* Today in Black History - October 21 * 1832 - Maria W. Stewart, an African American women's rights and abolitionist speaker, says in her farewell address "...for it's not the color of the skin that makes the man or woman, but the principle formed in the soul." 1865 - Jamaican National Hero, George William Gordon, is unfairly arrested and charged for complicity in what is now called the Morant Bay Rebellion. George William Gordon was a free colored land owner. Born to a slave mother and a planter father, who was attorney to several sugar estates in Jamaica, he was self-educated and became a landowner in St. Thomas. Gordon had urged the people to protest against and to resist the oppressive and unjust conditions under which they were forced to live. He is illegally tried by court martial and, in spite of a lack of evidence, convicted and sentenced to death. 1872 - John H. Conyers, Sr. becomes the first African American admitted to the United States Naval Academy. 1917 - John Birks ("Dizzy") Gillespie is born in Cheraw, South Carolina. He will, with Charlie Parker and Theolonious Monk, be the founder of the revolutionary bebop movement in the very early 1940's. His music accomplishments will include formation of the Dee Gee and Verve labels. He will perform in clubs and concert halls in Harlem, Canada and Europe. His music will earn him a Grammy Award in 1974 and 1980. He will join the ancestors on January 6, 1993 in Englewood, New Jersey. 1950 - Ronald E. McNair is born in Lake City, South Carolina. He will become an astronaut and the first African American astronaut to perish during a mission (Challenger - STS 41B, 51L disaster). 1950 - Earl Lloyd, becomes the first African American person to play in an NBA game (beating out Charles Cooper and Nat Clifton by one day). He will later become the first African American NBA Assistant Coach and first African American NBA chief scout. 1969 - A bloodless coup occurs in Somalia (National Day). 1977 - The United States recalls William Bowdler, ambassador to South Africa, due to the country's apartheid policies. 1979 - The Black Fashion Museum is opened in Harlem by Lois Alexander to highlight the achievements and contributions of African Americans to fashion. 1980 - Valerie Thomas invents the illusion transmitter. 1989 - Bertram M. Lee and Peter C.B. Bynoe sign an agreement to purchase the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets for $54 million. They become the first African American owners of a professional basketball team. 1999 - Gaston T. Neal, a community activist and influential performance poet, who was best known for his work in the genre of the Black power movement and social change, joins the ancestors after a bout with lymphatic cancer, at his home in Washington, DC. 2003 - Fred Berry, actor, joins the ancestors at the age of 52 after succumbing to a stroke. He played the character "Rerun" on the TV sitcom "What's Happening!!" ______________________________________________________________ Munirah Chronicle is edited by Rene' A. Perry "The TRUTH shall make you free" E-mail: <[log in to unmask]> Archives: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/Munirah.html http://blackagenda.com/cybercolonies/index.htm _____________________________________________________________ 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 1997 - 2010, All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with The Black Agenda.