham was born in June 1909 in a Chicago hospital and taken as an infant to her parents' home in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a village about 25 miles west of Chicago. Her father, Albert Millard Dunham, was a descendant of slaves from West Africa andMadagascar. Her mother, Fanny June Dunham (née Taylor), who was of mixedFrench-Canadian and Native American heritage, died when Dunham was three years old. After her father's remarriage a few years later, the family moved to a predominantly white neighborhood in Joliet, Illinois, where her father ran a dry cleaning business.[3] Dunham became interested in both writing and dance at a young age. In high school she joined the Terpsichorean Club and began to learn a kind of modern dance based on ideas of Jaques-Dalcroze and Rudolf von Laban. At the age of 15, she organized the Blue Moon Café, a fund-raising cabaret for Brown's Methodist Church in Joliet, where she gave her first public performance. While still a high-school student, she opened a private dance school for young black children. Academic anthropologistEdit After completing her studies at Joliet Junior College, Dunham moved to Chicago to join her brother Albert, who was attending the University of Chicagoas a student of philosophy. In a lecture by Robert Redfield, a professor of anthropology, she learned that much of black culture in modern America had begun in Africa. She consequently decided to major in anthropology and to focus on dances of the African diaspora. Besides Redfield, she studied under anthropologists such as A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Edward Sapir, andBronisław Malinowski. Under their tutelage, she showed great promise in her ethnographic studies of dance.[4] In 1935, Dunham was awarded travel fellowships from the Julius Rosenwald and Guggenheim foundations to conduct ethnographic study of the dance forms of the Caribbean, especially as manifested in the Vodunof Haiti, a path also followed by fellow anthropology student Zora Neale Hurston. She also received a grant to work with Professor Melville Herskovitsof Northwestern University, whose ideas of African retention would serve as a platform for her research in the Caribbean. Her field work in the Caribbean began inJamaica, where she went to live several months in the remote Maroon village ofAccompong, deep in the mountains ofCockpit Country. (She later wrote a book, Journey to Accompong, describing her experiences there.) Then she traveled on to Martinique and toTrinidad and Tobago for short stays, primarily to do an investigation ofShango, the African god who remained an important presence in West Indian heritage. Early in 1936 she arrived at last in Haiti, where she remained for several months, the first of her many extended stays in that country throughout the rest of her life. While in Haiti, Dunham investigatedVodun rituals and made extensive notes on her research, particularly on the dance movements of the participants. Years later, after extensive studies and initiations, she became a mambo in the Vodun religion. She also became friends with, among others, Dumarsais Estimé, then a high-level politician, who became president of Haiti in 1949. Somewhat later, she assisted him, at considerable risk to her life, when he was persecuted for his progressive policies and sent in exile to Jamaica after a coup d'état. Dunham returned to Chicago in the late spring of 1936 and in August was awarded a bachelor's degree, a Ph.B., bachelor of philosophy, with her principal area of study named as social anthropology. In 1938, using materials collected during her research tour of the Caribbean, Dunham submitted a thesis, "The Dances of Haiti: A Study of Their Material Aspect, Organization, Form, and Function," to the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master's degree, but she never completed her course work or took examinations to qualify for the degree. Devoted to dance performance as well as to anthropological research, she realized that she had to choose between the two. Although she was offered another grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to pursue her academic studies, she chose dance, gave up her graduate studies, and departed for Broadway andHollywood.[3] Dancer and choreographerEdit Katherine Dunham in 1940, by Carl Van Vechten In 1928, while still an undergraduate, Dunham began to study ballet with Ludmilla Speranzeva, a Russian dancer who had settled in Chicago, having come to the United States with the Franco-Russian vaudeville troupe Le Théâtre de la Chauve-Souris directed by impresario Nikita Balieff. She also studied ballet with Mark Turbyfill andRuth Page, who became prima ballerina of the Chicago Opera. Through her ballet teachers, she was also exposed to Spanish, East Indian, Javanese, and Balinese dance forms. In 1931, when she was only 21, Dunham formed a group called Ballets Nègres, one of the first black ballet companies in the United States. After a single, well-received performance in 1931, the group was disbanded. Encouraged by Speranzeva to focus on modern dance instead of ballet, Dunham opened her first real dance school in 1933 called the Negro Dance Group. It was a venue for Dunham to teach young black dancers about their African heritage. In 1934–36 Dunham performed as a guest artist with the ballet company of the Chicago Opera. Ruth Page had written a scenario and choreographedLa Guiablesse ("The Devil Woman"), based on a Martinican folk tale inLafcadio Hearn's Two Years in the French West Indies. It opened in Chicago in 1933, with a black cast and with Page dancing the title role. The next year it was repeated with Katherine Dunham in the lead and with students from Dunham's Negro Dance Group in the ensemble. Her dance career was then interrupted by her anthropological research in the Caribbean. Having completed her undergraduate work at the University of Chicago and having made the decision to pursue a career as a dancer and choreographer rather than as an academic, Dunham revived her dance ensemble and in 1937 journeyed with them to New York to take part in "A Negro Dance Evening" organized by Edna Guy at the 92nd Street YMHA. The troupe performed a suite of West Indian dances in the first half of the program and a ballet entitledTropic Death, with Talley Beatty, in the second half. Upon returning to Chicago, the company performed at the Goodman Theater and at the Abraham Lincoln Center. Dunham's well-known works Rara Tonga and Woman with a Cigar were created at this time. With choreography characterized by exotic sexuality, both became signature works in the Dunham repertory. After successful performances of her company, Dunham was named dance director of the Chicago Negro Theater Unit of the Federal Theater Project. In this post, she choreographed the Chicago production of Run Li'l Chil'lun, performed at the Goodman Theater, and produced several other works of choreography including The Emperor Jones and Barrelhouse. At this time Dunham first became associated with designer John Pratt, whom she later married. Together, they