*               Today in Black History - November 6               *

1746 - Absalom Jones, a major leader of the African American Pioneer
        period, is born into slavery in Sussex, Delaware.  Jones will
        become a friend of Richard Allen and together they will found
        the Free African Society, which would serve as a protective
        society and social organization for free African Americans.
                             .
1844 - Spain grants the Dominican Republic its independence.

1868 - Jonathan Gibbs, minister and educator, is appointed Secretary
        of State by the governor of Florida.

1884 - Author and abolitionist William Wells Brown joins the ancestors
        in Chelsea, Massachusetts.  An escaped slave, Brown's
        autobiography sold 10,000 copies, a record in his day.  Brown
        also wrote the first known travelogue by an African American
        and authored the 1853 work "Clotel"; "Or The President's
        Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States", the
        first fictional work published by an African American.

1900 - James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson compose "Lift
        Ev'ry Voice and Sing."  It will become known as the "Negro
        National Anthem."

1920 - The NAACP's Spingarn Medal is awarded to W.E.B. Du Bois for
        "the founding and calling of the Pan African Congress."

1920 - James Weldon Johnson becomes the first African American
        executive secretary of the NAACP.

1928 - Oscar DePriest is elected to the Seventy-First Congress from
        Illinois' First Congressional District (Chicago).  Before
        becoming a U.S. Representative, DePriest was the first African
        American to serve on the Chicago City Council, having been
        elected alderman of the Second Ward in 1915.  He is the first
        African American to win a seat in the United States House of
        Representatives in the twentieth century.

1928 - The Atlanta "Daily World" is founded by W.A. Scott Jr.  The
        newspaper will become a daily in 1933.

1928 - The NAACP's Spingarn Medal is presented to Charles W. Chestnutt,
        the first African American to receive widespread critical
        recognition as a novelist.  He was cited for his "pioneer work
        as a literary artist depicting the life and struggle of
        Americans of Negro descent."

1937 - Eugene Pitt is born in Brooklyn, New York.  He will become a
        rhythm and blues singer with The Genies - "Who's that Knockin'"
        and lead singer for The Jive Five - "Never Never," "What Time is
        It?," "I'm a Happy Man" and "My True Story".

1962 - Edward W. Brooke is elected Attorney General of Massachusetts,
        Gerald Lamb is elected Treasurer of Connecticut, and 5 African
        Americans are elected to the House of Representatives.  Augustus
        "Gus" F. Hawkins, becomes the first African American congressman
        from the West (Los Angeles, California).

1962 - The U.N. General Assembly adopts a resolution condemning South
        Africa for its apartheid policies and recommends member states
        apply economic sanctions.

1973 - Coleman Young is elected as the first African American mayor
        of Detroit, Michigan.

1973 - The NAACP's Spingarn Medal is presented to Wilson C. Riles,
        the superintendent of public instruction in California, "in
        recognition of the stature he has attained as a national leader
        in the field of education."

1973 - The Symbionese Liberation Army ambushes Marcus A. Foster,
        superintendent of public schools in Oakland, California, after
        a Board of Education meeting.  Two members of the group, were
        convicted of the slaying, but one of the men has his conviction
        overturned, based on a legal technicality.

1973 - Thomas Bradley is elected as the first African American mayor
        of Los Angeles, California.  His political success was due to
        his masterful use of multi-racial coalition.  African Americans
        at this time were not a large segment of the Los Angeles
        population.

1976 - FCC Commissioner Benjamin Hooks is elected NAACP executive
        director by the organization's board of directors, succeeding
        Roy Wilkins.  He will serve the organization for 16 years,
        retiring in 1992.  Of his tenure he says, "We have maintained
        the integrity of this organization and kept our name out front
        and on the minds of those who would turn back the clock."

1983 - Sgt. Farley Simon, a native of Grenada, becomes the first Marine
        to win the Marine Corps Marathon.

1990 - Harvey Gantt, former mayor of Charlotte, NC, loses his Senate
        race to incumbent Jesse Helms and the opportunity to become the
        first African American senator from the South since
        Reconstruction.  Barbara-Rose Collins and Maxine Waters are
        elected to Congress from their home districts in Michigan and
        California, respectively, while Eleanor Holmes Norton is elected
        as a non-voting delegate from the District of Columbia.

1990 - Arsenio Hall gets a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

1992 - Vernon Jordan, along with Warren Christopher, is asked to lead
        the White House transition team, by President-elect William
        Jefferson Clinton.

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