*                    Today in Black History - May 31                  *

1870 - The first civil rights Enforcement Act, which protects the voting
        and civil rights of African Americans, is passed by Congress.  It
        provides stiff penalties for public officials and private citizens
        who deprive citizens of the suffrage and civil rights.  The measure
        authorizes the use of the U.S. Army to protect these rights.

1909 - The first NAACP conference is held at the United Charities Building
        in New York City with 300 African Americans and whites in
        attendance.  Ida B. Wells-Barnett, while speaking at the
        conference, condemns lynching as a "blight upon our nation, mocking
        our laws and disgracing our Christianity."

1917 - One of the first jazz records, "The Darktown Strutter's Ball," is
        released.  It was written by songwriter and musician, Shelton
        Brooks. It will become Brooks' most famous song.

1933 - Shirley Verrett is born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  She will become
        an operatic mezzo-soprano known worldwide for her compelling
        performance in Carmen. She will be a star at the world’s great
        opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, the Royal
        Opera House Covent Garden, the Bolshoi Opera, the Paris Opera, the
        San Francisco Opera, the Vienna Staatsoper, and the Lyric Opera of
        Chicago. She will appear at the Metropolitan opera for more than
        two decades. She will be the recipient of many honors and awards,
        among them the Marian Anderson Award, Naumburg Award, and the
        Sullivan Award; and fellowships from numerous foundations including
        Ford, John Hay Whitney, and Martha Baird Rockefeller. She will
        receive honorary doctorates from Holy Cross College in Worcester,
        Massachusetts, and Northeastern University in Boston. She will join
        the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1996, becoming the
        James Earl Jones Distinguished University Professor of Music.

1955 - The U.S. Supreme Court passes a second desegregation ruling,
        demanding "all deliberate speed" be used in the desegregation of
        public schools.

1961 - Judge Irving Kaufman orders the Board of Education of New Rochelle,
        New York to integrate their schools.

1961 - Chuck Berry's amusement park, Berryland, opens near St. Louis,
        Missouri.

1979 - Zimbabwe proclaims its independence.

1987 - John Dotson is named publisher of the Boulder, Colorado, "Daily
        Camera." It is one of many distinctions for the noted journalist,
        including being the first African American reporter for Newsweek
        magazine and founding, in the mid-1970's, the Institute for
        Journalism Education, dedicated to training minority journalists.

1989 - Cito Gaston is named manager of the Toronto Blue Jays of baseball's
        American League.

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