Today In Black History

1847*

Dred Scott, a slave, filed suit in the St. Louis Circuit Court claiming that his temporary residence in a free territory should have made him a free man. Scott would lose the case.

1881*

Henry Highland Garnet, former abolitionist leader and Presbyterian minister, named minister to Liberia. He died in Monrovia shortly after his arrival.

1906*

John Hope became the first Black president of Morehouse College.

1917*

Jazz singer Lena Horne born in Brooklyn, NY.

1926*

James Weldon Johnson was honored for his careers as an executive of the NAACP, a member of the United States Consul, editor, and poet by the NAACP in New York City.

1951*

NAACP began frontal attack on segregation and discrimination at elementary and high school levels, arguing that segregation was discrimination in cases before three-judged federal courts in South Carolina and Kansas. The South Carolina court, with a strong dissent from Judge E. Waites Warning, held that segregation was not discrimination, June 23. Kansas Court ruled that the separate facilities at issue were equal but said that segregation had an adverse effect on Black children.

1967 *

Maj. Robert H. Lawrence Jr. named first Black astronaut. He was killed during a training flight on December 8, 1967.

1974*

A Black man shot and killed Mrs. Martin Luther King Sr. and deacon Edward Boykin during church services at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta. The assailant, Marcus Chennault of Dayton, Ohio, was later convicted and sentenced to death.

1995*

Phyllis Hyman dies on this day. 

Known for albums Phyllis Hyman (1977) Somewhere in my lifetime (1978) You Know How To Love Me (1979) Can't We Fall In Love Again Goddess Of Love Living All Alone Prime Of My Life (1991) I Refuse To Be Lonely (1995)