African Descent

On April 28^th, 2009 Sojourner Truth will become the first African American woman to have a memorial bust in the United States Capitol building. The National Congress of Black Women, Inc (NCBW) will unveil the Sojourner Truth bust on April 28, 2009.

The Celebration of Truth campaign will include: The ceremony will include , a presentation of “Ain’t I A Woman,” by long time NCBW supporter and actress, Cicely Tyson. Music will be led by Lomax Spaulding, Yolanda Adams,and Dorinda Clarke Cole at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center Emancipation Hall.

April 22

Norman Hill was born on this date in 1933. He is an African-American administrator, activist and labor leader.

From Summit, New Jersey he received his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Haverford College in 1956. Haverford (in Pennsylvania) is one of the oldest colleges in America and Hill was one their first Black graduates. After finishing military service, he joined the civil rights movement in Chicago and served as Chicago Coordinator. His efforts included Youth March for Integrated Schools; Secretary, Chicago Area Negro American Labor Council; Staff Chairman, Chicago March Conventions; and Secretary of the Chicago Wade-Ins, integrating Rainbow Beach.

Also in the early 1960’s, Hill joined the the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), first as East Coast Field Secretary, then as National Program Director from 1961 to 1964. During those years he coordinated the Route 40 (from Baltimore to Washington, D.C) restaurant desegregation campaign, the Waldorf Astoria, A&P Stores, the Trailways Bus Company campaigns and he planned and directed the civil rights demonstration at the 1964 Republican National Convention. Working with Bayard Rustin, Hill built coalitions that mobilized activists from Baltimore, Chicago, Louisville, Cincinnati, Minneapolis and St. Paul.

He represented James Farmer, the National Director of CORE, on the March on Washington Policy Board. From 1964 to 1967, Hill was Legislative Representative and Civil Rights Liaison of the Industrial Union Department of the AFL-CIO. He also helped to coordinate Dr. Martin Luther King’s six-city 1964 get-out-the-vote tour. He lobbied to increase the minimum wage and was in the labor delegation on the Selma-Montgomery March against racial discrimination in voting in the Deep South. In 1965 Hill was one of the key planners of the Joint Apprenticeship Program, sponsored by APRI and the Workers Defense League. This was a Recruitment and Training Program, dedicated to the interest of minority participation in the building trades and construction industry.

From 1967 to 1974, Hill was Associate Director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute. Here, he helped coordinate the Memphis March at the time of Dr. King’s assassination in 1968. Norman Hill became Executive Director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute in 1975. Since 1980, he has served as President of the APRI. Since joining the APRI, Hill has organized over 200 local A. Philip Randolph Institute affiliate chapters in America. Hill serves many community and labor related organizations.

He serves on the Board of Trustees of Freedom House; National Committee of Social Democrats, USA; League for Industrial Democracy; Bayard Rustin Fund; National Coalition of Black Voter Participation; and is a member of the Black Leadership Forum and National Committee on Pay Equity. Hill is a member of the Newspaper Guild, AFL-CIO and has published articles in such journals as the AFL-CIO News, The New Leaders, and numerous Black publications. He also writes for the Black-Labor Agenda.

Reference:
The World Book Encyclopedia. World Book, Inc.
ISBN 0-7166-0096-X

April 21

Clara Ward

On this date in 1924, Clara Ward was born. She was an African-American gospel singer and composer.

Ward was from Philadelphia, PA where she began her singing and piano career at the age of six. In 1934 she was an accompanist for the Ward Trio, a family group that included her mother, Gertrude and her sister Willa. The group received national attention in 1943 when it sang at the National Baptist Convention. Afterwards they toured throughout the country.

In 1948 the group began a fifteen-year career with W. Herbert Brewster. During that time they produced Surely God Is Able and I’m Climbing Higher and Higher. This song made them one of the most popular female gospel groups of their time. Clara Ward was highly regarded for her ability to convey drama in slow gospel ballads and non-metrical hymns such as When I’ve Done the Best I Can. Later Ward built on her style by inserting techniques such as shrieks and growls, moving towards what is known as “hard” gospel. Her best example of this was the 1957 song Packin’ Up.

During the 1960’s Ward turned increasingly to secular music, even though her gospel music had attracted a wide audience. This change cost her dearly in popularity with her gospel following. In 1963 she performed in the first gospel musical written by Langston Hughes, entitled Tambourines To Glory. She made several successful tours in major U.S. settings including the Newport Jazz Festival. Clara Ward died on January 16, 1973.

Reference:
Black Women in America An Historical Encyclopedia
Volumes 1 and 2, edited by Darlene Clark Hine
Copyright 1993, Carlson Publishing Inc., Brooklyn, New York
ISBN 0-926019-61-9

April 20

On this date in 1853, Harriet Tubman began her work with the Underground Railroad This was a network of antislavery activists who helped slaves escape from the South.

On her first trip, Tubman brought her own sister and her sister’s two children out of slavery in Maryland. A year later she rescued her brother, and in 1857 returned to Maryland to guide her aged parents to freedom. Over a period of ten years Tubman made an estimated 19 expeditions into the South and personally escorted about 300 slaves to the North.

Reference: The Encyclopedia Britannica, Fifteenth Edition. Copyright 1996 Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. ISBN 0-85229-633-0

1 comment to African Descent

• luckyrooster

  March 30th, 2009 at 4:06 pm

  We lost a great man.

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