* Today in Black History - April 10 *
1816 - Richard Allen is elected Bishop of the A.M.E. Church, one
day after the church is organized at its first general
convention.
1872 - The first National Black Convention meets in New Orleans,
Louisiana. Frederick Douglass will be elected president.
1877 - Federal troops withdraw from Columbia, South Carolina.
This action will allow the white South Carolina Democrats
to take over the state government.
1926 - Johnnie Tillmon (later Blackston) is born in Scott, Arkansas.
A welfare rights champion, Tillmon will become the founding
chairperson and director of the National Welfare Rights
Organization.
1932 - The James Weldon Johnson Literary Guild announces the winners
of its first annual nationwide poetry contest for children.
The judges - Jessie Fauset and Countee Cullen, among others
- select in the teen category a 16-year-old Liberian youth
and Margaret Walker of New Orleans, who receives an
honorable mention for her poem "When Night Comes."
1938 - Nana Annor Adjaye, Pan-Africanist, joins the ancestors in
West Nzima, Ghana.
1943 - Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. is born in Richmond, Virginia. He
will become a professional tennis player and will be one of
the first African American male tennis stars. He will be
the first African American to win a spot on the American
Davis Cup tennis team, the first to win the U.S. Open and
the men's singles title at Wimbledon, in 1975. Over his
11-year career he will play in 304 tournaments, winning 51,
including the 1970 Australian Open and Wimbledon in 1975.
He will be the number one ranked player in the world in
1975. A life-threatening heart condition will force him
to retire in 1980 and he will continue to serve as the
non-playing captain of that year's U.S. Davis Cup team. In
1985 he will become the second African American inducted
into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The first was
Althea Gibson in 1971. After his career in tennis, he will
become an eloquent spokesperson against racial
intolerance and a critic of South Africa's racist system
of apartheid. In the United States, he will create tennis
programs to benefit inner-city youth. He will write a
three-volume history of the African American athlete
entitled "A Hard Road To Glory" (1988). Suffering
complications from AIDS, contracted from a blood
transfusion during a heart bypass operation, he will join
the ancestors in New York on February 6, 1993.
1958 - W.C. Handy, composer and musician, joins the ancestors at
the age of 84 in New York City.
1959 - Kenneth Edmonds is born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He will
become a professional musician and will begin work in the
business producing music, with his friend Antonio Reid,
for Carrie Lucas, The Whispers, and Dynasty. Since then,
they've produced hits for many others. During the 1990s,
his dominance will extend beyond the production arena and
into the performing circle. His hit "Tender Lover" crossed
him over into pop territory and eventually sold more than
two million copies. The singles "Whip Appeal" and "It's No
Crime" were Top Ten R&B and pop hits. He will hit his
peak in 1995, producing hits for artists like Boyz II Men,
Madonna and Whitney Houston and coordinated the "Waiting
to Exhale" soundtrack. In the fall of 1996, he will released
"Day," his first solo album since 1993 to strong reviews.
He will successfully produce the film "Soul Food" in 1997.
1968 - U.S. Congress passes a Civil Rights Bill banning racial
discrimination in the sale or rental of approximately 80
per cent of the nation's housing. The bill also made it a
crime to interfere with civil rights workers and to cross
state lines to incite a riot.
1975 - Lee Elder becomes the first African American to tee off as
an entrant in the Masters' Tournament in Augusta, Georgia.
2003 - Eva "Little Eva" Boyd, singer, joins the ancestors at age
59 after succumbing to cancer. She recorded the 1960s pop
hit "The Locomotion."
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