Ridgefield Allies

Today in “Hidden” History is a daily listing of important but little-known events illustrating the range of innovators, contributors, or incidents excluded from formal history lessons or common knowledge. Hidden history is intended not as an exhaustive review, but merely as an illustration of how popular narratives "hide" many matters of fundamental importance. Bookmark this page and check daily to quickly expand your knowledge. Suggest entries for Today in “Hidden” History by clicking the Contact Us link. Entries for September 15:

Date	Type	Event
1890		Jamaican-American writer and poet, and a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay is born in Nairne Castle near James Hill in upper Clarendon Parish, Jamaica. McKay first traveled to the United States to attend college, and encountered W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk which stimulated McKay’s interest in political involvement. He moved to New York City in 1914 and in 1919 wrote "If We Must Die", one of his best known works, a widely reprinted sonnet responding to the wave of white-on-black race riots and lynchings following the conclusion of the First World War. A poet from the first, he also wrote five novels and a novella: Home to Harlem (1928), a best-seller that won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature; Banjo (1929); Banana Bottom (1933); Romance in Marseille (written in 1933, published in 2020), a novella, Harlem Glory (written in 1938-1940, published in 1990), and in 1941 a novel, Amiable With Big Teeth: A Novel of the Love Affair Between the Communists and the Poor Black Sheep of Harlem, which remained unpublished until 2017. Besides these novels and four published collections of poetry, McKay also authored a collection of short stories, Gingertown (1932); two autobiographical books, A Long Way from Home (1937) and My Green Hills of Jamaica (published posthumously in 1979); and Harlem: Negro Metropolis, (1940) consisting of eleven essays on the contemporary social and political history of Harlem and Manhattan, concerned especially with political, social and labor organizing. His 1922 poetry collection, Harlem Shadows, was among the first books published during the Harlem Renaissance and his novel Home To Harlem was a watershed contribution to its fiction. His Selected Poems was published posthumously, in 1953. His Complete Poems (2004) includes almost ninety pages of poetry written between 1923 and the late 1940s, most of it previously unpublished, a crucial addition to his poetic oeuvre. Learn more.
1935		William “Bill” Pinkney, the first African American, and only the fourth person in the world to circumnavigate the globe alone by boat, is born in Chicago, Illinois to Marion Henderson Pinkney and William Pinkney, Sr. He attended Tilden Tech High School in Chicago, and after graduating received training as an x-ray technician. Learn more.
1945		American opera singer and recitalist Jessye Norman is born . She was able to perform dramatic soprano roles, but refused to be limited to that voice type. She was a commanding presence on operatic, concert and recital stages, associated with roles including Beethoven's Leonore, Wagner's Sieglinde and Kundry, Cassandre and Didon by Berlioz and Bartók's Judith. The New York Times music critic Edward Rothstein described her voice as a "grand mansion of sound", and wrote that "it has enormous dimensions, reaching backward and upward. It opens onto unexpected vistas. It contains sunlit rooms, narrow passageways, cavernous halls." Norman trained at Howard University, the Peabody Institute, and the University of Michigan. Her career began in Europe, where she won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 1968, which led to a contract with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Her operatic début came as Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser, after which she sang as Verdi's Aida at La Scala in Milan. She made her first operatic appearance in the U.S. in 1982 with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, when cast as Jocasta in Stravinsky's Oedipus rex, and as Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. She went on to sing leading roles with many other companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Paris Opera, and the Royal Opera, London. She sang at the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan, at Queen Elizabeth II's 60th birthday celebration in 1986, and performed the La Marseillaise to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution on July 14, 1989. She sang at the 1996 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Atlanta and for the second inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1997. Norman sang and recorded recitals of music by Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Ernest Chausson and Francis Poulenc, among others. In 1984, she won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo, the first of five Grammy Awards that she would collect during her career. Apart from several honorary doctorates and other awards, she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Medal of Arts, the Légion d'honneur, and was named a member of the British Royal Academy of Music. In 1990, UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar named her Honorary Ambassador to the United Nations. Learn more.
1963		Four young Black girls are killed in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, the largest Black church in Birmingham, Alabama, and a meeting place for civil rights activities. A white man was seen placing a box under the steps of the church during Sunday services. Shortly afterward, the explosives inside detonated, devastating the church building and the 400 congregants inside. Parents rushed to the Sunday school classroom to check on their children and soon discovered that four young girls had been killed in the blast: Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14), and Cynthia Wesley (14). More than 20 others were injured. Immediately after the bombing, violence surged throughout the city as police clashed with enraged members of the Black community. Before the day ended, at least two other African American children had been slain: 16-year-old Johnny Robinson was shot by police as he fled down an alley, and 13-year-old Virgil Ware was shot and killed by white youths while riding his bicycle. Learn more.
1983		New York City graffiti artist Michael Stewart is brutalized by the city’s transit police during an incident at 2:00 a.m., lapsing into a coma in which he will remain until he dies 13 days later. Stewart was accused of writing on the subway station wall with a felt-tipped marker. One hour later, Stewart arrived at the police station with three arresting officers hogtied, covered in cuts and bruises, and unconscious. Stewart was taken to the hospital in a coma. He died 13 days later, having never regained consciousness. When several students from the Parson’s School of Design reported that they witnessed Stewart’s beating from their dormitories, officers John Kostick, Henry Boerner, and Anthony Piscola were charged with criminally negligent homicide, assault, and perjury. The prosecution brought forward forty-eight witnesses, twenty-three of which were Parson’s students. The defense brought no witnesses forward during the case. Unfortunately, due in part to the conflicting reports of the medical examiners and the inability of the Parson’s students to identify a specific officer, the jury acquitted the officers on both the use of excessive force and official misconduct charges. Stewart’s attorney noted that every person in the courtroom was white. The only person of color was Michael Stewart, and he could no longer speak for himself. One writer famously called Michael Stewart “the man nobody killed.” Learn more.