*  Today in Black History - February 21                *

1864 - Saint Francis Xavier Church in Baltimore, Maryland is dedicated.
        It is the first exclusively African American parish in the
        United States.

1895 - The North Carolina Legislature adjourns for the day to mark the
        death of Frederick Douglass.

1933 - Eunice Waymon (Nina Simone) is born in Tryon, North Carolina.
        She will begin her entertaining career in 1954 and bolstered by
        critical praise for her 1959 recording of "I  Loves You, Porgy,"
        she will tour in the U.S. and Europe during the 1960's and early
        1970's.  Returning to the concert stage and recording studio in
        1977, she will be called the "High Priestess of Soul." She will
        record rarely in the 1970's and 1980's, but will experience a
        career comeback in the United States with her 1993 album release,
        "A Single Woman."

1936 - Barbara Jordan is born in Houston, Texas.  The first African
        American state senator in the Texas legislature since 1883 and
        a three-term congresswoman, she will play a key role in the
        1974 Watergate hearings.  In 1976, she will be the first woman
        and first African American to make a keynote speech before the
        Democratic National Convention.  She will join the ancestors on
        January 17, 1996 in Austin, Texas.

1940 - John Lewis is born in Troy, Alabama.  He will become founder and
        chairman of SNCC, organizer of the Selma-to-Montgomery March in
        1965, executive  director of the Voter Education Project, and
        congressman from Georgia's 5th District.  Lewis' power will
        continue to be felt when he is named Democratic deputy whip by
        Speaker of the House Thomas S. Foley in 1991.

1965 - El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) joins the ancestors after
        being assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem at the age
        of 39.  He was best known for his doctrine of self-determination
        for African American people, including their right to fight for
        their rights and protect themselves in a hostile America by
        "whatever means necessary."

1976 - Florence Ballard, one of the original Supremes, joins the
        ancestors in Detroit, Michigan, at the age of 32.  Ballard had
        said that she never received a royalty check prior to 1967 for
        any of her work with the Supremes, who featured Diana Ross and
        included Mary Wilson.

1998 - Julian Bond, civil rights leader from the 1960's, former Georgia
        state legislator, and college professor, becomes the new
        chairperson of the NAACP.

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