* Today in Black History - June 7 * 1863 - Three African American regiments and small detachment of white troops repulse a division of Texans in a hand-to-hand battle at Milliken's Bend, Louisiana. 1917 - Gwendolyn Brooks is born in Topeka, Kansas. She will become the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize (1950). She will win this award for "Annie Allen," which is about the coming of age of a young African American and her feelings of loneliness, loss, death and poverty. In 1963-1969 she will teach poetry and fiction workshops and also freshman English and 20th century literature. In 1967, she will organize a poetry writing workshop for a gang, and her home soon became a meeting place for young people interested in arts and politics. In 1985, she will become the first African American woman to take the position of Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress. Her job will be to give a lecture in autumn and a poetry reading in the spring. She will be the 29th and last Poetry Consultant. In 1988, she will become the second Poet Laureate of Illinois. She also will be inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. 1930 - "The New York Times" capitalizes the word Negro "in recognition of racial self-respect for those who have been for generations in the lowercase." 1931 - David C. Driskell is born in Eatonton, Georgia. An artist and professor of art at several universities, Driskell will be acclaimed as one of the foremost art historians and curators of African American art exhibits. 1943 - Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr. is born in Knoxville, Tennessee. She will become a poet and author that will be known for her books "Black Feeling", "Black Talk", and "Black Judgment," and the name "Nikki." In 1973, she will establish NikTom, Ltd., a communications company that will edit and publish "Night Comes Softly," an anthology of poetry by black women, "Re: Creation," "Poem of Angela Yvonne Davis," and her other prominent works. In the mid 1980's, her opposition to the boycott of South Africa will lead to her being blacklisted by TransAfrica and subsequently to bomb and death threats. She will receive at least six honorary doctorate degrees and a myriad of literary awards. 1946 - U.S. Supreme Court bans discrimination in interstate travel. 1950 - U.S. Supreme Court avoids a general ruling on "separate but equal" doctrine. 1958 - Prince Rogers Nelson is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He will become a singer and prolific songwriter and producer known to the public as "Prince." An incurable movie fan, he will have a passion for drama (and comedy). His own films will include "Purple Rain," "Under the Cherry Moon," and "Grafitti Bridge." "Purple Rain" (1984) will be hailed by some critics as the best rock movie ever made and earn Prince an Oscar for best original song score and soundtrack album. Because of his desire to have complete artistic control over his music, he will endure several years of a contract dispute with his label, Warner Brothers, which results in him appearing in public with the word SLAVE written on his face. In 1993, he will change his name to "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince" (TAFKAP or The Artist). He will come out of the Warner Brothers conflict happily. He will establish a new relationship with EMI Records that will allow him to record and produce whatever he wants to release. 1966 - The voter registration march from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi is continued by Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights groups and will register almost 4,000 African Americans. The march had been interrupted the previous day by the shooting of James Meredith, by a white sniper. 1987 - Mae Jemison, becomes the first African American woman astronaut. Jemison entered Stanford University as a 16-year-old National Achievement Scholarship student. She majored in Chemical Engineering and Afro-American Studies, graduating in 1977. She then went on to Cornell University to get a M.D. in 1981. She worked as a medical intern in Los Angeles, California in 1981. Later, she served as a staff doctor with Peace Corps in West Africa 1983-1985. Then she worked as a general practitioner for CIGNA Health Plans of California in Los Angeles from 1985 to 1987. After her internship, she joined the Peace Corps for two years in West Africa giving medical attention to Peace Corps volunteers and State Department employees in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Finally, she became an astronaut for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Houston, Texas in 1987. 1987 - Lloyd Richards wins a Tony as best director for the August Wilson play "Fences". The play wins three other Tony awards, for best play, best performance by an actor (James Earl Jones), and best performance by a featured actress (Mary Alice). 1998 - In a crime that shocks the nation, James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old African American man, joins the ancestors after being chained to a pickup truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas. Three men, white supremacists, are arrested in the case. The atrocity will prompt President Clinton to issue a press release condemning the act. Two of the killers will be sentenced to death for the crime, a third to life in prison. ______________________________________________________________ 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.