Alain Locke was born on this day.

Tyler Perry , original name Emmitt Perry, Jr. (born September 13, 1969, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.), American playwright, actor, screenwriter, producer, and director whose works—in which he often portrayed the character Mabel (“Madea”) Simmons, an outspoken grandmother—combined humour, religious wisdom, and personal triumph.

Perry had a difficult childhood. He grew up with a physically abusive father (he later changed his name to disassociate himself from his father), attempted suicide, and dropped out of high school, although he eventually passed a high school equivalency exam. After he heard television personality Oprah Winfrey suggest that writing down personal experiences could be cathartic, Perry began to keep a journal, which evolved into his first play, I Know I’ve Been Changed. Perry worked a number of odd jobs to raise money for its first staging, which took place in Atlanta in 1992. His self-funded production—in which he also starred—received almost no attention and sent him into extreme poverty. In 1998, however, he restaged the play and sold out performances for eight days in a row before moving it to Atlanta’s nationally acclaimed Fox Theatre. Perry’s work was distinct in its blend of traditional theatre with African American Southern entertainment, which had been largely untapped by larger commercial enterprises.

Perry’s second stage production, a 1999 adaptation of Woman, Thou Art Loosed! by T.D. Jakes, grossed more than $5 million in five months. Perry’s trademark character, Madea, was created in his play I Can Do Bad All by Myself (2000; film 2009). The brutally honest, rambunctious gun-toting grandmother, whose name comes from the frequent African American contraction of “Mother Dear,” was played by Perry in drag. She was a recurring figure in a number of his later plays, such as Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2001; film 2005), Madea’s Family Reunion (2002; film 2006), Madea’s Class Reunion (2003), Madea Goes to Jail (2005; film 2009), Madea’s Big Happy Family (2010; film 2011), A Madea

Singer/television & stage star Nell Carter was born today

Gen. E.R.S. Canby ordered South Carolina courts to impanel Blacks jurors.

Tyler Perry is an American actor, producer and director. He was born as Emmitt Perry Jr. on September 13, 1969, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He had three other siblings, and a very difficult childhood. His father was a carpenter and used to frequently physically abuse his family. Perry mentioned in later interviews how his father used to beat him and his siblings over ever trifling issue. Tyler was depressed growing up, and even tried to commit suicide to escape the harsh realities of his young life. However, his attempt was unsuccessful and he decided to separate from his family. At the age of 16, he left his father’s house, dropped out of high school and changed his name to Tyler to end any associations with his earlier life.

Perry later went back to high school and earned a General Equivalency Diploma (GED). He worked a number of odd jobs to make enough money to survive on. It was during this time that he turned to writing. Inspired by an episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show, on which Oprah talked about expressing your feelings by writing them, Perry began to do the same. He began writing a series of letters to himself, in which he expressed his innermost struggles about life. Using this material, Perry consolidated and edited them to form the basis for his first show, a musical called “I Know I’ve Been Changed”. The show addresses many serious issues such as child abuse, and forgiveness for others. In order to finance the show, Perry began saving all the money he earned from working odd jobs, and eventually managed to save $12,000.

He used these savings to put on the first production of “I Know I’ve Been Changed” at a theatre in Atlanta. The show performed very poorly, only ran for one weekend, and only attracted a crowd of about 30 people. Having lost all his savings, Perry returned to working odd jobs. However, he did not give up on his dream and continued to put up performances of his play in different cities. None of these took off, and Perry was virtually bankruprt. At one point, he was living in his car

Former Vice President Henry A. Wallace, Jr., in 1948 became the Presidential nominee of the Progressive Party.  Wallace ran a spirited campaign which unlike almost any before, took on the question of racial discrimination and segregation against African Americans in the South.  What follows is his September 13, 1948 radio address at NBC in which he describes in detail his calls for the end of both discrimination and segregation in the South and the rest of the nation.     

I have been in the South so many times and every time I have found many new things.  But never were my eyes opened so widely as on my last trip.  It is a strange experience to stand on the main street of an American town and to ask only for the right to speak—and to be denied that right.  It is a strange experience to look into faces blinded by unreasoning hate, to see people who will not let you speak, when the words concern the improvement of the lives of the very people before you.

Yes I have seen the South many times: the thousands of unpainted shacks, the families living in houses with no doors in the door frames and no windows in the window frames; where a man and his family sleep in one room, all of them sleeping in one bed in cold weather, the children sleeping on the floor in warm weather.  The people of the South are fine people: our aspirations are their aspirations.  They are a patriotic people, a religious people.

