James Mercer Langston Hughes, born February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri was one of the first writers to portray the urban black experience realistically through his poems that typically expressed the tribulations and sometimes the joys of ghetto life in plain, spirited language. Educated at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania he published his first poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” in Crisis magazine in 1921 and studied at Columbia University from 1921 to 1922. He then lived for a time in Paris and after his return to the United States worked as a busboy in Washington, D.C. where in 1925, his literary skills were discovered after he left three of his poems beside the plate of American poet Vachel Lindsay, who helped Hughes publish his first volume of verse, Weary Blues (1926). In the time between his first book in 1926 and his death in 1967, Hughes wrote sixteen books of poems, two novels, three collections of short stories, four volumes of “editorial” and “documentary” fiction, twenty plays, children’s poetry, musicals and operas, three autobiographies, a dozen radio and television scripts, dozens of magazine articles and edited seven anthologies. In 1969 the former Bikor Holim Synagogue at 17th and Yesler in Seattle was named for Langston Hughes and the annual Illuminating Langston gala celebrates his life and birthday. Langston Hughes died May 22, 1967 at his home in Harlem.
This moment celebrating the Spirit and Life of Black History is brought to you by City University.
February 13, 1920, is a significant day in American baseball history. It marked the beginning of the Negro Leagues when Rube Foster and others came together to create a professional league that allowed black teams to perform for black fans. Organized play began in 1921 and showcased legendary players like Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson. Negro baseball produced dynasties that rivaled the Major Leagues, like the Kansas City Monarchs, winning 17 pennants, and the great Homestead Grays that took home 9 pennants in a row, and a total of 12 league wins. The Negro Leagues, which continued into the 1960’s, produced black stars the likes Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, and Willie Mays, who integrated and transformed the great American sport of Major League Baseball.
This moment celebrating the Spirit and Life of Black History is brought to you by City University.
Robert “Bumps” Blackwell was born in Seattle in 1918 and by the late 1940’s his Seattle-based band “Bumps Blackwell Junior Band” featured Ray Charles, Quincy Jones and played with renowned artists such as Cab Calloway, Billy Eckstine and Billie Holiday. Bumps moved to Los Angeles in the early 1950’s and by 1955 he had encountered Richard Penniman, better known as Little Richard. Bumps knew a hit song when he heard one and he and another song writer cleaned up the lyrics for what started out as something a little different became the popular song Tutti Frutti and Little Richard became a star with follow-up hits like Good Golly Miss Molly and Long Tall Sally. The success of Little Richard can be traced to Seattle’s own Bumps Blackwell.
This moment celebrating the Spirit and Life of Black History is brought to you by Wells Fargo “together we’ll go far”.
Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African American to serve in the United States senate and represented Mississippi in 1870 and 1871 during Reconstruction. His daughter, Susie Revels, became the wife of Horace Cayton and they came to Seattle in the late 1880’s and founded the first newspaper for blacks and whites in 1894, the Seattle Republican. Horace Cayton rose to prominence in the Republican Party serving as a frequent delegate to the county and state nominating conventions and as the King County convention secretary in 1902. At one point, the Seattle Republican had the second largest circulation in the city, but the paper folded in 1917 after Cayton was shunned for writing articles about Southern lynchings. Suzie and Horace resided in Seattle’s Capitol Hill area where they were often visited by Booker T. Washington.
This moment celebrating the Spirit and Life of Black History is brought to you by, City University.
The song known as the national Black anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing, was not originally written for that purpose. James Weldon Johnson, born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1871 wrote poetry, founded a newspaper, and was among the first Black lawyers admitted to the Florida bar. He and his brother Rosamund wrote Lift Every Voice which was first performed by 500 school children in 1900 to celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. In the years that followed, school children continued to sing the Anthem and when some became teachers themselves, they taught it to their students. Today, over 100 years since it was first sung, Lift Every Voice continues to be an eloquent anthem of hope, promise and perseverance.
This moment celebrating the Spirit and Life of Black History is brought to you by, City University.