*               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 - William Reuben (W.R.) Pettiford is born.  He will become the

            pastor of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham,

            Alabama.  As a leader in the community, he will also become a

            businessman, founding the Alabama Penny Savings Bank on 

            October 15, 1890. 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. (Note: The Sixteenth Street

            Baptist Church is also known for the bombing during the 

            Civil Rights movement, on September 15, 1963, that killed 

            four little girls.)

 

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.


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