(Photo By Flickr User Aaron Vowels)
Let’s take a look at what happened in Black History on these dates, right now……..…
Black History for February 4th:
1996 – Julius Caesar (J.C.) Watts, Jr. becomes the first Black selected to respond to a State Of The Union.
1986- A stamp of Sojourner Truth is issued by the U.S. Postal Service.
1971- National Guard mobilized to quell rioting in Wilmington, NC; Two persons killed.
1969 – MPLA begins armed struggle in Angola
1952- Jackie Robinson became the first African-American executive of a major TV Station after accepting the position of Director of Communications for NBC on this day.
1944- Actress, humanitarian, and Grammy Award-winning singer Florence LaRue of The 5th Dimension was born on this day in Plainfield, NJ.
1913- “The Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement”, Rosa Parks (Rosa Louise McCauley), was born on this day in Tuskegee, AL. She was the 1st African-American woman to trigger the largest and most successful mass movement against racial segregation in all of history when she refused to give up her bus seat for a white man in 1955. She passed away in October 2005.
1794- France abolishes slavery. The nation will have a lukewarm commitment to abolition and will, under Napoleon, reestablish slavery in 1802 along with the reinstitution of the “Code Noir”, prohibiting blacks, mulattoes, and other people of color from entering French colonial territory or intermarrying with whites.
Black History For February 5th:
1866- Congressman Thaddeus Stevens offered an amendment to Freedmen’s Bureau bill authorizing the distribution of public land and confiscated land to freedmen and loyal refugees in forty acre lots. The measure was defeated in the House by a vote of 126 to 37. A Black delegation, led by Frederick Douglas called on President Johnson and urged ballots for former slaves. Meeting ended in disagreement and controversy after Johnson reiterated his opposition to Black suffrage.
1900- U.S. Rep. Jefferson Long, elected from the state of Georgia, died in Washington D.C. Long was the only candidate interested in running for the 60-day term and he was duly elected.
1934- Henry Louis “Home Run King, Hammerin’ Hank” Aaron, baseball superstar was born.
1950- Singer Natalie Cole, daughter of legedary singer Nat Cole, born in Los Angeles, CA. Singing professionally at age 11, by 1976 Cole had won Grammys for New Artist of the Year and Best R&B Female Vocalist. Cole died on December 31, 2015.
1958- Clifton R. Wharton Sr. confirmed as minister to Rumania. Career diplomat was the first Black to head a U.S. embassy in Europe.
1962- Suit seeking to bar Englewood, NJ, from maintaining “racial segregated” elementary schools filed in U.S. District Court.
1990- Columbia University graduate and Harvard University law student Barack Obama became the first African-American named president of the Harvard Law Review.
