TODAY IN BLACK HISTORY 2/20/10

February 20 – 1847  – W.R. Pettiford, born Granville County, NC Founder of Alabama Penny Savings Bank,

1869 – Tennessee Governor W.C. Brownlow declared martial law in nine countys during Ku Klux Klan crisis.

1885 – Princeville, NC incorporated. princeville is the oldest black incorporated town in the USA

1895 – Frederick Douglass passes away age 78

1927 – Sidney Poitier is born in Miami, Fl

1931 – Lt. Gen. Emmett Paige, Jr. born in Jacksonville, Florida

1936 – John Hope passes away at age 67

TODAY IN BLACK HISTORY 2/16/10

February 16 - 1801 – The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church officially separates from its parent, the Methodist Episcopal Church.

1874 – Frederick Douglass is elected President of Freedman’s Bank and Trust Company.

1923 – Bessie Smith makes her first recording for Columbia Records. The record, “Down Hearted Blues,”  written by Alberta Hunter and Lovie Austin, sells an incredible 800,000 copies and becomes Columbia’s first popular hit.

1944 – The U.S. Navy starts its first officer training class of African Americans at Camp Robert Smalls, Great Lakes, Illinois.

1951 – James Ingram is born in Akron, Ohio.

1951 – The New York City Council passes a bill prohibiting racial discrimination in city-assis