*      Today in Black History - August 17               *

1847 - Archibald Henry Grimke' is born into slavery on a plantation near
        Charleston, South Carolina.  His white father, Henry Grimke', was
        of the famous Grimke' family which included abolitionist sisters
        Sarah and Angelina.  After being freed in 1852, Archibald will
        have a distinguished career as a lawyer (Harvard Law, 1874),
        political delegate, newspaper publisher ("The Hub" in Boston),
        and author.

1887 - Marcus Garvey is born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica.  He will become a
        charismatic black nationalist and founder of the UNIA, an
        organization dedicated to education, racial pride, and African
        development.  He will also found the Black Star Line, an African
        American owned steamship company established to link new-world
        Blacks with their African motherland.  Garvey and several
        associates will be railroaded by the U.S. government for "mail
        fraud" in connection with the sale of Black Star stock.  Garvey
        will be convicted and serve five years in federal prison.  The U.S.
        government trumped up these charges against Marcus Garvey because
        he was a threat to the status quo of the Negro people of America.
        That is why he was deported instead of being forced to serve his
        complete sentence here. The U.S. government simply wanted to get
        rid of him.

1920 - Isaiah Boyd Perry is born in Money Point (Norfolk), Virginia. He
        will grow up in Hampton, Virginia and will become the first faculty
        member of Hampton Institute to graduate from the Hampton Institute
        Laboratory High School (George P. Phenix), graduate from the
        Hampton Institute Trade School, graduate with a Bachelor of
        Science Degree, and a Master of Science Degree and join the
        "Quarter of the Century Club" as a faculty member with twenty five
        years of service. He will join the ancestors in 1971.

1931 - A'Lelia Walker Robinson joins the ancestors and residents of Harlem
        and New York City mourn her death. The daughter of Madame C.J.
        Walker, she had distinguished herself as hostess of the "Dark
        Tower" on Harlem's West 136th Street, a meeting place for Harlem
        Renaissance poets, philosophers, and artists such as W.E.B. DuBois,
        Langston Hughes, and Aaron Douglas, as well as European nobility
        and members of New York's social register.

1939 - Luther Allison is born in Widener, Arkansas.  He will become a
        blues guitarist.  Allison will spend his formative musical years
        in Chicago jamming with the West Side's best, including Magic
        Sam, Otis Rush, and Freddie King. His first recording, "Love Me
        Mama" (Delmark, 1969), is considered a blues classic.  Allison
        will come to national prominence with blistering performances at
        the 1969 and 1970 Ann Arbor Blues Festivals, wowing young rock
        fans with his scorching guitar solos and soulful vocals. He will
        become the first blues act to sign with Motown Records in 1971,
        subsequently releasing three records for the label.  He will
        tour nationally throughout the 1970s before relocating to Paris
        in the early 1980s where he will continue to release albums
        (many issued only in Europe) and tour incessantly, eventually
        becoming a European blues superstar.

1960 - Gabon declares its independence from France.

1984 - Roberto Clemente becomes the second baseball player to be featured
        on a U.S. postage stamp.

1988 - Butch Reynolds of the United States sets the 400 meter record
        (43.29) in Zurich, Switzerland.

1990 - Pearl Bailey, Broadway actress and singer, joins the ancestors at
        the age of 72 after succumbing to a heart attack in Philadelphia,
        Pennsylvania.

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