Today in Black History 04/19/2010

*                  Today in Black History - April 19              *

1775 - With the assistance of African American soldiers, Minutemen
    defeat the British at Concord Bridge in the initial battle
    of the Revolutionary War.

1837 - Cheyney University is founded as the first historically
    Black institution of higher learning in America.  It is
    also the first college in the United States to receive
    official state certification as an institution of higher
    academic education for African Americans.  Cheyney will
    begin its existence in Philadelphia as the Institute for
    Colored Youth. The Institute for Colored Youth successfully
    will provide a free classical education for qualified young
    people. In 1902, the school will be moved to George
    Cheyney's farm, 24 miles west of Philadelphia. In 1913 the
    name will be changed to Cheyney Training School for
    Teachers; in 1921 to the Normal School at Cheyney; in 1951
    Cheyney State Teachers College; and in 1959, Cheyney State
    College.  In 1983, Cheyney joined the State System of
    Higher Education (SSHE) as Cheyney University of
    Pennsylvania.

1866 - The African American citizens of Washington DC celebrate the
    abolition of slavery. 4,000 to 5,000 people assemble at the
    White House and are addressed by President Andrew Johnson. 
    Led by two African American regiments, the spectators and
    the procession proceed up the Pennsylvania Avenue to
    Franklin Square for religious services and speeches by
    prominent politicians. The sign on top of the platform
    reads: "We have received our civil rights.  Give us the
    right of suffrage and the work is done."

1942 - Atlanta University's first exhibition of African American
    art is held.  Organized by Hale Woodruff, artist and former
    professor at the university, it will be popularly known as
    the Atlanta Annual.  Winners in the first show will be
    Charles Alston and Lois Mailou Jones.

1960 - Maj. General Frederic E. Davidson assumes command of the
    Eighth Infantry Division in Germany and becomes the first
    African American to lead an army division.

1960 - A National Education Association study reveals that African
    Americans had lost thirty thousand teaching jobs since 1954
    in seventeen Southern and Border states because of
    discrimination and desegregation.

1960 - The home of Z. Alexander Looby, counsel for 153 students
    arrested in sit-in demonstrations, is destroyed by a
    dynamite bomb.  More than two thousand students march on
    the Nashville City Hall in protest.

1971 - Walter Fauntroy takes office as the first elected
    Congressional representative from the District of Columbia
    since Reconstruction.

1975 - James B. Parsons becomes the first African American chief
    judge of a federal court, the U.S. District Court in
    Chicago. In 1961, Parsons became the first African American
    district court judge.

1982 - Astronaut Guion S. Bluford Jr. becomes the first African
    American to be selected for U.S. space missions.  He will
    not, however be the first person of African descent in
    space.  That honor belongs to Cuban cosmonaut, Arnaldo
    Tamayo-Mendez, who went into space on a Russian mission
    September 18, 1980 (Soyuz 38).

1994 - A Los Angeles jury awards $3.8 million to African American
    motorist Rodney King in compensation/damages for the
    beating he received at the hands of four Los Angeles
    policemen.

1999 - Joseph Chebet of Kenya wins the Boston Marathon, in 2:9:52;
    Fatuma Roba of Ethiopia wins the women's race in 2:23:25.
   
2003 - Cholly Atkins, Tony Award-winning choreographer, joins the
    ancestors after succumbing to pancreatic cancer at the age
    of 89.  He was choreographer for Marvin Gaye, The
    Temptations and others.

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