*                   Today in Black History - May 5               *

1857 - The Dred Scott decision, in the famous U.S. Supreme Court case,
        declares that no black--free or slave--could claim United
        States citizenship, therefore could not sue.  It also stated
        that Congress could not prohibit slavery in United States
        territories.  The ruling will arouse angry resentment in the
        North and will lead the nation a step closer to civil war. It
        also will influence the introduction and passage of the 14th
        Amendment to the U.S. Constitution after the Civil War (1861-
        1865).  The amendment, adopted in 1868, will extend citizenship
        to former slaves and give them full civil rights.

1865 - Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. is born in a log cabin in Soak Creek,
        Virginia.  He will be a social and religious leader at
        Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, after becoming the
        pastor in 1908.  Under his leadership, he will expand the role
        of the church in the community and increase its membership.
        When he retires in 1937, Abyssinian Baptist Church will be the
        largest Protestant church in the United States. He will be
        succeeded in the pulpit by his son, Adam CLayton Powell, Jr.,
        who will become a future congressman.

1883 - Josiah Henson joins the ancestors in Dawn, Ontario, Canada at the
        age of 93. He had escaped slavery in Maryland and settled in
        Canada. He had been part of the creation of a settlement for
        fugitive slaves near Dawn, Ontario.

1905 - Robert Sengstacke Abbott founds the Chicago Defender, calling it
        "The World's Greatest Weekly."

1919 - The NAACP awards the Spingarn Medal to William Stanley Braithwaite.
        Braithwaite's publication of essays and verse in notable mainstream
        magazines and editorial efforts on three books of verse and poetry
        anthologies had earned him wide acclaim among African Americans and
        whites.

1931 - Edwin A. Harleston joins the ancestors in Charleston, South Carolina.
        One of the most popular and influential African American painters of
        the day, his work will be exhibited at the Harmon Foundation, the
        Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and in the exhibit "Two Centuries
        of Black American Art."

1935 - Jesse Owens, of the United States, sets the long jump record at
        26' 8".

1943 - Maximiliano Gomez Horatio is born in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican
        Republic. After working in the sugar refineries in his home area,
        be will become a politician, leading the Dominican Popular Movement.
        He believed that the Dominican Republic should be guided by its
        own historical and social environment, not on any European model.
        He will participate in an insurrection that is ended by a U.S.
        invasion in 1965. He will later be imprisoned and after his release,
        he will go into exile.  He will join the ancestors under suspicious
        circumstances in Brussels, Belgium, in 1971.

1965 - Edgar Austin Mittelholzer joins the ancestors in Farnham, Surrey,
        England, after committing suicide at the age of 55. He had been the
        the first author from the Carribean to earn his living as a writer.
        He was considered the father of the novel in the English-speaking
        Caribbean.

1969 - Moneta Sleet becomes the first African American to win a Pulitzer
        Prize for his photograph of Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. and her
        daughter at her husband's funeral.

1971 - A race riot occurs in the Brownsville section of New York City.

1975 - Hank Aaron surpasses Babe Ruth's RBI mark.  He will finish his
        career with 755 home runs and over 2200 RBIs.  Both records
        will stand for many years.  Aaron will be inducted into Baseball's
        Hall of Fame on August 1, 1982.

1977 - The Afro-American Historical and Genealogy Society is founded in
        Washington, DC.  The society's mission is to encourage scholarly
        research in African American genealogy.

1988 - Eugene Antonio Marino, is installed as the archbishop of Atlanta,
        becoming the first African American Roman Catholic archbishop in
        the United States.

2003 - Walter Sisulu, a major player in the fight against apartheid in
        South Africa with Nelson Mandela, joins the ancestors at the age
        of 90 after a long illness.

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