*                Today in Black History - December 18                *

1852 - George H. White is born in Rosindale, North Carolina.  He will
        become a lawyer, state legislator, and in 1896, the only
        African American member of the United States House of
        Representatives, where he will be the first to introduce an
        anti-lynching bill.  White will also found the town of Whitesboro,
        New Jersey, as a haven for African Americans  escaping southern
        racism.

1859 - South Carolina declares itself an "independent commonwealth."
        AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE CONFEDERACY: The Confederacy is the
        first to recognize that African Americans are major factors in
        the war. The South impresses slaves to work in mines, repair
        railroads and build fortifications, thereby releasing a
        disproportionately large percentage of able-bodied whites for
        direct war service.  A handful of African Americans enlisted in
        the rebel army, but few, if any, fired guns in anger. A regiment
        of fourteen hundred free African Americans received official
        recognition in New Orleans, but was not called into service. It
        later became, by a strange mutation of history, the first
        African American regiment officially recognized by the Union
        army.

        AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE UNION NAVY: One out of every four Union
        sailors was an African American.  Of the 118,044 sailors in the
        Union Navy, 29,511 were African Americans.  At least four
        African American sailors won Congressional Medals of Honor.

        AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE UNION ARMY: The 185,000 Black soldiers
        in the Union army were organized into 166 all Black regiments
        (145 infantry, 7 cavalry, 12 heavy artillery, 1 light artillery,
        1 engineer). The largest number of African American soldiers
        came from Louisiana (24,052), followed by Kentucky (23,703)
        and Tennessee (20,133).  Pennsylvania contributed more African
        American soldiers than any other Northern state (8,612). African
        American soldiers participated in 449 battles, 39 of them major
        engagements.  Sixteen Black soldiers received Congressional
        Medals of Honor for gallantry in action.  Some 37,638 African
        American soldiers lost their lives during the war. African
        American soldiers generally received poor equipment and were
        forced to do a large amount of fatigue duty.  Until 1864,
        African American soldiers (from private to chaplain) received
        seven dollars a month whereas white soldiers received from
        thirteen to one hundred dollars a month. In 1863 African American
        units, with four exceptions (Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry, Fifty-
        fourth and Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteers and Twenty-ninth
        Connecticut Volunteers), were officially designated United States
        Colored Troops (USCT). Since the War Department discouraged
        applications from African Americans, there were few commissioned
        officers. The highest ranking of the seventy-five to one hundred
        African American officers was Lt. Col. Alexander T. Augustana, a
        surgeon.  Some 200,000 African American civilians were employed
        by the Union army as laborers, cooks, teamster and servants.

1865 - Congress proclaims the ratification of the thirteenth Amendment to
        the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  The ratification process
        had been completed on December 6, 1865.

1917 - Ossie Davis is born in Cogdell, Georgia.  While he will be best
        known as an actor in such plays as "Jeb" (where he will meet
        his wife, Ruby Dee) and "Purlie Victorious" and films like
        "Let's Do It Again," "Do The Right Thing," and "Jungle Fever,"
        he will be a playwright, screenwriter, and director(Cotton Comes
        to Harlem).  In 1969, he will win an Emmy for his role in
        "Teacher, Teacher" and will be a featured performer in
        television's "Evening Shade."

1958 - Niger gains autonomy within the French Community of Nations.

1961 - Wilt Chamberlain of the NBA Philadelphia Warriors scores 78
        points vs the Los Angeles Lakers.

1964 - Funeral services are held in Chicago for Sam Cooke. Hundreds
        of fans will cause damage to the A.R. Leak Funeral Home, where
        Cooke's body is on display.

1971 - Jesse Jackson announces the formation of Operation Push (People
        United to Save Humanity), a new African-American political and
        economic development organization.  Jackson, who resigned from
        Operation Breadbasket, the economic arm of the SCLC, says, "the
        problems of the 1970's are economic so the solution and goal
        must be economic."

1971 - The NAACP's Spingarn Medal is presented to Rev. Leon H. Sullivan,
        founder of Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America
        (OIC) for his leadership.

1989 - Ernest Dickerson wins the New York Film Critics Circle Award for
        best cinematography for the movie "Do the Right Thing."

1996 - The Oakland, California School board becomes the first in the
        nation to recognize Black english, a.k.a. Ebonics, as a separate
        language, NOT a dialect or slang.

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