* Today in Black History - March 22 * 1492 - Alonzo Pierto, explorer of African descent, sets sail from Spain with Christopher Columbus. 1873 - Slavery is abolished in Puerto Rico. The Spanish Crown finally ends slavery in one of its last Latin American colonies. Slave owners are compensated with 35 million pesetas per slave. Despite the pronouncement of abolition, slaves are still required to keep working for three more years as indentured servants. 1882 - African American Shakespearean actor Morgan Smith joins the ancestors in Sheffield, England. Smith had emigrated to England in 1866, where he performed in Shakespeare's Richard III, Macbeth, Hamlet, and The Merchant of Venice, as well as Othello. 1931 - Richard Berry Harrison receives the NAACP's Spingarn Medal for his role as "De Lawd" in "The Green Pastures" and for his "long years ...as a dramatic reader and entertainer, interpreting to the mass of colored people in church and school, the finest specimens of English drama from Shakespeare down." 1943 - George Benson is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He will begin playing the guitar at age 8, will sing in nightclubs as a child and form a rock group at age 17. He will move to New York City in 1963 and join Jack McDuff's band but will leave in 1965 to form his own group with Lonnie Smith, Ronnie Cuber, and Phil Turner. He will become a session guitarist in the late 1960s, working with such artists as Miles Davis, Ron Carter, and Herbie Hancock and developing a reputation as one of the best jazz guitarists. The release of his triple Grammy Award-winning "Breezin'" in 1976, with its hit single, "This Masquerade," will mark Benson's return as a vocal artist. His follow-up album, "In Flight" (1977), and his double live set "Weekend in L.A." (1978) will confirm his wide popularity. After "Livin' Inside Your Love" (1979), he will release the equally popular "Give Me the Night" (1980), his first collaboration with Quincy Jones, which will garner an impressive sweep of five Grammy Awards. Later albums will include "While the City Sleeps" (1986), "Twice the Love" (1988), "Tenderly" (1989), and "Love Remembers" (1993). 1957 - Stephanie Mills is born in Brooklyn, New York. She will become a singer and actress and be best known for her role as Dorothy in the stage show of "The Wiz." She will win a talent show at the Apollo Theater six weeks in a row at age nine. She will appear in the Broadway play "Maggie Flynn," tour with the Isley Brothers, and release her debut album in 1973. She will land the part of Dorothy in 1975, recording an album for Motown during the show's four-year run. In 1980, she will have a worldwide hit with "Never Knew Love Like This Before," which rises to the Top Ten in the U.S. She will be married for a short while to Shalamar's Jeffrey Daniels and work with Teddy Pendergrass in 1981. In 1983, she will land a daytime television show on NBC. She will also later play Dorothy in a revival of "The Wiz." 1968 - Pennsylvania State troopers are mobilized to put down a student rebellion on the campus of Cheyney State College. 1986 - Debi Thomas becomes the first African American woman to win the world figure skating championship. ______________________________________________________________ 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 2003, All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with CODE One Communications.