*                   Today in Black History - May 31                   *

1870 - The first civil rights Enforcement Act, which protects the voting
        and civil rights of African Americans, is passed by Congress.  It
        provides stiff penalties for public officials and private citizens
        who deprive citizens of the suffrage and civil rights.  The measure
        authorizes the use of the U.S. Army to protect these rights.

1909 - The first NAACP conference is held at the United Charities Building
        in New York City with 300 African Americans and whites in attendance.
        Ida B. Wells-Barnett, while speaking at the conference, condemns
        lynching as a "blight upon our nation, mocking our laws and
        disgracing our Christianity."

1917 - One of the first jazz records, "The Darktown Strutter's Ball," is
        released.  It was written by songwriter and musician, Shelton Brooks.
        It will become Brooks' most famous song.

1933 - Shirley Verrett is born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  She will become
        an operatic mezzo-soprano known worldwide for her compelling
        performance in Carmen. She will be a star at the world s great opera
        houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, the Royal Opera
        House Covent Garden, the Bolshoi Opera, the Paris Opera, the San
        Francisco Opera, the Vienna Staatsoper, and the Lyric Opera of
        Chicago. She will appear at the Metropolitan opera for more than two
        decades. She will be the recipient of many honors and awards, among
        them the Marian Anderson Award, Naumburg Award, and the Sullivan
        Award; and fellowships from numerous foundations including Ford, John
        Hay Whitney, and Martha Baird Rockefeller. She will receive honorary
        doctorates from Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, and
        Northeastern University in Boston. She will join the faculty at the
        University of Michigan in 1996, becoming the James Earl Jones
        Distinguished University Professor of Music.

1955 - The U.S. Supreme Court passes a second desegregation ruling, demanding
        "all deliberate speed" be used in the desegregation of public schools.

1961 - Judge Irving Kaufman orders the Board of Education of New Rochelle, New
        York to integrate their schools.

1961 - Chuck Berry's amusement park, Berryland, opens near St. Louis, Missouri.

1979 - Zimbabwe proclaims its independence.

1987 - John Dotson is named publisher of the Boulder, Colorado, "Daily Camera."
        It is one of many distinctions for the noted journalist, including
        being the first African American reporter for Newsweek magazine and
        founding, in the mid-1970's, the Institute for Journalism Education,
        dedicated to training minority journalists.

1989 - Cito Gaston is named manager of the Toronto Blue Jays of baseball's
        American League.

______________________________________________________________
           Munirah Chronicle is edited by Brother Mosi Hoj
              "The TRUTH shall make you free"

   E-mail:   <[log in to unmask]>
   Archives: <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/Munirah.html>
   ______________________________________________________________
   To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]>
   In the E-mail body place:  Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name
   ______________________________________________________________
   Munirah(TM) is a trademark of Information Man. Copyright 2000,
   All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with
   CODE One Communications.