Republican Charles Edmund Nash served in the 44th Congress as Louisiana’s only black representative. Nash was born in Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, on May 23, 1844. Before his time in Congress Nash attended common schools, was a bricklayer in New Orleans, and had enlisted as a private for the U.S. volunteers in July of 1863. He was later promoted to Sergeant Major, but his military service proved to be disastrous as he lost the lower third of his right leg just before the Civil War’s end.

As a result of his military service and strong support of the Republican Party, he was appointed to the position of night inspector in the New Orleans Customs House – a powerful post in the local political machine. In 1874 he was elected, uncontested, to the House of Representatives from the 6th Congressional District.

Despite his easy election, Nash made little political impact during his time in Congress.  He was assigned to the Committee on Education and Labor.  On June 7th, 1876 Nash made the only major address during his term as Congressman.  His speech condemned the violent and anti- democratic actions of some Southern Democrats, called for greater education among the populace, and also for increased racial and political peace especially in the South.

Partly a result of internal divisions within the Louisiana Republican Party, Nash lost his bid for reelection to Democratic challenger Edward Robertson by over 5,000 votes.  Nash never again held elective office.  He returned briefly to the bricklayer’s trade and was later a postmaster in St. Landry parish until 1882. He also later worked as a cigar maker. Charles Edmund Nash died in New Orleans on June 21st, 1913.

Sources:

Bruce A. Ragsdale and Joel D. Treese, Black Americans in Congress, 1870-1989 (Washington, DC; U.S. Government Printing Office, 1990); Rayford W. Logan and Michael R. Winston, Dictionary of American Negro Biography (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1982).

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Shuffle Along, first of a succession of popular musicals featuring Black talent, opened at the 63rd Street Music Hall, New York City.

Benjamin Sherman Crothers was an American actor, musician, singer and dancer. He was born on May 23, 1910 to Benjamin and Donnie Crothers in Terre Haute, Indiana. He got his nickname when he auditioned for a radio show in 1932 and the director told him he needed a catchy name, which is when he came up with the name “Scatman” on the spot. Ironically enough, he later started scat singing as well. Scatman Crothers started his career as a drummer for a band in his home town. He also played a number of other instruments, including the guitar and piano. He performed with many artists including the gangster Al Capone. He started his own band in the 1930s and later moved to Oakland, California with them. In the 1940s, he started making short musical pieces, often playing the drums with artists such as American jazz singer Slim Gaillard.

He first started acting in the 1950s, with his debut role in the 1953 movie “Meet Me at the Fair”. He appeared in several small roles in film and television throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and it wasn’t until 1970 that he got a big role in an animated movie called “The Aristocrats” which was produced by Walt Disney Productions. He voiced the role of “Scat Cat” in the film and also sang the theme song titled “Ev’rybody Wants to be a Cat”. Crothers was a good friend of the acclaimed actor Jack Nicholson, and appeared in four of his films. The first of these was the 1972 film “The King of Marvin Gardens” in which he played a small supporting role of the character “Lewis”. The next film they did together was a comedy titled “The Fortune” released in 1975, in which he again played a small role. The same year, he appeared in one of Nicholson’s biggest hits titled “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” in which he played the role of a ward orderly named “Turkle”. In 1980, he again co-starred with Nicholson in the acclaimed suspense thriller film “The Shining”.

Crothers’ other film roles include “Coonskin” in 1975, “Silver Streak” in 1976, “The Shootist” in 1976, “Bronco Billy” in 1980, “Zapped” in

Marvelous Marvin Hagler was a world middleweight boxing champion and is known as one of the greatest boxers of the 1970s and 1980s. He was born Marvin Nathaniel Hagler on May 23, 1954 in New Jersey. His family’s property was destroyed in the 1967 Newark Riots, after which they relocated to Brockton, Massachusetts. He took up boxing as a teenager, and trained with two brothers named Pat and Goody Petronelli, who owned a local gym. In 1973, he became the National Amateur Athletic Union boxing champion. During his early career as a professional boxer, he was ranked No. 1 in the middleweight category but never had a chance to fight for the title because many of his opponents were unwilling to face him. He often had to travel long distances to his opponents’ home towns to look for prominent fights.

