This Week in Black History [Michigan Chronicle (MI)]

For the Week of September 17-23

September 17

1787 - The United States Constitution is approved but it includes three clauses allowing for the continuation of slavery even though it was supposed to be a document of freedom.

1861 - Hampton Institute (now university) is founded. It has become one of the nation's leading predominately Black educational institutions.

1973 - Illinois becomes the first state to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a state holiday.

September 18

1850 - Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Law as part of the Compromise of 1850. The compromise was essentially a vain attempt to reconcile differences between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North as to whether Midwest states would be slave or free.

1895 - Booker T. Washington delivered his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech in which he promotes Black economic betterment at the expense of civil and political rights. The speech endeared him to Whites opposed to the social integration of Blacks, but it angered progressive Blacks.

September 19

1865 - Atlanta University is founded in Atlanta, Georgia. It was one of many educational institutions established during the Reconstruction period.

1981 - An estimated 400,000 people from various labor and civil rights organizations rally in Washington, D.C. to protest the domestic policies of President Ronald Reagan.

September 20

1664 - Maryland enacts the nation's first "anti-Amalgamation Law." It specifically outlawed marriages between Black men and white women. Soon, several other colonies followed the Maryland example. It would not be until the 1960s that U.S. Supreme Court in the famous Loving v. Virginia case declared all such laws un-Constitutional.

1830 - The first National Negro Convention of Free Men meets in Philadelphia. Among a wide range of items on the agenda was a resolution encouraging free Blacks to boycott the purchase of items produced by slave labor. AME Church founder Richard Allen was elected president of the convention.

1958 - A deranged woman stabs then rapidly emerging civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. during a book signing ceremony at a Harlem, New York department store. .

1984 - "The Cosby Show" starring Bill Cosby debuts on NBC. It becomes one of the highest rated television series and was widely praised by civil rights activists because of its positive portrayal of a Black middle class family.

September 21

1872 - John Henry Conyers becomes the first Black student at the U.S. Naval Academy. However, racism and often violent harassment forced him to leave the academy before he was able to graduate.

1905 - The Atlanta Life Insurance Company is established in Atlanta, Georgia and becomes one of the largest insurance companies in America serving a predominantly African American clientele.

1984 - General Colin Powell becomes the first African American named as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As the nation top military leader, Powell was praised by some Blacks as a role model while he was criticized for supporting what critics considered the government's war-mongering policies. His generally positive reputation was damaged by his speaking before the United Nations and providing misinformation in 2003 in support of the Bush administration's war in Iraq

September 22

1863 - Mary Church Terrell is born on this day in 1863. She became one of the nation's leading activists advocating greater education for Blacks and women. She was the first Black person to sit on the Washington, D.C. school board and played a major role in desegregating that city's restaurants.

1961 - The Interstate Commerce Commission officially prohibits Station in buses traveling in interstate commerce. It also banned segregated terminal facilities even though the ruling was largely ignored in many Southern states. But during the mid-1960s civil rights activists would frequently cite the ruling as they integrated facilities throughout the South.

September 23

1926 - Legendary jazz great John Coltrane is born on this day in Hamlet, North Carolina. He is generally credited with being a key figure in reshaping modern jazz and setting a pattern which would be followed by generations of jazz saxophonists. His "A Love Supreme" is widely recognized as one of the biggest selling jazz albums of all time.

1986 - Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone caused an international controversy by alleging that American intelligence levels were generally lower than those in Japan "because of Blacks, Puerto Ricans and Hispanics."

"This Week in Black History" is compiled by Robert N. Taylor. Subscribe to his free biweekly "Black History Journal." Include $3 to help defray postage and handling costs to Robert N. Taylor, PO Box 58097, Washington, D.C. 20037.