*                 Today in Black History - January 16                *

 

1776 - The Continental Congress approves General George Washington's 

            order on the enlistment of free African Americans.

 

1865 - General William T. Sherman issues his Field Order No. 15, 

            setting aside "the islands from Charleston, south, the 

            abandoned rice fields along the river for thirty miles back 

            from the sea, and the country bordering the St. John's River, 

            Florida," for exclusive settlement by African Americans.  The 

            order provides that "each family should have a plot of not 

            more than forty (40) acres of tillable ground...in the 

            possession of which land the military authorities will afford 

            them protection until such time as they can protect 

            themselves...."  General Rufus Saxton, South Carolina 

            Freedmen's Bureau director, will later settle some 40,000 

            African Americans on forty-acre tracts in the area.  In 

            South Carolina and other states, African American settlers 

            will be given possessory titles pending final action on the 

            confiscated and abandoned lands of Confederate rebels.  Many 

            will never see their land, because President Johnson will 

            reverse the policy implemented by the Freedmen's Bureau.

 

1871 - Jefferson F. Long, of Georgia, is sworn in as the second 

            African American congressman.

 

1901 - Hiram Revels joins the ancestors in Aberdeen, Mississippi, at 

            the age of 73. He held the distinction of being the first 

            African American elected to serve in the U.S. Senate.

 

1938 - Lionel Hampton and Teddy Wilson become the first African 

            Americans to perform at Carnegie Hall, in New York City.  

            Benny Goodman leads a historic jazz concert, later considered 

            to be one of the first "serious" jazz concerts.  Goodman 

            refuses to perform without the two African American members 

            of his band.  Carnegie Hall officials will relent and the 

            integrated band performs to critical praise with Hampton on 

            vibraphone and Wilson on piano.

 

1941 - The War Department announces formation of the first Army Air 

            Corps squadron for African American cadets.  The 99th Pursuit 

            Squadron is formed and the Tuskegee Training Program is 

            established.  The 99th will fly more than 500 missions and 

            more than 3,700 sorties during one year of combat before 

            being combined with the 332nd Fighter Group.

 

1941 - Dr. Charles Richard Drew sets up and runs the pioneer blood 

            plasma bank in Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.  This 

            bank will serve as one of the models for the system of banks 

            operated later by the American Red Cross.  

 

1962 - A suit accusing the New York City Board of Education of using 

            "racial quotas" is filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of 

            African American and Puerto Rican children.

 

1966 - Harold R. Perry becomes the second African American Roman 

            Catholic bishop in U.S. history.

 

1967 - Lucius D. Amerson, a former army paratrooper, becomes the first 

            African American sheriff in the South since Reconstruction, 

            when he is sworn in at Tuskegee (Macon County), Alabama. 

            

1967 - The first Black government is installed in the Commonwealth of 

            the Bahamas.

 

1974 - Heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali, is named the 

            Associated Press "Athlete of the Year."

 

1978 - NASA names Major Frederick D. Gregory, Major Guion Bluford, 

            and Dr. Ronald McNair to its astronaut program.

 

1988 - Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, a self-styled oddsmaker and expert 

            on sports, is fired as a CBS Sports commentator after making 

            controversial remarks about athletes of African descent.

 

1989 - Racially motivated disturbances erupt in Miami, Florida after 

            a police officer fatally shoots an African American 

            motorcyclist, causing a crash that kills a passenger.


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