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Jack Thompson

On This Date In 1930, Bare-Knuckle Boxer Jack "The Frisco Flash" Thompson Defeated Defending World Welter Weight Champion, Jackie Fields.

Fields Had Beaten Thompson In An Earlier Title Fight (1929). The Second Fight, Which Was Considered An Upset, Was Witnessed By A Crowd Of About 14,000 Fans At The Olympia Arena In Detroit, Michigan. The Fight Receipts Totaled $70,000 Dollars.

Thompson, A Native Of Oakland, California, Beat Fields In 15 Rounds. It Had Been 15 Years Since An African American Had Won The Welter Weight Title.

Thompson Lost The Title To Tommy Freeman A Few

On This Day In 1915, Author, Activist And Church Organizer, Henry McNeal Turner, Died At Age 82.

Turner Was Born Free, In Georgia In 1834. Instead Of Being Sold Into Slavery, He Was Sent to Live With A Quaker Family. He Taught Himself To Read And Write.

Turner Was An Outspoken Bishop Of The African Methodist Episcopal Church And The First African American Chaplin To Serve In The U.S. Army.

A Strong Supporter Of The African Colonization Movement, Turner Called For A Separate Black Empire And Encouraged Blacks To Return "to the land of our ancestors" And To

Composer/Songwriter, James A. Bland Died Of Pneumonia, May 5, 1911, In Philadelphia. He Was 56 Years Old.

Born On October 22, 1854, In Flushing, New York, Bland Was A Mulatto Of Mixed African, Native American And European Blood. His Father Was One Of The First Black College Graduates In America.

James Bland Was Given His First Instrument, A Banjo, By His Father. By The Age Of 14, He Was Performing Professionally.

Often Called "The World's Greatest Minstrel Man," And "The Prince Of Negro Performers," Bland Traveled The East Coast And Europe In Minstrel Shows, From 1875 Until