* Today in Black History - April 9 *
1816 - The African Methodist Episcopal Church is organized at a general
convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1865 - Nine African American regiments of Gen. John Hawkins's division
help to smash the Confederate defenses at Fort Blakely, Alabama.
Capture of the fort will lead to the fall of Mobile. The 68th
U.S. Colored Troops will have the highest number of casualties
in the engagement.
1865 - Robert E. Lee surrenders Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at
Appomattox Court House, Virginia, ending the Civil War.
AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE CONFEDERACY: The Confederacy is the
first to recognize that African Americans are major factors in
the war. The South impresses slaves to work in mines, repair
railroads and build fortifications, thereby releasing a
disproportionately large percentage of able-bodied whites for
direct war service. A handful of African Americans enlisted in
the rebel army, but few, if any, fired guns in anger. A regiment
of fourteen hundred free African Americans received official
recognition in New Orleans, but was not called into service. It
later became, by a strange mutation of history, the first
African American regiment officially recognized by the Union
army.
AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE UNION NAVY: One out of every four Union
sailors was an African American. Of the 118,044 sailors in the
Union Navy, 29,511 were African Americans. At least four
African American sailors won Congressional Medals of Honor.
AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE UNION ARMY: The 185,000 Black soldiers
in the Union army were organized into 166 all Black regiments
(145 infantry, 7 cavalry, 12 heavy artillery, 1 light artillery,
1 engineer). The largest number of African American soldiers
came from Louisiana (24,052), followed by Kentucky (23,703)
and Tennessee (20,133). Pennsylvania contributed more African
American soldiers than any other Northern state (8,612). African
American soldiers participated in 449 battles, 39 of them major
engagements. Sixteen Black soldiers received Congressional
Medals of Honor for gallantry in action. Some 37,638 African
American soldiers lost their lives during the war. African
American soldiers generally received poor equipment and were
forced to do a large amount of fatigue duty. Until 1864,
African American soldiers (from private to chaplain) received
seven dollars a month whereas white soldiers received from
thirteen to one hundred dollars a month. In 1863 African American
units, with four exceptions (Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry, Fifty-
fourth and Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteers and Twenty-ninth
Connecticut Volunteers), were officially designated United States
Colored Troops (USCT). Since the War Department discouraged
applications from African Americans, there were few commissioned
officers. The highest ranking of the seventy-five to one hundred
African American officers was Lt. Col. Alexander T. Augustana, a
surgeon. Some 200,000 African American civilians were employed
by the Union army as laborers, cooks, teamsters and servants.
1866 - The Civil Rights Bill of 1866 is passed over the president's
veto. The bill will confer citizenship on African Americans and
give them "the same right, in every State and Territory... as is
enjoyed by white citizens."
1870 - The American Anti-Slavery Society is dissolved.
1898 - Paul Leroy Robeson is born in Princeton, New Jersey. The son of
an ex-slave turned Methodist minister, Robeson will attend
Rutgers University on a full scholarship, where he will excel in
four sports, be a member of the debate team, and earn a Phi Beta
Kappa key. An attorney, he will later become one of America's
foremost actors and singers. He will make 14 films including
"The Emperor Jones," "King Solomon's Mines," and "Showboat." An
advocate of African American equality, his public support of
Communism will cause the cancellation of concert dates and the
revocation of his passport.
1929 - Valenza Pauline Burke is born in Brooklyn, New York to parents
who had immigrated to the United States from Barbados. She
will become a novelist known as Paule Marshall. She will author
"Browngirl, Brownstones," "Praisesong for the Widow," "The Chosen
Place, The Timeless People," "Soul Clap Hands and Sing," and
Daughters." She will also write a collection of short stories,
"Reena and Other Stories."
1939 - When she is refused admission to the Daughters of the American
Revolution's Constitution Hall to give a planned concert, Marian
Anderson performs for 75,000 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Two months later, she will be honored with the NAACP's Spingarn
Medal for her talents as "one of the greatest singers of our time"
and for "her magnificent dignity as a human being."
1950 - Juanita Hall becomes the first African American to win a Tony
award for her role as Bloody Mary in the musical "South Pacific."
1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. is buried, after funeral services at
Ebenezer Baptist Church and memorial services at Morehouse
College, in Atlanta, Georgia. More than 300,000 persons march
behind the coffin of the slain leader which is carried through
the streets of Atlanta on a farm wagon pulled by two Georgia
mules. Scores of national dignitaries, including Vice-President
Hubert Humphrey, attend the funeral. CORE and the Fellowship of
Reconciliation send twenty-three dignitaries. Ralph David
Abernathy is elected to succeed King as head of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference.
1993 - The Reverend Benjamin Chavis is chosen to head the NAACP, succeeding
Benjamin Hooks.
______________________________________________________________
Munirah Chronicle is edited by Brother Mosi Hoj
"The TRUTH shall make you free"
E-mail: <[log in to unmask]>
Archives: <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/Munirah.html>
<http://blackagenda.com/cybercolonies/index.htm>
_____________________________________________________________
To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]>
In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name
______________________________________________________________
Munirah(TM) is a trademark of Information Man. Copyright 2004,
All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with
CODE One Communications.
|
