Jazz great,vibraphonist, Lionel Hampton dies at age 94.

A total of 1,154, 720 Blacks were inducted or drafted into the armed services. Official records listed 7,768 Black commissioned officers on August 31, 1945. At the height of the conflict 3,902 Black women (115 officers) were enrolled in the Womens Army Auxiliary Corps (WACS) and 68 were in the Navy auxiliary, the WAVES. The highest ranking Black women were Major Harriet M. West and Major Charity E. Adams. Distinguished Unit Citations were awarded the 969th Field Artillery Battalion, the 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion and the 332nd Fighter Group.

Donald McHenry named to succeed Andrew Young as UN ambassador.

Eldridge Cleaver, author and civil rights activist, was born on August 31, 1935 in Wabbaseka, Arkansas.  Cleaver, a child of six, lived in a household where his father abused his mother.  The Cleavers moved to Phoenix, Arizona and finally settled in Los Angeles, California where Cleaver spent much of his childhood in and out of reform schools for petty crimes.  In 1957, at the age of 22, he was convicted of assault with intent to commit murder and sent first to California’s San Quentin Prison and then transferred to Folsom Prison.  As an inmate, Cleaver spent most of his time reading works by Thomas Paine, Voltaire, Karl Marx, and Richard Wright.  He was also inspired by the teachings of Malcolm X who was assassinated during his incarceration. Their writings influenced him to write, in prison, a collection of essays on race and the black revolution.  Those essays were published as the book Soul on Ice in 1968, two years after his release from prison.  

In 1966, Cleaver joined the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense shortly after it was founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland.  Cleaver became the Partys first information minister.  The following year he married fellow Black Panther Party member Kathleen Cleaver.  Due to the popularity of Soul on Ice, Cleaver soon became one of the best known Panther leaders, a position enhanced by his 1968 run for U.S. president on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket.  That same year Cleaver was severely wounded during a shootout between Black Panthers and Oakland police.  Facing attempted murder charges, he skipped bail and fled the United States, living in exile in Mexico, Algeria, Cuba, and France.

When Cleaver returned to the U.S. in 1975, he experienced a political transformation.  He denounced the Black Panther Party and told the media that he would receive a fair trial in the American legal system.  After a long legal fight, the court dropped his attempted murder charge and he was placed on probation for assault.

In the 1980s Cleaver’s political and religious

Trinidad-Tobago proclaimed independent.

Washington (born August 31, 1918, Los Angeles, California, U.

The Second Baptist Church, the oldest black Baptist church in El Paso, Texas, was established in 1884. The brick edifice that is its current home was erected between 1903 and 1907 at Second and Virginia Streets, standing at the intersection of the city’s Mexican American neighborhood, the black American community, and downtown El Paso.  

Second Baptist’s history began in the summer of 1884 when E. M. Griggs, a Dallas missionary, was commissioned by the Baptist Home Mission Board of New York to establish churches for black residents in far west Texas.  After canvassing the total population of 25 African American El Paso residents, Reverend Griggs identified five residents who were self-declared Baptists.  These five residents: Mr. and Mrs. Joe Pollard, Thomas Gaines, Calvin Neal, and George Duval, established the first black Baptist church in El Paso under Rev. Griggs.

The five founding church members worshipped in a small rented one-room adobe house, with Calvin Neal officiating as the interim pastor. In 1886, each of the five members donated $10.00 which was augmented by a $200 donation from the white First Baptist Church of El Paso. With that money they purchased a lot on Utah Street. After worshiping in a temporary building, in 1888 the congregation, with a $400 loan from the Baptist Home Mission Board and contributions from prominent families in the larger community, built a permanent edifice at 515 Utah Street.    

Beginning in 1903 Reverend J.T. Hill led the congregation in constructing a new building for $25,000 at the Church’s current location on Second and Virginia streets. That building was completed in 1907. A church bell was installed and rung through the years on special occasions.  In 1918, a parsonage at 311 Tornillo Street was purchased, which provided a residence for the Church’s ministers for many years.  It was sold and another parsonage was purchased at 5804 Dolphin Street.      

Reverend H. A. Rogers, formerly of Chicago, Illinois, became pastor of Second Baptist in 1923. One year later he

Gittens was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on August 31, 1928, one of seven children.

Lonnie McLucas, a Black Panther activist, convicted in New Haven, Conn., court of conspiracy to murder Alex Rackley, and alleged FBI informant. Charges against other defendants in the case were later dismissed.

Birthday of Eldridge Cleaver, former Black Panther Party minister of information.

Ruth Robinson’s tenth and last child, Frank Robinson Jr., was born in August 31, 1935 after her marriage to her third husband, Frank Robinson. Unfortunately, her third marriage did not work out either and the mother moved to California from Texas with Robinson Jr. and his two half-brothers.

Growing up in a poor, ethnically diverse neighborhood, Robinson showed athletic capabilities from a young age, excelling in baseball specifically. At only 15 years of age, Robinson was a right-handed hitting and throwing out-fielder on Coach George Powley’s 1950 American Legion team. He later joined the baseball program at McClymonds High School.

Graduating in 1953, Robinson proceeded to sign a contract with the Cincinnati Reds and batted .348 as an outfielder at the Pioneer League in Utah. The following year, after eight games with the Tulsa Team of the Texas League, the player joined the Columbus team of the South Atlantic League, batting .336 with 25 homers and 110 runs batted in. Robinson continued to train with the Cincinnati Reds in 1955 but had to be reassigned to the Columbus team due to an arm injury.

Upon recovery, Frank Robinson rejoined the Cincinnati Reds in the spring of 1956 and made an impactful comeback with a debut of .290, 38 homers and a league-leading 122 runs. This won him the National League Rookie-of-the-Year honors.

Over the next nine seasons, the star topped the .300 mark five times, struck 25 or more homers eight times and scored 100 or more runs four times. Robinson’s determined and aggressive attitude on the field led him to be titled as a ‘vicious’ player and he endured frequent injuries during his career.

In 1961, Robinson joined the Reds once again to lead the team to their first National League pennant since 1940 and won the League’s Most Valuable Player award for batting .323 with 37 homers and 117 runs batted in. following the 1965 season, the team had to bid farewell to Robinson as disputes between the player and the team’s general manager led to the former’s transfer to the American

On August 31, 1935, in Beaumont, Texas, U.S., American professional baseball player and manager Frank Robinson was born. He was the first black manager in major league baseball.