And it is this that struck me on my recent trip: that the basic human need of the South is simply a reconciling of our daily action with what we are taught in the church and what we are taught in school.  The foundation of patriotism and religion is the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.  The Brotherhood of Man sets forth no limitation of color.  The Constitution of the United States sets forth very specifically that the rights of citizens to vote shall not be denied on account of race or color.  I came out of the South utterly convinced that these denials of God and man are evils which can

Cedric Richmond is the U.S. Representative for Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes much of New Orleans. Richmond, a Democrat, won the post after more than a decade of service in the Louisiana House of Representatives.

Born September 13, 1973, his mother was a public school teacher and a small business owner, and his father died when he was seven years old.  Growing up in East New Orleans he played baseball at Goretti playground and was inspired by his coaches there, which later influenced him to coach Little League Baseball at Goretti starting in 1989, at the age of 16.

Richmond graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in 1991, and earned his undergraduate degree from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He completed his Juris Doctorate at Tulane University School of Law, passed the Louisiana Bar Exam, and worked as an attorney at the New Orleans law firm of Gray & Gray. During this period he was elected president of the Louis A. Martinet Legal Foundation. Richmond also graduated from the Harvard University Executive Education Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1997.

Richmond entered politics as a Louisiana State Representative for District 101, serving from 2000 to 2011. He is one of the youngest legislators in Louisiana history, elected at the age of 26. During this time, he served on the Natural Resources and Transportation, Highways and Public Works, and Legislative Audit Advisory committees.  He was Chair of the Committee on Judiciary, and president of the black caucus in the Louisiana State Legislature. In 2005, as Hurricane Katrina was headed toward New Orleans, he tried to get as many people to evacuate as possible and alerted Governor Kathleen Blanco to the complacent attitudes of some residents and local officials.  He later criticized Mayor Ray Nagin for not calling for a mandatory evacuation.

A residency dispute disqualified Richmond from the New Orleans City Council race in 2005 and suspended his license to practice law for six months.  Three years

Andre Braugher wins Emmy for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role on Homicide: Life on the Street.

Iyanla Vanzant was born today

Mississippi Governor Ross R. Barnett defied the federal government in impassioned speech on statewide radio-television hookup, saying he would interpose the authority of the state between the University of Mississippi and federal judges who had ordered the admission of James H. Meredith. Barnett said, There is no case in history where the Caucasian race has survived social integration. He promised to go to jail if necessary to prevent integration at the state university. His defiance set the stage for the gravest federal state crisis since the Civil War.

Fifteen hundred troopers and officers stormed the Attica Prison. Thirty-two convicts and ten guards were killed. Investigation showed that nine of the ten guards were killed by the storming party.

The talented and controversial rapper and actor Tupac Shakur dies in Las Vegas

at the age of 25 a few days after sustaining 4 bullet wounds.

Tavis Smiley is a well known talk show host and media personality. He was born on September 13, 1964 in Gulfport, Mississippi to a single teenaged mother named Joyce Marie Roberts. Joyce married a US Air Force Officer named Emory Garnell Smiley, and Tavis was named after his stepfather. He did not know about his biological father until he was much older, and in fact, never publicly revealed his real father’s name. Because of his stepfather’s transfer, the family moved to Indiana, where they lived in a three bedroom mobile home. Tavis had three other siblings, and when his mother’s sister died, four of her five children came to live with his family as well. As a result, Tavis, his parents, siblings and grandmother all lived together in their trailer home.

He belonged to a very religious family, and as a child, was hardly allowed to watch movies or any television shows that his parents didn’t approve of. Tavis was interested in politics from a very young age, which was sparked when he attended a fundraiser for U.S. Senator Birch Bayh at the age of 13. As a high school student, he was an active member of the student council and debate team. After high school, he enrolled at Indiana University Bloomington, with only a few possessions and $50 in his pocket. He completed the financial aid paperwork after his admission, where he worked, attended classes and lived off campus with the basketball team. He was also a member of the student senate and a director of minority affairs, along with being a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. He was politically active, and organized student protests over the death of a black student by a white police officer.

He interned at the office of Los Angeles’ mayor Tom Bradley, and also considered attending Harvard Law School but didn’t take admission. He started his radio career at a local radio station named KGFJ, where he did a one minute segment called “The Smiley Report”. He also co-hosted a talk show in Los Angeles, where he aired his views on racism, economic opportunities

Alain Leroy Locke, a leading black intellectual during the early twentieth century and an important supporter of the Harlem Renaissance, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 13, 1886 to Pliny Ishmael Locke and Mary Hawkins Locke.

Elevation: 17,057 feet (5,199 meters)

Prominence: 12,549 feet (3,825 meters)

Location: Kenya, Africa.

