*               Today in Black History - January 30                  *

1797 - Boston Masons, led by Prince Hall, establish the first 
	African American interstate organization, creating lodges 
	in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Providence, Rhode Island.

1797 - Isabella Baumfree is born a slave in Swartekill, Ulster County, 
	New York. This is an approximation, since historians cannot 
	agree on the actual date of her birth. She will escape from 
	slavery with her infant daughter in 1826. After going to court 
	to gain custody of her son, she will become the first Black 
	woman to win such a case against a white man. She will become 
	an African American abolitionist and women's rights activist, 
	naming herself 'Sojourner Truth' on June 1, 1843. Her best-known 
	extemporaneous speech on racial inequalities, "Ain't I a Woman?," 
	will be delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention 
	in Akron, Ohio. During the Civil War, she will help recruit 
	Black troops for the Union Army. After the war, she will try
	unsuccessfully, to secure land grants from the federal government
	for former slaves. She will speak about abolition, women's rights, 
	prison reform, and will preach to the Michigan Legislature against 
	capital punishment. Not everyone welcomed her preaching and 
	lectures, but she will have many friends and staunch support among 
	many influential people at the time, including Amy Post, Parker 
	Pillsbury, Frances Gage, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, 
	Laura Smith Haviland, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony."
	During her last days on earth, a reporter will come from the Grand 
	Rapids Eagle to interview her. "Her face was drawn and emaciated 
	and she was apparently suffering great pain. Her eyes were very 
	bright and mind alert although it was difficult for her to talk."
	She will join the ancestors on November 26, 1883, at her home in 
	Battle Creek, Michigan,

1797 - Congress refuses to accept the first recorded petitions from 
	African Americans.

1844 - Richard Theodore Greener becomes the first African American 
	to graduate from Harvard University.  

1858 - William Wells Brown publishes the first drama by an African
	American, "Leap to Freedom," Brown is an escaped slave who 
	will also become noted as an abolitionist and author of 
	several early historical publications.

1927 - The Harlem Globetrotters, considered by many the most popular
	basketball team in the world, is formed by Abe Saperstein.
	Originally called the Savoy Five after their home court, the
	Savoy Ballroom, in Chicago, Illinois, the team's name will 
	be changed to the Harlem Globetrotters.

1928 - Ruth Brown is born in Portsmouth, Virginia. She will become a
	Rhythm & Blues and jazz singer, recording "So Long," 
	"Teardrops from My Eyes," "Hours," "Mambo Baby," "Lucky 
	Lips," and "This Little Girl's Gone Rockin'." She will be a
	Tony Award winner and a Rhythm & Blues revolutionary--a 
	woman whose early successes earned her instant worldwide 
	fame and launched a career that has influenced such 
	legendary performers as Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington, 
	Little Richard and Stevie Wonder. She will be inducted into
	the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. She will join the 
	ancestors on November 16, 2006. A memorial concert for her 
	will be held on January 22, 2007 at the Abyssinian Baptist 
	Church in the village of Harlem in New York City.

1944 - Sharon Pratt is born in Washington, DC.  In 1990, as Sharon 
	Pratt Dixon, she will be elected the first woman mayor of 
	Washington, DC. Her defeat of incumbent Marion Barry coupled 
	with her years of community involvement and activism will 
	raise the beleaguered city's hopes for positive change.

1945 - Floyd Flake is born in Los Angeles, California.  He will 
	become a congressman from New York's 6th District.

1956 - The home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Montgomery bus 
	boycott leader, is bombed.

1962 - The United Nations General Assembly censures Portugal for its
	widespread violations of human rights in Angola.

1965 - Leroy "Satchel" Paige, major league baseball player, is named 
	all-time outstanding player by the National Baseball 
	Congress.

1979 - Franklin A. Thomas becomes the first African American to head 
	a major U.S. charitable foundation when he is named 
	president of the Ford Foundation.

2009 - Michael Steele, the first African American lieutenant governor 
	of Maryland, is elected after six rounds of voting as the
	chairperson of the Republican National Committee. He is the 
	first African American to hold that office. 

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