*  Today in Black History - March 31  *

1850 - The Massachusetts Supreme Court rejects the argument of Charles
        Sumner in the Boston school integration suit and established the
        "separate but equal" precedent.

1853 - At concert singer Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield's New York debut in
        Metropolitan Hall, African Americans are not allowed to attend.
        Angered and embarrassed at the exclusion of her race, Greenfield
        will perform in a separate concert at the Broadway Tabernacle
        for five African American congregations.

1871 - Jack Johnson is born in Galveston, Texas.  He will become a
        professional boxer and will become the first African American to
        be crowned world heavyweight boxing champion.  His championship
        reign will last from 1908 to 1915.

1930 - President Hoover nominates Judge John J. Parker of North Carolina
        for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.  The NAACP launches a
        national campaign against the appointment. Parker is not confirmed
        by the Senate.

1948 - A. Phillip Randolph tells the Senate Armed Services Committee
        that unless segregation and discrimination were banned in draft
        programs he would urge African American youths to resist induction
        by civil disobedience.

1949 - William Grant Still's opera, "Troubled Island" receives its world
        premiere at the New York City Opera.  In addition to marking Robert
        McFerrin's debut as the first African American male to sing with
        the company, the opera is the first ever written by an African
        American to be produced by a major opera company.

1967 - Jimi Hendrix begins the tradition of burning his guitar in London,
        England.

1968 - The provisional government of the Republic of New Africa is founded
        in Detroit, Michigan.

1973 - Ken Norton defeats Muhammad Ali in a 12 round split decision in San
        Diego, California.  Norton will break Ali's jaw during the bout.

1980 - Jesse Owens joins the ancestors in Tucson, Arizona at the age of 66,
        and President Jimmy Carter adds his voice to the tributes that pour
        in from around the world.  Jesse won four gold medals in track at
        the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

1980 - Larry Holmes wins the vacant world heavyweight title by knocking
        out Leroy Jones in the eighth round.

1988 - Toni Morrison wins the Pulitzer Prize for "Beloved," a powerful
        novel of a runaway slave who murders her daughter rather than see
        her raised in slavery.

1995 - President Bill Clinton briefly visits Haiti, where he declares the
        U.S. mission to restore democracy there a "remarkable success."

1999 - Four New York City police officers are charged with murder for
        killing Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, in a hail of
        bullets. They shot at him 41 times, hitting him with 19 shots.  The
        officers will later be acquitted of all charges, even involuntary
        manslaughter.

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