*               Today in Black History - January 30                  *

1797 - Boston Masons, led by Prince Hall, establish the first African
        American interstate organization, creating lodges in
        Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Providence, Rhode Island.

1797 - Sojourner Truth is born a slave in Hurley, New York.  This is
        an approximation, since historians cannot agree on the actual
        date of her birth.

1797 - Congress refuses to accept the first recorded petitions from
        African Americans.

1844 - Richard Theodore Greener becomes the first African American to
        graduate from Harvard University.

1858 - William Wells Brown publishes the first drama by an African
        American, "Leap to Freedom," Brown is an escaped slave who will
        also become noted as an abolitionist and author of several
        early historical publications.

1927 - The Harlem Globetrotters, considered by many the most popular
        basketball team in the world, is formed by Abe Saperstein.
        Originally called the Savoy Five after their home court, the
        Savoy Ballroom, in Chicago, Illinois, the team's name will be
        changed to the Harlem Globetrotters.

1928 - Ruth Brown is born in Portsmouth, Virginia.   She will become a
        Rhythm & Blues and jazz singer, recording "So Long," "Teardrops
        from My Eyes," "Hours," "Mambo Baby," "Lucky Lips," and "This
        Little Girl's Gone Rockin'."   She will be a Tony Award winner
        and a rhythm-and-blues revolutionary--a woman whose early
        successes earned her instant worldwide fame and launched a
        career that has influenced such legendary performers as Aretha
        Franklin, Dinah Washington, Little Richard and Stevie Wonder.

1944 - Sharon Pratt is born in Washington, DC.  In 1990, as Sharon Pratt
        Dixon, she will be elected the first woman mayor of Washington,
        DC.   Her defeat of incumbent Marion Barry coupled with her
        years of community involvement and activism will raise the
        beleaguered city's hopes for positive change.

1945 - Floyd Flake is born in Los Angeles, California.  He will become a
        congressman from New York's 6th District.

1956 - The home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Montgomery bus boycott
        leader, is bombed.

1962 - The United Nations General Assembly censures Portugal for its
        widespread violations of human rights in Angola.

1965 - Leroy "Satchel" Paige, major league baseball player, is named
        all-time outstanding player by the National Baseball Congress.

1979 - Franklin A. Thomas becomes the first African American to head a
        major U.S. charitable foundation when he is named president of
        the Ford Foundation.

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