*                Today in Black History - December 23               *

1815 - Henry Highland Garnet is born in New Market, Maryland.  He will
        become a noted clergyman and abolitionist.  He will also be the
        first African American to deliver a sermon before the House of
        Representatives.

1863 - Robert Blake, powder boy aboard the USS Marblehead, is the first
        African American to be awarded the Naval Medal of Honor "for
        conspicuous gallantry, extraordinary heroism, and intrepidity at
        the risk of his own life." The heroic action occurred during a
        victorious battle off the coast of South Carolina.

1867 - Sarah Breedlove is born in Delta, Louisiana.  She will be better
        known as Madame C.J. Walker, the first female African American
        millionaire whose hair-care, toiletry, and cosmetics products
        revolutionized the standard of beauty for African American
        women.  Her philanthropy and generosity will make her a popular
        figure in the early 1900's.

1919 - Alice H. Parker patents the gas heating furnace.

1935 - Esther Mae Jones is born in Galveston, Texas.  She will begin
        her career as a blues singer at 13 as "Little" Esther Phillips,
        taking her name from a billboard for a gasoline company.
        Problems with drugs and alcohol will cause her to interrupt
        her career a number of times.  She will record several
        memorable songs including "And I Love Him" and "Release Me."

1946 - The University of Tennessee refuses to play Duquesne University,
        because they may use an African American player in their
        basketball game.

1990 - Wendell Scott joins the ancestors in Danville, Virginia.   He was
        a prominent African American in early stock car racing, finishing
        among the top five drivers in 20 Grand National events and
        winning 128 races in the sportsman division.  His story will be
        told in the movie "Greased Lightning," that starred Richard Pryor
        as Scott.

1999 - President Clinton pardons Freddie Meeks, an African American sailor
        court-martialed for mutiny during World War II when he and other
        sailors refused to load live ammunition following a deadly
        explosion at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine near San Francisco
        that had claimed more than 300 lives.

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