Day: March 19, 2014

* Today in Black History – March 19 *

1867 – Congressman Thaddeus Stevens calls up resolution providing
for the enforcement of the Second Confiscation Act of July,
1862. The measure, which provides for the distribution of
public and confiscated land to the freedmen, is defeated.

1870 – “O Guarani,” the most celebrated opera by Afro-Brazilian
composer Antonio Carlos Gomes, premiers at the Scala Theater
in Milan, Italy. His enormous musical talent opened the
doors of the Milan Conservatory where he studied under the
guidance of the greatest opera directors of the time. Among
other operas, Gomes produces “Fosca,” “Condor,” and
“O Escravo” (The Slave).

1872 – T.J. Boyd, inventor, awarded patent for apparatus for
detaching horses from carriages.

1937 – The Count Basie Orchestra, with vocalists Billie Holiday and
Jimmy Rushing, opens at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem.

1939 – The New Negro Theater is founded in Los Angeles, California,
by Langston Hughes. The company stages as its first
performance Hughes’s play, “Don’t You Want to be Free?”

1952 – Sergeant Cornelius H. Charlton is posthumously awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery during the Korean
War. He joins the ancestors after being killed in action on
June 2, 1951.

1967 – French Somaliland (Djibouti) votes to continue association
with France.

1968 – Students take over the Administration Building at Howard
University demanding resignation of university officials
and a stronger orientation to Black culture in the
curriculum. It is the first of many college protests over
Black Studies programs on African American and white college
campuses across the nation.

1995 – Twenty one months after retiring from basketball, Michael
Jordan returns to professional basketball with his former
team, the Chicago Bulls.

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