produced the first version of her dance composition L'Ag'Ya, which premiered on January 27, 1938, as a part of the Federal Theater Project in Chicago. Based on her research in Martinique, this three-part performance integrated elements of a Martinique fighting dance into American ballet. In 1939, Dunham's company gave further performances in Chicago and Cincinnati and then went back to New York, where Dunham had been invited to stage a new number for the popular, long-running musical revue Pins and Needles 1940, produced by theInternational Ladies' Garment Workers Union. As this show continued its run at the Windsor Theater, Dunham booked her own company in the theater for a Sunday performance. This concert, billed as Tropics and Le Hot Jazz, included not only her favorite partners Archie Savage and Talley Beatty but her principal Haitian drummer, Papa Augustin. Initially scheduled for a single performance, the show was so popular that the troupe repeated it for another ten Sundays. This success led to the entire company being engaged in the Broadway production Cabin in the Sky, staged byGeorge Balanchine and starring Ethel Waters. With Dunham in the sultry role of temptress Georgia Brown, the show ran for 20 weeks in New York before moving to the West Coast for an extended run of performances there. The show created a minor controversy in the press. After the national tour of Cabin in the Sky, the Dunham company stayed in Los Angeles, where they appeared in the Warner Brothers short film Carnival of Rhythm (1941). The next year Dunham appeared in the Paramount musical filmStar Spangled Rhythm (1942) in a specialty number, "Sharp as a Tack," with Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. Other movies she appeared in during this period included the Abbott and Costellocomedy Pardon My Sarong (1942) and the famous break-through black musical Stormy Weather (1943).[5] Later that year, they returned to New York, and in September 1943, under the management of the renowned impresario Sol Hurok, her troupe opened in Tropical Review at the Martin Beck Theater. Featuring lively Latin American and Caribbean dances, plantation dances, and American social dances, the show was an immediate success. The original two-week engagement was extended by popular demand into a three-month run, after which the company embarked on an extensive tour of the United States and Canada. In Boston, the bastion of conservatism, the show was banned in 1944 after only one performance. Although it was well received by the audience, local censors feared that the revealing costumes and provocative dances might compromise public morals. After the tour, in 1945, the Dunham company appeared in the short-lived Blue Holiday at the Belasco Theater in New York and in the more successful Carib Song at the Adelphi Theatre. The finale to the first act of this show was Shango, a staged interpretation of a Vodun ritual that would become a permanent part of the company's repertory. In 1946, Dunham returned to Broadway for a revue entitled Bal Nègre, which received glowing notices from theater and dance critics. Early in 1947 Dunham choreographed the musical play Windy City, which premiered at the Great Northern Theater in Chicago, and later in the year she opened a cabaret show in Las Vegas, marking the first year that the city became a popular entertainment destination. Later that year she went with her troupe to Mexico, where their performances were so popular that they remained for more than two months. After Mexico, Dunham began touring in Europe, where she was an immediate sensation. In 1948 she opened A Caribbean Rhapsody first at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, then swept on to the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. This was the beginning of more than 20 years of performing almost exclusively outside America. During these years, the Dunham company appeared in some 33 countries in Europe, North Africa, South America, Australia, and East Asia. Dunham continued to develop dozens of new productions during this period, and the company met with enthusiastic audiences wherever they went. Despite these successes, the company frequently ran into periods of financial difficulties, as Dunham was required to support all of the 30 to 40 dancers and musicians. In 1948, Dunham and her company appeared in the Hollywood movieCasbah, with Tony Martin, Yvonne de Carlo, and Peter Lorre, and in the Italian film Botta e Risposta, produced by Dino de Laurentiis. Also that year they appeared in the first ever hour-long American spectacular televised by NBCwhen television was first beginning to spread across America. This was followed by television spectaculars filmed in London, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Sydney, and Mexico City. In 1950, Sol Hurok presented Katherine Dunham and Her Company in a dance revue at the Broadway Theater in New York, with a program composed of some of Dunham's best works. It closed after only 38 performances, and the company soon thereafter embarked on a tour of venues in South America, Europe, and North Africa. They had particular success in Denmark and France. In the mid-1950s, Dunham and her company appeared in three films:Mambo (1954), made in Italy; Die Grosse Starparade (1954), made in Germany; and Música en la Noche (1955), made in Mexico City. The Dunham company's international tours ended in Vienna in 1960, when it was stranded without money because of bad management by their impresario. Dunham saved the day by arranging for the company to appear in a German television special, Karibische Rhythmen, after which they returned to America. Dunham's last appearance on Broadway was in 1962 in Bamboche!, which included a few former Dunham dancers in the cast and a contingent of dancers and drummers from the Royal Troupe of Morocco. It was not a success, closing after only eight performances. A highlight of Dunham's later career was the invitation from New York'sMetropolitan Opera to stage dances for a new production of Aida starring Leontyne Price. Thus, in 1963, she became the first African-American to choreograph for the Met since Hemsley Winfield set the dances for The Emperor Jones in 1933. The critics acknowledged the historical research she did on dance in ancient Egypt but did not particularly care for the results they saw on the Met stage.[6]Subsequently, Dunham undertook various choreographic commissions at several venues in the United States and in Europe. In 1967 she officially retired after presenting a final show at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. Even in retirement Dunham continued to choreograph: one of her major works was directing Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha in 1972 at Morehouse College in Atlanta. In 1978 Dunham was featured in thePBS special, Divine Drumbeats: Katherine Dunham and Her People, narrated byJames Earl Jones, as part of the Dance in America series. Alvin Ailey later produced a tribute for her in 1987-88 with his American Dance Theater at Carnegie Hall entitled The Magic of Katherine Dunham

