*             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!!"

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