*               Today in Black History - January 20                 *

1788 - The First African Baptist Church is organized in Savannah,
        Georgia, with Andrew Bryan ordained as its pastor.  It is the
        first African American Baptist church in the United States, as
        well as the first Baptist church, black or white, in Savannah.

1847 - W.R. Pettiford is born.  He will become the founder of the
        Alabama Penny Savings Bank.  The Alabama Penny Savings Bank
        will be Alabama's first African American-owned bank and the
        first of three banks in the nation, owned and operated by
        African Americans in the early 1900s.

1868 - The Florida constitutional convention with eighteen African
        Americans and twenty-seven whites meet in Tallahassee.

1870 - Hiram R. Revels is chosen by the Mississippi legislature to
        fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat of Confederate president
        Jefferson Davis.  Although he will be challenged by the Senate,
        Revels will take his seat one month later, becoming the first
        African American U.S. Senator.

1895 - Eva Jessye is born in Coffeyville, Kansas.  She will become an
        influential choral director, working in King Vidor's "Hallelujah"
        and the original production of George Gershwin's "Porgy and
        Bess."

1954 - The National Negro Network is formed by W. Leonard Evans. Some 40
        radio stations are charter members of the network.

1973 - Guinea-Bissau nationalist leader Amilcar Cabral is assassinated
        in Conakry, Guinea, by Portuguese agents. He had founded the
        PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape
        Verde), the organization that fought Portuguese colonial rule
        and eventually led to the independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape
        Verde. Cabral is considered one of Africa's most important
        independentist leaders.

1977 - Clifford Alexander, Jr. is sworn in as the first African American
        Secretary of the Army.

1986 - The inaugural issue of "American Visions" magazine hits the
        newsstands nationwide.  The magazine is dedicated to exposing its
        readers to African American contributions to history, literature,
        music, and the arts.

1986 - The United States observes the first federal holiday in honor of
        slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

______________________________________________________________
           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>
             <http://blackagenda.com/cybercolonies/index.htm>
   _____________________________________________________________
   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 2004,
   All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with
   CODE One Communications.