*               Today in Black History - April 11               *

1865 - President Lincoln recommends suffrage for African American
        veterans and African Americans who are "very intelligent."

1881 - Spelman College is founded with $100 and eleven former slaves
        determined to learn to read and write. It is opened as the
        Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary. The two female founders, Sophia
        B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles are appalled by the lack of
        educational opportunities for African American women at the
        time.  They will return to Boston determined to get support to
        change that and earned what will prove to be the lifelong
        support of John D. Rockefeller, who considers Spelman to be one
        of his family's finest investments.  The name Spelman is adopted
        later in honor of Mrs. Rockefeller's parents.

1933 - Tony Brown is born in Charleston, West Virginia. He will become
        well known as executive producer, host, and moderator of the
        Emmy-winning television series "Black Journal."

1955 - Roy Wilkins is elected the NAACP's executive secretary following
        the death of Walter White.

1956 - Singer Nat "King" Cole is attacked on the stage of a Birmingham
        theater by white supremacists.

1966 - Emmett Ashford becomes the first African American major league
        umpire, working in the American League.  He had been the first
        African American professional umpire in the minor leagues in
        1951.

1967 - Harlem voters defy Congress and re-elect Congressman Adam Clayton
        Powell Jr. after he had been expelled by the legislative body.

1968 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs what will become known as the
        1968 Housing Act, which outlaws discrimination in the sale,
        rental, or leasing of 80% of the housing in the United States.
        Passed by the Senate and submitted by the House to Johnson in
        the aftermath of the King assassination, the bill also protects
        civil rights workers and makes it a federal crime to cross state
        lines for the purpose of inciting a riot.

1972 - Benjamin L. Hooks, a Memphis lawyer and Baptist minister, becomes
        the first African American to be named to the Federal
        Communications Commission.

1988 - Willie D. Burton becomes the first African American to win the
        Oscar for sound when he receives the award for the movie "Bird."

1997 - The Museum of African American History opens in Detroit. It is
        the largest of its kind in the world.

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        The source for these facts are "Encyclopedia Britannica,
        "InfoBeat," "I, Too, Sing America - The African American
        Book of Days," and independent research by the
        Information Man.
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