*                   Today in Black History - October 19               *

1859 - Byrd Prillerman is born a slave in Shady Grove, Franklin County,
        Virginia. He will become an educator, reformer, religious worker,
        political figure, and lawyer. He will be best known as the co-
        founder of the West Virginia Colored Institute in 1891.  The school
        will be changed to the West Virginia Collegiate Institute in 1915.
        The school, under Prillerman's leadership, will become the first
        state school for African Americans to reach the rank of an
        accredited college whose work is accepted by the universities of
        the North.  The school will eventually become West Virginia State
        College, then West Virginia State University.

1870 - The first African Americans are elected to the House of
        Representatives.  African American Republicans won three of
        the four congressional seats in South Carolina: Joseph H.
        Rainey, Robert C. DeLarge and Robert B. Elliott.  Rainey was
        elected to an un-expired term in the Forty-first Congress and
        was the first African American seated in the House.

1920 - LaWanda Page is born in Cleveland, Ohio.  She will become an
        television and movie actress and will star in "Mausoleum," "Women
        Tell the Dirtiest Jokes," "Shakes the Clown," and "Don't Be a
        Menace." She will be best known for her role as Aunt Esther in the
        long-running television series, "Sanford and Sons."

1924 - "From Dixie to Broadway" premieres at the Broadhurst Theatre
        in New York City. The music is written by Will Vodery, an
        African American, who arranged music for the Ziegfeld Follies
        for 23 years.

1936 - Johnnetta Betsch (later Cole) is born in Jacksonville, Florida.
        She will have a distinguished career as an educator and
        administrator and will become the first African American woman
        to head Spelman College.

1944 - Peter Tosh is born in Westmoreland, Jamaica.  He will become
        a founding father of reggae music and be part of the song
        writing magic of the Wailers, Bob Marley's group. He will join
        the ancestors in 1987.

1944 - The Navy announces that African American women would be allowed
        to become WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).

1946 - The first exhibition of the work of Josef Nassy, an American
        citizen of Dutch-African descent, is held in Brussels.  The
        exhibit consists of 90 paintings and drawings Nassy created
        while in a Nazi-controlled internment camp during World War
        II.

1960 - Jennifer Holiday is born.  She will become a singer and actress
        and will have her first big break as a star in the Broadway
        production of "Dream Girls" in 1981.

1960 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is arrested in an Atlanta, Georgia
        sit-in demonstration.

1962 - Evander Holyfield is born in Atmore, Alabama.  He will become a
        professional boxer.  Over the course of his career, he will
        become IBF Heavyweight Champion, WBA Heavyweight Champion, three
        time World Champion, and Undisputed Cruiserweight Champion.

1981 - The Martin Luther King, Jr. Library and Archives opens in
        Atlanta, Georgia.  Founded by Coretta Scott King, the facility
        is the largest repository in the world of primary resource
        material on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., nine major civil
        rights organizations, and the American civil rights movement.

1983 - Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop joins the ancestors
        after being assassinated after refusing to share leadership of
        the New Jewel Movement with his deputy, Bernard Coard.  This
        event will indirectly lead to the invasion of Grenada by the
        United States and six Caribbean nations.

1983 - The U.S. Senate approves the establishment of the Martin Luther
        King, Jr. federal holiday on the third Monday in January.

1988 - South African anti-apartheid leader, Walter Sisulu wins a $100,000
        Human Rights prize.

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