*		 Today in Black History - May 31	      *

1870 - The first civil rights Enforcement Act, which protects the 
	voting and civil rights of African Americans, is passed by 
	Congress. It provides stiff penalties for public officials 
	and private citizens who deprive citizens of the suffrage 
	and civil rights.  The measure authorizes the use of the 
	U.S. Army to protect these rights.

1909 - The first NAACP conference is held at the United Charities 
	Building in New York City with 300 African Americans and 
	whites in attendance. Ida B. Wells-Barnett, while speaking 
	at the conference, condemns lynching as a "blight upon our 
	nation, mocking our laws and disgracing our Christianity."

1917 - One of the first jazz records, "The Darktown Strutter's 
	Ball," is released.  It was written by songwriter and 
	musician, Shelton Brooks. It will become Brooks' most 
	famous song.

1933 - Shirley Verrett is born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  She will 
	become an operatic mezzo-soprano known worldwide for her 
	compelling performance in Carmen. She will be a star at the 
	world’s great opera houses, including the Metropolitan 
	Opera, La Scala, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the 
	Bolshoi Opera, the Paris Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the 
	Vienna Staatsoper, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She will 
	appear at the Metropolitan opera for more than two decades.
	She will be the recipient of many honors and awards, among 
	them the Marian Anderson Award, Naumburg Award, and the 
	Sullivan Award; and fellowships from numerous foundations 
	including Ford, John Hay Whitney, and Martha Baird 
	Rockefeller. She will receive honorary doctorates from Holy 
	Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Northeastern 
	University in Boston. She will join the faculty at the 
	University of Michigan in 1996, becoming the James Earl 
	Jones Distinguished University Professor of Music. She will
	join the ancestors on November 5, 2010.

1955 - The U.S. Supreme Court passes a second desegregation ruling, 
	demanding "all deliberate speed" be used in the 
	desegregation of public schools.

1961 - Judge Irving Kaufman orders the Board of Education of New 
	Rochelle, New York to integrate their schools.

1961 - Chuck Berry's amusement park, Berryland, opens near Saint 
	Louis, Missouri.

1979 - Zimbabwe proclaims its independence.

1987 - John Dotson is named publisher of the Boulder, Colorado, 
	"Daily Camera." It is one of many distinctions for the 
	noted journalist, including being the first African 
	American reporter for Newsweek magazine and founding, in 
	the mid-1970's, the Institute for Journalism Education, 
	dedicated to training minority journalists.

1989 - Cito Gaston is named manager of the Toronto Blue Jays of 
	baseball's American League.

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