Feb. 6: This day in African-American history (musical footnote)

[prolesunited]

1820
Emigration of Blacks to Sierra Leone in West Africa is organized. The "Mayflower of Liberia" will set sail from New York with 86 Blacks.

1867
Robert Tanner Jackson becomes first Black to receive a degree in dentistry.

1896
Writer Melvin Tolson who became the Poet Laureate of Liberia, is born in Moberly, Mo. He will publish a collection called "Rendezvous with America."

1945
Bob Marley, a Jamaican singer and song writer who emerged as a pop star with Reggae music, is born in Rhoden Hall, Jamaica

[pmbryant]

1. 1820 emigration to Sierra Leone?

"Mayflower of Liberia": I suspect there is a very interesting story behind that footnote of history.

:shrug:

--Peter

EDIT: A quick google search didn't reveal much more info. A lot of brief snippets about this, but very few details.

[DrWeird]

3. Isn't that were the "First Black President" myth comes from?

The first president of the United States was not George Washington. It was a man named John Hanson.

What brand of crack am I smoking?

Actually it's true.

George Washington was the first president elected under the Constitution. But the constitution was not ratified until well after the US was started in 1776. Under the Articles of Confederation the president was appointed by the Continental Congress, and there were, in fact, several Presidents of the United States before Washington. The first of which was named John Hanson.

Here's were the confusion comes in. There's a very famous person by the name of John Hanson, and a early dageurrotype (sp) exists and he is very clearly a black man. Hence there is an urban legend that the first president of the US was a black man.

Actually US president John Hanson was a white Swede. Believe it or not. The black John Hanson was an important abolitionist (?) in the early nineteenth century (?) and emigrated about this time and became the first black president of Liberia. Which was an important American allie in the early fledgling years of our history.

[ronnykmarshall]

2. Natalie Cole's birthday too.

1951 I think. She's exactly 10 years older than me. Saw her at LAX in 2000. What a beautiful woman.

[NightTrain]

4. Additional musical footnotes

February 6, 1960: Jesse Belvin, the Los Angeles-based R&B singer best known for "Goodnight My Love," dies in a car crash in Hope, Arkansas*.

February 6, 1998: Joe Stubbs, the lead singer of the Falcons on their 1959 hit, "You're So Fine," passes away. His brother, Levi Stubbs, is the lead singer of the Four Tops.


*Uh-oh! Something else for the freepers to blame on Bill Clinton.