A00033 - B. B. King, King of the Blues

B.B. King, byname of Riley B. King  (b. September 16, 1925, Itta Bena, near Indianola, Mississippi — d. May 14, 2015, Las Vegas, Nevada), American guitarist and singer who was a principal figure in the development of the blues and from whose style leading popular musicians drew inspiration.

King was reared in the Mississippi delta, and gospel music in church was the earliest influence on his singing. To his own impassioned vocal calls, King played lyrical single-string guitar responses with a distinctive vibrato; his guitar style was influenced by T-Bone Walker, by delta blues players (including his cousin Bukka White), and by such jazz guitarists as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian. He worked for a time as a disk jockey in Memphis, Tennessee (notably at station WDIA), where he acquired the name B.B. (for Blues Boy) King. In 1951 he made a hit record of “Three O’Clock Blues,” which led to virtually continuous tours of clubs and theaters throughout the country. He often played 300 or more one-night stands a year with his 13-piece band. A long succession of hits, including “Every Day I Have the Blues,” “Sweet Sixteen,” and “The Thrill Is Gone,” enhanced his popularity. By the late 1960s rock guitarists acknowledged his influence and they introduced King and his guitar, Lucille, to a broader public, who until then had heard blues chiefly in derivative versions.

King’s relentless touring strengthened his claim to the title of undisputed king of the blues, and he was a regular fixture on the Billboard charts through the mid-1980s. His strongest studio albums of this era were those that most closely tried to emulate the live experience, and he found commercial success through a series of all-star collaborations. On Deuces Wild (1997), King enlisted such artists as Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, and Eric Clapton to create a fusion of blues, pop, and country that dominated the blues charts for almost two years. Clapton and King collaborated on the more straightforward blues album Riding with the King (2000), which featured a collection of standards from King’s catalog. He recaptured the pop magic of Deuces Wild with 80 (2005), a celebration of his 80th birthday that featured Sheryl Crow, John Mayer, and a standout performance by Elton John. King returned to his roots with One Kind Favor (2008), a collection of songs from the 1940s and ’50s including blues classics by the likes of John Lee Hooker and Lonnie Johnson. Joining King in the simple four-part arrangements on the T-Bone Burnett produced album were stalwart New Orleans pianist Dr. John, ace session drummer Jim Keltner, and stand-up bassist Nathan East. The album earned King his 15th Grammy Award.

In 2008 the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center opened in Indianola, with exhibits dedicated to King’s music, his influences, and the history of the delta region. King’s autobiography, Blues All Around Me, written with David Ritz, was published in 1996. Among the many awards and honors bestowed upon King in his lifetime was induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

A00032 - Semei Kakungulu, Founder of the Abayudaya (Ugandan "People of Judah")

Semei Kakungulu (1869 – 24 November 1928) was a Ugandan man who founded the Abayudaya (Luganda: Jews) community in Uganda in 1917 (1919?). He studied and meditated on the Old Testament, adopted the observance of all Moses' commandments, including circumcision, and suggested this observance for all his followers. The Abayudaya follow Jewish practices and consider themselves Jews despite the absence of Israelite ancestry.

Kakungulu was also chosen to be the president of the Lukiiko of Busoga by the British colonists, and in effect, he became Busoga’s first 'King', although the British refused to give him that title. However, disputes amongst the different chiefs and clans continued, and most Basoga still retained affiliation to their chief, clan or dialect. The Lukiiko structure collapsed, and Semei Kakungulu was dismissed by the British.

Kakungulu was a warrior and statesman of the powerful Baganda tribe. During the 1880s, he was converted to Christianity by a Protestant missionary who taught him how to read the Bible in Swahili. Because he commanded many warriors, because of his connections to the Bugandan court and because he was a Protestant, the British gave Kakungulu their support. He responded by conquering and bringing under the British sphere of influence two areas outside of the Bugandan Empire, Bukedi and Busoga. These areas were between the Nile River's source in Lake Victoria and Mt. Elgon on the Kenyan border.

