Timeline: 1944
February 18: Ground was broken for the Douglass Center.
July 23: The Twin City Committee presented a Negro Folk Song Festival under the direction of Julia Walden Valentine in the Crystal Lake Park Pavilion. The program featured a community chorus, a female chorus, violinist Bruce Hayden (father of Carla Hayden, 14th Librarian of Congress), and vocal soloists Thelma Holloway, Hattie Winfield, and Lucy Gray. From this group, the Legato Music Club was initiated in 1945. The club was a chapter in the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM).
Claude “Buddy” Young was a student athlete at the University of Illinois who played football and ran track. In 1944 he was selected as an All-American. His college career was interrupted during World War II, but he returned to the University of Illinois and led the football team to a winning Rose Bowl in 1947 before becoming one of the first Black pro football players in the country.
Jesse Clements was elected the first Black captain of the Champaign High School basketball team for 1944-45.
