*                       Today in Black History - October 17           *

 

1711 - Jupiter Hammon, the first African American to publish 

            poetry (Complete Works), is born.

 

1787 - Boston African Americans, led by Prince Hall, submit to 

            the State Legislature in Boston, Massachusetts, a 

            petition asking for equal educational rights and 

            facilities.  The petition is not granted.

 

1806 - Jean Jacques Dessalines, revolutionist and Emperor of 

            Haiti, joins the ancestors as a result of an 

            assassination. 

 

1817 - Samuel Ringgold Ward is born on the Eastern Shore of 

            Maryland. He will be considered one of the finest 

            abolitionist orators.

 

1871 - President Grant suspends the writ of habeas corpus and 

            declares martial law in nine South Carolina counties 

            affected by Ku Klux Klan disturbances.

 

1888 - The first African American bank, Capital Savings Bank of

            Washington, DC, opens for business.

 

1894 - Ohio National Guard kills 3 members of a lynch mob while 

            rescuing an African American man.

 

1909 - William R. Cole is born in East Orange, New Jersey.  He 

            will become a jazz drummer best known as "Cozy Cole."  

            He will begin to play professionally as a teenager and 

            will make his first recording at age 20 with Jelly Roll 

            Morton's Red Hot Peppers. Cozy Cole will join Cab 

            Calloway's band in 1939 and will join CBS radio in 1943 

            to play in Raymond Scott's Orchestra, becoming one of 

            the first African American musicians on a network 

            musical staff.  In 1958, Cole will make a solo hit 

            record, "Topsy," that sells more than a million copies.

            He will join the ancestors in 1981.

 

1928 - James "Junior" Gilliam is born.  He will become a 

            professional baseball player for the Brooklyn Dodgers 

            and will be the National League Rookie of the Year in 

            1953.  

 

1956 - Mae C. Jemison is born in Decatur, Alabama. She will 

            grow up in Chicago, become a physician, serve in the 

            Peace Corps in Africa, and practice medicine in Los 

            Angeles, before being selected for the astronaut 

            training program in 1987. 

 

1969 - Dr. Clifton R. Wharton Jr., is elected president of 

            Michigan State University and becomes the first African

            American to head a major, predominantly white university

            in the twentieth century.

 

1985 - Legendary jazz and blues singer Alberta Hunter joins the 

            ancestors in New York City.  She achieved fame in 

            Chicago jazz clubs in the 1920's, toured Europe in the 

            1930's and, after over 20 years of anonymity as a nurse,

            returned to performing in 1977.  

 

1990 - Dr. Ralph Abernathy, civil rights leader, joins the 

            ancestors. 

 

1991 - The 100th episode of "A Different World" airs on NBC.  

            The acclaimed show, a spin-off of "The Cosby Show" that 

            stars Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison, and an ensemble of 

            young African American actors, is directed by Debbie 

            Allen.


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