Day: February 19, 2014

Today in Black History – February 19 *

1919 – The first Pan-African Congress, organized by W.E.B. Dubois,
opens in Paris, France. Fifty-seven delegates from 16
countries and colonies will meet for three days and declare
“The natives of Africa must be allowed to participate in the
government as fast as their development permits.” Blaise
Diagne of Senegal is elected president and Dubois is named
secretary. The Pan-African movement is started by these
African American, African and Caribbean intellectuals,
stressing the unity of Black people, whether living in Africa
or in the various parts of the world to which Africans had
been brought as slaves. African independence and nationalism
were its goals. These representatives from the Americas,
Europe, and Africa gather to discuss the situation of
Africans living under colonialism. Also taking place in Paris
at that time are the negotiations for the post-WWI Treaty of
Versailles. Since the fate of the European powers’ African
colonies is being discussed in these negotiations, Du Bois
hopes to influence the decisions that will come out of the
peace conference.

1940 – William “Smokey” Robinson is born in Detroit, Michigan. As
part of the Motown group “The Miracles” and in his solo
career, Robinson will be an enduring Rhythm and Blues and
pop performer. He will also become a Vice-President of Motown
Records.

1959 – Gabon adopts its constitution.

1987 – A racially motivated civil disturbance erupts in Tampa,
Florida, after a young African American man dies from
injuries resulting from a police chokehold.

1992 – John Singleton is nominated for two Academy Awards for best
director and best screenplay for his first film, “Boyz N the
Hood.” Singleton is the first African-American director ever
to be nominated for the Academy Award.

1995 – A day after being named the new chairwoman of the NAACP,
Myrlie Evers-Williams outlines her plans for revitalizing the
civil rights organization, saying she intended to take the
group back to its roots.

1999 – President Bill Clinton posthumously pardons Henry O. Flipper.
Flipper was the first African American to graduate from the
U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Flipper was acquitted
on charges of embezzlement of commissary funds, but was
found guilty of “conduct unbecoming an officer” for lying to
investigators. He received a dishonorable discharge in 1882.
He had been a victim of racism from the time he went to West
Point to the time he was railroaded out of the military. Mr.
Flipper joined the ancestors in 1940 at the age of 84.

2002 – Vonetta Flowers becomes the first Black athlete from any
country to win a gold medal in the Olympic Winter Games. She
and her partner win the women’s two-person bobsled event at
the Salt Lake City games. They finished their two runs in 1
minute 37.76 seconds

Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.