Civil Rights
On Feb. 1, 1960 four black freshmen at North Carolina A&T State University, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Jr., and David Richmond, took seats at the segregated lunch counter of F. W. Woolworth’s in Greensboro, N.C. They were refused service and sat peacefully until the store closed. They returned the next day, along with about 25 other students, and their requests were again denied. The Greensboro Four inspired similar sit-ins across the state and by the end of February, such protests were taking place across the South. Finally in July, Woolworth’s integrated all of its stores. The four have become icons of the civil rights movement.
Politics
1935 ? 1998
b. Wabbaseka, Ark. Growing up in Los Angeles, he spent much of 1954?66 in prison for various crimes including rape. In 1966 he joined the staff of Ramparts magazine, and soon became a member of the Black Panthers. In 1968 his book Soul on Ice made him famous. The next year, fleeing arrest following a Panther shootout with Oakland (Calif.) police, he began a period of exile in Cuba, Algeria, and other points, during which he broke with the Panthers. After his return to the United States in 1975, he espoused a wide, even bizarre, range of political, religious, and commercial causes.
The Arts
1907 – 1998
A member of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s, West was a keen observer of class and race conflicts. Recently, her novel The Wedding, was turned into a miniseries by Oprah Winfrey and starred actress Halle Berry.
The Arts
1894 ? 1967
b. Washington, D.C., as Nathan Eugene Toomer. A major figure of the Harlem Renaissance, he is known for one work, Cane (1923), a collection of stories, poems, and sketches about black life in rural Georgia and the urban North.
Literature
1729-1780. Sancho was born on a slave ship shortly after it left what is today the West African nation of Guinea. After the ship reached the Caribbean port of Cartagena, in what is now Colombia, his mother died and his father committed suicide. The baby was baptized ?Ignatius.? After several years, Sancho was taken to Greenwich, England, where he was given to three unmarried women. They gave him the surname ?Sancho? because he reminded them of the squire in Don Quixote. He later ran away and became butler to the Duchess of Montagu. Sancho later ran a grocery shop in Westminster. Self educated, Sancho composed music, appeared on the stage, and wrote numerous letters, published in 1782, after his death.
The Arts
1908 – 1997
A pharmacist who wrote newspaper ad copy, Petry came to notice when her book The Street, about life in Harlem, gained critical and popular success in 1946, selling 1.5 million copies. She later wrote additional novels, short stories, and children’s books, such as Tituba of Salem Village (1964) and Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railway (1955).
