*		Today in Black History - July 15               *

1822 - The city of Philadelphia opens its public schools for 
	African Americans. 

1864 - General A. J. Smith, with fourteen thousand men, including 
	a brigade of African American troops, defeats Nathan B. 
	Forrest at Harrisburg, near Tupelo, Mississippi.

1869 - A.J. Hayne, an African-American captain of the Arkansas 
	militia, is assassinated.

1929 - Francis Bebey is born in Douala, Cameroon. He will become 
	a self-taught master guitarist, composer, and sanza player. 
	During his childhood, his family and teachers will attempt
	to alienate him from the roots culture around him. As he 
	will relate to the press in France in 1984, "I was schooled
	to ignore, and even to detest, traditional African styles."
	His musical family will surround him with a variety of 
	Western instruments, accordion, violin, piano, mandolin, 
	and--the instrument he will settle on at age nine--guitar. 
	Despite the efforts of his colonial-era instructors, he 
	will 'discover' Africa. A traditional doctor and musician, 
	Eya Mouéssé, will lead him to his first African music love 
	affair: the local harp and mouth-bow, which he will seek out
	at all night celebrations in order to hear. As a teenager in
	Douala, the capital, he will play guitar and drums in an 
	ashiko--Cameroonean highlife--band. The experience will lead
	inevitably to his discovery of international dance styles of
	the era, especially Afro-Cuban music and American swing 
	jazz. He will go to Paris to study at the Sorbonne in the 
	mid '50s, and there his musical path will be altered yet 
	again when he discovers the classical guitar of Andre 
	Segovia and will begin to study the instrument. Upon 
	graduation, he will lead a jazz band in the city, and will 
	have the distinction of giving future Afropop superstar and 
	saxophonist Manu Dibangu his first professional gig. He will 
	come to the United States in 1958 to continue his studies at
	New York University. As he travels in Africa and learns more
	about its traditions, he will begin to create original 
	works, including socially aware	and sometimes satirical 
	poems set to the music of traditional instruments like the 
	West African kora. In 1967, he will win	the Grand Literary 
	Prize of Black Africa for his novel "Le Fils d'Agatha 
	Moudio." In the 1980s, when he will be widely renowned as a
	novelist, poet, composer and performer, he will	begin to 
	play traditional African instruments himself. He will 
	record "African Sanza" in 1982, a set of original 
	compositions for the central African lamellophone (sometimes
	called hand piano or thumb piano). His forays into sanza and
	also ndewhoo (Pygmee flute) paralleled dramatic changes in 
	his approach to guitar. Inspired by his explorations in 
	African music, he will develop distinctive new techniques: 
	tapping the guitar to produce the sound of a talking drum, 
	and wrapping one bass string around the next to produce a 
	percussive snare drum effect. During the years when Afropop 
	will rise to international attention, he will be often cited 
	as a guiding force, a kind of father figure in the global 
	spread of African music. He will continue to tour, as much 
	as six months a year, with sons Patrick Jr. (Toops) and 
	Patrick, and also to record new works right to the end. He 
	will join the ancestors on May 28, 2001 after succumbing to 
	a sudden heart attack. He is sometimes referred to as the 
	father of world music.

1951 - Mary White Ovington, one of the white founders of the NAACP 
	and author of "The Walls Come Tumbling Down," a history of 
	the NAACP, dies at the age of 86.

1961 - Forest Whitaker is born in Longview, Texas. He will attend 
	the Music Conservatory at the University of Southern 
	California in Los Angeles, as well as the Drama Studio 
	London. He will	debut as a screen actor in 1982's "Fast 
	Times at Ridgemont High." He will follow with notable roles
	in "Platoon," "Good Morning, Vietnam," and "The Color of 
	Money." In 1988, he will play the role of musician Charlie
	Parker in the film, "Bird," for which he will win Best 
	Actor at the Cannes Film Festival. He will also appear in 
	the films "The Crying Game," "Bloodsport," "Phenomenon" and
	direct "Waiting to Exhale." He will be originally called 
	upon to write and direct a live-action movie adaptation of 
	Bill Cosby's cartoon, "Fat Albert," but differences between 
	the two will lead to him leaving production. He will be 
	considered for the role of Dr. Jonathon	Crane (The 
	Scarecrow) in "Batman Triumphant." The film will progress 
	as far as pre-production when Warner Brothers decides to 
	pull the plug. In 2002, he will be the host and narrator of
	"The Twilight Zone," which will last one season. In 2006, 
	he will join the cast of FX's cop serial "The Shield," as 
	Lieutenant John Kavanaugh. His performance as the tormented
	internal affairs cop will help continue the show's 
	popularity among viewers. He will be nominated for, and 
	win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of
	Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator, in 2006 film, "The Last King
	of Scotland."

1968 - Ellen Holly integrates daytime television when she appears 
	on ABC's "One Life To Live" as Carla, an African American 
	"passing" for white. The role is a marked departure for 
	the New York City-born African American, whose first 
	professional role was with Joseph Papp's New York 
	Shakespeare Festival as the white Desdemona to William 
	Marshall's Othello in 1958.  Holly had been a featured 
	player in Papp's company and had played several 
	Shakespearean roles, including Lady Macbeth opposite James
	Earl Jones in "Macbeth" and Princess Katherine opposite 
	Robert Hooks in "Henry V," before being signed to the soap
	opera.

1969 - Rod Carew ties the major league record with his 7th steal of
	home in a season.

1970 - James McGhee is sworn in as the first African American mayor 
	of Dayton, Ohio.

1973 - Willie McCovey becomes 15th major league player to hit 400 
	Home Runs. 

1980 - Benjamin Hooks addresses the GOP convention after a lobbying
	effort and threatens a walkout by 121 African American 
	delegates. Hooks speaks before the convention despite 
	leading candidate Ronald Reagan's refusal to appear at the 
	NAACP convention earlier in the month.

1980 - New violence erupts in the riot-torn Liberty City section of 
	Miami, Florida.  Two months after riots that killed 18 and 
	resulted in $ 100 million in property damage, the violence 
	will leave 40 injured and result in 40 arrests.

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