Bowie State College is established in Bowie, MD

Birthday of singer, Beyonce Knowles, of Destinys Child.

Latimer was born on September 4, 1848 in Chelsea, Massachusetts.

Black students are banned from a Little Rock high school, by Arkansas governor Oval Faubus who calls out the National Guard, 1957

Birthday of comedian, television actor, Damon Wayans

He was born on September 4, 1908 in Mississippi and raised by his mother, as his father had left the family when Wright was 6 years old.

Riot prevented Paul Robeson concert at Peekskill.

George Washington Carver of Tuskegee Institute received the Spingarn Medal, the NAACPs highest award, for distinguished research in agricultural chemistry.

Los Angeles, California, founded by forty-four settlers of whom at least twenty-six were descendants of Africans. Among the Black settlers, according to H.H. Bancrofts authoritative History of California, were Joseph Moreno, Mulatto, 22 years old, wife a Mulattress, five children; Manuel Cameron, Mulatto, 30 years old, wife Mulattress; Antonio Mesa, Negro, 38 years old, wife Mulattress, six children; Jose Antonio Navarro, Mestizo, 42 years old, wife, Mulattress, three children; Basil Rosas, Indian, 68 years old, wife, Mulattress, six children.

Katherine Dunham (1910-). With the Aida production in 1963, Katherine Dunham was the first Black choreographer for the Metropolitan Opera.

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles Carter is a hip hop and R&B singer, songwriter and actress who is currently one of the most successful recording artists in the music industry. She was born in Houston, Texas to Tina and Mathew Knowles on September 4, 1981. She was interested in music from a very young age, and participated in singing and dancing competitions as a young child. At school, she won her first singing competition at the age of 7. She was a member of the choir at St. John’s United Methodist Church for two years. She joined a girl band named “Girl’s Tyme” along with her childhood friend Kelly Rowland and three other girls. Beyoncé’s father Mathew became the group’s band manager and they released their debut album titled “Destiny’s Child” in 1998. Their song “Killing Time” was featured on the soundtrack to the film “Men in Black”.

The band’s first few popular tracks were “No, No, No” and “Bills, Bills, Bills” and their first number one hits were “Jumpin’ Jumpin” and “Say My Name” with the latter winning the Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and the Best R&B Song at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards. After a few lineup changes, the band released their single “Independent Women Part I” which was featured on the soundtrack of the 2000 film “Charlie’s Angels”. This was their best selling song to date, and stayed on top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart for eleven consecutive weeks. Their next album “Survivor” was released in 2001, which debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200. The title track “Survivor” won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group.

Beyoncé’s first solo album was released in 2003 and was titled “Dangerously in Love”. It debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 charts and featured the hit song “Crazy in Love” which was her first No. 1 single as a solo artist. The album remains one of her best selling ones to date. The album won her 5 Grammy Awards at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards including the awards for Best Contemporary R&B Album and Best Female R&B Vocal

Lewis Morrison was one of the most prominent stage actors of his time. He was best known worldwide for his portrayal of “Mephistopheles” in Faust. He was also the first black Jewish officer to serve during the Civil War.

Lewis Morrison was born in Kingston, Jamaica on September 4, 1845. He was named Morris W. Morris at birth, although some sources claim that Moritz W. Morris is the correct spelling. Very little is known about his family history. After the Civil War, he changed his name to Lewis Morrison for unknown reasons. His great great grandson, Phil Downey, later claimed that Morris changed his name to escape his African and Jewish heritage.

Morris left Jamaica for the United States as a youth. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the 1st Louisiana Native Guard, the first official black military regiment in the Confederacy, with other free blacks. He soon rose to the rank of lieutenant, becoming the first black Jewish officer to serve in the Confederate Army. When the Louisiana State Legislature banned people of color from serving in the Confederate Army in February 1862, the regiment was disbanded.  Morris and about 10% of the other former 1st Louisiana Native Guard joined the Union Army in September 1862 and were organized into a new unit that was assigned the same name.  There Morris became the first black Jewish officer in the Union Army.

Lewis Morrison made his stage debut in New Orleans in The Loan of a Lover. He gradually secured additional acting work, including a supporting role to Edwin Booth’s lead role as “Richelieu.” Morrison moved to San Francisco in 1874 to perform at the California Theater for the next three years.  When he returned east, he gained recognition for his performance in The Legion of Honor at Park Theater, under Henry E. Abbey’s direction.

By the 1880s, Morrison had joined performers at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia where he played leading roles opposite famous stage actors of that time, including Adelaide Nelson, Lucille Western, and his first wife

Clinton Massacre, Clinton, Mississippi. Twenty to thirty Blacks killed.

Inventor and engineer, Louis Latimer was born, 1848