March 12, 2016

Florence mills Florence Mills (born Florence Winfrey; January 25, 1896 – November 1, 1927),[1] known as the "Queen of Happiness", was an African-Americancabaret singer, dancer, and comedian known for her effervescent stage presence, delicate voice, and winsome, wide-eyed beauty. Life and careerEdit A daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Nellie (Simon) and John Winfrey, she was born Florence Winfrey in 1896 in Washington, D.C.. She began performing as a child, when at the age of six she sang duets with her two older sisters. They eventually formed avaudeville act, calling themselves "The Mills Sisters".[2] The act did well, appearing in theaters up and down the Atlantic seaboard. Florence's sisters eventually quit performing, but Florence stayed with it, determined to pursue a career in show business. In time, she joined Ada Smith, Cora Green, and Carolyn Williams in a group called the "Panama Four," with which she had some success. She then joined a traveling black show known as the Tennessee Ten, where in 1917 she met dance director and acrobatic dancerUlysses "Slow Kid" Thompson (1888–1990), to whom she would be married from 1921 until her death.[3] whom she met in 1917 as the dancing conductor of a black jazz band known as the Tennessee Ten.[4][5] Mills became well known in New York as a result of her role in the successful Broadway musical Shuffle Along (1921) at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre (barely onBroadway), one of the events credited with beginning the Harlem Renaissance, as well as acclaimed reviews in London,Paris, Ostend, Liverpool, and otherEuropean venues. She told the press that despite her years in vaudeville, she credited Shuffle Along with launching her career.[2] After Shuffle Along Lew Leslie, a white promoter, hired Mills and Thompson to appear nightly at the Plantation Club. The revue featured Mills and a wide range of black talent including visiting performers such as Paul Robeson. In 1922, Leslie turned the nightclub acts into a Broadway show called The Plantation Revue. It opened at the Forty-eighth Street Theatre on July 22. English theatrical impresario Charles B. Cochran brought the Plantation company to London, and they appeared at the London Pavilion in spring 1923 in a show he devised called Dover Street to Dixie, with a local all-white cast in the first half and Mills starring with the all-black Plantation cast in the second half.[5][6] In 1924 she headlined at the Palace Theatre, the most prestigious booking in all of vaudeville, and became an international superstar with the hit showLew Leslie's Blackbirds (1926). Among her fans when she toured Europe was the Prince of Wales, who told the press that he had seen Blackbirds 11 times.[7] Many in the black press admired her popularity and saw her as a role model: not only was she a great entertainer but she was also able to serve as "an ambassador of good will from the blacks to the whites... a living example of the potentialities of the Negro of ability when given a chance to make good".[8] Mills was featured in national magazines, Vogue and Vanity Fair and photographed by Bassano's studios andEdward Steichen. She made a signature song from her biggest hit, "I'm a Little Blackbird Looking for a Bluebird"; another of her hit songs was "I'm Cravin' for that Kind of Love".

