* Today in Black History - April 16
1862 - The DC Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862 ended slavery
in Washington, DC, freed 3,100 individuals, reimbursed
those who had legally owned them ($993,407) and offered
the newly freed women and men money to emigrate. The
District of Columbia will later declare this date an
annual holiday known as "Emancipation Day." The District
also will have the distinction of being the only part of
the United States to have compensated slave owners for
freeing enslaved persons they held.
1868 - Louisiana voters approve a new constitution and elect
state officers, including the first African American
lieutenant governor, Oscar J. Dunn, and the first
African American state treasurer, Antoine Dubuclet.
Article Thirteen of the new constitution bans
segregation in public accommodation: "All the persons
shall enjoy equal rights and privileges upon any
conveyances of a public character; and all places of
business, or of public resort, or for which a license
is required by either State, Parish or municipal
authority, shall be deemed places of a public
character and shall be opened to the accommodation and
patronage of all persons, without distinction or
discrimination on account of race or color."
1869 - Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett is appointed Consul General
to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the first African
American to serve in a diplomatic position for the
United States. Bassett will hold the post for 12
years.
1947 - Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. is born in New York City.
He will become one of the finest basketball players in
history, first with UCLA, then with the Milwaukee Bucks
and, from 1975 to his retirement in 1990, with the Los
Angeles Lakers. After his conversion to Islam in
1971, he will change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
early in his professional career. The all-time leading
scorer in the NBA, he will lead the Lakers to five NBA
championships, including back-to-back titles in 1987
and 1988. He will win six NBA Championships, be NBA MVP
six times, and NBA All-Star nineteen times. He will be
the first NBA player in history to play twenty seasons.
He will be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball
Hall of Fame on May 15, 1995 and the National Collegiate
Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.
1962 - Three Louisiana segregationists are excommunicated by
Archbishop Joseph Rummel for continuing their opposition
to his order for integration of New Orleans parochial
schools.
1965 - Maj. General Benjamin O. Davis Jr., assistant deputy
chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, is named
lieutenant general, the highest rank attained by an
African American to date in the armed services.
1973 - Lelia Smith Foley becomes the first African American
female to be elected mayor of a United States city when
she takes office in the small town of Taft, Oklahoma. She
will hold the position for 13 years.
______________________________________________________________
Munirah Chronicle is edited by Mr. Rene' A. Perry
"The TRUTH shall make you free"
E-mail: <[log in to unmask]>
Archives: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/Munirah.html
http://blackagenda.com/cybercolonies/index.htm
_____________________________________________________________
To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]>
In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name
______________________________________________________________
Munirah(TM) is a trademark of Information Man. Copyright 1997 - 2016,
All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with
The Black Agenda.
|