*               Today in Black History - April 16         

1862 - Slavery is abolished in Washington, DC, and $993,407 in
	compensation is paid to slave owners for their lost 
	"property." The District of Columbia will later declare this
	date an annual holiday known as "Emancipation Day." 

1868 - Louisiana voters approve a new constitution and elect 
	state officers, including the first African American 
	lieutenant governor, Oscar J. Dunn, and the first 
	African American state treasurer, Antoine Dubuclet.   
	Article Thirteen of the new constitution bans 
	segregation in public accommodation: "All the persons 
	shall enjoy equal rights and privileges upon any
	conveyances of a public character; and all places of 
	business, or of public resort, or for which a license 
	is required by either State, Parish or municipal 
	authority, shall be deemed places of a public 
	character and shall be opened to the accommodation and 
	patronage of all persons, without distinction or 
	discrimination on account of race or color."

1869 - Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett is appointed Consul General 
	to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the first African 
	American to serve in a diplomatic position for the 
	United States.  Bassett will hold the post for 12 
	years.

1947 - Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr. is born in New York City.  
	He will become one of the finest basketball players in 
	history, first with UCLA, then with the Milwaukee Bucks
	and, from 1975 to his retirement in 1990, with the Los 
	Angeles Lakers.  After  his conversion to Islam in 
	1971, he will change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 
	early in his professional career. The all-time leading 
	scorer in the NBA, he will lead the Lakers to five NBA 
	championships, including back-to-back titles in 1987 
	and 1988.

1962 - Three Louisiana segregationists are excommunicated by 
	Archbishop Joseph Rummel for continuing their 
	opposition to his order for integration of New Orleans 
	parochial schools.

1965 - Maj. General Benjamin O. Davis Jr., assistant deputy 
	chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, is named 
	lieutenant general, the	highest rank attained by an 
	African American to date in the armed services.

1973 - Lelia Smith Foley becomes the first African American 
	female to be elected mayor of a U.S. city when she 
	takes office in the small town of Taft, Oklahoma. She 
	will hold the position for 13 years.

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