Kakungulu believed that the British would allow him to become the king of Bukedi and Busoga, but the British preferred to rule those areas through civil servants in their pay and under their control. The British limited Kakungulu to a 20-square-mile (52 km²) area in and around what has now become Mbale, Uganda. The people who inhabited this area were of the Bagisu tribe, rivals to Baganda. Nevertheless, Kakungulu, with the help of his Baganda followers, although much reduced in numbers, was able to maintain control so long as he received British support.

Beginning in about 1900, a slow but continuous mutual disenchantment arose between Kakungulu and the British. In 1913, Kakungulu became a Malakite Christian. This was a movement described by the British as a "cult" which was "a mixture of Judaism, Christianity and Christian Science." Many who joined the religion of Malaki where Kakungulu was in control were Baganda.

While still a Malakite, Kakungulu came to the conclusion that the Christian missionaries were not reading the Bible correctly. He pointed out that the Europeans disregarded the real Sabbath, which was Saturday, not Sunday. As proof, he cited the fact that Jesus was buried on Friday before the Sabbath, and that his mother and his disciples did not visit the tomb on the following day because it was the Sabbath, but waited until Sunday.

Under pressure from the British, who wished to limit his holdings, in 1917, Kakungulu moved his principal residence a short distance further from Mbale into the western foothills of Mt. Elgon to a place called Gangama. It was there that he started a separatist sect initially known as Kibiina Kya Bayudaya Absesiga Katonda (the Community of Jews who trust in the omnipotent God). Recruitment into this Bayudaya community came almost exclusively from what remained of Kakungulu's Baganda following.

The Bible, as a result of the teachings of the missionaries, was held in high regard among the Christians of Uganda. The missionaries had stressed the truth of the Bible by declaring that it came not from the Europeans but from an alien race, the Jews. The purpose of the missionaries was to impress upon the Africans that the Europeans too had found truth from a foreign race. But because of this emphasis, the customs and manners of the Jews became of great interest to Kakungulu's followers.

In 1922, at Gangama, Kakungulu published a 90-page book of rules and prayers as a guide for his Jewish community. The book set forth Jewish laws and practices as Kakungulu found them in the Old Testament, although it contained many verses and sections from the New Testament as well. Despite this interest in Jewish practices, there does not appear to have been any direct contact between Kakungulu and Jews before 1925.

Beginning in about 1925, several European Jews who were employed as mechanics and engineers by the British chanced upon the Christian-Jewish community near Mbale. Jews such as these, during what appear to have been chance encounters, told Kakungulu about Orthodox Judaism. As a result, many remaining Christian customs were dropped, including baptism. From these encounters, the community learned to keep the Sabbath, to recite Hebrew prayers and blessings, to slaughter animals for meat in a Kosher manner, and also to speak some Hebrew.

Kakungulu died on November 24, 1928 of tetanus.  After his death, the Abayudaya community divided into those wishing to retain a toehold within Christianity and those wanting to break those ties completely. The Bayudaya "remained a mixture of both Christianity and Judaism, with faith in Christ remaining prominent in Kakungulu's beliefs."

Kakungulu is buried a short distance from the main Abayudaya synagogue behind the unpretentious home in which he lived during the last years of his life. The grave has a stone which reads:

“SEMEI WAKIRENZI KAKUNGULU
A Victorious General and
Sava Chief in Buganda
Administrator of Eastern Province 1899-1905
President of Busoga 1906-1913
Died 24th 11 1928”

A00031 - Abayudaya, Ugandan Jews

The Abayudaya (Abayudaya is Luganda for "People of Judah", analogous to "Children of Israel") are a Baganda community in eastern Uganda near the town of Mbale who practice Judaism.  They are devout in their practice, keeping their version of kashrut, and observing Shabbat. There are several different villages where the Ugandan Jews live. Most of these are recognized by the Reform and Conservative movements of Judaism.

