* Today in Black History - April 19 *
1775 - With the assistance of African American soldiers, Minutemen
defeat the British at Concord Bridge in the initial battle of
the Revolutionary War.
1837 - Cheyney University is founded as the first historically Black
institution of higher learning in America. It is also the first
college in the United States to receive official state
certification as an institution of higher academic education for
African Americans. Cheyney will begin its existence in
Philadelphia as the Institute for Colored Youth. The Institute
for Colored Youth successfully will provide a free classical
education for qualified young people. In 1902, the school will
be moved to George Cheyney's farm, 24 miles west of Philadelphia.
In 1913 the name will be changed to Cheyney Training School for
Teachers; in 1921 to the Normal School at Cheyney; in 1951
Cheyney State Teachers College; and in 1959, Cheyney State
College. In 1983, Cheyney joined the State System of Higher
Education (SSHE) as Cheyney University of Pennsylvania.
1866 - The African American citizens of Washington DC celebrate the
abolition of slavery. 4,000 to 5,000 people assemble at the
White House and are addressed by President Andrew Johnson. Led
by two African American regiments, the spectators and the
procession proceed up the Pennsylvania Avenue to Franklin Square
for religious services and speeches by prominent politicians.
The sign on top of the platform reads: "We have received our
civil rights. Give us the right of suffrage and the work is
done."
1942 - Atlanta University's first exhibition of African American art is
held. Organized by Hale Woodruff, artist and former professor
at the university, it will be popularly known as the Atlanta
Annual. Winners in the first show will be Charles Alston and
Lois Mailou Jones.
1960 - Maj. General Frederic E. Davidson assumes command of the Eighth
Infantry Division in Germany and becomes the first African
American to lead an army division.
1960 - A National Education Association study reveals that African
Americans had lost thirty thousand teaching jobs since 1954 in
seventeen Southern and Border states because of discrimination
and desegregation.
1960 - The home of Z. Alexander Looby, counsel for 153 students arrested
in sit-in demonstrations, is destroyed by a dynamite bomb. More
than two thousand students march on the Nashville City Hall in
protest.
1971 - Walter Fauntroy takes office as the first elected Congressional
representative from the District of Columbia since Reconstruction.
1975 - James B. Parsons becomes the first African American chief judge
of a federal court, the U.S. District Court in Chicago. In
1961, Parsons became the first African American district court
judge.
1982 - Astronaut Guion S. Bluford Jr. becomes the first African American
to be selected for U.S. space missions. He will not, however be
the first person of African descent in space. That honor belongs
to Cuban cosmonaut, Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez, who went into space on
a Russian mission September 18, 1980 (Soyuz 38).
1994 - A Los Angeles jury awards $3.8 million to African American motorist
Rodney King in compensation/damages for the beating he received at
the hands of four Los Angeles policemen.
1999 - Joseph Chebet of Kenya wins the Boston Marathon, in 2:9:52; Fatuma
Roba of Ethiopia wins the women's race in 2:23:25.
2003 - Cholly Atkins, Tony Award-winning choreographer, joins the ancestors
after succumbing to pancreatic cancer at the age of 89. He was
choreographer for Marvin Gaye, The Temptations and others.
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