*                 Today in Black History - April 5                     *

1839 - Robert Smalls is born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina.
        He will become a Civil War hero by sailing an armed Confederate
        steamer out of Charleston Harbor and presenting it to the Union
        Navy.  He will later become a three-term congressman from his
        state.

1856 - Booker Taliaferro Washington is born a slave near Hale's Ford,
        Virginia.  He will become a world reknown educator, founder of
        Tuskegee Institute and will be the first African American to be
        honored on a U.S. postage stamp.

1879 - Charles W. Follis is born in Cloverdale, Virginia.  He is the first
        African American to play professional football.  He will play
        halfback for the Blues of Shelby, Ohio in 1904.  The Blues were part
        of the American Professional Football League, a forerunner of the
        National Football League.

1915 - Jess Willard defeats Jack Johnson for the heavyweight boxing
        crown in twenty three rounds.

1934 - Stanley Turrentine is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He will
        become a jazz saxophonist and in 1953, will replace the famed
        John Coltrane in the popular big band of Earl Bostic.  After a
        three-year army stint, which affords him his only formal musical
        training, Turrentine comes to prominence on the New York Jazz scene
        as a member of Max Roach's group in 1959.  Over the years,
        Turrentine's recordings will combine musical energies with friends
        such as Ron Carter, Roland Hanna, Ray Charles, Freddie Hubbard, Jon
        Hendricks, George Benson, Cedar Walton, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Burrell,
        Milt Jackson, Joe Sample, Shirley Scott, Jimmy Smith, Grady Tate, and
        many others.  He will be nominated for the Grammy Award four times.

1937 - Colin Powell is born in New York City. He will become a highly
        decorated Army officer, receiving the Bronze Star and Purple
        Heart during the Vietnam War, and will be later promoted to four-
        star general in 1988. He will become the first African American
        to serve as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the U.S.
        Armed Forces.

1956 - Booker T. Washington becomes the only African American honored
        twice on a U.S. postage stamp. To commemorate the centennial of
        his birth, the U.S. Postal Service issues a stamp depicting the
        cabin where he was born.

1967 - Philadelphia '76er Wilt Chamberlain sets a NBA record of 41
        rebounds in a single game.

1976 - FBI documents, released in response to a freedom of information
        suit, reveal that the government mounted an intensive campaign
        against civil rights organizations in the sixties.  In a letter
        dated August 25, 1967, the FBI said the government operation,
        called COINTELPRO, was designed "to expose, disrupt, misdirect,
        discredit or otherwise neutralize the activities of Black
        nationalists, hate-type groups, their leadership, spokesmen,
        membership and supporters, and to counter their propensity for
        violence and civil disorders."  A later telegram specifically
        named the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the
        Southern Christian Leadership Conference as organizations having
        "radical and violence prone leaders, members and followers."

1977 - Gertrude Downing receives a patent for the corner cleaner
        attachment.

1984 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar breaks Wilt Chamberlain's all-time career
        scoring record of 31,419 points (31,421).

1990 - Seven African American journalists are inducted into the newly
        created Hall of Fame of the National Association of Black
        Journalists in Washington, DC.  Dubbed "pioneers of mainstream
        journalism," the inductees include Dorothy Butler Gilliam of the
        Washington Post, Malvin R. Goode of ABC News, Mal H. Johnson of
        Cox Broadcasting, Gordon Parks of Life Magazine, Ted Poston of
        the New York Post, Norma Quarles of Cable News Network, and Carl
        T. Rowan of King Features Syndicate.  Twelve Pulitzer Prize
        winners are also honored at the awards ceremonies.

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