The population of the Abayudaya is estimated at approximately 2,000 having once been as large as 3,000 (prior to the persecutions of the Idi Amin regime, during which their numbers dwindled to around 300).  Like their neighbors, they are subsistence farmers. Most Abayudaya are of Bagwere origin, except for those from Namutumba who are Basoga.  They speak Luganda, Lusoga or Lugwere, although some have learned Hebrew as well.

The sect owes its origin to Muganda military leader Semei Kakungulu. Originally, Kakungulu was converted to Christianity by British missionaries around 1880. He believed that the British would allow him to be king of the territories, Bukedi and Bugisu, that he had conquered in battle for them. However, when the British limited his territory to a significantly smaller size and refused to recognize him as king as they had promised, Kakungulu began to distance himself from them. In 1913, he became a member of the Bamalaki sect following a belief system that combined elements of Christianity, Judaism and, most notably, a refusal to use western medicine (based on a few sentences taken from the Old Testament). This led to conflict with the British when the Bamalaki refused to vaccinate their cattle. However, upon further study of the Bible, Kakungulu came to believe that the customs and laws described in the first 5 books of Moses (Torah) were really true. When, in 1919, Kakungulu insisted on circumcision as is prescribed in the Old Testament, the Bamalaki refused and told him that, if he practiced circumcision, he would be like the Jews. Kakungulu responded, "Then, I am a Jew!" He circumcized his sons and himself and declared that his community was Jewish.  Kakungulu fled to the foot of Mount Elgon and settled in a place called Gangama where he started a separatist sect known as Kibina Kya Bayudaya Absesiga Katonda ("The Community of Jews Who Trust in the Lord").  The British were infuriated by this action and they effectively severed all ties with Kakungulu and his followers.

The arrival of a foreign Jew known as "Yosef" in 1920 whose ancestral roots are believed to have been European, contributed much towards the community's acquisition of knowledge about the seasons in which Jewish Festivals such as Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Succot, and others take place.  A source in the Abayudaya community confirms that the first Jew to visit the community was Yosef, who stayed with and taught the community for about six months, and would appear to have first brought the Jewish calendar to the Abayudaya community.

Furthermore, the laws concerning Kashrut were first introduced to the community by Yosef. The community continues to practice kashrut today. Yosef's teachings influenced Semei Kakungulu to establish a school that acted as a type of  Yeshiva, with the purpose of passing on and teaching the skills and knowledge first obtained from Yosef.

After Kakungulu's death from tetanus in 1928, Samson Mugombe Israeli, one of his disciples, became the spiritual leader of the community. They isolated themselves for self-protection and survived persecution, including that of Idi Amin, who outlawed Jewish rituals and destroyed synagogues.  During the persecutions of Idi Amin, some of the Abayudaya community converted to either Christianity or Islam in the face of religious persecution. A core group of roughly 300 members remained, however, committed to Judaism, worshipping secretly, fearful that they would be discovered by their neighbors and reported to the authorities. This group named itself "She'erit Yisrael" — the Remnant of Israel  — meaning the surviving Ugandan Jews.

In 1962, Arye Oded, an Israeli studying at Makerere University, visited the Abayudaya and met Samson Mugombe. This was the first time the Abayudaya had ever met an Israeli and the first Jew they had met since Yosef. Oded had many long interviews with Mugombe and other leaders and explained to them how Jews in Israel practiced Judaism. Oded then wrote a book ("Religion and Politics in Uganda,") and numerous articles on the community and their customs which introduced them to world Jewry. The community underwent a revival in the 1980s.

Approximately 400 Abayudaya community members were formally converted by five rabbis of the Conservative branch of Judaism in February 2002, and conversions by conservative rabbis continued during the following years.

A00030 - Izola Ware Curry, Woman Who Stabbed Martin Luther King

Izola Curry (née Ware; June 14, 1916 – March 7, 2015) was a woman who attempted to assassinate civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. She stabbed King with a letter opener at a Harlem book signing on September 20, 1958, during the Harlem civil rights movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s. King was eventually assassinated April 4, 1968, in an unrelated incident. Curry was born near Adrian, Georgia. At age 20, she moved to New York City, where she found work as a housekeeper. Shortly after moving, she developed delusions about the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). 

