* Today in Black History - April 9 * 1816 - The African Methodist Episcopal Church is organized at a general convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1865 - Nine African American regiments of Gen. John Hawkins's division help to smash the Confederate defenses at Fort Blakely, Alabama. Capture of the fort will lead to the fall of Mobile. The 68th U.S. Colored Troops will have the highest number of casualties in the engagement. 1865 - Robert E. Lee surrenders Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, ending the Civil War. AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE CONFEDERACY: The Confederacy is the first to recognize that African Americans are major factors in the war. The South impresses slaves to work in mines, repair railroads and build fortifications, thereby releasing a disproportionately large percentage of able-bodied whites for direct war service. A handful of African Americans enlisted in the rebel army, but few, if any, fired guns in anger. A regiment of fourteen hundred free African Americans received official recognition in New Orleans, but was not called into service. It later became, by a strange mutation of history, the first African American regiment officially recognized by the Union army. AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE UNION NAVY: One out of every four Union sailors was an African American. Of the 118,044 sailors in the Union Navy, 29,511 were African Americans. At least four African American sailors won Congressional Medals of Honor. AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE UNION ARMY: The 185,000 Black soldiers in the Union army were organized into 166 all Black regiments (145 infantry, 7 cavalry, 12 heavy artillery, 1 light artillery, 1 engineer). The largest number of African American soldiers came from Louisiana (24,052), followed by Kentucky (23,703) and Tennessee (20,133). Pennsylvania contributed more African American soldiers than any other Northern state (8,612). African American soldiers participated in 449 battles, 39 of them major engagements. Sixteen Black soldiers received Congressional Medals of Honor for gallantry in action. Some 37,638 African American soldiers lost their lives during the war. African American soldiers generally received poor equipment and were forced to do a large amount of fatigue duty. Until 1864, African American soldiers (from private to chaplain) received seven dollars a month whereas white soldiers received from thirteen to one hundred dollars a month. In 1863 African American units, with four exceptions (Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry, Fifty- fourth and Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteers and Twenty-ninth Connecticut Volunteers), were officially designated United States Colored Troops (USCT). Since the War Department discouraged applications from African Americans, there were few commissioned officers. The highest ranking of the seventy-five to one hundred African American officers was Lt. Col. Alexander T. Augustana, a surgeon. Some 200,000 African American civilians were employed by the Union army as laborers, cooks, teamster and servants. 1866 - The Civil Rights Bill of 1866 is passed over the president's veto. The bill will confer citizenship on African Americans and give them "the same right, in every State and Territory... as is enjoyed by white citizens." 1870 - The American Anti-Slavery Society is dissolved. 1898 - Paul Leroy Robeson is born in Princeton, New Jersey. The son of an ex-slave turned Methodist minister, Robeson will attend Rutgers University on a full scholarship, where he will excel in four sports, be a member of the debate team, and earn a Phi Beta Kappa key. An attorney, he will later become one of America's foremost actors and singers. He will make 14 films including "The Emperor Jones," "King Solomon's Mines," and "Showboat." An advocate of African American equality, his public support of Communism will cause the cancellation of concert dates and the revocation of his passport. 1929 - Valenza Pauline Burke is born in Brooklyn, New York to parents who had immigrated to the United States from Barbados. She will become a novelist known as Paule Marshall. She will author "Browngirl, Brownstones," "Praisesong for the Widow," "The Chosen Place, The Timeless People," "Soul Clap Hands and Sing," and Daughters." She will also write a collection of short stories, "Reena and Other Stories." 1939 - When she is refused admission to the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall to give a planned concert, Marian Anderson performs for 75,000 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Two months later, she will be honored with the NAACP's Spingarn Medal for her talents as "one of the greatest singers of our time" and for "her magnificent dignity as a human being." 1950 - Juanita Hall becomes the first African American to win a Tony award for her role as Bloody Mary in the musical "South Pacific." 1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. is buried, after funeral services at Ebenezer Baptist Church and memorial services at Morehouse College, in Atlanta, Georgia. More than 300,000 persons march behind the coffin of the slain leader which is carried through the streets of Atlanta on a farm wagon pulled by two Georgia mules. Scores of national dignitaries, including Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, attend the funeral. CORE and the Fellowship of Reconciliation send twenty-three dignitaries. Ralph David Abernathy is elected to succeed King as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. 1993 - The Reverend Benjamin Chavis is chosen to head the NAACP, succeeding Benjamin Hooks. ______________________________________________________________ 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 2002, All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with CODE One Communications.