*                   Today in Black History - April 1                  *

1867 - African Americans vote in a municipal election in Tuscumbia, Alabama.
        Military officials set aside the election pending clarification on
        electoral procedures.

1868 - Hampton Institute is founded in Hampton, Virginia, by General Samuel
        Chapman Armstrong.

1895 - Alberta Hunter is born in Memphis, Tennessee.  She will run away from
        home at the age of twelve and go to Chicago, Illinois to become a
        Blues singer.  She will work in a variety of clubs until the violence
        in the Chicago club scene prompts her to move to New York City.  There
        she will record for a variety of blues labels.  She will write a lot
        of her own songs and songs for other performers.  Her song "Down
        Hearted Blues," will become Bessie Smith's first record in 1923.  She
        will perform in Europe and America until 1956, when she will retire
        from performing.  She will work for more than twenty years as a nurse
        in a New York hospital and in 1977, at the age of 82, surprisingly
        return to the stage.  She will perform until her death in 1984.

1905 - The British East African Protectorate becomes the colony of Kenya.

1917 - Scott Joplin dies in New York City.  One of the early developers of
        ragtime and the author of "Maple Leaf Rag," Joplin also created several
        rag-time and grand operas, the most noteworthy of which, "Treemonisha,"
        consumed his later years in an attempt to have it published and performed.

1924 - The British Crown takes over Northern Rhodesia from the British South
        Africa Company.

1929 - Morehouse College, Spelman College and Atlanta University are merged,
        creating a 'new' Atlanta University.  Dr. John Hope of Morehouse College,
        is named president.

1930 - Zawditu, the first reigning female monarch of Ethiopia, dies.  She was the
        second daughter of Emperor Menelik II.  She had been Empress of Ethiopia
        since 1916.

1939 - Rudolph Bernard Isley is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He will become a singer
        at the age of six with his brothers O'Kelly, Ronald and Vernon Isley and
        form the group, The Isley Brothers.  They will leave Cincinnati in 1956
        and go to New York City to pursue their musical career.  Rudolph and his
        brothers will obtain fame and success nationally and internationally
        earning numerous platinum and gold albums which contain such classic
        hits as "Shout," "Twist and Shout," "It's Your Thing," "Who's That Lady,"
        "Fight the Power," "For the Love of You," "Harvest For The World," "Live
        It Up," "Footsteps in the Dark," "Work to Do," "Don't Say Good Night" and
        many others.

1950 - Charles R. Drew, surgeon and developer of the blood bank concept, dies
        after an automobile accident near Burlington, North Carolina at the age
        of 45.  He was refused admittance to the closest hospital because he was
        an African American.

1951 - Oscar Micheaux dies in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Micheaux formed his own
        film production company, Oscar Micheaux Corporation, to produce his novel
        "The Homesteader" and over 30 other movies, notably "Birthright," which
        was adapted from a novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author T.S. Stribling,
        and "Body and Soul," which marked the film debut of Paul Robeson.

1966 - The first World Festival of Negro Arts opens in Dakar, Senegal, with the
        U.S. African American delegation having one of the largest number of
        representatives.  First prizes are won by poet Robert Hayden, engraver
        William Majors, actors Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln, gospel singer Mahalia
        Jackson, jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, and sociologist Kenneth Clark.

1984 - Marvin Gaye is shot to death by his father, Marvin Gaye, Sr. in Los Angeles,
        California, one day before his forty-fifth birthday.  The elder Gaye
        pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, and received probation.

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