Curry was one of eight children born to sharecroppers in 1916 near Adrian, Georgia, a city about 100 miles northwest of Savannah. She left school in the seventh grade and later married a man named James Curry when she was 21. The couple separated about six months after their 1937 nuptials, and Izola moved to New York City, the beginning of an itinerant existence that would see her bounce from Georgia, Florida, St. Louis, and New York while in search of steady work as a housekeeper, short-order cook, or factory worker. According to court records, as well as law enforcement and psychiatric reports, Curry began suffering from delusions, paranoia, and illogical thinking for several years before she sought to kill King. This erratic state appears to have contributed to her difficulties in securing and maintaining employment.

King went on a tour to promote Strive Toward Freedom after it was published. During a book signing at a department store in Harlem, a well-dressed woman approached and asked him if he was Martin Luther King, Jr. When King replied in the affirmative, she said, "I've been looking for you for five years," then stabbed him in the chest with a steel letter opener.

New York City police officers Al Howard and Phil Romano were in a radio car near the end of their tour at 3:30 pm when they received a report of a disturbance in Blumstein’s Department store. They arrived to see King sitting in a chair with an ivory handled letter opener protruding from his chest. Howard was heard telling King, "Don’t sneeze, don’t even speak." Howard and Romano took King still in the chair down to an ambulance that took King to Harlem Hospital, which was already notifying chief of thoracic and vascular surgery John W. V. Cordice, Jr., who was in his office in Brooklyn, and trauma surgeon Emil Naclerio, who had been attending a wedding and arrived still in a tuxedo. They made incisions and inserted a rib spreader, making King’s aorta visible. Chief of Surgery Aubre de Lambert Maynard then entered and attempted to pull out the letter opener, but cut his glove on the blade; a surgical clamp was finally used to pull out the blade.

While still in the hospital, King said in a September 30 press release in which he reaffirmed his belief in "the redemptive power of nonviolence"  and issued a hopeful statement about his attacker, "I felt no ill will toward Mrs. Izola Currey [sic] and know that thoughtful people will do all in their power to see that she gets the help she apparently needs if she is to become a free.  On October 17, after hearing King's testimony, a grand jury indicted Curry for attempted murder. 

Curry was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic by two psychiatrists who reported that she had an IQ of 70, “low average intelligence,” and was in a severe “state of insanity.” A Manhattan judge would later concur with the psychiatrists’ conclusion that Curry—who had been indicted for attempted murder—should be committed to the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.  

Curry spent nearly 14 years at Matteawan before being transferred in March 1972 to the Manhattan Psychiatric Center on Ward’s Island in upper Manhattan. She spent about a year there before officials placed her in the Rosedale Queens home of a woman certified through the state’s “Family Care” program to provide residential care for those diagnosed with mental illnesses. After a fall resulting in a leg injury, Curry was placed in the Jamaica, Queens, New York nursing home. where she resided until her death. Curry died on March 7, 2015 of natural causes.

A00029 - Willie Barrow, Civil Rights Activist and PUSH Executive Director

Willie T. Barrow (Willie Beatrice Taplin) (b. December 7, 1924, Burton, Texas - d. March 12, 2015, Chicago, Illinois) was a civil rights activist who devoted her life to championing the rights of African Americans and working to improve their circumstances, both on the front lines of public demonstrations and as a mentor to generations of young activists.  Barrow engaged in her first act of protest as a child, when she sought to change the rule that required African American children to walk to school while European American children rode on school buses.  When she was 16 years old, she moved to Portland, Oregon, where she worked as a shipyard welder and attended Pacific Bible College (since 1959 Warner Pacific College).  She also organized and led an African American Church of God congregation.  Barrow relocated (in 1945) to Chicago and attended Moody Bible Institute.  By the 1950s, she had become a civil rights filed organizer for such groups as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.  She participated in such campaigns as the March on Washington (1963) and the Selma March (1965).  In the mid-1960s, she helped found the Chicago chapter of Operation Breadbasket, which focused on increasing the hiring and promotion of African Americans.  Barrow worked with civil rights leader Jesse Jackson when he founded Operation PUSH (which also had the goal of economic empowerment in black communities), and she later served as the organization's executive director.  After the 1996 merger that created the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, she headed that group's governing board for 10 years.  In addition, Barrow was a vocal feminist and a supporter of gay rights.

