Celebrating Black History Month: Edith Sampson, first African American to represent US at the UN

Edith Sampson, born in 1901 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, graduated from Peabody High School, and then studied at the New York School of Social Work. She got married to Rufus Sampson and moved to Chicago.  She studied law at night, working as a social worker during the day, and graduated from the John Marshall Law School in 1925.

Later, she became the first woman to earn a Master of Laws from Loyola University's Graduate Law School in 1927, and passed the Illinois bar exam. In 1934 was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court. 

In 1949, Sampson participated in the Round-The-World Town Meeting, as one of twenty-six prominent Americans traveled to foreign countries, meeting with their leaders. Sampson countered the Soviet Union's propaganda regarding the treatment of black people in the US.  She also compared communism to slavery.

President Truman appointed her as an alternate US delegate to the United Nations, making her the first African American to officially represent the US to the UN.  She served until 1953.  During the Eisenhower Administration, she was a member of the US Commission for UNESCO.  In 1961-1962, she became the first black US representative to NATO.

Sampson ran for associate judge of the Municipal Court of Chicago and became the first black woman elected judge in Illinois.   She continued as a Circuit Court judge until retirement in 1978.  

She passed away in October 1927.

Celebrating Black History Month: "We Shall Overcome" civil rights anthem

We Shall Overcome is a gospel song that has become an anthem for the civil rights movement in the US.  It is believed to have "descended" from Charles Albert Tindley's I'll Over Come Day, first published in 1901.  Tindley, a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, authored about fifty gospel hymns.

In October 1945, members of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers union began a five-month strike against the American Tobacco Company.  One of the strikers, Lucille Simmons, led a slow version of the song, We'll Overcome (I'll be All Right), to keep up the spirits of the members, mostly female and African American, during the cold winter.

Pete Seeger changed the lyrics to "We Shall..." in 1947 and added a few verses.  In 1952, it was first recorded and released by Laura Duncan and The Jewish Young Singers, where it is identified as a Negro spiritual. 

In 1957, Seeger performed the song for an audience that included Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said how much the song stuck with him.

Joan Baez led a crowd of 3,000 people in singing We Shall Overcome during the August 1963 March On Washington. LBJ used the phrase "we shall overcome" March 15, 1965 in a speech to Congress after the "Bloody Sunday" attacks on civil rights demonstrators during the Selma to Montgomery marches.

Martin Luther King Jr. used the lyrics from We Shall Overcome in a speech delivered on March 31, 1968, just four days before his assassination.  At his funeral over 50,000 people sang We Shall Overcome.

It has become an international phenomenon as it is sung wherever people's rights are being violated.

Here is the Turtle Creek Chorale's performance with the Women's Chorus of Dallas.  I am proud to be part of this recording.

Celebrating Black History Month: "Wade in the Water", African-American jubilee song

Wade in the Water is an African-American spiritual, a genre of music created and sung by African-Americans in slavery.  Wade in the Water was estimated to be written during the Civil War around 1863, but the lyrics were not published until 1901, by Frederick J. Work and his brother John Wesley. The first commercial recording was made by the Sunset Four Jubilee Singers and released by Paramount Records.

The song is associated with Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.  It is believed that Tubman, who made thirteen trips to the South and helped free more than 70 people, used this song to warn slaves to get off the main trail and into the water to prevent the slavers' dogs from finding them.

The song has been modified, updated, and recorded many times in the past one hundred years.  Billy Preston and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass have released instrumental versions of it.

Celebrating Black History Month: Juanita Hall, first African-American to win a Tony Award

Juanita Hall, born November 6, 1901 in Keyport, New Jersey, is the first African-American to win a Tony Award.   Hall appeared in Rogers and Hammerstein's South Pacific on Broadway which opened in 1949.  In 1950, she won the Tony for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Bloody Mary.

She reprised her role in the movie version of the musical.

She passed away February 29, 1968 from complications from diabetes.