March 08, 2016

Ira Aldridge skilled in writing and performing the most famous plays that was created paving the way for New generations

February 22, 2016

Born in New York City, Aldridge's first professional acting experience was in the early 1820s with the African Grove Theatre troupe. Facing discrimination in America, he left in 1824 for England and made his debut at London's Royal Coburg Theatre. As his career grew, his performances of Shakespeare's classics eventually met with critical acclaim and he subsequently became the manager of Coventry's Coventry Theatre Royal. From 1852, Aldridge regularly toured much of Continental Europe and received top honours from several heads of state. He died suddenly while on tour in Poland and was buried with honours in Łódź. Aldridge is the only actor of African-American descent honoured with a bronze plaque at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. Two of Aldridge's daughters, Amanda and Luranah, became professional opera singers.

Ester Jones famous singer from Chicago that inspired the creation of Betty boop cartoon character

February 22, 2016

Esther Lee Jones born c. 1918, date of death unknown, known by her stage names "Baby Esther", "Little Esther", and other similar variations, was an American singer and child entertainer of the late 1920s, known for interpreting popular songs with a "mixture of seriousness and childish mischief".After gaining attention in her hometown of Chicago, she became an international celebrity before leaving the public spotlight as a teenager

Larry Hoover in the streets his name is still infamous for what he created that still stands today in new generation

February 21, 2016

Larry Hoover Sr (born November 30, 1950 is a former American gangster and street gang kingpin. He is the founder of the Chicago street gang, the Gangster Disciples.Hoover is currently serving six life sentences at the ADX Florence prison facility in Fremont County, Colorado. He was previously sentenced to life imprisonment plus 200 years for a 1973 murder. However, in 1997, following a 17-year investigation, he was convicted of conspiracy, extortion, money laundering, and running a continuing criminal enterprise from state prison, and received another life term. He has made multiple attempts to have his sentence shortened.

Larry Davis became infamous for the Bronx situation that went down that people still talk about today

February 21, 2016

Larry Davis May 28, 1966 – February 20, 2008, later known as Adam Abdul-Hakeem, was a man from New York City who gained notoriety in November 1986 for his shootout in the South Bronx with officers of the New York City Police Department, in which six officers were shot. Davis, asserting self-defense, was acquitted of all charges aside from illegal gun possession. Davis was later convicted in April 1991 of a Bronx drug dealer's 1986 murder. In 2008, Davis died via stabbing by a fellow inmate.

Zelda wynn Valdes famous fashion designer who also created the legendary playboy bunny outfits

February 20, 2016

Zelda Valdes was born Zelda Christian Barbour in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. She trained as a classical pianist at the Catholic Conservatory of Music. In the early 1920s, Valdes started to work in the tailoring shop of her uncle in White Plains, New York. Around the same time, Valdes began working as a stock girl at a high-end boutique. Eventually, she worked her way up to selling and making alterations, becoming the shop's first black sales clerk and tailor. Looking back, Valdes said "It wasn't a pleasant time, but the idea was to see what I could do."Despite the struggles she experienced in her early experiences in the alteration industry, Valdes and her sister, Chez Valdes, opened the first African American owned Manhattan boutique in 1948.

Buffalo soldiers a group of men that dominated over in multiple situations during the 1800s they're legacy should be taught in schools

February 20, 2016

Buffalo Soldiers were United States Army regiments composed exclusively of African American soldiers, formed during the 19th century to serve on the American frontier. On September 21, 1866, the 10th Cavalry Regiment was formed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The nickname "Buffalo Soldiers" was purportedly given to the regiments by the American Indian tribes who fought against them during the American Indian Wars, and the term eventually became synonymous with all of the African American regiments that were established in 1866, including the 9th Cavalry Regiment, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Regiment and 38th Infantry Regiment.

