• February 22, 1841 Grafton Tyler Brown, lithographer and painter of the American West, was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Before he was 20, Brown moved to San Francisco, California where he established his own firm to produce illustrated bank notes, labels, maps, and stock certificates. His production of “The Illustrated History of San Mateo County” (1878) featured 72 views of the county’s communities and ranches. Brown traveled the West producing maps and illustrations, including many landscape paintings. From 1893 to 1897, he worked as a draftsman for the United States Army Corps of Engineers and from 1898 to 1910 in the civil engineering department of the city of St. Paul, Minnesota. Brown died March 3, 1918. His paintings are in the collections of museums throughout the United States, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Oakland Museum of California.

• February 22, 1881 James Reese Europe, ragtime and jazz bandleader, arranger, and composer, was born in Mobile, Alabama. Europe moved to New York City in 1904 and in 1910 organized the Clef Club, a society for African Americans in the music industry. In 1912, they made history as the first band to play proto-jazz at Carnegie Hall when they played a concert for the benefit of the Colored Music Settlement School. The band played music solely written by black composers. In 1913 and 1914, Europe made a series of recordings that are some of the best examples of the pre-jazz ragtime style of the 1910s. During World War I, Europe saw combat as a lieutenant with the “Harlem Hellfighters” and went on to direct the regimental band to great acclaim. After his return to the United States in 1919, he stated “I have come from France more firmly convinced than ever that Negroes should play Negro music. We have our own racial feelings and if we try to copy Whites we will make bad copies.” On May 9, 1919, Europe was stabbed to death by one of his musicians. At the time of his death, he was the best known African American bandleader in the U.S. and was granted the first ever public funeral for an African American in New York City. His biography, “A Lifetime in Ragtime: A Biography of James Reese Europe,” was published in 1995.

• February 22, 1888 Horace Pippin, self-taught painter, was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Pippin served in the 369th infantry during World War I where he lost the use of his right arm. He started painting in 1930 and his work includes portraits, landscapes, and religious subjects. His painting of “John Brown Going to his Hanging” (1942) is in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and “Domino Players” (1943) is in the Phillips Collection. Other well known works include his “Self Portrait” (1941) and several versions of “Cabin in the Cotton.” Pippin died July 6, 1946. His biography, “I Tell My Heart: The Art of Horace Pippin,” was published in 1993.

• February 22, 1899 Albert C. Richardson of South Frankfort, Michigan received patent number 620,362 for an insect destroyer. His invention provided a simple, inexpensive, and efficient device to destroy insects on plants and trees without injuring the shoots or foliage. Richardson created several other devices that were completely unrelated to each other. He received patent number 255,022 on March 14, 1882 for a hame fastner, patent number 446,470 on February 17, 1891 for a butter churn, patent number 529,311 on November 13, 1894 for a casket lowering device, and patent number 638,811 on December 12, 1899 for an improvement in the design of the bottle.

• February 22, 1911 Francis Ellen Watkins Harper, abolitionist and poet, died. Harper was born September 24, 1825 in Baltimore, Maryland. She had her first volume of poems, “Forest Leaves,” published in 1845 and her second book, “Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects,” published in 1854. Other works by Harper include “Poems” (1857), “The Martyr of Alabama and Other Poems” (1892), and “Atlanta Offering” (1895). In 1853, Harper joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and became a traveling lecturer for the group. She was also a strong supporter of prohibition and women’s suffrage. In 1892, Harper published “Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted,” one of the first novels by an African American woman. In 1897, she was elected vice president of the National Association of Colored Women. Studies of Harper include Melba Joyce Boyd’s “Discarded Legacy: Politics and Poetics in the Life of Francis E. W. Harper” (1994).

• February 22, 1922 Joe Wilder, jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader, was born in Colwyn, Pennsylvania. Wilder studied at the Mastbaum School of Music, but turned to jazz when he felt there was little opportunity for an African American classical musician. At the age of 19, he joined his first touring band. Wilder served in the United States Marines during World War II, eventually becoming assistant bandmaster of the headquarters’ band. After the war, he played in several orchestras, including Jimmie Lunceford, Noble Sissle, Dizzy Gillespie, and Count Basie. Wilder earned his Bachelor of Music degree in 1953 from the Manhattan School of Music. From 1957 to 1974, he did studio work for ABC television and performed in the pit orchestras for Broadway musicals. Wilder recorded seven albums as bandleader, including “Wilder N’ Wilder” (1956), “Jazz from Peter Gunn” (1959), and “Among Friends” (2003). In 2008, Wilder was designated a NEA Jazz Master, the highest honor the United States bestows on a jazz musician, by the National Endowment for the Arts.