His first major fight was against Willie ‘the Worm’ Monroe who was being trained by Joe Frazier. He only received 2 week’s notice to prepare for the fight, which he lost by a close decision. However, Monroe offered him a rematch which Hagler won in 12 rounds and then defeated him again in a third fight, this time in only 2 rounds. He was brought to the notice of a Boston based promoter named Rip Valenti, who started pairing him up with more prominent opponents. He first fought the 1972 Olympic Gold Medalist Sugar Ray Seales, whom he defeated in the first fight. He then won a number of other fights against opponents such as Mike Colbert, Kevin Finnegan and Bobby Watts.

His first title fight came in November 1979 against World Middleweight Champion Vito Antuofermo in Las Vegas, Nevada. After a grueling 15 round match, the match was announced to be a draw, much to everyone’s surprise. After Antuofermo lost his title to Minter, Hagler fought Minter for it. This was a controversial and racially charged fight, but Marvelous Marvin Hagler won and finally managed to gain the title of World Champion. Over the next seven years, he successfully defended his title 12 times and remained the undisputed middleweight champion between

Locmotive smoke stack May 23,1871 Patent# 115,153

First Aboriginal Senator Chosen

Neville Bonner, the Queensland President of the One People of Australia League, is certain to become the first Aboriginal member of an Australian parliament. He was selected tonight for a Senate vacancy created by Dame Annabelle Rankin becoming high commissioner to New Zealand. The state governments, by convention, accept the nominee of the party whose senator is to be replaced. Mr Bonner wept as the Liberal Party announced the result, and said he was proud an Aborigine had finally made a breakthrough.

Atty. John Henry Smyth named minister to Liberia.

McCollum lived in the New Horizon Rehabilitation Center, a rest home in Silver Springs, Florida, until her death from a stroke on May 23, 1992.

Jackie “Moms” Mabley found fame and fortune as a stand-up comedian during the twentieth century. Beginning as a staple on the chitlin’ circuit and late night talk show favorite, she went on to become an internationally known entertainer whose career spanned five decades.

One of twelve children, Mabley was born Loretta Mary Aiken on March 19, 1894 to businessman and volunteer firefighter James Aiken and Mary Smith, a stay-at-home mother in Brevard, North Carolina. When Loretta was eleven, her father was killed in an explosion, and later her mother was killed on Christmas day by a truck. During her adolescence, Loretta was raped; both episodes resulted in pregnancy and the children being given up through adoption.

Mabley relocated to Cleveland, Ohio, at age fourteen and joined the black vaudeville scene as an all-around entertainer. While on this circuit, she met and fell in love with fellow performer Jack Mabley. After the short-lived love affair, she adopted his name. The sobriquet “Moms” came a short time later as other performers noticed her protection and kindness for budding entertainers.

In 1921 Mabley began performing with the married duo, Butterbeans and Susie, which led to her debut at Harlem’s Cotton Club. During the early 1930s, Mabley established herself as a stage performer. She worked with a number of celebrities, including Zora Neale Hurston in Fast and Furious: A Colored Revue in 37 Scenes. In 1933 she costarred in Emperor Jones alongside actor Paul Robeson. By the end of the decade, she became the first female comedian to perform at the Apollo Theater. By the 1950s Mabley earned $10,000 a week at the Apollo, making her one of the most highly paid performers of that era. She would also appear there more than any other entertainer in the history of the theater.

Mabley costarred in the motion pictures, The Big Timers (1945) and Killer Diller (1948), which also featured Butterfly Queen and Nat King Cole. But it was her unparalleled standup routines that gave her staying power. By the early 1960s,

Classically trained ballerina Tai Jimenez freelanced and also performed with the Dance Theatre of Harlem for 12 years before she became the only Dance Theatre member to make a successful transition to one of the major ballet companies in North America.  In January 2006, she joined Boston Ballet as a principal dancer.

Jimenez was born on May 23, 1970 in Jamaica, New York, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, to Blanche Maria Jimenez, a teacher with a doctorate in education, and Enrique Jimenez.  Jimenez’s maternal grandparents were immigrants from Trinidad. Jimenez grew up without her father (he is presently living in Spain), although she met him later in her life. She attended LaGuardia High School in New York, a specialized school of the arts.