A00028 - Moses Fleetwood Walker, Black Pioneer of Major League Baseball

Moses Fleetwood "Fleet" Walker (October 7, 1856 – May 11, 1924) was an American baseball player, inventor, and author. He is credited by some with being the first African American to play Major League Baseball.  Walker played one season as the catcher for the Toledo Blue Stockings, a club in the American Association. He then played in the minor leagues until 1889, when professional baseball erected a color barrier that stood for nearly 60 years. After leaving baseball, Walker became a businessman and advocate of Black nationalism.

Walker was born in Mount Pleasant, Ohio, the son of Dr. Moses W. Walker, the first African-American physician in Mount Pleasant, and his Caucasian wife. During his childhood, his family moved from Mount Pleasant, to Steubenville. Walker was educated in the black schools, until the schools in Steubenville were integrated. Both Moses and his brother Weldy attended Steubenville High School. He enrolled in Oberlin College in 1878 and played on the college's first varsity baseball team in the spring of 1881. Walker was a star catcher for Oberlin.

Walker was recruited by the University of Michigan and played varsity baseball for Michigan in 1882. While attending Michigan, Walker was able to play for the White Sewing Machine Club, based in Cleveland, Ohio. It was here that the young Walker experienced his first mistreatment based on his skin color. While the players dined at the St. Cloud Hotel in Kentucky, Walker was refused service because he was black. Things would get worse when the game was played, as the opposing team refused to take the field when Walker was installed at catcher. Walker was pulled, but his replacement was a mediocre player who could not handle the pitches thrown to him. When the crowd began to chant for Walker to play, the opposing team's owner begrudgingly allowed the Cleveland team to insert Walker.

During the season immediately prior to Walker's debut, Michigan's play was terrible, with catching being the sore part of the team. It was so terrible, that Michigan would recruit semi-pro players to play catcher for the bigger games. In 1882, Walker had an amazing season for Michigan. Michigan went 10–3, with Walker batting second in the lineup. He is credited as batting .308 for the season.

Walker signed with a minor league team, the Toledo Blue Stockings of the Northwestern League in 1883. At the time few catchers wore any equipment, including gloves. Walker had his first encounter with Cap Anson that year, when Toledo played an exhibition game against the Chicago White Stockings on August 10. Anson refused to play with Walker on the field. However, Anson did not know that on that day Walker was slated to have a rest day. Manager Charlie Morton played Walker, and told Anson the White Stockings would forfeit the gate receipts if they refused to play. Anson then agreed to play.

In 1884, Toledo joined the American Association, which was a Major League team at that time in competition with the National League. Walker made his Major League debut on May 1 against the Louisville Eclipse. In his debut, he went hitless and had four errors. In 42 games, Walker had a batting average of .263, which was above the league average. His brother, Weldy Walker, later joined him on the team, playing in six games. The Walker brothers are the first known African Americans to play baseball in the Major Leagues.

Walker suffered a season-ending injury in July, and Toledo folded at the end of the year. Walker returned to the minor leagues in 1885, and played in the Western League for Cleveland, which folded in June. He then played for Waterbury in the Eastern League through 1886.

In 1887 Walker moved to the International League's Newark Little Giants.  He caught for star pitcher George Stovey, forming the first known African-American battery. On July 14, the Chicago White Stockings played an exhibition game against the Little Giants. Contrary to some modern-day writers, Anson did not have a second encounter with Walker that day (Walker was apparently injured, having last played on July 11, and did not play again until July 26). But Stovey had been listed as the game's scheduled starting pitcher, but Cap Anson objected to a colored man playing. On the morning of that same, International League owners voted 6-to-4 to exclude African-American players from future contracts.