• February 22, 1928 Lawrence Joel, Medal of Honor recipient, was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Joel joined the United States Army in 1946 and served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. On November 8, 1965, while serving as a medic with the rank of specialist five assigned to the 1st Battalion of the 503rd Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, Joel’s actions earned him the medal. On that date, Joel and his battalion found themselves in a Viet Cong ambush, outnumber six to one. Under heavy gunfire, Joel did his duty as a medic, administering first aid to wounded soldiers. Joel defied orders to stay to the ground and risked his life to help the many wounded soldiers. Nearly every soldier in the lead squad was either wounded or killed. Even after being shot twice, Joel continued to do his job. He bandaged his wounds and continued to help the wounded in not only his unit, but in the nearby company as well. When his medical supplies were depleted, he hobbled around the battlefield for more, using a makeshift crutch. Joel attended to 13 troops and save the life of one soldier who suffered from a severe chest wound by improvising and placing a plastic bag over the soldier’s chest in order to seal the wound until supplies were refreshed. On March 9, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented Joel with the Medal of Honor, America’s highest military decoration. Joel was the first living African American to receive the medal since the Spanish–American War. Joel retired from the military in 1973 and died February 4, 1984. The Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, the Joel Auditorium at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and the U.S. Army clinics at Fort McPherson and Fort Bragg are all named in his honor.

• February 22, 1938 Ishmael Scott Reed, poet, essayist, and novelist, was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but raised in Buffalo, New York. Reed attended the University of Buffalo before moving to New York City in 1962 and co-founding the “East Village Other,” a well know underground publication. Reed’s works include nine novels, including “The Free Lance Pallbearers” (1967), six collections of poetry, eight collections of essays, including “Mixing It Up: Taking on the Media and Other Reflections” (2008), and six plays. Reed also has edited 13 anthologies, most recently “POW WOW, Charting the Fault Lines in the American Experience-Short Fiction from Then to Now” (2009). Two of his books have been nominated for the National Book Awards and a book of poetry, “Conjure” (1972), was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Reed received the Langston Hughes Medal in 1995, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award in 1998, and the Phillis Wheatley Award in 2004. He retired in 2005 from the University of California where he taught for 35 years.

• February 22, 1950 Julius Winfield “Dr. J” Erving, Jr., hall of fame basketball player, was born in Roosevelt, New York. Erving played college basketball at the University of Massachusetts and is one of only five players to average more than 20 points and 20 rebounds in NCAA Men’s Basketball. In 1971, he began his professional career with the Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association which he helped to legitimize. In 1976, when the ABA merged with the National Basketball Association, Erving joined the Philadelphia 76ers. Over his 12-season NBA career, Erving was an 11-time All-Star and NBA Most Valuable Player in 1981. In 1983, he won the J. Walter Kennedy Award for “outstanding service and dedication to the community.” Erving was also one of the first basketball players to endorse many products and to have a shoe marketed under his name. Erving retired in 1987 and in 1993 was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. After his basketball career, he became a businessman and television basketball analyst. In the late 1990s, Erving co-founded the first ever NASCAR racing team completely owned by minorities. He also serves on the board of several corporations. “Doctor J: A Biography of Julius Erving” was published in 1975.

• February 22, 2007 Dennis Wayne Johnson, hall of fame basketball player, died. Johnson was born September 18, 1954 in Los Angeles, California. Johnson played college basketball at Los Angeles Harbor College and Pepperdine University. He was selected by the Seattle Supersonics in the 1976 NBA Draft and over his 15 season professional career was a five-time All-Star and nine-time All-Defensive Team member. Johnson won NBA championships in 1979 with the Supersonics and in 1984 and 1986 with the Boston Celtics. Johnson retired in 1990 and in 1991 the Celtics retired his jersey number 3. After retiring, Johnson served as an assistant coach with various teams. Johnson was posthumously inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.