Eugene Bullard he became military pilot that flew all over to helped in battles and more now is thousands of black piolets

February 20, 2016

Eugene Jacques Bullard (born Eugene James Bullard; October 9, 1895 – October 12, 1961 was one of the first African-American military pilots,although Bullard flew for France, not the United States. Bullard was one of the few black combat pilots during World War I, along with William Robinson Clarke, a Jamaican who flew for the Royal Flying Corps, Domenico Mondelli it from Italy, and Ahmet Ali Çelikten of the Ottoman Empire. Also a boxer and a jazz musician, he was called "L'Hirondelle noire" in French literally "Black Swallow

Henry box Brown became famous for mailing himself in a box to freedom to escape the dangerous situations he was in

February 20, 2016

nry "Box" Brown (c.1816–June 15, 1897)[1] was a 19th-century Virginiaslave who escaped to freedom at the age of 33 by arranging to have himself mailed in a wooden crate in 1849 toabolitionists in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania. For a short time Brown became a noted abolitionist speaker in the northeast United States. As a public figure and fugitive slave, Brown felt endangered by passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which increased pressure to capture escaped slaves. He moved toEngland and lived there for 25 years, touring with an anti-slavery panorama and becoming a mesmerist and showman. Mostly forgotten in the United States,[2] he married an English woman and had a second family with her. He returned to the US with them in 1875 and continued to earn a living as an entertainer. He toured and performed as a magician, speaker, and mesmerist until at least 1889, and the last decade of his life (1886-1897) was spent in Toronto, where he died...

Ned Huddleston an infamous outlaw that became famous for what he stood on doing things his way

February 20, 2016

Ned Huddleston (also known as Isom Dart) was born into slavery in Arkansas in 1849. His reputation as a rider, roper and bronco-buster earned him the nicknames of the “Black Fox” and the “Calico Cowboy .” He was also a notorious Wyoming Territory outlaw . In 1861 twelve-year-old Huddleston accompanied his owner, a Confederate officer, into Texas during the Civil War . After being freed at the end of the war Huddleston headed for the southern Texas- Mexico border region where he found work at a rodeo, became a stunt rider and honed his skills as a master horseman. Huddleston straddled both sides of the law. For a time he and a young Mexican bandit named Terresa survived as rustlers stealing horses in Mexico and selling them in Texas. Huddleston later joined a cattle drive heading northwest to Brown’s Hole in the Colorado -Wyoming area around 1871. The 6’2” Huddleston briefly found success mining go...

Bass Reeves first black us marshall who caught over four thousand people on the run he paved the way for other today

February 19, 2016

Reeves was born into slavery in 1838 in Crawford County , Arkansas . [1] [2] Reeves was named after his grandfather, Basse Washington. Bass Reeves and his family were slaves of Arkansas state legislator William Steele Reeves. [1] When Bass Reeves was eight (about 1846), William Reeves moved to Grayson County , Texas , near Sherman in the Peters Colony. [1] Bass Reeves may have served William Steel Reeves son, Colonel George R. Reeves who was a legislator in Texas until the time of his death from rabies in 1882. George Reeves was the Speaker of the House . [3] During the American Civil War , Bass parted company with George Reeves, perhaps "because Bass beat up George after a dispute in a card game." [2] [3] [4] Bass Reeves fled north into the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma ) and lived with the Cherokee , Seminole , and Creek Indians until he was freed by the thirteen...

Samuel Jesse battle became the first black lieutenant in the new York police department paved the way for others today

February 19, 2016

Samuel Jesse Battle (January 16, 1883 - August 7, 1966) was the first African American police officer in New York City. After attending segregated schoolsin North Carolina, Battle moved north, first to Connecticut, then to New York City, where he took a job as a train porter and began studying for the New York City Police Department civil service exam. He was sworn in on March 6, 1911.[1][2] Biog raphyEdit He was born on January 16, 1883 inNew Bern, North Carolina. His brother-in-law was PatrolmanMoses P. Cobb, who started working for the Brooklyn Police force in the early 1890s before the unification of NYC and acted as Battle's mentor. "Big Sam" as he was known — 6 feet, 3 inches tall, 280 pounds — earned the respect of his fellow officers after saving one officer's life in the early 1920s. They subsequently voted to allow him into the Sergeant's Academy. As the NYPD's first black lieutenant, during the intenseHarlem Riots of 1935 - after 3 days of violenc...