*  Today in Black History - February 2  *

1914 - William Ellisworth Artis is born in Washington, North Carolina.
        He will become one of the finest African American artists of
        the twentieth century.  He will be educated at Syracuse
        University and become a student of Augusta Savage. Artis's
        sculptures will exhibit a strong originality and a romantic,
        almost spiritual appeal. His works will be exhibited at Atlanta
        University, the Whitney Museum, the "Two Centuries of Black
        American Art" exhibit and collected by Fisk University, Hampton
        University, the North Carolina Museum of Art, and private
        collectors.

1915 - Biologist Ernest E. Just receives the Spingarn Medal for his
        pioneering research on fertilization and cell division.

1938 - Operatic baritone, Simon Estes is born in Centerville, Iowa.
        He will be noted for his leading roles in Wagnerian operas and
        will sing at the  opening of the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in
        Munich, Germany.

1948 - President Harry S. Truman sends a message to Congress pressing
        for civil rights legislation,  including anti-lynching, fair
        employment practices, and anti-poll tax provisions.

1956 - Autherine J. Lucy becomes the first African American student
        to attend the University of Alabama.

1956 - Seven whites and four African Americans are arrested after
        an all-night civil rights sit-in at the Englewood, New Jersey
        city hall.

1956 - Four African American mothers are arrested after a sit-in at
        a Chicago elementary school.  The mothers later receive
        suspended $50 fines.  Protests, picketing and demonstrations
        continue for several weeks against de facto segregation,
        double shifts and mobile classrooms.

1971 - Ugandan army strongman Major-General Idi Amin ousts Milton Obote
        and assumes full power as military head of state and forms an
        18-man cabinet to run the country. Amin, a Muslim, strengthens
        ties with Arab nations and launches a genocidal program to
        purge Uganda's Lango and Acholi ethnic groups.  He will order
        all Asians to leave the country, which will thrust Uganda into
        economic chaos.  During Amin's regime, about 300,000 Ugandans
        will be killed.

1984 - Ralph Sampson, one of the Houston Rockets 'Twin Towers', is
        named Rookie of the Month in the National Basketball
        Association.  To earn the honor, Sampson averages 24.4 points,
        12 rebounds and 2.43 blocked shots per game during the month of
        January.  In addition, Sampson will become the only rookie (up
        to that time) to be named to the NBA's All-Star Game.

1988 - A commemorative stamp of James Weldon Johnson is issued by the
        United States Postal Service as part of its Black Heritage USA
        series.

1990 - In a dramatic concession to South Africa's black majority,
        President F.W. de Klerk lifts a ban on the African National
        Congress, and sixty other political organizations and promises
        to free Nelson Mandela.

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