* Today in Black History - June 23 *
1888 - Abolitionist Frederick Douglass became the first African
American nominated for president of the United States.
1893 - Willie Mae Ford is born. She will become a leading gospel
singer and will be known as "the mother of gospel music."
1893 - Willie Sims, the wealthiest jockey of his time, rides
winning horses in five of six races at Sheepshead Bay in
Brooklyn, New York. Sims will repeat the feat two years
later in addition to winning two Kentucky Derbys and two
Belmont Stakes.
1919 - The Black Star Line of Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA) is incorporated.
1926 - Langston Hughes' articles "The Negro Artist and the Racial
Mountain" appears in "Nation "magazine. In it, Hughes
expresses African Americans' bold new confidence to create a
new art during the Harlem Renaissance. "We younger Negro
artists who create now intend to express our individual dark
skinned selves without fear or shame."
1940 - Wilma Rudolph is born in Clarksville, Tennessee. A polio
victim, she will win three gold medals at the Summer Games
in Rome (1960), the first American woman to achieve this
feat in a single Olympiad. She will be inducted into the
Olympic Hall of Fame.
1944 - Rosetta Hightower is born. She will become a singer with the
group, The Orlons. Some of their hits will be "The Wah
Watusi," "Don't Hang Up," and "South Street."
1948 - Clarence Thomas is born in the Pinpoint community, near
Savannah, Georgia. He will become a U.S. Supreme Court
Justice in 1991, replacing Thurgood Marshall as the only
African American among the nine jurists. He is appointed
by the conservative republican administration to satisfy the
need to have an African American on the court, while at the
same time have a justice that is very conservative. This
will serve to increase the court's decisions that negatively
affect African Americans and other minorities and weaken
affirmative action.
1958 - A federal judge ruled racial segregation in Little Rock,
Arkansas, must end in 30 months.
1969 - Joe Frazier defeats Jerry Quarry for the heavyweight boxing
title.
1970 - Charles Rangel defeats Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. in the New
York Democratic primary in Harlem. This will end the
political career of one of the major political symbols of the
post-World War II period.
1982 - The House of Representatives approves the extension of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965, despite North Carolina Senator
Jesse Helms' attempt to block the House vote. The Senate
had approved the extension of the bill five days before the
historic House vote.
1990 - TV Guide selects Arsenio Hall as Television Personality of
the Year.
1994 - After decades as an international outcast, South Africa
reclaims its seat in the United Nations.
1997 - Dr. Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, dies in New York City
at the age of 61, 3 weeks after receiving burns over 80% of
her body. Her burns were the result of a fire set by her
grandson, Malcolm.
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The source for these facts are "Encyclopedia Britannica,
"InfoBeat," "I, Too, Sing America - The African American
Book of Days," "Before the Mayflower", "Black Firsts" and
independent research by the Information Man.
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