*               Today in Black History - March 16               *

1827 - With the assistance of James Varick, Richard Allen, Alexander
        Crummel, and others, Samuel E. Cornish and John B. Russwurm
        publish "Freedom's Journal" in New York City.  Operating from
        space in Varick's Zion Church, "Freedom's Journal" is the first
        African American newspaper.  Russwurm says of the establishment
        of the newspaper, "We wish to plead our own cause. Too long
        have others spoken for us."

1870 - Senator Hiram R. Revels argues against Georgia's re-admission to
        the Union without safeguards for African American citizens. It
        is the first official speech by an African American before
        Congress.

1956 - Ozzie Newsome is born in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.  He will become
        a stand-out football player for the University of Alabama, and
        the first African American star athlete for a major school in
        the south.  Newsome will be drafted by the Cleveland Browns
        and start 176 out of 182 games in 13 years.  He will be the
        all-time leading receiver in Cleveland history and the all-
        time receiver among tight ends in the NFL.  Newsome will be
        fourth among receivers in NFL history with a record of 662
        catches.  He will earn three trips to the Pro Bowl and will
        be named to the All-NFL Teams of the '80's.  Newsome will
        remain with the Cleveland Browns in an administrative
        position after his retirement.  In 1994 he will be inducted
        into the College Football Hall of Fame and in 1999 to the Pro
        Football Hall of Fame.

1956 - Former heavyweight champion Joe Louis, makes his debut as a pro
        wrestler. He knocks out 320-pound cowboy Rocky Lee. Jersey Joe
        Walcott, the referee, is another former heavyweight champ.

1960 - San Antonio, Texas becomes the first major southern city to
        integrate lunch counters.

1966 - Rodney Peete is born in Mesa, Arizona.  He will become a NFL
        quarterback playing for the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia
        Eagles and later, the Washington Redskins.

1970 - Tammi Terrell (Tammy Montgomery), best known for her duets with
        Marvin Gaye, joins the ancestors at Graduate Hospital in
        Philadelphia after undergoing six brain tumor operations in 18
        months.  Doctors first discovered Terrell's brain tumor after
        she collapsed in Gaye's arms onstage in 1967.

1975 - Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker, jazz and blues singer, blues
        guitarist, composer and pianist, joins the ancestors at the age
        of 64. He was best known for his hits "Stormy Monday" and
        "T-Bone Shuffle."

1988 - President Ronald Reagan vetoes a civil rights bill that would
        restore protections invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court's
        1984 ruling in Grove City College v. Bell.  Reagan's veto will
        be overridden by Congress less than a week later.

1989 - The U.S. Senate agrees to try U.S. District Court Judge Alcee
        Hastings on fraud, corruption, and perjury charges stemming
        from a 1981 bribery conspiracy case.  Hastings, appointed by
        President Jimmy Carter as the first African American judge to
        serve on the federal bench in Florida, will be convicted of
        eight of the original articles and impeached in October.

1991 - Soon Ja Du, a Korean American grocery store owner, shoots to
        death Latasha Harlins, a fifteen-year old African American
        girl, after Ms. Du accused the girl of trying to steal a $1.79
        bottle of orange juice.  A security camera in the store captures
        the shooting on videotape.  The shooting exacerbates racial and
        ethnic tensions in Los Angeles in the wake of the Rodney King
        beating.

1995 - Mississippi ratifies the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, some
        130 years after the rest of the country got around to it.

1996 - Mike Tyson regains a piece of the heavyweight championship by
        defeating WBC champion Frank Bruno by TKO in the third round to
        reclaim the heavyweight boxing title in Las Vegas.

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