Experiencing History: Today in Black History

Each month we'll list daily black history notes for the month. Here's what happened in June in Black History.

On June 3 in Black History...

Dr. Charles R. Drew

In 1904, Dr. Charles R. Drew was born in Washington, DC. In 1941, Dr. Drew's distinction in his profession was recognized when he became the first African-American surgeon selected to serve as an examiner on the American Board of Surgery. Dr. Drew had a lengthy research and teaching career and became a chief surgeon.

In 1942, singer Curtis Mayfield was born in Chiago, IL.

In 1916, activist and educator Ardelia Dixon was born.

In 1897, Memphis Minnie was born in Algiers, LA. She was an African American blues musician and singer.

In 1884, the Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in Princess Anne, Maryland. The first congregation of this church consisted of Black slaves who worshiped in the balcony of the St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Princess Anne, Maryland. It was originally called the Metropolitan United Methodist Church when it started in 1842. Slaves organized themselves into a separate church and erected a frame building on the farm of Georgia Jones in 1842. It was named the John Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church. During the Civil War, the free Black community was actively involved in education and established the first Black school in Somerset County, Maryland. Over the years, renovation, attentive care, and the need to maintain a place for worship have kept the congregation an active one to the present day. The current name is Metropolitan United Methodist Church and is located at 30522 East Broad Street, Princess Anne, Maryland.

In 1906, Josephine Baker, an African-American French expatriate dancer and singer, was born in St. Louis, MO. Ms. was a dancer and singer who became wildly popular in France during the 1920s. She also devoted much of her life to fighting racism.

On June 2 in Black History...
In 1989, Ghanaian American soccer player Freddy Adu was born. Adu plays for the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League. Adu plays primarily as an attacking midfielder, but he is also used as a winger or forward.

In 1950, Segregation was outlawed in dining cars in interstate transportation by the Supreme Court
In 1899, Black Americans observed day of fasting called by National Afro-American Council to protest lynching and racial massacres.
In 1834, Fifth national Black convention met in New York with fifty delegates from eight states.

Dr. Cornel West

In 1953, Cornel West was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Cornel West is a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual. He is a Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He has also taught at Yale, Harvard, and the University of Paris. Cornel West graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. He has written over 20 books and has edited 13. Though he is best known for his classics, Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and for his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, his most recent releases, Black Prophetic Fire and Radical King, were received with critical acclaim. Read more about Dr. West on his website here.

On June 1 in Black History...

Morgan Freeman

In 1994, South Africa rejoined the Commonwealth after an absence of 33 years.

In 1835, The 5th National Negro Convention met in Philadelphia and urged blacks to abandon theuse of terms "African" and "colored" when referring to "Negro" institutions, organizations and to themselves.

In 1937, Morgan Freeman was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Freeman is a respected actor who has appeared in such films as Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption, Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven and Batman Begins. Read more about Freeman here.