* Today in Black History - April 10 * 1816 - Richard Allen is elected Bishop of the A.M.E. Church, one day after the church is organized at its first general convention. 1872 - The first National Black Convention meets in New Orleans, Louisiana. Frederick Douglass will be elected president. 1877 - Federal troops withdraw from Columbia, South Carolina. This action will allow the white South Carolina Democrats to take over the state government. 1926 - Johnnie Tillmon (later Blackston) is born in Scott, Arkansas. A welfare rights champion, Tillmon will become the founding chairperson and director of the National Welfare Rights Organization. 1932 - The James Weldon Johnson Literary Guild announces the winners of its first annual nationwide poetry contest for children. The judges - Jessie Fauset and Countee Cullen, among others - select in the teen category a 16-year-old Liberian youth and Margaret Walker of New Orleans, who receives an honorable mention for her poem "When Night Comes." 1938 - Nana Annor Adjaye, Pan-Africanist, joins the ancestors in W. Nzima, Ghana. 1943 - Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. is born in Richmond, Virginia. He will become a professional tennis player and will be one of the first African American male tennis stars. He will be the first African American to win a spot on the American Davis Cup tennis team, the first to win the U.S. Open and the men's singles title at Wimbledon, in 1975. Over his 11-year career he will play in 304 tournaments, winning 51, including the 1970 Australian Open and Wimbledon in 1975. He will be the number one ranked player in the world in 1975. A life-threatening heart condition will force him to retire in 1980 and he will continue to serve as the non-playing captain of that year's U.S. Davis Cup team. In 1985 he will become the second African American inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The first was Althea Gibson in 1971. After his career in tennis, he will become an eloquent spokesperson against racial intolerance and a critic of South Africa's racist system of apartheid. In the United States, he will create tennis programs to benefit inner-city youth. He will write a three-volume history of the African American athlete entitled "A Hard Road To Glory" (1988). Suffering complications from AIDS, contracted from a blood transfusion during a heart bypass operation, he will join the ancestors in New York on February 6, 1993. 1958 - W.C. Handy, composer and musician, joins the ancestors at the age of 84 in New York City. 1959 - Kenneth Edmonds is born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He will become a professional musician and will begin work in the business producing music, with his friend Antonio Reid, for Carrie Lucas, the Whispers, and Dynasty. Since then, they've produced hits for many others. During the 1990s, his dominance will extend beyond the production arena and into the performing circle. His hit "Tender Lover" crossed him over into pop territory and eventually sold more than two million copies. The singles "Whip Appeal" and "It's No Crime" were Top Ten R&B and pop hits. He will hit his peak in 1995, producing hits for artists like Boyz II Men, Madonna and Whitney Houston and coordinated the "Waiting to Exhale" soundtrack. In the fall of 1996, he will released "Day," his first solo album since 1993 to strong reviews. He will successfully produce the film "Soul Food" in 1997. 1968 - U.S. Congress passes a Civil Rights Bill banning racial discrimination in the sale or rental of approximately 80 per cent of the nation's housing. The bill also made it a crime to interfere with civil rights workers and to cross state lines to incite a riot. 1975 - Lee Elder becomes the first African American to tee off as an entrant in the Masters' Tournament in Atlanta, Georgia. ______________________________________________________________ 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 2001, All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with CODE One Communications.