Jimenez began ballet training with Joan Millen Mesh, but in the 1980s she took lessons at a private studio with Kirov Ballet-trained teacher, Madame Gabriela Darvash.  Jimenez also studied at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, the School of American Ballet, and with Kenneth Ludden, a dancer who was associated with Britain’s Royal Ballet School.

In 1993 Jimenez performed at her first major professional venue, the Kennedy Center Opera House, in Michael Smuin’s Emmy-winning ballet, A Song for a Dead Warrior. In 1998, playing the role of Ivy Smith, Jimenez made her Broadway debut in a revival of On the Town.  In December 1999 Jimenez was a featured dancer in pop star Prince’s concert Rave Unto the Year 2000.

Jimenez has appeared as a featured dancer at the Academy Awards, and she originated the roles of Ysabel in Debbie Allen’s Soul Possessed, and Fran in Maria Irene Fornes’s Letters from Cuba.  In the 2003 movie One Last Dance, starring Patrick Swayze, Jimenez played the role of Mela.

Jimenez has performed the title roles in Firebird and in Giselle.  While with the Boston Ballet in 2006 she originated a role in Mark Morris’s Up and Down.  Jimenez has danced in Balanchine’s Serenade, as well as the lead role in his A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Jimenez

Methodist Episcopal Church conference, meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, elected two Black bishops Matthew W. Clair of Washington, D.C., and Robert E. Jones of New Orleans.

Thursday, May 23,1981, the Honorable Robert Nesta

Marley was given an official funeral by the people

of Jamaica. Following the funeral -- attended by

both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the

Opposition -- Bobs body was taken to his

birthplace where it now rests in a mausoleum.

Bob Marley was 36 years old.

The grandson of former slaves, Cornelius Lacy Golightly was born in Waterford, Mississippi, on May 23, 1917.

The magnitude of an inventors work can often be defined by the esteem in which he is held by fellow inventors. If this is the case, then Granville Woods was certainly a respected inventor as he was often referred to as the “Black Thomas Edison.”

Granville Woods was born on April 23, 1856 in Columbus, Ohio. He spent his early years attending school until the age of 10 at which point he began working in a machine shop repairing railroad equipment and machinery. Intrigued by the electricity that powered the machinery, Woods studied other machine workers as they attended to different pieces of equipment and paid other workers to sit down and explain electrical concepts to him. Over the next few years, Woods moved around the country working on railroads and in steel rolling mills. This experience helped to prepare him for a formal education studying engineering (surprisingly, it is unknown exactly where he attended school but it is believed it was an eastern college.)

After two years of studying, Woods obtained a job as an engineer on a British steamship called the Ironsides. Two years later he obtained employment with D & S Railroads, driving a steam locomotive. Unfortunately, despite his high aptitude and valuable education and expertise, Woods was denied opportunities and promotions because of the color of his skin. Out of frustration and a desire to promote his abilities, Woods, along with his brother Lyates, formed the Woods Railway Telegraph Company in 1884. The company manufactured and sold telephone, telegraph and electrical equipment. One of the early inventions from the company was an improved steam boiler furnace and this was followed up by an improved telephone transmitter which had superior clarity of sound and could provide for longer range of distance for transmission.

In 1885, Woods patented a apparatus which was a combination of a telephone and a telegraph. The device, which he called “telegraphony,” would allow a

Robert Bumps Blackwell was a musician, producer, and composer who worked with the top names in early jazz and rock and roll.  Blackwell was born in Seattle, Washington on May 23, 1918.  By the late 1940s his Seattle-based Bumps Blackwell Junior Band featured Ray Charles and Quincy Jones, and played with artists like Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, and Billy Eckstine. He moved to Los Angeles, California in the early 1950s and hired on with Art Rupes Specialty Records.

