*                       Today in Black History - October 25           *

 

1806 - Benjamin Banneker joins the ancestors at the age of 74 

            in Ellicott Mills, Maryland.  Banneker was a self-

            taught mathematician and builder (at age 21) of the 

            first striking clock built in the United States.  An 

            amateur astronomer, Banneker's calculations for solar

            and lunar eclipses appeared in 29 editions of his 

            almanacs, published from 1792 to 1797. 

 

1915 - Attorney James L. Curtis is named minister to Liberia.

 

1926 - Crisis magazine, led by editor W.E.B. DuBois, awards its

            first prizes in literature and art.  Among the winners 

            will be Arna Bontemps' poem "Nocturne at Bethesda," 

            Countee Cullen's poem "Thoughts in a Zoo," Aaron 

            Douglas' painting "African Chief" and a portrait by 

            Hale Woodruff. 

 

1940 - The Committee on the Participation of Negroes in the 

            National Defense Program met with President Roosevelt.

 

1940 - The National Newspaper Publishers Association is 

            founded. 

 

1940 - The Spingarn Medal is presented to Dr. Louis T. Wright 

            for his civil rights leadership and his contributions 

            as a surgeon.

 

1940 - Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr. is promoted to Brigadier 

            General, the first African American to attain that rank

            in the United States Army or any other branch of the 

            Armed Forces.

 

1958 - Ten thousand students, led by Jackie Robinson, Harry 

            Belfonte and A. Phillip Randolph, participate in the 

            Youth March for integrated schools in Washington, DC.  

 

1958 - Daisy Bates, head of the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP, 

            and the nine students who integrated Little Rocks's 

            Central High School are awarded the Spingarn Medal for

            their courage and leadership in the civil rights 

            struggle.

 

1962 - Uganda is admitted as the 110th member of the United 

            Nations.

 

1968 - The city of Chicago officially recognizes Jean Baptiste

            Pointe de Sable as its first settler.

 

1973 - Abebe Bikila, Ethiopian marathoner who won the Olympic 

            Gold Medal in 1960 and 1964, joins the ancestors at 

            the age of 46.

 

1976 - Clarence "Willie" Norris, the last surviving member of 

            the nine Scottsboro Boys, who were convicted in 1931 

            of the alleged rape of two white women on a freight 

            train, is pardoned by Governor George Wallace.  Norris

            had spent 15 years in prison and had been a fugitive 

            fleeing parole in Alabama in 1946. 

 

1983 - Mary Francis Berry, professor of history and law at 

            Howard University, and two other members of the Civil 

            Rights Commission are fired by President Ronald Reagan.

            Considered a champion of minority concerns on the 

            Commission, Berry will charge the administration with 

            attempting to "shut up" criticism. She will later sue 

            and be reinstated. 

 

1983 - The United States and six other Caribbean nations 

            invade the island nation of Grenada.

 

1988 - Two units of the Ku Klux Klan and eleven individuals 

            are ordered to pay $1 million to African Americans who

            were attacked during a brotherhood rally in 

            predominately white Forsythe County, Georgia.  

 

1990 - Evander Holyfield knocks out James "Buster" Douglas in 

            the third round of their twelve-round fight to become

            the undisputed world heavyweight champion.  

            Holyfield's record stood at 25-0, with 21 knockouts. 

 

1997 - The Million Woman March, organized by grass root sisters,

            led by Sister Phile Chionesu and Sister Asia Coney, 

            takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  The event 

            is attended by 1.3 million attendees (300,000 to 1 

            million according to Philadelphia officials).  The MWM

            had been promoted by word of mouth and avoided 

            traditional media and mainstream groups, such as 

            sororities and many civil rights groups.  Sis. Chionesu

            calls the march "a declaration of independence from 

            ignorance, poverty, enslavement, and all the things 

            that have happened to us that has helped to bring about

            the confusion and disharmony that we experience with 

            one another."


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