*		    Today in Black History - September 23             *

1667 - In Williamsburg, Virginia, a law was passed, barring slaves from
	obtaining their freedom by converting to Christianity. 

1862 - A draft of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation is published in 
	Northern Newspapers.

1863 - Mary Church (later Terrell) is born in Memphis, Tennessee. She 
	will become an educator, civil and woman's rights advocate, and
	U.S. delegate to the International Peace Conference.  She will
	also be the first African American to serve on the school board
	in the District of Columbia.

1926 - John Coltrane, brilliant jazz saxophonist and composer who will 
	be considered the father of avant-garde jazz, is born in Hamlet,
	North Carolina. Even though there are recordings of Coltrane 
	from as early as 1946, he received little recognition until 
	1955. "Trane," as he will be called, will freelance in 
	Philadelphia in the summer of 1955 when he will receive a call
	from trumpeter Miles Davis. Davis, whose success during the 
	late forties will dissipate from several years of heroin abuse,
	will clean up, become active, and will be ready to form a 
	quintet. Tenor man Sonny Rollins, Davis' preferred saxophonist,
	will vanish temporarily, which will ensure that Coltrane will
	be appointed in his place. With a few absences, Coltrane will
	work with Miles from October 1955 through April 1957, a period 
	which will see influential recordings from Davis and the first 
	signs of Coltrane's growing ability. Although recordings of his
	work from as early as 1946 exist, His recording career will not
	begin in earnest until 1955. From 1957 onward, he will record
	at an astonishing rate, producing dozens of albums, many of 
	which will not appear until years after he joins the ancestors.
	He will be regarded as one of the most important and influential
	jazz musicians, and one of the greatest musicians of the 
	twentieth century. He will be credited with reshaping modern 
	jazz and with being the predominant influence on successive 
	generations of musicians. Along with tenor saxophonists Coleman
	Hawkins, Lester Young, and Sonny Rollins, He will fundamentally
	alter expectations for the instrument. He will join the 
	ancestors, succumbing from liver cancer, at Huntington Hospital
	in Long Island, New York on July 17, 1967, at the age of 40. 

1930 - Ray Charles (Robinson) is born in Albany, Georgia. Blind by the 
	age of six, he will study music and form his own band at the 
	age of 24. He will overcome the handicap of blindness to become
	a pioneering American pianist and soul musician who will shape 
	the sound of rhythm and blues and bring a soulful sound to 
	everything from country music to pop standards to a now-famous 
	rendition of "America the Beautiful." He will score his first 
	Atlantic hit in 1953 with the release of the Ahmet Ertegun-
	composed "Mess Around." He will have another hit with the 
	version of "It Should Have Been Me." His career will go into 
	high gear with the gospel drive of "I Got a Woman" (1955). This 
	will be followed by "This Little Girl of Mine," "Drown in My Own
	Tears," "Hallelujah I Love Her So," and "Lonely Avenue." Much of
	his songs at this time were gospel songs converted with secular
	lyrics. He also recorded many blues ballads. His landmark album
	will be "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music." The 
	essence of this phase of his career can be heard on his live 
	album "Ray Charles In Person," recorded before a mostly African
	American audience in Atlanta in 1956. This album will also 
	feature the first public performance of "What'd I Say." It broke
	out as a hit in Atlanta from the tape, months before it will be
	recorded in the studio in a two-part version with better 
	fidelity. Shortly afterward, in an appearance at the Newport 
	Jazz Festival, he will achieve mainstream success with "The Night
	Time (Is The Right Time)" which will appear on "Ray Charles at 
	Newport" (1959) and his signature song, "What'd I Say". Frank
	Sinatra will call him "the only true genius in the business."
	One of his last public performances will be in 2003 at a 
	televised annual electronic media journalist banquet held in 
	Washington, D.C. He will perform "Georgia On My Mind" and 
	"America the Beautiful." His final public appearance will come 
	on April 30, 2004, at the dedication of his music studio as a 
	historic landmark in the city of Los Angeles. He will join the 
	ancestors on June 10, 2004 after succumbing to acute liver 
	disease. His final album, "Genius Loves Company," released two
	months after his death, will consist of duets with various 
	admirers and contemporaries: B.B. King, Van Morrison, Willie 
	Nelson, James Taylor, Gladys Knight, Michael McDonald, Natalie
	Cole, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Idina
	Menzel, and Johnny Mathis. The album will win 8 Grammy Awards, 
	including 5 for Ray for Best Pop Vocal Album, Album of the Year,
	Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for 
	"Here We Go Again" with Norah Jones, and Best Gospel Performance
	for "Heaven Help Us All" with Gladys Knight; he will also 
	receive nods for his duets with Elton John and B.B. King. Out of
	all of the songs from his huge catalog of recordings, he will
	request Harold Arlen's "Somewhere Over The Rainbow," a duet 
	recorded with Johnny Mathis, be played at his memorial service.

1952 - Jersey Joe Walcott, loses his heavyweight title in the 13th 
	round, to Rocky Marciano, in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.  Pay 
	Television for sporting events begins with the Marciano-Walcott
	fight, coast to coast, in 49 theatres in 31 cities. 

1954 - Playwright George C. Wolfe is born in Frankfort, Kentucky. He 
	will become critically acclaimed for the controversial plays, 
	"The Colored Museum", "Jelly's Last Jam", and "Spunk".

1957 - Nine African American students, who had entered Little Rock 
	Central High School in Arkansas, are forced to leave because 
	of a white mob outside. 

1961 - President Kennedy names Thurgood Marshall to the United States 
	Circuit Court of Appeals.

1962 - Los Angeles Dodger, Maury Wills, steals record setting base #97 
	on his way to 104.

1979 - Lou Brock steals record 935th base and becomes the all-time 
	major league record holder.

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