*               Today in Black History - May 26         *

1799 - Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin is born in Moscow, Russia. He will
        be first published in the journal, "The Messenger of Europe"
        in 1814.  Pushkin today is regarded as the Father of Russian
        Literature.

1899 - Aaron Douglas is born in Topeka, Kansas. He will become a
        world-renowned painter and muralist whose work will embrace
        the African ancestral arts and express pride in the African
        American image at a time when doing so was highly unpopular.
        His most famous works will be "Aspects of Negro Life," "Let
        My People Go," "Judgment Day" and "Building More Stately
        Mansions."

1907 - Elizabeth Keckley, seamstress and confidante to Mary Todd
        Lincoln, dies of a paralytic stroke in Washington, DC.  Keckley
        was the author of "Behind the Scenes or Thirty Years a Slave,"
        and "Four Years in the White House" (1868), one of the first
        insider accounts of a White House Presidency.

1926 - Miles (Dewey) Davis is born in Alton, Illinois.  For over four
        decades, he will be one of the most innovative and influential
        jazz trumpeters, known for his hard bop and jazz and fusion
        accomplishments.  Most noted for the albums "Sketches of Spain,"
        "Miles Smiles," and "Kind of Blue," he will also win three
        Grammy awards for his albums "We Want Miles," "Decoy," and
        "Tutu" and be awarded the French Legion d'Honneur in 1991.

1943 - President Edwin Barclay of Liberia, becomes the first African
        president to pay an official visit to an American president,
        arriving at the White House.

1949 - Philip Michael Thomas is born in Columbus Ohio.  He will become
        an actor and will be best known for his role in the TV series,
        "Miami Vice."  He also will have roles in the movies "HOMEBOY,"
        "STIGMA," "STREETFIGHT," "BLACK FIST," "MIAMI VICE-THE MOVIE,"
        "MIAMI VICE 2 - THE PRODIGAL SON," "A FIGHT FOR JENNY,"
        "DEATH DRUG," "A LITTLE PIECE OF SUNSHINE," and "THE WIZARD OF
        SPEED AND TIME."

1961 - The Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee is established in
        Atlanta, Georgia.

1968 - Ruth A. Lucas is promoted to Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, the
        first African American woman to achieve this rank.

1968 - Arthur Ashe wins the National Men's Singles in the U.S. Lawn
        Tennis Association Open Tournament, becoming the first African
        American male to win a major tennis title.

1969 - The National Black Economic Development Conference adopts a
        manifesto in a Detroit meeting, calling for $500 Million in
        reparations from white churches.

        *********************************************************
        The source for these facts are "Encyclopedia Britannica,
        "InfoBeat," "I, Too, Sing America - The African American
        Book of Days," "Before the Mayflower", "Black Firsts" and
        independent research by the Information Man.
        *********************************************************

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