OAAA E-Weekly Newsletter

The Three-Fifths Compromise was reached between delegates from southern states and northern states,  during the September 1787 United States Constitutional Convention. The debate was over whether, and if so, how, enslaved people would be counted when determining a state's total population for legislative representation and taxing purposes. The issue was important, as this population number would then be used to determine the number of seats that each state would have in the United States House of Representatives for the next ten years.The compromise was proposed by delegates James Wilson and Roger Sherman and is found in Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3, of the United States Constitution, which reads: “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.” The three-fifths ratio originated with a 1783 amendment proposed for the Articles of Confederation. 

On Sept. 28, 1991, trumpeter and composer Miles Davis died of pneumonia, respiratory failure and a stroke at age 65. Davis for years defined "cool." Born in 1926, in East St. Louis. IL (where his father was a dentist), Davis received his first trumpet at age 13. The young prodigy deeply admired jazz legends Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine and others. He reportedly was accepted for admission to the prestigious Juilliard School in 1944, in the hopes that  he could one day play with his musicial idols in New York City. He accomplished that goal within a year of getting to NYC, then dropped out of school. In 1947, the Miles Davis All-Stars debuted on the Savoy record label. Davis developed his craft during the be-bop era of music and also helped define other styles, from cool jazz to jazz-funk. He also discovered jazz greats Sonny Rollins and Percy Heath. In 1996, he was inducted as a performer into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

Entrepreneur Jesse B. Blayton Sr. started the first Black-owned radio station, WERD in Atlanta, GA, on Oct. 3, 1949. When Blayton bought the 1,000-watt radio station, he hired his son Jesse Jr., as station manager. From sunrise to sunset, it featured a mix of musical genres, from gospel to rhythm and blues. "Jockey Jack" Gibson, one of the nation's most famous Black radio announcers, worked at WERD in its early days. The station's success enabled Blayton to buy a second station, KREL, in the Houston radio market. Earlier in his career, he became Georgia's first African-American certified public accountant in 1928. Prior to that, he and a group of African-American businessmen founded the Mutual Federal Savings and Loan Association, for which he served as president. He also taught at Atlanta University.