*               Today in Black History - April 6                *

1798 - James P. Beckwourth is born in Fredericksburg, Virginia.  He will
        become a noted scout and will discover a pass in the Sierra
        Nevadas between the Feather and Truckee rivers that will bear
        his name.

1830 - James Augustine Healy is born to an Irish planter and a slave on
        a plantation near Macon, Georgia.  He will become the first
        African American Roman Catholic bishop in America.

1865 - Writing in the "Philadelphia Press" under the pen name "Rollin,"
        Thomas Morris Chester describes the Union Army's triumphant
        entry into the city of Richmond, Virginia, during the closing
        days of the Civil War.  Rollin is the only African American
        newspaperman writing for a mainstream daily.  There will be
        no others for almost 70 years.

1869 - Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett, the principal of the Institute for
        Colored Youth in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is named Minister
        to Haiti and becomes the first major African American diplomat
        and the first African American to receive a major appointment
        from the United States government.

1909 - Matthew Henson, accompanying Commander Robert Peary's expedition,
        is the first, in the party of six, to discover the North Pole.
        Although in later years Henson will be called Peary's servant or
        merely "one Negro" on the expedition, Henson is a valuable
        colleague and co-discoverer of the pole.  Peary says, "I
        couldn't get along without him."

1917 - America enters World War I. President Wilson, who has just
        inaugurated a policy of segregation in government agencies,
        tells Congress that "the world must be made safe for democracy."

1931 - The first trial of the Scottsboro Boys begins in Scottsboro,
        Alabama.  This trial of nine African American youths accused of
        raping two white women on a freight train become a cause
        celebri.

        Ivan Dixon is born in New York City.  He will become an actor
        and director and will be best known for his comedic role on the
        TV series "Hogan's Heroes."  One of his first acting credits
        will be for the celebrated television anthology show "The Dupont
        Show of the Month" in the 1960 production of "Arrowsmith." He
        will go on to act in the film version of the theatrical drama
        "A Raisin in the Sun" with Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier in 1961,
        in which he plays Asagai, the African boyfriend of Beneatha. He
        will also portray Jim in the 1959 film version of "Porgy and
        Bess." His other pre-"Hogan's Heroes" film work includes:
        "Something of Value" (1957), "The Murder Men" (1961), and "The
        Battle at Bloody Beach" (1961).  After leaving Hogan's heroes
        he will appear in more films including "A Patch of Blue" and
        "Car Wash."  Ivan will begin directing films in the early 1970s,
        such as the 1972 gang warfare flick "Trouble Man" and the 1973
        action movie "The Spy Who Sat by the Door" (which he will also
        produce). For television, he will direct "Love Is Not Enough"
        (1978), the series "Palmerstown, U.S.A." (1980), the detective
        series "Hawaiian Heat" (1984), and the telemovie "Percy &
        Thunder" (1993).

1937 - Billy Dee Williams is born in the village of Harlem in New York
        City.  He will become one of the most romantic leading men of
        film and television.  Among his best known roles will be
        football great Gale Sayers in the TV movie "Brian's Song" as
        well as leading parts in the movies "Lady Sings the Blues" and
        two "Star Wars" films.

1971 - "Contemporary Black Artists in America" opens at the Whitney
        Museum of American Art in New York City.  The exhibit includes
        the work of 58 master painters and sculptors such as Jacob
        Lawrence, Charles White, Alma Thomas, Betye Saar, David
        Driskell, Richard Hunt, and others.

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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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