Coordinates: 0.1512°S / 37.30710°E

First Ascent: Sir Halford John Mackinder, Josef Brocherel, and Cesar Ollier on September 13, 1899.

Mount Kenya: 2nd Highest in Africa

Mount Kenya is the second highest mountain in Africa and the highest mountain in Kenya. Mount Kenya, with an elevation rise of 12,549 feet (3,825 meters, is the 32nd most prominent mountain in the world.

It is also on the Second Seven Summits lists, the second highest mountains on each of the seven continents.

Mount Kenya has several summits, including its three highest peaks—17,057-foot (5,199-meter) Batian, 17,021-foot (5,188-meter) Nelion, and 16,355-foot (4,985-meter) Point Lenana.

Mount Kenya lies 90 miles (150 kilometers) northeast of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The mountain is south of the equator.

Mount Kenya is a stratovolcano that arose over 3 million years ago. Its last eruption was between 2.6 and 3 million years ago. The volcano rose as high as 19,700 feet (6,000 meters) before being eroded to its present height. Most of the mountain’s volcanic activity was from its central plug, although satellite craters and plugs indicate active volcanism in nearby areas.

Two extended glacial periods sculpted Mount Kenya.

Moraines indicate that the lowest elevation the glaciers reached was 10,800 feet (3,300 meters). The entire summit was also covered by a thick ice cap. There are currently 11 small but shrinking glaciers on Mount Kenya. Little snow now falls on the mountain so no new ice forms on the glaciers. Climatologists predict that the glaciers will disappear by 2050 unless current temperature and precipitation changes occur.

The Lewis Glacier is the largest on Mount Kenya.

Since Mount Kenya is an equatorial mountain, the day and night are each 12 hours long. Sunrise is usually about 5:30 in the morning and sunset is about 5:30 in the evening. There is only a one minute difference between the shortest day and the longest day.

The

Philospher and first Black Rhodes Scholar, Alain L Loke was born, 1886

Two Blacks, Johnny Ford of Tuskegee and A.J. Cooper of Prichard elected mayors in Alabama.

Isabel Sanford wins an Emmy award as best comedic actress for The Jeffersons

Tavis Smiley was born today

Track star Michael Johnson was born today

Geronimo Pratt was born today

Louis Latimer patents his electric lamp with a carbon filament.

Nell Carter, Tony Award winning Broadway singer, born

President Kennedy denounced the burning of churches in Georgia and supported voter registration drive in the South.

The first major conspiracy of people in servitude was documented in Colonial America. A plot of black slaves and white servants was betrayed by a servant in Gloucester County, Virgina.

Mervyn LeRoy , (born October 15, 1900, San Francisco, California, U.S.—died September 13, 1987, Beverly Hills, California), American motion-picture director whose wide variety of films included dramas, romances, epics, comedies, and musicals. He also produced films, including the classic The Wizard of Oz (1939).

After the LeRoy family home was destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, LeRoy earned his first money by selling newspapers; that became his entreé to show business when one of his customers helped him get a part onstage as a newsboy. He performed in vaudeville as “the Singing Newsboy.” His cousin Jesse Lasky helped him get a job folding costumes at Famous Players–Lasky in 1919, and from there he ascended from lab technician to assistant cameraman. LeRoy managed a parallel career as an actor, often playing juveniles in films from 1922 to 1924.

After he outgrew those parts, LeRoy moved behind the scenes, writing gags (and sometimes more) for such Colleen Moore pictures as Sally (1925), Ella Cinders (1926), and Twinkletoes (1926). In 1927 Warner Brothers signed him to direct, and he commenced this most-important phase of his career with such low-budget efforts as Harold Teen (1928) and Oh Kay! (1928). Hot Stuff (1929), a comedy with Alice White, was his first sound picture, and White also starred in Broadway Babies (1929) and Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), an inside-Hollywood yarn with portions shot in Technicolor.

Also in 1930 came Numbered Men, a prison drama, and Top Speed, a Joe E. Brown musical comedy. Then came Little Caesar (1931), the film that made LeRoy’s reputation, with Edward G. Robinson as a Capone-like crime czar. It stands as one of the seminal gangster pictures, along with William Wellman’s The Public Enemy (1931) and Howard Hawks’s Scarface (1932).

Gentleman’s Fate, Too Young to Marry, and Broadminded, the latter another comedy with Brown, all followed in 1931, though none had the impact of Little Caesar. However, Five Star Final (1931) again had the benefit of Robinson,

First serious slave conspiracy in colonial America. Plot of white servants and slaves in Gloucester County, Va., was betrayed by an indentured servant.