* Today in Black History - October 24 * 1892 - 25,000 African American workers strike in New Orleans, Louisiana. This is the first major job stoppage in U.S. labor history by African Americans. 1923 - The U.S. Department of Labor issues a report stating that approximately 500,000 African Americans had left the South in the preceding twelve months. 1935 - Langston Hughes's play "Mulatto" opens on Broadway. It will have the longest run of any play by an African American until Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun." 1935 - Italy invades Ethiopia. African Americans hold mass meetings of protest and raise funds for the Ethiopian defenders. 1936 - The Boston Chronicle blasts the soon-to-be-released movie "The Big Broadcast" of 1937 for featuring a white pianist who appears in the movie while Teddy Wilson actually plays the music: "The form of racial discrimination and falsification of acts...is frequently duplicated by many whites in their daily dealings with Negroes...Negro farm hands and laborers in other fields of industry produce billions of dollars of wealth, but the white landowners and sweat shop operators get all the profit." 1942 - In recognition of the influence of so-called race music, Billboard magazine creates its first ratings chart devoted to African American music, The Harlem Hit Parade. The number-one record is "Take It & Git" by Andy Kirk and His Twelve Clouds of Joy, featuring Mary Lou Williams on piano. 1948 - Frizzel Gray is born in Baltimore, Maryland. Better known as Kweisi Mfume, an adopted African name that means "Conquering Son of Kings," he will be elected a congressman from Maryland's 7th District in 1986. He will later leave the Congress to become the head of the NAACP. 1964 - Kenneth David Kuanda becomes President of Zambia as Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) gains independence from Great Britain. 1972 - Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson joins the ancestors at the age of 53 in Stamford, Connecticut. ______________________________________________________________ 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.