* Today in Black History - October 16 *
1849 - George Washington Williams is born in Bedford Springs,
Pennsylvania. He will become the first major African
American historian and founder of two African American
newspapers, "The Commoner" in Washington, DC, and
Cincinnati's "The Southern Review." He will become the
first African American elected to the Ohio State
Legislature, serving one term, from 1880 to 1881. In
1885, President Chester A. Arthur will appoint him
"Minister Resident and Consul General" to Haiti, but he
will never serve. In 1889, he will be granted an informal
audience with King Léopold II of Belgium. At that time,
the Congo Free State was the personal possession of the
King. In spite of the monarch’s objections, he will go to
Central Africa to see the conditions there for himself.
From there, he will address "An Open Letter to His Serene
Majesty Léopold II, King of the Belgians and Sovereign of
the Independent State of Congo" from Stanley Falls on July
18, 1890. In this letter, he will condemn the brutal and
inhuman treatment the Congolese were suffering at the
hands of those working for the Congo Free State. He will
mention the role played by Henry M. Stanley, sent to the
Congo by the King, in tricking and mistreating local
Congolese. He will remind the King that the crimes
committed were all committed in his name, making him as
guilty as the actual culprits. He will appeal to the
international community of the day to “call and create an
International Commission to investigate the charges herein
preferred in the name of Humanity ...”. Traveling back from
Africa, he will join the ancestors in Blackpool, England,
on August 2, 1891, succumbing to tuberculosis and pleurisy.
He will be buried in Layton Cemetery, Blackpool.
1849 - Charles L. Reason is named professor of belles-lettres
and French at Central College in McGrawville, New York.
William G. Allen and George B. Vashon also will teach
at the predominantly white college.
1855 - More than one hundred delegates from six states hold a
Black convention in Philadelphia.
1855 - John Mercer Langston, one of the first African Americans
to win public office, is elected clerk of Brownhelm
Township, Lorain County, Ohio.
1859 - Osborne Perry Anderson, a free man, is one of five
African Americans in John Brown's raid on the United
States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.
1872 - South Carolina Republicans carry the election with a
ticket of four whites and four Blacks: Richard H.
Gleaves, lieutenant governor; Henry E. Hayne, secretary
of state; Francis L. Cardozo, treasurer; and Henry W.
Purvis, adjutant general. African Americans win 97 of
the 158 seats in the General Assembly and four of the
five congressional districts.
1876 - A race riot occurs in Cainhoy, South Carolina. Five
whites and one African American are killed.
1895 - The National Medical Association is founded in Atlanta,
Georgia.
1901 - Booker T. Washington dines at the White House with
President Theodore Roosevelt and is criticized in the
South.
1932 - Chi Eta Phi sorority is founded in Washington, DC.
Aliene Carrington Ewell and 11 other women establish
the nursing society, which will grow to 72 chapters in
22 states, the District of Columbia, and Liberia and
will eventually admit both men and women.
1968 - Tommie Smith and John Carlos hold up their fists in a
Black Power salute during the 1968 Summer Games in
Mexico City, Mexico. Their actions will come to
symbolize the Black Power movement in sports and will
result in their suspension from the games two days
later.
1973 - Maynard Jackson becomes the first African American mayor
of a major southern city when he is elected mayor of
Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of 35, he will become one
of the youngest mayors of a major city to ever be
elected.
1984 - Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa is awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize for his role as a unifying figure
in the campaign to resolve the problems of apartheid in
South Africa.
1990 - Art Blakey, jazz drummer (Jazz Messengers), joins the
ancestors, after a bout with cancer, at the age of 71.
1995 - Minister Louis Farrakhan of The Nation of Islam speaks at
The Million Man March in Washington, D.C., which he
called for, and organized. It is known as the "Day of
Atonement."
2000 - The Million Family March, called for by Minister Louis
Farrakhan, is held in Washington, DC.
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