*  Today in Black History - February 16  *

1801 - The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church officially
        separates from its parent, the Methodist Episcopal Church.
        The Zion church will be incorporated as the African Episcopal
        Church of the City of New York.  James Varick will be its first
        pastor and will later become the first black African Methodist
        Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) bishop.  It will hold its first national
        conference in 1821. The name Zion will not be added to the
        church's name until 1848.

1874 - Frederick Douglass is elected President of Freedman's Bank and
        Trust Company.

1923 - Bessie Smith makes her first recording for Columbia Records. The
        record, "Down Hearted Blues,"  written by Alberta Hunter and
        Lovie Austin, will sell an incredible 800,000 copies and be
        Columbia's first popular hit.

1951 - James Ingram is born in Akron, Ohio.  He will be raised there on
        Kelly Avenue.  He will later become a rhythm and blues singer and
        will earn at least three Grammy Awards and seventeen Grammy
        nominations.

1951 - The New York City Council passes a bill prohibiting racial
        discrimination in city-assisted housing developments.

1957 - LeVar Burton is born in Landstuhl, Germany.  He will become an
        actor, winning a landmark role in the award-winning miniseries,
        "Roots," as the enslaved African youth Kunta Kinte, while
        attending USC.  He will go on to become a producer, director
        and writer for numerous television series and films.

1970 - Joe Frazier knocks outs Jimmy Ellis in the second round to become
        the undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion.

1972 - Wilt Chamberlain scores his 30,000th point in his 940th game, a
        basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix
        Suns.  He is the first player in the NBA to score 30,000 points.

1992 - The Los Angeles Lakers retire Magic Johnson's uniform, # 32.

1999 - Mary Elizabeth Roche, best known as Betty Roche, joins the
        ancestors at the age of 81 in Pleasantville, New Jersey.  She
        was a singer who performed with Duke Ellington in the 1940s and
        1950s.  She sang with the Savoy Sultans from 1941 to 1943, when
        she joined Ellington's group.  She scored high marks from critics
        for the suite "Black, Brown and Beige," at Ellington's first
        Carnegie Hall concert.  She also performed Ellington's signature
        song "Take the A Train" in the 1943 film. "Reveille With Beverly."

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