*                   Today in Black History - April 15                 *

1861 - President Lincoln calls for 75,000 troops to put down the
        rebellion. The Lincoln administration rejects African American
        volunteers. For almost two years straight African Americans
        fight for the right, as one humorist puts it, "to be kilt".

1889 - Asa Philip Randolph is born in Crescent Way, Florida.  He will
        become a labor leader, the organizer of the Brotherhood of
        Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, and a tireless fighter for civil
        rights.  He will join the ancestors in 1979.

1919 - Elizabeth Catlett is born in Washington, DC.  She will become an
        internationally known printmaker and sculptor who will emigrate
        to Mexico and embrace both African and Mexican influences in her
        art.

1922 - Harold Washington is born in Chicago, Illinois.  He will serve in
        the Illinois House of Representatives and Senate as well as two
        terms in Congress before becoming the first African American
        mayor of Chicago.  He will join the ancestors after suffering a
        massive heart attack on November 25, 1987 after being re-elected
        to a second term as mayor.

1928 - Pioneering architect Norma Merrick (later Sklarek) is born in New
        York City.  Sklarek will be the first licensed woman architect
        in the United States and the first African American woman to
        become a fellow in the American Institute of Architects (1980).

1947 - Baseball player Jackie Robinson plays his first major-league
        baseball game (he had played exhibition games previously) for
        the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African American in the
        major leagues Moses Fleetwood Walker had played in 1885. The
        Brooklyn Dodgers promoted him to the majors from the Montreal
        Royals.

1957 - Evelyn Ashford is born in Shreveport, Louisiana. She will grow up
        in Roseville, California becoming a track star specializing in
        sprinting.  She will be a four-time winner of Olympic gold medals
        and one silver in 1976, 1984, 1988, and 1992. In 1979, she will
        set a world record in the 200-meter dash. In 1989 she will
        receive the Flo Hyman Award from the Woman's Sports Foundation.
        In 1992, the U.S. Olympic team will ask her to carry the flag
        during the opening ceremonies in the Barcelona Olympics. She will
        retire from track and field in 1993 at the age of 36.

1958 - African Freedom Day is declared at the All-African People's
        Conference in Accra, Ghana.

1960 - The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is formed on
        the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina.

1985 - Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns wins the World Middleweight title. This
        is one of five weight classes that he will win a boxing title
        making him the first African American to win boxing titles in
        five different weight classes.

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