* Today in Black History - March 22 *
1492 - Alonzo Pierto, explorer of African descent, sets sail from Spain
with Christopher Columbus.
1873 - Slavery is abolished in Puerto Rico. The Spanish Crown finally
ends slavery in one of its last Latin American colonies. Slave
owners are compensated with 35 million pesetas per slave.
Despite the pronouncement of abolition, slaves are still
required to keep working for three more years as indentured
servants.
1882 - African American Shakespearean actor Morgan Smith joins the
ancestors in Sheffield, England. Smith had emigrated to
England in 1866, where he performed in Shakespeare's Richard
III, Macbeth, Hamlet, and The Merchant of Venice, as well as
Othello.
1931 - Richard Berry Harrison receives the NAACP's Spingarn Medal for
his role as "De Lawd" in "The Green Pastures" and for his "long
years ...as a dramatic reader and entertainer, interpreting to
the mass of colored people in church and school, the finest
specimens of English drama from Shakespeare down."
1943 - George Benson is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He will begin
playing the guitar at age 8, will sing in nightclubs as a child
and form a rock group at age 17. He will move to New York City
in 1963 and join Jack McDuff's band but will leave in 1965 to
form his own group with Lonnie Smith, Ronnie Cuber, and Phil
Turner. He will become a session guitarist in the late 1960s,
working with such artists as Miles Davis, Ron Carter, and Herbie
Hancock and developing a reputation as one of the best jazz
guitarists. The release of his triple Grammy Award-winning
"Breezin'" in 1976, with its hit single, "This Masquerade," will
mark Benson's return as a vocal artist. His follow-up album, "In
Flight" (1977), and his double live set "Weekend in L.A." (1978)
will confirm his wide popularity. After "Livin' Inside Your Love"
(1979), he will release the equally popular "Give Me the Night"
(1980), his first collaboration with Quincy Jones, which will
garner an impressive sweep of five Grammy Awards. Later albums
will include "While the City Sleeps" (1986), "Twice the Love"
(1988), "Tenderly" (1989), and "Love Remembers" (1993).
1957 - Stephanie Mills is born in Brooklyn, New York. She will become
a singer and actress and be best known for her role as Dorothy in
the stage show of "The Wiz." She will win a talent show at the
Apollo Theater six weeks in a row at age nine. She will appear in
the Broadway play "Maggie Flynn," tour with the Isley Brothers,
and release her debut album in 1973. She will land the part of
Dorothy in 1975, recording an album for Motown during the show's
four-year run. In 1980, she will have a worldwide hit with "Never
Knew Love Like This Before," which rises to the Top Ten in the
U.S. She will be married for a short while to Shalamar's Jeffrey
Daniels and work with Teddy Pendergrass in 1981. In 1983, she
will land a daytime television show on NBC. She will also later
play Dorothy in a revival of "The Wiz."
1968 - Pennsylvania State troopers are mobilized to put down a student
rebellion on the campus of Cheyney State College.
1986 - Debi Thomas becomes the first African American woman to win the
world figure skating championship.
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