* Today in Black History - April 19 *
1775 - With the assistance of African American soldiers, Minutemen
defeat the British at Concord Bridge in the initial battle of
the Revolutionary War.
1837 - Cheyney University is founded as the first historically Black
institution of higher learning in America. It is also the first
college in the United States to receive official state
certification as an institution of higher academic education for
African Americans. Cheyney will begin its existence in
Philadelphia as the Institute for Colored Youth. The Institute
for Colored Youth successfully will provide a free classical
education for qualified young people. In 1902, the school will
be moved to George Cheyney's farm, 24 miles west of
Philadelphia. In 1913 the name will be changed to Cheyney
Training School for Teachers; in 1921 to the Normal School at
Cheyney; in 1951 Cheyney State Teachers College; and in 1959,
Cheyney State College. In 1983, Cheyney joined the State System
of Higher Education (SSHE) as Cheyney University of
Pennsylvania.
1866 - The African American citizens of Washington D.C. celebrate the
abolition of slavery. 4,000 to 5,000 people assemble at the
White House and are addressed by President Andrew Johnson. Led
by two African American regiments, the spectators and the
procession proceed up the Pennsylvania Avenue to Franklin Square
for religious services and speeches by prominent politicians.
The sign on top of the platform reads: "We have received our
civil rights. Give us the right of suffrage and the work is
done."
1942 - Atlanta University's first exhibition of African American art is
held. Organized by Hale Woodruff, artist and former professor
at the university, it will be popularly known as the Atlanta
Annual. Winners in the first show will be Charles Alston and
Lois Mailou Jones.
1960 - Maj. General Frederic E. Davidson assumes command of the Eighth
Infantry Division in Germany and becomes the first African
American to lead an army division.
A National Education Association study reveals that African
Americans had lost thirty thousand teaching jobs since 1954 in
seventeen Southern and Border states because of discrimination
and desegregation.
The home of Z. Alexander Looby, counsel for 153 students
arrested in sit-in demonstrations, is destroyed by a dynamite
bomb. More than two thousand students march on the Nashville
City Hall in protest.
One hundred African American students, carrying rifles and
shotguns, seize the Student Building at Cornell University to
protest University "racism."
1971 - Walter Fauntroy takes office as the first elected Congressional
representative from the District of Columbia since
Reconstruction.
1975 - James B. Parsons becomes the first African American chief judge
of a federal court, the U.S. District Court in Chicago. In
1961, Parsons became the first African American district court
judge.
1982 - Astronaut Guion S. Bluford Jr. becomes the first African American
to be selected for U.S. space missions.
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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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