*                    Today in Black History - July 31                    *

1874 - Patrick Francis Healy, a Jesuit priest, is inaugurated as president
        of Georgetown University in Washington, DC.  Healy is the first
        African American to head a predominantly white university and is
        credited with the modernization of the university's curriculum
        and the expansion of its campus.

1921 - Whitney Young, Jr. is born in Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky.  He will
        become dean of Atlanta University's School of Social Work before
        becoming executive director of the National Urban League. As its
        leader during the 1960's, he will guide the organization through
        one of the most socially and politically active decades in
        America's history. A 1969 recipient of the Presidential Medal of
        Freedom, Young will speak out against government and business'
        lack of commitment to African Americans. During a visit to
        Nigeria in 1971, he will join the ancestors after a swimming
        accident in Lagos.

1931 - Kenny Burrell is born in Detroit, Michigan. He will become a
        prolific composer and professional musician specializing in the
        guitar. For over forty years, he will be a jazz professional.
        Kenny, who will credit Charlie Christian, Oscar Moore, and
        Django Reinhardt as influences, as well as such bluesmen as
        T-Bone Walker and Muddy Waters, will play on his first major
        recording session in Detroit in 1951 with a Dizzy Gillespie
        combo that will include John Coltrane, Milt Jackson, and Percy
        Heath. Even though the young guitarist will keep heavy company,
        including that of such other up-and-coming Detroiters as Tommy
        Flanagan, Yusef Lateef, Pepper Adams, and Elvin Jones, he will
        remain in Detroit to study at Wayne State University, from which
        he will earn a B.A. in music composition and theory in 1955. He
        will also study classical guitar with Joseph Fava during that
        period and continue to employ finger-style and other techniques.
        After the mid-Sixties, he will lead his own group plus work in
        "All-Star" settings and will perform with college bands and
        orchestras. He will also perform with professional orchestras
        such as the Detroit Symphony and the Buffalo Philharmonic.

1938 - New York Yankees suspend Jake Powell, after he says on Chicago
        radio that he would "hit every colored person in Chicago over
        the head with a club".

1960 - At a New York City meeting of the Nation of Islam, the Honorable
        Elijah Muhammad calls for the creation of a black state in
        America.

1962 - Wesley Snipes is born in Orlando, Florida.  After growing up in
        the Bronx, New York City, he will become a film actor starring
        in films such as "New Jack City," "Jungle Fever," "Passenger
        57," "Demolition Man," "Money Train," "Rising Sun," "Major
        League," "Sugar Hill," "White Men Can't Jump," and "King of
        New York."

1969 - Racially motivated disturbances in Baton Rouge cause the governor
        of Louisiana to mobilize the National Guard.

1981 - Attorney Arnette R. Hubbard is installed as the first woman
        president of the National Bar Association, the largest national
        group of African American attorneys, legal scholars, and jurists.
        Hubbard is a graduate of John Marshall Law School in Chicago and
        past president of the Cook County Bar Association.

1985 - Prince is big at the box-office with the autobiographical story
        of the Minneapolis rock star -- "Purple Rain."  The film grosses
        $7.7 million in its first three days of release on 917 movie
        screens.  The album of the same name is, at the time, the top LP
        in the United States, as well.

1988 - Willie Stargell, formerly of the Pittsburgh Pirates, becomes the
        200th man inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame at Cooperstown,
        New York.

1990 - Shoal Creek, a private club in Birmingham, Alabama that drew
        criticism for being all-white, announces it had accepted a Black
        businessman as an honorary member.

______________________________________________________________
           Munirah Chronicle is edited by Brother Mosi Hoj
              "The TRUTH shall make you free"

   E-mail:   <[log in to unmask]>
   Archives: <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/Munirah.html>
   _____________________________________________________________
   To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]>
   In the E-mail body place:  Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name
   ______________________________________________________________
   Munirah(TM) is a trademark of Information Man. Copyright 2003,
   All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with
   CODE One Communications.