* Today in Black History - October 25 * 1806 - Benjamin Banneker joins the ancestors at the age of 74 in Ellicott Mills, Maryland. Banneker was a self-taught mathematician and builder (at age 21) of the first striking clock built in the United States. An amateur astronomer, Banneker's calculations for solar and lunar eclipses appeared in 29 editions of his almanacs, published from 1792 to 1797. 1915 - Attorney James L. Curtis is named minister to Liberia. 1926 - Crisis magazine, led by editor W.E.B. DuBois, awards its first prizes in literature and art. Among the winners will be Arna Bontemps' poem "Nocturne at Bethesda," Countee Cullen's poem "Thoughts in a Zoo," Aaron Douglas' painting "African Chief" and a portrait by Hale Woodruff. 1940 - The Committee on the Participation of Negroes in the National Defense Program met with President Roosevelt. 1940 - The National Newspaper Publishers Association is founded. 1940 - The Spingarn Medal is presented to Dr. Louis T. Wright for his civil rights leadership and his contributions as a surgeon. 1940 - Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr. is promoted to Brigadier General, the first African American to attain that rank in the United States Army or any other branch of the Armed Forces. 1958 - Ten thousand students, led by Jackie Robinson, Harry Belfonte and A. Phillip Randolph, participate in the Youth March for integrated schools in Washington, DC. 1958 - Daisy Bates, head of the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP, and the nine students who integrated Little Rocks's Central High School are awarded the Spingarn Medal for their courage and leadership in the civil rights struggle. 1962 - Uganda is admitted as the 110th member of the United Nations. 1968 - The city of Chicago officially recognizes Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable as its first settler. 1973 - Abebe Bikila, Ethiopian marathoner who won the Olympic Gold Medal in 1960 and 1964, joins the ancestors at the age of 46. 1976 - Clarence "Willie" Norris, the last surviving member of the nine Scottsboro Boys, who were convicted in 1931 of the alleged rape of two white women on a freight train, is pardoned by Governor George Wallace. Norris had spent 15 years in prison and had been a fugitive fleeing parole in Alabama in 1946. 1983 - Mary Francis Berry, professor of history and law at Howard University, and two other members of the Civil Rights Commission are fired by President Ronald Reagan. Considered a champion of minority concerns on the Commission, Berry will charge the administration with attempting to "shut up" criticism. She will later sue and be reinstated. 1983 - The United States and six other Caribbean nations invade the island nation of Grenada. 1988 - Two units of the Ku Klux Klan and eleven individuals are ordered to pay $1 million to African Americans who were attacked during a brotherhood rally in predominately white Forsythe County, Georgia. 1990 - Evander Holyfield knocks out James "Buster" Douglas in the third round of their twelve-round fight to become the undisputed world heavyweight champion. Holyfield's record stood at 25-0, with 21 knockouts. 1997 - The Million Woman March, organized by grass root sisters, led by Sister Phile Chionesu and Sister Asia Coney, takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The event is attended by 1.3 million attendees (300,000 to 1 million according to Philadelphia officials). The MWM had been promoted by word of mouth and avoided traditional media and mainstream groups, such as sororities and many civil rights groups. Sis. Chionesu calls the march "a declaration of independence from ignorance, poverty, enslavement, and all the things that have happened to us that has helped to bring about the confusion and disharmony that we experience with one another." ______________________________________________________________ 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.