In 1955, Blackwell flew to New Orleans, Louisiana to record Little Richard (Richard Penniman), a singer who they hoped would become the next Nat King Cole. During a break in the tepid recording session everybody headed to a nearby bar where Mr. Penniman started banging out an obscene club song on the piano. Daddy Bumps knew he had a hit so he brought in a local songwriter to clean up the lyrics. Tutti-Frutti, good booty became Tutti Frutti, all rootie, and Little Richard became a star. Bumps wrote or co-wrote other early rock hits including Good Golly Miss Molly, Long Tall Sally, and Rip It Up.

Blackwell produced the hit You Send Me against Rupes wishes.  Rupe feared Sam Cookes crossover from gospel to pop would hurt the sales of his gospel records. Rupe fired Bumps who then took Cooke and his recording cross town to Keen Records where it became the first #1 hit by a solo black artist. He went on to garner 17 Gold Records while producing a variety of artists including Sly Stone, Lou Rawls, the Fifth Dimension, the Chambers Brothers, the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, the Coasters, Ike and Tina Turner and Bob Dylan.

Blackwell taught his artists the business side of music, because I dont want my pupils to be unprepared like I was, like [Little] Richard was, like we all were. The Blackwell International Academy of the Performing Arts was opened after his death in 1985.

University of Washington

Raymond (Ray) Merriwether, prominent Seattle, Washington African American architect, real estate developer, and newspaper owner, was born in Taylor, Texas on June 19, 1924 to Colie and Annie Merriwether.  After graduating from high school Merriwether attended barber school and served a short time in the United States Navy.

In 1943, Merriwether entered Howard University where he became president of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.  He earned a Civil Engineering degree from Howard in 1947.  Later that year he moved to Seattle, Washington and began his career with the City of Seattle’s Building Department as a Structural Plan Examiner.  Merriwether was the third black engineer to work in Seattle.  In 1949, at the age of 25, Merriwether built his first new apartment building, the 18-unit Chrystal Arms followed by the Chrystal Plaza, and another 18 units the next year.  Both buildings were named for his daughter, Chrystal.  These were soon followed by three more apartment buildings with a total of 54 units.

In 1952, Merriwether bought The Pacific Leader, a newspaper serving the black community, from City Councilman Sam Smith.  As editor of the paper Merriwether teamed with National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attorney Phillip Burton, to challenge racial discrimination in the city.  The Pacific Leader and the NAACP led a successful campaign to get local banks to hire the first black bank teller.  They also pressured the Tradewell chain of grocery stores to hire black clerks and persuaded the owners of a central Seattle office building to rent to black professionals.

Deciding to return to school to gain more skills to further his career, Merriwether enrolled at the University of Washington and Washington State University from 1955 to 1960 and earned a degree in Architecture and a graduate degree in Urban Planning.  Merriwether moved from Seattle to Kirkland, Washington, one of its suburbs in 1962.

After becoming a registered Architect and a registered Civil and Structural Engineer,

Frank Kobina Parkes , in full Francis Ernest Kobina Parkes (born 1932, Korle Bu, Gold Coast [now Ghana]—died May 23, 2004, Accra, Ghana), Ghanaian journalist, broadcaster, and poet whose style and great confidence in the future of Africa owe much to the Senegalese poet David Diop.

Parkes was educated in Accra, Ghana, and Freetown, Sierra Leone. He worked briefly as a newspaper reporter and editor and in 1955 joined the staff of Radio Ghana as a broadcaster. He was president of the Ghana Society of Writers (later the Ghana Association of Writers) and published a volume of poems, Songs from the Wilderness (1965). From the early 1970s Parkes worked for the Ministry of Information in Accra.

His poetry, a rhythmic free verse with much repetition of words and phrases, tends to romanticize and glorify all that is African, from the blackness of African skin to indigenous music, dancing, and ritual. His work recalls his continent’s past sufferings, exhorts the reader to do something about the oppression of blacks, and criticizes world powers for their concern with war and technology rather than with human needs; it also admonishes colonial administrators of the past for the legacy they left behind them. Through his poetry, Parkes displayed a great faith, similar to Diop’s, in the ability of Africans to bring about a glorious future through their own efforts. Although a number of his poems have been collected in anthologies of African and Ghanaian poetry, Songs from the Wilderness is Parkes’s only published volume of poetry.