*                   Today in Black History - May 24                   *

1854 - Anthony Burns, celebrated fugitive slave, is arrested by United 
        States Deputy Marshals in Boston, Massachusetts.

1861 - Major General Benjamin F. Butler declare slaves "contraband of war."

1864 - Two regiments, the First and Tenth U.S. Colored Troops, repulse an 
        attack by rebel General Fitzhugh Lee.  Also participating in battle 
        at Wilson's Wharf Landing, on the bank of the James River, were a 
        small detachment of white Union troops and a battery of light 
        artillery.

1881 - Paul Quinn College is chartered in the State of Texas. The college, 
        founded in 1872, had moved from its original site in Austin to Waco
in 
        1877.

1905 - Martin Dihigo is born in Havana, Cuba.  He will become a baseball
        player in the Negro Leagues and will be considered by some to be the

        greatest all-around player of all-time of African descent.  He will
be 
        elected to the Cuban and Mexican Halls of Fame during his lifetime, 
        and will be posthumously elected to the National Baseball Hall of
Fame 
        in 1977.

1937 - Archie Shepp is born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  He will become a 
        renowned avant-garde jazz saxophonist and play with a variety of
jazz 
        greats including John Coltrane, Bobby Hutcherson, and Donald Cherry.

        He also will be a composer of jazz instrumental compositions and the

        play "Lady Day: A Musical Tragedy." He will use free jazz as a
vehicle 
        for political expression and will be an important factor in the 
        growing acceptance of African American identity. He will become an 
        Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts but will 
        continue his concert career at the same time, working mostly in 
        Europe. He will be a seminal figure in the development of the New 
        Music and influence many saxophonists of the avant-garde. 

1944 - Patricia Louise Holt is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  She will

        be better known as Patti LaBelle, organizer and lead singer of Patti

        LaBelle and the Bluebells in 1960.  In the 1970's, she will 
        reconfigure the group and later reteam with Nona Hendryx and Sara
Dash 
        as LaBelle. In 1976, LaBelle will pursue a solo career, gain even
more 
        critical and popular acclaim, and win a 1992 Grammy.

1951 - Racial segregation in Washington, DC, restaurants is ruled illegal by

        the Municipal Court of Appeals.

1954 - Peter Marshall Murray is installed as president of the New York 
        County Medical Society. He is the first African American physician
to 
        head an AMA affiliate.

1961 - Twenty-seven Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi.

1963 - The Organization of African Unity is founded in Addis Ababa, 
        Ethiopia. 

1974 - Edward "Duke" Ellington joins the ancestors in New York City at the 
        age of 75. For nearly half a century, Duke Ellington led the premier

        American big-band, and is considered by many sources to be the 
        greatest composer in the history of jazz.

1983 - Jesse L. Jackson becomes the first African American to address a 
        joint session of a state legislature in the 20th century, when he 
        talks to the Alabama legislature.

1984 - Ralph Sampson of the Houston Rockets becomes the first unanimous 
        choice for NBA Rookie of the Year since Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-
        Jabar) of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1970.

1991 - Hal McRae is named manager of the Kansas City Royals. He will become 
        one of two African American managers serving in major league
baseball.

1993 - The African nation of Eritrea gains independence from Ethiopia.

2000 - Isiah Thomas and Bob McAdoo are elected to be enshrined in the 2000 
        class of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

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