In the off-season, the International League modified its ban on black players, and Walker signed with the Syracuse, New York, franchise for 1888, the Syracuse Stars. In September 1888, Walker had his second incident with Anson. When Chicago was at Syracuse for an exhibition game, Anson refused to start the game when he saw Walker's name on the scorecard as catcher. Syracuse relented and someone else did the catching.

Walker remained in Syracuse until the team released him in August 1889. Shortly thereafter, the American Association and the National League both unofficially banned African-American players, making the adoption of Jim Crow in baseball complete. Baseball would remain segregated until 1946 when Jackie Robinson "broke the color barrier"in professional baseball playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers' minor league affiliate in Montreal.

In 1891, Walker was out of professional baseball, but he was not suffering by not playing the game. Walker purchased the Union Hotel in Steubenville. Seeing that moving pictures could be very popular, Walker bought a theater in nearby Cadiz. Walker applied for patents on several inventions for moving-picture equipment and even published a weekly newspaper. Also in 1891, Walker received patents for an exploding artillery shell.

Walker was attacked by a group of white men in Syracuse, New York, in April 1891. He stabbed and killed a man named Patrick Murray during the attack. The Sporting Life reported "Walker drew a knife and made a stroke at his assailant. The knife entered Murray's groin, inflicting a fatal wound. Murray's friends started after Walker with shouts of 'Kill him! Kill him!' He escaped but was captured by the police, and [was] locked up."

Walker was charged with second-degree murder and claimed self-defense. He was acquitted of all charges on June 3, 1891. Adding to the weight of the verdict, was that Walker was acquitted by an all-white jury.

Walker became a supporter of Black nationalism and came to believe that racial integration would fail in the United States. In 1908 he published a 47-page pamphlet titled Our Home Colony: A Treatise on the Past, Present, and Future of the Negro Race in America. In that pamphlet he recommended that African Americans emigrate to Africa: "the only practical and permanent solution of the present and future race troubles in the United States is entire separation by emigration of the Negro from America." He warned "The Negro race will be a menace and the source of discontent as long as it remains in large numbers in the United States. The time is growing very near when the whites of the United States must either settle this problem by deportation, or else be willing to accept a reign of terror such as the world has never seen in a civilized country."

Walker died on May 11, 1924, in Cleveland, Ohio, and is interred at Union Cemetery in Steubenville, Ohio.

Walker has traditionally been credited as the first African-American major league player. However, research in the early 21st century by the Society for American Baseball Research indicates William Edward White, who played one game for the Providence Grays in 1879, may have been the first.

A00027 - Earl Lloyd, First African American to Play in the NBA

Earl Lloyd, in full Earl Francis Lloyd   (b. April 3, 1928, Alexandria, Virginia — d. February 26, 2015, Crossville, Tennessee), was a basketball player who was the first African American to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

In the spring of 1950 Lloyd, who played collegiate basketball at West Virginia State College, was the second black player to be drafted by an NBA team. Chuck Cooper had been chosen by the Boston Celtics a few picks before Lloyd’s selection by the Washington Capitols. Nate ("Sweetwater") Clifton, however, was the first African American to sign an NBA contract, joining the New York Knicks that summer. The schedule resulted in Lloyd being the first black player to take the court in an NBA game, on October 31, 1950. He scored six points in that first game.

Lloyd enjoyed a long career in the NBA and continued his pioneering role as a coach. After a brief stint in the army, he returned to the NBA, where he was a key player for the Syracuse Nationals (1952–58), helping the team win the championship in 1955. He finished his playing career with the Detroit Pistons (1958–60). He later rejoined the Pistons as the first African American assistant coach (1968–70) in the league and the second African American head coach (1971–72). He also worked as a scout for the Pistons. In 2003 he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.