*                  Today in Black History - March 11       *

1861 - The Confederate Congress, meeting in Montgomery, Alabama, adopts a
        constitution which declares that the passage of any "law denying
        or impairing the right of property in Negro slaves is prohibited."

1870 - Moshweshwe, King of Basutoland (Lesotho) joins the ancestors.
        Moshweshwe was the founder of Lesotho in the 1820's.  Lesotho was
        landlocked by the Cape Colony (now South Africa).  He was able to
        develop a strong tribal organization from his mix of peoples.  He
        appeased the Zulu and Ndebele, led cattle raids on surrounding
        people, defeated the British in 1852 and conducted frequent wars
        with the Orange Free State.  Because of repeated attacks by the
        Cape Colony, Moshweshwe asked the British for protection and
        Lesotho will become a protectorate in 1868.  Upon his death, the
        country was annexed to Cape Colony, but was returned to the status
        of British protectorate in 1884.  When the Union of South Africa
        was formed in 1910, the British honored the desire of Lesotho
        ("Basutoland") to remain independent.  A protectorate continued
        until 1968, protecting Lesotho from incursions from South Africa.

1874 - Frederick Douglass is named president of the failing Freedmen's
        Bank.

1884 - William Edouard Scott is born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He will
        study with Henry O. Tanner at the Art Institute of Chicago.  He
        later will go to Paris, France and study at the Julien and Colarossi
        academies.  He will also study under Tanner again in Paris (Tanner
        had emigrated there) and become best known for his portrait studies
        of Haitians, rural life, and landscapes.  Many of his murals are
        on the walls of public buildings in Indiana, Illinois, West
        Virginia, and New York (135th Street YMCA).

1919 - Mercer Ellington is born in Washington, DC, the only child of
        Edward "Duke" Ellington and his wife, Edna.  He will become
        "the keeper of the flame," the charge his father will give him
        and one he will readily accept.  In doing so, he will lead the
        Duke Ellington Orchestra for over twenty years after replacing
        his father.

1926 - Ralph David Abernathy is born in Linden, Alabama.  He will become
        a famed minister, civil rights advocate, and confidant of Martin
        L. King, Jr.  After King's assassination, he will become the
        president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and
        write an autobiography that will attract widespread criticism for
        his comments on King's alleged womanizing.

1935 - "The Conjure Man Dies," a play by Rudolph Fisher, premieres on
        Broadway at the Lafayette Theatre.  Fisher, who had joined the
        ancestors over a year before the play's premiere, had adapted
        the play from his 1932 short story "The Conjure-Man Dies: A
        Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem," considered the first detective
        fiction by an African American.

1948 - Reginald Weir becomes the first African American to play in the
        U.S. Indoor Lawn Tennis Association Championship.  He will win
        his first match, but will be eliminated on March 13.

1950 - Robert "Bobby" McFerrin is born in New York City.  He will be
        known for his versatile and innovative a cappella jazz vocals
        and for his hit song "Don't Worry Be Happy," which will sell
        over ten million copies and earn him three Grammy awards in
        1989 in addition to a Grammy for best jazz vocalist.

1956 - A manifesto denouncing the Supreme Court ruling on segregation
        in public schools, is issued by one hundred southern senators
        and representatives.

1959 - "A Raisin in the Sun" becomes the first play written by an
        African American woman, Lorraine Hansberry, to open on Broadway.
        The play will run for 19 months at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre,
        and be named "Best Play" by the New York Drama Critics Circle,
        and bring Lloyd Richards to Broadway as the first African
        American director in modern times.

1965 - During civil rights demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, the Reverend
        James J. Reeb, a white minister from Boston, dies after being
        beaten by whites.

1968 - Otis Redding posthumously receives a gold record for the single
        "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay."

1971 - Whitney M. Young, Jr., executive director of the National Urban
        League, joins the ancestors after drowning while swimming during
        a visit to Lagos, Nigeria.

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