This Week In Black History

Jet, Oct 8, 2001

October 3, 1989--

* Art Shell became the first Black head coach of the modern National Football League era when he was named coach of the Los Angeles Raiders on this day. Shell, a former offensive tackle who played in eight Pro Bowls, was drafted third-round (80th pick overall) by the Oakland Raiders in 1968. He worked as an assistant coach for seven years before he was named head coach of the Raiders. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on August 5, 1989. A native of Charleston, SC, he was born on November 26, 1946.

October 7, 1954--

* Marian Anderson, internationally acclaimed opera singer, became the first Black contracted by the Metropolitan Opera on this day. She made her operatic debut on January 7, 1955, playing the fortune-teller Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera. Her performance met with critical acclaim. Anderson was born on February 27, 1897, in Philadelphia. Her musical education and performing experience were the products of personal, family and community determination. Through the financial support of her church, the Union Baptist at Fitzwater, she took voice lessons in Philadelphia. On April 9, 1939, she performed a historic concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., before a crowd of 75,000 people. That event, which became a landmark in civil rights history, occurred after the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to rent Constitution Hall to Anderson for a concert performance. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt, then a member of the DAR, condemned that racist act, resigned her membership and arranged for Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial. Anderson died April 8, 1993, at the age of 96.