* Today in Black History - December 25 * 1760 - Jupiter Hammon, a New York slave who was probably the first African American poet, publishes "An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ". 1776 - Oliver Cromwell and Prince Whipple are among soldiers who cross the Delaware River with George Washington to successfully attack the Hessians in Trenton, New Jersey, during the Revolutionary War. 1807 - Charles B. Ray is born in Falmouth, Massachusetts. He will enter Wesleyan University in Connecticut and be forced to withdraw due to objections from northerners and southerners. He will later become a prominent African American leader. 1835 - Benjamin Tucker Tanner is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Father of famous painter Henry O. Tanner, he will become an A.M.E. bishop and editor of the "Christian Recorder" and founder in 1884 of the A.M.E. Church Review," a leading magazine of the day. 1837 - Cheyney University is established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It will be first known as the "Institute for Colored Youth". The school will be moved to George Cheyney's farm, 24 miles west of Philadelphia, in 1902. It will be renamed in 1913 to "The Cheyney Training School for Teachers." Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is the first historically Black institution of learning in America. It is also the first college in the United States to receive official state certification as an institution of higher academic education for African Americans. 1837 - Charles Lenox Remond begins his career as an antislavery agent. Remond will be one of the first African Americans employed as a lecturer by the antislavery movement. He will work many years for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. 1865 - Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia, Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia are founded. 1875 - Charles Caldwell joins the ancestors after being assassinated in Clinton, Mississippi. He was the first African American in the state of Mississippi to be accused of the murder of a white man and found "not guilty" by an all-white jury. He was later elected to the state senate. 1907 - Cabel "Cab" Calloway is born in Rochester, New York. A versatile jazz bandleader and singer who will popularize scat singing, his song "Minnie the Moocher" will be the first million-selling jazz record. Calloway will also appear in the movie "Porgy and Bess" as well as perform as a singer in the touring companies of "Porgy" and "Hello Dolly." 1951 - Harry T. Moore, a Florida NAACP official, joins the ancestors after being killed by a bomb in his home in Mims, Florida. Active in expanding the African American vote in Florida and in desegregating the University of Florida, Moore will be posthumously awarded the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 1952. 1951 - The NAACP's Spingarn Medal is presented to Mabel K. Staupers for her leadership in the field of nursing. 1956 - The home of Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, a Birmingham, Alabama protest leader, is destroyed by a dynamite bomb. 1958 - Rickey Henderson is born. He will grow up to become a baseball player with the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees and will become the stolen base king. 1965 - The Congress of Racial Equality announces that its national director, Dr. James Farmer, would resign on March 1. ______________________________________________________________ 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> ______________________________________________________________ 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 2000, All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with CODE One Communications.